I might be pregnant!

I went to an appointment on a Thursday to check my follicles. The tech said my follicles looked great. My partner teacher  has been so wonderful and sweet about covering me while I’ve gone to appointments. She has been so supportive.

I went to the appointment and was told later that day that things looked good and I needed to start on Clomid (to develop more than one egg) that very night. I took that medication for five days and went back for another ultrasound the following Thursday. At that ultrasound, the tech said I had a couple of healthy eggs developing and I might be ready to take the trigger shot that night.

I had also checked my ovulation that morning. I had gotten a solid smiley, which I thought meant high ovulation but not peak ovulation yet. I talked to the nurse that evening and she said, “No, that’s a surge! We have to inseminate tomorrow!” The available appointment was at 1:30 p.m., which was unfortunate because it was Dec. 14, the very day I’d been planning our first school spelling bee for weeks. The bee was scheduled for 2 p.m. and we were going to start setting up at 1:30 p.m. I told the nurse I had to be there for my spelling bee! She said it was possible they could get me in at 1 at the soonest, but she’d have to check with the lab people who “wash” the specimen.

I happened to be at a birthday dinner with my friends the night I realized I had to be inseminated the next day. I wondered aloud if I should just skip this month of insemination They told me, “spelling bee or… baby that could change your life…?” They agreed to to take over the bee for me if I didn"t make it back in time. I love these guys.

I drove home after dinner and went straight to Ben and Danielle’s house. Both months, I had had the trigger shots sent directly to their house since they are often home during the day. This time the trigger shot was a different medication, Novarel (because I was doing the Clomid route). We had to mix a liquid into a powder and then pull it into the syringe. Again, Ben acted like a pro about the whole thing, mixed up the solution, and injected it into my hip.

The nurse called me in the morning and said they could do 1 p.m.  And thus began my stressful day of trying to be impregnated and pull off our first school spelling bee. I left at the start of my lunch hour. My partner teacher watched my 5th period class after lunch. I raced to the Denver office, 27 minutes away. They got me in quickly but the nurse had a hard time putting in the speculum at first. It felt like she was digging around down there. The pain was excruciating and I kept clenching down. “Try to relax, the speculum isn’t staying in,” the nurse said, also sounding frustrated. “Did you have problem last time?” “No, it went fine,” I said through gritted teeth. She finally said she wanted to check my chart and left the room. 

I looked at my watch and groaned at the minutes ticking by. It was about 1:20. She came back with another nurse. “I’ve brought reinforcements,” she said. This other nurse was amazing and confident. “First, let’s scoot your hips to the end of the table. Now, let’s raise this part of the table up to elevate your hips…” In went the speculum and catheter, completely without pain, and the insemination was over. I was putting on my underwear while the first nurse was still in the room. “Got to get to a spelling bee!” I said.

I made it back by 1:57 p.m. Parents were sitting in the library, kids were all ready to go in their seats. We just waited for the bell and our second judge to arrive, and got started. The spelling bee went great and it took us about 12 rounds to come up with two champions! :) 

After the bee, I sat down for a few minutes and just breathed, thinking about how it had all worked out and I’d gotten through the day! (And about how I might be getting pregnant at that very moment!)

Then I waited another two weeks. That wait is so difficult because you hope so hard that something good is going to happen, but you’re also getting ready for disappointment. “You won’t have to do another round,” my friend B told me confidently. 

I attended a “Lady’s Night” at church with mom and really felt a God moment. I felt like God was blessing me and the idea of a baby, and I felt touched by him for the first time in a long time. 

I finally took a pregnancy test on Wednesday, Dec. 26. It showed the control line and a second faint pink line. I texted my sister and we both googled what a light line means. Could mean early pregnancy where the hSG hasn’t had a chance to get more concentrated. Could mean an evaporation line.

I texted it to my best friend J, who said, “You’re pregnant, girl. You’re very pregnant.” She immediately drove over with baby H. I kept saying, “I might be pregnant!!” And she said, “There’s no might, you are pregnant.”

I took the test again Thursday morning and got the same result. Friday is when I was ACTUALLY supposed to take the test so I decided to buy another brand and take it again Friday just to cross-check. I took three tests on Friday; all positive. I called CCRM, who told me to go in for a blood test on Monday. I drove to Louisville for the blood test. They called me later that afternoon with the result. “Congratulations, you’re pregnant!” the nurse said. My progesterone and hcG levels were well above the base range. She added that I needed to get another blood test in two days to double check that the hcG levels were rising.

I finally started to believe it.