3rd Ultrasound

Whew. Luckily, today baby was measuring 8w6d which was exactly right. It was dancing the jig and had a fast heartbeat because it was exercising. (Amazing how that works already less than 3 weeks after the heart started beating for the first time!)

Our clinic had a fantastic month of June. There were 8 OB ultrasounds today (and that's just in one day!) and 7 of us were graduating and leaving for the OB. That's crazy! I saw a girl who I spent many mornings with in early June and she is pregnant with twins. Yowza!

So with any luck, today will be the last time I set foot in that office. It was by far the best set of doctors, nurses, lab techs, etc. I ever worked with - I just wish I hadn't had to know them. I would have felt that way even without success. I've never had a set of doctors so willing to do anything at any time of day with a positive friendly attitude every single time. It was amazing. And everyone remembers your name no matter where you go and how long it's been since you've seen them. I don't know how they screen employees for hire, but others should use their system.

2nd Ultrasound

We had our 2nd ultrasound today. The little bean is a couple days behind schedule, but the doctor said it was still within normal range. It did spark a little worry in my brain though, because when we had our ultrasound with our first pregnancy, the baby was a couple days behind and then a week later we lost it without knowing it for another week after that. She said the heartbeat was at a good speed and she wasn't concerned though. We have one more u/s scheduled with the RE and then we switch to the OB. Crazy. It's amazing how often I forget that I'm even pregnant this time, being so busy chasing a toddler. There have been a couple evenings where I haven't felt great, but I've never felt awful. Every time I think I'm starting to feel sick, I eat something and it helps. The large quantity of times I eat a handful of this that or the other is probably the reason my pants don't fit rather than the 1 centimeter baby floating around inside. So hopefully the next u/s shows the right amount of growth so that I can stop worrying a little more...

First Ultrasound

Today I'm 6w1d and we were lucky enough to see the heartbeat. It wasn't able to be heard yet even with the wand, and it doesn't even look like a baby yet, but you can see the flicker that is the heartbeat. With previous pregnancies we didn't have an ultrasound early in the 6th week so we either didn't see the heartbeat yet in the 5th week or saw the gummy bear looking thing in the 7th week. It's just as cool this time. It was measuring at 6w even, the heartbeat was at 112 bpm and it's .33cm long. Amazing what technology can show you.

(Side note: A pair of pants I had been wearing is getting snug. As I said, it is .33cm long. How does that work?!)

Next week we have another ultrasound at 7w3d.

Oh, and I only have to take both the progesterone and estrogen two times a day. That adds the opportunity to sleep in! It was hard to have 3 doses just eight hours apart. This 12 hour thing is much better.

2nd Beta

They like to see your HCG double or more every couple days. Mine more than doubled to 4588 in three days.

That's nice, since today I officially cross the line into "advanced maternal age." The big reason we cycled this summer and not next like we would have preferred was that the success rates really go down once you hit 35 and we didn't need any more obstacles than we were already facing.

Next week we get to have an ultrasound at 6w1d, so we might get lucky and see a heartbeat. They start right around then. Fingers crossed!

1st Beta - FINALLY

With the old version of the protocol, our clinic did a HCG ("beta") test the day you would be 4 weeks pregnant. In regular people land, that'd be the day you woke up without a period and knew without testing that you were pregnant.

If you did an IUI, that means a 2 week wait. ("2WW")

If you did an IVF cycle, that means a 2WW after retrieval, but less than that after transfer. (Since some of the meeting/growing/etc happened in the lab and not inside you.) With a 5 day transfer, that'd only be 9 days to wait instead of 14! (And less in reality because of the sensitivity of the tests on the market these days.)

But now they do the first test at 4 weeks and 3 days. For my cycle that fell on the 4th of July. They're open every day of the year for important testings, but this isn't considered vital so I had to wait until the long weekend was over.

As a result, my first blood test was a day short of 5 weeks. Last cycle, 2 years ago, my 3rd blood test was as that point!

My HCG was 1600+. (I don't remember the exact number.) Last time it was only 1100+ at this point, so yay!

6dp5dt

Today's 11 days after retrieval, 6 days after transfer. That's the same as being 3 days before a "missed period" in a regular person's world.

And there's a line on the expensive home test. (Seriously people - First Reponse Early Result (pink box) is no joke with the sensitivity!)

It's faint, but it's there.

It's only a first step - we've been this far before - but it's a positive sign. :)

Snowflakes

We have 2 embryos that were able to be frozen. While I still very much want this cycle to work, it is a load off the back of my mind to have a back up plan. If we had not been able to freeze anything, then this cycle would have been our last chance. We are out of insurance coverage after this cycle, but saving up to pay for a frozen cycle is much more feasible than a fresh. (approximately $5k vs approximately $25k.) I really hope that we don't need a back up plan, but I'm glad it is there.

Morally and ethically, this definitely adds to the thought process of our lives, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We knew what we were getting in to, and we haven't come to complete terms about what to do with any that are left when we consider our family complete. That's almost as hard as the rest of the process.