2WW Part II

Day 7:  Well we are 7dp5dt and another negative this morning.  Still trying to stay positive but I am feeling very discouraged today.  I had to call in our extra prescriptions for our vacation-I will need more vivelle patches and estrogen pills.  I warn the Walgreens person over the phone that it will require an additional authorization and explain I will be on vacation.  He says it will be no problem and says that I can pick up the prescriptions at 5pm.  I went to pick them up at 5pm and the guy I spoke to forgot to make the call and my insurance company is closed now.  We leave for vacation tomorrow so it will be tight but they promise to make the call first thing in the morning.  I started to tear up in the pharmacy drive thru (what is wrong with me??) and call my mom on the way home.  I started crying and my mom was able to calm me down.  She says to stay calm and think of how great it will be to learn we are pregnant in Niagara Falls.  Leslie is at a work dinner that night so I am on my own.  I make myself a Jack's Pizza and end up having heartburn all night.  I never have heartburn--is it a sign???

Day 8:  8dp5dt-poas and it's negative.  I am frantically searching the 2WW websites for hope and found just a couple.  I call the nurse at the fertility clinic and explain the only symptoms I have had have been burping and heartburn and that I have used HPTs and they are all negative.  She tells me to step away from the stick and just stay positive as she frequently sees positive betas when people POAS during the 2WW.  She even described a recent situation where one of the patients stopped taking her meds because she thought it was negative and it turned out she was positive but then there were issues with the discontinued meds.  We start vacation today and are feeling positive.  First night of vacation and we normally have sex every day of vacation (TMI I know) and there are no restrictions on by my doctor so I think hey, maybe we need a little shake up in there.  All was great.  I decide not to POAS before the Beta which will be in Niagara Falls.
Day 9:  NO POAS, we drive from our stop in Michigan, through Canada to the Niagara Falls.  We were listening to the radio and heard of a guy who was detained in Seattle for several hours after trying to bring candy from Canada back in the US.  So of course-Leslie needs that candy.  We find it at a gas station.  It is illegal in the US because the toys inside of the chocolate egg are a choking hazard.  Leslie did not choke on the candy.  We arrive in Niagara Falls and have AMAZING NY style pizza that night. 
Day 10:  We have our blood test at 7:10am at a local blood test facility in Niagara Falls.  We go back to the hotel room and take a nap before we get on our bikes and bike to the Falls.  They are absolutely gorgeous.  We call the doctor’s office to see if they have the results before we go on our Maid of the Mist tour and they haven’t received anything yet.  So we go on our tour---fun and wet.  Great views, the Canadian side falls are even better than the US falls.  We get back to the dock and walk up the stairs to get an up close view of the US falls.  While up there we see we have a voicemail and listen---BFN from our fertility doctor.  We are certainly devastated but we pull ourselves together and head back to the hotel.  We call the clinic when we get there and discuss our plan.  We do not want to rush this so we want to make sure the next round is right.  We have 5 frozen eggs (3 girls and 2 boys) and the doctor is confident that there is a pregnancy in our future.  She believes there may have been some issues with my use of Lupron so she isn’t going to use the drug this go around.  I am supposed to call day 2 of my next period to go in for an ultrasound.  We decide to go back to our amazing pizza place (still great) and I have a glass of wine.  After 4 months of no drinking---whoo that really hit me.  We found a Ben & Jerry’s for Leslie and head back to the hotel for an early turn in.  We agree that we want to make this next round as calm as positive.  We talk about plans including ways to make the next 2WW more manageable.  Decision---we will not POAS the next go around.

2WW Part I

Day 1:  Yesterday was nice and calm.  After the transfer, we went to Chipotle for lunch, then we went to the bank as we needed to get cash for our upcoming vacation, then we went to the zoo to check out the animals.  I was still feeling the effects of the valium so I was calm and up for anything.  We went home after the zoo and I made dinner while Leslie caught up on some work.  We watched a little tv and turned in early.

We both went to work today and around noon I received the call regarding the number of eggs that were frozen.  Of the two that were questionable (one boy and one girl) the girl did not make it to A so we have five frozen---three girls and two boys.

I really have no symptoms that would tell me I'm pregnant.  I am feeling bloated but that is probably due to the progesterone shots.

Day 2:  I am very aware of every little movement in my body.  I have been on the 2WW forums and I keep wondering---am I feeling cramping?  But then I think it was just gas.  I have been burping quite a bit and am peeing more frequently.  But on the other hand, I am drinking more water so no identified symptoms.

