Gender Reveal

Mr. Explorer Bud and I had our 20 week ultrasound and are excited to announce what we are having........

The little guy looked great in the ultrasound and was very calm. He is measuring a week ahead and all his organs and measurements look good. As for other pregnancy related things, I think I have finally started to feel the little guy moving around the past two days which is really fun. It kinda feels like sideways bubbles moving around my stomach!! Last week we started our Hypnobabies class and have been enjoying that and doing lots and lots of practice my self-hypnosis. I have been feeling great and am working on eating healthy to prepare for a good labor!!!

Pregnancy Announcement

We got our Christmas Pictures done and are doing our pregnancy announcement through those. It snowed the day before and day of so there was lots of fluffy snow for the pictures. I am 16 weeks and things are going well. I am feeling great and am sleeping better and having more energy. I now need to get my rear in gear and make it to the gym to keep up my fitness level. I just have been trying to get Christmas shopping, cards and neighbor gifts finished so I will probably just wait till after Christmas to go to the gym! Hope all you have a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year!!

14 Weeks

I am in the second trimester, which seems just as surreal as this whole pregnancy has felt so far!! Mr. EB and I have been taking weekly pictures from 13 weeks on, better late than never, and that seems to help me feel like I am pregnant. I have picked a midwife whom I click with and I have my first appointment tomorrow afternoon that I am excited to hear the heartbeat. Today there was a warehouse sale for Lilac Clothing, a maternity clothing line, that I drug my mom to so I could get some cheap pants and shirts that I think will get me through the pregnancy. I hate shopping so doing so among buckets of clothing and things not in order doesn't make for a confident shopper. Luckily I knew what size pants I should get but wasn't too sure on the tops, they will at least fit me at the moment! I think I am mostly over morning sickness but have had a few throw-up days in the past two weeks. I got the flu and couldn't keep anything down but I am on the up from that as well. Oh and I went to the Endocrinologist yesterday and had my Thyroid checked and they called to let me know everything looks good and to retest in 6 weeks. So all is well here and I am enjoying the journey!!

Officially Off Progesterone Shots

Monday I went in to test my progesterone levels at the Dr.'s office and they came back at 45.6 which is great. That was after 4 days of not taking any shots and 1/2 cc for a week prior to that. I was soo happy to be officially done and now I am officially released from the IVF Dr. and can focus on finding a midwife. I interviewed one midwife and I really liked her personality, philosophies and her emergency plan with back up doctors. I have three more to interview and then I will decide. I have been feeling less nauseous lately but today I threw up twice soo I am hoping soon we will be done with morning sickness!! 12 Weeks this week oh yeah!!

11 Weeks

I am on 1/2 cc of PIO through Wednesday and then I will go and get my progesterone levels retested to make sure I can go completely off of those darn shots!! Mr. Explorer Bud is an excellent shot giver and can find the non lumpy spots which is a big relief at this point when there isn't a lot of non knotted areas to choose from. The nausea is subsiding I think but my sleep schedule is all out of control! I wake up around 1-3 am and then can't fall back asleep until 6 am when I have to get up for work. I have tried taking Unisom and Benadryl which usually knock me out cold but I still wake up regardless!! So I am a bit sleepy but otherwise feeling decent.

Second Ultrasound

So I got back from Thailand yesterday evening and scheduled my ultrasound for 9 am the next morning, can you say I was a bit anxious?! Everything looked great the baby is measuring at 10 wks 6 days and I am 10 wks 4 days so that is good. The heart beat is 158 bpm and was moving all around!! The Dr. was nice in spending a lot of time showing us all the arms, legs, feet, different angles and chatting about the baby. Mr. Explorer Bud and I were thrilled of course. I was really nervous that there wouldn't be a heartbeat just because there is a chance that happens and I really haven't had very much in the way of symptoms. Now I can just relax, enjoy being pregnant and start planning for this baby. I need to decide if I will go with a midwife and if so who and where I plan on having the baby. Oh and I can start to think about where to put the baby's room and all that fun stuff!! I am soo happy that things are going well and I get to go off Progesterone in a week. I drop my dosage down to .5 cc's and then we will retest to make sure I am still high enough. Here is the ultrasound pictures

