The blessed dozen!

Egg retrieval was this morning at 10:00am.... I was called back at 9:15am and signed some papers and they went over discharge instructions. They started an IV and gave me some fluids and an antibiotic in my IV...they wheeled me back to the OR about 9:50 and I had to scoot over to the OR table. They placed my legs in stirrups (like the ones they use in labor beds).... I told the nurse "this is real awkward..."  and they placed me on a cardiac monitor and vital sign monitor. They put a nasal cannula in my nose and gave me some oxygen then gave me some versed and fentanyl in my IV....I was asleep pretty quickly but I remember waking up during the retrieval and saying "ouch" I need more medicine!!! I got some more meds and went back to sleep and woke up in the recovery room. I said sooo....how many eggs did they get???? They said 12!!!!! I said, what??? 12?? WOW!!! That's amazing!!! They gave us a sheet of paper that said not all the eggs will be mature and of good quality but 12 is a wonderful starting number, especially for a girl with 1 ovary! That's just a miracle in itself! I was in a good bit of pain so they gave me some Tylenol and had some nausea but all in all I feel pretty good. Just really sore at the moment! So at this moment they are injecting Keith's sperm into my eggs and tomorrow they will call us and let us know how many fertilized! I cant wait to hear! I am hoping for at least 6 eggs to be fertilized and mature and good quality! So for now I am going to go lay down and rest and recover from todays events and celebrate by eating some Pastry Art Baby bites!!! :) Praise be to God, for He is soooo good!

Done Cooking!

The Follicles are done cooking!!! WOOHOO! Prasie GOD! So I met all the criteria with follicle size, uterine lining and lab work today which means its time to retrieve the eggs! My estrogen level today was 822 and progesterone 0.3. My uterine lining is nice and thick at 1.02cm (it needs to be at least 0.8). So tonight at 10:00pm I will take 15,000iu of HCG shot which will trigger the follicles to release the eggs (the eggs are inside the follicles). The picture above is a pic of my ovary with all the follicles on it (the follicles are the black circles). Sorry if this is somewhat detailed and over your head but many people like to know all the small details :). The retrieval is scheduled for 10:00am on Thursday morning.... we have to be there at 8:30am for prep. Tomorrow not much will happen except I have to take a Fleets Enema tomorrow night to clean out everything....yeah, thats going to be a whole lot of fun!!! hahaha! I also can only eat a light dinner and I have to drink 16oz of water before bedtime and then nothing to eat or drink after midnight. When I arrive at the clinic on Thursday morning they will start an IV and give IV antibitoics and I will have versed and fentanyl to knock me out for the procedure! The way they obtain the eggs is by needle aspiration through the vaginal wall....I know, ouch!!!! The Doctor will aspirate the fluid on every follicle on my ovary and we hope there is an egg inside each of the follicles. However, there will probably not be an egg in every single one of the follicles so thats why you want to have as many follicles as possible. They will fertilize the sperm and egg on Thursday by injecting the sperm into each egg (thats called ICSI)....We wont know how many eggs actually fertilized until Friday. Then, the eggs that fertilize will grow in a petri dish and must grow into embryos. I will go back on Tueday (a week from today) and have the embryo transfer, which is where they will transfer either 1 or 2 embryos into my uterus and it will be the little ebryos job to stick and implant in my uterus. If that take place I will be pregnant! This is a very detailed process and there will be lots of updates between now and then so check back frequently for updates! I will update on Thursday and let everyone know how many eggs they actually retrieve and how everything went. Continue to be praying for us and that my eggs are healthy and mature and we get some good fertilized eggs!

Egg Retrieval Thursday

I went this morning for another ultrasound and blood work. Today is day 9 of stims! My follicles have certainly grown a lot since the last ultrasound. The biggest 2 follicles are measuring at 1.9cm (they are considered mature at 1.8cm). I had several measuring at 1.8cm, some at 1.7, 1.6, and 1.5cm. Everything is looking great still. My estrogen is now at 654 and progesterone at 0.4. (those numbers are good)! I will take the follistim, menopur and ganirelix injections tonight and go back in the morning for another ultrasound and blood work. If everything looks good in the am I will take the HCG shot which will trigger those follicles to release the egg tomorrow night and have the egg retrieval on Thursday morning! AHHHH! I cant believe its almost here! The time is flying by so fast! God is showing Himself faithful in even the small things during this IVF cycle. My prayer everyday is that His timing is perfect and that He will show His faithfulness in every detail of this cycle! I am excited at this point but Im sure I will get nervous as we get closer to Thursday. The egg retrieval and prep for egg retrieval is pretty detailed so I will post about it tomorrow when I know officially. Continue to pray for us and thanks so much for the prayers thus far! We certainly feel them and know God is in this 100%.

14 follicles!

Today is day 7 of stims! I went for bloodwork and a ultrasound this am! I have 14 follicles growing!!!!! Wooohooo! So excited about that many growing! The largest was 1.2cm so they still need to keep growing though! I will continue the 2 different shot as I have been tonight and tomorrow I will start a different injection called Ganirelix which will prevent me from ovulating on my own. They also are starting Keith and I on an antibiotic tomorrow that we will take twice a day to prevent us from getting sick this week! I will go back on Monday morning for another ultrasound and bloodwork! Excited for the follicle growth and praying they continue to grow!my estrogen level went up to 388.2 and progesterone up to 3.7. All of those numbers are great! I'm definitely starting to feel the follicle growth as I have a lot of pressure and bloating around my ovary! Anyways, I will update again on Monday after I go to the clinic. Thank you Jesus for a good report today!

