Beta on the Rise

I'm going to keep today's post short and sweet. At least I think I am. 

I woke up today and took another pregnancy test even though I knew I was going to be getting my blood drawn a couple hours later.  I took a digital one because I wanted to see if the weeks estimator would change from 1-2 weeks (past ovulation) meaning I was 3-4 weeks pregnant, to 2-3 weeks (past ovulation) meaning I was 4-5 weeks pregnant based on the level of HCG the stick could detect in my stream of urine.  It was so comforting to see this test result:

This afternoon I got a call from our fertility center's nurse with my Beta HCG and Progesterone results.  The results were fantastic and made me ecstatic! A normal rise is HCG would mean that the numbers would double every 48-72 hours.  Ideally...every 48 hours.  So today I was expecting my HCG to be around 272.  Instead, my HCG nearly tripled in 48 hours! It came back at 389!! This makes me over the moon with happiness!

Looking back to my last pregnancy, my HCG struggled to double in the beginning.  I'm not sure if during the entire 8 weeks that I was considered pregnant if it ever actually doubled.  It wasn't until the 6th week of my pregnancy that my HCG reached 330.  I'm only 4 weeks and 2 days today it my level has already surpassed that number and my level nearly tripled! These are very good signs of a healthy baby growing inside of me already.  Of course there is always this little voice in our heads that say don't get too excited too fast.  Even people with healthy rising HCG numbers have miscarriages.  Even babies that survive the first trimester have organ abnormalities.  Even completely healthy full term babies can die during birth.  I hate that we think this way....but we are naive anymore.  We know too much about what can go wrong.  We've seen it happen to ourselves and to our friends and even complete strangers.  But despite what we know can go wrong....I will continue to try to focus on everything that can go right from this point forward! We are really on a good start for this pregnancy and that's what is important in this very moment. 

In other news, my progesterone took a dip from 36.6 last week to 28 today.  It is still within the range they like to see it at so they are not worried about it.  I continue to get two shots of Progesterone every morning, one in each hip.  My hips are nice and bruised but it is all worth it.  And I have not puked my guts out since Wednesday morning.  So far I'm keeping the little bit of food that I am eating down and it's only creating some nausea for the time being.  My doctor immediately called me in a prescription for Zofran when she heard I was vomiting the other day.  I refused to pick it up from the pharmacy for several reasons.  1.) Zofran has been found to be linked to Congenital Heart Defects and I'll be damned if I will take something that could harm our child(ren).  And 2.) I'm not going to take something at the first sign of morning sickness...if that's even what that was. For all I know I could have a virus because I heard on the news that it doesn't matter if you got the flu vaccine this year or not because it does not protect from all the new strains of the flu that are floating around...and I work in a hospital around sick people daily.  Even if this is morning sickness...I'll deal with it.  I've never had it before...and for once I want to experience an actually normal pregnancy! And apparently morning sickness is a normal part of pregnancy...so I'll manage. Right now I'm managing by working on my third pack of saltine crackers in the past three days.  It's about the only think that tastes decent, but that's okay. 

My next HCG and Progesterone check will not be until Wednesday since things are progressing beautifully right now.  So I won't have any more updates on the baby front until then.  Tuesday I get my forth intralipid infusion and next week I will also get my updated immunological blood work completed to make sure my body is not going into an autoimmune attack mode this time around.

Other than me and the growing baby or babies inside of me doing well so far, I have felt sorrowful for my friends who have not had any good news over the past month.  I would like to ask my prayer warrior to say a special prayer for my friends Emily and Mandie who both have had multiple failed IUI's and recently developed ovarian cysts due to medications they had to take for their last IUI cycles, forcing them to take this month off and now causing them to consider doing IVF.  I would also like to ask for prayers for my friends Stephanie and Amber who both transferred two beautifully healthy day 5 blastocyst embryos right before me and whose HCG levels came back extremely low but present, yet never started rising properly so they are now considered to be miscarrying which is just heartbreaking to me to see my friends going through this.  And prayers please for my friend who we will call "R" who has recently had her second miscarriage from her second pregnancy.  I wish no one had to go through these types of heartache and financial burdens that failed infertility treatments and pregnancy loss causes...and especially wish my friends did not have to endure these trials of life.  It makes me feel slightly guilty for being happy for myself because I have been on the other end of the stick and know how hard it is to be happy for friends and family when your hurting inside for yourself.  I pray that we all find peace, happiness, and success along this long, winding journey to become parents. 

So much for short and sweet.  I'm a wordy person and my thoughts ramble out of my head when I start typing...but thanks for reading and praying as always! Have a blessed weekend:)