My FET Journey

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Assalamualaikum everyone. How are you all doing?

As we entered our 6th years anniversary, I would like to share with you my FET journey a.k.a. my IVF 1.1. Many of you were wondering, where is my latest post of my new IVF cycle? FET or frozen egg transfer was way easier for me because I don't need to do as many scans as before, no injections needed and I can just plan when I wanted to do it.

Alhamdulillah my second round of transfer, which is my first frozen transfer was smooth and totally different from the first one. I have decided to use up all my frozen embryos (2 in total) that I had and tawakkal alaAllah. One was BB grade (same as my first cycle) and one was grade 2. 

I prepared more this time around by eating more healthy, exercise and being active, I even went to TCM (4 out of 6 times of the package that I took). I find that this round was better because there weren't injections. Only oral tablets and only 1 scan. I really love this arrangement as it was stress-free and easy to navigate with my working schedule.

On 30 Dec, I decided that I wanted to postpone my transfer because my colleague is taking 2 weeks off and our leaves will clash but when I did my blood test, the nurse said that I could actually push to the date that I wanted. I told her I can only do after 6 Jan, then she said okay then 7 Jan it is and I had to go and collect all my medication and do all the test.

I quickly call my TCM to make special arrangements of of my appointments. They were so kind and managed to squeeze my sessions at least twice a week before the transfer date on 7 Jan. You can read more about my experience here. My initial plan was to postpone it because I wanted to condition my body for a month before doing the transfer but because the nurse persuaded me to do it in January because there are no slots in February because of Chinese New Year and I didn't want to wait till March. They were so nice to slot me another 3 more acupunctures the following weeks leading up to my transfer and one right before my transfer.

We went in on 7 Jan for my ET, at 12pm and was pushed because my doctor was busy with another patient and some lab technician were doing maintenance work in both labs. All was the same as before except that they gave me progynova and cyclogest this time round to enhance my progesterone. I decided to move around more by cooking, going to the grocery shopping compared to my previous transfer, don't think too much and eating healthily. I wasn't at my happiest moments because my best friend had a chemical pregnancy and it was devastating. I watched Siti Nurhalizah's IVF story for her 2nd baby and all other successful IVF baby stories on YouTube to boost my mood. That was my strength and optimism during this cycle. I also started and continued reading morning and evening doa from Hisnul Muslim. It really helped me on my part to realign my purpose in life and inner strength from Allah. I celebrated my birthday over the weekends with my family members coming over to my place and that Monday was my blood test. 

I did not have any symptoms that I had during my chemical pregnancy, I just had something like period cramps (which I got scared and bedrest the whole day after carrying heavy groceries or standing too long) and slightest spotting which I thought was the effect of cyclogest. No shortness of breath, no bloatedness.

During this time, I already knew I was pregnant because I started to test the pee stick 7 days before the blood test (same as Siti's timing) and I saw a very fine line (5dp6dt). 

I was nervous as I was scared that it was going to be a chemical pregnancy test again. So I refrain from testing the next day but tested again the day after and it got darker. 

I did it the same the next 2 days until the day of my blood test on 18 Jan and showed it to A. 

He was dumbfounded, stunted and couldn't believe his eyes. He even felt that he didn't want to go to work and wanted to accompany me to the hospital for the blood test. I told him that he to relax, it is just a blood test. The results will be after 4 hours and they will give a call whether to come back to continue with the medication or not.

I came home by train to waste time, rolling on the bed and watching Youtube until 1pm. I got the SMS from SGH saying that my appointment for gynaecologist on 1st Feb. I was ecstatic and screenshot it and gave to my husband but sadly he didn't understand and the next thing the nurse called me to come down to the clinic in 1.5 hours time. Called A and made zohor prayer and suddenly A was at the house doorstep, he took urgent leave to go to the hospital with me.

We went and the nurse was, eh why the husband come? no need lah just take medicine only. haha, funny lah nurse, he is just too excited when she said congratulations and gave us a new list of medications that I have to take all the way till I graduated 1st trimester. 

I have to go to the hospital every Monday to do my blood test to see if it is in the good range. Here's my blood test result. I was hoping for a big number for my beta because I was hoping that I may carry twins but singleton too was already a miracle.

18 Jan

Beta HCG: 253 ❤

Estradiol: 555

Progesterone: 41.5

We were so excited but don't dare to tell anyone yet. The feeling was surreal like we cannot believe after so many negative pee sticks and now, Allah has answered our prayers. We were in this state up till 8 or 9 weeks until I got to see my baby's next scan and I was relieved to see the baby is growing healthily alhamdulillah.

Celebrating our double happiness. BFP and my birthday

First cake

Second cake

We went Carousel for dinner on my birthday the next day and celebrated this wonderful day together. The saddest part, I can't eat any raw food. I wanted to try raw oysters, sushis but I can't because it is not good for pregnant women to eat raw food, scared of any bacteria and worst of all, food poisoning. Came back to work the next day, I told some of the people who knew that I went for IVF such as my boss, my partner. A told mama the next day when he came by to visit my mother-in-law. We told my parents over the weekend when my brother brought his then-girlfriend/ now-tunang to get to know each other. Here's the video: 

The shorter version

The long version

Told my brother and sister-in-law with this video and they straight away video call me at work which we were both shocked and they decided to surprise us too with their news. 

I had to go to the hospital every week for a blood test on 18 Jan, 25 Jan and 8 Feb, I skipped 1 Feb because Dr Yong said I don't need it. I had to do 2 weeks of scanning until I graduated from my 1st trimester which were on 1 Feb (6 weeks) and 15 Feb (8 weeks). Then it became every month consultation and scans from 22 Mar onwards.

So that is my FET journey. Now that I am 37 weeks on our anniversary, please make du'a for me and my baby ya.