Graduation Day!



I had my last appointment at my fertility clinic on Monday. They kicked me out because the babies are too big for their ultrasound machine! It was bittersweet because I love the staff there, especially my doctor who was not in the office that day, however it's great to know that the babies are doing so well and are growing like weeds!

 

I have officially "graduated" to my OB, who I saw today. Now I'm just a regular pregnant girl... well, a regular girl pregnant with twins, anyway :) My OB wants me to see a doctor that specializes in Maternal-Fetal Medicine in addition to her. An MFM has had additional training to handle higher risk pregnancies, such as multiples. I have a feeling we'll be able to fill an entire album with ultrasound pictures, which is just fine with me!

 

Speaking of pictures, let's get to the good stuff! Individual Cupcakes:

 

 

Um... so I can't tell the difference between Baby A and Baby B anymore. My fertility doctor's office labeled them with each ultrasound, but not so much at the OB. I'm sure once they get bigger it will be easier to tell, especially if we have boy/girl twins, which I read today is the most common grouping of twins.

 

Group shot!

 

 

Everything looked great and I will go back to my OB in a month (the day after Thanksgiving, actually), but I'm sure I will see the MFM before then. In other news, I've already bought some maternity bottoms (a skirt, pants and jeans) because who knows when my belly will pop and I won't be able to fit any of my regular clothes anymore! When it does, I will take a picture of me and my bump to post :)

 

Love,

Amanda

 

 

 

10 weeks!

It has been awhile since my last post, but everything is going GREAT with the babies! I am at 10 weeks today, and the babies both measured 9 weeks 6 days at my appointment this morning, which is really good! I am starting to ween off my medications and in a couple weeks my fertility doctor is going to give me the boot, LOL and I will start seeing my OB like a normal pregnant woman. Here is some more information from www.babycenter.com about what's going on with the babies at 10 weeks (don't be confused by the "he", this is the language from the website; we do not know the genders yet!):

 

Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.

Here's Baby A! This little one was dancing for me this morning on the ultrasound, it was the cutest thing I've ever seen! That is why this picture isn't as clear as Baby B's picture. Shake it, Baby A!

 

 

Now we have Baby B! You can see it looks like Baby A is kind of in a laying down position (upside down) where as Baby B looks to be more sitting up... I don't know if that is what's really going on, but I wanted to give you a frame a reference just in case you have NO clue what you're looking at :) Since Baby B was more still, you can make out their teeny little arms. YAY!



 

 

And now we have the group shot! I can't wait to show them all these pictures when they are old enough :)

 

In a couple weeks I will be out of my first trimester and I will be able to breathe a bit easier having hit this milestone. I am still feeling pretty good, no morning sickness (KNOCK ON WOOD!). It's kind of hard to get veggies down, all I seem to want is carby goodness, but I will try to sneak some in! (In the meantime, thank goodness for prenatal vitamins!)

 

Ryan and I are already head over heels in love with these babies, we can hardly wait until April or May to meet them, but we'll have to wait because they still have quite a bit of "baking" to do!  

The oven is on...

And we're baking!

 

The last time I posted, the day of my embryo transfer, I mentioned that I would be taking a pregnancy test in a couple weeks. Well, it has been more than a couple weeks and I am finally ready to announce on the blog that I am, in fact, PREGNANT! And, in case you can't tell from the picture below, it's looking like TWINS! We were able to see both little heartbeats at the ultrasound yesterday. It was amazing :)

 

 

 

Ryan and I are over the moon to be expecting not only one, but two little miracles! I am feeling okay, no morning sickness yet, but I have been having food aversions. Some foods that I usually like don't really sound good to me right now. (The other night I turned down ice cream!) I also got some kind of cold/allergy crap last weekend, so I've been congested all week which has been no fun. Otherwise though, I'm feeling pretty good! Ryan is super excited and tries to make as many ultrasound appointments as he can. (These being IVF babies, I get a lot more ultrasounds than a typical pregnant girl, which I am totally fine with!)

 

I am due May 11, 2013, however with twins, it could be earlier. I am still getting ultrasounds and bloodwork at my fertility doctor, but they will probably release me to my OB at around 10 weeks, I believe. I am also still taking hormone supplements, which I will probably be allowed to stop around the same time I am released to my OB.

 

It is still very early in the pregnancy (I am 6 weeks, 5 days today), so I am not "going public" yet. I will probably make a Facebook announcement around Thanksgiving when I am well into my second trimester. However, I will continue to keep the blog updated the entire time, so stay tuned!

 

Love, Amanda

A little pregnant :)

I had my embryo transfer today! I figured this was as close as one could get to being "a little pregnant". I am not technically pregnant yet, the embryo(s) have to implant themselves first; however I have them in my uterus and I am on the same restrictions as a pregnant woman. Here they are in all of their glory, 2 beautiful 8 cell embryos!

