Hurst Family: A Baby Story

I have all kinds of emotions, so I'm not even going to begin to express them on here.  During our final week of waiting, we had a good idea that the IVF process had failed.  I called the doctor's office one week before Christmas Eve to tell them I had taken a test which came back negative and I was about 99% sure (due to other reasons besides a store bought test) we had a failed cycle.  I didn't even want to take the time to think about a failed cycle.  I was ready to act like it never happened, move on, get off these crazy drugs, and start it all over again until we get a freaking BFP.  Well, the doctor said it was too early and I needed to finish out the cycle.  I went to have my blood test done first thing the morning of Christmas Eve.  Our doctor called us around 10am to confirm the test was negative and discuss our next steps.  We are meeting with him early next week to discuss the failed round and see where we want to go next.   Ext...

This morning, we dropped Khloe off with her Grandpa in Carmel and got to Family Beginnings at 8:30am to prep for the transfer at 9am.  The embryologist was very happy to show us the pictures of the two blastocysts that survived (and are thriving) for our Day 5 transfer.  This is our first time doing a Day 5 transfer -- we have done two Day 3 transfers in the past.  The transfer procedure is much less invasive than the egg retrieval.  No anesthesia, thank God!  I did have to take a valium one hour before hand, but that was it.  Kellen was dressed in his scrubs, booties, and hair net (LOL) sitting next to me talking to the doctor about the Colts game yesterday while I was laying there with that gooey gross gel on my belly so we could watch the transfer on the TV via ultrasound.  Everything took no more than 5 minutes. Then, I was instructed to lay down in our room for 20 minutes before we could head out.  We left with our blastocyst print out and 2 ...

Our transfer is scheduled for Monday morning (tomorrow) at 9am. Please keep us in your prayers!

We have 6 little baby embryos! Of the 11 eggs the doctor retrieved, 9 were mature and the embryologist was able to fertilize 6. We still do not have a definite date or time for the transfer but the embryologist will call us daily with an update on our babies and when a transfer date and time is determined.

It's after 5pm and I have spent all but about 5 minutes on the couch today resting and sleeping from our egg retrieval (ER) this morning.  We arrived at the doctors office at 7am.  They prepped me for the procedure, gave me my IV, and went over instructions as to what medications I will be taking once the retrieve my eggs.  The procedure began at 7:30pm and lasted about 20-30 minutes.  When they rolled me back to room I was pretty out of it although it didn't take long for the pain to kick in.  This being my 3rd egg retrieval, it was by far the most painful.  Dr. Donahue was able to give me some pain medication that kicked in fairly quickly.  I've also been taking demorol throughout the day today to ease the cramping. The doctor was able to retrieve 11 eggs.  The embryologist will be calling me tomorrow to let us know how many eggs were fertilized and when we will be coming back in for our transfer.  I will update when I know more!

What.  A.  Weekend.  I have a new sister-in-law!  Congrats to my brother and his new wife! Let's go back real quick to Friday morning at 9:15AM.  I had an appointment with the doctor to check my progress.  Everything looked great and I was told to continue my meds and come back in Monday morning for another appointment.  The follicles were measuring around 12cm - 14cm on Friday and this morning they measured 18cm - 20cm.  18cm is what we were shooting for so the doctor instructed us to do the HCG shot tonight [ Monday ] at 7:30pm and scheduled a 7:30am egg retrieval on Wednesday morning.  The nurse measured 16 follicles this morning so they are very confident that they will be able to get many eggs on Wednesday morning.  I'm already feeling very uncomfortable and after the HCG shot tonight, I'll feel a little worse tomorrow.  They'll be putting me under anesthesia for the egg retrieval and Kellen will be taking the day off work to...

Our appointment on Wednesday went really well.  They saw several follicles (measuring at least 8 in each ovary) and are keeping me on the same dosage until my next appointment Friday morning at 9:15am.  Everything is on schedule and going as planned.  I wasn't really worried, but now that I say that...I wonder if I should be.  I know how to handle a successful IVF cycle, you have a baby [duh]; I know how to handle a failed IVF cycle, you go on a girls trip to a cabin, sip goldschlager and woodchuck by the fire and pile into the hot tub with ice cream and doritos until the water overflows.  That's how you do it; that's how it's done, friends.  Either way, I guess I should continue to not worry. Becca's Cabin 2010 All in all, I would say it was a successful day yesterday, birthday and all.  My house is clean, laundry is done, family is coming in town today, and my brother's wedding is this weekend and everybody and their mother's brother will be the...

