Thursday, 5 July 2012

10 Week Ultrasound Scan

Oh my word!  What an amazing experience.

3 weeks ago the only movement that could be detected was the furiously pumping heart.  A big freaky yolk sack and Neural tube were only just visible in the blizzard of ultrasound fuzzyness.

Today Baby looked like a baby, not a bean.  He/She was moving his arms and legs and swimming around in the gestational sac filled with amniotic fluid.  To see Baby move was just an increadable moment for Hubby and I.

The picture print outs just do do the increadableness of a scan justice. Clever Hub took this video, and you can clearly see the heart beating and Baby waving hands and feet around.  No more sign of the freaky yolk sac at all.

How cool is this video?







Friday, 22 June 2012

Its Official! We are pregnant

I am sorry to have kept so quiet over the last 5 weeks. 

On a very emotionally charged Monday,  waiting 7 hours after having my blood drawn, and not really getting much joy from the clinic, we finally got the news of a positive Beta test.  Our first beta was 76, and 2 days later it had jumped to 275, with a doubling time of 38.8hrs. A doubling time under 24 hours would have put is in the running to have twins. Anything from about 35 - 48 hours is indication a healthy singleton.   We decided not to go public, but to wait to tell people once we had seen a heart beat.

The pregnancy really came alive for us the day we saw, and heard the little heart beat. Just one, and we were overjoyed! (remember my trepidation when we put 3 embies back?) We did a little dance of joy in the doctors office once he had left. Hubby is excited about my nausea, and doesnt mind bringing me things to make it better (Banana's, Yohurt, or warm melted cheese and mayo Sandwiches).

A week or so on from that now and I have finally found the time to put up some photos and update the world.

These are all the needles and syringes that it took to get us to this point, strewn accross the bottom of our bed..  Hubby injected Menopur every 2nd day for 3 months all together, and then there is the needles from my injections during the Long Protocol IVF.

Thats about 45 needles for hubby and it was exactly 31 for me.  Eish!


These are the 3 embryo's that we put back. Bottom left - 2 Grade 1 (Best) 8 cell embyos,
Top Right - 1 Gr2 (a little bit of fragmentation) 8 cell embie.  You can see the fuzzy cell junk in the bottom of the embie.  Thats the fragmentation.  Its like bits of cell that get left behind everytime it divided. 

I cant believe that one of these is our baby.  Who knows which one... We also have 3 frozen for next time. There is definitely a Frozen embryo transfer (FET) in our future one day.   Its weird to think that our babies could be concieved on the same day, but born years apart.

This is the first pic of our little miracle, the ultra sound was done on 7w3d but the CRL shows 6w5d. Expected due date is 1 Feb 2013.
And the heart beat was 148 bpm, which is a good strong heart beat for its size.



Thursday, 17 May 2012

8dp3dt


I have not bought one, I wil not buy one... I won't I won't I won't.... but I WANT to!

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

6dp3dt

6 days past 3 day transfer.

Yeah yeah, I feel twingy, and my boobs are a lil more sensitive but I am not getting all paranoid or excited about it.  I am just concentrating on what could be / should be happening inside my body right now. Drinking lots of water, and still eating as healthy as possible, although I will admit to having an easter egg each day (I couldnt have them over easter). And praying.  This prayer over and over....

Lord Jesus, Please make my body kind to the embies! Let them be happy and healthy in there!

And there is nothing more I can do...

2ww - What is going on inside my body?

2 week wait defined by babies devlopment and not my crazy symptoms....

  • 1dp3dt- The cells continue dividing and become a morula.
  • 2dp3dt- The morula continue to develop into a blastocyst.
  • 3dp3dt - The blast begins to hatch out of its shell.
  • 4dp3dt - The blastocyst begins to attatch itself to the uterine lining.
  • 5dp3dt - The blast continues to implant into the uterus.
  • 6dp3dt - Implantation continues.  You may experience some implantation bleeding at this point, but do not be concerned if you do not.  Remember to always call your doctor when experiencing spotting.
  • 7dp3dt - Implantation is completed at this point, but you should not expect to get a positive pregnancy test for a few more days. 
  • 8dp3dt - HCG is beginning to enter the bloodstream. 
  • 9dp3dt - HCG levels are continuing to rise and should be doubling about every two days (doubling up to every three days is “normal”). 
  • 10dp3dt - Your hormone levels are rising but you should not be concerned about a lack of pregnancy symptoms.  Most women do not experience symptoms until around 6 weeks pregnant. 
  • 11dp3dt - You should be able to detect a pregnancy through a hpt at this point.  If not, do not give up until you have a blood test.  Beta blood test are the most accurate.

