6 Week ultrasound

Yesterday was my ultrasound appointment.   We were supposed to go in at 1 but due to snow I called to see if we could come earlier and they said 10 was fine.   So we rushed around getting ready and then headed to the office around 10.   Initially my nurse had said we would do the IV infusion first then the ultrasound but when I got there they put me in the ultrasound room.  I’m glad they did.

My doctor and nurse came in and asked how I was feeling.  My doctor commented on my Wonder Woman socks and asked if my plane was waiting for me outside.  He cracks me up.  Then it was the moment of truth.   I had a little bit of a panic when he put in the ultrasound camera.  I didn’t know what I was looking for but after a few seconds my husband yelled, “There’s the heartbeat!”  He was right.

It’s funny that he saw it before anyone else.   The doctor told him that was the heartbeat.  He then showed us the sac and said it was perfectly round and in a good spot.  He measured the fetal pole and said it looked good.  I really couldn’t believe it.  There’s a baby in there!

He told me to sit up then talked to me about nausea.   I told him I have a little bit in the morning either before I eat or sometimes afterwards.   He recommended I take some B6 to help with it.  He also told me based on my height and body weight I need to gain a minimum of 27 pounds.  He then gave my husband a handshake and told me he was getting a hug.  I was so happy.  I hugged him hard and thanked him.  I’m sure I said it before but he had both of his children via IVF so he totally gets it.

I went back to get my IV infusion and my nurse came back.  She said I’m measuring 6 weeks and gave me a due date.  I’m not sharing that yet as I’m sure it will change at my next appointment.  She also handed me the petri dish our baby was made in and a CD with all of the photos from the separate egg and sperm, the ICSI process, a photo on day 1, 2, 3, and 5, as well as a photo before and after freezing.  How cool is that?

I know this is only the first hurdle.  With my first pregnancy the same thing happened but then the next day I started having some bleeding and miscarried within a week.   So far so good today.   I go back on January 12 and if we still see the baby growing I’ll feel much better as I’ll be 8 weeks then and I’ll just be more comfortable with everything.

I’m still on PIO shots but they are going to switch me to suppositories because my poor butt is hard and bruised all over.  I can switch back and forth if I need too.  We’ll see.   I’m not much for either one but I need to be on them until 12 weeks.

So, here we go again.  I’m really hoping this one sticks as my husband and I are no spring chickens.

It’s a Christmas Miracle!

I can’t believe it but I’m pregnant!   I never, ever test before my beta but I just had this feeling so I took a test.   Imagine my shock when it was positive.  The next day I took a digital and it said yes!   I was in complete shock and was really worried for my beta.

On Thursday I had my first beta.  My nurse was off from work with an emergency but she wrote me at 8:25 to call her.  At 8:35 she couldn’t contain herself and e-mailed me with my number-221!  It was positive.  She then wrote an hour later and told me she called in to their weekly meeting, screamed my name and number, and they all did a group hug for me.  I love my clinic.

I went back on Saturday for a second beta and it went up to 541.   My husband and I are in disbelief.  I’m also scared to death and keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.   I have to call my nurse tomorrow to schedule our first ultrasound but it’s looking like it will be January 2nd.

I’m cautiously excited but I need to see the ultrasound before I really start jumping for joy.  Of course, I know that the first ultrasound doesn’t mean everything as I had a miscarriage right after seeing the heartbeat of our first pregnancy.  But for now it’s a Christmas miracle.

We’ve come so far and have done so much to have this baby.  My husband is already being cute and monitoring me.  He bought lunch meat today and then got mad at himself because he told me I couldn’t eat it and he forgot.   He’s been saying a lot of little things that make me think he’s done some research on his on.

So, please keep me in your thoughts that this is our rainbow baby.  That this is the baby we’ve been hoping and praying for for years.  That this is our take home baby.

We transferred!

Here it is Wednesday and I’m happy to report we were able to transfer on Monday.   I was so worried that our little embryo wouldn’t thaw properly but it turns out I didn’t need to worry.   Originally I was going to take off the entire day off from work but since it’s my easy day at school I went in for the morning.

