Big times for the eggies

Eight have made it to Morula stage.The other two are slow pokes and generally poking around.

This is go big or go home time for eggies. They are developing like crazy and are a mass of cells.  In the Morula stage the cells are hard to count and hard to grade. Of the eight,  they think some are of good quality and some are borderline. I believe they are all eggceptional! Tomorrow everything will be more clear and the top two contenders will be put back in the oven. May the door to the oven be open and the path to get there easy. Hopefully enough will pull through this crazy development time and be strong enough for the freezer. I am happy that we have a 5 day transfer.

Daily egg post

I got in such a flap trying to answer the call from the clinic with the daily egg news that I ran out of the library with a huge pile of unchecked out books and videos. Strangely enough the alarm didn’t sound until I tried to go back in so I could sign them out.

Nine little eggs are truck’n along! Only one got a little behind in dividing.

Guess what I will be reading when I hit the couch after transfer? Guinness book of World Records 2009! Wow I am so excited. I found it in the library today.  I am going to save it until Sunday. I have not even peaked to see who is the oldest person, what dog can jump the highest or the most number of hot dogs eaten at one time.

They graduated!

All 10 made it to embryos. The lab tech said they looked good. Still are aiming for a 5 day transfer on Sunday. Hopefully enough make it to blast so we can both transfer and freeze. It is a strange experience to have my eggs growing outside of me in a dish in a lab. I feel so attached to them and yet they are so far away.

How do I feel? Scared. All I got was good news and I am scared. Scared of the next two weeks. Scared of the roller coaster ride. Scared of transfer. Scared of being at home in bed. Scared of falling on the wrong side of 50-50 success rate.  Scared of peeing on the stick.

This process requires the strongest of hearts and deep courage. Despite the fear, I still had a good day. It is Louis Braille’s birthday and I ate cake. I fought all day to come back and take today as it is and not jump ahead. I did a lot of jumping forward in fear and back towards living in today. I will have buns of steel at the end of all this jumping. I also am growing big hooters from the drugs. Buns of steel and hooters. That much is for sure.

10 10 10 10 10 10!

10 fertilized normally. Now continue dividing and maturing well little fertilized eggs.

I did it!

The perfect dozen eggs is now sitting in the lab getting ready for sperm. Tomorrow they will tell us how many fertilized and are mature enough.

There was some serious flapping in the laying process. I don’t take having my lady business messed with lightly. My life as a little chick was really hard growing up and in medical situations the sky is often falling.  I can manage the falling better with ativan and great nurses.  I had two amazing nurses and a pile of drugs that totally got me through. The actual retrieval only feels a little pinchy and poky. Best of all its short.  Every time I go to this clinic I am grateful that we switched.We get really good organized care.

Now me and momee (cat) are going to watch movies. F has gone to work.  Our good friend KT is coming over to visit. We have 27 dresses and Muppet Treasure Island.

Holy crack

I have the fastest growing follicles he has ever seen. Given that I am the kind of person that loves The Guinness Book of World records that is extremely satisfying. Retrieval has been bumped up to Tuesday.

I also may hold the record for most inflated stomach. Dam stims. I am so uncomfortable tonight I can’t do up my pants. I don’t even know what is ovary discomfort and what is stomach at this point. I also cut my finger and have one hand in the air which makes it hard to pull up my pants. This is leaving me with a serious crack issue on top of everything else.

Tonight is the last injection. The H thingybob shot to help mature the eggs. Now onto the next set of drugs.

From now on I would be happy to be a textbook case of successful IVF. No more records.

Update:

Sick as a dog last night. Between my stomach being sick from stims still, the doxcyclin, the HCG shot and the injured finger it was brutal. I almost fainted and puked getting out of bed for the shot.  I took anti nausea pill but still puked and inspired moumee (cat) to puke. F was a hero.

Today I feel good! Next stop retrieval first thing tomorrow. I am hoping for a perfect dozen.

Bedtime

I posted before about leaving ski season behind and finding new things to look forward walks, movies, IKEA…during IVF. It turns out the main thing I want to do is go to bed. I am not doing any of those things especially walks. My ovaries hurt, my emotions are all over and  it is all I can do to go to work, acupuncture,  all the monitoring appointments and shoot drugs every night. By eight o’clock I start to break down if I am not in bed. F is doing a lot to keep the house and me running including an emergency down loading of nature sounds for the ipod to help me relax one night.

The good news is that I am responding well and they reduced the drugs. This reduced the crying! The new clinic is amazing and I am so happy that we switched. They are organized and kind. They said my ovaries look good and even though the right side aches it is ok and not overstimulated. Today is Friday and I have the whole weekend off.

Here’s to weekends! Here’s to 8 o’clock bedtimes! Next week end of stims!

Belly love

All the shots were definitely starting to leave their marks on my belly. I pinched the squishiest part and we switched sides and locations, but still, I have been shooting up for weeks now and it shows.

My natropath gave me some cream to use right after the injections. I was skeptical because homeopathy sounds a little too good to be true. Also, on this TTC journey there are a million and one things you can do and still not get the results that you were hoping for. At this point I am a doubter.

OMG. It works. I would never have signed up to do this experiment where I repeatedly stab myself in the stomach for weeks without using the cream and then continue stabbing with the cream to see if it helps, but that is how it happened. It also stopped the bruising from blood tests.

Here it is people, the secret to keeping your stomach bikini ready while doing IVF…Traumaeel. Apply immediately after injections and blood tests. Seriously it rocks. Now I just need to go to Hawaii.

A new badge

Jeez I have now joined the crying at work club. I am blaming stims. I managed to keep it mostly under wraps. Just a few polite tears no bawling my head off, bit still what a day.

I had one of  those funny conversations where nothing is said and yet everything is said with my co-ordinator. I didn’t tell her much. I have so much time booked off work that it doesn’t take rocket scientist to put it all together. She has basically put it all together and without saying or asking anything let me know that she is there for me.

Putting one foot in front of the other.

I am a badass!

This is my brownie badge for today. I am bad to the bone. Tonight went way better. Thanks for the tips that helped this girl get her Bad Ass badge.