Pushed to Day 5

Bright and early this morning my phone rang. It was from a number I know very well...the doctors office. They called to let me know that they were pushing my transfer from a day 3 to a day 5. That was really great news to us. They do day 5 transfers for a few reasons but the main one is that all the embryos look good and they can't tell which two are the best. At day 5 they are blastocysts . A blastocyst is a highly developed embryo that has divided many times and is at the point where it is nearly ready to attach to the uterus wall. There are good and bad things about waiting till day 5. The good things are that the embryo is much more developed and you have a better chance for success. The only bad thing is that they do not freeze well. I am fine with that and am more than happy to do a day 5 transfer. Many of the blogs I have been reading, pray for a day 5 transfer. The other good thing is that I will only have to wait 10 days instead of 15 to know if it worked. Oh, and I only have to go to the doctor's office on the 25th and not the 18th and the 25th.

So what all this means is that out transfer will be on Monday at 11:15, which means I have to be there at 10:45. I was really sad at first because I thought I was going to miss Lynn's 30th birthday at school. But my transfer is so late I am going to get to go in for a little bit for her birthday and to see my babies:) That is all for today so until tomorrow Love and Baby Dust!

My Beautiful Tulips

My Beautiful tulips my husband got me after my egg retrieval.

Allergic Reactions

I was so excited to think that I had a two day break from going to the doctor. But my two day break was short lived when I had to go to the doctor bright and early this morning because of an allergic reaction. Yesterday I started taking Estrace which is a estrogen pill. About an hour after I took the pill I felt like my whole body was on fire. My face was red and inflamed. My Mom kept telling me it was probably the hormones from all the shots leaving my body but it continued to get worse as the day went on. I called the emergency number because I was supposed to take another pill with dinner but I was scared to because of my reaction with the first pill. The Doctor called me back and told me to go into the office the next day so they could change my medicine. Once I got to the doctor I showed them pictures from what my face looked like the night before. They were surprised because people normally don't have that reaction. They ended up putting me on an estrogen patch. Which I am happy about because instead of taking 2 pills a day. I just have to put the patch on every Tuesday and Friday.
I am worried about the 6 embryos because many times all 6 will not make it to transfer and I really want to have some to freeze. But I keep telling myself if we have two healthy eggs for the transfer tomorrow then we are lucky. I was reading so many blogs where after people had their retrieval, none of the eggs fertilized. I know now that I am so lucky to have 6. The nurses at the office told me that 6 is a great number. I have always hated the number six but my Mom said after tomorrow I may start to love the number 6 :)I keep telling myself that it only takes 1. Just one little healthy embryo could be Stephen and my dream come true.

During my massage toady the doctor's office called to say that they had to change the time of my transfer from 10:15 to 11:00. I will feel much better after I know how many embryos made it I will be able to breath a sigh of relief!

I think that is all for now. So until tomorrow Love and Baby Dust!!!

Fertilization Report Not Great- Down to 6

After a very long night of waiting for the fertilization report, the Dr. called at 9:25 this morning. As you know yesterday day we started with 22 eggs. Then this morning when the doctor called he said that out of the 22 only 13 were mature and only 6 fertilized. So is it as high as we hoped no. But I have to look on the positive side that we have 6 little embryos that could hopefully be our children. Right now we are still set for a day 3 transfer which is suppose to take place Saturday at 10:15. So for right how I am hoping and praying that all 6 of our little embryos make it. If so we will use 2 on Saturday and hopefully be able to freeze the other 4.
The doctor also said he is really worried about Stephen's count. But he did say he did research on a medicine takes that can dramatically reduce sperm count. So I made Stephen an appointment with his doctor so he can tell him the safe way to go off of it.
Other than that I had to start three new medications today. Estrace which is estrogen and I have to take that in the morning and at night. Baby Aspirin once a day to keep the lining of my uterus thick. Crinone which is a progesterone suppository (better than the shot!)
That is pretty much all for now Love and Baby Dust!

