Sunday 27 May 2012

4 weeks - 23/05/12


4 weeks today!!

So much excitement to be 4 weeks pregnant!
Obviously, its still VERY early, but im taking every day as it comes and praying for a healthy pregnancy

Now, theres not much there yet, other than a few too many chocolates, but Im going to take a photo every week to track the process of my growing belly.




Much Love <3

a bit of a scare

I woke up early on Monday morning and made an appointment at the doctor.
A new doctor. The thought of a new doctor to me is scary & exciting all at the same time.
I don't know if I'm just fussy with doctors, or if I've had really bad luck at finding a good one.

My appointment was at 10.15.
I made it there just in time after circling the shopping center a few times trying to find it.
I sat on the couch with butterflies in my stomach. I felt sick with nerves.
I watched as doctors called in their patients wondering which doctor would be mine.
At about 11am it was finally my turn.
She asked lots of questions, checked my blood pressure & made me feel welcome.
I was happy, so happy to finally find a doctor who cared.

She said she wanted to see me in about a week just to make sure everything was going okay.
But as it turned out I was back to see her that afternoon.

Id gone to the bathroom and saw some very light spotting.
I wasn't scared because I knew this was perfectly normal, but went to see the doctor just in case.

She checked my cervix and thankfully informed me that it was tightly closed and then sent me for the dreaded blood tests.
I was to have a blood test today and another 48 hours later to check if my HCG was rising at an appropriate rate.

So fast forward 48 hours and I was back at pathology again for another blood test.
Micheal decided to come with me this time which was incredibly lucky because the nurse missed my vein and was wriggling the needle around in my arm which caused some pain!
I got straight up and walked out as soon as the nurse was finished.
I only just made it to the car before falling in to my seat.
I was losing me sight & my hearing.
But I knew what I had to do to prevent myself from fainting.
water & cold aircon
After what felt like hours, but was only minutes, I was back to my normal self again.

So, the wait was on.

My weekly appointments:
Monday 21st, 4:00pm - blood test at the doctor
Wednesday 23rd, 4:00 pm - blood test at the doctor
Thursday 24th, 7:30am - blood test at the fertility center
Thursday afternoon - BLOOD TEST RESULTS!!


The nurse from the fertility center called me at 2.30.
She said "congratulations your test was positive and Im very happy to tell you that your HCG was 292 and progesterone was 44.

Only an hour later I received my results from the doctor.
At my first blood test my HCG was 47 and at the second test it was 180.
Which meant it had increased by almost 4 times!!
Pure relief.
I was so excited to tell Micheal the news



an absolutely amazing surprise

So, when I first started this blog, I was expecting it to be all about our IVF journey.
I was up for hours making it perfect, changing the details of the page countless times.
I finally forced myself to go to sleep at about 2.30am on Saturday the 19th.

That morning I woke up at around 9am, I would have been 9 or 10 days past ovulation.
Having no hope at all for this cycle, I went to the bathroom & used a pregnancy test just for fun.
I left it sitting on the washing machine for 2 hours before I finally remembered it was there and decided to have a look...
I picked it up and to my absolute surprise there were 2 pink lines on it.
One was incredibly faint, but definitely there.
Now the golden rule when it comes to pregnancy tests is:

"DONT look at it after 10 minutes because it means absoltely nothing".
So the only thing i could do was take another test, I took 2 actually.
One internet test & one first response.
I sat them on the desk in front of me and waited a couple of minutes before taking a peek.
Once again, there were 2 beautiful pink lines!!
I couldnt believe it.
Less than 24 hours ago I was so excited about starting IVF, and now our plans had changed again.
But this was the best change I could have ever imagined.

I ran in to the bedroom where Micheal was watching the racecars on tv.
I opened the blinds & turned off the TV, meanwhile he was so confused at what I was doing.
I jumped on the bed and shoved the test in front of his face.
The poor guy didn't know what to do or say, he just sat there with a big goofy smile on his face
Then after what seemed like a life time, he said, "really!"
I said "yes, see the 2 lines!".
Then he gave me a huge hug and I burst out in to tears.
Happy, shocked, excited & over-whelmed tears.

Later that day I bought a digital test, just to make this day seem real!

What an unexpected, amazing way to start our day!



2 (1 very faint) pink lines on a first response test!!



my positive, but very hard to see, internet tests

our dreams really are coming true!


the smile on my face says it all

Saturday 19 May 2012

the start of a new chapter

Today was the day we had been waiting for.
It was the day where we would find out what our future held.
Would it be the start of a new journey or would we be back to square one?
Would this long and painful journey ever get any easier?

Our fate layed in the hands of our doctor.
After what seemed like an eternity sitting in the waiting room,
we were finally called in to meet with the doctor.
The time had come at last.

The good news came first - all our blood results were perfect!
But then, we discussed the semen analysis.
They consider a normal count to be over 20 million, and our results showed 17 million.
Normal morphology is over 5%, and our results showed 4%.
So, yes, the results wern't amazing. But, they wern't bad either
Then the doctor performed an ultrasound which showed that I have mild PCOS.
Now the good thing is that we can both make some lifestyle changes to improve our results.

So, it wasn't perfect, but we wern't expecting that, and we got what we have been waiting for...ANSWERS!

The the doctor discussed with us what the next step should be.
IVF or ISCI (depending on the sperm analysis on the day)

IVF- In Vitro Fertilisation  is where fertilisation of a woman's eggs occurs outside the human body. The scientists place both the male’s sperm and the woman’s egg together into a sterilised dish in a laboratory. After fertilisation one or two of the embryos are transferred back to the woman’s uterus.

ICSI - Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection is where the scientists in the embryology laboratory inject a single sperm into the egg to assist in the fertilisation process.

So, it turned out to be a pretty good morning,
it wasn't the best news,
but it was a step in the right direction

We're making our dreams a reality, one step at a time.

So, now we wait for a new cycle to begin!


how ironic, starting the pill to begin our IVF journey!