Who would have thought a simple chart could be so accurate?

According to the chart, given that my Chinese age at the time of conception was 35 (34+9 months) and the month of conception was November, we will be having a boy.

Interesting..

My friend Alexis is also convinced we’re having a boy because she dreamed about him (before I conceived!) and claims to have had similar dreams for other friends that turned out to be accurate.

An internet psychic told me I was having a girl and that she’d be a lawyer.

Personally, I was CONVINCED it was a girl early on.. I think though its because I am one of two girls and my mom is one of two girls.. I just don’t think of boys when I think of family, but now I’m not so sure.

A girl would be easier from a lot of standpoints, not least of which is that the room that is destined to become the nursery is already pink! But also that we wouldn’t have to make a decision on the controversial circumsize/don’t circumsize issue..and also that all of the beautiful clothes my mom saved from me and my sister are obviously girl clothes.

A boy would be easier only because we already have a boy named picked out, Jack after my grandfather who I was really close to.

I don’t think I actually have a preference, we will of course be thrilled with whatever sex our child turns out to be, but it’s still fun to speculate. It passes  some of the 6-7 more weeks time we have to wait until we will know for sure!

Prior to testing, my risk for having a baby with Down’s was 1/307. After the scan, its is only now 1/6000.

For Trisomy 13 & 18 (which is often fatal for the baby) my risk prior to testing was 1/524, but after went down to 1/10000.

I am very happy that the results are positive, I only hope the false negative rate isn’t as dreadful as the false positive rate that seems to have caused so much concern for many people on message boards I frequent.

The other fabulous news is that I made my 10 gazzilionth call to Oxford to ask where the hell my money is half expecting another bogus denial. But guess what??  Its in accounts payable meaning THEY ARE ACTUALLY PAYING IT FINALLY!!!… a check will be cut this week and I should have it in my little hands by next week! YAY!!

Its like Christmas all over again :)

The NT scan was absolutely amazing.. completely surreal that there is a little baby growing inside me. And unlike my last two ultrasounds where it was just a blob with a heartbeat, becoming-baby actually looks like a mini baby – fingers, toes, face, arms legs and everything!

The baby was moving around so much, waving, kicking, saluting us – you name it – that the radiologist was very relieved when she got the 4 or so still shots of the back of the neck from which to do the NT measurement. The result?

.8mm! Thats really good. She said anything over 1.4 is cause for concern, but I’ve read on the internet that up to 2 or even  3 is within normal range.

She also said she saw nasal bone, which is also an excellent indication that risk of down’s is low. The bloodwork hasn’t come back yet, so I won’t know my official “risk” until next week when she puts in the measurements with the bloodwork and my OB calls me with the results, but at least this part of the hurdle is over.

Other information.. the heart rate is 162 bpm, the CRL measures the baby at 11 weeks 5 days, which is exactly where I am today.  We also saw the kidneys, the brain and the bladder. Well, she saw it and pointed it out. Its amazing what you can see if you’re trained to know what you’re looking at…but even I can tell that the picture above looks like a baby. And a cute one at that!

She wasn’t supposed to tell us anything, but she said it looks very good. We are so relieved and so grateful that as of now, it seems our baby is in perfectly good health. Thank god!

If I come back as a carrier for any of the 12 or so disorders that I was tested for then Jeff must be tested as well to see if he’s a carrier. Personally, I thought after all the poking and prodding I’ve endured in the effort to GET pregant that perhaps we could have done this the other way around and had HIM tested first, but I am a pro at having blood taken by now so I wasn’t too worried.. until I got there.

The phlebotomist took one look at my requisition forms and started counting off all of the vials she would need to draw and announced “17, wow, I’ve never taken that many at once before.”

Thanks, I feel much better now!

Its a good thing that pregnant women have more blood circulating than other people because by the last 4 or 5 vials my flow had slowed to a mere trickle. Now we just have to wait a few weeks for the results.

In the meantime..

