7dp3dt

It's been one week today since the three day embryo transfer.  Half-way through the 2WW, woo-hoo!  I haven't had anymore cramping/twinges for the past couple of days.  I just feel "normal" and I wish I felt "pregnant" but I don't know what that feels like!  You know those stories you read about women who just knew?  I'm not one of them:[  Good news from my P4 bloodwork, it was 20+ (nurse didn't know the exact number) so I don't have to add any more to the PIO shot.

I'm trying to line up some distractions... Today, we caught an early movie (The Lincoln Lawyer) and we'll go back out for dinner in a little while.  Tomorrow, we're supposed to go to church shoe-less (should be interesting) and then I want to plant a few strawberry and tomato plants later in the day.  I don't think all the distractions in the world will keep me from not thinking about the Thursday phone call after our trip to the RE!

Something happened at our dinner with BIL/SIL that caught me off guard.  They are part of our small, IRL support group who know a good bit about what we're going through although no one can really understand what's involved unless they've actually been through it.  Anyway, I showed them the pic of our embryos and BIL was like "those are in you?  Two?  Twins?  Yay!  Yes... it was always my dream to have twins, that is great!"  All of this happened before I could tell them there are several more hurdles to get through.  When I was able to tell him what still has to happen, his demeanor totally changed and he just looked worried for us.  This is why there's no way we could let so many people in on this.  His first reaction was precious.... but it was way too premature.  I "burst his bubble" in a matter of minutes and can't imagine having to go through that over and over.  I hope this doesn't come across like I've written this IVF cycle off but after being on this long road for nearly six years, a positive beta is a hurdle, a beta that doubles is another hurdle, an ultrasound where everything looks good is a big hurdle, a pregnancy and birth of a healthy baby, that's what it would truly take for me to let go of all doubt.  Just being honest. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

 

5dp3dt

Exactly one week from today until BETA!!!

5dp3dt...

Recently, a blogger was talking about having no symptoms in the 2WW and being worried and I'm having all kinds of cramps/twinges and I'm worried!  I've had period-like cramps that come and go on both sides.  Some are short twinges and a few are worse than I have with AF.  It is so hard to not know what's taking place in my uterus!   

I called Nurse LLD about the bathroom troubles and she said it would be fine to take anything to help... Milk of Magnesium, Colace, Prunes... take my pick!  Joy.

I ran out of needles for the PIO shot and had some called in to our pharmacy.  They were out of the 1 1/2 inch but the pharmacist said I could get by with 1 inch so I get 1/2" less needle in my backside now, small victory:]  PC is still doing a good job with the injection but it freaks him out every time.  He has sympathy pains, which I must admit is pretty sweet.

MIL cooked dinner for us last night (crumble chicken) and SIL is cooking for us tonight (spaghetti).  I have the best in-laws, I'm so thankful.  Hoping they get to be grandparents and an aunt and uncle soon... if I'm getting the royal treatment for trying to get pregnant, I envision much more crumble chicken and spaghetti in the future if I am pregnant!  Do you hear that embryos? 

Yesterday I could not get enough salty (like olives) or sour (like lemon drops).  Not saying that these are cravings, just can't figure out where I'm making diet mistakes so that my body needs sodium and I have no idea about the lemon drops!?!  Let's just blame anything and everything on progesterone at this point! 

This morning, I traveled back to the RE for a progesterone check.  Waiting on them to call me back, but hoping that it's on track so that I don't have to add more PIO!

Fertile Myrtles on FB

I don't have a FB account.  I'm just not that interesting.  I had beans, mashed potatoes and fried okra for supper.  Yum!  See?  Who needs or cares to know that?   However... my best friend gave me her username/password and allows me to be her "stalker" anytime I feel the need to see what's happening on FB.  Here's an edited version (names taken out) of a conversation I came across while stalking:  

Fertile 1- Thank you!  I'm due 9/10.  Have you found out what you're having yet?
Fertile 2- That's my moms birthday lol!  I'm having a boy... due July 3rd.
Fertile 1- Cool!  I bet big sis is so excited!  What are you naming him?
Fertile 2- She is so excited!  ------- will be his name.  Were y'all trying to get prego?
Fertile 1- Yeah.  Of course I should've known it only takes once!
Fertile 2- Lol same for me too!  We are fertile myrtles!  One shot and here we are!

I didn't post this to shout "Bitter, infertile here!"  Instead, it just makes me realize how some people can't even begin to understand what the IF journey is like.  I don't wish it on them or any of us AT ALL.  I just hope they know how lucky and fortunate they are.  I just wonder if they took a moment to look at their child and think "what would I have done to get you here?"  I'm pretty sure they would have gone to the ends of the earth.  I wish they knew that 1 out of 8 of their friends were reading this conversation and they cried... or they cursed... or they felt so broken.  Maybe, just maybe, if they knew the last part of the conversation would have looked something like this...

