Update: FET for Dummies =)

[Supergenius]

Ronda - thanks! Good luck with your trainer - DH has been using a trainer and has been very helpful for him.

Claudia - thanks! I agree with Katie...cereal doesn't count as a meal. Very exciting that you get to switch over to the OBGYN next week! woohoo! And Ruby? What's the story? Enjoy Jersey City and some time with DH.

brit - welcome!

Katie - haha, tornado toddlers. yes, i have one of those. not only doesn't he always look where he's going, but if he's about to fall, he doesn't always brace himself (thinking he can recover). to date, he's had about 4-5 bloody noses doing this. one day he will learn. one day. i can't believe that ryan is outgrowing a 3T size - he is very tall. i did a quick measure of james last night - he's at around 30" tall. i am saving all these barely used clothes too...hoping for a sibling, but if not we can send it all Franny's way and she won't have to buy a thing for a few years.
Oh, and I don't toddler wrangle all day. James has been going to day care since he's about 3 months old. He loves it. He is very social and loves all the activities they have there. I'm glad because it wasn't an option for us to have me stay home (longer than 3 months). And yes, some kids take their time in being chatty. My nephew really didn't talk at all until after like 3 years old - he understood you perfectly, just preferred to point or have his older brother talk for him. As for saying "moon" or most anything else, I'm not sure you'd know he was saying it unless you knew the context. He has a few words he uses regularly (dada, hat, no, bye, baby, hoot [as in Mr. Hoots, his stuffed owl]).

franny - woohoo -let's go lining! i think the baby dust works on that too, right? it would be great if you can get everything to work out to plan. Enjoy your time at the casino - let's go #21! And hurray for embies arriving okay! Hee hee, proud mama. How far are you from Rochester? I never did find out where in NY you moved... So happy for you that you have a clinic that does everything right.

AFM, yesterday's SnS went well. Follies seem to be growing a bit slower than last time; RE only measured a few at like 10-11mm (but I think all 15 are still there). Slow and steady is okay with me. Next SnS tomorrow and I'm hoping they will be in the 13-14mm range. I assume the lining is building up okay - no mention either way but he doesn't usually. Something is happening because I can feel the slight bloating. I am definitely missing my coffee and people at work have commented on how tired I seem. Yep, it's for a good cause...I may get a decaf just to trick myself a little. Okay, gotta get back to work.

xoxo, Libby

[claud662]

Happy Sunday Ladies!!

Franny-I have totally been to the casino you are talking about with my best buddy from college! It's right neear Saratoga and just has a bunch of slot machine?!?! GO 21!!! I can't believe your going to be PUPO in a little over a week!!!! I can't wait to hear about your SnS apt and that's great you already have a schedule for work in place! We got the name RUBY because baby was conceived on our vacation in Aruba!!! I know it sounds feminine but we called Mady "Flick" the entire pregnancy which was masculine!!! We are soooo on the fence if we are going to find out the gender or not!! My brother and SIL just found out they are having a girl and we got a phone call and it was so anti-climatic!! Not like waiting for hours in the hospital and then announcing it to the whole family once baby is here!!! So for now we will wait and see but if we get closer to 20 weeks and want to find out maybe we will!!!

Libby-slow and steady wins the race!!! I can't believe you gave up caffeine cold turkey!! I got serious migraines when I did that and I had to weane myself and then I started drinking a cup a day once I got into my second trimester (the DR gave the OK!) When is your next SnS??

Katie-Let us know ASAP once you get in touch with your cordinator! Did you book your flight yet??? How is the feeding going with Ryan??

