Our Christmas Miracle!!!

After 2 1/2 years, multiple fertility treatments and various heartbreaks Mike and I are beyond ECSTATIC to announce that we were blessed with our Christmas miracle after a last minute decision to do another round of in-vitro.  Baby Ricci is FINALLY on their way and due to arrive Sept 3, 2012!!!! We are overjoyed with this news and we can't wait for our new addition! We found out Christmas morning and surprised both ourselves, and our families with the news on Christmas day! It was truly a magical and memorable Christmas and we are thrilled to finally be adding to our family in 2012.

I am SUPER early along but I am just too excited to not share the news. We went in for bloodwork yesterday after three positive home pregnancy tests and confirmed that I am indeed pregnant and am about 4 weeks along. We will be going in for an ultrasound on January 10th to find out if there is one baby or two in there and we can't wait to hear our little one's heartbeat. We are both still in shock and this whole experience has been completely surreal but we are already so completely in love with Baby Ricci and can't wait for the journey to parenthood to begin.

As for me I am feeling pretty well, just tired, have some back aches and headaches and have an enhanced sense of smell, but I am going to enjoy every moment of this incredible journey and I can't believe it's finally happening. Even my nightly progesterone shots are now a piece of cake. :)

Thank you all SO much for your continuted love, support, prayers, faith and hope for us and Baby Ricci. I know without our amazing families, friends and the support of this blog and my RESOLVE fertility group, we wouldn't have made it through this difficult time and Baby Ricci wouldn't be on their way.

So, "I'm Pregnant!" Wow, these words are so crazy to hear out of my mouth but are words I am so thrilled to say! It's been a hard, long wait but I always knew it would be worth it in the end and it truly is!  I will keep you all updated on my progress, for better or worse, and am looking forward to sharing the pregnancy journey with you as well.

I hope each of you had a very Merry and magical Christmas too and for all of you out there who read this and are trying, I truly hope you will be blessed with your miracles soon!  Once you see those two pink lines, I PROMISE everything you are going through will all be worth it.

All my best and love,

Lauren :)

Transfer Day!

We made it!  For the first time we were able to make it to transfer day and what a wonderful day it was!  I woke up yesterday like a kid on Christmas morning and after running a few errands, we ended up at our appointment half an hour early.  I sat there giddy with excitement and anxious to finally get our little eggies inside of me.

We were finally taken back to the transfer room and Dr. Johnstone came in to give us an update on our eggies.  She shared with us that 8 were still viable but that only 1 made it to the blastocyst stage.  The other 7 were in various stages of the morula stage, but none were of great quality.  She asked how many we wanted to transfer and we told her two so she chose the best two, gave me a couple vallium and said she would be back in 10 minutes. 

By the time Dr. Johnstone came back I was feeling great and she got ready to transfer our little eggies. The transfer itself was pretty simple (especially after everything else I have been through), and it was only a tiny bit more invasive than a normal papsmear. In all honesty, the only part that was uncomfortable was when they cleaned my cervix.   Mike was able to stay in the room and watch the eggies get loaded into the catherter and transferred into me. The transfer took all of 5 minutes and then I spent the next half hour sleeping in the transfer room. 

Below is the first picture of Baby Ricci/Riccis and are the two eggies that were implanted in me.  I think the top is a girl because it's stronger and Miss Annie thinks the bottom looks like Mike :)  Isn't technology amazing?

  

You will also notice the fertility charm in the picture as well.  My step-dad Rod gave it to me a few months ago and I held it and rubbed it the entire time for luck.  Mike being the smart-alec and logical person he is, finally said "you should find one that says science and rub that because if this works, it's because of science."  It was a pretty funny comment and will definitely be a story we remember for life.    

Following transfer and a quick stop at Cafe Rio for lunch (to go of course), we headed home and have been spending the weekend watching the newest season of Dexter.  Mike has been a Nazi Nurse umm I mean a fabulous nurse and has been regulating every time I get up to walk anywhere.  I am not the best bed rest patient but I really am trying not to move around too much, but I really hate having to ask for everything I need/want.  I am too self-sufficient but I am trying to enjoy being waited on hand and foot because it's not going to last for long.

Even though everything went as perfect as it could yesterday, we did get some sad news this morning.  After transferring the two best quality embryos, they allowed the remaining 6 to continue growing.  Unfortunately this morning when they checked them, they had either all died or are on their way to dying.  What this means is that we don't have any to freeze so if this doesn't work, we will have to go through another fresh cycle again.  As difficult as the process is, I know I am strong enough to endure it again if I need to and this cycle was basically a freebie anyway.  I am just hoping it won't come down to that.   

