and Baby Makes Three: If at first you don't succeed...Try again!

God knew that Baltimore was the place we needed to be this year! Craig had a great season and I had access to the BEST medical facilities in the US. I decided in April to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity that was placed before me. I made a million calls and researched a million doctors. I finally found what I was looking for in Shady Grove Fertility Center. They had 22 doctors, who all carried great credentials, and had several clinics located between Baltimore and Washington D.C. I was relieved that I would not have to drive hours for appointments like I had in Mississippi. I immediately set up necessary appointments to get the ball rolling. I really wanted answers to why Craig and I couldn't conceive. Records were faxed from MS and my consultation was made. I was really nervous about the consultation because I wasn't sure what I was going to hear. I didn't know what observations were made and conclusions drawn from studying my previously failed cycle of IVF. I arrive at the clinic and sign in. It wasn't what I expected at all. The waiting room was small and private and the doctor, NOT a nurse or assistant, came to get me from the waiting room! How unique and personal! I instantly felt calm and confident that I was in a good place. The meeting started out pretty comical...You see Dr. Yazigi is from Chili and has only practiced in the North East and I am from South Mississippi. So we definitely had a "language barrier. He had quite a problem understanding my dialect, but I won him over with my pronunciation of the word "ten". We talked about my IVF cycle in MS - what drugs were taken and outcomes, along with types of procedures used in retrieving eggs, how many were retrieved, and method of fertilizing them. Craig and I found out during the first cycle that we don't combine naturally, meaning his sperm and my eggs don't mesh. Because of this odd phenomenon, a method called ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection), has to be used. However, there is no way to know this until the sperm and eggs are put together. When the doctors in MS realized what was happening it was Day 2 of fertilization. This required them to take day old material and try fertilization again using ICSI. By doing this process 2nd day, it decreased my chances of becoming pregnant because the quality of materials was not as good as day 1 fresh. Dr. Yazigi said this was a very important piece of the puzzle. Many clinics use the ICSI process regardless if its needed in cases like ours, where both partners are healthy and neither contribute entirely to infertility. The process costs about $1,000 but it avoids the reduction of success rates and decline of quality in sperm and eggs. He was confident he could help me achieve my goal of getting pregnant. He wanted me to take birth control for 2 months and come in each month for blood tests to check my LGH and estrogen levels and to keep an eye on my thyroid. Craig and I were a little skeptical of trying again, but Dr. Yazigi told us about a Shared Risk program that Shady Grove offered to qualifying patients. Basically you pay a lump sum of money, upfront, and you receive 6 complete rounds of IVF - from start to finish. This gives patients the ability to try several cycles without having to continue to pay $10-12,000 each time. It's shared because if you get pregnant the first time, you've spent more than what one cycle would have cost, but you have a baby. However, if you have a failed pregnancy the first time like we did, you are able to use frozen embryos or complete another cycle (up to 6) at no additional cost. WOW, wish they would offer that in Mississippi!!!

So the journey began. I finished my 2 months of birth control in June and went in for my last blood test and ultra sound. I was cleared as healthy and started the injections to prepare my body for egg retrieval. I took 2 shots a day, Follistim and Menopur, in my stomach for 8 days. I added Ganirelix on day 3 and took it for 5 days. On day 9 I gave myself an HCG shot in the hip - not fun by the way - and prayed that Craig would make it in from the road trip in time for our scheduled retrieval and fertilization on Monday, July 12! We planned it for the week of All Star Break so Craig would be able to take care of me since I had to be put under for the procedure. Luckily, he made it in and we were set to go. They retrieved 10 eggs and all were healthy and mature. The next day I started my progesterone and estrogen and waited for them to call and tell me how many oocytes were starting to form. We started with 8 four celled oocytes which was a very good number. Two days later we had 6 multi-celled oocytes. Dr. Yazigi wanted to be able to do a day 6 transfer to make sure the fertilized eggs made it to the blastocyst stage. A day 6 transfer offers a higher rate of a successful pregnancy. The nurse called me on Saturday to inform us that we had 4 healthy potential embryos ready for day 6 transfer. I scheduled my appointment for the next day at 8:30 am. The coaching staff was very understanding and allowed Craig to be late for the field so that he could come with me. We, along with the doctors, decided to transfer only one blastocyst because it looked so healthy. We had transferred 2 in previously, but Dr. Yazigi felt that 2 would only increase my chances of twins, not pregnancy, and we trusted his opinion. The transfer went well and they sent me home with instructions of 24 hrs bed rest. This was a first for me. I am not a bed rest kind of person, so staying in bed except to pee was going to be a CHALLENGE, but worth it in the end. Plus it was family day at the ballpark and I was sad to miss it.

They drive home was really tense. I don't think we said two words to each other. Maybe we were both scared to hope that it would work for fear that we'd jinx it. Thankfully we had a sleeper sofa and there were lots of movies on TV that day. So I parked it on the bed with lots to eat and drink within hands reach and said goodbye to Craig.

Nine days later, on July 27 I went in for my first pregnancy blood test at 8:30 am. When the nurse called that afternoon I was more than ready and scared to death to hear the results. She told me my levels were 300. Huh, last time my first levels were 25 and that was normal. So I asked her why so high and she said that was a good level for 2 blastocyst transfer. Excuse me...we only transferred ONE! All I could think was ironic, we transferred one to avoid multiples, yet I'm going to get more than anyway. Oh dear! Three days later I went back into for BW and my levels came back over 900. YAY! High levels! We were starting to get excited, but we'd been here before, but then again never with levels this high. On day sixteen I went in for my last test and my levels were close to 2,200. I was definitely pregnant and they wanted me to c0me in for an ultra sound as soon as possible. So exciting!!!!

Only one problem...Craig had been sent down to AAA in Norfolk, VA. This was terrible, I didn't want him to miss the first appointment and ultra sound where we would see our baby. God, however, had his hand in this and a plan for us. AAA happened to get an off day on the day they scheduled me for the ultra sound! On August 4 we got to see something we thought we would never see. This was happening, I had a baby growing inside me! It was the BEST day of my life!!!
Here is the week by week album of my first Trimester... Enjoy=)