Second Round of Blood Work

Today I had my second round of blood work to check my Progesterone levels to see if I could stay off the shots. Well, sadly no I get to go back to shots for the remainder of the time. My Progesterone dropped from 94 the prior week to 6. So after scrambling calling two seperate pharmacies I was able to get an old prescription filled from last time at a pharmacy down the road and my current prescription will arrive on Wednesday. One thing I didn't realize was the old prescription was 50mg/ml and the new one is 100 mg/ml which means I would need to take 2 cc's of the old one to match the new prescription. So I got to have a shot twice in one day!! Next time I will study those labels better!!! Great news though my HCG level is at 3,100!!! So that is great and I am excited to see what the ultrasound shows next week.

Results are In

I am PREGNANT!!! My Beta was 214 and my Progesterone was 94!!! I am soo excited that it is a positive and we have strong numbers. With such a high Progesterone I get to drop down to .5 cc's of Progestrone for the next 4 days and retest in a week and hopefully will not have to do anymore shots!! It all feels a bit sureal but am getting more excited the more I talk about it!!

Bloodwork has Been Taken

Our day 12 HCG test was this morning so I am in the agonizing hour wait till they get the results and the DR. calls me back!! I am feeling good, my butt is awfully knotty and sore which is typical of this time with the shots but othwerwise good. We did not have any eggs to freeze again but one almost made it to blastocyte which is better than the other three times. So this is our final go at IVF so I am crossing my fingers that the call will bring good news!!

They are in

On Wednesday we went in for the transfer in the morning. My acupuncturist arrived 45 mins before the transfer was scheduled and I did a 30 minute acupuncture treatment. Then we went in and saw the 15 embryos and talked with the embryologist about how they were looking. There was one embryo that was grade A and was starting to compact, one grade AB and a grade B that we put in. The rest were a mix of B's and C's but they were either unevenly grouped cells or fragmentation. The embryologist doesn't think that any will freeze but we should find out for sure tomorrow. So after picking our embryos and taking pictures of them I got ready for the transfer. It went smoothly and besides the nurse trying to get my uterus in focus in-between me laughing. I layed around for the obligatory 20 minutes until I could get up and finally empty my bladder. Having a full bladder is uncomfortable anyways but add on sore ovaries it makes it worse. Then I got to go back and lay down for another 30 minute acupuncture session. I fell asleep during the second session and jolted awake part way thru, I hate when that happens! Anyways, I was on bed-rest for two days and my wonderful friends came and visited so I wasn't bored and brought me mounds of food and treats. Today is day three and I can ease back into daily life and get back to some light exercise later in the week. I feel good, just a little hyper sensitive about every twinge that goes on with my body. Always looking for "signs" that those embryo's are doing something good, eventhough I do know that you can't feel anything. We get to test in 12 days so I am going out of town with my mom for a week and relaxing and eating some good food to take my mind off of the wait.

Fertilization Report

So it looks like we had a total of 22 egss retrieved, 21 were mature and 15 fertilized. It looks like Wednesday mid-afternoon will be our transfer day. Last night I had a strange stomach pains and broke into a cold sweat, I was worried that it might by OHSS but I wasn't sure. Luckily the pains subsided eventually and I have been feeling better. I think this time around I am a bit more sensitive to the medications and the retrieval. Keeping my fingers crossed that Wednesday we will have some good strong embryos to transfer.

Embryo Retrieval

Today was the embryo retrieval and we were got 22 eggs!! We will know tomorrow how many were mature and fertilized. I think the most we have ever had was 14 eggs retrieved before so we will see how the larger number fares. I am definitely the most sore after this retrieval than I have ever been but that is probably due to the the number of eggs I was growing. I have been napping and relaxing with a little pain killers tonight and tomorrow should be feeling better.