At noon I came home and picked up my husband.   We drove the hour ride up to the clinic and arrived 15 minutes early.  I expected to have to wait but one of the nurses came a few minutes later to get me.   She had my husband and I change into our “gear” and then the embryologist came in to talk to us.

I know I’ve talked about him before but our embryologist is the best.  He’s been doing this since IVF was just starting.  In fact, he told us when he started the success rate was only 8%.   Can you imagine paying all of this money for an 8% chance??  Anyhow, he came in and told us that the embryo thawed well, bounced back, and was currently an expanding blast.  He did say he was going to do assisted hatching to make sure it could get out.  Then he left and they got us into the room.

I was reminded that this was a blast and that it was a good one.  They told me with had a 50% chance with this one which was what we had with the last one.  I know they were all pulling for us.    So we did everything we needed to do, they got the catheter in me and the embryologist brought in our blast.  A few seconds later I was PUPO!

I was rolled back out into the recovery area and the embryologist came back out.  He was all excited to do a show and tell with us.  It turns out he explained the freezing process in depth and then showed us the actual tube the embryo was frozen in.  It’s CRAZY how small the hole in the tube is that they have to get the embryo in.  He says it’s stressful because they have 90 seconds to get it into the freezing medium then get it into the hole and get it frozen.  The hole is smaller then the eye of a needle and he said that the embryo is about 1/10 of that size.

He then gave us the tube that our embryo was frozen in as well as the tubing that it hangs from in the freezing chamber.   It’s pretty cool having that as a souvenir!   It has my code number on it as well as 2 colors.  The colors are for the stage and the grading of the embryo so it was one color for a blast and one color for “good” quality.

So now we wait.  My beta is December 15 so we are either going to have a miracle at Christmas or a really bad Christmas.  I’m nervous but I’m trying not to think about it.  I’m just taking my estrogen and my husband is giving me my progesterone in olive oil.  I’m trying to be positive but I don’t want to get my hopes up.  I do feel good about this cycle.  I feel like my body is more relaxed and things are going well but I don’t want to jinx anything.  Especially since we’ve done so many transfers before.

So just 8 days until we learn the fate of our first frozen transfer.  It’s funny that we’ve done 3 years of infertility treatments but this is our first time doing a frozen transfer.   I hope this is the end of our journey.  If it’s not then we have one more shot but when it’s the end of that cycle it’s the end of our journey and not in a good way.

FET monitoring

Could this time of year get any busier?   Thanksgiving week was a blur.  I went to my brother’s house and helped cook Thanksgiving dinner.  Then we came back to our place and I worked all weekend.   On Monday I had an IV infusion and my first monitoring appointment.

I had my ultrasound first.  The RE came in with my nurse and he checked me out.  He said everything looked good and my lining was at 12mm.  I then went back to get my bloodwork and infusion.  This was the tricky part.

In order to do both without sticking me twice they have to run the flexible needle and get a syringe on it for my blood draw.  Then they take that off and switch it to the IV drip.   It gets messy.  There was blood everywhere.   I just laughed because there is really no other way to do it and it stinks.

I did my infusion and it went fine.  Then my nurse came in to talk to me.   She told me she’d call and let me know how things were.  I was really hoping the Lupron preventing me from ovulating.  My nurse told me we would reduce the estrogen to twice a day on Wednesday, stop Lupron, and start progesterone.  1 cc of progesterone for 2 days then up it to 2cc after that.  If all worked out transfer will be Monday the 5th.

I got a call on Tuesday that my estrogen was at 250 and my progesterone was under 1 so we were good to go!   Wednesday and Thursday were a breeze.  I had a bit of a headache from the changing hormones but the PIO shots went fine.  Last night is where it went bad.  I’ve never had 2cc of PIO before.

My husband got the needle in and started  pushing in the oil.  It burned like crazy!   I cringed but he finished it.   It felt sore but I didn’t think much of it.  I got up this morning to a huge bruise.  It’s like 3 inches wide.  Today we did the shot on the other side and it was fine.  It bled a lot but it didn’t burn this time. I hope there isn’t another bruise.

So now we wait.   In 2 days we’ll go in for the transfer.  I hope my poor embryo thaws ok.  We have 2 frozen and I’m scared they won’t thaw.  They are going to transfer the good blast.  That means the fair expanding blast will be left.   This is it for us, our last 2 tries (if they make it).  Transfer is at 2:30 so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Are You Kidding Me?

