By now everyone knows why I've been silent on my blog for the past couple months. I've been waiting until after our first sonogram to share our IVF story.
Back in April I began to have ovarian pain associated with my pcos. Instead of going to my regular obgyn I decided to go to the fertility doctor Kevin had banked his sperm at before starting chemo. (Sorry for the TMI). He not only is the top RE in Dallas but also at Baylor so I was excited to see what he thought about our chances were for ivf success and his thoughts on our previous failures with another physician.
During this appointment he did more than any fertility doctor we'd seen. I had a dermoid cyst that had to be removed pronto. During the surgery he found I had endrometriosis stage IV and lots of scar tissue and fatty tissue (apparently pcos makes you grow fat everywhere, even on your organs).
After the surgery he suggested we jump right into an antagonist ivf protocol and that started in June. He did really low dosage of the stims and didn't want me to produce too many eggs. He feels it lowers the quality and can cause chromosome issues which leads to them not attaching. At this point I'd already been on thyroid medication for a couple months as well.
The time came for the egg retrieval, in my oppinion the worst part of ivf. He retrieved 20 eggs, 15 were mature and 15 went through isci (the embryologist fertilizes each embryo by inserting some of Kevin's best swimmers by injection). The embryos developed really well and by day 5 we had 4 excellent embryos. The best 2 were transfered and the other 2 grew an additional day and then were frozen for the future.
Transfer day is the easiest. Kevin and I had lunch at our favorite taco place in Dallas and then headed to transfer. They gave me a Valium which relaxed me and made the time pass quickly. We got the opportunity to meet our embryos through a microscope which was so emotional. They both were moving around and looked perfect. We both cried and knew those were our babies no matter what happened.
After the transfer we headed home and I started 4 days of bed rest. This was the first time we had done bed rest after a transfer and I truly believe this is what did it. I worked from home on day 2-4 and kept funny movies on in the background. This two week wait and really the whole cycle was pretty much stress free, also I think this helped. Keeping this private this time around really reduced my stress too.
Beta time came and I decided not to test before. I did that on previous cycles and it just added stress. But on the way home from our blood test I caved and bought a test. We got home and I tested. Within seconds it was positive. Kevin and I both cried, but we waited until the office called with the results before getting excited. Dr Putman called around 1pm and confirmed the news. We then let our parents know and waited till our third beta before telling a few other family members.
The hardest part was waiting 4 weeks till our sonogram. I was a wreck not knowing what we would see and if it would be only a sac. But God blessed us and not only was there a sac but a beautiful baby in it.
Fertility treatments taught me many things but most importantly it taught me Gods timing is perfect.
Please keep praying for our little gummy bear. That it would grow healthy and safely! We are so blessed!
