12dp2dt: Confirmed a pregnancy

Obvious from the last post, I could not wait to POAS. Not only did I do it 9dpt, but I did it at 10 and 11, as well. I have labeled them by the date. The blue-dye ones do not keep well, at all. I promise my urine is not GOLD. You can't even see that they were positives, now.

 On the day before my OTD, I had some REALLY bad cramping and what I thought was spotting. It wasn't really... anyway, it was enough to freak me out, make me go home and miss school. I got home at 4:30, after leaving work early, and slept for FOUR hours, at which point I woke up to find messages galore from my law buddies - making me feel so loved. Yesterday morning, at 12dpt, I had my appointment and got the following mail from the clinic:

 This email is to inform you of your instructions: Estrogen 322 Progesterone 39 HCG 244 Please be advised that the pregnancy test was POSITIVE Instructions: Continue Estrogen and Progesterone supplementation at this time Refrain from heavy lifiting, jogging, and excessive exercise. Your next appointment is scheduled for 3/10/13 to confirm that the pregnancy level is increasing.

To say I'm over the moon is an understatement. We are calling this baby, Pumpkin. I haven't told anyone outside of here, my sister and one law friend... oh, and dh knows, too. LOL

9dp2dt: Dh wanted me to poas...

7dp2dt: smacked by an elephant...

That's how I feel. DH and I slept until a little bit after noon, which is unlike him. I have been known to catch an extra Z, or two, but this morning I just could not pull myself out of bed. Even now, after having just gotten up a mere 2.5 hours ago, I am yawning and feeling like I need a nap.

My "symptoms" have plateaued. I'm not feeling anything right now, actually. Breasts are still a little sore, but I'm still taking progesterone, so I'm not expecting anything different. I did feel a tiny bit of cramping today and I've gotten headaches for the past 3 days. I forgot to mention that on the past posts. Other than that and the tiredness (oh, and SNEEZING like a baboon!) I am not feeling anything.

So, I'm fighting myself with this whole POAS thing. Obviously the one yesterday was negative. It was way to early to test. But now, I'm wondering if I should POAS before my appointment on Friday so I'm not disappointed if it's a no. I figured if I know ahead of time, it won't be so bad finding out from the nurses.

I am REALLY hopeful for a positive. I love my clinic's "one good egg" policy because otherwise, I wouldn't have had the chance to be on this journey.

This week is a huge week for me. My firm is having communications on Wednesday - that's when they tell us how badly our bonuses are going to suck. This is also the last week of school before spring break. I.can.not.wait! I need a break.

Yesterday was moot court, which was the culmination of all of the brief writing I was doing last week. To say that I'm happy it's over is an understatement!

Anyway, that's it for now. Trying to keep my eyes open and read for this week.

Symptoms:
exhaustion
tender bbs
sneezing
cramping
headache

6dp2dt: Holy cramps, batman!!!

So, I skipped a post yesterday. I did it for a few reasons:
1) I'm the only person who reads my blog
2) The symptoms were pretty much the same and all caused by the progesterone and estradiol

When I got home, at a little after 7, I was wiped out! Seriously... felt like I couldn't move a limb if my life depended on it. DH was folding laundry and I was starving. I asked him if he would go to panera and get my fav and in exchange, I would finish folding the laundry. Bless wonderful husbands. He did it! Not more than 20 minutes after eating, I was completely knocked out - onion breath and all.

DH said he knew I was tired because I didn't do my hair before bed and that has only happened about 2x in my adult life!

I woke up this morning with pretty bad cramps. If today were an ordinary Saturday, I'd just stay in bed and read for next week, but I have oral arguments today. To top it off, there's usually a team of 2 doing the arguments and I decided to do it on my own, so I have to present both sides. This'll be fun. On a better note, the two guys I'm arguing "against" are two of the sweetest guys in the program and have been very collaborative and not at all treating me like the enemy. I cannot wait for 3pm today.

On to symptoms. First, I'll say that I POAS (peed on a stick/took a pregnancy test) for those of you not familiar with the lingo. I know I wouldn't be able to detect any HCG yet, so I was comfortable witht he BFN I inevitably got. I just didn't know how long it would have taken for the HCG trigger to be out of my system, so I wanted to test to see if it was. Anyway, 6 more days til my beta. I.can't.wait!

Symptoms:
medium-severe cramps: I used to be on naproxen for my cramps when I was a teen. I know bad cramps when I see them - progesterone?
heavy boobs, though remarkably not as heavy as mid-week - estradiol/progesterone
still weeing like a race horse - I might have to wear pull-ups for oral arguments! LOL

That's all, folks! Wish me luck with OA. When it's over, I'm going to do a backflip in my head!

