Starting the FET meds

So when our nurse gave us our "mock up" calendar she also gave us our estimated transfer date. Like before this date is just an estimate. As long as my body follows the schedule they have then this will be a set day but we wont know for sure just yet. 

I started on my 10 units of Lupron injections on 11/9. Lupron overstimulates the body's own production of the usual hormone exchange that cause follicle production and ovulation.

 I will continue the 10 units every day. I havent had to take any injections for a while so after the first one I instantly remember how bad it made my stomach burn and would turn red immediatly. The last time this medication made me have outrageous hot flashes and wicked headaches, and sure enough those lovely headaches were back. I didnt have those hot flashes like I did the last time. Which was definetly a good thing. 

That same day I received an email from a lady at the buisness office reminding me that we needed to get our payment in no later than 2 weeks before our scheduled transfer date. We had to make two seperate payments. One to CCRM for $2830.00 and one to the FLC (Fertility labs of Colorado) for $3516.00. 

I sent a check in email to my nurse just to make sure that I was doing all that I should be doing. We havent had much contact so I felt like I may not be doing something right. I got the response back and everything is right on target. I started on my second pack of birth control on November 11th and continued taking that until the 13th. Yep, had to get a whole new pack of birth control to take 3 pills out of it. Now I just continue my lupron injections and wait until my cycle comes.

Check in with CCRM and medication order

So I finally started my cycle on 10/19. I called into my nurse and let her know. She sent me the list of all medications that I needed to order for this go around along with our "mock up" calendar. She also called in my first pack of birth control to the pharmacy so that I could start on that on cycle day 3. I called around to the pharmacys that I used last time to check on the cost for all of the medications. I found out that this time I was able to use some of the generics for the medications so that was going to make the cost a little bit cheaper. Hey a little bit adds up to a lot in this case. I was able to find that one of the pharmacies I used the last time could get me all of the medications for $1467.53. They were able to submit some things to my insurance which was nice.

I continued on my birth control pack #1 and placed the order for all medications.

Since I get to work from home on Fridays I scheduled the appointmet for both Johnny and I to go have our communicable blood draw done on 11/3 as well as have my medications delivered this day since it needs a signature. Bentley and I went and had my blood drawn early in the morning so that we could make it back home for when the Fed Ex driver showed up with my box of goodies and Johnny went after work.

I recieved an email from our nurse on Monday 11/6 telling us that she was going to be leaving for maternity leave and would not be returning to the clinic. She introduced us to our new nurse through the email portal. Not like we could see her or meet her but hey at least we have her name and her extension. I guess that will do for now. Within the same email she let me know that our lab results from our communicables came back negative. This was a good thing. :) 

Starting round 2....

So eventhough we have our frozen embryos the doctor says its been too long and we have to redo the majority of all of the testing in order to do another round. We scheduled our one day work up for August 25th. I had to do another HSG test. This is where they insert a gas into your fallopian tubes to make sure they are open and do not have any blockage. I also got an ultrasound done to check on my resting follicle count. and blood flow. Anything greater than 8 follicles is a lot. The last time I had this test done I had 35 resting follicles on the right ovary and 20 resting follicles on the left. This time I had 32 on the left and 36 on the right. To say I am fertile is an understatement LOL.  Then the last test I had to get was the hysteroscopy, this is a test that shows the inside of your uterus and checks for polyps, scar tissue, or any abnormalities that would cause a reason for pregnancy not to be successful. Again because our insurance does not cover any fertility we paid $ 1436.00 for these tests.

We also met with our nurse to update all of our paperwork with new phone numbers, address, and emergency contacts. She gave me the list of blood work that I needed to get done. The majority of these could be done at an outside lab so that we could use our insurance. We talked about they time frame we wanted to shoot for the transfer. Since we had planned to take a cruise in September we wanted to wait until well after we got back. One other blood draw we both had to get done was our Communicable disease testing. We wanted to put this off for a little while just because they are only good for 6 months and we did not have an ideal date set for when we wanted to do our transfer. We got our cost outline from the business office and then on to our last appointment.

The last appointment we had was to talk with our doctor and talk about our 8 frozen embryos, the grade scale for each of them and how many we would like to transfer this time. Since we had sucess with just one embryo we are going to do the same for this time around. We were reminded that in order to prep for pregnancy alcohol and caffiene needed to be cut out. I would need to stop playing sports before I could start on any of the medications again. Now that I have finished with all the summer sports and coaching Nevaehs volleyball this would be just fine with me.

We had our cruise cancelled because of the hurricane in Florida. So we had to push it back a few weeks. We finally made it on the big boat in October just in time to celebrate our 7 year wedding anniversary. We had a great time on the ship but missed Nevaeh and Bentley so much. We couldnt wait to get back home to see them. Once we were back I had to wait until my next cycle came so that I could get in touch with my nurse and schedule for the remainder of our blood work, get the list of medications I was going to need, as well as talk about getting our "mock up" callendar for transfer.

