8 week ultrasound

Disclaimer* This post probably has TMI.  

You have been warned.

Last Friday I had my 8 week ultrasound and I have never been so scared in my life.  Let's back up and I'll explain why.  The day before I had some cramping earlier in the day and I reassured myself that everything was just fine.  Dr. Wilcox said that cramping during pregnancy especially early on is very normal.  Okay.  So moving on.  That night around 10 pm I was getting ready for bed and I started spotting.  It was pink so I didn't worry about it {apparently pink or brown is okay}.  Two hours later I woke up to go to the bathroom again {which is a common occurrence nowadays} and when I went to the bathroom the water turned pink and I was spotting a darker pink.  2 hours later, pink water and bright red spotting.  This is the point where I REALLY started to freak out.  Bright red blood is BAD, and up to this point I had never ever ever spotted this much.  This continued every 1.5-2 hours and as the time passed the color went from the bright red to a brownish red to more of a brown color.  Needless to say I didn't sleep well that night at all and felt sick to my stomach when I woke up.  All I could think was, what if I miscarried one of the babies?  What did I do yesterday that could have caused this to happen?  Jared gave me a big hug and told me that everything was going to be just fine and that we would see and hear both of our babies at our appt. and that they were going to be healthy.

So we headed over to our dr.'s appt.  It took a long time to get over there because a wind storm had blown through the night before.  Winds in Pasadena had gusts of up to 100 mph and several cities around us declared a state of disaster.  Trees were down everywhere, electricity was out all around us.  

Thankfully we did not lose our electricity and did not have any damage from the storm.  When we got to HRC they were running late so we waited for about an hour before we were seen {which is like 4x longer than what we normally wait}.

When we finally got to see Dr. Wilcox I explained to him what had been going on and so he got right in on the ultrasound to see what was going on.

Both of our babies were still there and had strong heartbeats :)  One was 158 bpm and the other was 160 bpm.  However, I have fluid in my uterus.  {It's that little white line just above and to the right of the two babies}  It's not a lot, but it's the reason for my spotting.  The dr. doesn't know why it happened but it's definitely not something that he wants to see.  He didn't put me on bedrest, but I'm not allowed to do pretty much anything.  I can't do any cleaning or grocery shopping.  I'm allowed to work still, but when I get home at night I'm either sitting or laying down.  If I get more fluid in my uterus it could threaten the pregnancy, so I am 100% behaving so that my little babies stay right where they're supposed to.

I feel so bad for Jared because he has to do everything in the house right now.  Luckily he's being a pretty good sport about it.  He put up the Christmas tree and I helped a little with the decorating but not a ton.

I think it's beautiful! 

And now it officially feels like Christmas in our home :)

The not fun stuff

Okay ladies, don't hate, but I have some amazing family genes.

My Grandma Pope only had morning sickness with baby #1 out of 11.

My mom only had morning sickness with one of my siblings.

So far, I have not experienced anything that I would classify as morning sickness.

Like... at all.
{I've had random tummy hurts, but I just eat a cracker or a banana and I'm great again}

I think it's in part to my amazing family genes, but I also really believe that it's because I started preparing for this pregnancy before it started.  By the time the embryo transfer was done, I had been taking prenatal vitamins for almost 3 months.  I'm convinced that it has helped make for an easier pregnancy.

Some things that I've really noticed so far is:
-If I stand up too quickly then I get woozy and have to steady myself. 
-I get tired SUPER fast.  If I'm up doing something for 5-10 minutes it really wears me out.  Totally makes me feel like a big fat fatty, but I know that most of my energy is going to making my little jelly beans grow big and strong.
AND

Apparently when you're pregnant... you forget everything.

And when I say everything...

I really do mean everything.

People told me that I would be forgetful.  But I didn't realize that it would be THIS early in the pregnancy!
I can't even remember who I talked to yesterday.

The other day I put all of my clothes away and when I tried to tell Jared "Look!  I put all of my clothes away" all that came out was "Look away...?"  Jared was like... "You want to try that again? haha"

When I was making dinner last week I would think of something I needed and by the time I got to the other side of the kitchen I was like... why did I come over here?... That happened at least 3 times within 5 minutes.

