6dp5dt. . . . and it IS time to start testing!

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I love POAS (Peeing on a Stick). . .I don't know why, I just do. Oh wait, we discussed this in a previous post. I DO know why - it's a control thing - in a world where very little can be controlled, WHEN I find out that I am pregnant is whole-heartedly (at least partially) under my control. And I LOVE it.

SO, in the event that you haven't guessed yet, we tested. So you want to see???

Do you?

Okay, fine.

Enough with the suspense!

We HAVE been blessed!!! And we are SOOOO thankful!!! Official confirmation will not come until Monday, but how can you argue with this???



We are so hopeful and are praying that the "third time's the charm", meaning the 3rd pregnancy is the one that actually sticks. Please God, let this be our time!

With us, any time there is good news, there also seems to be a "but". This is no exception. While Si is in no way concerned about this, I AM. I took these tests this morning, and they are beautiful. BUT, this afternoon I started spotting. Why, I'm not sure. I will call the RE in the AM and have them get me in for blood work and maybe an ultrasound. My beta confirmation day isn't even until Monday so they will be quite surprised when I call them in the AM with a request for confirmation blood work and an ultrasound to see where the blood is coming from!

I'm quite sure that my progesterone levels are fine - they were 59 on Sunday - and that is very nice and decently high to maintain a pregnancy (and we are taking the lovely progesterone in oil shots, so it is unlikely it has dropped much if any at all). In my first pregnancy, I bled, and they determined that my ovaries were bleeding. I have endometrioma cysts on my ovaries, so when they rupture they bleed. . . perhaps that is the case this time as well. My ovaries DID just have a workout producing 50 follicles...maybe this is the recourse from that! Anyway, I digress. . .=)

We continue to appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers, and hope you all are doing well!

Tick tock, tick tock. . . 4dp5dt. . .is it time to test yet???

Hi All -
Just figured I should drop in and update my "readers" to our current status. I know several of you can't comment because you don't have blogger or google accounts, so I appreciate all of your email and FB comments as well (although we will NOT announce any pregnancy on FB until we are at least 8 weeks along so we would ask you to do the same). You guys are the best, and I don't know what I would do without you all!

SO. . .for those of you infertilies that know me, I am a POAS (pee on a stick) addict. I just have to do it. It's a control thing. And what do you pee on? Well a HPTs (home pregnancy tests) of course. I don't have much to report at this point, except that the trigger shot of HCG is definitely out of my system, so when I get that BFP (big fat positive) it will be for real. I'm not being overly optimistic am I? I notice I just said "when" I get that BFP, not "if" I get that BFP. . . hmmm. . . .wouldn't that be nice?

Anywho, I was just dropping by to let everyone know that we are doing fine. Fertility wise anyway. Our beta is scheduled for Monday, and that will give us our "for sure" final answer as to whether or not this cycle worked. Every appendage I have is crossed and is SO hoping God has blessed us with another chance to be a mommy and daddy. . . and to more than just puppies and kitties, although we do love them dearly as well=).

On the non-fertility front - our very good friends and neighbors next door - Aunt Denise and Uncle Ron, well Uncle Ron has been very sick with several things for a very long time now (lung cancer, diabetes, heart problems, etc.), and he passed away yesterday morning. We loved him dearly and were SO sad to see him go, but we know he is in a much better place now without the pain and suffering he was having to endure on earth. Now we just pray that Aunt Denise can find peace in all of this. We love her dearly and of course will be there for her as she has been for us. Please say a little prayer for her if you would. She of course is hoping and praying that these little blastocysts attached, kind of as a last legacy to Uncle Ron. I hope so too. =)

Two

Si did a wonderful job of updating the blog yesterday while I was. . .eh, incapacitated and under the influence of Valium=). Thanks hun!! I just thought I would do a quick follow up update for today, 1dp5dt (one day post five day transfer for you non IVF'ers).

So yesterday morning when the RE called she told us we had 1 - Grade 4 AB (excellent quality) blastocyst, 1 - Grade 4 B (great quality) blast, 1 "good quality blast" and 1 "decent quality morula" (day 4/5ish blast). She would only transfer two, so she transferred the excellent and the great. This is all a review I know.

Anyway, I didn't receive a call from the clinic today updating our frozen status (slackers), so I called them! We have two blastocysts that were good enough quality to be frozen this morning. YAY. So add that to our 12 day 1 embryos, and we have a total of 14 embryos that can be used for future FET (frozen embryo transfer) cycles.

