Tips to Using Lovenox

This is a new tip post on how to do Lovenox injections. Many will find that it's not so much the needle that stings more so the medicine. Some days are more painful then others. Overall it's not to bad and here are a few things I've picked up while using them both in our last pregnancy and with this one.

• If you notice a knot, basically a hard patch where you did an injection and it is stiff try to stay away from injecting on any hard part of that area it will hurt like no other.

• I don't ice as I find it tends to make my bruising worse (Which is weird considering Ice constricts your veins lessening blood flow, but it does for me) and tightens my skin causing a bit more resistance when I put the needle in.
• pinch nice and hard it'll help with the pain.
• before you take the cap off (I use pre-filled syringes) , tap the needle so the air bubble goes near the needle. I push the plunger in once (again while the cap is on) I find it helps to loosen up the plunger for a better controlled injection.
• Before I inject I get rid of the air bubble, again helps with loosening up the plunger making for a smoother injection. Instead of the awful jerk you can get at the start.
• I find if I alcohol swipe the area afterwards I bleed more and often bruise worse. So I stick to Kleenexes on the area. 
• DO NOT RUB IN. Don't rub the liquid in. I hate that I can't do this as I notice I get so many knots that I otherwise might not have if I could have rubbed the area. But with lovenox it's a no no.
  
  Please note not all of these tips will work for you and some of my donts' you may actually find you like to do. That's ok and is perfectly fine (besides the last tip). Hopefully I was able to help ease the pain that can be Lovenox Shots. We have 9 months of these needles, mid as well find some way to manage them.

6 week scan

We had our second ultrasound today. We have great news and not so great news. We saw a sac and a little baby in there with a little flicker that was the heartbeat. It was so so amazing to witness. The second sac was no longer there, the nurse practitioner said the baby either reabsorbed into the body or that he/she is hiding. They will be sure to check at future ultrasounds but for right there there is one little baby in there.

Here's the scan photo from today. I shocked at how much I'm able to see. The little head (bent down) the little nubs for arms. It's truly a beautiful sight.

6 weeks 0 days Ultrasound

We're very excited and feeling utterly blessed. We realize again that anything cn happen but this is a great start!

IUI #3 Update

A picture is worth a thousand words! And this should say pretty much how our last IUI went. We're cautiously optimistic. After 4 losses we are trying to maintain the realistic thoughts that anything can happen. For now we're pregnant. We had our first ultrasound and baby is measuring well. I'm hoping 2013 will be our year. As of right now our due date is November 15th.

But wait there's more......


We're as or right now pregnant with  TWINS! It's still very early on and Baby A was measuring really well and on time. Baby B was very tiny and the Nurse Practitioner couldn't get a good hold to get a shot of Baby B. With that we'll be having another ultrasound this week when we're 6 weeks (again still early on) but we should be able to really see if Baby B is going to be viable or at least give it a good shot.One thing to note my beta's were rising on the slow side starting up. 13dpo - 87 , 17dpo - 226, 24dpo - 3507 (this was a huge relief to see our numbers bounce back up with the third beta). Our progesterone has been very high our 17dpo wast 57 and 24dpo it was >40 (different labs, and this one didn't give numbers over 40)

Again we know anything can happen and it sucks that we have to be this cautious with our emotions. But we're trying to be as positive as possible. Every pregnancy should be celebrated to a certain extent. This one is no different. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

We're on Lovenox shots, Crinone (progesterone), hCG shots (aka booster) every 3rd day, Metformin, Low dose aspirin and Pre-Natals. Lots to take but if this what helps give us our take home baby I'll do it for however long is needed .