EWLE Pics

Sarah proposed an acronym for my wordy (and pretty much only) family tradition: Elf Watching and Lasagna Eating (EWLE) and we all love it - thank you, Sarah! :)

It all started when Elf came out in 2003. Forest and I took Katie (then 9), my niece Lauren (then 16), and my nephew Sean (then 14) to see it. We all LOVED it. We are big movie quoters and this movie is quite quote-tastic.  

The next year Elf came out on DVD so we had Lauren and Sean over to watch it and eat lasagna. We decided to do it the next year and the next...My sister and her husband (Lauren and Sean's parents) came a couple of years ago and I think Forest's kids came another year.  Last year Lauren brought a date and Katie invited a friend.


This year, the 6th annual EWLE, my brother's family from Chicago was in town, my other brother wanted to come, my sister and her husband came, Lauren invited 2 friends and Katie invited a friend.  So, we had 15 people! We have a teeny, tiny house, but a cozy good time was had by all.

A candid kitchen photo

  

Thirsty Katie

Thirsty Lauren

My brother, Michael

Birthday Boy Sean

All the Cousins 
(disclaimer: the next two pics were taken at my sister's house, not mine)

All the Cousins, Part Deux

Anyway, as I said, this is pretty much my only familly tradition and I highly recommend that each of your families start it up.  After all, everyone loves Elf and everyone loves lasagna.  

Just ask Katie:

A (really) personal question

A question for my fellow IVF-ers out there,  if you don't mind my asking (if you do mind, of course, you can just refuse to answer): what was your RE's recommendation for having sex after embryo transfer?  My clinic recommends waiting until after the first ultrasound (when I'll be 5w4d), but there are certain people around here who are getting restless (I won't name names).  Has anyone else's MD been so conservative on the sex front?

Your answers will be greatly appreciated :)

In other news...I have none. Everything is A-OK over here so far. We're busy cleaning the house (um...how is that, Amy, since you're posting a blog entry?) for my nieces and nephews to come over tonight for our Annual Elf Watching and Lasagna Eating (catchy name, huh).  We got an early Christmas present to make this tradition more awesome this year: a 40" LCD HDTV (40" is MORE than enough for our wee living room) with a Blu-Ray player and surround sound (woo hoo!).

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!

Betas

Sooooo...


My beta on Wedesday at 6dp5dt (11 dpo) was 18 and on Friday at 8dp5dt (13 dpo) it was 40. So that is very good!!!! Unfortunately the cute beta graph that everyone else has doesn't start until 12 dpo, so I can't really get my line to appear on it, but, from what I understand, those numbers are nearly perfect for a singleton pregnancy.


So, of course, we're very excited.  


When I got the BFP (gosh, I still can't believe a get to type "I" and "BFP" in the same sentence!) on Tuesday I was soooooooo excited - I told a ton of people.  I told my co-workers Eliza, Julie, Shawn, Brian (who told additional co-worker Jonathan), Jan (who didn't know it was a "secret" and started talking about it somewhat loudly in my very quiet open office), and Ed. I told Katie, my friend Kim, my sister, the blogosphere, and my old friends from my very first "TTC" board (we were the "TTC Spring/Summer 2007" crew. This BFP has been a LONG TIME COMING).  


So that's a lot of people to tell that you're five minutes pregnant.  Not necessarily wise, right? But I was FREAKING EXCITED, okay?  Plus I was 0% worried.  ZERO PERCENT.  I just felt like I am totally pregnant now and on July 31, 2010 I am totally bringing home a perfect, healthy baby.  I put a floating baby widget on my freaking blog.


Forest has since told his boss, all the co-workers in his immediate group (who are also pretty much my co-workers since we work at the same company), a bunch of other co-workers (including one woman to whom he announced it when we ran into her at a restaurant), and some friends he went out with last night.


On Thursday I started to get nervous.  I called for that first beta result and when it was an 18 I got scared.  That sounds soooooo low.  Most betas I hear are much higher than that.  Of course, I know most clinics don't test at freaking 11 dpo, but still. 18?  I started getting upset when Forest would tell people.


