I'm a bit shocked today...

My beta went up to 490 today! That's a doubling time of 39.78 hours, which is great. We're still not in the clear of course -- still need to get to the ultrasound and actually see a normal pregnancy. But at least we're still in the game, for now. What a roller coaster!

I'm trying very hard not to get too excited about this. The research is pretty sobering for live birth rates with slow rising betas. One of the women on the IVF forums I visit also had similar beta numbers as me, and her ultrasound this morning revealed that the baby wasn't developing. Of course she is devastated.

Update: I will not be getting another beta test. Dr. A. feels we should just wait until the ultrasound in the next couple of weeks. That's fine with me as I obsess far too much over beta numbers and really drive myself crazy. Sometimes I think the woman on the IVF forums who only chose to get a single beta and then wait for ultrasound had it right. In this case, ignorance really is bliss.

Sigh...

Crappy news today. My beta didn't double. It only went up 30ish iu, to 91.9. That's a doubling time of 86.7 hours. A normal, healthy doubling time is 48 - 72 hours. I'm pretty down about it since every time this has happened in the past, it's been a non-viable pregnancy. Sigh.

Confirmed Pregnant!

My first beta came in at 62.4 -- exactly what I calculated it should be if everything was going well so far. My progesterone is 41, which is also great as they like anything over 20.

Second beta will be thursday; cross your fingers it's over 124 by then!

6dp5dt: BFP!

Yesterday I took a home pregnancy test and maybe got a super faint hardly visible line. This morning I took another test, and the line was very clear! It looks like at least one of the embryos has implanted.

I'm not getting excited about it yet since I've seen a BFP 5 times before and am obviously still childless. As we all know, I have no trouble getting pregnant; my challenge is staying pregnant. However, at least now we know that there's definitely a chance for this cycle. Keep your fingers crossed for good results on Tuesday's beta test!

IVF #1, 4dp5dt

It's been 4 days since the transfer. I ended up doing the three days of bedrest due to family pressure. I was bored out of my skull after the first day; I have no idea how women make it through months of bedrest!

I'm back at work today. Luckily it's pretty light right now so it's not adding any stress. Symptom-wise, I'm bloated, a little crampy, and my butt is seriously sore from the PiO shots. Of course, all of my symptoms can be attributed to side effects from the progesterone, so they don't mean anything at this point. Yesterday I took a HPT to see if the HCG trigger shot was out of my system yet. It was a very faint positive, so it looks like there's still a little left. It should be gone in the next day or two.

I have another acupuncture appointment on Saturday. I'm thinking about taking another HPT that morning as it will be slightly possible to get an early positive then. Of course, if it's negative, I'll probably just stress myself out wondering if/when my luck will change...