5w4d pregnant!

I still smile every time I say I'm pregnant!  :)  I think it's finally set in that we are going to have little ones around here in 9 months!  I say little oneS because I'm pretty sure there's more than one... :D  We obviously won't know for sure until the ultrasound on July 9th (I will be 7 wks by then), and even then we still might not know for sure since plenty of people "find" another little one hiding in there during the second ultrasound.  But I'm thinking we have at least 2!  And here's why...

In my free time, I google things about beta results and, from most of the posts on the message boards, the general consensus is that beta numbers vary so much from person to person and pregnancy to pregnancy that you can't really tell anything from them related to multiples.  However, there's this website call Beta Base (betabase.info), that has about 70,000 beta results from successful pregnancies broken down by how many babies (singleton, twins, triplets) and the day of the beta test (days past ovulation).   Now, I'm a "numbers" gal, so once I figured out how this website worked, I thought it was the best thing ever!!  Why waste time going from message board to message board to look up beta numbers, when I can waste time on a website that has already complied thousands of beta numbers!  =P  

After looking around on the website, I discovered a few things about my high beta numbers.  Ok, so my second test was 13dp5dt, which is 18 days past ovulation (dpo).  So first I went to the singleton pregnancies and on 18dpo, 4,085 women with singleton preg reported their beta results for that day.  Out of those women, only 61 had a number of 2200+.  Remember, my number was 2806.  Those 61 women translates into 1.5%.  So only 1.5% of the women who reported their betas on this website had a number as high as mine or higher and still had a singleton.  1.5%..... that's it!

So then I think to myself, okay let's look at the twin numbers.  So at 18dpo, 1,970 women reported their betas for successful twin pregnancies.  Only 113 women had a beta over 2500+.  So that means that 5.7% of women with twin pregnancies had a beta as high as mine or higher.  So even most of the women with twin pregnancies, had a much lower number than me on 18dpo!

Soooo then I look up triplet pregnancies!  Out of 303 reported triplet pregnancies, 89 women had a beta of 2100+ on 18dpo.  That means 29% of women had a beta as high as mine or higher.  So my number is even on the high end of that scale!  The other 71% had a lower number than me on 18dpo with a triplet pregnancy.  

I know that there is no predicting the future... and I am being patient until the day of the ultrasound, but it's still fun to think about!!  :)  

holy moly! 2nd beta results!

sooo, my first beta (10dp5dt) was 583.  just went in today for the second beta (13dp5dt)...you ready... 2806!!!!  2806!!


at this point, i'm really thinking there's more than one in there!!!  you never know, i guess there's a chance we could have just one REALLY strong one (which would be fabulous!), but something tells me there are 2 (at least)!!

omg!  it feels even more real!  i honestly could not be more thrilled!!  i'm just beaming right now!!  actually i've been beaming since tuesday!  lol

so the next step is our first ultrasound on July 9th at 1:30.  we'll know for sure at that point how many little ones are cozied up in there!!  :)

omg omg omg omg!

we got a positive!!!!!  ahhh!!  i'm shocked and still shaking!!  what an amazing day!!  :)

there are still tears in my eyes as i'm writing this.  i'm beyond grateful, words can't express how thankful I am to know that there is a little life growing inside me right now!  after the nurse said "congratulations!", all i could say was "are you serious?".  she laughed and confirmed that she was serious.  lol!  and then all i could say was, "oh my god, oh my god!!"  she asked if andrea was here and I said that she was at work, so I would call her asap.  when i got off the phone, i let out a big "thank you!" for this little miracle of ours!

being able to call andrea and give her good news for once was the best feeling.  we cried, of course!  but for once, they were good tears!  tears of joy!  so much joy!!!  i can't believe this is real!  it feels like a dream!

And get this, my beta number was 583!!!!  583!!!  what a fantastic number!!  for those of you who don't know, 25 means that you are pregnant but even that is a little low.  I was hoping for a number somewhere around 100-ish, just so that I didn't have to worry too much.  BUT 583 is awesome!!!!  so so so so thankful!!  Our next step is a beta on Friday to make sure that the number is rising as it should. We won't know if we have a singleton or possibly multiples until a later date.  A number like 583, even though it's high, doesn't necessarily mean that we have multiples since everyone's levels are different.

In the words of Beyonce, "Nothing's perfect, but it's worth it after fighting through my tears".  This has been quite a journey so far.  And I am beyond thrilled to be moving on to the next step!!

