RE Graduate

Today was my last appointment with the RE. My regular RE is out of town this week unfortunately, so I saw one of the other doctors briefly. Everything looks great, it's crazy to see the growth between two weeks ago and today. It's actually starting to look like a baby now!

Heartbeat was 176bpm, and I still haven't heard it yet but I could definitely see the flutter. It'll only be two weeks until the appointment with my new OB. Everything right now is looking really good, which is a relief. It's funny how there really isn't that much time between appointments (2 weeks lately) but it feels like a long time, and I really start to wonder if everything is ok.

I was worried for a while that I wasn't feeling sick, but it seems that it's not that uncommon to feel ok. Of course, the next day I woke up and felt pretty nauseous. I spent all weekend laying in bed and didn't accomplish anything around the house. I plan on laying around very soon again, every day seems to take a lot out of me.

Of course, I couldn't leave the RE without getting slapped with a pretty hefty bill. As far as I know, that's part one of two, but at least I know what to expect. I'm just thankful that my insurance covered something, even if it was a very small portion and very sporadic. It seemed like they'd cover part of an ultrasound, or part of bloodwork and the next EOB for a different DOS wouldn't be covered at all.

I do however have two unopened boxes of Ovidrel in my fridge still, and knowing they supply loaner pens, I forgot to ask if they could be donated for either that purpose or for patients whose insurance doesn't cover them.

First Ultrasound

Had my first ultrasound this morning-- baby is measuring exactly 6w2d (which lines up perfectly with late ovulation date). We didn't get to hear the heartbeat, but we got to see the flicker, and the tech told us it was beating at 118bpm. Such a relief! Here's a picture, though he/she doesn't look like much more than a gummy bear at this point:

It's that tiny little blob, next to the small open circle (yolk sac).

So of course, we are very excited and it's beginning to feel a little more real now. I'm having some trouble finding a new doctor, hopefully that doesn't end up being too hard to do. It's weird when you work at a place with it's own insurance plan, but they just expanded our network after a merger with another hospital. So I have to ask if places participate when I call, but I don't know if everyone I talk to truly knows what I'm talking about. If I don't have any luck soon, I will end up calling my insurance and seeing what they say.

It's my birthday! Also, news.

I've been hiding something from the blogging world for a short while: it worked. That's right, our cycle worked. We've been somewhere between shock and excitement for the past few weeks.

I'm impatient, so of course I ended up testing at 10dpo. It was midday, and I saw the faintest (I mean, squinting-in-the-sunlight) line:

The faint line seemed to get darker past the normal viewing time.

That was Friday night (4/17). I took a FRER on Saturday morning, and there was a much more obvious second line. I hesitated for a while, still not letting myself get excited but also in shock. There's always the possibility of the HCG trigger shot still being in your system, but because of bloating etc. the nurse told us no to take the second trigger-- so it had been 12 days since taking it. From what I've read, it doesn't stay in your system longer than 8-10 days. Still, I tested again Sunday to be sure and called my RE's office on Monday morning, and they had me come in for my first beta on Tuesday. It was 134, and they brought me in every four days after that. Second beta was 873, and third and final beta was 3,767!!

Because I'm paranoid, it was nice to see the line getting darker!

I am done with betas now, and go in for my first ultrasound tomorrow morning. I am so nervous but also excited, I will only be 6w2d then but hoping we will hear a heartbeat. 

While we've announced to our family and a few close friends already, we will be holding off a while-- at least until the end of the first trimester-- to announce to everyone else, and make things "Facebook Official". I hope this ultrasound is reassuring for us!

It's really hard to keep this to ourselves, especially considering we have so many people who have been praying for us through infertility and know what we've been going through. But it's not long to wait, since I'll be out of the first tri by the end of June. All the days seem to be slowly creeping by since we found out, so June might be further than we think!