Solo Shots

Today's big accomplishment was giving myself shots. Steve is out of town at a wedding and I have an early morning ultrasound so had to stay home. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I only have to do it three more times before he's home. (That's 12 shots!)  My appointment on Wednesday went well and at this point the retrieval will probably be mid next week. As always, we need to play it by ear and will know more after tomorrow's appointment.

Stimulation Begins

After spending the past two weeks ordering medication, and dealing with IVF logistics, we had an exciting day today. An early morning bloodtest and ultrasound confirmed I was ready to begin the stimulation phase.  This is the phase in which I receive daily injections in order to "stimulate" my ovaries to produce multiple eggs.

Most of my medication arrived today and we jumped right back into the shot routine. It was a lot less scary the second time around and Steve expertly gave the first of many, many shots!

So...one shot down and five a day from now until Wednesday when I go in for more bloodwork to see how I'm progressing. Wish us luck!

Nothing is ever easy...

As soon as we thought we were experts on this whole IVF thing, of course we were thrown for a loop.

During last weeks' visit, we discovered that the embryo transfer would not be as easy as it was the first time. At the beginning of every IVF cycle, the doctor performs a trial transfer which allows him to take measurements and make notes so there are no surprises during the actual embryo transfer. Unfortunately, the doctor was unable to complete the trial and determined that it would need to be done under anesthesia. While this is certainly more comfortable, it means that I need to go under anesthesia for the trial, the egg retrieval, and the actual transfer ... all within a few weeks.

The good news is we completed the trial transfer today. The doctor had very few problems and is now confident he can successfully complete the embryo transfer in a couple weeks. While I am exhausted, Steve entertained Alex all afternoon so I got to sleep off the drugs ;)

Now that the first hurdle is over, all my medication will be ordered tomorrow. And then the real fun begins!!

The cycle begins

For the first time since Alex was born, I set my alarm and was awake before him. I even got ready without a toddler hanging on my leg. The ironic thing is that I was up so early to go back to where it all started! It was my first of many early morning visits to REACH.

The purpose of today's visit was to obtain baseline blood work and have a baseline ultrasound. The results were almost identical to those of my previous baseline tests ... difficult to view the right ovaries and the presence of a small cyst on the left. As cysts typically resolves on their own, there was no cause for concern.

My blood work looked good so I was given the go ahead to begin birth control. This enables the doctor to have complete control over ovulation during the treatment cycle.

This means that we have officially begun our IVF cycle! If we follow the same path as we did with Alex, we'll have our retrieval and transfer in mid-October. While we won't have a definite timeline until next week, I wanted to share what's happened so far, especially as things have been moving so quickly.

Thanks for your continued love and support!