I have my NT scan scheduled for this Friday, so as part of the whole screening procedure they must also analyze a blood sample.  This one I had the pleasure of having to do at home with a little “kit” that my OB gave me which consisted of a lancet to prick my finger, a couple of alcohol swabs and sterile gauze and an envelope with circles on it that I was supposed to “fill” with the blood from my finger.  Now if they can get all of that DNA from a stain of blood on a piece of paper, remind me again why I have to give 17 full vials for the other tests?

Anyway, I digress..

The whole process reminded me much of preparing and injecting myself with the Gonal-F, and I was rather nonchalant about the whole thing, after all, I am a pro at infertility injections, what is one little finger prick to me?

Um, OUCH!

I actually GASPED when the little lancet thing wen’t into my finger.. and then I couldn’t seem to get enough blood to fill the circles (in only one drop at the insistance of the instructions) and then after that I couldn’t get the finger to STOP bleeding.

I’ll take injections over the finger pricks ANY day.

So anyway, after the whole thing was over I dropped the whole kit in the mail to the lab that analyzes the results and now we just wait for part two – the NT scan itself on Friday.

I wasn’t so worried about it until my a friend called me last night and filled me in on the nightmare he and his wife are going through after a less than positive NT scan result. The false positive rate is only purportedly 5%, but that is of little comfort if you are IN that 5%.. so while I’m very excited to get our first glimpse of the baby bopping around in there, I am of course nervous about that all important NF measurement. Now maybe more than ever.

Belly Pic, 9 weeks pregnant

So I thought I had gotten off pretty easy being that I haven’t really had much morning sickness to speak of. Or so I thought.

What I have been experiencing is constant hunger, the kind that makes you want to gnaw your hand off and feel like you are going to absolutely DIE if you don’t eat.

So much so, that I have gained 10 lbs in the 7 weeks since I found out I was pregnant. For those of you that don’t know, that is ridiculous, you are only supposed to gain about 4-5 lbs for your entire first trimester, if that!

The hunger is perplexing because it persists at inexplicable times, for example 15 minutes after I finish a meal.

I finally found out through some researching that SOME women experience as hunger what others experience as nausea, so basically I have had morning sickness, just that mine makes me inhale food instead of well, the opposite.

The other area where I seem to defy the norm is that I am 9 weeks and 1 day pregnant and I am most definitely showing.

Everything I read says you don’t typically show until closer to 15-20 weeks.

It may be hard to tell in the picture above if you don’t know what I used to look like (how could you?) so I will explain.

See the semi-circle that has become my tummy? I never had that before. The thing about me is that when I gain weight, I never gain it in my stomach which has always been totally flat, instead I gain it in my butt, thighs and love handles. That is where the 10lbs is, not my stomach which for all its convexness is rock hard, not an inch to pinch.

I also wonder if the fact that my uterus is tipped severely forward also makes it sort of stand out more.

The good news about the hunger actually being morning sickness is that it means it should actually end around the same time that normal morning sickness does, at the beginning of the second trimester, which is only about 2-3 weeks away.

My butt and thighs can’t wait!

Dr. K started off the scan by zooming in so we could see how much blobby has grown in the past week and a half:

The entire baby is between the two plus signs (a whole 1.42 centimeters), the circle is NOT the head like Jeff thought it was, it is actually the yolk sac which is the source of the baby’s nutrients before the umbilical chord and placenta take over that function completely. Blobby was also measured for the first time today and is measuring one day ahead at 7 weeks and 5 days.

Then Dr. K zoomed back out and turned on the microphone:

Do you see that on the bottom? That is our baby’s heartbeat which we heard loud and clear! Dr. K. didn’t tell me the baby’s heart rate, but I see it on the picture on the top left – I think the machine automatically records it- and it’s 160! That’s really really good, so good I don’t even have to worry or obsess about it (for once!)

Dr. K also confirmed that my due date is indeed August 10th, which I just remembered (with a little help;) is my good friend Dawn’s birthday.. which is only fitting because her son Noah was born on Jeff’s birthday.

