Last Blood Test Confirms....

3rd and last beta test was successful!! HCG levels were at 8,753! First ultrasound scheduled for 5/10 to hear the heartbeat and to find out how many little ones are in there!!!

2nd Blood Test Looks Good!

2nd Beta test this morning. Results came back great at 2,411 HCG and prog./estrogen tests are again great.

1st Blood Test after the Embryo Transfer...

The big day!!! The official first beta test to determine if we're pregnant. I arrive at REACH early in the morning for bloodwork and head into the office. I would not know the results immediately but would know them in the afternoon. After playing phone tag with Alice around 2pm, I finally get in touch with her and the first thing she says is "You already know the answer to the test results...." (She already knew that I had taken the home pg tests:). She confirmed that the test was positive!! My HCG level was 873 which is right on target and my progesterone and estrogent levels were great as well. She scheduled my 2nd beta test for Thursday, April 19th.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting....

Over the period of the next 3 days, I will end up giving CVS a large chunk of our life's funds to buy pregnancy tests! All in all, FIVE pregnancy tests are taken from Friday to Sunday and guess what???? They're all POSITIVE! Jim is thinking I'm an absolute psycho at this point because it's all I can think about....he's not exactly incorrect!!!

Could it be? Nine more possilities of a little Nims or Nulies?

Spoke with Alice who informed us that we officially have 9 frozen embryos....even if it doesn't work this time, we have NINE more opportunities! Kitty can relate since he has nine lives....

Big Day- Transfer of the Embryos!!!

Well! Today's the big day! We're heading to the REACH office shortly for a Day-5 transfer.
8:30: We arrive at the REACH office and are pretty quickly taken back to the same faux-room that we were in on Saturday. Same routine, put my "scrubs" on and around 9:15, Dr. Teaff arrives to introduce herself to my mother and again to Jim. She will be doing the transfer and she informs us that we have 2 very high quality embryos that we will be transferring. She also comments that these are "beautiful" embryos.
Around 9:40am, a nurse arrives to take me back to the same OR as the retrieval. Dr. Teaff and some other nurses greet me on my arrival and explain a little about how the process will be done. On the left side, there is a flat-screen monitor that is filming the extraction of the embryos from a TINY drop of fluid in the lab. On the right side, there is another flat screen where they begin performing an ultrasound to help guide Dr. Teaff to the correct place for the embryo "drop off".
For this procedure, I am awake and luckily, only takes about 20 minutes. At this point, I am a little uncomfortable with the long tube being directed WAY up inside but overall, it wasn't too bad. I am able to see the embryos transferred into my uterus via ultrasound and am told "ok, we're done!". Next was very interesting....we had to wait for exactly one minute and then a nurse went back into the lab to confirm that the embryos were successfully transferred and were not still present in the tube. On the left flat screen, you can see the liquid that contained the embryos begin sifted through under the microscope and shortly thereafter, the nurse yells, "All clear!". Everything had gone as planned and was successfuly thus far.
Before long, Jim and I would enter into the longest 11 days of our lives....until the official first pregnancy test.

How many embryos sitting in a petri dish?

Alice, my IVF nurse called this morning to inform us that there were now 19 embryos that were still alive and kicking. 13 of those however were in optimal condition and would be most promising for a successful pregnancy. The IVF transfer is still scheduled for Thursday and the time has been set to 9am.

Nurse Jeff calls to deliver progress....

We received a call from Nurse Jeff (a female) who updated us on the progress of the embryos. As of today, all 24 were still viable and she would update us again on Tuesday with further progress. We tentatively scheduled my embryo transfer for Thursday, April 12th. Good news!!!

After all the shots, drugs and anticipation....

Today is the first big day of our IVF process! The egg retrieval is scheduled for 1pm at the REACH office and everyone is a little nervous about the procedure! My mom, Jim and I arrive promptly at 12:30 and we're quickly taken back into the room where we will be "planted" for a good while (It's not really a room but more like an ER where the rooms are separated by curtains). I change into a very stylish (haha) gown, booties and cap which is required for the OR due to its sterility.
Around 1pm, the nurse comes in to put the IV in my hand although of course, she does not start the anesthesia yet (only saline). Around 1:15, I give my mom and Nims kisses and then walk back to the OR with the nurse and Dr. Wing. Shortly after arriving in the OR, they begin my anesthesia and within 10 secs, I'm out. Next thing I know, I wake up back in the room with Nims and Mom staring at me. The funny thing is that as I was coming to, I told my mom that I wanted a biscuit with jelly, not the K-mart brand (?)! As my mom began talking to me as I was coming back to earth, I told her that she didn't sound like herself....she sounded like an alien! Wow- that anesthesia was great!!!
I had to lay down on my back to recover for about 30 minutes. During that time, the nurse informed us that there had been 24 eggs retrieved! Wow, all of the shots and medications had really put my egg production on overdrive!
We were soon released and eager to hear about how our 24 "babies" would grow over the next couple of days!