IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!

Kiko and I are officially PREGNANT!!! Our first blood test was today and the beta came back at 101. Whew! I go back in on Wednesday for another beta to make sure it is rising properly. There still is a lot that can happen, but the fact that we know that I can get pregnant is encouraging!!! Keep saying those prayers!!

We'll find out in a few weeks how many are actually in there!!! Any guesses??

It's "UNOFFICIAL"!!

Ok...technically we find out tomorrow, but I'm just too excited, can't sleep and Kiko won't let me tell anybody yet so this is one of only two places I can do this!! Check it out for yourselves!! WOOHOO!! Ok, but like I said, tomorrow is the official day when we get the blood results back from the dr!

And the waiting continues...

I think this is the worst week of my life...just waiting...waiting for a clue that the babies are attaching to me...waiting for some "SIGN" that they are still there. It's worse than waiting for Christmas morning when you were a little kid...it's like that wait times SEVEN!!! Sigh...there has been some "hopeful" signs...a few twinges and cramps on the days that implantation should have occurred. Some hot flashes, which I don't even know if those are a symptom, but let me tell you I was about to rip my clothes off at Kroger yesterday it was so bad. I would think if things were happening, I'd start to feel something soon...I am pretty in tune to my body and pretty much know when things are "off"...so I'm praying I start getting that "feeling" soon...

So stay tuned...oh and if you want to come over and get yelled at, feel free to stop by anytime...my hormones are definitely elevated because I'd like to drop kick Kiko a few feet...but is that any different than normal?? Just kidding... :)

SIX TOTSICLES!!!

I can't believe it. John, the lab director from CORM just called and said, "Ms. Kinder, I'm not sure if you know this or not...but you left some of your children here at the lab with us and we'd like to freeze them if that's ok??". I started to cry. I asked how many made it to freeze and he said SIX!! Not only did six make it to freeze, but all six were of fantastic quality (3 AA's, 2 AB's and a BB). He said he's seen pregnancies from all of those qualities and I have two even better ones inside me already! I just spent the last five minutes crying on Kiko's shoulders because I couldn't believe how different this cycle and last cycle were and how much better things are looking right now compared to last time.

Once Kiko and I have our family complete, we will most likely donate or put our embryo's up for "adoption"...its amazing what they can do now!!

So I've been laying around on my butt for the last day and a half...being waited on hand and foot. I must say I could used to this! I'm sure Kiko won't let that happen though! I'm on "bed" rest until tomorrow and then I can go back to work. Bummer.

We're PUPO X 2!!!!

I am officially PUPO x 2!!! (PUPO - Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise)!!!

We went in this morning and found out that almost all 10 of our embabies were still going strong!! We transferred 2 Grade 4AA blastocysts!!! They don't get any better than that everyone!!! We also have 2 Grade 3AA and 3 Grade 3AB blasts that they are watching and will freeze tomorrow if still going strong! We're praying we can have at least 4 blasts frozen for future brother/sisters or in case these two don't make it! But I know they will, I just have a really wonderful feeling about them!!

The doctor said they should begin hatching and attaching this afternoon!! Woohoo!!! Please keep the prayers going everyone!!

Oh and I get to start my Lovenox (blood thinner shots) today....hopefully those will be worth it!! YUCK!!

Ten Little Piggies!!!

So I'm in amazement that our TEN little piggies are still going strong today on Day 3!! Today we have (7) 8-cell and (3) 4-cell embryo's growing away in a petri dish about three miles from where I am sitting. Amazing really if you think about it. I truly believe our prayers are all working!!

So Saturday will be the BIG day!!! No updates tomorrow as the lab doesn't do them. Day 4 is when the male chromosomes kick in and several of them may drop off or stop growing (we'll pray it's not the case for ours). I go in Saturday morning at 7:30 am to have two (maybe three) embabies placed back inside to grow for the next 9 months!!! I'm just so excited!! To think, in two days I will be PUPO!!!! (PREGNANT UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE)

They're still kicking!!

