The Official TTC Thread!

[Festy]

Date: 8/14/2009 3:51:02 PM
Author: aprilcait
Blushing, that''s great news!

Festy, I should technically have either started ovulating yesterday or begin today. I just got off BC after being on it for roughly nine years, though, so whether I''ll actually ovulate right off the bat is up in the air.

You might be feeling ovulation pain. I feel it in the front, off to one side, but some people get back pain as well.

 

[aprilcait]

Date: 8/14/2009 4:05:51 PM
Author: Festy

Date: 8/14/2009 3:51:02 PM
Author: aprilcait
Blushing, that's great news!

Festy, I should technically have either started ovulating yesterday or begin today. I just got off BC after being on it for roughly nine years, though, so whether I'll actually ovulate right off the bat is up in the air.

You might be feeling ovulation pain. I feel it in the front, off to one side, but some people get back pain as well.

Really? Oky doke. Thanks for the info, Festy!
Geez, we women get cramps for just about everything, huh? PMS, ovulation, labor... Haha!

 

[Festy]

Date: 8/14/2009 4:24:29 PM
Author: aprilcait

Date: 8/14/2009 4:05:51 PM
Author: Festy

Date: 8/14/2009 3:51:02 PM
Author: aprilcait
Blushing, that''s great news!

Festy, I should technically have either started ovulating yesterday or begin today. I just got off BC after being on it for roughly nine years, though, so whether I''ll actually ovulate right off the bat is up in the air.

You might be feeling ovulation pain. I feel it in the front, off to one side, but some people get back pain as well.

Really? Oky doke. Thanks for the info, Festy!
Geez, we women get cramps for just about everything, huh? PMS, ovulation, labor... Haha!

No lie. I feel like I have some sort of cramp/tingly 75% of the time. Some women feel nothing. You won''t REALLY know what it is until you have a few cycles under your belt. If you''re charting, make a note of when you felt it and see what happens over the next couple of cycles. FWIW, O pain feels very different for me than menstrual cramps, but everyone is different. (More localized, not as painful).

 

[Puppmom]

Blushing, congrats on the good news! What a great way to start the weekend!

Laila - don''t feel bad. Just because DHs numbers are stellar doesn''t mean this is your "fault". I would take that as good news. My DH is sure he''s got quality stuff so we''ll see what happens here Both of my sisters had fertility issues. One got pregnant after 3 years and eventual IVF and the other 2 years with eventual IVF. I know that neither of their husbands had issues. My one sister had a blocked fallopian tube and I''m not sure what my other sister''s issue was. Do these things run in families?? My mom certainly had no problems.

I have some good news to share - for those of you who don''t know, my DH wanted to skip TTC in August for fear our baby would share his birthday. Men! I expressed my concern to him a few days ago about being thrilled to conceive at any point. I told him to think about it and let me know. He called me at work today and said he wanted to try in August. Yippee! I know the odds are slim as it''s only our second month trying but I don''t want to look back with any regrets if we encounter problems conceiving.

On another note - anyone use OPKs? Is it too soon in the process? I have a fairly regular cycle running 27-28 days but read that it''s still not safe to assume you ovulate mid-cycle. I''m trying to get more in touch with my body and pick up on the other hints it gives but that''s no exact science.

Why is it that during the 10 years that DH and I tried NOT to get pregnant it seemed like one little slip up could do it and now it seems like all of the stars have to align to conceive!?

 

[drk]

Melanie - So excited for you for ER! I actually preferred to not get drugs, so I was strangely happy when they couldn''t get my IV. Everyone else I''ve ever talked to has preferred to be medicated. I was a little achy after. Took a couple tylenol and they gave me a heat pack. I continued both of those at home, took it easy for the next 24h, and that was pretty much it. I didn''t find it scary at all, but maybe it was the doctor in me who wanted to be conscious and see what they did. Sadly, there wasn''t a count called out from the embryology lab or anything . I was waiting for someone to keep shouting out "there''s one, a second...". Instead one of the nurses kept rambling about the flow of fluid or something. I''m sure you''ll do just fine.

Festy - I''d probably do the OPKs (if you have a cheap supply) once in the morning and once at night. It''s rare, but it is possible to miss the surge by testing once a day. Then again, your RE knows more than I do!

