Moving right along.

That beotch AF came around ON MY BIRTHDAY. fresh. But hey silver lining,  started the process of making a baby on my birthday? Started my birth control. Still weird that I have to take BCPs to have a baby, but such is the process.
Appointment updates  - monday physical fingers, toes etc crossed that my weigh in goes ok. Then wednesday I have a Hysteroscopy in Lexington. After I get that done they will put in to the insurance to order meds and start a cycle. I have to call them on the 30th to see if it has been approved. Then hopefully I would have a suppression check on July 6th and start stimming meds that night. Then about 10 days of those meds and I am ready for and egg retrieval (ER) followed by a 3 day transfer(3dt) (3 days after ER).

So here we go!! Now just to survive the last week of school!!!!

The waiting game (one of many)

Kind of a random post

One day 7 of Provera, IVF nurse said AF (infertility lingo for period) should be here around day 5...WTF body, the ONE time I actually want that bitch to show she's no where to be found? Nonsense.
As soon as I get it, I need to do 7am CD3 BW, so if I get AF on wednesday or thursday then I will need to travel to Lexington to have blood drawn. Saturday is my birthday, that's not really where I wanted to spend my whole morning, but such is the life of an infertile! And sometime after that I will have my HSC Oh all while winding down the end of the school year, moving my classroom, and changing grades. WOO!

In other news, I have lost 13.6lbs so far, I would love to lose another 5 before my physical on the 22nd. That way I get to hear less from that jerkface RE.

OH this is important!
I saw my OBGYN (who invented PAPs anyways??? blek.) He is the one who we were seeing with Josh & Zoe (he came to the hospital on his day off after I delivered to make sure I was "ok"). I love him, the office staff and the general feel of the practice. I know they actually care about me. He said "we will see you in a few months when you're pg!!" And I said wait wait wait no I have to go into Boston for my MFM. So we got to chatting....They are 15-20 min from my school and 15 min from my house. They are directly across from my delivering hospital, which has a stage 3 NICU.
OB said that I could tell him what I needed as far as ultrasounds and appointments were concerned and we would do exactly the same protocol as with Colin, which is an ultrasound to check cervical length ever other week from week 14-26. He said I dictate my care, what I say goes ( I mean clearly within reason). Also, this will make my delivery so much easier. Last time we were in Boston for 5 days, then Colin was in the NICU for 8. 
Traveling back and forth was so terrible and I felt like we didnt spend as much time as we could have there with him. (usually 14-16 hours, still didnt feel like enough). Everything will be harder with Colin at home, making all those trips aren't easy anymore, its not just Bill and I. On the other hand my MFM specializes in TAC pregnancies but is 2 hours away and appointments take at least 2 hours (at best). I feel very bad, like I'm saying I dont care as much about #2's care, but really I'm trying to reduce my own stress for the pregnancy and I have more knowledge now on how things "should" go. I also know that if problems start to arise, then I can always go back to Boston to see my MFM. This was a super hard decision for us to make, and as usual it can change at any moment.

So for now....we wait.

Weeee'rrreeee BBBaaaccckkkk!!!!!

I know I have some new followers, so I'm going to take this cycle really slow and do my best to explain everything.
So update on me ---
RE wasn't a giant asshole today! So that's a win. He said Colin was adorable, which I think is required for him to say...but since he is in the business of making babies it felt like a compliment? But I digress...
We worked backwards, and determined some dates. We need to not be pregnant before Aug 1st in order to be eligible for short term disability when I am on maternity leave (semantics...).

We will start provera (a drug that brings on a period) tomorrow (unless BW [blood work] showed I ovulated recently, HA). 12 Days of provera, then CD3 (cycle day) BW, and a hysteroscopy (camera inserted into my uterus) Below is the pic I snapped of one from last time...

Then 2 or 3 weeks of BCPs (birth control pills) then a suppression check (this determines that my hormones are in check and that we have control over them, it ensures my body isn't ovulating on its own). Then I will be starting stims (2-4 injections into my stomach a night in order to make my ovaries hyper stimulate, grow large quantities(15+) of eggs) on July 10th -ish. Followed by a retrieval of the eggs 10ish days later, and a transfer of embryos 3 days after that. And a beta (blood pregnancy test) Aug 4th -ish. I need to have a PAP and a physical before my suppression check (scheduled for Thursday and the 22nd).
So They took 9 viles of blood and a urine sample today. That was so fun, but YAY they got a vein in my arm instead of my hand!
We had the # of embryos discussion, turns out my insurance only covers the transfer of one embryo in women under 35, with 8 cells or more at an A or B grade. (Josh and Zoe were 7 and 9 cells with B grade, Colin was an 8 cell B). So while it makes me nervous, its sort of "nice" that it take the decision out of our hands.
So thats where we are at. As always ask any questions! 
And for your viewing pleasure... My goober! Colin!

Update, getting closer!

After blood work today estradiol came in at 1083 and luckily the ganarelix helped my LH drop back down, so it was .7 which is good because if it gets too high it could cause me to ovulate. We dont want that yet. I let the phlebotomist try to draw from my arm today instead of my hand. That was kind of nice because it hurts way bad to get it from your hand, but she did really well! Then ganarelix as soon as I got home again.

