FET #2

Well....here he/she is.....

I cannot tell you what a better experience this transfer was....well, except for one thing.  Which is now hysterically funny.  So, on the morning of the transfer I was to take an anti-anxiety pill about 45 minutes before our transfer.  I set it on my dresser, so that I wouldn't forget to take it along with us.  My dear hubby was also started on some antibiotics for a an upper respiratory infection.

Well...J saw me put the pill bottle on my dresser and thought that it was his new antibiotic...

...and he took it!!!

AHHH!

I didn't realize what he was doing until it was too late.  

Commence major freak out!

After I regained my thoughts, I immediately tried to reach my nurse to explain my husbands bone-head move and see if she would please, please order me another one.

She had quite the good laugh, I on the other hand wasn't to that mind set yet.

She agreed to call me in another one, but said the he shouldn't drive us to our transfer.

Ha!  Fabulous!

Hmmm...everyone we know is at work, so J is just going to have to man-up and drive us.  He pounded a couple caffeine drinks, talked the whole way to Seattle, and we got there with plenty of time to spare.
Now, 6 days later....this whole experience is hilarious to me.  I did do a couple recordings on my phone that morning to look back on if this all turns out for the good.  :)

The actual procedure was a breeze.  Our embryologist was so excited for us because our little one had fully re-expanded after being frozen and looked fabulous!

We opted for using Embryo Glue this time around (more details about what this is below).

The actual transfer was over and done in a blink of an eye.
No pain.  No finicky cervix this time around.
It was all just a dream.

So here's wishing and hoping and praying that our little one sticks with us for the next 8 1/2 months.

My beta blood test is 2/26/15!  :)

More on Embryo Glue:

Info taken from this WEBSITE.

EmbryoGlue is an implantation promoting transfer medium with a unique combination of hyaluronic acid and recombinant albumin.  EmbryoGlue® contains all nutrients and energy sources needed for an optimal embryo development.

It has been reported to increase chances of pregnancy by up to 17%!

There are some really good videos in the link above if you want to learn more about it.

As Promised

A few days ago, in preparation for our FET, I decided to make up a few freezer crockpot meals to ensure that we were still eating healthy even if I wasn't feeling the best.  I had tons of inquires on the recipes I used, so I decided to post them here.

I spent about $80.

It took me 90 minutes to put them all together

and have 8 meals ready to go in my freezer.

Beef Stroganoff

1lb Stew Beef - seared and cooked through

1 can beef broth

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1/4c Worcestershire Sauce

1 pack of brown gravy mix

1 tbsp pepper (I put in more before it was served)

1 package of Egg Noodles

Add 16oz sour cream when ready to cook in crock pot.

Cook in crockpot for 6-8 hours.

You can either put egg noodles in crockpot 3 hours before serving or cook seperate and put mixture on top of noodles.

Teriyaki Chicken

1 medium bag of baby carrots

1 medium red onion - chunked

2 large cans of Pineapple Chunks

4 garlic cloves

4 Chicken Breasts

1c Teriyaki Sauce

This recipe is to be divided in half and placed into TWO separate freezer bags.

Add 1/4 c sauce in the crockpot.

Cook for 6-8 hours.

Serve with rice.

Sausage & Peppers

6 Italian Sausages (pork or ground turkey) - preboil for 5-7 minutes

2 green peppers

2 red peppers

1 large red onion

4 garlic cloves - minced

2 cans of Italian diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning

Chunk up sausage and all peppers/onions

This recipe is to be divided in half and placed into TWO separate freezer bags.

Add a drizzle of olive oil when ready to cook.

Cook for 6-8 hours

Serve with noodles or with fresh french bread and mozzarella cheese.

Beef Tips & Gravy

1 1/2 lbs cubed beef

1 package dry onion soup mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup

14oz beef broth

salt & pepper

Cook for 6-8 hours

Serve over mashed potatoes

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

4 chicken breasts (cubed)

2 16oz bags of frozen broccoli

1 medium onion

2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

2 16oz jars of alfredo sauce

This recipe is to be divided in half and placed into TWO separate freezer bags.

Cook for 4-6 hours

Serve with rice.

I plan to serve all these meals with a side salad.

Enjoy!

UPDATES

It's official....I suck at keeping up to date on blogging.

I'm so sorry to have left you all high and dry after Day 2 of our embryo development.

Fair warning that the below mega post is going to be filled with updates and pictures.  I'll do my best to be as real as possible to how I was feeling in each moment.

Day 5 Embryo Update. Jan 13th.  We lost the one embryo that wasn't doing well on Sunday....but....we had TWO embryos that were already hatching today so they were biopsied for PGS and froze. Woo Hoo!  This is a big improvement from last cycle as we didn't have any ready on day 5.  :)  The remaining 7 are super close to being ready but need an extra day to grow. Fingerscrossed that the will get to where they need to be by tomorrow.

