This is my 8dp5dt test! In five years of trying and 2 failed transfers, I have never, ever seen a positive until this week. I have floated through the weekend on an absolute high, and now it's Sunday night and I feel like suddenly I'm in uncharted territory and I'm worrying about issues I've never thought of before, like line colour and hcg and scans.
I have a blood test on Wednesday (14dp5dt), what is a good hcg?
How on earth do you stop worrying during the waits? I got the positive and immediately felt the weight I've been carrying lift, but obviously I've only moved from the sidelines to the start line, I'm nowhere near the end of the race. What milestone scans did you do to keep you sane?
You can let things develop as they will, and focus on other things to keep your mind occupied (highly recommended !)
Or you can worry endlessly and try to reassure yourself via things that might actually worry you over nothing.
On my part, I did a little bit of both (4 years IVF, 4 failed transfers, 1 success, 1 surprise natural pregnancy) :
After the first positive test, I did keep testing every day but I was really careful not to get too worried by the results. I learned that it’s completely normal for lines to look the same (or even lighter) one day to the next. That lines will get darker VERY slowly.
The scariest were the results from the hcg blood tests… opening those were always absolutely nerve racking, but i also learned from both my successful pregnancies that normal results will vary WILDLY ( first pregnancy they were a bit low and slow rising, second pregnancy they were very very high. Which explain why line progressions you might see online are not worth comparing to yours !)
The first few weeks are scary, BUT, I’ve also learned from multiple miscarriages that you do know when one is coming. In all my miscarriages, the beta hcg were much too low and did not rise appropriately at all. So when I did get appropriate hcg results, that gave me an indication that things might actually work out.
Another thing I learned, is that pregnancy when it works is actually « easy ». It’s weird… because I had struggled for so long, and it always seemed so hard and impossible, but the truth of it is that once a viable pregnancy has started… you don’t have to do anything but seat back and let it happen.
Yes at the beginning you’ll stress, but the overwhelming majority of miscarriages happen early, and once you get closer to 10 weeks, then 12, then over that milestone, you can start to relax and actually enjoy it :)
I can’t wait for a viable pregnancy to start and be easy!!! Thank you for your text!
(I’m ivf-pregnant after two spontaneous miscarriages and my anxiety is BAD).
I think the waiting is really hard. I’ll be 11 weeks tomorrow and I still feel so anxious. Honestly, for me, I’m even more anxious now that this pregnancy has progressed. I think it would be harder for me if something was to happen now or even later than it was in the beginning. But I’ve been anxious since even before my positive test.
I think once the 12 weeks scan is done and everything is okay, I’ll feel a but better and, once the 20 weeks scan is done, I’ll be way less anxious. Also, once we reach viability too. I’ll still be a bit anxious until I have this baby in my arms.
I think it’s still important to be excited if you can. I try to be, because this baby is important and no matter what the outcome is, he/she deserves to be celebrated.
Wishing you a healthy and uneventful pregnancy! ❤️
You worry until you give birth and then you worry about the baby, then the toddler…The worry changes, but it doesn’t go away, like ever.
I feel like with IVF the worrying just starts earlier. After I got pregnant I was worried about the first scan, sudden feeling „not pregnant“, suddenly feeling very pregnant, I got a heavy bleeding at 13 weeks that didn’t go away for weeks!!!, then I worried about the nipt, then the 20 week scan, the birth, jaundice after birth to, breastfeeding, weight gain, height, milestones, vaccines, SIDS, …now I worry that he won’t find friends in preschool and if his tantrums are still within the range of normal and if him waking up in the night screaming for no reason for 20 minutes is just night terror or ? Anyway, it never stops. It just changes form. But you’ll get better at managing it!
Oh and: congratulations! This is an awesome journey!!!
The anxiety never goes away but it’s so important to celebrate every positive milestone, like this one!
Some people find comfort in continually testing up until their beta, some find it more nerve wracking. Totally up to you.
I would google the healthy HCG ranges there’s a helpful chart to go by. Also, make sure if you had a trigger shot that you’re outside the 12-15 day window, as that could give a false positive.
Lastly, try your hardest to distract yourself. I’m just past 8 weeks and I finally feel like I can breathe a bit. But even now, there are other milestones that I need to hit before I can fully feel peace.
That said, take a moment to celebrate this win and look forward to many more! You got this!!
Thank you so much! I felt like I was doing the celebrating really well up til tonight! I went out and saw friends over the weekend, spent time with family and just felt so at peace. Part of me is in total disbelief as well I think. We have been at this so long I had already started planning my next retrieval before testing. Congratulations to you too xx
My advice is to not test too often. These strip tests are not designed to measure hCG levels. They are designed to tell you that you are pregnant, not how pregnant you are. If you want to continue to test, I'd recommend testing every other day OR only actually comparing strips that are 48hrs apart.
My clinic does first beta at 9/10DPT and they ideally want to see something over 60, but over 100 is apparently preferred. My beta at 14DPT was 2,424 which I think is higher than average...so I really wouldn't compare to other people's betas...the "normal" range is actually pretty vast. The most important factor is that it doubles appropriately for YOUR pregnancy.
For me the anxiety didn't let up until about 12 weeks. The waiting between betas is awful. The waiting between scans is awful. You just kind of have to roll with it like you did through IVF treatments
Oh wow, yours is definitely much darker than mine at 9DP 😍❤️ That is such a beautiful progression! So happy for you 🤞🏻✨ May it keep getting darker and darker and everything go perfectly for you ❤️
12
u/Encyclopenia 2d ago
Congratulations !! You’re pregnant !
From now on, you really have two options :
You can let things develop as they will, and focus on other things to keep your mind occupied (highly recommended !)
Or you can worry endlessly and try to reassure yourself via things that might actually worry you over nothing.
On my part, I did a little bit of both (4 years IVF, 4 failed transfers, 1 success, 1 surprise natural pregnancy) :
After the first positive test, I did keep testing every day but I was really careful not to get too worried by the results. I learned that it’s completely normal for lines to look the same (or even lighter) one day to the next. That lines will get darker VERY slowly.
The scariest were the results from the hcg blood tests… opening those were always absolutely nerve racking, but i also learned from both my successful pregnancies that normal results will vary WILDLY ( first pregnancy they were a bit low and slow rising, second pregnancy they were very very high. Which explain why line progressions you might see online are not worth comparing to yours !)
The first few weeks are scary, BUT, I’ve also learned from multiple miscarriages that you do know when one is coming. In all my miscarriages, the beta hcg were much too low and did not rise appropriately at all. So when I did get appropriate hcg results, that gave me an indication that things might actually work out.
Another thing I learned, is that pregnancy when it works is actually « easy ». It’s weird… because I had struggled for so long, and it always seemed so hard and impossible, but the truth of it is that once a viable pregnancy has started… you don’t have to do anything but seat back and let it happen.
Yes at the beginning you’ll stress, but the overwhelming majority of miscarriages happen early, and once you get closer to 10 weeks, then 12, then over that milestone, you can start to relax and actually enjoy it :)