[friedeggs]

Twilight,
I was terrified of the PIO shots. After the first one, no problems! It does smart a bit after you end up after weeks of it with a lumpy butt! LOL There are plenty of tricks. Ice cubes help me. Warm compresses help others. Really after the mental build up, it ain't no big thing!

Faith,
I am all goes well with your ER today.

AFM,
We have a 1PM EST appointment for our first US. I can't wait. Is it possible that time is standing still??? I'll post more later. Gotta run

Leigh

[wntacambaby]

Leigh: Yeah a first ultrasound today!!! I'm so excited!! I can't wait to hear your update....

[hopein09]

Leigh-Good luck with the US sound today. I'm sure it will be amazing to finally see your little bean or beans! Looking forward to the update.

[Jen403]

Hello all- thank you ladies for all your responses to the ICSI question. We are definitely thinking we will be doing it.....

[Jen403]

Leigh- best of luck to you! How exciting....1:00 will be here soon.

[Kathelen]

Leigh- good luck at the u/s! It is such a special experience to see your bean(s) for the first time.

hopein09- the Peri wants to see me back in 4 weeks for another cervical length check. I was surprised he wanted to wait so long, but maybe that is a good sign.


Today we are 30 weeks!!!!!!!! 6 more weeks of bedrest!!!!

[hopein09]

Kate-I would take it as a good sign. Wow, 6 more weeks!!!! Glad you are feeling strong and staying rested.

Leigh-Looking forward to hearing about your US

[faith1186]

My donor had her egg retrieval today. They retrieved 8 eggs and we split the cycle so 4 and 4.

I'm very disappointed but keeping up hope for my fertilization report tommorow.

__________________

Me: 20 POF
DH:25 Perfect!!

Furbaby Faith (Our 3y/o Westie)

DE & DS cycle:
2/2009-Chose egg donor & sperm donor
3/10 Baseline u/s and blood begin estrace
3/23 u/s and bloodwork Triple Lining Confirmed
3/24 Just informed that donor only has 9 follies
3/25 Trigger for donor
3/26 Begin Progesterone shots
3/27 ER 8 eggs 4 for me 4 for donor
3/28 Fertilization Report
3/30 ET
4/9 God willing

[wntacambaby]

Faith thinking of you and hoping and for great fertilization!!!

[hopein09]

Faith-I'm glad you didn't have to cancel your cycle. Keeping my fingers crossed that all 4 of your eggs fertilize. Definitely keep us posted as soon as you get your report tomorrow!

[megwalsh6]

Faith I am thinking about you!

[kirstyloo]

Sorry, I’ve gotten so far behind…and this post seems old and out dated. Best of luck to everyone as they move through this process! It can work!

Paula – You can see how your RE does it. Some have strict policies while others don’t. We had the option of choosing a RE donor or a donor from an agency (they had preference). Our RE’s had the donors decide if she was going to include no pictures, baby pictures and/or adult pictures. We chose a donor with an adult picture.

Sanda – I’m so sorry about your loss. I hope that you’ll find the path to your dreams! It is so sweet that your sister might be to help you. What a special gift!

memsimpson – I did not exercise after the transfer, but I did walk. While there is no evidence that bed rest after the transfer improves pregnancy rates, many RE and mommies like to include bed rest after the transfer. That being said, data exist that suggest that rigorous exercise decreases IVF success. They defined rigorous exercise as aerobic activity that raised your heart rate for more than 2 or 3 hours/week. Interestingly, this decrease included fit women who had regularly exercised for 1-10 years. Women who had regularly exercised for more than 10 years were able to exercise throughout without a drop in the success rate.

Jak40 – I’m sorry for your troubles getting the donor list. It should be such a simple thing! I would try to worry too much. Like you, we stuck with the RE’s donors because of the cost. There were only 2 donors, and neither of them were a possibility. They had been available for 8 months and no one had chosen them. We ended up waiting and getting a new addition a couple of weeks later. I did get really excited when I got the fertilization report. We’re nearly at 20 weeks now, and that wee one little girl on the ultrasound screen this morning was my little girl. She was beautiful!

Twilight- We did our shot education in June and didn’t start the cycle until November. Not only was the training anti-climatic, it was useless. The shots weren’t bad, but things got a bit sore by week 9. I was a nervous wreck and laughed uncontrollably during the first few shots. My slightly giggling hind end prompted DH to actually miss once. I would recommend that you ask your RE for a topical anesthetic. Ours did that. If he/she won’t prescribe it, another person on the board used Ambesol. We didn’t do the ice thing, but I could see that decreasing blood flow. I would NOT recommend using an ice pack after the shot. Over time, I developed knots in my backside if I didn’t rub and warm the spot afterwards. DH and I found it much easier if we used a heating pad and marked the spot with a Sharpie for my DH to aim for. The mark also helped us to remember which side we did the night before. I asked, but my RE won’t use progesterone in ethyl oleate.

Barbara – Wow! It sounds as though your cycle snuck up on you! It might be nice this way so you don’t get a chance to stress before it. Best of luck!

