May cycle buddies :)

[DCRunningMama]

Good morning ladies!

Rio--5/6 is *plenty* of follies! When I did IVF w/ my son, I only got 6 follies from one ovary and only 5 fertilized. Out of that 5, 2 were transfered and 2 frozen! Smaller numbers is better b/c they're typically better quality. So, no worrying!! :>

PMAPsy (and everyone else)--thanks for the advice. You are so right that this is individual experience and that no one else can really know what it feels like. And, such an emotional rollercoaster. Some days I just feel like a zombie walking through my life and other days I am so grateful for all that I have.

Re: exercise, I stopped running the last time we did IVF, but was thinking that I would keep running/exercising through transfer and then just do walking and light yoga until the beta. But, I'm a *crazy* runner (i.e., high mileage)...just coming off the boston marathon its hard to cut back (well, not that hard, but to cut it all out would be hard...I'm an endorphin junkie).

Oh, Bei, thanks for keeping the list!! I'm actually doing a FET.

[PMApsy]

Good morning everyone,

I had my private yoga class yesterday and it was a-ma-zing! I had a lot of fun with my teacher and I was completely surprised by how easy most of the poses were! When I started yoga two years ago, I remember having a MUCH harder time... so after all, that cardio and pilates really paid off, I'm so happy about it! And my yoga teacher told me a bit about her own IVF struggle (7 years!!!), so she completely understood my tmts and adapted my routine accordingly.

Which brings me to important info about exercising after ET. She checked with her yoga master, and he advised to stop exercising completely after ET. Her master suggested a 10-day "quarantine", she suggested 15 just to be sure. Apparently, it's super important not to put ANY pressure in your pelvic area during implantation time. So between ET and the first beta, all you can do is breathing exercises (feeling your pelvis, ribs, then collarbones, and tibetan breathing sitting on a block or on a chair). And the end of that quarantine, a few days before beta, you can add a very fun pose that relaxes your back, opens your hips and increases blood flow in the pelvic area. You sit with your whole side, leg and shoulder against the wall, and then you twist towards the wall and lie on your back with your legs up. You place the soles of your feet against each other, toes included, and you bring your heels as close to your pelvic bone as you can. You rest your hands, palms up, on each side of your hips and you breathe into your pelvis. it's an amazing posture, super good during AF, and you can keep it for as long as you like. It's good to have a towel under your head to make sure your chin is tilted towards your sternum a bit (so your forehead isn't tilted back).

Between your BFP and heartbeat u/s, you can slowly add more poses, but it's very gradual. Kiz, you talked about a reality check, it gave me one. I think the breathing exercises will be very good to just "be" inside my body, relax and be aware of what's happening. Keep a peaceful attitude through it all. I realize that meditation, breathing and walking are indeed just enough to keep my body healthy and aware without putting the delicate implantation process in jeopardy. 10-15 days is nothing compared to all the years of tmts, waiting, and so on, and all the years I have before me in this life. Compared to a whole pregnancy in which I'll be able to do most of the exercise I want to do, it's nothing.

So there you go. I've decided to follow her advice not because I'm scared too much exercising will cause a BFN, but because I want to help my body and respect the pace it needs in that delicate phase of the process. When I look at it this way, I find it touching and beautiful. Namaste!

mcfarland,
Wow, your DH does get the princess status, it's great! Yes, it will be great to have each other through that wait. Hehehe looks like you did exactly the opposite of what I'm doing now. We did keep our tmts a relative secret for our first baby, because I found it easier that way. People ask you questions, and then if you get a BFN you want to take time to regroup, and if people know about your beta date, you have to talk about it again and again... and even take care of them because they feel sad for you. Anyway. This time, my family will visit us right in the FET weekend (they arrive on Saturday). Plus my father asked me a direct question last week, so I didn't want to lie. So we kept a very open and simple attitude towards it and we told them. They'll babysit our son on ET morning, which will allow us to experience this as a couple and give our little embies all the individual attention they need. Right now, in our situation, I find it way easier to be honest about it, it's far less fuss, you don't have to beat around the bush and deflect questions all the time. It's out and that's it. BUT it's a second IVF baby, it does change things a lot. Totally understand the need for privacy, that's what I craved during my 4 tmts.

