And it starts....

Just another quick update.... mostly for my family and friends who have been following our journey! Plus this keep me from repeating myself all the time! :)

Due to a small hiccup on Friday, our schedule was delayed a bit. After a long weekend, we found out our hiccup has gone away, and we have now officially started in vitro!!!!!! Tonight was my first injection and there are many more to come.

Since injections started a couple days late, our procedure dates move a bit. The egg retrieval is now on May 11th and egg transfer in on May 16th, which happens to be Dave birthday! I can't think of a better birthday present! Then we wait a couple weeks to find out if we are going to be parents in January (our potential due date) or not...ek!

Schedule, Meds and Parenthood...

We officially have our in vitro schedule!!!!

Starting on April 25th, we will officially be on the road to becoming parents. We've ordered $2600 worth of medications/injections (that's right, insurance doesn't cover fertility treatments, which include the medications) this week, which I will start on the 25th. Those injections continue for twelve days and let me tell you, I am not excited about poking myself a few times a day. Luckily my wonderful EMT, firefighter, hubby is oh so willing to help me out with that part! Then, exactly 34 hours before they retrieve my eggs, I give myself a final cocktail of hormones! On May 9th, we head to the doctors office, where I'm given some wonderful drugs to knock me out while they take as many eggs as possible.

This lovely picture represents how much we want this! It also shows the huge difference between my participation and Dave's participation in the whole process! lol 

 

 

How easy does he have it folks?!?!

 

After retrieving the eggs, the lab will perform magic (at least in my eyes) and place one single sperm in each egg, wait five days for the eggs to develop into embryos and transfer back into me!

 

 



Then Parenthood begins!

That is, Parenthood the show! :)

 

After my transfer day, I will be on bed rest for three additional days. I am supposed to be reclined the whole time, minus a few bathroom breaks. Our doctor doesn't want me upright for more than a few minutes at a time. It just so happens that Parenthood is one of my favorite shows, so I found the seasons, used, for extremely cheap and plan to watch them during this time. I also have a list of books to download onto my kindle, just in case I get sick of TV, which is extremely likely!

 

We then wait twelve days to find out if we are pregnant or not. I believe this will be the hardest part for me. I have never been one for surprises, and I'm not very patient when it comes to them.

 

I feel so extremely blessed to have a wonderfully supportive husband, who wants to grow our family no matter the cost! He may not have to go through the physical parts of in vitro, but he is by my side every step of the way, and I know he will be the best father to our children I could ever ask for! I am excited to start this journey with my best friend, hand in hand!

Is it too soon to jump for joy?

Just a quick update-

I've been doing research and found out that polyps can just disappear on their own. Well, guess what!!! It's gone! I'm not sure why it went away so quickly but we are ecstatic about it! This means we are able to continue our normal in vitro schedule! I spoke with the doctor yesterday and we are set up for our final consultation on Wednesday, where we will get our in vitro schedule, and determine the quantity of hormone meds we need. The schedule may not be exact, but it's going to be very close. At least we will be able to plan accordingly with our work schedules.

Bump in the road...

We’ve come across a bump in the road. It’s one I half expected but none the less frustrating! This silly little polyp is proving to being one of my worst enemies in the fight against infertility. We’ve found out that the polyp has been acting as a IUD (a 5 year form of birth control) and that it’s most likely been there for a couple years. This explains a few symptoms (I won’t go into detail) that started a couple years ago. Between Dave’s issues and my own, we have a zero percent chance of getting pregnant on our own. I’m not so upset about the polyp itself, but the wrench it’s putting in our schedule for in vitro. I go in today for a quick procedure to get a closer look at this thing and then we will schedule the surgery to remove the polyp. They have to remove it at a specific type, so that means waiting another month for the surgery. Then they allow three to four weeks of healing time before they will do in vitro. This moves our schedule to June, or July. Removing this polyp is a necessary process, and I fully understand why we have to remove it, but despite the logic behind it, I am still frustrated. I’m hoping my training in Florida mid-April will help keep my mind off things!

On a side note, I am so grateful to my boss. She has been so understood with our crazy schedule these past few weeks. It seems everything is last minute throughout this process, most of which is not in anyone’s control. Some things just have to be done on certain days and I truly believe if I were working anywhere else, it would be an issue. I’m also so grateful to all the support we’ve had! It truly has been tremendous from all of our family and friends!

Polyp

I figured I would give a quick update since I had time today. My first ultrasound last week, showed a polyp (a growth) in my uterus.  They have to verify that it is in fact a polyp and not a blood clot or something else, so I have an appointment next week to check it out. They are fairly certain it is a polyp, and if it is, I will need an outpatient procedure to remove it. I’m praying that they are able to get me in right away to remove it so it doesn’t mess with our in vitro schedule. If we can’t get in right away, then it means pushing in vitro off until June. I’m extremely bummed about the potential for this, but I’m crossing my fingers.

