Hi friends! This post has been very delayed because a lot has been going on. I want to rewind my story a bit to give you a much-deserved update!
A little backstory – it took 2 transfers to get our first baby – our wonderful daughter. If you’ve been following along, you know that we started IVF again for baby #2 in hopes of using our last remaining embryo(s) – we had 2! Unfortunately, our first transfer failed, leaving us transferring our very last embryo. Because of that, and for lack of better words – putting all our eggs in one basket – I found it a bit more difficult to write about this time around. I was nervous, and cautiously optimistic given the results from baby #1.
I’ll be honest, I prayed about this a lot, because I felt very anxious after our first transfer this time around, and overall did not have a great feeling. In retrospect, I think it was just a gut feeling. I listened to a lot of worship music, and tried to turn my thoughts around into more positive ones, but nothing worked. I hesitate to share this, because I don’t want anyone else going through IVF to think any anxious thought = a negative outcome, this is just from my own personal experience and because I’ve been pregnant before.
I knew with this being our last embryo, and thus our least favorably graded one, a 4bc (we did not have our embryos genetically tested), I would be an anxious wreck!
Well, my prayers worked, because throughout my entire two week wait, I had a sense of calmness over me, and very rarely felt moments of anxiety. I was about 4 days post transfer when we were headed to meet my in-laws for an outing, and I had the opposite gut feeling – I knew I was pregnant. All the sudden my body felt a little odd, and a switch flipped in my brain, and I just knew the transfer worked! Of course, I didn’t mention this to my husband, but just continued to go about my business. So, perhaps the fact that it worked was why I didn’t feel anxious.
Our HCG draw was on a Friday. We had decided this time around (for baby #2, so this transfer and the last one) to take a home test before going in for the labs. We never cheated the first go around – our 2 transfers for baby #1 – but this time around decided our hearts just couldn’t take hearing the news on the phone for the first time. So, we tested at home to prepare ourselves. Obviously last transfer we got a negative test. This time around, I got nervous just as I was about to take the test, but I was pleasantly surprised (but not entirely shocked) when it was positive!!
We got the call later that afternoon confirming that our bloodwork came back positive and congratulating us on our pregnancy! However, my levels were 40 and the clinic likes them to be at 50, so I had to go back Monday to make sure they doubled. Of course, being the IVF mama I am, this made me a little nervous, so I continued to test through the weekend to see a good line progression!
I was happy with what I saw, and because I did a bunch of googling during this time, I’ll go ahead and share my numbers here too! On Monday our HCG was 210, and we had another follow up 2 days later on Wednesday – 711!
And another beautiful positive test, for a souvenir!
ps. If IVF is part of your story too, I made a printable affirmation journal that might bring a little peace to your journey. You can find it on Etsy here.