Testers,TTC&After Conception-Clomid,IUI,IVF,Femara -EVERYONE!!

[Breaking Dawn]

Allika....im on day 4 of stims tonight...so i will pick up gatorade this week.

Nurse said that I will stim for 12 days and retrieval will happen after depending on how big follies are. So day 12 of stims is Feb 26.

What did you learn about your eggs/sperm?

I'm so worried that im not going to have enough!!

 

[Allika]

What was interesting to me was two things:

Our clinic only does ICSI no matter what. My DH sperm was always good so I at first didn't get why they do it but my Dr explained that in 20% of cases no fertilization occurs with normal IVF (just putting sperm and eggs in one Petri dish) even though there is no male factor. Hence they ICSI all from the beginning. Normal IVF is a very artificial scenario because in a normal world there would never be so many sperm near an egg (a lot of them don't make the journey to the egg). Also when they do ICSI they pick the best looking sperm and inject it (based on looks and mobility) rather than allowing a mal formed sperm to try to penetrate the egg. I've read in several cases of people that refused ICSI because they had healthy sperm and figured they wouldn't need it, ending up with very low fertilization and regretting not having done it.
Looking back I am thinking maybe all these cycles where we tried and ovulated and still didn't get pregnant, maybe somehow my DHs sperm couldn't break through the shell. When they ICSi'd we had a phenomenal quote of 20/21 fertilized.

My second finding was that out of the 20 embryos, 11 made it to day 5. This is only 50%. This could mean that the egg quality is poor. So maybe in all these cycles I ovulated, I always had crappy eggs?!

My third finding is that when I got pregnant on Femara I implanted late. I remember thinking I was out on 13DPO and then finally getting a BFP at 14 DPO. That pregnancy ended in a missed miscarriage. Maybe my Fallopian tube is really long and the fertilized embryo never got to where it needed to be in the right time?

I definitely know that my issue is not implantation as the first try worked with just one embryo transferred. So that is good to know for our next baby. I don't think we will ever need to put in more than one embryo at a time.

Hope this makes sense...everybody responds differently to IVF but I felt I got a lot of insights during our cycle.

 

[Breaking Dawn]

Wow allika..that is so informative!

We have also signed up for ICSI and i agree with you on that.

We have only been pregnant once at hcg only got to 100 before it stopped and i started bleeding at 5 wks.

So I'm very interested to learn more...since we have never gotten a bfp other than that one time I'm also curious to learn if we will have more success with ICSI bc maybe the egg shell is too hard.

I really do not want to get my hopes up that we will be successful this first round..but its so hard not to get hopes up!

 

[Allika]

It's only natural to get your hopes up and if it doesn't work first try (which I doubt) then at least you will have gained a lot more information and next step will be more clear. At least you're going to be out of the "what if we did IVF stage"

 

[River54]

Breaking - congrats on the 12 follies and the cyst gone! - that is great!

we went the 50/50 route, half icsi and half ivf. They had 7 mature eggs, so 3 went to icsi and 4 ivf. oddly enough for us, only 1 icsi fertilized, and 3 ivf did. Though 1 ivf never made it past fertilization, so we ended up with 2 ivf and 1 icsi. Transferred the 2 best, which were both the ivf, and the icsi one made it to day 5 but didn't have good enough quality to freeze So, all our eggs are in this go so to speak.
Mind you, it is a small sample size, but we were very surprised to hear that the icsi way wasn't more of a sure thing with ours...you just never know.

 

[Hopin4ABump]

Wow I love reading what you all have learned with this process. Very interesting findings!!!

 

[ajd36]

me too Hopin... IVF is such an amazing gift to create the families we so wish for

 

[mwb2040]

Hi everyone! Just quietly following everyone on here!

We just closed on a house last week and moved in this past weekend. We figured we'll need some more space for the babies (and all their stuff!). The house is amazing, but we're still in boxes and not much furniture. Just taking it one day at a time! Definitely did too much stuff this past weekend, so I'm feeling my back and my feet! It was actually nice and relaxing to go into work today and just sit haha.