22 Beautiful Little Eggs

Today was the biggest and most important day so far in my journey of IVF. Today was my egg retrieval day. I got up this morning to a very rainy and nasty day. Lynn texted me and said that since rain is lucky on wedding days then it must be lucky on egg retrieval day :) We got there right at 7:15. While sitting in the waiting room my Mom, Stephen, and I were guessing how many eggs I would have. Stephen guessed 30, my Mom guessed 24, and I guessed 22. After waiting in the waiting room they took me right back. My Mom had to wait in the waiting room and Stephen got to back with me. Once I got back there they had me put on my lovely hospital gown, booties, and cap. Next, the nurse put my IV in. Then the anesthesiologist came in to introduced himself, I liked him a lot he was a really nice guy. There is a picture of us below. Next Dr.F came in to see if I had any questions, which I didn't since I had read so much online. Shortly after that the nurse came to take me back to the operating room. I was teary eyed just because I hate being put to sleep but all the nurses were so sweet. They made me feel completely comfortable. After that I went right to sleep. The whole retrieval took a totally of 10-15 mins. The next thing I knew I woke up in the recovery room. I was crampy but they gave me a heated bottle that made me feel a lot better. I also had a really bad taste in my mouth, which didn't go away till way later. Dr. F came in to let me know that she was able to get 22 eggs. Dr. F and I were both really happy with that number :) Once I started feeling like myself again they let me go home. Once I got home I was still a little crampy, so I layed in bed happily surrounded by my dogs with a heating pad.

About an hour after we got home my phone rang. It was one of the nurses that works in the lab. I thought she was just calling with an update but she was calling to let me know that Stephen had to come back in because his sperm count was really low. This was scary and shocking news. Stephen left right away to go back to the doctors office. While we know that his count is not normally that great it was never a concern that there would not be enough. Once Stephen got home and we talked about it the only thing we could think of is that they have had him on a steroid inhaler because he has been so sick. The horrible part is that I called back around 3:30 today to see how the second sample was and they told me that the doctor was already gone and we had to wait until tomorrow. So here we sit worrying about if they were able to fertilize the eggs or not. We figured that if the news was bad they would have called us or that is what I am going to keep telling myself. It is going to be a very long night! But thankfully I am feeling pretty good, I am a tiny bit sore but that is all. So until tomorrow Love and Baby Dust.

At home after my surgery with my sweet nurses.

Pre-op Today and Tomorrow's the Big Day!

I got up bright and early again this morning to make the trek to the doctors office for my pre-op appointment and of course more blood work :) The pre-op went well I signed all my paper and got all the instructions that I needed for the night before my egg retrieval, the day of my egg retrieval , my transfer, and the rest of my appointments.
Of course I am nervous about tomorrow but I am so ready to get this crazy process over with. Tomorrow morning I have to be there at 7:15 and my surgery will start at 8. I was very happy to find out that Dr.F the nice lady doctor I saw this weekend is doing the egg retrieval. I also got a phone call from the anesthesiologist who is putting me to sleep. He was very nice which also calmed my nerves.
I also just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all their thoughts, prayers, love and kind words. It means the world to me and it is truly helping me get through this challenging journey.
I also wanted to share what my wonderful husband posted on facebook tonight because it is so sweet and shows what a great man he truly is.
" Tomorrow is the big day. There's not much I've wanted in my life more than this to work. I'm not a religious man, but I am praying".
I think that is all for tonight, until tomorrow Love and baby dust!!!

Trigger Shot Equalled Stress

Wow, that 20 minutes was the most stressful 20 minutes I have had through this whole process. So during my shot the teach the nurse stressed how important the trigger shot is and how important it is not to mess it up.

Since I had to have my shot at 9:00 I went downstairs at 8:45 to get everything ready. The HCG consists of two vials. One that is liquid and one that is powder. I started off well putting the right amount of liquid into the powder. But then no matter what I tried I could not get all the liquid out of the vial. Then I had air in my needle so when I tried to get it out a little shot in the air. So there I stood teary eyed because it was not all just right, like I knew it needed to be. At 9:05 I finally gave myself my shot with all the liquid that I could possible get in there. All I can do now is hope that I did it right :( I will find out tomorrow because they do blood work to make sure it in my system. So again until next time love and baby dust!