IVF 17: One bun in Dr Jekyll's oven

Well, we cheated. We've been doing some home pregnancy tests this week. You have to be cautious about interpreting them because the hormone being tested for, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is also part of the IVF regimen as a shot to trigger ovulation. hCG is estimated to clear out of the system with a half-life of about 28 hrs, meaning that if you had a trigger shot of 5000 units (as we did), it will take at least 10 days for the exogenous hCG to drop below testable levels on the home pregnancy tests.

So we waited until 14 days after the trigger shot for our first home pregnancy test, which was Monday. Two lines! One faint, but clear. We had a three-pack, and on Tuesday morning the line was stronger, and on Wednesday morning even stronger. hCG levels rise dramatically during early pregnancy, so this was reassuring. Still, we waited to celebrate until today's blood test, which is quantitative rather than qualitative.

And the good news--we are way past the "dubious" hCG level and are officially 4 weeks and 2 days pregnant! Huzzah!

This means that back when I was posting angsty perorations about IVF, I was technically knocked up. Creepy.

It is a bit bizarre to have so many people know that you are just barely pregnant. The whole family knows, of course, as do a number of our friends and most of my work colleagues, just because this process was too complicated and emotional to hide. As my mother said, "Yeah, at 6 weeks pregnant I was just thinking my period was running a bit behind."

In any case, although it is still many weeks before the nerve-wracking first trimester is over, we are grateful and happy to have come this far.

I don't plan on blogging much about the pregnancy itself, in part because I want to get back to science blogging, and in part because pregnancy is just not that novel a topic. Of course, I'll let you know if there are any crazy developments. Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments.