A Look Back: Our IVF Timeline

April 2011- called Dr. Isaacs to get started, gather all info. we needed, and began birth control and Synthroid

May 27- began taking a baby aspirin daily along with Synthroid, birth control and vitamins.

May 30- met w/Dr. Isaacs to get schedule and order all medications (even for Daniel)

June 2- appt. for ultrasound & blood work (all was good)

June 6- stop birth control

June 10- appt. w/Dr. Isaacs for ultrasound & blood work. Began shots daily (2/day)-Daniel begins his antibiotic twice daily for 7 days. Me: off of caffeine.

June 11- shots and I told Daniel I’d be glad to make his antibiotic into liquid form so he could have a shot too and not feel left out. J He politely declined.

June 12-13- shots and other meds

June 14- shots, other meds, and appt. to check follicles (at least 20 or more present and all were measuring 11mm or below). Also had blood work done to check estrogen level (high- reduced meds in shots)- began a shot of Ganirellix to keep from ovulating.

June 15- shots and Ganirellix

June 16- shots, other meds, and appt. to check follicles (24 total & all measuring 10mm-16mm) Daniel gave shots as usual this day, but for some reason it seemed like he was stabbing me. He always looked at me with puppy dog eyes and asked if he did ok. When I’d respond he’d always say, “I’m sorry. I love you. Thank you for going through this for us.”

June 17- shots and other meds

June 18- shots, other meds, and appt. to check follicles- Begin Lupron @ 10 p.m. ( I know we said we weren’t going to do Lupron, but the nurse assured us that this time it wouldn’t be as strong and not have the same side effects.)

June 19- no regular shots, but last Lupron @ 10 a.m.

June 20- egg retrieval (28 eggs!)- pretty bad cramping afterwards and very bloated feeling. Gas pain was HORRIBLE & couldn’t comfortable enough enough to sleep until about 3 a.m. Daniel rolled over just after I’d dozed off and kneed me in the rear, not on purpose, but oh how painful it was?!

June 21- take Estrace a.m. and p.m. Liz called from the lab to tell me the success of fertilized eggs. 14 ICSI and 10 fertilized; 14 conventional and 10 fertilized. These are awesome results, but not to say they’ll continue to grow. Liz will call me daily to discuss the progress of the embryos with hopes of transfer on Saturday.

June 22- 18 embryos today 2 looked abnormal yesterday w/3 nuclei and that leaves us with 18 embryos. Liz says they’re doing really well.

June 23- feeling more like myself today. I guess laying around all day yesterday helped. All 18 embryos still growing & ½ of them look great. I even went for a short run and it felt great!

June 24- All 18 still growing with transfer tomorrow @ 9 a.m.

June 25- Valium @ 8 and a full bladder. Transfer was a breeze. Transferred 2 embryos and have a picture. Bed rest today and for the next two days.

June 26- bed rest, lots of TV, reading, and napping.

June 27- bed rest and same as yesterday – a bit of a meltdown today due to a bad case of the “what ifs”

July 1- blood work looks great. Progesterone:30 and they wanted it to be at least 20; Estrogen was 227 and they wanted it to be at least 200.

July 5- blood work @ 9 a.m. Beta HcG 489; Progesterone: 36. WE ARE PREGNANT!!!! I pulled out old pregnancy tests from so many years of trying and took one. J It was fun to see it say “pregnant”.

July 6- took another pregnancy test- still pregnant. J

July 7- blood work today- #s look great! HcG should double every 48 hrs: Today it was 1,280. Keep growing little ones!

July 9- We went home to Meridian today to take Moma and Poppie a “house warming” present and Daniel’s mom an early birthday present. When we told both our parents, I read our intro into our journey & allowed them to open their presents. Both were shocked and ecstatic!

July 10- Madz was having a not so great day today and had accidentally dropped Stephen’s grilling plate that Linden gave him for Father’s day. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to travel to have a long visit with her in Tuscaloosa this summer so I decided to make her “not so great day” a little better. She kept asking me to say it again so she could make sure she heard me right.

July 13- Beta HcG: 23,489; Estrogen 699; Progesterone 29 (I’m still taking the progesterone shot nightly.)

July 21- 1^st ultrasound to determine how many embryos took. TWINS!!! Hearing and seeing both heartbeats is the best sound ever! No more Dr. Isaacs. We will miss them!

August 10- ultrasound with regular OB. All went well! Still two heartbeats (178 & 181).

August 19- no more progesterone shots. NO MORE SHOTS period!!! Yahoo!

August 22- ultrasound… all is well. Heartbeats were great (168 & 171) and babies are growing and MOVING great.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow….