The morning of the dreadful day

Last week I went in for blood work to check my progesterone levels. The dr had me start my progesterone shots the night of my IUI. So when I went in I wasn't worried.
The nurse called me back and my progesterone was well into the 60's which is great. Anything into the 20's can hold a pregnancy and stop any miscarriage.
Fast forward to this morning, it's been 5 days seems I've had a lot of activity. Cramping, migraines- bad ones, hot flashes, more cramping, night sweats, just some stuff I don't usually deal with. If I'm pregnant obviously these were the signs I was, but I'm not pregnant these were again the nasty side effects of fertility drugs.
There is a lot going on in my life with the choice of natural medicine and traditional modern. The more and more I look at it, I am 100, moo 110% all the MD, Dr, prescription meds, this including all my fertility medicine. I don't like to play the guessing game or self diagnosed, I just like good o fashion "I have a headache so I'm taking ibuprofen"
Since I'm on my own blog soap box I want to say I believe whole heartily what trial and disease that come our way aren't always brought on because of us. Yes smoking can lead to lung cancer but I DO NOT believe  anything my mom fed me or exposed me to at a young age brought on my fertility issues. I believe in a loving Heavenly Father  who wants us to return to him, we knew the different trials we would be facing going to earth and gaining a body but knew we wanted to do that. So I believe right now this is our trial to strength us and make us pull closer to Him.  I do not believe that I could have prevented this or lead a perfect life. I do not believe changing my diet only can cure endometriosis but I do believe moderation in all things and changing my diet to healthier will better my life in the long run a and give me more energy.
Since quitting soda last month I have felt an increase in my life, and right now I love it and can handle not having soda. Will I go on the rest of my life without it? Probably not, but for right joe this is good for me.
With that said.... We are off to the dr.

6th Ultrasound and day on 2:2 IUI (Intrauterine Insemination)

The ultrasound this morning showed no more follicle, which means sometime between yesterdays IUI and today I ovulated! This is the best outcome so far. I now have the 2 week wait before I go in for my blood test. The next 3 days I try to lay completely flat and rest as much as possible. Every time you have a failed treatment you get more and more conservative. I have stopped drinking soda and go on bed rest for more like 4 days.

I saw this on youtube.com of a wonderful couple that just had there 1st baby after 2 years of infertility struggles and failed IUI. It's just a great video that might make you cry because all those that go through infertility have the same struggle and may hit you close to home.
Here's there link: Big News

5th Ultrasound and day on 1:2 IUI (Intrauterine Insemination)

On IUI days I have to wake up early and get Joe's swimmers to the office at 7am. My mom was nice enough to come with me today while my sister stayed home and babysat Brinley. The ultrasound was first and showed that I have not yet ovulated (great sign for me) so I will come back in tomorrow to have a 2nd IUI.
Joe had great numbers for his sample for him. 24 Million swimmers are now all in me and I am just laying on my bum for as long as I can, thanks to my hubby, mom & sis.

And we are off....

I have read it all over the internet (everyone has the worst painful periods after the Lap/Hys surgery) but I was in such denial that I wouldn't be the same. Well, Sunday morning came and I was hit with what I like to call "Kidney Stone " pains. I was taking my left over pain meds  from the surgery to help but once again I woke up at 4am Monday morning with horrible pain. I woke up my husband to get me some water and ibuprofen and he thankfully brought me that with some crackers.
After calling in to the office and talking with the nurse, I made my first ultrasound appt for this round...always on cycle day (CD) 3. That night you always start the medication too. He put me on 150 of Follistim, which I was happily surprise. Go big or Go home is my thought process this time around.
Follistim is infertility GOLD.
and if you don't have any infertility insurance is cost as much as gold I hear.
**Side note***
2 of the BIGGEST blessings have happened
1. Its only April and we have met our out of pocket for our insurance.
2. When we thought we were going straight to IVF we requested the paper that breaks down our infertility insurance and how much we have used on it....We thought doing IVF would put us close to our $30,000 max lifetime, boy we're we shocked when it said we have only used $500. worth of that amount. Makes me want to have 8 kids just to use every ounce of our insurance because not many people have it and I truly wish I could share that right now with some other loved ones going through this.

Back to my IUI round....
I started my shots on day 3 and will do them for 3 nights at the same time for the same dosage then go back in for the ultrasound and blood work. The ultrasound will start measuring how big the follicles are getting and the blood work looks out my estrogen levels to tract ovulation too.
wait....seriously tell me again how someone gets pregnant on a one night stand, I just don't believe it right now.
We are in the very happy, good days moods now. I love doing the shots and just dreaming about being pregnant again and how everyday Brinley gets old the better of a big sister helper she will be to me.
Did I mention
We are Excited!!

Round 6

I'm ready for this!

We have moved on to our 6th round of IUI with Follistim for Baby #2. 