Then I got the 2nd beta: 40 and that should totally reassure me, right? It's the perfect number for 13 dpo...but the doubling time was 41.67 hours, whereas the mean for that range is, like, 31...so...you see where this is going...


DOUBT.


I am now just like every other infertile who finally achieves pregnancy: I am worried.  When I was pregnant with Katie I never ONCE worried I would miscarry. I didn't take multiple HPTs - I got one positive and never doubted again that I was pregnant.  I try to reassure myself with that.  I try to reassure myself with all kinds of things, but it's not working too well.


Then, last night, I was walking back from going out for drinks (my drink was iced tea, don't worry) with two co-workers (to whom I also announced my pregnancy) after an all-day off-site meeting, when my heel caught on a cobblestone and I twisted my ankle and fell on my butt (hurting my pride most of all, although my ankle is all swollen and bruised).  Forest's reaction? "You can't be falling down!!!"  Mmmmm Hmmmm. Thanks, babe. I didn't exactly do it on purpose!  But, of course, I was already worried that my fall had popped our precious baby right out of my uterine lining.  Yes, I know that's silly - I have pretty short legs - a fall to the ground really isn't very far - but still.  Worry.


Forest has promised not to tell any more co-workers who work at my office (I told him he could still tell people who work at his location).  I haven't decided whether I'll tell the rest of my family at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  


My first ultrasound is December 2nd.  That's not too far away, right?  Surely I'll feel reassured after that, huh? Deep breaths (and no more heels/cobblestones) till then.

6dp5dt - No Symptoms; Beta Drawn

I guess I don't really need to fill in this whole post-y part since I gave my whole update in the title there.  I continue to experience no symptoms and I continue to "know" that it is too early for symptoms, but I want them anyway.  There really isn't anything other than nausea that I wouldn't attribute to the progesterone, so I should just pipe down about it, but it's weird to finally be pregnant and feel, literally, no differently.

Thank you all so much for your well-wishes yesterday. You helped make BFP Day the best ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first beta was drawn today, but the RE's office doesn't call with first beta results. They wait for the results of the second beta to ensure that the numbers are doubling as expected. 

My stomach looks ridiculous due to the Lovenox injections.  I have 3 very large bruises and a ton of little tiny ones for each injection site.  I assure you it's quite lovely looking, really.

Luckily I only have to do the PIO shots every 3rd night. It's some new-fangled, fancy formulation that's long acting.  I then supplement twice daily with the lovely vaginal progesterone suppositories. Ewww.

So, that's all I've got. Zero symptoms...twiddling my thumbs until Friday's 2nd beta result.

Oh, and still over the moon and delighted and thankful and thrilled and overwhelmed with joy :)

I'M PREGNANT

BFP.  I'm shaking.

(It's the one line = "sucks to be you"; two lines = "yay!" kind)

I used to have all sorts of awesome ideas about cute ways to tell everyone but those all just flew out the window. 

I called Forest. He was against my going to Walgreens to get a test. I promised him I wouldn't...but then I did anyway.  I called him (while he was out to lunch with his boss) and I said, "You are going to be really mad at me." and he said, "Oh please. I knew what you were going to do." and I said, "But it's really good news!" 

I realize that announcement was not cute, clever, romantic, or anything, but I was too excited.

5dp5dt

I'm cracking. I'm giving in. I'm going out at lunch to get a basket of pregnancy tests. And by "lunch" I mean 11:00 - the earliest possible "lunchtime".  Am I crazy? Am I setting myself up for disappointment? It's not FMU. It's still awfully early...

...or is 10 dpo early?

I dunno.

I'm so weak.

Help me.

You have 59 minutes to talk sense into me...or I'm driving to Walgeens.

4dp5dt

I remember when abbreviations like "4dp5dt" were unintelligible to me.  In case there is an innocent reading my blog, that means "four days past 5-day transfer", or...am I pregnant? When should I pee on a stick? (becuase we ALL know I'm not waiting for a stinking beta no matter how ridiculously early it's scheduled).  This is basically equivalent to 9dpo in a "normal" cycle.

