SET

We are SET for our SET (single embryo transfer). To be honest, I didn’t think DH and I would be doing this ET this summer let alone starting now. Part of me was, is worried about the quality of this embryo. We haven’t had a ton of luck with the embryos from my IVF cycle last summer. We miscarried the first two embryos that we transferred (10w4d) and the second two (FET) didn’t implant. The embryo that we have left was frozen on day 7. I believe this is one of the eggs that wasn’t mature at retrieval and was allowed to develop over night and then fertilized the next day. This embryo was graded 2.0 on the day that it was frozen and it had already hatched. From what my nurse told me, this embryo is a fighter. Our lab won’t freeze anything graded low on day 5-6-7 and will not freeze past day seven. This embryo was graded lower on the other days, but when they looked at it again on day 7 it had improved greatly and had even hatched. I almost hate to say it, but that gives me a lot of hope.

The other part of our reasoning to not do the ET now is of course money. Do we save money to put towards our adoption journey? Do we save money to put towards a fresh IVF cycle in the future?

But, over the past few weeks I have realized a couple of things…

We are moving forward with our adoption journey. If we are lucky and matched sooner than later, this embryo wouldn’t be able to be used for at least a year (probably much longer).

More importantly, this embryo is ours. It is precious. I can’t leave it frozen. I have to give it a chance.

So, after hearing that last cycle was a bust I immediately let my nurse know of our plan do to our SET. Our clinic is totally on board.

If you want to know more about our SET cycle, I have posted our plans on the right hand side of the blog.

Now, I am just waiting on a call from the pharmacy. I am to start L.upron 4.8!

Another Adoption Saturday

After I talked to the agency last week, I started thinking about them not having our BCI checks yet. Last year I had called the place that completes the check to check on the status of ours for our teaching licenses, so I did that again Wednesday for our new checks. Sure enough they said that they had sent them to our agency on 2.26.10. In order to get new copies sent, the agency had to call. That was Wednesday so I am hopeful that they get them in the mail soon.

Today was our networking workshop. It was fantastic! We left with a ton of great ideas.

It was great to see some of the same couples from class and meet a few new couples going through this journey also.

We also had the opportunity to meet the case aid, face to face, that we had been in contact with. She told me to call early next week to check on the status of our paperwork. I am hoping that they call me first! I am so ready to get things started with our homestudy interviews.

Not this time

Daily - Synthroid, Glucophage, Metanx, Prenatal, B. Asa., Vit. E
2.21.10 - CD 1
2.23.10 - Start Femara
2.27.10 - Last Femara
3.5.10 - CD 13 U/S (7.7mm lining & 20-24mm follicle on good side)
3.5.10 -CD 13 Trigger
3.7.10 - CD 15 IUI
3.8.10 - CD 16 Start Progesterone
3.18.10 - Beta - BFN

tough week

Not only is this a busy week, but it's also a very tough one for us. Yesterday, 3.15.10, marked one year since the start of my first miscarriage. Friday, 3.19.10, would have been the EDD of my second pregnancy.

Another Checkmark

Friday after work I called the agency to get an update on what we need to do next. As of Friday, one of our references hadn’t been checked in and our BCI checks weren’t there either. However, the mail hadn’t been checked yet for that day. So, I am hoping that our reference letter, at least, was there. She also told me that we were missing a few other pieces of paperwork.

As soon I got home, DH and I took care of what we could and headed to the post office. What else did we mail out?:
1. Copies of driver’s licenses/social security cards
2. Our CPR certificates
3. Copies of our puppies’ vaccines and licenses (she said that we could go ahead and send these since they would need these later)

This packet should be at the agency Monday.

I am really hoping that we get a call from them this week setting us up with our social worker.

We are finished with our homestudy education classes! Saturday was another long day. We left around 7:40am and made our usual stop for breakfast. Class seemed like it took forever even though it was much shorter this time. We were out of there by 12:30pm with certificates in hand.

After stopping for lunch and mailing out bills, we relaxed at home for just a little bit. We then hit the road to go to A.then, Ohio (2 hours away) to watch tournament basketball. The team (high school) won! They are now headed to the sweet sixteen and play this Wednesday at the same place. That’s going to be another long night. (This high school is where DH and I both graduated from and is now where DH works.)

What's Next?

After I published my last post, I realized that it was my 100th! To be honest, I thought about deleting it so that I could write up a post more worthy of a 100th posting, but I didn’t. Even though that post was short, it pretty well summed up our lives right now. Things are so hectic and we are always on the go. Best of all, we are o.k with that!

Class went well last night. Like I said it was called Save-A-Baby. The reminder that we hadn’t gotten in the mail said to be there 10 minutes early and I didn’t want to be late. I’ll just put it this way…we were fast walking through the hospital to not be late (mind you I didn’t want to be late for our 10 minute early deadline). Sure enough, we were the first ones there. I think I stressed my DH out a little. On top of that, I drove and we had to park in a parking garage. I don’t like those so that didn’t go so well.