Babies are growing! Today my coworker said: "when's your due date again, it looks like you're about to pop any day now"…. I should write a book about the comments I'm getting!! Gained about 20 pounds so far.

Breaking - I was a little hesitant about ICSI at first, because I felt like I wanted nature to do its thing (instead of a lab tech picking the swimmers). Looking back though, I'm so glad we listened and followed our doctor's advice. We had a very low fertilization rate (only 5 out of 28 fertilized), so a BIG lesson learned was that anything could happen. I was so discouraged after we heard our fertilization rate, and now we have two beautiful boys growing and kicking in my belly. ANYTHING can happen, especially when you least expect it. Just trust the process and do what you feel is the right thing to do.

And I agree with Allika about the learning process. I also feel like the first IVF cycle is a learning process for the doctors as well and they could adjust meds/doses etc. based on the way YOUR body responded to the cycle IF it doesn't work. But you've seen on here that a lot of times women hit the lottery the first try

Got our next appointment on the 27th for glucose test. Yikes! Anyone have any advice/experience?

 

[Grateful365]

Good to hear from you mwb! Your moving right along!

I didn't think the 1 hour glucose test was any big deal. Just had to drink this orange tasting stuff and then have blood drawn in an hour.

 

[Hopin4ABump]

I didn't think the glucose test was a big deal either!! But lots of women say it's awful. So I guess it just affects everyone differently.

 

[luna_19]

My glucose test was fine but I did the 1 hour one where you don't have to fast. I think I would have passed out from hunger if I had to do the other one!

 

[ajd36]

I just did my one hr test... the sweet drink taste
didn't bother me, but all that sugar in my belly upset my tummy some

 

[MandaC]

River - how are you feeling?

Breaking - YEAY!!!

Manda - I dunno about the EWCM right before AF....has she shown yet this morning?

Hockey - So exciting - definitely can't wait to see pics of your special day...and then onto TTC!

AFM: Well "technically" I can say I'm in this month since I had AF last month... but...I'm not even sure I ovulated or if I did...when. I don't think I have very strong ovulations without Femara so I'm thinking my chances are very very slim to none...? Doesn't hurt to try though!

Hey NO sign of AF at all. Not even a slight cramp!!! DH and I were only able to DTD the once because he got sick. it only takes one!!! lol

 

[MandaC]

Grateful, I for one am SUPER excited about you ntnp When is AF due? I know you have no idea what a regular cycle is for you since child birth so it's touch and go.

River, I think you should def test out the trigger! It will at least give you something to do/keep up with!

Kins, omg, less than 60 days for you!!! How are you feeling?!?!

Manda, has AF shown yet?

Breaking, how is it going for you? What is your next step in the process?

Lune! 28 weeks! Bump pic

anmlz, your wedding sounds beautiful!

ajd, allika - I'm loving that you two are only 1 day apart in your pregnancies! So exciting. What if you gave birth on the same day?!?! To two little sweet princesses!

Anyone I missed -- how are you??? I need updates on everyone

Nope nothing AT ALL!!!

 

[ajd36]

Did anyone do or is thinking about doing hostess gifts for the baby shower? I'm looking for ideas for the lovely ladies

 

[Allika]

Yes ma'am! Got mine already! Ordered on etsy. It's 5 or 6 (don't remember) handmade soaps. I sent you a pic and the name of the shop via fb.

 

[ajd36]

Those are nice!! Thanks girl!

 

[Hopin4ABump]

Send to me! Send to me!

 

[Breaking Dawn]

Morning ladies!

Ajd...love the idea of hostess gifts. it's so thoughtful

I'm on day 6 of stims tonight...half way there! definitely starting to feel off and not myself.

going in for b/w and u/s...hopefully those follies are growing strong!!

 

[MandaC]

Hey.... Does anyone see this?? I played with the picture a bit Iam pretty sure this was just before or after 10 mins.