The In Vitro Journey - Frozen Embryo Transfer Plan

Hello dear readers! Sorry to keep you waiting for a so long in between posts. I've been a bit caught up in all our "down time" and we have been enjoying some shot-and-appointment-free weeks. David and I decided to take a quick weekend trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our creation of life! We have 6 embryos waiting for us in the freezer; how amazing! Our celebration included a lot of relaxing in our hotel room @ The Rio, champagne and the BEST chocolate covered strawberries delivered to our room thanks to my awesome parents, and lots of delicious meals. We had good luck in the casinos, came home with about $400 more cash than we started with which means the trip pretty much payed for itself! I had to stop by my girl Britney's machine and of course she helped me make a little bit of money.

We took a ride in The High Roller, the world's highest observation tower. It's like a really big ferris wheel with these big capsules that hold about 20 people. It's a 30 minute ride and at the highest point you are up at 550 ft'. 

Anyways, we had a lot of fun and the trip was just what we needed to take our minds off our IVF journey for a little bit.

When we got back we met with our doctor to review the plan for our upcoming Frozen Embryo Transfer. I started birth control at the start of my next cycle which caused my ovaries to stop any egg production. A few weeks later we were back on the injections. 20cc of Luprolide once daily. This drug ultimately shuts down my body's reproductive system. If my body was to naturally ovulate on it's own it would throw off the timing of my uterine receptivity making implantation of the frozen embryo less likely. After 10 days of Lupron I added in estrogen patches! These are fun... 2 little super sticky patches that I put on my stomach for 3 days at a time. These help increase the thickness of my endometrial lining. One week before our transfer, I will stop the Lupron injections and start Progesterone inserts 3x a day. This hormone helps prepare a receptive lining for the embryo to implant into. It also helps to prevent the body from fighting off the embryo. All these drugs ultimately mimic a natural cycle of pregnancy. Ours just so happens to be controlled by professionals (Science is so amazing!). Our transfer is scheduled for November 17th. At that point we will have 2 healthy, perfect little embryos implanted directly into my uterus. And then we wait. And wait and wait and wait. 

There's the facts, the plan, the details. I try not to let the emotions shine through these posts but trust me, there are a lot of them from all sides of this puzzle. There are also side effects to the drugs. Constant headaches, earaches, cramps, fatigues, and boy am I sick of needles in my tummy every night. But ultimately, I know that none of this will matter when we feel the very first kick of the life growing inside my womb.

I think I covered everything.. Hopefully I don't have any updates for you until transfer day! Send us all your happy thoughts and prayers if that's your thing ;)

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Book Review: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, #1) by Robin LaFevers

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 3.94
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Goodreads Summary:
Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

My Actual Rating: 4.8

"Perhaps that is because you mistake death for justice, and they are not the same thing at all."

This book was really good! It's sat on my TBR shelf forever and I wish I had read it sooner. It slightly reminded me of The Throne of Glass series and Ismae kind of resembles Celaena Sardotian (except not as cool).

The world building was very creative and had clever ties to real world history.. I found it all quite interesting and the whole serving of Saint Mortain aka the god of death was a great touch. I'm interested to know if Ismae will continue to serve Saint Mortain even if she leaves the convent.

I did find the pace to be a bit slow and there is a whole bunch of politics which bored me for a little while there but the way it builds and comes together was magnificent. The character development was impressive and believable and everything happened at just the right pace. There were times when I couldn't care less about the "drama" going on in the royal kingdom and only cared about the budding relationship between Ismae & Duval, but nonetheless things started to get more exciting near the end and I couldn't put it down.

I will definitely be reading on in the series as I hear the second book is even better than the first!


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Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.31
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fiction, Dystopia

Goodreads Summary:
It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune — and remarkable power — to whoever can unlock them. 

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved — that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. 

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. 

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt — among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life — and love — in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. 

A world at stake. 
A quest for the ultimate prize. 
Are you ready?

My Actual Rating: 4.8

I am not a gamer by any means but this book was really really good and the author is really impressed me! The book takes place in the future but not too far into the future and it's actually pretty realistic of what could be our future. The virtual reality is so crazy to even think about; kids learn to walk, talk, read and lots of other things in this virtual reality. They are basically raising themselves.

At first this book was hard to wrap my head around because I had a hard time remembering what was real life and what was part of this virtual reality. Even then, it all pieced together in the most interesting way.

The characters were great! They weren't these perfect, make believe people. They were realistic people who got to live out their idea of their perfect self in their virtual reality. The romance aspect was SO adorable.. It was a very small part of the book which usually I don't like but for this book it was perfect. I loved the ending, loved the drama, loved everything about this book!

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Book Review: Invaded (Alienated, #2) by Melissa Sanders

Invaded by Melissa Landers
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.05
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Romance

Goodreads Summary:
The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them. 

Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.

Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.

The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

My Actual Rating: 2.5

Ugh.. I don't know why I decided to read on in this series.. This book was not good. It started slow, continued to be slow throughout and then ended in a hurried rush.