Egg Count Is In

Today we had an appointment with the Dr. and we during the ultrasound we discovered my eggs have been growing like weeds!! I have 12 14-17 mm eggs on my right ovary and 13 14-15 mm eggs on my left, yes that is a whopping 25 eggs growing at the moment. It looks like we will be doing the retrieval Sunday afternoon so hopefully a lot of these eggs will be nice and mature and fertilize well. Tomorrow I go back for another appointment and I have started taking Antagon to mature those eggs and keep them from jumping the gun! I got a call from the Dr.'s office and my blood work shows that yes indeed I am getting ready my Estridial is high and LH levels are starting to rise.

Egg Update - Day 10

I had my prolactin levels tested on my first appointment and they were at a good level. So we are starting off on the right foot with hormone levels. I had my second appointment this past Monday and the eggs are all between 6-10 mm and are growing at the rate the Dr. would like to see. So I am continuing on 3 vials of Repronex a day. This afternoon is my day 10 appointment and I will probably start taking Antagon in conjunction with Repronex to help mature the eggs and prevent me from preovulating. I can now feel that my ovaries are full, especially when I have to go to the bathroom. Otherwise I feel pretty good as usual. I am very lucky that I handle the medications well and don't seem to get too crazy, sick or in much pain. I will be doing acupuncture 2x a week during this IVF and so I will have a treatment this Friday. I am feeling pretty relaxed about this round, I forget that I am doing IVF or maybe it is I am ignoring the fact. Either way I am doing everything that I normally do, go to the gym 2x a week, work, try to work on 8 glasses of water a day, herbs, acupuncture, etc.

Update Hormone Bloodwork

August 1st I went in and had my hormone levels and thyroid rechecked. My Testosterone level was 100, Estridol was 60 and my Thyroid levels were in the normal range (don't remember at the moment). So I asked the nurse if these were levels that we could start another round of IVF or if we would need to wait longer. She spoke with the RE and he said the next month we would be able to start!! Jump forward to now..... We are on day 4 of our 4th IVF cycle. We are doing an Antagon stimming cycle so I am taking Repronex 3 vials each day for about 10 days. On Monday the 3rd I will go in and do my second blood draw to check hormone levels and an ultrasound to see how the eggs are growing. If things are going good we will wait and be seen a few days later to determine when I will need to take the Lupron shot (trigger shot) so we can do the retrieval. I think, if all goes on schedule, we will be doing the retrieval on Monday, September 10th. I am feeling great and am still doing weekly acupuncture appointments, taking the following herbs: Menotrol(in place of Metformin) and Blossoms 1 - 4(depending upon which week of my cycle I am on on). I feel at peace with this last round of IVF because I feel like we have tried everything that is out there and I know that we have given it our best shot and getting pregnant.

Acupuncture & Herbs

I have been going once a week to my acupuncture appointment and things seem to be going well. My cycle isn't any better but they say it can take several months so we will see. I talked with my acupuncturist about using an herbal replacement for Metformin and he told me about a mix of herbs called Menotrol. It is made specifically for women with PCOS, amenorrhea, irregular cycles and infertility. Where Metformin is just to treat the insulin resistance. So I talked to my RE and he didn't have a problem with me trying it out. So I am awaiting the arrival of Menetrol and then an herbal supplement called Blossom (Phase 1-4) that I will take each phase according to my cycle. Maybe we wills start seeing a bigger improvement with acupuncture with the addition of herbs.

Results are In

I called the RE's office and got my blood test results and my levels are all too high to do IVF in July. He is bumping my Thyroid up to get my levels back to 1 as well. I can retest in 2 months to see if they are low enough to try again. Estrodial: 70 Testosterone: 166 T3: 3.3 TSH: 3.43 Bummer but it does give me more time to be doing Acupuncture, get off sugar and get into shape. Maybe I will be more motivated than I have been to do these things but the past 6 months I have not been motivated to do anything healthy. I really think I have been in a pity party slump for awhile now but still trying to carry on with my daily life. I have been praying, as always, to get an answer about doing another round of IVF and what other things I should be doing to improve my chances. So maybe this is an answer in giving me more time to get my act together and be the healthiest I can be. I went to the acupuncturist today and we talked about herbs and how they may interact with Metformin and he didn't feel like it would be a good idea. I think I will still go and see the other acupuncturist that my MIL's waxing girl went to who sounds a lot more knowledgeable about diet and herbs than mine to have a diet/nutrition consultation.

