How Far Along: 15 weeks along, with a few days to spare.

Size of baby: Some say apples, some say oranges. Either way, we're getting bigger & heavier! :)

Well folks, I am officially a single lady - for a few weeks, at least. Hubby is safely in Germany and I'm trying to keep myself busy here at home.

Luckily, I have been booked up this week by lovely people keeping me company and keeping me occupied.  Unluckily, school dramas have been making me completely exhausted, so I'm tired in not-so-positive ways too.

I know a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with/about the use of at-home dopplers, but can I tell you... ever since I actually FOUND the baby's heartbeat, that thing has been a saving grace for me. Going so long between appointments, ever since the high risk scare, has been hard - so just having a quick listen every now and again to hear baby pounding away is awesome, especially seeing as I'm too early for movements yet. I have a feeling that wee baby & I are going to be touching base with one another more frequently now that it's just us. :)

My belly seems to have shrunk back in this week, though it's still bigger at nights. I hung out with a friend who's a few weeks ahead of me, and her gorgeous {and perfectly round} bump is definitely making itself known. Mine still just looks like regular me, just a little poochier. I'm still itching to have people notice that it's a baby belly, rather than an 'I just ate too much chicken schnitzel' belly.

I'll touch base in a few days to share the weekly update, though it'll be a selfy mirror shot from now on, since my photographer is in a whole other continent - hopefully you'll bear with me over the next few weeks!

All is going very well on the baby front. My tummy feels huge, and I've had several comments on how much I've 'popped out' in the last few days. Today's comments were all asking how far along I was - wasn't 14.5 weeks a little early to be so big? Honestly, pregnancy is bizarre. First people ask why you're not showing - then when you do start showing, the opinions start! I, for one, am embracing the tummy, and happy that I'm finally starting to look as pregnant as I feel.

We've had some crazy news over the last few days, and I can hardly believe that some of it hits us from next week - Jase is heading overseas to Germany! He'll be doing some training and development with his firm's Europe branch, and he'll be away for just over four weeks. Can you believe it? We found out on Tuesday... and he leaves on Monday. As in, Monday FOUR DAYS AWAY. Crazypants. I'm ridiculously excited for him - it's a great opportunity, and he's been desperately missing Europe, so I was encouraging him to go along if it was offered. He'll also get to catch up with his brother & old colleagues/friends, since he'll likely pop over to London every now and again for visits.

(Jealous!)

So that means it's just me, the kitties, the puppy & the wee one for a little while. I'm not fussed about being alone - I've done it before, and besides.. I feel oddly calm and content right now. It'll make the time go by, and that's a positive thing! :) I'm going to give him a whopping great list of baby clothes and stores I want him to visit {mostly Primark for cheap and cheerful bebe bits & pieces} so hopefully we'll have a nice few surprises when he comes home in early December. I'll be 15 weeks when he leaves & 20 weeks when he gets home!

As for our upcoming scans, he's happy for me to go ahead with them, so I'm taking my next best thing: my mum! She was great to have with me at the NT scan, and since we had to deal with scary news then, I'm preparing already for future scans. {Preparing - not worrying.} Hubby still wants to know the gender as soon as possible, so hopefully if baby co-operates, we'll have a good idea at the 16 week scan. If not, we'll be trying our best to find out at the 19 week one! I'm under strict instructions to ring/message/email/all of the above, as SOON as I know the gender.. even with the crazy Australia-Germany time difference. :)

I also had to make a decision about what I was planning on doing with work for next year. Our teaching year runs from January to December, so I'm finishing out this contract and having a break over Christmas. I've decided to stop working then, since I'd only realistically be available to teach several weeks of February/March before I'd be stopping closer to the due date. If I feel up to it, I'll do some casual teaching cover days at my current school - they've been nothing but supportive, and I definitely feel as though I've made the right decision there. It's a weight off my shoulders, knowing that I have just under a term to go.

So, that's life right now. I'm spending as much time with the husband-man as I can this weekend, we're stockpiling heavy grocery items before he goes {cat litter, dog food, etc} and enjoying each other's company before he flies out next week. I'm also trying hard to fight a head cold that my students have been passing around, but I have a feeling I'm fighting a losing battle with this one. My immune system is focussed on the baby - just as it should be.

How Far Along: 14 weeks + 2 days along! Speed up, time. I want to hit some more milestones. :)

Size of baby: Baby is a lemon this week. And still sitting so, so low in my pelvis. Move up, little one!

Greetings, ICLW friends - and all my lovely bloggy friends. If you're new around these parts, here's our history:

• TTC with PCOS since December 2010
• Anovulatory cycles for months on end, super long waits between TTC
• Several rounds of Clomid - ovulated twice, all BFN
• Hubby's results came back concerning - low morph & average count
• IVF #1 - 5 eggs, 3 mature, only 1 successful 3-day embryo to transfer. BFN.
• IVF #2 - 3 eggs, 3 mature, all 3 made it to blastocysts! We transferred 1@5 days - BFP.

