consultation scheduled!

Last week was a busy week for us.  We called RMA to get my records e-mailed to us and we called the new doctor (Dr. Peters) to schedule a consultation.  Initially they couldn't see us until December 19th, but thanks to Sam and Jen, we were able to get moved to the top of the waiting list and now, our appointment is November 21st!!  yay!  So once RMA e-mails my records, I can forward them to Dr. Peters, and then we'll be ready to go!  

We're thinking about using my eggs and Andrea's eggs this time, which is good for many reasons!  We're also considering whether it is better to transfer 2 or 3 eggs.  So we'll see what he has to say about all that at the consultation.  More on that later!

In the meantime, I've been at it again!  This time, looking up natural ways to help an IVF cycle be successful!  I've found that taking anti-oxidants is helpful, so I've ordered "Network Antioxidants", which is supposed to be spectacular for your body.  I've also ordered a hypnotherapy CD that is supposed to help.  Still doing the yoga, self-masssage, castor oil packs, drinking red raspberry leaf tea, drinking ultragreens, and eating wheat and dairy free.  Hopefully the combination of all these things makes a baby (or two!) this time!!  :)

Smile :)

Last night, we went to see Janelle Monae!  It was the perfect thing to take our minds off our recent negative.  On her earlier album she covers "Smile" by Nat King Cole, and i just thought I would share the lyrics on here because they are very appropriate for our whole journey so far.  So here they are!
Smile, though your heart is aching

Smile, even though it’s breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
you’ll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You’ll see the sun come shining through
for you

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness Although a tear may be ever so near
That’s the time you must keep on trying
Smile what’s the use of crying
You’ll find that life is still worthwhile
If you’ll just
Smile

SO, the point is that even though we are sad and disappointed, we're still trying because we know it will work for us.  And we're still smiling!  :)  Tomorrow, I'm going to call the new doctor to see when he can get us in for a consultation.  

negative :(

yet another negative... our third negative.  we've moved on from sad to pissed! we're drinking wine and eating pizza... real pizza!  the nurse who called me with the bad news mentioned something about using clomid again.  obviously clomid doesn't do a whole heck of a lot, so NO I DON'T WANT CLOMID AGAIN!!  BITCH!  :)  she also tried to tell me to call on the first day of my next cycle.  I just tried to get off the phone with her because she called when I had a line of 21 kids behind me walking in from recess.

so now, we're considering our options, we've narrowed it down to 2 options... either we switch to IVF, which we're finding is surprisingly attainable with a small loan, OR we try to do home inseminations and buy clomid online to help that process along.  We're leaning toward IVF at this point with a new doctor (Jen and Sam's doctor).  more details to come!

Optimism, miracles, slow ass doctors

So we had our blood test done this morning at like 6:45 AM, it's now 2:15 PM and we still don't have results. "Normally" they call us with results on any kind of blood test within a reasonable time frame, but lately they seem to not be too on top of things. As if the 2 week wait wasn't long enough, now they also insist making us wait several torturous hours to hear whether we are pregnant or not! Every time I get a text message from Marisa I cross my fingers before reading it hoping that it's the results of our pregnancy test, but until this point... nothing.

This morning after the negative home pregnancy tests I was feeling incredibly discouraged, however after waiting all day my optimism has shot right back up again. There could still be a chance! Miracles can happen, the fortune cookie said so!

I hope we hear something soon, I can't take waiting anymore.

2 Week Wait: Day 14

Paper and plastic pregnancy test results for the day: negative. We are currently sitting in the doctors office waiting to be called to have the blood test done. We won't find out the results of that until later this afternoon though. Even with the at-home pregnancy tests being negative there is still a chance that the blood test will be a positive. We're waiting for that miracle!

