Beta day....

Well, it's 5:30 p.m. and Marci just called me....beta results are in at a whopping 2.

It's negative and I am honestly, not surprised. I didn't think it had worked, but I told myself to stay positive and it wound up back firing.

So next transfer I am going into this a little less blindly and lot more cautious.

I am extremely upset that I can't tell Nicole she's getting her baby girl. And it's her Birthday, but fortunately, Marci will tell them the bad news. I know that's selfish, but I'm already taking the blow hard enough. I'm not sure how I could even begin to break the news to them.

We do have another emby, and we will do another transfer it's just maddening wondering what you did wrong....could you have done anything to make this work?
I already know it's up to god...it's just so upsetting....

At least I get a break from the shots and meds for a while, which is nice for me because those things are tough on your body, well the shots are anyway.

Pain....

I've been having some mild period like cramps on my left side. I'm not sure what to think of them. They have calmed down some now, but it was so bad this morning no matter what position I was in I couldn't ease the pain. Now it has let up and only hurts a little when I walk, but I am also having some mild shooting pain in my vaginal area, almost like it feels when I have a stone. Well, that only lasted a minute or so then went away and comes and goes intermitently as it pleases.

I am worried about this. I am 6 days past transfer, hpt's are still BFN....but I've read and heard everyone tell me not to worry about it, it's still too soon since there was only one emby transferred. But I can't help but be like wtf?

I hate waiting, but I knew it was inevitable with this. We'll see what happens.

The dreaded 2WW....

Ugh! On SMO I always thought some of those women were goofy for going grazy during the 2 week wait for their beta numbers.
LOL Now I am one of them and it's a bit tense. More tense that I thought it was going to be. It's like, they put a baby in you to grow and you wanna know if it's growing and if there's more than one. Wondering what your numbers will be and so much more.

And seriously...these PIO shots are a bit much. And if this emby attaches, I have 14 more weeks of it.
Daily shots of this stuff. Ugh...

Anyway, I am going to take a HPT tomorrow (Friday) which will be 4dp5dt and probably every day until my beta on Nov. 30th. I hope to get a good number for Nicole, as it is her Birthday! What a great gift to give someone right? I'm praying for positive pregnancy test at least by Sunday, could always be a late implanter or I could be a non HCG on the pee stick producer lol who knows.

Anyway, it's also Thanksgiving and I want to tell anyone who reads Happy Turkey Day!

Transfer Day!!

So here we are nearly 5 hours after transfer, which was at roughly 1:05 p.m. this afternoon. I've put in a video Thomas took of the transfer from my youtube page. Below it are a couple pictures. The first is just a pic of me on the table lol Thomas was camera happy. The second, is Caroline, her at a healthy 5 day blastocyst, which the Dr. said and I've been reading have a much higher chance of taking since they are ready to attach and over 100 cells.
All in all this was a different experience and honestly I would do it again =D I am just hoping it takes!
I need sticky thoughts! Beta is November 30th...which is a week from tomorrow and also Nicole (my intended Mother) birthday.

I'm excited, but ready to get the hell out of Miami. This place is awful, people are rude and this is worst city by far to drive in. Anyway....more in a week, hopefully I can report a good beta!!

Day before transfer...

So, we got in Miami about 8:30 in the morning Saturday, 45 minutes early but they took me right back for blood work. Thomas could not believe the clinic. It's so shabby, let me tell you. I will take a couple pics tomorrow and also upload the transfer pics because transfer is around 11 a.m. tomorrow. They called me at 11 yesterday and said we had 8 good, healthy fertilized embryo's all sent off for gender testing and that my blood work was excellent and to be in the office for transfer at 11 a.m. tomorrow, Monday the 22nd.

