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Recipe for Success

January 17, 2008

During our month off, we met with our new nurse practitioner and solidified our plan for how to get pregnant in 2008. They gave us a presentation on IVF with pictures of the different steps and showed us what all the parts of the process would be like. They got the process started with our insurance company to approve us for the 3 cycles of IUI with injectables, which our insurance company required us to try before they will cover IVF.

Finally, my period arrived and we started our next treatment cycle, our fourth IUI cycle and our first injectables cycle. The injections were fairly easy to administer, once I learned how to use the pen dispenser, and I was on the lowest dose so I didn't notice any side effects. I took them from CD 2-10 (Dec. 20-28) and really the biggest pain with them was being home at a certain time so I could take them.

We went to my in-laws' house for Christmas Eve and Day, and I had to bring a big cooler full of supplies with me. I also had to go into the hospital almost every morning for blood work and ultrasound to monitor my follicle growth. There was some confusion the day after Christmas because none of the ultrasound techs came in that day, so I ended up driving across the city to another facility and waiting for another hour to get my ultrasound done.

When all was said and done, I had 5 mature follicles from the injections. The day I was to take the trigger shot, the nurse explained to me about the higher risk of multiples, but of course I wasn't going to cancel the cycle now. We had had 3 follicles before and that hadn't worked at all, so we figured our chances of even 1 taking this time were still pretty slim.

Our IUI was scheduled for New Years Eve at 9am. The night before, we checked the weather and found out there would probably be some snow. Jeff parked his car behind mine at the bottom of the driveway so we would have less to shovel. The next morning, it had snowed a lot! And...Jeff's car wouldn't start!!!

As I was sitting upstairs in the bedroom, on hold with the hospital waiting to make sure there was someone there that day (the day after Christmas fiasco had me a little scared--I didn't want to waste the goods if they weren't there), I heard Jeff trying over and over to start the car. It sounded awful. I got downstairs and tried it myself. Nothing. He was blocking me in and his car was completely dead.

Panic ensued. Jeff frantically shoveled the area around my car and I tried to inch my way back and forth so I could back down the driveway beside his car. But there was just no way my car would fit. I was almost in tears now. I slammed the door and said I was going to call a cab. I could just see us riding to the hospital in a cab with a cup of semen in our lap!

I looked at the cars one more time and decided to try something else. I thought maybe I could turn my entire car around in the place it already was, and drive straight down the driveway next to Jeff's car. It was like a 20-point turn. But eventually, my car was about an inch away from Jeff's, next to it in the driveway. I squeezed the car into the street and yelled out the window, "Okay, now just go! Go! Go!"

After I called the hospital again to let them know we'd be late (they were so calm--I must have sounded crazed) I sat in the car and laughed a little wondering how Jeff could possibly do his thing after the morning we had. He came out with the little cup in the crook of his arm, slipped a little on the ice, and I yelled, "Be careful of them!!!" (No concern over whether he was okay, of course.)

At the hospital, the atmosphere was pretty jovial--we were the only IUI that day, and it was New Years Eve, after all. The nurses were all weighing themselves on the scale and making New Years Resolutions about how much weight they wanted to lose. They let us look at the sperm under a microscope and it was so neat! They were all swimming around like crazy, and there seemed to be far fewer 2-headers and 2-tailers than there had been in August when we first saw them.

In the IUI room, they told us the post-wash sperm motility was excellent. The nurse who did this IUI was very gentle, and it didn't hurt as bad as some previous ones had. And she elevated my hips afterwards, which they had never done before. When I got home, I felt very crampy and bloated, but it passed as the day went on. This was the first IUI I didn't take a nap after. Jeff did, but I didn't feel like sleeping.

The two week wait really flew by this time, I think because I wasn't thinking about it at all. I was taking twice as much progesterone on the new doctor's orders, and I even made it to my first beta on Monday morning. Every other cycle, I always got my period before my betas.

I honestly could not believe my ears when the nurse called in the afternoon and told me that I'M PREGNANT!!!!! I think my first words were, "Wait, what??" And then, "Are you sure? Those are really my results and not someone else's??" After she hung up, I ran out into the driveway where Jeff was shoveling more snow, and threw myself into his arms, shouting "I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!" over and over again. We truly can't believe it!!! We are in such shock that something worked for us. We know it's still very early, and it may not stick, but we are just so happy to know that it CAN happen for us! It really hasn't hit us though that I'm finally pregnant!!!!!!