Hurst Family: A Baby Story

Our second beta test was today.  The doctor is still monitoring my HCG levels in hopes that they would approximately double over the past two days.  I didn't get a call back nearly as fast as I did on Monday, but I did receive the call late this afternoon with news that my HCG has increased from 561 to 1259.  Yay! I have to continue taking a progesterone shot each day (which is totally not cool, but I've had to do it with both previous IVF pregnancies until being released to my regular OB) until my next appointment on January 9th for our first ultrasound.

For a very long time I have known that the number seven has many biblical references and meanings.  I decided to do some looking into that to take my mind of our two-week-wait.  Turns out, the number seven is used 735 times in the bible and it is also the number of completion and perfection.  It's tied to God's creation of all things and it's biblical references really do go on and on.  The word "created" is used 7 times describing God's creative work.  And then, of course, there are 7 days in a week with the Sabbath being on the 7th day.  That being said, this is our 7th fertility cycle.  Our first cycle, back in the beginning of 2010, was an IUI (intrauterine insemination) which proved to be unsuccessful from the beginning.  We jumped straight to IVF in June of 2010, which was again another failure.  Not only was it hard to accept failure of an IVF cycle, it was hard going into an IVF cycle knowing that, aside from a miracle, this was o...

It's been two days since the frozen embryo transfer and a little bit of fear is starting to set in.  The dreaded "two week wait" has officially begun....for the seventh time, for me. Hope is a strange thing for me right now.  Of course, I had "hoped" that the embryos would survive the thaw and when I found out they did, I felt an overwhelming surge of emotion and a lot of joy in knowing that those prayers we had all prayed had been answered.  After receiving that great news, we underwent the transfer per usual procedures (one that I have done over half a dozen times before), headed out for lunch, just Kellen and I, picked up the kids and then headed home.  Since the moment I arrived home, I've been trying my best to "sit."  As I sit and lounge around trying to remain on bed rest, I have some time to think.  No matter how hard I try, my mind wanders and wishes and worries and struggles to always hope for the best.  Hope is risky in the infertility...

I've realized over the years that when I'm in the midst of an IVF cycle, every single day matters.  Each successful day is another chance to continue on and move forward towards the end goal, which is a healthy, established pregnancy.  Yesterday, I had a scan to check that my body was responding properly to the medication for this frozen cycle.  A scan for a typical IVF cycle would always consist of the nurse measuring and counting the follicles (which sometimes would be on the upside of 15-20 for me) but a scan for a frozen cycle is the total opposite.  They want to make sure that my ovaries aren't producing any follicles and that the uterine lining is thickening as we prepare to transfer these babies.  As the nurse said, "no news is good news," and we didn't receive any news, so yay. I did ask Kellen to call Reprotech yesterday and triple confirm that our embryos would be arriving at Dr. Jarrett's office on the 12th.  I'm totally not OCD, but if I ...

Hey all -- Just a brief post tonight humbly asking for prayers tomorrow morning at 10am.  I am heading in to the office for an ultrasound scan and blood draw (nothing out of the ordinary, just a scheduled "check-up") to make sure my body is responding properly to the meds and that everything is looking good as we prep for the embryo transfer on the 14th.  If everything looks good, Dr J ups my estradiol on Wednesday and I take a trigger shot Friday and begin progesterone oil shots daily (ughhhh...) until the end of time, or at least until pregnancy is established and I'm transferred to an OB.  I'm getting nervous as each day passes.  We don't have our shots yet.  They should be overnighted on Wednesday.  Kellen will be on a work trip beginning Wednesday and I leave with the kids for Breckenridge on Friday.  We seem to have a thing for scheduling IVF cycles during the busiest month of the year, but God works in the midst of mass chaos, right?  Thi...

I've said this before, but I want to say it again because it's a hard realization for me: This is our final round of infertility treatments.  What began 8 years ago, will end on December 26th with either a positive or a negative result.  I'm trying to prepare for this but can I even? I saw my previous blog post currently has over 3x as many views as the second highest viewed post in the last 8 years.  That leaves me curious and wondering where everybody came from and what led them to my blog.  I don't know.  But what I do know is that God is working mysteriously in my life right now.  I'm on this unfamiliar path that is really pushing me out of my comfort zone but by staying obedient and in prayer, I'm learning and I'm seeing God in my life in ways that I haven't really noticed before.  Everywhere I go I meet new people who are in some way or another connected to the infertility world.  Each person has their own story and is at a di...

It's been since mid-February that I've written.  Let me go ahead and get you up to speed on the past 9 months. Evan Matthew was born February 21.  To make a long story short, like my labor was, I went the caster oil route this time.  As Kellen chanted "chug it, chug it, chug it" I held my nose and swallowed the slimy goo mixed with orange juice around 8pm.  Three hours later, I was in active labor.  Two hours after that, I was holding Evan in my arms.  He cried, I cried, and I shook like I was having a seizure, because apparently that's what happens after delivering a baby.  He was a little guy coming in at 7lb 4oz and 20.5".   So, today marks my little Evan's 9 month birthday.  He is thriving; pulling himself up on the couch, fireplace (safe? probably not), stairs and crawling around this house at speeds that I should probably be recording.  And then there's my firstborn, Khloe.  She's ginormous.  My mini-me is the most...

I went grocery shopping today and now I'm exhausted.  Although it's a good thing that I stocked us up on food and supplies just in time for this baby to show up, I'm still amazed at how much of my energy was sucked out just walking through the store.  And how bad my hip, leg, and all my bones hurt!  I can't tell if this baby's head is smashing my hip bone or passing through and into my quad.  I found out yesterday that my doctor is out of the country on vacation until next Monday.  I was so frustrated when I got this news, and I realize that doctors need vacations, but I really don't understand why I wasn't told beforehand that she would be leaving the country during my final week of pregnancy?!  So needless to say, I've been having a hard time getting answers to my questions.  I called yesterday to let them know I've woken up the past 3-4 days with swollen hands and calves/ankles.  I haven't had hardly any swelling this pregnancy, and having i...

I had my 36 week appointment today (at 36w4d).  I'm 1.5cm dilated and already starting to thin out.  I'm not too surprised by this because I remember being about 2cm dilated at this appointment with Khloe.  Then, I was a quick 5cm for most of that final month of pregnancy.  It's interesting what I can actually remember from that pregnancy 5 years ago.  There are moments during my labor and delivery that still stand out in my mind.  One of the biggest memories is the blood transfusion had to have after birthing Khloe...and then the rough recovery process that occurred afterward. You'd think that, with this being my second pregnancy and all, that I'd feel a little bit more prepared and ready for it all to go down, but that is far from the case!  I know my previous experience was not typical, the recovery process was much longer for me than an average pregnancy, and the traumatic experience of it all is still considered really uncommon (less than 4% of ...

I'm just over 8 months pregnant, 32 weeks and 4 days to be exact.  I really can't believe how long it took to get to this point and I still have some time left to go.  This pregnancy feels like it started in December 2014.  Probably because it basically did. It was around that time, in late December 2014 when we dove back in to the world of IVF.  I had previously spent much of 2014 dialing in hard on my diet and my workouts (for the sole purpose of "I can" and "I will" and because that's where my passion lies) and thoroughly enjoying how I felt and the body I created through all that hard work and determination.  I knew the following year was going to be devoted to IVF and [hopefully] a pregnancy.  Having succumbed to this life consuming, self sacrificing treatment before, I knew how challenging it was and that challenge motivated me greatly to make the most of myself before those days would engulf me.  My endorphins were pumping that summer.  I...