Am I about to wake up, or is it for real??!

Whew, what a whirlwind! And a long one at that.

After dozens of shots, blood tests, pills, ultrasounds, more trips to the doctor (and co-pays!) than I can count, a surgery (and this was just for IVF), a failed IUI, miscarriage, months of Clomid, four years of trying and literally everyone around us getting pregnant.......it's FINALLY our turn!

Yes, it is MY turn to say that I'M PREGNANT! 

About time, right?  Yeah, we think so too.  

Here is a brief synopsis (pictures make it more fun) of the last several weeks leading up to my long-awaited announcement:  


The "Box o' Torture" (aka: two months of IVF meds)



Dr. Evil Ware getting ready to give me one of my daily shots. These shots forced my ovaries to produce more follicles (which hold the eggs), so I would have as many as possible for the egg retrieval. He did something right...I had 24 eggs! Considering that you only produce one egg per month normally, I was haulin' around 2 years worth of eggs!

My poor tummy after about two weeks of 3 shots a day...there was a matching bruise on the other side. We try to be thorough!

Our tiny embryos right before they were transferred into me...aren't they cute??

OK, it's a face only a mother can love, but I was really excited to see how they had developed from the time of the retrieval to the day of the transfer. They were approximately 150 cells big at this point - the biggest "blobs" inside will become the baby.  The fact that we were able to see them so early still amazes me.

What a picture for the baby book!

 

 

We finished our first in-vitro cycle on the 5th of December and I was scheduled to go in on the 15th for the first pregnancy test. On the 11th, I started bleeding pretty heavily and I thought that either the embryos didn't implant and that was my cycle, or they had implanted but I was losing the pregnancy.

Thank God neither was the case.

I went in on the 13th (2 days early) for a blood test. Since it was earlier than they would normally test, the nurse warned me that they may not be able to get a good reading and if they were able to, it would only be about a 25.  That's the "beta number" that is the baseline hormone reading; you do a 2nd blood test approximately 2-3 days later and that number should double if you are indeed pregnant.  I wasn't very hopeful that we would get an answer that day, but there wasn't much I could do about it but sit and wait.  That afternoon she called me to tell me the beta came back at 62 which was a very strong number!

My only concern was, I was still bleeding.



The nurse assured me that the progesterone supplement I was on (to thicken my uterine lining and help implantation) was known to cause bleeding in some women and that there was really no cause to worry....I still didn't buy it.

With the last pregnancy, I had FOUR positive pregnancy tests - two home tests and two blood tests - but ended up miscarrying anyway. So of course I didn't let myself get excited just yet. Yes, I was being Debby Downer - but unless you've lost a baby you have no idea how paranoid getting pregnant again makes you! I just didn't want to get my hopes up too soon. 

After the initial test, I had to go again to make sure the numbers were doubling, or at least increasing by 67% every 2 days. The morning of December 16th, I got a call saying that not only did the numbers double, but they were at 292 (quadruple)!! But me being a skeptic, plus not having any luck in the baby department for quite some time, still didn't really believe what I was hearing. But at that point I breathed - a little.

However, that didn't stop me from taking half a dozen home tests in the following week! (Hey you try, and fail, for 4 years to get - and stay - pregnant and you start to believe it may never ever happen again!) 

But here it was.....in black and white! "Pregnant"!!! I took this after 2 blood tests at the doctors office - I still didn't believe it was true!

   

The first sonogram was done on January 3rd...what a way to start 2011! I was one day shy of being 7 weeks along. Measurements were right on track and so was the heart rate. The doctor said everything looked perfect, and the chances of another miscarriage were low.



Talk about a sigh of relief!  God is faithful and answered our prayers!!

 

**** Drumroll please ****



Our first sonogram picture!

  

  

If you are thinking to yourself that it sure looks like two babies in there....you're right! 

We are having TWINS!!



Oh mama.....twins! 

Of course, we were fully aware that if we chose to have 2 embryos transferred back, we would have around a 60% chance of twins. However, with my age and the length of time we'd been trying, two gave us the best chance of getting pregnant, and it's what our doctor recommended.  We couldn't be more excited!

The new additions are scheduled to make their debut sometime in August!