Bounce

In brief: two lines & good first beta number!!!!

For the past three days I've been convinced that this cycle was a
bust. I felt nothing going on (except what I always feel on the meds).

This morning I decided not to break out my stash of 'good' early
response HPTs, but used a supermarket branded one (past its shelf life
by a couple of months too).
I saw the test line go whiter (again, must be the brand) and was
almost ready to chuck it. But the manual did say wait 3 minutes ...
and lo and behold, a second line had appeared - though it was a bit
faint for my liking. I had breakfast, glanced at the test, got
dressed, glanced at the test, brushed my teeth, glanced at the test
and the line had become much clearer. Well, a good start.

Early in the afternoon, a call from the clinic - the beta number was
missing from the results the lab had sent over. Argh! Not again!!! I
chased the lab, had them resend the results (which they won't disclose
to patients) and then waited for the clinic to call back. And waited.
And finally caved and called myself.

The beta number is good, very convincing. Next bloodtest ... in a
week! Seriously? And first u/s in a month? They haven't an mentioned
u/s yet.

How do I feel? Surreal.
Will there be a take-home baby? We'll see, one day at a time. But
we're in the running and that is great. More than great.