Twins!

Yep! It is officially confirmed from this morning that I'm pregnant with Twins! Both are measuring the same size and both "flicker" heartbeats are strong! I'm so thankful that they are the same size and that one isn't growing faster than the other. They are measuring at 7 weeks which is what I am exactly today so that's great.

I'm coming down from my excitement a bit, but we are very excited. J. is super nervous - he wants to get the house done fast so we can move out of my Mom's house and of course he now thinks the house isn't big enough. He will calm down.

It is a very happy day!

2 days

Of puking and today I finally felt better! I actually have (almost) made it through the whole day without puking and that is a good milestone. You know how you know you are feeling like crap when you are sick but you really don't know how sick you were feeling until you feel better again. That is how I felt today. I was so thankful this morning that I was able to get out of bed and not go running to the bathroom.   I even went to a movie this afternoon with a friend. We saw Julie & Julia. It was a sweet movie. I really loved the couple of points in the movie where they slightly touched on her inability to have children. It was very tactful and touching. When she found out that her sister was pregnant and she said through her tears that she was happy for her I knew exactly how she was feeling. Devastated that it wasn't her, but really, truly happy for her sister.   Tuesday is the big day. After these two days of pure sickness there HAS to be something good going on in my uterus! I feel a lot less nervous now and just SUPER anxious to hear the hearbeat!   I hope everyone's weekend went well. I'm exhausted now, I have my pug on my lap and we are going to fall asleep to the PGA. It is just down the road from me (I can see the blimp in the air above the tournament). Golf is a great sport to put you to sleep. Maybe I can condition the baby to fall asleep to golf! :-)

Announcement

My cousin's girlfriend came over to take pictures of our pug - she is a photographer and I thought it would be nice to get some professional pictures of the fur-baby before the real-baby came and she got neglected. I haven't got those back from her yet, I will post when I do. I had her take a couple quick shots for a pregnancy announcement (I may send out in the mail or it will just be used for e-mail, facebook, blogging). She sent those to me first so I could do what I wanted with them sooner.

Betraying RE

I called my RE clinic again today to see if there were ready to get me on the schedule for next week for my first u/s. They still said no (like I thought they were going to) because Dr. C is on a procedure schedule and they will call me one to two days before to let me know when I can get in. I doubled checked that I was on the waiting list and I'm glad I did, because I wasn't. When I called the other week it was their other office taking their calls because they were moving. Glad I doubled checked that. I'm not sure how far down on the waiting list I am. I forgot to ask that.

So just because I am not being patient (as J. is telling me) I called my OB office to see if they would do the u/s next week. They said "no problem"!!! So I scheduled it for Tuesday morning at 7:45. I will be exactly 7 weeks on that day so we should be able to hear heart beat(s) and count baby(ies) no problem.

I will send the results over to the RE office and they will have to "officially" release me before I can start being seen at the OB office. I know this is not going to make the RE the happiest, but really I think I should be able to do what I want with this somewhat. This entire process has been out of our control for so long that I just need to feel like I can control something. I made a deal with J. that if the RE office calls on Monday and says they can get me in on Tuesday or Wednesday I will go there and cancel the OB u/s. If not I'm going to the OB's office for the u/s on Tuesday and I will deal with the RE's office after that.

So only one more week until I can have peace of mind that there is a healthy heartbeat and count how many there are!

Poll

I got this idea from Katie to put a poll on my blog. She did it for her 3 embies that were transfered and recently found out she is having TWINS! So I thought I would try it for mine!

What's your vote?

Nervous

I am feeling nervous about this pregnancy. I know it is because there has been/will be such a long wait between my last Beta and my first ultrasound. I just feel like there should be some more information coming my way about this pregnancy. It's like - "great, we got you pregnany, your numbers look great, so let's hope nothing happens in the next 3 weeks because we aren't going to check on you again until then." I know that even if something has happened there is nothing they can do about it, but it still makes me really nervous. I wish I was having more pregnancy symptoms than just being tired. I feel like I could be blaming my tiredness on something other than pregnancy so it would be nice to have another symptom. I guess if I had to come up with two other pregnancy symptoms they would be an adversion to pork - thus the pig picture - and a bloated tummy. I may have just packed on a little bit of wait during this "stay rested" summer/IVF cycle, but feel like my stomach looks like the pig's! My father-in-law has been in town all this weekend working on electrical at the new house. I'm at my Mom's right now and no one is here but me and the dog. It is very peaceful. Time for a nap!

