A New Start

     Dr. Awadalla called Friday afternoon and gave us a pep talk: how rare it is to get pregnant on the first IVF try, how everything looks good and how he feels that we will be successful on another try. He told us to think about it over the weekend and to call the office when we were ready to try again.
 I called this morning and we started the process again. I was prescribed Estradiol pills, which I will take three times a day until the pregnancy test. I will have bloodwork and an ultrasound on April 6th, and if all goes well, I will have a 'frozen cycle transfer' (the embryos will be thawed out and then transferred as they were last time) on April 12th.

Loss

 Ater having very strong cramping all day yesterday (which the fertility nurse said could be totally normal), I awoke at 530am to discover that I was bleeding. I called a very sleepy Dr. Awadalla and he said to come in for a bloodtest today. John stayed home from work to go with me.
  We dropped Ryan off at school and arranged for Granddad to pick him up after school was over. They had a great time-- McDonald's for lunch, and then Ryan got a new squishy toy at Walmart. :)
   We talked to the nurse around 430pm and she said that the pregnancy test was negative. Based on the lab results, it appears that the embryos did not even implant at all. While we were not suprised by the results (I've been bleeding heavily all day now), it was still very sad news. We really had high hopes for these little embryos, and had looked forward to meeting the babies they would have become.

Cool video

  Nothing really new to report. Feeling really energetic, which I attribute to my prenatal vitamins and the beautiful sunny day!
 I did find an awesome video showing the stages of development from fertilization to birth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoisqOGQIVE&feature=player_embedde

Embryo Update

Well, either we heard wrong yesterday or some of the embryos split, because when the nurse called today she said we have SIX embryos to be frozen! I'm feeling very overwhelmed at the thought of so many potential children in those test tubes. But I'm very grateful that we had such a successful egg retrieval this time.
 I'm feeling good today, just a little sore from the hyperstimulated ovaries but otherwise fine.

  I added the Lilypie ticker to the top of the blog, but it seems a little misleading. Although we've been trying the fertility-treatment route for a month, we actually been trying to conceive (TTC) for a few years now. But I decided to use the start date for the Lupron as our TTC start date just to make things simpler.

Embryos Transferred!

  Today was Embryo Transfer Day! There were six embryos today, and the two 'best' ones were transferred. The remaining embryos were not as developed as the others, but the lab will continue to watch them and give us an update tomorrow.
  First, John and I had to change into surgical scrubs (for him; gown for me), foot covers, and hair covers. Of course I took pictures:

The transfer itself involved me lying on the exam table, in stirrups, while the nurse held an ultrasound wand on my abdomen. The doctor was given the two embryos in a syringe with a long, flexible catheter. He guided it into the uterus through the cervix, and we were able to watch the whole thing on the ultrasound monitor. The whole process was uncomfortable at times but not painful. And seeing the two little embryos deposited into the womb was so cool!

The embryos are the whitish blobs in the center, slightly to the left.

 We were left in the room for awhile so I could lie flat before we were discharged. We started to get slap-happy with the camera:

Holding the now-empty dish that the embryos were in

Me holding the printout with a picture of our two little beans. Aren't they cute?

Things just really degraded from there..LOL..

 The only update I have today is that our appointment tomorrow will be at 10:30am instead of 8:30am. But I did find some pictures on the IRH website that shows the egg-retrieval equipment:
http://www.cincinnatifertility.com/infertility-treatment/in-vitro-fertilization/in-vitro-photos

   We got a call at 6:20am this morning from the fertility clinic lab, telling us that our embryo transfer would be Tuesday morning instead of today. We have eight embryos that are going to blast stage! The docs wanted to give them a little more time to grow and 'cook' before they were transferred. This is actually a good thing, since it means we have time to let them mature a little more (if they didn't look this good, they would have transferred them today to give them the best chance of taking. "Good" is a relative term, though, since I clearly recall Dr. Awadalla telling me last time around that the two embryos we were transferring were 'not the best' he'd seen; one of those turned out to be Ryan!)
 The progesterone suppositories that I'm taking three times a day are certainly doing their job to prepare the uterus for pregnancy. I feel like I'm already pregnant! My breasts are so tender that my clothes and the water in the shower hurts them, and I just feel like I'm in a nesting mode.

Thirteen Embryos!

We have thirteen embryos! Of the nineteen eggs that were collected yesterday, sixteen were able to go to ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection, where the sperm is injected directly into the egg). Thirteen of those fertilized and now we have thirteen little embryos cooking in a dish!
 I started on the Prometrium vaginal suppositories this morning, and I will take them three times a day until further notice. These will help prepare the uterine lining for implantation.
 The IVF office will call us at 7am on Sunday. We are tentatively scheduled for an 8:30am appointment for the embryo transfer. If there are still several embryos left at that stage, they may want to wait until Tuesday for the insertion,  to allow the embryos to grow to the blastocyst stage.

Egg Retrieval Day!

  Today I had my egg retrieval. I was prescribed a Valium to take at 715am, and our appt was a 745am. By the time we got to the office, I had already fallen asleep! They got me set up with an IV, gown, booties and hair net (and I forgot my camera!) and the nurse gave me Versed, which is what is called a 'twilight sedation' drug (you are not quite out but not quite awake, either. It also has an amnesiac effect.) I remember moving to a bed in the OR, having my legs put up in stirrups and feeling a clamping feeling. The next thing that I remember was waking up in the recovery room, where I slept for awhile. I was given some crackers and Coke, my IV was removed and we were sent home. (John had given his sample while I was in surgery.)
  The final tally: nineteen eggs! Dr. Scheiber, who did our procedure, said it was an 'above average' number. Woot! I feel like we aced a test! (We had TWENTY-NINE last time, though! I'm slipping. :-) We will get a phone call tomorrow to hear how our eggs-and-sperm are doing. The embryo(s) that are (hopefully) created will be inserted on either Sunday or Tuesday, depending on how things look in the lab over the next 24 hours.
     I'm extremely sore tonight, much more so than last time. I slept most of the day and when I got up, I was suprised by how stiff I feel. The nurse told me to take extra strength Tylenol for pain, and it does help a little, but I miss being able to take my Advil tonight!

  Thursday is the day! I went for my appt today at the West Chester office. I took Ryan with me, and when Dr. Scheiber saw him, he said 'Didn't I put him back in (as an embryo)? I aimed good,didn't I?" :0)
Tonight I take my one dose of Ovidrel at 9pm, then we have to be at the IRH office at 745am. We're making progress!

     Things continue to go well. I had another office visit today for bloodwork and an ultrasound. Dr. Awadalla said that he saw nine 'great-looking' egg follicles! I am to continue the Follistim shots at the 225 unit dose for the next four days, then return for another visit on Saturday. If everything goes according to plan, I may be ready for the egg harvesting next Tuesday! (I also need to set up the school for the carnival Tuesday evening....this may take some creative planning.)  :-)