Day 3 updates

Hopefully you subscribe to the 'no news is good news' philosophy since I skipped yesterday's update.  I had a crazy day at work and then got home and crashed.  We did get news yesterday that the nine embryos were all still continuing to grow.

This morning, we got more details about our nine, which is as follows:
-3 9-cell embryos
-5 8-cell embryos
-1 4-cell embryo (this is the only embryo not really in play anymore)

They want to see about four 8-cell embryos on this day so we are in good shape.  Last cycle on this same day, we had:
-10 8-cell embryos
-6 6-cell embryos
-2 4-cell embryos
-2 2-cell embryos

So last cycle, we had 10 out of 20 embryos in play, whereas this cycle we have 8 out of 9...I think that points to overall improved embryo quality. 

In other news...I saw another amazing rainbow today...like, probably the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen.  Each of our previous three cycles, we've looked for 'signs' - the paw print from Carl, the fortune cookies, a transfer on my birthday.  I promised myself that I WOULD NOT DO THAT THIS CYCLE.  But, I guess I am forever an optimist and I can't help but see these things as good luck.  :)

Finally, I have been reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson and oh, friends - my sides...they are splitting.   Lawson's book is a memoir of her childhood growing up in rural Texas with a less-than-traditional family including her taxidermist father (that's a father that is a taxidermist...not a father that has BEEN taxidermied...just to be clear).  I was reading parts of it aloud to Nick (against his will...but he was folding laundry and kind of a captive audience) and I could barely get through some of it, I was laughing so hard.   It's completely irreverent and managed to keep me from focusing on the stress of IVF for a few hours, so that certainly says something.

My transfer has been schedule for 7:30 am on Friday so send some good thoughts our way then.  XOXO

My Ability to Obsess Knows No Bounds

So, first a quick update and then a moderately humorous story about this weekend.

Update: the doctor's office called and nine of our 15 eggs have fertilized...some may start to tomorrow as well.  We are cautiously optimistic!

Story...so once the pressure of 'will we or won't we cancel this cycle' lifted, I found myself distinctly lacking anything to obsess over.  Fortunately, I believe it is the job of weather people to scare the living jeebus out of all of humanity, so I quickly found a replacement anxiety...tornadoes!  Before I go any further in the story, let me say - I am so glad that the tornado this weekend in Witchita didn't cause any fatalities but I'm terribly sorry for the damage it, and other tornadoes around the country did.   I am not making light of any of those situations.  Tornadoes are truly scary and as we saw in Joplin last year, devastating at times.  The point of this story is to, well, illustrate how my craziness knows no bounds...not to make light of the seriousness of the situation.

That said, I think we can all agree that any possibility for extreme weather does seem to get the weather folk hyped up into a near frenzy...Al Roker was practically foaming at the mouth...this weekend's severe weather outbreak was no different.  All I heard for 48 hours was "potential for massive tornado outbreaks", "major hail and wind damage", and "dangerous lightning".   Then, they started referencing 'emergency kits'. 

My only real experience with emergency kits is the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips I keep in the pantry for uncontrollable chocolate cravings, but I quickly realized this was not the same thing.  Words like 'weather radios' and 'rations' were bandied about.  And of course, this winter has been completely bizarre...so all of this information added up into my head to...must make emergency kit to survive (surely) impending tornado.  I don't really know what it was in me that decided this was Doomsday-worthy, but I hightailed it over to RadioShack to pick up a weather radio.

Apparently, along with all of the rest of Kansas City.  The sales clerk glared at me (I waited until 3pm on Saturday to freak out...I guess the rest of the city was ahead of my own personal Impending Doom Clock) and informed me that all she had left were the non-'wake you up' weather radios.  I told her I wasn't even aware 'waking me up' was an option but since I can't sleep through my cat yakking on the carpet, I didn't really foresee this as a problem.  She showed me to the pile of picked over weather radios and began to catalog the various differences (Solar powered but not battery powered!  Hand crank powered but not solar powered!  Charges your cell phone!  Flashlight!  Performs minor surgeries!).  Not wanting to appear ignorant of the important features in a weather radio, I did what I typically default to in shopping situations.  Which is the prettiest at the best price?  I'll take that one.

