musings at 5.43 weeks

I think it's so silly that they start counting your pregnancy before you're even pregnant. According to the way you're actually supposed to do it, counting from the first day of your last period, I'm actually at 9w1d. Although I'm pretty sure I ovulated on Saturday 12/10 (and definitely between 12/8 and 12/11), so I'm actually at 3w3d gestation, aka 5w3d. Silliness.

I've done a little more research on the internet, including looking at the betas that various people have posted on their blogs, and my numbers are higher (by almost double) than people who are having twins. Gulp. Now admittedly that sample size is pretty small (6)... Here's a little chart for your amusement. Actually, it was for my amusement. I was not concentrating very well at work today. I took my actual numbers for 14 and 16 dpo, then extrapolated what they would be on later days (assuming everything is going well, knock on wood!, numbers in italics). I did one set of calculations with my actual doubling time (37 hr), one with 48 hours (which is about average), and then put in the results from the other folks for comparison. If you assume that I ovulated on 12/8 instead of 12/10, so move all my numbers down a row, you're pretty much around the same levels as the folks with twins. But I think that's pretty unlikely (that I O'd that early).

dpo	me(37)	me(48)	Cass	Jenn	Tertia	Persephone	Suz	Ova Girl
14	344	344	166		164
16	823	823			305	459	166	490
18	1969	1646					457
20	4711	3292		2489			1385
21	7286	4656	1910
22	11270	6584		5133			2735

(if I have you here and your numbers are in the wrong place, please let me know! Also, if anyone else would like to add more data (singles, doubles or more!), please let me know in the comments. If I get enough, I'll post it all in an Excel file)

I'm excited for our ultrasound on Friday, when we get to see how many there are, and check that they're developing nicely (the baby[ies] should be somewhere between sesame seed and lentil sized), but a little nervous too. They do say that you can't use hcg levels to predict singletons vs. multiples, but I'm suspicious! Another potential reason for such high levels is Down's syndrome :-( I guess we can't find out about that for about another 6-8 weeks though.

I'm not really feeling much of anything at the moment. My breasts are a bit tender, but my Gap Body bras are dealing with that nicely ;-) I've also had some intermittent minor cramping, more of a dull ache than sharp pains though. No bleeding (which is good!), no nausea (also good), not feeling particularly hungry, no cravings (maybe a slight tendency towards wanting salty foods rather than sweet, but nothing major), no enhanced sense of smell, no burning need to pee every five minutes (perhaps I need to go more frequently, but it could just be because I'm trying to be better about keeping myself hydrated). Not feeling any more tired than usual (I'm crashing a little right now, but I did get up at 5:20 this morning to play hockey, so this amount of tired is usual for me on hockey days), no headaches... in short, I'm feeling just about the same as normal. I did use another OPK over the weekend, and it came out quite a bit darker than the previous one, so that's a good sign.

I think that's about it for now. Fingers crossed for Friday!!!