IVF round 2

After having Nathan, we decided to wait a couple years to try for another baby. It was a blissful two years. We had two perfect children and no thought at all about infertility. After trying for about eight months, I was ready to go see Dr. Barnett again, but Peter wanted to wait a full year just to make sure so that's what we did. He very rarely has a strong opinion on these matters, so when he did, I was going to be supportive because I would want him to be supportive of my strong opinions. After a bit of praying, we both felt like we should to two IUIs, then move forward with IVF if it came to that.

After two failed IUIs, we decided to move forward to do IVF. We started in the middle of January and had to go on birth control for a while to regulate my cycle. During the birth control, I went in for a sonogram to get a resting picture of what my ovaries looked like. There were over 40 visible resting follicles so they decided to keep me on the birth control to suppress me for another week. I finally was able to go off of the birth control which meant that I could start my injections the next Sunday. I got a huge box in the mail containing my menopur and gonal-f which would be my injections I would take every evening for the next ten(ish)days. While taking the injections, I actually felt fine. No real side effects besides some headaches and some uncomfortable bloating toward the end, but nothing too serious. They were afraid I would overstimulate based on the number of eggs I got with Weston so they slowed me way down and lowered my medications so I was actually taking the injections for more like 14 days and my eggs were barely growing. I was going in for sonograms every other day then every other day to track the progress. Instead of my eggs growing in size, they were growing in number. Follicles over 10 mm are considered in a growth phase and follicles over 15mm are considered mature and it took a long time to get enough over 15mm.
It finally came time to do the trigger shot. We had to do it at 8:00 pm Wednesday evening so the retrieval could happen at 8:00 am Friday morning. It's crazy how specific I had to be the entire time with my medications, but I'm glad that we have the science. Lucky for me, my parents are pretty awesome and took the kids Thursday night to spend the night since we had to be at the facility early Friday morning. We got there at 7:15 and they took me back to the room and set me up on an IV. Oh yeah, and we had to pay our life away when we checked in. Once the anesthesiologist came in and talked to me, we were ready to go back. I don't know what it was, but I just started crying and couldn't stop. I was nervous and excited and anxious. And it was a big day. Like this was my day to see what my body could do. And I was super hormonal. As soon as I got back to the table, I remember the anesthesiologist asking if I felt the medication, and then I was out like a light. Next thing I knew, I was back in the recovery room. I started to wake up and Peter told me that they got 38 eggs. THIRTY EIGHT! When I was waking up from anesthesia, apparently, I said "that's way more than with Weston, suck it Weston!" haha. I also supposedly told the nurse that I did my job and for $10,000, Dr. Barnett better do his job now. I guess I get feisty after anesthesia. Once I was more awake, they said they did another count and had actually gotten 47 eggs! That's seriously crazy but I'm proud of what my body did. The rest of the day I felt nauseous and crappy from the anesthesia and pretty much slept all day.
Day 1: The day after the retrieval, I went to get pedicures in the morning for my friend's birthday and was feeling ok, but not great. I started feeling crappy Saturday evening and my belly started getting really swollen and uncomfortable. They started me on a medication to regulate my hormones because I produced so many eggs. We did get good news though when they called me and said that of the 47 eggs, 42 were mature and all of them were inseminated! All of them!
Day 2: I felt awful. Like terrible. I stayed home from church and slept all day long. After church, we drove to my parents house and I felt like I wanted to die. The nausea came and went, but at one point, I had to run to the bathroom and puke my guts up. It was horrible but I did feel a little better afterwards. I started progesterone today.
Day 3: They called me to tell me that 25 embryos were growing and 2 of them were still surviving, but not growing as fast. They told me that with so many, we would probably have a lot to freeze and to start thinking about our options for freezing more than the 10 that are covered under the initial price. They also asked me how I was doing and when I told them I was feeling crappy, they told me to come in and they would check me out.
Day 4: I met with Dr. Barnett for a physical exam and he said that I did have a mild case of OHSS so they hooked me up to an IV because pretty much the only thing that can make me feel better is hydrating. They also gave me a nausea patch that would last for three days. I didn't feel much better the rest of the day and I spent the day in bed and wanted to die. If this is mild, I don't want to know what severe OHSS is like.
Day 5: I finally woke up feeling better. Not 100%, but much better than I was. They called me and said that we had 8 embryos to freeze! There were still more growing, but since we had so many that were excellent quality, they decided to freeze them and move forward with a frozen transfer. I knew it was coming, but it was still hard news. A frozen transfer would mean waiting another couple months to transfer the embryo, but it would also give my body time to get back to normal so my hormones could regulate themselves. It would mean higher chances of it taking, but waiting at this point feels like forever when this has been going on for so long already.
Day 6: They called and told me that we had ten more embryos that were excellent grade to freeze. Holy crap, I was not expecting this. We needed to decide what to do about the rest of the eggs in the next half hour if we wanted to save them. Talk about a big decision with very little time. So we put a movie on for the kids and went upstairs to pray and talk about our decision. The choices were to donate any extra embryos to another couple, donate them to science, or pay to freeze them. After talking to the embryologist again, we decided to freeze a total of 12 embryos which is still a little surreal.
So now, I'm finally feeling better and we have 12 little frozen embryos waiting for us. We have to wait two cycles so that my hormones can regulate then we will do a transfer. I am still anxious and randomly cry because of the anticipation of how it will all go, but I'm also happy with what I've done the last couple of months. I'm strong and I've been strengthened through my Savior. I've felt His love through this entire process and I'm grateful for the Atonement that can heal my broken heart even while going through this trial. Last time, I felt like my life was at a halt. Like I couldn't function, but this time I feel like this doesn't define me. I'm a good mom and I will have more kids, I just have to work harder to get them here.