AFM...I unfortanetely woke up yesterday to some cramping and brown spotting. I freaked and called my RE emergency line and the nurse got back to me right away and said they couldn't see me over the weekend but can come in first thing Monday morning. They are amazing...I didn't get pregnant through them, they already released me, and they are still willing to do a follow up SnS for me to ease my nerves! I have a regular obgyn apt Wednesday and was just going to wait until then but I spotted all day yesterday and still a little today so I want piece of mind....fingers crossed it's nothing. I bled/spotted the entire first trimester with Mady but I thought I had gotten off easy this time so I am super bummed this stress has come back in my life

DH and I had a great V-day dinner last night and today he took the baby and dog to a animal expo so I have the day to relax and then I have to go into work for a few hours to meet with my youth group!!

xoxo

[turtle0619]

claudia I'll be thinking of you like crazy tomorrow!! I'm sure it's going to be ok, but I'd be freaking out too so it's totally normal to want to go get it checked on as soon as possible. I'm just glad your RE is so awesome that they are willing to see you, and not make you wait and worry until Wednesday. Please let us know that everything is ok tomorrow!! As for the casino, I think you are thinking of the "raceino" right in Saratoga...that one just has slots...Turning stone is an Indian casino about an hour and a half west of Albany.

Libby How did your SnS go? Grow follies grow!!! Thinking of you! xoxoxo

Katie Hi hun! Thinking of you always!!

I'll write more tomorrow...I need to get to bed!! xoxoxo

[katie99]

Hi everyone!

Yippee, I finally got my whole schedule, its so weird to hear from an RE's office at 8:30 pm ET. I know its only 5:30 for them, but my old office never called at all past 3pm. So they said I'll be done with BCPs on Sat and I said uh oh that means I have to get another pack for Saturdays pill since my active pills run out on Fri, then I remembered that these dopey pills cost me $57 for 1 pack! So I made a joke to the donor coordinator thanking her for picking these ( they're called Zeosa) and she couldnt believe they cost that much and she's going to send me a sample pack so I wont have to waste 57 bucks for 1 dopey pill. Isnt that sweet? I laughed and told her not to waste a whole pack that I only need 1, and then she laughed at me. Have I mentioned that I love how this clinic actually cares about their patients? I will love my old RE eternally for giving me my Ryan, but dealing with everything else regarding cycling there wasnt always easy. On an odd note, they have my beta scheduled for 8 & 10 days past a 3 day transfer??? I think it must be an oversight because 8dp3dt is way early! Baseline on the 24th! here we go - eek, also here go my nerves too!

Libby - How did your SNS go? I wonder if you've already had your ER? I'm sending you nice big mature healthy follie vibes honey. I'm glad to hear that James loves day care, it must have been difficult to pull yourself away from him when he was 3 months old though. I know they need that interaction with other babies / toddlers and I try to keep Ryan busy, but its not the same as having others their age to play with on a regular basis. We go to Musical Munchkins 1x week and its fun, but its just not enough. Seems that the local Gymboree closed down and now the closest is 45 min away - I've resisted but now I'm getting desparate to keep him stimulated so a 45 mn drive I guess it will be.

Claudia - Whew! Thank God that Ruby is doing just fine and moving all over in there! These little scary bleeding episodes terrify us IVF'ers way more than they should, but after all we go through to get pregnant its normal that we're a bit more alert to anything out of the norm. I did ask and I'll need 2 u/s, I'm calling a local clinic tomorrow and hopefully they will be able to schedule me for them. And umm, nope I still havent booked my flight- yes I realize that I should have done this awhile ago I think I was just waiting for it to feel real?

Franny - Did you win big at the casino?? I hope that you had some much needed fun there - you've been working alot lately and deserve a little relaxation. Well, that plus soon you'll be all pregnant and tired and nauseous, lol. So enjoy yourself honey - wheeee! In just a week you'll be PUPO!! I want this to be it for you Franny, I've been pulling for you for all these cycles and THIS ONE IS IT!!! I insist upon it! Ok, I love you girls, but I'm off to bed - as you can see I'm so tired that I'm getting all silly and wont make sense for too much longer. much love and luck to us all- xoxo

[to_have_fun08]

Katie99 - YIPPEE good luck!! my clinic does betas on 11dpo and 13dpo. Its nice to have early betas but it can also be scary because your first # will be so low. Usually if you don't have some hcg in your system by 11dpo then you aren't pg or it isn't viable. I have seen gals have a beta of 5 on 11dpo and go on to have viable pregnancies. Mine on 11dpo was a 20. The only thing i didn't like was that they only did 2 betas and i felt better to make sure that my beta continued to double after 13dpo. I did more beta's on my own just to ease my mind.
How many embryo's are you getting. How many are you gonna transfer?



