Cycling In 2012 Board (formerly Fall/Winter 2011-2012)

[Happy Bunny]

So I typed this once already, and not sure where it went, but I will give it another try. I had my ET on Friday, which was a day 3. The RE called that morning and said he would transfer the two best ones, 4- and 3+, out of a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best. I immediately was very upset becuase we did a three day transfer vs. a five day, then I read a little and had some hope. We went that afternoon and did the transfer, he instructed me to call today to see if the other 6 were able to be froze.
When I called this am he said none of them made it to blastocyst stage. I am so discouraged becuase I feel like if none of them made it to that stage, and they were all rated 2-3 grade. Why would the two he put back in make it? I know its not over until I have my beta next Tuesday, but I feel completely hopeless. This is the hardest thing to go through, I am looking to see has anyone ever had a 3 day transfer work, with having all of the others not make it to freezing? Just looking for a pick me up, I am very down and sad

Things looked fairly grim on Day 3 for me this cycle. I was so disappointed because my first pregnancy came from a Day 5 transfer. Anyway, things looked pretty bad; the embryos weren't doing good so we transferred on Day 3. Guess what? I'm pregnant again.

[Ninde]

Janis: I had a two and a half day transfer I had 10 eggs, 8 fertilised and two of grade b were put back but none of the rest made it to freeze. I got pregnant. I did lose the baby at 9 weeks but i did get pregnant. And i really hope you will too and carry to full term x

Gina: whoa havnt you done a number on yourself!!! Go gently woman!! Is there a weight loss class near you you could join?

Ninde

[deftonesmo]

Janis: i've only had 3rd.... I had an embryo frozen after my first cycle, which ended up being a bfn... On my second cycle, nothing left to freeze, but I got my DD! Just had my DS three weeks ago. Again, all 3dt. Try not to worry

[deftonesmo]

Ugh... Not 3rd.... 3dt..... I've only had 3dt, never 5dt...

[kerpupples]

Hello ladies! I had my second U/S today. Both twins look good - 2.0 and 2.2 cm, and heartbeats were great. Going to start weaning off meds tomorrow, thank heavens. My RE actually doesn't do another ultrasound so we may not get another peep at them for a bit. I've made my first OB appointment for 2/28. I'll post a pic of the babies after DH scans and sends to me.

Nicole - Keep your heart rate under 140! Don't want to blast your little embie out if it does start to implant.

Janis - With DD I had only 3 day transfers. Embies were also frozen at 3d so I don't know how many would have made it to blast. But, DD was frozen at 6 cells on day 3, and she made it!

Gina - be gentle with yourself, girl! Who cares what the doc thinks about your weight. Get the thyroid meds. You'll feel MUCH better and more motivated once that is in check. My recent depression has packed on pounds for me too. I'm hoping that breastfeeding twins will peel them all off.

Patricia - Godmother, lucky! Is Church of Ireland Protestant, like Church of England (well, that's just BARELY protestant)? I'm sure if you are just a tad over for your weigh in at your clinic they won't mind.

Christy - thank you so much for remembering my birthday! It did get eclipsed by all the family affairs. I do, however, have an IOU for an iPad 3, and DH is taking me out to a fabulous French restaurant on Friday as a combined Valentine's/birthday dinner, so I'm happy about that. Hope your toe is feeling better! I'm a klutz, stub my toes all the time.

[Alwaysangel]

Had re appt today. Both uterus and ovaries look great--no concerns. No ectopic. Beta results will be in tomorrow am due to the late draw today. Re believes that beta will be really low. Consult 2/27. So it appears to be really early miscarriage. Any thoughts on what else I can do. I'm going to call my pcp this week and have bw drawn for basic things to see if anything is odd. I have already started list of questions for re before we start cycle #6!!! Should I be tested for anything else??? I've had karotype and blood clotting tests done and all were perfect.

[Janis613]

Thank you all for your encouraging words it really helps....I will not lose hope You are all the best! I wish everyone nothing but the best for all of you! BFP and healthy pregnancies for all!!!!!!!!!!!


Thank you again for the encouragement!!!!

[blueeyedreamer]

Kerpupples- Thanks for the tip. I've seen recommendations for heart rate before but did find this from Mayo.http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exerci ... cy/AN01560

Ninde- 5.6 miles sounds like a lot but in the big picture it's an average distance for us. It wasn't strenuous. I didn't even wear exercise clothes We even stopped for a few minutes to watch a bald eagle and then got hot chocolate for the second lap.

Janis- Glad you feel better.