Day 6 Embryo Update.  Jan 14th.  Heartbroken. Devastated. Confused. None of our remaining 7 eggs made it over night. I just don't understand. We are in the exact same position as we were with our first cycle. We have two frosties that were biopsied. We are currently holding those samples at Reprogenetics until we decide what our next step will be. Not sure if we'll roll the dice with these two and move forward with testing....or do a 3rd IVF cycle and add to this sampling as it is the same price wither we test 1 or 8 samples.  I feel numb.  I can't believe this happened to us again.  My RE things that there is an issue with the quality of my eggs.  Yet another blow.  Why is this so damn hard?

Thursday. Jan 15th.  It was a difficult night, but J and I have decided to move forward with genetic testing on the two embryos we did get this cycle. I have also told my RE that I want to move our FET up a couple weeks as I feel CD 32 is way too late. We transferred at day 21 last time and I feel that may have been one of the contributing factors to it not being successful. So we'll see what happens. Until then, I continue on Lupron every night and wait for AF to arrive this weekend, which I am really not looking forward to at all.

Friday. Jan 16th. I'm so confused. We just got our PGS results back. While we have one "Normal" embryo (YAY!!), the other came back "No Diagnosis." WTF! We paid enough we deserve a diagnosis. How can that be a result? We won't be able to talk to our RE until Monday. Ugh. 

I later spoke to my RE the following week.  She said she discussed the results with the embryologist and he said that it usually happens when the sample is not large enough to get a confirmed diagnosis.  They offered to unthaw, resample and refreeze the embryo but we feel that is not a process we want to do. We believe in our hearts that the embryo is normal as well.  We plan to transfer it if needed in the future.  But in the mean time we will move forward with the FET and transfer the "good normal" embryo we got this cycle.

 

Friday. Jan 23rd. AF finally came 5 days late.  I had my suppression check this morning. We have our FET date confirmed.  Transfer will be Feb 12th! Only TWENTY DAYS until my perfect little embryo is back with me. Feeling great about things this time around. Suppression check went perfectly this morning. For the first time EVER I didn't have any cysts. Lupron has been good to me! I start Baby Aspirin and Estradiol in the morning. Feb 12th will be here before we know it! 

The rest of my time during this wait has been spent focusing on me.  I've been eating healthy, meditating and getting tons of exercise.  I usually start my day off with some yummy fat free yogurt and fresh fruit.

My walking adventures have been amazing.  I discovered the most wonderful Nature Reserve. It is awesome and feels like I'm on a hike out in the woods instead of in the middle of town. On Saturday (Feb 28tth), I took J through it for the first time.  He too could not believe how fabulous it was.  Well, he may not have used that word but I'm trying not to use the same descriptive word.  LOL.
After our walk we grabbed Starbucks and sushi.
Best day ever! 

Sunday. Feb 1st.  My 35th Birthday.  Superbowl 49.

It was quite a depressing day.

Enough said.  :(

I'm not sure if it is a side effect from Lupron/hormones or the fact that I've been working out so much, but I am exhausted ALL.THE.TIME.  What the heck?  Seriously, the minute I wake up in the morning I'm already looking forward to a nap later in the day. I've been trying my hardest to stay away from caffeine, or only have one soda/coffee a day.  Hope things get better when I stop the daily Lupron injections.

 So that brings us to TODAY.  Friday, February 6th.

I had my final appointment this morning.

After not falling asleep til 2am due to an enthralling book and a snoring hubby, I was up and at it early for my 8am appt.  In the event commute traffic is bad, I allowed an hour to drive down to my appt.  Well, to my surprise, traffic was a breeze and I arrived at my RE office in only 30 min.

A little cat nap in the my car in the parking lot it is.  ;)

I had quite the wait to get in for my appt as it was a busy office.

Finally was called back and I am over the moon with how amazing my ultrasound went.

Absolutely no cysts, no signs of early ovulation

and my lining was triple striped at 8.3mm.

Happy Dance!

My nurse believes my E2 will come back great this afternoon as well, so she went ahead and instructed me to continue with my calendar.

I will administer my last dose of Lupron tonight and start Progesterone pessaries tomorrow night.  I also confirmed with her that we wanted to use Embryo Glue with this transfer (I plan to post about that later) as well as take a Valium before the procedure so that I am nice and relaxed.  She said it all sounded good and that she would confirm with my RE.

I'll get a call sometime on Tuesday to inform me what time our transfer will be on Thursday.

Ah!  I can't believe it is finally here. :)

Oh, What A Day!

Goodness...where do I even begin?  It has been a fantastic Saturday!

First up...Day 2 Embryo Update

I have been doing my best to stay busy so that I am not stressing and anxiously counting the minutes til the phone rings.  To my surprise, I got the call regarding our embryos before noon.  Usually weekend calls do not occur until after 2pm.  But I'm not going to complain that my phone rang so early.

The sweet, quiet voice of the nurse on the other end informed us that all

TEN of our embies were still growing.

