It's Time

I can't believe it is here. Tomorrow morning I will be 2 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

I'm excited, I'm nervous and I'm trying to be very optimistic. Even if this doesn't work, at least I will have two weeks with our little snow peas.

I am taking the rest of the week off to lounge around the house. Next week I'll take it easy. I've been transitioning myself into not lifting anything heavy. Sometimes that's difficult around here, but I will have to stop all heavy lifting now. One of our employees said he's not even going to let me lift the stapler! It's pretty funny, but he's right. We've come this far, we don't want to take any chances.

I need to get a new modem for the home computer, so unless I get that done before our appointment tomorrow, I won't be able to get back on the Internet until I come back to work. We'll update you guys as soon as we can.

We love all the comments you've been leaving and feel very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Thank you for your love and prayers! We love you guys!

Tuesday is Thaw Day.

Tomorrow is a big day for our little snow peas.

They'll be thawed naturally until they come to room temperature, then dipped in four solutions to remove any of the solution used during freezing. Then they will slowly be warmed up to body temperature.

We are continuing to pray that they both survive this process and will be there waiting for us on Wednesday morning.

Tagged

I was tagged to do this little survey by my friend Amanda!

What was I doing 10 years ago...
10 years ago was 1998. I was finishing up a semester at Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC) and re-applying to NAU. I was working at the snack shop at a golf course on the weekends, which turned into a position driving the beverage/beer cart during the week during the summer. I also worked Monday nights in the office at an auction. That fall, when I went back to NAU, is when I met and started dating Craig.

5 things on my to-do list today...
1. Meeting with sales rep for Stein World
2. Flexsteel Sales Training/Meeting
3. Look for a specific shirt at Kohl's
4. Go to the post office
5. Brush the dog.

5 snacks I enjoy...
1. My number one snack is Rocky Road Ice Cream with REAL Marshmallows (not the cream)
2. Anything chocolate
3. Fresh fruit
4. French Fries, I'm hopeless when it comes to potatoes (except when they have fake cheese on them)
5. Peanut Butter M&M's. Very addicting.

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire...
1. Purchase a home in every place I loved and travel between the houses.
2. Spend more time with our family.
3. Have a world renowned training facility for pets.
4. Create a charity or two that helped all the causes important to us.
5. Invest, so that the money didn't dry up.

5 bad habits...
1. Eating too much fast food. I really need to start bringing snacks and lunch with me to work.
2. Always running 5-10 minutes late, it's really annoying to always be rushing in the mornings.
3. Letting my mind wonder when people are telling me long stories.
4. Never taking out the garbage. I "let" Craig take it out all the time.
5. Cracking my knuckles. I started when I was in grade school. I don't do it as often anymore because it drives Craig crazy, but every now and then I do it without thinking.

5 places I've lived...
1. Phoenix, Arizona
2. Flagstaff, Arizona
3. Tucson, Arizona
4. Marana, Arizona (still Tucson, really, but technically a different town LOL!)
5. TBD

5 jobs I've had...
1. Beer Cart Driver at a Golf Course
2. Jewelry Store Salesperson
3. Advertising Media Buyer
4. Dog Trainer
5. Legal Assistant and Paralegal

Videos

Here are a couple of short videos for everyone.

This one is of our store. Sorry, it's a little blurry. I think I was moving too fast for the auto focus.

Then this one is of Shadow showing off a couple of his tricks. He usually gives us a long drawn out performance when we ask him to play dead. He must've realized that he had to be good for the camera because he didn't this time.

Good report.

I had another ultrasound this morning, and everything looks good.

They like too see the lining over 8mm, and mine was at 11mm. So we are set for the transfer next Wednesday.

Videos coming soon...

That is IF I can figure out how to convert the files from the DVD recorder to playable files. The disc that came with the camcorder doesn't seem to be working quite right. It doesn't have conversion software, and my CD Rom stopped working after I tried to install the software that it did come with. Grrr.

Anyhow, I have some video of Shadow and a quick tour of our store to share with you as soon as I get it all figured out.

I have another ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday to check the thickness of my lining. If I've responded correctly to the medication then it should be nice and thick and ready for the transfer next week. I'm starting to get nervous. I guess it's just seems more real now that we are so close.

Craziness!

I thought my craziness was due to the hormones I was taking to make me produce more eggs. Now I'm thinking it must have been my body's response to the increase in estrogen because I'm still saying the craziest things. Here are just a few:

Craig fell asleep on the stove last night. (should have said sofa)
Dinner has to go in the hour for an oven.
I can't watch bed in TV without my glasses.
Can you give this form to Brown? (should have said Robert)

If this is truly a response to hormone changes and I do get pregnant, it should be an interesting and entertaining 9 months.