bei,
Yaaaaaayyyyy! Hugs to you, pincushion-to-be!

rio,
ooooooooooooohhhh I know that feeling sweetheart... it's hard to have a blow like that so close to the end. HUGS HUGS HUGS Look, you never know. Maybe your follies aimed on quality, not quantity? I remember FET day for our son... the embryologist told us the frosties quality was so-so after thawing because some of their cells were dead. It had been a problem-free cycle until then and I cried all the way to the clinic. DH was super angry that we could never do ONE cycle without something going wrong. So the mood was low that morning. BUT look what it got us... I know it's way better when the numbers are on our side and reassure us in moments of doubt. But in the end, it does only take one, and you have to put your trust into the follies you have now. I'm sending you lots of baby dust sweetheart...

terri,
good news! Grow follies, grooooow!

kiz,
thanks for the pm, I'll reply in a bit.

purplefish,
keeping fingers and toes crossed for today.. can't wait to hear the news!!!!

dcr,
hi sweetie, yeah I think you're doing the right thing. I know it's hard to stop doing something that your whole being craves, but it's only for a few days!!!! :D:D We'll help you through it, one day at a time!

Okay, time to get some work done. blah. Love ya ladies,

Sophiexxox

[riogirl71]

Awwwwwwwww! You girls are so sweet and such wonderful support! Thank you thank you!!! I am hoping all the 6 follies are close in size and mature. This is just such a numbers game sometimes it is like a gamble... I am hopeful... the RE didn't seem terribly disappointed so... As for telling people, we told my in laws, mother, sil and boss last time. My boss went through it with his wife so he is super supportive and gives me flexibility at work. We did not tell my in laws this time. They put a crazy amount of stress on us last time, they told other people without our consent, they pressured us for a month to tell my stepdaughter we were pregnant when we didn't want to tell anyone else until 3 mos. They made a stressfull time much more stressful, my MIL even asked me after knowing what I went thru and got pregnant, "are you sure you want to have kids?" in a 1/2 serious 1/2 joking manner. Are you kidding me after all we went through? So I don't need to hear "Are you sure you want to have MORE kids?" But once in a while when she is looking adoringly at our son I will say "and to think you asked me if I was sure I wanted kids, look at him" heeeee Again, not that there is anything shameful or wrong with going through IVF. But because we have solely male fertility issues, I don't tell people because I know men can be sensitive about things like this, plus my DH has an awful ex wife who is mean (she had his daughter before his chemo - go figure the evil woman didn't have to go thru IVF!). Anyway, lots of rambling...

This is mother's day weekend! I didn't realize it! Hopefully our little eggs will be fertilized and grow on monther's day weekend, how cool!

PMA - you are such a sweetheart. So your quarantine, how are you dealing with picking up your son? How much does he weigh? Should I pick him up in a different way? He is such a momma's boy and loves being picked up by me! Thanks for sharing all this with us.

DC running - your post gave me so much hope that I sent it to DH. I can't thank you enough! Hopefully lots of mature eggs in there!!! I completely relate to your state of mind. Going through this is so emotional and on top of it the meds just create havoc! I see you have male fertility also, you doing ICSI? Glad to have our boys to keep us busy huh? How are you dealing with the baby picking up after ET? I am amazed at your running! Impressive and even Boston marathon which you have to qualify for, I suck at running so I have a lot of respect for runners!

