5 fertilized

Well, 2 'degraded'- whatever that means. And 2 didn't fertilize properly (I guess I got my hopes up that ICSI would take care of that). It's maybe a little disappointing that we didn't get more, but all in all we're pleased. It's 5 more embryos than we've ever had to freeze before (ok, we've never had any to freeze because we've only ever gotten 2 embryos at the most to even transfer in my own 2 retrieval/transfer attempts.)

And I realize that not all will probably survive a thaw. And not all would grow appropriately after thawed. But (and I really hated this when I was told it back when I was doing IVF), it only takes one. It only takes one embryo to implant and become our 2nd child.

And, it's now time to put all of these thoughts about this cycle with my sister away. At least for probably close to a year. I'd like to breastfeed for at least 6 months and although I haven't asked specifically I'm guessing I won't be able to take the drugs required to prep my lining for an FET while I'm still breastfeeding.

We went for a growth-monitoring ultrasound yesterday afternoon and all looks good. Weight estimate is 4lb13oz (based on size of circumference of head, circumference of abdomen and length of femur bones). I'll now go back in 2 weeks to start weekly non-stress tests (at which, apparently, they'll be doing ultrasounds too). That will continue weekly - I guess until I go to the hospital to deliver. I'll also have an OB appointment in 2 weeks at which, apparently, they'll start doing internal exams to determine whether I'm dilated at all.

Oh, and baby girl is now head down!! She's facing my backbone with her legs up in front of her chest (the femur bone length was still only 18-20th percentile (better than 11th percentile last month!) so I guess she likes to touch her toes.

In fact, we saw her trying to put her toes in her mouth! Here's a pic (it's a little hard to make out on the 3d ultrasound pic, but those are apparently toes heading into her mouth):

10 retrieved; 9 mature!

Things went great with my sister this morning. Retrieval was scheduled for 8 a.m.; we had to be there at 6 a.m. so I stayed overnight last night at her house (arriving after the kids had gone to bed) and we got up at 4:30 this morning to make the hour (turned out to be about 45 minutes in minimal traffic) drive to the clinic.

Chit-chatted about everything after we got called back for her to change into gown, etc. Mr.Right even got to pop in to say hello around 7 a.m. after he had dropped off his contribution (and then he ran off to work.)

The doc who did her retrieval had done my first D&C (at that clinic), at least one of my IUIs and I think one of my retrievals as well. I'm not quite sure he remembered who I was at first but then he said he did. He did look a little perplexed about my 33week belly, so I asked him if he'd heard about our wacky story. Not sure if he had or whether he was being polite, but I guess he figured it out!

My sister came through with flying colors. I think she's taken the extra strength tylenol they gave her after she woke up and that's it.

She was dressed by 9 a.m. and we were walking out of the building. Stopped at Panera's for breakfast and then headed home to her house and took the dog for a walk and tennis ball throwing session. Then we went to Target to get goggles for my nephew and had lunch at a diner. About to leave in a minute to pick my younger nephew up from daycare (since she's not supposed to drive and my BIL has picked up older nephew to go to swim class.)

Anyhow, upshot is: 10 eggs retrieved and they called at around 1:30 p.m. to say 9 were mature. They'll be doing ICSI and we'll get a fertilization report tomorrow and then they'll be frozen '2 pn.' I'm not quite sure what that exactly means but basically we'll be freezing on day 1.

We had long-ish discussion with Dr. Dry about this last month and he called this past Saturday to confirm. Apparently there's some debate among embryologists about benefits of letting go til day 5 to freeze. But basically, we went for Day 1 freeze as my understanding was that that might give us some more flexibility out the other end to re-freeze. As I'm carrying this now 33 week old baby around I'm increasingly leery of putting even 2 embryos in whenever we get around to doing an FET. I'm just not sure I want to carry twins. So, we may just end up doing a series of single FETs and this would allow us to thaw a few, see what makes it and potentially re-freeze (one more time) if we get more than 1 that survives the thaw.

The only advantage of day 5 freeze might be to see whether any of the eggs make it that far and I could see why you might want to do that if you were planning to do another cycle, but we're not. This is the only time we're going to ask my sister to do this.

I guess the only risk we run is freezing a bunch of embryos that wouldn't have made it to day 5 and having none of them survive thaw/grow once thawed. But it's not like we're going to use them right away anyhow, so if that happens, we'll just immediately move on to anonymous donor eggs. No time really lost except to thaw the eggs.