 

[cara]

Good luck to all the IUI/IVFers! Routing for good things here!

LV I did confuse your and Laila's DH's! I have a hard time with names that start with the same letter. They all get filed in the same folder in my brain.

Laila, like others have said, its not 'your fault'. First off, hasn't been super long so you still could just randomly not pregnant yet. Second, could still be something wrong with the sperm (or wrong about the combination of his sperm/your body) or something random like an infection as mentioned in the article. Even if its something on your end of things, you'd hardly want your DH all bummed out and blaming himself if it had happened to be poor swimmers, right? You hardly have any control over it. Did the doctor talk to you about the plan from here?

HouMedGal, my husband is doing research now, and returns to clinical fellowship next summer. Residency has been long enough ago (over 2 years now) that I am trying to remind myself how painful it was (just being the spouse) so that I don't get carried away and sign up for something that is a bad idea while in the lull of our current very flexible life and schedule. So are you done training next summer or the year after? What kind of job are you going to look for when you are done?

Ah, Fisher, I am hoping that October test is unnecessary, or if it comes to pass then you are one of the gets-pregnant after clearing out the tubes women. I don't know if this helps, but when you write about feeling bad because women have been getting pregnant forever, it makes me think of the more extreme natural-birth pushers who say women have been giving birth without drugs or c-sections for thousands of years. Of course they have. But other women have been dying in childbirth for thousands of years, other women have longed for a baby and struggled with miscarriages or infertility for just as long. It sure is hard to accept that sometimes one's body lets you down (and I see more of these let downs coming with age to everyone!) but there's little to do but be thankful we live in an age where medicine can help at least some of those women have better experiences. I'm hoping you are one of them

.

Puppmom, yea for your hubby coming around! And you can start OPKs whenever you want. They are just a monitoring tool not an intervention. Some women love them but some women find them more difficult to read or expensive. If you have a regular cycle, then you probably ovulate on a consistent point in your cycle, but different women will ovulate on different days and still have a 28 day cycle. So you could use OPKs for at least a month or two just to see when you usually ovulate.

Or you can take your temperature/monitor cervical mucus. Temperature is very nice data and cheap but it tells you *after* when you have ovulated, not before. I started taking my temperature even though there is no reason to worry just cause I am a nerd and wanted to know. At least until I establish a pattern. My girlfriend was also really frustrated after not getting pregnant right away, but when she used her temperature data to figure out when she ovulated then they timed their BD much better and she got pregnant. Also, on my pregnancy cycle I would have been very interested to know when I ovulated because my first BFP was so long after I expected my period that I suspect I ovulated later that month. But on the downside, I will say that it does introduce a certain clinical aspect to things. Now that I know what is going on, I know what is going on and I see it is going to take some effort to keeping the sex a little more fun and spontaneous and less BDing. (I told my husband about the term BD and he was pretty appalled at its existence. Well, in my defense he did ask what it meant after seeing it while looking to see if there were any iphone charting apps for men - kind of like a calendar app that would keep track of your woman's cycle and warn if it were the time of the month for conception, PMS, or period... So maybe he deserved to be appalled after coming up with that idea!)

Oh, wow, this is a long post. Sorry folks. My update is I am thankfully back home and starting to recover from my head-cold plague, and that I did in fact ovulate this past Tuesday so my chart looks like a textbook avoidance chart

. Bleh. Now just time to wait it out...

 

[swimmer]

Festy, how is it going? When do you think you go in? Did they tell you how the iui will go? They use an u/s to make sure it gets in and they case the joint first. You will get some info from that. At my place they hand me the clipboard while doing an u/s and i take the notes on what size the follicles are, lining, etc. So I have all the details, even if the u/s is a rather inexact science.

Puppmom, i hear you on the switching gears! so glad your DH has rethought things. good luck!

BB, good luck this cycle, it sounds like you are good to go!

Fisher, ditto what Cara just said, for whatever reason there have always been women who couldn''t have babies...now we have some help from the medical community rather than being burnt on a stake in Salem. Yay science! (just a little help, not huge help

)

Cara, may this cycle end soon! great info you posted. I would give a shout out for cervical positioning. Hey, its your body. You only get one. Learn about it. Taking Care of your Fertility or TCoYF is a really important read.

