a beautiful baby.

This afternoon one beautiful blastocyst was transferred. We have 6 to freeze and 3 more they will continue to watch. The other 5 we had stopped growing. I'll be on bed rest until Wednesday.

Thank you everyone for your prayers this far. Continued prayers would be welcomed too! Especially now that we are in the waiting game.

Achieving Embryos

Well, Monday night went well! T did a great job with the trigger shot! I didn't feel a thing until a little later when the muscle became a bit sore. But totally bareable.

(HCG Trigger- had to mix the water solution with the powdered HCG med)

(the left is the 22g needle that everything gets mixed with and the right is the 25g needle that is used for the injection)

 36 hours after that 9pm trigger I returned to the office for the Egg Retrievel. 8:45am sitting in the doctors office, getting my gown on in the back and then walking to the small OR room where the ERs are done. I meet with both the doctor  and the anesthesiologist. The RE, (doctor), told me I had 18 follies. The IV began, and all I can remember was talking about rum with everyone in the room before being knocked out. While I was having my eggs retrieved, T had to go off and do his thing.

I woke up. I vaguely remember what really happened. Apparently I couldn't stop crying. And I do remember the nurse telling me how many eggs were retrieved. I also remember feeling very nausous and dizzy for a while after trying to fully get up. It took me a while, but finally I was able to get dressed and leave. We got home and I fell back asleep.


Yesterday they retrieved 20 eggs. This morning I got the fertilization report. Of the 20 eggs retrieved, 18 of them were mature. They fertilized all 18 and of those 18, 15 took. So, as of this morning we have 15 embryos! I am completly amazed and shocked at this number, especially after our first failed attempt. Tomorrow they just let the embryos incuabte and grow without disturbing them and they check on them again on Saturday and I will recieve another report on how they are doing.

This is what an embryo looks like 24 hours after fertilization!

(from: http://www.myfertilitycenter.com/tidbits/embryo-stages.php)

As of today I am scheduled for ET, (embryo transfer) on Monday, 6/25, at 2pm. :-)

I also would like to talk about the PIO injection. It uses the smae needles as the HCG trigger above. This is a new one for me and it is the only injection I do from here until the beta. If it turns out to be a positive test, I countinue this injection throughout the first trimester. This has probably been the shot I have been lest looking forward to, as the medication is mixed in with sesame seed oil which makes it pretty thick. It's intramuscular too. Well, I started that last night, and I have to say, it was not bad at all and T, once again, did an excellet job! And On top of the PIO injection, I'm back on an antibiotic, estradiol (estrogen), and Medrol. These last few are all pills, thank goodness!

And here are som photos of the PIO:

Tonight's The Night!

That's right folks! Tonight, I, err... Actually T, get's to give me my Trigger shot. This injection is nothing but a bunch of HCG. 10,000 units of it to exact! I am pretty excited about this, I have done this intramuscular injection before. I had to do it in my last IVF cycle that failed to get me to ovulate. But, my wonderful neighbor/friend was able to help us out and administered it for us the last time. This time, it's all on T. (Well, I do have my friend on standby.)

And, all of this means that ER will be on Wednesday morning. I'm scared, nervous, and excited!

(Above: Tonight's Trigger shot out and waiting oto come out of the box and get mixed.)

(above: The only real bruise I got this time and it was the last night. That's from ganirelix)

(Close up to see the pin cuision I've become)

"So, what do those Follies look like?"

Today marks day 8 of Stims. I was in yesterday morning and this moring for monitoring and will be in everyday now until it's time to trigger for my ER. This are moving so smoothly this time and I am just so relived. But, I must say, the side effects are nothing to rave about. Bloat, heartburn, nausea, gas, feeling full, not hungry, tired. The list goes on. But I hope, in the end This will all be worth every gas pain, and all this bloat, and tiredness.

As of this morning, I have 4 dominate follies on my right side, and I hae 10!! dominate on my left side. and each side have a few other's that are there, but a little behind. I haven't gotten my Estrogen levels yet, maybe I'll ask for them tomorrow. I won't be available to talk to the nurse who calls me back later this afternoon. And my linning, it was at almost an 8 this morning. After a small talk with the nurses this morning. I think we all agree that my trigger may most likely happen Monday evening, which would mean I'll have ER on Wednesday and ET on Monday the following week!

My medication has all stayed the same, and I've been making it through with that ganirelix! The trick, ice before the injection, and sometimes after. It helps a bit. But I'm still sore around the injection sight for a few days. But only when I touch it really, and it's somehting you can live with.


