Holy shit - I haven't posted here in over 2 months. I feel super guilty about neglecting this space, and as always, I have excuses for why I've been away. The first is that I've been incredibly busy and exhausted lately. I've been doing a bit of babysitting, and the kids keep me running constantly. By the end of the night, I have no brain power left. And the second excuse ... I feel like this is a non-announcement announcement ... Given the fact that I wasn't here bitching and swearing after beta day, I think it's probably obvious - I'm pregnant! 14 weeks and a few days to be exact. (That still feels very weird to write/say.)
Going through IVF was a very interesting and intense experience. The stim drugs weren't too bad - it was a minor psychological battle the first couple of shots, but once I got back into the groove (this wasn't my first rodeo with injectables), it wasn't a big deal. I gave myself Lupron shots in a movie theater bathroom stall and a Qdoba bathroom, and Brent gave me PIO injections in our car twice - once at a friend's wedding, and once before a concert in downtown Milwaukee. We were professionals. The bloating and discomfort that come from over-stimulating egg production is no joke. It definitely made for some interesting days, but having a strong retrieval was well worth it. We ended up collecting 20 eggs - 17 were mature, 15 fertilized normally, 13 grew at a good rate, and in the end, we had 5 great quality embryos. Two were transferred, and three of them are waiting for us in the embryology lab freezer. The weirdest part of the whole process was the retrieval itself. I didn't realize that instead of a full, knocked out anesthesia, I would be getting a weird Twilight anesthesia, and I still have a funny feeling about it. I feel like I was too present, and I felt (and remember feeling) more than I was supposed to feel. I remember the weird pain-ish feeling of the long needle used to aspirated the follicles poking my insides, and I don't think that's normal. Thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies. Anyway, the transfer was perfect, the 2 week wait was minimally annoying, and I managed to follow through on not testing at home before the beta. We ended up having 3 draws done to make sure the hcg was rising the way it should, and the values were doubling pretty perfectly - 152, 323, and 724.
Our first ultrasound had been scheduled for around 7 weeks, but a minor scare (that felt pretty major at the time) bumped our ultrasound up a few days. We were reassured by a strong heartbeat and a view of one healthy little blob. My favorite part about IVF was getting ultrasounds every 2 weeks in the beginning - seeing the changes at every appointment was amazing (I'm pretty sure my brain is going to explode when I see how different the baby looks after 8 weeks between ultrasounds). At our 8 week appointment, we saw perfect growth and a heartbeat of 178, which seemed to impress the doctor and made us feel more confident in everything, and at 10 weeks, we graduated from the fertility clinic after seeing a heartbeat of 180 and a very wiggly little gummy bear shaped baby. Graduating was a little bittersweet for me -Ii had grown quite attached to the nurses, so I was sad to say goodbye to them, but having a healthy baby growing (and not needing to go to appointments an hour away from home all the time) was very exciting.
I scheduled my first OB visit in early December, and everything was perfect at that appointment as well ... And I just feel like I'm probably dreaming all of this because it seems too good to be true. We told family and close friends as we reached different milestones at the early ultrasounds, and we recently made it Facebook official as well (which totally freaked me out, honestly).
I'm still trying to decide how I plan to document the rest of this pregnancy around here. Maybe weekly-ish updates on things. Or every 2 weeks. Or something, I don't know. All I really know right now is I am so incredibly thankful to be where I am right now - it's been a long time coming.
