Drum Roll Please!!

On September 10, I got the most amazing phone call...I'm pregnant!! I had 3 blood draws on Monday, Wednesday & Friday of that week & my numbers rose beautifully!! They more than doubled every 48 hours. I had my first ultrasound on Tuesday September 18 where we got to see 1 beautiful gestational sac, a clear yolk sac & a tiny little baby!! It's such a good feeling seeing that. My 2nd ultrasound was today September 27. We got to see Baby Astry's heartbeat for the first time! It was moving all over the place, even more of an amazing feeling. The heartbeat measured at 122 bests per minute which is great!! We are ecstatic! I am 6w6d, so 7 weeks pregnant tomorrow! I've been meaning to update my blog but am finally getting to it after our great news today!! I'll start uploading pictures from the last few weeks as well. Below the top ultrasound pictures is from today and the bottom one is the one from last Tuesday. Thanks again to everyone for all of their support, thoughts & prayers, they are all greatly appreciated!!

The Two Week Wait

Ahh the two week wait (2ww), anyone whose seriously trying to have a baby or going through the infertility process knows exactly what the 2ww is. Sometimes the 2ww is shorter or longer than 2 weeks depending on what you end up doing or what the doctors end up deciding. Either way, it's complete torture. The 2ww is the time between ovulation and "Aunt Flow (AF)" (your period)/positive pregnancy test. For those going through IVF the 2ww can be the time between the egg retrieval or embryo transfer and whenever your doctor decides to do the test. During this dreaded wait, you over-analyze every little thing! Even if it's something that literally happens every day, all of a sudden you're wondering if it's a pregnancy symptom. It is complete mind torture. It's a mind game, that's what it is, for me I play a mind game with myself for most of the 2ww, it's hard not too, especially if you've been through it before and have actually gotten a positive. Also, progesterone can mess with your "symptoms" as well, it can make you believe you have pregnancy symptoms when really, they're symptoms from your daily hormones.

Here are some of the mind games that happen:

• All of a sudden you notice a funny smell, yup you must be pregnant. 
• OMG you have an upset stomach, that's definitely a pregnancy symptom (even though you're prone to upset stomachs), but it's different this time.
• You're cramping...now this one goes back and forth. One second you're pregnant, the next you're fully convinced that this didn't work and you're going to have to do this all over again.
• You get a 5 second burst of heartburn, yup you must be pregnant because you only get heartburn when you're pregnant.
• You get a headache every day for a few days, that's definitely a pregnancy symptom.
• And the list goes on...

Sounds fun, huh? On top of all the "symptoms," I refuse to take a home pregnancy test. I am one of a minority here as many TTC (trying to conceive) people are POAS (pee-on-a-stick) addicts! They start testing the second they inject the trigger (which contains HCG) so they can see when the HCG leaves their system, so they know for real when they get a positive. I stopped POAS a LONG time ago! I got so sick of "being slapped in the face twice" (negative test, then AF), that I decided to stop using them all together. So while I'm analyzing every little thing, I refuse to POAS. So it's truly a waiting game. The day of beta (HCG blood draw) is the longest day of your life. Time moves slower than you could ever imagine because you honestly have no clue what to expect. You've convinced yourself so many times you're pregnant, then convinced yourself so many times that you're not pregnant, that you honestly don't know what's going to happen. So you continue wondering until you get the phone call...did it work? or did it not work? Only time will tell...

Egg Retrieval to Embryo Transfer

So Friday was the egg retrieval and we collected...drum roll please...11 eggs!! This is 4 more than last time, so definitely much better!! On Friday, I was very sore and rested all day. On Saturday morning just before 9 am, I got the phone call that 7 of the eggs fertilized, and 4 were normal and growing strong! Yayyy! Doctor was very pleased as we only had 1 viable embryo last time. Even with 1 embryo, it did turn into a pregnancy, so we're hoping this time is successful as well and the baby stays put for 9 months! On Monday morning, we transferred 2 top grade, beautiful embryos! One had 10 cells and the other had 8 cells! We still have 2 more embryos that are growing and hopefully will be able to freeze. We will know more about these ones and if they make it to freezing within the next few days. Yesterday after transfer, I rested all day! I'm back to work today and now we enter the dreaded wait where I'll analyze every little thing over the next couple weeks to see if this works! So we're keeping our fingers crossed that this works for us! Please be thinking and praying for us. Below are pictures of our beautiful embryos!

