Mother/Daughter Day

On Tuesday, March 27th, Mom came up to accompany me for my second appointment wtih Dr. Heckman. She came in Monday night and left Wednesday morning, and it was an amazing visit! Of course, Tuesday was the best. :) I took the entire day off work. My appointment was at 9:30, so we headed straight to Dallas. When we arrived the nurse did a survey of genetic and health disorders in Zac and myself. I can see how some women might freak out hearing the long list of possible issues (spina bifida, cerebal palsy, austism, down syndrome, etc). I'm not sure if it's because I was on a complete high, just being with mom and at the ob (I'm PREGNANT!!) or if it's because I work with kids with all of these disorders and don't see them as scary and negative as some do, but it didn't bother me or phase me. Anyways, when Dr. Heckman came in, he asked how I'd been feeling and answered some of my pre-written questions. We listened to the baby's heartbeat, and he asked mom if she was going to get to come up a lot. Mom told him that my sister is expecting and April and she just put her mom in a retirement home, so she wasn't sure if she'd make it up much. Guess what...he asked if we wanted to do a sonogram!? Isn't that the greatest? I was already prepared to beg him, and didn't even have to! :) The sonogram was easily the best part of the day. The sonographer woman really spent a lot of time, and we got to see both traditional and 3-D images! Look how cute my sweet pea was at 11 weeks...

After the appointment, we went to eat a celebratory lunch at PF Changs. Because how many times are you pregnant for the first time, and spending the day with your Mama, who came just to be a part of the excitement and to make you feel extra special? :) After lunch we went to North Park Mall. It's a very nice mall. I don't go often, but I enjoy it when I do. I found some great maternity items at GAP and we hit the jackpot in the H&M kids department. I bought Eliza and Madeline matching dresses, and although I've received pics of each of them wearing them separately, all my dreams will really come true when both nieces are together, wearing matching pink dresses.

I wish they had a tiny one for Annabelle too! (shout out to my youngest niece, who is due to arrive within the week! I can't wait to meet her! Squeal!) Mom and I shopped until we dropped, then headed home to meet Zac for some dinner. We went to Tuscan Slice, and it was delish as usual. The day was so magical, from beginning to end. I can't wait to go back to see Dr. Heckman in one week, next Monday, April 23rd. :)

Meeting Dr. Heckman

Our first appointment with an obstetrician was Tuesday, March 6th. I had been getting pretty stressed about finding a great doctor. Because of all of my past health issues, I know the importance of a wonderful doctor, which also includes a friendly and helpful office staff, and knowledgeable and available (reachable) nurses. I wanted a male, with lots of experience, and whom delivered at the big Baylor Hospital in downtown Dallas. I picked this hospital (first, before I chose a doctor) because it is one of the best hospitals in the area, and has a level III nicu. Anyways, after choosing Baylor, and doing lots of online research for amazing Ob-Gyns in Dallas, I chose Dr. Heckman. I was excited about my decision, and relieved to have picked someone, but still a little nervous...until we met him. He exceeded even my high expectations. He was warm, personable, friendly, professional, kind, direct and detailed, and best of all, he made Zac and I feel like we were his only patients and his number one priority. The appointment was at 3, but we did not get to actually see him until 4:30. He apologized profusely, and explained that he squeezed three additional women into his schedule this afternoon, because they had each experienced some bleeding. (This actually earned him points in my book, because it made me happy to know that if I am ever the one who needs to be seen in a crunch, he'd find a way to make it happen.) We chatted in his office for awhile, then he asked if we'd mind doing things a little out of order, since his sonographer leaves at 5, and he wanted to make sure we got a picture of our little one. :) Of course we didn't mind, we couldn't wait to see pics of the little gummy bear. =) After seeing our baby, and hearing the heartbeat, I told the sonographer that she was my new best friend, and she said 'yeah, I'm pretty well liked around here.' Look at this precious picture...

