WOW! Stimming fast this time.

I had my ultrasound today to check my follicle process after 6 days on stims, and I have 16 follicles that are looking to be mature, with a few lagging behind. I cannot believe it! I am on a lower dose of meds this time and for less days and I have more eggs, who knew!? I think it was the Menopur that screwed me up last time, the Luveris seems to be working much better for me. I go back tomorrow for another ultrasound and I should be triggering tomorrow night and my egg retrieval should be on Thursday. So excited!!

Well maybe the 300th post will be lucky!

Today marks my 300th post- I cannot believe it- I have actually written that much about this journey that is my life. Well lets recap that last 2 days. Yesterday I called my IVF nurse because I was feeling really horrible and thought that I have having symptoms of OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome) which is where your follicles fill up with fluid. It can be very serious if left untreated. My nurse said to rest, and drink lots of fluids and come in on Sunday to see the doctor.

So I went the my RE's office this morning, thinking that I am there to see her regarding my possible OHSS- so John stayed at home. I was feeling much better this morning so I figured everything would be fine. My RE comes out into the waiting room and tells me that my transfer is today and she will talk to me in a minute, but that I should call John and Dr. Roth (my acupuncturist) and to prepare for the transfer.

I call John and tell him to get his butt down to the doctors office, then I call Dr. Roth, who bless her heart drops everything and rushes down to the office to see me.
I then burst into tears, because I know nothing at this point, but I can deduce that the embryos are not doing well, otherwise they would push for a 5 day transfer, not a 3 day transfer. I am pretty much hysterical by the time the embryologist comes to talk to me.

She tells me that due to the issue with the sperm the embryos are not growing properly and we are going to transfer all 6- one was a decent looking 6 cell embryo ( they should be 8 cells by day 3, but it had not been exactly 3 days yet- so that one could still catch up) and then the other 5 were not looking good. My RE suggested that if this doesn't work we should look into donor sperm because there is obviously more of an issue with the sperm then we thought.

I am in shock right now, I never thought in a million years that this would happen. My eggs looked perfect, all 14 were mature- so we don't think its an egg issue.
So pretty much at this time we need a miracle- I know that lots of perfect cycles don't end in pregnancy and lots of bad cycles end in pregnancy-but still.

It's in Gods hands now- please God bring us a miracle!

I am on bed rest for 3 days- and already going crazy! How am I going to make it 2 more days!

And then there were 7!

I got the fertilization report this afternoon, talk about being nervous all day, now I am going to be nervous for the next 2 days, until I hear what is going on with my babies, yes I say babies- because that is what they are to me. I actually am getting teary eyed writing this- because this is the closest we have ever gotten to being pregnant.

Of the 14 eggs- 7 fertilitzed with ICSI, which from what the doctor told me is a miracle. John's sperm swims really quick at first and just just stops and dies off over the next hour or two. So that is why everything looked normal with the counts for our IUI's because yes he did have a lot moving, but they never made it the egg.

Of the 7 that fertilized 5 of them look really good. So we are still pushing for a 5 day transfer- but I will have more information on Sunday.

I am freaking out! I am so anxious, I want my babies home where they belong, in my uterus. I have to stay calm, time to get the relaxation cd out!

Trying to keep it all together!

Well, we are in the home stretch, in about a week and a half we will have our insurnace, which means that we can start our IVF cycle. I will start birth control pills when I start my period the first week of April, so its BCP's for about 3 weeks, about mid way through April I will start Lupron, to surpress my ovaries. Then after I am fully suppressed (checked almost daily with bloodwork) then I can start stims (which in my case is Follistim) daily injections to stimulate my ovaries to produce lots of eggs.
Then after about 12-14 days of Follistim and lots of ultrasounds to check follicle growth they will schedule me for the egg retreival. That is when they stick a big ass needle through my uterine wall and they asperiate each individual follicle to get the egg out. Then the eggs will be fertilitzed with John's sperm and will be put in the incubator to grown. In then in either 3 or 5 days they best embroyos will be put back into my uterus and will hopefully implant and I will finally be pregnant.
So I am going nuts waiting to get going! I feel like this entire process is waiting waiting and more waiting.

IUI #3 is done!

This morning was what I hope will be our final IUI. I have been feeling really bad going into this cycle, I only had 3 mature follicles and I usually have more. Then this morning I got a call from John saying that he thinks he did a crappy job with his collection. So all the way to the doctors I am thinking "great they are going to cancel our cycle and all the shots were for nothing." What a great way to think, right?

But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that John had put in his best numbers so far, 20 million post wash, which is great!

So I was totally wrong. The good news is that our doctor said we can get into the March cycle for IVF, because our transfer and retrieval will be after April 1st, which is when we have our new insurance. So I was happy to hear that I don't have to wait until May for IVF. So lets keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well with the insurance, we are almost at the 30 day mark for our insurance to kick in, we are in the home stretch now!