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Hi Pam, I again offer my congrats to you (I saw the BFP on the other thread). I have been away from the computer, so I just got updated today! Anyway, I am astounded that your doctor put you on the birth control pills to get your period to come. They should have done that after a confirmed ovulation and/or if you didn't have any viable follicles...but you had a 12 and 10 and by the time day 19 came around, those were probably at 20+ and 18+ mm. I bet you ovulated then. I would say wait and see what your HCG levels are, that will give you a better clue as to when you ovulated for sure. Keep us posted, your situation is very interesting. I'll be thinking about you.

Thanks Linds! I'm so glad your back. I've been kinda scrambling to the pieces together. I'm not seeing my RE for this. I've gone back to my OB. My RE just didn't give a shit if I wasn't on injectables. Anyway! Long story short, Today is CD43. i kept a really detailed chart of my entire cycle and in looking back - My temps rose on CD31. They were in the 97's until then. How long after O do your temps rise? I've read that it's within a few days - not weeks. Also, on CD30 I had the absolute worse migraine that lasted the entire day. I had to take narcotics just to ease the pain. So,are both the temps rise and the migraine symptoms of ovulation? If so, I O'd really late. Maybe those eggs just grew really slowly. OH, and lastly my HCG level yesterday was 194 which is an average level for anytime 15dpo to 20dpo. Am I driving you crazy or what? Thanks for your help.

You are probably right, those HCG levels sound about 18 dpo. And I would definitely go by your temperature increase. Perhaps one of the size 6 follicles you had grown and one of those became dominant and ovulated? At 6 mm 15 dpo, maybe that one grew and matured at 20+ and ovulated at the later cd 28? The other big ones you had I tend to think probably got to big and outlasted its welcome. Your HCG level is right on target too with the average at 18 & 19 dpo, (since 18 DPO the average level is 292, with a typical range of 70-758. At 19, the average HCG level is 303, with a typical range of 111-514.) You are totally pregnant...I wish you the best, have faith this is a good one. When did you stop the birth control pills?

You're the best Linds. I need to hear your positive comments. oh course my DH is cautiously pessimistic! My last b/c pill was Friday CD39. I took a pregnancy test CD40 morning. My temps had been up for 10 days. that just didn't seem right. I'm glad I tested or I'd still be popping pills. Thank you for your encouragement but having had a m/c at 12 weeks...i just can't let myself get too excited. It's too soon. Are you excited about your shots?? I did shots for 4 months. The main thing that I noticed is now kindof a permanent feature on my body is a wider waistline. Almost like "backfat" as my hairdresser calls it. I gained a good 10lbs throughout my 2 1/2 year ordeal but the majority was from injectables. I'm only 5'3" and weighed 107 now i'm 117... what we go through.

I have started to put on waist weight too. Before starting all this TTC crappola, at 5'5" I was 117 lbs, now I am averaging 125-127. When I feel good, not bloated, I weight 123. It sucks...because I always feel fat now...and I haven't done injectionables, except the HCG trigger with clomid. I think the elevated estrogen levels from all the hormone shots cause the bloating and excess water retention/fat look. Sounds like you got off the BCP right in time. Any longer would cause more worry for you, but by then I think you were ok. This is great! When do you go in for the next beta?

Sounds like we're both putting on weight! Well, if it helps - w/ both of my girls I gained 60-70 lbs and dropped it within a few months. I really believe alot of our weight is water and fluid retention. At least I hope it is this time! I go for another beta on Monday - results Tuesday. Let's pray for something in the 1,000 range. and I will pray for you and your shots. Give your thigh a little pinch - stick in the needle - release the pinch and push the syringe. Lupron doesn't burn.. that should be painless. How many times a day? Oh and I was wondering with PCOS do you have issues w/ implantation after your IVF? or w/ hormones? I'm clueless but I'd like to know what you're going through.

