Saturday, October 30, 2010

Fert report

I got the call yesterday while traveling...17 eggs were ICSI'd and 15 fertilized normally. So, now the wait is on. This seems like a good fert report, though it hurts to go from 22 to 15, I do realize it is really going from 17 to 15, which isn't nearly as painful. I'm nervous about the next 5 days but I'm not going to freak out like last time, I realize that I am already lucky...but, man, is that hormone crash sucky!

I have some pics to post and a video...funny that Teagan started officially crawling while away in Colorado and staying at a hotel room:-) She is the cutest thing. We are off to BRU to baby proof the house today!!!

Oh, and the OHSS seems to be doing good. It looks like that medicine that they gave me is doing the trick. I am achy and very bloated but nothing major to report at all. (they gave me cabergoline tablets?).

Thursday, October 28, 2010

ER done and now I relax...!

Things went well...for my third ER at CCRM I again had Dr. M for retrieval! Weird, huh? Anyway, she was nice, the nurses were great and I got 22 eggs retrieved, which is great, but doesn't mean all that much if they don't make it to blast, so we'll see. I'l find out maturity and get a fert report tomorrow and then no information untild day 6 (eeek). In the meantime, I am dying to get home!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

trigger and hyperstim???

So we are set to trigger tonight at midnight. However, my nurse called this afternoon for us to come back and pick up some meds that the doctor would like me to start tonight to hopefully try to prevent hyperstimulation. Um, what? I have 18 good sized follies and in the past I've gotten 20 -21 eggs with each cycle just fine, so I thought I was doing okay...but it turns out that my estrogen almost doubled between yesterday and today and that is really what they worry about with hyperstimming. So, I start a new pill tonight at bedtime...has anyone else ever taken something to prevent hyperstimulation? was it a nightly pill? what did you think? I've never heard of this before but I'm pretty glad that they are being proactive, because I've always been afraid of hyperstimulating and now that it was the last thing on my mind and I had no concerns, there it is to scare me just a little! But, I am with great doctors and we are set to go! Egg Retrieval is set for Thursday at 11 am:-)

On another (and more fun...) note, my baby girl is crawling!! She's been doing a little bunny hop thing where she moves her hands forward and then hops both back feet forward, which was really cute, but really seemed to frustrate her. Well, as of today, she is moving forward with some speed at a nice crawl. Its so cute and she is pretty excited about it. Watch out, right? It is definitely time to baby-proof the house this weekend!!!

I'll try to update on Thursday or this weekend at the latest! Thanks for all the great comments and support!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Colorado

Here is a short update....we made it to Colorado!! the flight went surprisingly well. Teagan slept though take off and landing and was sweet and snuggly and smiley for the rest of the flight. After our layover, she was up for takeoff and landing but slept through the rest of the flight. It was a nice surprise.

So...onto the updates. I have 18 follies of good size and a few more that are slightly smaller. It looks like things are going according to schedule and growing nicely. My meds have been reduced from 150 gonal f a night to 75 gonal f and we are planning retrieval for Thursday. I have another appoinment in the morning to see how things are going, so I guess there is a chance I may trigger tomorrow but it is looking like Tuesday night for Thurs ER.

I am dying to get this over with and start to relax again. I want coffee and wine and I want to exercise to my heart's content. I want to enjoy the holidays with family and friends and not think much about this again until transfer time arrives...in the meantime, I am praying that we have something to transfer because even though it looks like a lot of eggs, we got a lot last time and only sent 4 out for testing, so you never know.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Super short post



Okay, maybe she doesn't like the bear suit? Our house was cold last night so when DH changed her diaper, he decided to put her in her little warm bear suit (it was just for the hour before her bath time)...and we got this pic:-) Kidding, she liked the suit but what she didn't like was that I wasn't holding her hands and walking her around the room. This is Teagan's "frustrated" face. She makes it a million times a day when we put her on the floor and expect her to either play or work at crawling. If mommy isn't around, she'll play or work on crawling. However, if mommy is around, this is what you get...and basically, it means that she is mad at me for not walking her around the room. This kid wants to walk...not crawl (which she successfully did for 3 crawl steps last week but has not repeated). But, she's cute, right?

On the cycle front, I got AF on Friday, checked on Saturday, started stims on Sunday. I am doing 4 shots a day in my poor little (but larger than it used to be) belly. Ugh. But, we are trucking along. I have a follie check tomorrow and then we fly out on Thursday. Since it was delayed, I am very happy to say that Brett can travel with us (woo hoo!). I was terrified of taking Teagan on the flight alone since she is an incredibly active and curious child. I just didn't know how I would contain her alone...so now there will be 2 of us to do it. Luckily, she is usually pretty happy...so I have hope that things will go well, so long as I can keep her occupied!

I will update when I can:-) Wish us luck!

Oh...can I just add...Did anyone see the story this morning that Octomom's doctor "implanted" 12 embryos? First of all, the obvious thing - he put 12 embryos in? seriously? Okay, now I do have a problem with this guy....but most of all....why do all of the shows use this terminology? That embryos were "implanted"...they weren't. I seriously get so annoyed I have to turn the TV off when I hear this. And, why don't the doctors they are interviewing ever correct this terminology? If they implanted 12 embryos into octomom then she had at least 4 miscarry...No, they "transferred" 12 and 8 "implanted". It just gets me so mad because it seems to suggest that there is no risk with IVF, they implant them and you have a baby. Embryos implant themselves or they don't. Ugh. Maybe it is just a weird sensitivity on my part or maybe I am too literal but does this annoy you too?

