First BETA was 446!

Well after much waiting the first BETA is in and it's 446! The clinic says that is a good strong number and of course I'm doing all the google searches I can to see what it means. It's so weird how everyone's count varies so much. There's no rhyme or reason to is except that we're pregnant! I go back again on Friday and it is supposed to double in 48hrs. so I'll post again Friday. Each day gets a little closer to baby!

ouchy

Well not a whole lot new going on here except my lower back/booty area is pretty sore. I think I'm running out of places to stick now because everywhere is so tender. I feel like a pin cushion and actually kinda look like one. Lots of little bruises all on my lower back from where Dan has been giving me the shots. I try not to count down the days until the shots are finished, but instead trying to remember it's helping to sustain the little life(s) that I'm growing in there for Ellen and Kevin. Maybe I'll be lucky and my body will be doing a good enough job on its own and I'll be able to stop the shots before 12wks. Let's hope.
I do know that I am so excited to be pregnant! I got a really good positive yesterday morning and it turned right away! It was even just a regular test not an early detection one so I must be making lots of HCG. There's either one really strong Humphrey in there or maybe two! Can't wait til the BETA to see what my numbers are. Hurry up Thursday! Oh and that's Saturday morning's test!

First Post

This is Ellen here with my first post...

I'm not sure how I sum up years of infertility in a few paragraphs but I'll give it a shot. My husband, Kevin and I have been trying to have a baby. The easy part for us was getting pregnant but unfortunately we couldn't sustain the pregnancies as I kept miscarrying. How do I even put into words how devastating it was for us? That's not really possible.

We had some very preliminary testing from my ob/gyn, but soon sought help from a fertility clinic. We had a few rounds of testing and they couldn't find anything wrong with either of us and told us to try again. We got pregnant that next month and miscarried again. We had our appointment with the RE and I think there was honest surprise on his face to see us back there so soon. So, the short version of the story is that we went on to do EVERY possible test and had a few IVF attempts with more miscarriages. I have had 5 in total and 1 chemical pregnancy (where my beta started out initially good but didn't double). I kept this short but I think the details give a hint to the time frame and heartache we suffered...

Fast forward to where we are now. With the suggestion of our RE, my Mom and my best friend, we turned our thoughts to finding our gestational carrier for our 4 frozen embryos. This was both easy for us and hard at the same time. We weren't really sure how this was going to work but turned to both the Internet and a family building attorney to find a GC. I'll leave out some of the details, but when I had an email from Brooke, the first thing I said to Kevin was that she seemed "so normal". That might seem like an odd thought, but when you are looking for someone to carry your baby, normal might not be the right word, but for the first time, I thought this might work out. We exchanged a few emails and then spoke on the phone. We talked the first night for a long time and it was already late in the evening when we started the conversation (Brooke had been at a baby shower for her sister-in-law). We kept talking and just sharing information to get to know each other. Conveniently, Brooke was leaving the next morning for a week away in St. Thomas...LOL! I held my breath and kept my fingers crossed and waited for her return. She did return rested and relaxed (and ready to see her family again) and we agreed that we should give this a try! It was very exciting for all of us....

I will continue this story that will gets us up to the present the next time we post. It has been amazing to both of us how even with all details and planning going smoothly, how long we feel like we have been waiting.

Who knew disposing of a sharps container would be so difficult.........

So after dropping Benji off at preschool I had one thing I wanted to do and that was find somewhere to dispose of my full sharps container and get a new one. I called CVS around the corner first and the pharmacist there told me that the mail order pharmacy should have sent me a label to send the full container back to them and get a new one. Checked box and no label. Next call to a good friend who had done IVF about 7yrs. ago. She said she had taken hers to Westbury Pharmacy and gave them to the pharmacist and bought a new container there. So I called Westbury and after getting the runaround on the phone there I was connected to Daryl, the pharmacist. Daryl says to just wrap the container up and dispose of it in my regular trash. Isn't disposing of medical waste in regular trash illegal I say? He avoids the questions and says, "That's what I do with my needles at home." Thanks Daryl.
So last I call the fertility clinic here that I have been doing all my blood work and some of my pretesting etc. They tell me to bring it in to them and they will dispose of the needles. What they didn't tell me was not to close the top of the container because you can't get it open again. So I ended up leaving the whole container with them and going to Westbury to buy a new one. Where incidently they gave me the wrong container. They gave me the one for diabetics that you just drop the needle into so that won't work for me because I need to dispose of a whole needle and syringe. Guess I'll be going back to Westbury to exchange my "new" sharps container.

I gave into temptation!

Well yesterday was only 5 days past the transfer which means I'm not technically 4wks. yet, but I thought it was worth a try so I gave in after a sleepless night around 5am and took a HPT. The first one was so faint that I wasn't sure I was really seeing it and thought possibly it was an evaporation line. I managed to contain the urge until a little after 12 noon and took another HPT and this one was definitely positive! After thinking it over for awhile I finally decided to share the news with E. She was as excited as me if not more. The wondering was finally over. Then I took another one at 9pm that night and it was super light again. I'm assuming it was because I had been drinking water all afternoon which probably diluted my specimen. Because..........

this morning at 5am I took a digital one and there's no questioning those! This one said "pregnant"! Yeah! So now it's just another waiting game until the BETA test which isn't scheduled until next Thurs. We might have to do something about that. LOL

The wait is killing me.........

Well the transfer was Friday, Sept. 18th. Everything went great! They thawed two embryos and 100% of the cells thawed, so the doctor was very excited about that as were we! I stayed the night in MD at a hotel on bedrest that night. E and K brought dinner to Danny and I. It is so difficult staying in bed when you feel fine. We rested and watched a movie and I read some magazines. It was a long day but I survived and it will all be well worth it in the end. We headed home around 11am that day and I pretty much rested all day at home too. Now we're just waiting to see........ the first blood test is not scheduled until Oct.1 which seems so far away. Since the embies were 5 days when frozen I will technically be 4wks pregnant this Sunday if everything took so I should be able to do a home test before the 1st. It is killing me waiting until then though too! I feel pregnant but I guess that could be symptoms from the PIO. With my own I got negative results on home tests up until the day my period was due so I'm sure it will be the same with this one too. In the mean time I'm trying to stay positive and rest until Friday when I think I will do a home test! Until then.............

The end is almost hear..... or actually the beginning

I started this journey a few months ago and now the day that so many have been waiting for is almost here! Last Friday was my final day of testing..... blood work to check hormone levels and an u/s to check my lining. All went good! Estrogen was up and progestrone was low. My lining was over 11 mm and they wanted it to be at least 9mm.... as my nurse said "it's all nice and fluffy". So the end is coming near or I guess it's actually the beginning. I continue with the estrogen shots every 3 days and start my progestrone shots tonight, which will be every night for the next 10-12 wks! Wish me luck on that one, I hear they are quite painful! 5 days and counting until transfer day!