Other women have told me that the anxiety over one’s pregnancy doesn’t really go away until the baby is actually in one’s arms. So far, that has proven true, but at least it does lessen a bit.
My RE’s office is perfectly happy with my hcg numbers so far:
- 6dp5dt: 26
- 8dp5dt: 81 (doubling time: 29 hrs)
- 10dp5dt: 134 (doubling time: 66 hrs, but I hit the 1.6 mark: see below)
- 13dp5dt: 513 (doubling time: 37 hrs)
If you’re going through something similar, and you’re a search engine freak like me, you can check your hcg doubling time here. To note, my RE told me that they like to see hcg go up by 1.6 every 48 hours; that’s the textbook increase. When asked, he said that the “double every 48 hours” thing came from OB/GYNs and patients just rounding up to 2 from 1.6. So if you’re numbers don’t double exactly, but they hit the 1.6 mark (like mine did from 8-10dpt), you’re still in the green. The nurse at my RE’s office offered to give me one more blood test for hcg; I had to decline with a hard “noooooo” in order to keep my anxiety in check. Let me rest in a happy place for a little bit.
Progesterone in my blood is on the lower end (8 – 9), but that is to be expected – and is normal – since I’m on Crinone (Crinone delivers progesterone right to the source – the uterus – instead of traveling through the blood). Estrogen has been a consistent >200, which is good. Fun fact to note: my nurse told me that with donor cycles, once the ovaries detect hcg, they kind of “wake up” and start creating a corpus luteal cyst that will create progesterone until the placenta takes over. Normally, a corpus luteum is left after ovulation, but since donor recipients don’t ovulate, we get a late bloomer. How flippin’ cool is that?!?!
The next step now is an ultrasound at 8 weeks to get a look at my little guy or gal (I’m convinced it’s a gal). For now, I’ve emailed Eva with my numbers to confirm pregnancy; I’ll email her again when a heartbeat is confirmed, as they use this information in their stats reporting on DE IVF. They’ve also emailed me with a freeze report; after I left, they were able to freeze 1 x grade 1 hatching blast and 3 x grade 2 hatching blasts. We have FOUR frosty embabies! As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m SO glad we went with PICSI instead of ICSI this cycle.
So…I’ve made it past the first few brackets (a good friend likened the first trimester to a Final Four-style bracket. LOL. It fits…don’t focus too much on what’s in the future; focus on the step/game immediately in front of you. When you win that one, celebrate! Then move on to the next.), and I just want to celebrate this victory! 🙂
journeyforourbaby 