After the sonogram, we went back to his office and talked for another 45 minutes. I was so relieved (and almost surprised!) to hear him say over and over that he didn't want me to feel like I was fragile or that I should walk on eggshells. He told me to live my normal life, and quit worrying about miscarriage. (He said my chance of miscarriage was less that 2%, now that I am past eight weeks.) Pure relief!
At times, Dr. Heckman would speak directly to Zac. I liked that about him, and I think it made Zac feel important too. We planned to see him again on March 27th, and left the office on a complete high. We headed to Pei Wei for a celebratory dinner, where Zac took this picture of me and Sweet Pea.

After dinner we went and got dessert (ahem, I alone, got dessert) at The Cupcakery. It was delish! What a wonderful day, that I'll never ever forget. =D

"Beautiful" & "A+"

Note-I love science and medicine and health stuff, and this whole process really interests me, so excuse me if I go into too much detail. This blog is also for me to look back on one day, so I just don't want to leave anything out. :) Hope it's not TMI!
This morning I had my mid-cycle sonogram with Dr. Le. He was equally as impressive on the second visit, as far as his concern, compassion, ability to really listen to us, and then explain everything in a very understandable way. He has the best bedside manner a patient could ask for, yet still is quite personal and has a sense of humor. Dr. Le sincerely makes the entire process not just bearable, but even kind of enjoyable. Anyways, about the appointment...the sonogram went well and he said I have a "beautiful lining." LOL! I bet he said beautiful three times! He explained that he wanted it to be 7 or over, and mine was 8.8, which is ideal for implantation. Hooray! (Haha-I never thought I'd be celebrating the measurement of my uterine lining!) Next he looked for a "mature follicle" (an egg that's ready to be fertilized). He told me that he wanted it to be 15 (15 what?...I couldn't tell ya. I'm not sure what the unit of measurement is.) and my right one was only 14.5. My left was 18 though. He said my follicles would continue to mature today, and should be perfect tomorrow. The nurse taught me how to give myself the HCG shot (in the tummy, about an inch from the belly button), and I will do that tomorrow morning. This will stimulate ovulation, so then the next few days we will try, and hope, and pray, for a little bitty miracle to grow inside of me.
On the way home, I was gloating that my "perfect" uterus also had a "beautiful" lining, and Zac quickly reminded me that Dr. Le gave Zac an "A PLUS!!!" on his report, and that you just can't get any better than an A+! :)

Lucky Friday the 13th

I had the dye test (HSG) today and my tubes are completely open! Woohoo! I watched on the screen as the concentrated contrast traveled out of each of them and swirled into a beautiful pattern in my body cavity. :) I have a tilted uterus, but the doc said that is very common and shouldn't matter. Zac also found out that he passed his test too! So that means that so far, everything is good. That's exciting. I keep having to remind myself that this doesn't mean we will definitely be able to get pregnant. I am such a dreamer and I keep the best-case scenario in mind at all times, which also makes the hurt that much more painful. Oh well...I like thinking positive! We are now headed to Katy for the weekend for my nephew Owen's birthday. It's neat to think that next year at this time we might have a little one too!!! :) y'all have a great weekend!