 Here is the 10-cell embryo

Here is the 8-cell embryo

Egg Retrieval Day

Below are some pictures from today! Baby shirt for good luck, my IV, me after the procedure looking gorgeous lol, & Amber's comment when I told her the good news (that's why she's one of my bff's! Haha). PS we got 11 eggs!! Yayyy I'm so excited! Can't wait to hear how many fertilize!! :)

Twas the Night Before Egg Retrieval

Twas the Night Before Egg Retrieval...

Tomorrow is my egg retrieval and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I'm just as nervous this time, if not more nervous, than I was last time. I also never imagined I'd be doing this again so soon as in my mind, I should be 6 months pregnant right. However, I'm not, so here I am going through all this to TRY to get my baby. 

Last night at 8:30 pm, I triggered ovulation with Ovidrel. I bled a little, no big deal. After the shot, it instantly became real and I started worrying...did I do that shot right?! Of course I did, it's really the only shot you CANNOT mess up! It's a pre-filled syringe, you stick it in and inject the solution. That's it, nothing you can mess up. Okay, so ovulation will now occur 36 hours later...how does it know to ovulate me 36 hours later? I've always wondered that, what if it ovulates sooner? This is what starts running through my head and this is just the beginning. 

Today I've been pretty nervous about tomorrow. The unexpectedness of last cycle started coming into my head which leads to the unexpected of this cycle. Last time, we expected to get 12 eggs, only got 7, only 3 fertilized, only 1 was viable which led to a 2 day transfer. It did lead to a pregnancy, so I know it only takes one, but that was the scariest thing to go through all the drugs, all the ultrasounds, all the injections and wondering if I would even make it to embryo transfer. I know where the nerves come from, I'm sure it happens to everyone but knowing what can happen, some don't even make it to embryo transfer, that's what makes me so nervous.

It's the "unknown," I wish I could some how know exactly what was going to happen. So here I am, figured I'd write a quick post before I relax for the rest of the night. Casey and I went to Bob Evans (haha we act like we're 60 years old at times) and it was damn good! I took my doxycyline and so far it hasn't made me feel like shit, and I've used the (TMI!!) medicated douche my doctor told me to use (EWW I feel so violated right now haha), but I'll do whatever I need to do. 

Here's what this cycle has consisted of: 

• 1 Mock Embryo Transfer
• 21 days of birth control pills
• 23 days of the Lupron injection
• 12 days of Follistim (FSH) injection & SolX (LH) injection
• 1 Ovidrel ovulation shot
• 9 trips to Buffalo IVF at 52 miles each way
• 8 blood work draws
• 6 vaginal ultrasounds

In case you didn't know, that's what it takes just to get to tomorrow, egg retrieval. There is so much invested and now I enter the world of the unknown. How many eggs will they retrieve? How will I feel? Will I be in much pain after? Will the IV hurt going on? How many eggs will fertilize? How will the quality be of the embryos? How many embryos will make it to transfer day? WILL THIS WORK?!

Please be thinking and praying for us tomorrow and going forward for hopefully the next 9 months! <3

After final stims

After stimming for 12 days, follies are ready! Dr measured 8 on my right side (there were a few more he didn't measure) & 5 on my left side. A few more woke up since Tuesday morning yay! We're officially ready to go for ER on Friday morning!! Triggering with ovidrel tonight!

Day #12 Stims

Here's what the follies looked like this morning, plus a few more in the 16-18 mm range. Most are on my right side which I'm definitely feeling! Really hoping doctor will have me trigger tomorrow evening, we'll see!