Weeks 14-17 pregnancy update!

Seems like it has been a long time since we have updated the blog! This has been a very exciting and once again scary month! We had an appointment at Dr. Roberts office the beginning off August and we got a half gender reveal! We found out that one of the babies is a BOY! But both babies were once again looked great and are growing very well!

Then a week later I had just got to work and started getting a lot of pain in my right lower abdomen that started going around to my side and back. I tried to lay down to see if it got better but it only made the pain worse and it got so bad that I was getting extremely nauseous. I called Dr. Roberts office and they told me to go to the ER. By the time I got there I don't think I had ever been in such bad pain in my life. Sitting down, standing up, laying down nothing made it any better. While I was there for about 4 hours they had to give me Zofran, Morphine twice, and Dilaudid once. They checked my appendix, blood work to see if there were any signs of kidney stones, and did the longest ultrasound I have had so far. I must say that the ultrasound was very painful to have them pushing right where the pain had started but it was worth it! During the ultrasound they measured almost everything they possibly could on the babies and we got to find out the other baby is a GIRL! Also we got to see that all there measurements were right on with where they should be and they were even ahead in growth! The doctors never found out what was wrong and sent me home with instructions to take Tylenol for the pain. It was a miserable evening but around 3am the pain finally got tolerable enough to fall asleep and once I woke up the pain was gone! We are figuring that what had happened was I had an ovarian cyst rupture because after the IVF I had multiple follicles fill back up with fluid and they hadn't gone away last time we seen them. But they can't see my my ovaries anymore because the babies are getting to big and covering them. Also some of  you may have read Zack's facebook post about all of this but I wanted to share some of what he put with those of you that haven't read it and I also just wanted to say that I have to thank God for giving me such a strong Christian for a husband! Below is the post:

"since we have had so much problems in the fertility dept. this stuff brings back awful, horrible memories....but as i was crying like a baby driving in to meet brit at the ER....me and the enemy (devil, the flesh, evil principalities...etc.) had alil chat...and i have declared in the name of Jesus Christ that the enemy has no place, no stronghold, and no footing over me, my wife, or my children! These kids are God's and He has his hand over them, putting a hedge of Protection around them, even in the womb! (1 Samuel 1:27)....And, what the enemy meant for bad.....God meant for Good! through the day we ended up finding out the sex of the other baby....its a GIRL.....SOOO we have a boy and girl!!!....God has blessed us so much.....we have been in the Valley and Battle of Infertility for almost 5yrs now but God has brought us out completely....you see, all sunshine and no rain makes a desert.....we need our rainy days spiritually to help us grow our faith in God....only when you receive a good mix of rain and sunshine can you grow into your full potential!"

Boy Name: Elijah "Eli" Matthew Stephens
Girl Name: Alyssa "Aly" Rose Stephens

Today I had another appointment at Dr. Roberts office we didn't get an ultrasound but they did listen to the heartbeats and they are both perfect! They were 144 and 147 beats per minute. Also today we ordered both cribs and two changing tables for the twins room! We are really excited to start decorating their room! Hopefully next month we can post a picture of what we have done so far!

Also for those of you that haven't got to see me in person here are some pictures of the progression! I will try and post a new picture each month when I update! Also I included week 4 to show what I was like before and I haven't taken one this weeks yet so the last one I have is week 16.

I will update again at the end of next month. We do have our level 2 ultrasound on September 8th at OSU so please keep us in your prayers that everything is developing exactly as it should be and we will also have an appointment with Dr. Roberts on the 25th!

12-13 week pregnancy update!

It has been a pretty crazy 2 weeks since I last posted. I had mentioned in my last blog that I had an episode of bleeding and everything checked out fine. After that I had 3 more episodes of it but 2 of them was with old blood but the babies still looked perfect. Thankfully it has now been 1 week since it has happened which is the longest I have went in between.

I had an appointment at Kettering last week which was a very bitter sweet appointment because that was my last one at there office. We had gotten very used to seeing them over the past 5 months. The babies looked great again as you can see in the pictures below. There heart rates were baby A at 151 and baby B at 153 and there sizes were perfect! They officially took me off all of my medicines so now I am just on my prenatal vitamins which is very exciting! For graduating we got a certificate and 2 baby spoons that are in the picture below that say "A spoonful of good wishes Kettering Reproductive Medicine"!

