It's official we are PREGNANT!!!

For those who didn't see, we made the official announcement this week that we are pregnant with Baby #2! We couldn't me happier and are so excited for Brayden to be a big brother! Since FB is limiting as far as details I figured I would share how we got this far! I am due July 27, 2012!!

For those who read the blog i'm you know that we decided to go through another round of IVF to try for baby number two.  Since we had 15 embryo's still on ice we were lucky enough to be able to do a FET(frozen embryo transfer) instead of going through the whole process again.  We decided to thaw 6 of our embryos and select the best two to transfer.  We ended up with  4 "good" grade, and two fragmented embies.   Even after transferring two embies we still have 11 on ice.  On November 7th we had our ET(embryo transfer) and transferred two 3 days old embryos. My lining, estrogen and progesterone levels were all perfect so now it was just a waiting game!

Being the impatient person I am I knew i was going to have a hard time holding out on taking a pregnancy test. When we got pregnant with Brayden I got my BFP( positive home pregnancy test) 9 days after our transfer.  I really did try and make myself wait till the 9 days but I knew there was no way I was going to make it.  I ended up testing 7 days after our ET,  at 3:30 in the morning(yes i'm nuts) just to get it out of my system. I knew that the best chance of catching a BFP would mean I needed to use FMU(first morning urine), b/c its more concentrated and to my surprise I got a POSITIVE! Of course I cried! I was so excited I popped online to message my cysters then I ran upstairs to wake up Jason and tell him.  Yeah kinda did that backwards but I needed a minute to process that it was actually real!!

Being the POAS (pee on a stick) addict that I am i had to keep testing every day to see the line getting longer. I think battling with infertility has also made me kinda crazy and I need to see the second line on the test to help remind me that it IS real.

I called my RE (IVF dr) on Wednesday to tell them that I had been getting positive pregnancy tests since Monday. I was hoping they would let me come in earlier than my scheduled Saturday Beta(pregnancy bloodwork). I didn't think they would give much but they did let me come in on that Friday!  Waiting for the bloodwork to come back is the worst!! Fortunately we get same day results at my dr's office but even those few hours seem like forever.  The results were in I was offically pregnant! my Beta was 90 but they were concerned that despite the daily progesterone shots and cream inserts that I my p4(progesterone levels) were only at 23.5. Where as a few days after my transfer they checked them and it was 160.  So they added a 3rd form of progesterone, Prometrium, which are oral pills.  Of course I didn't mind taking more meds if it meant it helped the baby but I have to be honest progesterone makes me so bitchy and adding a 3rd one....whew! Poor Jason is all I have to say! lol I have NEVER had a problem with my progesterone levels so I was really concerned.  Two days later they did another beta and my number was 301! they are looking for the number to double with in a 48 hour period and mine was way ahead of that. Fortunately my p4 levels had jumped back up to 90, so we were really relieved!

My RE does 5 betas total over a streched out time frame.  Once your numbers hit 1000 they allow you to schedule your 1st u/s(ultrasound).  We had our first u/s on November 28th since my numbers had doubled so rapidly. At that point they confirmed we had ONE bun in the oven.  We had a few more u/s before being released to the ob at 8 weeks.!

November 28 ~ 4 weeks 5 days

December 6 ~ 6weeks 4 days 

December 16~ 8 weeks 

I had my 1st OB appt on the 22nd of December. The dr was extremely thorough about things. We had to make a "to do" list for this pregnancy. First off since Brayden was such a giant baby (9lb 9oz, 22 1/2") and we had NO idea since I only gained 26lbs they want to make sure to do a growth scan aronud 32/33 weeks to see the size of this baby.  If this baby looks like he/she is going to be big as well they will probably induce me at 39 weeks.  We definitely don't want a repeat of the "horror" story of tearing/labor that I had with Bray. The dr also wants to monitor my IR(insulin resistance) a few weeks after I stop my Metformin to make sure I don't have elevated glucose levels early in the pregnancy. So they'll prob have me go for an early GTT (glucose tolerance test) in the next week or two. I'll find out at my monthly appt on Tuesday. We did this when I was pregnant with Brayden so it's no biggie.  The other "concerning" thing the dr is monitoring is my cervix. After I had the cancerous cells removed in the LEEP procedure in July it shortened my cervix one centimeter. So the dr started doing cervical checks at my 1st appt so that they can make sure i am not dialating/effacing prematurely as the baby gets bigger. Hopefully everything will be fine but in the event there is an issue they will just so a simple Cerclage to stitch the cervix shut still we are ready to deliver.  

