Meet Baby Wren #4!

Well, it's official. We had our second ultrasound last week, this time we saw a teeny tiny embryo and a perfect little heartbeat fluttering away at 133 beats per minute. Baby is measuring 2-4 days small but Dr. Garcia feels that all is well.

My actual due date is January 19, though of course our ultimate goal will be 36wks again which would put us around December 22-ish. At this point I feel compelled to confess:

I am still in complete disbelief that this is actually happening.

Dunno why I can't seem to wrap my brain around the whole thing ... we've known for weeks now and yet I haven't seemed to move past the shock and denial of it all. I certainly am beginning to feel pregnant --- a little nausea here and there and fatigue so severe that most afternoons I have to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks. I'm still in the gym twice a week (trying to hold on as long as I can ...) but in general I just feel WEAK. It's weird how something so tiny can physically wreak havoc on you in a matter of days really. From an emotional standpoint I would be lying if I didn't admit I'm feeling quite disconnected from this little life, which I know from experience is just a self-defense mechanism so I'm trying not to heap guilt on myself for it. I know the bonding part will come in time .... I'm planning to not let myself wait until 20+ weeks like I did last time!

I've been back on the lovenox injections nightly for about three weeks now .... needless to say my poor abdomen is completely covered in dark purple spots. I actually never completely got rid of the bruised-tummy look, despite the fact that I was off the shots for a total of 1 year and 4 days. I've been carrying around two gigantic brown bruises, about 2-inches in diameter, on either side of my belly-button for over a year now. These are souvenirs from Jamin. I've had several different doctors look at them (hematologist, dermatologist, obstetrician), and they've all told me various versions of the same thing: these are signs of deep tissue damage caused by repeated trauma of lovenox and heparin shots. They may continue to fade with time, but all of my doc's have gently suggested that I try to get used to them, as they are likely to be permanent without some kind of laser treatment. My hematologist explained that the heparin is probably to blame more than the lovenox ... bruising and scaring on heparin tends to be worse and I was injecting heparin for a total of 16 weeks due to preterm labor, rather than the 2 or 3 weeks we had originally planned. I am quite offended that nobody warned me about this ahead of time! And I'm secretly hoping that maybe if I am able to stick with the lovenox for a longer period of time this go-round maybe I can avoid more ugly scars. Well, a girl can hope anyways. In the meantime I've been trying to rotate my injection sites around every night, in an effort to share the love so to speak, and not bombard one or two spots repeatedly. I have no idea if this means that I am less likely to get two giant areas of "tissue trauma", or if it just means I will end up with twenty little spots of "tissue trauma". I also can't decide which is worse.

A month ago I was actually looking forward to getting a new bikini this summer. Now ........ mmmmm ......... notsomuch. Here is the last "normal" picture I will probably have of myself for awhile, taken on Memorial Day (7weeks) before the bruising got bad:

Please excuse my ultra-grumpy expression .... I think I was annoyed at James because he was rushing me. :) Not my fault ......... it's the HORMONES!!!