IVF Adventure

The clinic called today with great news – 11 out of 12 eggs are natural and 9 out of 11 eggs have been fertilized with ICSI!

Grow grow my baby. Embryos transfer is scheduled on Tuesday March 30, 2010.

Fingers crossed.

We did egg retrieval this morning. Everything went well. 12 eggs retrieved. Same RE and same numbers of eggs as last IVF. I need to call the clinic at noon tomorrow to check how many eggs fertilized.

I am experiencing some cramps and took a Tylenol. Take it easy today. Have a two-hour nap and watched a little bit TV.

All eggs will do 3-day ICSI. Egg transfer (ET) is scheduled next Tuesday, March 30, 2010. We are planning to transfer 2 highest quality embryos.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Another blood test and ultrasound this morning. We picked up the HCG shot and Progesterone Crinone from the pharmacy as per the clinic’s instruction. We called the clinic at noon and they said it is ready to go – stop Synarel nasal spray and do the HCG shot tonight at 11:00pm. No blood test and ultrasound tomorrow. Egg retrieval is scheduled at 11:00am this Saturday morning March 27, 2010. All set.

Symptoms includes bloating, breast soreness, abdominal fullness, tiredness and increased urinary frequency.

How about you, my friend?

I started Synarel nasal spray on March 15, 2010 and it is CD10 today. We went for Ultrasound and blood test this morning. There are 6-7 follicles on both sides of my ovary which is great. E2 level was a little bit too high,10,000. Since it dropped yesterday for some reason, my clink asked me to do 375 UI Gonal-F injection last night and E2 came back super high today. Today I was asked not to do any injection because my clinic doesn’t want to see E2 keep increasing.

It has been a tough week for me. I planned to have this week off but I cancelled the vacation request since I got a one-week professional training opportunity. I was a little bit struggling whether I should decline the training chance to leave more time for myself. I eventually decided to challenge my body since this training opportunity is very important for my career development. I was really tired in the last two days and didn’t have enough sleep which was probably the reason why E2 dropped yesterday. I felt guilty that I didn’t choose to treat myself nicer. I have been working so hard and I really deserve a good rest.

I will do another blood test and ultrasound tomorrow to closely monitor the E2 level.

Good luck everyone.

After almost a 5 months break, we are ready for the 2nd fresh IVF.

• Start Synarel nasal spray on March 4, 2010, Date 22 of my cycle
• First blood test and ultrasound to follow on March 15, 2010

Since it is the 2nd time, we are not as nervous as before. We don’t want to hold our life for IVF. IVF becomes part of our life.

Let’s have fun again!

Anyone is planning to have IVF or FET soon?

It’s Thanksgiving time:

• I am thankful for being healthy
• I am thankful for having a lovely and supportive hubby
• I am thankful for having a job that helps pay my bills
• I am thankful for having two cute dogs
• I am thankful for being able to do most of things I like
• I am thankful that my parents are always with me when needed
• I am thankful that my family members are healthy and happy
• I am thankful that I can blog and share info with people
• I am thankful that I still have a high chance to have a healthy baby

I’ve been through 1 IVF and 1 FET and currently in 2nd FET 2ww. I think it might be benificial if we can share our symptoms during 2ww (2 week waiting) after IVF or FET.

Below is a list of symptoms that I had during my 2ww after IVF/FET:

• cramping
• Fatigue
• bloating ovaries
• headache
• low back pain
• emotion swing
• sore nipples
• itchy tummy skin due to Estradot patches
• weight gain
• poor concentration before ET due to Estradot patches

How about you? What symptoms did you have during your 2ww after IVF/FET?

2WW (2 week waiting) is really tough for us – so much anticipation and so much stress! We want to know if we are pregnant or not as early as possible. So, when is the right time to do a home pregnancy test (HPT) ?

One of my FET buddies, Alex posted a list of day-by-day developing steps of embryos for IVF or FET. I would like to share with you here. We will have a better idea how embryos grow inside our uterus, and hence when we can do HPT.

For 3-Day Embryo Transfer:
1dpt ..embryo is growing and developing
2dpt… Embryo is now a blastocyst
3dpt….Blastocyst hatches out of shell on this day
4dpt.. Blastocyst attaches to a site on the uterine lining
5dpt.. Implantation begins,as the blastocyst begins to bury in the lining
6dpt.. Implantation process continues and morula buries deeper in the lining
7dpt.. Morula is completely inmplanted in the lining and has placenta cells & fetal cells
8dpt…Placenta cells begin to secret HCG in the blood
9dpt…More HCG is produced as fetus develops
10dpt…More HCG is produced as fetus develops
11dpt…HCG levels are now high enough to be immediately detected on HPT

For 5-Day Embryo Transfer:
-1dpt ..embryo is growing and developing
0dpt… Embryo is now a blastocyst
1dpt….Blastocyst hatches out of shell on this day
2dpt.. Blastocyst attaches to a site on the uterine lining
3dpt.. Implantation begins,as the blastocyst begins to bury in the lining
4dpt.. Implantation process continues and morula buries deeper in the lining
5dpt.. Morula is completely inmplanted in the lining and has placenta cells & fetal cells
6dpt…Placenta cells begin to secret HCG in the blood
7dpt…More HCG is produced as fetus develops
8dpt…More HCG is produced as fetus develops
9dpt…HCG levels are now high enough to be immediately detected on HPT

Here is what I am going to do this time. I currently have 3 HPT sticks at home.  So I plan to do HPT on 11dpt, 12dpt and 13dpt (Oct 13, 14, 15) regardless the outcome of HPT – anyways I will do beta on 14dpt Oct16 to find out the acurate result.

How about you? On what day did/will you start HPT?

Now I must focus on helping my embryos implanting in my uterus.

Here is a list of Do’s and Don’ts that I think that might help implantation in 2WW after IVF/FET:

Do’s

• No. 1 rule: POSITIVE ATTITUDE
• No. 2 rule: Eat healthy
• No. 3 rule: Drink plenty of fluid
• No. 4 rule: Enough sleep

-prenatal pills daily
-timing of meds, stick to the schedule
-pineapple core (helps implantation)
-yoga
-massage
-light exercise (gardening,walk)
-yams increase progesterone

Don’ts :
-no hot baths/sauna or long hot shower
-drugs/meds
-heavy lifting
-fish in excess (high mercury levels)
-swimming after ER for 2 weeks
-alcohol
-smoking
-caffeine

What do you think? Do you have any tips during your 2week-waiting to help your embryos implant and grow? Please share with us

We did ET this morning as scheduled -  I am officially PUPO (Pregnant Unless Proved Otherwise) !! Beta will be on Oct 16. I probably will do POAS (Pee on a stick) around day 10

My clinic thawed 2 embryos and they both survived. We still have one embryo left on ice.

1. 8 cells, Grade 2 –> 6cells, Grade 3
2. 4 cells, Grade 1 –> 4cells, Grade 1

Everything went well. I just had some wild cramps.

We have a nice sunny day today in Vancouver. I will take it easy for the next 3 days.

Have a nice weekend ladies:-)