u/MagicianInside3264

I have an anterior placenta so was told it might take longer to feel any kicks. I’m currently 20w4d. Yesterday it felt like I had a load of gas bubbles, and I know they say movement can feel like that but for some reason it just didn’t occur to me that that could be what it was - I thought I was going to poop myself! Later it felt like stomach twitches or spasms, and I still assumed it was a digestive thing. But at 4am (the time I’ve been wide awake almost every single night for weeks during this pregnancy) I felt undeniable kicks!

It’s incredible to be at this stage, it feels so unreal, but also it’s now feeling super real at the same time?

Isn’t it so cool that we are able to get pregnant and create whole little humans from IVF!

I’m 7w today and for the last few days have been having the odd sharp pain in my lower left abdomen, the odd pain on the left side of my belly button, and earlier today a bit of dull pain in my inner left hip. I have also had the very occasional pain on my right side, but much much rarer than my left side, as well as a general ache in my whole pelvis area. It’s the pains on my left that have me worried as everything I’ve read said you shouldn’t have pains on one side, it should be both, but I very very rarely have pain on my right. My sister didn’t have this with her pregnancy, she had pain both sides.

We Googled it (terrible idea I know) and it said if you have cramps that’s a concern. But when I have my period I just have a constant ache and pressure, which I wouldn’t describe as cramps. What do cramps feel like? Is it like what I’ve described? Should I be concerned?

I’ve also had some debilitatingly intense pain just below my ribs which I’m pretty sure is gas or food intolerance as I’m intolerant to maize but have been living off chicken nuggets and other stuff the past 2 weeks due to nausea, and have been lazy about reading food labels (plus I’ve eaten McDonald’s nuggets before without a problem, so I didn’t think it would be a problem now, but OMG I was curled up on my bed with severe tummy pain a couple of hours after eating them and haven’t touched any nuggets since. Does pregnancy make previously-moderate food intolerances more severe?)

I have my first scan on Monday and know I should just try not panic and wait until then, but that’s so much easier said than done! If anyone has any tips or experience of this, please let me know!

I’ve tested positive on multiple home pregnancy tests since Friday (yay!) and my official Test Day is tomorrow. But in my clinic, test day just means doing a home pregnancy test and telling them the results, which I’ve already done, although they won’t schedule any scans or anything until I test again tomorrow and tell them on the official day.

But on the IVF forums I see so many people talking about their clinics doing Beta testing and their Beta numbers and their increases and all that. I asked my clinic and they said it’s not something they routinely do and in fact they advise against it because it can create more anxiety before the scan if the results are bad, and if the results are good that’s still not an indication of whether the pregnancy is viable.

They said they can do it if I really want, but that I should think about whether I really want to.

If you had Beta testing done, what did you think? Would you recommend it?