After we got signed in, other couples started to arrive. Some reason I had it in my head that a wide variety of people would be there. But, that wasn’t the case at all. Five of the couples that were there were about to POP and the other couple had just had their baby six weeks ago. I felt like I needed to stick my belly out. Soon enough our secret came out, but we were happy to learn that one of the instructors adopted her son eleven years ago from K.orea.

During the class, we learned 0-12 CPR and different techniques for addressing choking situations. We got lots of practice using the training dummies. Guess what? We even got let out of class early! It made our one hour trip there and home much easier to handle.

Now, I need to send in our ‘certificates’ showing that we attended.

We did hear from the agency this week. They actually left a message on my work phone. They had even called my DH’s phone. Yikes! They are hosting a speaker on networking later this month and they wanted to know if we wanted to attend. So, we are now registered for that workshop on 3.20.10.

As of right now, we know that two of our three references letters have been submitted. We are going to try to find out about our last tomorrow. We should be getting a call from a social worker soon!

Our last homestudy education class is this Saturday!

Class Time

We are getting ready to leave for class. Tonight we are attending our Save-a-Baby class (CPR and some first aid). I will update tomorrow. Check out the right side for upcoming dates!

EDIT: OMGoodness, this is my 100th post! And, I have 50 followers! I am so proud!

Slowing Down?

Yesterday morning we left around 8:40am to head off to get our physicals completed. All went well! The appointment took a while since my DH had never been seen by this doctor. Dr. B is checking my insulin levels just to see how things are going taking into account my family’s history. He also drew blood from my DH to check his cholesterol, I believe. I think we should hear back about these results early next week.

After leaving the doctor’s office, we went to the post office to mail out the last half of our paperwork! $1.73 later, it should be there tomorrow. While out and about, we ran a few errands.

We then headed home to walk the puppies and put our purchases away. We were home for only an hour.

Saturday night we babysat my nephew C. It was a great experience! We were even able to take him to a play area at a local restaurant. I think he was worn out; he fell asleep quite easily. It was good practice for us parents-to-be! We got home around 10:15pm.

This morning we left bright and early, around 6:45am, and headed straight to the clinic. Breakfast at B.ob E.vans was wonderful as always. The IUI went fantastic! DH’s numbers were wonderful. I start progesterone tomorrow night and my beta is scheduled for 3.18.10.

When are things going to slow down? :)

Busy Weekend Ahead

We get to try!

I just got home from my CD 13 u/s. It actually went well. My lining was 7.7mm. Normally, it’s a little better, but I think it should get better by the time I go back. What do you think?

She checked my ‘bad’ side first. I think I had a couple of small follicles on that side, but she only measured one. The one she measured was around 10.7mm and I knew then I should have been getting good news. Sure enough, we found a huge follicle on my good side! When she measured it the first time, it was around 20mm. Then, she measured it again from another angle and it was around 24mm. Either way, it’s a good one!

We are to trigger tonight and our IUI is set for Sunday morning at 10:15am.

They also checked my TSH while I was there. I should hear about that Monday sometime. I got my gluco.phage and me.thax refilled on my way home.

Please read our adoption update below we have a ton going on!

Madness... that's how I feel!

This week has been completely crazy! I got all new students Monday and it’s taken a ton of work to get everything finished up from last trimester and ready for this last one of the school year. Last weekend, I got some work completed on my autobiography questions. I had all intentions to get the rest of them completed early this week. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet. Our goal is still to get the last of the paperwork sent out on Saturday. So, that means I have a lot of work to do Friday evening. We did work on our financial statement, but I have a few more numbers to fill in on that form also. Jason has been working on his autobiography off and on. We also filled out our agency agreement form.

Last Sunday, we had our fire inspection. It was short and simple. The gentlemen’s main concern was our smoke detectors… we PASSED!

Now, we need to finish getting our house ready for our safety audit. We have already started, but have several more things that we need to do.

Earlier this week, I was able to schedule us for our CPR class. It's this coming Wednesday. It's called Save-a-Baby. I was also able to get us into a Baby Basics class. It is scheduled for 4.22.10. That is the earliest one that I could find.

This week has included not only work, but also working out, going to a tournament basketball game and attending my niece’s bridging ceremony (from daisies to brownies). This weekend we get to watch my nephew. This should be great practice!

Plan for the weekend:
1. Friday night- Finish all paperwork and clean around house.
2. Saturday morning- Physicals and mail off the rest of the paperwork. Run errands.
3. Saturday evening- Watch my nephew.
4. Sunday- Work on school/college work and perhaps our profile.