5 weeks

At midnight tonight two things will happen;

1. It will be 2010

2. Jenn will be 5 weeks pregnant

Both seem amazing to me. As a child of the 80's just the sound of 2010 makes me feel old. As part of a couple who has been trying to conceive a child for nearly 4 years, 5 weeks pregnant with our baby seems impossible.

Hello 2010!

885

Our final beta test (I think?) is in. Today's HCG level is 885. We were hoping it would be over 1,000 but 885 is still a good number. Doubling time is 51 hours which is down from 39.5 on Monday, but still nothing to be concerned about. As I mentioned in Monday's post a good doubling time is between 48 and 72 hours, so our numbers are STILL looking really good!

I am predicting 1 healthy bean for our ultrasound on Monday.

Starting the New Year in style

January 4th.

That's the date scheduled for our first ultrasound. I don't know exactly how much we'll see, if anything, but I'm totally excited!

An ultrasound.

To look for a real baby (ies).

That's a first for us.

1 or 2?

or 3? (just kidding!)

The speculation has begun. We transferred 2 grade 1 expanding blasts and Jenn is pregnant. The most likely scenario is 1 or 2 babies, however it's just possible that either of the blasts could split into identicals, which could bring our numbers up to 4 or more!!

Sometimes during an IVF cycle a procedure is carried out on the embryos called assisted hatching, which give the embryos a head start on implanting. The procedure was used on this cycle and it gives a slightly increased chance of an embryo splitting, hence identical twins, triplets (or more!!)

My guess is 1 healthy baby growing, what do you think?

It will be a while before we find out so keep an open mind!!!

463

It's in! Today's HCG level is 463.
The first one was 94 on December 24th.
Doubling time is 38 hours.

A good doubling time is between 48 and 72 hours, so our numbers are looking really good!

Jenn is the biz! Next beta test is on Wednesday, ultrasound is scheduled when HCG reaches 1,000.

Yes, more waiting

The blood test is done, and now all we can do is wait for the results.

Our clinic does the first ultrasound when the HCG levels are over 1,000.

(insert foot tapping here!)

Official beta test

Tomorrow is the first official beta test at our clinic. Between Jenn and I this will be the 8th beta test but the first that shows the promise of a happy outcome.

I am finally excited to go for a beta test! (well it's actually Jenn who gets to give the blood, obviously!)

I'll update as soon as we get the news!

I guess it's high time I made a post, huh? Sorry I haven't been as posty as Kirsten, I never know what to talk about! By now you've heard the news--Kirsten and Chris are going to be parents--again! It's an exciting time, and with Christmas just passed, there was no better time to have such happy news!

The time between the transfer and the pregnancy blood test is often called the two week wait. It's called that just because it's about two weeks (give or take) that you have to wait before finding out if the transfer was successful. The two week wait (2ww) is SO torturous! It really isn't a long time, but when you are doing home pregnancy tests, it seems like forever before you see a positive, if you are lucky enough to get one.

On our failed cycle in August, I got a TON of evaporation lines on my home pregnancy tests. Evaporation lines are just faint, gray lines that can trick you into thinking they are super early positives. A few times I even got blue lines that looked like true positives. It was terrible! So this time I got a bunch of really cheap internet tests to use so I could test often and early. Don't laugh, but I started testing the day of transfer! I knew they wouldn't be positive yet, but if my tests happened to be prone to evaporation lines, I'd know because I'd have true negative tests from those first days to compare later home tests to. Fortunately, those tests didn't have evaporation lines after all.

I started seeing faint, faint positives 9 days after the egg retrieval, or 4 days after the transfer. They were so faint that Kirsten really thought they weren't true positives. Little did we know that in just a day's time there would be no question about it--a baby or two is on the way!

So, how am I feeling? First, I'm in shock! I'm relieved, I'm happy for K and C, I'm glad the transfer worked, of course, too. I'm looking forward to the first ultrasound when we find out how many and can see the heartbeat(s) for the first time. I remember it being an amazing feeling in my previous journey when my IP's saw the heartbeats for the first time. It makes it so much more real to see a baby moving around in there. I know it will be a great moment when K and C get to see this baby for the first time too.

This may seem strange to say, but I'm so grateful for my ability to conceive and carry children. I really cannot fathom what K and C and other couples like them have to go through in order to enjoy such a common part of humanity. My heart just breaks when I think about it, and I'm SO glad and thankful that I can be a part of growing K and C's family and filling their hearts and home with a new baby to love.

Sharing the news

This is how we told our parents today about our wonderful news. They were very excited and of course we had an excellent Christmas day!

It's hard to believe that next Christmas we will hopefully have one or two new additions to our happy family.

Bring on the chaos!

Merry Christmas ~ Jenn is pregnant!!

I couldn't do any blog updates earlier, we wanted to share the news with our parents on Christmas day, and since they read this blog, the blog updates had to wait.

On Monday 21st Jenn shared these test with us;



It's so faint it's hard to take a picture, but the line is there (barely!) We were a little hopeful, but very reserved, we've been burned before thinking a test is positive only to find it's an evaporation line.