Baby A

Baby B

Today I had my first appointment with Dr. Roberts in Portsmouth and we really liked it there! I had my ultrasound to start off which was much different this time. It was my first external/abdominal ultrasound I have had. It was very confusing for us though to keep up with which baby was which because it changes the angle that we see the babies from. Of course being an external ultrasound the pictures are not as clear but the pictures are below. They tried to do a 4D ultrasound to get a better picture but they were in the wrong position for it to show anything. Today their heart rates were baby A at 145 and baby B at 155 which was great again! The sizes are still good but I can tell there is a little bit of difference in there measurements and Ketterings. I did ask Dr. Roberts about this but she said that it can be a difference in the person performing the ultrasound and the machine. So pretty much any number I have given before now does not count and the numbers they had today are now my beginning numbers they will go off of.  She also did a pelvic exam and did find that I had a polyp on my cervix which could also help explain the bleeding and she said she would normally take it off but she wouldn't attempt it right now while pregnant. I also had to choose between a couple hospitals to get a level 2 ultrasound done between 18-22 weeks. This is just there standard protocol to have someone pregnant with twins do and I picked OSU. They also said it is better for me to be familiar with a hospital that has a NICU, which will again be OSU, in case I go into preterm labor. She said that if I can make it to 36 weeks they would fill comfortable delivering me at SOMC and if I can make it to 37 weeks then that is almost worth having a party. If I go into labor before 36 weeks then from what I understand I will have to deliver at OSU because the babies would have to be where there is a NICU. Dr. Roberts office will be seeing me every 2 weeks from now till the end of the pregnancy to closely monitor the twins.

Left is Baby B. It is face down with its arms and legs curled under it.
Right is Baby A.

Right is Baby A's face profile.
Left is Baby B in the same pose as the previous picture.

It was a lot to take in at this appointment but I am glad that they are going to continue to keep a close eye on the babies! I will probably update again at the end of next month and just do an update now once a month unless we have something really important to share before. Hopefully next time we update we will know the gender of our babies! Please continue to keep us and the babies in your prayers!

10 weeks pregnancy update! ER trip and Graduating

The last 2 weeks since we updated have been very busy with church camp and the preparations for it. This past week while a camp we had one of the scariest things ever happen to me but thankfully we know everything is ok. But while at camp Wednesday morning about 6:30am one of the girls woke up and told me the had to go to the bathroom so I got up and walked with them. When I got closer to the bathroom I thought my prometrium pill was coming out but when I got in the bathroom blood just gushed out. So of course I was freaking out but I didn't want to scare the girl so I sent her back up to the cabin while pretending everything was fine. Thankfully Tanya, one of the other youth leaders, came walking to the bathroom and I started trying to tell her what was happening. Of course it was really hard for her to understand me but after a few tries she finally knew what was going on. As she walked me up the cabin to grab my stuff she was just walking beside me with her arm around me praying out loud while I was just sobbing. She got her husband to wake up Zack and we both took off for SOMC ER. We did learn we can make it to the hospital in 15 minutes or less so when I go into labor we already know now. They did an ultrasound and the babies both looked great. They wouldn't let me see the screen(which just upset me more) but Zack was able to so thankfully he was able to watch them kick and squirm. And afterward she did show me a 4D picture of the babies which actually was pretty awesome. They did run a bunch of blood work too and found nothing to be wrong and gave me no reason as to why it happened. They put me on bed rest for the next 24 hours which is very hard for me to sit still but I got an outside chair that laid out and took it to camp so I could just hang out there with the kids. I know you may be wondering why I would want to share this personal of a story. But its because with everything that happened I just keep replaying Tanya walking me to the cabin and praying. And while of course I was panicking at the same time there was this sense of everything will be ok that had come over us, which I know is a direct result of her praying, I know the timing was really bad while being at camp but I thank God for allowing us to be there because had we been by ourselves I don't think I would have had that immediate reminder that God's got this. I thank God for giving us such good christian friends that we can count on in bad times. Instead of making it about herself by her freaking out too and me having to get her to believe everything will be fine, instead she just prayed! She could have told me everything was going to be fine but thats not what I need to hear. Her not actually saying anything and just praying gave me more of a comfort than anything else could have!