Man I wish i could send my internet cheapie opk strips to you ladies who are just starting out. they didn''t work at all for me since i don''t normally ovulate on my own there is really nothing to measure except to see if i really did give myself the trigger shot. Strangely enough though, ff gave me crosshairs most months. Perhaps I was willing my temps to rise and fall?

Melanie, how excited are you? Awesome! Are you going back for acupuncture?

My iui is scheduled for 11:45 tomorrow! DH needs to be there an hour earlier. what fun!

 

[vespergirl]

Hcg levels

Hi guys, this is a question that I have about hcg levels - I am not sure what''s normal, and my dr''s office has me freaking out. I went in and got my blood test to confirm my pregnancy at 14 dpo, and my hcg level came back at 147. The nurse called me back & told me to come in again 2 days later (16 dpo) to test again and make sure that the hcg level doubled. I went in yesterday, so I won''t get my test results back until Monday. They also said that they were testing my progesterone level to make sure that everything is OK with the endometrium. When I went back and asked if the levels were "too" low, they said that I shouldn''t "really" worry, but they were too low for an early ultrasound, so they couldn''t do an ultrasound until my levels hit 1,000. Then the nurse said she had someone else waiting for her and shooed my off

I''m totally freaked out by this - do any of you know anything about the hcg levels, and whether mine are OK? She gave me a copy of the test results, and the lab result said that I was within normal range - is 147 normal for 14 dpo? Has anyone else been through this, and what has been the result?

The first result is going to be that I''m changing doctors. I got this doctor recently when I moved (different doc than my first baby) and I think that her nurses & staff suck. So, I spent all day Friday researching new OBs in my area, and I''m going to try to find a new dr on Monday.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Vesper,

Totally not an expert here, but I''d read that an average HCG at 14 dpo is around 48, and that the typical range is between something like 20 and 120. So your number sounds wonderfully high for 14dpo!

I''m not sure about progesterone, didn''t even know they tested that. (Learning more all the time about this stuff... who knew there was so much to it all?) The link Swimmer posted a while back about hormone levels has a chart for both HCG and progesterone while in early pregnancy. That may help you.

Here is the site:

http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/hormonelevels.html

 

[fisherofmengirly]

I think I got a bad pack of OPKs this go round. The last two times I used them, I had definite changes in the test line color each day, some lighter, some darker. This time, they have all been the same. Exactly. Hmm. Maybe I've just not gotten my positive yet, but it's weird that there has been no variation at all in color, whatsoever.

Festy,

From your post, your Dr. is pretty laid back about things. Does that help you to not stress out, or is it making you more stressed that they're not being more proactive with you? I personally think going in every day or every other day for ultrasounds and/or blood work would make me one nervous wreck. But, I'd hate to be at the point of IUI and then not have any guidelines (or not clear ones) about what to do and when to do it.

Swimmer and Cara,

Yes, glad indeed that I'll not be burned at the stake for not producing a child within a certain time frame.

I do think that back in the day, there was less planning and more just *whenever* in parenthood decisions, and I wonder how that affected TTC. I mean, you just did it and if there was a baby as a result, you had the child and were a mother. And I guess since most women eventually do get pregnant at some point in time and do have a child, it didn't seem like such a big deal if it took a certain amount of time to have the baby. Oh heck, I bet there were stressed out women back in the old days wondering when they would have their baby, too.

Ovulation pain: I never thought I felt this and actually thought women who said they had it were nuts. My best friend swears by it and I was constantly telling her it was in her head (she has very regular cycles, and would be able to know when she ovulated based on that and a calendar, so I thought she had it all in her head). But now that I'm more aware of my own wonky cycle, I will sometimes feel these odd little, slight pinching feelings that I believe are related to ovulation for me. They're very slight, not painful at all, but just a different sensation. I feel them more when I'm on Clomid, so I'm not sure if what I feel now is actual ovulation, or over stimulation of my ovaries or what, but it's not painful. I sometimes feel these weird sensations on and off for a day or a day and a half and since I don't think it takes that long for the egg to drop, I think part of it is the gearing up phase. Regardless, when I feel the feelings, my temp shoots up the next day or so, which makes me think it is ovulation-centered. Sometimes if it doesn't feel like a pinch, it sort of feels like when you have a bruise and someone lightly pokes you in that spot, it's just sensitive and you feel it but it's not really painful, it's just a different sensation than normal.

