Pregnancy Test

 

Yesterday was quite the day! I didn't sleep at all Thursday night.  Every thought and emotion was running thru my brain.  Weston and I got up and headed to Murray for the pregnancy test.  Simple blood test and we waited.  Chris flew in that afternoon, so we had a few hours to burn.  Weston and I went over to City Creek and shopped the Disney Store and had some lunch.  Weston was great thru the whole day.  Every time my phone rang, Weston would jump and say "Is it the baby doctor?"; love that kids heart.  We had some time to burn, so we headed to the airport.  Instead of parking and waiting for Chris, we walked into the airport and waited.  Chris called me and told me he had just landed.  I hung the phone up and it immediately started to ring.  I knew the number and panic ran thru me.  I grabbed Weston and we stood against the back wall while I took the phone call.  After I said Hello, I heard "Holly........Congratulations! Your pregnant!"  The tears started immediately and I was at a loss for words.  Threw the sobbing I said Yeah and Thank You and scheduled my follow up appointment for September 6th.  Weston was staring at me the whole time.  I got to look in his eyes and tell him, "Buddy, your going to be a brother"' he started screaming and right then, Chris walked up to us.  Weston started yelling, "Pop, I'm going to be a brother!" I was crying, he was crying, we were all stunned.  The timing of the phone call couldn't have been better.  Even though our moment was in the airport, shared with a million other people, who cares! We are pregnant and going to have a baby! Or TWO! Who knows! We find out on the 6th!

Patience

I don't have any.  None.  Zero.  But I do believe the quote.  You have control over your life, but sometimes, you have to let life happen.  Today, I have paced.  I have cried.  I have stressed.  I want my husband home.  He will be home tomorrow after the pregnancy test.  He continues to tell me that it's going to be ok and that whatever happens, it's meant to be.  Good or bad.  I must allow tomorrow to unfold and follow what my path is.  Patience (go suck it!)

Bed Rest

Three days alone, doing nothing, sound fabulous right? Wrong.  Halfway thru day 2 and I am over it.  It's so hard to sit still.  You really can only watch so much Netflix, read and sit, before wanting to go outside and just walk around.  But, it is totally worth it and I will sit and let those embryo's do what they need to do.  In the meantime, Chris has been a fantastic help! He took the whole week off to help with Weston and help around the house.  In fact, today he took Weston fishing with friends and they had a blast!

Transfer Day

Well, here we are! After all the prep and time, we are finally to Transfer Day!! We arrived at the clinic in Pleasant Grove, were taken back to our room, and this was waiting for us.  A lucky pair of socks! I was so excited! I put those puppies on as fast as I could! I will take any luck I can get!

The infamous chair with stirrups, just waiting. 

 You could say, I was freaking out a little bit.  Just a bit.  Chris had a level head the whole time, haha!

 After waiting, what felt like an eternity, Dr Gurtcheff came in and gave our news about the embryos.  Out of the 8 that were growing, we ended up with 6 really good ones.  Next, was decision making time.  How many embryos do we put in? How big of a chance was it to get twins, etc.  Once we saw the picture below, we knew the answer without hesitation.  Put two in.  The top two pictures are the embryos that were implanted.  The other 4 have been frozen.

A very beautiful picture of my uterus, willing and waiting for implantation.

 The embryo's have been implanted and now we wait.  And wait. And wait.  I have to stay on bed rest for the next 3 days, continue the progesterone suppositories and wait for the 19th to roll around.  That is pregnancy test day.  It's going to be a long few days.

I also want to add really quick; we know everyone has different views about IVF and how the process works.  We value what you believe and what you think and we support you.  Please, do the same for us.  We do not know at this time what we are going to do with the frozen embryo's.  We don't even know if the two that were implanted are going to work.  Please, just pray for us that we will make the decision that is best for our family.  All we ask if for your support, even if our opinion is different than ours.  Loves!

Growing babies

Today we got the phone call to update on our embryo's.  All 8 are still growing.  Seven of them are doing great, and the eighth one has slowed down a bit.  That's ok.  Our goal is to get 2-3 embryo's and hopefully pregnant.  We go back to the Pleasant Grove clinic on Tuesday at 2pm for the transfer.  Transfer day is the worst day for me.  Once that embryo is implanted, I feel like all the pressure is on me and my body for it to work.  Lots of prayers are happening.  Lots of toes, fingers, wishes and anything you can think of is happening in this house.

How many Embryos? And Progesterone

This is our 4th round of IVF.  Each time we have done a round, I have needed progesterone.  Progesterone is the natural hormone that is created when you become pregnant.  Its what help your body from miscarriages and early delivery.  The first round we did, at 8pm every night, I would begin crying.  I hated the progesterone shots.  They are a thick liquid that you have to place into your hip/butt.  Imagine putting honey in a syringe and then shooting it into you skin.  Not fun.  The second round we did, I had a reaction to the oil base in the progesterone and I got hives.  The third time, we ordered a different oil base progesterone that was a bit thicker and left nasty bumps and bruises on my backside.  This time around, I get to try something new again.  Vaginal suppositories; and I love them! No pain.  No needle.  No bruises.  Downside, I have to take one 3 times a day, but I can handle that.  It's very simple to do and takes under a minute. 