Anyhow, we're very pleased! Crossing fingers for good fertilization tomorrow!

33 weeks

Yeah, I'm really bad at consistently doing anything on my blog. So, I think it's been months since I've done a 'weekly' update :-)

But here it is (with belly pic --- which I totally haven't been taking regularly, oh well.)

Total Weight Loss/Gain: 17 pounds (from conception - although I lost 5 pounds in the first 3 weeks of being pregnant so you could say 22).

Maternity Clothes: Pretty much. Except for running shorts - some of which were bought when I was ~5-10 pounds heavier a couple of years ago than my immediate pre-pregnancy weight.

Stretch marks: None that I can see (but I'm starting to lose visual on the underbelly.) Unfortunately, I'm getting 'the itch that rashes' (my mother's terminology) where I just start scratching and then a bunch of little red bumps pop up - especially on my thighs, under my belly and (weirdly) on my left elbow. Lathering up with AmLactin - my go-to moisturizer.

Sleep: Ok. Getting up at least one time in the night to pee. Snoring badly, apparently (horrible nose congestion the entire pregnancy) so Mr.Right kicked me to get me to stop last night and I got mad and went to the guest room. :-/

Movement: Our crazy gymnast/soccer player seems to be constantly active! Movements are getting more pushy than punchy now. Weird 'Alien' like belly movements.

Cravings/Aversions: Not really. Have been indulging in ice cream more than usual, but I'm not sure that's a real craving. Pregnancy is just an excuse to indulge!

Gender: Girl!

Symptoms: The pregnancy-long alternatively stuffy/dried-out nose is really the only major symptom.

What I miss: Running, alcohol.

What I look forward to: Everything! (ok, maybe not the pain of delivery) Holding our baby girl in the first moments she emerges; having Mr.Right at home for that first week of her birth; telling everyone her name!

Moods: Fairly even keel with the occasional weepy moment - like yesterday when I had asked Mr.Right to help bring all the shower loot from the dining room up to the nursery and then weeped at him that I didn't have everything in the nursery ready to store everything! (no dresser yet, no bookshelves yet)

Milestones: Ultrasound this Wednesday. Weekly NSTs starting in 2 weeks(?)

Medical concerns: Nothing more than an 'elderly' pregnant woman can expect. Not even any swelling at this point - still wearing my rings.



Short update on my sister: triggered last night!! Yay! Retrieval scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday (tomorrow) morning. That means we have to be there at 6 a.m. But thank God it didn't end up being on Wednesday when my sister has 2 presentations to make for work. She was a total trooper with the IM trigger shot. Her husband gave it to her. She wondered why she hadn't iced shot areas for all the injections before(?) 10 follicles seen yesterday. Crossing our fingers for a good retrieval!

Dragging on.....but an award!

My sister's cycle is draagggging onnnnnnn......... And I feel really badly about it. She's in for monitoring this morning so we'll see what the call this afternoon reveals, but most of her (now) 9 measurable follicles (plus 2 around 10 mm) were in the 12-13mm range on Wednesday morning so trigger might not be til Sunday night or maybe even Monday night. The problem is that we started this cycle when we did (a bit early - she only took 19 bc pills) because she has 2 presentations to make for a work event this next Wednesday. And if trigger night is pushed out to Monday...well.....retrieval will be Wednesday. I just don't want it to be stressful for her. She's, of course, totally like "I'll just call in sick - it happens" but I'm biting my nails here trying to wish trigger for tonight, Sat night or Sunday night. But, I keep reminding myself (and Mr.Right keeps reminding me): this will all be over by early to mid next week. And we'll be done with it. And my sister will be done with it forever. And, even if all goes completely kerflooey with the attempt at doing a donor egg cycle with my sister, it looks like we might actually have a baby around the end of September. And we'll have one child at least.



Anyhow, on to lighter topics.....I got an award! And I'm usually very, very bad at responding to awards, but I'm going to make a real effort to do this one! It comes from one of my hero bloggers, Eb at Twins40+ (http://ivf40pathtoparents.blogspot.com/) When I first realized that we might actually be heading to DE and I was definitely going to be well over 40 years old by the time I was carrying a baby, she gave me inspiration that I could do it (she had twins and turned 42 just a little time later.)

So, I've got to share 7 random things about me and also nominate 7 bloggers of substance. Here they are:

1. I once treated Harry Belafonte to a fish sandwich at McDonald's. Seriously. I was driving him around before and after a concert he did at my university (I was on the committee that selected and hosted entertainers for big concerts) and he wanted to go to McDonald's after the concert.