Now, that being said, we should probably do some math on this. We don't have a gazillion kiddos waiting to be thawed and transferred. My RE only does blastocyst transfers for FET cycles (day 5 or day 6 embryos). Of the 13 embies that we grew out for our fresh blastocyst transfer, only 4 actually made it to blastocyst stage and were good enough quality to be transferred or frozen. That only equates to about 31% of the 13 fertilized embryos. This isn't a great number. I would then guess that maybe of the 12 "day one" frozen embryos remaining, maybe 3-4 of them would make it to blast stage. SO, realistically, we probably could get 2 FET's out of our remaining embryos. Cool. Last time we only got one FET out of the deal=).
This is looking a bit more promising than our last cycle.

To the babies insided of me - grow little ones, grow! I have started talking to the babies, cheering for the babies (thanks Sheila!), and singing to the babies. I think it makes them happy. I hope it makes them happy anyway, and makes them want to divide and conquer and grow big and strong=).

Hope you all are having a great day, and thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!!! I will of course keep updates coming in as they become availalbe=)

Post Transfer...Let the Emotions begin!

So we were laying in bed at 7:23am waiting for the alarm to sound to wake us. The phone by the bed rang jerking Megan awake. She answered and the RE was on the other end of the line.

The RE stated that we had one egg of (AB)excellent quality, one of great quality, and one of good quality. There was another egg of so-so quality as Megan would put it.

The RE said that the transfer was on for today. The debate ensued between the RE and Megan where they needed to figure out how many embryoes they were going to transfer. Megan started pushing for three embryos but the RE would not entertain the idea and stated that she wanted to put the the "Egg"cellent quality one and the great quality egg and that should be more than sufficient.

The RE said if we transfered three we would end up with three. According to Meg it would be better to have three kids then not having any kids at all. (I would tend to agree with statement.)

Of course, the RE won and we agreed to the two embryo transfer. The RE said that she would see us in a half and hour and hung up the phone. Megan and I looked at each other, and we were still in bed!?!?

We arrived at the hospital and it was a whirlwind of activity from there. It was 20 minutes later and we were back in the hospital room waiting for the hour to pass before they would allow us to leave.

By 10 am we will be on our way home and Megan will beginning the 24 hours of bedrest that is needed to let the little embryos implant and hang on...

At this point we will have to wait another week before we know any thing. It is going to be a long week. We thank everyone for the prayers, and please keep praying. We can use all that we can get!

Day 4 In the Petri Dish

I apologize for not posting the update sooner! The day before transfer I usually run around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything that needs to be done done (like laundry, grocery shopping, etc.) so I don't obsess about it while I'm on bedrest! Therefore, the blog didn't get updated until 930 PM. For that I apologize!

SO - on to the report of the day - day 4 in the petri dish=). All 13 embryos are still alive. This is good news. BUT, "they" are a "code 2" - meaning that at least 1of the embryos is/are delayed (i.e - they should be 16 cells by now and may only be 12 or something). The RE didn't know if just one of the embryos fell into that category, or if all of them did, or if half of them did (the lab didn't indicate it in their report).

We won't know any additional information until tomorrow AM when they call. Transfer may be tomorrow AM at 9, or it may be Monday. It all depends on how many actually make it to day 5 blastocyst status by tomorrow morning. If none do, we will wait and see if any make it by Monday. If one makes it to blast stage tomorrow we would wait an extra day to see if any of the other embies caught up. If two or more make it to blast stage by tomorrow AM we will likely proceed with the transfer tomorrow. So now we just sit on the edge of our seat and wait! Tick tock, tick tock!!

And so far so good with the OHSS. . .still status quo. . .I can still breathe, I can still urinate (like you really wanted to know that), and I can still eat. . . .which means I am still cleared to have transfer occur. I pray the OHSS only gets better and doesn't even consider getting worse!

Day 3 in the Petri Dish=)

The RE's office just called with the update of the day. It's Day 3 in Petri Dish World and all 13 embryos being grown out to blastocyst stage are still happily living and dividing away=). YAY! Go embies go!! Transfer is still on schedule for Sunday 2/21 (or Monday 2/22).

