We have embryos!

The past week has been a roller coaster of emotions. The excitement and nerves of IM starting meds, and wondering what would happen. The deep disappointment of finding out that she was not producing enough eggs. The hope that they had agreed to reevaluate her in a couple of days, and then disappointment again when they still wanted to cancel the cycle. Every day IM went in to that clinic and had an ultrasound and bloodwork. Every day they told her it didn’t look good and that she should cancel the cycle. Every day she convinced them to go one more day. Until Tuesday. On Tuesday I got a call at work from PCRM. They were giving me instructions because they were proceeding with the retrieval procedure! Hurrah! The retrieval was scheduled for Thursday morning, and I know I was tense and worried for those two days, so I imagine that IM was more so! Then came the news. They had harvested 4 eggs. Not a huge number, certainly well below average, but also amazing considering we started with only two eggs. The next 24 hours were again full of suspense as we waited to see if any eggs would fertilize. This morning, I received this:

  
All 4 eggs fertilized! Amazing! I have heard of couples that started with 10 eggs and only got two embryos, so to have all four fertilize is amazing!! So now, we wait. Each day the lab will call my IPs to give them an update on the embryos. We are currently aiming for a 5 day transfer, which would be on Tuesday June 2, but there is a possibility it could be as early as Sunday May 31. Either way, in 2-4 days, we will be transferring. I am feeling great, and so positive. I have faith that this is going to work, and that 9 months from now my amazing IPs will be holding a gorgeous baby in their arms. I cannot wait to help them realize that dream. 

 I am all ready, let’s do this! And here’s a sneak peak of the little transfer gift I got my IM. I wasn’t even looking for it, just saw it when I was in a store one day and I knew I had to get it for her. It’s perfect 😊

  
So for now, please send positive thoughts that these 4 beautiful embies keep growing, and sticky baby dust for transfer day! It’s a good week to make a baby 💗🌈🍀

The Baker

Moving ahead against the odds

I am thrilled to share today that we are moving ahead. IM had been stimming to get eggs since May 15, and has not been having much luck. The RE kept telling her to cancel the cycle and try again with a different med protocol. But she persisted and it paid off! On Thursday this week – in two days!! They will do the egg retrieval. Currently there are two eggs that are mature, and three that are almost there and we hope they will be mature by the retrieval. So if all goes well we get 5 eggs out of this. My meds change on Thursday as well to prep for transfer. Estrogen goes down to two times a day, I stop lupron, start crinone twice a day, and doxycycline twice a day. Assuming that the eggs fertilize and continue to grow from there, transfer will be either Sunday or Tuesday, depending on if the lab thinks we should do a 3 or 5 day transfer, which will depend on the quality of the embryos. So what we need now is a successful harvest of 5 eggs, for them to fertilize and grow. I’m feeling really good about this, I know we can make it work! Please keep us in your thoughts 🙂

The Baker

Just a little bit of hope

I had another ultrasound on Tuesday this week. It went great. My body is all ready for the transfer. This is the good news. IM had an ultrasound on Wednesday. It wasn’t good. She only had two follicles, and they wanted to see 10-15. She had a follow up ultrasound today. It’s a little better. She has two good size follicles and three small ones. But we’re told this still isn’t very good. They did bloodwork and decided that since IMs estrogen levels have increased since Wednesday, we are going to continue meds at least for another two days. They will do another ultrasound and more bloodwork on Sunday. We need to see those follicles grow. All of them. If the small ones don’t grow, the cycle will be cancelled. And the RE is not hopeful that doing another cycle would be any better. IM is already on the max dose of meds. So what we’re hoping for right now is for those follicles to grow so that we can do an egg retrieval. I still have hope. All we need is one little embryo to make a beautiful baby. I believe we can make it happen. We got this. I will update in a few days when we know what happens… Wish us luck!

The Baker

Baseline Ultrasound

Today marks 10 days of being on daily Lupron injections. As side effects go, I think I’ve done fairly well. I’ve had a few days of fairly intense headaches, and I’ve been absolutely, dead on my feet exhausted. But so far, that’s it. And today was better. No headache today, which is awesome after 4 solid days of pain, and the exhaustion was at bay today too. I guess my body is finally starting to get used to the Lupron – just in time to change it up!

This morning I had an appointment at the Victoria Fertility Clinic for a baseline ultrasound and blood work. My uterus was pronounced “perfect”, and blood work came back good as well. So what this means is that we have a med change coming. Tomorrow morning I start Estrace, and cut my Lupron in half. This is when we start working on making my uterus nice and “fluffy” for a pretty little embryo to make home in a few short weeks. My next ultrasound is on May 19. At that time I’ll get instructions on when to stop Lupron and start progesterone. So in the meantime, think fluffy thoughts!

The Baker