Righty Vs Lefty

I’ve been a little terrified to write this post. I’m not sure why exactly.

Maybe it was because last time Frankie and I announced wonderful news, we ended up really let down.

Maybe it was because I thought I might end up jinxing us.

Maybe it was because I was afraid of Willow attacking me if she read it.

This concern isn't without precedent. Willow has met one baby so far. She proceeded to circle said baby keeping at least 5 feet between her and the terrifying non-mobile infant. At one point, the baby farted, Willow jumped and puffed up… and the mandatory distance became around 7 feet. I can only imagine what she will do when there is a permanent baby in our house. Let alone two babies.

Indeed….we’ve now had two ultrasounds, and both have shown the same results. Two little heartbeats.

The first scan was a little concerning, as one little heartbeat was only going at 76 bpm, which is pretty slow. But that same little nugget had a heartbeat of 126 bpm on the last scan, so we’re feeling much better about that.

We started by referring to them as nugget 1 and nugget 2…but then Frankie became concerned that it might make one fetus feel inferior to the other. I suggested nugget Alpha and nugget Omega because I figured that the end of the alphabet is just as important as the beginning of the alphabet….but Frankie saw things differently.

So we’ve now taken to referring to the little sacs of fetal joy as “Righty” and “Lefty”.

Righty is appropriately situated on the right of its sibling, has a heartbeat of 126 bpm, and a CRL of .69cm. Lefty is doing well so far with a heartbeat of 138 bpm and a CRL of .62cm.

We know we’re nowhere close to being out of the woods….but as we look around this time, the woods are beautiful. We may as well enjoy our time here as much as possible. 

287 Vs 6,221

We just got the official results of our second Beta HcG test.

Our transfer was on March 27.

The first Beta test was run on April 5, and the result was 287 mIU/ml.

Our second test was taken on April 11, and the result was 6,221 mIU/ml.

We actually got news that the pregnancy was still viable on Friday, but because All IVF is so backed up, we had to wait until today to get the numbers. But it was worth the wait. We had to check it a few times to make sure our eyes weren’t playing tricks on us. That gives us a doubling rate of about 33 hours. We couldn’t be happier right now. Our neighbors can attest to that since I’m sure they felt the small earthquake created by Frankie frantically jumping up and down. (That man brings so much light and love into this house, it even amazes me sometimes…)

For those keeping track, the results from the last pregnancy were 119.8 mIU/ml for the first test and 1,793 mIU/ml for the second test. So while there are still no guarantees at this point in our journey, we’re definitely feeling very good about the new numbers and how things are progressing so far.

Now we just have one more week of crossing our fingers tightly until we might have the chance to confirm that little heartbeat. We know that not even the heartbeat is a guarantee…but to make it to that point would make us happier than words could describe.

In other news…we were supposed to get the keys to our new house last Friday. Instead, we found out that the seller wasn’t exactly being upfront about how much she owed on her mortgage and the house was actually a short sale…that the bank hadn’t approved! So, she was in breech of contract and the deal fell through. Definitely not how we wanted that story to end.

But getting this news makes that headache seem inconsequential. We could have made it a great house…but if we’re successful in this journey it doesn’t really matter. We’ll make anywhere we live an amazing home. 

Positive Vs Negative (Take II)

We waited up until about 2am last night hoping that we would get the email we had been waiting for before we went to bed. Instead the email came at 3:30am and Frankie and I were instantly awake at the sound of my phone going off. I set the ring tone to the “good news” jingle in the hopes that it would give the universe a cue. The universe did not disappoint. The email read:

“Congratulations! Your pregnancy test is positive!!

We will retest in one week.”

It was the best wakeup call we could hope for. We looked at the attached report and the serum HCG was 287.80. We couldn’t be happier. Up until this point, we’ve been chanting: “stick little embryo, stick!”, now our cheers turn to “grow little embryo, grow”.

We learned after our last attempt that managing our expectations is paramount. We’ve been here before, and things ended all too painfully. So, one week down, and just a few short weeks until we hear that little heart beating. Once that’s confirmed, we’ll be popping out the champagne.

Our fingers are optimistically crossed.