See ya later 2015

Well the last half of 2015 flew by.......

We spent the rest of our summer with lots of trips to the pool, a few camping trips, and our annual mudd volleyball tournament. Nevaeh rode on the tube for the first time during our 4th of July trip. She went to Elitches with her auntie, went to the water park a few time, had lots of sleepovers, and birthday parties.

Got Johnny's moms house sold and the estate all closed which was a nice relief.

Nevaeh started at her new school for 5th grade! She was excited to go to the same school as the kids in the neighborhood. She also got to ride the bus to and from school this year.

First Day of 5th Grade

Waiting for the bus with the neighborhood kids

Johnny decided that since the trailblazer was starting to act up and was going to require about $3,000.00 worth of work to it, plus it already had 145k miles, he would trade it in and get himself a new truck. After a week or so of searching he fell in love with one but it was a little too high priced, so the next weekend when we will out to the dealerships we decided to check in on the overpriced one that he loved. Well they had lowered the price but still not low enough for me LOL. After 5 hours at the dealership I worked my magic and talked them down about 5k and we walked out with the truck Johnny wanted :)




Nevaeh started her fall Soccer league. This time her coach was a little bit more structured and she was actually learning some things about soccer. She enjoyed playing a lot more this year and her team only had 2 losses the whole season.

Johnny turned 30, and we celebrated with a surprise party at our friends house! I am kind of a perfectionist LOL so it took me a while to get everything all planned out. But I managed to pull it off and it was a great time. We also were given tickets to the Broncos home opener game.

We finally got the blessing we had wanted and couldn't be happier to be expecting our first child, a little boy in May 2016.

We celebrated out 5 year anniversary! Crazy that 5 years of marriage flew by that fast. Johnny bought me a beautiful new wedding ring, we went to dinner.

My beautiful niece Serenity turned 1!! We celebrated with a nice party.

We did one last hooray cruise vacation to end the year.

We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and look forward to the next year. Much love XOXO

Boy or Girl

Wahoo, I was FINALLY able to stop all medications on October 30th. This was by far super exciting for me!!

Everything has been going well for me. Nothing to complain about. I have had it pretty easy so far, the only thing that has made me sick was avocado and that was just two times. We started at the OBGYN, had another ultrasound to measure the heart rate and it came out 177 bmp the first time and 169 bmp the second.

I got another ultrasound on November 2nd for my 12 week appointment. This baby is so active bouncing around on the monitor and even did a flip while she was doing measurements. They also did all the chromosome blood work to check the necessary tests. So of course the question is always "Am I having a Boy or Girl"? We decided to opt in for the 12 week blood test to find out what we are having. The results usually take about a week to get back.

We got the results back from our test and all the testing for down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities all came back negative. We were so thankful. Now to wait and see if we are having a he or she???

So if you would like to put in your input on what you think the sex of our baby will be now's your chance.

Baby Cashmore is cooking!!!

 So since the day I got the phone call that we had a positive back from our 1st HCG test that meant that I was already 4 weeks pregnant.

I went back on Tuesday for my blood draw and again had to wait until the afternoon to find out the results. The nurse finally called me about 1:15 pm and said that everything still looks good. My HCG level came back at 496 which is more than double my last one. She told me that I needed to continue on all of the same medicines that I have been taking, and to go ahead and schedule my first ultrasound appointment with lab work for a few weeks later.

We couldn't be happier that after 3 years of going to the fertility clinic we finally were able to say we were expecting our little miracle. We are so blessed that our family and friends gave us nothing but support and well wishes through this entire process. Infertility is a very common thing with a lot of people. Most do not share their struggle. I hope that giving you all insight on our journey gives some people looking to go through the same thing we did a little more hope. Please feel free to continue to follow our journey through pregnancy because the fun doesn't stop yet.

Since finding out I haven't had too many symptoms. The main one I have is my sense of smell is ridiculous. Some things bother me when I smell them and give me the urge to vomit but haven't had that quite yet. I am becoming more and more tired also.

