May 1, 2009 THE BIG DAY

Howdy! Today was our big and blessed day! I woke up excited as ever, and thought it was a sign that the radio alarm was blaring a song that Tyler loves to sing to me and do this silly little hip swinging dance to daily, that makes me fall more in love with him by laughing at him. I arrive excitedly at the doc. Then the office manager calls me back. I was thinking "why does she need me"? She broke the heart shattering news. The sperm and egg that were brought together would not fertilize naturally. They were forced to do ICSI in a separate lab. Basically ICSI is taking an individual sperm and manually injecting it into the egg to fertilize. The only part that ended up bad was that it costs a couple thousand dollars additional, but overall we got the end product of embryos! I pay my additional dues and the nurse calls me back to a room. I patiently wait while a woman screams bloody murder in the operating room directly across the hall. It was so gut wrenching I asked a nurse if that was going to be done to me, because i was shivering in fear. They reassured me that was what Tuesday's surgery was........thank goodness I had already accomplished that, I must be super tough! The doc came in and told me I only had 5 eggs, what we figured for the earlier ultrasounds. They ICSIed all, 1 never divided and the other 4 embryos looked great, 8+ cells each. Now the decision of how many to transfer. Dr. G explained 1 embryo would be a 20% chance, 2 would be a 40-50%, with a 12% risk of twins, and 3 would be a 60-70%chance and a 25% chance of twins. He could not ethically implant 4 into a healthy 26 year old. With out hesitation I agreed to 3, he said that is what he hoped but didn't want to sway me. I then go to see my future "babies" via enlarged microscope image on a TV screen, how amazing! We went into the operating room, no screaming anymore thankfully, and Marta was by my side, Dr. G prepared for the transfer, and then Dr. Wu who had been growing our babies the last 3 days came in with the embryos. Adjusting the catheter into my uterus was rough, but they guided themselves by doing an ultrasound from the outside to be able to see. In went my 3 babies. Dr. Wu went to go check the catheter to make sure all 3 were out, under a microscope. Yes, he said in broken Chinese/English. Whoop! On went my tights and shoes and I was off, hopefully pregnant! Then bed rest until the acupuncture. the chiropractic office it was done it was gorgeous and the doc was very friendly. We discussed IVF and the correlation with acupuncture. I explained how Ty and I had acupuncture at spas in the past,I hated it he loved it, but if my chances for pregnancy go up I will try anything. So my pants came right off and here we go, pins in the ankles, wrists, all over my abs, and lower abs, at one point i leaned up and saw like 30 pins in my tummy! The only scary ones were all over my ears and the back of my neck, which i then laid on. 10 minutes of rest, the doc twisted all the pins, 10 more minutes of rest and out of the next office of the day. I guess getting injections multiple times a day has made me immune to the needle fears. Progesterone shot this evening went great, minus excessive bleeding, but no extra pain. Now back to bed rest...the hardest part so far! I keep looking at my tummy constantly praying I might have a baby or 2 in there....WHOOP!