Monday, April 27, 2009

Another milestone

Yesterday marked 5 weeks and 1 day pregnant - that officially makes this pregnancy longer than pregnancies #3 & 4. These pregnancies were each 5 weeks long and had low and non doubling betas.

Today, I am celebrating the little things.

***

In other news: I had my Progesterone and Estrogen levels retested today and they look great!

Estrogen: they want the level to be > 300; after cutting my dose in half my estrogen level is 739! (appropriately down from Friday's 799).
Progesterone: they want the level to be >6; after cutting my dose by 1/3 my level is 31.4! (appropriately down from Friday's 34.5).

It looks like my weaning schedule will happen a lot earlier than anticipated. The nurse suggested that starting this coming Wednesday I should NOT use any more estrogen patches and cut it down to 1 Endometrin a day. This news was shocking to me, so this is when I asked her if they would be monitoring me? She of course said we'd do a repeat hormone level test on Friday and if all looked good, I'd be off estrogen patches entirely and would stay on 1 Endometrin/day until 8-10w when the placenta is supposed to take over progesterone support. I then asked her if we would be doing any further monitoring of these levels, you know like beyond this Friday? And she said NO! She indicated that they see higher levels like mine in FRESH IVF's rather than in FROZEN cycles (ahhhh, so that explains it!) ... and that some people (like me) just don't need hormone support ... huh??) ... I of course protested and asked her if everything would be ok if we weren't obsessively monitoring things? And she responded by saying "We do this ... ALL.THE.TIME, we know what we are doing." ... Of course she affirmed my fears but I thought it was funny that here I was arguing with the experts ... as if I'd been asked by a Stanford REI doctor to lecture to his fellows or something!

Anyway, all is good for now. This experience has been overwhelming; I keep trying to take one day at a time. When I'm not looking for the other shoe to drop, I work towards trying to accept that ... today, I am pregnant.

26 comments:

  1. I was just wondeirng aobut an hour ago if we'd hear from you today, and what GREAT news! Congrats! I'm thrilled for you girlie! I'm praying for continued success.
    Bug Hugs~

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amen, Sister. You are pregnant today, and tomorrow and beyond!!! {{hugs}}

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great milestone breaker, Polly! This just feels right. I can't wait to hear the results of your u/s (one or two???). Oh and I remember being FREAKD out by how quickly they wean us off the meds! But, they do know what they are doing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yay for great hormone levels! I'm thinking of you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congrats on the great numbers. It is really hard to let go of all the monitoring. After all it takes to get pregnant it is really hard to believe they won't hold your hand for the next few months. (especially for a habitual aborter-i hate that term, but i am one too) I even ended up switching my ob to one that would "check up" a little more often. Congrats on being pregnant today and beyond.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes you are pregnant, and you are going to stay that way for another 9 months or so! Still so darn happy for you. Loved seeing you post on "the other side" on FF. Brought a huge smile to my face.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Girl, you are so pregnant! :)

    I just had THE EXACT SAME conversation (today) with the nurse at my RE's office. You stop the estrogen early on, but the progesterone is my worry and the insists that we don't need to do one more test, after I've been off of it for a week or so. I'm going to talk my OB into doing a blood test when I go in for my first appointment. :) I just want to know that the placenta is doing it's job and producing enough of the hormone to support the pregnancy. I think this is a legitimate worry and they should run a stinkin' test to put our minds at ease. We paid A LOT of $$ to get to this point. Talk your OB into running one. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great news! I am glad its going so well!

    ReplyDelete
  9. So happy to see your update, Polly - that's wonderful news!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Honestly, everytime I see that you're blog is updated, I hold my breath. I'm so happy that it's still good news. I can't wait to talk next Wednesday - you still in?

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is really wonderful news!! You have to trust them, that they know what they're doing - they got you this far didn't they?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yay God! Will keep praying!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love it when your posts are uplifting and uneventful (in the best possible meaning of the word!) Stay strong... looking forward to May 5.

    ReplyDelete
  14. yay polly! i'm so happy for you!

    ReplyDelete
  15. So glad to hear of this new milestone! One day at a time, eh? I had the same questions about hormones and even had my on check my progesterone at 16 weeks! With everything supported, now, the placenta should form properly and have no trouble supporting the pregnancy
    Love and prayers.

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is just fantastic. We take our wins where we can. Today we Celebrate!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Awesome news. Keep growing strong little one!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Congrats on passing a milestone! Only good news from here on out!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wonderful numbers! What a great milestone - congrats! We are only a few days apart & i have not been through a quarter of what you have & my anxiety is sky high (ok, so the blood didn't help) so I can't imagine how you must feel! GL!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Glad things are going well! That's great! And you are smart to celebrate the little milestones along with all the others! Yay!

    Bethany

    ReplyDelete
  21. AWESOME NUMBERS :)
    I am praying for you hun :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Polly, I am so overdue with this, but I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU and praying all good things. Congratulations on 5 weeks and one day pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi Polly! I've been a lurker for a few months now (as I also live in the Bay Area and am beginning to explore my IVF options), and I just wanted to congratulate you on your POSITIVE results thus far!

    For someone I don't personally know, I am SO incredibly happy for you! =) You have been WELL overdue for some good news!

    I know you have a lot going on in your life right now, but I was wondering if I could ask you a question (only answer if you have the time!): Which doctors were you treated by at SIRM? I am considering checking out their Northern CA facility, and would love the opinion of someone who's "been there, done that." If you'd like to contact me, my email is mebe80@yahoo.com

    Again, YOU GO GIRL! I'll be praying for your family!

    - Meg

    ReplyDelete
  24. Link to my blog! ttcconnections.blogspot.com!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Great news. I'm so happy for you. Yeah!

    ReplyDelete