Weird title for a blog post, right? It probably seems even weirder when I tell you that it's a post about stomachs.

It seems there are two types of bellies in pregnancy. There's the 'D' belly - the one that pops out gradually {and then NOT so gradually!} and forms a lovely round basketball. And there's the 'B' belly, the one that is divided into two - a part above the belly, and a section underneath. I've had that belly for the longest of times.

I'm sure it's no surprise, but I really, and I mean reallyreallyreallyreally REALLY want to eventually have a 'D'.

Sometimes I get envious of baby bump pictures and threads, as there are so many beautiful bumps out there that stand out all on their own. When we've been taking our weekly shots, I cup my stomach with my hands, so that the 'B' is less noticeable, because it feels more like my regular belly size than it does a pregnant mama tum.

It's still early days for us now at 13 weeks + 4 days, but I do see the lower part of my belly starting to swell a wee bit. When I use our doppler, I find baby way down low underneath my tummy & still near my pelvis - so there's still a lot of room to move up. My hope is that as things to start to rise and shift, the 'B' will become a 'D'.

Whatever happens, I'm ready to embrace the belly. It suddenly feels as though time has slowed down again, since we're slow on appointments and scans for a good few weeks yet... so this is something that I can look forward to!

How Far Along: 13.5 weeks and ridiculously chuffed to be heading into the second trimester.

Size of baby: Baby is the size of a peach! Mmmm, peaches. Now I kind of want to eat a peach. Is that weird?

There seems to be a little discrepancy on when the second trimester actually starts, but I've always believed it was from 13 weeks - so I'm sticking to it. This morning, I hit that magic number & that magic stage of pregnancy. It's onwards and upwards (& hopefully outwards, belly wise) from here!

I feel like I've run a marathon this week - thank goodness for the weekend! It's been a draining few days, and I'm happy to soon be leaving them behind & starting fresh... in the second trimester. {Woo!}

In case you were wondering, I really am doing okay. I mentioned how I was worrying a few days ago, and yes, I am - but not to the point where I'm making myself stressed out. The 'high risk' and the low PAPP-A, well, they're not going anywhere, but there is absolutely nothing that I can do about them, so I'm putting them out of my head. I'd like to think that my worries are natural preggo 'I want my baby to be okay' worries. I promise: all is good.

In more cheerful news, I finally found Baby Jag this afternoon! I've spent the last few weeks randomly searching for the heartbeat. I've been going blind, because.. I don't know where my uterus is. I have a belly in the way after all, and I can't blame it on the little one yet!

I had a grope around and found my own heartbeat echo, again. Disappointed, I was ready to give up, until I randomly heard a noise I hadn't heard before. It was kind of swooshy, but not gurgling - so I stuck around that area for a bit and then, baby! Definitely baby! It was a super fast heartbeat, hiding from me every now and again. Amazing. I recorded some on my phone, in case I couldn't find it later. We tried later, and hubby got to hear it too.

It's ridiculous to admit just how in love with that sound I am - but I'll man up to it. :)

I heard back from the obstetrician today, in regards to our NT scan earlier this week. I'd been playing phone tag for the past few days, and it was good to finally chat with him. He asked us if we had changed our initial plan of NOT having an Amnio after our high risk rating & was very supportive when I told him that we felt the same way: no further testing. He then went on to explain that the blood hormone testing is fairly modern, and that low readings tended to warrant monitoring, but not panic.

So the plan is.. keep taking it easy for the next few weeks until our next OB visit - I'll be 15 weeks + 4 days at that time. A few weeks later, I'll have the 19 week Anatomy scan, where they'll go over the baby quite intensely, to see if any other soft markers come up, and to make sure the placenta and organs are functioning properly, due to the low readings. Once I hit the third trimester, I'll have at least two additional ultrasounds to monitor baby's growth. Fingers crossed all will go well, but there's no point worrying now. All I want to do is get through the next few months, and pray that the baby stays healthy.

You know, despite trying to put on a brave face here on the blog, I've been a wreck the last few days. I worry at the best of times; especially now in the uncertain ones. It's been hard not to panic, to automatically assume the worst, to google the crap out of every fact and figure. 

As I was driving home after work today, I noticed a package on my front porch. As I parked in the driveway, I realised it was flowers - someone sent me a parcel! It was a beautiful box of flowers from my nanna, who was really lovely and supportive after Monday's scary appointment. That was all it took to brighten my day and to let me know that someone was thinking of me, and of Baby Jag, and it was beautiful. It's the little things, you know?