One little overachiever

This morning we had our first sonogram.  It was a transvaginal, but that part wasn’t so bad.  Here is the amazingly good news.  There is one gestational sack, the RE was able to see and show us the yolk sac, the fetal pole, and even the tiny flicker of the heartbeat.  That last one was a bit of a surprise, as it’s early to see it.  It was too small to measure so we get to go back for a 2nd scan a week from Monday.  Overall we are measuring 6 weeks 1 day, which is a couple of days ahead.  That would explain my rather high beta numbers from last week.  The news could not have been better and we are over the moon with excitement.  For those of you that like these things, here’s the picture.  We just have to take their word for it that it will actually be a baby someday.  Right now, it’s about the size of a sprinkle.

So tired

I get very tired very quickly.  For that, and for the bloating, I blame the progesterone.  Over the weekend there were multiple naps each day.  And at work I’ve even needed to lay down on the floor in a dark room for a quick snooze.  Good thing I manage a suite of rooms and know where it’s safe to do so.  Also, I’ve had to remove about 6 pairs of pants from my wardrobe.

When the nurse called with my numbers on Friday, they asked that I go in for a 4th beta on Monday.  Over the weekend Strawberry and I decided that we’d rather not.  All 3 betas have pointed to everything being fine.  We didn’t really see the point in a 4th one and besides, the anxiety of an 8:30 am blood draw and then waiting for a late afternoon call was not something that we ever wanted to go through again.  

I was a big coward and didn’t want to make the call.  But Strawberry, my beautiful courageous wife, stepped up and did it.  The person on the phone did question whether or not we were coming in, but seemed fine with our decision.  And best of all, they let us go ahead and schedule our sonogram for Friday morning.  This will be a transvaginal ultrasound (sounds fun, no?) to view the egg sac.  It will be too early to see a heartbeat.  If everything is fine on Friday, then we will be released from the care of the RE and I can call my regular OB.  We are very excited and hopeful and optimistic.

Newborns

We went to the State Fair this weekend and saw some incredibly adorable babies…

Ocean of Relief

[EDIT: HcG: 2,180 Progesterone: 21
HcG doubled, prog. went up, and we can truly enjoy the weekend!]

We just got back to work after this morning’s beta (I will update this post later today with the results). Nutella handled it like a champ, despite not feeling so well to begin with. When the blood draw was complete, I asked to speak with our doctor who, to our surprise, was in the office. I had a list of 4 questions prepared to ask her and we are SO RELIEVED at her answers:

Q: We are wondering why Nutella is now taking progesterone?
A: I put all my patients on progesterone in the beginning as a precautionary measure. It helps to prevent miscarriage, and even though you might be fine now, by the time we realize we may need it, it will be too late. It’s routine for me.

Q: How long will she have to take it… through the first trimester?
A: No, just for 8 weeks, until the placenta kicks in.

Q: And are you gung-ho about her taking it 3 times a day?
A: She can take it twice a day (whoo!).

Q: What’s our next step?
A: When the beta gets to a certain level, around 3500, then you’ll come in for your first sonogram, probably in a week.

Relief! We don’t know WHY the nurse didn’t just tell us this to begin with, but we have no reason to believe there is anything wrong with Nutella or the cupcake. We’re anxious for today’s beta result, but we’re no longer waiting with bated breath. And we now feel like we can truly enjoy the excitement of it all.

Oh my god, we’re pregnant!

Phat pants

Thank you everyone for your supportive comments.  We have done some research and feel more confident and slightly less worried. We have worked through a roller coaster of emotions and have chosen happiness and hope.  I will have a 3rd beta and progesterone check tomorrow morning and we believe that everything will be wonderful.

The “hoo-ha bullets”, as some other folks on the internet have lovingly named them, are not difficult to use but are rather gross.  So far, they have made me tired and bloated.  By mid-morning I had to unbutton my pants.  Thus today at lunch I purchased my very own black stretchy drawstring cotton pants with rhinestones along the outseam.  Sure, they aren’t really work appropriate, but they are comfy!

Welcome to being sick with worry.

Beta results thus far:

Monday’s 1st beta at 15DPO 576
Progesterone 17.1

Today’s beta at 17DPO 1,038
Progesterone 15.1

From a general standpoint, that looks pretty good. But now, they want Nutella on Prometrium (Progesterone) 3 times a day “until we tell you to stop.” When Nutella asked why, the nurse said “to help the pregnancy along” and that “everything is fine.”