Well, here are 2 photos for you today:

(Above is the photo of my right and left ovaries with the folllicles (the black dots are follicles). Below is a photo I took today of the really active left ovary with the follicles. You can see how large my ovaries are getting too.)

Ganirelix Stings like a Bee.

And I'm not kidding. I should have done a little research before I stuck myself with that drug last night. I was not really prepared for this one. I didn't make it this far last time so I didn't know what to expect, I just thought it would be like the others. Follistim Burns a bit, LD HCG, nothing. But Ganirelix. The worst.

To begin with, the needle is pretty dull compared to the others. This I was warned about thankfully by a friend who has done this. However, I didn't fully realize how freaking hard I would have to push to puncture through the skin. And I didn't realize that this shizz burns like no other. I was almost in tears. But thankfully after last nights ordeal, I did some research and got some help from other's who have experienced this and got some recommendations on what I can do to alleviate the pain. With all that in mind. I am NOT lookinf forward to the PIO shots.

Here are some photos from last night:

(Left to right: Follistim, LD HCG, Ganirelix)

(So far not much brusing! But you can see all the tiny prick holes and the bloat, please dont mind the bloat.)

That's all for now. Hopefully tonight will go much better! I didn't have to go in this morning, but I will be back in the office tomorrow to get monitored again. Hopefully things are still moving nicely.

I'd also like to add, this month marks 2 years of trying to have a baby.

Day 5, and the energy is being sucked out of me...

So, today is day 5 of the stiming process for IVF. I had my first monoitoring appointment yesterday and I went in again today. Already, at this point in the process, I think I'm feeling it. Last time, I wasn't tired like this and there also wasn't anything to see at this point. Yesterday I had about 20 small follies. This morning, there were 4 the were mesurable on my right side, and I had 8 that were mesurable on my left side. Still early though, and at any point some of the smaller ones on either side could catch up. I'm still waiting on my afternoon call from the doctor's office to see if they want to change up my meds and when I'll be in again. But most likely, from this point on, I'll be in the office everyday until I'm ready to trigger.

Right now, I'm so scared to admit this, but this is the first time in well over a year that I have been pretty excited for the possibility of becoming pregnant again. With the hopes that this one will stick and I'll be able to have a healthy beautiful child. 

This. is. so. scary. but. so. exciting.

It's nice to have hope once again, it's nice to feel like this could actually happen.

Please pray it does. I know I am.


Update:

I just recieved my afternoon call from the doctor's office. Tonight I add a 3rd injection to the current 2 in my evening round of injects. I begin the ganarelix. This will help prevent permature ovulation of the follies that are growing. You can learn more here. I also actually get tomorrow off from visiting the office, and I go back in on Thursady.  The rest of my medications all stay the same.

Day 2.

So, I'm 2 days into the Stims. I've given myself  5 injections so far. Wow. Not much else is happening. I've been trying to get the last bit of time left that I have in the gym and this weekend I'm doing a lot of house work, mostly the heavy work stuff. I've only got today and tomorrow left before my restrictions begin. I'm not looking forward to that. I know I'm going to miss my workouts and volleyball. But hopefully, it will all be worth it in the end.

There isn't much else to report on. I'm almost done filling my first sharps container. Of course it still has all the stuff in it from the first go around. But still. And I was really sad to have to throw away about 250iu of Follistim because it expired. That stuff is liquid gold. So it hurt a lot to not be able to use it.

Here is my sharps container.

Well, really that's all for today. Hope you all are haveing a great weekend, I better get back to the house work. 

And we are cleared for take off!

Well, it's been a while. Not much has happened. The only thing exciting, T and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! It was a very nice day.

So, onto "the search for baby H" news:

I had my baseline ultrasound, blood work appointment this morning for IVF 1.2. Looks like everything is as quiet as a mouse. As it should be. Tomorrow morning I begin to try and give IVF a second chance. Here is the line-up of medications:

500 iu of follistim. This will be 2 injects a day. Once in the morning @ 250 iu and once again at night @250 iu.
20 units of low-dose HCG. This is the same as above. Twice a day. once inthe morning @ 10 units and another 10 in the evening.
Doxycyline
Ganirelix (I didn't make it this far last time, lets hope I make it here this time!)
Trigger HCG
Medrol
Progesterone in Oil
and Estrace

I have my first monitoring appointment Monday morning.
Ready. Set. Here we go...