6dp3dt

ONLY FOUR MORE DAYS until our beta!!

Antsy does not even begin to describe what we are feeling. Even though we knew if we took a HPT it would be negative, we still did it. Just couldn't help ourselves. So far the results are BFN. Hoping that changes before our beta on Thursday!

Symptoms wise: Crampy every now and then like I am with my period. Last night my whole body was sore like I ran a marathon lol. But otherwise I feel normal.

Fingers crossed! Baby dust to all!

3dp3dt

So I am almost half way through this tww. If our embryos are still alive they should be over 100 cells by now and hatching out and attaching to the uterine wall. 

So onto symptoms - so far not much. Started getting sharp uterine cramps today. Not sure if it is from the meds or something else. C and I have decided when I am going to test. My beta is next Thursday 13 days past ER. We decided to POAS on this Sunday, 6dp3dt. I am not expecting a BFP until at least Tuesday morning though. But hey.... we just can't help it.

I took my last dose of steroids today, woo-hoo they taste terrible! I switch my estrogen patches (two) every other day. I take Prenate DHA daily. I am still taking my daily IM shot of progesterone in my butt.... ouch! 

We got some sad news today. None of our embryos made it to "freeze."

So C and I had the dreaded, "what if" conversation. I feel like in order remain at peace I need to know there is a back up plan either way. Of course I want this to work on the first try. BUT I don't want to be too naive. So we decided that we will do another IVF cycle. That being said we may go elsewhere. And now that we are educated much more on this whole topic we will make sure we do the right thing for us. 

I'll be honest.... first starting this process I assumed since we have no fertility issues pregnancy would be inevitable. I hope I am right but I can't help but think I am way too naive. I also thought that we would definitely have frozen babies to try again if we needed. But i was wrong. Time will tell, in a weeks time we will know if I am pregnant. 


THIS TWW IS DRIVING ME CRAZY! 

PUPO

Well, today was the big day. We transferred two embryos. One was what they called "perfect" and the second one was "great."

Well my nerves have officially sunk in. Even though they told me countless times that  I can pee and they won't fall out... I am having a hard time believing it! Lol this will be the longest wait of my life!

On a side note the other embryos aren't looking so great. Two have stopped growing. And the other two are still growing slowly but have fragmentation :(. We will see if any of the two can freeze on day six.

I am just hopeful that the little embies inside of my uterus stick and grow :)!

Our beta is scheduled for March 28th, which is a day early due to my work schedule. I am not going to lie I plan on POAS before then, probably 6-8dp3dt.

A three day it is...

I had a pad of paper and a pen ready to go for when the embryologist called. I was prepared to write down the details of each embryo once we got the call. B answered the phone and put it on speaker....and when we hung up the phone, I was overcome so overcome with emotions, I began to cry. But not tears of disappointment...no rather a release of stress and anguish leading up to this call.

The embryologist said "out of the 6 embryos that were fertilized"....(she paused and I closed my eyes for what seemed like an eternity)...."all 6 are cleaving, with one at the two cell stage and the other 5 at the four cell stage"

So we discussed that the surgery center staff would call about logistics for tomorrow's 3 day transfer of the two best embryos.

When B hung up the phone she was instantly flooded with thoughts that came running out of her mouth--she was so excited she began rambling--like the positive effects of the steroids she's been on for a few days (intended to lower her bodies ability to fight anything foreign) and she said "baby, this is so exciting, it's really good news!....oh and I think I'm getting a cold too!"

Not interpreting her words the way she intended them, I was in a moment of silence trying to let sink in what was just said to us by the embryologist, I immediately thought the worst and began to cry.

I do believe it was a release of emotions--especially that my estrogen level was 6500 just two days ago and I'm sure is rapidly returning to baseline.

Ahh, the differences between our personalities and our bodies hormone levels. Yet one more example of how I completely agree that this is a roller coaster ride like none I've taken before.

So tomorrow we will transfer the two best embryos to B.  Doing this with the intentions of allowing the remaining four to continue to grow to blast stage so they may be frozen.

Keeping fingers crossed here.
Thanks for listening!

C

Results on in... well so far.

So out of 16 eggs retrieved yesterday, 15 eggs were mature. They did ICSI with all 15 mature eggs. This morning they called me to give me the embryo report. Out of the 15 eggs 6 eggs fertilized successfully. So far they look good. They will call me again tomorrow to give me an update. They said that they should be 2 - 4 cells tomorrow and they should be able to predict whether or not they can do a three or five days transfer. FIngers crossed for a five day transfer!

I'll be very honest, C and I are a little bummed with the results. I think we expected a few more than 6 eggs. I am just hoping that the 6 embryos we have stay strong and grow normally.

On a side note, ANOTHER SIGN CAME MY WAY. My cousin's grandmother saw me this morning (since I am babysitting my cousin's baby). She said to me, "You were in my dream the other night. You know how you were the ID badge that clips on your shirt?" And I replied, "Yes?" Then she said, "Well in my dream you had a really big ID badge across your belly that said OCCUPIED!" :)


Let's hope our embryo's stick to the development chart :)

Handing over the baton :)

So, as you know, C described that she views this whole process as a two person olympic relay. And today she passed the baton! This morning was egg retrieval. Things started off rocky but got better as the process progressed. C is a very hard stick for an IV so it took the bitchy CRNA three tries to get it. C and I both were a little upset that the CRNA was not very nice. But other than that the retrieval went very well, we got a total of 16 eggs. They will do ICSI later today and give us a phone call tomorrow to let us know how fertilization went.

Just for shits and giggles C took a pregnancy test. Since she took her HCG shot the other day, it was positive lol! Officially her only positive pregnancy test ever :)!

Here is a picture and video from this morning :)

C ready to go!

Surrounded by eggs!

So you're probably wondering what the title actually means. Well as you all know I work in a Neonatal ICU, we decorate and go all out for every holiday. EASTER INCLUDED. Every where I look there are eggs! And although these plastic eggs/decorations mean nothing to our IVF journey I can't help but correlate the two. Every time I lay my eyes on eggs I immediate think of egg retrieval!!!

C and I went to see "OZ" in 3D over the weekend and we grabbed snacks for the movie. I got Reese's Peices.... They were the Easter edition, shaped like eggs!!! Okay so I get it, EASTER is around the corner but still lol!

ANYWAY, C took half of the trigger shot last night because her estrogen level was 5,400!!! Considering mine is nearly 3,000 there is a whole lot of estrogen in our house!! Surprisingly I am the mushy one (well not too surprisingly lol). C is a trooper, she has done much better with the injections than I expected! She even gave her last two days of medications herself!! So, the BIG DAY is tomorrow morning at 8:00AM. Excitement doesn't even begin to describe how super excited me are!!! Wish us luck, and stay tuned for an update, post retrieval.