Very Proactive

Okay, I tried to write this post without being too graphic, but the truth is, conception is very scientific. If you don't want to know about my cycle, biology, etc, you might not want to read this post. :)
Well, we had our first appointment with Dr. Le today, and it was quite overwhelming. Very informative, but LOTS to take in. I think I'm STILL absorbing everything he told us. It started out pretty scary, with him discussing how scar tissue from all of my previous abdominal surgeries could prevent my f-tube from being able to collect the egg. I felt tears coming to my eyes, and Zac told me later he felt like he got punched in the gut. Luckily, we moved on, and the rest of the appointment was much more positive and optimistic. We mapped out a plan of action, and it seemed too perfect that I went to him on the day I did. When we started talking, he said something about "on day three we will..." and I said "well, I'm actually on day three right now!" He looked at the calendar, agreed, and we were able to start the ball rolling today at the 'consultation' appointment! I had a baseline sonogram, and Dr. Le was very excited to report I have "the perfect uterus!" LOL...I bet he said it five different times! I've been bragging about it all night. Zac's been teasing me, calling me "pug" (perfect uterus girl) I told him "sorry that I'm excited that ONE of my body-parts is perfect! No doctor has EVER said anything about me was perfect!" Haha! So that was a relief, and then when he saw the location of my ovaries, he was very pleased with that as well. (He'd been afraid that they might me too low or high, misplaced because of things moving around during surgery.) He then told me that he hoped to see 8-10 eggs in each ovary. Again, I exceeded expectations, and he got very excited. I had TWELVE (yep, a dozen eggs!) in each basket...I mean ovary. He said "wow...you could be an egg donor!" So after the sonogram, we were in a very good mood! I'm happy to hear that so far, everything looks good. I will start on Clomid tomorrow, and take it for just five days. (Don't worry-we asked, and Clomid only has an 8% chance of causing multiple births.) Friday I will have an HSG (dye test) to check my fallopian tubes and uterus. One cool thing about that, is that I've heard from so many people (including Dr. Le) that this test alone often helps couples get pregnant. Something about the way it flushed everything out and makes the tubes and uterus more likely to implant the follicle. Next Wednesday I will have a mid-cycle sonogram to look for a mature follicle. On this day I will also get an HCG injection. HCG is the same thing as LH, the lutenizing hormone, and this causes ovulation. The next few days will be the days we "try," and then I'll go for blood work to check my progesterone levels the following Thursday or Friday. You might be wondering...why the clomid and HCG and progesterone? The doc explained to us that stress can cause your brain and endocrine system to not send out the hormones your body needs to get pregnant. If you are stressed, it's easier to survive without a child, so nature makes it almost impossible to get pregnant. These hormones are natural for conception, taking them just helps ensure things are as ideal as possible, to increase the likelihood of pregnancy. Of course Dr. Le explains it so much better than I do! I told Zac three times "I wish I had recorded our appointment!" It was just soo much info to take in, and I would love to be able to listen to his words and explanations over and over. Also, I can't retell it the way he does. We are so lucky to have so many people praying for us and rooting for us to become parents. I felt blessed leaving the office, when I was thinking of all the people I wanted to update about the appointment. I only called a couple people, but this blog is serving as a liaison to inform the rest of you kind people who care. Thanks for taking an interest in our journey to parenthood. As I look at the URL of my blog, I'm quite content with the name I chose....Julia's Miracle. Because this baby will be nothing short of a miracle, and I can't wait to experience that! :)

Dr appt...

This January will be my ten year "Colon anniversary." I can't believe that it's already been ten years...that is just nuts to me. Anyways, because I do not have a large intestine (at all), I have always known there is a risk of complications with pregnancy. Over the break, Zac and I made an appointment with my Colon Surgeon to have a serious talk about what this means for me, and what the risks and facts are.
This was Zac's first time to meet Dr. Cline and of course he loved him as much as we all do. Dr. Cline's face lit up when we told him we were ready to start a family (he has known me since I was 16, so he has watched me grow up). He also had some good news for us. He said the actual pregnancy itself should not be too risky. He did say that we could have a very hard time getting pregnant (abdominal surgeries lead to scar tissue, which can interfere with fertility) and it might take us a longer time than most couples, but that it should be possible. He also urged me to have a scheduled cesarean to deliver the baby. I already knew this, and I'm very comfortable with the idea of this, so that was not shocking or disappointing at all.
Anyways, he pretty much gave us the "green light" which is so exciting. Naturally I still have questions and concerns (will we be able to get pregnant at all? how long will it take? at what point do we quit 'trying' and move on to adoption...another great choice we're considering), but at least some research has been done, and we now know that "pregnancy after colectomy" is possible and realistic! Yay!!! :)
PS-All that being said, I should mention that we are planning a trip to Europe this June. I know that if we don't take this trip before we have kids, it will not happen for at least 15-20 years. It might sound selfish, but knowing that I can't leave the country if I am preggers, we are going to wait to start trying until after the trip. I even joked with Zac that maybe she could be conceived in Andalucia and we could name her Ana! haha! TMI? Okay, sorry!