Nov/Dec Cycle for Baby #2 attempt?

[alexis]

Hey gals!

Sounds like everybody is doing pretty well at the point in your cycle you are. Keep us posted with your monitoring appointments and how you are feeling now that you are getting into the stims.

Barbara, I can totally appreciate how afraid of going to the bathroom you are. It's so hard not to worry about everything! I am not great with all of the abbreviations...what does POAS stand for? Are you feeling nauseous now?

Neffi, that's awesome that there my be another adoption opportunity. I sure hope both scenarios work out for you so you are surrounded by lovely babies!

Michele, your number of follicles sounds awesome and so great that the higher number is on the right side! That is so crazy how much pain you were in after the last ER; I wonder what caused it? Was it more on the left side where your scar tissue is? I have never had a lot of discomfort with my 4 total ERs. I sure am glad we are out cold when they do it though!

LYD, how are you feeling now? Any monitoring appointment updates?

AFM, this 2ww is killing me! Each day goes by so slowly and I'm an emotional wreck. I can cry at the drop of a hat over nothing! I have felt some twinges, but who knows what that could mean? I'm super hopeful but I am also terrified to take any home pregnancy tests. What do you guys do? How many days before your beta do you start taking the home tests? I tend to obsess over the home tests once I start, and I am terrified of getting a negative. With my son, my beta was on a Thursday and I started taking tests on Sunday afternoon. That day it was super faint and then each day the line got darker.

Did you know that the dollar store sells home pregnancy tests? A friend told me that and she has saved me SO much money! They do work too (or at least they did with my son...). Last 2 cycles, I was so crazy I took tests 2 times a day!!

We leave today for a trip to MN to visit family (in-laws) (and meet our new niece, born Nov. 27th). I hope I can separate my personal struggles and not get too emotional. I have to say I'm a little worried...

Take care and keep me posted ladies!

[Happy Bunny]

Alexis: POAS = Pee on a stick, aka home pregnancy test.

Those Dollar Tree tests are really good. They have a low detection limit and only cost $1 each. I used them this cycle.

I started testing at 6dp3dt and got a negative. On 7dp3dt, I got a faint positive. However, I had a fairly high beta (227) which is why I got a positive so early. If you test and see a negative on 7dp3dt, don't worry.

Last cycle, I didn't test but this one I did. My logic was that if I get a positive, I can put an end to wondering if it worked or not and move on to being happy sooner. Unfortunately, I didn't stop worrying at all. I ended up taking 10 tests and obsessively comparing the darkness of the lines.

After having one cycle where I tested and one where I didn't, I can't say which made me feel better.

[LYD10]

Hi ladies -

i had my first SnS, 6 days after starting stims. things are looking good! it looks like there is about 8-9 follicles on each side and about half of them are coming up on to 10mm. Not bad for a 40 year old the doc seemed to think that my ER will happen sooner than originally thought - probably wednesday next week, dec 14th. which is a day after my 40th birthday. Here is keeping my fingers crossed that this cycle works for me - and i can say goodbuy to the IVF rollercoaster. This is my cycle #6 and i am ready to get off the train

Alexis - when id your beta?

[kerpupples]

Sorry so lazy, I copied this from another post.

We got our biopsy results on Monday. 7 normal embryos, or 44%, which is in the range that they expected. The interesting thing is that of the abnormals, there were no trisomies. They all had chromosomal deletions. The doc said the quality of the normal embies ranged from very good to fantastic, and asked how we felt about twins if we decide to transfer 2. DH and I have discussed this and we both agree that we'd prefer twins to a failed transfer of a single embryo. I'm a little bummed about our transfer date - January 5th. Their lab is closed between Christmas and New Year's, and the only date they had open before that wouldn't work because I would have needed to stop my BCP already. But it's nice to have a calendar again.

[CT_Michele]

Hi ladies!

Well, it appears I will likely be making daily clinic trips for bw and u/s, which usually happens every cycle. My dr calls it the "frequent flyer" program.

