One year

Yesterday it had been one year since I had my one viable embryo transferred back into my body, one whole year. At the time I was certain that it wouldn’t work and that my chances of having a baby of my own were gone. I was frustrated at the fertility center and at myself for being so foolish in thinking that IVF would work for us. As I hold my son a year later I’m still amazed that it worked. After a nightmare IVF cycle I had given up, I had thrown my hopes and dreams away. Yet my beautiful baby boy is here safe and sound and wonderful in all regards.

I’m so happy that everything worked out and I couldn’t have asked for a more prefect baby. I’m glad that I gave up my hopes and dreams because he exceeded anything I had in my head. He is beyond perfection and I’m happy that he was the one that made it.

Baby Jack

We finally welcomed baby Jack home on Saturday (just in time for my birthday on Sunday). He was born via c-section (he was a breech baby) on Friday May 16th. He spent a week in the NICU because he wasn’t eating well. Now that we’re home things are going well but I’m still worried about him. It’s so amazing to hold and see and smell him but I do miss being pregnant (that was the easy part).

Oh BOY!

We had our big ultrasound yesterday and Baby V-K is looking great. Everything is measuring spot on and my due date stayed the same. We also found out that we’re having a boy!

10 weeks 5 days

My little baby made it past 9 weeks! I got released to my normal doctor today. It’s going to be strange not going to the fertility center every week but I’m happy that I made it to this point!

And yes my little baby is flipping everyone off!

Success

It’s been confirmed (apparently twice) by my blood work! Hopefully this pregnancy will make past 9 weeks. I’m so excited that it worked but I’m still very guarded. I think once I hit the end of my first trimester I’ll start to feel more at ease.

Big day

Today was transfer day! I guess it went well-it was a blur for me because I was all nerves. We ended up transferring one with the hope to save the other as a back-up. But after I made my decision it became clear that our back-up might not make it. So I guess I’m glad that I didn’t go with two if one was looking rough. I have a wonderfully fuzzy ultrasound picture of the transfer. I’ll be on pins and needles until we find out.

Rock and a hard place

It’s been awhile…vacation, back to work, and a super shitty fertility experience can really put a person off. When the dust settled we were left with two good looking embryos, two. They’re currently frozen with a not so good looking one. In exactly two weeks one or two of those bad boys will be transferred back in my body. I wish I would’ve known ahead of time what went into a FET transfer cycle. I’m back to giving myself shots (at least it’s only one a night) and I’m taking pills (estrace) that give me the worst hot flashes and night sweats! Starting next week my wonderful husband will get the pleasure of giving me an intramuscular shot every night (if this works he could get to do it for up to nine weeks). On the plus side it’s mixed with sesame oil so I can feel like stir fry everyday!
All of this aside I’m left with the choice of how many embryos to put back in. It’s not so simple: you see when we first found out that we had two we had decided to transfer one and keep the other as back up. That was a great plan, one that I still stand by. BUT since they were frozen together they have to be thawed together. Which is fine, they can easily refreeze the unused one and thaw that one out later. BUT the nurse asked me the million dollar question which of course was will it survive all of that stress. Hmmmm, odds are maybe. Is maybe enough to go on? Since we are only doing this once I really want to ensure that I gave it my best shot. I guess at the end of the day I have to decide which path will leave me with the least regret if it doesn’t work. So it looks like I’ll be stressing myself out (crap) trying to decide what to do.

Six

Out of the amazing 24 eggs they took from me only six fertilized, six. That’s one-fourth, ONE-FOURTH. I was very distraught when I found out about this since six fertilized eggs aren’t a lot to work with.
On a happy note all six were developing, although some better than others. On day three one embryo was 12 cells, four were 8 cells, and one was 6 cells. The doctor was hopeful for the 12 and 8 celled guys and not super hopeful for the 6 celled one. They are going to call me again tomorrow to let me know how the genetic testing went (no abnormal embryos for this girl).

24 eggs

After a lot of tears and fighting I was able to schedule my egg retrieval today. It wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be, taking the iv tape off was the most painful part! They were able to get an amazing 24 eggs.

Ultrasounds

I had an ultrasound on Sunday and had ten good looking follicles on my right side and three on my left. However, as good as that was I have to have another ultrasound on Tuesday. I find out then if retrieval is on Wednesday or Thursday. I’m hoping for Wednesday, since we leave for a trip on Thursday night. But I guess it’s really up to my body and I should just go with the flow.

On a not so fun side note one of my shots is giving me bruises 😔. I’m really looking forward to my egg retrieval so I won’t have to do any more injections and I’ll be less bloated.