Also
-I'm not sure if I'm going to be the only one on this one,
but I have had NO appetite.
None.
Which is totally unlike me.  I love food.  Like, eating great food is one of my favorite things to do {and when I say great, I don't necessarily mean 'healthy'.  French fries top my list of great food, lol}
I've basically had to force myself to eat enough food.
When I was heading home a couple of nights ago I was counting up the calories I had eaten for the day in my head and realized I'd only eaten about 1200 for the entire day.  So when I got home I forced myself to eat and entire box of Mac & Cheese so that I could get my 1800 calories for the day.
{I need 1500 to maintain my body weight and then 300 for baby... unless I'm having twins... then I'll have to eat another 300/day for a total of 2100.}
I wish it didn't feel like a chore to eat something.
Maybe it's because I always feel a little sick after I eat anything.
I'm trying to eat smaller meals throughout the day, so hopefully that will help.

And now my most hated symptom so far...
I've had cramps for the entire pregnancy so far.  I know it's in part to having an overstimulated ovary {which is finally starting to go down} and I know that there is a lot going on inside my body right now, but whenever I get a cramp I freak out a little bit that it means I'm having a miscarriage.
And then Friday night I spotted.
I had a really hard time not freaking out, but I had Jared and his dad come over and they gave me a blessing.
I haven't spotted again since. :)
I feel a lot better now.

Anyway, TWO days until the ultrasound!!!  Can't wait to see how many we're having!
People have asked if I'll be disappointed if we have one baby instead of two.
NOPE!
I'm going to be so stoked if our IVF is successful to a full term pregnancy.
It would be fun to have twins, but I think that there are pros and cons in either scenario so I'm just excited for whatever happens.

One month and counting

One month in, eight to go.

I think it's great that your pregnancy "starts" from your last menstrual cycle.

It's almost like you get 2 weeks for free.

Actually, the first month is pretty much free.

Two weeks before your cycle and then the other two after most people don't know that they're pregnant and then a few days after a missed cycle, you take a pregnancy test and boom.  Pregnant.

So yeah, first month is totally free.

You don't gain any weight.

You don't have weird cravings yet.

You probably don't have morning sickness yet.

You don't show...

I can't wait until I start showing :)  

I say that now.... but we'll see how I feel about it when none of my clothes fit me.  At least there are cute maternity clothes now and I won't have to wear a mu-mu or something completely unflattering like that.

I can't believe I'll already be six weeks on Saturday. :)

This whole being pregnant thing is pretty much amazing.

It's hard to believe that this is really happening.

Pregnancy test #2 - Results

Yesterday I went in to HRC for pregnancy test #2.

I think they like to do two tests to confirm that the different hormone levels are increasing like they should.

Great news, I'm still pregnant :)

Here are my new numbers:

HCG: 7821.8 

{last week is was 546.2}
Progesterone: 399.48
Estrogen: 2571.2

Soooo... what do these numbers mean?

According to HRC, and my dad
multiples.

Dr. Wilcox doesn't want to wait 3-4 weeks to do an ultrasound.
He wants me in next week. :)
We're pretty excited.
He's having us in to verify that there are in fact multiples and to see how many.

Did you know that you can see your baby's heartbeat through a vaginal ultrasound at just 6 weeks pregnant?

We'll get to see our little babies heartbeat{s} next week!
Eek!!!

I'm trying soooo hard not to just tell everyone I know that I'm having twins because it hasn't been verified yet... but the numbers really do speak volumes.

I can't wait until next week!

Overprotective

I think that there is a very big possibility that I am married to the most overprotective soon to be daddy.

You want proof?

Okay, here are some examples of late;

-We were going somewhere and I told him to go ahead and back out of the driveway so I could shut the gate "You're pregnant, get in the car.  My dad can shut the gate."

-I was standing on a chair putting away something "You probably shouldn't stand up on chairs anymore.  Actually, you're NOT allowed to stand on chairs anymore.  If you fell you could hurt the baby."
{Um... when have I ever fallen off of a chair? haha}

-I wanted to get Tommy's for lunch.  "You're going to feed that to our baby?!" I told him the bad stuff is just for me and the baby will get the good stuff.

