bump #63: eggs over easy

First of all, THANK YOU!!! Thank you for all the prayers, encouragement, and well wishes you have been sending my way. It is making a huge difference and I am so grateful for all the love! Every doubt and worry is washed away, and it may be the anesthesia still in my system, but I am on cloud 9. 

Our egg retrieval was this morning and it was a piece of cake, or a platter of donuts, as you'll see later.

I went to bed early last night... mostly because I didn't want to eat anything past dinner at 7 and I had nothing else to stay awake for :)  I woke up super excited to get these follicles out and get what's left of my waistline back. I quickly learned that they don't actually take the follicles out; they drain them to obtain the egg and then they fill up with water again leaving me still bloated. Que sera. At least I'll have great bump photos from day 1... "Here I am 3 days pregnant and already wearing maternity clothes!" Awesome. Anyway, we arrived at San Diego Fertility Center at 7:30, filled out final paperwork, took vitals, prepped for surgery, and I was wheeled off at 8:30. Everything was done and we were on our way home by 9:30. I took a zofran pill before the anesthesia and experienced no nausea at all. I woke up feeling like a million bucks. But I looked like this...

I'm quite the fashion plate in this hospital gown get up. It's a wonder Andrew could resist me. Honestly, after putting the hair cap on I burst into a round of "I'm so fancy, you don't even know." Keepin' it classy.

Driving in traffic to SDFC
I'm all smiles at 6:30 am, Andrew is still waking up :)

Our RE, Dr. Kettel, was amazing. I'm sure he especially appreciated me asking if he brought me kettle corn from the Del Mar Fair up the road. #whatdoyouexpectwithanamelikekettel? I was just proud of my restraint in not calling the kettel black.  I like to keep my racist rants to a minimum. At least I made one new friend today... Dr. Lozano, the anesthesiologist. He's my favorite. 

This was our latest ultrasound from Saturday morning. 

Saturday night was the ovidrel injection and with that all the shots are over! Hallelujah! 

 They extracted all 15 follicles, but only 9 of them had eggs. Of those nine, 6 look mature for fertilization.

Today is ICSI and tomorrow they will let us know how many embryos we have. Wednesday is "decision day" where they let us know if our embryo transfer will be on Thursday (3 day transfer) or Saturday (5 day transfer). Here is a break down of what is supposed to be happening each day...

I felt so great after the retrieval that I immediately filled out the patient feedback forms with a glowing review, watched all 4 hours of the Today show, caught up on all my favorite blogs, and sent Andrew on an errand for my favorite donuts after reading about Gourdoughs donuts at Allison's blog.

The retrieval was great and we're hoping our transfer goes just as well. Super excited that my mom will be here for the transfer! I can't believe it's all finally happening! Now back to my donuts!


UPDATE: The doctor just called to let me know that we have 7 fertilized eggs. Yay! Lucky #7 and next week 7-7 is our 7 year anniversary. Perfect!

bump #62: hit me with your best shot

And so it begins...

Am I the only one who finds it odd that our pharmacy doubles as a liquor store? Maybe the alcohol makes it easier, you know a round of shots before your actual round of shots :)

Here's the obligatory shot of "the goods." No pun intended. Andrew and I pick a different "shots" themed song to hum while he does the injections each evening.

Bon Jovi: "Shot to the heart and you're to blame, darlin' you give love a bad name."

Pat Benatar: "Hit me with your best shot."

LMFAO: "Shots, shots, shots."

Bob Marley: "I shot the sheriff."

I gotta say, so far these shots are nothing. The Menopur one stings a bit, but I've been working hard on my muffin top for a few years now and that extra layer of padding has come in handy. I hardly feel a thing! Thanks ice cream and candy bars!

bump #61: IVF + and -

One month until IVF retrieval and transfer!
2 weeks until all those dreaded daily injections.

6 weeks until we know if it worked.

Cue the time machine!

I have never felt so close or so far from my dream of being a mom.  I've also been in this really weird head space where everything feels like life or death. I think it's because it will either work or it won't; positive or negative, 50/50. I'm super on edge and hyper sensitive. I've been on birth control pills for 5 weeks so there may be some hormonal correlation :) This is it! This is our greatest chance at finally starting our family, but it isn't the way I wanted it to happen at all. Obviously I am beyond grateful for technology and that this is even an option for us, but I'm also mourning the loss of a "natural" pregnancy. Even if this protocol works, it hasn't solved the problem. It has just created a loophole the size of a petri dish. Are jokes about petri dishes offensive to IVFers? Oh well, I'm one of them now. 

Maybe infertility isn't a problem to solve and I need to just get over it, but it's still frustrating!

Amidst the frustration, I've created a mental list of pros and cons of IVF. Most of the cons are fleeting (a big 'ol pile of debt, anesthesia, extra discomfort from meds, potential complications, a million doctors appointments). But really, that's nothing. The pros win out every time because the pros are forever.