She said the embryologist rated NINE of them "good," and ONE of them as "fair."

I couldn't be more Amazed.  Blessed.  Thankful.

Next report will be tomorrow.

So the other major thing that has been going on in our lives
is that J & I have been house hunting.

We only started last week, but it is a VERY fast market out here s
 we needed to be aggressive.

And boy were we ever when we found the builder we absolutely loved.

We originally put in an offer on their model home,
but the seller didn't want to get rid of that just yet.

So we quickly put in another offer on a different house.

We went back and forth just a couple times, walked through the house
again this morning and then finalized everything TODAY!

We are SO excited!

It is 2730 sq feet.  3 Bedrooms + a Bonus Room + a Den with 2.75 bathrooms

and a cute yard in the back.

Plenty of room to start a cute little family.  :)

We close on it Feb. 13th and will have about 6 weeks to move into it before our lease is up on the house we are currently renting.

So needless to say, this has been consuming my thoughts for the past couple of weeks,

which has shown to be a good thing to take my mind off our second IVF cycle.

And lastly....

our Seattle Seahawks won the first round of the playoffs tonight against the Carolina Panthers.

Woo Hoo!  Go Hawks!

Day 1 Embryo Report

Some days my nurse coordinator really gets the best of me.  She has forgotten to call with reports in the past, so whenever the late afternoon comes around and I haven't heard from her I start to get a little anxious.  On Tuesday, she assured me that she would call me first thing in the morning on

Friday with our Fertilization Report.

Well, 9 past by.  Then 10...11....12....1..........2.........3!

UGH.  When the clock turned 3, I told myself I would giver her til 3:30 before I called. Well luckily at 3:15 my phone finally rang.  Good grief!

The kind, soft voice on the other end happily informed me that of the 12 eggs that were collected yesterday, 11 of them were mature and put through the fertilization process (ICSI).  And of the 11 fertilized 10 were in culture and growing beautifully.

YAY!

We will get our next update tomorrow.

Keeping our fingers crossed!

#operationbabyvincent

A Basket Full

We left our house two hours before retrieval was scheduled this morning.
We were not taking any chances on traffic.
It turned out traffic was a breeze and we arrived 45 minutes before we had to check in.

Nap time in the car it is.

At 7:50am, we walked into the Seattle location of our clinic.
Acting like cool cucumbers, J & I were pretty relaxed and excited for the next step in this cycle.

Turned out our nurse was an IVF success story and was currently 8 months pregnant, so that was pretty fun.  I had my IV started, chatted with the doc and anesthesiologist, signed some consents and it was time.

The last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist telling me some story
and then it was lights out.
Before I knew it I was back in recovery with J holding my hand.

Yet another fantastic nap.

But the minute I opened my eyes, I was in pain.  Ugh.  My nurse quickly had me put some crackers and juice in my tummy before giving me a pain pill.

After I was a little more with it, the doctor came in and gave us the magic number...

TWELVE!

It was music to my ears, and brought me to tears.

We waited for the pain pill to kind of kick in before getting ready to head home.

The car ride home was brutal.  I felt EVERY bump and pothole in the road.

Luckily they gave me a script for more pain pills.
I spent the rest of the afternoon on cloud 9 with my heating pad.  :)

We will get our first report on our little ones tomorrow morning.

Can't wait to hear how they are doing!

Final Scan Appointment

Day 10. Tuesday, January 6th, 2015. This morning should be my final appointment before retrieval.

I feel like a bus, so I hope they don't make me stim another day.

I am so very bloated and feel like I have constant horrible cramps.

Blood was drawn without issues...then it was time for the ultrasound.

I was actually excited for this one and eager to see how many follicles I had.

The U/S tech at the SRM Kirkland location is awesome.  She is kind and very thorough.

She counted two follicles on the right, measuring 20mm and 17.5mm.

Moving on the left ovary, she counted 13!  YAY.  They measured 23mm, 20mm, 17mm, 16mm, 20mm, 13mm, 19.5mm, 23mm, 16.5mm, 21mm, 12mm, 10mm, and12mm
FIFTEEN TOTAL!  WOO HOO!

Food for thought, I essential have a bunch of 13 juicy grapes on my left ovary.

Fantastic!  :)

After the scan, I spoke with my nurse coordinator.  She was almost certain that I would be triggering that night, putting our retrieval on Thursday.  Sounds good to me!

I walked out of the office and immediately sent a text to J.

This was his response to hearing we potentially had 15 eggs....

I think he was a little excited.  What do you think?  :)

That afternoon, I got a callback from Katie.  My estrogen was 1397 and I was indeed triggering that night...8:30pm to be exact.  Retrieval was scheduled for 8:30 am Thursday morning.  YAY!

J had no problems stabbing the 2 inch needle into my backside.

He may have even enjoyed inflicting that pain on me.

And we are set!  Excited and ready for retrieval.