TTC Check-In (April 27th)

[PiradicalMaid]

esquette, I hope you got some good sleep last night and GL with the Kid Meeting! I know what you mean about already having picked SO. We always say our first choice is to have a child that's genetically both of ours, but we're trying to find the best second. Have you seen this? It kind of gives me hope that maybe people in our children's generation will be able to conceive with their partner, no matter anyone's sex.

Just wanted to update- I had my WTF appointment today and the midwife agreed to the testing I want after my next period (to make sure the results aren't impacted by the loss). She also cleared us to TTC at that time as well! I definitely want to wait for my test results, but it's exciting to have a definite time line. Also, my HCG was negative today. I thought I would be more sad about that, but right now it's mostly a relief. I'm feeling much more positive after this appointment. Thanks sending good luck, wittyandwaiting

[cetcar]

Update to our check-in-

Just got word from the lab that of the 13 fertilized, all 13 are still looking good at day 3.

Now, however, we're having to decide on the genetic screening. Our clinic really is trying to recommend it when we have so many to pick from, but the money is a concern, and it doesn't seem to be the standard protocol most places. Really tough call no matter how we look at it. Chance are it's not 'needed' but it does have benefits- namely higher live birth rate per transfer, screening of certain defects, and that our RE then would do a single transfer instead of a double, and we'd adjust/be happy if the universe decided to give us twins, but it's really not what we're aiming for, so we'd prefer a single transfer.

Honestly, this all went so fast since it was a 'surprise' IVF that we didn't have time to think about all this before just a few days ago, so it's feeling a little stressful. Going to have a chat tonight and come to a decision. Still, it's a good problem to have.

[RM80]

Tough decisions! You can still do a single transfer, especially if they all look good. We were going to do the testing until we had only 1 to test. The deciding factor for us was the cost of the test was basically less than the cost of an Fet. We. Reasoned that if one didn't take and we had to start doing FETs it paid for itself in that we at least knew what we were transferring was genetically normal. It's a really hard choice, it wasn't standard at our clinic either and I felt it was really pushed on us.

[jazibel]

cetcar, great news on the day 3 report!! We're planning on doing the genetic screening but for reasons that may not apply to you. One we're in our late 30's, EV has PCOS and we'd like to select a female sex if possible. We plan on transferring only 1 at a time. I think if this was a few years ago and our first I'd like skip the screening and go for two eggs. LOL! That's just me since I knew at the time we wanted 2+ kids. I write this not to try and persuade you but just to share my thoughts. All that said though I am so impressed with the slew of last minute decisions and successes you have had. Here's to a smooth transfer and subsequent BFP!! :-)

[esquette]

Hi! Hi!

We sperm shopped! We started with our local bank, which seemed to have the smaller catalog, and last night narrowed it down to about 10 candidates with the right eye/hair coloring. Then we looked through for short profiles that were most appealing: had inventory left, no mental health issues (my family has some, so we want to avoid those), and had something that reminded us of Sweetie. That narrowed it very quickly to 2. We bought their long profiles and one sounds nearly perfect. He's pursuing a graduate degree in science, is physically active, is introverted, patient and thoughtful. That's Sweetie all over. So we are emailing to ask if there is any extra information they can give us, or if the photo matching strongly leans one way or the other.

Squeee!!!

[wittyandwaiting]

Great fert report cetcar!

esquette - so excited to hear that your making great progress on your shopping.

I was at the RE yesterday for CD3, I've got 18 antral follicles and have started Gonal with a slightly increased dose (from 37.5 to 50), acupuncture tomorrow and if things go as I'm expecting, we should be in for our next IUI on or around Mother's Day.

[kh826]

cetcar - I am so glad to hear that you have so many strong embryos! So wonderful!

