1-7 reasons to love 17-P

17-p = 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate. A synthetic progesterone mixed in a thick greasy oil that I inject every week.  Good stuff.  Oh, 17-P, I love thee and here is why:

1. It makes for a relaxed and happy uterus = no PTL.

2. It keeps my cervix from shortening.

3. Baby gets to keep growing in a safer environment = finally have a viable baby!

4. The soreness and twinges of pain that accompany every shot (no matter where I put it) = no pain no gain!

5. Itchy ass-cheeks from all the injections back there. Very irritating to the tissues (I’m scratching right now).

6. It is something to look forward to every week which means a week closer to term.

7. I know I’m doing and enduring what’s best for my baby.

Here’s a belly pic at 24w1d

Now if only I could get rid of these hip joint/groin pains. Then I’d be rrrreeeealllllly happy.

Welcome ICLW

Welcome and hugs! Just wanted to show some love to everyone dealing with the common thread of infertility, pregnancy loss, and high-risk pregnancies; I feel you on many levels. My husb and I have been trying to have a child together for 3.5 years. I have PCOS and a sluggish thyroid gland. Luckily, my husb can make babies. We used injectables and IUI in 2007 and was pregnant with twin boys, but lost them due to an incompetent cervix that caused my water to break at only 16 weeks (1/08). Devastated at our loss, we stuck together and ended up with a natural BFP, but had an early miscarriage in 6/08. 2008 was just a horrible year for our family. We decided to do the injectables and IUI in Jan of 09 and are now pregnant with a singleton. I have to deal with another high-risk pregnancy because my cervix started shortening and thinning at 16 weeks AGAIN! I now have a double cerclage in place and am blogging my days away until baby is born.

Beta #2

Beta #2 = 158

God is good!

Beta #3 on Tuesday. Suppositories still messing me up with the brown/brown-pink spotting especially after placement. Indigestion and sore boobs arrived. Yay!

12dpiui and I can’t stand it!

First of all: HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!

So I’ve made it this far through the two week wait and I’m losing my mind.  I want to test soooo badly but I’m terrified of the answer being no.  My husb has a theory (since he’s my bodycologist) which is why he keeps asking me to take the test.  Today is his birthday so I also think he wants some good birthday news!  I’ve been praying and praying and God has granted me patience.  I’ve looked at hpt’s, almost ripped open the package,  but I haven’t peed on one yet.  Now that it is day #12 of 14, I’m starting think by now should be pretty accurate and if it’s a BFN, then I’ll just wait for the blood test.  If it’s a no, I think we’ll do it again. We’ve realized that IUI is our best option to have a bio child together because of all our issues and maybe in a few years, we can do adopt or do IVF, but we need to buy our dream home first.

I feel a little differently from last time.  My boobs are bigger and a little sore when pressed, super sleepy, super hungry at first but now my appetite is a little less, gassy (husb. gets a kick out of that, ha ha), little pelvic cramps/heaviness now and then, frequent urination, lower backaches, lightheadedness, vivid dreams and one night I had sciatic nerve pain which only happened when I was pregnant with the twins.  Some of my symptoms were the same as last time, but I remember having bad indigestion and super sore boobs more so last time.  So I’m not sure if the meds are messing with me or that each time is different.  This time I’m taking thyroid hormones as well so it is helping my metabolism and altering the way my body normally deals with all the other hormones in the endocrine system since mine is out of whack without meds. It’s also supposed to lower my chances of having another miscarriage.  All these pills better be doing something right!  I’m trying to stay positive, maybe this time there is only one baby and it’s not pumping out tons of hcg yet. Or maybe there is no baby. Too early to really know, only God does.

