Since Harvey officially let the cat out of the bag, I can finally share all the details of when everything happened.
I shared about how our frozen embryo transfer went, but I intentionally left out when it happened. While I am trying to give an honest account of this process, I also wanted a little bit of privacy.
That wasn’t just for the blog, though. I was also vague when telling family and friends how long we had to wait until we knew if the transfer worked or not.
The transfer happened on Friday, Aug. 25. The PIO injections, estrace pills, and estrogen patches all started about a week-and-a-half to two weeks prior to the transfer.
You may or may not recall, but we lost our sweet Great Dane on Tuesday, Aug. 29. That was especially tough. We didn’t know yet at that time if we were pregnant, but because I’d had the transfer, I had to act like I was pregnant. That was a night I really could’ve used a glass of wine, and that was the one thing I couldn’t have.
One week after Aurora passed away, I went in for my beta Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) test. This was to measure my baseline HCG levels. (Anything over 50 is considered pregnant.) The following Thursday, I’d go in again for another blood test – this one to ensure the HCG levels were increasing appropriately.
In between Aug. 25 and Sept. 5, I decided to try a little experiment. (Doing some “home science” as my sister called it.)
I should preface this by saying most clinics do not recommend you take home pregnancy tests in between the transfer and your beta HCG test. Part of the reason for this is that the transfer protocol includes a trigger shot of HCG. That can linger in your system and cause a false positive.
One thing I noticed on my IVF support group Facebook page was that women would often test multiple days in a row after the transfer to see if the line got darker.
I was curious about that, so I decided to try something similar. About five days after the transfer, I took my first home test. It was a faint positive. I knew to take this with a grain of salt, as it could simply be residual hormones from my trigger shot.
A couple days later, I took another test. And then a couple days after that, I took another one.
My thinking was that if the line got increasingly darker, it was likely my HCG levels were going up, which would mean I was likely pregnant, and it wasn’t a residual from the shot.
Over those three tests, the line did get gradually darker, but it was still relatively faint. While I thought it was likely I was pregnant, I still didn’t celebrate until we got confirmation from the clinic.
On Sept. 5, we got the news we were pregnant! My HCG level was 195. Hooray!
I had been debating whether I should tell Nick immediately or wait until we did the confirmation test on Thursday. When the nurse said, “Congratulations, you’re pregnant!” I knew I had to tell him that day.
He’s currently working on third shift, and I was off work that day, so I had to wait for him to wake up before I could share the news. Luckily, I was ready.
Back in the summer of 2020, I ordered T-shirts to surprise him with a pregnancy announcement. Looking back now, I realize how incredibly optimistic and naive that was of me, but it sure came in handy in September.
Nick’s T-shirt says “Ready Player One” with a joystick on it. Mine says “Ready Player Two” and “Player Three Loading…” But rather than tell you how I surprised him, how about I show you?
Disclaimer: In his excitement, Nick did say a couple of *choice* words, but after all we’ve been through, can you blame the guy?
A couple days later, it was time for the confirmation test. Once again, it was good news. My HCG level had increased to 540! They typically like to see it double or nearly double to confirm the pregnancy is moving in the right direction.
After our pregnancy was confirmed, we learned we were at 4.5 weeks, and that my week changes would occur on Monday. Up until I was about 11.5-12 weeks pregnant, I would continue with all the medications.
At 6 weeks, we had our first ultrasound. I will say, it feels a bit weird to learn you’re pregnant and then not have anything happen for a few weeks. I may have taken one or two more home pregnancy tests in this time… just to reassure myself.
We’ll pick up next week with that first ultrasound. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!
IVF That 