I started to develop a rash on my right hip at 5 weeks. I have no idea what it could be from so I went to the doctor. They told me that it could be my body reacting the Progesterone in oil shots or I could have Shingles. It did not hurt it just itched very bad. I put some Hydro-cortisone cream on it and it seemed to help a little but not much. I went back to the doctor 2 days later so they could check on it and also draw my blood to check on my levels since I stopped taking the progesterone. I had a blood test done to tell whether or not I had the active shingles virus in my body or not and the results came back negative. This was good and meant no shingles but still doesn't tell me what the rash is from. After a few days the rash went away but then I started to notice some pretty bad bruising where the rash was. It was seriously the weirdest thing ever. It all went away about 2 weeks later. 

We had our First Ultrasound on Friday 09/25/15. They told me that my due date was May 15 2016, and there was just one little baby in there. Since the ultrasounds they do at the fertility clinic are very limited we did not get to hear the heartbeat. We did get a couple of ultrasound pictures though and they did a measurement of the heartbeat.  I am still taking all of the same medications for now. 

We returned to the fertility clinic for our second ultrasound and hopefully the last appointment at the clinic on October 9th. The baby was moving around like crazy, kicking and moving it's arms. Measurements were right on schedule to 8 weeks and 5 days. The heart rate went up to 177 bmp. But we did get a little bad news. They told me that I have placenta previa. I would need my OB to keep a close eye on this and hope that everything shifted before it was time to deliver. 

I got a call on Monday about my lab results and they told me that everything was looking good and we could start the weaning of my medications. Hallelujah, I never thought I would see the light at the end of the tunnel for the medications to end.  

And the verdict is...............

During the appointment the nurse told me that if my results turned out positive then there would be additional tests done, and that this is the last appointment that would be covered in our IVF package. Anything more would need to either be billed to insurance as pregnancy care or I could apply for the clinics Pregnancy Express program. This is where you pay one flat fee for all of the needed appointments and ultrasounds to check on the baby.

After we left the doctor appointment, we decided to go have some breakfast at Einstein's and do a little grocery shopping, before we went home and awaited the phone call.......

It wasn't until about 11am that the phone finally rang and the nurse told me my results were.....

............and that my HCG level was at 195 which they want to see higher than 50! So I needed to continue my current medicines and also the 3 patches every other day. I needed to go in for another blood draw on Tuesday to make sure that things were still progressing. At my appointment on Tuesday they would hope for my numbers to double. If they did then that meant I would be for sure pregnant, but it would be very early,  and if not well yeah then you can guess what it would mean.

The killer two week wait!

The IVF process is all about waiting and patience I swear, and sometimes you just run out of patience especially when its something that you have been wanting for many years.

The waiting game was EXTREAMLY hard through the weekend because laying around gives you nothing but time to think and concentrate on if it worked or not. The doctor tells you not to move around much, but really could laying in bed make you pregnant?

My mind slowed down a little when I went back to work on Monday which was 3dp5dt.  The doctor told us that we should not cheat and take any at home tests just because they could give you a false negative or even a false positive because of all of the medications. Some symptoms that I did notice that day were some intense cramping and then later that night I noticed some spotting. Which is all totally normal so nothing to freak out about. Johnny also made a mention that he thought my boobs were getting bigger LOL. I think it was just the shirt I was wearing honestly. :)

Tuesday is usually a super busy day at work so I didn't think much about it. I did still have some on and off cramping but there wasn't much spotting. My boobs were super sore though so that was so comfortable. I am still keeping up with changing my patches every other day as well as Johnny giving me my progesterone in oil shot the opposite days of the patch change.

Wednesday is 5dp5dt and I was getting really anxious to know what the results are. Most people I have read their blogs usually give in and test by now. Johnny told me that I was not allowed to, although I really wanted to. I know, I know it could give inaccurate readings but I still wanted to do it. My boobs we still super sore and I was feeling a bit bloated. Which are all signs of aunt flow also.

Thursday, 6dp5dt I seemed to be a little bit more sleepy. Maybe its because its so dark out in the morning and I haven't been able to sleep through the night. Still pretty bloated but not much else going on as far as symptoms.

