The End...

We got the results of our pregnancy test and unfortunately they were negative. I was not really surprised at this news. When I think back to our last IVF cycle everything was so perfect and went so smoothly. Even from the beginning we could just feel that we were going to have twins and they were going to be a boy and girl. This time was much different. My body was not handling this cycle the same. I have been taking progesterone shots for 16 days and it has been horrible. I have become allergic to the progesterone and every shot would result in a welt that ranged from the size of a golf ball to a baseball. This cycle will make our 8th failed attempt during our different fertility treatments we have done. But we have decided that instead of looking at all the failures we are going to look at the 1 cycle we did have work that resulted in our twins!

This journey that we have been on has been a real blessing to us and as hard as it has been I wouldn't change it. We have gotten to experience what its like to have God guide you through a valley in your life and to bring you out of it. As disappointed as I am to not get to have the other two babies and I will always wonder what they would have been like. My eyes are now opened to how easy it would have been to not of gotten Eli and Aly. This lesson was so clear today that it almost scares me and makes me want to hold on to them and not let go. It was easy to fall into the idea that since I had gotten pregnant with them that this cycle would be a breeze and I should get pregnant no problem. However today's results taught me otherwise.

This cycle was our last attempt at getting pregnant. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and words of encouragement over the last couple of years. You have helped make our dreams come true. And we will forever be thankful for you all being there as we went through our journey to get these two wonderful babies!

Embryo Transfer #2!!

Today was the big day we had our final embryo transfer!! It was a very surreal moment to know that is was our final chance to add to our family forever! As we went in we both walked in with the thought that the transfer today is the beginning to a whole new phase of our lives no matter what the outcome and we are ready for whatever God has in store for us.  

But onto the appointment! Everything went great and we transferred 2 perfect little embryos! As you can see in the picture the one on the left looks different. The doctor said that it is already hatching which is a great sign. It also doesn't mean that the other embryo is less likely to stick because when we transferred Eli and Aly neither of them had started hatching either. 

The last time I had this process done the worst part was when they made you drink 24 ounces of water 1 hour prior to the transfer. Well once again I can say that it is still definitely the worse part lol They were running a bit behind schedule so by the time I got back in the room my bladder was too full for them to do the procedure. So they allowed me to urinate for 10-15 seconds and then hold the rest. I can tell you that this was pretty miserable. But the actual transfer part was done in about 10 minutes. The second picture of the ultrasound is showing them releasing the embryos into the uterus which is pretty cool!

But now the hard part begins...The dreaded two week wait. I know anyone who has had problems getting pregnant knows that this can feel like the longest two weeks of your life. During the wait I have to continue taking my progesterone injections, progesterone pills, and estrogen pills.

A lot of people have asked if we want one or two this time and I can honestly say I want them both. I know that it may sound crazy but I already feel attached to them both! After having Eli and Aly from this same process it really brings into perspective that these little embryos really are our future children. At one point Eli, Aly, and these other two embryos were actually in a lab together waiting to find out who got transferred first. I'm sure this is going to be an interesting story to explain to our children some day but I am so thankful once again to get this opportunity to grow our family!

I have figured out during this FET cycle that it has felt so much different than our IVF round that we did with Eli and Aly. But I finally figured out that it is because when we were trying to get pregnant with Eli and Aly we were so desperate. And it was not desperation really coming from a good place it was coming from a place of brokenness from all the failed fertility treatments. When we had them that area of our lives was finally fulfilled. With these two embryos its different. We want them just as much but instead its coming from a motherly place of we want them simply because they are ours and we want to add to the family we already have!

We have our blood test in a few weeks but we plan on doing the same as we did last time where if we become pregnant we will wait to announce it until after we have an ultrasound! But as soon as we can announce it we will let everyone know!!

Please just keep us in your prayers over the next few weeks! We've known all through this that God has a plan for us with these embryos. Right now though we are just at the waiting point to find out if its to bless us with more kids or possibly a lesson as a good reminder to never take for granted the two we have already been blessed with. So we ask for you just to pray for us to have peace during the wait and that everything continues along perfectly as it has so far! Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers! And I pray the next time you all hear from us we have great news to share!

Injections and Hysterosonogram

I received all of my medications this past Wednesday which was really exciting!  It was my first time getting to really experience what it's like to have kids while going through the fertility treatment! It is so much more relaxing than the first time because I was so scared that it wasn't going to happen that I just didn't even get to fully appreciate the experience. This time I know that it can work, of course I'm not going to be naive, I know that there is still a chance it may not work this time, but now we really get that all the work that we put into it is really for a purpose. That's why this picture is so amazing to me because in the top picture from two years ago I never thought I would be so blessed that we would get to do it again while including our two children! 

On Friday I had my hysterosonogram and everything went great! The kids didn't get to go to the doctor with us this time but they had a blast playing with mamaw! When we got there it was really neat that while we were sitting there we looked over and saw the copy of our article we was featured in placed on the table! 

When we got into the room to do the hysterosonogram it brought back so many memories. It was the room that they retrieved my eggs, transferred the embryos, and the most amazing day was when they told us we were having twins! So it helped calm my nerves over the procedure just getting to sit there with Zack and reminisce over everything that had gone on at Kettering the last cycle! 

