Inconceivable and beyond :-)

[boopin4baby]

Pinkie - I'm currently waiting for AF (due September 2ish), then I'll start meds for my FET cycle. I'm planning on an end of October transfer. xx

How are you and baby pinkie doing??

 

[Pinkie3]

Stacergirl, I pleased to hear the procedure was quick and painless for you. I hope you get some results back soon. Get some rest and I am thinking of you.

Vonn, I think you made the right decision to send DH out on his own. I done the same and headed over on my own for the transfer. I am glad no one wants to take any chances and the procedure is going ahead, you want yourself in tip top shape to welcome that little egg to snuggle in.

Boopin, good to hear that things are still moving forward for you, I hope AF shows up on time. An October transfer will be a summer baby

I am doing good, thanks for asking, I am 16 weeks now and sickness is finally easing although I still can't eat properly but it's bearable. We had a private scan yesterday because I couldn't wait from 12-20 before seeing baby again. The fact I don't have any physical changes yet or can feel anything was unsettling so seeing it wriggling around yesterday was just what I needed.

X

 

[ps57002]

Thank you all for the warm welcomes.

Vonn, I've had that test done where they put the dye thing in your tubes to see blockage. Yes it does hurt but was nothing compared to that damn cervix not opening and ouch that sure as hell hurt and they had to hold my hand. The test itself wasn't as bad. Thankfully for 1st IVF with OE (failed) last year, the cervix cooperated and it wasn't so bad opening me up. Now I fear those things... Good luck Friday. Will be thinking of you and a quick recovery for you.

2have4kids
My heritage and hubby is different and he wants a mini me. There's not enough donors from my heritage to begin with. So finding a donor embie would also be very very difficult. Plus at least with donor egg (though expensive), it's at least part hubby's dna. I really don't know what we will do if this fails. My hubby has been really out of it the whole past year and I am worried about his emotional being. He's taken it more and even has nightmares

Stacergirl,
Glad it is over and was painless. I can imagine the emotions though. Big hugs to you and I pray the next BFP is a snuggly sticky one that will bring you laughs and smiles when he/she is born (oh maybe twins?)

boopin4baby
Almost there to start... Yay. Exciting and nerve wrecking too. BFP dust coming your way.


Pinkie3
I am sure it must be so reassuring to see everything going well. I am really happy and excited for you.

AFM
Started lupron shots yesterday. First time lupron user. I had a headache start right away and it's not going anywhere. I feel so tired and sleepy this am. I am a bit dizzy too but maybe that is ear infection/fluid thing as a bit of cold symptoms here. Bit nauseous on/off too. Donor is supposed to start stims on 9/5, ER around 9/16, with transfer 5 day later. It's a shared cycle so I pray pray pray for enough healthy eggs to share or cycle will cancel for us (secondary couple) if she produces less than 10. stressed all the way....Trying to eat healthy, practice meditation, reduce stress (yeah right), and switched to a folate (instead of folic acid) prenatal, just in case. I have thyroid issues (under control) and so always think i have immune issues but RE doesn't believe in that stuff...so eating pineapple all the time, and whatever else i ready up on....

 

[2have4kids]

2have4kids
My heritage and hubby is different and he wants a mini me. There's not enough donors from my heritage to begin with. So finding a donor embie would also be very very difficult. Plus at least with donor egg (though expensive), it's at least part hubby's dna. I really don't know what we will do if this fails. My hubby has been really out of it the whole past year and I am worried about his emotional being. He's taken it more and even has nightmares

I guess DH and I have had enough fresh donor egg IVF's and FET's fail that we had time to process all of the 'what ifs'. We had time to get over having our genetics in our babies and even now that we were lucky enough to have one of our own, we're still not fussed on having our dna in a child, we're more concerned at the moment with providing little MacKinley with siblings close in age that she can play with now, have much in common and grow old with later. We just wanted to be parents and have a large family and lots of giggles during those Sunday dinners. It sounds like you need a clinic with a large donor bank too to match your cultural background. There are clinics in Europe that have huge donor banks. It took us 6 years to go through the emotions of it all, hopefully things work out and you won't have to consider alternatives.

 

[ps57002]

2have4kids

You are right, at end of the day, it's about having a family. Emotionally it has been difficult though for me to reach that stage of accepting donor eggs as an alternative. Even though RE was not for IVF with OE, i pushed for that first IVF and it failed. Hubby was for DE at that time. It's caused much more heartache for him. This turn around we are going with his instincts. If this fails, I hope and pray we can keep trodding on and accepting next step to be either adoption or donor embies. It's a painful step by step acceptance of things journey. We had almost started going into the adoption steps but then got called by clinic that they found a donor match from my ethnicity after extensive recruiting. So let's see. Trying to keep a balance between wanting to be optimistic but feeling like I can't get my hopes up.

 

[2have4kids]

So let's see. Trying to keep a balance between wanting to be optimistic but feeling like I can't get my hopes up.

