TTC/IVF/FET History

For a snapshot of what an IVF calendar looks like for a typical patient, check out this crazy insane spreadsheet I created:

Baby #1 (Matthew)

Trying, Pre-Testing, and IUI’s

08/2008 – 09/2009 – Try the old-fashioned way
10/07/2009 – First consult with RE
10/20/2009 – Clomid Challenge Test – all is well
10/27/2009 – Baseline blood work and ultrasound – antral follicle count is fine, but found hypothyroidism (no treatments for 2-3 months)
10/27/2009 – HSG – normal (no blockages)
12/01/2009 – Retest thyroid levels, all is fine and given green light to do IUI
12/29/2009 – IUI #1 BFN
01/27/2010 – IUI #2 cancelled – moving immediately to IVF

IVF #1

02/09/2010 – IVF class at clinic (scary stuff – I had a melt-down)
02/13/2010 – Start BCP
02/19/2010 – Received IVF calendar (if you know me, you know that this was very anticipated and was a big effing deal for me!)
02/21-2010 – 02/27/2010 – Required antibiotics for IVF (nasty stuff)
02/27/2010 – Start Lup.ron (10u)
03/05/2010 – Last BCP
03/09/2010 – Baseline blood work and ultrasound (all is quiet and ready to go!)
03/15/2010 – Start stims (Follis.tim 150 IU in AM, Repro.nex 150 IU in PM)
03/17/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound for my birthday – yay! All looks good
03/19/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound – need to slow it down (follicles are tracking large for this early so dropping both Follis.tim and Repro.nex to 75 IU each)
03/22/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound – All done with Lupron and stims (yay? Did I stim to fast? A hint of panic)
03/22/2010 – 10:00 PM TRIGGER! (Ovid.rel 250)
03/24/2010 – Egg retrieval – 16 eggs! I’m a hen!
03/25/2010 – Fertilization report – 11 eggs mature and successfully fertilized with ICSI; Start proges.terone shots(ugh!)
03/29/2010 – Transfer Day! Transferred 2 “perfect” 4AA blasts (5dt)
03/29/2010 – Froze 3 wonderful day-5 blasts – waiting on development of 4 more
03/30/2010 – Froze 4 good day-6 blasts (total of 7 in the freezer!)
03/31/2010 – Start estrogen patches (Vive.lle)
04/03/2010 – Very light spotting at 5dp5dt
04/06/2010 – HPT (8dp5dt) – BFN
04/10/2010 – Beta (12dp5dt) – BFN and total devastation

FET #1

05/15/2010 – Start BCP
05/27/2010 – Start Lup.ron (10u)
06/02/2010 – Last BCP
07/07/2010 – Blood work
06/09/2010 – Start estrogen patches (Vive.lle)
06/24/2010 – Last Lup.ron shot
06/25/2010 – Labs and ultrasound – lining needs help so start estrace tablets AM and PM
06/26/2010 – Start proges.terone shots
07/01/2010 – Transferred 2 blasts – both survived the thaw (so 5 still left on ice!)
07/06/2010 – Light spotting in the evening (5dp5dt)
07/06/2010 – HPT (5dp5dt) – BFN (not worried – it was way early)
07/08/2010 – HPT (7dp5dt) – BFP (HOLY HELL!!) – but being cautious
07/09/2010 – HPT (8dp5dt) – BFP but not much darker?
07/10/2010 – HPT (9dp5dt) – BFP and slightly darker
07/11/2010 – HPT (10dp5dt) – BFP and still not super dark
07/12/2010 – HPT (11dp5dt) – BFP, but looks lighter (thinking we most definitely have a problem no matter what Dr. Bing (because we don’t go.ogle in this house!) tells me)
07/13/2010 – Beta #1 (12dp5dt) – 76 (f*ck) – Nurse says they’re “cautiously optimistic” but I’ve read enough to know that we’re in trouble – big trouble
07/15/2010 – Beta #2 (14dp5dt) – 140 (f*ck) – it almost doubled so nurses are happy – I am not
07/19/2010 – Beta #3 (18dp5dt) – 357 (f*ck, f*ck, f*ck) – way low and not looking good now to everyone
07/21/2010 – Beta #4 (20dp5dt) 549 – Dr. calls to tell me that this is likely going to be a miscarriage but need to wait a couple of days to do an ultrasound
07/27/2010 – Ultrasound shows empty sac (what I expected and was actually thankful it was in my uterus and not a tube!)
07/30/2010 – D&C and relieved to have the nightmare over – ready to move on!