I am awfully ginormous (or fat if you would like to refer to it that way), and I'm 99% sure the culprit is OHSS. At first I thought I was just swollen after being poked with an enormous needle 50 times, but as the days go by, I'm not getting any smaller, and may even be getting bigger! YIKES! And I'm sore! And a bit nauseous=(. Not exactly what I was hoping for. . . but it could definitely be worse.

None of my work pants fit right now (bummer), so luckily my friend Sheila was gracious enough to lend me her "Bella band" to use so I don't have to button my pants when I go to work. Pregnant ladies use the Bella Band so they can stay in their pre-pregnancy clothes longer. SAD! I'm not even pregnant yet and I look like to Goodyear Blimp! Hehe=). It's all for a good cause though, and will be totally worth it in the end =).

Anyway, the RE's nurse made a note of the OHSS junk, and told me to call if it gets worse. She said generally they don't cancel ET for OHSS unless: 1) Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, 2) Decreased urine output, or 3) Inability to keep down fluids or food (severe nausea, vomiting, and resulting dehydration). SO, for the time being, I'm still good to go!

I've had nasty OHSS before (decreased urine output - had to be hospitalized), so I know what I'm watching for. . . I have my fingers, toes, and legs crossed that it doesn't get to that point! Otherwise we will have to freeze our embies and do a transfer next month instead (which is totally fine by me if that's what we need to do).

As always, I will keep you all updated! Transfer will be here in no time!

Eggcellent Embryo Update!!

We have been SO blessed!

The 13 embryos being grown out to blatocyst stage for transfer on Sunday are all still "plugging away" growing and dividing properly. YAY!

There were 9 eggs on retrieval day that were deemed too immature and could not be fertilized. Well, they were grown over night Tuesday night in a petri dish and had 2nd day ICSI completed yesterday. We got 5 more embryos to "take" out of the 9 remaining! AMAZING! These 5 were frozen with the other 7 already frozen and will be used for future FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) cycles!

For those of you math whizzes, that brings our total up to 25 fertilized this cycle!!! Praise God! 12 have been frozen already, and 13 are being grown out to blastocst stage! We expect some (probably more like 40%-65%) of those being grown out to blast stage to die out, but so far so good!

We really have been blessed! We are so grateful - thank you God!!!

And grow embies grow of course=). You are making Mommy and Daddy so proud already!

Fertilization Report!

Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen! We just got the call from the RE with our fertilization report for the day. . .AND. . .

They aspirated 30 decent sized eggs yesterday. . .

Of the 30 eggs aspirated, 21 were mature and had ICSI (inter cytoplasmic sperm injection) completed yesterday afternoon or last night

Of the 21, 20 fertilized and are dividing normally!

They froze 7 of the 20 right away (this AM), and are growing out the other 13 to blastocyst stage.

The other 9 eggies that were retrieved (but weren't deemed mature yesterday) were grown out over night last night, and if they are now mature they will have 2nd day ICSI done today (so we may very well end up with more than 20 fertilized! Praise God!).

Those that have the second day ICSI today and successfully fertilize by tomorrow will be frozen with the other 7 already frozen embryos. The 13 non frozen embryos will continue to be grown out to day 5/day 6 blastocyst stage, and we are hoping that at least 2-4 out of that group make it so we can have some good blastocysts to choose from for the transfer. Any blastocysts that survive to day 5 that are not transferred will be frozen for future transfers.

Our day 5 embryo transfer is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, February 21st=)

Thanks for all of your kind wishes and prayers! We whole-heartedly appreciate it!!

The ER (Egg Retrieval) Update!

Hello everyone!! We just got back from the ER (egg retrieval). Aboout 30 decent sized eggs were retrieved - YAY!!! We don't know how many are mature yet, and we won't get another update until the fertilization report tomorrow morning, but 30 eggs is an EGGcellent start - LOL=).

I am doing well - hanging out on the couch with a heating pad and a bottle of tylenol #3 - so life is good! Thanks for all of the prayers and good wishes! I will keep you guys updated as soon as I know more!

Game on! Or at least, trigger on!

It's wrong on so many levels to have to be at the RE's office at 7 AM on a Sunday. I mean seriously??? Can we at least sleep until 8 before I am forced to strip down and be violated with an ultrasound wand? I'm kidding of course...well, kind of. Fellow infertiles feel my pain. Honestly I'm just happy my RE is open on the weekends! There are many RE's that aren't=).

