On my Mind

* My daughter has a boyfriend at 3 years old… (wait until you hear the
latest)
* I have 2 embryos attaching themselves to my uterus lining as we
speak (I am thinking positively here.)
* In 12 days I find out if I am pregnant
* Sure wish I was a speed scrapbooking, instead I am a perfectionist!
* The DAILY progesterone injections sure make my hips hurt!

In regards to #1 – Sarah wanted to send her “boyfriend" Jackson an email.
She dictated, I typed word for word:
Love Jackson from Sarah and Love from I love you so much pretty as a rose so much as a rose and i love you so much as marry. Teeth fall out when you're bigger and i love you so much as a rose and i love you so much Jackson. i love you and you boyfriend me Sarah. Sarah Jackson love you so much. And I'm going to marry you so much and lollipop. Sent mail to you once long ago. Mail me some mail for Sarah. The frogs are jumping on the lilly pad and the birdies are singing on the breeze.
I can't wait to see you Jackson.

This was Jackson’s response:
"i'm going to school tomorrow. i made a friend. if i played with ship w/andrew and then brady's coming with a humidifier. i love you so as a froggy and i love you as a rose. thank you for sending me a letter and thank you for coming. i haven't sent you a long letter but why did you whack my choo choo track down? but i can't believe i love you as a froggy. i wanna come to the zoo w/you sometime. the best thing that you want to do is come to my house and write. i love you as a rose. thank you. that's it!"

Jackson's mom, Kelly just posted on her blog too with another cute pic of them!

HOW FUNNY ARE THESE. Now that is entertainment!

On a Scrap Note
Here is one of the layouts I've completed. Notice this picture is from Oct 2006.. think I am a little behind? You can see more on my Two peas in a bucket gallery

Want a Peek??

My embryo transfer went off without a hitch. We transferred 2 Grade 1 (A) 6 cell embies this morning. It was so exciting.. we got to watch the procedure on Ultrasound. and saw one of the embies in there!. Another thing that was "cute" (as John said) was they wheeled the Embryos into the room in a incubator like you see in NICU. They did that because the entire process in temperature regulated. They gave us a picture of the little ones that was taken an hour or so before the transfer. Here is our baby(ies) first portrait.

Now the 2 week wait begins! I go back for a pregnancy test two weeks from today. Thanks for looking and following our journey!

Pass or Fail?

My Embie stats as of today are:

* 2 embies are GRADE A (or 1) 4 cell - PERFECT

* 1 embie is GRADE C (or 3)

* 1 embie is GRADE D (or 4)

Tomorrow they will be transferring the 2 highest quality embies back into my uterus. The quality of all of them could change by morning so we will have a better idea by then.

Then we wait.... 2 weeks to find out if we are Prego. I am so excited I can barely stand it!

Did they make it?

John and I have literally been a nervous wreck ALL MORNING waiting for the Dr. office to call with how many of our 4 eggs fertilized. we got the call at 11:45am. The news was PERFECT. We had 100% fertilization!!!!! 4 little fertilized eggs!

Tomorrow we will wait for another call to see how many survived the cell division stage. they will also tell us what day transfer will be (they will be transferring the 2 best quality ones). It will probably be Tuesday just because of the low number of eggs that were retrieved.
Looks like everyone's thoughts and prayers are working! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Four is a lonely number

Okay so the procedure was fine... I was home by 10:30am. I ate breakfast and was in bed by 11:30am. I woke up at 3pm.... boy was I groggy from the anesthesia and pain meds. I would say the pain level was probably a 5 out of 10.

The good news is that I had eggs.. the bad news only 4! That is a really low number. I keep trying to remember that it only takes 1, but boy our odds have gone down tremendously. I will be waiting impatiently for the call tomorrow to see how many eggs actually fertilized. We are thinking positively and know that what ever happens is what is supposed to happen.... But I have to say it is really tough when you want something so bad!

All the wonderful details!!

I feel like my life has been revolved around trying to have a baby for almost 3 years.. it has been a long journey. John and I have been doing such a great job at remaining positive and not letting this adversity interfere with the joys of our everyday life or our wonderful daughter Sarah.


We got the call... My stats were as follows:
*Estrogen:1525
*Follicles: 25,22,19,13,13,13,12,12,12,11

WE ARE READY!!! What does that mean you ask? Last night at 8:10pm John gave me my HCG trigger shot, which will get my body ready to ovulate (which is one with the BIG NEEDLE in the muscle in my hip). We were both a nervous wreck! John did such a great job that I did not feel a thing!!! Seriously, I could not believe it. My muscle is a little sore today but no biggie - Phew - that part is over

Saturday we have to be at the Surgery Center at 7:10am. My procedure will be at 8:10am (exactly 36 hours after my HCG shot). I will be under anaesthesia while they aspirate my eggs out of my follicles. Yes with a needle and YES through my girl parts (as we like to call them!). Then John does his "Business" and they put my eggs and his sperm in a dish and hope for the best :). They will tell us how many eggs they retrieved before we leave. That day I need to rest. Here is a picture of the procedure (the blue thing is the ultrasound probe so they can see what they are doing):


Sunday: The Dr. office will call and tell us how many eggs fertilized.


