10 days after I should have ovulated, I woke up around 5am and decided I couldn't wait any longer. Tim wanted to wait to test until my missed period when the test would almost certainly be accurate. Patience? What's that? So I got out of bed as quietly as possible and took the test. I went out to the kitchen for the excruciating 3 minute wait, just in case Tim woke up. After 3 minutes, I looked at the test, hoping to see a second line. To my surprise, I did!
Testing so early, the line was bound to be faint since there hadn't been much time for the hormones to build up. Were my eyes deceiving me? I spent several minutes looking at the test. I would look away, then look again. I took a picture of it and checked the picture. I walked back to our bathroom and checked again. There was definitely a line. A faint, but oh so beautiful line. And I couldn't believe it. After all the sadness and stress we had been through in the past year, after we had found the right drugs it took just one month, one try, for us to get lucky. So very lucky. I was 3 weeks and 2 days pregnant.
It's faint but it's there!
There was still a part of me that assumed the worse and thought it might be a false positive or that some of the shot still remained in my system. I tried to be cautiously optimistic, but I was ecstatic. I decided not to share the news with Tim yet. If it were a false positive, I didn't want him to be disappointed. I wanted to be sure when I shared the wonderful news with him. I was protecting him.
After all this time it was so incredibly hard not to talk about it and to contain my excitement. When I got home from work I took another test. Yep, still pregnant. But I still couldn't believe it. The next morning I woke up early again (how does one sleep while waiting on this kind of news?!?) and tested yet again. There was definitely still a line, and it appeared to be getting darker. On my way to work I called my doctor's office at OHSU to tell them I had positive pregnancy tests and asked what I should do and they asked me to come in for blood work. Ok, enough is enough. I wasn't going to make secret trips to Portland and keep Tim in the dark any longer, so I called him and asked if he could go to OHSU with me. I picked him up and he asked why we were going. And that's how my husband found out we were expecting a baby. Not how I had planned it, but that's how it happened. He couldn't believe I had kept it from him, and I am sure next time we are trying to get pregnant he will keep tabs on my pregnancy test supply.
After the blood work was done we had to go back to work and wait for the results. Around 2 in the afternoon (over 4 hours later!) they finally called and confirmed that I was pregnant (cause, you know, all those tests could be wrong)! My HCG level (the pregnancy hormone) was 32.5 and my progesterone level was 7.5. We were pregnant! I was still testing obsessively to make sure I was still pregnant and trying to analyze whether the line was getting darker or not. At one point I thought I saw the line get lighter, and that stressed me out. Next time around, I am going to have to have a limited supply of tests (and Tim will have to take away my credit card and cash so that I can't buy any more).
2 days later we went back up to OHSU to have blood work done again. Every 48 the amount of the HCG in your system should double, which is why they do two tests, two days apart. I read that around 50% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, half of those occurring so early women normally don't realize they were pregnant. If the amount of HCG doubles, it is a good sign that things are progressing normally. After the longest 4 hours (since two days ago) I got the call and found out that my HCG level had risen to 68, which was great news!
Unfortunately, my progesterone level had dropped to about 5. Quite simply, progesterone keeps you pregnant. It has several functions before and during pregnancy, but you cannot sustain a pregnancy without it. I was prescribed progesterone suppositories (fun!) to start right away. It's hard to describe what I was feeling right then. I was so excited that I was pregnant, but there was a definite possibility we could lose our precious baby if my progesterone levels didn't rise. I left work to get the prescription filled right away. I was instructed to take two pills per day and was given the ok to take two that evening. All we could do was try to stay calm and hope that it worked.
I was hoping that we would receive good news (and only good news) and that we would share it with my family that evening. I had ideas of how we would tell them, but nothing seemed right anymore. We were still so excited but also scared. We wanted to remain optimistic, so we decided to tell my family. Because of the circumstances, it felt best to just tell them and forget about all the cutesy crap that doesn't really matter. When we arrived at my parents house, we were greeted by my parents and Maiken. I didn't have a plan of what I was going to say anymore, so I just went up to Maiken and said "Guess what? There's a baby in my belly!" He has been around pregnancy before and understands the concept, so he was excited. My parents were surprised and excited and we shared hugs. We explained to them that we needed everyone to keep their fingers crossed for our little baby. I then found my sister and niece to tell them the news.
All weekend it was so hard to think about anything else. I read about people having to take progesterone and having successful pregnancies, so I knew all hope was not lost and that I just needed to be optimistic. Monday morning we had a third set of tests done and received good news! My HCG levels continued to rise, which meant our baby was still with us, and my progesterone levels had risen and were now at the low end of the normal range. The suppositories were working so I was instructed to keep taking them twice a day through 12 weeks.
I am so thankful that I tested so early and was able to get started on the progesterone right away. My impatience had paid off and possibly saved our baby's life. When the nurse called we also found out our due date: March 16, 2014! This also happens to be my 25th birthday! Best. Birthday present. Ever.
~Kaylee
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