It's a go!!

I had my ultrasound this morning. My ovaries are still a little large, but not enough to cause any problems.

So I started estrogen supplements this morning. I'm taking them in the mornings and at night. Then Craig will start giving me the progesterone shots on the 25th.

For right now we are praying for my lining to become thick and healthy, and for both of our snow peas to survive the thawing process. We'll think about the rest later. Just one step at a time right now.

Jury Duty

I had jury duty on Tuesday. Lucky me, I ended up getting picked for a DUI Trial. It was inconvenient, but I really didn't mind too much. It was fun for me to see the other side of the court room. I do have to say that the prosecutor was lucky the evidence was on his side. He was completely disorganized, almost like he was unprepared. It was pretty frustrating and confusing to follow along with him. But it's over now and I feel good that I did my civic duty.

Next week is going to be busy. We have Craig's birthday on Wednesday (which I still need to go shopping for), and I have a baseline ultrasound on Friday. That's when we'll find out if we get to go with the April 30th FET date or not.

We've decided to transfer both of our little snow peas. We have about a 40% of success by transferring both, which doubles our chances over everything else we've tried.

We have a date.

I'm feeling good and completely back to normal. I even lost the 5 pounds I gained from the fertility medications. I started back on birth control pills this week. Its so strange to think I have to take birth control pills to get pregnant.

The fertility clinic set up a protocol for our frozen embryo transfer, or FET. I'll have an ultrasound on April 11th to check on my ovaries. If everything looks good, we'll do the transfer on April 30th. I won't have to do all the medications this time around. Just some estrogen supplements to thicken my lining and progesterone to keep my body from shedding the lining and our little embryos.

Now we just need to decide if we're going to transfer both of our little peas or only one now and another later.

Hospital...

Well, I didn't make it into the dr's office Thursday morning. Instead, I ended up in the hospital.

About 3am my back was starting to hurt me, so I decided to go lay on the couch so I wouldn't wake up Craig by tossing and turning. After I got up and started moving around, I started to feel really sick and ended up getting dry heaves.

Craig got up to come and check on me and paged Dr. Huchison. He called us back immediately. I felt really bad calling him so early in the morning, but it was a good thing I did. He wanted me to go to St. Joseph's Hospital to be put on IV Fluids and be seen by a radiologist who could drain the fluid that was collecting in my abdomen.

Once in the Emergency Room, they took some information and brought me back to a room. Just that little bit of walking made me sick again. They started an IV and took some blood. By this time, it was about 4:30am. At about 6am the doctor came in and told us that they would be admitting me to the hospital. There weren't any rooms available so I would have to wait in my room at the emergency room until they had space for me.

They took me down to radiology once they opened and ended up draining 3 liters of fluid from my abdomen.

I was finally taken to a room at about 2pm. Craig called my Mom then and she came down to Tucson to stay with me while Craig went to our store to get things taken care of there then went home to get some sleep.

Mom went home that evening when I started to fall asleep so she could get things taken care of on her end then came back the next morning. She stayed the rest of the week with me which was a huge relief for both Craig and I. Thank you so much Mom.

I was taken back to radiology the next two days and had another 3 liters drained each day. The fourth day they didn't see much fluid so they didn't drain anything. The next day, there wasn't much fluid in my abdomen but the radiologist saw some fluid in my lung cavities. They could only drain one a day, so they drained my right one because it had the most fluid.

After that it was just a matter waiting for my body to stop holding onto fluids. I was released from the hospital on the 12th and was back to work on the 14th.

Of the 8 eggs that fertilized, only 2 continued to grow. They were able to freeze those two embryos, which they'll transfer at a later date. I'll start birth control pills at the beginning of my next cycle then I'll have an ultrasound to see if my ovaries have gone back down to size.

Heading back to the dr tomorrow.

I stayed home from work today because I'm not feeling very good. My abdomen is very bloated and I'm pretty uncomfortable when I stand. I mentioned this to the dr's office yesterday, and they told me to eat broths with lots of sodium and drink V8 Juice.

When Craig got home tonight he wasn't happy that I didn't call them today. So I called the embryologist on her cell phone this evening. She wants me to come into the office in the morning so they can take a look at me. She thinks I might be starting to hyper-stimulate.

I feel better when I'm laying down, so hopefully I'll be better by morning.

Fertilization Report

We got good news from the dr's office today! Of the 20 eggs they retrieved, 14 were mature and 8 of those fertilized. So right now we have 8 little babies growing!

I'm really bloated today and moving pretty slow. Craig is going to let me leave early tonight and get some rest.