When I finally decided I liked one of the characters they died.... Typical.

I felt like Cara was all over the place. She makes super rash decisions that permanently effected her whole life. I could hardly keep up with her; sometimes she hated L'heir and then all of a sudden she was a politician, then she wanted to go back to living on Earth and then all of a sudden she gets a high up spot on the council and is headed back to L'heir.

The relationship was boring.. There was a small hitch in it that was stupid and, I thought, thrown in there just to make the book last longer. I won't be reading on.

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Book Review: Jane Eyre by Charolette Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.08
Genre: Classic, Fiction, Romance

Goodreads Summary:
Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.

With a heroine full of yearning, the dangerous secrets she encounters, and the choices she finally makes, Charlotte Bronte's innovative and enduring romantic novel continues to engage and provoke readers.

My Actual Rating: 3.8

Finally, finally, finally I have finished this book! It felt like it took me ages.

This was probably my favorite classic.. I was actually able to follow along and understand what was happening for about 90% of the time. At first the perspective was hard to follow but I got the hang of it and began to enjoy it. The beginning was my favorite, when Jane was a child and treated poorly and shipped away to the orphan school. The romance was right up my ally in the sense that it was forbidden for quite sometime even though everyone knew it was building when it shouldn't have been. Finally, FINALLY when Mr. Rodchester and Miss Eyre admitted their feelings for each other is was almost too late. There were so many other people's emotions tied up in limbo. Then when Miss Eyre decided to leave and go on that poorly planned journey and almost die, I almost died right along with her. For one I was bored out of my mind and for two it was so clear that she did not belong with that other guy (can't even remember his name because he was so irrelevant.) I felt like it was major space filler and made the book unnecessarily long and drawn out.

The reunion was not all I wished it was but I was happy with the outcome. I'm glad to have read this classic tale and put it behind me.

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Book Review: Perfect Chemistry (Perfect Chemistry, #1) by Simone Elkeles

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.09
Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary

Goodreads Summary:
A fresh, urban twist on the classic tale of star-crossed lovers.

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created 'perfect' life is about to unravel before her eyes. She's forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for: her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. 

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

My Actual Rating: 1.2

That was one of the worst books I've read in a really long time. I actually feel like I lost brain cells from reading it. The characters were SO stereotypical it was borderline racism.

The romance aspect was so far from believable I can't even explain it. One minute they hated each other and every thing about the other person and then all of a sudden "is it possible to be addicted to a person?" "she's the girl of my dreams." I wanted to throw up.

The author tried so hard to make the characters seem like they developed during the book but they didn't. At all. They were so one dimensional and flat! They made me want to pound on the keyboard AFKLSDH:FKLSDFJSDLKF

Anyways boy am I glad that is over.. I will never read anything by this author again.

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Book Review: The Deal (Off-Campus, #1) by Elle Kenned

The Deal by Elle Kennedy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Avg rating: 4.38
Genre: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Goodreads Summary:
She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy... 

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice... even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date. 

...and it’s going to be oh so good. 

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn't take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn't going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

My Actual Rating: 4.8

Mmmm yes! The relationship in this book for my ideal, perfect book couple. The dynamic between the main characters was amazing and the constant push and pull was perfect.

I really liked how the author set up the story.. The characters both had a dark spot from their past but it wasn't really controlling them anymore.. It just remained a shadow that ultimately affected who they were as individuals.

The chase was perfect. Seriously, exactly the right amount. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The first kiss scene had me feelin some type of way and even more so a few chapters later.

The character development in this one really stood out to me. Even if this was just a love story the characters evolved so much as individuals and as a couple that I couldn't help but feel every emotion right along side them. Garret is passionate, intense, and smokin hot. I loved how Hannah didn't put up with his shit and how it turned into this super flirty banter between them. It all just felt so real and natural to me.

I'm worried about what might happen in the next book with Logan's crush on Hannah and the title being "The Mistake" or something like that... Sounds dramaticccc

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The In Vitro Journey - Cycle #2 - Final Embryo Update

My favorite thing about this process so far has been the lab's daily embryo update calls. I usually let them go to voicemail so David and I can listen together. Also sometimes I need to listen to them a couple of times to really take in all the information. Today was day 6, our final day for the embyros to be viable for freeze. Yesterday we got that call that 3 of our embryos had reached blastocyst stage and were frozen. 2 were good quality and 1 was fair quality. (Embryos are rated on a good, fair, poor scale) Today they were able to freeze 2 more. 1 good quality and 1 fair quality. That leaves us with a total of 6 frozen embryos (with the 1 from last time). So we have 4 good quality embies and 2 fair quality. 

We are so happy with these results and so glad we went through with this second round of stims like the doctor suggested. Although it is tough to wait another couple of months to have these embryos transferred back in me where they belong I know it is in our best interest.

I will be starting a 21 day all natural cleanse called Standard Process in the upcoming weeks to flush out all the toxins and prepare my body to the best of my ability for a successful and healthy pregnancy.

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