For the record ... (He Said)

When I do the esterace joke ... it's usually:

"Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity Hoppin',
Esterace on the way!"

That's what he said anyway ...

New friends and new horizons ... (We Said)

It's a little weird, posting the trials and tribulations of your life on the Internet where anyone can see ...

You never really know *who* the voyeurs are, what they think, and whether or not to care.

The first new "acquaintance" to our site offered words of encouragement and support. It was a great feeling, and as we continue with our own positive thinking, getting support from someone else, wishing us well for no other reason than sharing the human condition, felt great (the support from friends and family is great too, but we hope you already knew that!).

We found some really touching words in her blog about what this "donor egg thing" is like and well ... the point is ... good energy brings great things ... and we should all spread more of it.

Not to limit the list of places to spread your good vibes, but we'd like to double or triple the good energy back to our new friend, so join in and send some positive energy to backyardmusings and prove out that positive energy grows exponentially.

That's what WE said anyway ...

Cat out of the bag or bun in the oven ... (He Said)

Well, so we haven't broken any new news in a while and Nancy says I'm up soooo ...

After this morning's POAS ... we were excited to see 2 lines!

Needless to say, that's a positive!

Now admittedly, there's still alot to wait for ... the beta, the levels, etc. but while not a BFP its a LSP (that's my own new one ... Little Skinny Positive :) ).

Ok, so now what?

Shop for baby toupees ... that's what!

I wonder if they come in blastomere size.

That's what he said anyway ...

Target Ahead ... (She Said)

So what is the goal? ... the BFP.

The big fat positive.

Around two weeks after embryo transfer, you are scheduled for a pregnancy blood test, or otherwise known as a "Beta". Numbers over 5 usually indicate a Pregnancy (or BFP) however you usually have a follow-up beta to make sure your number is raising. If not, it can mean other things.

Getting a BFP is like going to the big show or catching the elusive legendary Bass fish in the lake or winning the million dollars a year for life lottery or ... one of the scariest things in life.

BFP means you made it past the first hurdle but there are so many other hurdles in this race that some times the happiness is short lived (been there, done that). Oh to be ignorant of all of the things that can go wrong.

Here's hoping for the BFP!!!

That's what she said anyway ...

A Visit from Aunt Esterace ... (She Said)

The days ARE getting longer.

Ever since we did the embryo transfer the clocks in Boston have slowed down and each day is now double. On top of that, I'm starting to feel like Michael enjoys giving me my nightly shot.

By 7:00pm, with a gleam in his eye, he runs back to the bathroom to prepare the shot. I swear I hear that deep throated laughter that is only used by mad Doctors in movies like Frankenstein.

By 7:15 he is calling me to come and take my medicine. Once I heard "Candy little girl?"

I'm also taking estrace. So on top of that, I also get

"Hey, the estrace bunny is coming!" or

"Did you hear from my aunt Estrace?"

Oh my DH (stands for Dear Husband in IVF lingo) thinks he is so funny!

After dragging myself down the hall, laying on the bed and exposing my butt, he then proceeds to dialogue with himself about the perfect spot.

"Let's see, last time I did it here. Before that one, here. I did this one once………"

OMG! Just give me the #$%@@# shot.

He also finds he cannot clean the area with an alcohol pad until the "perfect" spot has been selected. It's only a 4 inch by 2 inch area to begin in total. Clean the whole darn area, I'm thinking. I have been starting to have serious thoughts about how I can give this to myself!

Oh and not only am I thinking that Michael should receive nightly shots but every so often I think that Donna should too. She KNOWS why I might think this :)

That's what she said anyway ...

The Days Are Getting Longer ... (He Said)

Well, we're still in the middle of what Nancy calls the "dreaded two week wait."

Not really a whole heck of a lot to say at the moment. I've been meaning to get the scans of the embryos up on here for a while now and I'll do my best to get them posted tonight when I get home from work.

Things are good though, but its really too early to tell anything. A couple of EPTs so far have come back negative, but that's pretty much expected. They really shouldn't show anything until the end of the week, although the definitive test will be the blood test on the 3rd.

The shots are still going fine, although I'm running out of good spots and I think they're starting to sting more as a result. Nancy has decided that I need to start letting her give me saline shots to complete the sympathetic pregnancy effect. I've voted that down however ;)

Glad to see the Virginian cartel has checked in though! We're working on some cousins for the little Gagelets down in Manassass.

That's what he said anyway ...

This just in ... (He Said)

Today was a pretty hum drum day, not too much going on but trying to get the house organized to make the next few months go more smoothly.

I was going some searching on the Internet about IVF sites and found this weird article on the New York Times site:

IVF Site and Blogs Target of New Federal Inquiry

Associated Press

In a brief press conference on Sunday. a spokeperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigation told reporters that the War on Drugs had taken a disturbing turn for the worse.

"Over the years we have found several underworld entities using public channels and the Internet to advetise their crooked schemes using codes and slang. Today we found a new trend with drug kingpins apparently posing as interested participants at IVF blogs of all things" spokesperson Murphy said.

The FBI made no comment regarding suspected individuals or what enlightened their New York office to this new, disturbing turn of events.

--------------

That's just scary!

