12 weeks!

Went to see Dr. Nelson today with the Atlanta Perinatal Consultants.  They took a good look at Baby I and said it looks great!

First OB/Gyn Appointment (Pregnancy Confirmation)

On Friday, January 7th, I had my first appointment with my new OB Doctor, Dr. Bobby Tackitt.  The technician did a "confirmation" ultrasound to make sure that the pregnancy was still viable before I saw Dr. Tackitt.  It was too bad that Chaz couldn't come to this appointment with me.  This was the first ultrasound where I saw so much detail of the baby.  I just stared at the screen still in disbelief.  But when the baby started bouncing around, oh my gosh... I lost it!  The technician handed me several tissues to wipe the tears.  As she said, it was the first time I had let go of the biology of this and became a patient.  I was watching my baby on the screen!  The baby still looks great and has a healthy heart rate of 162 beats per minute.  The top left of the picture shows the yolk sac (this is what nourishes the baby until it's circulatory system takes over).  It will eventually disappear as the baby grows.  The top right of the picture is the back of the baby's head and if you follow it down, you'll see the leg buds protruding out!

My next appointment with Dr. Tackitt will be on February 3 and I will be about 12.5 weeks along; into my second trimester!

First Ultrasound with Dr. Robin Fogle

I was still on vacation from work, but went in on Thursday, December 30th to have an ultrasound with Robin.  She looked at the baby, it's yolk sac and my uterine lining.  Everything looked perfect!  My mom was with me too and together we saw the heart beating at 182 beats per minutes!  This will slow down over the  next week or so, but so far so good!

Telling Granny and Pappa Dotson

Mom and Dad Dotson came to visit us in GA on December 27th.  As their Christmas gift, I made a picture calendar using Snapfish.com and uploaded all kinds of pictures of our family for each month.  On the Month of August, I taped in a picture of my ultrasound.  My parents have 4 children, 5 Grandchildren and 2 Great-Grandchildren.  They were so happy with the calendar and took their time looking through it.  I impatiently waited until they got to the month of August.  Chaz had the camera ready.  You can see in the first picture the look on Mom's face when she saw the ultrasound.  "Is this you?"  she asked.   The second picture is her emotions after I told her "yes, Chaz and I are having a baby."  It wasn't 5 minutes before she called all my surrogate Mother's on the phone!

How we told Judy and Charlie (Grandma and Grandpa) Ingram

I found a cute frame with the title "Grandkids" on it and spaces for three pictures.  Judy and Charlie have two Grandson's (Ryan and Brayden) from their son Michael and his wife Naomi who live in Alaska.  I put a picture of Ryan in one spot, Brayden in another spot, and put the ultrasound photo our our baby in the third spot.  We wrapped it up and gave it to them after dinner on Wednesday, December 22.  Mom opened the gift and loved the pictures.  She said "Oh look, this must be a sonogram of Brayden."  We said "no" and she exclaimed, "Is this your baby!?"  The tears started to fall :-)

First Image

It was almost Christmas time and we decided that even though our baby was only 6 weeks old, we wanted to share our news with the Grandparents and Aunts that would be visiting.  I wanted to see the heartbeat before we released the news.  Mirrin (our nurse practitioner at ACRM) did the ultrasound and we saw the little flutter of a heart beating.  It had probably only been beating for 2 or 3 days at this point!  Everything looked great at this point, so I felt better about making the announcement.  The baby is only half a centimeter in length!

How I told Chaz

I learned of my early pregnancy while at work on Monday, December 6th.  Chaz too was at work and I didn't want to call him and tell him the news over the phone.  So, I made a plan.  My boss gave me a baby t-shirt that has our work logo on it (ACRM) since technically our baby was conceived at ACRM.    I took it home and wrapped it in Christmas paper.  I hung three Christmas stockings on our fireplace:  mine, Chaz's and I had an extra small stocking that I put in the middle of ours.   I put the wrapped present in Chaz's stocking and waited impatiently until he got home. When he arrived, I told him I received an early Christmas present that day and wanted him to open it.  We sat together on the fireplace hearth and he opened his gift.  When he pulled out the baby outfit, he stared at it, then at me.  "What's this?" he asked me.  I just smiled and he knew.  "It worked, and I'm home" he said.

We're Pregnant? How did that happen?

Chaz took me out for a beautiful Valentine's Day dinner in 2008.  At the table, he handed me a beautiful card and told me that he was ready to start the next phase of our life; to bring a child into our lives.  It was our engagement proposal all over again.... I couldn't stop the tears.  What a great gift.  As most of you know, Chaz and I were never sure we wanted to have kids.  But after a while, we got the urge.  I went home and threw my pills away :-)  Being almost 39 years old already, I believed that if it was "meant to be, it would be."

We tried the "old fashioned way" for several months with no success.  In January, 2010 when Chaz moved to MD, not only was this time challenging for us emotionally, but it seemed impossible that we could get pregnant.  I'm extremely fortunate that my career in embryology has allowed me to work for so many excellent doctors.  Up until this point, we had not told anyone that were trying to have a baby.  I decided to confide in my boss and was fortunate to have his blessing and was given access to a great team of friends and co-workers that provided their expertise to us.  What does that mean?  Well, without going into details, we were able to continue trying to make a baby even though we weren't physically together... what a great story over a cocktail one night!

Chaz came home in October, 2010.  Although all the efforts were good, we still weren't pregnant.  My friends back in Richmond offered to do an  IVF cycle for us.  We were going to take them up on their offer in November, but I just couldn't move forward.  Chaz had just come home, and emotionally and financially, we just couldn't do this.  I still believed that if it was meant to be, it would be.  Well.... on the evening of November 20th, with the help of my friend and co-worker, Dr. Robin Fogle, a little miracle started (another story reserved for cocktails one day).  On December 6th, Robin drew my blood and came to me with the news... I was pregnant!