 Onto EMBRYOS!! The embryologist called me today.  Remember those 15 eggs, 8 of the fertilized! 8! Holy moly! We were hope for 4-5.  We are pretty pumped and excited.  We will get a phone on Sunday to update us on the growth of the embryos and the time for the transfer Tuesday.  Day by day it is getting more real. 

Egg Retrieval Day

Today was Egg Retrieval day! And boy, did it go pretty good! We had to be at the clinic by 7:15am. Grandma Lee went with my, while Aunt Mandy & Uncle Danny watched Weston.  Chris had to go back to Colorado Springs to work, that way he can take all of next week off to help with Weston while I am on bed rest after the egg transfer on Tuesday.

 We made it to the clinic on time and they took me back to get started.  The first time we did an egg retrieval, they didn't knock my out all the way; this time they did, and it was heavenly.  I had my good luck socks on and we were good to go.  I had a great nap and during that nap, they were able to retrieve 15 eggs!! Much more than we expected.  Dr Gurtcheff was very pleased and said everything looked great! Chris & I are so excited!! Fingers crossed we get some good embryo's.

 Grandma Lee came in and sat with me for about 30 minutes and we headed home.

(Don't you just love the no makeup look)

Once we got home, I rest and relaxed.  For the most part, I did ok.  I had small pain on my ovaries, but my stomach was another thing.  Every time I would eat, I would get a sharp pain on the upper end of my stomach.  I knew I had to stay hydrated, so the remaining follicles would stay calm and my ovaries wouldn't hyper stimulate.  All and all, I feel ok.  Definitely worth it!

Pregnancy Test

Well, well.  I have never ever taken a pregnancy test that has been positive.  That is one thing I could say on, never have I ever.

 But now I can! My first positive pregnancy test and I'm not even pregnant! The whole point of the pregnancy test is to make sure I have enough HCG in my system.  Thank goodness it has all worked

The rest of today is pretty simple, I don't have to do anything, besides a water & vinegar douche (I know TMI).  Tomorrow is the big day for egg harvest! Fingers crossed, toes crossed and lots of prayers!

Last Ultrasound & Blood work

Today was my last day to check on the follicles growing and my bloodwork.  The nurse practitioner told me everything looked great and I was ready to start my "trigger" process with my HCG shot.  I was told to wait until I heard from the nurse or doctor that afternoon before I started anything.

Dr Gurtcheff called me in the afternoon to discuss how everything was looking.  She said she was super glad that we chose to do a minimal stimulation; my ovaries were doing exactly what they should be doing and in fact, my ovaries are a bit over stimulated (way to go ovaries for being over achievers). When we met with Dr Gurtcheff back in February, we decided to the minimal stimulation, mainly because we didn't want to have a bunch of embryo's frozen not sure what to do with.  We discussed this again and decided that no matter the amount of eggs we received, we would fertilize them all and go from there.

The nurse called me this evening and gave me my instructions; here goes nothing.  At 7:30pm tonight, I take my HCG shot.  Tomorrow morning, I take a pregnancy test to make sure my HCG levels are where they should be; the test needs to come out positive.  And tomorrow night and Thursday morning, I will have to do vinegar & water douche to make sure the path is clear and clean to my eggs. 

Here is the HCG shot.  I had to mix it together.

It was a rough shot, it stung and left a huge bruise behind.

It seems so crazy that we are already to this point.  We are used to this processes taking a couple of months and here we are; about 4 weeks later and we are harvesting.  If everything goes smoothly, the embryo transfer will be next Tuesday.

Tese day for Chris

Today was all about Chris! And he didn't like it.  When we did our last round of IVF at the University of Utah, we were so positive that it was going to work, that we destroyed all of Chris's sperm they have retrieved.  When we decided to get this process going again, I felt terrible.  We both knew they would have to someone get the sperm out of Chris once again.  Luckily enough, we were referred to a Uriologist doc, named Dr Hotaling, who is phenomenal! He was able to use a syringe to extract the sperm from Chris.  The procedure took about 5-10 minutes and went great.  They got 4 frozen viles of sperm!

Here is Chris when we first got there.  He was pacing the room.

Chris was more nervous about the anesthesia then he was about the procedure.  The Utah Fertility Center has an amazing anesthesiologist that had Chris happy and asleep.

In recovery after the procedure.  Dr Hotaling said that everything went smoothly. 

While Chris was in recovery, I had another ultrasound and another blood draw.  My follicles are stilling growing at a great rate and we are getting closer everyday.  Hopefully one more day of shots and we will be good for harvesting!

Since we have been keeping our process very hush hush this time, I wanted to get us both something to have the day or our procedures, so I ordered Chris these socks and they were a huge hit! The doc, anestheologist and the nurse loved them.  They even asked to take pictures with them.