That's what he said anyway ...

P.S. This was an inside joke if you've just happened across this blog. Read my parents' comments to Nancy's IVF lingo entry below to get the joke :) Love you guys!

Oh my sore butt ... (She Said)

My butt is sore....but that is a topic for alittle latet. As Michael mentioned, we are doing a donor egg cycle. We have tried 4 IVF cycles previously without success. We are now in the 2WW. What is the 2WW? It's the dreaded 2 week wait period. It's the time after an embryo transfer and before the first pregnancy blood test.

One thing I have learned from a community of women online, all going through similar cycles, is that there is a langauge all it's own when talking about IVF or donor cycles.

We use acronyms like POAS (Pee on a stick), POI (progesterone in oil), 5dp3dt (5 days post 3 day tranfer), FET (frozen embryo transfer), and baby dust (angel dust specifcally for creating babies and can't be found at CVS). So now, to prove to you I have master the language:

I'm currently 5dp3dt and doing nightly PIO. The 2WW is the hardest part and I might break down and POAS. Everyone is throwing baby dust my way. If this cycle doesn't work, we will do our first FET.

There are women contributing to bulletin boards all over the internet using this strange coded language.

So here I am in the dreaded 2WW reading every body ache, itch, pain, cramp, and nuance as a sign of pregnancy (on positive days) or as a sign of no pregnancy (on negative days).

Nothing is going to make April 3 (when I'm schedule for my first pregnancy blood test) get here any sooner. Especially the nightly shots of the progesterone Michael has to give me. This is an oil substance (think thick) pulled into a 3ML syringe with a 22G needle that is 1.5 inches long (think huge). Did I already mention the nightly part?

Now you know why my butt is sore. And if we are lucky enough to get pregnant I get continue the shots for another 8 weeks!

That's what she said anyway ...

But the paperwork says ... (He Said)

So last night, just before Nancy's Progesterone shot, I noticed that the packaging said 50mg/mL.

Hmmm ... that's strange. We're supposed to be injecting 75mg and the instructions from the clinic CLEARLY say 75mg/1mL.

Well, fortunately the blood tests are all good so far, because the instructions were in error. The shots should be 1.5mL NOT 1mL.

So, we're upping the dosage tonight.

That's what he said anyway ...

It was a dark and stormy night ... part deux ... (He Said)

We didn't think too much about it, but if for some reason people outside of our immediate family happen accross this little space on the "interweb" ... some background might be in order.

Nancy and I were married nearly five years ago down in at the Ocean Cliff hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. Since that time, we've continued our careers here in Boston with Nancy at Partners Healthcare and myself at Monster.com.

As far as IVF goes, we've been through it 4 times before our current cycle. Twice at Brigham and Women's Hospital and twice at the Fertility Center of New England. Unfortunately, none of those cycles resulted in a pregancy carried to term.

Our first bite at the apple did result in a pregnancy, but around week 10 or 11 the fates decided it wasn't our time. With our other cycles, things just didn't work out, so we decided it was time to give Donor Egg a shot. After having gone through cycles at 2 different facilities, I do have to say that returning to BWH was an easy decision although the folks at FCNE were great.

We did some investigation and found a local attorney (Robert Nichols) specializing in this sort of thing and so we went for a meeting. We felt very comfortable and decided not to look any further.

After that, it was actually quite some time before we found a donor. A little over a year I think. At some point a few months ago, Nancy found a donor she liked on Nichols' Web site, and we decided it was time to take the plunge.

That was nearly 3 months ago, and now we are most certainly in the thick of it. As mentioned before, our donor provided plenty of eggs, we've already gone through a transfer, and we've got embryos left for a few more cycles.

At some point, Nancy will come on and describe the protocol she's been on for any IVF heads out there (and initiate the "She Said" side of this blog!), but right now we're just at 1ml of Progesterone every night for 12 weeks. While I'm sure Nancy has it the worst in that one, I still get nervous every time I prepare the needle. Anyway, that's a blog for a different day ...

... and did I mention we have photos of the embryos? I'll have to get those posted. I'll bet that none of the other kids at school will have baby pictures taken as early as these puppies!

That's what he said anyway ...

It was a dark and stormy night ... tap, tap, tap ... is this thing on???? (He Said)

Well, here we we are!

Nancy and I thought it might be fun to blog our adventures with IVF. Well, maybe fun is the wrong word, how about interesting :). In any case, this will serve as our little electronic diary of the events leading up to and (hopefully) including the birth of our first child.

As far as the events leading up to now ...

On March 16th, our sweetheart of a donor (that's what all of the nurses call her) did us a serious solid, providing 44 eggs (41 mature) for our cycle!

31 of those eggs fertilized, and 15 were immediately frozen per the protocol we're using at Brigham and Women's.

On March 19th, two eggs were transferred. We were thinking it might be three, but the embryos were of really good quality (8:1 and 8:0, where the first number is the cell count and the second number is a fragmentation score; 0-4, where 0 is the best or no fragmentation).

AND ... as it turns out, they also were able to freeze 9 of the remaining Day 3 embryos! So, regardless of what happens, we have 24 embryos in stasis for another round.

And that brings us up to date!

That's what he said anyway ...