IT WORKED!!

Our very first IUI cycle was successful! Just last week I found out that I am actually pregnant. I'm still in a bit of shock, and of course worried too that something will happen to this little life that we've worked so hard to create. As to how I found out, it all started last Monday. The hcg trigger shot that I had to give myself before the IUI to induce ovulation has the nasty side effect of causing false positive pregnancy tests, so the nurse recommended that I wait exactly two weeks to test after the IUI. Being the impatient person that I am, and having done a trigger shot before and tested it out of my body, I completed disregarded her instructions and began testing a few days after the IUI. The point of testing so soon was not to hope for a positive, but to see when the tests finally turned negative so that if on the off chance that I was pregnant, I would know that the test was truly positive. I tested for a few days and the second pink line got lighter and lighter, until last weekend it was completely gone. I was feeling so hopeless, like the IUI hadn't worked and I would soon be going under the knife. Not to mention that there had been several more pregnancy announcements on Facebook that week, which put me in a completely depressed state. After getting through my second Mother's Day not being a mother, I decided to take a test that following Monday morning. I took the test, set it on the counter, and then completely forgot about it when I didn't see a line pop up right away. An hour or so later, I went back to check the test again and there was the faintest of a line! Honestly, it was barely visible to the naked eye, so I had some fun playing around on iPhoto trying to get that second line to pop more.

I freaked out for a while, but then realized that it could possibly still be the hcg shot, so I decided to wait and take another test the next morning. After not being able to sleep, I ended up taking it at about 2am. The line was decidedly darker!!

It was then that I started to get really, really excited. Could I actually be pregnant?!? Could the IUI have actually worked? I tried to sleep for a few more hours, before going out to buy a different brand of test just to make sure the ones I had weren't somehow giving me false positives. Here is what my First Response Early Response test looked like at 11 days past IUI.

The line was faint, but hey, a line is a line!! I started to believe that I really was pregnant. It was this day that I also started noticing that my breasts were extremely tender. I called the RE's office immediately and asked for a blood test to confirm. The nurse told me that normally they don't do blood tests that early, but because I tested out the trigger shot and seemed to know what was going on with my body, she would agree to a blood test. I went in early the next morning and they called that afternoon with the results. I WAS PREGNANT!! As I said, I'm honestly still in a little bit of shock. I've had a little morning sickness, but nothing extreme yet. I definitely feel "pregnant" though, if that's even possible. I continued testing over the next few days to make sure my tests were getting darker and that the line wouldn't suddenly go away.

The line was definitely getting darker! I went back for a second blood test to confirm that my hcg levels were rising appropriately, and everything looked good. We go for our first ultrasound to hopefully hear the heartbeat on June 4th. I am SO EXCITED that our wish of becoming parents is finally coming true!