First Beta Results

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!  I just returned yesterday afternoon from my own travels, which despite the fact that the entire family caught a horrible stomach bug and my husband's suitcase and contents were destroyed on our return flight, was overall a fun time.  That said, I am SOOO glad to be home and finally feeling better.

Sorry I have not posted lately, but with the living out of a suitcase and spending half my time in the bathroom, I didn't have much time, resources, or energy to post.  Here is what has been going on:

On Saturday, 12/22, I decided to take one last pregnancy test just to make sure the line was getting nice and dark and not fading away.  I figured that way, even if I didn't get my beta test results on time, I wouldn't be worrying about whether I was pregnant.  Does that make it sound like I'm an expect the worst, glass half empty type of person?  Well considering that 2 out of 3 of my stat requests so far have not made it until over 24 hours after they were supposed to, I like to be prepared.  Anyway, this is what I got:

Yep, the pregnant line is darker than the control line.  I knew I was very, very pregnant!

On Monday morning, I went to get my blood drawn for my beta hcg (pregnancy hormone) and progesterone (what I have been injecting into my butt and sticking up my hoo ha) levels.  I dragged my sick butt up early on Christmas Eve and got there at 7:45 am since my clinic told me to get there early enough to get the results same day.  I asked the guy as he was drawing my blood what the turnaround time was - 4 hours.  So they should have the results to my clinic by noon.  At 12:30 the clinic called to confirm that I did in fact get my bloodwork done.  They never received results from the lab, and when they called to follow up the lab had closed at noon for the holiday.  So they said that since I had a positive pregnancy test, to just go ahead and continue meds as before and they would follow up this morning.

Who is shocked by this?  No one?  Me neither.  We are now 3/4 on people dropping the ball on my stat med requests.  The fact that we managed to get knocked up with the assistance of the most inept collection of medical and legal professionals on the planet amazes me.  Just goes to show how much my IPs deserve to be parents!  (Just wanted to add a note, I do NOT include the actual IVF doctor in this group - I haven't seen much of him but he has been wonderful and obviously knows what he is doing.)

So this morning rolls around and I wait anxiously for a phone call with my results.  Nothing ever comes.  Finally morning turns into afternoon, and it's my lunch break.  First I call the clinic to find out if they have my results - nope.  Then I call the lab to complain - I'm getting very good at this.  They claim they sent the results out on Monday morning as asked, but agreed to fax them over again right away.  About 20 minutes later, I FINALLY got the call.

Beta #1 results, 12dp5dt:  650!!

That is high.  Really high.  They consider anything over 25 pregnant.  Of course the first thing I did was hop on the surrogacy forum where I am a member, and compare my results to the master beta list comprised of past beta scores of other members to find out if I'm more likely to have one or two little buns baking in there:

12dp5dt
SINGLETON: 46, 58, 72, 89, 97, 104, 113.6, 126, 126, 161, 212, 223, 226, 252, 277.57, 298, 300, 325, 340, 342, 351, 376, 381, 416, 423, 430, 503, 505, 526, 566, 580, 634, 650, 657, 699, 709, 857, 1193, 1257
TWINS: 389, 408, 428, 451, 518.6, 609, 650, 653, 688, 688, 741, 746, 774, 766, 824, 969, 971, 1021, 1045, 1108, 1149, 1155, 1250, 1480, 1507, 1554, 1663, 1709, 1685, 2065, 2408, 2456, 2783, 2976, 3833

As you can see, my number is on the high end for a singleton and on the low end for twins.  So we will just have to wait and see!  My agency rep, IPs, and husband have all predicted twins.  So I'm going to say a singleton just to be different.  Seriously though, I have decided to mentally prepare myself for the idea of twins and be pleasantly surprised if I find out it's only one.

I go back for a second blood test tomorrow.  In a healthy pregnancy, the hcg levels will double at least every 48-72 hours.  Since I will be having my test done about 72 hours after the first one, we are shooting for a number over 1300 - hopefully higher so it's closer to a 48 hour doubling time.  The second beta result can be a better indicator than the first of how many you have.  If it doubles in 48 hours, it's probably a singleton.  If it quadruples, it's probably twins.  So we shall see tomorrow (or perhaps next week...sigh).

Also, just as a note, my progesterone level was 29.  Anything over 10 is considered good, so the injections and suppositories I have been taking are giving me plenty of the hormone for my body to maintain the pregnancy...always a good thing!

Time to Spill the Beans!

It looks like a lot of people have been stopping by my blog in the last couple of days.  I wonder why?  Oh...you guys were hoping to find out whether I was pregnant?

I started testing Sunday.  Just four days after transfer.  Because I am a nut job.  Here is what I got:

Yes, it's negative, technically.  But I swore that if I held it in just the right light at exactly the right angle, I could see the ghost of a shadow of a line.  I made my husband look.  At first he told me I was a nut, it was negative.  Then, I think to get me to stop bothering him, he agreed that he could kind of see a line.

I swear I will never test this early again.  It made me crazy all day long.  Was it an almost line?  Would it be darker tomorrow?  Or did all negative tests look like that?  What if I wasn't pregnant and my crazy mind was giving me false hope?

Monday, I tested again, at 5 days post 5 day transfer (5dp5dt) or the equivalent of 10 days past ovulation (10dpo).  Here is what I got:

Yep, that's right, a positive!  Still faint, but definitely pink and definitely there.  Woo hoo, I couldn't wait to tell my IPs.  I waited until a slightly more reasonable hour and tried calling both of them before I left for work.  No answer - they are late sleepers.  (My IM was aghast at the fact that I have to wake up at 6:00 to leave for work.  Boy are they in for a rude awakening in about 9 months, literally!)  Then once I got to work I tried calling them one more time before I went in, still no answer.  So I left IM a voicemail with the good news.  Never heard back.  Finally at about 11:00 I emailed IF to see if they had gotten my voicemail.  They hadn't even looked at her phone yet!  Needless to say, once I finally was able to give them the news, they were over the moon excited, crying, etc.

I decided I would keep testing every couple of days just to make sure the lines are getting darker and not fading away (signalling an early miscarriage).

Here is what I got this morning:

I am so thrilled for my IPs that after all these years of trying and waiting, we were able to get pregnant on the very first try!  They so deserve it, and they are going to be great parents!  We are keeping our fingers crossed this little one (or ones!) decides to stick around for the next 9 months.