Surviving the 2 Week Wait

The relatively short period of time between your fertility procedure and your first pregnancy test, commonly referred to as the Two Week Wait, somehow manages to feel like the longest stretch of time imaginable. The advice you get is impossibly unhelpful. “Proceed as if you’re already pregnant, but try to distract yourself from pregnancy topics as much as possible - it’ll only make the waiting harder!” “Don’t bother taking a home pregnancy test before day 6, but also avoid symptom spotting - either way, added stress might hurt implantation!” Seriously, impossible. Something incredibly significant is going on inside my body, and for the first time in this bizarre process, I’m completely in the dark about what’s happening. There's going to be some stress.

So, how did I survive the Two Week Wait? For one thing, I didn’t. The wait between a frozen embryo transfer and the first Beta hCG test is actually only about 10 days (as opposed to the recommended 14 days between insemination and testing). I made it to 6DP5DT before taking a home pregnancy test.

(Did those last couple of sentences sound like total nonsense? Check out my guide to IVF lingo here).

Luckily, I got my answer then and there, instead of being stuck in “maybe it was just too early” limbo for the next several days before my blood test. I still took a test every morning from that point forward to make sure the faint line on the test was getting darker, and only stopped once my second beta showed an acceptable increase.

While I was still in the waiting period, there were a couple of things that helped me relax (at least a little bit). One was reminding myself what was likely happening with the embryo on a given day, which made it easier to accept that I wasn’t having any physical symptoms yet. The image below was really helpful for that:

The other thing that helped (temporarily) was full-on distraction. Watching TV, reading books, spending extra time on a work project - all helped take pregnancy from the forefront of my mind to the back. Sure, I was still idly wondering about taking a pregnancy test every hour or so, but it was much better than the full-on spiraling I’m liable to do when I allow my concern to take over fully.

I really wish there was some magic catch-all advice to help folks get through the torturous waiting period. Honestly, though, it's a pain - and if you're feeling guilty about the added stress you're feeling during the waiting period, just know you're not alone. Fingers crossed and baby dust, and may you get your BFP soon!

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Are you in the TWW, or have you made it to the other side? What's your #1 tip to make it through without losing your mind? Let us know in the comments!