The Dreaded Wait
On May 28th, we transferred a beautiful 5-day-old embryo. The transfer went as smoothly as I expected but to be honest, I was a huge ball of nerves!
The night before transfer, I had a hard time falling asleep. It was a long 7 months leading up to the transfer and I just couldn’t believe that it was finally here. It’s a strange feeling knowing that (hopefully) you will be pregnant the very next day. Not many people can say that they will be pregnant at 9:30 a.m. the following morning.
I woke up around 6 a.m. and enjoyed a nice hot cup of coffee. I enjoyed every sip in anticipation that it won’t be long before the thought of coffee makes me nauseous. I didn’t drink coffee years ago when I had Layla, but with the boys, I didn’t want coffee for almost the whole first trimester. It was strange how it just didn’t sound good but I missed it at the same time. I showered, had half of a bagel, kissed my babies, and headed out around 8:30 a.m.
Ben knew that I was nervous because he said that I wouldn’t shut up the whole hour drive there, ha. As we pulled up to the clinic, Ben said that he spotted a kindness rock! If you aren’t familiar with kindness rocks, it’s a rock that is painted and left for someone else to find usually with cute images or sometimes quotes. Just something fun to spread kindness. We picked up the rock and read “Fortune favors the brave”. It was the perfect message right before transfer. Sometimes FB groups are printed on the rock so you can post an image of where it was found. We were surprised to see that the rock made it all the way from Canada! Finding that rock gave me a good feeling as we walked into the clinic!
We arrived at 9am, checked in, and the IF (Intended Father) showed up just a few minutes after us. We were brought back to the transfer room which had a table, the ultrasound machine, and a very large TV on the wall so we could watch the transfer take place. Ben was to my left and the IF was to my right, with a front row seat right next to the TV. As we waited for the embryologist to come in with the embryo, they put an image of the embryo on the TV screen which was really neat to see. We were able to see that it was already starting to hatch! The TV projected what was on the ultrasound screen so we were able to watch the whole process. We watched as the catheter entered my uterus. Once it was in, the embryologist came in with a long tube that contained the embryo. They placed that tube into catheter and the embryo was placed into my uterus. The whole process took maybe 3 minutes, if that. Next thing you know, I was signing discharge paperwork and I was good to go. We hung out and chatted with the IF for a few minutes before he had to head off to work. Ben took a post-transfer photo of the IF and I and you can tell that he was just glowing with excitement from his smile! I’m so very excited and hopeful for him!
And now… the dreaded wait! The first beta test is June 10th which feels like months from now, ha. The beta test is a blood test that detects the HCG level and will give us a number. If it comes back positive (above a minimum number, though unsure what that number is), I will repeat the beta 2 days later where they want to see the number double. So if my HCG level on June 10th is 50, they want the second beta number to be over a 100.
But can we take an at home pregnancy test? Yes!! I plan on taking the first pregnancy test this Sunday, which is 5dpt (5 days post transfer). Last week, I asked the IF if would like for me to test at home or just wait until the beta test. Pregnancy tests can be a little nerve wrecking. You could get a positive and turns out to be a chemical pregnancy or you may get a negative and think it didn’t take, but the beta test proves otherwise. Knowing the risks of a false positive or false negative, the IF would still like for me to test at home. Although we can start testing at 5dpt, some people don’t start seeing postives until 6dpt or even 7dpt. I’m praying that we see a little something on Sunday!
Hoping and praying that this cute little embryo decides to stick and hang out with me for 10 months. Speaking of… I have a photo of the embryo that was transferred so you can see for yourself how beautiful it is!
