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Have i mentioned i love my GYN? I wish he still delivered. I'll see him for my first ultrasound and then will move on to an OB. He has his own practice so i only see him and he has 2 main nurses that are there every day. Angie is the one that has been so sweet because she knows how nervous i am. She looked up my lab results and called me first thing this morning. So to recap:
9DPO hCG= 73
11DPO hCG=225
So far my levels are doubling every 31 hours or 1.3 days, and it needed to double about every 48 hours. My doctor says this looks like a good pregnancy and i tentatively have an ultrasound scheduled for Feb 3rd. I don't know if i can wait that long! I'm going back for one more hCG test sometime next week, but mainly because i asked if i could.
So even though i'm only 13 days past conception i'm already in my 3rd-4th week of pregnancy. The doctors go by last menstrual period (LMP), which puts me at 4weeks+4days. I know i ovulated late, however, so my *corrected* date is 3w6d. I've noticed a lot more symptoms the past few days and the cramps are driving me nuts. They can be pretty intense sometimes, which worries me, but so far no spotting so i'm trying to remain calm. My boobs feel like they're going to fall off. But most importantly, i'm still worried something will happen. So this is my new dilemma: Do the ultrasound in a *month* when i'll be at least 7-8 weeks along and a heartbeat should be a sure thing, OR do it a week earlier but it may be too early for a heartbeat. Angie recommends the 7-8 week ultrasound so that i don't get freaked out if i do it too early and can't see the heartbeat. However, at the moment my fears are things like ectopic pregnancy. So if i did it a week earlier i could at least see that the baby is where it should be, and still probably hear a heartbeat. What do y'all think? Unfortunately the internet is evil and filled with all the things that could possibly go wrong and that's what i have running through my head. I hate worrying! Why is it i wanted to get pregnant again?
So much new information! I got the results of my blood tests:
Progesterone= 121.5 (normal= 9-47)
HCG= 73 (normal is relative, but needs to be at least >25)
At first i was obsessed with why my progesterone level is so high. I spent *hours* looking at anything and everything online. Twins (please no!), Ectopic, Molar pregnancy. It could mean a number of things, or it may just be my normal, or it may go down to "normal." However, when i talked to my doctor today he seemed completely unconcerened with it. It's high enough to sustain a pregnancy, so he's not going to repeat the test.
My HCG, however, is pretty low. Yes it's above 25, but most would be 150-250 on first check. This could be because i tested so early (this blood was drawn the same day i got the VERY faint line on the pee test/HPT) or it could mean that it's not going to stick. The only way to tell is to see if the number doubles every 2-3 days. So today i went for my second blood test and should get the results tomorrow. Let's hope for at least 150+!!
Ok so that's the scientific stuff. Here's my craziness input.
Reasons I'm Hopeful:
1) Positive line is noticeably darker
2) No spotting
3) Good progesterone test 4) Sore boobs and a tiny bit of nausea
Reasons I'm Scared:
1) Day 11 line is lighter/same as Day 10
2) Cramps
3) Temps down & low HCG4) I'm not to the day when it would be a "missed period" yet
I followed Jenny's advice. I went to Dollar Tree and bought seven (yes, seven) pregnancy tests. They must have thought i was nuts, but i can't believe they're only $1! I came home and took one immediately to compare to this morning's test and the doctor's test from Monday. It's a pretty light line, about the same as the doctor's test from Monday. Which makes me nervous. Shouldn't it be getting darker every day? However, it was in the middle of the day after i'd eaten and i made a point to drink a lot of water so it was probably also a more dilute sample. I'll try again in the morning.
Today I went to the doctor to talk to him about my Clomid trial and the awful adbominal pain i'd had. I needed to get my yearly exam and a progesterone level (to determine if i ovulated) anyway, so i figured i'd kill 3 birds with one stone. I'm efficient like that. Anyway, i decided that even though today is only 9DPO that i'd go ahead and take a pregnancy test. And there was a very very VERY faint second line! So i took that with me to the doctor and he did a test too...and again i got a very faint positive! Since it's still early my doctor ordered a blood pregnancy test. This actually measures a number of the hormone hCG, and if you are pregnant and it "sticks" this number should double every 3 days in the beginning. So i had that drawn today (should find out tomorrow or Weds) and i will have it re-drawn in 3 days to determine if it will "stick". So i'm guardedly hopeful but mostly nervous. I know there are a lot of reasons it may not "stick" and Clomid adds a couple more problems to the pile. Until then...i'm crossing my fingers!!The top is my home test from this morning and the bottom is the doctor's office test.