We tried to take some pictures of Brayden in his "big brother" t-shirt. TRIED is the operative word. Lol.  He never sits still so getting him to sit and smile was a joke. We did get some cute and silly pictures. He's the best! 

TTC Baby#2: Transfer Day!

I am like 2 weeks behind in posting about all the stuff that has been going on in the last few weeks. I'm slowly trying to catch up.

Hi Baby Keysers! Now get comfy!! 

Backtracking to CD1, on Oct 20th (Bray's bday), I finally got AF and our FET cycle officially began!
I'll prob make this a timeline to make it easier to explain :)

CD 2: Oct 21st: I had blood work and ultrasound on day 2 and everything looked great so they started me on Estrace aka estrogen to simulate egg growth artificially and help prime my lining for the transfer.  I was on increasing doses of that until my next u/s.

 CD 15: Nov 3: B/w and u/s for a lining check.  Everything looked perfect. E2 (estrogen) was at 850 and my lining was a nice and thick 14.

CD16: Nov 4: With the go ahead I started my other arsenal of medications in preparation for the transfer.  This includes PIEO, an intramuscular shot of progesterone in solution, progesterone suppositories, steroids, antibiotics and the 3x daily Estrace I was already on.  I also received a call from the embryologist to go over everything. The game plan was to thaw 6 embies and grow them to 3 day(since most of mine were frozen on day 1 b/c i has severe OHSS at the time of retrieval) and transfer the best two graded ones.

Being the Type A and just for organizing purposes I used the chart 

from when we did IVF with bray to keep track of all of my medication.  lol 

CD 18: Nov 6: Thaw report is in! All 6 embies made the thaw, 4 of the 6 were looking excellent, 2 were fragmented, meaning they were not dividing properly. Transfer is scheduled for 10am monday morning

CD 19: Nov 7: TRANSFER DAY! We dropped the baby off at my moms on the way to the RE office.  I had to be there at 9:15 for a 10am transfer.  They had me drink a ton of water to make sure my bladder was visible on the u/s machine. Of course my bladder was immediately overly full and I was sitting in my seat doing the "pee pee" dance. Classy I know! lol  We finally got called back and they had me get changed and gave me Valum to prevent cramping. Jason even got to "gown up" and put on the sexy hair covering and booties :) And then we wait! lol I hate sitting in the room waiting for the procedure to happen, I swear time ticks by SO slowly.  Finally the embryologist came in to go over the final embryo report. Out of the 6 the two that were preciously fragmented were not good so they were given to their research. The two we would be transferring were an 8 and a 6 cell embies. Both were considered GOOD grading. they couldn't be classified as excellent b/c they had the slightest amount of fragmentation. The other remaining two were refrozen leaving us 11 still on ice!

The procedure itself it nothing, The worst part for me was the overly full bladder. they had me try and empty only "2 cups full "  and that was SO hard to stop peeing when you have to go that bad. lol Once i was back in the room things got underway. it's a super fast procedure, they measure how far in they want to go, make the "drop" and take the cathedar back out. The embryologist looks at the cathedar under a microscope to make sure both embies are in me and not still in the tube.  It was painless and fast!  By this time the Valum had hit me full effect. They have you lay down on the slightly inverted table for 30 mins just to play it safe and I completely passed out from the meds. I am always so sensitive to that kind of medication. It always makes me dizzy/drunken-ish and disoriented, but as long as it did its job with the lack of cramping I was good!

We headed back to my moms to get Brayden and headed home. I'm now on the mandated 48 hour bed rest. It's really strict but then after that I can do normal activities with no bending at the waist and llifting over 15 lbs. The last part will be hard with Brayden being 20lb 13oz, but I'll just be careful to lift at my knees and arms when I do have to pick him up.

