Baseline Ultrasound and Bloodwork

I went in this morning at 7:30am for a baseline ultrasound and bloodwork. My ultrasound went perfectly! My lining was thin which they want it thin right now and I am showing around 20 follicles on each ovary so a lot of possibilities for eggs and precious embryos! My estrogen level was at 27! Which means the down-regulation IVF cycle has gone great! They wanted my estrogen level to be below 60.

Friday, September 3, Robbie and I both start Doxycycline 2x a day for 7 days. This is for the ICSI IVF procedure. Also on Friday I start my Gonal-F! Yay for stimulating my ovaries! On Friday and Saturday I do 225 units and Sunday I do 150 units. On Friday I also decrease my Lupron to 5 units. Monday (Labor Day!) I go in for bloodwork only at 8am with instructions to follow for the next few days after that! I am sooooooo excited and feel incredibly blessed! Robbie and I are thrilled to be starting the retrieval cycle of IVF Friday!!!!

Hormones...

So starting yesterday I think these hormone shots have definitely kicked in! Poor Robbie, and Ryder too... I really try hard to not take my emotions out on Ryder, but poor Rob! I feel like he has gotten his head bitten off several times! It is crazy because I know I am acting mean sometimes, but it seriously is either uncontrollable or I simply just don't seem to care?! Not sure.. maybe a combination of both?!
Tonight was day 7 of Lupron shots.. and I am noticing some bruising now. Doesn't bother me at all though! I will be more than happy to have a bruised stomach for a precious miracle baby!
So, some people think I am crazy, but I absolutely LOVE being pregnant. I had a relatively easy pregnancy. I was not sick or anything like that. Blood pressure problems were definitely not what I would call "fun" but it was tolerable and I never complained!
Having gone through the hormones with pregnancy and starting IVF, I have to say.. IVF is making me much more hormonal! I don't mind it at all though. I think it is harder on my body because it is not a natural thing. Pregnancy, to me, is completely natural and your body just adjusts with the hormones naturally. These injections are "fake" hormones in a sense causing my body to do things in an "unnatural" way. To me, making this process harder on my body and my emotions can pregnancy ever was. I LOVE every minute of it though and feel so blessed! No complaining coming from me! =)

Trial Transfer, Lupron, Birth Control...

There is alot I want to discuss in this post! Mainly for me to look back and read. I want to remember everything I possibly can about this unique and incredible experience!


I went in yesterday morning at 11am for my Trial Transfer! It went really well. Dr. Ke said I seemed very nervous... And I am! Especially since just minutes before we had paid a whole lot of money! I am also extremely excited! This is the most amazing thing to get to experience! While infertility is definitely not something I would ever want anyone to have to face, I am so blessed to be able to go through with this IVF procedure. I cannot wait to see God's plan for our life unfold! Tonight is my last night of birth control pills. It has been 3 weeks since we started our down regulation cycle and in just 3 more weeks we will be doing the egg retrieval and embryo transfer! It is really going by fast and I cannot believe it! Well, for those of you who do not know about a trial transfer.. let me explain! The trial transfer is a "practice run" for the embryo transfer. An empty transfer catheter is passed into the uterus just as it is when my embryos are ready to be returned to me. It allows the doctor to prepare for my transfer in order to increase chances of a successful outcome. In my case, everything went smoothly and there was not any unique instructions. Everything has just fallen into place! I can truely see God's hand in this and it makes me feel very much at peace!

The Lupron injections are going very well! So far no major side effects. Just a few headaches, but I am thinking that is mainly from the birth control pills. I have felt completely great! For those of you who do not really know what Lupron is or what it does to my body... It down-regulates ("shuts down" or "suppresses") the hypothalamic-pituitary control centers of the brain to prevent premature ovulation (release of oocytes). I give myself these injections in my stomach every night until the egg retrival. Right now they are taken alone, but around September 2nd, I will be adding another shot in my stomach along with Lupron. This shot will be my stimulation drug called Gonal-F. Next Tuesday morning (August 31) I go in at 7:30am for an ultrasound and blood work. This will be my initial blood work and ultrasound since I started the cycle 3 weeks ago.

Please continue to lift Robbie, Ryder, and myself up in prayer. We greatly appreciate all the prayers! God is SO great! Robbie and I had been richly blessed so far throughout this experience! Lord Willing in about 6 weeks we will know if we have a precious miracle on the way!

Lupron!

Well, I started my Lupron shot tonight! It was not bad at all. I am doing 10units right now every night! I am sure eventually my stomach will be sore, but the shot is very similar to the Follistim shots I took last year! I am so glad to finally have one shot down! This is flying by!

Injection Teaching

Robbie and I had our injection teaching yesterday! We also went over our whole IVF protocol. I did not have to give myself a shot during the teaching session yesterday because I have already done shots on myself before. Robbie did give me a shot in my booty though! It was not that bad at all. I just hope I can remember which needles go with which medication and what dose of each medication I am supposed to take... ALOT of things to remember! I start the Lupron shots Sunday night! Lord willing in about 5 weeks we will know if we are expecting a precious miracle! Please continue to pray for us and our journey! Keep checking back for more updates.

My medicine!

My medicine arrived FedEX this morning from Freedom Fertility Pharmacy! Robbie and I have injection teaching Thursday, which I am scared to death about. But it will be okay. I start Lupron injections Sunday! And in about 2 weeks I will start the gonadotrophin injections followed by Progesterone in ethyl oleate! I am getting nervous, but so peaceful about this and excited all at the same time! For my own personal record.. This batch of medicine costs us $168.78. Not bad... considering I got the Gonal-F and Ovidrel for free! We got accepted for a Compassionate Care program through our IVF clinic that allowed us to get one round of IVF gonadotrophin medication for no cost! That is amazing! 300IU of Gonal-F runs around 400... And I Have 2700IU... so you are talking thousands that we save! God is so GREAT and we are amazed at how His presence has definitely been in this entire process the whole way through. I cannot wait to see what the rest of our journey entails and what the Lord has in store for our family! We are so gracious and blessed to be able to be going through with this process!

Let's Get Started!

So today I started my cycle (2 days later than I originally thought I would start, but it does not really mess with my scheduling really at all).

Here is my timeline of scheduled events to take place over the next month or so!

Monday, August 2 ~ Started my cycle
Wednesday, August 4 ~ Start Birth Control Pills (for 21 days)
Thursday, August 19 ~ Injection Teaching and Consent forms due. Also, payment is due. 3pm
Sunday, August 22 ~ Start Lupron
Monday, August 23 ~ Trial Transfer at 11am
Tuesday, August 24 ~ Take last Birth Control Pill
Wednesday, August 25 ~ Pap Smear
Tuesday, August 31 ~ Blood work and Baseline ultrasound at 7:30am
Friday or Saturday, September 3 or 4 ~ Start ovulation injection meds
Week of September 13 ~ Egg retrieval

PLEASE continue to pray for us as we are now officially starting the process! We are so excited and cannot wait to see our journey unfold before us in the next few months!