Bullshit I say. If everything were fine, why would Nutella have to be taking progesterone?

We did a ton of research just now. All the drug-oriented websites say “Don’t take prometrium if you are pregnant” and just about every person on every infertility forum has said “take it, it helps.” Do you know why they’re taking it? To keep up low levels of progesterone. To prevent miscarriage. Did our nurse mention this? Nope. “Everything is fine.”

I don’t know what else to write. This was not the news we were expecting and we are fraught with anxiety. However, Nutella will start taking prometrium tonight.

*Edit: I wrote that in the heat of the moment, and while we’re still going to be worried, we want to thank everyone for all of their sweet comments and congratulations, especially those who have de-lurked just to say so. You’re such an incredibly supportive community and we are glad to have you out there.

Shocked and amazed

Eagle Scout earned his badge after all!  Blood test with the RE this morning has confirmed that there is indeed a cupcake in my oven.

After all of the confusion with Fertility Friend and my cycle this time, we were not really expecting things to work.  But I guess our instincts telling us to do the insemination 12 hours after our +OPK were correct.  Even if my temperatures didn’t pinpoint ovulation until 2 days later.

We are ecstatic and hopeful and amazed and so many other feelings that defy description.

I broke it!

So, for the first time since I started charting my cycles (over a year ago), I have totally confused Fertility Friend.  Let me explain.

+OPK late on CD11, did the IUI on CD12, EWCM was gone by CD13.  Temps took a big dip on CD13 and a jump up on CD14, so we figured that we’d inseminated too early.

I continued to temp and from CD14-17 things were high so I assumed it would give me the crosshairs on CD13, the day of the dip.  NOPE!  It gave me the crosshairs on CD11, the day of the IUI.  Well then, perhaps our timing hadn’t been so bad.  Then on CD 18 my temp took a HUGE drop and FF moved my crosshairs to CD13.  The thing is, it’s a dotted line because it’s confused as to when I ovulated.  Temps say one thing and the OPK and CM say another.  And the only helpful thing FF has to say is “Some of your fertility signs ( OPK ) do not seem to confirm the interpretation.”

If all of this means nothing to you, don’t worry.  What it comes down to is, I ovulated at some point and at some point there was sperm.  Don’t know if the 2 events happened anywhere near one another and right now it doesn’t matter.  I’m either pregnant or I’m not and there’s nothing I can do about it.  We have no real clue how many DPO I am but we’ll be testing on Saturday.  I have no noticeable symptoms and I’m not expecting any.   I’m not fretting about the wait at all and I am looking forward to our next try if this one is a wash.

Special delivery

Nutella returns home from her business trip shortly after I get home from work today. I am thrilled- I missed her dearly. Yay for Friday!

When I went home for lunch this afternoon, there was a package on my doorstep. Is it strange that I am excited about a bunch of speculums?? And I’ve been doing major research on cervixes. Not at work though, that would be bad. Show me a cervix, I dare you, and I can probably tell you where in her cycle the woman’s at. lol. I’m also excited now about the prospect of doing the second IUI at home for our next try. And I say “our next try” because we both pretty much gave up hope on this current one. We just think it was too early according to Nutella’s temperature pattern. We’re at, I don’t know, 6DPO? Not even counting really. I’m more into counting days until the next try, which should be the last weekend in August. Oh sure, there’s a 1% chance it worked this time, but it’s hardly worth hoping for.

I don’t know, I’m feeling pretty zen and excited at the same time. Definitely not my usual during the TWW. Probably a good thing.

Up down down ?!

Nutella’s temperature always goes up after she ovulates (“always” meaning the last few times we’ve charted). We’ve felt confident doing the IUI the day after the positive OPK and seeing her temperature go up and stay up, indicating she’s ovulated.

THIS time though, her temperature went up, but then back down, to below the coverline. This is very disconcerting as now we think we may have done the IUI too early. In other words, this timing thing really sucks.

We are now reassessing our plan. Again. Maybe we’ll do two IUI’s next time in order to ensure a wider window of opportunity. Maybe we’ll even do one at home, something I was sure we’d never try to attempt ourselves.

A while back, I laughed over Amazon displaying “speculums” on my possible “want” list of items. Now…not so funny anymore.