Bei - yeay for last BCP!!!! welcome to the ouchie and sore club - wooohoo!!!! Thanks for updating the ER for 5/7, ET is 5/10

purple - mine is a 3 day transfer, so ER friday and ET on Monday - both of our embies will be growing on mother's day!!! Thank you for the good wishes. How are your follicles doing? Any news from today? Are you doing 5 day or 3 day? Grow follies grow!!!!

kiz - you have stepchildren also? This can be so hard... especially knowing how easy it was for my DH's ex to get pregnant. I agree with not telling them anything until probably your 12 weeks of pregnancy. Good thing they are older, are they still living with you? I have a 13 yo stepdaughter that lives with us 50% of the time. It is really hard and she is very resentful of our son, does not like him one bit (who cannot like a baby?) but in front of her grandparents she is a model sister. Tough dynamics, plus we have to hide all the IVF things in the house etc...

nfd - thank you! You are great at props!! It is always the thought that coutns here and we all want the best for our fellow IVFers! Ouchie club on Thursday - welcome!!!

mfarland - keep those embies cozy!!! Sticky dust to you! How many did you transfer? grade, cells?

we have an appt at 3 pm today and hopefully we are on track to trigger and do ER, my follies seem to surprise him at how big they were so hopefully they won't be overgrown by ER!!!!!

[mcfarland2213]

Hello Everyone!

It's my wedding anniversary today so I don't have a lot of time to write - I will do more of that probably tomorrow! I wanted to let you know I did 2 blast embryos and both look pretty good (but from what the RE said, blats are good to work with and they don't grade them like they do 3d embryos (or however you write it!)

Yeah, we tried to be open and honest with the first round (as I'm a very social/outgoing person and usually share EVERYTHING!~) but this time since it didn't work last time, I just had to try something different and see if my body liked that a little better. We haven't been getting a lot of questions this time as we had told everyone we're waiting until later in the year I hope I can tell them positive news in a month or so!

Baby dust to all - hope everyone has a wonderful cinco de mayo and I will write more tomorrow!! thanks everyone for the positive wishes...I'm trying to keep those embryos as cozy as possible - their mama wants them to STICk!!!!

Ashley

[purpleFish]

Just a quick update and I will write more tonight. So the appointment today went well. Thanks you all for the good growing wishes, it must have worked. My follicles were full size today so I trigger tonight. The only worry is that my e2 level is still pretty low. My RE said I could just run low, or it could be an egg maturity problem, so lets hope I just have low levels. I ended with 8 follicles on side and 5 on the other, these were ones >18mm. I also have 5-6 smaller ones on each side which they will retrieve, but are pretty sure won't be mature enough. My lining is 11.5 so that is a happy number=) I will be doing a day 5 transfer so Wednesday of next week!

[kizmet]

Hi All,

Starting Puregon tonight - one more needle a day won't make much difference to me (1DMMD). Mildly concerned about potential side effects of grumpiness but since all was good on the synarel only (DH thinks he should see if he can get me a constant supply of the stuff because apparently I'm more pleasant on that than I usually am! .... ).

Rio - re: stepchildren. I get along with them pretty well. They live with us full time now since their mum moved about 6 hours drive away from us and we've always had them at least 50% of the time anyway, but since they are adults at 18 and 20yo, they pretty much take care of themselves. The girl will throw a hissy fit to end all hissy fits when she finds out. She's already said that she's not interested in us having kids and has warned her mother than if she has any more kid's she'll never speak to her again! I'm sure she'll come around, but to start with she'll not be happy and I'd imagine she'll move out. The boy will be fine. He's a really good, laid back kid who'll love having a brother or sister.

PurpleFish - good luck with the ER!

McFarland - Congrats. I hope those emby's stick for you!

Kiz

[riogirl71]

Just got back from Re. 6 follies it is, but like he said hopefully mostly mature eggs. We trigger tonight at 10 and have ER Friday and 3 day ET on Monday. My RE does not do other than 3dt. Mature egg thoughts and PMA!!!

