Transfer Day and Update

Emotional. Exciting. Nerve wracking. Those are a few words I would use to describe transfer day! Maybe I thought it was all of those things because this was our first one, I don't know but I was feeling all of them. Well at least until I got my Valium - then I was all relaxed and loopy! Haha! 

I couldn't sleep the night before for fear that my embies didn't grow or mature enough for the transfer. I can't stand that we only get an update every other day on them. To me they are already my children and I want to know how they are doing each day, but I do understand that they have a lot of patients and that the status of the embryos changes a lot each day. Anyway, we arrived at the clinic about 20 minutes early because I couldn't sit in the hotel room for one more minute! 

For those of you that don't know, this is the process. As soon as you get there you have to empty your bladder and then immediately start filling it again. I drank two whole water bottles and it still wasn't as full as they would have liked (the doctor gve me a B on how full my bladder was - I'm a teacher and he gave me a B! Haha - I wanted an A but oh well). Anyway after you empty your bladder, you change into the gown and your hubby puts the scrubs on over his clothes including the cute paper booties. You sit there forever it feels like just drinking water. The room was very calm and relaxing though- dim lights, water fountain, etc. So basically we sat and I drank water for about an hour. Finally the nurse comes in and goes over discharge instructions. The doctor finally came in handed me a picture of our embies and then told us that he would be transferring a 96 cell grade 4 and a 96 cell grade 3. Grade 4 is the best at our clinic. I was so relieved as those are both really good quality embryos. After that, the nurse came back and gave me my Valium! Praise The Lord! I could finally calm down. After about 30 more minutes, they came and took us back to the exam room. The doctor insterts a catheter and then the embryologist comes in with another catheter - this one goes inside the other one. We got to watch it on the ultrasound screen, basically, all we saw was a white little flash and that was our babies being released from the catheter. Afterwards, you could see the white area on the screen, but that was it. I got to empty my bladder, we had to stay for 20 minutes and then they let me leave. I took a nap the whole 4 hour trip home and pretty much slept the rest of the day once we got home. I am a true believer that anyone going through IVF should have a Valium for every single procedure they do! That was the most relaxed I have been in 3 months!! 

Once we got home, I was put on bed rest for 3 days. My back was so stiff from laying down so long, but let me say that my husband stepped up and took great care of me! He didn't even want me to get up to go to the bathroom - but I won that battle! 

Today I'm taking it easy at home, but I am getting up and moving around! It feels nice to be able to get up and let my dogs out if I need to or walk to the fridge! 

This morning I got a call from the clinic that we have three embies frozen for future use! I started crying when she told me - blame it on the hormones I guess. But we have a 99 cell grade 4, 98 cell grade 3, and a 97 cell grade 2. The grade 4 and 3 are really good, the 2 is ok, but not ideal. I was so happy - again I was feeling the fear of not knowing how my other babies were doing. 

Ryle and I are praying that the embies in my belly have implanted safely and are making themselves at home. He's been talking to my belly saying "stick babies stick" and kissing and rubbing my belly. It has got to be the sweetest thing I have ever seen ... So much for not getting my hopes up again. They are so high it's not even funny. I'm just as bad as he is. I find myself constantly rubbing my belly, I even coughed this morning and found myself apologizing to my stomach! 

We need all I the prayers we can get please. I don't know how well I will handle it if my test comes back negative. I'm trying to hold out and not take an at home test, but that is such a hard thing to do - all my IVF sisters know!! Here are a few pictures of the past few days. Sorry for the terrible phone quality of some of them:

This is the photo shoot with our embies that were transferred! If it works, this is our babies first picture! I may be biased, but I think they are the most beautiful embies ever! 

I don't know if this is pre or post Valium, but I'm guessing post! I was so excited to hear that we had good quality embies! 

Bed rest isn't that great, but it's awesome when you have someone to take care of you! Ryle saw the snocone truck and went to get me one! 

And my Diesel was just soaking up having his momma be lazy with him. I think he enjoyed the bed rest! 

Egg Retrieval and Update on our Embies

Hey guys! I'm terrible at updating this blog. I promise I will get better with it.

