No exciting news

I don't really have anything exciting to report this week. J & I are just working away and waiting for the sun to reappear while we steadily watch the gas prices rise and economy fall. The highlights of our week:

- Watching so you think you can dance

- Hanging out with baby Nevaeh

- Making Banana Bread (and eating it all)

- Cleaning the window sills

- Finding out that we will most likely be transferring our embryos back into their home for 9 months (my uterus) on our 1st anniversary!

That's about it. I warned you, not much exciting news.

Here are a few pics from my cousin Alex's graduation last weekend. We went down to Portland and spent some time with my family. Congrats Alex!!

And another plan...

Don't hold me to this one because obviously things are very apt to change but, we met with the RE again today and we have a new plan. Not one that I particularly like but it is a plan and guess what? It entails lots more waiting! So...I will be having another lap surgery to take care of my tubes on July 8th. The Dr. won't know if she will remove them or just tie them off until she is inside poking around. Either way, they will be taken care of. At this point I don't really care what she does with them. Then, we would be starting the IVF cycle at the beginning of Aug. but the clinic is closed from Aug 18th-the end of the month...big surprise...just our luck. So, we will start Lupron on Aug 14th and start the main stims at the beginning of Sep. Therefore we should be done by the middle of Sep. and know our fate by the end of Sep. We are going to try to fill our summer with fun things to do (that are cheap) and we will be more then ready to get the ball rolling! I'm not really sad today, kind of indifferent. Waiting is just beginning to feel normal and a few more months of it won't kill us. Once pregnant we will have to wait 9 months to meet our little bundles and then another 18 years for them to grow up so we are just preparing ourselves for the long haul :-) .

Welcome to the World Sophie & Ella!!

On Tuesday morning at about 4:45am, Jimmy's best friend Morgan & his wife Nicole welcomed Sophie and Ella McNamara into the world. They made their exciting and dramatic debut after almost 24 hours of labor. They are beautiful, healthy, gurgling newborns weighing 6 lb 4.5 oz & 6 lb 1 oz (wow that's a lot of baby to be carrying around, amazing job Nicole)! Everyone is doing great, recovering and adjusting to life with 2 newborns. We are all just so thrilled they are here and can't wait to watch them grow.

Doing better today!

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes. I have the greatest friends, family and husband who are all so supportive! I am a lucky girl! Even though this is really hard on J as well as me, he has been so great and supportive of my feelings. I couldn't have dreamt of a better husband who will do whatever it takes to make me feel better and help us reach our dream of starting a family. I've realized that I have very little control over this situation. I'm trying really hard to take it all as it comes and realize that it could be worse (and may be soon). Of course I'll continue to do what I can to "make the Vann's" but as much as I try I am receiving twice as much resistance. There is apparently something or someone who isn't quite ready for us to be parents. Jimmy thinks it must be Tucker and Rocco who have put a spell on us. They aren't quite ready to share the love with siblings! They are pretty ferocious :-)

Not good news

Well, I went in today for the HSG. They shot dye into my tubes and it hurt. I was taking deep breaths trying to get through it and the nurse was convinced I was going to pass out. Anyway, there was a screen above me so I could actually see the dye going into my tubes and spilling into my uterus. Very cool to see.

So the bad news, I have to go in for another lap surgery to have my tubes removed before doing IVF. Any fluid that is in my tubes, and apparently there is always fluid in your tubes, can not escape out of the end by my ovaries because it they are blocked. Therefore the fluid escapes into my uterus and the fluid is toxic to the embryos and the uterine lining. If we don't remove my tubes before proceeding we decrease our chance of IVF working by 25-30%.

I'm obviously bummed, bummed that I need to have surgery again & bummed that we will most likely have to wait until Aug to do IVF. I know in the grand scheme of things it is only a few months but it is still a blow that I'm having a hard time taking.

We will be meeting with the Dr. next Thursday to schedule the lap and see if there is still any possible way we can continue with IVF this cycle. The nurse told me to stay on BCP until I meet with the Dr. just in case.

So for now...more waiting...

We have started...

Today I went in for blood work and started the BCP. This is basically our 1st day of meds. We will start the Lupron injections in 2 weeks. Below is an updated schedule. My HSG is on Thursday. I'm nervous about the pain but really anxious to get it done so I know that everything is a go to move forward. I'll post on Thus. afternoon with the results!

May 31- 1st day of cycle and beginning of ART cycle
June 2- Blood draw- begin taking BCP (birth control)
June 5- HSG
June 9- Injection training class
June 16- Begin Lupron injections
June 24- stop BCP
June27- Suppression check via ultrasound and blood draw
June 28- Day 1 of ART cycle- stimulation injects begin
July 3- Day 6 of ART cyle- daily ultrasounds and blood work begin
July 7- HCG injection (final maturation of eggs)
July 9- Egg retrieval
July 12 or 15- Embryo transfer- begin progesterone injections
July 24- Beta- Pregnancy blood test!!!