I was anxious for my cycle to start because that meant we could start our next donor embryo transfer cycle. – Isn’t it funny, normally you would be dreading that knock on the door from aunt flow but there I was waiting with arms wide open.
My body had been feeling a little different leading up to the expected visit so I didn’t really think much about it. I normally am right on track so on March 7th, 2021 – one day late, I woke up, and there was still no-knock, so I decided to take an at-home pregnancy test. I thought to myself, it’s too soon… but I have all of these tests just sitting in my bathroom cabinet, why not. It was a Sunday morning and Ross had run to Publix to pick up a few groceries before church. Alone in the guest bathroom, I awaited what I assumed would be another negative pregnancy test. To my surprise, within minutes a second line started to appear. I thought no way… so, I took a second one. There it was again, that second line. I just sat there waiting for what seemed to be a lifetime for Ross to get back home. As soon as he walked in the door I ran into the kitchen and told him, guess what!? Then I held up the positive test. He just looked at me kind of confused and asked did you take two? I replied, yep!
Photos and Post By: Emily Horstman
We decided that we would get up early the next morning and I would take two more and if those two were positive then we would call the clinic. Sure enough, they were positive too. I called right when they opened at 7 and told them what was going on. They wanted me to come in that day and take a blood test to confirm. I went into work trying my best to play it cool and told my boss that my clinic wanted me to come in at 12 for some blood work. Luckily my boss is very understanding of our situation and didn’t really think much about it because we were always having to go have blood work done.
When we got to the clinic I was called back pretty fast for my blood work. I asked if there was someone that I could talk to real fast. I mean I was a little frazzled by the whole situation. We had to wait in the waiting room for maybe 10 minutes and then finally Chasity came out and called my name. As we were walking back to a private sitting room she looked at me with this big smile on her face and said, What the heck?! I was like, yeah that’s what I am thinking. When we got seated in the room I explained that I am a little thrown off and wanted to show her the picture of the test. In a way, I felt a little insecure about it and wanted someone else to see the test and agree with me on what I was actually seeing. She looked at it and was like, yeah that definitely looks positive! She said that we should hear back from the blood work in 2-3 hours.
We went back to work because, what else were we to do? I couldn’t explain the situation. I finally got the call around 3. I stepped into the break room so I could have some privacy. The girl on the phone said, well you are definitely pregnant! – If you remember in my Donor Embryo Transfer post I explained how your HCG levels needed to be 25 or higher? My levels were at 777. I could hardly believe it. She told me based on my last cycle I was currently around 4 weeks and 4 days, my due date was November 11th. I would need to come in the next week to do follow-up blood work to make sure my levels were rising and maybe we would do an ultrasound.
We went back the following Monday, March 15th, and we got to see our baby for the first time. It was just a teeny tiny little embryo. My levels had increased appropriately to 8,226 and my progesterone level was excellent at 41.8. I would need to do a repeat ultrasound and labs next week.
The next week at 6w4d the ultrasound looked different already. The baby was no longer a small circle but a little blob. We also got to see the heartbeat. This time for the lab work they didn’t check my HCG since we could see the heartbeat but they did check my progesterone levels. This time they were showing 40.6, which is still great. – This is also a little crazy because normally when you do a transfer you have to take Endometrin supplements but from the moment I found out that I was pregnant I didn’t have to take them. My body was doing it on its own!
We continued going every week for an ultrasound and labs to check my progesterone levels. My levels continued to be great. My last appointment with ART Fertility was on April 12th. It was such a strange feeling. I was so relieved to be pregnant and had made it to 9 weeks, but was sad to say goodbye to the wonderful team of people who have been there with us each step. They seemed like family in a way. We decided that we would put our donor embryos back into the pool of options for another family to choose from. The clinic told us that we would be receiving a check in a few weeks for our refund.
At 10w5d I had my first baby doctor appointment with my regular OB on April 20th.
Thank you to everyone who has been following along with our story to baby H. If you live in Alabama and are looking for a fertility clinic I really recommend you look into going to Alabama Fertility in Birmingham. Our clinic, ART Fertility merged with them this year. They have clinics in Huntsville and Montgomery too. I hope that I gave some insight into what infertility is for some people. Not everyone’s protocols, experiences, and outcomes are the same, but this is our story.