Hello and welcome to what is probably the most exciting blog post in my IVF series!
Chris and I had been through months of infertility testing, injections, ultrasounds, blood draws, procedures and it had all led up to our frozen embryo transfer on August 22nd. If you missed that post, you can read here it HERE.
In the IVF world, you are scheduled for a blood pregnancy test (beta test) at a certain point after your transfer. Ours was scheduled for 9dp5dt or 9 days past 5 day transfer, which fell on August 31, 2018. I felt pretty good the first few days after our transfer. I laid low and relaxed at home. Chris and I went out to lunch and ran a few errands but I mostly just took it easy. The following Monday I went back to work and life resumed as “normal”. I started feeling incredibly anxious the more time went on wondering if our embryo transfer had worked. I had a few pregnancy “symptoms” but the problem is the Progesterone injections I was on mimic pregnancy symptoms. So there is really no way to know if what you’re feeling is the medication, early pregnancy symptoms, or PMS symptoms. Talk about brutal. It was a total mind game.
By the time Tuesday rolled around (6 days after transfer), I was feeling very emotional and super anxious. I told Chris I was getting to the point where I just had to know if the transfer worked. Our original plan was to wait and find out the results at our blood draw on Friday, but I just didn’t know if I could make it. So we agreed that on Wednesday after work, I would take a home pregnancy test.
I got home Wednesday and I was so anxious! I started tearing up before I even took the test because I was so nervous. We had gone through so much to get to that point and I wasn’t sure how I would handle the results. Chris waited in the living room and I went into our bathroom and did my thing. My plan was to leave the test in the bathroom and then Chris and I would go back in together to see the results. Well, a second line started appearing before I walked away. I immediately burst into tears and went into the living room. Chris couldn’t tell if I was crying happy tears or sad tears and I couldn’t seem to get any words out. Eventually I said “I’m pregnant” and we just hugged each other for a long time. I will never forget that moment.
We decided to wait until our blood test before telling anyone so it was our little secret for a few days. I took another pregnancy test the next day which showed the line getting darker and I also took a Clear Blue pregnancy test because I wanted to see the word “Pregnant” for myself.
We were so excited and thankful when my blood work on Friday confirmed I was pregnant!
Finding Out There Were Two
After my blood work confirmed I was pregnant, I had a repeat pregnancy test a few days later to confirm my HCG levels were rising appropriately. Thankfully they were doubling as expected and our fertility clinic scheduled my first ultrasound a few weeks later when I would be 7 weeks pregnant.
At 6 weeks pregnant, I woke up with some spotting and freaked out. I called our doctor and he wanted me to come in for an early ultrasound to check things out. I am so thankful that Chris was off work that day and able to go with me. We were both a nervous wreck. Almost immediately after my doctor started the ultrasound, he found the gestational sac and a small baby in my uterus exactly where it should be. I nervously asked if he could see a heartbeat and he said “yes, there it is” and I breathed a sigh of relief. Our baby was ok! A few seconds later our doctor said “hang on” and turned the screen away from us. I was a little confused because we had just seen the heartbeat so I didn’t know what else he could be looking at that he didn’t want us to see. After a few moments, he turned the screen back toward me and Chris and gave us the shock of a lifetime when he said “There are TWO babies in there.” Um, what?!
If you remember from my frozen embryo transfer post, Chris and I decided to transfer ONE embryo. However, there is a 1% chance of an embryo splitting and forming identical twins. Chris and I knew this and we had to sign some paperwork the day of our transfer acknowledging we were aware this could happen. But to be honest, we really didn’t think anything of it. Those odds are so small. We signed the paperwork and forgot about it. Well… we fell into the 1%! Our embryo split and on September 14th we found out that we are having identical twins!
Chris was immediately excited. He gave our doctor a hug and was grinning from ear to ear. I, on the other hand, was in a state of shock. I wasn’t mentally prepared for the possibility of having two babies and to be honest, I was terrified I couldn’t handle it. But after the news sunk in, I realized that someone up above has more faith in me than I have in myself and I can totally be a twin mom. What an unexpected blessing!
Chris and I called our families later that day and shocked them with the news.
I could share so much more, but I am going to wrap this post up here. I will have some pregnancy posts coming over the next few months, along with the normal content you see from me.
[…] I’m sharing my first pregnancy post, as promised in last week’s blog on the results of our frozen embryo transfer. I’m going to be recapping the first trimester of my twin pregnancy and I plan to do a […]