Well, I am 4 weeks 5 days pregnant today. A week ago today I got my first BFP on a home pregnancy test. That was so surreal - and it still seems that way! I still can't believe it. Things have definitely calmed down and I'm focusing on what I should be doing to keep the growing bean inside me healthy. I cleaned my whole house last week with a face mask and gloves on. That was sort of ridiculous - don't want to take any chances though! I quit drinking coffee this week too. I always have at least 1 cup per day (usually not more unless it's the weekend). I had pretty bad withdrawal for the first couple days. I'm better now, but I was just ridiculously stupid and the headaches were really bad. I'm eating better this week too - LOTS of fruit. Same amount of veggies, but fruit just really has been tasting good lately. I've had some bouts of nausea but they haven't lasted long - usually happens in the morning when I have an empty stomach but once I eat a little something it goes away. Generally I feel normal except I am pretty gassy and my uterus is sort of sore - like I've been doing a lot of reverse crunches.
Now that the beta tests are over, I am sort of feeling uneasy without the reassurance every couple days. But I just have to trust that everything is still okay. That's the only thing I can do. My RE told me that I didn't have to wear my estrogen patches anymore. It was SO nice to be done with those! Really didn't like those - even would go as far to say that they are worse than the daily progesterone shots! Still need to do those shots though. They will probably go on for another couple weeks - possibly until I'm 12 weeks (more likely 8-10 weeks)! That's okay though. Like I said, they don't bother me too much. My hubby has gotten really good at it. Just a slight pinch and that's it - very rarely do I bleed anymore. In the beginning I was bleeding with every shot. Maybe my ass is adjusting or something. It's really funny though how routine it has become for my hubby to stab me with a 2" needle in my ass every night. LOL! It will be good material for inflicting guilt when our kid is a deviant teenager = "but I took 45 shots in the ASS just so that you could be born! So you're going to do such and such...!"
I have another blood test next Tuesday. It is mainly to check my progesterone level but they threw on the beta too just for kicks. It's not required and I don't even know what it should be at 5 weeks 3 days, but we'll see. After the first couple days of pregnancy the doubling rate starts to level off. So I really have no idea what it should be. Really a better indicator at the 5-6 week stage is an ultrasound showing a sac and possibly a flicker of a heartbeat. But my first ultrasound is not until Wednesday March 13th - a little less than 2 weeks away. Ugh, it sounds so far away! 2 weeks ago today was our embryo transfer and that seems like ages ago!
Anyway at the ultrasound they will see what is in there, note the presence of a sac, measure the size, and note any heartbeat that is seen. I will be 6 weeks 4 days at that point so we'll see! I feel like I am in another 2 week wait for sure though - just as intense as the initial 2 week wait between egg retrieval and 1st beta test. If, God forbid, nothing is seen at the ultrasound, it will be determined that I had a "chemical pregnancy" - that is when most miscarriages occur; at the very early stages and is usually caused by either inadequate hormonal support or chromosomal abnormalities in the embryo. There is no way to prevent them - all that can be done is to ensure that high quality embryos are transferred but even then, chemicals still happen. There are estimates that about 50-60% of all pregnancies end in chemical pregnancies (or CP) and that a lot of women mistake them for a late period. But us IVFers are so in tune to everything, we find out at the exact moment that our embryos have implanted and then we watch the entire pregnancy with microscopic detail. Some of us will even rent or buy at-home doppler monitors so we can listen for the heartbeat whenever we want to! So CPs may seem more common with IVF but they occur at no higher rate than regular pregnancies - they are just caught more often with IVF pregnancies. The good news is that once a heartbeat is seen/heard, the pregnancy is classified as a "clinical pregnancy" and risk for miscarriage goes down considerably. If we reach this stage we will not be out of the woods yet though. We will have another ultrasound a week or two after the initial ultrasound to make sure the baby is still growing - but after that and if things are looking good, we have an excellent chance of carrying the baby to term!
So I'm spending the next two weeks trying to stay sane, continuing praying, meditating, and assuming I am pregnant and acting accordingly. Hopefully the wait goes fast and we get good news!
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