The Call

I wasn't sure if August 4 would ever make it... I went in at 8:00 that morning to see Dr. Kathy and have my blood drawn to see if I was pregnant. I think that was the most nerve wracking day I've ever experienced! Luckily though, I have the best mother ever. She came over that morning to spend the day with me and help try to keep my mind off things. It worked for a little while :) Dr. Kathy usually calls around 3:30 in the afternoon with blood work results, but not this day... 3:30 had come and gone, and so had 4:30, so by the time 5:30 rolled around mom and I were both about to lose it! But just as Travis walked in the door from work about 5:35, the call finally came. I was glad he was home to hear the results with me, but hearing the phone ring made me want to puke... I was that nervous.

It was... good news!!! My bloodwork came back POSITIVE!!! I was in such shock that I was literally shaking. Pamela, the nurse, told me that my HCG level needed to be over 25 in order to test positive for pregnancy, and that mine was 224. She said it was a great start! As soon as I hung up the phone Travis popped open a bottle of champagne! He and mom toasted to our wonderful news and then we all went out for a celebratory dinner! Below is a picture of Travis popping the top :)

Keeping Busy

Since this was going to be the longest 9 days of my life, I had to keep myself busy. So to preoccupy my time, I became a huge fan of the website Pinterest. If you aren't familiar with it yet, it's a website where people can share all of their favorite things and likes with others. Projects range from fun do-it-yourself ideas to fashion to food. It IS fantastic! However, I must warn you... it is majorly addicting... like crack for the crafty! :)

My first Pinterest project was a pillowcase top. The idea came from a posting that was of a pillowcase dress for a little girl. I thought it was really adorable, but obviously a pillowcase would not fit me as a dress, so I wanted to make it into a top instead. I borrowed my mom's sewing machine, and away I went! The first picture is the original pillowcase dress from the posting. The second picture is how my top turned out. Pretty close for my first try, huh? (Well all except for the armpit holes!)

My second Pinterest project was a cute little tote. The idea came from a posting that was of a tote from a website where you could buy it, but with my new sewing skills, I figured I'd give making it a shot. The first picture is from the website. The second picture is my tote. Super cute, right?                                                                                                                   

My third Pinterest project is still underway... so stay tuned for its results! And there will be many others to come too! Until next time...

Nothing to Freeze

I got the call Wednesday morning that our two embryos that had the potential to be frozen, weren't going to be eligible after all. As it turns out, neither embryo grew enough to be frozen (they both stalled out), so they both were discarded. We have nothing to freeze :( While this is not the end of the world, it is disappointing for the mere fact that we now have no back up in case the two embryos that were transferred don't take. So here's to hoping, praying, and wishing that they do their job and IMPLANT IMPLANT IMPLANT!!!

The 9 Day Wait...

And so it begins! Yesterday was the embryo transfer... I started the day off by going to acupuncture to relax, and then followed that up with two Valium :) I was more nervous about meeting with the Embryologist and getting an update on the embryos than I was about the transfer itself! Once we got to the clinic and met with Cassie, our Embryologist, my nerves immediately settled... it was good news, YAY! We had one "perfect embryo" and then three other good ones. They were considered good quality and not perfect, only because they were a smaller size. They chose the larger one out of the three good ones, and transferred it and the perfect one! The other two are candidates for freezing, but have to grow a little bigger first. We should know by Thursday if they were both able to be frozen. Below is an ultrasound picture from when Dr. Kathy did the transfer... Isn't it amazing? The two bright white dots next to each other are our transferred embryos!

Dr. Kathy repeated a couple of times how extremely pleased she was with how our IVF cycle has turned out so far... even to the point of sharing it with one of the other RE's in the clinic! I LOVED LOVED LOVED hearing her say this! Not only is it super comforting, but she sees all kinds of cases, and for her to be so pleased with ours, that has to mean something, right? Dr. Kathy has done all that she can do. Everything else is up to our Heavenly Father and our two little embryos. If they will just continue to behave and implant like they are suppose to, I will officially be the happiest person on the planet! :)

After leaving the clinic we headed back to acupuncture... then to Buffalo Wild Wings... then home to rest. I finished the night off with the start of the pineapple craze! Pineapple is thought to help implantation so I stocked up on fresh pineapple (I cut it up myself yesterday morning), canned pineapple chunks to eat with cottage cheese (YUM!), dried pineapple chunks, and pineapple juice. Think I'm covered? :) Today and tomorrow I am to take it easy and lay around the house and rest... this will be no problem at all given that my chance to do so is quickly dwindling with the start of school approaching.