Four shots a day, two in the morning, two in the evening.  I am officially feeling "the suck" part of IVF.  I'm freaking bloated and feeling like a whale and I use the word freaking because my hormones are telling me to bite somebody's head off right now.  I'm angry, happy, excited, depressed, anxious, nervous, optimistic, pessimistic and thankful all at the same time.  Thank God for IVF, for the hope that it brings, and for the miracle babies that are created due to this procedure.  Thank God for Khloe, our little IVF miracle (from IVF round #2).  Thanks to God and to my little Khloe, I was able to spend the past 2 years free from the life of infertility.  Now, in the midst of our 3rd round of IVF and 4th infertility procedure total, the emotions and those feelings are flooding back.  BIG TIME.  This is the conversation the little devil guy and the angle on my shoulders have been having lately:  "Why is it so freaking hard for us to hav...

Happy Thanksgiving! I don't know if it's our fear of losing control or what, but Kellen and I always seem to step up our fitness game around Thanksgiving time.  We started our Thanksgiving morning off with my brother, Josh, and his fiance, Jess, running 3 miles on the hilly trails of Hawthorne Park.  It was ROUGH and according to our smartphones we burnt 500 calories or so! You know, it may not just be due to our fear of losing control around the holidays, but also the fact that our IVF shots start tomorrow morning.  My countdown to lazy, couch-potato, non-alcoholic, and non-crossfitting days is on and it's coming fast!  I'm already going through the "high school acne breakout" phase of IVF as a result of the birth control pills they started me on a few weeks back.  Apparently, those birth control pills were necessary to put my cycle on track with their IVF schedule for their December patients.  And now that we're right on their schedule, we begin two s...

The holiday's are coming so darn fast this year.  Thanksgiving is next week and I'm pretty sure we just celebrated the 4th of July yesterday, right?  Well, whatever...I'm not ready and that's my point.  Last weekend we had some pretty ridiculous weather (in the 70s!) and enjoyed every minute of it while we were away celebrating our 5 year anniversary.  Kellen and I went to Hocking Hills, OH after a recommendation from a friend.  It was beautiful!  We spent our time there in a cabin with an over-sized bathroom I liked to call "my spa," zip-lining through the hills with awesome lake views, hiking near beautiful cliffs and waterfalls, and eating lots of food!  It was a great time and much needed break from reality.

Lots and lots going on around the Hurst household these days!  I just spend this past weekend in Chicago with Jess (my soon-to-be sister in law) for her bachelorette party.  It was so much fun just to be in such a huge city; and to dress up and go out on the town was a nice change of pace for this stay at home mom!  The weather was perfect and I think I could have stayed and hung around by myself for a couple of extra days.  ;-) Coming up this weekend is our FIVE year anniversary!  CRAZY, right?  My mom is headed up tomorrow morning to spend the weekend here watching Khloe while Kellen and I head to Hocking Hills, OH for a relaxing vacation away.  We've heard great things about Hocking Hills and plan on doing some hiking, seeing a few waterfalls, relaxing in a nice little cabin, and even doing a little zip-lining to throw a little action in there! As far as the baby creating process goes, we've started our "calendar" given to us by the doctor....

Well, well, well....what do you know?  It's November already!  This means several things to us; Kellen's 28th birthday on the 5th, our 5 year anniversary on the 10th, Thanksgiving, and my 29th birthday on the 28th!  And to top of all that busyness off, let's do another IVF cycle!  Since it is the month of Thanksgiving, I have to add that I am thankful for so many things at this point in my life.  I won't go into details, but God has definitely blessed us in many ways. While we're on the topic of November, let's quickly bring up this "Movember" nonsense.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's for a great cause; but if I find out that any of you had any part in encouraging Kellen to participate in this silliness, I will be sending him to your house to live for the remainder of this month so you can hang out with him in public.  We all know (and if you don't, you do now) that Kellen has no business attempting to grow a mustache and/or a beard.  Let...

As I look over this blog (or maybe I should say, lack of a blog), everything comes flooding back into my mind.  I'm trying to stay positive and optimistic, but going through an IVF cycle is nothing more than a risk you take and an opportunity for God to perform a miracle in your life.  I prayed for a miracle at church a couple months back and even though it wasn't in God plans for it to happen naturally and right away, it may be in God's plan for it to happen through IVF.  I believe that God uses IVF to create miracles and I also believe that God plans to give us more children.  With that being said, today marks Day 1 of another attempt at an IVF cycle.  My appointment is at 1pm and I'm assuming (based on experience) that they'll check me out, give me the go ahead, and right me up a prescription for 80 bagillion shots of hormones and drugs to take over the next 4 weeks.  Please pray for Kellen as I go through this emotional roller coaster that he remains th...