Pupp, no joke about the paranoia about pregnancy prior to TTC; it just seems nutty to me. But then again, for some people, it does just happen that they're pregnant without much effort at all. I've also heard some people have a hard time with number 1, then get pregnant with number 2 right away. Then it also works in reverse of that; nutty!

Swimmer, I've also wondered if we can will ourselves to have higher and lower temps to show ovulation. Heck, we can will ourselves to have pregnancy symptoms.... Next step is willing myself to parenthood, I imagine!

 

[drk]

Vesper - 147 at 14dpo is a stellar number. No worries there. Anything over 100 is absolutely fantastic, I think over 50-60 is decent, so you're well ahead. www.betabase.info is a good site if you want to obsess.

Swimmer - good luck with the IUI tomorrow. Hope your DH's sample is stupendous!

 

[Festy]

Hi guys, thanks for the advice on when to do OPKs. I think I''ll do morning and evening.

Swimmer, I''m so glad to know that they do an ultrasound when they do the IUI. Will they be able to see whether I''ve already ovulated? That''s my main concern, that we miss it. I start using OPKs on CD 11 and go in the day after I see a surge for the first IUI. Today is day 5. So a little over a week. Good luck tomorrow!

And Melanie, how are you holding up? Are you excited?

Vesper, *try* not to worry. I hate when doctors give you just enough info to freak out, but no more. I hope your next doctor is a better fit.

Fisher - bummer about the OPKs. Stick with them. Sometimes I think I''ve got a bad batch and then the second line appears out of the blue. Yeah, I''m not sure what to think about this doctor''s office yet. I''m so new to all of this that I won''t really know if I like their approach until we''re a couple of rounds in. I wouldn''t mind being monitored more closely, but apparently that''s just not the M.O. with Clomid and IUI. With other drugs they monitor you b/c there''s more of a chance of over-stimulation. (Correct me if I''m wrong, Mel, Swim and K).

Hope everyone''s enjoying the weekend!

 

[swimmer]

Fisher,
Cool, I know way more about history than fertility...one of the most frequent offerings you see in archaeology sites are offerings to the gods for babies. Women have drawn, created milagros (token offerings), all sorts of fetish/representative items to show gods that they want babies. More your speed, Rachel as you know was so anxious to have babies that she demanded that Jacob give her some! She even took what were considered fertility meds at the time GEN 30:14,15, so there is a real history of this, and many women just never did have babies so were either discarded by their husbands or even rejected by the entire society for not being of value. Of course adoption has its very roots in infertility, with victims of childbirth, that includes the earlier mentioned Rachel, having a tradition of their sisters/sisters in law raising the orphans.

OK, going on a bike ride in order to cut this off, but I just want Fishy to know how prevalent if is and that even fertility medications are downright biblical.

 

[vespergirl]

Thanks so much for your help with the hcg levels guys! I feel much better now. I kept asking the nurse what made her think that my number was low, since the lab result said it was fine, and she didn''t have a good answer for me - only that they needed to retest. Hopefully everything is OK with my little "poppy seed"...

Thanks again for your help, and I''ll let you guys know how it turns out. I''m still switching drs though - I''ve really had it up to here with the staff at that office ...

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Swimmer,

There is comfort in knowing that many others have been where we are. Sort of. I mean, I wouldn''t wish this on anyone, but I''m glad of the support that there is (now) for those of us who take longer to become mothers than others. Paul points out Rachel to me often; it''s one of his main ways of comforting me when I''m all emotional over this process. In the "generations and generations" comment I was just meaning that it''s just supposed to be such a natural thing, and it''s intimidating and sometimes depressing that it''s not for everyone. But life happens, and you move on. I still find it interesting how so many of us here have arrived at "interventions" at the same point in time, so that there is additional support and knowledge for us.

