IVF - Our Journey This Summer

Here are all my medication/injections I took this summer.

IVF stands for In-Vitro Fertilization.  

I started the process in June this past summer.  First my doctor put me on birth control pills to put my ovaries in a "resting state". I began an injection on June 20th called Lupron. A few weeks after that I continued with the Lupron and started another injection called Gonal-F. Gonal-F is a hormone that grows many eggs. I was on this medication for one week....during my trip to Gulf Shores. This was a bit stressful because the injections had to be administered at the same time every day, but it was nice to be able to relax on the beach afterwards.  I had my egg retrieval on July 12th (where they take a needle and extract the eggs from my follicles.) I had 14 mature eggs.  They immediately combined my husband's "swimmers" with a procedure called ICSI. This is a technique where they injected the "swimmers" directly into the egg. I had 8 eggs fertilize and 2 eggs turned into blastocysts by day 5 after the retrieval.  July 17th was when I had my embryos transferred.  I then began progesterone injections in the "behind"...my husband had to give me those. I had blood work done 8 days after the embryos were transferred. That is when I found out I was pregnant. 

I had a check up at 5 weeks and the ultrasound confirmed that we were pregnant with twins. We were so excited. Sadly, one of the babies did not survive and we found this out the following week. We were very sad but hoped and prayed that the other baby would continue to grow strong.

IVF wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. The calendar they give you with a list of all your medications/injections can be quite overwhelming, but I just took each day one day at a time. 

We're PREGNANT!!!!!!

Our beautiful embryos! 

Our precious baby! Almost 12 weeks!

What a journey it's been! Almost 3 years of trying to conceive and it has finally happened for us. 

We are so excited but nervous at the same time. After  1 miscarriage and 7 failed IUI's, it's hard for us to believe that we're pregnant. IVF is the journey that led us to a positive pregnancy all of course under God's control. IVF was a difficult decision for us.  So many questions had to be answered first and many, many months of prayers. 

Why IVF? We were diagnosed with "unexplained infertility".  In September 2009 we decided it was time to start trying for a baby. To our surprise, we got pregnant but it sadly ended in a very early miscarriage in January 2010.  We tried and tried and tried...NOTHING! We finally started seeing my fertility specialist in March 2011. After 7 failed IUI's, our doctor recommended IVF.  This was not a decision made lightly. We had so many questions. I prayed a lot.  Our desire in our hearts was and still is so strong for a baby. (I know IVF is considered controversial by many, but please respect that this was the right decision for us. It was not a decision made lightly.)

We had our almost 12 week check up today. The baby was not cooperating and we could not hear the heartbeat on the doppler. My doctor said not to worry and she would do an ultrasound. We got to see the heartbeat and watch a leg kick out. She knows how nervous I am and told me to come back in 2 weeks. She said we should be able to hear a heartbeat by then. She said it isn't uncommon and for me not to worry...well...I'll continue to worry.

I'll continue to pray that everything goes well. I know all of this is out of my control and I need to continue to have faith that everything will be ok. 

To those of you reading this blog and struggling with infertility...don't give up. I know it's difficult. I started to believe that I would never get pregnant. I hope my journey can give you hope to never give up.