Hiatus

We will be taking a hiatus from the blog. We learned today that we are in fact not pregnant. We will be meeting with Dr. B in the next few weeks to decide our next course of action. Please pray for us as we digest the new information. For now, please do not call (emails would be great). We need time. Thank you for understanding.

Freedom

That's right. I'm free from the confines of the couch!! Yeah! What have I done you ask? I started off the adventure by convincing Joel to take me into town last night for ice cream. Yes, we had ice cream here, but I really needed to get out. It was great. Then this morning, Woody got sick all over the wood floor and so I got to clean up dog vomit. Fun stuff! Maybe he is just preparing me for what could come. And finally, I had time to scan the picture of the embryos. Everyone together now, ...OOOOHHHH....AAAAHHHHHH....how cute! :)



The one on the left is actually the better looking of the two (according to Dr. B). I of course can tell you nothing about them because the embryologist was speaking Greek to me. It is odd to be handed a picture, given a description in medical jargon, and then asked "Do you have any questions??" You just want to say, "Of course I have questions but none of them will make me look educated or make up for the fact that I'm looking at my babies for the first time." What you really say is, "Nope."

So here's to hoping and praying for these guys to break out and stick. It is such a surreal experience to walk around knowing you really might be carrying around a kid (or kiddos). We can't wait to learn our results and share them with you!

This stinks!

That's right, laying around when you feel perfectly fine stinks! I hate not being able to shower, get my own food, or just walk around outside and get the mail. It just plain stinks.

On the same topic of stinking, we learned this morning that none of our embryos met the criteria to be frozen. That stinks too. While we trust the professional opinions of the doctors, we are still frustrated and disappointed. The only good thing is that we didn't have to shell out more money right now.

One more thing that stinks lately, is a very dear childhood friend miscarried this week. This really stinks! I can't imagine walking in her shoes and wish I could give her a big hug across the miles. She and her family have constantly been in my thoughts and prayers. I know they would appreciate your prayers on their behalf.

Having said all of this, here is the one thing today that doesn't stink:

Jeremiah 29:11

I'll show up and take care of you as I promised
and bring you back home.
I know what I'm doing.
I have it all planned out -
plans to take care of you,
not abandon you,
plans to give you the future you hope for.

I just can't argue with that!

Home again

This will be short because the wireless is acting up. We had a good transfer today (or as Dr. B said really good cycle and perfect transfer). We put back 2 embryos (and got a picture of them I'll post once I'm off bedrest). We will hear from the lab tomorrow if there are any viable enough to freeze. I really hope there are because I'd rather do 5 transfers than 1 retrieval!! Pray this is the case. Words can't express how grateful we are for each of you and know we thank God daily for your support. We hope to be able to share some good news with you soon. Until then, look for my ramblings from the couch!!!

Survival

Well, it had been a day of firsts. I had my first adventure back into "real" clothes and into town for lunch. It was nice to get out but even better to get home back into my "comfy" pants. I'm just not cut our for real clothes and extended periods of time yet. Maybe soon!

Yesterday also marked our first day of estrogen shots. These are the ones Joel has to give me. The good news is we survived!! Joel is such a trooper and I'm sure never thought this is what he signed up for in the "for worse" part of our vows. I'm sore today and am sporting a nice needle mark but as our nurse pointed out..it's for a good cause.

We also talked to the lab this morning. Joel is celebrating his first Father's Day as the proud papa of 9 healthy embryos. He can't wait to brag about it either!! We learned the rating of the remaining embryos: 3 excellent, 1 good, 5 average, 2 poor, and 2 very poor. The ratings are based on how the cells are looking as they divide. Basically we are pleased to have the 9 at or above average. These are good numbers. Our prayer is that they continue to divide and are all still healthy and viable on Tuesday. Please join us in these prayers.

We also got our marching orders for Tuesday. We are to be at the hospital at 11:45 for our transfer at 12:45ish. It will take about 15 minutes for the transfer and then 1 hour of being flat on my back before we are released. Before the procedure, we will meet with Dr. Barnett and the embryologist to learn about the remaining embryo quality, determine how many embryos we are placing and to make any other needed decisions (such as freezing them). We are excited because Joel actually gets to go into the OR for this procedure. Imagine that....we are in the same room to make a baby!!

Please continue to pray for what God has in store for us. We hope this long road is winding to an end and we are embarking on another new journey to parenthood. We will continue to update you and I'm sure I will be attached to my laptop once the bedrest begins!!

Lucky Number 13

Everything went well yesterday. Even though I'm in more pain than I anticipated, we are excited and in awe at the results. I just got off the phone with the lab this morning. Yesterday, they were able to extract 32 eggs (thus the amount of pain) and they were able to fertilize 17. When they checked them this morning, 13 eggs had fertilized normally, 3 were abnormal and 1 did not fertilize. Yes, these are daunting numbers but we are very excited that the procedure went so well and we have great results. Definitely got our moneys worth yesterday! We will not talk to the lab again until Sunday morning and will be back at the hospital on Tuesday.

In the meantime please pray for the embryos to continue to divide and be successful, for us to make decisions pleasing to God, for the procedure Tuesday to go well, and for us to have embryos viable enough to be frozen so we don't have to do this again any time soon. As always, we thank you for walking this journey with us and will update you as we know more.

Or Not

I just got off the phone with the Dr. office and it seems as though my blood work is pushing us ahead in this process. We are now scheduled for a retrieval early Thursday morning. We will be at the hospital at 7:15 and will be there around 3 hours. It is quite daunting to think that we have actually arrived at this crossroad. If you would like to learn more about what will happen on Thursday click here.

Please pray as we reach this milestone. Specifically pray for a smooth procedure with no complications, many healthy and viable eggs, good fertilization, and for all of the staff (including Dr. Barnett) to do what they do best. We will update you again on Friday as we learn more about the number and viability of our embryos.

Thank you in advance.

Still Growing...(Part 2)

We are still growing the eggs. The doctor lowered my dose yet again for the Follistim tonight and wants to see me again in the morning. They will measure the eggs one last time, and pre-op me. It is looking like Friday is the day but we will let you know for sure tomorrow. Just one more reminder that God is still in control.

Still Growing

Our appointment went well again this morning. I am still responding well to the Follistim and they lowered my dose again to encourage some of the smaller follicles to catch up to the larger ones. It is daunting to see 25-30 potential eggs on the sonogram screen (even knowing that only about half of them will be considered mature). We have another appointment on Tuesday morning and will hopefully be getting our go ahead for IVF. It is looking like Thursday may be our day for retrieval but we will keep you posted after Tuesday. Keep praying, as God is listening and responding.

The Countdown Begins

Well, school is out for the summer and I enjoyed my first day of summer vacation by waking up early to go to the doctor. Wahoo!

We had a good appointment. I'm responding well to the Follistim shots and we expect to have the ideal number of eggs (10-12) for retrieval. We go back on Sunday morning for another sonogram and will be planning the retrieval for next week. I'll keep you posted.

The shot are getting harder and harder to take as the higher doses cause me to bruise. I'm quickly running out of places on my abdomen to do shots but we are hoping to be done soon. They also lowered my dose for the next two days so hopefully that will help too. I'm ready to be done with this!!

We promise to keep you all updated as we will have lots of prayer requests over the next week or so. For now, please pray that we get through the remaining shots will little discomfort and that they continue to be effective. Thank you all for everything and check back on Sunday!