With regard to PGD...We chose not to do genetic screening with our fresh cycle (we had similar #s to you - 12 embryos made it to day 5 blastocysts), and we transferred two. One stuck, resulting in our son. I don't know that I think the one that didn't stick wasn't "chromosomally normal," but we will never know having not done the testing. For us, part of the decision not to do testing was that we didn't want to know in advance if one of our embryos was predisposed to be a child with special needs. Now I know that PGD testing is mostly meant to ensure that you transfer a viable embryo that will result in a viable pregnancy and a take-home baby, and some genetic screening will reveal that certain embryos are not viable, it could also reveal chromosomal "defects" that are not necessarily not compatible with life, but may result in a child with medical complications or special needs. I know that this is a bit of a hot topic, and this is absolutely only our position on this, so I hope no one is offended or thinks I am being judgey or in anyway misinterprets this... But it is our feeling that if the universe intends to give us a child with special needs that we will happily accept the gift/challenge and love that child and give that child our absolute best. With that being said, there are lots of factors that are not at play in my own situation that I can understand would make people feel differently. If I were older and had a narrow window to conceive, if I had experienced multiple failed IVFs or multiple losses, etc., then I think I would have a different feeling about PGD... I totally respect those who wish to do PGD regardless of these factors, and maybe down the road I will change my mind about all of this, but at this moment in time for me, those are my thoughts. For whatever it is worth.

Sorry that was long winded and probably more in-depth than what you were looking for, but I just thought I would add my 2-3 cents!

At any rate, I hope that you both had a good discussion last night and reached a decision that you are both comfortable with. Please keep us posted! Transfer is tomorrow, correct?!?! So exciting!

[cetcar]

Thanks everyone for the responses. It is such a personal decision, we definitely see all sides of it. In the end we did go ahead and do the testing on advice of the clinic. We had a few reasons for it, but it took us awhile (well, as long as we could take given we only had about 24 hours to decide). Our transfer is tomorrow, and we'll likely be able to do a single transfer, which is our preference, and part of why we did the testing. It sounds like we may not find out until the transfer appointment how many made it to day 5 and were tested, and the outcomes.

Hopefully, there will be enough that made the grade to have a good choice, and some left over. Staying positive

[RM80]

Good luck tomorrow cetcar!! FX it all goes well!!!

[wittyandwaiting]

So excited for you cetcar! Good luck tomorrow!

[cetcar]

esquette, How exciting that you've narrowed in on a donor. Makes it feel all that much more real!

wittyandwaiting, Hope you're feeling good about the protocol for your next cycle. How long will you be on Gonal? Do you have any bruising from last time? I'm at 3- feel pretty lucky it's not more. Thanks for your well wishes!

RM80, Thanks! We'll see how it goes.


For those of you who have gone through an ER, how long did it take for you to stop being bloated and crampy? My stomach is still huge....

[shemarie82]

Uh guys, we were offered the placement, and as long as everything goes through with licensing, we will have kids in 14 days-ish...so, is this out TWW?!?!

[wittyandwaiting]

cetcar thanks for the positivity! I was just saying to C that I always feel good when there's a new protocol, it makes me feel like I'm doing something. I'm not sure how long I'll be on it for, I go in for follicle check on Monday, which would be after five days, and then I'm in daily after that. I do have a little bit of bruising from last time, mostly on my stomach; Gonal seems to create some sort of special long-lasting, resilient bruises.

[wittyandwaiting]

Apr 30, 2015 20:52:52 GMT -5 shemarie82 said:

Uh guys, we were offered the placement, and as long as everything goes through with licensing, we will have kids in 14 days-ish...so, is this out TWW?!?!

Amazing news @ shemarie82!

Hooray! I am so super excited for you both. I just did some sort of jump, kick, dance move thing and actually said "woo hoo" out loud. Welcome to the two week wait!

[mahler5]

cetcar-- good luck tomorrow!!

shemarie82--that's great. Congrats! Looking forward to hearing all about it.

[RM80]

Awesome news shemarie82!!!!!!

cetcar, my wife said she was really sore and bloated for about a week, after that it got better every day.

[PiradicalMaid]

cetcar- GL tomorrow!
shemarie82- That is so exciting! Hooray Wow, can you both even believe it yet??

[shemarie82]

Apr 30, 2015 23:25:56 GMT -5 PiradicalMaid said:

cetcar- GL tomorrow!
shemarie82- That is so exciting! Hooray Wow, can you both even believe it yet??

We are trying to not get too excited, yet... Things can always change with the foster care system, but I AM EXCITED!

[kh826]

cetcar - GOOD LUCK TODAY!!!

shemarie82 - That is such amazing news! How old are the kiddos that you are getting? Both boys? So happy for you!