[purpleFish]

Rio - 6 mature eggs is great! You only need one. Looks like we are both up for Friday, I am excited and a little nervous. This is my first IVF, and this is the most nerve racking part for me. I take my trigger tonight at 9:30, so we should be having our ER's at about the same time Good Luck and I can't wait to hear how it went.

Kiz - one step closer=) I hope you have few side effects.

mcFarland - happy anniversary!


I was also told no exercise after transfer. I will actually be on bedrest for 48 hours and then no exercise until the pregnancy test. My nurse told me today not even walking, they want me to take it as easy as possible. I know some of your were talking about picking up your little guys. My son (2) is 40lbs... ugh. Anyway the first time when I was going through IUI's and they said no lifting, I had Christmas with my nephew (1 1/2 at the time), instead of picking him up I would sit on the floor with him in my lap. That is my game plan for this time too.

I told close family and friends the first time we went through fertility treatments, I just got so sick of everyone asking me when I was going to have children. I really wish I had just kept quiet. I just felt like someone was calling me every day asking me if I tested or how my follicles were. Then my mother-in-law and my mom told everyone under the sun. The other bad thing for me was everyone knew the instant I was pregnant, I would have liked to keep it to myself until the end of the first trimester. I also had some rude rude comments. I was at my sister-in-law's wedding 5 months pregnant and some relative of my husband came up and asked if I was having twins because of all the drugs I took. I was mortified. This time I have told two friends that I trust and that is it. I just couldn't have everyone know again, I get enough mean comments when people find out I want a third child, especially since I already have a boy and a girl.

[DCRunningMama]

Good morning!!

I almost forgot to take my lupron the last few nights. How can I forget something so important (and expensive??)?? I'm on day 8 of lupron and no period in sight. I just want to get started on this round.

So, I'm supposed to do a trip this summer with a bunch of my friends from grad school, but I'm thinking of backing out. It would be in early August. If this FET doesn't work out, we'll likely be doing a fresh cycle mid july-mid-august and I don't want to have to delay it a month for the trip. Plus, I feel like we shouldn't be spending money (this would be $1500-2000 trip) with all these expenses. And...two of the girls on the trip will likely be pregnant. I just don't know if I can deal with them being pregnant after only 1-2 months of trying when we've been trying and doing fertility treatments. I don't want infertility to rule my life, but I have to be honest about how I'll feel and the most important end goal for me.

Rio: I'm so glad that my post gave you some relief!! :>
Purplefish: when is retrieval? how do you feel w/ all those eggs growing?
Lizmet: Why do you think your stepdaughter is so adament that she doesn't want you all to have children? Seems strange for someone her age. At 19, what does she care? Just curious.
McFarland: Re: open-ness. I was *WAY* too open the first time w/ co-workers and others. I tend to be an open person, though. Part of me regrets it b/c so many people knew what I was going through and were expecting to hear the results. But, then part of me doesn't want to have to hide my infertility and treat it like its something to be ashamed of. This time, I am telling close friends that I would tell if it doesn't work, but I am NOT telling any co-workers except the one person that I have to tell. I think lying is more difficult for me than telling the truth, so I try to minimize the number of people that I have to lie to. If this doesn't work, it may come back to bite me later...but I guess I'll deal with it then.

PMAPsy: A private yoga instructor? How awesome! After reading your post, maybe I'll minimize the yoga that I do and just stick to light walking after the transfer. I think since they are day 5/6 blasts we'll transfer 5 DPO, which means I won't have to wait too long for the beta, right? Ah, I can't remember the protocol. Will have to ask the nurses. BTW, what do you do? Are you a psychologist?

[PMApsy]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Boy, that felt great! :D:D:D:D I had my u/s apt this morning. It was hell getting there because I tried different public transportation and I got completely lost, took 1:30 to get there and I was juuuuust in time for the u/s. Geez Louise!!!!

