Part 5: Transfer Day & Happy Birthday, Mom!

Saturday, February 25... Transfer Day: I read online that eating walnuts and the core of a fresh pineapple helps with the implantation of embryos. While I was on bed rest on 2/25 I sent Grant out to Publix to pick up a fresh pineapple and a bag of walnuts. He ran into a neighbor at the store who didn’t know we were doing IVF or even trying to expand our family. This neighbor made a comment to Grant that I must be having cravings…hence the odd purchase. Ha! If they only knew…

Grant came home, peeled the pineapple and cut it into 5 large discs. I ate one each day for the next five days and snacked on walnuts. Maybe it helped…maybe it didn’t, but I knew it wouldn’t hurt.

Thursday, March 1... 5 days post 5 day transfer: I did it...I peed on a stick. In secret. It was negative. I was let down, but not totally disappointed. Before we had the eggs retrieved I had to give myself 2 trigger shots. These shots contain HCG, the hormone picked up by home pregnancy tests and blood tests. So having a negative pregnancy test, while not what I wanted, at least let me know that the trigger shots were completely out of my system. The only thing worse than a negative test is a false positive...in my opinion.

Friday, March 2... 6 days post 5 day transfer (6dp5dt in IVF speak): The following Friday was my Mom’s birthday. I thought the best gift to her would be a positive pregnancy test. I knew it was really early to see anything, but I thought I’d try one.

The IVF process takes a lot of the fun out of trying to have kids and finding out you are pregnant. I still remember the moment when my Reproductive Endrocrinologist told me I’d have to do IVF to have a family. It’s crystal clear in my memory. At that moment I felt like so much was being taken away from me. I wanted to have that moment that I always dreamed of…the moment where I am the only one who knows I am pregnant…looking at that positive pregnancy test for the first time and deciding how I would tell Grant and my Mom. IVF couldn’t take that moment from me.

Friday afternoon I took a pregnancy test. I let it sit. Checked it. Big Fat Negative. I was disappointed, but knew that it was still early. There was still hope.

That night we went out to dinner with the family to celebrate my Mom’s birthday. I didn’t tell anyone about the test. I hid it in my drawer.

Saturday, March 3... 7dp5dt: The next morning I peeked at that test again…and there it was. My moment. A Big Fat Positive!!

Somehow overnight it turned positive! I ran to get Grant, told him about me taking the test on Friday and it being negative…and how it was now positive! I was ecstatic…he was cautiously optimistic. I called my Mom and asked if she could come over to see our new bathroom vanities…a ploy to get her to come over and see the test. The vanities were still all boxed up…I showed her the test and she, too, was not sharing my excitement. Her and Grant wanted to wait until the blood test on Tuesday, 3/6.

I peed on several more sticks…all showing a faint positive…before the blood test on Tuesday.

3/3 test

Kayla…you’ll have to wait for the baby pictures…stay tuned! ;)