Infertility ONE Thread GRADUATES!!! - Winter/Spring 2012 - Page 2

[deborahbgkelly]

Monkey- I hate to break it to you, but the fatigue is not likely to get better for a while. Mine can still get really bad.

[monkeyscience]

Oh, I know. My tiredness level has been way up for awhile, though some of that may have to do with my screwed up sleeping schedule. I just felt even more tired than usual today. Which was annoying, because a lot of times I sleep in because my stomach is bothering me, but today my stomach was okay and I was sleeping in because I was tired, when I wanted to get up and use the good tummy time! I'm sure I could have gotten up, but since I didn't have to, I decided to get a little more sleep.

[deborahbgkelly]

Monkey- The more sleep we can get the better. We won't be able to in a few months.

[Sweet.Bee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by renavoo 

(Oh and fantastic photo! Love the bokeh. yes, I'm a geek but i appreciate a great photo when I see one).

We're photo geeks, too.  The picture in question was taken with a 50/1.4 on the D3. I like the bokeh on the 70-200/2.8, but it's not so practical as a baby lens. Our usual "baby lens" is a 28/1.8 because it is relatively wide, focuses close, and has good low light performance. It's especially useful once they start moving toward you. 

Speaking of baby shots, with our son we did at least one photo per day, and we're trying to do the same with our little girl. It's amazing how quickly they change!

[renavoo]

oooh Sweet.Bee, ok just one more post so I don't feel like i'm hijacking the post with photography stuff...

I have a Canon but I know they have a similar range of glass. I have the 50/1.4 too although I tend to use my 24-70/2.8 the most because it's the most versatile on I have. However, I would love to get a faster lens! haha i probably would have already if I wasn't pregnant. I definitely was considering the 70-200/2.8 since I only have the 70-200/4 right now but really, i end up being fine with the f4 since I use it so rarely (mostly when I go to a zoo or a park). I'm sad because I haven't really been practicing my craft recently (and i need a lot of practice) since we've been so occupied with infertility and then I wasn't feeling well the first trimester. I should really get started again while i have energy. thanks for sharing your experiences!!

Monkey, how are you feeling? I hope better!

[Sweet.Bee]

renavoo, we use the 24-70 quite often, too. It's great! The reason we went for the 70-200/2.8 was you can put on a teleconverter (2x in our case) and still have a usable lens. Awesome at the zoo!

Though for out and about with children, I've found small cameras to be more convenient. I got the Sony NEX-5N for xmas. That's the compact camera with an APS-C sensor and interchangeable lenses. And it does HD video.

Sorry to everyone else for the photo talk.

[monkeyscience]

*Does not speak photographer*

Doing okay. Today is not being very nice to me. Still doing better overall. dh leaves to go out of town for three days tomorrow morning, which I am not excited about. Was going to stay with my parents, but turns out they're out of town, too! Apparently it's national "abandon monkey" week. I will survive, though. 10 weeks tomorrow!

[deborahbgkelly]

If I lived in Texas, I'd keep you company Monkey. Next time I visit my cousins and aunt and uncle I'll have to try to sneak in a visit with you. My cousin and her family live in Clear Lake. I had my OB appointment today. The twinsies look great. My OB was cracking jokes the whole time (I like this). Twins had hbs of 167 and 170 and were measuring 10 weeks 3 and 10 weeks 4 (I'm 10 weeks 5 today so this is very good). He also did not feel the need for us to get an NT scan but did recommend a 16 week scan. Unfortunately, at the moment he is not hopeful for a vaginal birth for me because I have an extremely narrow pelvis (he said it was "impressive" how narrow it is).This is a disappointment, but whatever is safest for me and babies. He did say he's been known to be wrong, but he wanted to give me time to process and deal with the emotions of the strong possibility of a C-section. I definitely appreciate that.

[renavoo]

Monkey, we're here to keep you company :o) YAH for reaching 10 weeks!! When is your next appointment? 

Deborah, I know i'm being repetitive because i said it on the other thread but yah for a great check up and I hope that the chance of a c section goes down as you go further along (although it doesn't seem like it will but still, one can hope.)

Sweet.Bee, definitely could talk about photography for hours (weeks, days, months). haha

Hope all is well!!

[deborahbgkelly]

Renavoo- Yes, one can hope, but in the meantime I'm working on processing all the emotions. I won't repeat my long-winded post here unless people want me to, but I did respond on the other thread. My husband called this one. I think he was basing it off of how hard it is for us to DTD, but I kept telling myself the woman's body does amazing things. I'm still preparing myself now for the strong possibility. On the plus side, I might have a little control over when these little ones get here. We're all in agreement that early July sounds nice since they'd be full-term by then. Obviously, longer is better, but they may not have much room past that point. They were already snuggled up today, but I kind of wonder if they can sense the cold outside (maybe they just feel Mom being cold). We had a very cold late afternoon/early evening with several inches of snow here.

[renavoo]

Deborah, It'll be ok. I was already preparing myself for a c section since I know there is a 50% chance anyone having twins would need one. So you're definitely not alone. You're just finding out that you have a higher probability earlier! We'll all be here for each other and we'll get through it together  Also, as you say, it's nice to be able to plan when your babies come. haha I want my babies to come NOW. ;o)

[deborahbgkelly]

Renavoo- Forgot to respond to your question about feeling a baby at 17 weeks (on the other thread). That is about when they say you usually can. So, I don't think you were imagining it! I also have noticed that we twin mamas do things/feel things about a week early. Or at least that's been the case for me.

