Shots-- Not the Jello variety

Part of early pregnancy for me is shots, shots, and more shots. Six a week to be exact. That means by the end of my first trimester (next week) I will have well over 50 needle pricks. These aren't just any shots either. Six times a week my body is pumped full of more hormones, as if those present naturally were not enough! The side effects of these injections include every pregnancy symptom imaginable, weight gain, fatigue, nausea, etc. It is like putting a magnifying glass on all the normal pregnancy stuff. On top of that-- they hurt.

We were moving around our third miscarriage and had no way to get to a doctor for the shots. As a result, poor dh got a few lessons from the nurses and learned to do them for me. This has turned out to be a blessing for me. Now I don't have to worry about making appointments and lugging four girls to the doctor's office two or three times a week. It isn't so much a blessing for dh. Twice a week he comes home from work and is immediately confronted by the full syringes waiting for him on the counter. I can tell by the look on his face how much he enjoys it.

Not only does he have to give me these shots, he has to deal with the after effects. I may have forgotten to mention the moodiness that is also a major side effect. The day after shot day is no fun for anyone around me :) It gets especially difficult after several weeks of this. At first the shots are a little painful and are itchy and uncomfortable. After a few weeks though, I am bruised and there are lumps of scar tissue or something at the injection site and it makes the shots all the more painful.

Thankfully, though, tomorrow is the last round of one hormone. I am down to only four shots a week. Should all go well, I hope to be off all these hormones in the next three weeks. It will probably be much longer before I can enjoy a shot (the Jell-o variety)!