So now we wait... isn't that ALWAYS the case. TTC is just mean like that!  lol  I go on the 10th for b/w and u/s to check my lining and make sure all of my hormones look good and my meds don't need to be adjusting. Beta (pregnancy) blood work is scheduled for Sat the 19th. But I already planned on testing at home before that. I hope to wait until 9dp3dt (9 days after the transfer) but we will see what kind of willpower i have.  I got my positive test with Brayden that far out so that's why i figured I would start there.  :)  Wish us luck! i'm just hoping an praying this does the trick!  Brayden would love to have a little brother or sister! :)

A Comparison of embies!  

 Baby #1/#2 (good quality) Nov 7 2011  

VS  Brayden and his late twin(lost 5/6 weeks) (excellent/good quality)Jan 22, 2010

TTC Baby#2: October cycle cancelled... we seriously need to catch a break!

Uggh so i had my baseline blood work and ultrasound today for our FET(frozen embryo transfer) cycle.  Apparently there was an "abnormality" aka white spot showing on the u/s in my uterus. the RE is hoping it''ll just resolve/shed itself while i have my period so i go back on tues for another u/s.  The RE I talk to today was a different one than i saw last time. She also said that she wants me to wait another month b/c of the LEEP procedure i had done in July, even though the other RE said it was okay. She said she usually doesn't like her patients to do ivf earlier than 6 months vs the 2-3 that the other RE and OB told me. She kept reiterating how severe the cells were that they took out of me and that the procedure does shorten your cervix and i'm already at risk for pre-term labor.  Yes i know she is trying to give me full disclosure but I already talked to my other RE about this and I am fully aware.  I'm just really frustrated right now.  If the spot doesn't resolve they want me to get another sonohysterogram, which showed a perfect lining 2 months ago. But it's also another 400 i wasn't planning on having to fork out.  uggh. So for now we are cancelling and she's putting me on bcp for 1 month so i get a cycle and am not at the mercy of my instance 40-80 day usual cycles.  And i had a measurable cyst so it'l help with that.  Never dull moment. I'm trying to stay positive and hoping tues shows that the spot had resolved itself.  In the mean time, they want me to set up an appointment with the MFM (maternal fetal medicine: high risk dr) to discuss a game plan with her about how they will monitor my cervix and all when I do get pregnant. So i will be calling to make that appt on Monday.  Here's hoping the next few weeks go quickly and everything turns out okay. There is definitely a lot going on to keep me busy with Brayden's birthday, parties, a wedding and Halloween.  :)  I am just REALLY disappointed that we are canceling. I just feel like sometimes I can't catch a break. I would really appreciate if things would go smoothly for a change, but It's me we are talking about, i never do things easy :)

I took a pic of the "white spot ultrasound" before I handed it in.  It's the spot in the middle.

TTC Baby#2: One cycle away!! warning very TMI :)

I finally started my cycle. You gotta love PCOS (NOT!!!) and never knowing when the hell your cycle is actually going to start.  Even better it was a great cycle by my standards and was only 38 days. For me that is something to celebrate, especially when you consider my average cycle goes from 45-75 days.  But the joke is on me for celebrating because despite my "short" cycle it is HORRIBLE. (here's where the tmi starts if it already hasn't lol) Not only is the pain borderline "contraction like" and non stop but the flow is insane.  All i know is this is reason # 34543534 why I would love to be pregnant again. lol Those 9 glorious months of no cycle are a beautiful thing, and in the end you get a baby, BONUS! lol  Okay I really shouldn't complain. I talk to and know plenty of girls that NEVER get a cycle on their own with out medication so i should count myself lucky.

