rewind...our long journey to parenthood....

ive wanted to post these next few blogs FOREVER, just have been waiting for the "right" time!
without going into great detail....here is our story....

our long journey to parenthood...

matt and i got married in sept 2006....and started trying to have a family soon after that. well, not really trying, just not preventing anything....and we waited. didnt stress. "it will happen." neither one of us have any "issues" that we know of. and we waited. "have fun." "relax." "it will happen." count days. ovulation sticks. and we waited. (anyone who has been there...you KNOW exactly what i mean...)

after a year of not succeeding in keeping "aunt martha" away, my ob sent us both for a few tests (he was trying to do as much as possible in the testing category so insurance would cover it, because as soon as we stepped out of his office, and into the infertility dr office, the cash came out of our pockets...insurance covered NOTHING)...all tests came back fine...so in jan 2008, he referred us to a reproductive endocrinologist, an infertility dr.

what?? infertility? us?

we started out slow with her...and we had more test on us both...and never really found an answer as to "why" we were still waiting to get pregnant!

after a year of low dose meds (to help jump start my egg production, which i didnt have a problem with, but hey, we will try anything) and many IUI's....we (well, really me) were starting to wonder if it was time to move onto "the big dog".

IVF.

this was a HUGE money jump and a big risk....50% chance of it working. but....we had already spent a little over 2 years trying everything else, i was not getting any younger, and our savings was starting to dwindle...

after much thought, we decided to go for it while we still had the money in our savings account! so the IVF process began in feb 2009...

apply for loan, get approved, more blood tests, go to IVF orientation.....

then i ordered my list of meds....OH BOY! this list was long! i am not a medicine taker...so this megga list of meds was a bit shocking to me....

my meds came....wow. thats a lot! but worth it if it helps us have a baby in the end!

i started taking my meds...some oral, some sub q shots that i gave myself in the belly....DAILY! (they werent so bad, i kept reminding myself that diabetics do this daily too! and its VERY different being the nurse giving your patient a shot vs. you being the patient giving YOURSELF the shot! trust me!)...and the dr office started closely monitoring me....every 1-3 days i had to go in to get labs drawn and to have an ultrasound done...to be sure my ovaries were responding to the meds the way they were supposed to...and everything went fantastic! everything was going as planned!

when my body was ready....we were given our "retrieval day"....may 15.

this was the day we went in, they put me under for a little bit, and they retrieved all my little follicles my ovaries had been working so hard to make!

here we are....waiting to go in....

arent i cute in my gown!


the procedure went well...what i can remember! it was too funny, one minute i was walking into the procedure room, hopped up on the table, was talking to the anesthesiologist, and the next thing i remember, i was back in the recovery room, with matt by my side!

ive never been sick, never been in the hospital, have only had my wisdom teeth out, so all this was new to me!

we were told that they were able to retrieve 19 eggs!!!yahoo! im an egg making fool!
i was told to drink a ton of fluid and take it easy for the next few days....and we were on our way home.

the entire IVF process was pretty easy for us...except for the night of may 15. the night after the retrieval. i did go home and drink fluids and take it easy, but my abdomen was pretty sore. basically, my ovaries were just over full with 19 eggs, and now they were not...so they were kind of freaking out...i just couldnt get comfy. i couldnt lay on my side, it was too uncomfortable, so i either laid on my back, or sat up...but i tried not to complain. matt had to work at the bar that night, so he left at about 5pm...he made sure i had enough to drink and eat close to me on the couch...and i told him i would be fine. he got off way early that night (and it turned out to be a huge blessing!) and was back home by about 9pm...

at about 10pm, i tried to get up to go pee and a horrible shooting pain ripped through my entire abdominal cavity up to my shoulders.

it.hurt.so.bad.

i couldnt move. i was sitting half way up, couldnt lay back, couldnt finish getting up. and could barely breathe. now, i am by no means a complainer, and this scared matt to death! so much that he grabbed the phone and the dr phone number...he was going to call them. but i thought they'd just tell me to get in the car and drive to the hospital....and i couldnt do that!

i couldnt move!

so i told him not to call, and for about 20 minutes, i was frozen, in excruciating pain, just trying to breathe...it was the worst 20 minutes ever. but finally, the pain eased enough that i could lay back into the chair. needless to say, i didnt try to get up from that chair for a L.O.N.G time!

matt and i camped out on the couch that night!:-) our couch has 2 recliners in it, so i slept, sitting up, in the recliner, and matt slept next to me on the couch...he was such a great help!

we made it through the night and the next few days i was sore....but NOTHING like those 20 minutes that friday night!....

now we waited on the call from the office to let us know how our little embryos were growing and when we would get to transplant them back in.....

waiting again!....