I first found out I was pregnant on April 24th which was 14 days past IUI. I had blood work scheduled for the following morning, however, I had started to really feel pregnant. Couldn't keep my eyes open and my boobs were incredibly sore, so I decided to take an at home test the day prior. And almost immediately, "PREGNANT" popped up on the screen. Casey was still asleep so I went and got back in bed and woke him up and showed him the test. Such an awesome moment!
I woke up bright and early the next morning and went to the lab to get my blood work done. And let me just say, this lab sucks. I will go ahead and make that statement because I have to go to this certain lab so much in the first couple of weeks. They either couldn't get my vein on the first try, would stick a vein and it would "stop" in the middle of the blood draw, or would get it the first time. I only needed one vial of blood, and was normally stuck on average between 2-3 times. Even though I knew I was technically pregnant, I was a nervous wreck all day waiting to hear the results. I would have been 4 weeks 1 day pregnant at the blood draw. On my first pregnancy, I didn't have blood work done until week 8. I got a call that afternoon and as the nurse stated my results "looked great". My HCG level was at 799 and my progesterone was at 35. She said they wanted HCG to be anywhere between 50-100 and progesterone anywhere over 10. YALL! I am not going to lie! I freaked out. I asked her if they seemed abnormally high, and she said oh yeah, they are on the higher side. So I did what any normal person would do.....I googled "HCG levels in twins at 4 weeks". MISTAKE! BIG BIG MISTAKE. Most women stated theirs was around 300 or 400 with their first blood draw. I found a few women with triplets that stated their numbers were in the 700's. Of course I called Casey right away and told him my numbers looked good but we needed to prepare ourselves for triplets. Slightttttttttttt overreaction! Ha! I was to go back in two days to make sure my numbers were doubling.
I got up early the morning of the 27th and went in for another blood draw. I anxiously waited all day for the nurse to call me with my results. When she did she said that they definitely doubled. My HCG was now at a 2,118 and my progesterone was at a 53. WOAH! They almost tripled. I was to go back a week later for one last blood draw. The following Wednesday (May 4th) I went in for my final blood draw. HCG came back at 15,569 and progesterone was at 41. The nurse said everything was looking great and I was officially done with my confirmation blood draws. My first ultrasound was set up for the following Monday.
I was a nervous wreck that whole weekend. I had no idea how many babies I was carrying. And I would be 6 weeks and 1 day at my first ultrasound and I knew we may not be able to hear the heartbeat yet. My ultrasound was at 11 the morning of May 9th. I met Casey at the doctors office and luckily we were called back right away. And much to our surprise I was carrying just ONE healthy little baby. We were able to hear the heartbeat as well which is the best sound. At 6 weeks, they wanted the heartbeat between 70-90bpm, and our little bean was coming in at 117. Such a huge relief. Next ultrasound was in 2 weeks.
We went back on May 23rd for our 2nd ultrasound and I was 8 weeks 1 day. We could see so much more on this ultrasound. The baby was moving around and you could see the heart fluttering. The heartbeat was 172, which is completely normal and strong. They want the heart rate between 120-180. She did tell me at this ultrasound that I am measuring about 5 days ahead, however, they know exactly how far along I am since I did IUI. Dr. Burger had told me that I had officially graduated from the fertility clinic and that she was going to go ahead and release me to my regular OBGYN. This made me so nervous. She helped calm my nerves by saying that based upon the heartbeat and size of our baby, my chances of miscarriage at this point are now less than 5%.
I had my first appointment with my OB on June 1st. My doctor was actually out of the office with a sick child so we were only able to see the nurse. I was pretty bummed about this but it all worked out fine. Since my pregnancy had previously been confirmed by the fertility doctor, they didn't do another ultrasound. They used the doppler to find the heartbeat and found it right away. It was still in the 170's so that was a great sign. She said normally they are not able to find the heartbeat via doppler at 9 weeks. I had to answer about a million questions about family history and get a blood draw. Casey and I decided to go ahead and get the genetic testing done, to ensure that the baby doesn't have any genetic abnormalities (down syndrome). We got the results back and everything looks great. We are going to wait to find out the gender of the baby until it is born. If we would have wanted to find out, we could have found out with this blood test. We have one healthy little baby in there.
On June 15th, I went in for what they call an NT (nuchal translucency)ultrasound. This ultrasound looks at the fluid around the baby's neck (another indication of down syndrome). Also, at this stage, the fetus actually looks more like a baby. So exciting!!! The little nugget was asleep when we got there so she had to poke at my belly to get it to wake up. Then it was moving all around. Kicking and waving its arms. It was the most amazing thing. The heartbeat was at 156 and everything looked great.
I am now officially 12 weeks and my due date is January 1st, 2017, so we will be ringing in the new year a little differently this year. Casey and I are so excited for this journey. And we are so very thankful. We are one of the lucky ones that got pregnant with our first fertility treatment. We are one of the lucky ones in that we have a very healthy baby. And we are one of the lucky ones in that God trusted us to be this little angels parents.
