CRAMPS AND TWINGES IN YOUR TWO WEEK WAIT

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Is that a period cramp? Or maybe implantation?? Learn two key ways to make more sense out of those sensations — and stay saner — in your two week wait (2ww).

Warmly,

Nicole

Nicole Lange

LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST
HOLISTIC FERTILITY EDUCATOR

• VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  Hello, hello! Nicole Lange here and this is The Baby You Want TV. Your channel for whole-you evidence-based holistic fertility info.

  Now if you love this channel please be sure to hit the subscribe button so you'll be notified whenever I add something new.

  Today I want to talk about the two week wait. Or in IVF the nine-or-so day wait.

  Specifically, I want to talk about twinges, cramps, and sensations in your abdomen during this window. Now these sensations are pretty common. They often freak people out. And I think it's going to help you out a ton to know two helpful facts to get through them to your pregnancy test and beyond.

  Twinge fact number one. Your reproductive organs are low in your abdomen. I'm talking low low. I'm talking lower than you're probably imagining them. As in tucked down under and behind your pubic bone and behind your bladder. In fact the top of your uterus doesn't even get to above your pubic bone until the start of the second trimester of pregnancy and your ovaries are down and to the side of your uterus.

  So, if you have sensations higher up in your abdomen that's not your ovaries or your uterus. It's more than likely intestinal gut sensations. Which totally can still be caused by hormones but are more likely about how those hormones are affecting your intestinal churning and changing your pooping patterns. I talk about this more in The Baby You Want program and the IVF Insider Guide.

  Twinge fact number two. Even when your sensations are very low and definitely near your reproductive organs, these sensations can still mean basically anything. I say this all the time. If I lined up the thousands of people I've seen over 15 years of doing this work and I said, "You had cramping and twinges and sensations during your two week wait. Go to this side if you were pregnant and go to this side if you weren't pregnant." It would be split.

  Ditto if I said you felt absolutely nothing in your two week wait. Heck, even if I said you were 'sure' you were pregnant or you were 'positive' you weren't pregnant, it would still be split. The fact is there's not any single sure or consistent sign of early pregnancy. Especially if you're on extra hormones. The more we accept that and lean into that reality the less we're going to suffer.

  So that really low twinge? Might be implantation — yay. But it might be your ovaries absorbing the now empty follicle or follicles that are technically now called corpus luteum after you ovulated or had a retrieval. Or it might be just a general sensation due to hormonal fluctuations, cramps from a catheter from an insemination or a transfer, irritation from doing suppositories two or three times a day, or still poop.

  The point is you just can't know until more time passes.

  So use one of my very very favorite mantras. "All I know is that I don't know." And then redirect your energy and your deep and very legit desire to know into something that's actually going to serve you and is useful instead of making those wild speculations and spinning and spiraling and looking everything up online.

  If you want to try a healthier alternative watch my video on tipping your fertility stress scales or try out some of my acupressure videos. Better yet, do the full Baby You Want program and learn about big picture whole person ideas that are going to support a healthy pregnancy and recovering from infertility, or staying strong and moving forward if this cycle isn't the one and you have to keep trying.

  Let your twinges be what I call "little bells of awareness". Let them be like little alarms. You feel them and they remind you to try to be in the moment. Send some love and appreciation to your body and do what you can to reframe, be skillful, and keep taking care of your whole darn self. Because even if it doesn't make or break a pregnancy in one fell swoop, and it definitely doesn't, it still matters because you matter.

  Of course I hope that your twinges are a sign of good things. But only time will tell. Know that there's a review of the science and timing of implantation and info about implantation bleeding in the IVF Insider Guide.

  And if you're in the full Baby You Want program we're going to break down way more including early pregnancy and pregnancy test numbers, bleeding in early pregnancy which is very common, pregnancy after infertility questions, reoccurring miscarriage concerns, and more.

  Check out those extra layers, subscribe to this channel and my newsletter at thebabyyouwant.com, and I'll see you again soon.