Tiredness

I know it's been awhile since I've had a post. I haven't had much to report on since my second Beta. I'm not patiently waiting for my first ultrasound at 7 weeks which will happen in 2 weeks! We are moving along with our new house renovations. After our builder was on vacation last week and nothing got done he has had his crew in working away this week. My only pregnancy symptom right now is extreme tiredness. It could be all the running around that I have been doing for the house, because I'm not sure if it's too early for pregnancy symptoms. But, I really need to take a nap almost every afternoon. Which is working out okay while I'm on summer vacation for the next couple of week, but it will be interesting once school starts.  Hope all is well with everyone else. Life seems to be going really well for us right now!

2nd Beta

1054! So it more than doubled! This morning when the tech took my blood and heard my first Beta number she was quite sure I was having twins. She said that they normally see numbers like 453 on the third Beta with singles, not the first. The nurse who called with my results said nothing of twins. She said I need to schedule my first ob u/s for 3 weeks from now! What?!?! 3 WEEKS! There is no way I can wait that long! But, I guess I'm going to have to! I suppose I will be 7 weeks along and that will be best for hearing heartbeat, etc. The most annoying thing is that when I called back to schedule the ultrasound I was told that my RE is on a procedure schedule that week and I would have to be put on a waiting list. They will call me 2 days before they can get me in that week after they know how many procedures he will have. So I don't even have anything scheduled! She asked if I wanted to schedule something for the next week - and I said no I didn't want to even have to wait through the weekend! I'm tempted to call my IF nurses at my old clinic to see if they will do the ultrasound. I really made a good connection with them and I might be able to talk them into getting me in earlier! Do you think it is worth the try or just I just suck it up and wait for RE's office to call?

Beta results in

453!   I think that is a great number! The doc said that it was a "solid" good number. I go back on Thursday for the repeat Beta HCG and then we will schedule an ultrasound after that to hear the heartbeat(s) and count how many babies implanted (we transfered 2 embryos).   I will update the Beta on Thursday again! I am VERY excited!

8dp5dt

I actually had a lot of will power this cycle. IVF put me into a different mind set about testing. I was super nervous for these results. But after much contemplation I decided that I wanted to learn the results on my terms and I wanted to be able to share them with J. in my own way not after a phone call.   So I took the HPT and there is definitely TWO LINES there! I think I'm still in disbelief and still nervous for my first Beta results tomorrow. But, I'm less nervous that I now know that I have a BFP and we will deal with the numbers tomorrow!   Again we are staying at my Mom's house during our home renovations so I am going to tell her and J. tonight at the same time. I had got my Mom a book called "Grandma's Summer" awhile ago and I have been saving it - it is a book about a grandma that takes her grandson to an old cabin for the summer. My Mom has an old cabin up north so I thought it was a cute book. I got J. the "Your Pregnancy: for the father-to-be". I have them wrapped up and will give them to both of them to open after dinner!   I will update my Beta numbers tomorrow!

ICLW - Welcome!

ICLW - Welcome to my blog! I chose a few pictures to tell you a little about myself.

This is a picture on our wedding day: September 4, 2004

This is one of my greatest accomplishments yet. I ran the Paris Marathon with my Mom in April of 2008. It was her 10th marathon and my first!

This is our fur-baby Guinness. She is the cutest pug I have ever seen! We keep her trim and she is spoiled beyond belief. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that she is little and she is the current stand-in for a "real" baby!

You may call us insane, crazy, out of our minds, etc. but we bought a new house that needs a lot of updating and it is all happening during our first IVF cycle! As J. always says "We tend to just do everything at once!" So far it has all gone well. We are staying at my Mom's house while we are doing the renovations at the new house so I'm not on bedrest while walls are literally coming down around me.


