And now we wait...

Once again, a lot has happened since I last posted about our journey. Contracts are signed and the "business" portion of the journey is out of the way and we can focus on the fun stuff. I finished all my Lupron shots and managed to get through them with only a small bruise on one side. Considering things I've heard about these, I am pretty proud of myself for this!

With those being complete it means we moved onto the big guns, the PIO (progesterone in oil). Those come with a large needle and go into the muscle in my backside. Yuck, right! I'm not going to lie I was dreading these shots, and really felt for all the couples going through this process that have to do these shots to have a baby. It's kind of like adding insult to injury in my opinion! Chris said he would help me with these ones, as I just wasn't sure I could jab that needle into myself. We received an email from the clinic that the egg retrieval would take place on 11/13/15, so I started the shots the night before.

The first night was not fun, we figured out the right location to inject and drew a circle on my skin so when we got around to the shot we knew where. There is a decent sized area where you can inject these, and I've heard it is best to find your sweet spot. If you find this is will hurt so much less! After about 20 min of going back and forth between Chris would do the injection to I would do the injection, and hormones getting the best of me with some tears. It was finally decided that Chris would do it and I just couldn't look. He just had to stick it in. After all of that it really wasn't that bad. I'm not going to say it was painless, but fairly close. I massaged the area afterwords and let a heat pack sit on it for awhile. It was starting to get sore, but that was supposed to happen right? That night I didn't sleep much due to the pain in my hip and got to get up the next morning only to have another shot right away. We switched sides and adjusted the area up slightly. MAJOR difference on that one! Since that first injection I have had very little pain with them after. We have the system down pretty good currently. I warm the PIO up under my arm while I brush my teeth and put my contacts in. Chris then injects it and I massage and use a heat pad. It's working so far. Maybe one of these days I will get up the courage to do them myself, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. 11 shots down and only like 9 more weeks of them.

Five days after the retrieval it would be transfer day! We flew to CT on the 17th and hung out in the hotel for a little while and then ventured out to the mall to kill some time. Once again I found a Target! And this one was two levels which meant that it had a cart escalator! I know, your thinking seriously, but they are really kind of cool! After some shopping and supper we headed back to the hotel to hopefully sleep. After all the next day was transfer day! We met with Colin and Tracey for breakfast at the hotel that morning and then all rode together to the clinic. 

 

Transfer was at 9:30 and we arrived at 9 so we were ready to go! Up until this point we were planning on transferring 1, unless the doc thought we should do two. I asked if anyone had heard with the embryo grade was and Colin mention that they were thinking of doing 2. It was probably a good thing I was sitting down! I was always willing to transfer 2, but in all the discussions the thought was just 1, so I had wrapped my head around that. So this came as a slight shock. Statistically transferring 1 would give them a 60% chance of having a baby, transferring 2 gave them an 80% of having 1 baby, so they decided to go for 2. In the end the embryo grades were both A's and the doc said they looked great!

I was taken into the procedure room and got prepped for the transfer and then Chris, Colin and Tracey came in and stood at the head of the bed. They had an ultrasound machine to see the embryos going in and a tv on the wall where we were able to see the embryos in the lab. The embryologist then brought them in and the procedure probably took all of 5 min. and was completely painless. IT still amazes me when I think about and what all happened in such a short amount of time! Chris and I headed back to the hotel after and just spent the day hanging out. Chris was able to work some and I watch tv and took a nap. Colin and Tracey had an 8 or 9 hour drive home so they took off right away to get a start on that. The next morning we got up and flew home. A quick trip, but a very important one.

So now we wait, and wait, and wait! I had some blood work done a couple days ago just to make sure my levels were where they should be and all looks good, so more waiting. The day after Thanksgiving I will go in for more blood work and we will find out if we are pregnant. 10 days is a REALLY long time to wait!!! So here

s to hoping that at least 1 took.

Halloween Fun

I can't believe it is already November?!? Wear did that last month or really the year for that matter go? We have been busy with lots of Halloween/fall activities this last month. From fall festivals to trick or treating the kids have had lots of fun and gotten lots of candy and treats!

For Halloween this year, my kids had a hard time deciding what to actually dress up as. Isabella and Corbin choose costumes at Costco back in August, but then would change their mind about every other week. 

Isabella originally picked out Chase from Paw Patrol and once purchased wore it almost daily for about 2 weeks straight. Even when it was around 90 degrees outside! I had my Rainbow Brite costume my mom had made for me in the 80's and I was really pushing for that. She did actually choose to wear that twice to events so I was happy! For her Halloween party with her friends she in the end was a monkey (very fitting). On Halloween afternoon she went back to Chase and that is what she settled on.

  

Corbin chose a superhero from Costco, we have multiple ones from the last few years with 2 boys that I don't actual remember what he picked out this time. In the end he went to 1 event as Black Panther (but wore a batman mask). For Halloween he settled on Spiderman. What he was last year, but it works! He had the most fun in the studio with his costume.

 

  

Jack didn't want a new costume this year and was just going to wear something we already had. I was fine with this, but was also more than happy to get him a new one. I continued to ask him what he wanted to be and one day he told me he had chosen what he wanted. A knife, because they're sharp. He definitely got Chris' sense of humor! I quickly shot that idea down and convinced him that being Steve from Minecraft would be just as cool!

 

My troop in the end!