Pregnancy this time around has been completely different than it was with Khari & I know that’s to be expected but WOAH.
Let’s back up a little. As I mentioned in my previous post - we had been trying for about 4 months and I couldn’t figure my cycle out. Before Khari, I was so consistent and now each month was different. I had been tracking my cycle with a friend of mine and we were both having a hard time getting positive ovulation tests or they were super late. So when my PT therapist had recommended I start testing at day 5 of my cycle and make sure to consistently test twice a day at the same time (once AM & once PM) that totally made sense to me. I ovulated on day 8 or 9 with 3-4 day periods when I got pregnant with Khari so yeah - day 5 made sense.
I had (what I thought to be a normal period for 5 days) & was ready to test. I had gone to a hot Pilates class earlier that day and tested as soon as I came home and showered & was SHOCKED to see an immediate happy face 😀 show up on my ovulation test. I was so shocked that I ended up taking 2 additional types of tests just to make sure. And guess what they all showed up positive! Wohoo! This was also on 11/11 (one of my fave days of the year) & figured it was meant to be. This was going to be THE month! I immediately texted my husband to give him the “heads up” & then my girlfriend who I had been tracking my cycle with.
I sent her the photos with so much excitement & she respond Omg Hayley!! And then a minute later - “Wait. What am I looking at?!” I responded without hesitation -- “It’s just an ovulation test, I’m not pregnant!” And she wrote back — “are you sure?? Isn’t that middle test an HCG strip??”. Wait — WHAT. I had mixed up the LH test strip with the HGC test strip for my second test. Now, I had sooo many questions. Do ovulation tests show up positive if you are pregnant? How am I pregnant when I JUST had a period? If I am pregnant, does the bleeding mean I miscarried? One by one, I tackled the questions, first obviously by asking Google and then by asking my husband to get a Pregnant/Not Pregnant pregnancy test to bring home. Well, apparently it is possible for an ovulation test to show a false positive because it can accidentally identify your high HCG levels instead of LH - who knew? And then the pregnancy test showed PREGNANT. WOAH - AGAIN. I called my doctor and they ordered me an HCG test for that day and then one for two days later and two days after that to see if my levels were actually increasing.
What a long week that was patiently waiting for each test to come back to see if this was a viable pregnancy. The first test came back with decently high HCG levels but they were lower than when I tested for my first pregnancy (I know you shouldn’t compare you’re pregnancies but I mean, it’s so hard not to). Luckily the second and third came back double or triple the levels of the previous tests, so that was a bit of a relief BUT due to the “period” I had experienced they needed me to come in to do a transvaginal ultrasound and make sure this wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy. Ugh. What an experience this was. The first time I went in, I had a much older gentleman doing the test. He was very kind but seemed a little senile and overall wasn’t able to give me any answers and the ultrasound was too hard to read. They ideally wanted me to come back within a week but due to Thanksgiving they could only get my in 5 days later. Well this time the ultrasound was clearer and they were able to rule out an ectopic pregnancy but were only able to see a yolk sac and no fetal pole so I’d have to come back again to make sure the baby was growing. One week later, I was back and they were able to see the little babe slowly growing. :)
During this whole process, not only was I anxious able not having clear answers but I had caught the flu which I haven’t had in YEARS and then developed a very intense sinus infection (which I've never had before). I was still breastfeeding/pumping consistently, dealing with a very active 1 year old (who also had the flu) and still wasn’t sleeping through the night and working full time. I truly have never been more exhausted in my entire life and told my therapist that I don’t even feel like I am really living, I am just surviving these past few weeks.
Unfortunately my health got even worse before it got better. I was experiencing terrible “morning” sickness and woke up one day after barely any sleep to the left side of my face and gums being fully swollen. I, by happenstance had a dentist appointment that day and almost didn’t go because I figured it was a side effect from my sinus infection but was told by my PCP to get it checked out by the dentist. The hygienist didn’t seem concerned at all but called in the dentist at the end of my cleaning to do his normal routine check and explained what I had been experiencing. He tapped on a few of my teeth and one in particular was extremely sensitive. He said if it was just from the sinus infection, the whole left side should hurt but since it was just one tooth, he wanted to take an X-ray to see what was going on. Obviously hesitant to do an X-ray this early in pregnancy, getting answers was more important. Turns out I had a tooth abscess and they were recommending an emergency root canal. Without much time to process, I was in the chair the next day getting a root canal — again the first I have ever had but they assured me this would help clear the infection that was not only harmful to me but extremely unsafe for my baby especially at this early stage of pregnancy. There was a bit of miscommunication between my OB/endodontist but ultimately we were able to complete the surgery and just in time before I was leaving on a family trip. Apparently flying with a tooth abscess can be very painful to the point where my enodondist had a patient ask the captain to land the plane because he was in so much pain. YIKES. I also had a previous trip planned to Mexico a week prior which we cancelled and am glad I didn't put myself or our baby in more harm.
The root canal surgery went smoothly as it could have and the recovery was fine but after 3 or 4 days I started feeling really sick again. My sinus infection symptoms were back and I just felt like shit overall. I ended up going to see my friend’s dad who is a well known ENT doctor just to get a second option. On the surface things looked fine but he recommend a CT Scan just to make sure. Again, I was super hesitant. This baby had already been through soo much! But he made it very clear that this infection is a lot worse for the baby than a CT Scan would be so I obliged. And thank god I did. The results showed my entire left side of my face was infected. He recommended that I go back to my dentist to show him the results but his professional opinion was to get the tooth extracted ASAP. YIKES. After some more unfortunate miscommunication with the dentist/oral surgeon, I ended up getting my tooth pulled a couple of days later. Now this experience was pretty awful especially since they could only give local anesthesia and apparently I have really long and strong teeth.
Ultimately, it was the best decision to remove the tooth as the infection did go away but took about 2 months in total with 3 rounds of antibiotics (which I really hate taking).
Fast forward to my second trimester -the morning sickness went away, my infections are clear (or at east under control for now), Khari started sleeping through the night (GAME. CHANGER), I am sleeping 9-10 hours a night & I have some energy! Wohoo. I am finally able to begin enjoying this pregnancy and am realizing how I truly took for granted how easy it was being pregnant with Khari.
Due to changes in blood work protocols & another miscommunication with the lab— all of my 1st trimester bloodwork was delayed so we had to wait until the 2nd to get our NIPT results and find out the sex of the baby. What an interesting experience that was — make sure check in next month to read all about it!
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