Blood Work Check

I went in today for my Hormone level check to see if they have dropped down low enough from my Bioidentical Hormone Treatments to start IVF next month. If so I will start back on BCP's and probably start injections sometime in July. If not we will just wait another month and retest the hormone levels. Mr. EB and I just got back from a week in Hawaii relaxing and enjoying doing nothing. A great way to relax before IVF!! Oh I have been doing the Ovulation tests and so far I have a faint line on all of them but nowhere near as dark as the base line is. We are on day 18 so I am going to stop testing when I run out of test strips.

Nothing New

Acupuncture is going well, I have talked with another girl that did acupuncture and got pregnant about her experiences seeing various acupuncturist. She had similar experiences in that they were all different and she ended up going with the one that was the most thorough. Her's unfortunately is about an hour away so I won't be going to her for acupuncture but I may go up for a nutrition and herbal recommendation. Last month I started doing the ovulation tests but I didn't start testing till day 12 in my cycle so I am not sure if I already had. This cycle I got a faint positive last night and so I am going to take another one tonight to see if it is a stronger positive. If so that is a good sign that the acupuncture is helping since I haven't ovulated on my own in a couple of years. We are still moving forward with IVF in July/August but have continued to look further into our other options if this round doesn't work. Mr. EB and I are off to Oahu today for the week and are looking forward to lots and lots of relaxation and sun!!!

Second Acupuncturist

Last week Mr. EB and I went off to the second Acupuncturist that is about 30 minutes away. I got his name from another RE's website and figured he may be more familiar with the IVF process in conjunction with Acupuncture. He is deaf in both ears to some degree and therefore has a very strong deaf accent which makes it hard to understand him at times. Mr. EB was frustrated that he was difficult to understand and that we are running into a similar problem with the previous Acupuncturist and not understanding them well. Unfortunately there just isn't a large selection of Acupuncturists in our area so we have slim pickings. When we arrived we got to fill out another "Symptoms" packet with a lot of questions about every aspect of your body and it functions, even bodily functions!! Nice huh?! Then he had us come back and looked over our packets and talked with each of us about what we had put down to get a better understanding of them. I explained our main goal was to work on getting both MR. EB and I balanced and healthy for our next IVF cycle and we would want to do Acupuncture in conjunction with IVF. He then took our various organ pulses and checked our tongues. I am more Yin or cold and Mr. EB is more Yang or hot. He joked we complete one another!! So funny!! So I went first and he felt along my meridian lines for tender areas and placed about 6 needles in my right ankle and lower leg. Then stuck one in my left shin area, that area always feels like energy is flowing down to my toes, kind of a weird sensation. He then put a couple in both hands and in my right arm. These all correlate with my spleen, kidney's and some other organ that all contribute to hormone's that affect your body's fertility. I then get to lay there carefully laying as to not smoosh the needles and take a little siesta under the heat lamp. He came in twice to wiggle my needles and to check how I was feeling. I did like that every time he came in he would ask if I had any questions for him. He may do that because I told him I was shopping around for Acupuncturists so he is being extra attentive. After about 45 minutes he came in and pulled the needles out and had me get up slowly and then talked about wanting to put Mr. EB on some Herbs. We had talked about maybe doing Herbs for me as well but he decided against it because of all the other stuff I am taking and not wanting it to conflict. After the first appointment I was more confused whom I should go with because neither Acupuncturist put the needles in the same place and the exam was different as well. I was hoping they would be similar and I could just pick which one I liked their personality the most. So I don't know if we will keep going to this guy or the one closer to us I am still in limbo.