Still memorizing the pattern on the ceiling...

I think my daughter likes to come in and poke me every now and then just to make sure I'm still alive. My son came in today and said it would be weird if I stayed like this forever. They're not used to seeing me down. At least they're not kicking me;). Today I watched a movie to pass some time, finished a book, and tried learning to crochet. I thought I'd be pumping out a new crocheted scarf each day in bed, but I got frustrated and will need to keep practicing. I'm trying to stay positive so the crochet needle got put away. The scarf production will have to wait.

Bed rest isn't as great as it sounds!

Alright, so I'm not going to lie, the first 12 hours or so of bed rest are pretty nice! Laying in freshly washed sheets, my mom bringing in amazing food, complete silence because my kids are quickly ushered out if they get too loud or wiggly, and new jammies are all pretty awesome! Then after the first 12 hours pass, my back and bum get sore, I have a rat's nest on the back of my head, my entire mattress seems to disagree with my body, there's nothing left to watch or read, and my mind becomes obsessed with wanting to know if/when the embryos will implant. I haven't taken even one nap to pass the time because the high levels of hormones I'm on make it hard to even close my eyes. Time is pretty much standing still. OK, I won't complain again, but it feels good to vent! I'm actually super glad to be stuck in bed hopefully growing some babies!

Transfer Day!!!

Today was a long awaited day for our family! The morning got crazy getting my son out the door to school, my mister having to run into work, finalizing bed rest preparations, picking up another last minute prescription, and then racing to be at the clinic by 10 am. We checked in, I began drinking my 32 oz. of water to fill my bladder, and then we talked with the embryologist. He had walked by a few times while we were waiting and I was convinced his expression was going to bring us terrible news about only one embryo surviving and that the quality wasn't very good, which would mean our chances of pregnancy were slim. I was totally trembling when we finally talked to him. He reported that two of the six embryos had survived. One looked awesome and one looked pretty good. He recommended and we decided to put both embryos in. He said I should get pregnant and that we have a 50/50 chance of twins. I felt a little stressed that there were not any extra to freeze to help take some pressure off, but then realized I was being greedy and needed to focus on the positive, which has been hard for me since this process failed for us last time. I think my acupuncturist noticed I needed to absorb everything, because she had me pop my Valium (the only medication used for the transfer procedure) and filled me up with acupuncture needles to calm me and my uterus. A "quiet" uterus is important for the embryos. By the time it was time to go to the transfer room I was calm and all cozy wrapped up in a warm blanket. The procedure is only about 15 minutes and using ultrasound the embryos are dropped into the uterus by the reproductive endocrinologist and embryologist. We even watched on the big screen while our babies were drawn up from their lab tubes, filled into the catheter, and then the doctors do a countdown to coordinate placing the embryos and removing the tube. On the ultrasound screen you couldn't see the microscopic embryos but you could see two flashes of light where the medium surrounding the embryos shows up. The worst part of the entire procedure was the full bladder! By this point I'm totally feeling the 32 oz. I drank an hour prior to the procedure, but I have to lay flat another 15 minutes or so. Then, regardless of the fact that I feel like I'm going to leave a mess on the floor, I'm nervous about standing up and disturbing the embryos. My nurse compares the transferred embryos to two grains of sand in a peanut butter sandwich. Repeating that to myself, I shuffled to the bathroom. To be sure my uterus is happy, I had one more acupuncture treatment before going home and getting in bed. Now the waiting begins and it's all up to the embryos to implant into their new home! Here is their first picture:

Final preparations

Today was a busy day! It's a lot of work getting ready to be on bed rest! I had another acupuncture treatment, finalized meal plans, laundry, cleaning, finished up home projects, etc. It's crazy that we won't even know about the embryo(s) until we arrive at the clinic tomorrow! We are very nervous and excited!

Getting closer . . .

Today included a trip to the clinic in the morning to check my hormone levels.  One of them was so high that the lab couldn't even read it!  My nurse said this is a good thing and to continue doing what I'm doing.  Hopefully, all of this will equate to a fluffy and welcoming uterus for our embryo on Tuesday.  I also stayed home from church today as some of my medications compromise my immune system and an illness right now could be detrimental to our transfer.  I'm pretty sure any nasty illness anyone in our home has had, unfortunately came from our loving church family.;)  We need to trick my body into not rejecting the embryo.  Most of my medicines also need to be taken with food and are so frequent that these days leading up to transfer are difficult to go too far from my house for extended periods of time.  Some of the meds also require me to be near a bathroom.  My mom and I "nested" by making 4 loaves of wheat bread, homemade granola, pumpkin cookies, and a yummy dinner.  The fridge and pantry are stocked so we are ready to be confined to the house for a few days after the transfer.

Today we had the option of talking to the embryologist about how our embryos are doing in the lab at this point (3 day old embryos).  We decided not to call.  Day 3 embryos do not necessarily indicate anything about how they'll be on day 5, transfer day.  They can look awful and improve and vice versa.  They are changing through the morula stage today and hopefully getting ready to be strong blastocysts.  We would have only worried and over analyzed each embryos' quality and cell count.  I'm just trying to stay positive and envision happy, dividing embryos in the lab right now.  The embryologist did promise to call today if they had terrible news about our embryos.  There was no call, so we are assuming that is a good sign!

Preparations

In addition to my current medications, heavy hormonal support was begun today in order to prepare my uterus for our upcoming embryo transfer in a few days.  I'm so spacey right now and misplaced my checklist and had to put in an emergency phone call to my nurse early this morning!  My IVF checklist is basically my brain right now and guides me through my daily medicines and appointments.  I carry it around and my life has to revolve around everything on the often changing checklist happening at the exact listed scheduled times.  No worries, my nurse got my up so speed.;)  The additional hormones have me hungry all the time and occasional waves of nausea especially at night if I go more than a few hours without eating.  I don't know how anyone could go through IVF without weight gain!  On a positive note though, my hair and nails are growing like weeds from all of the mega-vitamins!;)    

First Embryo Report

The embryologist called this morning to inform us that all 6 mature embryos fertilized!  We are thrilled with this news, but are still nervous about each of them making it through each day with good cell division.  By day 3 last time, 3 of our 4 embryos had stopped dividing.  Our specific ART (artificial reproductive treatment) is IVF with ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), and the embryologist mentioned that the ICSI procedure had gone well.  Picking out 6 perfect swimmers from a pool of 40 million is not a job that I would want!  My sister asked if they play romantic music in the lab during this part of the process . . . ha, ha, they probably should!;)  I felt really good today!  My mom, daughter, and I even went out to lunch and shopping for a few hours to celebrate.  I've only had about 12 pills to take today (ha, ha), so other than popping pills in the restaurant, it was an easy day to get away without worrying about a bringing a cooler full of syringes.  Tomorrow more hormones will be added in order to get my uterus prepared for the embryo(s) to be put back in, so the "crazy lady" might pay a visit again.;)  Overall, today was a good day on the IVF roller coaster and that's all I can do is take one day at a time!