Just call me Pin cushion

As the title of this post states, I'm feeling a little...ok, a lot like a pin cushion right now. Currently I'm doing 3 shots a day (booty, thigh and belly), getting blood drawn every other day, and doing acupuncture once a week. Everything considered I have to say it's really not that bad. Luckily I'm not scared of needles but it was a little nerve racking the first time I realized this needed to go in me:

J gets to jab me with this every morning

I've been taking what they call "stims" (injections that stimulate my ovaries to grow multiple eggs) for 6 days now. The Dr. says everything's progressing as it should and I will likely be doing a trigger shot on Tues or Wed that makes me ovulate within 40 hours then 35hours after the shot I'll be going in for my egg retrieval procedure (Thurs or Fri). They'll fertilize as many mature eggs as they get and 5 days later (Oct. 4th or 5th), I'll have 2 embryos transferred into me. Then the waiting game continues for 9 days before I go in for my pregnancy blood test.

I'm still in disbelief that I might be pregnant in 10 days...CRAZY! I've gotten so much support from friends, family and women I've been talking to on infertility message boards. I'm definitely one lucky woman to have support around me, especially J. He's truly my rock right now. I've been staying positive and hopeful that this is going to work for us. I feel that I'm meant to be a mom and this is my time! I've been doing a lot of positive affirmations to make a habit out of thinking positively and pushing all though negative thoughts and doubts out of my mind. 

I'll definitely be updating later this week as I'm recovering from my procedure. Until then, I'm chanting "Grow, eggies, grow!" =)

This is the month!

It's been a while since I've updated and I realized quite a bit has been going on for me that I should write about. First of all, our last month of trying to conceive naturally didn't work out in our favor, but that's fine. Sad to say I'm kind of use to it at this point. So, we're working further towards getting this baby in a more scientific way with lotsa money and lotsa meds!

In the last month, J and I have gone to two informational classes at ORM. The first one was a couple hours going through exactly what to expect from the IVF process. I knew a lot of what they covered, but it was nice to have them review it and go into a little more depth. The second class covered injections and I got to practice on a little fake piece of skin. I have to admit it was a little overwhelming. I held it together for the class but afterward I sort of lost it. I think it all just hit me at once that we were really doing this. I threw a pity party for a bit but by the time we got home, I was fine. It definitely helped that my mom knew just when to call me to make me feel better.

A couple weeks ago I went and picked up all my medications. Ummm, yeah, pretty hefty stuff. The total cost was about $7000, but I got a bunch of discounts and stuff so it came to $4300. Still a ton of money for them. Here's what I'll be taking this month (and some will be for early pregnancy):

So where we're at right now is that I've been taking birth control pills since August 21st and will take my last one tomorrow. This Monday I started my first set of shots called Lupron, which are really no big deal because they're so tiny. The birth control pills and Lupron are supposed to suppress everything so that my ovaries basically are starting from ground zero when I start stimulating them (which starts on the 17th). Hopefully everything will stay according to my calendar (fingers crossed) and we'll be having the actually procedures at the end of the month! I keep thinking "I could be pregnant a month from now..." So weird, but amazing!!!

I'll try to update more often from now on since things are going to be happening weekly. One thing I forgot to mention is that I started acupuncture, which I LOVE! MY acupuncturist specializes in fertility so she'll be there at the clinic on the day of the embryo transfer to do a treatment before and after. Studies have shown that acupuncture can help with blood flow which is important when implantation happens. Not only is she helping with that, but alleviating headaches, allergies and stress too. She's amazing and she's my doctor's acupuncturist, so that makes me feel like I'm in good hands too. 

Now it's time to finish the work week so I can go spend some relaxing time with J and Koda in the woods. Really looking forward to this "getaway" before all the craziness of numerous shots and doctors appointments happens!