The Magic Number

is...

ONE!

one healthy baby Witkowski!

Today we got to see our beautiful rice grain of a baby and hear it's heartbeat! What an amazing sound. I don't think I've heard anything more awesome...and, yes, it brought me to tears.

We were surprised to see that actually all 3 embryos implanted (which is why my hCG levels were so high) - we were able to see each of their sacs. But, only one baby was there. They call the empty egg sac's blighted ovums.

A blighted ovum (empty gestational sac) occurs when a fertilized egg implants into the uterine wall, however, the fetus does not continue to develop past the sixth to eighth week of gestation. There is continued development of the placenta and amniotic sac which produces hCG. Essentially the other two embryos were possibly not genetically viable. As the healthy placenta and baby grow they will push the empty sacs to the side and move them out of the way.

The egg sacs were labeled A, B, and C. "A" is our baby, within Egg Sac B there was a faint spot - which Dr. Hickey said could still develop into a baby, but the chances are slim, especially with how small that egg sac appeared. We have another ultrasound in two weeks and we'll see then if anything has developed. Egg Sac C was empty. Dr. Hickey was very happy to see one healthy baby growing. He said that this is the best scenario - any more than one and it just gets harder on the mom and the babies. I only hugged him 2 times!

Here is our first picture of our little one! The black circle is the sac and the baby is on the bottom right side of the sac...he/she measures right at 6weeks 3 days - perfect size, perfect health!

here is the baby's heartbeat...right now the baby's heartbeat is beating at a healthy 112 beats/minute! What a moment it was to hear the heartbeat. These past 2 1/2 years have been TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

Here are Egg Sacs "B" and "C"
see how small "B" is?

excited momma-to-be!

proud daddy-to-be!

Here is the ultrasound screen...look closely
we just wanted to document the date: 08-28-09
how far along I am: 6w3d
due date: 04-20-2010

Right now we have an 83% chance of a successful pregnancy - don't forget how early I am! In another two weeks we'll have ultrasound #2 and we'll then have a 99% chance of a successful pregnancy.

Thank you all once again for your thoughts and prayers! We can't thank you enough! Keep 'em coming for at least another two weeks - or until April 20th!

Love you all, have a great weekend...we know we sure will!