Follicles are Growing!

I had my first ultrasound and lab work since starting the injections today. Today is day 5 of stims. The ultrasound showed the follicles are growing exactly how they should be at this point. The nurse doing the ultrasound said "wow, your right ovary is covered with follicles.... you have more on 1 ovary than most do people do with 2 ovaries!" My lab work was also consistent with what they are seeing on the ultrasound. My estrogen level is 120 and progesterone is 0.2. I will continue my injections as I have been and go back Saturday morning at 7:30am for another ultrasound and more labs. So everything is going and growing as it should be! I am starting to have some cramping and the nurse said that was definitely normal with the amount of follicles I have growing! I will make another post on Saturday and update on the progress of the growing follicles! :) :) Pray those little eggies continue to grow!

Time to be a pin cushion!



The shots started last night! First one wasnt bad at all! The stick itself was small but there was some burning afterwards. I do have a small bruise on my abdomen this afternoon. I will do them at the same time every night around 8:15pm so the next one will be tonight at that time. I go back Thursday morning at 8:30am to see how the follicles are growing. I had a dream last night that they retrived 17 eggs and we had 7 embryos to freeze....that would be nice! Everything is going well. So happy the ball is actually rolling now! Continue to pray for us and that the follicles are growing like they should when we go on Thursday! We are believing and praying everyday for our sweet miracle baby!

All clear to start injections!

 

 

No, the picture above does not mean I am a drug user, it means I am an IVF patient. That is a picture of all of the drugs I will be injecting into myself starting this Sunday!!!! That's a lot of drugs and they are super expensive! And will be super painful....OUCH! My abdomen is probably going to be black and blue (that's where they will be injected into). So we went to the fertility clinic today and I had lots of labs and an ultrasound.....everything was great! Keith had to provide the sample for the eggs to fertilize with in about 2 weeks and we were officially approved for the 3 cycle shared risk program! YAY! That is a big deal cause we get to do IVF 3 times for $18,250 and if we don't bring a baby home then we get $10,500 back to do whatever with. So they take some risk with us! We unfortunately had to pay all of that money today which was hard cause we have never spent that kind of money straight up on anything! I hope this baby doesn't want a car later in life cause we spent the money to bring him/her into this world! HAHA! So now, we have the next few days off and then start the shots this Sunday night. I will do them every night of the week and go back on Thursday morning (10/24)  to see how my follicles are growing. I will post again after I start the shots to update on how they are making me feel etc.... Thanks again for reading our blog and following us on this journey we are taking. We are excited to be moving forward and ask for your continued prayers, as they are much appreciated! 



This week in review

I wanted to recap the timeline of everything going on this week since we start everything this week! I cant believe its here! Time to make a baby or 2 :)

Monday (10/14): Spa day for me to relax! WOOHOO!

Tuesday (10/15): Stop taking BC pills

Wednesday (10/16): Sperm anlysis and freeze for the egg retrieval day and suppression check which includes several labs and an ultrasound. Having acupuncture done also.

Thursday-Saturday: enjoy my last few days without having mass hormones floating around in my body :)

Sunday (10/20): Start injections: (225iu Follistim and 75iu Menopur) will take in PM in 1 shot

I will make a post on Wednesday to update on how everything went at our appointment. Just beyond ready to get off of these bc pills and start the real process! Seems like I have been taking these pills for forever! They have made my face break out and my emotions all over the place so im over these things! haha Im sure I will be saying the same thing about the shots and other things...the shots make you VERY bloated so if you see me out in public and I look pregnant, I'm not(yet), just bloated! :) Here comes all the fun! We are continuing to pray for Gods will and blessings and believing for our miracle baby! God is GOOD and FAITHFUL! So here's to the start of something amazing!

Lets get it started

 

 

I haven't updated in a while cause there hasn't been much change since I have been on the bc pills since 9/19 but today Keith and I had our IVF pre cycle visit at the fertility clinic. We met with the IVF coordinator and went over the calendar (pictured above) which lays out the specifics of our cycle. We also had to sign all the consents and go over the other tiny details in this very detailed process. Things have changed since my last post.....I will now take the bc pills till next Tuesday (10/15) and then stop them (YAY!!) so 1 more week left from today! Then, next Wednesday (10/16) we will go and Keith will provide the sample and they will freeze the sperm until it is needed the day of my egg retrieval and I will go for a suppression check (labs and ultrasound). We will also have to write the very large check to them next Wednesday...that is going to hurt!!!! Then, I will start stims which are the injections on 10/20! That is 12 days away! EEEKKK! Cant believe it is so close! I will do 225iu of Follistim and 75iu of Menopur every night. Those drugs are used to stimulate the follicles on my ovary to make them grow. I will go back to the clinic to see how the follicles are growing on the 5th day of injections which is the 24th of October. At some point, they will have me start another injection called Ganirelix which is used to prevent me from ovulating. The tentative date for the egg retrieval will be either 10/30 or 10/31 depending on how my follicles grow. The embryo transfer will be 5 days after the retrieval. So once we start the injections the process will speed up much more. I am just beyond excited to be getting started with this process. It is starting to feel real now.  I will be posting frequently once we start those injections.We ask for your continued prayers while we embark upon this process and thank you all so much for walking with us on this journey! We believe and trust God 100% and know His plan for us and our future family is just beyond what we can imagine!