 



 

 

The transfer itself was pretty easy, except for the fact that I had to have a FULL bladder during the procedure. It puts pressure on the uterus, which is good for some reason. I took a Valium before the procedure to relax my uterus because when things are placed into the uterus that don't belong there, such as the catheter used to insert the embryos, the uterus will contract which is not good. Here is a picture of the embryos in their new home:

 

 

I don't know if you can see the little arrow, but it's pointing to the little white blip, aka the embryos, in the middle there. Cute, aren't they?! BTW, my doctor said that he wanted to post a picture of my uterus on Facebook, LOL!  Apparently it's quite pretty! A great home for a cupcake or two :)

 

So now I'm on my bedrest. At least my doctor is allowing me to get up to take a brief daily shower, which I am pretty excited about! I get to take a pregnancy test in a couple weeks, in the meantime we're just going to talk nicely to the embryos in hopes that they keep on growing!

 

Love, Amanda

Ladies and gentlemen... we have embryos!

I had my egg retreival yesterday and we were very pleased that they got 7 eggs! I'm doing fine, a little sore, but you would be too if you had large needles stuck in your ovaries! FYI, I was unconscious for this procedure, and I wouldn't have it any other way! After they retreived the eggs, they unfroze Ryan's sperm and attempted to fertilize the eggs. We are so excited to report that they were able to fertilize 2 eggs! I go into the office on Thursday to have the two embryos transferred to my uterus. This will be a fairly simple procedure, much like a pap smear. Ryan will be there because we figured he should at least be in the same room as me at conception :) After about 2 weeks I will get to take a pregnancy test at the doctor's office! Ryan and I are still undecided as to whether or not we will test at home beforehand. The doctors advise against it, but it is so freakin' tempting!

Starting on Thursday, I will be on bedrest for 3 days. I will be staying at Ryan's parents' house since our dogs are a bit *ahem* unruly (putting it mildly!) Please feel free to stop by and visit because I literally can only get out of bed to go to the bathroom (and thank goodness for that!). Right now I am very much looking forward to bedrest, but I have a feeling that after about a day and a half I will be going stir crazy! I have to make sure I bring a lot of entertainment.

So I don't get much of a break from medication. Sure, I don't have to take shots any more, but I will be taking prednisone for a few days, as well as a "special tablet" that I will be taking (hopefully) well into pregnancy. This tablet contains progesterone, a hormone that helps prepare the uterine lining to receive and nourish our fertilized eggs. And I will just say that I do not take this tablet orally... I will leave it at that :) I also have some estrogen patches and pills that I'm sure I will eventually take along with the progesterone. More homones... YAY!

We will report back after transfer. Please keep our little embryos in your thoughts!

(The first IVF baby was born in 1978)

Love, Amanda

Pulling the trigger tonight!

Well, we have reached the point where I am done with my stimulation medications and am ready to take my trigger shot tonight to have my egg retreival on Monday! I took my stimulation shots for 12 days this time as opposed to 8 days last time. We are looking to get 4-5 eggs this time, which is honestly not as much as I had hoped, but my doctor seems to be optimistic, so we will be as well. At least it's better than the 2 we had last time! Let's just hope we get some eggs to fertilize so I can actually make it to transfer this time!

I will post another update after my retreival on Monday.

Love,
Amanda

Boooo, you hormones!

I hope everyone gets the "Mean Girls" reference in my title ;) (If you do not get it, please obtain a copy of this movie and watch it ASAP!)

I had my first monitoring appointment today. The doctor saw 3 small follicles on each ovary, which sounds hopeful, but it's still very early in my cycle to really tell anything. They told me that from my bloodwork, my estrogen level was at  46 and they would like to see it over 100 at this point, so they upped my medication. I was taking 225 IU each of Gonal F and Menopur, now I will take 300 IU of each. Hopefully this will give my body the little push it apparently needs!

However, I am slightly worried for my sanity with this medication increase, LOL! I'm getting a lot more emotional this cycle than I did the last time (I'm guessing it's the new medicine, Gonal F). I've had little freakouts over nothing the past couple days, and I know it's due to the extra hormones coursing though my body! Today, for example, I had a mini meltdown because I needed to order more Gonal F to get me though the weekend and I kept getting a busy signal at my pharmacy! Luckily, my super hero husband helped me get things situated and I will be getting my medication tomorrow :)

I would also like to give a shout out to my pharmacy and my clinic. My clinic uses a mail order pharmacy called Conception Pharmacy (yup, that's what it's called!). Ryan called my clinic to tell them we were having trouble getting through to the pharmacy, and a little while later I got a call from one of the pharmacy staff calling me from her cell phone to take my order. My clinic must have got in touch with them. The pharmacy made ordering my meds super easy and stress-free, even though I'm sure they were dealing with stress from their phones being out!

Back to the hormones, LOL, a couple brought a baby into the waiting room of my doctor's office today. My sanity and patience were truly tested when the parents started cooing at him and taking pictures of him! Couldn't one of them have stayed home with the baby? Do they realize how insensitive it is to bring a baby to a fertility clinic?

I have another monitoring appointment on Monday. Until then, keep my sanity (and Ryan's) in your thoughts! :D

Love,
Amanda