As soon as the marathon was over, we started the long and insane journey of IVF. Over the past two years, we had no luck getting pregnant. I had a miscarriage at 9.5 weeks, 2 chemical pregnancies, and a failed IUI. We finally decided to just bite the bullet and go for one round of IVF. I'm turning 40 in March, so I really wanted to be done while I was still 39. Does anybody actually want to be pregnant at 40?! Um, not me!
The IVF process is not for the faint of heart. I gave myself 179 shots in both my stomach and my hips over the course of 5 months. Sometimes, up to four shots a day! By the end of it, I looked (and felt) like a bruised little pincushion.
The first step is the egg retrieval. This is a sedated procedure where they gather the eggs. So for us, the numbers went like this:
30 eggs retrieved --> 16 mature --> 13 fertilized --> 2 embryos that grew --> 1 embryo that was viable.
Out of that entire process, we only ended up with one embryo! When we got the email, I was so scared to open it. But then it said that we had one little girl embryo, and I about cried! One girl! Exactly what I'd been hoping and praying for.
Time to rewind. When I was a sophomore in college, I had knee surgery while running at BYU. I asked my Bishop for a blessing because I was struggling with being injured. During that blessing, he spoke about how my experience with this injury would one day help my daughter. My daughter? I was very confused by the whole ordeal. A daughter. I wasn't even married. What was he talking about? But when he said that, I somehow knew it was true. I know it's weird, but I distinctly remember feeling her in that moment. It was a feeling that was overwhelming.
That blessing was in 2004. Fast forward twenty one years later to IVF, to our one little girl embryo. Oh my goodness. I just knew it was her!
Obviously, I was so scared because the success rate of the transfers isn't necessarily that high. We had already decided that if the transfer failed, we weren't going to go through another round of egg retrieval (for a lot of reasons). One shot. This was it.
{egg retrieval day}
{November shot line-up}
We are so so so happy that the transfer was successful!! I got a positive pregnancy test a week after. Although, I have to say, I've been extremely nervous that something will go wrong throughout the entire pregnancy. I worry pretty much every week. In the beginning, some of my levels were off (progesterone was low, thyroid was high). We had to make adjustments to my shots and add some new medication. But so far, everything looks good with the baby!
I had to continue the shots until 12 weeks, which about killed me. But I did it. Also, I don't know what it is, but I have been really, really sick this go round. I'm still nauseous all day, and sometimes I still throw up. I threw up twice on Sunday morning...yuck. It's way better than it was during the first trimester, but I really hope it goes away completely at some point?!
{positive pregnancy test, Feb 13th!}
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