This morning was the ultrasound appointment to check on the baby’s heart. It’s amazing to think that last week this time, he was just a black dot. This morning, I expected to see flashes on the ultrasound screen, which is what I was told the heartbeats would look like. Today, I saw a bubble inside a circle inside a larger black dot. The bubble was dancing rhythmically all on its own. It’d shrink halfway down, then pop back out and be full and round. Then it’d shrink half way, then pop back out, in quick succession. I asked Mr. W to video it on my phone, and he did, but we couldn’t find the video afterwards. He must not have saved it. 🙁 BUT, the doctor did print out an ultrasound picture and give me another little photo folder! There are 2 x’s around the heart, cuz the doctor (female doc who discovered the polyps) was measuring the kid. He’s about 2 mm big right now, the size of a small seed. The circle around the quickly pulsating heart is the yolk sac, and the large black dot is the cavity the baby’s in, about half an inch big right now. Sorry about the glare; I took a cell phone picture of the ultrasound picture:

My multiple attempts to send the cell phone photo above to my email so that I could post it kept failing, and as I was IMing Flip Flop Girl, she offered for me to text it to her and she’ll email that to me, so this photo appears courtesty of Flip Flop Girl! She said it was cool I’m seeing all these early stages of the baby, because in standard pregnancies, the OB wouldn’t do all these early ultrasounds, if they even see you at all.

So the baby is growing at the rate expected, yes there’s only one in there, for all you who “predicted” that going the in vitro route would give me triplets, and I’ve been released from my daily baby aspirin intake and the estrogen patch. They told me to go ahead and rip it off today, so I did. I did briefly consider, since this patch still had 1 day of potency left, how funny it would be to stealthily stick it on some unaware male coworker. But they (male coworkers) probably wouldn’t enjoy the extra emotions and breast tenderness the way we women do. I had a blood test today to check progesterone levels, so I’ll be getting a call later letting me know whether I can stop getting my nighttime progesterone shots. MEANWHILE, I’ve been specifically cleared from my no-exercise restriction! She said I can do light pilates, gentle yoga, light weights, cardio as long as it’s not something extreme like boot camp, AND I can even start running again, as long as I limit the runs to 30 mins. That’s great; I can get 3 miles in, which is my minimum run anyway. (Anything less and I feel like, “why bother?”) WOOHOOOO!! Hello, endorphins!

On the way into the courthouse this morning, a coworker friend caught me and asked if we’d like two free tickets to see the musical “Wicked” tonight, 7pm show. She had two friends cancel, and their tickets would go to waste otherwise. I wasn’t interested in musicals in general, but I know Mr. W would DIE of excitement. So I asked him, and he did. He came back to life soon enough to take up my coworker’s offer. Here’s the tricky part — I have to get my nightly progesterone shots around 8pm. If I get a call from the nurse later and she says I have enough progesterone in my system and can stop the shots, then this show tonight came at the perfect time. If not, then I’m gonna have to figure something out, maybe get home first to package up the shot and try to get it done at intermission or something. But the way things have been going, I wouldn’t be surprised if Riley’s made these arrangements as another “hello” gift, like the dolphins, so that we can celebrate seeing his heartbeat/ending the meds/my returning to the gym by seeing his daddy’s favorite musical tonight. He DOES have a very big heart, my little son.

I will update when I get the nurse’s call.

*** UPDATE (2:32p)
The nurse called. Riley has spoken (har). My progesterone level is 48, and they’re looking for a number above 20. I asked how they know what part of that is me and what part of it is the progesterone shots. She said the progesterone dose only accounts for a quarter of my total progesterone, which means my body is producing plenty of progesterone on its own, like it’s supposed to. She cleared me to stop the shots. YAY! Wanna hear more “coincidences?” The pharmacy I had ordered the meds from gave me EXACTLY the right number of syringes and needle tips; I have one extra syringe at home, but no extra needle tips since Mr. W hit blood one time and had to start over with a new needle tip. They couldn’t have known how many syringes I’d need, since that was up to the doctor, and the doctor’s orders are conditional on my timing and hormone levels. Basically all of the extra free syringes and needle tips my clinic phlebotomist gave me last week are untouched, so I can return them all to the clinic with my thanks at my next appointment, 2 weeks away.
The nurse then said, “Have we told you your due date?” I said no. They calculated it at 11-21-11 (whereas Flip Flop Girl and I both came up with 11-25-11), and she said it’s based on the first date of my last cycle (which Flip Flop and I used) taking into account the dates of fertilization and implantation in a more complicated formula than the one Flip Flop and I used. This puts the baby’s arrival date even more squarely into November, as even if he were a week late and the doctors had to induce, I’d still be in November.