Transfer Day

Its done! Our second attempt at baby #2 is complete, Transfer went relatively smoothly. Except for having to wait a hour for my bladder to fill up completely.  Last transfer my bladder was too full and I had to let a little out and then I still felt like I was going to burst. So this time I didn't drink as much water, but then invent full enough.  Then when my bladder was full enough, I had to wait 15 model minutes for the embryologist to be ready.  It's good thing they gave my a Valium to take beforehand. By the time I actually had the transfer I was getting sleepy and didn't care about anything especially my very full bladder. Transfer was easy and the embryologist said this embryo was looming better than the last one and she gave it extra time to grow and expand.

Now it's the dreaded 9 days wait for my first blood draw. Hoping for better results and higher numbers than last transfer. 

Thankfully, my mom is here to help entertain Alex.  She's has so much engery and I've been trying to relax and think positive.
On a side note, my estrogen levels finally got down to normal

5 days and progesterone started

I had my mid cycle ultrasound and blood work done a few days ago.  Ultrasound went great. Uterus is looking great again. So great that my blood test showed my estrogen is higher than the doctor wants it. He dialed back my estrogen medication dosage and had me go back for more blood work a couple days later. Well, that blood test showed my estrogen hadn't changed at all, so estrogen medication was dialed back a little bit more and back for more bloodwork tomorrow. I suspect that the doctor will knock down my dose again but we will see.  

Today I started the dreaded progesterone injections. Definitely my least favorite. But my thighs where I give myself my first set of injections are started to looked very spotted and bruised.  Along with my arm from all the blood draws.

Feeling over all better since being on the antibiotics. I think the extra estrogen has been contributing to my headaches though.  Hoping that once my levels get to normal(ish), I'll feel better.

In the mean time, looking forward to cooler weather! 

Also, a fun fact, when I have my transfer on the 26th will be exactly 3 years from when I had my egg reterival.  I'm hoping that is a good sign.  That egg reterival was the beginning of this process and that was successful.  Wish me luck!! 

Second try in 9 days

I have been late at posting that I have started my meds for this second try.  My transfer is in 9 days. I guess that makes me over the half way point of this cycle. The first injections have been going well except I nicked a vein on one injections and gave myself a large bruise.  Good thing it has cooled down here and I don't need to wear shorts. I tried to do the patches again but the name brand instead of the generics that I used on the last cycle. And ended up having a similar skin reaction but less severe. I was switched to estrogen pills, both oral and suppositories.  I start the dreaded progesterone injections next week.

On top of all this stuff, I also had a bacterial sinus infection. I was having serious headaches, neck pain and face and ear pressure.  Got some antibiotics and I am feeling better.  But that added 2 more pills to my daily bunch. That's 9 pills a day that I've been taking.

Really hoping this cycle results in a positive because I don't want to go through all this again.  It's been much harder these last two cycles then when I did all this stuff the cycle I got Alex from.  I didn't have nearly these kind of side effects. 

So finger crossed!!!!

Ready to Try Again

I had my follow up appointment with my doctor yesterday and he says that it was just bad luck that my transfer didn't work.  He decided to have me redo some blood work that I did in 2013 before I had my transfer with Alex, just make sure nothing has changed, like my thyroid, etc.  All those tests were normal 3 years ago and he doesnt expect them to different but it's more a of precaution before doing another transfer.
Which brings me to another transfer.  Going to try another transfer on September 26th. About 6 and half weeks away.  Enough time for my body to get rid of all the previous hormones and start over. And my lower back to recover from the bruises from the progesterone shots.  And my belly has some extra time to recover from the patches. Back to starting shots this month on the 26th. And going to try patches again but a different brand and hopefully I will not have same reaction.
We will again only opt for a single embryo.  The risk of twins with transferring two embryos is still 50% and that number is too high for Greg.  Which is fine with me because I do not want twins either. We only want one more child. With that being said, we are not sure if we will choose a male embryo (since 2 failed this time) or have another girl (since we had success with one already). That is to be determined at my baseline ultrasound.

So fingers crossed we have better luck this time both with the medication and with little embryo sticking!!!

Fail!

Monday I had my second blood test for my HCG level and it doubled.  Which was fantastic news.  Even more than little more double, it went up to 19.  So we had some hope that the embryo was growing. Today I had another blood test to see if my HCG doubled again. Unfortunately, it did not. It went down to 14. That means this is the end of this try/cycle. Doctor told me to stop all my medication.  Now we wait. I have an appointment with my doctor next week to discuss trying again.

I am disappointed to say the least. We lost 2 good quality male embryos in this cycle. And I went through a lot with the medication this time. I suppose that when a person goes through IVF they can't get lucky every try.  So this is our fail. And I am hopeful that next time will not fail.  We still have 5 embryos frozen. Although we only have 1 good quality embryo and then 4 fair quality.

I'll update next week after my doctor visit