The wait was BRUTAL!!
We had done the transfer on the Wednesday before Father's Day and Ryan thought it would be an AWESOME Father's Day gift to find out we were pregnant. I was hesitant because it was still really early, but with that said people do see BFP (Big Fat Positives) that early on. Especially since we had transferred such beautiful 6 day blasts. I couldn't decide what to do until the morning of, but I decided to test. It came back as a BFN (Big Fat Negative). This wasn't surprising in the slightest and honestly, I had prepared myself to see that. In other words, it didn't ruin my day, it was just a wasted test. Those things are not cheap I might add.
We decided to wait a few more days before taking another test, though I was leaning towards not testing again at all. But come Wednesday morning... yeah right. As if we could have waiting any longer. So I woke up at 5am to pee and knew I was supposed to use my FMU (First Morning Urine... aren't you glad this is such an informative post and you get to learn so many TTC (Trying to Conceive) acronyms?!) Ok, so I took the test at 5 am and it was immediately negative. I shoved the stupid little test back in it's packaging and went back to bed. Actually, I laid in bed disappointed researching when women had gotten their BFP's on a HPT (Home Pregnancy Test). At 7dt6dt (7 days past 6 day transfer) you'd think it would be positive. Well, I said goodbye to Ryan as he headed to work and remained on my phone. All the while there was this little voice in my head telling me to look at the test again. It went something like this...
LV (Little Voice) - Just look at the test again.
Me - No! That's ridiculous! I'm not looking at the stupid test again!
LV - Just take a quick look.
Me - I don't want to take a quick look to see a BFN again!
LV - Just look at the fricken test.
Me - I'm NOT looking at the test!!!!...
Imagine this going on for 20 minutes
....And I looked at the test...
To my surprise, there was a faint second line. I immediately called Ryan, after I had already told him it was negative and said, "You're not going to believe this...!" I told him about the good/bad angel convo in my head, but ultimately we had a positive. I posted a pic of it on a forum I go to and many congratulated on a positive test, others said to be weary as a test showing up positive after 20 mins can't be trusted. Mind you, it very easily could have been positive after 2 minutes, I just didn't give it the time. It was suggested to test the following day just to be sure. So I did with my last remaining test. Here's what they looked like.
Ok, so we were excited, but it still didn't feel real. The following day I had my beta test. A beta is a blood test that is looking for HCG (the pregnancy hormone). It's the same thing that a urine test looks for, but a blood test can pick up much smaller traces. So at 9dp6dt I went in and got my blood drawn by my buddy Rueben! I have a locket/glass square pendant that I've had but never put anything inside of. After the transfer, I put pics of our embryos in it and wore it every day. Some people noticed it (like our kids... "Oh that's cool, what is it?" Just a cool design, I'd respond.) When I walked in the door of the lab, Rueben immediately noticed it and asked what it was. He thought it looked like sand or lavender. I told him it was a picture. As the lady input my information into the computer, he took me back to start the needle pokage. And again, he was very intrigued by my necklace. So he asked, "So what's it a picture of?" I started to tell him that we were going through IVF (which I had told him before) and it was a picture of our embryos. I started to get my phone out to show a better picture and at this point, the lady at the computer came running over and said, "I've got to see this!" They were very excited to say the least and wished us all the best of luck. Now, back to the beta... so the nurse at Dr. Uzelac's office told me that the earlier I went in the sooner they would have the results. She said it usually takes about 4 hours to get results. I went in at 7:45 and expected a call around noon. I took the kids to meet Ryan for lunch at 11:45 figuring it would be perfect timing and Ry and I would be together. Well, by the end of lunch we still hadn't gotten a call. The kids and I went to the library then home and still nothing. I went to take a nap in the hammock around 1:30 but my mind was racing and I couldn't sleep. I got a few phone calls and finally got the call at 2:30. The nurse says, "We got your lab results back and we have WONDERFUL news for you!!" My beta number came back at 299. Once I heard this I immediately got excited. Yes, I had seen the HPT with second lines, but until it was confirmed by the Doctor's office it didn't seem real. So at this point I started to get very excited. It was true and it was really happening. Ryan got home about a half hour later and I was able to share the good news with him. He was all smiles. You may be wondering about this beta test and how it all works. Put it this way, when the nurse told me my number I asked her what it should be at. She said, "You're going to laugh but anything over a 5 means you're pregnant." I guess 299 looks pretty good then! Below is a chart that shows the progression of normal beta numbers. From what I've gathered they want to see betas double every 48-72 hours. The first number doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot, but rather how much that number goes up the next time. You'll probably want to refer back to this chart later on in this post.
At this point I was considered exactly 4 weeks (4 weeks LMP - Last Menstrual Period) and my number was 299.
Finally, we were able to CELEBRATE... WE'RE PREGNANT and we were SOOOOO excited!
The trouble here is that many people knew we were getting the blood work down and they were just as anxious as we were to hear the results. But we didn't really want to tell everyone via text, even though that's how a lot of people ended up getting the news, or before telling our families. All the texts, calls and check ins lead to a few more lies or just a lack of a response in general. I'M SORRY TO EVERYONE!!! We needed time to tell our families. I even lied to my mom and sister a few times that day. Are you kidding, I talked to mom right after I got off the phone with the nurse and had to tell her I still hadn't heard. Talk about stressing a pregnant girl out. :)
We had decided to tell the kids, partially because we were excited and that's Ryan family and he wanted to share it with them, but also because, bless my husbands heart, kids are kids and they can cause stress. Ryan wanted them to know so that they understood that whatever stress they caused me, was also stress on the baby or babies that we didn't want to have. So if we told them, we would have perfect angels quietly walking around the house! HAHA! Yeah right! As if that will ever happen in the Bledsoe house. We had invited my parents over for dinner and decided to get a cake made. Given it was already 2:30pm and dinner was around 6:00 we didn't have much time. I went to 4 different stores and was able to get this bad boy put together. I found the little bees and babies at a kids store, I had Safeway take off the gross puffs of frosting and strawberries and pineapple that looked to be a few days old. Had them rewrite the wording 3 times and it was still hard to read. But here's the finished product.
