4th of July

For the Fourth we had breakfast with some friends and then went to the parade. Lucy enjoyed it as usual, as did I.

Then we enjoyed the Grantsville activities at the park.

She was terrified after this slide.

That night we watched fireworks.

It was a good day. We enjoyed all of the activities and had a good holiday.

IVF Update

This whole experience has been amazing. I was listing off to Ben all of the great things that have happened to us during this process and the list was huge. Everyone and everything has gone so well. The nurses have gone out of their way to call and check up on me often, they thoroughly answer my questions, they take care of Lucy during my appointments, they combined my medications so that I only had to give myself three shots a day instead of four, and they are so sweet. The front desk has helped so much with my scheduling because they knew I had to drive over an hour to get to them. The whole staff is so talented and amazing. They know Ben, Lucy, and I by name. I have been so pleased with the experience.

We were so confident that this was going to work that we bought this beauty:

 Actually, we bought it because we really needed a second car and we've been saving up for a while for it. But it is fun to imagine it being filled with IVF babies one day.


Anywho, by the time my egg retrieval came, I was exhausted from the medications. My stomach was bruised all over. My insides hurt. I was emotional. As soon as they removed all of those massive follicles (around 22mm each) I felt so free and liberated. I was so happy.  They can remove anywhere from 6 to 30 eggs. The average is 10-14 eggs. They retrieved 21 from me! It was so exciting to hear. 5 were immature so that left us with 16. Then only 11 fertilized. Then 2 days later we lost 4 more. Then 2 days later we lost another one. Then we lost 4 more.

So on embryo transfer day they had 2 good embryos to transfer. My "unexplained" infertility is no longer unexplained. The quality of my eggs is clearly low. Out of 21 eggs we should of had about 10 good embryos but we only had 2. We are so grateful that we had at least those 2. The doctors would have never been able to find that out about my eggs without doing IVF. And IVF is probably the only way for us to get pregnant again, so I am so grateful that we decided to do this. We have felt so good throughout this whole process so to hear such terrible news was disheartening. However, we know that this is what we're supposed to do, so we are hoping that we'll be successful in the end.

Right before the embryo transfer

Despite having 19 bad egg/embryos, these 2 were perfect. These 2 blastocysts (spell check wants me to change it to blastoffs) may one day be our children. 

 That bright white dot is our potential babies.

Now we wait. The dreaded wait. It's making me go crazy. No matter what happens, I know we did the right thing. I have faith in Heavenly Father's plan for us. I know that he has something amazing in store for us, whether it comes in the form of a successful IVF or not.

Our First IVF

Our IUI failed so we decided to start the process for IVF. I am extremely excited. I am so ready for this! We have been so blessed! The doctor says we have a really good chance. I feel extremely confident in my doctors. They are rated the best in Utah. Whenever I hear a success story it seems to come from Utah Fertility Center. The doctor doing my egg retrieval and embryo transfer has been on Oprah twice. I don't know why but after finding that out I immediately felt like this was going to work. If Oprah trusts him, then I do too. ;) I was so excited reading his profile. You can read it here http://www.utahfertility.com/utah/about/russell-foulk-md  He's a pretty cool guy right?

Little miracles have occurred along the way that has really made me grateful for Heavenly Father's hand in this process. Extremely stressful situations have been solved with ease and has turned out better than we'd hoped for. The nurses, doctors, pharmacists, insurance, and everyone involved have made me feel so good and have been easy to work with. They have all been amazing. Whenever another miracle occurs it reminds me that we are doing what the Lord would have us do. I feel confident that we are doing the right thing, whether it is successful or not.

 I got my color coded calendar on May 1st and I started some pills right away. I love my color coded calendar! If they didn't give me one I'm pretty sure I would have made my own.

We were so excited to get my medications delivered. You wanna hear the list?

Lupron

HCG

Follitism

Medrol

Menopur

Doxycycline

Endometrin

Synthroid

Baby Aspirin

Birth Control Pills

Prenatal Vitamins

PIO

Valium

Cipro

What's crazy about the picture below is that it is not even all of my medication! It is most, but not all. 

I was a little surprised at some of the stuff I'm supposed to avoid that may interfere with the medications. On the list is licorice, raisins, antacids and a few other things that I can't remember. Ever since reading that, all I want is licorice! But I will prevail.

I have appointments throughout June to monitor everything. Appointments for blood draws and ultrasounds are on June 4, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, and then 2 more for the actual egg retrieval and embryo transfer.

I don't think I could be any more excited. I've been like a giddy schoolgirl ever since I got the medication. I was actually excited to start giving myself the shots today.

Wish us luck! We could use all of the prayers, fasting, and good luck we can get!

Lucy's 3rd Birthday!

Lucy turned 3 years old today. Last night while I was up preparing for her birthday party I was awake at 12:29am, the exact time she was born. Since I was the only one awake I had time to stop and think about that night 3 years ago. I got to relive the excitement, peace, and spirit that I felt after holding my little newborn in my hands. She was so tiny. She was so perfect. And now she's a little person with her own ideas, thoughts, feelings and personality. She has an amazing imagination that carries her all over. She loves to read.  She has the ability to listen to me read stories without pictures and  imagine what I am reading to her. She loves her trinket dolls that she carries everywhere and talks to all day. She can sing. She has memorized more nursery rhymes than even I know. She is so smart. And to think just 3 years ago she was new in this world and so helpless. I love her. I love that I can spend my days with her.


On Sunday we had my brother and parents over for dinner. Lucy loves her cousins and she got to spend that whole weekend with them.

Today we had a Snow White themed birthday party for her and had some of her friends come to play.

 

After snacks we made necklaces.  

We played a penny tossing game into a "wishing well."

we played "poison apple" (like hot potato) and then they fainted when the music stopped and got Hershey "kisses" to wake them up.

We opened presents.

Then the kids played around the house.

Later that evening we went to Stockton Miner's for Lucy's birthday dinner, then to Cold Stone's for her birthday treat.

I'm not big into birthday parties but it was fun to make a big deal for Lucy's big day. I'm glad she had fun. I'm glad that she could spend it with family and friends. I'm glad I get to be her mom. 

 I love her.