A few more details

Thank you all so much for your comments and congratulations on our good news! I've had really mixed feelings about sharing this early. When we were going through fertility treatments the first time around, I didn't share many details about them. Nothing like what I shared this time around. So, when I finally became pregnant, I didn't share the news publicly until I was a little over 10 weeks along. We had seen the baby and heard the heartbeat 3 times, so I felt pretty secure that things were going as planned.

Of course, I know that things can go wrong at any time, but the chance of miscarriage goes way down after seeing a heartbeat and after the first trimester.

This time, I had shared so many details about the fertility treatments, that those of you who are following our story knew that we would be finding out the results soon. I didn't feel like I could leave you hanging for too long... certainly not for 10 weeks! Plus, I knew so many of you were praying for us and rooting for us that I wanted to share the good news!

However, I am still so early (6 weeks, 5 days today) that we haven't heard a heartbeat yet. Our first ultrasound is next week, so we are praying that we'll hear that precious sound of our baby's heart beating then. I am a bit nervous that we won't, but trying not to dwell on that too much.

I just hadn't really thought much about the fact that I'd be sharing really early if this cycle worked. I had thought about how I'd share if it was negative, but not positive. I just honestly did not think we would be successful on our first cycle!

With that said, I wasn't really looking for any symptoms of pregnancy after our IUI. However, I kept noticing little things that would make me stop and think, "Hmm, that's interesting . . . maybe . . . " In fact, 5 dpIUI, I told Chris that I felt pregnant. I couldn't place my finger on exactly why, I just did. He was the only one that I was brave enough to say that to. Then, several other things started going on as well. For example, I started having super-vivid dreams, waking up with an extremely dry mouth, was very sore in certain areas, had cloudy urine, was quite fatigued at times, and I even gagged once when changing B's diaper. All of these were early symptoms that I had with Brianna.

I know that many people would have been convinced they were pregnant with all of those symptoms, but I still wasn't sure. After trying to conceive for years, there have been so many times that I have this symptom or that symptom and it has meant NOTHING. Also, fertility drugs can often cause the same symptoms as pregnancy, so that was always in my mind as well. After so, so, so many disappointments, I was just not going to get my hopes up too high.

The two-week wait wasn't terrible. It was hard at times, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't anxious or nervous the whole time. I have spent a lot of time praying for peace of mind and calmness of spirit, so I truly believe that God granted that to me. I was certainly ready to find out, but I was pretty calm when Courtney called me. I did cry . . . a lot . . . when she began with "Congratulations!" The first thing I did after finding out was hit my knees and thank God.

My first beta (14 dpIUI) was 90, and my second beta (20 dpIUI) was 1603. My progesterone was 57 at 14 dpIUI, so that was great. We were so thankful and praised God for strong numbers. With Brianna, my first beta (14 dpIUI) was 112, and my second beta (21 dpIUI) was 1745, so it looks like we are right on track to have ONE baby again. Of course, we'll find out for sure at the ultrasound. The numbers are not always an accurate indicator.

One last thing . . . my doctor's office will not assign a due date until they detect a heartbeat. However, I used an online due date calculator and according to that, I will be due around February 6, 2012. That is based upon CD1, which is what my doctor's office will use. Based upon my conception date, the due date would be a few days later. CD1 is also how my doctor's office is determining how far along I am.

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers! I will update again after our appointment next week.