2 Week Wait: Day 13

Paper and plastic pregnancy test results for the day: negative. It's been a long 2 weeks, but we're in the homestretch now. Tonight was our tai chi class, so that at least helped us to de-stress until the blood test in the morning. We also decided to order a "good-luck" Chinese dinner. We've ordered from this place before, and they always give us fortune cookies. This time they gave us 3 fortune cookies, and one was chocolate (which they've never given us before). I insisted that the "special" fortune cookie was Marisa's, and that whatever the fortune was, was a sign. After reading the fortune in it we KNEW that it was!

2 Week Wait: Day 12

Paper and plastic pregnancy test results of the day: negative. Marisa passed out around like 8:00 tonight, so she's definitely not feeling any more energized. We've again been looking up pregnancy symptoms and what-not because all of the negative tests are starting to get a little discouraging. It turns out that there are people who take an at home pregnancy test on the day of their blood test and get a negative on the at home one, but a positive on the blood test. So that's encouraging! Only 2 more days!!!

2 Week Wait: Day 11

Paper and plastic pregnancy test results of the day: negative. Marisa is still constantly exhausted and still has a "rash" on her chest. We're back to googling crazy things again, it's really no use though because no two people seem to have the same symptoms, and all it does is drive us crazy. 3 days to go!

2 Week Wait: Day 10

Paper and plastic pregnancy test results of the day: negative. Marisa has a rash on her chest today. We aren't really sure what to call it as it doesn't itch, and it looks more like acne then a rash, but it isn't acne. 4 more days to go!

2 Week Wait: Day 9

Paper and plastic pregnancy test results for the day: negative.

2 Week Wait: Day 8

Plastic and paper pregnancy results of the day: negative. Now it looks as though the HCG is out of her system. What a crazy long day it's been too! This morning we walked In a 5K for breast cancer, followed by an evening of fall foliage viewing with Marisa's parents. Tomorrow we will be doing a corn maze and carving pumpkins with friends! We've been doing pretty good this 2ww, at least as far as not going insane. Part of it is probably taking the pregnancy tests everyday, and the other part of it is probably how busy we've been keeping ourselves.

2 Week Wait: Day 7

1 week down, 1 to go. Today's pregnancy test was an interesting one... It was positive. We are sure that it showed positive because of the hcg shot even though yesterday was a negative, and here is why. We have been doing these daily pregnancy tests that are pretty much like a piece of paper. Today Marisa took one of the paper tests and it came out negative (as it did yesterday) in addition to taking a "regular" plastic pregnancy test, which came out positive. It's quite possible that the only reason we got negatives on the paper tests was because there is such a small amount of hcg in her system that it didn't show up, where as maybe the platic tests are more sensitive? For the next 7 days ( the remainder if the 2 week wait!!!!) we will be taking a paper test and a plastic test every day. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

2 Week Wait: Day 6

Pregnancy test result of the day: negative. It looks like the hcg shot is now out of Marisa's system, so now we are hoping for the tests to start reading positive again!

2 Week Wait: Day 5

Pregnancy test of the day: positive. The line seems to be getting lighter so I'm expecting a negative any day now. Marisa was very tired again today. Not much else to report on.

2 Week Wait: Day 4

Today's pregnancy test result: positive. In researching things we've found that the HCG shot usually takes 7-10 days to fully disappear from your system, but a lot has to do with your metabolism. We decided to do the tests from day one because we don't want to miss the day when the test could be a negative. Marisa's been a lot more tired than what she usually is, but that could just be a side effect of the prometrium suppositories. There really aren't very many symptoms going on this time, which basically means absolutely nothing since the last two cycles we tried she had tons of symptoms and wasn't pregnant. I've also decided that this blog needs some more pictures and reference links so that's going to be my goal going forward with posts.

2 Week Wait: Day 3

Pregnancy result for the day - positive. We aren't quite sure if it's the pregnancy tests that we purchased or what, but the result lines are very faint and almost hard to read. This of course could also be a result of the HCG shot making it's way out of Marisa's system too. Who knows? We also had a DRs appointment this morning to check her progesterone levels. The DR likes the progesterone level to be at 8, and Marisa's level was 7.9- so close, but not quite. So it's back on the progesterone suppositories again, which really isn't a big deal- Marisa's a pro by now lol.

