CD 1

So AF showed up today just one day late - I was obviously anxiously awaiting her arrival.  I called the clinic this morning and left them a message.  It's Sunday so I didn't expect much back - but 20 mins later they called and left me a voicemail.  I take this as a good omen of positive experiences to come :-)  I am to call back first thing in the morning and make an appt for my baseline u/s and 'day 3' labs Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.  I am obviously excited to make sure I have no cysts or anything and am ready to begin - but I am also ready to have that official calendar!  I am a visual person - I need it laid out in front of me. 

I AM SO EXCITED!

July 1

It's July 1!  Which means our IVF cycle starts this month (yay!).

We are on a little lake getaway this weekend with my inlaws.  Poor Pipsqueak is sleeping in a pack n play in a closet - LOL.  Yesterday she woke at 4:53 am.  This was not ideal.  Today she slept til almost 6 so she's getting used to it I guess.  

My AMH level

My clinic told me below 0.2 is bad, between 0.2-1 is borderline above 1 is great, above 2 is excellent.  

My level is.....

6.7!!!!!

I'm so happy!!!   There are two different scales used so googling gave me weird results, but it seems 6.8 and above is probably PCOS.  Hmmmmm.  I really don't think I have that. Who knows though?  Since we can only conceive through Ivf anyway due to MFI it's kind of a moot point.

Now I'm even more excited to cycle!  The weird thing is I'm all confident and unstressed and feeling good.  Last time I was super negative, sure it wouldn't work and talking myself into a child free life.  I hope I'm not jinxing myself!

IVF #2, appt #1 recap

My first appt for this next round of IVF was amazing!!  I really didn't know what to expect - I knew I was meeting with the NP but wasn't really sure what else was going to happen.  Here's a recap:

- She reviewed the charts from my last (obviously successful) cycle. She said I had an "excellent response", "stimulated very well" and "had a wonderful percent of mature eggs after retrieval".  Since this was only 2 years ago and I'm only 32 she thinks I will also have a good response this time.

- She reviewed a calendar with possible dates : as soon as my next cycle starts (should be 1st week of July) I call their office, then go in either CD 2, 3, or 4 for blood work and u/s.  Start bcp and aspirin CD 5 for 2-4 weeks and lupron at some point (length of time depends on their office schedule - they do their egg retrievals grouped together) - then stim for 9-10 days, followed by egg retrieval and transfer.  She estimates the 2nd week of August would be retrieval/transfer.   She assumes I will again be put on menopur and bravelle but that the RE will decide everything based on my updated labs and u/s.

- I was informed that their office has a new embryologist. It made me sad as she was the one who made Pipsqueak!!!

BUT the NP told me since the new embryologist started they are experiencing a very high success rate and almost all patients are ending up with extra embryos to freeze.  She actually held up her arm and showed me her goosebumps, saying, "it just gives me chills how many people are getting pregnant right now.  We don't know what his secret is!".  Love it!

- I told her I was still a little haunted by my fsh of 11 last time. She said it meant absolutely nothing because I obviously made several eggs.  I asked if there was anything she could check to make me feel better so I had an AMH level drawn yesterday.  She said anything above 1.0 is great, anything under 0.19 is very very bad and anything in between is ok but not great.  I've never had one drawn  -  anyone have any insight?

I guess that's it. Nothing more to be done until July.  I had a last hurrah this week - my best friend stayed with us and we drank lots of beer :-).  No more from here on out. And dear god I need start cutting down on caffeine.  I've weaned down but am still having one cup of half caf coffee and 2 diet cokes a day.  Goal is no coffee and 1 diet coke (hard core addict :-). I'm going to continue running and walking and eating well.  (This also fell to the wayside this week!). 

Here goes nothin'!

Great day! I slept in (14 hours straight!!!!!!!!!!  I haven't slept like that since before the baby), DH and I just went on a 3.2 mile run, and we are going out to eat tonight while the in-laws babysit.  We have no family in town so when they visit we take advantage of the free baby-sitting!

While we were out on our run I was telling DH about a blog I read through recently (can't remember which one it was, lately I have been reading through blogs like novels) and a man with a low sperm count went on arimidex and his testosterone and sperm counts went up dramatically....I kind of wish I hadn't told him because now he thinks maybe we should postpone IVF and go back to the urologist and talk about that.  I say we go forward with IVF and use the arimidex possible miracle as a back up plan. Anyone have any information on arimidex??

Oh and I got a new job this week!  Next fall I will officially be an adjunct professor!  SO FANCY!  Really it is just teaching two 5 week courses of medical terminology online to healthcare IT students.  I will still be working as an ER nurse but this will allow me to make some money from home...and who knows, maybe lead me down a new career path?

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

IVF #2 is a go....

I have scheduled the first sit down appt with our RE to discuss our next IVF attempt - it's in late June.  Our plans are to start the process in July - and if my next 2 periods start when I think they will start, and the timing is similar to last time (obviously this is a BIG if...for all I know he will recommend a different protocol or something, or I could respond differently) that would give us a retrival date of August 7.

WOW.

I am suddenly way excited and less nervous than before.  There is really no use in speculating about whether we should do this or not - if it doesn't work then at least we tried.  I could see regretting not trying at all though...

Mother's Day 5k update...

I did the 5k in 35:18!  I am crazy proud of myself :-).  It made my average pace 11:22/mile.  I ran most of it with short walks to catch my breath of about 30 seconds.

I literally feel in the best shape of my life (which isn't saying much - I've pretty much been out of shape my whole life).

Happy Mother's Day to everyone - whether you're a mother or just wish to one day be one.   Xoxo