AFM - I talked with my embryologist yesterday about our frozen embies. We have 2 girls and a boy. He said all were in good and pretty much all the same quality. I was hoping one was better then the others so i could decide what to transfer. Now i don't know what to do. Transfer a boy or a girl. Maybe I should just tell the embryologist just to pick one and surprise me.. LOL!! Can't believe i will be doing a transfer in 5 months. Time will go by so fast. Wish i could just get TTC out of my brain for now.

[Supergenius]

Hi Ladies,

Quick post - I'll try to do personals later.
I have had what seems like a million SnS in the last week, follies have been growing nice and slow. After 12 days of stimming, I finally triggered last night. This morning's SnS appointment went well, except they had trouble finding a vein and I got stuck 4 times before blood started flowing. Ugh. I am trying to keep drinking to stave off the dehydration, but it is hard.

Anyhow, egg retrieval is tomorrow! Even though I've gone through the ER procedure twice already, I feel nervous about tomorrow. It will be over soon enough, I suppose.

xoxo, Libby

[turtle0619]

Libby Good luck tomorrow!!! I have everything crossed for you! It's going to be great. I can't wait to hear how everything goes. xoxoxo

Katie Wooohoo for getting your dates!! What day do you have to get there by? and how many days are you planning on staying after the ET? I'm so excited for you!

xoxoxo to you all!

[turtle0619]

Tomorrow is my SnS, and I woke up this morning with my eyes wide open, and my heart pounding thinking about it. I didn't know I was going to be this nervous. I'm am so scared, and I don't know why. I just want everything to look good, and get my transfer date, but I didn't expect to be this freaked out by it!
If I'm this nervous now...how the heck am I going to be able to deal with waiting to hear about the thaw?? OMG I'm going to freak out!!
This is going to be an interesting day at work! Please let it go fast so tomorrow can be here already!!

Sorry to vent!! xoxo

Libby I'm still thinking of you, and can't wait to hear an update!! xoxo

[claud662]

Don't stress Franny about tomorrow...they can always up your estrace if lining isn't thick enough!! I'm sure it will all be perfect and can't wait till they give you transfer day and time! Unfortunately we never stop worrying but that is why we have each other to keep us in check!! Are you planning on having an Oscar party this year? A good friend of mine's fiancé is going to be playing at the Oscars since he did the music for Midnight Train to Paris!! Fingers crossed for tomorrow and check in with us asap so I don't stalk the boards all day!!!

Libby-can't wait to hear how your retrieval went today!!! Rest up mama!

Katie-yeah for having a clinic that is so accommodating and $57 for a pack of birth control?!?!? Thats insane! What re clinic are you going to for monitoring?? Book that plane ticket mama!!

Afm...had my obgyn apt yesterday and everything looked great! I have my first trimester screening on march 6th and after that we will officially announce to friends and co-workers I'm expecting!!!! DH got home from work early so I'm trying to take advantage of some alone time!!! Xoxo

[to_have_fun08]

Turtle - Good Luck tomorrow. Don't stress, everything will be fine.. I just know it.. LOL!! FET's are so much easier.

[Supergenius]

ugh, I am still so tired and a little sore. ER went well today...18 eggs retrieved. hopefully I am feeling better tomorrow to be more social.

Franny, you'll do great tomorrow!
Looking forward to more good news from the north.

[katie99]

Hi everyone!

