Day 18 test

The day passed fairly quickly. My Mum and Dad who had been staying with us for a week went home around 2, so I was left with an empty house but a warm one. Our gas heater needed to be certified by a plumber and he came out in the morning and now we are so toasty. Autumn is surely here now and Winter is knocking on the door slowly.

Having time on my hands I was looking around the web (as you do) at pregnancy levels and wondering what today's results would bring. I was also reading up on breast feeding and how I can do it (maybe) by tricking my body and inducing it. It involves a lot of drugs and herbs and breast pumps etc...I am getting way ahead of myself!

V called around 2.30pm to say that her hCG was 287 and progesterone was 117. Now the news was good, the levels are rising...but when you look at the 'averages' on the web then our little munchkin has slowed down a bit in the 5 days. Should we be worried? Could this be the first sign of something wrong?

After some further research it seems that IVF implants generally register lower hCG levels in early pregnancy as it takes longer for the body to register the pregnancy. In fact a 3 day implant has much higher levels than a 5 day implant..so essentially we are a 5 day old implant and if that is true then why were our levels off the scale in the first few tests and not now? Could it have just settled down a little??

Both V and I separately in our searches came to similar conclusions and are concerned. How could we not be when armed with this information but do we need to be or is Google the true enemy here?!!

The concern we have at the moment is the rate it is rising. Averages say it doubles in 48-72 hours and we are now above that average. I found this quote today which helps me a little:

"If normal hCG levels double every 2-3 days, what does it mean if hCG levels are slow to rise?

You have to keep in mind that hCG levels are just estimates and each pregnancy is different. The actual numbers are not indicators of the probability of pregnancy complications but rather, the direction the numbers are going."

The clinic didn't seem too worried about it. V still has her Tuesday bloods so surely if there was a problem they would have suggested a test earlier??

I must say that I am trying to control my emotions. As excited as we were to find out we were pregnant there was always a big hesitation.. nothing is certain and we have been through the enough to know sometimes things don't work the way you want.. in fact for us that has been more than most.

I am all over the place. Please little embie.. be happy and healthy and stay with us.

It seems we hold our breath for the next 4 more days not 8 weeks!

Today's graph...