Let the waiting begin...

I've done all I can do...now I will just sit here and wait!

Well, It's always so easy to update the blog after 2 days of IUI because I personally like to come straight home from the Dr. office and lay down as much of the day as I can, relax and help the miracle of IUI take place.
We had great outcome this cycle with the medication, ultrasounds look great, and high five to the husband who did his part and it was great numbers and all. I'm very pleased with this round and I want to say this did the trick...I will say that if it didn't take this round...I don't think anything else will do it but IVF, which we are open and ready for.  We all know follicles that drop don't mean much....but I just have to say for record...we had 4 and if one of those can't make it...well I'm convince my eggs are drying up or something.

We are starting tonight with the progesterone oil shots because I prefer them over the suppositories. So I know have to wait a week for 1st blood test then a week after that a blood test for HCG. Wish us luck!

round 3....IUI's

I don't know why but this time around I just don't feel like writing. Maybe, I don't have any new news to share. It's all been said and done before and by now I'm just sounding like a broken record with no outcome.
Well, we had 2 IUI's back to back this time and I'm just resting away. It the dreaded 2 Week Wait now.

D-day or also know as..... IUI Round 2

IUI Day:
We woke up early to get everything we needed together, Then off to the office at 7 am to bring my husbands swimmers in. As they were washed and prepped I sat back and relaxed.
It was then my time to go in and have an ultrasound. They like to see how the follicles are growing and how close we are to ovulation time. After taking a look they asked if I had a lot of cramping last night and today? I actually was going to ask them, because I had and I was pretty sure it was due to ovulation. They confirmed that I had ovulated all 3 follicles and it was now time for the IUI. So excited that my chances upped having one more on the right side.
I went into the other room where they performed the IUI's. My wonderful high maintenance cervix came out and took the nurse and dr a little bit longer to find it. Once everything was finished I stayed there to relax. Then came home and rested on the couch the next 4 days!
Why 4 days?
That afternoon my mom ran to the grocery store and a family friend came behind her in the check out line. They started chatting and my mom knew I was open about talking about things like this especially with those that are in the same boat or have been. This family friend has gone through this 2 already and told my mom to tell me even if the Dr.'s didn't say, I should be laying down for 4 days to let the body relax and do this thing. Since her husband has gone through medical school as well I thought I might as well try everything. With my last failed iui I was a bit to confident and cocky about it all...I even went hiking the day after. I doubt I took it easy and rested up. So I'm hoping with all this good vibe we will have good results.

round 2 for baby #2

I don't know how long we will have to do treatments to get pregnant, but I love looking back and comparing everything from my cycle before, So I want to blog as much as I feel comfortable with.

With a surprise jump start to this cycle we are jumping right back into another treatment. I called this morning and talked with my nurse, and will go in for an ultrasound in two days and talk about what plan of action we will go with this cycle. Here's for round 2!!!

CD-13, 2 of 2 IUI

Another early day, and beautiful morning.
This day we weren't rush because hubby wasn't running off to basketball. It was still pretty early though and I popped out of the house before anyone else got up. My mom has been on grandma duty when I have to run over to the office, and if just melts my heart everytime I come  home and my baby girl runs to me and hugs me and doesn't let me go for a while. I just love being a mom and these moments that you don't want to forget are those.

This was a month ago when we were up in Big Bear, but you get the idea....heart melting.

Back to me at the Dr. office. I turned over the swimmers and sat down to eat the donuts I picked up on my way since I had a little extra time.  I watched the morning news and enjoyed the time to sit down to relax. When an hour had passed it was my time to see how everything was doing. 

I first had the ultrasound where we did not find any follicles! This is the best news, it means I ovulated right in the middle of both of my IUI's and it's giving me the best chance to get pregnant! 

Then it was time for the IUI, we switched rooms and got me prep. every time they show me the needle and show me to confirm my name on it. Saddly, this time around we only had about 10 million swimmers. I asked my nurse what they consider to be low? She said they like it to be from 10-20 million. So with us having 30 million the day before we were still looking good on his end of the procedure. We also talked about how normal sex gives you in the hundreds so getting in the millions right into the uterus is awesome. 

I have to say this time the IUI procedure wasn't painful at all...it wasn't even that uncomfortable. Everything seems much easier the second time around. After that she sets the timer for 10 mins and props my pelvic up.  I came home to a running, hugging baby girl and put her to bed for her morning nap and went in my room to lay like this......

just in case any of them wanted an escape. I should have just done a headstand, but this will do. 