Chris - hmm, yeah, I thought that didnt sound right - they do betas on 8dp and 12dp3dt - and you dont get to know any results until the second beta. Ugh, now thats a long wait. I'll definitely be picking up some FRERs, but still dont feel that using them before 9 or 10dp would do anyhting but torture myself. Who says the last try wont drive me crazy, lol. Wow, i'm so happy for you to be trying for a sibling so quickly!! How has motherhood been? Theres pretty much no way to descibe how being exhausted and never having a minute to yourself could make you so deliriously happy, is there? Shame that there isnt a clear choice for you to decide on which embie to transfer. If it were me I'd transfer one of each and let nature decide for me, unless either of you feel very strongly about it. I mean you'll be transferrring 2 this next try, right? Are they going to just thaw 2? Or all three? We adopted 3 little 3 day embies that were slow frozen in 2005, so this RE says to thaw all and transfer all, as long as they survive and look good. I'd be a lot less nervous if these were blasts though. They do have a good history and if I get to talk to the RE next week I plan to pump him for as much info on their implantation rates as I can They let us pick a 'backup batch" just in case of a disasterous thaw, but I'm hoping that they just stay frozen considering that the batch we have is almost identical to us, and I'm sort of in love with the essay portion of their profiles. - much love to you my friend - xoxo

Libby - 18 eggs??!!! Girl, that is fantastic news!! Rest up and feel better, ok? let DH take care of the baby and get yourself some rest, ok?

Claudia- Enjoy your alone time with your hubby! You know that gets to be a rare occasion with little ones around. it still amazes me how someone so small can turn your house, life and world upside down and thats just fine by us, isnt it? You'll be proud of me - I booked the flight, and hotel and finally got a clinic to agree to do local monitoring for me. I called 4 clinics and was told by 3 of them ( in a condecending tone too) "that we dont do outside monitoring". I found a sattelite (sp?) office of a NJ clinic called Diamond infertility to do my u/s and i'll go to Labcorp for b/w since they make it easy and set up e- orders in advance. So now I'm all ready - finally. I cant wait to hear about your appt on 3/6!!

Franny - I know the feeling, when I got my schedule and made myself a color coded med/ appt calendar ( what? my brain is fried from toddler wrangling all day, I'm lucky if I remember pre natals lately, lol) I think my heart was pounding when I was highlighting all those things to remember. I know my stomach hurts whenever I see their number come up on caller id. I mean how silly is that? Its just because we've had a harder time than most with ivf and bfns - ugh, its no wonder that we're more sensitive to the "getting closer" nerves taking hold of us. The big difference this time is that our stubborn ovaries have absolutely nothing to do with this and therefore there is NO reason to stress this, right? I understand your apprehension at an SNS - but like Claudia said if for some weird reason your lining isnt where they want it yet- its so easy to fix by just upping your dosage. Easy, right? I'm so thankful that we all have each other to rope us in when our memories of failed attempts try to ruin our PMA - and we wont let it!! Love you girls.. Oh, Franny, I never did find a close by Marriott - they did have a Courtyard nearby, but if I'm going all the way across the damn country by myself then while I lay in bed by myself the night of the transfer, ummm room service needs to bring me food - there was no way I'm going to forage alone, haha. As it is I'll get there late on a Wed pm, have FET the next day ( and room service, lol) and then be on the flight home AT 6AM the next morning. Somehow i dont think thats what the RE meant when he said to take the next 3 days as "princess days" lol. He says flying is fine but to limit walking and rest for the weekend - hmmm, Ryan is sort of like the energizer bunny ( nonstop all day long) so I'm going to force myself to let Chris handle him. I keep looking for his "off" button but I cant seem to find it.. - Dont worry franny, tomorrow will go just fine - xoxoxo

[turtle0619]

First of all I want to thank you girls for talking me down off the ledge! I think that my mind is messing with me because it can't understand how simple this whole process has been so far. It needed to freak out just for old times sake. haha

Anyway I had my lining check and it is perfect!!! We are set for a transfer on Tuesday!!! OMG OMG OMG!!


I'm soooo excited! Oh...and get this...I found out that my embryos are actually BLASTS!!! I thought they were 3d this whole time! So not only have I never had an FET, I never ever got even close to having anything resembling a blast transferred!
I hear that it is better...is that true?

