Embryo Transfer

Today was our Embryo Transfer, or in other words where they implanted the embryos into my uterus. The drive into Chicago was not too bad, except for some of the traffic. The worst part was when we got there. In my instructions for pre-transfer I am instructed to drink water/liquid when we were halfway there. I had Gatorade in a two liter Gatorade bottle, I ended up drinking most of the bottle. Meaning I really had to go when we got there. It took 30 minutes for them to bring me back, but thankfully once they did they let me empty my bladder a little. Yay!

Then the embryologist came in and talked to us about the embryos, one was in early blastocyst and the other two were compounding, which is pre-blastocyst. The optimum is when the embryo is in blastocyst, but the embryos were good for implanting as they were. They took the early blastocyst embryo and the farthest along compounding embryo and implanted those.

Some neat things:
1. Kevin got to stay in the room and watch the embryo transfer, last time he wasn't allowed in the room
2. They showed us the embryos on the TV in the room before the transfer
3. We got to watch the ultrasound and see the embryos placed in my uterus, we even got our first picture of the baby/babies if they end up taking, the gave us an ultrasound picture of the embryos in my uterus

Now is the waiting time, on February 23rd we will have the pregnancy test that will tell us if this worked or not. I really hope that it will.

Eggs -> Embryos

Yesterday we got a call from the Fertility Center where I had my eggs harvested, out of the 13 eggs they harvested only 7 were viable, and of the 7 that they fertilized only 3 made it to embryo status. It is difficult for us to know that we lost 10 eggs out of the whole process, but 3 embryos is better than none. They called me today to verify that they are going to implant the embryos on the 5th day. They could have done the implantation on the 3rd day if the embryos were not looking too great, but they must look good for them to be planning on implanting on the 5th day. Fifth day embryos are much more aggressive and have a greater chance of implanting and becoming a successful pregnancy, so they will not be implanting all three but will only implant two. There is a high chance that we will get twins out of this.

Either way I am currently on a bunch of meds, and getting daily shots in the bum from Kevin. Yay fun! It is all for a good cause though, so it is worth it.

The Harvest

Today they harvested my eggs, this time they were able to harvest 13 of them. Last time when we got pregnant with Davy they were only able to harvest 5 eggs and only two made it to embryo status. Hopefully this time we get a lot more embryos so we can put them away for our next try. Tomorrow the clinic will call me and let me know how many eggs made it to embryo status. Next Wednesday is my implantation date, so we will drive back in for them to implant two embryos.

The clinic is in Chicago, which was quite a drive. We had to wake up at 4 am to make it to our 7 am appointment. Thankfully Kevin drove us into Chicago, and then he had to drive us out as I am on instructions not to drive the rest of today. I am also on a 5 lb lifting limit. Which means I can't pick up anything over 5 lbs, so no picking up the baby and I can only hold him if he crawls into my lap, which thankfully he does quite often. Love our little boy. I hurt today and feel quite under the weather so I can't really do a lot of walking without it hurting. I think that is what upsets Davy the most, Mommy can't get up and walk around a lot with him like I usually do.

Nana and Grandpa watched him yesterday and today because I had to drive into work and today we drove into Chicago. Nana sent me lots of cute pictures of Davy having fun at her house. I guess he spent a lot of time watching videos on her iPhone. I am on a new set of meds, and Kevin has to inject the progesterone in oil into my backside again. I will post more about my meds and the update on the embryos tomorrow. I think I am going to take another nap.

Tooth Brushing

So now that Davy is eating solids I feel like I really need to be getting down his bedtime routine. Complete with brushing teeth, reading a story and then going to bed. Currently I have a little finger brush for Davy, and some baby safe tooth paste. So I take him into the bathroom and put some tooth paste on the finger brush and start brushing the few teeth he has so far. And he loves it! He thinks it is great to have this weird little brush thing moving around on his teeth and gums. He likes to bite on it with his gums, where his molars will be growing in. He thinks it is funny when Mommy brushes his teeth with it. This is great for me, because it means that teeth brushing is fun and not another type of torture.