On my way out, I asked the doc about the polyp which he says is a non issue at this point. I also reminded him I only have one week of progesterone suppositories left and asked if I need more, etc. He said that pending the results of today’s progesterone level (assuming its not really low or anything) I can stop them today. Yay, no more messy underwear!!

It was a little strange walking out of my RE’s office for the last time today.. I really liked Dr. K even though I feel like sometimes I have to pull information out of him, he’s always been really kind and patient with all of my emails and questions. The staff there is also really sweet, and the nurse Lisa is a total expert at drawing blood and Lisandra at the front desk has always been really helpful. And the best part is I’ve never ever had to wait there longer than 10 minutes to be seen…

So thanks Dr. Klein and RMA of White Plains, you’ve been very good to us!

Update: Beta: 77,188, P4=36.1 which means no more suppositories.. my underwear are having a little party ;)

Due to the spotting and cramping, I went in for my second ultrasound  yesterday instead of Thursday like I had planned. Blobby is doing great and Dr. K said there was lots of development.  I couldn’t tell at all (other than the fact that the sac was bigger) until he zoomed in and we saw a little flicker! He turned on the microphone on the ultrasound machine, but couldn’t hear the heartbeat yet.  He said by my next appointment on 12/27  we should be able to (cool!) He’ll also measure the CRL at that point and hopefully the BPM of the heartbeat which he didn’t this time.

Apparantly at 6 weeks the baby is the size of a sweetpea and is just beginning to sprout eyes, chin, nose and little webbed hands and feet.

Dr. K. said that after my next appointment he’d be releasing me to my OB. It’s weird to think that a week from Thursday will be my last early morning trek to Westchester.. its been such a routine part of my life for the last few months.  I think I will bring them a gift basket, the staff there has been so nice, and of course they got me PREGNANT so I owe them at least that!

I know spotting can be “normal” and a quick internet search showed that up to 20-30% of women experience some sort of spotting during their first trimester. Ok.. so I’m not alone.

Then it goes on to say “Of those, 50% continue on to have healthy pregancies.”

What? 50%? Shit. I don’t like those odds at all.

We were supposed to wait until Thursday to have our next ultrasound, the one where we hopefully see the heartbeat.

I emailed Dr. Klein and told him about the spotting and that I’d like to come in Monday instead. I’m torn about that because I’ll be just 6 weeks and 1 day on Monday, so have a chance of seeing the heartbeat, but not as good a chance as if I waited to go in on Thursday.. I know myself and if we DON’T see a heartbeat on Monday I’ll be freaking out.

This sucks.

Let me preface this by saying I am completely grateful that I have any infertility insurance coverage at all and I know I am one of the lucky ones.

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So my current plan is through Oxford, which covers ART (assisted reproductive technology) up to $5k per calendar year. Because I anticipated having to do IVF, when open enrollment came around for 2008 I decided to switch to our Aetna HMO plan because it covered up to three full cycles of IVF.

As a separate prescription pharmacy benefit plan we also have $15k lifetime coverage for infertility medicines.

That may seem like a lot (and it is compared to many plans) it probably covers about 3 cycles worth of IVF meds.

So, when it came time to decide how to pay for my Gonal-F injections that I started while still with my oxford plan in November I had the choice of using up part of my $15K under my prescription plan, or, I could run it under my Oxford medical plan which covers certain types of ovulation induction medications.

It seemed like a no brainer. I’m getting rid of Oxford anyway, so might as well have them pay for the meds so that my $15k is intact for when I needed IVF. The only catch was that Oxford said they would cover it, but I would have to put out the money first and they would “reimburse me” when I submitted a claim for it.

I did some quick calculations and realized that I could put it on a credit card and within the 20-30 days Oxford said it customarily pays out its claims in, I should have the check in hand and be able to pay off my credit card without accruing any interest fees. Besides, when I looked at the price list for meds at Freedom Fertility Pharmacy I calculated the whole thing should only cost me about $1100 – or so I thought.

Turns out those prices listed are for self-pay clients with no fertility drug coverage, the prices TRIPLE if they are going to be run through an insurance plan. So my combined total for the Gonal-F, Ovidrel and Endometrin combo was $3200!

