Graduation Day

Today, we met for the last time with Dr. L and his wonderful staff at Advanced Fertility Care.  This clinic has really been amazing, so thorough and warm and caring.  I have loved working with all of them.  We also saw the little belly bean again today, who has had exactly one week's worth of growth in the past week - couldn't be more perfect! The heart rate is now 134bpm, strong and regular.

Little baby, has now grown to 11mm - almost tripling in size in 1 week!

 



 

Today also marks the day that we have been released to the care of my INCREDIBLE midwife at Nurturing Hearts Birth Services which I am SO excited about! We will see her for the first time in exactly one month, June 6th, at 12 weeks pregnant.  M & C are a bit nervous, as any new parent would be, about waiting that long for a check up but I'm feeling great about this little bean, I'm having lots of pregnancy symptoms and I know everything will be just fine! I am to continue taking progesterone and estrogen support for the next approx. 3 1/2 weeks until the placenta takes over, but other then that - we're a "normal" pregnancy now and couldn't be happier about it!



First ultrasound!

We had our first ultrasound this morning which revealed one tiny little belly bean, measuring right on track and nestled in the perfect spot - we even got to hear its little heart beating away at 111bpm!

 Little baby, measuring 4mm

 

 

As a seasoned mom of 4, the "glop glop glop" of the fetal heart beat is a familiar, albeit reassuring, sound to me - but to hear and see the reactions of M & C as they heard their much-loved baby's heart beating for the first time was PRICELESS, absolutely priceless.  I feel so honored to be on this journey with them and can not wait to hear that "glop glop glop" many more times!

Baby's heart rate (at the bottom)

Fortunately, I won't have to wait long! We go back next Monday for a repeat ultrasound and if everything still looks good - we'll be "graduating" and will be released to the care of my AMAZING midwife for the duration of the pregnancy.

Back in the Saddle

I'm very excited to share that after some discussion, re-signing of contracts and meeting with the fertility doctor - M, C and myself are ready to try again to make them parents! We just got our new calendar and are set for an April 2nd frozen embryo transfer! I am already on the birth control pill (which will allow Dr. L to control my cycle while we prepare) and I will begin injectable meds a week from today.  M & C have one frozen 5 day embryo leftover from our last cycle and Dr. L thinks we have a good chance with this embryo.  We are all so excited and definitely covet all the positive thoughts and good juju you can muster! Here we go again!!!

Calendar!

Wow! This clinic is really on top of things...we met with them for the first time on Tuesday morning and by Thursday evening we had our calendar for our IVF cycle and A PLAN! I love having a plan!

So here it is: I start daily Lupron injections in 11 days (July 31st)! Then I add in Estrogen patches starting on August 7th.  M & C have selected an egg donor from our clinic's frozen egg donor program - those frozen eggs will be thawed and fertilized on August 25th, which is when I'll stop the Lupron injections and begin daily Progesterone injections (both the Estrogen and the Progesterone support will continue through the 12th week of pregnancy, if we are successful).  The embryos will be grown to the blastocyst stage, they will use assisted hatching to help encourage implantation after the transfer.  The transfer is scheduled for August 30th!

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On another fun note...I told my 5 year old yesterday about M & C, and me trying to help them have a baby.  I told her the baby would have two dads and she said "Wow! That baby is so lucky! Dad's are FUN!"

Where We're At Now

Today M, C and I got together to sign contracts (it's "official"!) and meet with their fertility doctor for a consultation - we are using Advanced Fertility Care.  I love this clinic - the doctor and all the staff were organized, thorough, compassionate and really took the time to explain the process in great detail.

Fortunately, most of my screenings have already been completed and, equally fortunately, we were able to get more screenings done today (ultrasound for me - since I conveniently just started a new cycle plus "swimmer" analysis and bloodwork for M and C); so we should be able to move forward pretty quickly!

I have a funny story to tell and I'm pretty sure M and C have a story to tell - but I don't want to scare everyone away with TMI on post number 3 sooooo....

Next up: bloodwork and sonohysterogram for me; and psychological exams for M and C.  Then back to the clinic for a follow up on August 2nd.  We should get a better idea of what time frame we are looking at then - we're all hoping for an August transfer!