I’ve decided to post every few days since nothing really is going on (which is weird since we had so much to be organized with before!) I’m still taking my progesterone shots every night but that’s all the medication I need! 

I can’t believe it’s been one week since they put those 2 little embryos inside me. That also means one week down, another to go until we know whether I’m prego! And that also means it’s been 1 week since the Broncos won the Super Bowl! Wooooohoooooo! Let’s hope this week goes by fast! Positive thinking and lots of prayers continue!! 

I feel like I’m forgetting something. We’ve been doing so much and been on such a schedule with all the IVF stuff that it feels weird to not have anything to do! Yes, I still need to take those steroids and no, my butt isn’t getting a break from the shots, but other than that, the only thing to do is just.breathe.

If you would have asked me how I think I’d feel at this time 20 days ago, I would have probably told you anxious or nervous during the 2ww. But I’m surprisingly at ease. Staying hopeful and excited and prayerful. And thanking God for all our blessings. 

I honestly can’t believe we’ve been doing this IVF process for almost 20 days! I was looking back at some of my old posts and I am so happy I decided to blog about this. I can feel the emotions in some of my posts that I think I would have forgotten about if I hadn’t written down day by day what is happening to me and to my body. Plus, when our kids are being brats I’ll tell them to ‘go read the blog’ … it’ll be their time out! (Mom guilt is already starting!!)

And today is the first day we really don’t have anything “doctor” to talk about. No more updates from the embryologist, no more updates from the nurses, no more updates from Dr. Huang. Just have to wait, and be patient, and keep praying and hoping for the best!

P.S. I know you are just DYING for a ‘progesterone butt’ update: my left butt cheek hurts even more after tonight’s shot! I think we’re sticking with the right side from now on!

“I think I can. I think I can.” Growing up, ‘The Little Engine that Could’ was one of my favorite books. Now, so many years later, this book has gone back up into my top 10. Why you ask? Because we have a ‘Little Embryo that Could!’

Remember the embryo that was always a day behind the others? When the 5 were at 8 cells, it was at 4. When they were at the morula stage, it was still just 8 cells. Well – it proved TODAY that it wanted to be part of the fam! This afternoon we got a call from Dr. Ahmed telling us that he froze one more blastocyst today, and it was the our little runt of the group! We were so excited to have another one frozen, making 2 blastocysts ready for us the next time we want to try and get pregnant. And I just love that it was the little engine that could, proving that you should NEVER give up (even if you’re a little micro cell smaller than the size of a piece of glitter lost in carpet). 😉

I was happy knowing that we had ‘the pair’ already transferred and ‘the spare’ ready for next time. But, now we have ‘a pair’ and ‘a pair’! Makes me feel a little more at ease about the whole process. And that means we got 4 blastocysts out of 7 mature eggs, or 57%! In the example Dr. Huang gave us, the average number that get that far is 35%. So I’m so thrilled with our numbers!

Another day passes in the 2ww…hope the rest keep ‘choo chooing’ along like today did! 🙂

Man my left butt cheek hurts! I know these progesterone shots are needed but for some reason the left side of my body doesn’t appreciate it as much as my right! 

Still taking one shot a night and I also started Medrol, a light steroid. This is supposed to help with inflammation in the uterus so hopefully it won’t reject the embryos. 

  
So we officially have a pair and a spare! They froze one of the embryos this morning and Dr. Ahmad said he will give them until the rest of today to see if the others got to blastocyst stage and if they do then they’ll be frozen, too! We’ll know tomorrow if they made it or not. 

We are now in the ‘2ww’ or two week wait. A lot of people in the infertility world say this is the hardest time of the whole process because all you want to know is if it worked or not! Luckily I’m going to be pretty busy with work over the next couple of weeks (it’s our ratings period so lots to do!) and my wonderful friends and family have given me coloring books, books to read and things to help me to relax over the 2ww. 

