Thanksgiving Weekend and the Waiting!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  I enjoyed mine for sure! Lots of food, family and fun!
After my parents left (after being here to help me out while I was bed rest after my transfer, Thank you to them!), my in-laws and BFF Ashley came to stay with us for Thanksgiving and the weekend.  It was definitely nice having people to our house for our first time hosting thanksgiving. Even though my in laws did most of the cooking.  Greg and I have no idea what we were doing and in general I wasn't very helpful except to tell everyone where things are in the kitchen. Everything turned out tasty and great! Special thanks to  the Noel's!
Over the weekend, we took everyone to Santa Fe to check out the shops at the Plaza and enjoy a New Mexican lunch. I also took everyone to a drinking chocolate place where they have meso-american hot chocolates (basically spicy hot chocolate) and candies. No one tried it but Greg.  They are the second group of people I have taken there and no one tries it. So not taking people there any more.
Greg also took his family up the Sandia Tram and hiked up in the snow. Ashley and I didn't go with them because I was taking it easy still, Ashley has already been up the tram and it was cold and there was snow up there still.  The pictures they took though were beautiful.  It is pretty in the forest with the snow on the ground. Greg and I then took everyone to our favorite New Mexican restaurant in town. It did not disappoint! Though the chili's were a little spicy for a couple of people. ; )
And everyone went home yesterday! Empty house and lots of laundry (which is all done already).

On top of Sandia




As for me and my transfer which I suppose in the real reason everyone is reading this:
Things are going as well as can be expected. I am trying not to read too much in to every pinch, twitch and pull in my lower abdomen but I can't help it. There isn't much I can do, this either worked or it didn't. I am 6 days past transfer so if my little tiny embryo implanted it has already happened (or not).  I still have to wait 2 more days until I get my first blood test.  Then 2 more days to get the 2nd, which will confirm either the positive or negative I get with the 1st blood test.  I was doing pretty good with the waiting until Saturday then really started wanting to know. Good thing we had people over to keep me distracted otherwise I would have been going crazy by Saturday.
In theory, I can test with a home pregnancy test, even though it wouldn't be completely accurate. Thankfully I don't have any in the house. I don't want to give myself false hope before getting actual results.
2 more days, just have to keep telling myself that!  Good thing I am going back to work this afternoon. Gotta stay busy!
So hopefully I will have results for everyone by the end of the day on Friday!

Time for everyone to start thinking, if in fact this entire process has worked (and I make it full term this time), are we having a BOY or a GIRL?

Lots of people have already told me what they think based on what I said I have wanted in the past, but as I said before we picked the 1st good one on our list.  Do you still think its a BOY or GIRL??
(I gotta have fun with the little bit of mystery I have left with this, cause obviously I've shared a lot)

Transfer

Transfer is complete! Finally!
The process was fairly simple today.  Went to the dr office with very full uncomfortable bladder and waited for the dr.  When he finally appeared, my bladder was so full I had to empty it a little bit.  Then a catheter was inserted up into my uterus using ultrasound guidance. And so increased pressure on the bladder.  Once the catheter was in place, the embryo was inserted. Literally took 5 minutes for the proceudre. Then it's was a long 20 minute wait till I could move off the table.  Had to have my bladder emptied by catheter since I couldn't move off the table and I had to pee soooo bad.
My dr said our embryo looked beautiful so he thinks our chances are pretty good!  Just need a little bit of luck!
So bed rest the rest of the day and tomorrow.  Then just going to take it easy after that.
We'll know if this work by next Friday the 6th.
So glad the waiting is almost done!  Just hope this works so we do not have to do this again until we want a second baby.

I'll keep you all updated as test results come in!
Thanks for all the support!

There it is! 6 day old blastocysts!
No bigger than half the diameter of a strand of hair (or so I've read)!


special thanks to my parents for getting my house ready for my Thanksgiving guests, taking care of me while i laid on the couch and for re-staining my stair banister!

1 Week Left

One more week! Its finally getting close to the all important day that I have been waiting 4 months for!
I had an appointment at the Dr. office today for an ultrasound to check the lining of my uterus.
The nurse that did the ultrasound said everything looked great. Nice and thick and has all 3 layers that it should have. Ready for an embryo to snuggle in to!
I got all my instruction for the next week and  for the day of the transfer!
I have to take my injections that I give myself in the thigh until tomorrow and then Thursday, I start the progesterone injections. : ( My thighs will finally be able to recover for the all the injections. I have bruises and I feel like I am covered in punctures. But the progesterone is so much worse!
I also have a belly covered in estrogen patches. 4 of them now.  I have red splotches all over from taking them off every other day and putting new ones on. I'm going to run out of fresh skin to put new ones on soon.
This will of course all be worth it when this works!
I'll post an update after transfer to let you all know how it went.
The nurse today said the transfer itself will only take a few minutes but then I'll have to hang out laying down for about 30 minutes (with a full bladder, since that's apparently necessary for the transfer). Then I'll be home on bed rest until Thanksgiving.
My parents are super nice and are coming out a couple days before the transfer to help me get ready for thanksgiving and take care of me while Greg works on Wednesday. Then Greg's family will be here for Thanksgiving weekend and Ashley will be here from Texas as well. So I'll have plenty of people to help out while I take it pretty easy for the weekend.


YAY! ONE MORE WEEK!

2 more weeks!

Yes, I am counting down the weeks!
I started estrogen patches last Saturday.  I started with one patch and I am suppose to work my way up to 4 patches.  So far I am at 2 patches, I should be at 4 patches by Tuesday and that is when my next appointment is.. The estrogen is suppose to making my lining grow and I'm still on injections to keep my ovaries quiet and keep from ovulating.
Saturday wasn't a great day. All day I seemed to either have a huge headache or felt nauseous. I am fairly certain it just the introduction of the estrogen into my system. I have been ok every since, so that a good thing. I am worried about when I have to start the progesterone shot next week because I got really sick last time. Hopefully, that will also only be a one day thing.

That's about it for this week. Nothing really new, just trying to keep this blog updated. I know I have been pretty boring the last couple of months but I guess that part of the process.  Lots of waiting!
I'm really hope this transfer works otherwise it will be more waiting until we can try again. I'm tired of waiting!

Keep you all posted after the Dr. appointment next week!

Baseline ultrasound and 3 week count down!

Today I had my baseline ultrasound for the beginning of the transfer cycle.   All was good! Everything is nice and quiet, as it should be.   I go back in 2 weeks to see how the lining of my uterus is thickening. On Saturday, I start esteogen patches to make the lining grow.
This also marks 3 weeks until the transfer happens!

Quick update but that's all that happening for now!
Updates again in 2 weeks.