Ready.....Set.....Implant!

Well, IUI #3 was a go! I woke up yesterday feeling excited and nervous! As D and I were leaving the house, my mom stopped me and gave me a big hug and told me congratulations on my conception, lol! I thought it was a lovely sentiment and made me feel really good! We got to the clinic at 7:30 and got D ready for his deposit! I had to run him to work after and made my way back by 9. I sat in the parking lot listening to music and praying. A song that I absolutely loved came on, “Be Alright” by Belle Histore. Some of the lyrics are, “I know someone’s watching over me, and it will all be alright.” It was the perfect song to calm my nerves! I began to feel hopeful and excited! I walked in feeling great! As I waited in the waiting room, I got a couple texts from some of my best friends wishing me luck. It put a smile on my face! Soon after, I made my way to the room and waited for my doctor to come in. With the wash, they were able to put in about 8.8 million motile sperm. I felt pretty good about that number. And in a flash, it was in and I was left to an empty room to wait 10 minutes and let them take their mighty journey. I laid there praying, wishing, singing, and breathing. There was nothing left to do but to hope and pray with everything I have in me that this is it, this is the day I conceive my miracle! The timer dinged and I was ready to leave. I just felt amazing! This time has felt different than the times before. I don’t know how to explain it, it just does. I feel more hopeful, uplifted, and excited than times past. I have such amazing support and love from all of my friends and family, and received it throughout the day. My mom called and said she wanted to take us out to a celebratory dinner last night, so we went to Dickey’s…..how’s that for irony ;) We even told A that we were trying and hoping that we would have a baby soon, and she was ecstatic! The entire day was just absolutely wonderful! I hope and pray that I just conceived our child, because I want to be able to tell him/HER that the day she was conceived was filled with love, positive thought, and pure happiness! I just couldn’t have got any better! So today is day one of the dreaded two-week wait. I started Crinone gel just as a precautionary measure approved by my doctor to hopefully help things progress beautifully. I will continue to eat healthy, and live a healthy and better life in the mean time. I hope to post some great updates soon! And if anyone reading this can please send along happy/positive thoughts, prayers, and love this way, it would be greatly appreciated! We need all of it we can get! 

Is The Third Time A Charm?!

I was full of smiles and good feelings as I left my appointment on Sunday morning. I felt to nervous going in, wondering and hoping that my left sided miracle had grown even more. I got my blood draw and then headed in for the ultrasound. My primary doctor was able to do the scan this time. She said my lining looked great and I actually did have a few small follicles on my right side, but my left side was for sure the dominant. It measured out at about 17.5mm and was looking good. She told me to do one more day of 125 IU of Follistim and do my trigger shot Monday night at 9pm. We are set to do our 3^rd, and hopefully final, IUI Wednesday morning at 9am! I am so freaking happy, excited, nervous, and every other emotion in between! As I was setting up my IUI appointment, the nurse told me that my doctor told her that this was the one, she could feel it. That just made me cry a little and smile ear to ear! I feel so incredibly happy and insanely nervous all at the same time. It is hard not to get your hopes up. When you have been dreaming, wishing, hoping, and praying for one thing and you get so close to it, it is hard not to let your guard down and think that this may actually happen. So now, more than ever, I need every last bit of good luck, thought, and prayer anyone can give that this is successful and results in a healthy pregnancy that leads to a happy and healthy baby! More to come soon!!

A Little More Hope And A Pep In My Step!

Well, my appointment went better than expected, and I am stoked! My appointment was around lunch time, and I was so nervous, I couldn’t even eat this morning. I got to my doctors, and got a little worried as the nurse didn't want to do a blood draw right off the bat like she normally does, and it made me worry. I let all the bad thoughts enter my brain and tell me that they did it that way because they may cancel the cycle and decide to not go any further, so why waste the draw. I sat in the room with a splitting headache just waiting, feeling like it was the longest wait ever! The doctor came in and then it was go time! She said my lining looked great, and from the looks, she thought my estrogen level went up. She went to my right side, and there were 2 tiny follicles, which kinda of made me smile, because for the last nearly year, the right side has had all of the glory, yet, none of the tubage! Then she went to my left side, and this is what truly made me smile; the follicle on my left side grew! It was declared the dominant and went from 10mm to almost 15mm!! My E2 level was 173! I was so freaking happy! The Follistim has done a fabulous job! I go back Sunday morning for a final ultrasound measurement and blood draw. If all looks well, we will schedule the IUI for either Tuesday or Wednesday! I left that office feeling like I was on top of the world, despite my horrendous headache that I can only take Tylenol for, yuck! I am trying so hard not to get my hopes up too high, but I feel so damn happy! I feel really good about this, and hope and pray that this is the month I get nice and preggo! So please, whomever is reading this, please send lots of happy thoughts and prayers this way, I need every single one of them!! What a wonderful way to start off the weekend!! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will update you soon :)

A Fun Surprise and some more hope!