-I'm not allowed to vaccuum
-I'm not allowed to pick practically ANYTHING up
-I'm not allowed to wash dishes yet
{when you do IVF you're on strict instructions to not do anything and Jared is definitely enforcing that}

Jared brings the laundry to the washing machine so I can wash it and then into the living room so I can fold it.
AND he puts the soap in the washer for me because apparently the bottle of Tide is too heavy. :)
He washes all of the dishes so that I will still make dinner.

The other day it was raining, and when it rains, the gutters in front of my work get to be about 1.5 feet wide with water, this particular day it was about 2 feet wide.  When I pulled up, he met me outside and carried me over the water so I wouldn't get my shoes wet.

And then...
The other day while washing dishes Jared told me that he was getting tired of cleaning and that maybe it is time to hire a maid, haha.

He's been soooo awesome through this entire process.  I am definitely one lucky girl to have him in my life. <3

Why in vitro?

Those in my life who know me well, know my history and why Jared and I are doing IVF to get our little family.

For those of you who never knew... here's the story.

December 11, 1989.

It was time to go home from my friends house.  We went out to the car but I couldn't get the door open.  I tried to stop my friends door from closing but all I got were my fingers slammed in the door.  As this happened, his mom started up the car so she couldn't hear my cries.  Since she thought I was in the car, she started backing down the driveway.  I was dragged down the driveway with the car until my left leg got caught under the front tire and as it crunched over my leg, my fingers were freed from the door.

As the car reached the street, my friends mom saw me laying in the driveway and in a panic she slammed on the gas instead of the brakes and went flying into the fence behind her.  Luckily neither of them were hurt.

She ran inside to call my mother as my friends dad picked me up and brought me back in and laid me on across a chair.  I remember his sister trying to put a band-aid on my throbbing leg and I kicked her away with my good leg while screaming at her to not touch me.

My mom arrived and rushed me to the hospital.  

I don't think she's driven so fast in her entire life.

When I arrived at the hospital, a doctor examined me.  All of my clothes had to come off and I've been told that when he tried to take off my underwear I slapped him right across the face.

After tests the doctors diagnosis was:

Left Leg - Broken

Stomach - Ruptured.

The doctor told my parents that I wouldn't make it.

When I was in recovery my mom told me that she could see all of my lunch in my tummy.  Some peanut butter and jelly sandwich here {and she would point to a part of my stomach} some milk here {point somewhere else} and lots and lots of chocolate chip cookies.

I was in the hospital for 11 days when the doctors allowed my parents to take me home.

That year for Christmas I got a little tykes shopping cart.  It helped me learn to walk again.

Here are some pictures from that time in my life.  I have to admit, I was a pretty cute little girl. :)
{I can't wait to see what our babies look like!}

My uncle gave me this Big Bird.  Totally still have it :)

The nurses liked to stick me in a wheelchair and walk me around the hospital.  One of the nurses would always share her orange with me.  They were awesome.

Daddy sleeping with me in my oxygen tent. <3

Fast forward to November 28, 2001.

I was fat.  My stomach had grown so much the past few months that I started wearing this fleece pullover every day.  Whether I was warm or not.  My stomach was getting bigger every day it seemed and it felt hard when I poked it.  I had no idea what was happening to me and I didn't like it.  Cramps were murder.  I remember shopping with my mom in Target one day and I literally dropped to the ground my cramps came on so bad.  But on this morning, November 28th.  I felt especially awful.  I told my parents I couldn't go to school and that I felt terrible.  My dad came in and asked what was wrong with me.  I told him my stomach hurt so so so so bad.  So, being a doctor, he started poking me around and then asked me if I was sexually active.  WHAT?!  NO.  No I wasn't.  He wanted to know if I was telling the truth, because apparently I looked and felt like I was 5-6 months pregnant.  I swore I wasn't.

My dad took me to the hospital where they did some tests and found that I had a very large cist that needed to be removed immediately.  Like, if it wasn't removed asap it could burst and I would die.  The cyst was the size of a NFL football.

The next day, my parents brought me in for emergency surgery.

I remember feeling like the worst person ever because it was my parents anniversary that day and I was ruining it for them.