Nine days from now will be the big day. I go at 8:00 next Thursday morning for bloodwork to find out if I'm pregnant or not. I'm expecting that day to be the most nerve wracking of all! But until then, I plan to keep myself busy and think only positive and happy thoughts! And to of course continue to pray obsessively :) Until next time...

Home Improvements Round 2

In an post earlier this spring, I mentioned a couple more home improvement projects for the 2011 year... painting two of the upstairs bedrooms. Well, one is complete! One room is/was originally painted a pale yellow. I thought it was boring and wanted to add some color... so, I bought some dark brown paint and painted just the back wall in the room. My plan was to have the one brown accent wall and then paint the other three walls a sagey green color. However, once I got the brown wall painted, it made the pale yellow look a lot creamier... which I liked! So instead of painting the rest of the walls green, I'm leaving them the way they are, which = less work for me :) This bedroom has it's own bathroom, so to tie in the brown accent wall, I painted the bathroom brown too. The pictures don't do it much justice because of the lighting, but I am really pleased with how it all turned out!

 I still have one more upstairs bedroom to paint... but am holding off on painting this room until I know what kind of room it will be :) Until next time...

We've got embryos!!!

So yesterday was one of the three big days (egg retrieval, embryo transfer, and pregnancy test) in IVF... the egg retrieval. We had to be at the clinic at 7:45 to begin all the pre-op procedures and then about 9:00 they wheeled me back so Dr. Kathy could begin. I don't remember anything from the actual procedure, which is totally fine with me considering how it's done! An ultrasound guided needle is inserted through the vaginal wall to drain all of the follicles on each ovary. See what I mean? :)

After the retrieval I was taken to recovery where I stayed for about 30-45 minutes. During this time, one of the nurses gave me a preliminary egg report... 6 eggs. Tears immediately began flowing from my eyes. I wanted so badly for them to have found more... more eggs = better chances. My sweet husband came back and did his best to comfort and console me... bless his heart. I don't know how he puts up with his emotional wreck of a wife. Once the nurse removed my IV we got to go and meet with one of the embryologists to get the official egg count. It turns out they found 10!!! Yay! Other than being able to tell us that the eggs were intact and that they would use the ICSI fertilization process (they inject the sperm into the egg), that's all she knew. We would have to wait until Friday to get any other information.

And that leads us to this morning... out of the 10 eggs they retrieved, 8 were mature. And out of the 8 injected with sperm, 7 of them fertilized. This is definitely good news! Now we just need our 7 little embryos to behave and develop like they are suppose to :) We won't get another update on the development of the embryos until Sunday, so please keep praying and sending good positive thoughts our way! The rule of thumb is that about half of all fertilized eggs actually develop properly and are able to be transferred or frozen, but we of course are going to hope for the very best. Until next time...

Happy Hunting!

Okay, so after the breakdown last week, things seemed to pick up and I started to relax a little... A LITTLE. I went back to the doctor on Saturday for more blood work and another ultrasound. Then again on Monday, and today, and tomorrow, and Thursday! I feel like I should just pack an overnight bag and camp out there for the week. Here are all the stats so far:
Saturday 7/16: E2 was 304!!! Yay, it finally doubled!, Endo lining was 6.2, 6 developing follicles ranging from 16.4mm to 8.2mm with some smaller ones.
Monday 7/18: E2 was 672!!! Yay, it doubled AGAIN!, Endo lining was 6.34, 6 developing follicles ranging from 18.1mm to 9.7mm with some smaller ones.
Tuesday 7/19: E2 was 1068... :( didn't quite double, Endo lining was 8.1, 6 developing follicles ranging from 18.2mm to 9.7mm with some smaller ones.

As you can see, there wasn't much difference from Monday to Tuesday, so that indicates to the doctor that I have hit my peak in responding to the meds :( Therefore, at 9pm tonight I do my trigger injection and then 36 hours from then, Dr. Kathy gets to go egg hunting! Even though today's ultrasound only showed 6 developing follicles (which should contain mature eggs), there is a chance that by the time she retrieves the eggs that there will be more... some of the smaller follicles that they didn't measure could grow. So we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed for that. We want as many eggs as possible! Tomorrow's appointment is just for blood work, so we won't know anymore details on the follicles until after the retrieval Thursday morning. But as soon as we know something, I'll post it :) Until next time...