I wish I felt pregnant. I wish I would throw up on my keyboard right now because someone walked by my cubicle with a lunch that would normally not bother me but, in my knocked up state, caused me to projectile vomit.  Yes, my brain is fully aware that such symptoms do not generally occur at this early, early stage, but what I wouldn't give!

I had a little "feeling" last night that I am pregnant, with one boy. How weird is that?  If you don't know me, it may not sound weird at all, but I've really never been able to picture myself having a boy.  When Katie was born I was soooooooooooooooooooo relieved she was a girl. Back in that day (1994) my doctor didn't do routine ultrasounds.  He was very old school.  He felt that women had been having babies without the information provided in an ultrasound for millenia and that, barring any indication of a problem with the pregnancy, ultrasounds just represented another needless imaging procedure contributing to skyrocketting healthcare costs.  How NOT FUN is that?  But, alas, he was the one calling the shots and I was the one with the non-problematic pregnancy, so I couldn't really complain.  But it would've been *nice* to know that I would soon have a precious baby girl instead of a...boy (I'll leave out any negative description about how I would have felt about having a boy). But, now, I think I'm trying to get my mind around the (very real) possibility that I could be incubating a blastocyst whose genome contains a Y-chromosome.

Katie is being all super adorable about the prospect of a baby brother or sister.  Which is good - her reaction could easily go either way.  Her dad has 2 kids from his current marraige - girls aged 3 and 4.  Her emotions about them range pretty broadly (from UGH - they are SO ANNOYING/BABIES SUCK to AWWWW - I LOVE THESE TWO) but I feared we'd be dealing with a whole new thing if someone else dared to move into HER mommy's uterus.  But, so far, she's being very positive and sweet.  I think she's more comfortable that we did IVF so she can imagine the conception as a decidedly non-intimate phenomenon.  So, you know, you're welcome, Katie :).

Anyway, that's my update - not much of an update. Just wishin' I was pregnant...but that's sort of the theme of the blog...so you didn't really need me to tell you that today...but...anyway...nevermind. 

Signing off now!

B1 and B2

Two beautiful blasts were transferred this afternoon and there are FIVE to freeze!!!! I am thrilled with this outcome.  They said that one of the blasts is Grade 1 and the other is Grade 2 and they referred to them as B1 and B2.  Is anyone else familiar with Bananas in Pajamas? That was all I could think about. Every time they would say "this one's B1" or "that one's B2" I would crack up.  I guess whatever puts one in a good mood for the transfer is a good thing, huh?   


The transfer itself was totally great. I was worried my bladder wouldn't be full enough, since I didn't really have to pee at all, but he didn't mention any issue, so *thankfully* I didn't have to lay there for 45 minutes afterwards with an uncomfortably full bladder. Plus, Dr. Ahlering ROCKS the speculum! It did.not.hurt.at.all. I couldn't believe it - not even the usual pinch when he cranked open my cervix.  I think he is heaven sent.


I present...The Babies Crawford:

That's B1 on the bottom and B2 on top. Doesn't B1 kind of look like a smiley face?


Here is some Bananas in Pajamas fun, in case you haven't had the pleasure:



My sister said she would make them PJ's and visors when they're born (not that I'm counting my bananas before they hatch - but I am pregnant with twins until proven otherwise).  


Betas are next Wednesday and Friday (super soon!!!)

Transfer Day

Well - this is it! We are transferring *something* at 2:00 pm.  They called to schedule it a few minutes ago, but the scheduler had NO information other than that the lab called and told her to schedule the transfer. 

I will find out when I get there (with a "comfortably full bladder") what the status of each of the 13 little ones is.  But presumably at least one hung in there!

I'll post afterwards.

Thank you for all of your comments and well-wishes, you are too kind!!!!!!

Day 3 Report

All thirteen embryos are still alive. They are each Grade 1 or 2.  One is a little behind at 4-cells and one is a little ahead at 10-cells, but the remaining eleven are all perfect (6 to 8 cells).  I am so relieved! We will transfer the best two on Thursday, provided they all keep up the good work.

Hope

I just got the call.
Egg retrieval was yesterday.
23 eggs retrieved, 14 were mature. 13 fertilized.


I am relieved. 
They will check them again on Tuesday.
I can breathe now.