On Friday I had an appointment at Kettering. Again both the babies look great and they are both over 1.3 inches long. It is hard to believe the difference in how much they have grown and how much they are moving and kicking now. They have grown so much, they are both side by side now instead of one over top the other. Their heart rates are starting to go back down now as they will continue to do but Baby A was 167.38 bpm and Baby B was 165.83 bpm. He also checked for anything that could have caused bleeding and found now issue. He said that most people don't get an explanation but for us our explanation is just that its twins. So he was not concerned and said not to panic if it happens again. Below is our ultrasound picture its hard to get a good picture of them both at the same time but on the picture the baby on left(Baby B) you can start to see the forming of ears which is really neat!

I only have one appointment left at Kettering, which means I will be graduating in 2 weeks up to a regular OBGYN. So over the next 2 weeks I am going to be weaning my self off of my prometrium pills, baby aspirin, and I already stopped my progesterone injections on Friday! I have my first appointment at Dr. Roberts in Portsmouth on the 28th so I am excited that I will finally be considered a normal patient then! But everyone please pray that I have no more bleeding because even though everything is fine I would rather not have that scare again! 

8 week pregnancy update!

So it has been two weeks since our last update! The past few weeks I have actually felt pretty good! My main symptom is being really tired but I started to feel nauseas (but not vomiting) for a few days but I have figured out how to prevent it now, thank goodness! I have been eating really bland and smaller meals more often, changed taking my vitamin to at night, and figured out that as long as I'm driving I don't get car sick which was majority of the problem.

Today I had my 8 week ultrasound! The babies look great and are growing perfect! Its amazing how much they have grown in only 2 weeks! Baby A is measuring 18.39mm with 170.57 bpm for its heart rate and Baby B is measuring 17.57mm with 179.10 bpm for its heart rate! She said that anything between 140-180 bpm is good so were right on track! You can tell in the ultrasound picture below that they are starting to grow arm and leg buds! They said next appointment their arms and legs should be fully developed and they will be moving a lot!

On a side note they said my ovaries are still very enlarged from the fertility medicines and they said it could take a while to go down! But they said this is normal because with the pregnancy hormones it takes longer to go back to there normal size. I also found out I should only have 2 more weeks of my progesterone shots! I am so excited to be finished with these so I have done 45 butt shots so far since the egg retrieval with only 14 more to go!! Then I will stay on the progesterone pills I am on and they will slowly wean me off of those! Then I will be considered what they call a "normal" pregnant person! I am also supposed to call my regular obgyn and schedule an appointment to be ready for when I graduate(as they call it) from Kettering in 4 weeks!

Below is one of the ultrasound pictures from today and the videos of there heartbeats from! Baby B is harder to hear for some reason even though it was the louder one in person:

Thanks everyone for you encouraging words and prayers! Our next appointment is Friday the 11th of July! So just keep praying that everything continues to go as smoothly as it has!

We're pregnant with TWINS!

So as I'm sure a lot of you have already seen we found out today that we are pregnant with TWINS!! It was the most amazing thing to see but before I get into the details of what we found out I wanted to share a part of the story that we haven't really shared with everyone before. It is really important to share this because this part really shows how amazing God is!

In January of 2013 we did what is called a 21 day Daniel fast with our church. We do this every year at the beginning of the new year. We always make a list of what were praying for during that time, and last year I had put for God to let us know his plan for us to have a family. And I know a lot of you may have heard this part of the story but in May of last year we got a package from Zacks family in Florida where they were going to help us to be able to get pregnant by saving up money and sending it in the mail to us. So that was our answer we knew then that we would be able to do IVF because with there help, other peoples generous donations, and months of saving we would be to actually afford it  and without even having to ask for help it was given! Then this year when we did the fast on my list I wanted to be specific so when it happened it would be just that more amazing. But I put for us to get pregnant through IVF and for it to work the first time! Well as you can see our prayers were answered! I know people may have thought we were crazy doing the fast but as you can see it works! I wanted to tell you all of this to get the point of if you are really needing to see God work in an area of your life try this fast and when you really commit to it and take it serious you will really see the results in your life! It helps you get a more intimate relationship with God when you take your focus off of everything else and really buckle down during whatever amount of time you decide and focus on those specific needs your praying about.