Update from me: I had my follow up lining check today, and my lining is now 9.5mm with a triple stripe, so I have been cleared for take-off. That is still a thinner lining than I had at this point while TTC William, BUT the fact that it thickened more than 2mm in 2 days makes me think that it will likely thicken even more before transfer. My nurse is going to call me this afternoon to schedule transfer for next week and give me med instructions! Yay!

[shemarie82]

May 1, 2015 7:11:49 GMT -5 kh826 said:

cetcar - GOOD LUCK TODAY!!!

shemarie82 - That is such amazing news! How old are the kiddos that you are getting? Both boys? So happy for you!

Update from me: I had my follow up lining check today, and my lining is now 9.5mm with a triple stripe, so I have been cleared for take-off. That is still a thinner lining than I had at this point while TTC William, BUT the fact that it thickened more than 2mm in 2 days makes me think that it will likely thicken even more before transfer. My nurse is going to call me this afternoon to schedule transfer for next week and give me med instructions! Yay!

They are 18 months and 3 year old brothers. The 3 year old has a speech delay, likely from neglect, but other than that things are pretty positive. They have been with family since being removed from the home, which is rare. 

Yay about your lining increase!

[healz413]

I'm so glad I stalked the TTC thread today. Fingers crossed for shemarie82, kh826, and cetcar.
cetcar-- have you talked about OHSS? Even mild OHSS might require some intervention to help you feel better.
For me I was still feeling crappy by our day 3 transfer. I think I was feeling better by maybe 5 days later.

[jazibel]

shemarie82, congrats on your placement!! Talk about being throw in the ring ;-) I can't wait to hear updates

cetcar, thinking about you - hope all went smoothly

kh826, I'm so glad everything is looking good for your upcoming transfer.

[cetcar]

shemarie82, Oh boy, that seemed to happen so fast! What wonderful news. Congratulations! Love that it's your TWW

kh826, Thank you and it's great news that your lining thickened! Hope it continues! You must be pretty excited.

wittyandwaiting, Agree on all accounts- changes and resilient bruises. It's kind of wimpy but I've been icing before all the shots, I think it helps.

Thank you, RM80, jazibel, mahler5, and PiradicalMaid. It's much appreciated

healz413, Thank you. We talked to the doctor again today before the transfer. He said that I probably do have a mild case and he couldn't stress enough the importance of drinking two protein smoothies in addition to my normal diet daily. To aim for an extra 40 grams of protein. I've just been managing to drink 1/day (they're so heavy) and sometimes as a meal. Also, salt and electrolytes. He said that if it's successful, I may feel worse before better but they would be checking in on me regularly.


All went well today. 9 out of the 13 embryos were healthy, 4 of them were AA, 2 BA, 1 AB, and 2 BB. 4 females and 5 males total. Out of the AA embryos, 3 were male and 1 was female. We felt really strange about picking the gender and had planned to go with the healthiest one regardless of what it was. But we ended up with 4 that were totally equal. Asked the doctor for his opinion, and he chose #5 (it's his lucky number), which happened to be the gender we would have chosen, so we went with that. The actual transfer didn't take long at all and didn't feel much different than an IUI. Our doctor makes you be on bed rest for three days following the procedure, so I'll be hanging out on the couch drinking a lot of protein smoothies from now until Monday. Will continue with twice daily progestrone suppositories and estradiol injections (those needles are long) every 3 days from now until we're 10 weeks along (assuming that it works). Beta is in two weeks. We're freezing the remaining 8 embryos and none of them are below the BB grade so they're all usable.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

[PiradicalMaid]

cetcar That's great news! I'm glad the transfer went well. I would feel strange about picking the sex too but it sounds like you found a good way to do it Hope your bed rest and TWW go quickly! GL to you!!!

[wittyandwaiting]

cetcar! Hooray for PUPO!!! keeping my fingers crossed.

[dannigirl]

Apr 30, 2015 20:52:52 GMT -5 shemarie82 said:

Uh guys, we were offered the placement, and as long as everything goes through with licensing, we will have kids in 14 days-ish...so, is this out TWW?!?!

That totally counts!!! Yay!!!

This TWW is torture. I'm reading every cramp, nauseous feeling and sore boob!
I'm trying to stay positive. But really, there is nothing can be done at this point, either we get a BFP or not.. And if we don't... We will try again at the end of the month.

Sounds like there is a lot of progress going on right now. That's awesom to see.