It says, " Adding to Our Hive by 1 or 2 more"
By the time Mom and Dad got to our house dinner was ready and the cake was in an ice chest on the back step. We knew we wouldn't be able to wait through dinner so as soon as everyone sat down Ryan brought the cake in and put it on the table for them to read. Given the writing was hard to read, all 5 of them struggled through to read the words. When they were finally able to get the words put together... Adding to Our Hive by 1 or 2... Dad and Mom looked up in shock, the kids were confused, mom started screaming, I was crying, Dad was crying, the kids asked, "So wait... you're pregnant?" And everyone gave hugs and cried some more. Bailey had actually asked Ryan about this earlier in the day, you see, last weekend, we were having a picnic for Father's Day and my brother says, "Hey Lauren, are you P-R-E-G..." until my sister hit him. Bailey opened her eyes with a huge smile on her face and says, "Umm hello, I can spell you know! AHAHA Oh my gosh... only my brother would say something like that, and potentially my Dad (stay tuned for the FB post later on...) We assured Bailey we weren't. Ryan told her when it happens she'll know. Well, upon reading the cake Bailey yells, "You lied to me!!!" Though she was absolutely thrilled! As were all the kids. They've talked about it all weekend in fact.
Mom then, immediately busts out this gift for me. Obviously she hasn't been planning and clearly she's not excited!!
After all the hugs were given we sat down to eat. After all, we were starving... or maybe it was just me?! We had a nice dinner and talked all about beta levels and the kids asked questions. We still haven't gone into the whole IVF thing with the kids, though we did show them the blastocysts and talked about the possibility of having twins. After having cake and talking some more, mom and I were going to go for a walk so I went to my room to get my shoes on. I came out to ask her if she needed shoes and my sister comes walking out of the kitchen holding roses for me, champagne for Ryan, and a balloon that says "Twins" on it. I immediately started crying and gave her a hug. She was able to leave work early to come celebrate with us. That was very special.
After our walk, my brother came over to eat left over dinner and to have cake.
And here's our little family (minus 1) after a fun evening of celebrating!!
The story isn't over yet... later that night, around 10:30pm, I got a text message from a friend in Wisconsin that says,
"Wait a minute!!!
WHAT did I just see on FB?!
Did it take? Are you preggers? Twins?
Or am I totally reading it wrong?! Ahhh!"
OH MY GOSH!!! I knew that I had put NOTHING on FB and hadn't planned to put anything on that site for a while. I didn't even text her back, I went straight to FB. My Dad had posted the picture of my sister and I from above holding the roses and balloon that says TWINS on it. It already had 11 likes and 5 comments. Oh. my. gosh! I called mom and told her to please help him delete it ASAP. That was so not ok. Dad deleted it immediately, but who knows how many people saw it. Oh well. The next day at a wedding I'm sitting next to Dad and he says, "Sorry about the pic on Facebook! I didn't even know what it said!" Umm, Dad, it's a balloon with babies on it that says twins! He says, "Well I couldn't even see what it said!" Mercy! Glad we got that sorted!
Just to make this even longer, here are a few picture from the wedding we attended on Sunday.
My brother, sister, myself, The Beautiful Bride - Terri, and Ryan
Bailey and I
We scrub up pretty nice!
My Gorgeous Husband!
Ryan, Me, Kristin, and Kory
Monday morning marked the day of my second beta. I went in first thing in the morning and had my blood drawn by my friend Reuben again. Just for the record, he was thrilled that we had gotten a positive result from the last lab. The call came in again around 2:30pm, though this time I was much more patient. The nurse told me that the beta came back EXCELLENT! After scheduling an appointment in 2 weeks, I had to ask her what the number came back at. 1200!!!! WHOA!!!! 1200, that's a HUGE jump. I was expecting it to be around 900 maybe, but 1200. When I calculated it, our numbers doubled in 35.9 hours. (You can look back up at the beta chart that I posted earlier.) The biggest question of course is whether or not they both took? The answer is, we still don't know. While these numbers are high and could suggest that both very possibly did, there is really no way to know until we have an ultrasound. So we'll be waiting another 2 weeks to find out for sure. And then... even if you ask, you won't get an answer until we tell our families later that week. SORRY! :) Regardless of if we get 1 or 2 babies, we will be so happy either way and we feel so unbelievably blessed.
Though things have still hardly set in that this is real and that I'm pregnant, we know that it's true. We are feeling incredibly blessed to have such great results. We want to extend a HUGE thank you to all those who have been so supportive, have been sending up prayers, and have shown so much love. If there is one thing we know from the whole experience it's that...
So THANK You to all of you. Of course being that I'm only 4 weeks 4 days pregnant, things are still very fragile! A lot can happen in the coming weeks, so we ask that you continue adding us into your prayers. We have no doubt that whatever is meant to be will be and we are fine in knowing that if God wants us to have twins, we will have twins, and if not, then we'll have one. His plan is far better than our own. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts! This has been quite a process and having all your support has made a huge difference for us!
Love from all 8 of us!! :)
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