Today went super well! They measure 6 on the left (my bad side) and they were all between 7 and 13.5. Then they measured the right and she counted 17 most between 8 and 13 with one on the lower side at 7 and one up higher at 15. She also said there were maybe 4 more that all looked about the same size too! My bw looked good and I am really happy that most are on my good side, that there are so many, and that they are all close to the same size. A lot of times RE makes adjustment to my dosages b/c there are some big lead follicles, but he has kept me on the same dose the whole time so far. There are still so many pieces that need to fall into place, the biggest one being a good TESE so we have sperm to match up with my eggies. What a shame it would be to stim so well and then get no sperm.

LYD - we might be very close together for ER, maybe even the same day! And what a great birthday gift that would be for you! Oh, and I am also on lupron cycle with follistim and menopur. What does do you take? My RE has me on 375units of follistim, 1 vial of menopur and 5 units lupron.

Alexis- I am a POAS queen! I drive myself nuts! And the first few times I spent SOOOOOO much money that the past couple cycles Ihave bought pee strips online ahead of time so I can test whenever I want. I like doing my own experimenting, seeing the line at first from hcg trigger, then watching it go away and then hopefully watching it come back! Not sure what I will do this time though, I haven't ordered any pee strips yet.

Holy rain! This is supposed to be icy/snowy in the morning. I hope it doesn't affect my 40 minute drive to the clinic and then 40 minute drive to work! Have a good night ladies!

[CT_Michele]

DH called today an "eggcellent" day...lol

[LYD10]

Hey Michelle, an "eggcelent day" indeed! You go girl! That one ovary of yours is getting quite a work out. Be careful not to twist too hard. It is bearing quite an excellent load!

I am on 150 of follistim and 1 vile so far. My E2 tends to get too high towards the end, so they have to keep me on low dosages.

I also hope my DH has good sperm after the retrieval. That's our Achilles heel. The embryologist always worries about his quality. He s been on supplements here is hoping it will work.

Are you going to be doing bed rest? My plan is to rest the day of transfer and then back to normal. I just hope my transfer is not on a Saturday. Because DH has to take care of DS by himself and then the following day I have to run around with them. I would rather just skip a work day for the transfer while DS is in daycare. The logistics for #2 are way trickier than for #1

[Neffi211]

ALexis-- sorry to hear the 2ww is getting to you!

LYD- 24 hrs bedrest then just taking it easy. No heavy lifting for 5 days

kerpupples- glad to hear you have a calendar...thats always helps to make things seem like there is something to look forward to

Michele-- glad to hear your appt went well. Next week will be here before you know it. Do you have someone to help you with Ella afer?

AFM-- transfer is at 2pm tomorrow. Cant wait until I can start POAS.

[LYD10]

Hi ladies - went for my 2nd SnS and things are moving faster than last fresh cycle. they will call me later today and tell me if I trigger on sunday night for tuesday retrieval or monday night for wednesday retrieval.

i think this is a good - the sooner the better in my book.

how is everyone doing? getting close to showtime for me! thank god my boss is flexible and understanding. i told him either tue or wed and he was fine either way.

[Neffi211]

Back from the transfer. Everything went well. There were three embryos from this donor. The first two that were thawed, only one made it so they thawed the third. So we did have two to transfer and thats good, but I wish that third one would have made it. SO I am officially PUPO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! beta is 12/20 but I will be POAS starting Wed and hoping a see a line by Friday. Now I am off to sleep. Personals later.

[LYD10]

AFM, I just heard from the doc and they are triggering me on Sunday night for retrieval on Tuesday. So no more SnS. Because I was on Lupron and BCPs only for short time, my body is responding like gangbusters to the stims. Not bad for a 40 year old. But here is a SNAG - my estrogen will probably be too high to transfer. So we will most likely do a freeze all cycle and transfer during a FET immediately after. That's fine - I knew of this possibility going in. I don't want to risk any embies on a uteral environment that is suboptimal. I'd rather just wait 2 months and do it then. A little disappointed but better than getting a BFN.

[CT_Michele]

Hi everyone!

