Getting Here

I thought that I would blog through our IVF experience, but three shots a day proved to be about all I could handle. My husband and I had been trying for a baby for over four years when we finally decided it was time for IVF. Once you decide you're going to do it you have to dive in head first. I was giving myself three injections per day, having daily blood test and visits with "Rocky" the dildo cam. It's a very involved process, but much easier than I expected it to be. Once you get over all of the needles it's a breeze. Unfortunately there are lots of needles. I gave myself injections in the car, in restaurant bathrooms, at rock concerts and of course at home. Everything is time sensitive, so unless you plan to give up your entire social life you have to make accommodations.

Fortunately for us all of the injections and bloating gave us a lot of eggs to work with. On the day of our egg retrieval they retrieved 20 eggs. 19 of those fertilized after being injected with sperm (a process called ICSI, intracytoplasmic sperm injection). We transferred two perfect blastocycts on day five and had three embies make it to freeze. Hopefully those frosties will be our next babies.

After waiting a few days I decided to take a home pregnancy test 6 days after our transfer. That equates to 11 days past ovulation to a non IVFer. Still very early, but there was a very faint line. After taking 5 more home pregnancy test and getting continuous positives over the next four days it was time for our beta. Our first blood pregnancy test showed a great HCG level of 277. So awesome. Even better our second one was 698. A doubling time of only 36 hours!

So here we are pregnant and keeping our fingers crossed that the little embryo(s) stays strong. Our next doctors appointment isn't until 10/25, but we'll get to hopefully see a heartbeat and find out if there are one or two embryos growing in there.

This is Robbie on the day of our transfer.