Let’s hope it goes by fast!!!!!!! 

I am officially the owner of some pretty precious cargo! Take a look:

Those are our blastocysts which will (God willing) become our babies!! Isn’t that amazing! This picture is 4,000 times the actual size of the embryos! Say what?!!!! You can see in the one on the right that they already are separating into the two different types of cells. The clump of cells on the left will become the fetus, the watery cells on the right will become the placenta! Words can’t describe how amazing this truly is! And isn’t it hard to believe this is how EVERY single person is created?

I had to have a full bladder for the procedure. 3 water bottles later I was good! They use the bladder as a landmark to see the uterus on the ultrasound. That way they know that they’re putting the eggs in the right place!

We got our scrubs on and then went into the same room where they took the eggs out. The lab is right there too. It’s pressurized and a certain temperature that is conducive for the eggs to growth and thrive! The embryologist Dr. Ahmad said out of the 6 embryos the ones in the picture at the top were the most developed. He said he hopes the 4 others become blastocysts by tomorrow and then he’ll freeze whichever ones get to that stage. We hope there’s at least 1 or 2, but even if not we know we have 2 healthy growing embryos inside me right now!!! So crazy!!!

They put the ultrasound on my belly and then put a catheter into the uterus. Once it was in place, Dr. Huang told Dr. Ahmed they were ready. He placed the embryos in a different catheter and a little air bubble pushed them into place! And we could see it happening on the ultrasound — it’s hard to describe the feeling we felt at that moment. Then that was it! Easy peasy! I laid there for a 15 minutes or so and then we were off!

Our little embryos!

The happy (hopefully soon-to-be) parents!

I need to lay low for a couple of days then I should be able to get back to my normal routine. Dr. Ahmad says after transfer they’ll hang out for a while and then make their way to the lining and hopefully implant! And they’ll implant within 24 and 48 hours! So technically I could be prego pretty damn soon!

I have to take progesterone shots until the pregnancy test which will be in two weeks. So sore butt cheeks for a little longer but as long as it keeps the little bubbles in there, I’m ok with that!

It’s weird. I thought I was going to have all these emotions today. I was kind of nervous and anxious to see them, but I feel really calm. Both Laryen and I do. We know that we’ve done everything we can to get to this point. It’s now in God’s hands. He has blessed us so far through this whole process and before. We know that if the timing isn’t right now, the timing will be right sometime. And we have the strength to get through this again if we need to. It’s because of God, our faith, loving support from family and friends and our continual support for each other that we KNOW will soon add a few more letters to our names! That is — unless we decided to name them ‘L’ names, too. 😉

 The day is ALMOST here!!!!
  

Tomorrow morning at 11:15 we will get our little embryos! They will officially be part of me…it’s such a surreal feeling. So many emotions — happy, exciting, scared, worried, thrilled. I can only express it in one word: Eeeek!!!!! 😜

The embryos are still thriving! 4 were at the morula stage this morning, 1 should be there now and the little one that has always been behind is still chugging along…we’ll call that one the little engine that could. It is still morphing into the next stage but a little slower. The embryologist says it should hopefully be at the blastocyst stage by Monday so hopefully that means we can freeze it!

So in theory, we could put 2 in and freeze 4 more! Which is INSANE! If that happens that means 85% of our eggs-turned-embryos got to the last stage before transfer (the blastocyst). In the example we were given when we first went for our IVF consultation they said on average 33% make it to that stage. So we are counting our blessings for sure! 

Thank you for your continued prayers. Let’s hope there’s a lot of baby dust tomorrow morning!! 

If you ever have to do progesterone shots, just go for it — DO NOT hesitate like Laryen did tonight. He totally stuck me then pulled the needle out because he said it didn’t feel right and then stuck me again!! OUCH!!!! Yep, I was bleeding a little more than usual. But we got the meds in me…but still, come on man! (love you babe!)