In Vitro

I haven't written on here in quite a while, but I want to document our next big journey, so lets hope I can keep up with the updates!

 

Our story starts with ups and downs, as any marriage does. We were undecided on so many important things but we had each other, and that was enough to take the leap into the unknown. We started our marriage living in a rental house that was owned by a family member. We knew that we wanted to buy a home one day, upgrade our cars, start our careers, and become parents. So, we bought a house, upgraded our cars, and started careers. One decision, however, changed for us. We felt that kids were not going to be part of our future. I, in particular, wasn’t sure having children was what I wanted. I battled this for a long time before deciding that I was leaning towards having a life with just Dave and me. This felt right to us, for many reasons, at the time. We never truly discussed this with our families or friends; it was just something we would say we wanted, and that was that. No explanation needed because we both believe decisions like this should not be influenced by other opinions. It was a decision we came to on our own and if we changed it, it again would be one we came to ourselves. I feel that this type of decision making has been a blessing in our marriage.

 About two and a half years into our marriage, we, yet again, had a change of heart, but this time, we kept it very private. We tried to become pregnant and after many frustrating months, I spoke with my doctor about some hormone imbalances I had. She had several suggestions for me and after several blood test, a small procedure; we finally got everything in balance and determined that I was physically able to have children. This was almost the most frustrating part. If nothing was wrong, then why couldn’t we become pregnant? After another visit to my doctor and still no success with pregnancy, she suggested some testing for Dave. His testing was much simpler than mine. Two tests later, we had our answer.

 

There are three main factors in determining the fertility of sperm in men. The count, the motility and something called morphology. Basically, morphology is when the sperm are “misshaped.” The experts say that a man’s morphology needs to be at least 15% normal shaped (what the means exactly is beyond me). Our results came back with above average in count and motility, buy well below this ideal percentage in morphology. Issues with morphology are not something anyone can control. It is passed down in the gene pool and will likely be passed to our own offspring. It was a relief to have answers and be able to look at our next step. After many sleepless nights of research and forum reading, we decided IVF (aka in vitro) was our best chance at growing our family. We spoke with my OB who also recommended IVF, and she offered us a few great specialists’ names. We came to a decision on a doctor in a very ironic way. I won’t go into detail but I will say that God is good and I know he is guiding us in every step during this journey.

 

We were required to attend a seminar with our Doctor, that was very informative, and gave us some real hope! I felt extremely confident after the seminar because I knew all of our options and almost everything we needed to know to get started. Luckily, my OB had already put me through most of the necessary testing (minus one small blood test...YAY), so we were ahead of the game! Our doctor was very impressed at how informed and prepared we were for what was to come. Because we had most of the testing done, we could skip strait to scheduling and paying for IVF. We had several comments about how prepared we were, which made me feel good about the long nights of research! lol

 

Here's what we've done so far:

 

-We've filled out the 60+ pages of consent forms, disclosures and past medical history.

-We've set the tentative date of May 8ths for the first procedure and May 13th for the second!!!! YAY!!!

-We've also paid in full for the procedures, and let me tell you; it is such a relief to not have to worry about the financial part of things!  

-We've both started on several vitamins, and pills, to get our bodies in "tip-top" shape

-Tomorrow, I go in for an ultrasound (I had no clue they did these before you were pregnant lol) and a full physical

 

It may not seem like much but it's a start and I'm so extremely excited!!!

 

The basic steps in IVF are:

 

1. Start on prenatals and birth control (this is to give the doctors control of ovulation dated)

2. Get blood work done to check the number of eggs viable

3. Twelve days before the retrieval date, start on hormone injections (the amount of these will vary based on my hormone levels, which will be tested every other day)

4. 33 hours before the retrieval date and time, a hormone is injected into me to prepare my eggs and to prevent my body from discarding my eggs (aka a period)

5. Retrieve as many eggs at possible while under anesthesia and then home to rest

6. Blood tests every morning for the next five days

7. Implant eggs back into me (aka transfer day) and home for bed rest for three days

8. Wait 12 days to take pregnancy test (this will be the worst part!!!!)

 

Thats the process and I will try to update as things happen. This is definitely a new experience for us but one I am happy to go through!

 

 

 

Old friends, new lives

 

Yesterday, a few of my old friends got together, with their families, and had a picnic. It's amazing how things change so quickly! We snapped a few pictures and I wish I could find pictures of us from 8 years ago and compare but they lost in my storage room somewhere!

 

We are missing a couple husbands but we managed to get all the kids and moms to pose!

 

All of us girls

 

Chelsea and Riley

 

Leah and Lily

 

Greg, Tamara and Corbin

 

Riley and Corbin who are future husband and wife!

 

I just realized that I didn't manage to get a picture of Sarah and Zander! :( Oops, I thought I had gotten all the mom/child pictures. They are in the group picture at least!

 

Anyway, it was really nice to catch up and see how life has changed for everyone! I hope it's not so long next time I see them all!