So Si is supposed to give the update for the day, so I am passing the computer over to him!

Good morning! But I digress... I do not think that I could have said it any better than Megan. There is something wrong with having to crawl out of bed before 7am on a holiday weekend day. I don't think that it is natural to be up this early... I guess that when you are awake to hear what the next week will consist of we make an exception. But I shall move on to the important info of the day. Which is the information that was gathered while at the RE appointment this morning.

It was actually pleasant that we did not have to wait that long before we were seen. Which is swell, especially since they were busy. However, the RE was not real forthcoming with information this morning which was a little disappointing.

She did not technically count the number of eggs that Megan is producing this cycle. She did say that there were multiple eggs that were over 20, which is excellent but she did not elaborate on the total amount of eggs on both sides. I guess the best way to refer to what we saw on the ultrasound that her ovaries definitely looked like "monkey bread."

Here is what we know at this point in regard to scheduling for the next couple of days. On Tuesday morning we will need to be at the outpatient surgery center here in the Big O at 7am, again... What is the deal with early morning start times...

If this is the actual retrieval of the eggs then that would put the 5 day transfer on next Sunday for impregnation (defined by J. as "the act of impregnating"). This will probably occur around 10 am based on our past experiences.

This is the schedule for the next week, it will be an interesting and anxiety filled week for both Megan and myself. Our spare time will be spent analyzing her particular estrogen level, or how many embryos made it through the night. This adds SOOO much stress that it is hard to concentrate on day to day activites. The wonderful thing is that we can walkthrough it together...

I guess now all we can do is to see what happens, huh???

We have HOW MANY measurable follices?!

Today is day 9 of follistim, and I had an appointment with the RE this morning for an ultrasound and blood work to check my progress. I must admit, I'm more than a little worried. I am in NO way complaining as I know plenty of ladies that have difficulty producing more than 8-10 follies in an IVF cycle, BUT I feel like I have WAY too many follicles growing right now.

On Tuesday I had a total of 34 follicles (eggs)- 19 on the left and 15 on the right. Well after today's visit I have even more measurable (any follicle over 10 mm-12mm is considered "measurable"). So, I have 22 measurable follicles (eggs) on the right and approximately 30 measurable follicles on the left (they literally quit counting and measuring after about 20 on the left side). My lead follicle is at 17 mm, followed by about 6 at 16mm, 10 at 15mm, and the rest between 12mm -15mm. My RE considers a follicle mature and ready for trigger at 18mm, and follicles grow between 1mm-2mm per day.

Although I am thrilled that my body can produce that many eggs, I am terrified for what that means. . . ER is going to be incredibly painful, very high risk for OHSS (and no, they won't trigger me with lupron instead), and I don't know, I'm just a bit scared about it. I mean, I think you really can have too many follies. . .and I'm thinking I am falling into that group right now. Anyone else have this many or close to this many?

I am waiting for a call back from the RE with my blood work results from this morning. They should be paying special attention to my estrogen (e2) level. We are tentatively scheduled to come back into the RE on Sunday morning for repeat u/s and b/w and I suspect we would probably then trigger on Sunday night for a Tuesday AM ER (egg retrieval). . . I will keep you all updated as I learn more!

The follicle update!

I have taken 5 days of the Follistim (to stimulate my ovaries to produce a ton o' eggs), so today was the day for me to go back into the RE's office for an ultrasound (u/s) and blood work (b/w)to check my progress. I don't have my blood work results back yet, but HOLY COW on the ultrasound! So far the ultrasound nurse counts 19 follicles (eggs) on the left, and about 15 follicles (eggs) on the right! Geez Louise!

All of the follicles are still under 10 mm (which is fine), so I will need some more time to stim (they aren't considered "mature" until 18mm), but WOW, 34 follicles??? That's amazing! They were obviously concerned about me developing OHSS (Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome), and honestly so am I, but really at this point, what can they do? They can't stop the stims. . .and even if they did, the follies would still grow, and OHSS would still be a possibility.

SO. . . onward and upward I say!! I am awaiting the call back from the RE's nurse to tell me what to do with my meds for the next couple of days and when we need to go back for another scan and blood work=). Based on the size of the follies right now, I would guess that ER (Egg Retreival) will be either Monday or Tuesday of next week. Woo hoo! I will keep you all updated of course as I find out more!

Let's get this party started people!

