3rd Beta

My nurse took a long time to phone with my beta. I think it is because my numbers are rising even slower. :(  HCG only increased by 48% to 2842. The range is between 72-96 hours. SInce mine is  doubling after 83 hours, I am on the low end of that range. She said not to lose hope because my numbers started out high. I know if that was the OB I had last year she would have said this is not looking like a viable pregnancy. The nurse said that we would find out more on sonogram next Friday.  I appreciate her being encouraging. I asked for another beta because a week is a long time to wait! So Monday I have one final beta. Strangely enough I don't feel scared or upset. Maybe my body knows everything will be ok? Intuition? I hope! The crawling has resumed in my ankle and gives me a bit of reassurance. Like Eric said maybe I just needed some acupuncture to get the circulation going again.

I had acupuncture this morning. It is supposed to help with reducing NK killer cells. I am still praying for a miracle.

2nd Beta

My 2nd beta  Wednesday 11^th was 1923. The nurse said it was rising nicely. When I asked "Shouldn’t it have doubled?" She said no, they are looking for a 60 % rise and mine rose by 69 %. I think that they prefer it to double every 48 hours but the nurses there are so encouraging. I had some period-like cramping which worried me because I have not had any fluttering or stretching at all so this does not seem good.

I have to have another beta on Friday 13^th. So much for my nurse saying I wouldn’t have to have as many betas if I waited a week after I got my first positive.  With the pregnancy I had last May/June the OB only made me have 2 betas. I remember her saying that all was well because the numbers were doubling every 48 hours.

I requested the 3rd myself because I was being cautious. Trying to think positive... at least it went UP and not down. 

The online hcg calculator says:

Under 1200 mIU/ml they look for doubling of 31-72 hours.
Then between 1200 to 6000 mIU/ml 72-96 hours. 
Mine is doubling after 63 hours so I am still in range.

I wish I had insisted to have my first beta last week. Then I would have at least known if it was doubling early on.. Seems that after 1200 they do not always double. I would not have had to wait 2 days waiting and wondering..The graph shows that my first beta was even higher than "maximum" so I can't help but think maybe our embryo split in 2 and only one implanted properly? Vanishing twin. I know it is common when 2 embryos are transferred. The chance of one embryo splitting are slim but still possible with a FET.

Neither Eric nor I got much sleep last night! I woke up at 2 am and was very hormonal and emotional. 

I didn't feel pregnant anymore because the crawling I get in my ankle every pregnancy has stopped. :(

I have a 7:30 am appoint for bloodwork again tomorrow and then acupuncture. Eric's shoulder is still hurting so we will both go for acupuncture afterwards.

1st Beta

My 1st Beta is 1137!  My nurse's exact words "You have a very pregnant beta of 1137!!"
This is my first successful IVF cycle! (After 3 BFN's in 2011, 2012 and a chemical pregnancy in February this year) Praise Jesus!  Last May at this stage of my natural pregnancy I had a beta of 244 so I am producing alot more HCG with this pregnancy. Here is my HPT from June 7th (11dp5dt) The test line is even darker than the control :)  Maybe IVF pregnancies implant sooner than spontaneous ones? Anyway, my due date is 11th February! Two days before Eric's birthday! Second beta is on the 11th June :)

9 days past a 5 day transfer

I am 4 weeks today! The test line is just as dark as control line on hpt.Praise Jesus! I am going to acupuncture tomorrow to help relax me. I still have 4 days to go till my beta June 9th. I bought some cheap dollar store tests just in case I feel compelled to poas! lol

BFP!

Isn't it amazing that even when you've yet to have a viable pregnancy...when all of your pregnancies have ended in miscarriage...those two lines send your head and heart right off 

Isn't it amazing that even when you've yet to have a viable pregnancy...When all of your pregnancies have ended in miscarriage...Those two pink lines start your heart pitter pattering and your tummy feeling like butterflies are fluttering around in there! I am 6dp5dt.  I would not even call this a quinter. The line is definately there! I still have a whole week to wait for my beta!

Eric's does not like Mondays. Who does? So I thought if only I got a positive today, it would help start his week off on the right foot...And I did :) I usually hold off longer to test but I had some strong implantation cramps two days ago so I thought why not? lol

Thank-you Lord! Please protect our baby from those evil cytokines and Antinuclear Antibodies in my body. It is all in your hands now!

Frozen embryo transfer -27th May

Tuesday the 27th May was my Embryo transfer. I had to cancel my acupuncture appointment because they scheduled me for 11:30 and it over a 2 hour drive to get there. However I could have gone to acupuncture because they bumped 2 people ahead of me. I had a full bladder from 10-12:15. Not fun. I think the 2 people they transferred before me had emergency transfers. That happened to me in 2012. They bumped me ahead of someone else . My transfer was suppose to be in the afternoon that time and they said I needed to come right away at 8am. Anyway I did not pee on the doctor so all is good! :)