So, now we wait until my pregnancy test at the end of December... It's such a strange and amazing feeling to know that there are two little embryos in there trying to find their home and that in a mere few weeks I could finally hear the words "you're pregnant".  While I am extremely optimistic that this cycle will work, I know there is a 45% chance it won't and we will have to start this process all over again.  If that's the case, I will be devastated, but in the same breath I have the most amazing husband, friends and family and we will get through it together.  I am just really hoping for a Christmas miracle and that 2012 will be a life changing year.    Happy holidays everyone!  I hope you all get your own miracles too!  :) 

11 is our lucky number...

Hello blogreaders,

I know I have been MIA for a while and a lot of it is because I was emotionally drained from my previous IVF cycle and it took a good month and a half for me to completely heal, both physically and mentally. In order to deal with what was going on and the devastation a failed IVF cycle brought, I buried myself in work and spent a week in California working, gathering my thoughts and spending some much needed one on one time with mah Be. I came home from that trip rejuvinated and ready to jump into another IVF cycle.

To back up a little bit, my first day back at work from my previous bed rest it was announced that our infertility insurance was changing and that everything done this year wouldn't count toward our new $30,000 infertility lifetime max. Although I wasn't ready to jump into another fresh cycle so soon and my IVF Dr. didn't love the idea, we decided because my ovaries were back to size and it was basically a free cycle we would go ahead with another round. Due to the length of time a cycle takes and the Christmas holiday, we chose to do an antagonistic IVF cycle, so there were a few less shots (no Lupron) and the process was a week shorter. I started my birth control on November 7th, as well as the drug metformin, which is primarily used in diabetic patients, but has been found to help with hyperstimulation. Metformin is a pretty nasty drug though and for the first few weeks of taking it I was nauseous and threw up a few times. It was basically like having morning sickness without the baby.

My body finally got used to the metformin and on December 2nd, I began my follicle stimulating shots of Repronex and Follistim. Due to hyperstimulating last time, they decreased my dose of Follistim from 150mg to 100mg and I was going in daily for an ultrasound to see how everything was progressing. As soon as there was a follicle above 13, they had me start another daily shot of a drug called Ganorelix to stop my brain and ovaries from talking to each other.

Everything had been going well and they were monitoring my estrogen levels very closely because of what happened last time, that is until I went in on Friday, December 9th. The day before they had drawn some blood to check my estrogen and found that it was once again high (3,000) and I was going down the same hyperstimulation path as I had last time. The Dr. had me have more blood work done and then ordered me to bed rest and put me on a gatorade diet to help alleviate some of the hyperstimulation symptoms. As I sat in the office with tears running down my face that Friday and trying not to bawl as they once again handed me a "hat" and a measuring tape, they informed me of a fairly new protocol they are able to use in antagonistic cycles. Due to the fact that I had not been taking Lupron this cycle, they could use Lupron to to trigger my ovulation instead of HCG because it doesn’t contribute to hyperstimulation. They also put me on a cautionary prescription and told me to take it easy Friday and Saturday and they would call me after they got the results of my estrogen to decide whether or not it was OK for me to go in for a retrieval. They also reminded me that even if I could do a retrieval, my hyperstimulation symptoms would most likely increase and there was a very small chance I would be able to do a transfer and we would most likely need to freeze all of the embryos and do a frozen cycle at a later date.

After I left the Dr.'s office and had my complete meltdown, I received a call from the U. They informed me that even though my estrogen was still high (4,000), they wanted to do a retrieval on Sunday and I needed to trigger that night. Although I was excited this cycle was still a go, I was really worried about the pain and anguish I thought I would for sure feel. I went in on Sunday extremely anxious, although hopeful, and went through another egg retrieval.

To my surprise and relief, I came out of my retrieval feeling pretty good. I did not experience any of the same symptoms I had last time and just spent Sunday taking it easy and drinking gatorade to keep the symptoms at bay. They were able to retrieve 16 eggies and on Tuesday I learned that 12 were mature, 11 were able to fertilize and 11 were still growing and dividing like they should. As of this morning, all 11 were still growing, although three aren't doing as well as the others, and I am scheduled for my first transfer tomorrow morning at 11:00 am. I am in total shock that we are getting to this point and I am feeling extremely blessed and thankful that the Dr.'s were able to reverse the hyperstimulation and salvage this cycle.

So that's my story for the past few months. I apologize for not sharing earlier but I kept this cycle on the DL because of everything that happened last time and my fear of the same thing happening. It was only after I was told that this cycle looked as though it was going to fail as well that I felt the courage and need to share our journey again.

I am anxiously awaiting my transfer tomorrow and am happy to report that Mike is on board with transferring two. For some reason this time feels so much different than anything else we have ever done and I am extremely hopeful that Baby Ricci or Riccis will be on their way soon.

Thanks again for all of your love, support, comments, advice and inspiring words. I wouldn't be able to get through all of this without my amazing friends, family, my RESOLVE group, co-workers and this blog.

XOXOX...

Lauren