I’m pretty sure the title of this post says it all.  If I ever have a normal cycle where everything is perfect I’ll be amazed.   If you remember, last cycle I ovulated way early and had the shortest cycle ever so I couldn’t do my frozen transfer.   This time I got AF on Wednesday and started taking my Estrogen.  I’ve already been taking Lupron for a week or so.

I wasn’t feeling so hot on Wednesday, I had a stuffy nose and was coughing.  Well I wake up Thursday morning with sciatica pain.  Now I never had sciatica pain until my second IVF cycle.  When they woke me up I was in horrible pain and it was from how they had me positioned apparently.  Well the pain is back.   I managed through it on Thursday and it was ok, just a little sore.

Friday I woke up and it was awful.  I couldn’t get out of bed on my own.  I could barely walk.  But, I was deteremined to go to work. This was cycle day 3.  I made it through hald the day before I cried uncle and went to urgent care.  They said my sciatica was inflamed and swollen.  They could feel it in addition to having me do some crazy exercises I couldn’t do.  I told them I couldn’t have anything Motrin or ibuprofin based so they gave me a muscle relaxer and a steroid.

I immediately called my RE to see if I could take anything.  I still couldn’t walk.  I got home and my husband had to help me to the couch.  It was so painful.   The RE said while he wasn’t thrilled about me taking either one that both were safe enough.  As long as I only took them for 5 days I would have 14 days without anything until the transfer and that should be good enough.

Saturday was rough as well.  I spent all day on the couch and never left the house.  I was still in a lot of pain.   On Sunday I ventured to the market but was quickly exhausted and sore.  I came home and rested.  I felt sore but not in pain so I felt like I was improving.

Today I was just sore again.  However I went back to work which was a mistake.  I was so tired and in pain when I left school.  Not as much pain as Friday but I could really feel it in my hip and thigh today.  I then had to come home and make dinner and cupcakes for school.  I’m pretty sure I overdid it. I’m on the couch now, just took my medications, and am waiting for the pain to stop.  Tomorrow is day 5 and the last day I can take my pills but I’m not sure I’m going to feel ok about that.  I’m in a lot of pain but I’m going to have to try and push through it.  I’ve got 1 day to chill and feel better.

My first monitoring appointment is next Monday.  I also have my infusion that day. Please keep your fingers crossed that my lining looks good, that I haven’t ovulated, and that all of my numbers line up.  I’m so ready to do this FET before the end of this year.   I’m really hoping this is our tiny miracle.  We’ve got 2 frozen but this will be my 10th medicated cycle and I’m ready to be done with them.

 

Let’s Try This Again

Well here we are again!   Attempt number two for my first frozen transfer.   As a recap I ovulated on day 10 last month and my period started around day 18 which has NEVER happened.  So I’m getting ready to start again.

I’ve been on birth control pills for 14 days and I’ve been on 10 units of Lupron the last 5 days.   Yesterday was my last BCP.  I go down to 5 units of Lupron tonight.   My period should be due around Wednesday.

My doctor and nurse are thinking the Lupron will cause me to not ovulate which is what I need.  Hopefully my lining still stays thick and we can do a transfer in about 3 weeks.  I have an appointment set for November 28.  I will be doing an IV Infusion as well as my monitoring appointment.  If all goes well I’ll transfer some time between December 3rd and 5th.

I’m having a hard time being excited because I was cancelled last time.  I was ready to go but then found my body was out to get me.  Fingers crossed we make it all the way to transfer this time!

It’s Official: My Body Hates Me

As the title says, my body hates me.   I was supposed to go back to the doctor on Saturday for a monitoring appointment to see if we could still go for a transfer.   However, on Friday I started spotting bright red.  I thought it was really weird since it was only cycle day 18 so I called my nurse to tell her.  She said regardless to come in so they could check things out.

Saturday morning I woke up to cramps, a headache, and a full blown period…on day 19.   WHAT?   In the 25 years I’ve had a period I’ve NEVER gotten one that early.   To my memory the earliest I’ve ever gotten a period was on day 24.  Since my normal cycle is usually 30 days this is insane.

