Zero

Is the number of updates I'll get on how my little Playboy Bunny Folliea is doing before transfer on Friday. Gah! Better to let him/her grow in peace, but holy shiz a girl could use an update.

Transfer set for Friday at 11:45. Now what do I do with myself until then?? Ugh.

Update!

I got the call early this morning. The egg fertilized normally!! It's a miracle. A real, real miracle. The nurse said that it was excellent news and things are looking good. I am scheduled for transfer on Friday morning. I am affectionately naming my embryo Playboy Bunny Folliea.

I know that this doesn't mean we're out of the woods, but this is such great news. I keep thinking that my baby is growing in a lab about 20 miles from here. And I already love that baby.

On a side note- Progesterone suppositories are gross. Panty liners are my friend.

Egg Retrieval Complete

Ohhhh...what a day it's been. And it's only 2pm. Ugh.

So there is good news. They got the egg. They told us there was a 10-15% chance that the follicle would be empty. So yeah for an egg.

And there's also bad news. They found 6 sperm, but none of them were moving. Which doesn't mean they are dead- but they just aren't really of good quality. They said there is still a chance that the egg could fertilize correctly, but this would decrease our chances of this cycle working by at least 50%.

I cried through the egg retrieval. I'm just sad and feeling so hopeless. The doctor said we should think about using donor sperm. I'm not prepared for that at all. At least not today.

I should get a call tomorrow to see if the egg was able to be fertilized.

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.