A nurse had me change into one of those hospital gowns and I was left to sit in a wheelchair in this room with my parents until the operating room was ready.  Since I was freaking out they were kind enough to give me some medicine.  I don't know what it was called, but after I took the medicine I only remember the next minute.  Then I woke up in recovery.

When they opened me up in surgery, the doctor discovered that this cyst was HUGE.  The dr. thinks that this cyst was a result of my ruptured stomach.  It was attached to my bladder, my uterus, and my colon.  In the surgery the dr. detached everything, drained the cyst {which had about 2 liters of old blood in it, ew} and removed it.  Because everything was so squished together, my right ovary was accidentally removed.

My parents were told following the procedure that I might not be able to have children in the future.

Fast forward 5 years, I get married.

After 4 years of marriage we try to figure out why we aren't getting pregnant.

January 2010 - Met with an OBGYN to begin the 6 month process of tests and procedures to try and figure out exactly why we weren't getting pregnant.

July 2010 - OBGYN concludes that I will be a good candidate for IVF, and that will be the only way for me to have children.

August 16th 2010, we meet Dr. Wilcox and decide he will be our miracle worker.

And that is how we got where we are today.
3 weeks pregnant and counting! :)

{actually... I'm technically 5 weeks pregnant.  Apparently you're pregnancy is based off of your last menstrual cycle.  I wonder why.}

Is this for real?

I'm kind of in a weird phase right now.

Not sure if everything is real yet.

I've had two positive pregnancy tests....

yet all I want to do is go to the store and buy more.

No way am I actually pregnant.

We've wanted this for so long, how can the day actually be here?

I can't wait until I find out if I'll be having one or two little ones.

I can't wait to see their little pictures on the ultra sound

and then feel them move around inside my tummy.

I can't wait to find out if we're having a girl or a boy, or one or two of each.

I definitely feel pregnant now... even though it's hard to believe.

And every night I put my hand on my stomach and think

"Grow big and strong little embryos! Snuggle in and hang on tight!

Only nine months until I can hold you in my arms."

Home test slash the real test results.

I wrote the first part of this entry on Saturday and help off posting until today so that I could include both pregnancy tests. :)

So... It's 11 'o' clock on Saturday night.  Well, technically 10 'o' clock because it's daylight savings tomorrow.  Anyway, there are three days left until I go in for my pregnancy test.  I have one test left from when Jared and I were trying to get pregnant a couple of years ago, and I thought to myself, "why not?".

I asked Jared if I should take the test and he goes "YEAH! I want to know if you're pregnant!"  So I went for it.  I peed on the stick and watched the little hourglass 'think' for what seemed like forever.

And then it happened.

It said pregnant.

Now, I'm trying REALLY hard not to get too excited over this because there is the chance that this could be a false positive.  It happens.  But this test is the kind that you can take up to 4 days before your period... and this is the day after my period would have started... so in MY mind this thing has got to be pretty accurate and it's hard not to be excited.  The reason that I'm worried it might be a false positive, is because I'm taking estrogen and progesterone... but my dad says that these tests check your HCG level and I'm not taking anything for that.  Your HCG level is something that naturally increases when you're pregnant.

So here's to hoping this thing is right!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

 Today was the official pregnancy test.

At 5 this morning I was woken up by the phone ringing.  Confused, Jared and I started searching for the phone and missed the call. 

{I always forget to put the phone back on the charger, oops!}

When I found the phone I checked the caller ID and found that my family had been trying to reach me.  See, we have this tradition in my family that on your birthday everyone wakes you up by singing 'Happy Birthday'.  With the 2 hour time difference from Cali to STL, I usually get my call anywhere from 4-5 in the morning, haha.  So I called them back so they could sing to me and then went back to bed.

Got up at 7 and decided to take my time getting ready for the day.

I was told to come in any time between 7:30 and 11:30 for the pregnancy test and that since it was just blood work I didn't have to schedule a specific time.

So I had a big birthday worthy breakfast and took a nice long shower.  I didn't want to rush to get ready because I was already kind of freaking out about going in.  It felt sort of surreal that the day was finally here.  Plus what if the pregnancy test I took the other day was wrong?  I wish I had never taken that test... too late now.