Gina- It took me a long time before I finally made significant changes to my diet. Start small like limiting something you know isn't good. I had the worst addiction to Dr. Pepper and I was very unwilling to get rid of it. I finally did and let myself have a soda occasionally. Of course, it's easier if you are in a cycle or get pg and then you have to follow some rules. Food addiction is really tough and so it getting into an exercise routine. It takes a couple of weeks for your body to adjust. I've been walking/running for years so my body is pretty used to that. The exercises my trainer has me on have been tough to adjust to.

Ninde- It's fascinating to see the difference in diets and eating plans. That seems very restrictive to me. Your body needs protein. That's what muscles are made of. I've never had one restrict. You can have low fat protein sources. Listen to your body. I don't think it's going to like no protein for 3-5 days. My dh nags me about sticking to things. He doesn't like it if I don't follow through with what I say I will. He will constantly ask me if I followed my plan. I've gotten used to it, but I am quite hormonal right now!

Well, I'm off to the gym for my weigh in and some "adapted" boot camp exercises. I'm crampy so I will take it easy. I've tested with dollar store tests but don't have anything definitive yet. I have a couple of ghost lines that most would probably say are in my head. It's only 6dpt so I wilt set in the morning. Maybe it will be a valentine's day gift.

[Sunshine1576]

Hi ladies this morning was so emotional, I think I would of cried over spilt milk...I was watching the news about Whitney Houston, the Duggers advertising (yelling at the TV so mad that they are going to talk about her m/c (which is airring tomorrow) after having 18 kids, seriously?! After that went off, I saw something about adoption and of course my ears perked up...I'm still so curious about adoption but then get somewhat discouraged knowing the biological mom has so much time that she could change her mind at the last second...I sat down on the edge of my bed to listen and didn't like how they worded the whole process with someone coming into your house to observe you with the child. I thought they could of used "support" rather then observing...Nobody asked me but observing is something you would do at an experimental rat lab. I know they are looking out for the child's best interest, but at the same time they would make the whole process as natural as possible. After my near meltdown, I turned on some Norah Jones and got ready for work, a much needed distraction! Today I made 173 phone calls in the office off my feet, toe isn't much better, probably nothing can be done for a bruise but glad to be in Florida where open-toe shoes are somewhat acceptable all year long. Cupcakes went over well and one of the other managers brought in adorable Valentine coffee mugset with pink dog and tons of chocolate. So I had to swing by WalMart on the way home to buy a matching mug for dh. lol I love having matching sets and tonight when I got home I dressed up the table. He already had the lazagna cooking so I pulled out some wedding china (a mikasa heart shape dish) for the toss salad, I layered with diced tomatoes and sweet onions...Then lit some candles sprinkled the top of the table with Dove chocolates and hershey kisses (of course) and flipped the wine glasses upside down for the tea light candles...It was so Valentine-like and found the soundtrack to the movie "Valentine's Day". (Isn't that the best movie?) Tomorrow I'm preparing a pot roast in the crockpot while I'm at work and then plan on playing the CD he made me 10 years ago for Valentines. Dh and I used to listen to George Strait on date, so alot of memories with good ol' George! Does it surprise you that V-day is my favorite holiday of the whole year? I'm such a romantic at heart, I wonder who's thinking she's just sappy?

Cannot believe I almost forgot to tell you THE most exciting thing that happened over dinner that had me in tears again. While we were eatting tonight he says well as I was camping with the guys over the weekend I had time to really think and you know I still want us to try IVF again but while we are going through IVF maybe we ought to also pursue adoption. He went on and said this week let's both start researching it and on Friday (the day we are both off) sit down and compare notes. I could not believe my ears so happy that he IS even considering this!! We talked even more... the only thing as I mentioned before that worries me is the time process of the biological mom possibly changing her mind, but he said we'll talk with the agency first, plus keep in mind the lawyer is there for cases like this, so we cannot rule it out. I then said well do you think our chances would be greater if we went with a toddler instead of a newborn, I feel at that point a toddler could be easier to adopt because of being in foster care already where a newborn might be more of a stuggle with attachment to the biological mom...I'm not saying a toddler's mom is not wanting anything to do with the foster child, honestly we see so many in foster care already in search for a loving family. There's obviously so much for me to learn...but this is definately a start! Of course I had to share the news with someone here and we both agreed that God will oneday bless us with a family one way or another. I somewhat feel the pressure has now been taken off me with the upcoming IVF and I can rest assure that it's not the end of the road if IVF isn't the answer for us, but what if it is? One can never tell how this is going to end, but I am now more then ever determined that we cannot give up!