Now to what has been happening since the last post we wrote after our embryo transfer. We had the most nerve racking two week wait! My heart was telling me I was pregnant while my mind was telling me I'm not. We went for the test on May 30th and I was a complete mess while waiting! I have to share a funny story about right before we seen the results. Me and Zack were driving home from getting the blood test and we were both on edge waiting. And before I tell this I have to say that me and Zack rarely argue and normally if we do its over stupid stuff just like this. But I looked over while he was driving and he was on his phone trying to look at the results. I snatched the phone from his hand and told him he is not allowed to look at his phone while driving. That annoyed him so we started bickering, well while that was going on my phone updated like a minute after he tried looking and said the results are in. So of course we dropped our argument and I nervously looked at the results. When I seen them I just started bawling and smiling that the same time. When I finally was able to get it out to tell Zack he starts laughing hysterically and honking the car horn. We definitely look like crazy people. The funny part is, especially for those who live in Minford, we were stuck at those stupid construction red lights they have set up on 139 that take 5 minutes to change to green. So the construction workers probably thought we were the rudest people ever with Zack honking the car horn and we crying with him laughing!  But when we got the first set of results it was 13 days post my 3 day transfer and the HCG level was 460 and anything over 150 was good. So I knew they were high to begin with. 4 days later I had to go take another test, which is standard procedure for IVF patients, and the HCG level was 2671 and anything over 1500 was good. This confirmed that our numbers were going up a lot faster than normal! After that result they scheduled my ultrasound for this Friday.

During this 2 week wait I had a really hard time actually believing that the pregnancy was viable. I haven't had any nausea or morning sickness so my mind again was telling me I can't be pregnant while deep down I knew it was fine. But we wanted to wait to share with everyone until we had a for sure heartbeat.

I was extremely nervous for the ultrasound so I had just made myself numb to it all and wouldn't allow myself to get excited. But as soon as he started to ultrasound we could see baby A as they call it and he decided to check to see if there was another and right away he found baby B! It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen to see something that tiny with their little hearts beating! He proceeded to check for a 3rd in case one of the embryos we had implanted had split and I got a little more nervous then lol but he didn't find anything else. He said everything is measuring perfect and the heartbeats are great as well! With our twins, or our munchkins as we are calling them, they are fraternal. Which means that they are not identical they will look as much alike as any other siblings look. I am still nervous that I will mix them up if there the same sex so I told Zack were painting a toe nail or something at least for the first few weeks. They did say that I am 6 weeks and 1 day and that the due date will  be February 4th, 2015! But they did say a lot of people with twins deliver around 38 weeks. Also here are the videos and a few of the pictures we got today!

Baby B - Heartrate of 118.6

Baby A - heartrate of 119.4 bpm

Thanks everyone for your pryers so far and just keep them coming! I have an appointment in 2 weeks so I will update following the appointment!

Embryo transfer!

It's hard to believe today was the day of our embryo transfer! But before I go into details I have to share with you the thoughts I had before the transfer which actually started yesterday. We have stayed really positive this whole time about the process and last night it's just like I let myself get back into my old mindset of being anxious, thinking this could never happen for us, and looking up info on how this has worked or not worked for others which I have not allowed myself to do during this. But this morning I realized that I needed to get back in that right mind set so I went back and read all of our blogs that I have written about each step through the IVF process! And its like God just started speaking to me! So as I set there at 4 in the morning bawling, which is so not me, I just re-realized how God has truly been in this every step! And then I found this blog which I encourage everyone to read this because it could apply to any situation your dealing with: http://m.crosswalk.com/faith/women/biblical-encouragement-for-couples-waiting-to-conceive-11608040.html

After reading this it made me realize again how blessed we actually are to have been given this opportunity!  Like it mentions in the blog we have been able to increase our faith, learn the true meaning of patience, know what true joy feels like especially when keeping God first(not taking little things for granted), and finally learning to fully rely on God because there is nothing we can do ourselves to make this happen! And I wanted everyone to know that even before we know the results I truly thank God for this opportunity and for completely opening our eyes to his greatness! And whether the test comes out positive or negative I wouldn't change anything because even though we are praying with everything we have it works, it would still have been worth all the money, time, and mental exhaustion just to be able to experience this!

Ok now to the part everyone has been waiting on! We had 2 perfect embryos transferred as you can see below! We are a little biased but we think they are the most perfect embryos we have ever seen! And with having two embryos that does mean there is a chance we could have twins. But we have knew this from the beginning and are going to be thrilled with whatever God gives us whether one or two babies!!