I got to HRC at 10:00 and was in and out within 10 minutes.  The lab tech was funny, she asked which arm felt more pregnant and that she would take the blood from that one.  When she was done she told me to expect my phone call sometime after 3 this afternoon.

So I waited...

and waited...

I'm pretty sure that time actually slowed down.

I don't know how pregnant feels... but I think that I feel pregnant.  The doctor said that if I got pregnant my HCG level would go up, which would stimulate my ovary and make it swell a little bigger which would give me some cramping.  I've had cramping.

I've had cramping and a positive pregnancy test {so what if it expired in May? It will still be right... right?} so that means I have to be pregnant.

These were some of the thoughts that plagued my mind for 4 hours.

The call finally came at 12:56.
So glad because I seriously felt like I was going to puke from waiting.

Ana told me that my HCG levels needed to be higher than 50 order to be considered pregnant.  Mine are 546.2.  So I am quote "very pregnant"

YYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Today is definitely one of the best days of my life.

I'll go back for a retest in one week and I will have my first ultrasound a few weeks after that.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

The number 8

The number 8 has played a significant role in my life.

I was born on November 8th.

I met Jared on October 8th.

He proposed on February 18th.

We were married on July 28th.

Our first apartment was #8.

And today, the 8th of November, I will find out if I am pregnant.

Hopefully I will get my best birthday present ever today :)

The first injection

This morning I had my appt. with HRC.  They did an u/s (ultrasound) which I was NOT expecting and was not prepared for.  See... they don't do "regular" ultrasounds there where they squirt gel on your tummy and look around.  Nope.  They are vaginal u/s.  I'll leave it at, they are not comfortable, definitely give me cramps and are just not my favorite thing ever.  I have to mentally prepare myself for these things.  Seriously, I think it's worse than a well woman exam.  So anyway, the dr. did the u/s and then I went to a conf. room where a nurse showed Jared and I how to do all the injection stuff.  How to draw the medicine into the needle, how to get the air out of the needle, sterilizing my skin and the injection part.  We got to practice with a needle, water and this flubbery thing that was supposed to simulate human skin.  Apparently when you do the injection, you're supposed to stick it in 'dart like'.  So basically, pinch your skin and then JAM the needle in there.  She says if you go slow it hurts more.  Yay.  I asked her if anyone had accidentally jammed the needle into the hand they were pinching the skin with.  She said no but I don't believe her.

I'm a little disappointed because I did not get to do my injection this morning.  They want the injections done at nighttime at the same time every day.  I was hoping I would be able to take the injection right when I wake up so that it wouldn't interfere with my schedule at nights.  Oh well.  I guess I just won't have a life for the next 3 weeks.  

I won't have one anyway once I actually have a kid so I guess I may as well get used to it right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay... so now it's nighttime and time for my injection.  Yikes!  I have to admit, I'm super nervous.  I haven't really decided if I want to make Jared do it or if I want to try doing it myself.  Probably I should let Jared do it.  I'm too nervous.  What if I stick my hand?!  I can do the injection in either my stomach or my thigh... I haven't decided where to do it either.  Maybe I should try one place today and the other tomorrow and then I'll stick with whatever hurts less?

So this is the stuff that I'm injecting into myself.

{This drug will increase my LH-luteinizing hormone and FSH-follicle stimulating hormone levels while suppressing my pituitaty gland- which is responsible for triggering ovulation.  Basically this means I'll make lots of eggs, but they'll stay in my ovary}  Side effects of this stuff: Hot flashes, sweating, headache, inflammations of the vagina, general pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and decreased sexual desire.  Sweet.  Just what I wanted, haha.

And this is the needle

It's not as bad as the other needle.

See? ^ 

This one looks much more intimidating... well, the picture doesn't really do it justice.  You can't see the length of this needle very well 

but I promise it's scary. 

{It's like, twice the size of the other one}

Oh and here's all my drugs.

I have a pharmacy in my house now.  Yippy.

Okay I'll stop putting off doing this thing.  I decided I'm going to have Jared do it... in my thigh?  I guess I'll try my thigh first.  That sounds like it won't hurt as much.  Here goes.

I bled a little :(

 All done!  Seriously?  That was it?