Back to the point... So despite the pain i am going through i am actually excited b/c this means we are almost to our FET cycle!! Since getting postponed in June it felt like it was NEVER going to come.  Now we're trying to figure out a game plan. This month we are going to induce my cycle instead of playing "Russian roulette" and seeing how things go. lol October and November looks like they are going to be so busy with Brayden's birthday, a handful of other birthday parties, Halloween, a wedding, an engagement party, then starting the holidays. In the midst of it all we are trying to fit in the FET. So the game plan is to induce my cycle really early rather than later. At my clinic the FET usually takes place on cycle day 19 (give or take based on how good your lining looks and your embryos thaw). So we are going to try and squeeze everything in the week before Brayden's 1st Birthday. I know that sounds backwards and nuts but it will actually work out best. The first 2 days I need to be on bed rest then i can go back to normal movement with the exception of the 10lb lifting restriction. That's going to be a problem NO matter when we do it with an almost 1 year old weighing 20 lbs. So i'm not even factoring that in.  Plus this way I will be busy getting ready and making food for Brayden's party so it'll all help keep my mind of the 2 week wait.  We were worried about doing it after his birthday b/c I didn't want to miss out on his first real trick or treating or my girlfriends wedding and other girlfriends daughters birthday. So here is hoping everything goes to plan. We know how I LOVE to do things smoothly! haha!!   So looks like I will be starting Provera this upcoming Saturday to get the ball rolling!  (For those who don't know what Provera is, it's progesterone pills that you take for 10 days and it induces your cycle). So now we count down!!!

Aside from planning out things we have been talking about the prospect of twins. I am actually a little nervous about this with already have one. Even after I talked to the RE months ago she still recommended we transfer 2 embryos and that's the way we are going to go.  We have two reasons for making this decision. #1, Brayden was one of 2 embryo's transferred. The second baby didn't make it past 5/6 weeks so knowing this we don't want to go through a cycle and have nothing implant. #2, we are all out of pocket at this point. My insurance through MW had covered our IVF cycle when we had Brayden. Even if I hadn't lost my job we exhausted all of our benefits and our insurance through Jason's job doesn't cover anything, not even blood work and ultrasounds! Thank you Aetna and ARI. lol Anyway, the whole cycle from pre-ivf testing, meds, bloodwork/ultrasounds package and the actual FET is about 4k. So needless to say if this god forbid didn't work (which is HAS to) we'd have to wait a long while to re-save enough for another go.  That being said, I'm still a little nervous about the prospect of twins but at this point the way we see it, it's all or nothing and what's meant to be will happen an we will make it work.  Of course I am getting way ahead of myself but we have to be realistic and open minded.  

For now we are  keeping our fingers crossed and hoping and praying for our little miracle baby #2!! 

And because every blog deserves a picture!  This little man deserves a sibling :)  

Look at that face!! Watch out ladies! 

Okay I had to post 2 ! :) 

Baby #2, IVF and The Big "C" Scare

I've been debating back and forth on how much of my medical/personal stuff I was going to put out there and I decided, what the hell, I'm going all out. If anything I was hoping that by sharing my own health issues it would provide support to those going through similar situations and to let them know you are NOT alone!  The whole reason I started blogging in the first place was because I wished I had chronicled things while we were TTC with Brayden, so in the mindset of not being counterproductive why not just put all out there...so here we go!

Backtracking...  Jason and I had decided that while I am enjoying my temporary status of being a stay at home mom it would be a good time to start thinking about baby #2.  We hadn't exactly been "trying" but we weren't preventing. I was pretty sure that I wasn't even ovulating but we had fun "trying" anyway. I got my first cycle about 11 weeks postpartum and they have been erratic since then. Thank you PCOS. Knowing EVERYTHING we had went through to conceive with Brayden we decided to set up an appointment with the RE (reproductive endocrinologist) about doing another round of IVF.  The appt went great, we still have 15 embryos (aka snow babies) on ice so we have plenty to work with. The Dr did another round of blood work to see what my "hormone" situation is, and it confirmed that I am not ovulating. No big surprise b/c I have never ovulated with out stim meds and/or some form of trigger. So the game plan was to induce my cycle with Provera(progesterone) and then when I get the following cycle (which would prob need to be induced as well) we would start the meds to do another round of IVF called a FET (frozen embryo transfer).  The RE said that b/c we still have so many embryos we would thaw 6 again and take the best two grade and transfer them.  We are a little nervous about the prospect of twins with Brayden being so young but we will be happy with whatever we are blessed with.  We will just be happy if it works. Last time Brayden's twin didn't make it past 6 weeks so we are worried that if we only transfer one it wouldn't work.  Guess we will see what is meant to be!

