IVF: Pregnancy Test

I called Katie on Tuesday to find out when I was supposed to go in for the pregnancy blood test. I had been told two different things by two different people - either Thursday or Friday. Of course I was hoping for a day earlier, but she told me it was Friday. Bummer. As if each day wasn't excruciatingly long already. Then she asked if I had taken a home pregnancy test. I said, "No. Can I?" She said that some people just get anxious and take one early. I asked her when I would be able to get good results. She said, "The closer to the blood test, the better. You could take it today or tomorrow." I had always thought that the blood test was an early pregnancy test, but really, it's just right around four weeks. So if an at-home test was able to do early detection, you could find out before then. However, taking an at-home pregnancy test early is not always reliable, and could easily make me feel more anxious if for some reason I got a false negative. I decided to mull it over for a while. During the previous few days, I had been feeling as though I was on the verge of starting my menstrual cycle. Bridget told me that could be a sign of pregnancy and that those feelings can be similar to pregnancy. I also had no recollection of how I had felt before when getting pregnant with Owen. However, after thinking about it all day, I decided to run to the dollar store and pick up a test (or two...just in case) so I could take the test the next day.

That night I was pretty restless and had two different dreams where I took the test and had positive results. As soon as Owen woke up, I took the test. I went into it with an open mind that even if it was negative, it could be wrong. (And knowing that if it was, I would still probably be devastated). I put it on the counter to wait the two minutes and went to get Owen. I said, "Do you want to go see if you're going to have a little brother or sister?" We walked into the bathroom and this is what I saw:
IT'S POSITIVE! I'M PREGNANT!Owen looks super excited, right? ;)

I went to the bedroom where Miles was half asleep and handed him the stick. He stared at it and blinked a few times and said, "My eyes are too blurry, what does it say?" I told him it was positive. Obviously, we were are so excited! :D We decided to celebrate with some delicious German pancakes.
Soon after, I told our parents and my siblings. When I called my sisters it was hilarious. One of them immediately started crying and the other screamed really loud in my ear. I told them that they reacted more emotionally than I did! I guess I know where to go when I want some positive encouragement. :) I also called Katie to tell her the results and ask her if there was any chance of the trigger shot being detected as a false pregnancy. She said that it should be out of my system for sure by now. She was also really excited for me, but told me to go in on Friday for the blood test just to confirm the results.

Later that day Kerry, Owen and I flew out to CA for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party. (More on that to come). On Friday morning I went in early to a lab to have the blood work done. I do have to say, since the at-home pregnancy test was positive, my nerves had calmed down significantly. It was kind of nice not feeling super anxious all day waiting for the call from Katie. However, I still was excited when I saw her number on my phone. She said, "Are you ready for some good news?...You are definitely pregnant!" She said they look for HCG numbers of 100 or greater and I was at 365. I asked if that could mean twins. She said, "We usually tell people if it's 500 or higher then there's a chance for twins." I said, "So it's probably just one." She said, "You never know, but probably." YAY! I really am pregnant! It was great to hear that I had good strong hormone levels.

Now we just have to wait for our ultrasound. We go in on the 17th (our 5th anniversary). I was kind of bummed cause I thought we could go in earlier, but Katie said that we probably wouldn't be able to hear the heartbeat if we came in earlier. Of course I'd rather get that confirmation, so I'm willing to wait the extra five days. So far I've only had some mild pregnancy symptoms - frequent and urgent urination (ugh) and breast tenderness. But I will take every sign and symptom that reminds me I have a baby growing inside of me!

I was looking up some information about how far along I am. At first I entered it wrong so it showed at 3 1/2 weeks. It talked about the different layers and cells. Then just 3-7 days later, it looks like a tadpole. And in two weeks, we can hear a heartbeat. It is so incredible! Life really does begin at conception.

Anyway...I'd just like to thank everyone for coming along with us on our IVF journey. The love and support has been so important to us and we've felt it all along. We are so happy that we've conquered the first hurdle by getting pregnant and hope that it sticks and we have a healthy baby in the end. And of course, there will be another update in two weeks when we have our ultrasound.