Day 3:  I had what I thought was cramping in the middle of the night that woke me up (but could have been gas).  I drank some water as I have been really thirsty and don't want to get dehydrated.

Day 4:  Last day of the work week----good thing and bad thing.  We went to a Mallards game tonight just ourselves.  No additional symptoms---still bloated and still burping :).  My boobs are certainly bigger from when we started but that kicked in with the first round of pills/shots so again, this could be the progesterone and estrogen I am taking.

Day 5:  I was up in the middle of the night/or early in the morning (4:30am) to pee and Leslie and I decide to POAS for the first time.  We wait the full three minutes as we promise ourselves we are not going to be bummed if it comes back negative because it is still early.  BFN.  We go back to sleep for a few hours and I was up around 9am and am back to my 2WW forums to confirm that others who ended with positives had BFNs at this time.   I am also checking on symptoms but the challenge is that most IVF reporters are women who had a retrieval and then an implantation just days later so some of their symptoms could have been from the retrieval.  I am comforted to see that many do not have any symptoms at all.  We decide we are going to wait until Monday to POAS again.

We went downtown for artfair on the square and went to the Madison Cougars football game that night which was great to keep our mind off things.  I made chicken thighs for dinner but neither of us was really hungry.  The smell of the chicken was kind of grossing me out when we got back to the car which Leslie thought may be a sign but it could have been that we were hot all day with no desire to eat.  Peeing every hour but I'm drinking water every hour it seems so again no symptoms.

Morning of Day 6:  Well I was up again at 4:30 to pee, decided to go back to sleep and leave the stick alone.  I only take a sip of water and go back to bed.  But then I woke up again at 8:00am.  My pee has been pretty clear lately from being so hydrated.  I thought that maybe my pee is maybe too watered down and since I didn't drink much water at 4 and I am thirsty that maybe my pee will have traces of HCG now for the FRER to pick up something???  Leslie is asleep and had a few beers last night at the after party so I let her sleep while I POAS (I know I know we said wait til Monday but based on my calculations (I bought 6 FRER sticks) I have enough to get me to the blood test).  I wait the three minutes BFN---I kept reading about the faint lines that others were getting so I am straining to see anything and there is nothing.  So now I decide how to fill my day.  I am thinking yard work then we are babysitting a 2 year old for a friend--back to the zoo :).

Egg Details and Transfer

Day 0-26 eggs retrieved from Leslie.

Day 1-26 eggs made it through the night, all 26 were fertilized.

Day 2-23 eggs are continuing to grow after fertilization.  Of those eggs we know that 18 are received a Grade 1!  We are super excited and hopeful!

Day 3- We now have 24 eggs that are continuing to grow---they must have missed one yesterday.  Of those, 18 are receiving a Grade 1 but all are of a quality that would proceed to the genetic testing so a biopsy will be performed to test for X, Y and 21.

Day 4-We do not have the genetic testing results back but the fertility doctor explained that this is when we see a severe drop in egg quantity.  We have 16 eggs remaining that are now in the morula phase.  Divide Divide Divide!  We are scheduled to be at the doctor's office tomorrow at 11:30am with a transfer at 12:30am.

Day 5-I take Leslie to work and head off to work myself.  I have to go to the appointment with a full bladder and my valium in hand.  Since the appointment isn't until 11:30am, I go to the bathroom right away when I wake up and decide  I will hold it from then on until the appointment.  I wasn't planning on going into work but was actually able to get a lot done and am glad I went in to keep my mind off of the appointment.  Leslie and I drove to the appointment together and we are trying to stay maintain positive thoughts and are eager to hear what the results of the genetic testing were.

When we arrive, I am instructed to undress from the neck down---I do not generally wear clothes above my neck :).  We have to wait a 1/2 hour or so for the doctor to get the results so in the meantime, I am playing classic bubbles on my phone (I am so addicted to this game).  Leslie is checking work in.

The fertility doctor comes in to reveal the report and she is all smiles.  First she explains the results from the genetic testing.  Of the 24 that were sent, a significant portion were marked as abnormal.  We are down to 8 eggs. We have three girl blasts-all of which are hatched!  Our doctor said that she that she only sees hatched three times a year so she is very encouraged.  We have one girl and one boy blast that has not hatched and would be in the B range.  If they make it to hatched by tomorrow then they will be frozen.  And we have three boy blasts that are hatched!  Our doctor will pick the two best boys to implant.  We decided to name them Willy (the Wildcat from Northwestern) and Bucky (the Badger from Wisconsin) and away they went.

