flicker

U/s today, at 6w4d. C went with me this time, as for once it didn't conflict with working. He was a little uncomfortable with the concept of the internal u/s, but seemed to get over it pretty quickly when the tech spun the screen around to show us the heartbeat. Our little one is measuring at exactly 6 weeks, a little beind but at this stage, even the teeniest mismeasurement can account for that. And Charlotte measured behind at the first u/s, but had caught up by the second one, so we're not concerned. The heartrate was a steady 115-120 bpm (the tech told us 115, then the nurse in our follow-up conversation said it was 120). There appeared to have been a second sac, but it was empty at this point, and impossible to tell if it had ever had anything viable in it.

Our next u/s is on 7/7, along with a final meeting with the RE who will "release" me to an OB. From then on, we'll be just another normal pregnant family. Hurray!

doubling well

For some reason, I can't cut and paste or save and insert the hCG graph from babymed.com/tools/hcg-calculator, but Friday (15DPO) was 174 and Monday was 534. That's doubling every 44.5 hours and right on the "max" (for singletons) line. So far, so good. I'm sleepy all the time now, and my waist has already nearly disappeared. I think I've gained a pound or so, but it's hard to tell since "normal" kind of disappeared as soon as I started lupron.

My first OB ultrasound is scheduled for 6/17, but my babysitters (my parents) just informed me yesterday that they'll be out of town that day. I need to reschedule or find someone else to watch Charlotte for a 7AM appointment. Maybe her old daycare isn't full that early on a Friday. I don't want to delay the u/s. I'm eager to see that everything is as it should be.

news

BFP !

11DP2DT- early-response test turned definitively positive 15 seconds after I put the cap on it. Can't post more now- juggling squirmy baby with other hand, but had to tell SOMEONE.

Ecstatic.

nothing new on HPT #2

Another negative this morning, but I noticed that last night's test had a second line on it... 12 hours post-use. I know. I know... after 10 minutes, the stick is meaningless. And this morning's was still completely negative 15 hours after use. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm not giving up hope just yet. It is, after all, still early.

have stick, will pee

No matter how well I know that it's just too too early for a +HPT, I could not resist that one leftover pee-stick that's been sitting in my linen closet for nearly two years. Of course, it was negative. It also expired nearly a year ago. My first +HPT for Charlotte came 9DP3DT, so my initial plan was to wait until Tuesday to test, at 10DP2DT. But I've been feeling *something* for a few days now- a sort of tugging tightness that washes horizontally from just inside my hipbone to the middle of my belly when I sit up abruptly. It's the same sensation I felt while testing out rocking chairs at BRU in late 2009, but not quite as intense. I was actually dreading a + today, believing one this early would surely indicate multiples. I want ONE. I'll take more if that's what happens, of course. But with all the potential complications, I'm hoping for a single healthy embie to have taken root.

I'll probably buy some more HPTs tomorrow, a multi-pack so I can test daily until it's too late to deny the results. Definitely Monday, if not tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've lost 8 pounds since ER, most of that in just the four days immediately following retrieval. All fluid, I'm sure. I'm still quite bloated, but suspect that's just the enlarged ovaries which will take a while to return to normal. I'd gained about 10 pounds since starting lupron, so weight-wise things are going well.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone.

all in

At yesterday's ET, I received a more detailed explanation of our fert report. Of the 28 eggs retrieved, 21 were immature. Of the 7 mature eggs, 4 fertilized and grew well. Not a bad fertilization percentage, but it appears we should either have waited another day before the trigger or given my body a few more hours between trigger and retrieval. The doctor who did the transfer was more in favor of increasing the trigger-retrieval interval, which kind of scares me... if it's off by even the smallest margin, the whole cycle could be destroyed by ovulation. I read in someone else's blog about an embryology lab that tries to mature eggs in vitro. I should have asked her about that, and I'll certainly do some online research if we should need another cycle. In any case, as I said to her yesterday, it's all moot because this cycle IS going to work.

Our four mature, fertilized embies looked great. We had one 4-cell with no fragmentation, two 4-cell embies with minimal fragmentation, and a 2-cell with minimal fragmentation. Assisted hatching was done to all four of them to promote implantation. Now we wait. Beta is schedule for June 3rd, but I'll POAS on 5/31, at 10DP2DT. I got my +HPT 9DP3DT, so that shouldn't be too early. Here goes the TWW!

fert report

I'm feeling deflated today. On the plus side, the bloating is down. I'm more comfortable than I have been in a few days, although I still don't need a belt to keep my "fat" pants up. Age seems to have caught up with me, though, as only 4 of my 28 eggs fertilized. I'm scheduled for the 2-day transfer, not the 3-day which would have meant an abundance of fertilized and growing embies to choose from. Everything that's left by tomorow afternoon will be transferred. The platitudes are flying... "It only takes one."

To further mess things up, the medrol was left out of my pharmacy order, so I didn't get to start taking it last night like I was supposed to. It wasn't on the packing slip, so I didn't realize it was missing until late last night when I sat down to take all the post-ER meds. There was nothing anyone could do about it until this morning, and by the time I had it I was told it was too late to "double-up" today's dose by taking one in the AM and another tonight. With only 4 (or fewer) to transfer, and the transfer a day earlier than I expected, I'm seriously concerned that this will lower my chances even more.

But, we have 4, for now. Barring a phone call telling me they all died, I have at least a little hope to cling to. Damn, this is hard.