I love my bandaid :)

Okay... so now I feel like a baby because that really wasn't bad.  

At all actually.

See?  Happy as a clam! :)

Right after Jared finished the shot, the injection site itched really bad.  I'm not gonna lie, I've been freaking out.  What if I'm allergic to the Lupron?!  Is there something else they could give me that would do the same thing?  What if there isn't anything else?  What if I'm allergic to this and there isn't anything else that I could take and so now we can't have kids?!!!!!!  Fifteen minutes later the itching is now gone and I'm all better.  I'm done freaking out {for now}.  I can totally do this for 3 weeks.

I miss milk

I hate this medicine that I'm on!  It makes me feel like I'm going to throw up.  I have felt sick like this for the past 3 days and I'm done with it.  At least I don't have a headache on top of it today.

I miss milk.... and butter...

I had no idea how many things have dairy in them!

Jared and I bought some truffles at Costco the other day and after we ate like, a million, we realized that they have milk in the ingredients.

I'm not used to checking ingredients before I eat things.

I don't envy people that are lactose intolerant.

In fact, I feel really bad for them.

I've decided that pretty much everything that tastes good has dairy in it.

Cereal, grilled cheese, PIZZA, cheeseburgers, breakfast sandwhiches (they just aren't the same without the cheese), mac & cheese, german pancakes, truffles, strawberries & cream oatmeal, 

mashed potatoes (I tried them with only margarine last night... they were gross), baked potatoes (you HAVE to put butter on this), cookies, lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, ravioli...

I seriously could list things that I can't eat all day long.

I can't wait until Wednesday.

I think I might just drink milk and eat cheese all day long... 

(and those truffles.) ssshhhh

getting warmer...

Today I will get all the fertility medicine that I need in the mail.  Tuesday night Jared and I will be finished taking the antibiotic.  And on Friday we will go in to HRC for an appt.  They will give me the first shot of Lupron and show Jared how to do it so we can do it at home.  

Then the countdown will begin.

freak

I received an email from Counsyl this morning informing me that the genetic screening has been completed and the results are available.  So I went online to get them and to see if Jared and/or I was a carrier of any 'mutant genes'.  The results...

"Jared Barney's DNA test shows that he is not a carrier of any disease-causing mutation tested."

I called and told this to Jared and his response? "Well sweetie, I AM a perfect speciman" haha okay, Jared whatever you say.  As for me...

"Jessica Barney's DNA test shows that she is a carrier of 

spinal muscular atrophy.

Huh?

How could this happen?  How can I be a carrier of something so awful?!

My initial response?  

I wanted to cry.

I felt like a freak.

Why are Jared's genes perfect and mine aren't?

Okay breathe.

Being a carrier of the gene doesn't mean that I will have children that suffer from spinal muscular atrophy.  The odds have just increased.  My odds are now 1/2800 instead of 1/4800.

The odds of us having a perfect baby are still really good.

So what next?

As soon as Jared and I finish this antibiotic that we are on, we'll go back to HRC for a followup on the genetic screening and all the fertility drugs will get ordered and I will start taking them as soon as they arrive.  

I'm really starting to get excited. :)

Better now than later

Today I got a call from HRC and APPARENTLY all those labs I had to do ARE good for something.  So far I have come back negative on everything bu it turns out I came back positive on Ureaplasma.  I'll be honest, I kind of freaked out a little when she told me because I have never heard of this thing before, plus it sounds weird.  Anna explained that ureaplasma is actually quite common.  About 70% of sexually active people have this.  It's a bacteria that is associated with first trimester pregnancy loss, still birth, and premature birth.  Luckily, to get rid of it, all Jared and I have to do is take an antibiotic a couple of times a day for a week.

That would have been terrible to have started everything and then find out after I had a miscarriage or something!!!  I guess these people really do know what they're doing.

Too soon?

The other day I found myself on babiesrus.com looking at cribs and all things baby.  Do you think it might be a little too early for me to be shopping around for things like this?  

Seeing as I'm not even pregnant yet, haha.

I'm pathetic.

But I did notice, it's kind of hard to know what all you want if you don't know the gender of your baby!