I took the valium and we had to wait about 45 minutes for that to kick in and for the doctors to be scrubbed in.  I was wheeled into the waiting room and I have to say I was feeling preeettttyy good.  I was very chill from the valium.  Leslie was asking a ton of questions and I didn't have any care in teh world.  Leslie was in the room with me in the transfer and while one doctor was performing the ultrasound, my regular doctor was doing the implantation.  The procedure lasted a whole minute but then we have to sit there for 30 minutes.  The problem is---I still have that full bladder.  So the doctor used a catheter to empty.  We left with a photo of Bucky and Willie and a sonogram photo of the implanted eggs.

We left with the instruction to do things that make us happy.  Limited to light exercise and no sex for the day but we can go back to normal the next day.  I had read online from forums and other IVF clinic websites that many women are ordered on bed rest on the day of transfer and others that say no sex for the first trimester!  When I questioned our doctor, she explained that studies show that women do better when they are not on bed rest---mostly because you just have time to sit there and worry whether you are pregnant.  She also said there were no quality studies on the issue of sex.

NOW WE ENTER THE DREADED TWO WEEK WAIT.

Fertilized Eggs

We are day 1 post retrieval.  The doctors office called me with the number of eggs they were able to fertilize.  So I called Leslie and played guess the number....8?  higher  10?  higher 15?  higher ("oh boy oh boy") 18? higher 20? higher ("haha really?") 23?  Exactly.   We are both super excited.

Tomorrow we learn the quality of the eggs and then we make the decision of whether we want to go through with the gender testing.  We are both smiles the rest of the day :)

Egg retrieval

We had the retrieval yesterday which went well.  Leslie was thoroughly enjoying the sedatives and decided to tell the doctor "all of her secrets"----that would have been a hoot to be in the operating room during that procedure.

I was in the recovery room waiting---I had my fancy zip up overalls, hair net, and shoe covers.  It was really hot in the room (because it was 105 degrees outside) so it felt like forever as I was waiting for the nurse to wheel Leslie back.  The receptionist came to keep me company a few times as the procedure went longer than expected.  But for good reason----we had 26 EGGS!!!!  So excited.  Today is day 0 so tomorrow they will call with the number they were able to fertilize.

Leslie is recovering well.  The nurse was demonstrating the progesterone shot for her (after she regained full memory skills) and she turned green.  She vomited twice on the way home--likely due to the maneuvers I had to make in my quest to find her food on the fourth of July.  We stayed in that day to rest and watched Lost on Netflix and played Settlers of Catan with our friend Val.  Now we wait as our eggs grow :).

Leslie's First Post

It's the night before egg retrieval. Lucky us, timing worked out so that they are retrieving on the 4th of July. So our plans to attend a MLB game are out the window... oh well.
I've been taking follestim since last Friday (11 days ago) to stimulate my ovaries. And for past 5 days, I've taken Ganarelix to keep my ovaries from ovulating and losing all the eggs. that means that i've gotten 2 shots a day for 5 days.
The themselves shots are not too bad, but every once-in-a-while we will hit a capillary and it will bleed. This is almost always followed by a nice little bruise on my stomach for a few days.

We've had to go in for an ultrasound every 3 days. They've counted the sacks each day and we're predicting that tomorrow we'll get a good number of eggs (30+). We know that this number is much higher than the number of fertilized eggs that make it to day 5, but we are still excited.

last night at 10 pm, we did a trigger shot of 40units of Lupron.

Since today's the last day before egg retrieval, it seems fitting for me to now complain about the bloating in my lower stomach. I can definitely feel my ovaries. When I am sitting down, which is most of the time, I cannot really feel them unless I think about it. It's when I am walking around that they are bothersome. It feels like I am trying to walk around while doing a crunch... but it's not my abs, it's lower.
The worst feeling (which I would actually qualify as "pain") was from riding my motorcycle. It's been pretty hot here, so the pavement has been buckling a little. Every little bump completely jars my insides and is mightily un-enjoyable.

What is really neat about this time in our process is that my wife, Erica, has taken to talking to my belly as if I were pregnant. I really like this and it's neat to think I'm growing 1/2 of our future children, inside of me right now.


I'm excited for tomorrow. It's been 3 months since I've had caffeine or a substantial amount of alcohol. While I'm not going to go hogs-wild tomorrow, I am looking forward to feeling more awake at work and to a beer or two.