The nurse dropped my Follistim to 250 and added menopur 75iu. So if you are keeping count that would be a total of 4 needles that I have had stuck in myself today. One by a nurse and 3 by myself. great. Tomorrow I go in AGAIN for Blood work and an ultrasound, luckily they just opened a practice in Westboro, so I don't have to drive all the way to Lexington! woo! fx for an ER on monday maybe!

Monitoring!

Today I went in for BW and U/S (Blood work and ultrasound)

The u/s tech said my lining was 10mm and a triple stripe, which come to find out is very good (I never had lining issues so I wasnt as knowledgeable about this area of fertility)
Turns out I have 5 12mm follies on the right 3 14mm and one 12mm on the left, and a bunch of 10s and 11s. I need them all to be around 20mm. My estradiol was 1449 and my LH was 9, because my LH level was creeping upwards I had to give myself my Ganarelix shot in the car on the way to Wrentham outlets. It wouldnt go through my skin, it was SO gross. So I gave myself another 300IU of the follistim and tomorrow I will have more BW in the morning, but not another u/s. And another ganarelix shot right after the BW.

This is follistim, I have been doing 300iu a night for 7 nights.

This is the ganarelix, the needle is a tad thicker than the follistim, which could have been my injection issue.

Thats all for now I suppose, I didn't get the vera baby bag we went to the outlet for :( they didnt have it yet, maybe I'll just end up paying full price. Boo. But its just so cute!!

IVF Numero 3

I was suppose to have my third IVF cycle at the end of June beginning of July. But health insurance is dumb and said my BMI was not good enough. So I hopped on the treadmill, and had to change insurances, since I lost my job (thats a whole other story) and lost some weight and was able to start at the end of July.

We are using the Antagonist protocol again.

 

But with new insurance comes new meds. Insurance was giving us crap about the meds, they approved IVF but not the meds (at first), not really sure how much sense that makes, but I tend to not ask questions about the thought process of an insurance agency b/c they are ALL a mess. 

This time I have Follistim, Ganarelix, crinone, novarel trigger, menopur and estrogen patches.

The crazy thing is , I started stims on July 26th. It is the SAME day just a year later that I started stims for Josh and Zoe's cycle. This time I started with 300IU of Follistim, I am on day 6 unsuppressed tomorrow I go in for monitoring again. On Tuesday my Estrodiol was already in the 400s so I'm hoping this will maybe go a tad quicker this time, and maybe we will get some more eggs!

I'll update tomorrow if I get any fun information!!  

Fingers crossed and saying prayers that this is successful, I pray everyday that God will bless me with twins again. 

I'm bad at this...TAC surgery rundown!

I really should update you about my LAP TAC.

Surgery went FANTASTIC, April 15th, yes I was in Boston on tragic boston marathon day! Praise the Lord we were out before all the craziness.

So surgery was scheduled at 7am, we arrived around 5:45. They called me in to get all set up, I asked if my mom could come with me, they said they would get her later. I was given a jonny and told to sit on the gurney. I put on my jonny sat on the gurney and burst into tears. The last time I was in this situation I was losing my babies. I couldn't handle it. The nurse came in and saw me crying and immediately got my mom. So sometimes I guess it does get you what you want when you cry!

The "IV wizzard" got it on the very first stick! I was SO happy, since this is honestly the source of most anxiety. as I was getting all ready they let me bring my little Josh and Zoe hats into the OR with me, taped to my jonny. An OB who was working that day asked me if she could please stand in on my surgery so she could see it done and learn more about it. I am so glad that I could lead to this OB knowing more and more babies being saved through the TAC!

The doctor was late, but the nurse anesthetist was AMAZING she stuck with me, and calmed me, and gave me some "happy juice" early. She told me I was going to be the most amazing mother, and my children would be blessed to have me. I loved her. what kind words. I was finally wheeled into the OR at 7:24 I saw the heavy duty yellow and black stirrups for my legs and said "Oh my goodness, these are so fancy! I should just have these in my house, I spend so much time in them" and with that, I was out. HA.

At 7:48 the doctor called my mom and told her I was done, He said it was one of the most textbook LAP TACs he had done. I woke up all by myself in recovery. I asked for my mom, my throat was KILLING, honestly, it hurt worse than my belly! Dumb breathing tube! I asked the nurse how many times I had asked her what time it was, she chuckled and said "a few". For whatever reason I like obsess about how long my surgeries take, after both Egg retrievals I asked Bill like 47 times how long it took. I used the bathroom, proved I could eat and drink and got dressed and went home. Except we stopped at Panera on the way home, because duh, we needed soup. Hahaha.

And here is the "damage", honestly, I would do it all over again, the incisions and scarring are minimal and I was really only couch ridden for like 3-4 days. Heck I made guacamole that night!



I few weeks later I had some baseline testing done, and I finally got to see my TAC in place!

The line right above my thumb is my TAC the circle looking donut thing with the hole in the middle in my cervix, the TAC goes all the way around. 

Now my scars are barely visible and I am excited to give this puppy a try!!