And so, I took my weather radio home (after having bought an insane amount of batteries, as well) opened it up and stuck some batteries in.  I felt better already!  Smugly, I looked down the street at my neighbors...surely, THEY didn't have weather radios and mentally catalogued which neighbors I would have to inform of Impending Doom.

Next, I needed to create an emergency kit.  I scoured the house looking for emergency kit worthy items, which included:
-bottles of water
-Kashi granola bars
-a half empty bottle of hand sanitizer
-Clean clothes and a spare pair of shoes for myself (I allotted Nick some space in the kit for his own clean clothes but he grunted at me...a kind of grunt that seemed to imply I was WASTING MY TIME)
-Extra hair ties
-Baby wipes
-Extra cat food and cat food dishes
-Medicines
-Wedding photos
-Folder with our important documents in it
-Flashlights
-Extra cell phone charger
-Extra cell phone batteries
-laptop
-toilet paper and paper towels
-camera

Frankly, for a spur of the moment emergency kit, I was quite pleased with myself.  However, this did take up two duffel bags...and I quickly realized I would also need to grab the cats and head to the basement along with the bags.  I practiced a couple of 'cat grab and bag grab' maneuvers down the stairs and timed myself...about 45 seconds (would have been shorter but Ernie got away from me - I ended up sticking him in the back, zipping it up.  I left his head out - don't worry!).  I had forgotten in my calculations that the other cat, Zoe, ALWAYS heads to the basement automatically during the storms so I wouldn't have to worry about her.

I felt pretty content with my last minute preparations and settled down with Nick for a quiet evening at home.  As luck would have it, my preparations were completely unnecessary, as the storms missed us almost completely.  Unfortunately, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas were not so lucky, but I thank my lucky stars that we were missed this time.   In all seriousness - I don't know why I've never really given much thought to emergency preparations, but I think I'm going to work on creating a 'real' emergency kit given our location in Tornado Alley.   There are some great lists on Pinterest that break up the items you need to purchase by month or week so it's not such an up-front cost.  Plus, it's exactly the type of activity to distract me from embryo-update and pregnancy-test waiting.  :)

A Day in Pictures

Some scenes from today...

Post procedure snuggling with Ernie...

Rainbow we saw right before walking into the doctor's office...

More gratuitous Ernie pics...

Also, we had a call from the embryologist...they were able to fertilize 15 of our 17 eggs so that's great news!  Hoping for continued good news each day!

All done!

Just got home from the egg retrieval...it went very well.  They were able to get 17 eggs which is exactly within the range we were hoping for.  The doctor said that even though it took longer he's much happier with the results of this cycle so far.  So now we wait for our daily embryo reports.

In the meantime, within arms reach - I have several bottles of water, a small breakfast from Panera (egg souffle!), my Nook, my laptop, my cell phone, and the TV remote.  Oh, and my pain meds and Tylenol.  I'm going to try and avoid taking any more of the pain meds because they make me feel sick but we'll see how it goes.  They did give me some Zofran this time for the nausea that I typically get after anaesthesia so that was nice.

And it wouldn't be a blog entry from me if there wasn't some vein-related issue.  Today, it took a nurse and two anaesthesiologists to get my IV in.  They seemed a little dumb-founded but I assured them it was me, not them. :)

Nurse Nick is telling me I need to sleep, so off I go!  XOXO

The One Where Nick and Sarah Catch a Break

Well, it took nearly a week longer than expected, but my follicles finally got to where they needed to be.  We had plenty of growth over the last four days (we had an 18mm, 17mm, and some 16mms, 15mms and 14mms) so we are on for a retrieval on Sunday.  My biggest concern was that I was going to be borderline and we'd be forced to make a decision.  I know we would have been conservative and cancelled the cycle, but still - being forced to make that decision isn't easy.  I was SO excited to see all the big follicles on the ultrasound; the doctor and I both knew immediately when he looked at the first ovary that things looked good.  I was exactly where he had hoped I would be and he estimates that I'll end up with 15-20 eggs from the retrieval...much better than the 35 I had last time. 