It's like walking a tight rope isn't it. As we go along the balance stick gets longer and the rope seems to become thicker. More options open up with this amazing world of medical technology and the balancing seems to get easier when the shock of IF wears off. And maybe for me anger and impatience set in, I tried to channel it into determination. After I learned about donor egg/embryo and reproductive immune issues I sort of settled a little and knew that as long as I was doing everything in my power to bring us success that's all I had control over and felt a sigh of relief that comes with the anxiety and expense of the next try.

When my first IVF failed I was bawling in the car and DH leaned over and said to me "it's not about seeing your genetics in a baby it's about being a mom". He added, "maybe we'll adopt and you won't even need to mess up your body, you can be like one of those celebrity moms". That was early stages for us but his kind words seemed to stick with me. It brought me more tears in that moment but of joy and gratitude to have such a supportive partner. He had no hangups to work through and was super easy through the whole process. He dragged his heels a little and that's soo his personality and maybe a part of why we're here in the first place. But here's no sense in blaming him for anything, we just move forward with what we've got! The ladies on this thread are amazing and will support you no matter where in the process you're at.

 

[boopin4baby]

Thanks for the update Pinkie. I'm happy to hear you and baby are doing well. What a relief to see your little one moving about. They're so cute at this stage dancing on the US screen!! xx

 

[Bluebell bun]

So glad to hear everything went well Stacer, just take things easy and be good to yourself.
Vonn, sounds like a sensible idea for your OH to travel personally to leave a sample. Fingers crossed for a smooth transfer when it comes.
Pinkie, yay! Delighted to hear you saw your little bean again and all is well. I started feeling movement about 18 weeks so won't be long before you will have that reassurance. I love feeling the baby move
Boopin, when are you expecting to transfer?
2 have - how are you keeping? How does having a twin pregnancy compare with your last one so far?
PS - I am glad to hear that you managed to get a suitable match and fingers crossed all goes to plan.
Hope everyone else is well.
We have now passed the 24 week mark so that is another big milestone. Our next scan is 31 weeks so another few weeks before we see baby again. Have to confess to doing quite a bit of on line shopping over recent weeks!
Pinkie , 2 have - do you plan to tell your baby in the future you have used donor eggs/embryos? X

 

[2have4kids]

Pinkie , 2 have - do you plan to tell your baby in the future you have used donor eggs/embryos? X

I wouldn't dare try to hide this information. The truth always comes out! Like the old style closed adoptions, if they ever found out it would rock the foundations they were built on. I would never do that to my children. Our local counselor had a documentary tape of closed adoption kids and ivf kids, from their opinions it made perfect sense to us to build our relationship with our kids on honesty, and they'll get to know more and more details at appropriate times in their life, when they can understand. As you can see I'm fairly opinionated on this subject. My sil lied to her kids about death, about all sorts of things because she thought she was protecting them. Now they have very little respect for her and both chose at 14 to live with their dad for various reasons. DH and I vowed to build a relationship of trust with our kids after witnessing how her style of parenting worked for her.

 

[Pinkie3]

PS, glad you got your match and I hope things are going well. Take it one step at a time.

Bluebell, congratulations on hitting your 24 week milestone. Glad everything is going well and hope you're enjoying all the shopping.
My views and opinions are different, at the moment we have no intentions of telling our child. However that's not to say we won't change our minds when we feel he/she is old enough to understand.
X

 

[boopin4baby]

Hi Ladies,

The results are back from my blood work and diagnostic tests. Every single test performed came back NORMAL/NEGATIVE. And the pathology report on my recent miscarriage resulted in a "normal male embryo". I'm elated that I don't have any known immune/clotting issues, however, I'm still perplexed as to why I miscarried a perfectly normal embryo with a strong hb. I'm officially in the unexplained loss category. I think that's more frustrating than having an actual diagnosis. At least with a known problem it can be treated.

The plan moving forward is to use empirical treatment with my next FET cycle. My RE wants to treat me with lovenox, aspirin 81 mg, antibiotics and steroids in conjunction with my routine protocol. He says that it can only help, not hurt in my situation. So, why not? What do you ladies think? Any suggestions for additional testing or treatment? Any and all input is greatly appreciated. TIA

Tests performed:

AntiB2 Glycoprotein (IgG/IgM)
AntiPhosphoSerine Ab (IgG/IgM)
Factor V Leiden Mutation
Homocysteine level fasting
Factor II activity (prothrombin 20210A mutation)
Antibody Screen
Cardiolipin Antibody
Lupus Anticoagulant
Protein C activity
Protein S activity
Prolactin fasting
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel fasting
Complete Blood Count
Vitamin D = 40
TSH = 0.81

3D Sonohysterogram

 

[2have4kids]

Wowzers Boopin, I'm sorry to hear that. You'd hope for something concrete that you can treat but with this it's hard to know what's going on. Your doctor seems to be covering all bases by getting you on Lovenox blood thinners though and the rest of the protocol is what you'd expect with immune issues too. Has he said anything about an anti-inflammatory diet? I wish you all the luck with the next pregnancy, third time is a charm!