My first Clomid cycle was a bust. I don't really know what happened, so we just tried the same thing again. This cycle something definitely happened. I was fine all through the 5 days of pills, but then all of a sudden on Christmas week (about a week later) i started having awful abdominal pain. I thought it might be appendicitis it hurt so bad at times. The only reason i didn't ever go to the ER was because i didnt have a fever, nausea, or any other symptoms.....and it was also around the time i was supposed to be ovulating. That lasted about 4 days and then went away. So now i'm mostly fine except my boobs hurt like crazy. I'm going to see the doctor Monday to tell him about the abdominal pain. I'm hoping he'll do an ultrasound or something and see if maybe i have a cyst (a possible side effect of the Clomid). I can't decide if i want to try another cycle of Clomid or skip a month and do all the bloodwork and things instead. I wonder if i could do both at the same time? I guess i'll find out on Monday.
Christmas was soooo exhausting. Tuesday we went to Grandmom's because my aunt, uncle, and cousins were in town and she was going back to North Carolina with them. We were there really late but we had a good time. Grandmom got her first ever digital camera. I hope she learns how to use it! I got Teddy some puppy stairs. He wasn't thrilled with them. Instead he'd just put his paws on the bed and bark to be picked up. We did get him to use it a couple of times though, so maybe Grandmom can train him.
Wednesday we had Christmas at my house with Mom, Phillip, Jefferey, Kristyn, myself, and Jake. We had a freakin' ton of presents! I got a new computer chair, an awesome electric throw blanket (which i'm currently using since it's -500F outside), a spiffy-cool George Foreman grill, new sheets, some tupperware, and a million more things! It was an awesome day. The boys all got remote-controlled ferraris and they played with them for HOURS.
Christmas Eve we had to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to drive to Ellijay and meet Jake's mom and sister at IHOP. His mom looked really good and Joe (her husband) was not obnoxious like he normally is. It was also Eve's birthday and the IHOP girls sang Happy Birthday to her. Other than getting up so early, we had a nice time! From there we went to Jake's aunt's house for his dad's side of the family Christmas. We had brunch and his cousin made this cinnamon-roll french toast bread pudding that was soooooo good. I need to get that recipe!
Christmas Day we got up early again to go to Dad's. I got Wii Fit! I've been using it pretty consistently, but i've also been eating horribly. It yells at me and tells me i'm fat. It's all about the motivation. I got Katie this SingIt video game. We rocked out on that, although it was mostly Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana/Demi Lovato so i didn't really know a ton of those songs. It made me really want Guitar Hero or Rock Band or something for the Wii. I'll have to see if i can get any of that stuff used from Gamestop.
So after 4 days of Christmas i was soooo exhausted. I had to work the rest of the weekend, and getting up early sucked. Needless to say i passed out Sunday night and slept for hours.
I just switched from Geico to Progressive for my car insurance this summer because Geico's policy wasn't getting any cheaper even though we had no tickets or incidents on record. Progressive's quote was significantly cheaper for better coverage. It could just be a "new customer" quote, so i guess we'll see soon because it'll be time to renew my policy in a week or so.
Anyway, after my car accident the other day I had my first experience with actually having to *use* my insurance. And it was great! After i reported the accident (which you can do online, how nifty is that?) they called me the next morning, got my story and immediately started working on the claim. The adjuster would call me with updates. She got the info about the at-fault person's insurance. (That may be because one of the other cars involved was also a Progressive insured and so that driver may have supplied them with the police report because i never picked it up.) Anyway, so the adjuster called me and set up an appointment at a collision center to get my car inspected. I was expecting to have to leave my car there all day or something, but I just showed up, the Progressive guy came out and took some pictures and inspected the damage. He went inside and wrote it up....and within 15 minutes of my arrival he handed over the estimate and a check to get it repaired! I was floored. I thought insurances were supposed to be difficult. The only thing i didn't really understand is that even though i'm *not* at-fault, Progressive paid the claim through my policy. The check they wrote me was less my $250 deductible. But now the adjuster is going to subrogate against the at-fault insurance to get repaid and when they get repaid they will then give me back my $250 deductible. All i know is that i didn't have to do a damn thing and that's really nice! I don't know yet if i'll get my bumper repaired because the paint already has some scratches and things on it. A shiny new bumper would look out of place!
I have a confession. I'm a total Black Friday shopaholic. I start stalking the "hush-hush" black friday deals in October (bfads.net) and as a complete Amazon devotee I watch their sales every day the week of Thanksgiving. This year i was on a hunt for a laptop and finally got my first one! So far it seems very nifty. The whole week of Thanksgiving Amazon had lightning deals every hour. And yes, i checked them constantly (even at work). I bought almost all my Christmas gifts from Amazon the weekend after Thanksgiving and the UPS and Fedex guys have been to my house *every* single day this week and will be back for more next week. They probably hate me. Amazon Prime is by far the best investment i've ever made. I really should buy some of their stock.
