Ready, set, trigger!

First time I ever had to stick myself with a needle and I completed it successfully. Mr. PB wimped out and left me to my own devices when I had to take my Ovidrel shot mere minutes ago. To be honest it wasn't so bad, especially considering up until about 10 years ago I had a HUGE fear of needles of all kinds. I am now ready for IUI #1 tomorrow.

Let me jump back a few days. One Christmas Eve day, Mr. PB and I got up early to head to the ultrasound clinic to see how my follicles have responded to the 50 mg of clomid I took from CD3 to CD7. The ultrasound clinician who was working was incredibly nice and explained the whole process to Mr. PB (who had no clue what was going on) and me. Turns out I had two nice follicles ready, one in each ovary (18 mm and 20 mm). After getting some blood work taken, Mr. PB and I went home to stare at the phone until it rang with the results. The nurse called me by about 1 and let me know that I needed to trigger on Christmas night and come in for my IUIs on Sunday and Monday.

Since we live 40 minutes away from the clinic, we planned our course and times that we needed to leave. However, living in New England nothing can be that simple in December. My parents came over this morning for Christmas breakfast with news that the small snow storm we were supposed to get from Sunday into Monday has turned into a mini-blizzard (over a foot is expected). The great parents that I have fear we will not be able to make it to the clinic on time (7 AM) Monday and are paying for a hotel and dinner for us right near the clinic for Sunday night. Now not only do we have a chance for our Christmas wish to come true, we get a mini-vacation. This is just one of the many reasons I am thankful we have been open about our infertility.

Hopefully some Christmas magic will follow us for the next few days and give us IUI beginner's luck. As much as I love spending Christmas with my cousins and their children, I cannot wait until it is my child everyone is fussing over.

Quick appointment update

I had my baseline sono today at my RE's office and all is normal and as expected. She did say that I had a small cyst on my right overy but that it was collapsing and would go away with my period. My doctor decided to cut my dose of femara in half, thinking that my dosage may be affecting my lining in a negative way. Other than that, all is the same. 2.5 mg of femara on days 3-7, four vivelle dot (estrogen) patches on days 10-15, midcycle sono to check follicles and lining on January 2nd, then ovidrel to induce ovulation and endometrin (progesterone suppositories) four days past trigger. I am hoping and praying and crossing everything I have that 2010 brings us our Baby Chef Bud.

The 2WW is torture

Today I am 8 DPO, but it seems like it's been months since I ovulated! I don't know how 8 days can seem so long.

This has been an interesting month. It's the first month I've been on the medication regimine prescribed by my RE. At the beginning of the month, there were five days of femara. Then on CD14, I had the pleasure of giving myself a shot called ovidrel, which triggered ovulation. I actually gave myself the shot, which is a huge deal because I do NOT do well with needles. It's amazing the fears you can overcome for something you want so badly. Then four days after the shot, I started on endometrine, which is a progesterone suppository.

When I started out with all this, I was sure that it would be the trick for me to get pregnant. Now that I am at the end of my cycle I'm not so sure. I don't know what it is that makes me think I'm not pregnant right now. I've actually had more symptoms than any other month, including cramps, backaches and moodiness. But I have no idea if that is progesterone side effects or pg symptoms. I also still have high temps and no spotting, which is great for me. But again, that could be attributed to the progesterone. Maybe I am not feeling like this will be our month because I have to have some sort of defense mechanism to protect myself from being crushed if I start AF. I did test this morning and it was a BFN, but I know it was early. I guess I will have keep waiting, see what my temps do and hope that AF stays away!

Good end to a not so good week.....

"Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of life. -Maureen Hawkins"

This week has been pretty crazy for me. I think when I started this cycle I had expectations on how things would go. I thought I would have responded a little better to the meds which turned out to be not so much. I also found out that one of my really good friends/my god-daughter's mom is pregnant with #2. I haven't really had any trouble dealing with friends being PG but yesterday, I think due to my being extra hormonal, I lost it. Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic for them. She's going to be 40 so I know they were eager to get pregnant soon and had been trying with no luck for almost a year....it was just a shock and I was totally shocked that I reacted that way. Anyway, I'm looking forward to having another baby to spoil. They make adorable kids.

Ok...back to the cycle.

On Thursday, CD 12 I went in for my first u/s and E2 check. My largest follie was about 15mm and my E2 was 173. I was asked to go back on Fri. That testing showed an E2 of 199 and my follie was up to 17mm. Today my E2 was at 273 and Mr. Follie is up to 22mm! I'm a little disappointed that I only have 1 but, 1 is better than none.

The RE's office called and said to do the trigger tonight between 7-9pm (DONE!). Tomorrow morning at 8am we'll report to IUI #1, then back again Monday morning for IUI #2.