I guess I'll wait until I'm at least pregnant before I start looking again :)

Genetic Screening

So the test for genetic screening is kind of gross.  You have to spit into this tube until it fills up to the line.  It took me like 3 minutes to fill the thing.  

This is the instructional video on how to do everything.  I think it's funny how the lady is spitting into the tube and is all smiling and her husband is all smiling and into what she's doing too, haha

The cool part about this test?  First of all, it's $350/person, BUT, like 90% of insurances cover it.  Second of all, it tells you if you're a carrier of over a 100 different diseases.  And if you and your partner are both a carrier, then there is a 25% chance that your child will have whatever you both carry.  The good thing about finding out of you're both a carrier of the gene?  Many genetic diseases are preventable.  You can't do everything you can to prevent it if you don't even know you might pass it on to your baby.  

I know I was opposed to doing this test at first... but it was because I thought the only reason people decided to do genetic screening was so they could weed out all the "bad eggs".  I now know that isn't the case.  I'm glad we decided to do genetic screening and am actually kind of looking forward to what the results are.  Hopefully I'm not a carrier of anything too serious, but if I am it would be interesting to do some family history and see who/where it came from!  And if Jared and I both are, we have a head start and can learn and do everything we can to have the healthiest baby possible.

Day 9

Yay!  I had another appt. this morning :)  I freaking LOVE my doctor!  He is such a nice guy and he answers every single question I have with the most detail that I think he can muster up.  And so do his nurses.  Everyone that I've come into contact with at HRC has been over the top nice and helpful as can be.  I think I picked a great place to make my baby, lol.

So about the appt.  Everything looks great!  They did that one test (sonohysterogram) and the lining of my uterus looks great.  And the doc did a vaginal ultrasound to check out my ovary.  He showed me three little splotches on the screen and said 

do you see these?  

me: "yep!"  

Doctor: "Those are potential babies."

me: "woah"

It was kind of super cool to know that those little splotches on the screen could turn into a real human baby.

The only thing that we have to wait for at this point before we can move on is the genetic screening results.  We figure those results will be back in max three weeks.  

So here is the tentative schedule of events for me.

Last week of Sept./First week of Oct. : Start the Lupron injections.  - yep, I have to have a shot in the stomach every day for like 10-12 days of this stuff.  I'm making Jared do it.

Days 12ish - 24ish - Fertility Injection plus Lupron injection (that's right, two shots a day) plus some pills and other crap to make lots of eggs or something.

After all that they will go in and extract approx. 10 eggs.

Then they'll mix the eggs with the "good stuff"

And put 2 or 3 emryos back in 2-3 days later.
The rest of the embryos will be frozen and put into storage for next time

(They are thinking that the embryo transfer will happen around the first week of November)

So happy birthday to me!  About 10-15 days after the embryo transfer they will do a pregnancy test on me and will find out if the transfer was successful or not. :)  Yay!

It's crazy how fast this all goes once you decide to do it.

I'll know if this worked or not before Thanksgiving!

If it worked, then hooray!

If not, we'll do it all over again.

Either way, I'm just happy that we're finally taking steps in the right direction to having our own little family.

Oh yeah, and one more tidbit of information that I'm happy about.
HRC Success rates:
For 2010 - women under 35.
They did 347 IVF cycles.
61% got pregnant
55% carried the baby to full term
(So 9% of those that became pregnant had a miscarraige.)
Since this year is not through yet the new rates have not been published, but when I was in there today, they told me that the success rate this year is right around 70%.  YES!!!!  That is def. some good news.

