Snuggle in little babies.....

Well here they are...... our precious little ones! These two embryos were transferred into me today. The one at the top is a grade 8A ( 8 cells, perfect morphology) and the one on the bottom is grade 8A- because it has some fragmenting. The other 3 were frozen and all were of excellent quality.

So Sweetness and I arrived at the clinic, so full of hope......

And I started taking pictures of all the wonderful people who helped make this happen. This is Martina, the IVF Coordinator. This lady is so amazingly kind and she walks you through each step. Love you !!!!
And this is Ms Patty, my nurse today and Wednesday when they harvested the eggs. She is soooo funny! She really helped the doc when I decided to stop breathing on Wednesday. Thanks Patty!
So here we are getting on our OR attire, Sweetness was allowed to stay in the room for the transfer (which I was so glad about). Doesn't he look cute?

And then they start forcing you to drink gallons of water, because your bladder has to be full for the transfer. Here I am trying to get it all down!

To be honest, the transfer was very hard. Dr Robin could not get the catheter into my uterus because it was bent up at a 90 degree angle. She tried everything. After many tears and prayers from us all, God made a way, right when she was going to give up, and the catheter went in!!! God is working miracles all over this whole process. Then Dr Robin put our two precious babies in, and you could see the two white dots on the screen, very cool!!!!

Before she left, while I laid on my back, she took a very sweet picture with me......

She is the most wonderful doctor.....I cant say enough how thankful I am to have her as my RE!!! Thank you Dr Robin for making dreams come true!

Well I have more I could say, but this is incredibly hard to type laying on your back. But this is where I will stay for the next 2 days.

Snuggle in little babies, I will give you a nice warm home!!! We love you already!

Thank you for the prayers everyone as we wait for two weeks to find out if I become pregnant!

Tomorrow is THE DAY!!!

Well girls, we have finally made it! Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be going to the clinic to pick up two of our precious embryos. I have to be there at 11 am, it will start with 1/2 hour of acupuncture, then followed by an hour massage. Then they will transfer two babies into their Mommy's tummy! Then I will have another 1/2 hour acupuncture.

Some family and friends has asked me about why I am having acupuncture. Well, I am kind of nervous about it really. I have never had it before, but Dr. Robin (our RE) said she has seen very convincing evidence that women who have acupuncture immediately before and after the embryo transfer have a higher implantation (pregnancy) rate. So we said after all this work, we would do it, making sure to cover all our bases. I will not be home until probably 3pm, and then I have 48 hours of complete bed rest. Sweetness is all ready to wait on me..... I have rented 3 movies, and ready to snuggle with the babes all weekend.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments, the amazing prayers, and sweet cards sent our way! We are so grateful to have so many friends who love us, and are agreeing with us in prayer for God's will for our family. Our lives will forever change tomorrow!

I will try to do a post tomorrow some time, while laying on my back, I am making sure to take pictures tomorrow too.

Ending tonight with a fitting scripture-

"Behold, children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man who's quiver is full of them, they will not be ashamed."

-Psalm 127: 3-5

5 Beautiful Babies....

Hey peeps! Hope you enjoyed the post from Sweetness last night. I was certainly not feeling up to doing anything. I was in so much pain, it was crazy! But today, the Lord has renewed my mind and body and I am feeling so much better!

So as Sweetness said in the blog post from last night, they were able to retrieve 7 eggs from me yesterday. The embryologist called today and told us that they were able to do ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) on all 7 eggs, and 5 fertilized!!! That's right, we now have 5 beautiful babies growing and dividing, waiting for their mamma to come get them. Things are still right on track for them to put 2 embryos back into me on Saturday, we will freeze the rest for a chance at becoming pregnant again in a couple of years.

You know, I know God performs miracles, but this was my week to see Him in all His Glory. He has made so many things line up, and I know with out a doubt He, and He alone, has been the one that has gotten us this far in our journey to parenthood. Even me messing up bad and forgetting the Lupron shot, He prevented me from ovulating saving my eggs. Yesterday under anesthesia, I stopped breathing (scary i know) and they had to bag me; but God alone protected me and the eggs. The doctor told us afterwards we were lucky they got any eggs, because I scared them so bad, they almost scrapped the whole procedure! But God had other plans, and He is working them out in His own special way! It is just so neat to see the hand of God at work in your own life!

While I know there is always a possibility of me not getting pregnant this time, I am completely trusting Him and His timing. But I do just feel it! I love this feeling I have today for my 5 precious babies growing right now. Such love and awe.......

Please continue to keep us in your prayers, and these little ones. Pray that they keep dividing, stay healthy and that we get a successful twin pregnancy this time. May the Lord's will be done in our lives. I am calm and peaceful, I trust my Lord for the outcome, good or bad, His Will is where I want to be!!!

Ending with a scripture-

"Don’t worry about anything: instead, pray for everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can understand."

