Pregnancy symptoms, or lack thereof

I’m feeling better today.  Thanks for the indulgence in listening to me throw my “I don’t think it worked” tantrum. 

Yup.  I don’t think it worked.  I’m five days post-transfer and I don’t have any pregnancy symptoms. 

But I have to keep reminding myself, I usually feel like it did not work at the beginning.  Initially I did not think it worked with my son, although then I was pretty sure it did a few days before my blood test.  (Late implantation bleeding and sore boobs.)  I did not think it worked with my anencephaly pregnancy because I had no symptoms before my positive pregnancy test at 7dp5dt. 

I’ve learned a lot after having been pregnant 7 ½ times.  (I’m not sure what to make of my last one, where my HCG measured at a 2—“not pregnant”—and yet my doctor suggested the embryo did implant.  I’m going with a little bit pregnant.)  Most of my pregnancies were very early losses, but a few lasted for a month or more.  I’ve learned that sometimes I have implantation bleeding and sometimes I don’t.  I’ve learned that sometimes I have nausea; most of the time I don’t.  Sometimes I have insomnia.  Most of the time none.  Sometimes my breasts are super sore, other times not so much.

I don’t think I’ve had sore boobs every time.  And when I have, I started getting them at different times.  With my blighted ovum, they were sore even before transfer, and stayed sore until my positive pregnancy test.  With my early miscarriage in 2014, they were sore just 2 days after transfer.  I did not have any sore boobs last time (my ½ pregnancy).  I think, generally, early sore breasts has been the most reliable sign of pregnany.  I just keep saying to my boobs, please be sore, please be sore.  Nothing.  I’m probably going to make them sore by checking so often!

When I have had implantation bleeding, it has been a couple days before the clinic blood test.  (So around 7 days after transfer.  Remember that handy implantation bleeding calendar?  It says the average is more like 4 days after transfer:http://www.countdowntopregnancy.com/tools/implantation_calculator.php)  So far nada.

Nausea usually comes after the blood test, so not much good it will do me now in my search for early pregnancy symptoms.

Soooo, of course I’m LOOKING for those symptoms as I wait.  Sore boobs, implantation bleeding, nausea, I’ll even take insomnia!  Bring them all on. But I know just because I don’t have them does not mean it didn’t work.  (That’s a lot of negatives!) 

It’s easy to feel negative because the odds are WAAAY against us at this point—with a low-quality day 6 blastocyst (even a chromosomally normal one) after FIVE failed transfers.

Other pregnancy symptoms… oh yea, peeing on a home pregnancy test and getting a positive pregnancy result.  That’s generally been a good sign.  I should, in theory, be able to get a positive result as early as today (5 days after transfer).  If I thought it worked (sore boobs, implantation bleeding) I would take a HPT then.  But with the error ranges being what they are (Sunday would be the EARLIEST I could get a positive) and me being pretty sure it was not successful, Monday (6dp6dt) or Tuesday (7dp6dt) are better bets.  By Wednesday (8dp6dt) if I’m not getting a positive result, we’ll know for sure it was negative.  (And yes, I know pregnancy tests can be wrong, they just never have been for me.)  [Note that HCG measurements will be higher for twins, so women pregnant with twins should get results sooner.  No risk of that with us… unless they’re identical….]

Until then, I’ll just be feeling my boobs every few hours.