IVF #2

08/30/2010 – Start BCP and COQ10
09/13/2010 – Start Lup.ron (10ui)
09/23/2010 – Baseline blood work and ultrasound – all looks good
09/27/2010 – Start stims (Follis.tim 150 IU in AM, Repro.nex 75IU in PM)
09/29/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound – All looks good
10/01/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound – All looks good
10/04/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound – All looks good
10/05/2010 – Blood work and ultrasound – All looks good and done with Lup.ron and stims
10/05/2010 – 10:00 PM TRIGGER! (Ovid.rel 250)
10/07/2010 – Egg retrieval – 10 eggs – I’m devastated and worried
10/08/2010 – Fertilization report – 5 eggs mature and successfully fertilized with ICSI (this upsets me given our “success” the first time with retrieval and fertilization); Start proges.terone shots
10/12/2010 – Transfer Day! Transferred 2 blasts (5dt) graded 4AB and 4BA
10/12/2010 – Froze 1 wonderful day-5 blast graded 4AB (back up to 6 in the bank)
10/13/2010 – Froze 1 good day-6 blast graded 4BB (back up to 7 in the bank again – whew!)
10/14/2010 – Was supposed to start estrogen patches but forgot (how does one do that?) – forgot for 4 days
10/18/2010 – Start estrogen patches (Vive.lle) 4 days late (holy hell, I’m an idiot); Light spotting at 6dp5dt (just like FET)
10/19/2010 – HPT (7dp5dt) – BFP!!! Based on history, I’m cautious
10/20/2010 – HPT (8dp5dt) – darker BFP!!!
10/21/2010 – HPT (9dp5dt) – even darker BFP!!! (This might be the one!)
10/22/2010 – Beta #1 (10dp5dt) – 561 (yes, yes, yes!!!) – the nurse told B, “well, she is definitely pregnant!”
10/25/2010 – Beta #2 (13dp5dt) – 1695 (Holy Hell! We are really pregnant this time!). Doubling time of 45.14 hours.
10/27/2010 – Beta #3 (15dp5dt) – 3224 (Not exactly doubling, but close…. and you’ll see why next) Doubling time of 51.75 hours.
11/08/2010 – Ultrasound #1 – One baby with heartbeat of 132 bpm and CRL of 6.1 mm!!! Saw that the second embryo tried to take off but fizzled early (saw the degenerating sac) – 6w4d pregnant!
11/22/2010 – Ultrasound #2 – looking good with heartbeat of 170 bpm and CRL of 21 mm – 8w4d pregnant and release to OB
12/09/2010 – Ultrasound #3 – new OB (OMG we both love, love, love him!) sees what everyone else has been seeing – heartbeat of 167 CRL of 4.2 cm – 11w0d pregnant
12/21/2010 – Ultrasound #4 (NT scan) – heartbeat of 164 and CRL of 7.4 cm – NT scan looks great! – 12w5d pregnant
01/13/2011 – Second trimester screening tests and all is well (1/3,600 downs; 1/10,000 Tri18; 1/6,000 spina bifida) – 16w0d pregnant
02/02/2011 – Ultrasound #5 for anatomy scan and all is well and we have a BOY!
06/02/2011 – Breech baby since mid-pregnancy so scheduled the C-section for 06/24/2011
06/24/2011 – Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!

After 2.25 years of trying to get pregnant, almost a full year of which I was on fertility drugs of some sort, we finally won the race. This is what my “hormonal rage” looked like in Excel 😉

That all really sucked – it was really hard on me – but he is (and always will be) worth it! The love of my life:

Baby #2

Pre-Testing

Sonohystogram and mock transfer – all clear and just waiting for CD1

FET #1

08/28/2012 – Start BCP (AKA CD1!!)
09/11/2012 – Start Lup.ron (10ui)
09/17/2012 – Last BCP
09/20/2012 – Blood work
09/21/2012 – Start estrogen patches (Vive.lle)
10/04/2012 – Last Lup.ron shot
10/04/2012 – Labs and ultrasound – everything is perfect
10/08/2012 – Start proges.terone shots
10/11/2012 – Start antibiotics and anti-rejection meds (two days only)
10/12/2012 – Transfer day! Transferred 2 blasts (1 day-5 graded 4AB, and 1 day-6 graded 4BA – both from Matthew’s cycle) which thawed perfectly*
10/15/2012 – Light spotting today (3dp5dt)
10/16/2012 (AM) – POAS at 3.75dp5dt (was 5.5 hours shy of transfer time) and saw very faint “crazy lady line” – and decided it does not count. My eyes know where those lines belong and may be putting it there. I didn’t even show B
10/16/2012 (PM) – Visible BFP at 4dp5dt and B saw it too 🙂 (if we’re splitting hairs, it’s 4.3dp5dt – I will stop splitting hairs tomorrow)
10/17/2012 – Even darker BFP (5dp5dt)

10/18/2012 – BFP and getting darker (6dp5dt)
10/19/2012 – BFP and even darker (7dp5dt)

10/20/2012 – BFP and even darker (8dp5dt)

10/21/2012 – BFP and same darkness or darker than yesterday – hard to tell since today’s line is wider than yesterday’s(9dp5dt)

10/22/2012 – BFP and very noticeably darker than yesterday. Not nervous about the beta at all (10dp5dt)

10/23/2012 – Beta #1 (11dp5dt) – 315!! Stronger BFP on HPT

10/24/2012 – Stronger BFP on HPT (12dp5dt)
10/25/2012 – Beta #2 (13dp5dt) – 732!!
10/30/2012 – Super dark BFP – way darker than control line (18dp5dt) and I am done peeing on things!

11/05/2012 – To maintain some illusion of control, I POAS-ed tonight. Super dark and control line is lighter than the one from 18dp5dt (we’re now 24dp5dt = 6w1d). I feel much better now 😉
11/08/2012 – Ultrasound #1 – One baby with heartbeat of 126 bpm and CRL of 8.5 mm and measuring 6w6d!!! Officially 6w4d pregnant!**
11/19/2012 – Ultrasound #2 – Baby’s heartbeat is 164 bpm and CRL is 1.95cm and measuring 8w4dd!!! Officially 8w1d pregnant! Released to OB.**
12/03/2012 – First OB appointment – back to Dr. H! YAY! Measuring 10w6d but we’re sticking with the original due date (the RE listed it as 06/29 even though we transferred on 10/12 like Matthew). Things looked great and heartbeat was 165 bpm and CRL is about 3.5 cm.**
12/17/2012 – NT Scan

* What remains in the freezer for later are 5 embryos: 1 day-5 embryo graded 4BB, 1 day-6 embryo graded 4AB, and 3 day-6 embryos graded 4BB

** For Ultrasound photos, please visit my pregnancy page.