2. I've run 5 marathons and I've done a half Ironman. Not fast, mind you, but I got them done. I hope to do a marathon again, someday, after baby making is done (not sure about the half Ironman - another Oly-length triathlon, yes, but 6 hours is a long time to be competing in a race).

3. I used to speak German - pretty fluently. I lived in Germany for a year in college and a did a stint working for a member of the Bundestag during graduate school. Now? I can still carry on a basic conversation, but not very well.

4. I've travelled to 51 countries (mind you, this number includes Vatican City). I've been to 6 continents (no Antarctica yet). I used to travel internationally for work a lot, plus toured around Europe in college and travelled with my sister in Africa when she was in the Peace Corps.

5. I just learned to play chess this year (I got Mr.Right and myself a chess table for our anniversary so he could teach me.)

6. My first job was working at a steak house when I was 16. I came home every night that summer with my clothes smelling like A1 sauce.

7. I had 2 slices of pizza and a Dairy Queen vanilla cone today for lunch. What a nutritious lunch for babygirl! :-) Ok, I don't do that every day (by any means). It was balanced with a bowl of kashi Go Lean crunch w/organic skim milk and a peach and blueberries + a clementine for breakfast this morning and grilled wild sockeye salmon, corn on the cob and grilled eggplant for dinner last night. Chicken breasts with leeks and rice tonight for dinner.

And for my seven bloggers of substance (and I know some of you are so good you get awards all the time, so I'll totally understand if you don't take this up):

1. cgd at Adventures in Infertility Land (http://adventuresininfertilityland.blogspot.com)
2. Alex at Alex's Adventures (http://manyadventuresofalex.blogspot.com)
3. kc at You Wouldn't even make an omelette with stale eggs! (http://kcoryfertility.blogspot.com)
4. Roccie at Roccie Road (http://roccieroad.blogspot.com)
5. Fran at Everyone else but Me (http://everyoneelsebutme.blogspot.com)
6. R at One Egg Please (http://1eggplease.blogspot.com)
7. ks at Inconceivable !?!?!? (http://inconceivable-pofjourneytomotherhood.blogspot.com)

Of course there are many, many more of you ladies out there who write blogs of great substance. And although I'm not sure I really qualify I'm glad to be among this community!!

Sister Donor Update

Since last post, my sister has been in for monitoring on Saturday, Monday and this morning. Things are looking good. They changed stim levels to 150 Gonal-f and 150 Menopur on Monday night and added the Cetrotide. This morning she had 4 measurable on one side and 5 measurable on the other (so I guess that cyst on one side really didn't have much of an effect after all). Most are in the 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 cm range so I think we've got a couple of days to go. We'll see what they say this afternoon. I'm suspecting she'll go in for monitoring again on Friday and maybe on Saturday morning. We had been hoping to trigger Friday night so retrieval would be on Sunday, but unless things really take off, I doubt that. I guess she'll have to call in sick to work on Monday if she triggers on Saturday night. I *hope* it doesn't go later than that.

She seems to be doing great with the shots. I actually came over to her house last night to bring some Menopur that I got delivered yesterday and helped mix up the shots last night. We managed to get the 150 Gonal-f and 150 Menopur into one syringe so only one shot (which her husband gave her) and then the Cetrotide shot this morning. I'm actually still hanging out here this morning waiting for another delivery of Menopur (long story, but there was a mixup at Freedom Fertility thinking we needed another Rx order from my doctor).

Anyhow, we're trying not to over-buy drugs since we're paying for them all this time so I'm finding myself tied to the 8 a.m. - 3p.m. FedEx delivery window most every day. But that's ok. This will be over, by the latest, this weekend (at least the drug delivery part).

I'm still amazed at my sister's willingness and ability to do this. My only duty this morning was to play with my younger nephew until my BIL could get my older nephew up, through breakfast and dressed for daycare. Then I walked my older nephew over to daycare. Meanwhile, my sister had gotten up at 5:45, made lunches for the boys and headed out to her monitoring appointment at 7:15. And, I'll be forever grateful - no matter how it all turns out eventually.

In the meantime, I think babygirl has switched positions. I seem better able to fill my stomach without getting incredibly uncomfortably full afterwards. This might mean the weight gain picks back up. I've been plateaued at 15-16 pounds weight gain for the last ~3 weeks. Can't wait til we get to see her again next Wednesday!