Thursday, December 24, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
{The Littlest Angel}
We are thrilled to share our
very happy news with you...
WE
ARE PREGNANT
IVF is giving us a chance
at a Christmas miracle. We couldn’t be more grateful to everyone that helped us
get to this point. This little babe (or babes) will be loved by so many and
that makes my heart so very happy!
I’ve had some people ask me
if we know if it is a single or multiple pregnancy. The answer is that we won’t
know for a few weeks.
There is a LOT of waiting in this
process J
We realize letting all of you
know this early can be both a good and a bad thing. Hopefully this will be a
strong and healthy pregnancy! We are prepared that anything can happen, and we
will figure out how to deal with whatever it is if we need to, but for now we
are focusing on our success and JOY!
A few experiences worth
noting about this very new pregnancy are noted below:
About 2 minutes after finding
out we were pregnant last Friday, I got a call from my step-mother that my dad
had suffered a heart attack earlier that day. Even though he was already all
set up with a stint in his heart and eating dinner by the time I found out, it
added to an already emotionally packed few minutes of my life. He went home on
Sunday is recovering...thankfully ANOTHER Christmas miracle J
Second, Monday I was due to
go in for a blood test to confirm the pregnancy. Of course that was the day
Mother Nature decided to hit us with the biggest snow storm we’ve seen in over
two years. It didn’t stop me though…but it really should’ve! I drove across town
and got stuck in a neighborhood only about 2 blocks from my doctor’s office. I
knew I was going to get stuck and picked a street where I was hoping people were
nice. I lucked out because there were THREE very nice people that helped dig my
car out. Not only that, but they dug a spot in front of one of their houses so
I could leave my car. One of the other guys actually took me to my appointment
and insisted if I needed a ride after the appointment I could call him. I thought
I’d be able to at least walk back to my car, but after about ½ a block my boots
were full of snow and ended up calling my new friend Robert. He took me all the
way to the train station so I could at least go to work. THEN a good friend from
work, Shelisa, drove me back to my car after work. By then the snow plows had
been through and I was okay to drive. Talk about eventful!
Thank you for sharing our
good news with us! Merry Christmas!
Love, Ben & Kate
Sunday, December 6, 2015
{The 5-Day Post Lab Report}
We got a final report from
the embryologist lab this morning (Sunday, Dec 6th) and only 1 of the remaining
5 blastocysts made it to the final stage and qualifies for freezing. This does
not include Monica and Ross that we already transferred.
What does that mean for our
3rd little survivor? Let's call him Joey.
- If neither Monica and Ross turn into an embryo nor turn into a viable pregnancy, then a little later we will prepare for a similar round of IVF, but this time without the egg retrieval. At that point we will go through the process of an egg-thaw and if he makes it, we'll transfer Joey and wait that process out.
What happens if Monica
and/or Ross turn into a baby? What happens to Joey?
- Joey will stay frozen in time until we make future plans regarding him.
What if after both cycles
we still aren't pregnant?
- We will go through all of the shots (about 30-40 injections and numerous blood labs) and egg retrieval process and transfer all over again.
How are we feeling?
- GREAT! Seriously. I feel like my recovery is taking unusually long after everything, but I've enjoyed taking it easy and just listening to my body if I need to take a nap or not doing any strenuous housework. Ben has been amazing. I came home yesterday after running errands and my heart was so touched at all of work he did here at home. He is my best friend. I still can't believe sometimes that I found someone who fits me so perfectly and makes something like infertility bearable.
I'll post another update
around the 17th :)
Thursday, December 3, 2015
{Meet Monica & Ross}
A
little earlier than expected, but today (Thursday, December 3rd) turned out to
be our transfer day!
Because
one of my friends who is also doing IVF this month named her embryos, I
mentioned it to Ben and we decided to as well....for FUN (just to clarify-these are not real names we've chosen, nor do we even know their gender).
Meet....Monica and Ross. Totally my idea. Ben doesn't get any credit because he wants to keep thinking of superhero sibling names. I write the blog, which means that I win! (My only-child syndrome seriously just came out while typing that)
Meet....Monica and Ross. Totally my idea. Ben doesn't get any credit because he wants to keep thinking of superhero sibling names. I write the blog, which means that I win! (My only-child syndrome seriously just came out while typing that)
All 7 of our fertilized eggs made it to today (Day 3 post retrieval).
The grading scale on the Super 7 is as follows: 3
were good+ quality; 1 was good; 1 was fair-; 2 were poor
We
decided since our numbers were small to go ahead and transfer our 2 best today.
Watching
the transfer process was actually really cool. I wasn't sure what to expect but
I was surprised to find myself getting emotional seeing it happen. I am so glad
Ben was able to be with me last minute (I only gave him an hour notice). Someday
I hope he writes down his feelings about everything too. He's going to make
such a good daddy.
As my friend Erin McBride would say, "Yay SCIENCE!"
- What happens if this works? Well, we get a baby or babies!
- What happens if this doesn't work? We will hopefully be able to use one of the other 5 embryos if they made it to Day 5 and we were able to freeze them. The reality is that possibly none of Super 7 make it. That is just nature's natural selection process and there is nothing we can do about it. We know this and we want you to know that we know this. If it happens, we will tell you, I promise. Then we will try again.
Why are we being so open about all of this? Because we always have been. Since the miscarriage last year we found a lot of support by talking about it. It was helpful to know that we weren't alone and that there are options. It may happen again and when I get pregnant I'll probably worry about it. I have nothing fancy to say about that.
Today though, there are nothing but happy thoughts floating around :)
And now we wait.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
{IVF Egg Retrieval Update}
Update Time! We started IVF and did our first egg retrieval
yesterday. We ended up with 11 eggs, of which 10 were mature. Of those 10, 7
had normal fertilization. Those little 7 embryos will sit all nice and cozy in
an incubator and hopefully the cells start splitting and multiplying like
crazy. On Thursday we will get another report from the embryologists and find
out how they are doing. Depending on the report, we will most likely go in to
the clinic and I'll receive the eggs (hopefully 2 strong and healthy ones) back
via transfer on Saturday. Any remaining after that will be preserved and
frozen. I am feeling okay today after the procedure, but not great. This is
normal and should last for about a week or so I'm told. We are hanging in there
and happy! :)
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