Neffi - congrats on transfer! I hope those to embies are snuggling right in! Can't wait to hear your poas updates.

LYD- wow, you did go faster than expected. I hope your estrogen turns out fine and we can be pupo together, but if not, you are right. Better to wait until you have a perfect environment for those babies!

I went for my 4th SNS today, which will be followed by my 5th tomorrow morning. Today they still counted and measured 5 on the left and 15 on the right. Of the 15 on the right, one was way in lead of the other and 2 were way behind. So there were about 12 that were all close in size and progressing nicely. I am hoping to find out tomorrow more of the plan for ER. My guess is ER Tuesday or Wednesday, but who knows, could be Thursday too. And once we know that we will figure out dh's tese. I really hate not knowing these things. I left sub plans on my desk at work just in case, but I only had time to do 4 days worth or work for my students. So I am hoping to be at work Monday so I can add a couple more days just in case ER turns out as bad as last time.

I will definitely keep you ladies posted. Things are so crazy here, trying to prepare at our full time jobs for both of us to be out for procedures and then trying to keep up with the photography business. We are trying to finish all clients before procedures. We have 2 sessions booked tomorrow, a wedding to finish and still at least 3 more xmas sessions to finish editing. And this morning we did a charity toy drive with one of our local radio stations (that started at 5:30 am for live broadcast!) Oh, and let's not forget taking care of our energy-filled toddler on top of it all. Yeah, to say we are exhausted would be the understatement of the year! lol

But, in the middle of all this photography craziness, we managed to get my new favorite picture of my little angel Ella. She is honestly what keeps me striving to do it all:

[LYD10]

Michelle, Ella is adorable!

[CT_Michele]

Thanks Lyd!

So I had sns this morning, RE did it. He is not a very gentle guy! (But I still love him!) He didn't really count or measure, or if he did, he did it in his head. He was really more concerned with how difficult my retrieval will be again. He pushed and prodded showing me just how tough it is to reach my ovaries. He also explained that he thinks I was in so much pain after last ER b/c he was not able to retrieve all the eggs.

Everything now is banking on DH's TESE. I told my RE today that is my ER was going to be on Wednesday that DH's tese would have to be on the same day due to the hospital's schedule. He wasn't ok with that b/c he said we can't do same day. He said it will take the lab hours to look for sperm and he is not doing my ER until he knows we have sperm. Therefore, he is slowing my dose enough that we might have some flexibility in whether we do ER wednesday or Thursday. My guess is that my RE prefers a wednesday ER (that would mean ET on saturday instead of sunday) but if it's not possible, he will do it on Thursday. I go back for what should be my final sns on monday morning and should have a definite plan by monday afternoon. I am atleast glad I will be at work Monday so I can give my students their test and finalize all my sub plans for being out.

For tonight, he told me no more menopur, and to drop follistim to 225 and then to 150 tomorrow. I am getting nervous. But fingers are crossed everything goes my way this time. He was already trying to prepare me for low egg numbers, which makes me even more nervous. Eeeeek!

[LYD10]

Hi Michelle, sounds like you ve got some uncertainty to navigate between now and then. I am glad things will become more definite on Monday. I hope your retrieval will go easy. Did your ovaries shift their position between the time you had Ella and this year? I don't remember you mentioning difficulties reaching the ovaries until this year.
I hate uncertainty, I am trying to figure out wether to transfer or to freeze all and transfer later. That's assuming ER goes well of course. I know I am jumping ahead. But hormones bring out my obsessive side.
It was interesting to me how much faster I weren't this time and that's because they didn't keep me on BCPs and Lupron nearly as long this time. Duh! If I have to do this again I'll definitely make sure to have short suppression. It saves time and money. I didn't need as much medicine this time!
I am triggering tomorrow and for some reason I am feeling depressed. Because I probably shouldn't transfer because my e2 is going to be high and that's not good for the embryos in the uterus. And I am also scared of getting another bfn. I am just feeling down for some reason. should I transfer and risk it? Should I freeze all and transfer in 2 months? Which way am I going to get my BFP? I am just so sick of bfns!