Trigger!

Late last night- 12:45am- this is what was going on in my house.

<------First we drew up meds. On the left is the Novarel (hCG) or Trigger. On the right is the special sauce (my husband's name for it) that you mix with it. You can see our sheet of instructions in the background. Never have I ever mixed meds before so I think we were both a little nervous.

And then we broke out the needle. Whoa. That sucker was big. I'm very used to injections- I get one once a week for arthritis meds, but those are teeny tiny sub-q needles. This was a big fat intramuscular needle. Ouch. ----------->

<-----And there is my J with my trigger all ready to put that bad boy right in my butt. Ha ha ha. Well for real, though- it did go kind of in my butt- more like the lower hip/upper butt area. He did a great job. It didn't hurt hardly at all. We were right on time at 12:45.

I went in this morning to see if things were working out as they should and Dr. P (partner of Dr. G) who will do my retrieval this weekend says my follie is big and perfect. Everything is looking exactly as it should.

PHEW.

So tomorrow we go in at 9am. J will give his sample prior to retrieval to check for good sperm. If we're all clear there (please please please please) then retrieval will be at 10:45.

Somehow this all feels like the very first cycle. Like this is our first REAL chance at having a baby.

Zero to Sixty

That is how my life goes. Feast or Famine. All or nothing. Go big or go home. And 1000 other similar cliches. But alas....

Friday was a big day for me. My last day at work. It was awkward and sad and a huge relief. I'm glad to have it behind me and move forward.

I went for monitoring Friday morning and my lovely little follie was ready for trigger! I got the call Friday afternoon that I would trigger 12:45am. Egg retrieval is scheduled for Sunday September 2nd at 10:45am. EEEEEeeeeep!! Squeee! So then I started to panic. I've been so distracted by everything work related, that I'm not quite sure it had sunk in that we were *REALLY* going to do this.

I left work, got home, and promptly had a huge ridiculous melt down complete with ugly cry. Part of it was just how everything had been building up over the last two weeks, and part of it was that I have no control over this process now that we're this far in. All I can do is follow the directions of my doctor. And the control freak in my HATES that. All in all, I think I needed a good cry.

Drugs are here!

Here is my tiny drug stash! Compared to the giant pile-o-drugs with traditional IVF, this looks like nothin.

I go back tomorrow for more dildo cam. Hopefully we are close to trigger. 

The No Update Update

Since Saturday- I've been for monitoring twice- Monday and today. Things are slow growing. So far I have two measurable follicles on the right- both at about 14mm. But that's about it. I go back again on Friday.

A little discouraging, but I have to remember that when I was charting (like 2 years ago?!? WTF?) I usually would ovulate around day 15. And today is day 11. So I still have a few days to go. Hopefully there is some growth on Friday.

On a good note- meds are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. PHEW.

Monitoring Begins

Happy Saturday!!!

Wanna see how I started my weekend?

The fabulous trans-vaginal ultrasound probe. Affectionately referred to by us gals in the infertility world as the DILDO CAM. Monitoring began this morning! Another thing I like about my new RE- Docs to the ultrasounds. Kind of nice, huh? Always gives you the chance to ask questions and just feels a whole lot more personal than just seeing a nurse.

So Dr. G took a look and says his prediction is that our rockstar will be on the right side. Today I had one lead follicle on the right at 13mm. And today is cycle day 7. So based on the blood work, I'll go back again Monday morning. My meds were ordered, but I haven't heard anything about when they may be delivered, so I'll have to ask them about that on Monday.

In other news- I quit my job last Monday. It was not fun. They were not happy. It made for a very miserable week. I just have to power through this week. I'm hoping to be distracted by the monitoring. Ironic, huh? I would have thought that work would have distracted me from IVF, but my life always seems upside down and backwards anyway.

Baseline

Baseline was today- ultrasound and blood work. Done and done!

Meds are ordered.

Everything came back normal- monitoring starts on Saturday!

And we're off!!

CD 1!  Wahoo!!

Two and a half years in the making and we are FINALLY moving forward. FINALLY. Holy Crap I thought this would never happen.

Tomorrow I'm going for baseline. We'll order all my meds- trigger shot and progesterone suppositories- and I'll turn in all our consent forms. J has his blood work done tomorrow. We'll start monitoring next week. Wahoo! Wahoo!

I'm also putting in notice at my current job tomorrow. I'm having some serious anxiety about it. I don't quite have a start date for the new job, but J and I decided that this way we can avoid me starting my new job during the week of egg retrieval. So I'll have the week of Labor Day off. I work for such a small place- they are going to be super pissed about me leaving and take it very personally. I know I'm doing what is best for me- it's just going to be a verrrry long two weeks.

Either way- I'm on to better things. And that is what matters.

I'm feeling hopeful for the first time in a while. I've been feeling this way for a while. And I like how it feels. When I told J that I got my period, he was so excited. He spent the morning talking about how he thinks we should tell his parents that we're having a baby. It was so good to see him talking like that. Talking like this may happen. Talking like he'll be a dad one day. It makes my heart happy.

So stay tuned kids. The crazy train has left the station!