Start the clock! Today is the day I started "stimming" (meaning I started taking the injectible gonadotropin Follistim) to grow piles of eggs that can be retreived and fertilized once mature (probably in the next 10-14 days). This is the first active step in the IVF process! Woo hoo! Once we start stimming, there's no looking back=). I'm kidding of course. . .cycles can still be cancelled, but it's pretty unlikely in my case since I tend to stim so well.
Anyway, it's exciting to be getting started. I go back into the RE's office on Tuesday for an ultrasound and blood work to determine how well we are doing on the Follistim. Hoping for a good report come Tuesday!

The "clearing" ultrasound, and hoping for the green light!

Hi all!

I went in to the RE this morning for my "clearing" ultrasound and blood work. The ultrasound looked great, no cysts, my tube looks perfect (I asked specifically about hydrosalpinx), and I have a TON of antral follies to work with this cycle. Woo hoo! It should be a great month to stim!

The only hold up at this point is that my monthly visitor (AF) hasn't come to visit yet. I didn't think that was a requirement for starting stims after coming off of birth control, but apparently it is, because they are not letting me start the Follistim until Thursday. Bummer! That will throw our ER (Egg Retrieval) and ET (Embryo Transfer) schedule off already. I suppose I shouldn't be too upset about that though. I mean, last time it took me about 4 days longer than they thought it would for me to stim, so my calendar was totally out of whack then too. I just remember that I was SO upset. This time I knew going into it that the calendar dates being changed was a distinct possibility. . .I just think I had hoped that no changes would occur at the beginning of the cycle since it will likely occur closer to the end of stimming as well! Oh well - we will deal! At least we are blessed enough to be able to do IVF again. I know several ladies that aren't so lucky and would switch me places in a heartbeat.

So I get to start the Follistim on Thursday night - 175 units. That is a pretty decent amount for me. Maybe they are trying to get a bunch of those antral follies to start growing right away. Hmmm. . .not a bad idea=). I will go back in next Tuesday for a follicle check and blood work to see how my estrogen (E2) and progesterone (p4) levels are. And of course, I will keep you all updated to my status! Hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday!!!

What a LONG action packed weekend!

So Dad had surgery on Friday. It went well. They took out his entire kidney and tested it for cancer. It ends up it is in fact malignant, BUT, they are VERY sure that they got all of it and it hasn't spread anywhere else. EXCELLENT! He will need to get checked every 6 months now for the next 5 years just to make sure nothing new has developed. He was released from the hospital last night. He is still incredibly sore, but is enjoying being home at least.

Yesterday was an interesting day for those of us in the pug rescue world here in the Big O. Interesting, because we helped big momma Trinity bring SEVEN puppies into this world! What an amazing experience. I mean, it was intense, and even scary at some points, but it was amazing. Thank God that it went at least relatively smoothly, and we only had to call our vet 4 times - LOL=).

Si and I are trying to be good puppy litter foster parents, but this is our first litter, so we aren't really sure what we are supposed to be doing. We keep incessantly checking on pug momma and the babies, and counting to make sure they are still all there (because what, they would disappear or something? LOL). Anyway, we had a runt in our litter yesterday, a little girl that was maybe 2/3 the size of the other pups. Well today, she fell to about 1/2 the size of the other pups, and she wouldn't nurse. We gave her some puppy milk replacer, but it apparently wasn't enough because when we took the litter into the vet tonight to be checked out, the little girl wasn't breathing at all. They tried to bring her back, but they couldn't. The vet thought it was a genetic abnormality, and there was nothing that we could have done. I sure hope that is the case, because otherwise we are horrible pug baby foster parents! Anyway, the rest of the pug babies are doing incredibly well, and are perfect!!! Here's a pic of the gang from yesterday =)



And here is a picture of mom and babies after 4 were born - she looks SO proud!!!


So moving on to our infertility journey. . . we have our "clearing" ultrasound and blood work tomorrow morning. YAY! As long as I don't have any cysts, and my estrogen level is okay, I should get the green light to start fertility medications tomorrow night! Woo hoo! Of course, also on my list is to discuss with my RE the second opinion I got from the RE in Colorado. We will see if I can hunt my RE down for 2 minutes to discuss the 2nd opinion's thoughts with her. I will have to have my big girl pants on when I go in tomorrow! Wish me luck! And of course I will post and let everyone know if we got the green light or not=).
Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Monday!!