I was looking for a YouTube video today that basically explains this whole process a little better and what we are waiting for at this point. Most couples just have sex and then magically are pregnant. We inseminate, wait for the sperm and the egg to meet up, and then after that we wait for the fertilized egg to stick to the endometrium. Anyway, just watch the video... it explains it much better then what I can.

2 Week Wait: Day 2

Today's pregnancy test result: positive. This is still due to the HCG shot, and we are waiting for it to leave her system. Not much else to report on today, until tomorrow..

2 Week Wait: Day 1

So here we are again in a two week wait, I've decided this go-round to blog every day during the two week wait for two reasons. One, to keep sanity. And two, to document how we plan on keeping sanity by taking a pregnancy test every day. More on that later.

Yesterday was our second insemination day. We got a little bit of a late start in the morning because I insisted on pre-ordering the iphone 4s before leaving for the doctor. Oops! The "swimmers" were a higher count than the day before so that was working in our favor, but the nurse had a problem getting the catheter past Marisa's cervix. Apparently it had moved from the day before? Some things I didn't even know were possible. Anyway, the nurse was awesome and navigated her way through and everything worked out. This was the 6th insemination and the 3rd cycle of trying, and I am convinced that this is it. This is the cycle we get pregnant.

Back to the sanity part of this post. We have decided to take a pregnancy test every day of the two week wait in order to have some kind of idea as to what is going on. The first couple of tests will come out positive because of the Ovidrel shot that Marisa had to take to ensure that she ovulated. Then we will get negative tests once that is out of her system, and then hopefully positive tests again (when we are actually pregnant!!!!!!). While this isn't a fail safe plan it does give us something to look forward to and will keep us feeling a little less helpless during these two weeks. Everyday I will be posting the update on the results of the pregnancy tests so that we can keep track of it as well as continue to fill you in on this little journey we are on. So day 1 pregnancy test result: positive.

In other news our friends gave birth to a little boy today and we couldn't be happier for them! We can't wait to meet him!

IUI - Round 1

just got back from the first insemination.  not too much to share, it was pretty routine.  however, we had a resident doing the insemination this time while the doctor assisted.  this is maybe like the 4th person who we have had doing our IUIs.  since none of the other IUIs have worked thus far, maybe this resident is "the one" who will get us pregnant!  andrea and i were joking about how whoever gets us pregnant will "win" a bottle of champagne and a cigar!  :)

anyway, i'll be back in there tomorrow!  then the dreaded 2ww!!

let's do this! :)

ok, so here's the rundown of the past few days.  On Monday, I went in for an ultrasound.  I had three follicles that were 13mm, 14mm, and 15mm... too small!  BUT, we were excited that there were three!!  so i went out and bought four yams, and ate them all in two days!  yams are supposed to make follicles grow, not sure if that's true or not, but why chance it?!  i had to wait until today (wednesday) to go in for another ultrasound.  well, today I have one follicle which was 21mm.  so it was definitely big enough, but we were disappointed that only one follicle matured on 100mg of clomid.  this was especially disappointing because, if you remember, on our first cycle, I made a 19mm follicle with no drugs.  so i'm questioning whether or not clomid actually works for me.

however, we're staying positive this month!  and in the spirit of staying positive, we thought of all the things that I have been doing to prepare my uterus, fallopian tubes, etc (like the castor oil packs, fertility yoga, fertility self massage, eating wheat and dairy free, and the list goes on).  we figured that follicles are only a fraction of this process.  having a healthy, happy, inviting uterus is just as important, if not more!  and my uterus is definitely healthy, happy, and inviting!  lol!  plus, our chance of conceiving is already higher since this is our third try!  so we'll be inseminating on thursday and friday.

so, here we go again!  i think we're still just as excited as we were when we tried the first time.  now we just have to stay positive, hopeful, and stress free during the impending 2ww!  :)