Let the wait begin!

Wednesday's monitoring appointment was a bit better. My follies grew to: 18, 14, 13, 13. One dropped off so they didn't even tell me the measurement. My E2 took a nice leap to around 350 which they were very pleased with. The nurse told me that it indicated that there *could* be more than one egg. That would make me happy because I was a bit bummed at only one good follicle.

They had me trigger Wednesday night at 7pm. I shoved a bag of frozen corn down my pants to numb that butt cheek good and cold. Mr. Sunflower Bud seemed to really enjoy doing that shot. I only cried just a little bit. :) I am so not a needle person at all.

I'm hoping that the 14mm follie caught up to maturity by ovulation. I'm having cramping pains on both sides so hopefully that is a great sign of ovulation on both sides. The 18 was on the right and the 14 was on the left.

Thursday morning was the second post coital. This test was not good. My cervical mucous was much better than it was on Tuesday. Dr. P said it was clear and flowing and he was very pleased with it. However... the majority of DH's sperm were not swimming around freely. Instead they were staying in one place just shaking like they had been electrocuted or having a seizure. Dr. P let me see this under the scope and it was the weirdest thing. Mr. Sunflower Bud's sperm analysis was "donor quality" so we were perplexed by this. Dr. P believes that one of us has a sperm antibody that is causing the sperm to react this way. He estimated that only around 10% of the sperm on the slide were actually swimming properly.

So... our chances for this cycle working are much lower than we anticipated. We're giving it our all with sex twice a day until Saturday but we're really just kind of looking at it as a learning cycle. They will be better able to adjust my dosage of Follistim next cycle now that we now I need to start out at a more aggressive dose since I didn't respond very well to the lower dose this cycle.

We're also scheduled for IBT testing to determine if one of us has the sperm antibody. Mr. Sunflower Bud has to have another SA since it's been a year since his last one and they are also going to do infection testing on him as well.

Going forward, Dr. P said that we will go straight to IUI and will not consider TI anymore due to the "shaking sperm" problem.

As is in my nature... I've already started testing out the trigger because I just enjoy seeing 2 lines on a test. Already getting lighter, yay! Hopefully it won't last the whole 10 days.

Another monitoring update...

Day 2 of monitoring didn't start out very well. Started out with a post coital test which was horrible. My CM was so thick that the sperm were stuck in it and not moving. This was not what my RE expected to see with an estrogen level of 168. I did have a very nice "I told you so" moment because I've been telling him over and over again that I have CM issues. Now he believes me. I love being right. I gloated for a good part of the morning over that.

Ultrasound showed that some of my follicles shrank and others didn't grow at all. I'm currently at: 15, 14, 13, 11, 10.

I was told that I was in pretty big danger of having my cycle canceled to poor response. *cry* I was in pretty poor spirits as I left the office and prayed for most of the day that my estrogen levels cooperated and would keep me in the game.

Thankfully, they didn't fail me. My estrogen rose to 240. Yay!

So they upped my Follistim dosage to 150 tonight. Triple my original dose! Yikes! Mr. Sunflower Bud is getting very good at giving me shots. While I was so proud of myself for doing 2 whole shots myself, I chickened out after that. He's gotten a more steady hand and it didn't even hurt at all tonight. And I had to have 2 shots instead of just 1, since I had to switch to a new cartridge.



I go back in again in the morning for another monitoring appointment and another post coital on Thursday morning. That post coital will determine if we will need to do IUI.

So more prayers tonight that my follicles kick into gear already and my estrogen rises a ton! I'm on day 7 of stims now.

Stupid Estradiol.

The nurse called me this afternoon and told me that my Estradiol level was very low for as many follicles as I have. It was only 168. She said that indicated that only one follicle was most likely functioning.

Naturally, I was completely upset. After all of this, we get ONE follicle??? *sigh*

They upped my Follistim to 75 for tonight and I go back in tomorrow morning at 8am.

We're also doing the post coital test tomorrow, which means we have to get up early in the morning to have sex. I haaaaaaate morning sex. UGH. I am so not a morning person. But there is some concern about my lack of cervical mucous. The nurse said it should definitely be noticeable by now and it's not. So here's hoping for some answers there.

Hoping for better news tomorrow. Maybe a nice spike in Estradiol and some growth of 2 more follicles. *crosses fingers*