Bike rides! I love those. Where are you going? It''s been so incredibly hot here that I''ve not ridden since we were in Cali (and that was not comfortable... rode my niece''s bike and the seat is not wide enough for my bigness!). We keep talking about taking a ride, but it''s not worked out that the temps drop on a weekend for us yet.

Another question about IUI, when you conceive by this means, is your entire pregnancy more closely monitored, or just in the first months? I''ve read that there are higher risks, and even under Clomid, and I just didn''t know when it is you''re past it and off onto "normal" range of danger of issues during the pregnancy. I asked my Dr. about the extra monitoring with Clomid and he said all that entails is an early ultrasound to check for the number of babies, and after that, it''s the same as for any other pregnancy. Didn''t ask about IUI, though.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Date: 8/15/2009 12:20:40 PM
Author: vespergirl
Thanks so much for your help with the hcg levels guys! I feel much better now. I kept asking the nurse what made her think that my number was low, since the lab result said it was fine, and she didn''t have a good answer for me - only that they needed to retest. Hopefully everything is OK with my little ''poppy seed''...

Thanks again for your help, and I''ll let you guys know how it turns out. I''m still switching drs though - I''ve really had it up to here with the staff at that office ...

Seriously, medical personnel should know better than to say things like that and then backstep and not tell you why they said what they said. Particularly when it comes to your baby, too. I likely would have asked to talk to someone else about it, or would have been in tears. Emotional.

At any rate, by taking another test in a couple days, it will only reconfirm for you that things are going well, so that will be a good thing.

I found my Dr. by talking to people around me who were pregnant or had recently had children. It''s hard to find a good Dr. when you move. Maybe friends can lead you to a Dr/facility that has more "bedside manners."

(Are you having any pregnancy symptoms yet? I''m always so curious about this with newly pregnant women.)

 

[HOUMedGal]

Melanie -- yaaay for lots of follicles!! I will be thinking about you on Sunday....best of luck with the retrieval and with making some healthy embryos! Let us know how it goes. PS: I lmao''ed about your hubby bragging about his swimmers at dinner. haha!

BlushingBride -- How exciting!! I''ll be thinking about you as you start Clomid...and hoping that you get to feel that excitement you felt the first time again very soon.

Festy, forgive my ignorance, but you''re doing IUI, right?
Fisher, congrats on the good SA results!! I''m glad to hear that the 12% is a great score...I don''t know much about SA''s, so I wouldn''t have known what to make of those results either. I have also thought about how different things must be now compared to how babies were made a hundred years (or more) ago...Part of it, I think, is the fact that we become so accustomed to having such great control over our bodies when trying to AVOID pregnancy (with hormonal contraceptives, etc) that we expect to have the same level of control over our bodies once we decide that we DO want to become pregnant. But unfortunately, as evidenced by the number of couples who do have trouble conceiving, there is no pregnancy-creating method or intervention with a success rate comparable to hormonal BC''s 99% effective prevention rate....which is very frustrating for us. It''s so easy to almost guarantee prevention, but far more difficult to guarantee conception. I imagine that ladies of long ago felt much less control over either side of the coin....babies just came when they came, and there was probably much less conscious decision-making going on re: avoiding OR conceiving.

Aprilcait, I''m thinking that may be ovulation pain. Like Festy said, if you''re charting, make a note of when it happened this cycle and then see if you can pick up a pattern to when it''s happening.

Puppmom, I''m glad you guys are giving it a shot this month! Who knows, this could be the one! And I TOTALLY agree with your last statement...granted, I don''t know how long it''s going to take us to conceive, since we haven''t really started trying yet, but it''s a such strange mental shift to go from trying my damndest to NOT get pregnant for all these years to actually trying to time it just right and make a baby!

Cara, research time is nice. I bet you''ve really enjoyed having him back during this time!! I will be done the year after...summer 2011. I will likely go into an outpatient peds practice when I''m done, or maybe general peds hospitalist...we''ll see. The one thing I do know is that I don''t want to do a fellowship...I love general peds and I''m getting kinda tired of being in training, so I just want to be done. I hope your cold keeps getting better fast!

Swimmer, soo excited for you about tomorrow!! Will keep my fingers and toes crossed!

Vesper, that HCG level looks fantastic!! I''m so sorry you had a bad experience at your doctor''s....some people can be really insensitive. Good luck with your search for a new doc...I would definitely ask around, that''s how I found my current doctor, and she (and her office staff) are fantastic.