Story time is also getting better, before he was not so interested in the story, more in trying to eat the book. Now he actually looks at the pictures and likes it when Mommy reads to him. He wants to be the one to flip the pages, good thing we read books Mommy knows the words to so she can continue the story even if the words are a few pages back. Davy is such a fun little boy, it is so exciting to watch him grow up. I wish it didn't happen so fast so I could spend more time with my little boy.

Walking and Schedules

Lately Davy's favorite thing to do is walk around the living room with someone holding his hand. He can walk between us but he doesn't seem to feel comfortable with his new walking skills to go walking on his own. According to his doctor he should be able to walk now, he has great muscle tone and good balance but he is just chicken and will walk once he gets up his courage. In the meantime Mommy and Daddy have become his walking companions. He does not do so good when it comes to walking with Mommy or Daddy outside the living room area, because he wants to see all the things he doesn't usually get to play with. Davy has also started to climb, which is giving us all sorts of fits as he likes to climb up on the couches but has not realized that falling off the couch could seriously hurt him. There is a part of me that feels like I should let him fall once to let him learn that he needs to be careful on the couch. It is difficult letting my baby learn tough lessons.

On the fertility side of things I have begun to give myself shots. I started on Monday January 30th. Here is my schedule: Monday January 30th to Thursday February 2nd (today!) inject 200 Units of Follistim subcutaneously, Friday February 3rd inject 200 Units of Follistim, 2 pills of Estrodiol and one syringe of Ganirelix, continue all three until Monday February 6th when I have a doctor appointment and will be given a new schedule by the nurse.

Speaking of doctor appointments I am full of them for the next few weeks. I have the appointment on the 6th, as well as an appointment with my General Practitioner on the 7th, and another with the fertility clinic on the 8th. On the 9th I will be driving in to work for a meeting and then on the 10th we will be driving to Chicago for harvest of the eggs. We will be returning to Chicago on the 15th for implantation. Just thinking about next week makes me feel tired. Davy will be spending the 9th and 10th with Nana and Grandpa while I am at work and in Chicago. I am sure they will have more fun than I will.

I exercised last night and the night before. Turned on a tv show and exercised for the duration of it. I need to do more of that.

Big stuff

There are big things going on in the Sampson family. Davy just started taking some unassisted steps on his own, last night he walked on his own across a 4 foot area! I was so happy and proud of him! I do know that this means that he will be walking all over the place soon, but I am still excited for him.

On the fertility front, Kevin transported his frozen semen from one location to another. Now we are all set for our next try. I started my cycle and will be starting my daily shots tomorrow. I will probably have to continue them for two months. I will give more info tomorrow when I get my instructions on what to take.

1 year

Friday January 20th was Davy's first birthday. We didn't really get into the whole celebration until after his afternoon nap. Nana and Grampa Springer came by to celebrate it with us. When we heard Davy talking to himself we all came in singing Happy Birthday, turns out we must have surprised Davy because he started crying. Once he calmed down we started on Birthday cake. I made a small football cake for Davy to eat and a larger one for everyone else. Davy first picked at the green coconut shred grass and wouldn't really get into the cake until we cut it open and fed him some on a fork. Then we gave him some ice cream, which he really enjoyed. Finally near the end I helped him get messy by clawing his hand through the cake a few times, he finally ended it all by eating the cake off his fingers and rubbing what was left on his hands all over his belly and legs. After bath time came the opening of the presents. Davy got a lot of new toys from Nana and Grandpa Springer (most of which came from the thrift store), he got a piano toy that sings, has a microphone and a little book, a standing toy microphone, a little ride and push toy, a sled, and a few other things. From Mommy and Daddy he got a handmade stuffed zipper ball, and a VTech Learning Helicopter. Overall I think his birthday was fun for him. Yesterday I took him over to Nana and Grampa Springer's house and we went sledding, which involved us pulling him around in the yard on his sled. He really seemed to enjoy it.

I can hardly believe that he is a year old already. He is growing up so fast!!