Fertile 1- Yeah.  We are so fortunate that it happened for us so soon.
Fertile 2- It's amazing that it happened for both of us the first month we tried.  Others try for so long and my heart goes out to them.  We are very lucky!


I stumbled over the words to this post but people who are reading here will get what I'm trying to say... oh how we get it!

More 2WW rambling

I'm not listing symptoms below.  Rather, I think that a combination of estrogen+progesterone+occupied mind is just causing some out of the ordinary mental/health/emotional changes here lately.

Sleep!  I'm back to sleeping with PC:]  By that, I mean that since the week of retrieval I have been camped out on the couch.  Around that time I was going to the bathroom 4-5 times during the night.  I don't know if it was enlarged ovarian area pressing on the bladder or what, but PC is a light sleeper and was waking up each time so I moved to the couch.  Last night I moved back into our bed since I'm down to one trip a night and I slept so hard but not hard enough  because I remember my...

Crazy Dreams!  I've been having some weird dreams but last night took the prize.  I went on a date to a water park with M.ike R.owe from D.irty J.obs!  I woke up laughing when I rememebered!  PC didn't think it was too funny but I told him not to worry, I hate water parks!  The last thing I watched last night was P.awn S.tars so I'm surprised I wasn't at the shooting range or eating KFC with C.humlee!  At least these weird dreams have been funny, which is better than the alternative!

Appetite!  I can only hope estrogen and/or progresterone lead to an increased appetite because otherwise I am in trouble.  I'm hungry when I wake up, hungry before I go to sleep and most other times of the day as well.  Another reason to hope that this works... pregnancy is a much better excuse for weight gain!

The 2WW is still moving slowly along but I'm trying to line up distractions for the rest of the week.  We go back to the RE on Thursday to check my P4 level.  I guess that's to see if the shots in the backside are producing enough progesterone?  I was on valium and PC picked the time for this appointment, so we'll be leaving to get my blood checked at 5:30 a.m.  Arrggghhh!  WAIT, I was griping to PC about that as I typed and he said "we can leave at 5:45 a.m."  That makes it all better. 

Reading back over this, I guess you can add moody to this list although I don't really want to admit it.   

Is it only 1dp3dt???

Sitting here with a heating pad on my PIO'd butt!  1dp3dt and PC has already banned me from reading anything about embryo transfers.  He didn't catch me in time to find this "play by play" chart so that I can hope and pray that my embryos are following the schedule!  This is going to be a long two weeks!

3-Day Transfer

Days Past Transfer (DPT)	Embryo Development
One	The embryo continues to grow and develop, turning from a 6-8 cell embryo into a morula
Two	The cells of the morula continue to divide, developing into a blastocyst
Three	The blastocyst begins to hatch out of its shell
Four	The blastocyst continues to hatch out of its shell and begins to attach itself to the uterus
Five	The blastocyst attaches deeper into the uterine lining, beginning implantation
Six	Implantation continues
Seven	Implantation is complete, cells that will eventually become the placenta and fetus have begun to develop
Eight	Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) starts to enter the blood stream
Nine	Fetal development continues and hCG continues to be secreted
Ten	Fetal development continues and hCG continues to be secreted
Eleven	Levels of hCG are now high enough to detect a pregnancy

I'm mad at myself for agonizing over every move I make or every twinge I feel!  One of my friends realized she went horseback riding in the early stages of her second pregnancy and here I am worried about having the hiccups!  Aside from running a marathon or hanging out in a sauna, I don't think that normal activity is going to interfere with the natural process that is hopefully taking place in my uterus right now.  These embryos may not have gotten there through the usual route but I'm hoping they are "home" now...for nine months anyway! 

PC asked me about some credit card charges today and I told him I hadn't used that card in a long time.  We realized someone stole our card number and we have it narrowed down to two online sources where PC recently made purchases and our card number was hijacked.  So far they have bought body art/piercings, spent two nights at a hotel in Raleigh, NC, spent $300+ at a home office store and $1.00 at Home Depot before we caught on and closed the card.  How do you spend $1.00 at a Home Depot?  And do you think they felt the least bit guilty doing all of this on our DISNEY card?  Poor Disney card has been defiled from who knows what has been purchased by this/these thieves!  Now we wait for a claims form to get everything straightened out.  Thank goodness we rarely use our debit card for online purchases, that would be a bigger pain if these funds were drained from our bank account!  (They couldn't get very far seeing as how those funds were pretty much drained from IVF anyway!)

I hope part of the 2WW support here is being able to ramble about topics that may or may not be IF related while passing the time!