The small square door behind Zack's head is to the lab.
That's where they pass the embryos from to be transferred.

While I have had quite a few procedures done this was one I had not done because with our last round they just did a hysteroscopy while doing my surgery to remove my endometriosis. So this time they did the hysterosonogram along with another mock transfer (practice of transferring the embryos). Like I mentioned last time a hysterosonogram is basically an ultrasound of the uterine cavity following an injection of saline into the uterus. The main reason they really wanted to do this was to make sure that after my twin pregnancy that everything still looked fine with my uterus. I was pretty nervous to have this done just from what the paperwork they had given me on it had said, but it really wasn't painful at all like I was afraid it was going to be. 

So now that the results on it were perfect and my blood work came back good they gave me the go ahead to start my Lupron injections (used to stop ovulation from occurring), which began yesterday! I will continue these shots for the next 3 weeks and I will also be adding in estrogen pills (used to thicken and mature the uterine lining) starting next Tuesday. There will be more medications to add in but those will begin after my ultrasound that will be in a little less than 3 weeks on October 7th. 

I will update again after my next ultrasound! Its really hard to believe that I only have one more appointment until the embryo transfer!!! Please just keep us in your prayers! We really appreciate all of you that have followed us through our journey! 

FET Calendar Schedule

We have finally reached the starting point for our FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer)! I began my birth control pills this past Sunday which is the first step in the process! I also received my FET Calendar and ordered all of my medications this week!

Here is my Calendar for the next two months:

So as you can see while I don't have near as many appointments as I did with IVF,  there is still almost as many medications I will be taking. It is really nice with the FET that they can plan the exact day that I will have the transfer! So unless something would end up getting changed right now it is set for October 14th!

I am a little nervous this time about remembering all the medications that I will be taking. It was a challenge last time and I didn't have two toddlers then. So I'm sure my phone will be full of reminders at each medication time. 

Next week I really start into the whole process of everything. I get my medications Wednesday and then on Friday I have my hysterosonogram.  A hysterosonogram is basically an ultrasound of the uterine cavity following an injection of saline into the uterus. It is used to check for any issues in your uterine cavity. Following this upcoming Fridays appointment I am to begin my first injections of Lupron on Monday the 19th!

We are so excited to finally be getting started into the whole process! Just pray that the results from the hysterosonogram as well as some blood work I had done this past week all turn out well! I will update again after I am started into my medication and have the results all in! 

Frozen Embryo Transfer - 1st Consult!!

Today we had our consult to begin our frozen embryo transfer (FET)!! But before I go into the details we found out today I want to give those that are just learning about our journey a little back story first.

Due to my husband having Cystic Fibrosis we are not able to have children naturally. So from 2009 to 2012 we went through atleast 7 IUI's (Intrauterine Insemination's) at a fertility clinic in Columbus. Every one of those but the very first one failed which turned out to be a chemical pregnancy that ended only a week after we found out we were pregnant. In 2012 we decided to take a break from trying due to the emotional and financial toll it took on us and we just prayed that God would let us know his plan when it was time. In May of 2013 I went to check the mail and there was a package with a card from some of Zack's family who lived out of state. The card said that they were saving of money to help us to try to get pregnant again and so our journey began! With us saving as much as we could and with the help of our family and friends we began the IVF process in February 2014 at Kettering Reproductive Medicine! By that May we had two embryos implanted and became pregnant with twins! We had our two beautiful children in January 2015! The part we didn't really focus on in our blogs before was that we have two frozen embryos left and that takes us up to now!

                   

                 

Back when we started the IVF journey we knew we would have to make a decision as to what to do with any left over embryos. Our options given to us were to either freeze them to be transferred later, adopt them out, donate them to science, or destroy them. I know this is a very personal decision that you make as a couple but for us after having the twins our decision was obvious. These two frozen embryos are just as much our children as our twins are and had the doctors decided differently which two embryos to use first then one of our twins could be a frozen embryo right now. So today we had our consult to begin the frozen embryo transfer!!

It was very surreal to take the kids to where it all began! But it was amazing to take the kids around to meet the doctor and nurses who helped make it all possible!

                           

We met with our same doctor we had before, Dr. Bidwell, and we got to discuss what all the FET process will involve. Basically a frozen embryo transfer (FET) is a cycle where the frozen embryos from our previous IVF cycle are thawed and then transferred back into me. So we will get to skip a lot of what we did last time. It will still involve hormone injections and oral medications but it is still much simpler.

Right now the plan is to call when I began my next cycle at the end of this month and we will begin everything! Once I call I will get my calendar with medications, order bloodwork, and schedule a sonohysterogram (water ultrasound). The ultrasound is to make sure there is no scarring from being pregnant with the twins.

We are very excited to begin this process for our final time! The doctor said we will transfer both embryos but the chance of twins is less likely due to being a frozen cycle. However we will be blessed with what ever God gives us!

We would appreciate everyone's prayers as we begin this process again! You all were such a great support last time and we wanted to continue to keep everyone involved! Thank you all!