Day Three

Today is day three!  Today Jared and I went into Huntington Reproductive Center (HRC) for me to have a couple of tests done.  An Estrogen test and a follicle stimulating hormone test (FSH).  I'm learning lots of abbreviations, haha.  They'll call me with the results later today and as long as everything looks right I'll start taking birth control.  Yikes!  Dun dun DUN!!!  Hopefully I don't turn into a psycho mess.  When I took b.c. before it was a low dosage and I didn't react too badly, but this is the normal dose stuff.  Pros - usually helps clear up my face.  Cons - I become an emotional basket case and my husband turns into a jerk.  Next Wednesday I'll go in for my Sonohysterogram and as soon as we get the result back from the genetic testing we'll be ready to move to the next step.  Yeah, that's right.  I said genetic testing.  I totally didn't want to do it but Jared has convinced me otherwise.  My position is, if we're supposed to have a baby that has down syndrome or a cleft lip or is retarded, then we'll have one whether we try and prevent it or not.  But Jared says that since we're going through this whole process to try and have a baby we might as well try to have a healthy baby.  So I agreed to the testing.  HOWEVER, there is no part of me that will ever agree to destroying any of the embryos whatsoever.  HRC was saying that any embryos that we don't want, they will destroy, so I asked about adopting them out.  I know that there are women out there that want the whole experience of having a baby, but don't have any eggs to have one.  Rather than destroying my unused eggs, I would want to give them to someone else.  I know it sounds so weird... the eggs would already be fertilized, which means that someone else would have a little Jared or Jessica running around in their life and we wouldn't even know them.  But I would so much rather have that, then have to live with the knowledge that I allowed all these future babies to be destroyed.

Anyway, we talked about all that stuff and then we met with the financial counselor to see about prices for everything.  Man oh man is in vitro expensive! haha This kid had better be perfectly mannered! haha j/k

We're thinking that we are going to do two round of in vitro.  If it doesn't work, then we'll regroup and figure out our next steps, but for now, this is where we're at.  Once we get the test results back from the genetic test we'll sit back down with Dr. Wilcox's nurse and figure out a schedule for the rest of this process.  Obviously, I'm nervous about this whole thing and earlier this week was really freaking out about what if it doesn't work and so on, but Jared is just being so cute.  He soooo wants to be a dad. :)  He'll make such a good daddy!

So here's our doctor

  click here for some info on him
He's super nice and we really like him :)

Oh yeah, and side note, I found a yoga class!  It's not fertility yoga (because the closest class was like 45 min. away and I figured that after dealing with the traffic and stupid drivers on the way home I wouldn't be relaxed anymore and it would have been pointless) but I absolutely loved it.  I bought a month of unlimited yoga (new student special) and after a month I figure that I'll know how many times I want to go each week.

Day One

So... probably a little too much info. but I started my period today.... which means it's the day to call and schedule an appt. with HRC to go in for testing on day three.  I don't know what my problem is but I am absolutely freaking out about this whole thing.  I know that stress can make it so you don't get pregnant or can contribute to a miscarriage so i am looking into taking a fertility yoga class.

Yoga is supposed to be really good to do while pregnant or trying to conceive because it teaches you how to breathe and be calm.  Here's an article I read about it

How Yoga Benefits Fertility

So now I just have to find a class for this.  Maybe HRC knows of a class that they can refer me too.  I think it's so cool that there are fertility yoga classes though.  Everyone that goes there is either pregnant or trying to get pregnant and it will be nice to start meeting other people that I can relate to. :)

So the phone call has been made.  

Let's do this.

Ready... Set... Go?

Today I finally went to a lab where they drew like 7 vials of my blood to do all these pre-IVF tests.  Then I called Dr. Wilcox (IVF Doctor) to see what I need to do to get this ball rolling.  I'm not putting it off any longer!  I want to be a mom and Jared wants to be a dad.  Like a year ago when I found out that IVF was for sure the only way I could possibly get preggers, I had this idea that I would get all fit and to my perfect weight and eat all healthy... but I'm not sure that will ever happen.  I like french fries and ice cream too much! haha and Jared hates working out and I don't like working out by myself.  (I need a workout buddy!)

In the past year I have lost ten pounds and then gained it all back and then lost five of it and then gained it back and so on and so forth and now I've maintained my current weight for like... ohhhhh the past 3 months, haha, so I'm giving up on having the perfect body before kids because if I wait, at the rate I'm going, I'll be too old or probably dead before I'll be where I want, oh sad, haha

So I'm plunging forward, stomach in knots, without looking around because if I do I'll freak myself out about something else.

It's weird to have to plan out having kids like this instead of just getting a little surprise... I hope all those awesome moms out there who got their little blessings, let's say the easy way, lol (even though I know having kids isn't easy) realize how lucky they are :)

And I am soooooo happy for all my friends who have been blessed with children... but I might be a teeny bit jealous of them too. :)  

Love you guys!