Oh baby baby!

Yes, we are PREGNANT! and super excited. Of course, the past few weeks have been quite the whirlwind.

I have irregular periods so I started calculating from my first positive pregnancy test that I got on March 19th. We met our midwife the week before Easter and she couldn't hear a heartbeat yet, but it was still a little early so she wasn't worried.  What she WAS worried about was my Glucose levels were off the charts! So, she scheduled an appt for me to come to the birth center where she works to get some bloodwork done there. 

In the meantime, we decided since it was Easter weekend we should tell our close friends and immediate family. I'm not a good secret keeper and I didn't think i could handle hanging out with Lance's family for Easter and NOT say anything!! haha. 

At this point, we thought we were 10 weeks along. We made this video and sent it to my immediate family.

The following Thursday is when everything went down hill. At this point, I thought I was a full 10 weeks along but the nurse could not find a 10 week old fetus in my tummy AT ALL. She was very concerned that there was something terribly wrong. They couldn't find a heartbeat either.

****start panicking now*****

They took my blood to test my hcg levels.  HCG is the hormone that starts producing when you get pregnant. The HCG should double every 48-72 hours in a healthy pregnancy. They also took my blood sugar levels.

My blood sugar levels were something crazy high like 270. I have to monitor my diet for the next few weeks and we will revisit the glucose issue and determine if its gestational diabetes and how to manage THAT.

My HCG looked good.  She said that maybe I was around 7.5 weeks.  But the real test was NEXT week they would take my HCG levels AGAIN and make sure they are increasing. They should double every few days. 

****tick tock*** 

The most torturous couple of days....

 it has been a great opportunity to curl up in my Heavenly Father's lap and soak up his love and peace.

Well, I got my HCG levels today. They were 39,000...they are INCREASING! Praise God!  Its great news. 

Predicting how far along you are by your HCG levels is nearly impossible. Here is a chart I found:

• 3 weeks LMP: 5 - 50 mIU/ml
• 4 weeks LMP: 5 - 426 mIU/ml
• 5 weeks LMP: 18 - 7,340 mIU/ml
• 6 weeks LMP: 1,080 - 56,500 mIU/ml
• 7 - 8 weeks LMP: 7, 650 - 229,000 mIU/ml
• 9 - 12 weeks LMP: 25,700 - 288,000 mIU/ml
• 13 - 16 weeks LMP: 13,300 - 254,000 mIU/ml
• 17 - 24 weeks LMP: 4,060 - 165,400 mIU/ml
• 25 - 40 weeks LMP: 3,640 - 117,000 mIU/ml
• Non-pregnant females: <5.0 mIU/ml
• Postmenopausal females: <9.5 mIU/ml

* These numbers are just a GUIDELINE-- every woman’s level of hCG can rise differently. It is not necessarily the level that matters but rather the change in the level.

The ranges of these numbers is so wide, there really is no way to predict due dates at all! My midwife said if i really want to know my due date I can have a diagnostic sonogram. We decided to opt out of that. The midwife agreed with our decision, having a sonogram won't change anything and if there is a complication there isn't anything we can do about it anyway. We will have a sonogram later on when we find out the sex of the baby.

 In the meantime, if we are going to have a miscarriage then I'm going to leave that in God's hands and let it run its course. 

Please continue to pray for my health (blood sugar levels) and that our baby is healthy and growing.

We have a doctors appt on May 16th to tackle the blood sugar issue. Maybe we will hear a heartbeat then :-)