Numbers game

The next morning we got an appointment at the doctor. With a mixture of excitement and fear we arrived, paid our co-pay and waited to be called. Me a little anxiously since I had to pee and was holding it for the urine test. Once called back, Jamie was sent to wait in some chairs and I was sent to pee in the cup. When finished I found Jamie holding my purse, sitting next to another guy holding a purse, trading baby stories.

My nurse was Nuala, she had a nice little Scottish or Irish accent. I can't tell the difference. She showed me my pee test and confirmed that it was indeed "positive". We went into her little nurses office and she laid it all out for me. She figured out how far along I was based on my last period. Then using a little wheel shaped chart, calculated my due date at December 7th. The significance was not apparent at the time, but later I was reminded that was Pearl Harbor Day.

Nuala said we needed to track my hormone levels over the next few days to make sure they doubled every 48 hours so I would need to have some blood tests done. My progesterone level needed to be between 12 and 20 and increase until the placenta was formed.

I asked about a sonogram and was told not until 10 or 12 weeks as we really couldn't see anything at my current stage of 4.5 weeks. I was upset, knowing full well that 15 years ago at 4 weeks they were able to tell there wasn't a baby in there why couldn't they tell there was a baby in there today? Surely medical science had advance enough since then.

I did not push the issue.

Nuala gave me some samples of prenatal vitamins and a sheet that listed what over the counter medications I could and could not take for various reasons. I was told I could not take my Claritin until 12 weeks. Now this just happened to be the week everything outside turned green under all that pollen. How was I going to survice allergy season?

I was sent out to the waiting area for the Lab until I was called to take my blood. Jamie came to sit next to me and I cried totally beside myself with worry over my little baby. How could I live the next 6 weeks in constant fear that every little pain could be the sign of another ectopic? There was no way I could enjoy this experience knowing that it could all be false and end in a miscarriage. Lou Ann, the lady I usually see when I am in for my yearly exams saw me in the waiting area and tried to comfort me. Eventually I was called back to give blood and was told to return on Thursday to repeat the test.

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Wednesday - The doctor's office called to tell my that my hormone levels were "excellent" and they wanted to go ahead and schedule an ultrasound for the following Monday. Hallelujah! I was so relieved.

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Thursday - The next appointment to give blood. I snuck a peak at my chart and saw my hormone level at the first test was 8639. It seemed like a good number at the time.

Nuala, obviously not used to such a morose looking mother tried to asure me that everything was going to be alright and it was ok to be excited. I can understand it must have been an odd reaction for a planned pregnancy but I was really worried something bad was going to happen. If I got my hopes up and was disappointed I might not recover. My mom said "I've been praying for a baby not a pregnancy. So what you have is a baby!" That made me feel better and surely God would not do this to me again. He has blessed us so much already why not this too.

Once I got back to work I did a little research online about hormones levels and what they meant. Levels as high as mine at 4 weeks either meant you really were further along or you have more than one baby in there. We had an exciting few days speculating on twins as it tends to run in my family.

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Monday - The doctor's office called again with my test results and was told again that they were "excellent". 23997 on the pregnancy hormone HCG and 35.3 on the progesterone. Remember I said they were supposed to double every 48 hours? Well 8639 x 2 = 17278 and I was WAY over that level.

Could there really be two babies? The ultrasound would tell and it was only 8 hours away....