Monday: They will call and tell us the Quality of the fertilized eggs and also tell us if we will have a 3 or 5 day embryo transfer


Tuesday OR Thursday: Embryo Transfer is a piece of cake. I am catheterized through my cervix and they place the embryos in my uterus. It is up to those little babies to implant in my uterus on their own. No anesthesia is required and I will take just a minute or so. I will also need to rest all day. Then we WAIT for 2 weeks to find out if I am Prego.

SO, please say your prayers, do the baby dance... send some baby dust or whatever you think will help us in this fantastic journey that we are about to embark on.

Quick little update

Time for Preschool

Sarah Starts preschool tomorrow. She is excited. She has been asking me for a year when she was going to school.. I just kept saying August.. Every day she would say "Is tomorrow August".. I can't believe that is IS August... really? Where in the world did the year go.

Stats from Dr appt today:

Estrogen Level 1000

Follicles: 19, 18, 17, 13, 13, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11

Meds again tonight.. Dr again in the morning (do you realize that I have to leave my house at 6:20am every time I have to go to the Dr.)

Look like I will PROBABLY take my trigger shot tomorrow night and have my eggs aspirated on Saturday. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! So exciting!

Say your prayers for us!

Getting closer

I went to the Dr. yesterday AND today.... I am starting to actually be optimistic about all of this. Today My estrogen was 856 and my follicles that matter are at 19,17,15,13,13 mm. They said i am "almost there". I took more meds tonight and I go back in the morning. I am getting nervous and excited. Finally I feel like this is REALLY going to happen. Up to this point I kept thinking they were going to call me and cancel my cycle. So.. YEA!

Sarah and I did some scrapbook pages today. She was so cute, I should scan her pages and post them.... she was so proud!

Journaling reads: When you woke up on Easter morning and walked out of your room, you started jumping up and down and screaming "Look, the Easter Bunny left me a jellybean trail!" Grabbing an empty basket, collecting the jellybeans and following the path down the steps seemed to be the best part of your morning. The path started at your bedroom door and continued all the way down the steps to your Easter basket. It took you 45 minutes to make it to the anticipated basket and only 3 minutes to discover what was in it

Come on follicles.... you can do it!

I've had 2 more Dr. Appt since my last post - today being the most recent. Well..... It isn't dead in the water yet. I had 3 follicles at 13mm and 1 at 14mm. plus 5 other tiny ones. My estrogen was 226. So things are progressing at a friggin SNAILS pace. I will be on the same meds for the next 2 nights, then I will go back on Monday morning. Anyways... we will see. I am NOT a good waiter so this is eating me alive.
My friend Deanna sent me this quote and I REALLY need to keep focused:
"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." -- Thomas Jefferson
Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers during all of this madness!!

Just one of those days

Today was ONE BAD DAY! Sarah lost ALL of her privileges by 9:45am... the day just got worse from there!

I had a DR. appt for an Ultrasound and bloodowork this morning. I had 10 follicles, one measuring a 13mm, endometrium was 8. Sounds good, right... Well the ART Nurse called me this afternoon to tell me my Estrogen level was only 39 (should be at least 200 at this point). UGG. My Menapor and Gonal-F (Ovary stimulation meds) were both increased. I go back on Thurs morning for another Ultrasound and Estrogen level check.

And you know what, I have the BEST husband. He is so supportive and sweet. He never gets upset with me when I am having "One of those days" (like today). I am one lucky girl!

I am praying, thinking positive and really trying to take things one step at a time and one day at a time. Tomorrow I will be saying this:

IVF Stimulation day #1 plus some Scrapping

IVF UPDATE:

I had my Baseline appointment with my RE this morning to get an ultrasound and bloodwork. I got the call and everything looks good! I start my ovary stimulation medicine tonight. I will take 3 different shots (Lupron, Menopur and Gonal-F) every night for 5 nights. Then on Tuesday I go back for more bloodowork and another ultrasound to see how my follicles are coming along, they will adjust my meds accordingly… from there we take it day by day. If my body responds appropriately, I should have my eggs aspirated around the 18th and then have the embryo transfer 3-5 days after that. Then the 2 week wait begins to find out if I am Prego.

ON A SCRAP NOTE:

I finished a fun page of Sarah and her cousin Emma at a MOTG Pirate party that a friend Deanna had in January. I found the cutest pirate paper from DCWV . The page turned out cute. Now if I could only master the art of taking pictures of my pages