So in preparation to do the FET I needed to get my annual Pap Smear. I had my appt the same week as my RE appt so it worked out well. I was just hoping the results would come back and we would be good to go.  In the mean time I had gotten my cycle and we were inducing for the next one to start my IVF meds. Of course I has a VERY short cycle (only 19 days) and I got my period, which for me is unheard of.  So of course I thought it was a good sign. But the joke was on me. That same day I got a call from my OB saying that my pap smear came back abnormal and I needed to have a Colposcopy and biopsy done of the area. I was really upset that we had to delay the FET but I knew that we needed to make sure things were okay. A few years before we got pregnant with Brayden I had the same thing happen and the biopsy came back okay so we didn't have any issues. This time I was not as lucky. Of course the day I got the call I missed the call and the OB left me a message to call her. I have NEVER gotten a call from the ob no matter what has been going on so I knew it couldn't be good. I didn't get the message till after the office was closed so I myself a night full of anxiety till I could talk to someone the next morning. When I called the next morning the dr wasn't in but I told them I HAD to talk to someone. They got the nurse shannon on the phone for me. She is amazing, she is usually the one you get calls from or if you have any questions shes soooo helpful. Apparently my biopsy came back as pre-cancerous. I had a surgical consult with the dr a week or so later and she explained that the cells had mutated so rapidly from the time of my pap to the colposcopy that they were the stage right before cervical cancer. NOT what I expected on hearing.  I was elated that is wasn't fully blown cancer but the prospect of having something so wrong really scared me. I didn't even want to think about the "what if's" or ever leaving my husband and beautiful baby boy.  Needless to say we had to cancel out IVF cycle. I am just grateful that we caught it before it turned in to full blown cancer. 

So the game plan from here was to do a procedure called a LEEP. It's where they cut out the affected part of your cervix.  I just had the procedure this week and the dr said it all went well. They did it at the Cooper Surgical Center under twilight anesthesia. They gave me the option to do it on the office with NO anesthesia and i just laughed. After everything my body went though with Brayden's delivery and as I call it the "after math" there is no way I was putting myself in an unnecessary pain.  I go back for a follow up in 2 1/2 weeks. The dr said they will allow us to continue IVF in about 3-4 months. So we are looking at Oct/Nov, I have to call the RE and see what they say as far as a timeline b/c they obviously are the ones who give the go ahead. 

I'm feeling a little bit better about everything, emotionally at least.  I'm still hurting some from the procedure but I will live. I had a lot of help the day of and after with Brayden so that really helped. My mom watched the baby while Jason took me to the procedure and my sister Katie came over that night and stayed the next day till Jason got home from work.  Having her there was a god sent.  I have to laugh at things b/c I should of known that "just" doing another round of IVF would be so simple.  If anyone knows me, I never do things easy. lol 

I really love my RE and OB office! For anyone in our area looking for a good dr here's the information:

Cooper OBGYN: I usually see Dr Salvatore, but Dr Suarez did my procedure and Dr. Mama did Brayden's forcept delivery. They are all AMAZING! They have a few offices but I go to the Marlton location.
Located:  127 Church Rd, Marlton, NJ 08053
Phone: 856-983-5691

Cooper IVF: Dr Check's office is one of the TOP rated in the state and has awesome success rates, I'm proof it works. lol I've dealt with almost all of the dr's at the office, you really can't go wrong.
Located: 8002E Greentree Commons (rt73), Marlton, NJ 08053
Phone: 856-751-5575

Happy EMBRYO-VERSARY!

One year ago today our lives changed forever! On this day last year we had our frozen embryo transfer (FET) in our second attempt at IVF. Two beautiful embryos were transferred but only one survived after 6 weeks and we were blessed with our little miracle baby Brayden!!! Its been a rollercoaster of a year and being parents has been the most amazing experience of our lives!!   I can't imagine our lives with out Brayden! 

Words can't express how greatful i am for the technology that allowed us to be able to concieve. We had an amazing experience with our Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) Dr Check at the Copper Institute.  All of the nurses, techs and embryologists that worked with us were invaluable.  They definitely made our journey just a little bit easier despite all the ups and downs we experienced. 

Who knows what the future will bring... we can still only hope and dream that when the time comes for baby #2 we would be able to concieve natrually but if not we still have 15 Keyser Embryos on ice!

Our perfect little Embryos! 

Watching the process of conception unfold, it really is a MIRACLE that one little embryo can grow in to a beautiful baby!