Thursday, 10 May 2012

Embryo Transfer

Day 19 IVF Cycle - 0dp3dt

Today was Embryo Transfer.

It’s been an exciting few days in between Aspiration Day and today.

On Day 17 we found out that 11 of the 16 eggs had fertilised, that’s a fertilisation rate of 68%, above average.  My mother in law starts referring to them as her grandembies.

On Day 18 we found out that 9 of the 11 fertilised Embryos were on Grade 1 or 2 and that Embryo Transfer would be the following day. I am very excited. This makes it a 3 day transfer (3dt).

So now the million dollar question is - how many embryos to put back?

BioArt are usually keen on transferring 3.  The majority of the research I am doing is pointing me to an article in the Lancet Journal, Jan 2012.  Indicating that more than 2 embryos do not increase the chances of a live birth.  I resolved yesterday to only put 2 back.

I want to be pregnant. We want Children, 2 or 3, but not 3 all at the same time.  We are quite comfortable with the thought of having twins - I have wanted twins since I was able to consider how many kids I would like to have in the one day realm.  My Brother and Sister in Law have twins, and they make it look just dreamy.  And we love those kids!

I am absolutely freaked out at the thought of having triplets though!  Not just the hard work factor, but the financial stresses and the medical risks involved in a trip-pregnancy, both for mother and babies.  No, trips are really not something I want.  Hubs question is "So if the choice was between not being pregnant and having triplets which would you want."   Argh! Tough one!

I wonder if I would be disappointed deep down if we put 2 back and only got 1 live baby. Maybe I would wish I had put 3 back to increase my chances of having 2.

10 am we arrive at the clinic. I immediately get sent back down the road to the hospital next door for a Progesterone blood test.  Back at the clinic and I am rewarded with 2 white tablets, Buscopan for stomach cramps and Dormicum, a sedative.  Nice one!

I chat to the lady waiting next to me. She was aspirated on the same day as me - we were in the recovery room together.  This is her third transfer, and she has yet to have success.  The first one, fresh cycle, she put 2 back.  The second cycle, frozen embies from the first, she put 3 back, and now, she has just finished a fresh cycle again and she is putting 4 back. I start to rethink my resolution to only put 2 in.

I get taken into Aspiration room number 2 - a different room to Aspiration day.  Smaller. Hotter.  It’s a long time, almost 45 minutes before the Doctor comes in.  Lucky for me I have the Dormicum to keep me calm and chilled.

I have a list of questions for the Doctor, who is also not my usual Doctor, which irritates me a bit.  But actually this guy seems a bit more interested and less "cool".  I have a list of questions for him.

1.  Were all 16 eggs mature?  Yes, all of them were mature; he shows me the embryologists report from aspiration day.

2.  What was the quality of the eggs?  They can’t know that, they can only know that once fertilisation takes place.

3.  What was the quality of the sperm sample?  They did not do a sperm assessment, if we wanted one we should have asked, and there are no notes on the sperm

4.  Did they ICSI all 16 or did they IVF half of them?  They ICSI’d all of them, probably indicating the sperm quality wasn’t great.

5.  What is the status of the Embryos today?
 3x Grade 1 (Best Quality, perfect structure no fragmentation)
 1x 8 Cells
 1x 7 Cells
 1x 6 Cells

3x Grade 2 ( Fragmentation < 20%)
 1x 8 Cells
 1x 7 Cells
 1x 6 Cells

3x Grade 3 (Fragmentation > 20%)
Unusable

Okay so we now have 6 usable embryos.

6.  Can we get a picture of our embryos please?  A picture is passed through the pass through window into the lab.

7.  When do I do Intralipid 2 and 3? Intralipid 2 is 1 week after aspiration day, and Intralipid 3 is on the day of your positive pregnancy test.

8.  What happens to the left over embryos?  They will be frozen so that you can use them if you need to. They will freeze all 6 because they have more chance of surviving the more that are frozen all together.

9. I really really don’t want triplets - how many embryos should we put back?
2 if trips are absolutely out of the question. But we recommend putting 3 back; your chance of having triplets is only 5%.  20% for twins and 45% for a single live baby. (At this point I was in information overload, so I could be misquoting the percentages, but I am sure about the 5% for trips, and Hub remembers the 45% for a single pregnancy).

He said that if you put back 2 embryos you have a 35% chance of being pregnant, and 1 embryo is 25%.  So basically the likelihood of having a pregnancy improves by 10% per embryo you put back.

We decide on putting 3 embryos back. My favourite nurse is in the room, and she nods at me, as if to reassure me that this is a good decision.  The embryologist has already prepped the 3 in one dish.  She clearly knows the drill.