 

[Pinkie3]

Boopin, this is great news that there are no issues but also frustrating that you don't have anything to work with. I feel you, this happened to me, I've had so many tests and everything came back fine I just wanted someone to say "yeah we found a problem and this is how we are going to treat it". There is definitely no harm in taking those extra Meds so anything is worth a try. Did you have your hysteroscopy to examine the inside of your womb as the environment also plays a big part. Other than that I agree it's got to be third time lucky for you.

 

[Vonn]

Boopin--I agree with what 2have and Pinkie have said. It provides a lot of peace of mind to gather the data, but pretty frustrating that nothing stands out! You have done your due diligence, now it just has to be your turn!

My IVF Dr. believes systemic inflammation is the #1 cause of unidentified infertility, and that in the US the #1 cause of inflammation is our diet. He recommends a ketogenic diet for all this patients, and the clinic also provides meds that can help curb inflammation, like prednisone and naltrexone. I have both. I haven't ever gotten far enough along to start the prednisone, can't recall exactly when they have people start that. I just got the naltrexone and took one dose. It says it can cause sleep disturbance and it did for me, I slept terribly. I stopped because I can't have it close to surgery, which is on Friday. I'll probably try it again, but I'm I'm first gonna check in with my nurse about the side effects & if they tend to diminish if you keep taking it, or if they tend to stick around unless you stop the meds. Turmeric is an herb that is also very anti-inflammatory & adding grass-fed collagen/gelatin is very healing also.

 

[2have4kids]

My IVF Dr. believes systemic inflammation is the #1 cause of unidentified infertility, and that in the US the #1 cause of inflammation is our diet. He recommends a ketogenic diet for all this patients, and the clinic also provides meds that can help curb inflammation, like prednisone and naltrexone. I have both. I haven't ever gotten far enough along to start the prednisone, can't recall exactly when they have people start that. I just got the naltrexone and took one dose. It says it can cause sleep disturbance and it did for me, I slept terribly. I stopped because I can't have it close to surgery, which is on Friday. I'll probably try it again, but I'm I'm first gonna check in with my nurse about the side effects & if they tend to diminish if you keep taking it, or if they tend to stick around unless you stop the meds. Turmeric is an herb that is also very anti-inflammatory & adding grass-fed collagen/gelatin is very healing also.

Finally a doctor who speaks about diet! Man it's been hard to find anyone who's heard anything from a doctor about anything other than drugs and fertility treatments. I completely agree with your doc. There's also 1 supplement that has shockingly fantastic results in curbing maternal inflammation that I've taken these last 2 pregnancies. It's the sugar and carbs that puff us up and send histamines shooting through our veins. You can't feel them and sometimes we don't even puff up enough to notice but histamines are terrible for conception. They fight off infection in the body and when we've got foreign cells trying to implant it's SO important to not have those cells be attacked. So many people eat those saltine crackers, juice, ice cream, bread, and pop...sugary, carby stuff when pregnant because we're hungry and craving high caloric comfort foods...so much of that stuff would send me into a being an inflammatory balloon and having arthritis I really notice the changes in my body.
The supplement that seems to have great studies about curbing inflammation is here:

https://sites.google.com/site/miscarriageresearch/supplements-and-miscarriage/n-acetyl-cysteine

 

[boopin4baby]

Boopin, this is great news that there are no issues but also frustrating that you don't have anything to work with. I feel you, this happened to me, I've had so many tests and everything came back fine I just wanted someone to say "yeah we found a problem and this is how we are going to treat it". There is definitely no harm in taking those extra Meds so anything is worth a try. Did you have your hysteroscopy to examine the inside of your womb as the environment also plays a big part. Other than that I agree it's got to be third time lucky for you.

I had a water sonogram performed on Tuesday 8/16. The doctor said my uterus is "pristine". She gave me the green light to start my FET cycle when my next period starts (Sep 2ish). I'm praying that my 6BB embie is my sticky rainbow baby. xx

2have & Vonn - I'll definitely make some changes to my diet. Thanks for the information.

 

[Vonn]

2have--I take N-acetyl cysteine, too!

GL Boopin--you have so many people cheering for you!!

 

[boopin4baby]

Ahhh thx Vonn I'm cheering for YOU and everyone else, too!! I'm wishing us all the best. xoxo

 

[2have4kids]

This year is heating up...baby fever!

Vonn I'm curious why/how did you take NAC? Is it the inflammation factor?

 

[crystal443]

Hi ladies!

Boopin, great news, those tests you had are basic immunes so there's a whole other bunch that are more detailed and that could be where you would find the issue, there are auto immune issues and alloimmune issues as well. That said if you can get onto blood thinners a good dose of steroids and intralipids or something it's covering your bases���� I so hope this next one is the one cmon BFP!!!

2have you are so right diet is extremely important, I always drop sugar, gluten etc months before I cycle to reduce inflammation, healthy weight is also important as well. Some of us are just really sensitive to inflammation in the body, also everyone should check B12,vitD etc before they cycle����