During the first, almost 5 years, of our marriage we made a vow that we were going to travel like crazy so that once we have kids we won't regret anything. We have had so much fun traveling in these 5 years. Many of the trips centered around either running or baseball games. It is fun to have an extra purpose for going on vacation. We live in MN so this is a picture from Spring Training down in Florida this last April.

Don't get me wrong, we love to go on trip that all we do it sit on our butts and get a tan. This is a picture from my "birthday vacation" this February in Jamaica. We stayed at a Sandals resort for the first time and it was wonderful! They really spoil you there!

Yes, I turned 30 this year. I had way harder of a time turning 29. We were over a year into TTC and it was hard to think that I could possibly be over 30 before I even conceived my first child. 30 was a lot easier - I think I used up all my freaking out in my 29th year of life. So I took full advantage of this milestone birthday and had J. take me on a long weekend to Jamaica.

One of my most favorite hobbies is scrapbooking. I have about 6 books filled with memories of our wedding, parties and vacations. I have the most perfect scrapbook and coordinating paper all picked out for our future first child's baby book.

I am a teacher so that is another reason for "doing everything at once". I have the time to do it during June, July and August. I could not even imagine being able to get to the insane amount of appointments I had to this summer for the IVF cycle. Plus I think my students would not have liked me the best on all the hormones (at least the pregnancy ones will have a visible reason for them). I taught 3rd grade at the best elementary school last year. Because of budget reasons I am getting moved to a different elementary school (in the same district) and will be teaching a different grade - 4th. I am much more a primary teacher so I'm scared for the 4th graders. I'm already having nightmares about them. It will be fine, I'm sure.

A group of couples that we hang out with on a regular basis decided to from a wine club. We rotate houses for hosting and get together to taste different wines. It is a lot of fun and we have had tried some really good wines and some horrible ones that went straight down the kitchen sink. We took a trip to Napa and Sonoma Counties a couple summers ago. This has become J. and my favorite wine - Sequoia Grove - it is a boutique winery in Napa County. We belong to their wine club and look forward to their shipments of wine right to our front door every few months.

So that is a bit (or a lot) about me. I am currently in my last few ours of bedrest from the embryo transfer on Sunday. I will go in for my first b/w next Tuesday the 28th. It is going to be a long week. Thankfully I have ICLW to keep me busy! Thank you for visiting!

Transfer update!

Here is the first picture of our babies! We transfered these two beautiful embryos this morning at 11:00 and I have been laying flat for as long as I can since then.

Here is the ultrasound pics that they took during the transfer. The doc said that it couldn't have gone any more perfect!

My Pug is loving that I'm on bedrest. She has found the spot she is going to spend the next 48 hours - right on my lap!

They are going to test on Tuesday the 28th which will be 9dp5dt. I am going to go crazy waiting that long!

Transfer is today!

I'm going to the clinic in about 2 hours! I'm so flippin' excited!! This morning is an absolutely beautiful morning in Minnesota. The rest of the Fam is out on the deck reading the paper - I will go out there after my PIO shot.   My puppy was up at 7:45 this morning and just had to go upstairs because she heard my Mom (we are staying at my Mom's house through our house renovations) and now she is sleeping in the sun. Typical!

11 Fertilized!

I got the call yesterday and was really excited to hear that 11 out of the 15 fertilized and divided! I wish they would call me again today and I didn't have to wait until tomorrow.   We closed on our house yesterday and all went well. My Mom and I are going to go over to the new house today to pull wallpaper down and get some ideas for painting. I am really excited to get a fresh coat on. I think that the fresh coat of paint is meaning more to me than just a different color on the walls, it is a symbol of us moving on with our lives with or without a child. The fact that we could go through this process of buying a house that needs major renovations while going through IVF shows that there are other things that we value in our marriage than being parents. Don't get me wrong, we will be more than estatic if we find out we are pregnant, but hopefully if that isn't the case we have set ourselves up for the next stage in our lives in this new home.   I will get another call tomorrow to give me an update on the embies and give me the scheduled time for the transfer on Sunday.

