Follicle Check for IUI #7

Alright guys!

Today was our follicle check for IUI #7.

I was a little confused as to why our doctor wanted us to come in a day early for our follicle check this cycle. I have always had good sized follicles on cycle day 12...

But the more I thought about it, the more I questioned whether or not bigger was better when it comes to follicles. 

If you guys remember, my follicles have been pretty big the past few cycles. I think they got up to about 28mm. And this entire time I thought that was a good thing! Now...I am not so sure.

I haven't actually talked to my doctor, but I think he might think that I have been ovulating early and that's why I haven't gotten pregnant. 

Anyway! So we went in this morning and like usual...I thought my follicles were on one side when in fact..they were on the other! I really thought that a majority of my follicles would be in my left ovary since I have been feeling that side a lot more. But when the nurse went in I had 4 follicles on my right (2 mature and 2 pretty close) then I had one in my left ovary that was mature.

So that is 3 mature now and 2 more that will be ready in a couple days!!

They called me this afternoon and said to do my HCG trigger shot tonight at 10 and we would have our IUI Saturday morning!!! We are pretty excited and hopeful that this will be our last IUI for a while :)

This is also our last chance to get pregnant before, what would be, our due date for our pregnancy in March....so pray that this works!!! I can't imagine not being pregnant on that day....

And I want to just let you guys know how amazing our nurses are!!! 

I mentioned last blog post that they are changing the way they are doing our IUI this time. The nurse that told us how she wanted to change it is now coming in on her DAY OFF just to do this new procedure for us!!! The entire staff at our doctors office goes above and beyond for us and we are eternally grateful for all that they do...including coming in on their day off just to try something new for us! I just cant describe to you all how much these people mean to us and how much they just want to see us have our take-home baby! We are blessed!

ok guys! Enough mushy stuff! I will post Saturday and let you all know how it went :)

Thank you for all the positive thoughts and prayers :)

Stressed But Grateful

Ok guys!

The past couple days have been pretty rough for us..

I started my cycle yesterday morning. 

It has completely blown our minds that the last cycle didn't work. 

I mean...how can you have 5 mature follicles, 22 million sperm, and still not get pregnant??

So we were really anxious to talk to our doctor and nurses this morning to see what they thought and to talk to them about the next step.

I really thought that we would be moved to just injections this cycle but our doctor felt that the egg quality and number was so good last cycle that he just wants to stick with the same medication plan for this cycle. 

I am completely fine with this. Our insurance doesn't cover injections other than the HCG injection so the longer we wait until we up those injections, the better.

Our doctor wasn't there this morning when I came in but he had our new plan laid out for our nurses to go over with us.

So I started off asking our nurse if there was a reason I wasn't getting pregnant. Was there something I had been doing wrong??

She said that we had been doing everything perfect, its just a chance game and the more we do it, the better our chances get.

I also asked if our doctor had mentioned IVF. 

She said he does not want to move to IVF any time soon because he feels like there is a few more things he can try before doing that. This was a huge relief for me!! As much as our chances would increase with IVF...we just cant afford it. They did say that if for some unforeseen reason we were to have to do IVF, that there are a few finance companies that will finance IVF for couples that can't afford to pay out of pocket.

But...we aren't there yet!!! We have gotten pregnant with IUI before so our doctor and nurses feel like we just need to stick to IUI for a while. 

But she did say that there was something that she wanted to try for our next IUI. 

During the actual procedure, the uterus pushes some of the sperm down whenever they remove the catheter after placing the sperm where they need to be. She said that all women have this to some extent. So she wants to try to do something different during our procedure. 

First, she wants to tilt the table up. Usually the table is flat during the procedure and then tilted after everything is done and you lie there for 15 minutes. So she wants to have the table tilted for the entire time.

And second, after she puts the catheter in and puts the sperm where they need to be, she is going to leave the catheter in for 5-10 minutes to keep the uterus from pushing the sperm down. 

Usually once they place the sperm where they need to be, they take the catheter out pretty soon after. 

So hopefully doing these things during the actual procedure will help my body get the little push it needs to get pregnant again. 