Friday marks 7dp5dt. I am awaiting another round of medications today from the lovely FedEx driver. I did give in and take a test so that I could see what it said. I am not going to 100% believe what it told me until I did go to my Beta test. I have had a little more spotting and have just been really tired, but that's usually me anyway :)

On our way to the doctor

Well we are heading to the doctor this lovely Sunday morning!! We didn't have to wait a full two weeks because we had a frozen embryo transferred that was already 5 days old so the wait time was a little less, although it did not feel like any less. :)

 We will get a blood draw to check my HCG levels. Today marks 9dp5dt, or cycle day 31 whichever way you look at it  We will have to wait until later this afternoon for the nurse to call us with the results. This I think is by far the hardest waiting part..........

 

The day we have been prepping for............ TRANSFER DAY!!

I always said that I wanted to get pregnant anytime after my birthday so I could be pregnant all winter long. So if all goes as planned then my long time wish could be granted.

Well the day is finally here..... Both Johnny and I are excited!! The transfer is scheduled for 2:15 pm on Cycle day 22.

That morning we sent Veah off to school and then went and had a nice breakfast and then did a little shopping at the mall before heading to the clinic. I had to drink lots of water before getting to the clinic because they want you to have a semi full bladder during the transfer.

We got to the clinic about 12:15 pm. I checked in for my lab work and got that all taken care of. Next, I went up stairs and checked in for my acupuncture treatment. They brought be a Valium to help my body and uterus relax and not cramp up during the transfer.  They started the acupuncture treatment and tell me to relax and just breathe... well let me tell you how hard that is when your bladder is about to blow up!! Once the treatment was done they let me go to the bathroom, well I only got to release a half of a solo cup. Again its pretty hard to stop yourself mid pee when your bladder is that full LOL. So, while waiting for the doctor to finish up with another transfer I had to empty my bladder two more times. Both times was a full solo cup... doctor said the only rule I have to follow during the transfer was to not pee on him.

The embryologist came in verified my wrist band and confirmed again that I would be transferring only one embryo. He let us know again that the grading of the embryo was a 4BA, The best grading you can get is a 4AA, so ours was almost perfect! He put a picture up on the wall of the embryo so we could see it and take a picture. Here is what it looks like....

Our 5 day embryo

Johnny got to watch on the ultrasound monitor as they transferred the embryo in, and it only took like 5 minutes if that. Once that was done I had to lay there with my legs propped up so they were even with my hips. The acupuncturist lady came back in for my second treatment. We left the office about 3:45 pm and headed home.

Just doing some acupuncture

Once I was home I had to either be in a reclined position or laying down on my back or side for the next 2 days. This is what I was not excited about. I am not very good at just sitting around doing nothing and surely don't like that Johnny will have to wait on me hand and foot. But I know that I have to do this therefore I will suffer though.

Hopefully the last of the Meds!!

On cycle day 17 I had to start my Endometrin, Medrol and Doxycycline at bed time. While continuing on my prenatals, 3 Vivelle Patches, and the baby aspirin. I go in tomorrow for another blood draw and lining check. I am getting a little overwhelmed with all these medicines I have to take. I just don't want to miss one and screw everything up!


During my check up on Cycle day 18, the ultrasound showed my lining measuring at 12mm with a nice triple pattern, and no cysts on my ovaries! Just what they are looking for. I had the nurse give me my first of many progesterone in oil shots in my rear. She marked the spots so that Johnny knows where to give them. These will be on an every other day schedule.

 They called me later that afternoon with the results of my labs and said that everything is looking good and we are still following the calendar for transfer. I needed to continue on all of my same meds and then I will get a call on Wednesday regarding the transfer date and time. In the meantime man was my rear sore from that progesterone shot!! Oh and it will be this way for a while considering I will be taking it every other day until god knows when.

Cycle day 20, I was supposed to get a call during the day regarding instructions for my transfer but the day went on and before I knew it, it was already 4:15 pm and I still hadn't heard from the office. I called to check in and my nurse was off for the day, they took my name and number and said someone will call me back. Finally about 5:45 pm they called and let me know that my Transfer day would be on Friday at 2:15 pm. Johnny gave me my shot of progesterone that evening,

The next day I got a call from the IVF lab in regards to thawing out our embryo. They confirmed that we will only be transferring one embryo and that I needed to report if I woke up not feeling well or anything that would make me not be able to come in and do the transfer.