Gulp.

Oh well, I’ll still have the check from Oxford in hand by the time I need to pay my credit card bill. Right? Right?

Wrong!

About two weeks after I submitted all my paperwork to oxford I am logged into their system looking at my various claims and see the one for the $3200. It says it was denied. I IMMEDIATELY call up and talk to a claims representative who assures me that it its still in review, that he doesn’t know and can’t see the system that I am looking at but that it has definitely not been denied.

Not being one to trust what one person tells me, I call back a few days later just to “double check”. I speak to a young woman who cheerily informs me that yes, it has in fact been denied.

“What?” I screech, “Why?”

She tells me that it was denied because I had no preauthorization.

“But I have preauthorization” I tell her.

“Yes I see that” She says. “I’ll have to resubmit it, I don’t know why they denied it.”

You can see where this is going. GRRRRR.

So I wait another week and call back again. The man who answers the phone tells me its still under review, and could be for another few weeks.

Now I’m starting to panic because my credit card statement is due quite soon.

So I wait about another week and call back today. Claims rep Melissa E. tells me its been denied, this time because its not a “covered” benefit.

Uh, then why did you tell me that it was, and my RE’s office when THEY called, and why the hell did you preauthorize it if its not going to be covered anyway? After being on hold to “research” my plan’s benefit for about 15 minutes she tells me that she talked to a supervisor and that infertility meds ARE covered under our medical plan if they are part of ovulation induction and “Comprehensive” care which means artificial insemination, sperm washing etc. etc. Basically everything that we/I did. Does she think I was injecting myself with Gonal-F for FUN???

It just makes me so mad..

First the shady “pay for it first and we’ll reimburse you later” deal, its almost like you KNOW they are just banking on being able to deny some of those claims, or make it so difficult that people just give up. And then there’s the fact that it’s completely wrong to keep wrongfully denying a claim that is costing the patient a big chunk of change each month. I feel like they are willfully trying to hold on to the money as long as possible.

The credit card interest for $3200 is not peanuts.

Now of course I would gladly pay $3200 to have my baby and a hell of a lot more if I had to. In the scheme of things its really nothing, its just that the unfairness and the wrongness in principle really gets my libra goat and makes my blood boil.

So I say BOO to Oxford and their complete lack of competence. I really have enough stress already in my life worrying whether or not my baby will have a heartbeat or not next week.. I can only think how much more incensed I’d be if that $3200 DIDN’T result in our beautiful little blobby.. thank GOD is all I can say to that.

So I googled again and found a calculator that lets you input your date of ovulation and I gained two days! This is because my cycles are unusually short. So today I am really 5 weeks and 5 days, and due August 10th instead of 12th.

I know it’s only two days, but I’ll take it because with each new week I enter I feel like my chances of miscarriage diminish a little bit more. Plus, this means that I’ll be 6 weeks and 4 days when I go for my next ultrasound and will almost certainly be able to see the heartbeat (assuming the pregnancy is healthy.)

If blobby and I can just make it through the next 6 days and it’s little heart starts beating and we see it on Thursday, my chances of miscarrying go down from 20% ish to a much more reassuring 5%.

The timing is also good because my best friend Alexis and her boyfriend Scott are coming to stay with us the following day.  Assuming everything looks fine I’m going to surprise her and some of our other friends that weekend!

I am feeling pretty good, better than yesterday anyway. Yesterday all morning I had what felt disturbingly like menstrual cramps. I know cramping is totally normal during pregnancy, but it’s still completely disconcerting.

I haven’t had real bouts of nausea just yet, but yesterday and today I have had a few fleeting moments of queasyness, which is probably a sign of what’s to come.  Though my mom said she didn’t have morning sickness with either me or my sister, so who knows? I may be spared that particular indignity.  Though when there are two sets of genes to choose from, I’ve tended to get the short end of the stick before, so I’m not overly optimistic on that account.  Hopefully this will be an exception!