I went to my chart and I did have dotted lines at day 12 so I could have ovulated then and my day 14 bloodwork suggested I had.   But even if I did ovulate on day 12 that would mean my LP was only 6 days long.  It doesn’t even make any sense but there you have it.

So I went in and they did a blood draw.   That was fun in itself since after the nurse got the needle in she went to put on the tube and it went flying across the room and my blood splattered all over the chair, my nurse, and me.   It was pretty gross but I stayed calm, looked at my nurse and said, “Happy Halloween!”

Then I went in for an ultrasound.  My RE seemed perplexed.   He said my lining looked a little off and he could see where I was bleeding.  He said it was odd because some of the bleeding was going towards my abdomen.   He said we would not be doing a transfer because he wants everything perfect and obviously something is wrong.

They got my results back and my estrogen was higher at 220 and my progesterone was fairly low but they said they can’t figure out why I ovulated through the estrace.   So new plan!   I was hoping that since my period started Friday we could just go ahead and cycle again but no go.  They want me on a birth control starting tomorrow for 14 days overlapped with Lupron to make sure I don’t ovulate next month.  So 14 days on the pill, get withdrawl bleeding, continue on with Lupron and start estrace.   So now we are looking at an early December transfer.   Just the time I DIDN’T want to transfer.  Who wants a crappy beta the week before Christmas??  Not this girl but that’s when it will be.

Stay tuned to see how things go.  I should have known I couldn’t just cycle with a pill.  That would be way too easy and my body is anything but easy as we know.

Monitoring for my Frozen Transfer

So it’s been a few weeks.   They’ve been busy with my baking, visits from my family, and working.  I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by a lot so thankfully this frozen transfer prep has been a piece of cake.  All I have to do is remember to take 2 or 3 estrogen pills a day.  However, apparently I could never remember in the morning before work so I would end up taking the pills at 4, 7, and 10 most days.   I tried!

So last week I did my IV Infusion and it was a disaster.  I’d had a rough night where I was dizzy for about 2 hours and my left arm was tingling.  It scared me so I didn’t want them putting the IV in my left arm where they normally do.  It’s my good vein but I was scared.  The nurses agreed to do my right arm.

Well the nurse doing it was freaking out a bit.  She hit my vein but went through it so they couldn’t use it.  After that she refused to try again because she didn’t want to hurt me.  I told her to just do it, it was fine, I could handle it, but she wouldn’t.  So my nurse (the head nurse) came in to do it.  She tried on the same arm and when she got the needle in the stupid catheter broke!   The needle popped right out of it and they had to remove it.  My poor arm was so sore.

So they went to my left arm, the good one, and got it started there.  Then everything was fine.  My nurse and I chatted and it was decided that I would have monitoring on Monday (24th) and my transfer Friday afternoon (28).  My lining is always good so they didn’t see it would be a problem.

I went in for monitoring on Monday.  My doctor described my lining as “luscious”.   He cracks me up.   It was at 12mm and had the tri pattern.   He said he couldn’t imagine my estrogen levels would be off because everything looked good.   Well, he was right in that aspect. My nurse called 2 hours later and said my estrogen looked great BUT my progesterone was high….too high.

They said with that amount it looked like I already ovulated and it was only day 14.  My normal cycles I ovulate on day 17 or 18 and even when I’m pumped full of my for IVF I don’t ovulate until day 13.  According to my charting it says I ovulated on day 12 but now my temperatures are back down so I don’t know.  They have me coming back in on Saturday to do another scan and bloodwork.  If my bloodwork is still high I’ll be cancelled.   If it looks good we will transfer next week.

I can’t believe this is what’s happening.  I was so certain I would transfer Friday which would have been great.  I could take the whole weekend to relax plus I have teacher work time Friday afternoon so I wasn’t even going to have to get a substitute!  So now we wait.  If I’m cancelled we’ll just start again next month but that will put my transfer close to Thanksgiving which isn’t good since I’m helping host at my brother’s house and I’ll be doing all of the cooking.

A Quick Update

So I’m been seriously busy this month.   Work is kicking my butt as I’ve had a training or series of meetings every single week so I haven’t had much time with my students.  It’s driving me crazy!   I’ve also had a lot of baking orders so I feel like I’ve been running.