Personals coming... More then anything I want to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!
With Much Love,
Christy

[blueeyedreamer]

Sunshine- I'm so happy you had this conversation with DH. You will need to research the restrictions that can be placed on prospective adoptive couples. I've heard they make you state you are not actively trying to conceive. I have no reference for that but think I have heard it. I'm curious if it's true. My good friends are foster to adopt parents. They have one adopted daughter and two fosters currently. Most likely they will get to adopt the infant they have because the mom is a teenager with no support in place. The 3 year old's dad is working hard to get her back so it's unknown what will happen with her.

As for the Duggars: This is such a controversial and touchy subject. I was angry at first at the thought of them having so many children and even didn't feel sadness for them at first. Then I read someone's blog about why we should respect Michelle Duggar. I'm not saying anyone has too. I'm still not sure I do. But, what I walked away with is that a life was lost. Regardless of if the baby is the first or the twentieth, the family still loved that baby and had a relationship with that baby. The loss is just as hard regardless and we should respect the loss for what it is. It sucks for us who only know loss. We can be grateful that this family is bringing awareness to miscarriage.

I had a good bootcamp tonight. It was a moderate workout. I took extra breaks and didn't do exercises that put any pressure on my pelvis. I asked the trainers for other options. I have lost another 3.5 pounds. I am down a total of 6 pounds. I am curious to do another fat percentage.

Night night all. Report on all of your lovely valentine experiences! We are taking it easy this year. Praying for a BFP in the next couple of days.

[Sunshine1576]

Blueeyed,
I'm praying for your BFP too, absolutely would be the best Valentine gift ever! I definately have my work cut out this week, I've heard some ladies finalizing adoption and then finding themselves pregnant ending up with two+ babies. I would want to find out how would they control this from happening? I mean women also conceive naturally, by accident and It may vary from state to state but I hope to find a way to do both, because I'm needing an alternative if we are placed on a long waiting list. Your absolutely right about the Duggers, I understand that a loss is a loss, but at the same time her family being publicized is more like a "reality show" then anything, actually it doesn't even seem real or natural for that matter. Yes she is a mother of 18 beautiful children but she's never going understand that there are women out here suffering with losses and have zero children? You can say I'm a bit jealous of her ability to conceive by drinking water. I understand a woman has a right to procreate as she chooses to, but it should equally fair to all women and not explode her family over national TV! It isn't suppose to be this way, this hard and honestly that family disturbs me. I don't want to sound harsh whatsoever but I believe we should never bite off more then we can chew and providing for a family is one thing, but ask yourself how do you think they support a family this large? It's not for me to say, except there are so many of us that long for a chance to become a mother and more and more women like this should consider surrogancy if they love staying pregnant all the time.

[leorira11]

Lori (always angel) - UGH. Sounds like what I'm dealing with. I hope your doctors are more aggressive and you can finish this sooner than the time it's taking me! What a pain. Oddly, my two miscarriages have taken waaaaaayyyyy longer to resolve than either of my later deliveries. I had a C-section for heaven's sake and I could cycle sooner than I'll be able to cycle after this damned 5wk miscarriage! All my tests are normal too -- so frustrating.

Nicole - I've heard that transferring embryos is like putting a piece of dust into a peanut butter sandwich -- there ain't no way those things will be 'shaken loose' or anything. My doctors also say that there is no need for bed rest or any other restrictions during the 2ww. They warn against vigirous exercise during stimming because of the minimal risk of ovarian torsion, but otherwise, business as usual! I can't wait until you POAS!

Christy - well, there is no Hershey's here, but there are all the same kinds of chocolate (and actually I think the Israeli brands are much yummier! Send me your address, and I'll send you some yummy Israeli treats!). The little chocolates aren't 'kiss' shaped, but sqaures/circles/etc. We actually NEVER "do" Valentine's Day -- but a coworker of David's who is a friend of mine mentioned that she was so jealous of what David was doing for V-day. Crap! That means I have to do something too! So last night, I bought an (overpriced! sheesh - $2 more than this chocolate usually costs!)heart shaped box of chocolate and left it on his night stand with a note, so he'll get it when he wakes up.

We haven't STARTED packing yet! Uh-oh! Also, we have a friend's parents staying in our apartment while we are gone (they are coming to visit, so they are paying us to sublet our apartment) -- and we have to clean it up before they get here! Lots to do!

I heard a tip -- pack old underwear and socks -- then throw them out after they are dirty. That way, you don't lug around dirty socks/underwear and you have more room in your suitcase for souvenirs!

