Another one down

One of the nine developed an abnormality, so it's out. The other 8 are doing well. One of them is at 10 cells. Little over achiever...takes after mama.

We are looking at Tuesday for the transfer and we won't be called tomorrow. So by then they will know which two are best bets. I think the rest are frozen or something. Honestly I don't recall from the class we took.

With any luck we won't need any more than the two we use.

The wait from Nov. 2nd to Nov. 11th is going to be murder!

8 good to go, 1 over achiever

By this time, the eggs should be divided into 2-4 cells.

We have 8 at that point, 1 is at 6 cells.  Implantation is pretty much going to be Nov. 2nd @ 1pm.

After that, Mo will need to be on her back resting for 24 hours.

she will rest. If I have to strap her down, she will rest.

6 maybe 9

We got a call from the clinic today.

Well, one egg did not survive retrieval. :(
Two were fertilized by more than one sperm, they don't use those.
Three may or may not be fertilized. Not sure yet.
But 6 are doing good.

So we are still doing well. Implantation is looking more and more like Nov. 2nd.

A dozen eggs

In an act of outrageous coincidence, the doctor got 12 eggs. That's the upper end of average...and very cool.

Mo recovered well and is doing fine now. We are both a bit tired, but not entirely because of the procedure.

The rough part of the day was actually a few minutes ago. Mo needs to take progesterone shots from now until they tell her to stop (prolly well into the the first trimester). Since this is an intramuscular injection (as opposed to the subcutaneous injections up till now) the shot has to go into her rear. Since she can't really twist around and do that herself, I get to do it.

I hate needles. I really freaking hate them. So I got a crash course in giving the shot.

I screwed up the first one by going in slow and pulling out when she flinched. I (thankfully) got it on the next try. Neither of us enjoyed that experience, but it is one we will need to get used to over the next few months.

As far as the time line: Implantation will (probably) be either Monday or Tuesday (Nov. 1st or 2nd). The blood test to check for pregnancy will be Nov. 11th.

Thursday it is

Low and behold! The doctors are pleased with the results. Mo is down to just the one shot and back on antibiotics. We will do retrieval on Thursday!

She will go in for the procedure at 7am. They said we should be out of there by 9am. That is in hospital time. In real life time that means we will get out of there around 10am if we are very lucky.

Not entirely sure when implantation will be. Maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday. We will know soon.

It's finally happening and I am excited, nervous, scared, anxious, and thrilled out of my mind.

Okay...one more?

Today we did the third ultrasound and blood test. This was the last one pre-scheduled. Sadly, it won't be the last. The thingies (folicies or something) are supposed to be about 16mm now, they are just under that (like 15.5 to 15.9). So mo will do another round of injections tonight and another ultrasound and blood draw tomorrow morning.

Depending on how that turns out will determine if we do retrieval on Thursday or Friday. Then, depending on how well that goes, we will know when implantation can be. If everything goes well, by this time next week Mo will be pregnant.

We won't know if she is for a couple weeks or so after that, and we won't know if it is single or twins for some time after that.

So the waiting is murder, but things are not going badly, just cautiously.

9 to 10mm

We just got home from the first of 3 ultrasounds and blood checks. It is basically the same as the suppression check, they just look for different stuff.

Mo's ovaries are doing well. The follicies...or whatever they are called are about 9-10mm across. Which is good. Mo hasn't experienced any of the weird crazy side effects, even her mood is stable. This is all good news, and it means we don't need to be more aggressive with the medication and she is down one injection. That's just fantastic.

We have another ultrasound and blood check on Saturday. I won't be able to go to that one because of some testing that needs to get done. Not too thrilled about that. She will turn in a bunch of paperwork for the retrieval and transfer that morning.

So by this day next week, Lord willing, retrieval will be done and we will be eagerly looking forward to implantation.

Just a little more...

First, sorry about the double posts. Also, Facebook is being a jerk about importing blogs, soooo I'm just going to use bloggers "share" button. It's easier and Facebook craziness doesn't get in the way.

Mo started the multiple shots per day. What a mess that is. She has to combine several powders with some solution to make the shot. I know that sounds easy, but you have to do it with these little things that screw onto the syringe and poke into some little vials. It's a hassle. Then after she does all that, then she gets to do the shot. One in the morning, one at night.

But! Thursday is the Ultrasound and blood check. Retrieval will be about a week after that. So we are down to the lest couple weeks before implantation. We try to not look at the calendar. Well, I do anyway. It kinda gets in your head though.

Another thing that helps is being insanely busy. Work is going to be rough this week. I only work 2.5 days. (Fall Break, woohoo). But those days are going to be tough. Tomorrow I drive to Grove, 3 hours there, 3 hours back. I'm sure my mind won't drift to IVF thoughts.

It's everywhere!

I swear, I can't go 2 days without talking to someone whose gone through IVF.

I'm a jerk, I'm not trying to be with this statement though.
If you haven't gone through IVF, it is very difficult to understand how invasive it is. It overshadows everything. Sometimes it is all you can think about. The number of injections is insane. I have no idea how Mo copes. I really don't. I'm in this with her and I don't get it.

So the other day I had a mole removed (yes mom, the ugly one on my waist line). If I knew it was that easy to deal with, I'd have done it years ago. 90 seconds and a couple hundred bucks (before insurance).

Not the point.

Turns out the dermatologist went through IVF 2 years ago, now has a daughter. The parent of a client we tested today is in round 3 of IVF. My heart bled for her. But it is nice to talk to these women and get their experiences and share our own. They talk and all I can think is "That is totally how I feel". It's very connecting or something.

Late next week we start the 48 hour ultrasounds (which are totally horrid) and blood checks (which are surprisingly not horrid). The week after that will be retrieval and implantation. We are almost there!

copping a daditude

I heard the best word from one of the students the other day.

"Daditude"

I loved it and immediately decided to make a blog about becoming a dad, and how that goes. No telling how long this blog will last...with luck most of my kids lives.

Right now, I don't even have kids.

Mo and I went to the fertility clinic yesterday for her suppression check. Good news! Her ovaries are good and shut down. She starts more injections on Monday. That Monday will be the end of week 5. So we are on track for retrieval on Oct. 27th. Implantation will be around Halloween.

We are both excited. We are still praying for twins (boy and girl). I will be happy with alive and reasonably healthy. Honestly, somewhat unhealthy only bothers me a little. But hey, God has the power to give whatever he wants, so I'm going to ask for whatever I want. Not asking just seems insulting.