So my appointment on Tuesday wasn't too bad. I had a nice little surprise from my doctor; the ultrasound revealed that my dominant follicle appeared to be on my left side! That was a shocker! In the nearly year that I have been doing this, I have yet to have had the dominant appear on the left side. It was a happy little turn of events. She said that they were a tad on the small side. The one on my left measured at 10mm and the one on my right was around 8mm. She said that with the Follistim, I should hopefully grow about 2mm a day resulting in a follicle measuring around 18mm, just the right size for IUI. Here is the downside…my appointment on Sunday showed an E2 (Estradiol/Estrogen)  number of 56, which is on the low side, so they upped my dosage from 75 IU to 100 IU. My appointment Tuesday showed the same number. She said that it should have at least doubled by now, so they upped my dosage to 125 IU. My next appointment will be tomorrow(Friday) morning. Because I am a Googler, I of course have been spending countless hours reading and researching various topics that cover what I am going through. I have seen articles or message boards of women who have had success with Follistim who had low numbers such as myself. They have praised the low numbers saying it helped them achieve a stronger follicle/egg and had a healthy baby. Then, on the other side of the spectrum, there are women who have had cycles cancelled because of the low numbers, and have said that their body didn't react well to Follistim. All of this makes me super nervous. I will be able to get a better idea of which direction we are heading after tomorrow’s appointment. I will get to see if there has been growth of my lefty miracle, and compare my levels of E2 since my dosage has been upped. I need lots of prayers and fingers crossed for tomorrow’s appointment. If all goes well, I will be heading down that little IUI golden road! More to come soon! :)

Nearly halfway there!

I am now about half way done with my injections. It has been going pretty well, surprisingly. I was incredibly nervous as I sat through my training, there are a ton of steps and the fact that I had to jam a needle in my person took over any thought or question I had for the nurse. When it came time to start, I locked myself in the bathroom, put on some music, took a deep breath and began. I took my time trying to remember each step, and then it was time for the part I was dreading the most. I took the pen, slowly pushed it in, pushed to release the meds, and pulled it out. It was an odd sensation and after it was over, I realized that it actually wasn’t that bad. I have had 5 injections, and it seems to get easier each time. I have only bruised myself once, thank God! I started out CD3-6 at 75 units and when I had my appointment yesterday, they upped it to 100 units until I go back tomorrow to get a new dosage and check the progress. My appointment yesterday came with an ultrasound, but she said that it was still a bit too early to tell if my left side is responding to the meds. I hope that I will find out that it is tomorrow, I have been super nervous about that! Even though the injections weren’t nearly as bad as I thought, I still don’t want this all to be for nothing. I hope and pray that my left side responds and gives me at least one fantastic and dominant follicle! Two would be even better, but I will settle for the one! I will post more updates as I continue on this crazy journey!

Now, on to some awesome news! This past weekend was mine and D’s third year anniversary! We celebrated by having a nice little getaway in town at a pretty awesome hotel followed by dinner and this really kooky restaurant called The Rabbit Hole that is themed like Alice in Wonderland. It was perfect! We spent the day and a half cuddled up and enjoying each other.  I would have to say, that the highlight of it all was the amazingly sweet gift that he gave me. He gave me a promise ring. When he brought it up one day, I made a joke that it seemed so high school, but when he teared up a little, I realized he was serious. I had an idea it would be coming, but I was so surprised at how beautiful it was and what he said. He told me that this was a promise ring, a promise to always be there for me, to never hurt me, a ring that shows that I am the one he wants to spend his life with, but more importantly, a place holder for the ring that we wants to get me, but needs to save up for. I thought it was incredibly sweet and just made my night! I love this man and can’t believe how happy he makes me and how blessed my life is! Here is a pic of this lovely ring:

Welcome to 2016!

A New year is upon us and I have the renewed hope I was longing for! I started off 2016 with a positive attitude and a resolution of living better. Making better choices, eating better, being a better person, and being in a better place spiritually and mentally. On New Year’s Eve, I had the chance to face someone who caused some hurt in my life, and she looked at me and apologized, and I was able to forgive her. That set the course for the start of the new year. A renewed relationship and a weight lifted off my shoulders. I had a hard time with a family member recently, and said some things I am not proud of, and I realized, that if I am going to live this better me kind of life, I need to swallow my pride and apologize. You get the family you are born into, and no one is going to be perfect, but you still love them no matter what. I also started off the new year eating better. I figured that if I want my body to treat me good and get nice and pregnant, I need to treat it better. It is hard, but I feel pretty good about myself. I feel great about the start of 2016 and I feel hopeful and blessed. I know we are only 13 days in, but it’s been a good 13 days.

Now on to the baby stuff; today, I had my first doctor’s appointment in over a month. Last month I had a crazy messed up cycle that threw everything off, and while it bummed me out, I just took a  deep breath and hoped for the best. I started my cycle on Monday and happily put in a call to my doctor. This morning, I went in for my CD3 ultrasound and blood work. The cysts that were on my right side and on my left were completely gone! Not only that, but my lining looked great and she even saw a few follicles starting to develop on my left side! I was ecstatic! I got the go ahead to start my Follistim injections tonight. I am on them every day until I am close to ovulation where I will have another ultrasound, and if it looks good, take the Ovidrel trigger shot. And then we are on for IUI #3. All really great and exciting news that has put a smile on my face! I am trying not to get my hopes up too high, because we all know what a rollercoaster ride infertility can be, but I am still remaining hopeful and positive. This weekend, D and I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary, and this will be another small victory we can toast (our non-alcoholic drinks) to! That is all I have for today, and with any luck, I will get to post exciting updates soon!