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Responses and Babysitting

Thank you so much for your responses to my last post. I was actually wondering if I was in the minority or majority there and it looks like there are a lot of others like me. I think the IVF experience is different for everyone, our bodies are different, our experiences are different, etc. I think the biggest concern for me this time is taking Teagan on a flight to Denver, lol. That is what I am losing sleep over. Let me explain: My little girl is no shrinking violet, no wall flower, no....noone puts baby in the corner! She is constantly active, constantly moving and trying to grab things, walk, talk...we went to sushi last night with my sister in law, brother in law, and their baby girl. For the last hour or so, Teagan would yell at the top of her lungs, not because she was unhappy, but because she wanted to make that noise. She'd smile, and let it out, then look around. There was no distracting her, no shutting her up with food, nothing. I hope that doesn't happen on the plane.



About babysitting. I've noticed lately that we don't go anywhere and we are absolutely fine with that, however, everyone else seems to be worried. I've had comments from friends and family offering their babysitting services so that we can go to the movies, or have a "date night". I've had people say, "when was the last time you guys got out alone?" and then look wide eyed and somewhat frightened when we say we don't usually do that (we did it for 2 nights while the state fair was in town so that we could go to a concert and that is it since she was born). All I want to say to these people, is please don't feel sorry for us! If we are feeling overwhelmed, we will definitely seek help, I promise. For now, we are really just enjoying it. We love being together as a family. We are doing the same exact thing we did before she was born, but now we have her. I don't know how to explain it. The end result is that we enjoy the family, Teagan goes to bed at 7 and mommy and daddy have date night every night:-) Does that sound crazy? Probably not to the rest of you IFers...but to those who easily had a baby or don't have any babies or their babies are grown up? I think it must sound crazy because of the looks we get. I mean, we went through YEARS of infertility treatments where we were home alot because of the meds, or because we were poor as a result of IF treatments, or we were just depressed. Now, we are home doing stuff around the house and playing with our baby and then sitting on the couch together, cuddling each other and the dogs while we listen to the baby monitor, what could be better?

We now have wonderful family nearby. Brett's sister and her husband and 10 week old are just 25 minutes away, my mom is within walking distance, a next door neighbor whose amazing 21 year old daughter has offered to babysit and loves our little one, and Brett's mom is far away but willing to travel to take care of our little monkey...all of these people are amazing, but we just (at the moment) have no need. I mean, we are happy and don't really want to go anywhere (not that we could afford to anyway, lol, we are on a SERIOUS budget for this IVF). I'm not sure if we are crazy and should take everyone up on this or if it is okay...but there it is, right? I doubt we'll regret it:-)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Let the games begin...and what is your IVF experience?

I started lupron last night. Its a late start since I was technically supposed to start last Wednesday, but I went in for my P4 check and I must have just ovulated (very late for me) so we had to give it a few more days. It seems that my usual 26 day (like clockwork) cycle, with ovulation on day 13, has been drastically altered by pregnancy and probably breastfeeding. So my cycles seem to be around 31 days lately, so no big surprise there.



Let me say that I was surprised how reluctant I was to do that shot! I guess for a few years it just became routine and, when I was considering doing this again, it felt routine, until I actually got the meds out and sat down to do them and then all of a sudden, I was like "what are we doing?". Of course, it didn't help that the bill from CCRM came in yesterday and we had to think about all that money we got on loan from our credit card companies going bye bye in one big charge. Scary. Anyway, close your eyes and jump, right? so, here we go...


But, it got me thinking...I didn't think the physical aspect of IVF was all that awful. I got a little cranky, a little bloated, then I had that delightful sedated sleep during egg retrieval and woke up hearing a good number of eggs retrieved and then off for pancakes and a nap at home. Honestly. I can't say that, in my experience, physically, IVF is all that challenging. For me, its always been the emotional side that is so hard (and this time, I expect this part to be a whole lot less stressful). I still recall telling a yoga student of mine (who got pregnant from her first IVF) that I was on IVF #5...she was shocked and said it was so physically difficult for her to take that there is NO WAY she would do it more than once. So, I was happy it worked for her, lol, b/c I didn't have that option...but, on that note, this made it clear to me that everyone's experience is different. What was your IVF experience like? Did you think it was horribly physically trying? I'm just kind of curious. I have no reason for saying that the physical side was easy for me...because I have nothing to compare it to, I guess. I mean, recovering from ER is nothing...and I definitely won't say the same thing about recovering from a laparoscopy, which I found painful. But, on that note, I didn't think recovering from childbirth was horrible...I was shocked that it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected (which makes me think that it probably is just my expectations that are skewed...if you think it will be AWFUL and it is just bad, then it was easier than you thought, right?). Anyway....tell me your experiences!



Besides the IF front, Teagan's been sick for the longest time. She had a cold when I went to CO for my ODWU, she got better from that on Wednesday and then Saturday woke up at night with a horrible cough, wheezing, etc...I called the pediatrician's emergency line and we worked through it for the weekend, I took her in yesterday and she has croup...with the worst of it being over (must have been that saturday night when she ended up sleeping in our bed, with the humidifier going, waking every hour and both me and Brett only getting about 2 hours of sleep). We had family move nearby on Saturday so visited with Brett's sis, her husband, and my mother in law. It was great...though I hope their 10 week old baby doesn't get croup from Teagan, since they spent all day Saturday together when we were totally unaware that Teagan was on her way to getting really sick.





So, that's it for this update. Please post your experiences. I'm not looking forward to this cycle, but I am. I love that this will be my last one. I love that I had 30 antral follicles! I love that we might get Teagan a sibling out of this (the hope of a cycle always got to me no matter how negative I was). But, I am not looking foward to the flights with my baby girl, who is extremely active. Ugh.

Here is a pic taken in July when we had some family pictures taken with the new cousins...