Baker's Dozen

I had high aspirations when I started this blog.  I wanted to keep you updated every step of the way.  It was wishful thinking to blog daily but I was hoping to do so at least a few times a week.  I didn't take into account how draining and emotional this whole journey is.  Or how having a toddler would change everything.  Literally I get her to bed around 7:30 then I get ready for bed and that's it.  But now that the Lupron was decreased I feel like the fog is lifting and here it is 8:30 and I am still awake and not even in bed!  Progress...

The egg making process has begun.  Last night was the first injection.  It's a lot of work mixing the drugs.  You'd think with how expensive the meds are they would come with a pharmacist but no.  So thank goodness Mark is a quick learner.  He has to mix 2 powders with 1 solution and combine them in one vial, then he has to inject another drug into the vial, then he takes the syringe and gets all the meds out then he changes the needle.  While he does this I ice my thigh and swab it with alcohol.  It's a small needle so that's not the issue but there's a lot of meds to push through and they burn a lot!  Icing helped tonight though.  The last fresh cycle these meds were inter-muscular and those hurt each and every time, no way around it.  I can literally still feel knots where the injections went into my rear and there is still some tingling from where we hit nerves.  So believe me I am very thankful that these are subcutaneous.

Somewhere in the mess of our 3rd bedroom that will soon be a nursery is all the paperwork from our first IVF so I don't remember how many eggs I produced last time but I am pretty sure it was 13 because I remember thinking, "well I guess 13 will be a lucky number now."  So we are hoping for that many this time.  There are so many steps on the road to each egg becoming an embryo that you hope for a high number because not all of the eggs will be mature when they do the retrieval of what's mature not all will survive ICSI (each egg is inserted with 1 sperm), of those not all will grow properly and make it to the transfer.  The more they are working with the more likely you will have a few good, strong embryos to transfer and if you are really lucky maybe some to freeze.  Remember B is the result of a frozen transfer :)