Ultrasound 5w5d

Here is our baby....only one baby but I am happy with that. I think G might be disappointed because she really wanted twins.

Our 3rd beta was 6233 which if I figured it out right is doubling every two days which is good news. We didn't see anything but the sac but I'm told it's still early and my ovaries were still huge which made it hard to see in my uterus. My belly continues to go down everyday so not as much fluid in my abdomen but I still have to have the lovenox shots for another week. We are hoping to see a heartbeat at the next ultrasound in a week.

I have a horrible cold right now and of course there is basically nothing I can take that helps. So I'm home on the couch suffering. If you know of anything that will help with my stuffy nose let me know please!

So far so good

Well I got some catching up to do!!  I am sorry!  I did go for blood work and my HCG was 178 on 10dp5dt so it doubled in 48 hours!!  No more blood work since then so I am hoping it is still going up.  I still haven't broke down and POAS again.  After I got the BFN the morning of my blood test I fear seeing another one, but I want to finally see a BFP on a HPT so I am torn.  I would like to have a picture of one for a scrap book of all the fertility stuff, but what if I am someone it doesn't show up in urine or something and I get another BFN and I panic that I am miscarrying?  This stuff still messes with your head even after you find out your pregnant!!! 

Anyways I am feeling sooo much better.  The fluid goes down every day.  I only have a small bump now which does get people asking if I am pregnant.  "Well yes but this is not baby yet its fluid" lol Here is a picture of G and I on Christmas and you can see my bump!  I'm in green!



 

 

Today I am 5w1d.  I feel like all I do is eat.  I am starving about every two hours, so I have definitely been eating a lot.  That is so unlike me.  Normally if I eat three times a day that was a lot.  I never had a big appetite and was forcing myself to eat while doing the stims trying to get those eggs good and healthy.  Well now there is no forcing.  I want food all the time.  I think if I could eat every minute I would! lol

 

The lovenox (blood thinner) shots are going well.  I think they are what has been helping with the fluid.  I started feeling better after starting the shots.  G is still good at giving them to me!!  I couldn't do it myself for sure.  I was concerned they would hurt the baby/babies, but I looked it up online and it looks like some people take it to prevent miscarriage and it seems safe so I hope it is!!  Anyone else had to do these shots?

 

I went back to work yesterday..... I had been off more then a week.  It was a good day to go back because of the snow I only had to work a half day and my office is closed today so I am starting off going back to work slow. We got about 8 inches of snow here in PA where we live.   I want these babies or baby to stay in there so I am trying my best to just relax as much as I can.  I will work tomorrow and Saturday then have off another 3 days.

 

New Years Eve we have an ultra sound scheduled.  I am assuming we will be able to see if there is 1 or 2 babies right?  G is hoping for two....I would really be happy with just 1.  Two scares me!! But I would be happy no matter what!  I can't wait!!  It can't come soon enough!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! 

Home

So I think I forgot to mention that the doctor did not want me to go back to work for awhile.  I am stuck at home!!  Since I only feel good in a reclining position its nice to be home, but its boring!!  G just started working 13 hour shifts so it seems even longer.  Yesterday I spent most of the day on the couch.  I got up to shower and go to the grocery store both of which tired me out a lot.  Having about 5 lbs of fluid in your belly doesn't make things fun.  It pushes on everything and it hurts!!

I can do my blood work today or tomorrow so I think I will try to go first thing tomorrow morning.  I still don't really feel like doing much.  OHSS is NOT fun!!  Plus my doctors office closes at noon today so by the time the lab sends them the results I am sure I wouldn't hear till tomorrow anyways. 

My new shots are going ok, but hurt and are bruising my belly.  They are blood thinners.  I guess my estrogen level is 5000 so that means possible blood clots.  I guess it is good for many reasons I went to the doctor on Tuesday.  They didn't drain me like I had hoped, but I got my great news a day early and got the blood thinners so that I don't get clots.  I am pretty sure blood clots would be bad!!

So now I wait for the next HCG level tomorrow.  I hope its still going up.  I am a little concerned because the past two mornings I was puking, but I didn't today.  I REALLY hope that doesn't mean my levels are going down!  I hope it means it was the OHSS making me sick!

Well if you need me you will be able to find me on my couch for awhile!  I am not sure when I can go back to work.  My note says "until further notice"

Results are in

We are PREGNANT....I couldn't believe it.  I asked her many times if she was serious lol HCG is 81 and progesterone is >40.  But I do need to have those shots every day!!  Ugh back to shots again!  Anyways my day got sooooo much better.  And I learned not to POAS because they lie!!  Now I am off to relax like I am suppose to!

8dp5dt

I have continued to grow and not taller!!  My belly is huge and my belly button is now swollen shut!!  Yesterday was the worst!  I was so uncomfortable and felt sick.  I have been having very bad heart burn that only goes away if I eat something.  It even wakes me up in the middle of the night. 

I did not make it through work yesterday I had to leave early.  I was so uncomfortable.  I couldn't wait to come home and put my feet up.  I have to sit in a reclining position to feel better.  G and I decided last night that I needed to go to the doctor.  The fluid was everywhere in my abdomen and I was having pain in my chest and shortness of breath.  Also we had decided to POAS in the AM. 

