10 Mature Hopefully More to Come/ Day 9 Stim Appointment

Even though it is Saturday I still had to be at the doctor bright and early this morning. Since it was the weekend I had to go to the main location which I have never been to and I had to see a new doctor. It was a fun appointment because Stephen went and he was making me laugh as usual. Today I saw Dr.F, she was a young happy pregnant woman who was very sweet. During my ultrasound she found a total of about 25 Follicles/eggs. But as of today only 10 of them are mature. To be mature they have be at least 15mm because if they are not 15 mm they do not have eggs in them yet. Dr.F said that with one more day of stim shots then a lot more should be mature by tomorrow.Which means that I would get my trigger shot tomorrow night and egg retrival Tuesday as planned. When the nurse called this afternoon with my blood work results she said that my E2 level was in the high 900s(I was taking a nap, so I can't remember the exact number) and that Dr.F want me to add one more vial of Bravelle to my shots tonight. I am sure that they want me to add because the ones that are mature can't go much longer and they really want me to have more mature than that before retrial. So overall the appointment went well. I have another appointment tomorrow in the morning. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a lot more mature follicles/eggs. Until then Love and Baby Dust!

The Three Amigos/ Day 8 Stim Appointment

Today was my appointment for stim day 8.It was another great appointment. My Mom went with me and was so excited to see all of my eggs getting bigger by the day. During my ultrasound the doctor said that she could see at least 8 eggs/follicles on each side. She found one follicle that was 18mm, one that was 16mm, a few that were 15mm, and many that were 12mm. She said that after a few more days the 12mm ones should catch up with the others. She also said that the lining of my uterus looked great and was ahead of the game at 11mm. She gave me a few great pictures for my blog which I was super excited about.

Picture 1- My right ovary- All of the dark spots are my follicles which contain the eggs. This is just from one side so you can only see 4 or 5 follicles. The one on the left is my largest one that is 18 mm.

Picture 2- My Left Ovary- This is the picture that she called my three amigos because you can see 3 eggs all in a line. Again this is only from one angle so you can only see 4 follicles.One person at school said it looked like a paw print :)

Picture 3- Is my uterus which the doctor said looks perfect for a baby :)

So that is my good news for the day. I have to say I am feeling positive today. I started stocking up on pregnancy tests at target today and I allowed myself to look at baby clothes which I never do.

Still waiting on my lab work to come back, so as soon as it does I will update this post!

Got my lab work back and my E2 level looks great at 779 :) I go back bright and early tomorrow morning.

That's all for now! Love and Baby Dust!!!

Little Army of Eggs/ Day 6 Stim Appointment

Bright and early this morning was my day 6 of stimulation appointment. It started with blood work as always and then I had my ultrasound. Overall, my appointment went great. The doctor said I have a little army of eggs(follicles) on both sides that range from 10-12mm. Just to put that number into perspective they like to remove them at 17-21mm, preferably 21mm. The follicles will continue to grow 1-3mm a day. She said if she had to guess my retrieval would be on Tuesday of next week. The nurse also called this afternoon with the results from my estradiol level which was 247. The nurse said that is fine and to keep taking the same meds that I am currently on. So I guess everything is looking how it should. I go back to the doctor Friday morning to have another ultrasound and blood work. I will update again then :) So for now Love and Baby Dust!

Wishing On a Star

I am feeling much better this week. Since starting the stim shots my mood has been much better. I am feeling more and more back to my normal everyday. I can also tell that the stim shots are beginning to work because my ovaries are tender. Which is a very familar feeling because of taking clomid during my IUIs. I have read everywhere that Lupron is the devil and I have to say that I agree! I was very fortunate not to have to many headaches and hot flashes. But it did make me quite hateful. Even though I am still on a small dose of Lupron it is not having much effect on me anymore.
I went to therapy yesterday, which for those of you who don't know I go for my anxiety. I was talking to her about what I have talked about on here before that going through this has made me face all of my fears. Honestly, I hate that I have to go through all this but I think that it is good that I am facing my fears. The more I talked about it with her the more I know that I can get through this. I started talking about the many different things that are going on in my life and how things are really lining up. She said that it seems like the stars are going to align this time. So here I am truly hoping that the stars are aligning.
Throughout this process I have tried to be positive but I hate to get my hopes up again.Since I got pregnant on my own, I truly thought that the IUIs would work. But as we all know they didn't. I keep telling myself that with the IUIs I only had a 12% chance of it working the first time and then your chances go down from there. With IVF we have 75% chance of it working. I truly hope I am one of those 75%. I can't imagine being part of the 25%. Even though I have prepared myself to be one of those 25% people. I am grateful that we have the means to do IVF. I am grateful that we have the means to adopt if it comes down to that. So right now I am staying positive. I know that no matter what I will be a mommy!
Oh one other thing I am trying my hardest to kick caffeine. This is way harder than shots or anything else. I truly love my Diet Coke and sweet tea. I look forward to them through out my day. I have been drinking Coke forever so when I don't have it I get a horrible headache. I am cutting down from 4 a day to 1. So wish me luck :)

Here are a Few Shot Pictures

Giving myself the stim shot...feel the burn!

Oh yay Shot...LOL

Mixing Stim Shot

Me and My Wonderful Husband and hopefully future baby daddy!

Mixing the stim shot

Giving myself the Lupron Shot

Getting the air out

Drawing up my Lupron

Getting my Lupron Ready

My Shots for just one day.

Burn Baby Burn, Gotta Love Those Stim Shots

So last night was the first night of my stim shots. I also reduced the lupron shot from 10cc to 5cc. I was more nervous about mixing all the medicines than I was about the actual shot. Thank God for Youtube because there was a girl that showed me how to do it :)To get the stim shots ready there are a total of 4 vials. 1 vial of sodium chloride, 2 vials of a powder drug called Bravelle and 1 vial of another powder drug called menopur. To mix these you start by taking a big needle off a syringe, there are things called q-caps which fit on the top of the vials. The syringe screws on the top of the q-cap. Next you place the q-cap on the bottle of sodium chloride, draw up 1cc of liquid. Then you put the q-cap on the next vial and squirt in the liquid. You continue to do that through each vial until they are all mixed together. Then you remove the syringe from the q-cap and screw on a small needle on to the syringe. Now it is finally time to give yourself the shot. This shot is a lot different than giving myself the lupron shot. The lupron shot is a really small amount and the liquid comes out quickly. The stim shot is another story, it is a lot more liquid and it comes out very slowly. Plus it burns while going in. Overall, I have to say it has been so far so good. I haven't had any side effects yet but it is also only day two.

Hooray for Sleeping Eggs!

This morning was my first ultrasound and blood work appointment since starting the Lupron injections. Lupron's job is to put my follicles which contain the eggs in resting mode. During my ultrasound today the doctor said the Lupron did its job. She explained that the lining of my uterus looked thin as it should and my follicles were completely resting. This afternoon the nurse called about my blood work, she said that all of my blood work was perfect. The nurse also gave me the go ahead to start my stimulation shots tonight. I am so ready to start them because they are suppose to make my hormones go back to normal :) But I will say that I am scared at the same time because I have to mix 4 different vials of medicines together into one shot. They showed me how to do it and I have written directions but it is still a lot to remember. I will also stay on the Lupron but it will drop down to 5cc instead of 10cc a day. So that means tonight I will have 2 shots instead of one. I will update later tonight or tomorrow about how it goes :)