BUT my lining is super nice and plump and comfy (15mm) and I got the go ahead for FET!!! Yippeeeeee! But that's not the best part. My FET won't be on Sunday, it will be on Saturday! They changed the protocol! Now they do ET right after the thaw. They thaw in the morning and you're there around 10am for ET. LISTEN TO THAT GIRLIES, they DOUBLED their success rates with that protocol!!!

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Oooooh I know you girls totally understand how good it feels for an IVFer to hear that!!!!!! They had to improve their success rates especially because there is a new law here that makes you have access to your first 3 IVF free of charge (july 2010)... BUT the government will put limits on the number of embies you can transfer (depending on your medical condition of course, it's not an absolute). So given that many women will only be able to have 1 embie transferred only, the clinics really had to find a way to boost their success rates even more.

GEE, I'm SO confident it will work that I could explode! :D:D

So there you go. Now we have to figure out how we'll make it work on Saturday, it will be quite hectic. My family arrives from Quebec to have a party for my son... my son isn't allowed into the ET room, so we'll either leave him at a friend's house or bring him along (the nurses find it so rewarding to see what consequences their work and efforts can have that they offered to babysit him). And we'll have to figure out where my family will meet us. But those are beautiful problems to solve!

AND TO TOP IT ALL, the daycare lady loved my cake so much that she ordered one for this weekend! She gave me carte blanche as long as I use the same buttercream, cake and fondant. So I'll do a square cake decorated like a wrapped gift with a pale green fondant ribbon, pink polka dots and white wrapping. My first order, it's great!

rio,
yeah, I think sitting on the floor and make your little boy sit on your lap on the floor is the solution. I guess carrying him around once DH puts him into your arms isn't a problem either, it's the lifting from the floor that's problematic. But hey. As I said, I've seen all kinds of advice on the net. Some docs advise not to lift heavy stuff because your center of gravity changes after your belly grows, they don't even mention the first trimester. Others advise against it right from the start. Who's right? Your instinct sweetie!

purplefish,
GREAT NEWS! :D:D I'm so happy for you, it must be quite a relief despite the low rates. Oooooh soon you'll be PUPO! 13 mature follies, wow, you might even have a few frosties on ice! That must be a relief too! I hope your trigger went well, and I'm sending you good vibes for your ER. And yeah... Jon and Kate and so on had quite an impact on the general population... bad publicity for us average IVFers...

Kiz,
Hi sweetie, a bit hectic here I'll pm you as soon as I can!

DC,
Hi there! LOL don't worry, I forgot my estrogen yesterday morning, it happens even to veterans! It means you have other things than IVF on your mind, and to me it's a great sign, lol! Hey, tmts do run our lives sometimes, and at other times we're able to put them aside and priorize other things. Go with the flow darlin', everything will fall into place as it should, I'm sure! LOL no, I don't have a private yoga instructor, I just contacted a yoga instructor I met in 2008 (group class); we had clicked. She offers private lessons, so I just got one private lesson to have a custom made yoga routine. Usually, they calculate beta day according to either trigger day or, with FETs, u/s day. My clinic does beta 16 days after trigger or fet lining u/s.Yup, I'm a psychologist! What gave it away??? I work in a hospital with cancer patients right now. Love the job, mixed feelings about the environment, absolutely hate the 2:30 commute. Hey, I was in such a hurry this morning I didn't even get to kiss my son!!!!

Okay girlies, time to get some work done before I sneak out from here. Take care and keep up the PMA! And send a few vibes to my frosties so they survive the thaaaawwwww...

