Yerp

I'm pregnant. Actually waited til 14 dpo to test per the doctor's instructions because I was just so convinced it would be negative. Besides fucking bloating and ovary pain from OHSS at that point all I felt was nipple pain and cramps, which are  premenstrual symptoms for me. 

Also, a lot of diarrhea (like almost every time after I eat) this past week which I assume is attributable to OHSS.

Anyway, beta yesterday at 15 dpo was 324 and progesterone was 55. A stronger start than last pregnancy, but that pregnancy had appropriately rising betas til the first ultrasound. (I need to not compare this pregnancy with that one, but easier said than done). So, having been through a loss, and then infertility, I am so scared this good news will end shortly and I will be even more destroyed than last time. 

I will probably lose some readers, and I understand completely. I have been in a place where I stopped following blogs at the time a pregnancy was announced. I hope some will stay and support me, because pregnancy after loss and infertility is scary. I do not plan on making this a froofy pregnancy or mommy blog. I plan on occasionally reporting numbers and mainly my fears and my reflections through pregnancy as an infertile woman. Because that is who I am and always will be. A woman who struggles (possibly struggled) with infertility. 

(In)fertility Timeline - Part 1

I think it would be helpful for my readers to have more details about my (in)fertility thus far. This is Part 1, about my loss. 

In early 2013, I started putting the pressure on my husband to try and conceive. He was nervous (as was I) but agreed to start trying after our vacation in late June. I figured it would take me 2-3 months to regulate, then get pregnant, and of course have a baby from that pregnancy - ha!

The first cycle was 35 days. I had been on birth control for about 10 years prior, so I figured this is the length of my natural cycle. When another 35 days had gone by, then 40, with no positive home pregnancy test (HPT)or symptoms, I got confused. Called my OB, who called me in for a blood test. It came back negative. They said wait another 30 days if no positive HPT then come in again. 

After about 10 days, I woke up one day with sore, heavy breasts. I tested 3 days later and got a positive HPT. (At this point, it was around 55 days since last   period). Made an OB appointment and a few days later, pregnancy was confirmed.

The next two betas were appropriately rising. We scheduled an ultrasound. Obviously, we were super excited to see the baby and find out our due date (estimated around my husband's birthday!) But, we found out that there was no baby. C had to go to a funeral right after, and I numbly went to work. We waited anxiously until the next day for the ultrasound. The next day, the nurse confirmed the betas had barely risen and probably to not have hope. I broke down, left work immediately and cried for the rest of the day.

I had joined the Bump for my birth month info but had not posted at all or even read much yet. I switched to the miscarriage boards, introduced myself, and started reading voraciously. Cried some more. 

Over the next week, I cried every day and felt my one symptom - sore, heavy breasts - start to disappear. So by the time I went for a repeat beta and ultrasound a week after the previous debacle, I had little hope of a miracle. Results confirmed a slight decline in the sac size and beta levels. I was asked to return in a week for a repeat beta, and told I would need to miscarry naturally.

I was nervous over the next few days, wondering when and how I would miscarry. On a Friday afternoon, I started to feel cramps. By the time I got home from work, the cramps had intensified. Later that evening, they became unbearable and I parked on the toilet, wailing, as C held my hand. Clots and blood poured out of me. I cried from sadness that my baby was in the toilet. 

By the next day, most everything had passed and the cramps were much more bearable. I continued bleeding for a week, and the betas returned to 0 about 3 weeks later. (SO awesome to go to your OB office for the betas to confirm you're less pregnant while being surrounded by pregnant people.) 

After about a month, I was ready to have sex and exercise. Both helped immensely in getting me more normalized, as well as the dropping betas. I figured I would be getting pregnant, or a first period, soon and by Christmas would have another baby inside me to help ease (but not erase) the acute pain I felt all day, every day. But I was wrong, so wrong.....