And the Winner Is......

Well I just got a phone call a little while ago from the fertilty nurse with my blood test results and it is all good news.



My HCG is 2434, which is well within the normal range for the third week after conception and is a nice increase from the 228 I had last week. My progesterone was 30.6 and although this is down from the 58.9 I had last week that figure was when I still had progesterone support. So this 30 odd is all me and the clinic are happy if it is over 15.

I'm extemely relieved that we have successfully put another tick in the box.The next one will be the ultrasound that we need to have after 6 weeks and four days which will hopefully show one or two little heart beats.

The extension that is taking for ever....

We have been undergoing a huge extension since September of last year. It was meant to be finished around November but we are still going.

I've decided that our house seems to be possessed by an evil spirit that turns previously reliable trades people into the unreliable. No one ever shows up when they say they will, work is rarely completed correctly and has to be redone... I think our plumbers would have to have been about the worst... followed closely by the electrician and the tv antenna man. I'm not even going to mention the electricity company because I think they so far top everyone.

However today is a good day, a day with so much happening it will help to keep me distracted until I get those perviously mentioned blood test results. We are getting our new curtains in our extension this afternoon and also our laundry cupboards are being installed. A miracle has also occurred... The wife of Ken, our missing in action electrician, rang this morning and it looks like he will be here on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday... now if TXU (the electrical company) will actually turn up to move the line into the new switchboard we may actually have lights in our bedroom and power points that work. I won't hold my breath though. The only thing I need now to make my day complete (apart from good blood test results) is for the also missing in action TV aerial guy to show up and finish his work and life will be extremely good.

There goes some more blood!

I'm becoming very used to these things.....


I have to close my eyes and not look. The thought of that blood going into the needle makes me queasy. I have no trouble giving myself injections but there is no way that I could ever take out my own blood.

So I've had my blood test this morning and hopefully I will get the results this afternoon. I'm hoping that my HCG will have sky rocketed and that my progesterone is around the same level as the last test. This will mean that everything is going well - if my progesterone is around 20 or less we have problems... but I'm not going to go there. I have to remember to stay positive.

Five Weeks Pregnant

Today I'm five weeks pregnant - only another 35 or so to go. Apparently Bert and Ernie look something like this at the moment or will do so by the end of this week. They will have little arm and leg buds, a little wiggly tail and something at the top vaguely resembling a head.

Hopefully, all that food that I have eaten has been put to good use.

Is it really real?

I'm currently going through a phase where it doesn't quite seem real. The pregnancy that is. I'm sure this a perfectly natural phase and just one of many I will go though hopefully over the next 8 months. I don't know if it will really start to seem real until we have the first ultrasound in a couple of weeks, which will hopefully show the healthy heartbeat of one or two babies. I think that actually seeing it up on a screen will really help it sink in. It will also be another hurdle crossed in helping us get closer to a healthy baby at the end of it all. Something that I am terribly frightened will not happen.

I will also be having another blood test on Monday to make sure my hormones are acting in a way that will sustain this pregnancy.I'm not sure if this is because I've achieved the pregnancy with the assistance of IVF or if all normal pregnancies (here in Australia at least) follow up the initial positive blood test with another a week later. I do know however that I would rather be over monitored than under monitored, particularly if things start to head in a negative direction.

Food Glorious Food

I don't know when I have been so hungry in all my life. Since before I had the positive pregnancy test I have done nothing (or so it seems) but eat. I'm not even safe in the middle of the night. There is no ignoring it. Hoping it will go away. I just have to eat and not just any old rubbish... my stomach is definately not interested in junk food. As a confirmed chocoholic I have to sadly report that I'm just not interested, as a former pepsi max junkie, I just don't need the stuff. I seem to have gone cold turkey on all my previous bad ways. Oh those companies are going to see a severe drop in company profits over the next 8 months or so. Bert and Ernie seem to be very specific in their requirements... good, healthy, food.



This seems to be as close as I want to get to my former bad habits.

I never thought a bunch of cells could look so good!

Our second embryo...not sure whether he looks more like me or his father.


Ernie at 8 cells. I think this is such an amazing photo.

This is our potential child......

It is amazing to think that this little mass of cells is a combination of both my husband an I.


Bert at 8 cells. Hopefully he is bigger than this by now.

A funny thing happened on the way to my infertility blog....

You know how you think life will turn out one way and it never does. Here I was preparing myself for an extensive trip on the emotional rollercoaster that is IVF and all the sharing that I would need to do, whist trying to deal with the inevitable feelings of failure as we tried and tried to have our baby. Well I think I have just completed one of the shortest IVF trips ever.

I AM PREGNANT

After only one IVF cycle............ as unlikely as it is.............. as rare as it is.........I will say it again...............

I AM PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our two embryos............... nicknamed Bert and Ernie are doing well.............


sticking well and hopefully growing heathy and strong. Okay so they may only be 2 weeks old.... 4 weeks when you do the whole pregnancy counting thing but, so far, so good. We don't know if they have both stuck or not, but I have this very strange feeling that it may very well be twins and until I know otherwise they will stay 'Bert and Ernie'.

I'm still desparately seeking baby, but boy have we just crossed one major hurdle on our way.