Well, I went to my doc day before yesterday for my yearly exam...she said everything looks good and we should be good to go! She also recommended that if I''d like to get pregnant in Dec or Jan, I could go ahead and get off the ring now to allow 3-4 cycles for my body to adjust. Also sent some antibody titers (Rubella to check my immunity, Toxo since we have 3 cats, and CMV and Parvo since I''m a pediatrician and exposed to all kinds of stuff)...will have those back, along with my pap results, in about a week. She also wants me to start getting my yearly mammos now, which I think is great. I''m 27, but my mom had breast cancer at age 39, and I had always heard that you should start 10 years before the age of the "index case" in your family, but my new doc said 15 years. Either way, I''m happy to start now. My mom''s cancer was picked up on her mammo...wouldn''t have known about it for awhile without the mammo, and it was already stage 2 by then anyway!!

Also went and got my Tdap vaccine yesterday...FYI, anyone who is TTC or has a little one less than 1 yr should get it. What we''re seeing is more and more little babies who are catching pertussis before they are immunized because their parents (or other adults) have lost immunity they had as a child and are passing it on to them. And infants can get VERY sick with pertussis (it''s not unusual for them to be hospitalized for weeks).

Sooo I took my ring out on Thursday, and I''m not putting another one back in! eeek! Now I''m just waiting for my period to start so I can start charting....probably tomorrow or Monday! I''m excited!!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Swimmer,

Your post about biblical times and fertility got me to thinking, because it seems like when people think about fertility problems in the Bible, Sarah is the only one who gets mentioned. But there were several. Talk about perspective. I just got a little bit more of it. Thanks!

 

[vespergirl]

Date: 8/15/2009 12:33:47 PM
Author: fisherofmengirly


(Are you having any pregnancy symptoms yet? I''m always so curious about this with newly pregnant women.)

Yes - I am now 17 dpo, but I started having scent and taste aversions and around 7 dpo. I couldn''t stomach the taste of seafood and wine, and I can no longer wear perfume. I was also starting to have morning sickness at that time. A few days later, my breasts got sore. I have also been having dizziness and fatigue.

It''s weird, because the 1st time I was pregnant, I just felt like I had PMS (sore breasts) until I took a pregnancy test when I was 6 weeks along. Then I started noticing the symptoms (hated the smell of wine, coffee and eggs throughout the pregnancy). I also had dizziness and fatigue, and mild morning sickness (it''s been very mild this time around as well, so far).

 

[melz]

puppmom glad to hear your DH came around! be funny if this month is the one you conceive in!

swimmer good luck tomorrow! i will be thinking of you at 11:45. so acupuncture, wasn''t it you that was going this week as well? if so did i miss your post about it? yes i am going again to my person on wednesday evening. of course after i made that appointment i found out that with the retrieval scheduled for tomorrow, they will be putting the embryos (if all goes well) back in on wednesday. and at boston ivf (they do all these procedures at waltham) they have an adjacent acupuncture place so you can get it before, have the embryos put in, then get it after. so of course i have to do that. which means by wednesday evening, i am going to be one hole-ey girl.

thanks drk. i''m usually pretty good with pain, but i''m feeling like i want those drugs! just got back from the manicurist, read last minute that i can''t even wear nail polish, fingers or toes! cant imagine why. well, they needed a buff anyway so i just had her skip the polish.

vesper this is all very annoying. how insensitive. glad you are changing docs and that you got some reassurance regarding those numbers.

hmg you are so prepared! you are going to have so much information about your cycle by the time december rolls around you will be all set.

cara, swimmer, festy, hmg, drk and everyone else sending me good thoughts thank you. still more nervous than excited. i sort of grounded myself yesterday thinking about DF''s niece, whom i just love to pieces. that''s the end goal, and thinking about that brings some calm.

