Last night, I set my alarm to wake up at 1am and take my Lupron trigger shot. That was fun. [insert sarcasm here] This morning, I headed back to the fertility clinic bright and early to have my blood drawn so they can make sure I'm responding to the Lupron. Today will very likely be the absolute brute of this entire process. My ovaries are at the peak of stimulation. And this shot I took at 1am will get ovulation started.
The nurse I met with during my two separate visits to the fertility clinic yesterday, Courtney was her name, was fantastic. She's had two separate IVF pregnancies and was so great to talk to and so helpful and informative. We talked a little about over-stimulation of the ovaries and how I may feel or how my body might respond at different points in this process. I had a little bit of an epiphany when she said that one might look and feel 4-6 months pregnant just during these first weeks of the IVF process. It makes sense to me since rather than having just one egg during ovulation, I currently have anywhere from 8-12 in each ovary.....so that's approximately 20 total! After the retrieval on Monday, there will be some relief, but all of these follicles that had contained eggs will fill back up with fluid and that feeling of being uncomfortable will be back, possibly lasting through the entire first trimester (God willing I get pregnant and am blessed with a first trimester!). The epiphany occured when I thought back to my pregnancy with Khloe and remember how I was "showing" very early. I had a bump at 14 weeks, which I guess is somewhat common during a second pregnancy, but for my first pregnancy, and my build, it was definitely pretty early and likely was because it was an IVF pregnancy. I guess a bonus to all that is that I get through the "is she pregnant or is she just fat" stage much quicker. :-)
So, like I mentioned earlier, the retrieval surgery is Monday at 11am. I am so thankful that my inlaws have offered to keep Khloe for me that day, and Monday night....and then they are taking her to preschool Tuesday morning. This gives me all day Monday to recover and rest from the surgery and anesthesia, and then most of the day Tuesday until I pick Khloe up from school at 2:30pm. I'm hoping that the recovery is nothing. They give me pain meds to take if I need them, but from the cycles I've been through before, there's usually some cramping, but nothing I can't handle. It's really just a matter of getting the anesthesia out of my system.
Tuesday morning the embryologist will call me with an update on fertilization. She's like the babysitter of my litter of kids. They typically call and will tell us how many eggs were fertilized and how well they are doing. From this point on, there's not much we can do but hope and pray that these little babies will survive and thrive. We will likely have a day 5 transfer, which would be next Saturday. The nurse seems to think that we have great chances of having embryos to freeze this round. (In our previous cycles, that has never happened.) But we will take it one day at a time and I'll update when I can. :-)
Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, support and love. I could never go through this process by myself and I hope that by sharing my story I can relate to and inspire others going through difficult times. Like my good friend, Jessica Snodgrass, said to me in the most encouraging email lately, "We aren't meant to go through this life alone. Our "burdens" aren't meant to be carried on our own."
The nurse I met with during my two separate visits to the fertility clinic yesterday, Courtney was her name, was fantastic. She's had two separate IVF pregnancies and was so great to talk to and so helpful and informative. We talked a little about over-stimulation of the ovaries and how I may feel or how my body might respond at different points in this process. I had a little bit of an epiphany when she said that one might look and feel 4-6 months pregnant just during these first weeks of the IVF process. It makes sense to me since rather than having just one egg during ovulation, I currently have anywhere from 8-12 in each ovary.....so that's approximately 20 total! After the retrieval on Monday, there will be some relief, but all of these follicles that had contained eggs will fill back up with fluid and that feeling of being uncomfortable will be back, possibly lasting through the entire first trimester (God willing I get pregnant and am blessed with a first trimester!). The epiphany occured when I thought back to my pregnancy with Khloe and remember how I was "showing" very early. I had a bump at 14 weeks, which I guess is somewhat common during a second pregnancy, but for my first pregnancy, and my build, it was definitely pretty early and likely was because it was an IVF pregnancy. I guess a bonus to all that is that I get through the "is she pregnant or is she just fat" stage much quicker. :-)
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| Me at 14 weeks pregnant with Khloe, 2011 |
Tuesday morning the embryologist will call me with an update on fertilization. She's like the babysitter of my litter of kids. They typically call and will tell us how many eggs were fertilized and how well they are doing. From this point on, there's not much we can do but hope and pray that these little babies will survive and thrive. We will likely have a day 5 transfer, which would be next Saturday. The nurse seems to think that we have great chances of having embryos to freeze this round. (In our previous cycles, that has never happened.) But we will take it one day at a time and I'll update when I can. :-)
Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, support and love. I could never go through this process by myself and I hope that by sharing my story I can relate to and inspire others going through difficult times. Like my good friend, Jessica Snodgrass, said to me in the most encouraging email lately, "We aren't meant to go through this life alone. Our "burdens" aren't meant to be carried on our own."
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