My RE has agreed to let me take prednisolone and aspirin, for elevated antinuclear antibodies. I also have elevated Natural killer cells, which I asked by last OB to order from by Reprosource. but he would not order the test for me or interpret the results. It clearly said on the lab results HIGH next to NK cells.  So I haven't been able to get a prescription for intralipids. This seems to be the magic ingreidient for most ladies with cytokines who's blogs I have been follwoing :( Hopefully the prednisolone and baby aspirin therapy will be enough to keep those ANA and cytokines under control! I also take extra strength Krill oil which has Phospholipids. Praying for our rainbow baby! Eric has been calling our embryo "George" from the time he saw the embryo photo. He said he felt it would be good to give the baby a temporary name instead of referring to him /her as the embryo. He is so cute. George was his paternal grandfather. It's also his middle name. He joked that if it's a boy we can nickname him Boy George LOL (He knows I loved Culture club when I was a teen). If it's a girl, maybe Georgia? lol

Giving IVF another try

02/05/2014

Embryo retrieval day!! Huge ice storm so Eric and I drove up the night before. Good thing we drove up there the night before.. half an inch of ice and Chesterbrook was hit especially hard. No power. Our hotel room was one of those fantasy rooms. Which was all the Radisson had available. There was a jacussi near the bed, mirrors on the ceiling above the bed and on the walls! Lol Eric thought it was tacky. I couldn’t stop giggling. I could see he was didn’t like it and I wanted him to be comfortable so I asked to be changed to standard room. I told him I had visions of chains and whips . Who knows what goes on in those fantasy rooms.hehe. We couldnt use the jacussi anyway..Not good for Eric’s swimmers. We also did not like that it had NO windows. Weird! LOL

The bathroom was nicer and bigger in the standard and was the same price. Our room had 2 queen sized beds in it so we just slept in the one BED. Eric liked it because it was a sleep number bed. That night he had a dream about Paula. I asked what she said. He got a little teary eyed when he said that he asked her if she was here and she replied “Yes I am”. So her spirit is watching over our embryos in PA. J

My brother in law's girlfriend phoned and she said there is no power as of this morning so we made our way back home to turn the generator home so we could save our fish aquariums. They need to be kept at 84 F especially the babies. I Have been busy trying to get the temperature of the fish tank back up to 84.

02/06/2014

Day 1- We got 7 mature eggs. The other 3 were not mature. 30 eggs split between us and 2 other couples. That is pretty darn good! The best news is that All 7 Eggs were fertilized!! We are so ecstatic! Eric’s sperm did awesome!

Thank God for the generator or all our fish would have died! They are all ok even the 2 week old fry. I did huge water changes in all tanks since they had no filtration for several hours till we arrived home.

02/07/2014

Day 2- Six 4-cell, one 5-cell. In the past we have never gone past day 3 but these ones are looking wonderful and I am hopeful. My nurse seemed confident I will have a day 5 transfer and booked the ET for Monday at 1:20 pm. We were without power till tonight. Had the generator running for 2 days.

02/07/2014

Day 3- Seven 8 cell embryos):)) !! woohoo! That is exactly where they should be. Thank-you Lord!

Angelfish spawned again!! Third time in 5 weeks! That has to be a god sign! I believe that fish not only bring good luck but all this egg laying must be a sign of fertility in our home :)

02/10/2014

Embryo transfer day!!Day 5- Day started pretty early with Eric receiving phone calls at 2:30 and 4:30 am!! Not fair since he was on call all last week. Found out they forgot to switch lines for the on-call guy. Poor Eric hardly got any sleep and I didn’t either. 2 ½ drive to drive to PA again.  On our way there RE phoned and said our embryos were excellent!!:

1 Early Blastocyst

2 Full Blastocysts

3 Expanded Blastocysts

1 (Grade AA)-Hatching Blastocyst – this is the one they transferred J

I asked the clinic if it we could give our donor an anonymous gift. I had a bracelet made from beautiful stones for her. I wrapped it in a red and white box and gift bag for Valentine's day with a note that said "We appreciate you so much!!" I hope she likes it. :)

We ate lunch at Pei Wei Asian diner. I had some hot food. Spicy shrimp J

Here is our perfect Grade AA embryo and God willing, yfuture baby:

02/13/2014

We are having a huge snowstorm for Eric's birthday so pretty much snowed in and Eric has all this snow to shovel. Poor guy. We have 5 frosties. The 6th that didn't make it to freezing was probably the early blastocyst that was a bit slower than the others.

02/15/2014

We got 2 feet of snow. So tired of winter! 5 dp5dt- did a frer hpt and saw a very faint line but Eric said it's just a waterline. Probably too early..I will hold off for 3 days if I can.

02/18/2014

BFP!! Light second line on an early Answer hpt! Hoping this is our rainbow baby but not letting myself get too excited yet...

02/21/2014

I've been getting BFP's every day but line isn't getting darker :( Digital said "PREGNANT 1-2 weeks" but it should be saying 2-3 weeks since. I am 4 weeks 2 days today. I read some posts that the weeks estimator is not always accurate so trying to stay calm, but can't help worrying...

02/23/2014

BFN...Rainbow has slipped away again :( 

02/24/2014

Beta is 3 and since less than 5. means Negative.I had what the doctor called a chemical pregnancy. :( This is my 4th loss in 4 years :(  I had a long discussion with my fertility doctor. I asked him if he would consider intralipids. He said their practice didn't do it but he would ask the other doctors. Of course they said NO. He said FET should be better. I still believe my immune system is attacking the embryos. I will ask my kind OB from last year if she will order the NK test for me from a lab called Reprosource in MA.