Well I had to get up to use the bathroom at midnight because my belly hurt bad so when I woke up at 4 and tried to POAS I couldn't get much out and it read "not pregnant"  I tried to tell myself it was because I hadn't peed enough, but deep down I thought for sure I wasn't pregnant.  I was just putting on a brave face for G.  I didn't want her upset for work.  Right before she left for work I started puking...ugh!!  She held my hair and got me a cool wash cloth, but she still had to leave for work...I was upset and called my mom to go with me to the doctor because if G couldn't make me feel better then of course my mom could right??  lol

The doctor found I have huge ovaries and fluid in my abdomen.  Which I knew...duh!!  Anyways he wasn't able to drain it because the fluid was everywhere, but not in big pockets anywhere so he wouldn't have been able to get enough to make a difference I guess....ugh I was really hoping for some relief!!  It is very painful.

They also talked to me about another shot in my belly!! ugh I thought they were over!!  Depending on my blood work (yes they did a beta too) I might need blood thinner shots.  They claimed it was unlikely, but gave me a script just in case.  They would call me in a few hours with all my results and let me know!!  More waiting.....

4dp5dt

I am feeling better, but I am getting a lot bigger!  Most of the pain in my belly went away, but now it just keeps getting bigger.  So I guess I am very bloated.  It is only uncomfortable when my pants don't fit...which would be my work pants!!  We think I have been looking about 3-4 months pregnant the past two days.  I haven't had a huge weight gain maybe 1 or 2 lbs. 

I still have a terrible time sleeping at night.  I sleep fine till about 12-2AM then my lower back hurts so bad I toss and turn.  If I basically sit all the way up...up on like 3-4 pillows with my knees to my chest I can get back to sleep for a short time.  Then about 4 I am wide awake waiting for G's alarm to go off.  Before this week I never got up with her, but since transfer I have been up every day with her.  I am also starving so then I eat my first breakfast....I don't know if that's abnormal because I am normally not up that early so maybe I just get hungry because I am awake.

So are these pregnancy symptoms, OHSS symptoms, both, all in my head, or from my meds????.....your guess is as good as mine!! 

I would love to POAS but G said I can't till Tuesday.  I am not really stressed about it so it is probably best if I don't because then I am sure I will start stressing one way or the other!!  If its a BFN I will worry it will never be a BFP and if its a BFP I will worry it won't stay that way.  In the tww you just can't win!!  So for now I am still pregnant with twins till proven otherwise!!

OHSS

So I think I do have OHSS =(  I can't sleep at night because my back hurts so bad and my belly hurts so bad when I pee.  Also today I am just so uncomfortable.  I am getting so tired!  All I wanna do is sleep, but it doesn't happen.  Tonight I might try to sleep sitting up.  I haven't gained weight and my belly isn't huge so I don't think I need to go to the doctor.  I just have to wait and hope it gets better!

When I called the nurse to ask about OHSS I also asked about our other embryos.  She was looking up my file then she suddenly says "Wow there are 22 frozen so you had 24 since you transferred 2 and only 4 were discarded"  I said "yea now you understand why I don't feel good?" lol

I have no idea what we are going to do with 22 babies.  We definitely don't need that many.  I will look into donating the embryos before our free year of storage is up.  It will cost a lot to store them all so we won't be able to store them all past a year. 

I am going to try to relax and get some sleep!

Transfer

Couldn't sleep last night my back hurt so bad, so I got up early and emailed the lab manager again.  I was sure since it was Day 5 she would tell me something about our babies....but I was wrong!  She said we would get pics and they would talk to us at transfer.  I was mad!  Why are they so secretive??

We drove the 2 hours to get there and I had my first ever acupuncture appt.  I didn't like it much.  Not because of the needles....they didn't bother me....it was because of the laying there waiting.  Since my back has been hurting it continued to hurt laying there.  I am just not a patient person!! 

After that we went in to the room for transfer.  I was sure the embryologist would come in and talk to us about our babies but NO!  When I asked they said the doctor would talk to us about them.  He came in and gave us pics of all the embryos.  All 28 but they didn't all make it to blast.  He counted 20 he thought we had.  At the time I was confused because I counted 28, but after doing research I figured out he was just counting the ones they would probably keep.  I kept asking about the quality and he just kept saying "they are wonderful your chances are great"  He is a sugar coat kind of guy which I don't like.  I was really hoping to get the other doctor...the one who did my retrieval...he is much more straight forward. 

Anyways he asked us how many we wanted to transfer and said we would be good candidates for a single embryo transfer.  We told him we still wanted to transfer two and he was fine with that.  The actual transfer wasn't too bad.  It was actually pretty quick.  When the embryologist came in with our babies I did ask her what the grade was since the doctor wouldn't give us a real answer.  She said they were both 5AA.  The doctor seemed somewhat offended that I didn't trust his answer...well he never really gave me an answer!!   I did research when I got home and the grades are pretty darn good I think!! =) 

I did ask the doctor about my pain I have in my back at night and in my belly when I pee.  Both are getting worse.  He said my ovaries are huge and I might need them drained. Ekkkk...I really don't want that to happen.  I really hope I can prevent that!