So...we will be doing 2 Femara pills cycle days 3-7 and Menopur injections cycle days 7-10. Usually I would come in on cycle day 12 for a follicle check but this time he wants me to come in on cycle day 11 for a follicle check. I think he is just worried about over stimulating my ovaries so he wants me to come in a day early and possibly not do an injection on cycle day 11 like last cycle.

So while we are pretty stressed about this whole situation not working, we are grateful that they are trying new procedures for us and they aren't just moving us on to IVF yet.


Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers! We are going to keep at this until we have our take-home baby!

Progesterone Check for IUI #6

Well, today is 1 week post IUI..so that means 2 things!

1.) We had our progesterone check this morning

and

2.) We are half way through the 2 week wait!!!!

I for one, feel like this 2ww is wayyyy longer than the others! But hopefully this next week or so will fly by!

So we went for our progesterone check this morning and I got my results back!

All she said when she left the voice mail was that it was over 40.

That is crazy!!!

Definitely the highest progesterone level I have had this far!

So we are good to go there :) No suppositories!

Now we wait to test!! 

Keep up the positive thoughts and prayers!

We need them now more than ever!!

Hopefully this is our last IUI for a while!

We are ready for our take-home baby/babies!!!

IUI #6

Ok! The suspense is over! I know you have all been hitting refresh on your laptops, desktops, tablets, and phones to hear about how our IUI went this morning. haha JUST KIDDING!

But seriously..it went great!

We had 22 million sperm this time, which is great! 

So 5 follicles and 22 million sperm..that has to push the odds in our favor, right??

Well...only at the end of this 2WW will we find out...

We have a progesterone check next Tuesday morning to make sure my levels are good, and then we wait!

So I will update you guys next Tuesday unless there is a post you guys would like to see me do in the meantime. 

Thank you again for all of the thoughts and prayers!

There are how many??!!

Good morning guys!!!

This morning we went in for our follicle check and let me tell you!..we were surprised and beyond excited for our chances this cycle!

I have been feeling some stretching in my left ovary since about cycle day 5ish but this morning I was feeling it a little more in my right ovary. So going into my appointment this morning, I figured we probably had 1 on each side..maybe 2 on my left since I have been feeling it a little more than my right. 

Well my doctor came in and started the ultrasound on my right ovary and there were 4 follicles and 3 were mature!!! Yes! 3 follicles that are ready to go on my right ovary!!! Then he  moved on to my left ovary and there were 2 follicles...and BOTH were mature!!! So we have 5 total mature follicles!

Then he wanted to talk a little bit. 

This news is great on one end because it increases our chances of a successful IUI...but on the other end, it seriously increases our chances of multiples.

So we had 2 options. We could cancel this cycle and then he would lower my dose of Menopur next cycle to maybe not get as many follicles. Or we could go through with it and just have an increased chance of multiples.

But he said (and we agreed) that since we have done so many rounds of IUI..he felt comfortable moving forward with the IUI. Our chances of twins went from about 5% to roughly 15% and our chances of triplets or quads went from about 1-2% to about 5%. 

He said that if this was our first or second IUI, he would, no doubt, cancel the cycle. But since we have been working toward this for so long, it just makes sense to stick with this cycle. 

He even said that our chances of conceiving this cycle are pretty much the same as if we were to do IVF. 

So to us, it was a no-brainer. 

We both have twins on each side of our families so it was already in our minds that we could likely have twins. So we are going for it!!!

They are giving me a call this afternoon to tell me when to take my HCG shot and when my IUI will be. But it will most likely be Tuesday!

I was going to do a vlog about all of this but I think I want to hold off on the vlogs until I can get a more portable camera so I can actually take it into my doctors appointments and you guys can get a better idea of what we are going through. Sound good?

ok!!! So I will update you guys on Tuesday and tell you our numbers and how everything went!!!

Thank you for all of the positive thoughts and prayers! Keep them coming!!!

Very first vlog!

Well...I filmed my very first vlog today!! Go check it out and tell me what you think!!!