Testing, Testing . . . .

Last cycle, I had every intention of sticking to my RE's instructions to wait for the "official" blood test on day 15 post-IUI, and not take any home tests.

As you know, I almost made it.

One of the main reasons I was able to hold out that long was that I knew if I tested too early, I'd get a false positive, caused by the HCG trigger shot - but I wasn't sure how early was too early.

This month, however, I'm using a different strategy, and planning to do what I've read about one several other women's blogs.

I'm going to do pee sticks every day. I'll see the false positive, then see it disappear, then if it turns positive again, I'll know it's the real deal.

Of course, I know that it's not a guarantee - after all, if we'd tested at 11 or 12 dpo last cycle it might have been positive - but after last month, I will view any positive test as meaning "so far so good" rather than "start buying onesies" for quite a while.

I suspect that's how I'll interpret even a strongly positive beta at 15 dpo, and a doubling beta after that. I don't really anticipate a big, sudden "We Are Pregnant" revelation or corresponding announcements, but more a gradual, "It's looking good, still good, even better, etc."

I'm not sure at what point I'll be confident that we've got a keeper. Maybe about the time we bring the kiddo home from the hospital?

So, I figure there's really no downside to testing all through the two-week-wait. I might drive myself nuts trying to interpret semi-visible lines, but no more nuts than just sitting around and wondering.

I did the first test this evening. Of course, I fully expected to see the false positive from the HCG trigger shot that I took less than 50 hours ago. There was, in fact, a very faint second line.

I'll be interested to see if it's any darker with first morning urine tomorrow, because I would have expected it to be stronger at this point.

There is the possibility that my slightly-less-than-100-percent kidneys might not clear the HCG (or LH, in the case of the invisible surges) as efficiently as they should, making it less likely to register on a home test. Also, this is a Dollar Tree test, although it claims to be sensitive down to 25 mIU/mL.

However, this confirms that I can get enough out to register on a stick, if there's enough in my blood, so I'm confident that I'll see a positive result when I am good and truly pregnant.

Also, I think I'd just as soon the test be a little less sensitive and make me wait an extra day or two before giving me good news, if it means that it's less likely to get me falsely hopeful about a really low HCG level.

I am so glad that we'd not seen a positive pee stick last month, before getting the way-too-low beta.

But, having been through that, I think we're prepared to not get too excited about a positive stick until we get a good, strongly positive beta.

We just want to have an inkling which way things are looking.