Ladies and Gentlemen….WE ARE PREGNANT!!!

       One day I got the bright idea to ask God to help me learn patience; the thing about God is, He answers prayers. The answer may not always look the way we want or expect it to, but He is always working things for my good (Romans 8:28) so I trust Him. Recently, over the last 10 or so months I have been finding ample opportunities to learn patience.

          I mean, sure, my husband and I have been waiting 7 years to finally get pregnant but once we decided Embryo Adoption was the path for us it seemed like the waiting really began. We had to wait to find someone willing to do our home study; we had to wait for it to be completed. We had to wait for a consultation appointment with the NEDC; we had to wait for an open transfer date. We had to wait for the actual transfer…and then we had to wait 13 days to go take the blood test.

          As if all that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t find out the results of my blood test until Wednesday afternoon (as I was literally walking into work!!!!) The funny thing is, after all these opportunities to learn patience, I can still be pretty impatient and antsy. The NEDC asked me NOT to take a home pregnancy test, but low and behold, on day 12 of waiting I found myself purchasing a First Response pregnancy test (because they can read HCG as low as 5). I just couldn’t wait that extra day. The test was rapid response, with results in 1 minute. 

           So I thoroughly read and re-read the instructions (sure that I would mess it up and cause a false negative response) and I had already peed that morning so I was paranoid that my test would be negative because it wasn’t concentrated enough with HCG.

          So of course I peed on the stick and set it down to wait, but before I could get my pants back up, 2 lines were already showing!!! It said we were pregnant…no faint lines or half lines, just 2 dark solid lines!! OMG!

I was ecstatic. I think that I honestly believed it would show negative, even if I actually was pregnant. After taking so many tests when we were trying, you get accustomed to the negative response.

          The positive Home Pregnancy Test (HPT) was done Monday, on Memorial Day, but we didn’t want to tell any family until we had it confirmed with the blood work on the following day. On Tuesday I went to have my blood tests done with STAT same day results. But, by 3pm I had not heard from my doctor. When I called they said they had not received anything. So we waited some more…after 4pm I decided that maybe I was not pregnant since I didn’t have the blood work back, so I went and took the 2^nd HPT, which also came up positive! I was convinced. Wednesday we got the call telling us we were definitely pregnant! 

          There always seems to be a dark spot that tries to steal my joy. My blood work showed that my HCG count was good at 673, but that my progesterone level was low at 12, when they want it to be 15. I get 2 shots of progesterone every day and the NEDC said that normally when you take a progesterone supplement your levels are high, not low. We are not sure why the level is low, so today, Thursday, I had to go for more blood work to make sure my HCG count is doubling and to see if my progesterone levels increased. I did read that 12 is a normal level for progesterone so I am trying to stand against fear. I know that God gave us this miracle and that He will finish His good work. 

          I also found out that as of June 2^nd I will be 5 weeks pregnant! What?! I didn’t realize that they count the 2 weeks before implantation as part of your pregnancy. That means that on 6/11/12 I will go in for a 6 week ultrasound!!!!! I cannot believe that! See, HPT’s are great, but they don’t tell you how many babies you have in there! They transferred 3 viable embryos into me, so how many took? I am hoping that at 6 weeks they are developed enough to see how many are in there.

          This is all so incredibly exciting! After chasing after this for so long, it seems strange to finally have it. I still can’t quite wrap my mind around the fact that I have a little human inside me…the size of a poppy seed (or seeds) right now!

         So stay tuned, I will let ya’ll know how today’s blood work went and any other breaking news!