I couldn’t help it and told my closest friend that we did the treatment this month and that Wednesday is when we find out.  I thought I could totally keep my mouth shut, but I felt like I needed that support and prayers and positive vibes.  My folks, due to culture, believe you’re not supposed to say anything until you start showing. To me, it almost feels like negative thinking because it’s like “something could happen before then.” Now of course we are all aware of the dreaded “m word” and in my case the dreaded incompetent cervix/premature rupture of membranes (IC/PROM).  But having joy and hope is crucial and I can’t stand the negative vibes.  Show a girl some hope/faith! Yeah it sucked that we told everyone about the twins only to lose them, but I was excited everyday I was pregnant with them partly because of all the hype I got from people around me. 

So all this time I haven’t mentioned my other friend who got knocked up and is now 25 weeks pregn. She’s reached viability with no problem.  I knew she would, never fails!  Those that try, want it badly, and are married with stable careers seem to suffer from Infertility.  She’s not married, cheated on her man (how she got pregn.) and she’s barely employed.  She loved partying all the time and never really had any responsibilities. Now she has to grow up.  She told me when she first found out she was pregn. and was considering her options.  She opted to keep the child and deal with the whole “who’s the daddy” business later.  I talk to her maybe once a month ever since those first 8 weeks.  It’s too painful to hear her nonsense sometimes, especially dealing with her BF and baby-daddy.  My husb doesn’t really want me hanging out with her.  We live down the street from each other and the last time I saw her in person was in Nov. I took her out to breakfast for her birthday and it was super AWKWARD.  She says things like “at least I’ll have my baby” and I just want to SCREAM!

 I just think to myself, people that don’t try get pregnant all around me.  That’s just NOT COOL.  My cousin did 2 years ago (only dated her husb. for 3/4 mo), a family friend did 1 year ago (only dated her bf for 3 mo), coworker 1 year ago (dated her fiance for less than a year) and now this chick (messed around for 1 mo).  What the hell is that all about.  I don’t socialize with them at all and only went to my cousin’s baby shower.  And then hearing about the chick with the octuplets and 6 other kids, that made me want to vomit.  There are so many of us that would love to have 1 child and here she is with 14 under the age of 7 and guess what, she’s single living with her folks.  Never fails!

IUI#2…complete

Well it took forever to get to this point but finally the deed is done.  On cd 17  and cd 18, we did back to back IUIs.

On 1/19 (cd 16) our ultrasound showed a 21 mm follicle and 27 mm cyst/follicle (still weren’t sure) on the right ovary with 11.5 mm uterine lining.  Hormones looked good, so I did a ovidrel trigger that night.  I had my mom give me that shot, last time I did it and it hurt like hell.  This time was no problem.

1/20 (most historic day ever!) we dropped off the goodies and did the IUI 3 hours later.  I had some spotting and light cramps afterwards, but it was tolerable.

1/21 – another ultrasound showed 2 follicles collapsed, so there is a slight chance of twins again.  Uterine lining had ovulatory changes and free fluid was in my abdomen so more evidence of ovulation occuring.  Some pelvic soreness early in the morning and in my right lower quadrant, but not as bad as last time = It felt like someone kicked on my left side. So dropped off the goodies again and did the IUI 3.5 hours later. 

I took 3 Doxycycline pills to keep from getting an infection and this morning I start with the progesterone suppositories.  I really look forward to the gooey pasty stuff in my panties.

We spent also two nights in a hotel to be closer to the clinic since it is normally about 26 miles away from our house.  Kinda like taking a mini vacation  But gotta go back to work tonight. I’m not saying a word to the folks @ work.  People at work got too involved in what was going on in my uterus, especially after my husband accidently announced that we were having twins!

I did a lot of resting and kicking back these last two days so now is the two-week-wait.  We can test on 2/4/08, two days after husband’s birthday.  If God grants us this miracle, we’ll have a baby due around the time of our wedding anniversary in October. We are praying long and hard for that blessing.  Waiting is tough, but patience is key.  I’ll just keep playing my Nintendo DS until testing day.

Our NP was super nice, supportive, and explained things very well during the IUIs and the whole monitoring process. The one thing that keeps ringing in my ears that she said was “swim boys and girls, swim!”