  
We are getting to the end of our little embryos growing in the lab and continuing on to grow inside me! (wow that sounds so weird to say!) It’s like it’s almost graduation day! I can just imagine them with little hats on, moving over their tassels for their new journey. Yes, I’m a dork, but I’m getting excited for transfer day!

All 6 little embryos are still doing great! 5 are 8 cells and 1 is 4 cells; all still in the range for Day 3 embryos. So they’re still on track and growing like they should! The embryologist says Day 3 to Day 4 is a crucial time for the embryos. Only the strongest ones will make it because it becomes a new type of cell called a “morula.” This cell will have a whole bunch of cells before it becomes a blastocyst on day 5 when we do the transfer! So fingers crossed as many embryos as possible get to this next stage. They want the strongest and best looking embryos because those are the ones that have a highest chance of a viable pregnancy. I’m nervous to see what happens overnight, but it’s in God’s hands and we know that He has the best plan in place. Just have to breathe. (Thanks Mama for the beautiful bracelet!)

Another day, another progesterone shot. We decided to alternate cheeks to help with the soreness. And I think my left side does NOT like it as much as the right. It’ll be interesting to anchor the news tonight with a sore upper butt! 😉 oh well…the show must go on!

Our 6 little embryos are doing great! 5 of them have developed into 4 cells and 1 is 2 cells. Dr. Aman, the embryologist, says on Day 2 they want the embryos to be between 2 and 4 cells so they are progressing beautifully! I was worried about the one that is 2 cells, but he said there’s nothing to worry about and hopefully it’ll catch up. Keep the prayers coming!!

P.S…I love only having to take 1 shot, even if it is the stupid progesterone one!

You’re going to put that where?!! Yes, it’s the start of the dreaded progesterone shots. And they go in the upper part of the butt….and the needle is huge….and the medicine is in oil which means it’s really thick…and the needle is huge…and Laryen has to give it to me…and did I mention that the needle is HUGE?! Like 1 1/2 inches…for a needle that’s big!

Here’s Laryen reading up on the right and wrong way to give the progesterone. There are 2 needles. One is bigger to get the medicine in the syringe ( that’s what he’s holding) and then the smaller one is used to actually administer the medicine. I need 1 ml of progesterone a night for the next 10 nights. Then if my levels are good I’ll switch to a pill. Progesterone is a hormone that makes your uterus lining good and thick to prevent miscarriages. It also helps make the uterus fluffy and comfy so the embryos will want to stay and rent the place out for the next 9 months or so! 😉 Hope they want to get a lease!

He looks a little too happy with that needle

The thicker needle used to get the meds out

Just sucks it right up!

I’m holding the injection needle. Smaller than the first one, but still not something I want to poke myself with. Laryen is a trooper to give them to me! We warmed up the needle and my injection site so it wouldn’t hurt AS much. I laid down on the bed and then he just went for it! Just like the other shots, the anticipation was way worse than the actual shot. To be honest it felt just like a little prick, you’d never think it was from a big needle. Not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be! One of my best friends is pregnant and has to get progesterone shots too and I asked her if they were bad and she said the same thing; she thought they were going to be way worse. So if you’re going through this, I promise — it’s not as bad as you’re thinking. Just close your eyes and breathe 🙂

Speaking of breathing, we can both breathe a little easier. Our embryologist called today and gave us our first update: WE HAVE 6 EMBRYOS!!!!!! (one exclamation point for each embryo) 😀 So that means 6 of our eggies are now one cell, fertilized embryos. The lab must have been party central last night! Woot Woot! So 86 percent of our eggs transformed into the next stage. The embryos will keep splitting into 2 cells, 4 cells, 8 cells, etc. Once they get to 150-200 cells, they’re called a blastocyst and that’s what will be put back into me on Sunday! And if there’s any left over, those will also be frozen for next time. We were so excited to hear the news. We are blessed that God has gotten us this far and can’t wait to see what happens overnight tonight.