I was always on BCP before cycling, but I don't have regular cycles. But I've also heard it's a good way to slightly suppress you. Are you doing a long Lupron cycle, or a short antagonist (Ganirelix) cycle?

btw - thinking about the Duggars makes me irrationally angry -- not only has she had so many healthy kids - but their youngest was a preemie - 25wks and weighing 600gr or so -- and she is fine! How the f*ck is that fair? She gets to bring home her 19th kid, but my boys both die in the NICU? I seriously have some questions if I ever get to talk to God.... (btw, Nicole - I do feel horribly bad about them losing a baby at 20 weeks, I know how that feels, but over all, I think it's not fair. Idon't blame them, but I blame God/the universe/fate/whatever)

Patricia - It is quiet.... hmm.... Congrats on being a god-mother (is that what you say? I don't know anyone who is a god-mother!). It's so hard to do baby things. My friend had a baby boy a little over a month ago -- I went to the Brit (circumsicion ceremony) and it was so hard. So when she had the Pidyon HaBen (loooonng explanation of what that is, but basically, a ceremony for a first born son when he is 30 days old), we skipped it. They wanted to know why we couldn't make it (it was a small, intimate affair and we were one of the few invited) and I was honest and said I couldn't tolerate another baby celebration.

akdelp - CONGRATS on being PUPO! How many did you transfer? Planning on POAS again?

Gina - I totally think I'm an "overeater" and need to go to 12 step meetings! I'm totally a stress eater. Last night I was stressed, and ate most of a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Just thinking about it now makes me a little queasy - ick!

One rule that we keep trying to institute is that all food must be eaten at the dining room table. No eating in front of the TV or computer.

Janis - congrats on being PUPO to you too! 3dt are fine -- my first twins were a 3dt. The only reason we switched to 5dt is because we want to do SET (transfer one embryo at a time) and the PER EMBRYO pregnancy rate is higher with 5dt.

Amy (kerpupples) - congrats! It's so exciting how fast they grow, no? From blobs, to gummy worms, to actually baby-looking babies! I always had a long break between the last u/s with RE at around 7wks until the NT scan at 12wks. Long wait for me always!

AFM -

ugh this nightmare won't end!

My beta has leveled off --- 24 last week, 30 this weeks. That isn't considered a rise, because it's within the 'margin of error' for the test. So basically, it hasn't dropped or risen. Oy.

The 'retained tissue' or whatever it is has GROWN (!?!) from 9mm to 14mm. The 'on-call' RE (actually a new one I've never met) referred me to a surgical hysteroscopy (after making me run around the hospital to do another, high-res u/s). I faxed in the request to the correct department. They called me back yesterday afternoon---- the next available appt for a surgical hysteroscopy is APRIL! WTF? So I called my RE -- maybe they can help me get a sooner appt, or maybe I'll do a D&C instead. In any case, very very very slim chance this will be done before my trip. UGGGGHHHHHHH.....

I'm so frustrated. I cried myself to sleep while David held me and stroked my hair, which was nice.

I'm just trying to stay calm and get excited about my trip.

I know in the long run that if we don't start our next cycle until April, or even May, it's not a big deal. But it's sooooo frustrating to me!

[leorira11]

and also-

last year on Valentine's Day I was having my ER for the cycle that gave me my boys...

<sigh>

[Gina1976]

Happy Valentines all! DH are just having a day to ourselves and rambling around while DS is at school. Once he's home and everything we'll go to dinner a little later. We are taking him also because he loves going out for dinner and he's our heart too. I got pregnant with him in Korea on Valentines Day, 1999! Hubby also came home for good from a deployment on Valentines.

Thank you for the support with my weight issues. I'm glad I am not alone, although I wish none of us had this problem. Only I can put a stop to it and need to get it done! I can join weight watchers online, so I'll have to look into that tonight. I know I can do this without a specific program but I just have to get my butt in gear!!

[WeHaveHope]

Hi ladies,
Sorry I've been MIA. I have been really having a rough time. I'm still spitting which is driving me crazy, the nausea hadn't gotten any better, and severe constipation almost put me in the hospital. I went to my first official OB appt yesterday and when the OB did the pelvic exam she said " oh my you are severely impacted". Well I already knew this and had tried everything under the sun to no avail. I was so horribly uncomfortable all last week including the weekend it was terrible. The abdominal pains were unbearable. My Ozn told me to take MOM and insert a glycerin suppository which I did last night. Unfortunately all it did was make me even more nauseous and cause more abdominal cramping. I did get some releif but not nearly enough. I will try the same again today. Once clear she said to take Metamucil and Colace daily plus she discontinued the Zofran because she said that it causes really bad constipation. So no more Zofran for me. I heard the babies heartbeats yesterday with the Doppler but no u/s. I was quite disappointed but I was happy and releived to hear their little hearts thumping away. I won't get an u/s until 12 weeks which is in three weeks. That's a long wait. I had gotten used to having u/s on demand. I will update the board later today. Sending you all my love and well wishes. I'll have to read up later to catch up.