-Philippians 4:6

Seven Beautiful Eggs

Hey y'all, this is "Sweetness" aka Heather's hubby. The day is over and I gotta tell you, its been a roller coaster. We got to the doctors office and, just like the military, it was hurry up and wait. When we were finally called back, I was directed to the "blue room" and my babe was taken back to see the anesthesiologist. So...I'm sitting there and sent a little prayer up to God. We've had some stressful moments this week and He has always lifted us up through those times, so I knew that He would listen today. It was then that I found out the coffee machine was empty...ummm, not so good. Hey, I had my blackberry and a full battery, so time to surf.

After about two hours, they called me to go back with her in recovery and she was looking...a little frazzled. Turns out that the team had a difficult time putting and keeping her under. So much so that they had to "bag" her twice. Yea, I wasn't digging that too much either. But the good news came next. Seven beautiful eggs all ready for my swimmers. I wont go into that experience only to say that...umm...it was awkward.

So the nurse went over the meds...what to take and what not to take and we were off. A Chic-fil-a stop later we were at the house and my babe was resting for a couple hours. Then...fifteen minutes ago...it was time. Time for me to give my first shot EVAR. Now, I can hold my own with a calculator, but a syringe??? Have you SEEN the needle? You have GOT to be kidding me. But I gotta say, I came through like a champ. 2 cc's of something or other is now coursing through her body thanks to me.

So the remainder of the evening will be relaxing in bed while I keep poking my head in asking if I can get her anything.

Today was the first of many great days to come and I'm looking forward to the months ahead, waiting for the little ones to make their entrance into the world. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm going to be a good dad, but the reaction I get from my babe pushes those doubts away. I'm so far from perfect, but I want to be the best husband and dad that I can be. With my babe, my family and the Lord, I know there's nothing we cant do.

So we want to thank everyone for their prayers. We should hear tomorrow late afternoon how many embryos are fertilized. So stay tuned, same bat channel, same bat time.

Take care,
Sweetness

The Eggs are Ready!

Ok girls, all the blood work has indeed confirmed that I HAVE NOT ovulated despite being 45 minutes late taking Lupron Sunday night! We are so thankful and happy! So tomorrow is the day...I will be going in at 9:15 am to have my eggs harvested under anesthesia. And tomorrow is technically the day that our future babies will be conceived! We are so happy, and trusting the Lord for His Will to be done in all the activities over the next couple of days leading up to Saturday when they put the embryos back into me.

Thanks for your prayers, and I think I will let Sweetness do a guest post tomorrow to update you all! See you tomorrow!

All Clear....almost

I can not thank you enough to all my praying friends who have helped Sweetness and I through this day! We went in for our scan this morning at 645 am, and because I was 45 minutes late on my Lupron shot last night they did blood work to verify if I had ovulated in that 45 minutes. Well after a day of praying and pleading with God, the nurse called and said that the blood work looks good, and it seems as though I did not ovulate!!! God answered our prayers and we are so thankful!!!

Tomorrow morning we go back for our LAST follicle scan and more blood work to be sure I still did not ovulate. If everything is good with tomorrow's blood work, they will retrieve my eggs on Wednesday morning at 9:15am!!!!

Dr. Robin said she is believing with us that all will still be okay, and told us to go ahead and trigger tonight at 11:45pm!!! My sweet friend Joyce, who is a nurse, is coming over that late at night to give me the trigger shot, and show Sweetness how to start giving me the injections in the bum. Woo Hoo!!!!

Still praying everything will work out with the blood work tomorrow, and we are claiming God's promises!!! Thank you for standing with us!!!!

Third follicle scan....

UPDATE: Well while I was busy typing the below blog post, I missed my Lupron shot at 7pm. I remembered 45 minutes later! I am soooo upset. If you miss Lupron, you can ovulate, and then they cancel the cycle. I called the emergency number and the nurse called me back, and she said there is really nothing I can do at this point. Tomorrow morning when I go in for my scan, they will take a progesterone level and see if I ovulated. Can I ask for your prayers tonight? I am devastated, and this is sooo much money, we can not do it again! Lord, please do not let us have to cancel the cycle! Please!

Well today at 7:30am, sweetness and I rolled into the fertility clinic again! We had the follicle scan, and everything is looking great! I still have 26 on the left and 14 on the right. The cyst is maintaining the same size so that is good. My lining is up to 5.5mm, I feel like that is really thin? Does anyone know? The sizes were ranging from 17.5 to 4....lots of 15s and 13s so we are moving right along!

I go back tomorrow morning for my 4th and final scan, and will look for the go ahead from Dr.Robin to trigger tomorrow night. IF that is the case, the egg retrieval will be on Wednesday and embryo transfer will be on Saturday!

It is all getting so real and close now, I am starting to get very nervous. There are so many things that can go wrong. And even worse yet, I am so afraid of a BFN (Big Fat Negative). But I am trying to hold on to God's promises and wait on His perfect timing!!

Please don't stop praying now, we need it now more than ever!!!! See you girls tomorrow!