Positive!

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to use the bathroom and decided to POAS! It was positive and the beta at the RE's office confirmed that we are expecting our rainbow baby!

Not Waiting

I could not wait until Wednesday to have the blood pregnancy test and I changed my appointment to Monday (tomorrow).  Today I went to the bathroom this morning at about 10ish and had a spot of  brown blood.  I walked all over the grocery store though and didn't spot anymore.  I really feel like it didn't happen for us this time.  I am so sad, but trying to stay positive. I am going to have the clinic call my husband tomorrow because if it is bad news I would like to hear it from him since I will be at work.

I am so tense right now, it is crazy.  After the whole sperm sample mix up, we will be going to a different clinic if it didn't work this time.  It is so frustrating because I don't really feel pregnant.  But last time I did IVF (January 2011) I convinced myself it didn't work and it did.  I guess we will know tomorrow.

Tomorrow is also my original due date with Charlie. I hope I don't cry as much tomorrow as I did today. I miss him so much everyday.

POAS Fever!

I am suddenly dying to take a pregnancy test! I am only half way through the two week wait though!  It does not help that www.countdowntopregnancy.com says that I might get an accurate result on Saturday! I don't know if I am excited or nervous about the results.  Aren't hormones great?

Countdown!

I cannot resist the urge to do this  ...


9.17 - 1dpt ..embryo is growing and developing                                                            
9.18 - 2dpt... Embryo is now a blastocyst                                                                      
9.19 - 3dpt....Blastocyst hatches out of shell on this day                                              
9.20 - 4dpt.. Blastocyst attaches to a site on the uterine lining                                        
9.21 - 5dpt.. Implantation begins,as the blastocyst begins to bury in the lining                 
9.22 - 6dpt.. Implantation process continues and morula buries deeper in the lining          
9.23 - 7dpt.. Morula is completely inmplanted in the lining and has placenta cells & fetal cells
9.24 - 8dpt...Placenta cells begin to secret HCG in the blood                                          
9.25 - 9dpt...More HCG is produced as fetus develops                                                  
9.26 - 10dpt...More HCG is produced as fetus develops                                                   
9.27 - 11dpt...HCG levels are now high enough to be immediately detected on HPT    

Embryo Transfer / Two Week Wait Begins

So it has been a loooong weekend.  I had my embryo transfer on Friday (09.16.11) and when my husband and I arrived at the clinic to check in we were told that the IVF Coordinator and Embryologist needed to speak with us. I was terrified because I only had 2 embryos at that point and I was expecting to be told that neither had survived.

We were told that another embryo had actually fertilized that they didn't notice (because it fertilized late).  It was a 5 cell embryo with significant fragmentation, so poor quality.   Last time I insisted on transferring everything I had left and I feel that is the reason that I may have had such a complicated pregnancy.  I had been advised by my OB to transfer only two embryos this cycle, regardless of the RE's opinion.  We declined to transfer the third embryo and ended up transferring one perfect 8 cell minimally fragmented embryo and one 6 cell fair quality embryo.

I have been taking it super easy this weekend and have basically put myself of modified bed rest. I was only advised to rest until yesterday but thought I would extend it to today just to be on the safe side.  My orders from the RE are not to "bounce" my uterus until further notice.  My uterus hasn't been bounced in awhile thanks to this process and Mr. H's need to produce for several tests and then the big day on Friday.

THE TWO WEEK WAIT BEGINS


Now that I am in the dreaded TWW, I am counting the days until I can (cheat) and take a home pregnancy test before my blood test.  I found this chart in January during my TWW and thought it was interesting.  This chart is for a 3 day transfer so it is accurate for my situation. 


9.17 - 1dpt ..embryo is growing and developing                                                            
9.18 - 2dpt... Embryo is now a blastocyst                                                                        
9.19 - 3dpt....Blastocyst hatches out of shell on this day                                                 
9.20 - 4dpt.. Blastocyst attaches to a site on the uterine lining                                          
9.21 - 5dpt.. Implantation begins,as the blastocyst begins to bury in the lining                 
9.22 - 6dpt.. Implantation process continues and morula buries deeper in the lining          
9.23 - 7dpt.. Morula is completely inmplanted in the lining and has placenta cells & fetal cells                                                                                                              
9.24 - 8dpt...Placenta cells begin to secret HCG in the blood                                            
9.25 - 9dpt...More HCG is produced as fetus develops                                                    
9.26 - 10dpt...More HCG is produced as fetus develops                                                   
9.27 - 11dpt...HCG levels are now high enough to be immediately detected on HPT            

I have to call the clinics tomorrow but I expect the blood test at my clinic to be on the 28th.  I am actually going back and forth on whether to test at home.  I didn't last time because I was convinced it didn't work.  Next week is going to be very emotional as Charlie's original due date was the 26th (my mom's birthday too).  I know that the OB wants to know ASAP when I am pregnant again so that I can be referred to Maternal Fetal Medicine.  Since the next baby(ies) have not implanted yet (most likely), I guess I have some time to decide.  I guess it will at least give me something to do/think about while I wait for the blood test day to arrive. 

Egg Retrieval and Fertilization Report

So we had our egg retrieval yesterday (09.13.11) and the initial report was that they retrieved 8 eggs! I was so excited to hear this because this was 2 more eggs than the last retrieval.  The call this morning from the clinic was not great.  Two of the eight eggs were immature and only two eggs fertilized.  Last IVF we had 6 eggs fertilize and 3 made it to the day 3 transfer.   There was some sort of mis-communication with the embryologist about which sample to use.  He obviously used the wrong sample.  I am beyond upset that we only have 2 embryos. I am sort of convinced that we will not have anything by day 3 to transfer.

I am clearly going to have to have a serious conversation with the doctor about how things turned out.  Even if we have a successful cycle, I should of had embryos to freeze.  If this cycle is not successful, we will be asking for a free cycle (not billed to the insurance) due to the fertilization mishap.  I hope that the embryos are still dividing when they call me tomorrow.

Baking and Stims Start

I am been trying to find activities to keep my mind off of the IVF process in order to make the days go more quickly.

So far I have made pizza, chicken and vegetable soup and enchiladas.  I made all of these last weekend and the we just heated them up during the week, the other plus was that we were not cleaning dishes all week.

I think that the most fun part is baking.

Last Monday I made Blueberry Muffins.

Those went so well that I made Banana Nut Bread last weekend.

And today I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  So far the cookies are my favorite.

They are all Martha Stewart Recipes.

As for cleaning the carpets over this long weekend. I forgot how tired the lupron make me.  I don't really foresee any extra cleaning happening.

I started the stims today.  No matter how many times I was stuck last time, I was still unprepared this morning for the first poke! It is all for a good cause though.  It has been very hard emotionally, thinking that I should just be delivering Charlie instead of trying for another baby.