I'm just so relieved this morning. The embryologist called and said that out the 10 that were fertilized yesterday, all 10 are dividing properly this morning. WOOHOO!!! So on Day 2, they want to see either 2 or 4 cell embryo's and we have 7-4cell and 3-2cell!! I'm praying that those two cell ones can catch up to their four cell brothers and sisters!!!

So tomorrow morning we will get another call from the embryologist for our Day 3 report. The goal is to have several (if not all) 8-cell embryo's tomorrow!!

Please keep the prayers going!! We are already doing 1000 times better than last cycle, I just pray that they can keep going till Saturday when we put back a couple of them.

And then there were ten...

Well, as expected some of our little eggies didn't fertilize, but we're still doing good. Out of the 18 eggs that were ICSI'd, 10 of them have fertilized!!! So now we wait some more. Tomorrow we will get another fertilization report to see how they are dividing. So keep saying those prayers that they are all dividing beautifully tomorrow!!! We're still on track for a Saturday transfer...woohoo!!!

Retrieval Day!!!

Today was our Egg Retrieval!! I'm in so much pain, but it is oh so worth it!!!

They retrieved 22 eggs (compared to 11 last time) and 18 eggs were mature (compared to 6 last time). So far so good!! Tomorrow we will get our first fertilization report. They say the average is get 50 - 70% fertilization rate, so I'm praying to get at least 10 embryo's tomorrow as they tend to drop off over the course of the next few days. The hope is that they will all fertilize and make it to Saturday. We'll transfer either 2 or 3 embryos and pray we have some extras left over to freeze.

So please keep the prayers going for our little baby Novilla's!!!

Kristen and Kiko

Trigger is done, we're on our way!!! Woohoo!!!

So last night was the "TRIGGER"!!! That needle is huge and has been scaring me for the last six weeks! But my neighbor Yuni came to the rescue last night and gave me my shot in the butt!!! Thank goodness, because I was afraid if I let Kiko do it, I'd be paralyzed!!

Today is Father's Day and it's also my "FREE" day! No shots or appointments for me, that's a first in a VERY, LONG TIME!!! So I plan to do absolutely nothing and relax for tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Egg Retrieval day! So far, things are already looking better than last time. Last time I only had 11 eggs retrieved and only six were mature. This time, I've got well over 20+ eggs and I think at least 12 of them are in the mature range...so I'm praying that we'll get our little angels to go the distance!!

The hope is that all of them (or at least 70% of them) will fertilize and then we'll do a 5-day transfer on Saturday with the best quality embryo's. We are planning to transfer 2 or 3 depending on their quality.

Stay tuned, I'll be giving daily updates as things go along! Oh and do me a favor, don't bug Kiko about how things are going...I don't think he knows what's going on when and depends on me to tell him where to be and what is happening! LOL! So he gets caught off guard when you all know more than he does!!

Some interesting news...

So as many of you may know, I've had migraines for years and years but they seem to really be horrendous during my IVF cycles. So I decided to go to the neurologist to see if they could figure out what was going on...they were getting so intense I was starting to get pretty scared. So long story short, I have what appears to be several blood clotting issues which pretty much means I'm at high risk for miscarriage, pre-eclampsia and stroke. Not so good news when trying to get pregnant...

I've been diagnosed with APS (Antiphospholipid Syndrome, aka Hughes Syndrome) and double -heterozygotic MTHFR gene mutation. Basically all this means is my blood is too thick and makes me much higher risk for blood clots.

SO...I get to be on baby aspirin daily for the rest of my life and I have to take blood thinners every day if I get pregnant (Yep, more shots). And it also means that I'll probably end up on bed rest earlier than I normally would. After I have children, they need to look at putting me on long term blood thinners to try and keep me from having a stroke...my MRI is still in review but my doctor said to not be surprised if it comes back showing that I have already had several mini-strokes already...I guess that would explain a few things...lol!

Anyway, things are progressing on the IVF front! Started my stim drugs today...woohoo!!! I've doubled the amount I was on last time so hoping and praying for double the amount of eggs!! Here's a look at all my medications for this round:

This doesn't look so bad, but inside each of these boxes are LOTS and LOTS of vials of meds!!!!