 

[littlelysser]

Date: 8/15/2009 9:56:30 AM
Author: vespergirl
Hcg levels


Hi guys, this is a question that I have about hcg levels - I am not sure what''s normal, and my dr''s office has me freaking out. I went in and got my blood test to confirm my pregnancy at 14 dpo, and my hcg level came back at 147. The nurse called me back & told me to come in again 2 days later (16 dpo) to test again and make sure that the hcg level doubled. I went in yesterday, so I won''t get my test results back until Monday. They also said that they were testing my progesterone level to make sure that everything is OK with the endometrium. When I went back and asked if the levels were ''too'' low, they said that I shouldn''t ''really'' worry, but they were too low for an early ultrasound, so they couldn''t do an ultrasound until my levels hit 1,000. Then the nurse said she had someone else waiting for her and shooed my off

Vesper - Although you were annoyed with the nurse, she is correct. I had a miscarriage last year and at 21 DPO my HCG level was 200. HCG levels are supposed to double every 48 hours - so you can see that mine were very low for how far past O I was. Anyway, they did an U/S because my doctor requested one, but the E.R. doc assured me that I wouldn''t see anything because nothing will show up on a U/S until you hit 1000. Sure enough, there was nothing there, nothing at all.

And I totally don''t mean this to be rude, but don''t you think this would be better posted in the prego thread?

 

[drk]

Mel - sounds like a little BS about not having any nail polish on. The only reason I can think of is that they''d need one finger "clean" for the pulse oximeter for monitoring during. I never got any instructions like that. Just was told to take an enema beforehand if they''d ever had any trouble getting good views of my ovaries during the scan. Like if they''d had to get me to push down on my tummy to get a better view, or if I were constipated for some reason. It was supposed to make retrieval easier for them. Can''t wait to hear how tomorrow went!

Fisher and the other IUI ladies - I never had an ultrasound during the IUI, though I have heard of it being done. I did have U/S to check the follicles developing so we could better time my HCG trigger, and to confirm that they collapsed around the time of the IUI. After that, the monitoring should be pretty much the same as for any pregnancy. I had serial betas so my RE could confirm that the levels were rising properly. They''re probably more likely to do an early ultrasound, since I think that an ectopic pregnancy might be _slightly_ more likely than normal (probably because unexplained infertility might mean that there''s something possibly not right with the tubes? I could be remembering that wrong though.

Vesper - the only reason to recheck the beta is to see that it goes up at least 66% in 48 hours, to give you a better indication that things are going well than a single snapshot of it does. Your first number is great though, so there''s no reason to worry.

Festy - Femara''s about the same as clomid in terms of level of stimulation. I think it''s actually less likely to result in twins. When they really have to monitor is if you start in with higher doses of clomid or with injectibles, which should have more risk of developing multiple follicles and higher risk of multiple pregnancy. Think John and Kate + 8 - they were injectibles + IUI, and their doc was dumb enough to go through with the IUI despite lots and lots of mature follicles.

HMG - sounds like you''ve got a great doc. Yay for the end of the ring!

 

[tiffanytwisted]

I also never had an us with the IUI. I have had them before the IUI to monitor follicle development and determine when to trigger.
Festy- I don''t miss the OPK''s at all. I had the best luck with mine in the afternoon, between noon and 2pm. I think the first morning urine is a little too diluted but the afternoon worked best for me. I also then still had time to call my doctors office that day, instead of waiting till the next day. I ended up using the clearblue with the smiley faces, which are way more expensive but it took the anxiety out of it for me.
Melanie and Swimmer good luck today!!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Sending good vibes to Melanie and Swimmer today!! Can''t wait to hear how everything goes, ladies!

On call today...and starting out tired. It''s never a good thing when you start a 30 hr shift feeling tired already! Hopefully I can get a little sleep tonight if everything stays quiet...

 

[Festy]

Melanie and Swimmer, good luck today!! I''m thinking of you.

DrK and Tiffany - thanks for chiming in with your advice. I like the idea of testing around midday. I''m not sure why the nurse told me to test in the morning since the kits tell you not to. Probably so there''s time to contact the Dr.''s office. DrK - holy crap. I didn''t realize Jon and Kate''s 8 were the result of IUI. What kind of idiot doctors did they have? Thanks for the info on Femara. So far so good on Clomid 50 mg. No side effects yet...

Blushing, have you started your Clomid round yet? Hope you''re doing well!

HMG - yup. IUI for me too. It will be attempt #1 this month. Congrats on removing the ring! Let the fun begin!

