Renewed Hope

Whew! This holiday season has been the BUSIEST EVER! So Christmas Eve, I thought I was ovulating but then I got sick over Christmas which is known to delay ovulation. I started feeling better over the weekend and on Sunday, I got another "Peak" reading on my Clear Blue Digital Ovulation predictor test kit. So Monday morning I called the RE and we went in for an ultrasound that afternoon. The nurse practitioner said that I had not ovulated and gave me a prescription for Ovidrel 250 µg to do that afternoon. We went immediately to Safeway and got the medication. The pharmacist informed me that if I was not going to be taking the shot immediately that it needed to be refrigerated. AHHH! We were an hour and half away from home!! How were we going to refrigerate it?! Well, I had Jay give me the injection in the parking lot of Safeway and off we went with our day. The kids got to spend some time (and lots of money, Thank you Grandpa Orzeck!!) at Toys R Us! Then I started feeling sick so we went home.

The next morning, we got up early and made the drive back out to Tucson to do the IUI. It was uncomfortable but not horrible. The sample Jay gave was not the greatest but we went on with the IUI and hopefully we'll know in a few weeks if it worked or not. The IUI was with a post-wash sample of 3.5 million with 99% motility. It's not what I was expecting so I was rather disappointed yesterday but today I feel as though my hope is renewed and that we have as good a chance this month as we have any other time we successfully got pregnant. Now the wait begins but after the last few weeks I've had, I'm thankful to be in the "sit and wait" time frame. It's relaxing and less stressful. The only thing I feel like I'm missing is a beach with a warm summer day! LOL

FYI, if this cycle is successful, I'll be due September 23rd (ish)

WOOO!

Until next time,

Sick and cancelled IUI

Merry Christmas! I know I'm a few days late but better late than never, I say! I hope everyone had a great Christmas or holiday or whatever you celebrate. If you celebrate nothing, then I hope you had a happy day! lol

I started feeling bad on Christmas eve but I went to my appointment anyway. Jay and I started taking some airborne in hopes that we'd be able to fight off whatever it was we were starting to feel. Jay managed to fight it off. I was not as lucky. Christmas I was feeling worse but still managed to get through the day fairly smoothly. Yesterday was probably the worst day of all. My temp was high and my head was pounding. So I asked Jay to call the RE and cancel our appointment because not only am I sick but now my oldest son is feeling really bad too.  Jay and I have decided to move forward with a medicated "natural" cycle. Meaning, we're just gonna go at it like normal people and hope for the best! LOL Of course being sick isn't very sexy and I haven't felt "up for the task" but hopefully we can get back to our trying. With the higher temps due to clomid, possibly false positives on my clear blue digital advanced ovulation predictor kit, and the sickness throwing the rest of my temps off, it's really hard to know if I have or have not already O'd. I'm still testing with cheap ovulation test strips and those have not shown a positive so I'll keep going with that until I either get a peak or AF shows. I'm 14 days in to my cycle and if my ovulation date is like my past ovulations I should be ovulating between CD15 and 19. Only time will tell! Wish us luck! We're gonna need it!

Until next time!

Clomid Side Effects

I am five days into my cycle and only three days into my five day prescription of clomid. I am already feeling side effects. Yesterday it started with just the crazed hormones. I'm not as patient as I usually am with the boys which results in a lot of yelling and frustrated corrections to them. Poor kiddos. Then last night I had a nose bleed which was weird. Then it happened again this morning. I think it has a lot to do with the hot flashes. So far I have hot flashes and craze hormonal mood swings. Let's hope they subside when I stop taking the medication! The kids are praying, I'm sure!

I just have to keep reminding myself that this is all for a greater cause. I just pray that these side effects are because my ovaries are producing a couple eggs so that we have a higher chance of success! Any suggestions or comments are welcome! I'd love to hear about other people's success stories or their process through clomid, IUI or both!

Until next time!

Cycle Day 1 of our IUI Cycle

   Today is CD 1! (Cycle Day 1) So immediately I called the clinic to ask them what I should do. I had an appointment scheduled for the 19th of December because I thought I would start closer to then instead of now but my body decided differently! Thank goodness I have all of my medications ready! 

   On Monday (CD 3), I will start my clomid and continue taking it for five days. This is supposed to help my body create and mature my eggs better. There is a possibility of multiples as it can cause a few eggs to be released at the same time. Generally the risk of twins while on Clomid is about 10%, though it can be higher depending on the person, (Info came from here). At this point, I just hope I get pregnant sooner than later. The risk of having triplets or more is less than 1% so I'm not even worried about that. These numbers would be so much higher if we went on with IVF! So thank goodness for our opportunity to do IUI instead of IVF! 

  While speaking to the clinic, I was informed that I will be needing the HCG injections which I assume will be to trigger ovulation so we can schedule the IUI precisely with ovulation. They wanted to see me on CD 12 but that is Christmas Day so I will be going in on Christmas Eve to have an ultrasound to check if my eggs are ready to be triggered. I will probably then be advised on when to administer the trigger shot and an appointment will be scheduled for 36 hrs after I am given the trigger shot to do the IUI (intrauterine insemination aka artificial insemination). I also have progesterone injections from the prescription I was given when we were going to do IVF so I will discuss the use of those after the IUI when I see the doctor on the 24th. Progesterone helps with the thickening of the lining and the implantation of the egg. Hopefully, I will be given the go ahead on those.

   I'm excited and nervous! It's all starting. Hopefully this isn't a waste but I think that if we don't get pregnant this cycle, we will do a medicated non-IUI cycle next month. Hopefully the doctor is ok with that. 

Until next time,