We had our egg retrieval on May 19th - I had to miss awards day at school but it was for a good reason at least! That was such an emotional day. We arrived at 6:30 for the 7:30 procedure. Well it turns out that my doctor got stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until 8:30. They ended up calling in another doctor from the clinic but by the grace of God, Doctor Dunaway showed up before she did! I was so nervous about someone who didn't know anything about my case performing the retrieval. Our prayers were answered when he walked through the door. He was able to get 16 and out of those 15 were mature enough to be fertilized. I woke up cramping, sore, and still emotional. My poor husband! I woke up asking for Diesel (my fur baby), and crying saying "this is not how we were supposed to make a baby". He just kept saying "I know". But overall, the cramping went away over the next day and my bloating has gone down a lot!! I'm drinking my Gatorade like crazy - 3 quarts a day! But I did wear my PJ pants to work for two days (I had a good excuse!)

We got an update on Tuesday that out of the 15 mature, 13 fertilized! We were both so relieved!! I didn't get an update at all on Wednesday. But today, I got a call that out of the 13, one didn't make it. Two of them are behind but may catch up. Then the rest of them are: three 8 cell grade 4s, two 8 cell grade 3s, three 8 cell grade 2s, and two 7 cell grade 3s. So we have 10 that are still making it - maybe 12 if the other two catch up. We are both happy with those numbers too. Basically the nurse said grade 4 and grade 3 is where they want them, I'm not sure about how many cells they want - I would think the more the better. Of course these numbers will change again. I won't get another update until we get to the office Saturday. The transfer is set for 8am. I'm hoping that by Saturday, we at least have 6-7 good quality embryos left. We would transfer two and freeze the rest.

We are both excited, nervous, and praying that this is our answer. I will be on bed rest Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I will update after the transfer then! I will definitely have plenty of time on my hands - at least I love to read!! Thank you to everyone who checks up on us! We love you all!

Dear Lord, please let this be our answer ....

Follicle Scan #2

Wow! My brain is on information overload today! We expected our visit to be about ten minutes as normal but instead we're there for about 2 hours. 

Scan looked good! On my right ovary we have : two 14s, three 13s, four 12s, one 11, one 10, two 9s, one 8, and two 7s. On my left ovary we have: one 16, two 15s, one 14, one 13, two 12s, three 11s, three 10s, one 9, two 8s, and one 7. I can definitely tell too because I feel so bloated and my stomach is tender. Although the tenderness could be from all of the bruises! I feel like we are running out of room on my stomach for needles! So far we have done 33 shots and still counting! 

So here's the game plan:

- contine stims tonight and tomorrow night

- go in Saturday for monitoring (ultrasound and lab)

    -- this could lead to another day of stims and more monitoring Sunday OR trigger shot Saturday.

- if we trigger shot Saturday, retrieval is Monday. Or if we have monitoring on Sunday, then we could trigger Sunday night, and retrieval is Tuesday. It's all kind of up in the air now, but retrieval is set for the early part of next week! I can't believe it! (And for my friends who don't know, the trigger shot makes your body ovulate basically)

At our appointment, we also went over all of the pre-op and post-op instructions. We thought all of that would happen this weekend. So needless to say when we walked out of there we both looked at each other and did the whole put your hand to your head and make the exploding symbol thing! Haha! It took forever to get the process started but now it's flying by! On one hand I'm so ready for this to be over, but on the other hand, I'm so scared! I really am praying this is our answer! Thanks to everyone who checks up on us daily! Love you all! And if your aren't following our journey on Instagram, our name is ttcbabystone ... I post more updates on there than I do on here! Have a great weekend and we will update after Saturdays appointment!

Follicle Scan #1

Today we had our first labs and scan to check on follicle growth for our IVF. I didn't catch all of the numbers, but we have two 11s, a couple 9s, about ten 8s, and about four 7s... Plus all of the smaller ones. My estrogen level looks fine, so they are keeping me on the same dosage of medication - 100u Follistim, 75u of Menopur, and 5u of Lupron. We actually had to order two more vials of Menopur. On Thursday morning we will go back for scan number two! 

This process is just moving right along! My tummy is bruised and sore though ... Ready for the next step! Thanks to everyone who has called or text to check on us  - especially those of you who did it on Mother's Day. Thanks for understanding and knowing how hard that day was for me ... We love you all!!

Update

Sorry it's been a while since my last post ... We have been crazy busy! But if you have been following my Instagram account, then you're up to date! 

We started our Lupron injections on April 29th - my thighs are sore and bruised but I don't mind one bit!Aunt Flo finally arrived on May 6th. Tomorrow, May 8th, we start our stims! I can't believe it! 100u of Follistim and 75u of Menopur. We will continue this for 4 days and go in on Monday, May 12th for our first follicle check! That's really all I have for now! I will post after our appointment Monday with some follicle sizes!!!!