The In Vitro Journey - Round 1 - Transfer and 2ww!

Readers, I am so sorry to keep you waiting on this post. By now everyone who reads this probably already knows we had our transfer but I thought I owed to you all to sit down and right out a detailed description of bringing our embryos home and what has gone on since then.

Here they are in all their glory! 

2 perfect embryos after they had been thawed out 

(one was 5 days old before it was frozen and one was 6 days old). 

On Tuesday we arrived at the clinic at 11:30am to check in for our 12:00pm transfer. Due to my clinic's over booking, we sat in the waiting room until 1:00pm. This was probably the most torturous hour of my life. We were annoyed but we were confident our embryos were in good hands and were thawing out and getting ready for us. Finally around 1:30pm we saw our doctor who apologized for the wait and promised us the transfer itself would be quick and easy and we'd be out of there in now time. 

We met with the embryologist who gave us the above picture of our embryos and also let us know that one of our embryos was lost during the thaw. Though we were saddened by this, we knew it was a possibility and it made us even more thankful that we did another round of IVF before attempting to transfer the one frozen embie from our first batch.

The doctor came in and inserted a ultrasound so they could see my lining and know exactly where to place the embryos. The doctor then inserted a catheter which we could see on the ultrasound. We watched on a TV screen as the embryologist in the lab sucked the two embryos up into a tiny catheter and then walked them to our room. The doctor then inserted the small catheter into the catheter that was inside of me. You can see on the ultrasound the exact spot in my lining where the embryos were placed (the little white dot).

After the transfer was complete we were told to take it easy for a little while but ultimately to return to live as normal. No bed rest, no baths, and no heavy lifting. I have been taking part in all the IVF "old wives' tales" such as eating one piece of pineapple core a day, one 8 oz glass of pomegranate juice and 5 Brazil nuts. I've also been eating healthy and drinking lots of water and most importantly staying positive. It's hard not to over analyze every little cramp and movement you feel in your body and I've turned to Dr. Google more times than once.

1dp5&6dt

(1 day past 5 & 6 day transfer)

I kind of laid around the house a lot this day. I didn't feel much of anything all day.

2dp5&6dt

Back to work! Felt little tiny pulls and twinges in my lower abdomen but nothing to think twice about.

3dp5&6dt

Felt some cramping and sore lower back on and off all day.

4dp5&6dt

Today I woke up feeling crampy and sore. The cramps have been pretty steady all day which I want to think is a good thing but at times I worry it's the beginning of my period. What a cruel joke of the world that pregnancy symptoms so closely mimic period symptoms! I bought @ home pregnancy tests today but my other half is making me hold off until at least 6dp.

The 2ww (2 week wait) continues!

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The In Vitro Journey - One Week Countdown!

Ooops, this was supposed to get posted yesterday but life has been a crazy whirlwind, forgive me. Just wanted to give you all a quick update as we count down the final 7 days of having never been pregnant. Our last appointment was yesterday (Tuesday) to make sure my uterine lining is thickening as it should be. The doctor's want it to be at least 8mm with a nice "triple stripe" lining. I passed!

So now the protocol changes to prepare my body during this crucial final week. My estrogen patches have been increased from 2 patches for 3 days to 4 patches. I also start oral Prometrium which is another hormone that when coupled with Estrogen patches mimics your body's natural cycle. On top of that I also will be starting twice daily Endometrin inserts. This insert contains 100 mg of micronized progesterone. Progesterone is a natural hormone that helps the uterine lining receive and nourish a fertilized egg. My other half and I will both have to take antibiotics for 3 days prior to transfer to insure that there are no bacterial infections that could compromise the process.

Anyways, enough with all the drugs and protocol talk. We are so excited to have come this far in this journey and to be this close to our ultimate goal. In a little over 3 weeks from now we will know the results on our first round of IVF. We will know if we will be adding a member to our little family or if we will be delayed again. We will either forget about every needle, every pill it's taken to get here or we will fail, and grieve, and be forced to pick up the pieces and start again. Either way, I feel so accomplished to have gotten this far and I personally am so thankful for the support from all sides. I hope to bring you good news in the near future! Until then...

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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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