This weekend has been more relaxing.   Today is my last birth control pill so I should be getting my period in the next few days and then I’ll call my nurse and start my oral estrogen.  I have an appointment on the 18th for my 5th IV infusion.   That’s about it!  By my calculations I should be transferring around the end of October.  I can’t believe how relaxed this transfer will be.

I’ve also decided I need to take control of my weight.  I’ve gained over 10 pounds since May and it’s ridiculous.  I know it’s from being on birth control and cycling but usually I can drop the weight quickly and it’s not happening this time.  It might be because I’ve been on birth control pills every other month but who knows.  I’ve been doing a lot of exercising and I’ve been counting calories and I hope to have at least 5 pounds off by my transfer.

Funny story about going to my yearly gynecologist appointment.   The nurse was super young.  I go through my history with her, tell her about IVF, etc.   I tell her I am on birth control for this month only because of my frozen transfer.  She looks at me and asks what i do for birth control the rest of the time.  I pretty much laughed in her face and said, “Honey, if 2 doctors, a nurse, and my husband in a room can’t get me pregnant, I don’t think I really have to worry about that.”  She just stared at me and had nothing to say.  I mean really?  I just told you I’ve done 4 IVF cycles and can’t get pregnant.

Later on the doctor comes in and she talks with me about infertility a lot.  Asks how I’m handling it, wants to know how I’m feeling, and she gets it.  When she goes to do my exam she asks if it’s weird just having her and the nurse in there.  I laughed because she knows my RE is at a teaching hospital and there is always a crowd in with me.   I told her it was nice not to have an audience.   Funny the big difference between the doctor and the nurse.

So, I guess I’ll start estrogen later on this week!

You Want Me to Start Birth Control Pills When??

So it’s been one week since I got my BFN.   It’s been emotional to say the least.   On Saturday morning I had book club.  It was going well until everyone started talking about their kids.  I was really sad and had nothing to say.   On Sunday my brother and sister in law came which was fun. They don’t have kids so that was actually a relief to have them visit.

My cousin had her baby on Monday and I was ok.  I talked to her, talked to my parents, saw the pictures of the baby, and even shared them with my husband.  It was ok.  However, on Tuesday morning I saw a photo of my parents holding the baby and I lost it.  I was really upset because I kept thinking I’d never have a photo of my parents holding a baby of mine.

Then I had my IV infusion and WTF appointment on Tuesday.   My nurse came in and asked how I was doing and I cried it out with her.  You could tell she felt awful about me not being pregnant.   We talked about possibly testing my 2 frozen embryos but for the cost of that I can do an entire frozen transfer cycle so I said no.  She asked me when I wanted to do a frozen cycle and I told her I’d like to do one next cycle and then if that doesn’t work wait until the spring to do another.

So she asks what day of my cycle I’m on, I say day 4 or 5 and she says I need to start birth control pills immediately.  I was like WHAT???  She told me I needed a baseline today to make sure everything looks good, start BCP’s that night, do it for 21 days, then start estrogen.   After I get my period I’ll come in on day 14 to check my lining and on day 19 we’ll trasnfer.  I was not expecting any of that!

I had a ton of questions but it seems like it’ll be a super easy cycle.  I won’t know what to do with myself.  Even when I did IUI’s I did shots so this is going to be weird.  Hopefully I won’t even feel like I’m cycling and I’ll be nice and relaxed.  That’s my hope at least.  I just can’t believe how fast it happened.

So I went into the room and had an ultrasound.  My doctor had two students with him.  One did the ultrasound for about 30 seconds but then my doctor got impatient.  He told her “You whizzed right by her ovary!  You need to stop on that!”  He then took over and looked.  He said I had some fluid in my uterus but my ovaries looked back to normal.  He was all for me going ahead.   Before he left he let me know that with the process they now use to freeze at this clinic I actually have a better chance of getting pregnant.  Apparently the SART data is all from when they used the old process.   SO here’s to hoping my body reacts better to a frozen cycle.

It’s hard to believe in all these years and with 4 IVF cycles I’ve never done a frozen cycle but I’ve never had anything frozen before.   I think it’s going to be nice not having to pump a ton of drugs into my body.  So as of right now we are looking at an early November transfer.