Sophie xxox

[bei]

DandMe - Can’t find her anywhere! Come back we miss you!
Tiger04 - IUI – cycle got cencel lots of hugs
-




Dys24 - 1 blast frozen , FET ,on BCP start Lupron May14th
PMApsy - U/s on 5/6 and FET on 5/8 lining is nice and plump and comfy (15mm)





Lisadcb - taking BCP 4/16 – lupron 5/9 – ER scheduled first week in june we r waiting for u to join ouch club sweetie




kizmet - start puregon injections tonight
Tryn4#2 - on lupron FET around 5/10
Rypell -provera start next friday ER around 6/2
sunshine5tri - start on cetrotide. this friday is baseline us &e2. Transfer will prob be around the 21st. yay coming closer
bei - starting lupron and asprin 5/5 and startin metformin today 5/6
DCRunningMama - on lupron since last wed till
EShepherd - start Lupron on 5/3 till woo...hoo
nfd034 - start injections on May 6th yay welcome to the ouch club







Nurse Julie - start stiming 4/30 next friday yay
purpleFish - ER - will be 5/6 , yay for trigering tonight i wish u lots of nice and big egg
riogirl71 - yay for trigering tonight yay and good luck for the ER on 5/7 and ET on 5/10
nfd034 - start stiming on 5/6 yay





mcfarland2213- hey congrats fo being PUPO








Anissabug - BFN so sorry ,we hope u find ur peace and lots of on ur way we all always here for u sweetie




please let me know ladies if i made any mistake here to updates there status[/quote][/quote]

[bei]

hi ladies hope u all doing great i will do personal later I just have one question

my RE suggest me i should start taking metformin once a day and i just wanna know anybody here taking this medication and why i should take this medicine please reply me

[PMApsy]

bei,
sorry, can,t help for the meds... but FET is now on may 8th!

Hugs,

Sophie

[riogirl71]

bei - sorry never heard of the meds, how are you feeling in stimms? Any idea when you might do ER yet?

PMA - woohooo - wonderful news all around, rates and FET on Saturday! 3 IVFs wow - I should move to Canada! It has all been out of pocket for us. Congrats on the cake too, please post more pics! 2:30 hour commute - yickes, how many days a week? Good for you for providing such comfort and working with people who need you so much. My DH had cancer but is now 100% healthy!!! Thank God for people like you who chose such a tough and loving thing to do. Many good thoughts for your frosties to be thawed healthy and just in time to cozy up to mommy on Mother's day!!!

DC - While I think a trip with your friends will be fun, I totally understand your concerns. I am sure this FET will work out for you sweetie! But I also know how emotional we get and how hard it is to hear people talk about how easy it is to get pregnant. This girl at work keeps saying how she is pregnant with her 3rd child while on BCP and never even wanted kids!!! The truth is that infertility does rule our lives or at least it tries... but I know what you mean. Plus if you are pregnant from your FET (which you will be ) you might not be feeling that great to truly enjoy your trip (morning sickness), but on the other end it might be fun to hang with the girls... unfortunately I agree with you that telling people is not so helpful in the IVF case, I found it less stresfull not telling people than having so many questions and assumptions.

purple - we won't know how many mature eggs until tomorrow at ER, but I am praying that my 6 follies have 6 mature eggs A girl can dream!!!! My trigger was at 10 pm so we are at the same pt, ET will be different since mine is a 3 day. Post when you can tomorrow and congrats on so many follies! so no walking on the 2WW? They told me 2 days bed rest and then minimal activity. If I transfer monday afternoon and stay in bed then come to work and sit still, I should be able to come to work Wed afternoon, correct? I applaud you for going through all this to have a 3rd child. Were they conceived through IUI? Since you said this was your first IVF... I honestly think that a woman who goes through all this to have her children will be a more patient and grateful mom...

AFM - no meds today - woohoooo! Just waiting and praying for lots of mature eggs out of my limited 6 follies!!!!!

[gi]

Hi gate crasher here

bei just say your question in relation to metformin, i took this past cycle as i was diagnosed with pcos and it apparently can help improve the quality of your eggs. I started on one a day then was upped to 3, it can be very dodgy on your tummy but you get used to it. I only finished taking them this wk at 12 wks pg. Best of luck xxxx