Retrieval Day!!

The egg retrieval went well today. They were able to get 20 eggs! We'll get a fertilization report tomorrow or Wednesday. The dr said that most of the larger follicles on my right ovary didn't have any eggs in them. The big surprise what how many eggs were on my left ovary that couldn't be seen by the ultrasound.

All my bloating went away right after the retrieval, but has come back this evening. I'm being good about my 24 hours of bed rest. So far I've only gotten up to get food and go to the bathroom. I can go to work tomorrow, but I'll probably go in a couple hours late so I'll have given it a full 24 hours.

Craig did a good job of giving me my trigger shot on Saturday. For some reason, he's decided to video tape him giving me the shots. Since they are given in the back part of the hip, and I don't want my naked butt plastered on the Internet, we won't be sharing the videos.

He had to give me another shot this morning while I was in the recovery room. The nurse showed him everything he needed to do. Now he's actually excited about giving them to me. I like that he feels more involved in the process.

Final Monitoring Appointment

I had my last ultrasound this morning. I had 8 follicles left and 16 on the right. My retrieval is set for 8:45am on Monday. My estrogen was still higher than they like, so they dropped my follistim to 75iu for the last injection tonight. Tomorrow night Craig will have to give me a shot in my hip to trigger the follicles to mature.

The dr is expecting to get a large number of eggs, so right now they are planning on doing the embryo transfer on Saturday.

2nd Monitoring Appointment

The injections continue to go well. I'm still very nauseous. I'm told that's because my estrogen levels are rising because of all the follicles I have. Unfortunately, that's also a sign that I'm sensitive to estrogen changes. Which means I have a good chance of being very sick during pregnancy due to constantly changing estrogen levels. Lucky me! At least that will be forgotten once I'm holding our little miracle in my arms.

At my ultrasound this morning the dr measured 8 follicles on the left and 8 on the right. There were more on the right, but he only measured the largest ones. My estrogen levels came back even higher today, so they have me lowering my dosage to 150iu tonight and tomorrow night. I will go back for another check on Friday.

1st Monitoring

The injections have been going well. I've been taking 225iu of Follistim every night. Craig didn't want to watch at first. He was doing the dishes while I gave myself the injection. He's feeling more comfortable now. Which is a huge relief to me because he will have to give me shots of progesterone in the rear after the retrieval.

I can tell that the hormones are starting to effect me. I've been pretty nauseous and my brain isn't working as clearly as it normally does. Of course, I could just chalk it up to being blond. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I had my first monitoring ultrasound and blood check done today. My estrogen levels were a little high, but not enough to cause any alarm. So my dosage will stay the same tonight and tomorrow, but the dr. wants me to go back in on Wednesday for another ultrasound.

I have 6 follicles on the left and 16 on the right. Just to give you an idea of how cloudy my brain has been, I didn't even realize that have 6 on one side and 16 on the other meant that I had 22 follicles until a friend pointed it out to me! (Thanks Kelly!!)

Baseline Ultrasound

I had a doctor's appointment this morning for a baseline ultrasound. Much to my surprise I had to have blood drawn today, too! I knew I'd have to have this done at my next appointment, but I didn't realize it started today!

Everything checked out to be normal, so I will start my injections tonight! Here we go!!

OUR IVF IS SCHEDULED!

I just scheduled our IVF, and you'll never guess our retrieval day... March 3rd! Which, as many of you know, is my Great Grandmother's birthday.

I'll start giving myself injections in the abdomen on February 22nd. Then I'll have an ultrasound on February 25th to see how many follicles I have.

On March 3rd, my eggs will be removed and fertilized. Our doctor will not transfer any more than 2 embryos, so don't worry, we won't be one of those couples having sextuplets. If this round doesn't work and we have any left over embryos they will be frozen and preserved for a second try. The great thing is that no matter when it happens, our future child(ren) will be conceived on Great Grandma's birthday. That has to be a good sign.

IVF Here we come!

As many of you know, we have been trying to start a family for quite some time now. We stopped using birth control in November 2004. In May 2005 my OB-GYN sent me in for a test to see if my tubes were open, which came back inconclusive.

The test had to be re-done by a Reproductive Endocrinologist (fertility doctor), which was done in August 2005. Everything looked good. The doctor told us to wait another three months and if I still wasn't pregnant to come back and see him. We waited until April 2006. Since then we've tried a few different kinds of medications and 5 artificial inseminations, our last one in April 2007.

We decided to move forward with In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). I have an ovary condition known as PCOS, so I will need to be on birth control pills for a few months. We are looking at mid-March for our egg retrieval.