4dp2dt: wish I could fast forward a week

I know I need to give embie time to get snuggled in and grow. I wish I could pull a sleeping beauty move and go to sleep until my appointment next Friday. I've never actually seen sleeping beauty - how sad is that.

I'm sat here in the law library. I want so badly to be in my bed, so this'll be short.

Symptoms:
Still heavy boobs - thanks meds
Still slight cramping, not as bad as yesterday
Still weeing like a racehorse
Bloating - like nobody's business

Again, all of this is because of the meds, but I still like to keep track. I have the memory of a goldfish and I want to be able to look back on all of this and have it make sense... or not.

3dp2dt: Long, rough day

When I woke up today, it was raining... I looked over at DH and said "this would be a good day to stay home."I was right. Rainy days are always good days to stay home.

So, after yesterday's fiasco with having to carry my 90lb bag (do you like how many times I've changed the weight of the bag??) I woke up with cramping. The left ovary was cramping, bu I also had a general cramping. At times it felt like period cramps and then at other times, it felt like the cramps you get after you drink a gallon of water, then run... okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get my drift.

Either way, I have been using the bathroom every 10 minutes and I am so tired!

None of these are pregnancy symptoms, since it's only day 5dpo. They're just general "you need a day off" symptoms. So, I skipped school. I really hate skipping school... primarily because law school is so expensive, but secondly because it's so dense, so to miss a day is to miss a lot. However, I am listening to my body and I know I needed the rest.

On another note, implantation can happen any time between today and Friday. Fingers crossed in a big way. Stick li'l bean, stick!!!!

Symptoms:
bloating
cramping
sharp pain near ovaries
gas ~ sorry, tmi
heavy breasts, while not as sore

I'm pretty sure they're all related in some way to the meds... I just can't prove it!

P.s. My aunt asked my sister yesterday if I'm pregnant. I haven't told anyone IRL about this except a law friend, dh and my sister. My sister asked her why she thought that and my aunt said "I don't know, I just feel it". Then today, said aunt said she had a dream about triplets last night. Hopefully, she's right about the pregnancy. I DOUBT it would be triplets, but a singleton sure would be nice... take that, universe!!! Good vibes!

2dp2dt

Blah... today was a pretty craptastic day. I felt pulled in a million directions and there is absolutely no way to navigate the vast subway system without picking up my 70 lb. bag, somehow. I wonder how literal the doctor was being when he said not to carry anything > 5lbs. Did he mean not to even carry it down 5 steps? Because, honestly, it's rough.

I got to class 15 minutes late, partially because I had to use a different entrance to the school, the other part because I had to wait for the ONE student elevator in the law school and then because I encountered about 7 stairs that I had to go down to get to my classroom door. Once I got to the door, I realized that if I went to the back, I would have to carry the bag BACK UP another set of stairs. So, I stood outside of the classroom door listening for a pause, at which point I slipped into the front and sat in the first available seat.

In the back of my head, I know carrying a bag does not interfere with implantation, but I want this to work so badly, I am going to do whatever the doctor asks of me.

On a happier note, tomorrow is "implantation" day. I actually read today that it could be between days 5 and 7. I have been trying to stay away from the internet!

Symptoms:
The dull throbbing in the left ovary has changed to a constant throbbing with sharp pains
heavy breasts, again. For this reason, I am loving progesterone and estradiol. I've never had breasts before (outside of my last pregnancy) and I'm pleased with them!

Anyway, I am going to listen to some music and try to relax... today was a whirlwind day and I'm glad it's over!

LAW

1dp2dt: symptoms

I don't want to be "that person" who blogs every twinge or weird feeling. However, I do want to make sure I document everything since this is my first IVF cycle. So, with that in mind, please bear with me!

While the doctor said bed-rest was not necessary, he did say to "take it easy" and specifically  mentioned not to do any heavy lifting.  This proved to be a problem for me because I'm a law student and I have a rolling backpack that weighs more than I do. It's nice to have a roller. It's not nice when a good portion of NYC is not handicap accessible - particularly subways. So, I had to walk to school today. I am probably over-thinking this, but had I taken a cab, I'd have had to lob my bag into it somehow. The train station near work does not have an elevator, so I walked. It took me just about 35 minutes and I'm thinking it's something I should do more often. I usually take the subway, not out of laziness, but because it's faster than walking. I'm sure it wouldn't matter if I lifted my bag (which is super heavy, btw), but I'm not chancing it.

On to symptoms...
tender breasts - side effect of the progesterone
cramping - at the site of the retrieval - residual

So, nothing for now. It's still very early. Is it crazy that I'm calling Wednesday implantation day? Fingers crossed!

Some of you have sent me messages. I will respond to all of them tomorrow. I had a huge assignment due today and I want to make sure I give them all the attention they deserve!!! Thank you for reading!