Ohhh More meds

When the doctor called they told me that since my lining was already pretty thick that  I should be prepared for my calendar to possibly change because they cannot let my lining get too thick or it would cause problems with the transfer.

I was told to stay on the one baby aspirin each day, the 5 units of  Lupron, but to increase my patches to 2 a day starting on Monday which was cycle day 11. I went back to the doctor the next day for another lining check and a blood draw. My lining was measuring at 10.7mm and my estrogen level was at 341. At this point they want to see that level at least 300. Anything over that is still good and just means that I am still responding well to the medication.

My calendar states I should increase my patches to 3 but since they do not want my lining to get too thick I will remain at 2 every other day and go back in to have another check on Friday, cycle day 15.

My check up on Cycle day 15 went pretty good. My lining was measuring just about 11mm which is good because they are trying to avoid it getting too thick. My estrogen level came back at 114, which is very low compared to the last check up. So I was instructed to start on an oral form of estrogen daily and to increase my patches to 3 a day. I am hoping that my calendar stays on track still but I will need to go back in to the doctor on Cycle day 18 to have another check.

On a side note, I took my last Lupron injection on Saturday night which was cycle day 16. :)

Continuing FET Pre Cycle Meds

I ended up not doing the Electro-Acupuncture because the more I researched and talked to my doctor I didn't think it was that necessary and it was only a recommendation they had given me. Plus it would of been another out of pocket expense for us even though we could have used our insurance.

So in most girls cases that are trying to get pregnant they are not very thrilled to have aunt flow around, but in my case I could of thrown a party LOL

 because aunt flow came that means.....

We know that the date is just an estimation so we cant get too excited or attached to the date.

Anyway, I called the office on day 1 of my cycle and they had me start on my Vivelle Dot estrogen patches on day 3. I started on one patch every other day. I also got to reduce my Lupron injections down to only 5 units per day. I also had to start taking a baby aspirin daily.

I don't know what could be causing it but man I have had some serious heartburn and cannot seem to get rid of it.

I continued on the one patch for a total of 8 days. I went back to the doctor on cycle day 9 to get a blood draw and lining check. They measured my lining at 9mm, which is very good but almost too good too soon. And my estrogen level was at 109. What they would like to see for a transfer is a lining between 8 and 12mm thick and an estrogen level over 50. So technically I am just about ready but still have more medications to take in order to move forward with the transfer.

Doctor would call me later that day with instructions on medications.

Beginning the FET

So starting the FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) cycle, first I have to begin with taking birth control for about 28 days. This is not including all of the other packs I had been taking just to get my levels back down.

I got my first shipment of medication, here is a look at it.

We then received another bill from the Lab for the freezing of Johnny's extra sperm. Yipppie just what we want is more bills. At least it was only $110.00.

Just before I finish the second birth control pack I began taking a GnRH agonist (Lupron), which is an injectable medication. I start by taking 10 units each day.

Let me just say that the injections were cake work by now but the side effects had me on a whole different planet. I was so incredibly hot it was unbelievable!!! I had some wicked headaches that lasted all day long. I was a little on edge too!

Once I finish my second pack of the birth control I should get my period and then call the office so they can instruct me to start on estrogen replacement therapy.

Prepping for the FET procedure

So because we were placed on hold for my levels being too high we could not get the FET (frozen embryo transfer) started until my estrogen and progesterone levels went back down and my ovaries calmed down. To make that happen I had to start on Birth Control again. I started my first pack on July 7th, this will continue for a few months I am guessing.

After back and forth arguments with the business office about the FET fee schedule we determined that since we had originally paid for a fresh transfer and were stopped and forced to do a freeze all that we would have a credit on our account of $2,500.00. So with the credit we had and the nursing care fee of $500.00 being waived, we would only have to pay $2,945.00. This is a much better number although $0.00 would of been ideal at this stage.

On the mock up calendar it had the break down of a typical calendar and on there I was instructed I need to start Electro-Acupuncture twice a week. This is to increase blood flow in my ovaries. I had to do some researching as to what place I can go to that would take my insurance and that I would only have to pay my co pay :)

I keep telling myself this!