I am so excited and bored lol Thomas and I are in a nice hotel room, but not without consequence. We had a horrible time getting in here. I worked till 11 Friday night, came home and unwound and slept from 1-4 a.m. then drove 4 hours to Miami, Did my blood work and we can't even check into the hotel until 3 p.m. she says. I explained what's been going on and asked for a room as soon as it was clean, so Thomas and I walked around this shopping center and killed 2 hours time. Came back, sat in the lobby for 20 minutes and our room was ready. That was also the time I got the call from the clinic. I slept like a baby last night when I fell out at 10:30 and woke at 4:30 to Thomas waking from someone blaring music. (Strange, I know! but it's the NASCAR Ford something race going on this weekend here, go figure) anyway, we went back to sleep and woke up on our own to no kids, no music or loud neighbors at 8:30....so nice!!!

Anyway, I will update more tomorrow after transfer, I am about to have my weekly routine webchat with Paul and Nicole. This one will be different for sure since we are in Miami and transfer is tomorrow! So excited!!!

More to come tomorrow...from the bed!!

Almost Miami time....

So, I am driving my car to Miami...rental car was too hard to do.

Anyway....They got 15 eggs from the donor! Holy sh*t!

Normally, only ONE egg is released during ovulation....see this article...http://www.americanpregnancy.org/gettingpregnant/understandingovulation.html

Anyway, I took those awful patches off yesterday morning, I've not had to take any headache medicine and I feel better. But, the progesterone is kicking my tired butt. LOL give and take!

Anyway...next blog will be Saturday after my bloodwork and hotel check in.

Laterz!!

PIO shot/ Egg Retrieval

So, here we are it's egg retrieval day. I've decided that I would much rather take a rental car to Miami than to fly in plane, then pay $30 shuttle to the hotel and be stranded for 2 days or worse pay a cab a ton of money to travel the city on our downtime. When I went there for my initial testing, it was $30 in a shuttle from the airport to the clinic, then from the clinic back to the airport in a cab was like $35....plus airfare for both Thomas and I would be like $400-$500, no thanks. A simple economy car would cost $150 with unlimited mileage and the gas from here to Miami is $40 each way. Plus, no baggage costs, airport delays etc. Yeah.

Anyway, I took my god awful patches off this morning and feel sooooooooooo much better. Also took my last lupron shot (yay!) and now I am on Progesterone in oil shot (ladies, this hormone is the reason for being so tired during pregnancy) and I put a video up of me doing the first so you have an idea. I have estrace pills, which are tiny (another plus) and beginning Friday for 4 days I have to take an antibiotic and steroid for the transfer.

I'm still in a little shock it's so close, but ya know I've been waiting for this damn day to come for years. More "officially" since June 2010.

Most journies don't take this long, but my IP's couldn't decide on the right egg donor. That's another blog I've already posted.

Anyway....here is the video...Will update in a couple days when I am in Miami!!

EEEEKKKK!!! ER and Transfer day set!!!

Well it's all set, donor does her trigger shot tonight and egg retrieval is Wednesday!!

I will be having a 5 day transfer on the 22nd. It's a 5 day because the IP's are doing gender selection my Nurse Coordinator, Marci said that they take the embryo's at day 3 and pull cells from them and determine the gender that way and we won't have the results until 5 day, so that's when it is.

Also, my estrogen patches....omg...bad reactions (see previous blog), so it finally got bad enough that I complained about it and Marci talked to Dr. Akerman and ordered me the pills. I will have them tomorrow and then Wednesday I start my progesterone shot and take my last lupron shot. Thankfully it's the only day I have to have 2 shots. After that it's just the nightly PIO shot and estrogen pill.

I'm sooooo excited. A trip away from all the stress and drama!!

My appt.,Patches and misc.

Ok, first, the patches. Holy Sh*t!

Pictures...the first I took this morning. I put on 4 new patches on the left side of my tummy. On the right (where the tattoo is) I had 4 on, they are 2 days old. See all that black crap around the 4 patches?

Well, this picture shows what that black stuff does to my skin once the patches are removed.

You can clearly see the outline of the previous patches. And this is fresh, like an hour ago I took them off.