Thanks for the shot tip...I have yet to do one by myself, as my husband always gave me the holy shit HCG shot in my butt. I do lupron once a day starting on Friday and if I have no cysts on Friday, I will start the FSH after I get my induced period. The egg retrieval will be about November 27-28-ish they think. I believe my doctor is using a different protocol with me and my PCOS and is patterning the post implantation meds after a doctor from Colorado's plan, which has an 80% success rate. It includes estrogen patches and progesterone suppositories, progesterone oil and my metformin. So the meds continue a few days after implantation, probably because of all the hormones will be out of whack and they offer some stabilization and build up the lining more. Thanks for asking...I am nervous/scared but hopeful at least I will know what my eggs are like...that mystery will be solved. It is kind of cool, they also give you the "baby's first picture" when it is in a blastocyst stage before implantation. Not many kids get to see themselves at 24 cells or so. Kind of interested in seeing that picture.

hey that's great about the picture! are you only implanting one embie (sp?) or two?? I always said that if I did IVF I would have 3 implanted. cause i'm older. Luron shots are painless... be sure to get the air out of the syringe. My Dh had to do that - I always shot the med across the room. But lupron was definitely the easiest (less painful) shot I had to take. But be sure to release your pinch right before the injfection or you rish pushing some of it out of the injection site. Also, go in at an angle. Just slide the needle across the top layer of skin. Don't shoot it straight down into your muscle. ouch. How exciting! oh, my temp was 97.9 this morning. i took a tylenol pm last night for a headache. I read that a drop in bbt is normal this early on. fingers crossed.

and right now my temp is 99.2. i feel like i'm on fire. and i have a headache.

I just copy and pasted your lupron lesson for me to my husband...thanks, that is helpful. My teach with the RN was very fast and very annoying...I planned on teaching myself, so this helps. Your temps sound high...I bet the baby is really implanted in there and growing feverishly...you are so lucky girl, I would trade places with you in a heart beat. To answer your question, the doctor will put back 3 embies three days after retrieval if the eggs are not doing too good, if they do good and turn into blastocysts, then I will have two implanted in me 5 days after retrieval. But my doctor says most of the time, only one takes. So...

soo... one embie takes and you have one baby! perfect! hey, i read on the other thread about your sister. i can relate. my sister knows nothing. sucks too cause we're close to the same age. she just gave birth in August this year to another son. She had just turned 42. All she had to do was plan it and boom. pregnant. When she told us she was pregnant last Oct. I was going through a devasting m/c. I was in alot of pain emotionally and physically. She just blurted out that she was pregnant at a family gathering. The same week I had my m/c . Talk about insensitive. I've never gotten over that and we've hardly spoken since. Anyway... c'est la vie. Oh I wanted to tell that I plugged in my bbt temps (redundant I know) into Ferility Friend and they guesstimated that I O'd on Day 24 which would have put me at Day 18po on Monday when I had my reading of 194hcg. I feel good about that. The day they said that I O'd this is exactly what I wrote on my chart: "what's up w/ the higher temp? I'm feeling really hot today. I wonder if just O'ed? Anyway, lower back pain this morning but nothing else." I"m glad I kept this chart. Next time around I'll really know my signs better. Are you keeping details about your cycles?

i am wondering what is it about the temp. does it have to be a certain temp before you can get prego. when are you supposed to temp. i am new to this whole thing.

Hi there! Linds is better at giving definite reasons about why or how we should be doing things but this cycle I decided to chart my BBT temp. That's your temp first thing in the morning. You can google it and get more info ... but in doing that I noticed my temps stayed around 97.6 every monring at 7:20 am. So, after I ovulated I noticed my temps rising and then after about 10 days of my temps being in the 98's at 7:20 am I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. Basically your temps are lower before O and will drop at O and then rise again after O and if they stay high for 12 days or so chances are that you're pregnant. That was a pretty lame explanation but this is the first month that I temped and it works but you have to be consistent.... every morning at the same time. before you do anything else take your temp. I hope that helps a little.