We sent out the checks for this cycle and now that we have everything for all paid for we got to pick our dates for the cycle and have something to look forward to now.

Regroup and FET Info

Update on my arm from the horrible blood draw.... Yep it still hurts, I still get shooting pains, my hand still goes numb from time to time, I can barley hold my purse on my forearm without loosing strength. And the best part its on my right arm which is my dominate one! Yaay me!

We  had our regroup with the doctor to discuss the grades of our 9 embryos and decide how many we will transfer when that time comes. There were 6 of the embryos that had grown out enough with a good rating to be frozen at the day 5. The other 3 weren't quite  ready to be frozen yet so they grew those out for another day. Those 3 ended up getting pretty close to the other 6 which could result in pregnancy but they usually try those at last resort since they did take extra time to get to the freeze stage. We decided that since we had 6 embryos that were a good/great rating that when we are ready for transfer we would only transfer one, to limit the chances for multiples and hopefully result in a healthy pregnancy. I also discussed my arm issue and was told that it will get better it will just take some time.

The Business office sent the fees associated with doing a FET as well as an example calendar to get us an idea on how the cycle work. I was pretty upset when I looked at the fee schedule because these fees were never disclosed. We were forced into an FET because of the way my body reacted to the medication doses. So in every conversation we had with the doctor or nurse nothing about having additional fees was talked about. So I was pretty upset that we would have to now pay $5945.00 to have this transfer done.

I got an additional medication list to do more price shopping. I found that the additional meds were going to cost........$1,430.00.

We were told that a typical calendar for an FET is about 2-2.5 months long. Clearly everyone is different and again no cycle can start without having your period first. So again we will do some more waiting.

Fertility Report

On Tuesday June 30th we got the call from the IVF lab with our fertility report. Out of the 34 eggs they pulled out, 21 of them were mature. After doing ICSI to 20 of them, 15 fertilized! Yeah 15! Holy cow... that is ALOT!!! Now they will watch them grow for a few days and then call us back and give us the grading scale. They also saved the 5 that didn't visibly fertilize and will watch to see if by chance they missed something.

They were also able to take what was left of Johnny's sperm sample and freeze that for possible future use.

We got an update on our embryos at the cleavage stage which is day 3, Thursday, July 2.............What they are looking for at this stage is the embryos that have the least amount of fragmentation. Out of the 15 good ones that were fertilized 10 of those have a great to good rating which means they have the least amount of fragments. The other 5 were given a low grade, which means they are 1-2 stages behind the other 10. One of the 5 embryos that did not show signs of fertilization after retrieval started to fertilize and the other 4 were thrown out. So as of now we have 16 embryos in the lab. They will all be watched for a few more days and we will get the grade scale of each at the next stage of the embryos life.  :)

Sunday July 5th I went in for another blood draw to check on my levels to see if they have started to decrease since starting back on the cetrotide. Well while I was getting my blood draw the nurse went in and got my nerve which shot a shooting pain down my forearm and also made my hand go numb and get all tingly. I literally almost came out of the chair because it hurt so damn bad.

Later that day we got the final report from the lab. Out of the 16 embryos from the Cleavage stage only 9 made it to the Blastocyst stage. Details on this stage are that an embryo has developed and it has 2 distinct cell types and a central cavity filled with fluid called blastocoel cavity, The surface cells around the cavity are called the trophectoderm and will later develop into the placenta. The inner cell mass is what will become the fetus.

And the fee for freezing all embryos is $975.00.

Since my body is not ready for transfer we will be put on hold for a while to let it get back to normal. Hopefully this wont take too long but they say it could be a few months before everything is back to normal. So sit tight and I will update when things get back going!

So just a recap on the amount of money we have put out just this year $28,460.00, and yet we are still far away from baby Cashmore. 

I thank each of you that have donated to our fund, but am asking if there is anyone out there that is willing to donate please do so. Your donation big or small is so much appreciated. It looks like our journey is still far from over and I am sure we will encounter many more bills.

Here is the link to our site again.
http://www.gofundme.com/Jessica-JohnnyIVF