Yeehaw!

Who knew shopping for baby furniture could be so much fun :)

Shots

One of the lovely opportunities we were given while going through fertility treatments were daily shots ;) I have never been one to love shots (who does?!) so the thought of giving myself shots and having others give me shots was a little intimidating. Poor Chad would get sweaty palms just thinking about the needles :) Well...they weren't that bad. Once we got into the routine they became just that, a routine.

The other night we were curious about how many shots I had during the course of one year while on meds. We emptied the needle containers (very carefully) to count em' up.

Chad's guess - 150

Beth's guess - 200

drum roll please.........
intermuscular - 77

subcutaneous - 98

total shots - 175

One way Chad entertained/pumped me up while giving me shots was to play and dance to "Shots" by LMFAO, featuring Lil' Jon. This rap song became our "pre-game" routine. Here is Chad doing his lil' dance prior my first progesterone shot during our round 1 IVF cycle.

Weekend with friends

This past weekend our TU friends John and Kim made their way to Holland for our summer get together. We love spending time with J, K and their children Ila and Will. Ila and Will are the sweetest babies. They are so precious and sooo good. John and Kim are amazing parents....we took notes all weekend :)

Peyton loved giving the kiddos kisses. We think they liked it :)
A gift for baby C. These are the Po-children must haves! Thank you! Dinner downtown Holland

After dinner we headed to the small spray park downtown. Ila LOVED the water!

Yum!
The adorable Pobanz family

Watching the ladies :)
Chad loved the sprayers too. Such a kid ;)

We headed to MVP on Sunday to enjoy the beautiful weather. Since Ila loved the small spray park on Saturday we figured she would love this one too. It was a hit!

Thanks for making the trip John and Kim. It was so nice to hang out and relax...we can't wait to do it again!

And just for fun...
My sister Sarah dropped off Grey's car seat last week so Chad had to test it out. Oh Peyton, ha!

How we got here....

In May of 2002, the day after I graduated from high school, I underwent my first laparoscopy. There were many signs while I was in high school that pointed towards the possibility of endometriosis. It was determined that all of those signs were accurate and in fact I had stage three endometriosis. Due to the severity of the endo and my age I was accepted as a patient at the Fertility Center. Over the course of the next six years I was put on several protocols to control the disease from spreading and interfering with my daily life.

When we decided to begin the process of starting our family Dr. Dodds put us on a plan right away. We were told that we were at a disadvantage to conceive naturally because of the severity of my endometriosis. Like most couples with fertility issues we hoped and prayed we would would find success towards the beginning of our journey.

I went off the pill during the winter of 2009. It took my body several months to adjust and with no positive pregnancy results my first month on fertility meds was April 2009.

4/09 - 50mg Clomid = BFN
5/09 - 100mg Clomid, HCG level 0 = BFN
6/09 - 150mg Clomid + Ovidrel trigger shot + IUI, HCG level 1 = BFN
7/09 - Folistim injections + Ovidrel trigger shot + IUI, HCG level 0 = BFN
8/09 - Folistim injections + Ovidrel trigger shot + IUI, HCG level 0 = BFN

During the months of July and August I produced my best follicles to date. We were sure that one of these months would result in a pregnancy. When we had a negative HCG in August I was scheduled for my second laparoscopy at the end of the month. We were told that after the surgery the next six months to a year were our greatest chances of conceiving as my doctor was able to remove and treat the endo he found.

8/09 - 2nd laparoscopy = stage 2 endo
9/09 - recover from surgery
10/09 - Folistim injections + Ovidrel trigger shot = emergency room with ruptured cyst, HCG level 11 = BFP, HCG level 4 = BFN

We decided that the month of November would be our last attempt at intrauterine insemination. We had our consult and were put on the list for our first round of IVF during the month of December however we were elated that we finally had our BIG FAT POSITIVE!

11/09 - Folistim injections + Ovidrel trigger shot + IUI = HCG level 29....77 = BFP!