1 week until I have blood drawn for my progesterone levels and then

2 weeks until the draw my blood for HCG (pregnancy hormone)  

CD-12, 1of 2 IUI

written 9-11-13

It's been a long day already.
I woke up very early to make sure I took my hubby's swimmers to the office as soon as the open. It was so quite outside and even though school started this week no one was on the roads yet. I drove to the office and waited out in the hallway because I got their a bit early.
As I handed over my "lunch bag" with the swimmers, I couldn't help but just pray and hope for the best. It takes them about an hour to "wash and prep" them. I went back downstairs and grabbed a bagel to eat.
The sun was coming out and more people were making their way into the building. I went back upstairs into the office and sat and waited.
When they called back my name the first thing we needed to do was another ultrasound. This time each follicle took up the whole ultrasound screen.
They grew!!
They got a lot bigger. Their were still 2 of them there, which means I had not ovulated yet, but would still because of the HCG shot. With everything looking great there we went to the next room for the actually IUI.
They told me she noticed that my hubby's swimmers had double since the IUI with Brinley. We had over 30 million swimmers, amazing! So I'm thinking in my head, this has to work! This is going to work, maybe, just maybe both egg will be fertilized.
An IUI is comparable to a pap smear. They have to find the cervix though and open it up and keep it open....this time it was uncomfortable and painful at moments. When we got all the swimmers up there, they tilted the bed to help gravity take its course and I was to lay there for 10mins. After though I wasn't ready to get up, I just wanted to lay in bed all day!
I did get up and go back home and have been resting as much as I can. It has made me feel very tired though. It was a good day though and I'm ready for another round of the same thing tomorrow!

first day of Clomid

So I started taking Clomid at night because I heard it can make you tired. So my first full day was on day 4, with no side effects to complain about. I'm already getting so excited about this and can not wait, I've gotten back into looking into all the baby stuff and what came out new this past year.
I've also started preparing my mind and body for pregnancy. Thinking about getting pregnant again and having a newborn around made me realize I knew absolutely nothing when we had Brinley. I didn't even have nursing bra until my mom ran out and got some when Brinley was a day old. Like most things when you have done it once you know some what to expect. I fully expect though a completely different pregnancy and birth, and even though Brinley is a perfect child and the best sleeper ever....I know this one won't be. (I can still hope though!)

My 1st IUI

written on September 10, 2011

It's been a few days....so let me take you back to my first dr. app after taking clomid.

It was Wednesday morning and my husband and I went in to see my RE and do an ultrasound to see how many eggs we were getting. He very quickly showed us 1 big mature one ready for ovulation, 2 medium ones and a small one. He wanted to wait 1 more day to see if the medium ones get any bigger.
So we came back the next morning (Thursday) and did the ultra sound right away and found out I had ovulated and the big one had dropped. I was scared at first because I didn't know if we could still do the IUI. but my good, highly skilled (20 years under his belt)  Dr. said we were fine.
He did want to do the IUI today to see if we can fertilize that first egg. The nurse gave me the HCG shot in my hip to help me ovulate again within the next 36 hours. Then we made my husband give up his guys.
Everything seemed like a pap smear. and they took the swimmers and washed them and put them in a needle with a catheter to place all the way up inside my uterus! We got 17  1/2 MILLION swimmers  (this is a huge shocker...normal intercourse can get you a few hundered up to the uterus, but the IUI can place millions in the uterus.  They hope to get 10-20 million, so with 17 million we were looking good!)

It took a bit longer because I have a "high maintenance cervix" unless you spent a good 10-20 mins. looking for it, you can't find it. Plus I have some curve balls in there. (could be our reason for infertility...we are still known as unexplained infertility)
So we went home and rested the rest of the day.
Here's the funny story,
because of my high maintenance cervix I was very tense for a long time and cause some of my muscles to stay tight the whole time (my left butt cheek) I did not realized this until we were at home and I was in pain every time I stood up, walked around or sat on my butt. My husband even tried to rub it out, but I laid there kicking and screaming and laughing out loud because of the pain. I could not walk without feeling the burning of the butt. and even into the next day.

Then came a black out at 3:30pm....all of So. CA lost power for a while. It wasn't until 11:30 pm that they came back on.
But because of the power outage we had to switch our location! Luckily our Dr. is awesome and has 2 locations! 1- in Newport Beach and 2- Mission Viejo (ours)  So our appt. got moved up to 7:45 with a 40 min. morning commute with the Mr.'s swimmers!
oh the morning just made us laugh.
Friday morning-
The office was pack because they had to double book everyone and deal with multiple dr's in one location.
The husband gave them his guys to get all cleaned up and we had about 13 million this time.
We did the ultrasound and saw that the medium ones dropped and the small one became bigger! great news!
So we got ready for an 2nd IUI.
 This time I tried to stay relax as the very nice nurse told me that I am one only patient with a cervix so hard to find. (lovely) I did warn her about my high maintenance cervix .
We went home and did some more resting to hopefully give these babies a chance to make it.
All in all....this was a great 1st treatment and I have been so happy with my Dr.