[deborahbgkelly]

Happy news! I thought I would not be able to travel at 20 weeks or later, but my OB said no restrictions until 34ish weeks, so I can celebrate DH's grandma's 90th with her. So happy! Of course, this is assuming everyone is nice and healthy, but so far we all are; knock wood.

[renavoo]

Deborah, yah to being able to fly! At what week would you be flying?

[deborahbgkelly]

Renavoo- It would be 19 and 20 weeks. Her birthday is 3/7, but it looks like the party will be the Saturday or Sunday before.

[renavoo]

Deborah, it sounds like a great time to fly! 

[renavoo]

Oh, I had my ultrasound appointment and everything looks good so far. They say my cervix is behaving so I'm happy about that. Also, the US technician is positive that i'm having a boy and a girl. haha she even took a picture of the boy's private part because he wouldn't turn around for us. We have an image of his hand and his private part. it was hilarious. The girl was much better behaved so I was making fun of my DH that he'll be taking more control of the boy. :o)

[monkeyscience]

deborah - My in-laws live in Clear Lake! That's where dh went to high school, too. I wonder if it's close to where they live. If you are ever visiting we could definitely meet up! I'm glad the babies are looking good and that you're cleared to travel. I'm sorry the doctor thinks you'll need a c-section. Women's bodies CAN do amazing things, so I wouldn't totally count out a vaginal birth, but it is good to have time to process the whole c-section thing and make plans to have the best experience possible, if that's the way it's going to go.

renavoo - Glad your cervix is behaving itself! It's hard to believe you're so far along already! Yay for a boy and a girl! Yay for exclamation points!!

AFM, sorry to disappear! I ended up staying with my brother and SIL while dh was gone, and I kept very busy helping with my niece (15 mos) and the twins (6 weeks). Let me just say twin mamas... be glad you will not have a toddler to deal with on top of twins! (Especially a teething toddler!) I'm not sure how SIL does it all when she doesn't have anyone to help, though she does get help fairly often. I do think she is having a fairly rough time of it, though, especially since my brother has been working crazy overtime. It was good to have the distraction. I have felt much better overall since going over there. I think it was a combination of distraction and hitting the 10-week mark. I didn't throw up for two mornings straight, though I've thrown up for the last two, but I've felt pretty decent during the day. Also, yesterday I went and bought a pair of maternity yoga pants SIL had seen on sale at Kohl's, and they are A-MAZ-ING! I want to go find more in different colors! They don't have a waistband at all - just a separate, wide top band that you can wear folded over or up over your stomach. It puts basically zero pressure on your tummy, which feels so nice to my often-tender intestines. Very excited about this! Oh, and I don't care what dh says - my tummy is starting to poke out a little. It's still just intestines getting mushed, not baby, but there is definitely something there that can't be sucked in. Next appointment is 2 weeks from yesterday. If we hear the heartbeat again, we'll probably tell the whole world.

On a much sadder, more upsetting note - my grandma has just been diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. She went into the hospital a few days ago not feeling well, and they said her gallbladder was full of stones, and took it out the next day. Then they said she had pneumonia, too, and started treating her for that. We lost my grandpa (her husband) close to this time last year from complications of pneumonia, so this was like a horrible recurring nightmare. But she was supposedly doing really well, and I was starting to feel relieved about that. Then I got a text last night from my dad that they had told my grandma her gallbladder was cancerous, and that they were going to talk to some other doctors and figure out treatment options. That was the last I heard. So now I'm completely freaking out again. Gallbladder cancer is extremely rare (only about 6,000 cases diagnosed in the US per year), and has a very poor prognosis in the late stages, which is usually when it's found. I'm hoping that somehow it's still in the early stages for my grandma, but I just don't know. This may sound terrible, but after seeing the statistics on gallbladder cancer, I looked up the statistics on pancreatic cancer, which I know is pretty much a death sentence, and felt relived that they were so much worse than the gallbladder statistics. So I could feel like "Well, at least she doesn't have pancreatic cancer." Anyway, anxiously waiting for an update on that. On the plus side, while my grandma lives in Utah, we live in Houston, with one of the best (if not THE best) cancer centers in the world, so she could definitely come stay with us (or rather, my parents) to get top-notch treatment. And then I would get to see her.

[deborahbgkelly]

Monkey- Is the hospital the UT (whatever the branch is called) hospital? My cousin works as a psychologist there. Also, I imagine at some point the family will all want me to bring babies to see them,so I'm sure I'll be there sometime next year. We should definitely connect and show off our little ones!

[monkeyscience]

The cancer hospital is MD Anderson Cancer Center. I think maybe it is affiliated with UT? You'd think I'd know, I interned there one summer, and I worked in the medical center area for nine months, too. Okay, just checked their website, yep, affiliated with UT. Funny what a small world it is!

Just talked to my mom - my dad talked to my grandma today, and she's feeling much better. She's wanting to go home today, but not sure if they're going to release her yet. She's going to have a PET scan sometime soon to see if the cancer has spread. Praying it hasn't. I am glad that at least she is feeling much better, and will hopefully get to go home soon. She's pretty young (as great-grandmothers of 11 go!) - only just 75 - so I'm hoping that she will be able to recover from all this stuff fairly well. She was supposed to come February 1st to Houston to visit and for my nephews' baby blessing, but obviously we don't know if that will happen now. If not, I'm going to try to get up to Utah to see her and my other grandparents soon, because I'm really getting concerned someone's going to pass away before I get to visit them again. (My maternal grandfather has been suffering from shingles-related for neuralgia for several years now, and is not doing too well.) Sigh. Sorry to burden everyone with my worries, but I do feel better knowing my grandma is optimistic for herself!