We are putting back the Gr1 8 cell and 7 cell embryos and the Gr2 8 cell embryo.  The Embryologist is worried about the Gr1 6 cell being too underdeveloped for transfer. I wholeheartedly agree with her.

Back into my favourite stirrups.  The doctor involves me in the process - he can see that I am interested. He uses those Vagina Clamp thingys and then inserts the long catheter containing our embabies which is passed through from the lab straight into the room.  My favourite nurse positions the ultrasound scan to make sure that the catheter has reached near the top of the uterus, and points it out to me on the screen.  She is saying what a nice shape my uterus is and that my ovaries are looking all swollen, as if they are in torsion, from the IVF stimulants, they of course are not in torsion; it’s just how they look.

The doctor hands back the apparatus to the embryologist who checks to see that no embies have been left behind. "Clear" she says.  All 3 Embabies are aboard the Mother ship!

I lie there for 20 minutes and then go find Hubby who has brought the car around to the front entrance.  He opens the back door for me and I ride home lying on the back seat, sleepy from the Dormicum.

 




Aspiration Day

Day 16

The alarm wakes me up, Hubdub offers me tea, but I can’t have any.  We pray that today we would get a good number of eggs, that we would never have to stim again, and that God would guide the doctor and give him wisdom to affect the positive result of the cycle.  We ask that Lords will be done in all of this.

We set off early for BioArt and arrive too early.  The nurses haven’t even arrived yet, and we stand outside with a few other people waiting for them.  Just after 7 am my favourite nurse arrives to open up.  YAY!

She gets the doors unlocked and then makes me sit down and sign a consent form and send Hubby down the passage to make his contribution.  I am fist on the list so I don’t sit in the waiting area long before they guide me into the aspiration room.

Stirrups.... I don’t think I have ever seen one of those in real life - this is going to be a first.  I strip off the bottom half of what I am wearing and climb onto the bed, keeping my socks on - the info pamphlet that I was given said to take off nail polish, and I didn’t do a good job taking off the almost black nail polish I was wearing.  It looks like my toes are dirty.  My favourite nurse helps me into the right position and straps in my legs.  Then she administers the sedatives via IV... Dormicum and Pethadine.  It starts stinging almost immediately. We pull out the drip and try again on the other arm.  Oh how lovely, I start to feel "drifty" quickly.

The doctor makes an appearance.  He is such a cool cucumber.  Gloves on, and starts attaching the long needle thing to the Internal scanner attachment and also to the vacuum tube,  I am vaguely aware of the first prick as the needle pierces the vagina wall, and then I am asleep.

I thought I would put a diagram in for you - It’s hard to conceptualise how this happens, but basically the needle is connected to a vacuum tube, and each of the follicles that has developed is pierced and whatever is in there sucked into the tube and eventually into a test tube. This whole process for me took about 20 minutes.


 I am woken up by the nurse putting my clothes back on me.  I try to be helpful.  And then she walks me to the recovery room where I lay on a bed.  She plugs in my Intralipid IV, except that the IV needle that was used for the pethadine has slipped so it makes a bump on my arm and we have to switch again, this time to my hand. and I doze happily on and off for about an hour while the Intralipids work their way in to my body.

Disconnected from the IV's and more awake now, another nurse comes in to tell us that we can go home.  I ask her to find out how many eggs we got.  She comes back and tells us we got 16!!!!  I was thinking we would get 12. 16 are awesome! Some of my research has shown that you are more likely to have a positive outcome in an IVF cycle if you have between 15 and 20 eggs retrieved.

DH has also produced an exceptional sample, with a good volume.  Let’s hope the swimmers are the best they could be.  If his sample is good, i.e. if the motility and morphology is not too bad, they will ICSI only half and IVF the rest.

Home by 10:30 am.  On the way home I send a delirious text message to our family, cell group, close friends who know what’s going on and my boss. Bragging about my great haul of eggs.  The discomfort I was feeling from about day 10 was all worth it!

Sleep and more sleep. The drugs are starting to wear off and I am feeling pretty uncomfortable.  I thought I would be back at work tomorrow, but the Dr has given me a sick note for 2 days and the way I feel I am going to need it.

My Sister arrives with 2 dozen cupcakes.  She is excited.  I eat my first cupcake in over a month.  The strict eating regimen I have been on to improve egg quality and numbers has paid off.  I intend to celebrate with a red velvet cupcake.

In the evening I am feeling really uncomfortable. I am really hoping this isnt the beginning of OHSS.  I keep lifting up my top and checking for bloating.  Going to the toilet, for either function, is really really painful.  Kind of the same pain I had after my Laparoscopy.

We watch the first episode of Survivor Season 20 Heroes vs. Villains, and go to bed.  There is no way I will be going to work tomorrow.