At our six week ultrasound it was determined that there was one baby and that everything looked great. On December 18th we went in for our eight week ultrasound and the baby's heart was not beating like it should. Dr. Dodds told us the devastating news that we would lose the baby. We were sent to the hospital for a plethora of blood tests (this was considered our second miscarriage) and I was told to wait it out and that I would pass the baby on my own. Two weeks after our 8 week ultrasound nothing had happened so Dr. Dodds scheduled my DNC at the end of the month. Two weeks after my DNC we were told that we were carrying a little boy and that he had Trisomy 14. At this same time all of our blood work came back and confirmed that neither of us were genetic carriers.

Because we had success with the last IUI in November we were willing to give it one more shot.

12/09 - DNC
1/10 - recover from surgery
2/10 - Folistim injections + Ovidrel trigger shot + IUI = emergency room with ruptured cyst = BFN
3/10 - mock embryo transfer
4/10 - 23 days Lupron injections, IVF meds...too many to name :)

Round 1 IVF meds
Peyton helping dad administer the shots :) 4/23/10 - egg retrieval

Let's Go!
Pumped up :) Rockin' the gown! Recovery...totally passed out!
On April 24th, the day after the egg retrieval, we received devastating news yet again. We were told that the eggs Dr. Young extracted the day before were of poor quality and that the embryos we had may not survive the night. It was heartbreaking to know we had come so far and might not have any embryos to transfer in the morning. On Sunday we made our way to the clinic not knowing if we would be sent back home. When we walked in we were told that all of our embryos had made it through the night. It was an answer to prayer!

4/25/10 - embryo transfer

Dr. Young and Sarah

Our cute embies Peyton helping mom out with three days of bed rest :) 5/6/10 - HCG level 14 = low positive
5/8/10 - HCG level 3 = BFN
5/10/10 - failed IVF consult with Dodds

At our failed IVF consult we were told that we would have to let my body rest and that it would be August before we could do our frozen transfer...soooo frustrating! Throughout the process of fertility treatments I became very in tune with my body. Although the negative results were recent, I knew I felt ok. I could always tell when I had cysts and I truly felt that I did not. I begged (not exaggerating here) Dr. Dodds to do an exam to see if we could try sooner than August. He allowed us to have an exam and was shocked when the exam revealed what I had been feeling. Everything looked a-ok and we were given the go to begin meds. Yahoo!

5/15/10 - begin IVF meds for frozen embryo transfer
5/27/10 - frozen embryo transfer

Take 2...nice one Chad ;)Still rockin' the gown!
Dr. Dodds

When we left the clinic the day of the frozen transfer Dr. Dodds told me he would see me at my OB ultrasound :) I reminded myself of his words over the two week wait, praying it would be a reality.

6/7/10 - HCG level 89!
6/9/10 - HCG level 141!
6/11/10 - HCG level 303 = BFP!!!!
6/21/10 - 6 week ultrasound
6/30/10 - 7 week ultrasound, heart rate 148

Our seven week appointment was so exciting because we were able to hear baby C's heart beat for the first time. It was a very emotional experience for both of us because hearing that sweet sound had always seemed like a dream and it was actually becoming a reality. Once Dr. Dodds saw that everything was looking good with the baby he continued his exam. Since we transferred three embryos he wanted to make sure he wasn't missing anything. We could tell he was concerned and as we spoke we could see that there was a possibility the second fetus was in my tubes. I was told to stop eating and drinking and we were sent to the hospital for additional Doppler testing. If it was in fact an ectopic pregnancy, Dr. Dodds was going to perform surgery that evening. The hospital was expecting us when we arrived and we were taken into the room by the ultrasound tech. As we were walking down the hall the tech hugged me and told me that she too was a patient of Dr. Dodds and now has two children. She calmed my nerves and "unofficially" walked us through all of the exams. Once the main physician reviewed all of my results he concluded that there was no blood flow coming from my tube. With more monitoring the next several weeks we were in the clear.

7/6/10 - 8 week ultrasound, heart rate 165
7/19/10 - 10 week ultrasound, heart rate 164 = released from clinic

Until next time... Thank you Dr. Dodds! You're the BEST!
Now that's a thick folder
Peace out!10 week ultrasound

7/27/10 - 11 week ultrasound with OB, heart rate 170

We love you so much baby C! You have quite the story and we feel so blessed that God has chosen us to be your mom and dad. We have so much love to give. XOXO.