So! Here we go!
I'm really excited but also incredibly nervous. I'm trying to be positive without getting my hopes too high. Something that is SO HARD to do.

Wish us luck! I'll be back to tell you about it tomorrow.

The life of an IUI patient....

I will preface this my saying that every IUI patient is different. Not every woman will use the same protocol (types of meds, doses etc.) but, this is a little insight my "agenda for the next couple of weeks.

Upon, finding out that Monster cyst was gone I was sent to meet with a nurse that went over all my meds. Thanks to the Infertility board on thebump.com, I was pretty much "in the know". The nurse was surprised. I totally think I deserved a sticker.

Anyway, here's how it's gonna go....


CD 3-7: Clomid 100mg


CD 9: 150iu of Follistim (done in the stomach below the bellybutton on either side)


CD 12: We will go in for a monitoring appointment. At this appointment the RE will determine how big the follicles are and whether or not we are ready to trigger. The trigger is a shot of Ovidrel. Ovidrel is used to trigger the release of a mature egg.


If the follicles are not ready then we will need to keep going back until they are. Once we get the thumbs up the shot goes in. It will be done the same as the Follistim.



The day after the trigger, we will go in for the first IUI. For those who are unfamiliar with what an IUI is here is a description:

1. The woman usually is given medications to stimulate development of multiple eggs and the insemination is timed to coincide with ovulation - release of the eggs.


2. A semen specimen is either produced at home or in the office by masturbation after 2-5 days of abstinence from ejaculation.


3. The semen is "washed" in the laboratory (called sperm processing or sperm washing). The sperm is separated from the other components of the semen and concentrated in a small volume. Various media and techniques can be used for the washing and separation. Sperm processing takes about 30-60 minutes.


4. A speculum is placed in the vagina and the cervical area is gently cleaned.


5. The washed specimen of highly motile sperm is placed either in the cervix (intracervical insemination, ICI) or higher in the uterine cavity (intrauterine insemination, IUI) using a sterile, flexible catheter.

The intrauterine insemination procedure, if done properly, should seem similar to a pap smear for the woman. There should be little or no discomfort.
Most clinics offer for the woman to remain lying down for a few minutes after the procedure, although it has not been shown to improve success rates. The sperm has been put above the vagina and cervix - it will not leak out when you stand up. Source

My RE does this B2B (back to back), meaning we will go in for the first one and then come back in the next day and do it again.

Once the procedure is done I'm sent home to wait. Hopefully during this waiting time all of Mr. Love Bud's little soldiers are having an easy time finding the egg I worked so hard to grow and release. You'd have to think 5 million+ sperm could find one tiny egg?!

The RE's office likes to wait 16 days before having you come in for a Beta. The reason for this is A) you might get AF before then and B) making sure there is sufficient time for the HCG shot (Ovidrel) to leave your system since it can cause a false positive. For the most part that shot is gone in about 11-12 days so I will have taken an HPT by then.

So there it is. My life for the next 2 weeks! If all goes well we'll find out around our anniversary that Little Love Bud is coming. If it does well.....I'll find a nice big bottle of wine and celebrate that way!

Doctor appointments update

Today was my second doctor appointment this week. I went in on Monday for my mid-cycle ultrasound. They checked my follicles and lining, and surprise! They weren't ready yet. I tried to tell the nurse at my baseline appointment at the beginning of the month that I usually ovulated really late and I didn't want to come in on CD 11 because I knew my follicles wouldn't be ready yet and I was right. So that was a $70 appointment that was a waste. Even though my follicles were too small to do the trigger shot, they still were progressing ok, but my lining was pathetic. Still very thin.

They made another appointment for today, and my follicles had definitely done some growing. Today they were 18, 16, 14 and 12. She said I should do the trigger shot tomorrow to give the 16 follie another day to grow. My lining? Still a sad little 4. Everything I've read said it should be 8-13 at ovulation, and under 6 is a problem. The ultrasound tech asked if this has always been an issue for me and I told her I didn't know. I just found out about it when I started seeing the RE. I guess that could explain the mid-month bleeding I had a few years ago.



A normal uterus and lining. The green is outlining the lining, which in this picture is 11.2 mm thick. The red is the outline of the uterus.
Photo Credit






I will do the ovidrel trigger shot tomorrow, which will release any mature eggs. We have instructions to have sex for three days, then I will start progesterone suppositories on Monday. My hope is that the progesterone will help with my lining issue, but after asking around on some message boards, I think progesterone just helps keep the lining you have intact and doesn't increase it. So who knows if a BFP is even possible this month. If not, I hope that the progesterone helps thicken my lining for next month. Even though it can be depressing at times when your body isn't doing what it's supposed to, I am so glad that I am being monitored so closely so we know what is going on and what we need to fix.