And then there were 9...

Well after the retrieval yesterday, the nurse called this afternoon and let us know that 9 of our eggs had been fertilized. We had 17 eggs, and now we have 9 fertilized eggs, which I'm pretty sure they refer to as embryos.
We should not hear from them tomorrow, but again on Monday.
Right now the transfer is going to be on Wednesday afternoon.

All the eggs in one basket

Except in this case they will be in a dish, under a microscope. Today I am going to have my eggs retrieved and hopefully fertilized by Billy's "contribution." we will know today how many eggs they took out and over the next couple of days how many fertilized and are viable to be implanted back in me.
It's exciting, and sort of scary at the same time. I hope I did all of my meds right, I think I did, but I still have that nagging voice in the back saying " you shoud have done, you could have done."
BUT - all we can do now is hope and pray that this work and we are blessed with a healthy pregnancy.
Today's the day! First step in conceiving our child! :-)
Wish us luck!

Webcam fun!

Tonight is the night I decided to video myself doing the nightly injections. And yes, that means I am still doing the injections, I did not get the news I wanted to from the doctor today. It's ok though, we are just a day or so off schedule, and that means I got a chance to make my little videos. I used B's new webcam on his laptop and I taped myself doing the 3 different injections. I've watched the first one and it's kind of corny, but I think I'll like to look back on this. I told Billy that some people made sex tapes, but we are making injection tapes, because THIS is how our baby is being made, lol...

Anyway, my follicles are not quite as big as they need to be, so I have to wait another couple of days for the retrieval. It was supposed to be on Thursday, but he told me it would be Friday or Saturday now. I definitely feel different though. My belly feels full and bloated and that's what it's supposed to do. I'll go back on Wednesday morning and we'll see how much more they've grown and hopefully be ready to proceed.

I was sitting in the doctor's office this morning thinking about what a somber place it is. It's not a bad thing necessarily, but everyone kind of gives you the half hearted smile, the " I know why you're here" smile. And while I think that's nice, I almost feel like I'm at a funeral, or someone's viewing...I don't make much eye contact, I look down and give that weird SMILE. We are at a fertility clinic! Feritlity. That is a positive word, right? I mean yes, we are having problems, but we have hope. Some people dont' have any hope yet. But we still do, and I feel like I need to be positive about that and have a more optimistic attitude about it. And I feel like I do, I feel like I've had a good attitude this whole time. Maybe not every single day, all day, but overall yes, good attitude. One point for Beth! :-)

So the next few times I go in I am going to try to smile more, a real genuine smile. Just a regular, hello how are you smile, and not a sympathetic smile. We dont' need sympathy, we need hope.

Mother's Day

Because I don't know how these shots work, tonight COULD have been my last shots, at least the series of them. I don't know if I will do them tomorrow night or not. I most definitely will NOT miss them one little bit!
I have another ultrasound in the morning and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that everything is still on schedule. As of Friday it was. It's weird to know though that things are going on inside your body that you have no control over. You do what they tell you to, and just hope for the best.
I thought a lot today about this time next year and if I'll be a mom next Mother's Day. I hope hope hope to be! I'll be a very new mom if it happens on this try. Again, I'm praying and keeping my fingers crossed.
That's it for now, will update tomorrow after my appt.

The real start

I have been thinking of starting a blog for a while now, and have been putting it off. I decided today that I wanted to start documenting this process, maybe not in a public way yet, but in my own way. So I would have something to look back on and remember these confusing and scary days and hopefully smile about them with a sweet baby in my arms.

Tonight I went back and copy and pasted e-mails into the blog, just as a start. So I can see how it all started and just the updates that I sent to everyone.

Tonight is night 3 of taking 3 shots at one time. I started my first injection on 4/26/08, and it has not been so bad, now that I know what to do. I started the other 2 on Monday night and they are slightly worse. The needles are bigger, and you have to get them ready, and it takes a little time. Overall though, it's not so bad. The first night, we were both slightly overwhelmed and just read the directions and got thru it the best way we could. Last night was better, so I hope tonight will be a breeze. I go back on Friday morning for another ultrasound and hopefully we will still be on schedule for everything next week.

Next Thursday, the 15th, I could have my eggs retrieved and attempt to be fertilized. It's exciting, but kind of scary at the same time. Also slightly weird to know that they are doing all of this in a petri dish. BUT, I'm very thankful that they are ABLE to do it, and we have this chance of having a baby of our own.

Anyway, this is my first official blog entry and this won't be public for a while, but when it is, I hope it will be interesting, and maybe helpful to someone, to look back and read about our journey to having a family.

Medicine appt

Tuesday we received all of our medication in the mail, via UPS. I was quite surprised when I opened the box and all of THIS was in there!
We had our first official IVF appt with a nurse today. I had to bring all of the medication in and she went over how to give it, how to give the injections, when to take what, what to expect, etc.
It was A LOT of information and I just hope that we both took all of it in. It is a little intimidating right now, but I hope that once we actually start doing it, it will seem a bit easier.
Everything is still on track with the same calendar as before. Today I had an ultrasound with saline, where they injected saline solution in my uterus to make sure it looked Ok and there were no abnormalities, which there aren't, thank goodness!
So all is well until the 26th, when I get my first shot, yay!
So anyway, just a mini update. Here is all of my medication and just a glimpse of how I'm feeling about all of this, lol...
Love ya'll,
Beth

Hi everyone! Just a quick e-mail to give you an update on what is happening with us. I met with the nurse practitioner yesterday for a check in about my diet, and on Friday of last week I got a packet in the mail with an IVF schedule. This was a surprise to me, since I thought I wouldn't know when we would start until after this appt ( yesterday).

Anyway, we will be starting the IVF process/cycle in April, and will go thru May. Basically what that means is that we meet with our nurse on 4/16 and go over everything. I will start having sonograms, I think 6 or 7 in total, and I will start the injectable hormones the last week of April. I will do them for about 3 weeks and we hope to do an egg retrieval on May 15th. That is our target date. We will then either implant them on May 18th or 20th, depending on which day the embryologist thinks is best.

I was not going to tell anyone about all of this, because I did want it to be sort of a surprise when we got pregnant, but I decided that I love you guys and you are all my closest friends, so I wanted you all to know, because I know I need prayers and support.

I would ask that you not spread the word too much though, because I don't want a lot of people asking me about it, especially if it doesn't take the first time, I think that would be too hard on me, having to go back and tell everyone it didn't work.

So, keep it quiet for a while if you would.
Kristy, I will be telling Jules and Lori I will be telling Linda, I just didn't have their e-mail addresses here at work.

Janet, you can tell Jamie too, or I will if you want.
Soo, that's the scoop! We are very hopeful and right now I think I am more nervous than excited. It doesn't seem real right now to me, but maybe after we meet with the nurse it will….

I just wanted to share our news and the update.
Love you all,
Beth