After the transfer I had acupuncture again.  This time was better, but it still isn't my cup of tea.  I think I would much rather a massage!!

So here are our babies....

We are pregnant with twins till proven otherwise!!  Hope they are snuggling in!!

Update

The doctors office did call on Thursday to give me the update on our babies.  Out of the 36 eggs 33 were mature and 28 fertilized!!  Yes Thursday we had 28 babies!!  We were shocked and very excited!!  So they scheduled us for a Day 5 transfer Monday at 9:45.  My next decision was to do acupuncture before and after transfer.  My clinic has it right there and they give one free one with every IVF, but they say it's best if you do one before and one after transfer.  I of course got online and did some research.  I found some studies that says it helps, but also found some that says it doesn't.  Sooo that didn't help with my decision.  Then I asked G what I should do and she says I should do it.  So I make the appts one for 8:45 one for 10:45.  I like it when she makes the decisions it takes so much pressure off me!!

Thursday I woke up feeling just a little sore, but by the end of the day I felt like a balloon.  When I got home from work I asked G if I looked like one?! lol  I started to worry about OHSS.  So I took it easy and felt much better yesterday and feel even better today.  I am hoping the worst is over!

Yesterday I started to wonder about our babies and how they were doing.  I wasn't sure if they were going to contact me about them or if I was suppose to contact them so I emailed the lab manager.  She told me that they don't even look at them on Day 2 and they won't contact me about them unless its bad news.  They will check on them on Day 3 to make sure they don't have to move up the transfer, but with the amount of eggs we had she doubted that would happen.  So no news is good news and today was Day 3 and no call about our babies!!  So yay we must still have lots of babies growing!!

I did get a call from the doctor's office today.  They want to move my transfer later Monday to 12:15.  Which is fine with us because their office is 2 hours from us.  I just had to make sure I could reschedule my acupuncture as well and I was able to.  Now they are 11:15 and 1:30. 

Now just wait till Monday!!

Eggs, Eggs, and more Eggs

So I went to my monitoring appt Monday (Day 10).  I was soooo nervous, but of course for nothing!!  That is me the worry wart!!  They told me that my progesterone level was not high and that they are not canceling my cycle.  She told me the same thing G told me "stop looking online!" lol I had about 20 follicles.  I triggered that night with HCG and had my retrieval today!  The HCG shot was the worst of all the shots.  G got really good at giving them but that one hurt and actually still hurts.  Hope I am done with the shots!!

G and I had to get up at 4 AM to get there by 7:30.  G is NOT a morning person at all.  When we got there I was soo happy to see that my favorite nurse would be in there with me.  That calmed my nerves so much!  And she was so lucky I like her so much because she took two tries to get my IV in and that is they thing that bothers me the most.  I HATE IVs. If she would have been any other nurse I am sure I would have had a few choice words for her.... I had a different doc then I normally do, but I loved him to.  Their are two doctors at the place I go to.  He told us to come up with a number of eggs we thought he would get and he would bet that he could beat it.  We guessed 21.  Well we were sooo wrong!  When the anesthesiologist came in to prep me and the nurse was going to prep me I started to complain I guess....so he said it was time to go to sleep and put stuff in my IV. lol That was the last thing I remember.  G told me after I woke up that when the nurse started prepping me I sat up and said "I didn't know you were down there" then layed back down and when I started to wake up I told G "I was texting people while I was sleeping" lol I guess I talked to the doctor too before he left, but I don't remember any of that.  I woke up in some pain, but the nurse gave me 3 doses of fentenyl....so then I felt much better!!

So G told me they had filled all the tubes they had in the room with the fluid from my follicles and that they were in the lab counting them.  They said it would be 10 mins.....Well an hour later they come back and tell us 36....YES I said 36!!  We were shocked!  I asked the doctor if this might affect the quality of the eggs and he said he doesn't know, but he had a donor that donated 69 eggs and of those 3 people got pregnant so that made me feel better. 

Of course they talked to me about OHSS and told me to drink lots of water.  The doc also gave me some meds to help prevent it.  I feel great right now so I hope that means it won't happen!!  Also I wanna go back to work tomorrow!  I've taken enough time off already and have more to take off.

The doctors office will call tomorrow with the number that's fertilized.  We can't wait to hear how our babies are doing!!  And we can't wait for Dec 19th when we find out we are pregnant!!  See I am thinking positive!! =)

Need Help

Ok I need someones help!!  I need someone to tell me they did IVF and their progesterone rose before their retrieval and they still had success.  Day 8 I had my bloodwork and my progesterone was 2 and my LH was 4.  Also my e2 was 1740.  The nurse called me and told me the e2 tripled and they had to lower my dose of Gonal but she never mentioned my other levels.  I looked them up on the patient portal then found out its not good for progesterone to be that high. 

SO I AM IN A PANIC!! 

And of course it's Sunday and I can't ask anyone at my doctors office.  I am so hoping someone will read this and tell me everything will be ok!  I know I shouldn't be stressed right now but  I am and I don't know what to do.