Then on Tuesday 22nd Jenn shared these two tests with us, the top one from the 21st and the bottom one from the 22nd;



By this point I was starting to believe it really might actually have worked, although Chris was still reserving judgement, until this happened at noon the same day;



No doubt about the results of this one, then that evening I went over to Jenn's house and we did this one together, which leaves us all in no doubt whatsoever, Jenn is pregnant!!



Jenn confirmed with a blood test today that she is officially pregnant!

It's still early days, but we are so excited. Thanks Jenn (and her amazing family) for giving us such a wonderful gift, and thank you to our donor who doesn't yet know that she has made the impossible, possible.

Merry Christmas!!

Nope

Nothing to report today.

The nail biting begins

Tomorrow will be 5 days past a 5 day transfer also known as 10 days past ovulation. It is the first day since the transfer that we can sensibly expect to see a positive pregnancy test. A negative tomorrow doesn't mean the end of our hope, but each day that goes past after tomorrow showing negative tests means the slow deflation of a dream.

I think you'll agree, as of tomorrow the nail biting officially begins. Let's hope we can all stay sane. Stay strong Jenn, we'll know the answer one way or the other very soon!

Eight blasts to freeze

We have 8 blasts to freeze, so in total that makes 10 blasts produced this cycle. I know that's an amazing number, there are many who do IVF and never have even a single embryo make it to blast stage and we have 10, but honestly, we've been here before, we've made many blasts in previous cycles and we know how that turned out, so I'll reserve judgement for now!

This afternoon I spent time with Jenn's little people while she was resting. It was funny spending time alone with kids that aren't S and J. They are so different, and so quiet and well behaved! I am going to send S and J to Jenn boot camp, I think she is up for the challenge!

Now we wait

The transfer is done. This morning we transferred 2 grade 1 expanding blasts (1 being the best 4 being the worst).

All we can do is wait.

Not long now

Tomorrow is the day, transfer day. It's exciting and scary all at the same time.

After tomorrow we will really begin waiting. Which way will it go, who knows? By Christmas it will all be over, good news or bad news, either way Christmas will still be amazing because we have little people who think the world is perfect already.

Not today

Transfers are usually scheduled for 3 and 5 days past egg retrieval, and today is day 3. The first day is a "just in case" things are not going too well day and the day 5 is the hoped for day. I just find out we are not on for today, we are transferring on Wednesday so we figure things must be looking good!

The Mother of all Pregnancy books

I was sorting through some books in our garage today and came across two interesting little reads;

The Mother of all Pregnancy books (The ultimate guide to conception, birth and everything in between)

and;

Infertility (Learn to take charge of your condition)

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. I remember buying the first book somewhere during the first year we were trying to conceive, and I guess at some point I believed I might actually need to read it. Thinking back I can remember reading the first few chapters but not reading past the section where I get that all too elusive positive pregnancy test! Hmmmm, I wonder how it got unceremoniously banished to the garage for all eternity? I think it's time to dust it off and pass it on to someone who really needs it, although I'm not sure anyone would want such a bad luck charm. I think I'll give it anonymously to charity to save the shame from being so public.

I bought the second book in a weak moment when I thought I really SHOULD be able to read my way out of infertility. Most couples are not REALLY infertile, right, they just need to be patient and try for longer? I thought maybe that could be us, even though that's not what Dr W had told us, but I thought it might be possible. Of course when I read through the book I discovered that it only touched the surface of infertility and I found myself scoffing at much of it's contents. I read the book a few years ago now and if I thought at the time we were super infertile that would currently put us in the extra super duper infertile category!

If you know anyone who needs a pregnancy or infertility book send them in my direction, I have two gathering dust and looking for a new owner who can help them to reach their full potential. Best be quick, they will be on their way to Goodwill very soon!

Grow embies, grow!

I just got the call that 18 eggs fertilized normally. Can't complain about that number, it's fantastic!

We are being scheduled for transfer Monday and Wednesday, but it will probably be Wednesday. I hope our donor is recovering well. Her job is over now, and Jenn's is taking the reins.

Good luck Jenn!

Thank you D!

During the egg retrieval today Dr W aspirated 23 eggs from our donor. At the time of the report 22 were at the perfect level of maturity and 1 was one step behind the rest. The clinic will see if that one catches up and so either 22 or 23 eggs will be injected with sperm today.

We will receive a report tomorrow with the fertilization rate.

Go D! Thanks for all your hard work and dedication.

eta;

Dr W just called, all 23 have been injected. Hurrah!!

12 ~ The perfect number

Jenn had an ultrasound today to check her lining, it was at 12 which is an excellent number.

The retrieval is on for today, so hopefully updates later on how many eggs our wonderful donor produces!

Egg retrieval is on for Friday

We received this email from our clinic today;

The egg retrieval will be Friday. We will see Jennifer on Friday as well for a pre-transfer ultrasound. Her transfer will most likely occur on 12/16. We will give you the time on the 14th. Her preg test will be 12/28. The donor has done fantastic, lots of eggs!!

It looks like all is going well so far, I can't believe the transfer is almost here!

Nothing to report

I haven't heard anything from the clinic about D's response to stims, so I'm going to assume everything is going just fine.

Only 8 more days until estimated egg retrieval day.

I've got to say it, a donor cycle is kind of dull from my point of view!