Big Day!

We close on the sale of our house and the purchase of the new house today! Everything should go smooth with that! The first house J. and I bought together is now empty and will have a single attorney living in it.   We won't even move into our new house. We moved into my Mom's house for a while and put most of our stuff in storage. We are doing major renovations on the new place.   BUT, the BIG news is that I get the call from the RE's office today about how the embies are doing!!! I am SUPER excited and nervous. I really hope they are doing well and growing strong!   I will try to update after the phone call. I am really hoping that it comes earlier rather than later!

So Excited!

Yesterday in the mist of packing up my house (remember we are moving,
we close on Thursday) I got a call from the clinic. They decided that
it was best that I did the HCG last night and we will do the retrieval
on Tuesday! I am so excited. They are also scheduling the transfer for
Sunday, which would be 5 days. She said they would probably call me on
Thursday to let me know how the embryos are doing!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

I am posting a random pic of my dog I took last night. She is such a sweetheart - our first baby!

6 appointments in 8 days

And still no definite date for the retrieval. For the last couple of days they said "plan on the HCG tonight, but we will call you later to confirm" They always called later and said let's go one more day. Obviously I want the follies to be perfect so I'm not complaining. I went in again this morning and from my quick count I have about 10 follies that are mature and could release an egg. I have about 5 that are size 14 and a couple at 13. So she is thinking that I will have one more day of stims, do the HCG tomorrow night and retrieval on Wednesday. I will find out later on this morning when they call back.
I took a picture of my stim set up in my kitchen yesterday because I thought it was going to be my last day, it wasn't but I thought I would post it anyway.
I will update later when I find out what the plan is.

Getting Closer!

I had another appointment today- I'm about every other day now to
check my ovaries and estrogen levels. My ovaries really "perked up" as
the nurse said. I have a ton (like 8) of follicles that are measuring
10 or above. I have to go back in tomorrow, but she thinks I will be
doing the HCG (triggering ovulation) on Saturday night with the
retrieval on Monday. I'm not sure how long they have to sit in the
petri - I think 3 or 4 days (Other IVFer's do you know?). So I think
my transfer will be maybe Thursday or Friday!!

I am so sick of the injections! I'm up to 3 a day now. My stomach
looks like a pin coushin. So the thought of being able to be done with
them tomorrow is very exciting! I know progesterone then starts and I have to deal with those injections, but I'm ready to move forward.

I will update tomorrow if I have more news!

Facebook

J. always says that I spend too much time of Facebook. He is probably right, but I'm addicted to checking in on the lives of people around me. It is fun to see pictures of people's vacations and kids. It is fun to comment on what they are up to or thinking about the weather, etc. But there are those days where I see posts like "our baby is coming home today from the hospital", "we're pregnant, again", "Thanks to my friends for bringing me dinner and dessert because I had a baby 4 months ago", "the baby isn't napping any more and my life is harder because of it". These are the days I wish I never had a Facebook account. They are the days that I wish I could post "I have a horrible headache from the Lupron injections that I'm taking to become a mother - something I have been trying to do for over 2 years. Could someone bring me a really sinful dessert and a latte to make be feel better please"
The world of FB would never be the same and J. would kill me that "the world" would know all that. It is times like these that I had that infertility has such a stigma attached to it and that it has to be such a private struggle that we have to go through.

side effects

I'm thinking that is what these are! I am thirsty ALL the TIME! I am having really bad headaches. I'm peeing all the time, but that might be from all the drinking I've been doing. The hot flashes have started. I go from being steaming hot to freezing cold when the ceiling fan or air conditioning cools my sweat off.
I can't sleep! I toss and turn all night - back and forth between being hot and then cold. When I do sleep I am having the most vivid dreams. I get that I have a lot on my mind with IVF and moving, but it is crazy how vivid they are. They all seem to center around voice mail messages on my phone too.
I'm a little nervous what might end up happening when I add more drugs into the mix!