Meghan – Congratulations! I don’t think the worrying stops! Ever! You’ll be worrying about your child even when you’re a grandmother and great-grandmother. Worrying is the definition of mother.

selenam1979 – Wow! It sounds like you’ve had a really tough road. I hope that things move smoothly from here on out. The process is hard enough without additional bumps in the road.

Faith1186 – I know that you had hoped for more, but 5 eggs could be enough. If they are of good quality, you could wind up pregnant or even pregnant with multiples. It’s all about quality. We had 6 eggs that fertilized, and we’re pregnant with one baby and have 4 frozen embryos. That might wind up being a large family.

malloned10 – I wouldn’t worry about feeling great on Lupron. I sailed through the first 12 days of Lupron just fine. Life wasn’t so great on days 13 & 14.

NMSOwife – Congratulations! A band is a band. Being pregnant is being pregnant!

Godiva4me - We did a fresh cycle. I had been on BCP since June but I didn’t have donor until the end of October. My RE wanted me to be READY (I found it stressful and depressing). After that they matched my cycle with that of my donor. I ended up skipping the last two weeks of the BCP. The key is the donor’s cycle. My RE said that Lupron does the job and you don’t need to take BCPs. The BCPs help to decrease the side effects of the Lupron.

Jen403 – Last year, one of the ladies on the board did IVF without ICSI and her eggs didn’t fertilize. They did emergency ICSI, but the embryos weren’t of good quality and she didn’t get pregnant. It was strange because her DH had children. Because of this, we spilt our eggs 50% ICSI and 50% natural (and we paid the full cost). The natural fertilized at a slightly better rate, but that was luck. I was scared because my DH hasn’t had a child and we didn’t do IVF before. I was also worried because ICSI is associated a slightly higher rate of chromosomal abnormalities and possibility other unknown things. Our choice made things more complicated. In the end, we transferred one from each group. If you’d like to know more about what I meant by complicated, please let me know. It gets a bit drawn out.

Penny – It is really getting close! Wow! I’m guessing that you’ve got everything ready. Count down is on!

Twilight - Whichever pills you have 21 of are the active pills. The ones that you have 7 of are the sugar pills. If you have 21 orange pills you start with those. When you take the 7 inactive ones, you should have your period…or whatever should happen.

We had our anatomy screen today and everything looked great! It appears as though our wee one is part of the pink team ! The ultrasonigrapher gave us a 95% call on her gender. She said that she would say that it was 100%; however, they aren’t allowed to give 100%. Our bean is measuring right on target and weighs 12 ounces. That being said, Squirtina was rather stubborn during the ultrasound. While she moved around, she spent all 1.5 hours of the ultrasound on her tummy. They had lots of trouble getting good heart pictures. After we were done, they had to go back and redo do them. We also couldn't get a head profile shot. We only saw her face through the back of her head. FYI – While a profile shot looks like a baby, a face on shot at 19w4d still looks a bit Martian because the bones around the eyes haven’t formed/calcified. On that note, my notation on the list finally changed, and it will probably be our last change until we have Squirtina! Now, we need to figure out a real name for her!

[styltryn]

Originally Posted by faith1186

I appreciate everyone's support.

My mother called the Donor Coordinator earlier today to discuss options moving forward. The coordinator basically flipped out claiming that she had updated me all along and could not understand why I would claim that she hadn't or why I was so upset. She said that 9 is a wonderful number and couldn't imagine why I would be disappointed or concerned.
To all!!!
__________________

Hi Faith, wow, I'm glad you wouldn't use them ever again. i hope the cycle works despite their lack of honesty. I had a similar experience for my first shared DE attempt and am using a different cycle and that it will make all the difference. So far, they seem far more professional and better at communicating with me than the prior clinic. It's a combo of embryo quality and lining quality and timing, but remember, it only takes one good embie!!!! Much to you and your DH!

My update - sorry I've been soooo busy and am not able to get to this board enuf lately... 2nd u/s and again the RE said all is "perfect". Now just need perfect embies!!! Everything Does anyone know a site that shows values for lining at various cycle days? Has anyone done IMSI in addition to ICSI? thoughts on it? I can get that for an extra $500, not sure if it's really needful, but considering the big overall cost... maybe it's a good idea???

[friedeggs]

Oh my gosh there were two little beans in there with their little hearts beating. The nurse said that everything looked great, but they want me to come back next Friday to re-look at the heartbeats. It is the most amazing thing. Like little flutters. My husband is bouncing off the walls. I am in complete shock. I was hoping for a little reassurance, and now I am going to be a wreck until I find out that both little beans are happy and healthy. Twins! I am terrified! I just cant believe it. This is CRAZY

Faith,
I am for your fertilization report. Four would be a fine number! I'll keep everything crossed for you.

[friedeggs]

Oh my gosh there were two little beans in there with their little hearts beating. The nurse said that everything looked great, but they want me to come back next Friday to re-look at the heartbeats. It is the most amazing thing. Like little flutters. My husband is bouncing off the walls. I am in complete shock. I was hoping for a little reassurance, and now I am going to be a wreck until I find out that both little beans are happy and healthy. Twins! I am terrified! I just cant believe it. This is CRAZY

Faith,
I am for your fertilization report. Four would be a fine number! I'll keep everything crossed for you.