We'll be updating soon!  Until then, if you need to reach us, we'll be on cloud 9!!!!  :)

9dp5dt... beta tomorrow!!

well here we are the day before the beta test!  this time the wait seemed to go much faster than last time, in part because we decided to NOT do the home pregnancy tests.  we thought about it maybe once or twice, but in the end, i'm so glad we decided to not test.  it keeps the hope alive, plus we will know for sure tomorrow if we are pregnant, none of that craziness wondering if it is a false negative.  we've been keeping ourselves busy with the new house, so that definitely helps too.  BUT i'm a little anxious for tomorrow to just be here already!  i'm going to get up early so that i am one of the first people in the door for blood work.

i'll definitely be posting tomorrow when i find out the results!  good or bad, i know we'll be okay... but i really really really want this to be soooo positive!  :)

IVF Round 2!!

Wow!  It’s been forever since we posted last!  So much has happened!  Let’s begin with the retrieval.  So Andrea’s stim meds were amped up this time.  During the ultrasounds leading up to the retrieval, the follicles were bigger than last time and there were slightly more of them (last time, we had 11 and this time we had 13).  This was all good news, but we had expected for there to be much more with using more meds this time.  The retrieval was supposed to be either June 1^st or June 2^nd.  However, based on Andrea’s levels, they pushed it back to June 4^th so that she didn’t hyperstim after doing the HCG shot.  On the retrieval day, they got 13 eggs, only 5 of them were good eggs and all 5 fertilized.  So it was very similar to last time.  Dr. Peters explained to Andrea that at this point, he thinks there is an egg issue.  He said that for someone her age, the last protocol of meds should have been enough to produce more good eggs, and that the amount of meds that were used THIS time definitely should have been enough to produce more.  With that said, he reassured us that the eggs that did make it, were good quality.  So that was good!

Moving ahead to the day of the transfer… we did a day 5 transfer this time.  If you remember, last time we did a day 6 transfer, which is still good, but it’s much better to have a day 5 transfer.  So the transfer happened on Saturday, June 9^th.  We were the only patients in there for the day, so Dr. P, the nurse, and the lab lady were all there basically for us.  When Dr. P called me in the morning, he mentioned that there were 3 good blasts and that the other 2 weren’t really doing much.  So again, this news was very similar to last time.  BUT, I was surprised when he suggested that we transfer 3 this time!!  And Dr. P is pretty conservative!  The 3 that we had were… a perfect grade 1 blast, a grade 1 early blast, and a grade 3 early blast.  He said that it is unlikely that all 3 will stick, but that there was a possibility.  He also said that our chances of having twins would be increased.  Andrea and I considered these things and pretty much agreed without hesitation that we would transfer 3 embryos this time!  We want to make a baby!  If that means that we are blessed with 3 babies at once, I would gladly welcome that challenge!!  How wonderful it would be to have a complete family in an instant!

Our 3 little ones!!  That's right, we transferred 3 this time!

The transfer went smoothly (once my bladder filled up) and then we were on our way!  This time, I was much more relaxed than last time, so that can only help things!  Dr. P came in to talk to us before he left and wished us luck.  He’s such an amazing doctor… just a genuinely caring and nice guy.  The next day, we got a call saying that one more embryo made it to blast and so they would be freezing it.  So now we have a total of 3 frozen embryos.  

So now here we are in a “wait” again.  I’ve been doing a lot of resting.  I actually didn’t do anything the day of the transfer or the following 2 days.  Then I started doing little things around the house.  It was nice just relaxing at first, but I would get a little bored from time to time, just being here by myself watching tv.  So it was good to be able to start doing little things again. 

Our pregnancy test is scheduled for the 19^th, the day after Andrea’s birthday!  I’m refusing to take home pregnancy tests this time because all they do is freak me out and drive me nuts.  I’m also not google-ing anything related to pregnancy symptoms.  In fact, I’m avoiding even talking about “symptoms”.  The reason why… everyone’s “symptoms” are different and what is a symptom of pregnancy for one person is a symptom of not being pregnant for another person.  Also, plenty of people have no symptoms at all and are VERY pregnant… with multiples!  Many people say that this is too early to get any real symptoms.  And let’s not forget that many of the drugs that are used in the IVF process cause you to have the same sort of "symptoms" as being pregnant.  There's just too many variables!!  So for my own sanity, this time, I’m banning myself from google (as far as pregnancy is concerned).  AND I’m not taking home pregnancy tests. 

I even banned Andrea from asking me about “symptoms”.  She can ask how I’m feeling, but that’s about it.  I’m trying to stay as busy and positive as possible.  I think I’m doing pretty well in that area so far.  But we’ll see how I’m doing in a couple days as the pregnancy test is within sight, buuuuttt not quite there yet.  =P

Just one funny side note before I go… check out the license plate on the car that I was behind on my way home yesterday.  Could be a sign of things to come!!