Although, even with as great as things looked, I did put on my best 'mean Sarah' face and quiz the doctor about whether he was absolutely 100% sure that we should go on with the cycle.   The doctor seemed nonplussed and assured me that we were in good shape.  Of course, I was doing this from the stirrups so perhaps my meanness didn't really come across as well as I intended. 

I was so delighted I didn't even mind when a new nurse decided to try and take my blood.  I sat there chattering happily until I noticed the needle was in my arm and nothing was coming out.  Sarah's Pathetic Veins Strike Again!  I told her to go get the 'good nurse' (I didn't call her that - I used her name)...this nurse has gotten me on the first try three times in a row and now I pretty much only want her to take the blood.  As predicted, she got it on the first try and I went on my merry way.  I still have to get the blood results back but there's no reason to think those will change the plans at this point.

Hooo---rrr----aaa---yyyy!!! (spell check just went crazy on this!)

Miscellany

• Just wanted to take a moment to brag on Nicholas.  He has been so amazing throughout this entire process but particularly during our most recent struggles.  I've been offered daily foot massages (he's been doing Internet research on how to relieve headaches with foot massages!), lots of extra help around the house and just general pampering and kindness.  He's also put up with a few irrational outbursts from me (i.e. yesterday when I was on the phone with him re: my car's check engine light being on which culminated in me screeching 'I just need it to be fixxxeeeeeedddddd!') without complaint or judgement. 
• Although to be fair, I have spent the last year being poked and prodded so that we may have a child together.  Daily foot massages seem about right.
• Someone asked me what else we did with the in-laws this past weekend, so briefly - Boulevard Brewery Tour (this is my favorite brewery tour EVER as their emphasis was on the sampling and not the touring), WWI museum, dinner at Jack Stack and drinks at Manifesto.  If you are in KC and haven't gone to Manifesto, you must.  It's a speakeasy in the basement of the Hotel Rieger restaurant and so much fun.  You have to text a phone number to get reservations and then you can enter by being buzzed in through an alley door (although we cheated and walked through the restaurant).  The drinks are truly amazing.  I had a 'Winter in Buenos Aires' which was both tropical and reminiscent of fall. 
• We also had this brunch lasagna on Easter Sunday.  I know - brunch lasagna?  I hadn't heard of it either but I was so intrigued that I just had to make it.  Unfortunately, I hadn't read the directions very closely and nearly missed the part about it needing to be made the NIGHT BEFORE you plan to eat it.  Luckily, my mother in law, Rose, and sister in law, Becky stepped in and helped me put it together...there were like a bazillion steps.  And pretty much the only breakfast food not represented was bacon.  Although I suppose you could add that if so inclined. :)  At any rate, it was divine.  I am still dreaming of it.
• Nick and I were so sad to see his family go, BUT we will be seeing them, as well as his younger brother and his wife, Dan and Lus, my mom and dad and my aunt and uncle ,in just about a month when we head to Memphis for the Memphis in May BBQ competition.  More to come on that later...
• I looked up my estradiol/follicle levels from my first cycle and I was at Day 12 where I was at Day 5 at our cycle in St. Louis with Silber.  You could take that as depressing, I suppose, but right after that Day 5 in St. Louis, my follicle growth sort of exploded so I'm hoping the same will happen again.  My doctor is calling this past Friday my 'new' Day 1 since the first week didn't count.  (not that I'm bitter or anything).
• On the agenda for tonight - forced relaxation!  I am trying really, really hard not to fuss around the house and just be quiet and still and breathe and focus on being zen and blah blah blah.  I read somewhere this weekend that stress is the enemy of follicle growth and so now, I'm going for the GOLD STAR OF RELAXATION.  Pretty much the best goal ever.

Quick update

Hello, all!

Just a quick note to say that the nurse called with my estradiol numbers yesterday and they have climbed up to 200, which is a good sign.  We still have a long way to go in the next few days but they are moving in the right direction.  And, I'm feeling more and more uncomfortable in my stomach and couldn't be more delighted.  Hopefully that means the follicles are growing.

Again, thanks for all your good thoughts, messages and phone calls!

XO