Still cycling – IUI cd11

Well here were are on day cd11 and meds are not quite right yet. It seems like this cycle may be as long as the last time.  Last IUI in 2007 (gave me a BFP) we didn’t do the IUIs until cd17 and cd18.

So far… 1/6 cd 3 looked good – old cyst from when I last ovulated on right ovary, good antral count

cd3 to cd10 = Follistim 75iu SC

us on 1/12 cd 9 = showed 11mm and 12mm follie on right and lots of 7mm on left. 7 mm uterine lines

1/14 cd 11 = 17mm follie on right <could be combo of last two follies> with few 7 mm (7 total), and lots of 7 mm on left (7 total), but E2 was not good enough so upped dose to 100iu of follistim SC. 8 mm uterine lines.  I’m thinking they want more mature follies since I’m barely stimming.

Last time only needed 50 for over a week then 75 for few days and got my twins! This time, my ovaries are a little more stubborn, but I wonder if the thyroid stuff has anything to do with it? I know they know what they’re doing and they are taking it slowly so we’re being as patient as we can.  We were hoping that the IUI would be this weekend, but it seems more like next Monday. Which means our tww would end right on or after my husb.’s birthday.

We’ll see.  I’ve been trying to predict this cycle and pray that I don’t have OHSS, but now I’m praying they don’t cancel the cycle.

New Year, New Day, New Cycle

Let’s make this year a good one!

Happy Angel Day Angeline and Augustin!

It has been exactly one year since we lost the the twins.  They were sadly born and died 1/9/08. I can’t believe time has gone so quickly, I still get flashbacks every now and then of events leading to their demise.  I wanted to commemorate each day of events leading to today by inflating a white balloon with scripture on each.  I opted to put scripture on one, but still inflate the balloons so that today we can let them go.  Symbolic…from 1/4 to 1/9 of fear, disbelief, decision, despair, anguish, and sadness. And that today I would somehow let some of that go by letting go of the balloons in their honor.  Plus the balloons are flying up to heaven with them. We’ll lay low tonight and light candles in their honor.

My husband and I decided to start a new IUI cycle this month after getting the green light from my recent labwork.  TSH = 1.5, great for conception!  We patiently waited for my period to start and low and behold, it started on 1/4/09  (a year ago that date my water broke @ almost 16 weeks).  We went for our baseline ultrasound on day 3 which was 1/6 and uterus/ovaries/labs looked good so the NP said it was okay to start taking my follistim 75 iu.  Last time we started @ 50 iu, but she said that I responded slowly, so they upped the dose.  I just pray that my ovaries don’t respond too much.  One embryo is fantastic, twins are nice, but triplets are super high risk with my weak cervix.

I got great news regarding the meds. My husband’s insurance is so freaking wonderful that $700 worth of injectibles was only $15.  How awesome is that!  So I’m excited and nervous at the same time.  But my resolution was to be more positive and I am thinking very positively.  Plus we’ll do it again.  We are so eager to have a child together, we keep playing the name game.   I think we’ll have a boy (chinese gender chart), but if we have a boy and girl or boy/boy we have names.  He wants a girl, if we have two girls we have names too.  “But what about…”  My husband likes finding names.

I’ m trying not to have too much pride that I will get my BFP because I don’t want to jinx it. We know I can get pregnant, my body needs help with hormones.  We also know I can carry two babies for up to 4 months with no help, so this time we are getting help with a cerclage.  I have a new OB-Gyn (Dr. M) on board who will refer me to the same Perinatologist (Dr. D) that I saw in the hospital (we trust him).  Knowledge is power and sometimes ingnorance is bliss.  But this time I love the knowledge.

I have an appointment with RE on 1/12 and 1/14 and that will determine when the IUI will be.  Hopefully next weekend so that the tww will be done by my husband’s birthday.  What a great present that would be! God willing…