Anyway-------

I went and waited and waited for my Ultrasound yesterday....finally got it. My lining is beautiful at a 9.6mm. Optimal to carry a baby. I'm still waiting for my blood work and for Marci to call. I need to get my calendar up to date. The donor has been in Miami since Saturday to get monitored daily for Egg Retrieval and now when Marci calls we should have a set date and I can make all my plans for the transfer.

This honestly is torture....waiting! I hate waiting lol

Oh, another patch issue....Massive, massive headaches. I've had a headache a day minimum since starting the patches and some are so bad I can't function or move. I've gotten some bad one's at night too, so bad NOTHING works to take them away and I finally sleep from crying so much from the pain.

Anyway, once I hear from Marci on what's going on, I will probably post another blog. We'll see how things go.

A week to go before transfer...

So, the countdown is on, we are looking at a week before my 3 day transfer (if everything goes according to plan, that is). By this time next week, Thomas and I will either already be in Miami or we will be leaving at the weee hours of the morning Sunday morning, so we'll probably be packing and going to bed this time next week.

When I talked to Julie on Thursday (11/11/10) she said the donor had to lower her dose of the stim meds because they are working too well. She also had to have 2 more ultrasounds than planned and I'll have the final word on Monday about when to expect her to do her trigger injection. Below is a snipet of an article (I will include the web address so you can see the entire page) of why, when etc.

The next step the IVF treatment is triggering the oocytes to go through the last stage of maturation, before they can be retrieved. This last growth is triggered with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Brand names for this include Ovidrel, Novarel and Pregnyl.
Timing this shot is vital. If it's given too early, the eggs will not have matured enough. If given too late, the eggs may be “too old” and won't fertilize properly. The daily ultrasounds at the end of the last step are meant to time this trigger shot just right. Usually, the hCG injection is given when four or more follicles have grown to be 18 to 20mm in size and your estradiol levels are greater than 2,000pg/ML.
This shot is typically a one-time injection (yeah!). The timing of the shot will be based both on your ultrasounds and blood work and when your clinic schedules your retrieval.
(http://infertility.about.com/od/infertilitytreatments/ss/ivf_treatment_5.htm)

I had a long conversation with my IP's via Skype this afternoon and they are super excited as well.
We are going to do some pictures and videos of the transfer and I will, of course, take pictures of the trip to Miami. We are staying in a nice hotel (NOT a Super 8 or Motel 6) and it's by the hospital. Pictures of the transfer, the clinic (Which is really nice BTW) and some of the flight.

The Patches (Which I can't wait to get off of!) are causing my headaches and a little bit of a rash. I posted pictures below (don't judge, I have 2 kids lol) but I am ready to be off of them.

  So, tomorrow is my ultrasound in the morning, so I will know everything I need to know Monday and I will update then, probably on here and youtube.

Have a good week everyone!!

Nov. update thus far....

So here is my first November update...

As of right now, my donor starts her stimms today (The stimulation medication that makes her ovaries produce lots and lots of eggs to be fertilized) and I started wearing 2 patches, which is protocol by the clinic. I think they said the patches are what thickens your uterine lining, and come Tuesday I will have 4 on and change them every 2 days, for 3 changes (6 days total) then back down to 2 a day, depending solely on what my lining check says during the ultrasound I have a week from Monday.
Anyway, I was pretty ticked at first that she messed up but then I realized nothing can be done about it so to just deal with it.
They moved all the dates as well, so now we have potential 3 day transfer on the 21st and 5 day transfer on the 23rd. I am having this feeling that the one embryo they put in me is going to split.
I hope not, but who knows.
Another bit of good news is we get the 3 bedroom in our complex a lot sooner than we expected and I so excited about that. A huge place, nearly double what we currently have, and that's only adding one more bedroom and bathroom. The rent goes up $240 a month but so what? It's worth it for the peace and quiet.
So, to me there's some exciting stuff coming up. Woot!!
Anyway, I will be posting more youtube videos soon, I got one I did today, so you can check that out if you want.

www.youtube.com/user/tiffymm589

Laterz~
Tiffany