Hi Pam, I bet one of your 6 mm follies kept growing and ovulated at CD 24 like you said. Very smart of you to add notes to your chart like that...I try that too, but I am more vague, one word. It is funny, looking back at some of my cycles, actually most of my cycles, I could have easily thought I was preggers on symptoms alone (a bad thing about PCOS), but the temp drop 15 days after ovulation always let me know that I wasn't...So you are having sister issues too? Although my sister issue doesn't seem as painful as yours. I have no idea how devastating a miscarriage feels, with all your hopes snatched away, I try to imagine what that is like, but I must say, as an infertile woman, going through this bullshit for a year, I find myself very, very sympathetic to woman going through miscarriages, only because I know how happy I would be to get a positive and finally being able to move to the next level only to have it completely reversed in one day. Your sister, from what it sounds like, probably is clueless in the pain she caused you too by sharing her news so early and at the most inopportune time. Sometimes I imagine good news, like when we get engaged, find out we're going on vacation, etc. we get so "enraptured" in it that we just want to shout it out to the world. And then you look around and once you realize "hey, I just told Lucy about my engagement and I just remembered she is getting divorced" Or "I just told Jane about my vacation and she doesn't have money for her mortgage next month" I think about how weird that must be to hear from someone who is not in the circle with me at the moment. But sharing pregnancy is a lot like that too, sometimes a woman could get so engulfed in the moment and it's all she thinks about (nobody else) and she shares, whether anyone likes it or not. So, what I am trying to say is, now that you are pregnant, you probably want to wait a few weeks for confirmation right, and then you will have your chance to share your news. At the time you choose to share with your sister your pregnancy, perhaps you can reiterate to her how hurtful and devastating it was for you to go through a miscarriage when you found out she was pregnant. I think that would put closure on your sad feelings toward her for doing what she did because it will give her an opportunity to apoligize and/or realize her insentivities in the future. As for my own sister, I have taught her how to temp in the morning (which she says she is too lazy to keep up with) and I have showed her how to use the pee sticks (even gave her my CB monitor) and I send her articles about conceiving all the time, vitamins, etc. and I never get a thanks back or anything. This makes me sad, but I would feel sadder if I have information or tools that could help someone and I didn't share it you know? Sorry this is so long. Hey Tonyandjoe, Pam is right about the temps. The idea is to be consistant, and take them at the same time every morning. Your follicular phase will be dominated by estrogen as you develop mature eggs and mid-cycle you should notice a temperature rise of about .3-.4 degrees or more due to progesterone, which is a warm hormone. I know for myself, I usually track cervical mucous too and I always seem to get an odd dip in temperature right before my ovulation, about one to two days or so the major temperature rise. Your temperature rise should stay high for 14 days till period comes, but if you are pregnant, that temperature will likely remain high for over 18 days...then something is up :)

Ya know, my sister is so into her own little world. You know what she said when I told her I m/c??? she said "oooh." that's it. all I got was an "oooh" Then I emailed her days later and asked her if she did anything special to get pregnant and she sent me a link to Webwomb.com but it was a page on gender prediction. One of those pages that tells you if you get pregnant in a certain month at a certain age what the sex of your child would be. What?!? I asked her for help on getting pregnant... not what my baby's sex could have been. argh... I don't see anyone accidentally being that inconsiderate. not once but twice! Okay I just took another HPT and the line is alot darker and came up alot quicker. I feel better about my levels rising. Is that an accurate way to judge rising levels? I don't go to the dr again until Monday. Linds, I hope that I'm not sounding inconsiderate talking to you and the others about my levels. I hope you understand that I am at risk to lose this pregnancy at any time. We're both sort of in the same situations just different boats. Bad analogy but hopefully you get it ;)

Actually, I don't think you are being inconsiderate about sharing your pregnancy with us...I just wish I could be right there next to you when you are holding that HPT and it is getting darker, because I have never seen one in person :) !! Actually, I think you are right, the fact it is getting darker is very good. My mom told me when I get pregnant that I should "mind talk" with the baby. Meaning, speak to it and tell it you love it and want it and be at peace with it through your mind. I would tell you to do the same...I know it is weird, but it is no harm. Reading about your sister and her faults sounds aggravating. She really should have offered you a hug, maybe sent a card, encouraged you, asked you how you are feeling, etc. You would almost expect that from a sister. But really since you have been burned by her and she is of no resource or help to you, I don't see any problem with keeping a distance at this juncture. I would be sad too with her behavior, but I would encourage everyone, always, who is going through pregnancy/infertility to not hold on to useless grudges and forgive her shortcomings. We need positive thoughts at all cost you know? So, if keeping your distance affords you more positve thoughts without the negative distractions of your sister's shortcomings, I say that is a good thing. We can never control how others treat us, we can control how we treat ourselves though, so treat yourself good and keep away until time tells you otherwise. Oh, btw, webwomb sucks...:)