 

[melz]

So just back from the retrieval, we got 12 eggs! An even dozen as my DF said ... feeling good and much better. God bless anesthesia, not only was I out for the whole procedure but I had a nice mellow high for a bit after. The nurse said they like to see 4 or 5 eggs so I''m feeling very excited about today''s 12. It was pretty surreal in the procedure room, I was looking at these loops hanging from a hook and thinking, my legs must be going in there, that is much more embarrassing than the stirrups. But by the time they were putting my legs up there I was fading away anyway. I was so glad not to be awake but at the same time Kate I can see why you''d want to be ... I would have liked to see the equipment they used to look at the follicles and hear the commentary ... woo hoo and she''s got another one! haha. And bless my nurse she was really fantastic.

So now I''m home in bed with a heating pad, it''s really not bad at all. I''ll get the call after 3pm tomorrow regarding how many embryos we have from those 12 so send those positive vibes along! DF said he''s getting excited too now, said it seems like more of a possibility. Of course we''re both knocking on wood whenever we get too ahead of ourselves.

iui ladies, updates when you have them please!!!

-Mel

 

[HOUMedGal]

12 is a great number, Melanie! I''m glad to hear everything went well!! Relax with your heating pad today, and just imagine those little eggies growing into nice healthy blastocysts and then embryos! I''ll continue to send healthy vibes!

Festy, thank you! I''m very excited. And wow, I didn''t realized Jon and Kate''s 8 were from IUI either...you''re right, somebody probably could have been more careful about how they stimulated those ovaries! LOL. And it''s all so sad now that things aren''t going well for them...

 

[swimmer]

Melanie, that is fantastic, an even dozen is so great. Chill out lady, you deserve it, you follicle producing queen! So T/W for transfer?

Thank you Mel, Tiffany, HMG, Festy, DrK, Fisher, and all!

So, the iui was good. so clinical of course, they didn''t do an u/s this time, just made sure who i was and whose sample i was getting. Good. Very excellent that they check. DH''s sample was "excellent." (He provided it in embarrassingly fast fashion.) And i''ve just been sleeping since then as I just didn''t sleep last night and then worked out before the iui. I did find out that my cd10 e2 level was 260...which is low. It means either one follicle was good to go, or four were hanging out being immature. I hope that the ovidrel trigger did its job! Now I just go in for a pregnancy blood test on the 30th. Can I resist testing before then? No comment on John and Kate plus 8, read about him getting engaged while waiting for the procedure. I am rather glad to only have basic cable so have never seen their shenanigans.

Now just watching track with DH and arguing about Jesse Owens vs Michael Phelps as greatest Olympic athlete. We really know how to party.

Fisher, we biked from our house out to Walden Pond, it was so hot, stopped on the way back for ice cream of course! Around 30 miles, but flat.

Good luck ladies!

 

[drk]

All right Melanie! 12 is a fantastic number - 10-15 was what my clinic shoots for. I''ve been following the blog of one woman at another clinic who had 31 eggs retrieved, was all excited that 29 fertilized, and was told they were looking great on day3, just too many to actually count. Then they put her off till day6 for transfer because she only had something like 7-8 remaining, and the best quality one looked like it wasn''t expanding properly on day5 (it arrested by day6), so she had 2 transferred on day6, and none grew well enough to freeze in the end. I was shocked. Then I read other blogs of women who have 4 retrieved, 3 fertilized, and transfer 2-3 in the end, and get pg with twins. Such a crapshoot! Sometimes I wonder if some clinics really go for quantity over quality. Hope you got a good number of great quality eggs!
I was disappointed that I didn''t get to watch the u/s screen during my retrieval. Just squeezed DHs hand a little, and that was it. Tried to hold my one shaking leg still with the other hand (when it got ouchy at the end).

Swimmer - glad all went well with the IUI. And that your DH doesn''t have as many issues producing as mine did! I tried to help him the first time, with no success. He was better off locked in his office with the internet for inspiration 2WW here you come!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Swimmer -- "embarassingly fast fashion..." LOL!! Glad everything went well!! Now we wait with you...I don''t know how you guys can handle this waiting business. I think I''m gonna go insane during the 2WW once we actually start trying!