But it was a pretty cool process to watch! The worst part was I had to drink 24 ounces of water at 8am but wasn't allowed to pee until after it was over so that a bit scary since they had a stomach ultrasound pushing really hard on my bladder while doing the transfer. But it was really neat getting to watch them put in the embryos, which we could see white spots as shown on the ultrasound showing the air puffs that the embryos are inside of after they put them in. The day could not have been more perfect and even while this may be a more unconventional way to get pregnant but it seems perfect for us!

Car ride home cause Zack just
wants to keep me laying down!

So now we began the 2 week wait that everyone talks about. They did say we still have 9 more embryos that are left and they are going to let them continue to develop till day 5 or 6 and which ever ones are still good they will freeze in case we need them for future use. During this time I will continue taking my progesterone oil shot and prometrium pills until we know the results. Like we mentioned before, after those two weeks if you haven't heard anything that is good news and if it wouldn't work we will just go ahead and let everyone know once we find out. And the point isn't to hide this from people because we're going to be dying to tell but its just to avoid the heartbreak of getting asked over and over again how the pregnancy is going when people haven't heard that we miscarried or something happened if that were to, heaven forbid, happen again. But the second we feel safe in telling everyone and we have heard a heart beat we will definitely let everyone know!!

So again please keep us in your prayers! And I hope that I will not be updating this blog for a while!!

Egg Retrieval and Embryos!

Sorry I didn't update yesterday after my egg retrieval but I decided to wait until after I heard from Kettering so I could share with everyone the the latest information on our embryos! But the surgery went great yesterday! As you can see in the picture below Zack caught me still groggy but he said I wanted to give a thumbs up to send this picture to my parents to let them know I am good.. I have no memory of this lol

They retrieved 24 eggs which was great and of those, 17 were mature! After they knew which ones were mature they performed ICSI on them, which I explained in more detail in our last blog what this is, but basically its where they put a sperm into the egg to fertilize it. Of those 17 eggs they fertilized, 11 of them took and are developing! So as of now we have 11 embryos that are developing but normally this amount will decrease due to some of them will develop abnormally. This picture shows the stages of the embryos in more detail :

Day 1: 1 cell with 2 dots in the middle.  This indicates a normally fertilized egg with each dot representing genetic materials from the mom and the dad.

Day 2: usually 2-4 cells.  The cells are expected to double every 24 hours or so.   

Day 3: usually 6-8 cells. Sometimes more cells.  Same doubling effect.  This is when fragmentation can be observed (small dots, not clean cell divisions) representing abnormal cells.  I’ve read somewhere that chromosonal abnormality can be around 25-70%. 

Day 4: Morula or compacting cell stage.  This is when the cells have doubled to around 16 and the individual balls are starting to expand and blend with the others.  You can see the bumps still.

Day 5: Blastocyst.  This is when we see 3 distinct parts – the shell, one dense bunch of cells (the baby), and the lighter cells (the placenta).  The blastocyst is ready for implantation but first it has to hatch from the shell.  The picture on the bottom right is a hatching blastocyst (can happen naturally or with the help of your embryologist – assisted hatching, like ours in IVF#1).  The hatched blastocyst should implant within 12-24 hours to the uterine lining.

They originally told us we would be doing a day 3 transfer because sperm obtained through ICSI does not thrive as well in the artificial environment. But since we still have 11 embryos, that as far as they can tell now are great quality they are debating doing a day 5 transfer! The nurse I talked to today said when they call me with the update on the embryo development in the morning they may have a better idea of which day we will be transferring! A day 5 transfer is better overall than day 3 just because they can tell which embryos are the best even more by day 5 and then they don't have to transfer as many which reduces the risk of multiples. They originally told us they were probably going to transfer 2 embryos but now I am not sure and won't know until the day of transfer.

So for now while we wait I have to take my medrol pill (which is pretty much an anti rejection pill so my body won't reject the embryos), my progesterone oil shot, my antibiotic, and starting tomorrow I begin the prometrium pills as well. The shots that I had been taking were no problem at all but the progesterone oil shot is definitely not fun and leaves me sore but it will be worth it. This is the first muscle shot I have had to do thankfully, but when I get a positive pregnancy test I will continue this for at least 10 weeks!

They said that we may not know whether we are transferring the embryos Saturday up until about an hour and a half before. So we will update the blog either way with a short update either on our embryo development or details on how the transfer went Saturday! Please keep the prayers coming we can see they are working! Everything has gone completely perfect so far!