OK...now the tricky part, and I would love some thoughts here...so I found out that my embies are stored in 4 different straws...3 of them have 2 embies, and 1 has 3 embies. I want to transfer 3. So here is what they need to know, and they need to know this today...if I have them thaw the straw with 3, and only 2 survive, do I have them thaw a 2nd straw to get a 3rd? But if both of them survive then I will have 4 embies, and they said they can't refreeze one of them....so I would have to transfer 4 or discard one of them, but how the holy crap would I ever be able to do that?? There is noway after everything I've been though that I would be able to kill one of my embryos.
So I had to call DH, and talk to him while he was at work about what to do, and this is what we decided.
We will thaw the straw with 3...if all 3 survive we will transfer them all....if only 2 survive we will stop and just transfer 2...if only 1 survives, we will thaw another straw..if both survive there we will have 3 to transfer...if only 1 survives then we will stop there and transfer 2.
It makes sense, but man is it hard to think about. I mean there are so many what if's in this situation, and how can I decide this before it actually happens??
I think once I found out they were blasts it made me feel better about just transferring 2 because this whole time I had it in my mind that we would transfer 3. Oy! haha
Do you guys think this sounds like the right thing to do?? I know I have to do what feels right for us, but any thoughts would be great!!

Libby 18 eggs??? Holy moley!! you are an egg making machine girl!!! I hope you are feeling better today! Drink lots of fluids and try to get some rest. When will you hear about the fert. report?? I'm thinking of you tons!! xoxoxo

Katie Thank you my dear friend for always being my voice of reason, and also letting me know that it's normal to freak out every once in a while!! I totally understand wanting room service after your transfer...you deserve it!! My hotel is actually a courtyard, and we have a full restaurant on site. We don't do room service at ours, but you can call down and order it, and then just pick it up, and go back to your room. If you want me to look for rates for you I would love to help you out. If it changes your mind, my discounts are usually $39.00 a night. PM me if you want to talk about it! Just putting it out there for ya hun! So you get to stay in town for your SnS's and then what day are you flying out? I sure hope you have a laptop with you because I wont be able to deal with no Katie connection while you are out there!!! xoxo

Chris Thanks for the support sweetie! I still keep expecting there to be more to this whole FET thing..My brain is messing with me!! I can't believe you are already talking about baby #2!! That is soooo exciting!

Claud Yay for your first appointment with the obgyn going perfectly!!! March 6th seems sooo far away!! I love how you got the nickname Ruby!! Sooooo cute! I know I say it all the time, but I am just so excited and happy for you. You are such an amazing person, and you deserve nothing but love and happiness!!
Of course we are having our Oscar party!! haha I can't believe you remembered! I will send you the link to the contest Barry does online if you want to join in and play along. I never win, but it's always a blast! Did you mean your friend wrote the music to Midnight in Paris?? The Woody Allen movie with Owen Wilson, and Rachel Mcadams? That was one of my favorite movies of the year, and they music was incredible!! Wow!! I am soooo jealous. If I ever got to go to the Oscars it would be a dream come true!!!

[claud662]

Franny-omg!!!! Tuesday is the big day!!!!! I think your plan with Barry is perfect! Once they are blasts I think they have thaw rates of 75% so you will definitely transfer at least two!!! I can't wait for you to be pupo (or poopie as Barry likes to say) and then the 12 days of crazyland begin!

I would love to enter the contest but I must admit I haven't seen any movies (just have watched previous award shows this year) I'm not sure if he wrote the music or just played it but he is an amazing guitarist and will be performing that night!!!

On the iPhone so will type more later!!

Xoxo

[Arabsrcool]

OMG FRANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tuesday is your day......and blast are fabulous!. I think your plan to the thawing of embies is great. You will be PUPO before you know it. I will continue to stalk you!

Claudia,

I am so happy all is well with Ruby! I am so excited for you.

Libby,

you are an egg making machine....wowza, thats alot of eggies!. Good job girl.

Katie,

Hurray for having a complete schedule. Isn't it funny, you are going to fly across the country to get pregnant all by yourself....probably would seem weird to some, but not us IVF girls-sounds perfectly reasonable! Your tornado will have a sib before you know it!

afm, I am going to have to keep stalking you girls.....can't seem to stay away, hope none of you mind. Ok thats enough for now, just got back from session with trainer and my arms are shaking so bad I can hardly type.....oh the joy, but I can tell a difference already! I think I am in love with my trainers hands, he pushes on pressure points and all the ouch goes away. Sigh.

love ya all,

Ronda