Brian and I are High School sweethearts and have been married for 7 years and dated for 4 years before that. We have two daughters, Ava who is 4 and Emery who is 3. We began our journey to grow our family about two years ago. Brian and I figured it would be a similar journey as we had conceived both our daughters very easily within the first month of trying. We had tried for 6 months with no luck and attributing it to stress of dealing with my moms cancer. I tried to stay stress free as possible and thought I was dealing with it very well. We went to my OB and asked what our options were, she had mentioned the possibility of scar tissue being an issue from two previous C-sections and had recommended a laparoscopic procedure, in which we did later that month. While during the procedure she had seen endometriosis and temporarily took care of it. She gave us three months to get pregnant and also put me on the lowest dose of Clomid.
I felt positive this would work and was extremely bummed and depressed by the third month. I ended up switching OB's to get a second opinion and see if there was anything she could be missing. I really liked my new OB and she gave us a few new techniques and tests and I so wanted this to work. About 6 months later she had informed us, that she had done all that she could and recommended us to go the The Fertility Clinic in Mandeville.
I can remember clearly my first visit to the clinic, I was a mess. I NEVER thought this would be me. I had two beautiful children already, what has happened in the past 3 years since we had Emery? I was young( 29 at the time) and Brian had already been tested and was cleared. My diagnosis was endometriosis and PCOS( Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) both which makes it harder to conceive but NOT impossible. We met with Dr. Lu who is extremely intelligent and knows his statistics. We started off with a higher dose of clomid for two months, after being unsuccessful we met with Dr Lu again to go over more options. Our first was injections and our second was injections WITH IVF. Once again I was in a position I NEVER thought I would be in. These were our last resorts.
For those who don't know what injections do- they create more follicles which in return should produce more eggs which then give the greater chance of pregnancy. People choose IVF to have more control over the number of eggs that could end up being fertilized. By just doing injections it is a lot less invasive but a much higher risk of triplets or more. After this meeting we had a month to discuss our option because the IVF clinic was closed for a month. It was perfect timing- we dedicated an entire month to praying about this issue and discussing the outcomes with our family. We knew if we ended up with multiples we were going to need the support of our family and friends and we wanted to make sure they agreed with our choice.
Both Brian and I went back and forth the entire month. Brian being the accountant he is, he took out his excel spreadsheet and inputted the odds for singleton, twins and triplets for both our options. With already having two children it was a pretty much no brainer to do IVF. We would have a 60 percent of a singleton, 20 percent for twins and less than 1 percent for triplets. We would fertilize just two and not have any leftover to freeze. This was our last chance, our insurance starts over in July which only gave us time for one cycle. We have insurance coverage and once we hit our deductible we only pay 10 percent!!! We are VERY blessed, this also made our choice easier.
So at the end of March we went back to the Dr and met with my IVF nurse who gave me a calendar and explained the process. It would be 3 weeks of birth control, followed by about 5-7 days of injections and daily ultrasounds to check follicle growth, then egg retrieval and 5 days later the transfer followed by a week wait before a blood pregnancy test.
There were two things I was most nervous about- the first and most important was believing that this was still Gods plan and were we following it correctly and the second being the injections. Both quickly subsided because by the time I started taking the pills I felt a sense of calmness come over my body. This followed me through the entire process until the day before my test! The injections were a piece of cake and it was fun to see how quickly my body was reacting.
On April 25 we were ready for egg retrieval. We prayed that God would be with Dr Lu and the embryologist and keep his hands on the entire process. After the retrieval Dr Lu told us out of 22 follicles only 5 eggs had been retrieved, in which he predicted about 10-12, so about half of what he predicted. This may have been my issue the entire time- not producing eggs every month- let alone every other month. He told us the chances of just fertilizing just two and having two survive was very slim, so we made a quick change and fertilized three.
We went home and continued praying, had a hard time sleeping and was nervous about our update the following day to see the outcome of the fertilization. By 2:00 I hadn't received a call from my nurse and I took it as a bad sign. I was shaking when I called and I had Brian in the room. The nurse said- two of the three were fertilized and I would get another update the following day. I immediately started crying. From that moment I felt attached to my babies and felt the need to have them safe inside of me. So far it had all worked out. We had two embryos and we didn't have to worry about freezing one!
The next day I was listening to Pandora and the song "How Great is our God" was playing when it stopped and Dr Lu's call was coming in. He said we had two of the BEST rated eggs and I will get another update on Sunday. I fell to my knees and began crying as the song cut back in. Everything was finally working out. I sent out text updates and asked for prayers, they were working.
Sunday, was another positive call, the cells were dividing and were still graded at the best. We wouldn't get another update until the day of transfer, two days later. So we continued to pray.
Brian and I went in on Tuesday morning, when the the Dr said the embryos are now graded "good" not "best". He said not to worry- being average is a great thing. Then during transfer my uterus was "great" and he said we have a better chance of success with a great uterus and "good" embryos. He said leave it up to the big man above. This being said we knew none of this has ever been in our hands, but in Gods hands. He has been with these babies every step of the way and will continue through their lives. This was a big relief and help during my 3 days of bed rest that followed. I spent hours praying and imagining the babies growing, dividing and implanting. I received so many texts and messages from my friends and family and every one of them helped me through this extremely tough process for TWO LONG years.
6 days after the transfer I was reading blogs of people who took HPT test and were testing positive. Of course I was dying to know. I ran to the store and bought two tests. I peed on the first, waited a minute and nothing. I had to leave and pick up the girls from school, so I put the test in a drawer. I picked up the girls, put them down for a nap and had this urge to check the test again. What do you know- a faint second line!!! Well, I was nowhere near convinced, it was over the ten minute time period and was invalid. I had to hold my pee until night time. Once again I tested and sure enough three minutes later there was a faint line. I still did not believe it and did not tell Brian. I didn't want to get excited and have it be a false positive.
So, I have now caught you up and will continue the rest of our story on another post!