It's so crazy to think that we are now going to be going through round 2 of this very stressful yet exciting time. Please keep us in your thoughts over the next few months. ;)

Catching Up

Wholly Guacamole.....… I noticed it’s been a while since I blogged anything. But life has been full of crazy lately.. Not complaining here at all because I love to be busy….. Well I left off with Mr. Bentley’s birth story. Wow that doesn’t seem that long ago but really it has been a whole year already. I was fortunate enough to take off 14 weeks to spend with my handsome. During that time Nevaeh was also out of school for the summer. We spent our days at the pool, Splash Park, lunch dates with our friends and most of all lots and lots of snuggling. J Bentley was two weeks old when took our first road trip to Pueblo for a friend of the family’s wedding. We took Bentley on his first camping trip when he was 2 months old and then had to rush back home to welcome little Miss Piper to our family. We made our annual trip to Glenwood Springs, played Mudd Volleyball for the March of Dimes, had a Luau to celebrate my 30th birthday, celebrated the birth of another friends little boy, and attended a friend’s wedding to finish out the summer. My grandpa came into town and was able to meet Bentley and take family pictures with us.

We were fortunate enough to have family and friends watch Bentley when it was time for me to go back to work. As hard as it was to go back I knew that he was in great hands. And plus I am not made to be a stay at home mom LOL.

So me being the one that thinks ahead all the time decided that the layout of our house wasn’t going to work with small children because it was so closed off. SO…. We decided that we would sell in the heat of the market again. I said that I am not moving again before but this time I REALLY mean it! Well at least for a long long while. We stayed in the same area so we didn’t have to switch Nevaeh schools. We love our new house and the open layout that it has. Oh and the best part is there are NO snakes!!!!! We moved just in time because Bentley started crawling at 6 months old. So having the open layout is so much better for us to keep our eye on a busy bee.

 Nevaeh decided to try out Volleyball. So we signed her up for a recreation league through the City of Aurora. Bentley had to have his first surgery on December 16th because he had a hypospadias. This was heartbreaking for me. I didn’t want my baby to be put under anesthesia. He did fine but this momma was very sad.

So since we had a gap of time between when we sold our house and when we could close on our new house we had to stay with my mom for a month. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the family and then got all moved into our new house just a few weeks before Christmas. We had Christmas dinner at our house and it was fun to watch Bentley open presents even though he was still kind of young to fully enjoy it.

After returning to work I quickly found out that I was not welcomed back like I thought I would and therefore it created a lot of problems with myself, coworkers, and manager. I thankfully found a new job in February of 2017. Bentley started at a new daycare a little after I started my new job. He loves his daycare and we couldn’t be happier.

In April of 2017 we celebrated Nevaeh’s 12th birthday with a spa themed birthday sleepover party. And Bentley’s first air plane ride to Tucson Arizona to see my great grandparents. It was a nice little get away we just wished Nevaeh would have come with us.

May means that our little boy was not so little anymore. We partied with all of our friends and family at the house to celebrate our Mr. ONEderful. I cannot believe that our little (well not really that little, weighing 9 pounds at birth) miracle baby is now a whole year old. I wish that I could stop time and he would stay little forever but that is just not possible. So now we are snuggling (only when he lets us) a 20 pound toddler when he is not running all over the house screaming “Dada”. We are so blessed to be his parents and love him beyond the moon. We think he likes us too, especially his sissy.

Now to ponder when we will decide to go through with another round of in vitro…… for now please send all your good vibes and sweet thoughts our way as we look in that direction.

My Labor Story

My due date was approaching and we started walking a lot the last week, well what we thought would be the last week of pregnancy. I didn't really want to go into labor while my mom (grandma) was out of town so we just walked a few nights during the week. I went in for my 40 week appointment after walking around the mall for 1.5 hours. When the doctor checked me and told me that there had been no progress made in the last week.... it was a bit disappointing. We looked up all the at home ideas for inducing labor. I tried eating lots of pineapple, we went out for Mexican food, kicked the soccer ball around with Nevaeh, did some more walking, tried acupressure points, before giving in and trying Castro oil on Sunday night. I drank the oil around 5:30pm before eating dinner. Went to bed about 9pm and started having contractions about 11pm. I just waited them out and all that really happened was I got cramping and had to use the bathroom. Around 3am all the cramping and contractions stopped. I went in to my appointment on Tuesday The 17th to have a NST test done. This test measures the babies heart rate and contractions.Everything was looking like little Mister was perfectly content inside my tummy. The nurse told me to hit every pot hole and speed bump on the way home and to drink lots of Raspberry leaf tea. I continued drinking the tea and even tried Castor oil on Wednesday afternoon and all it did was send me to the bathroom. I went back into the doctor on Friday for a second NST test and everything still looked good. Doctor checked me again and said that I had dilated to a 1.5 now but still hadn't effaced. We discussed the induction process and agreed that Sunday the 22nd was the day for induction. I continued to walk and drink the Raspberry tea throughout the weekend in hopes he would come on his own. But NO luck!! We checked into the hospital at 9:00pm on Sunday the 22nd. The nurse came in and checked my cervix for dilation and I was still at a 1.5, she also started me on Cytotec at 10:00pm. This medicine is supposed to help your cervix dilate. I wouldn't get checked again until 2:00am. I tried to take a nap but the nerves and excitement kept me from doing that. At 2:00am she came in and checked me and I had progressed to a 2, so she gave me another round of Cytotec and said to get some rest and wait another 4 hours. 6:00am was shift change so we got a new nurse. She checked me ans said I had made it to a 3 and that we could start on the pitocin. We started this at 6:30am and then the long slow process continued. I just wouldn't dilate. The nurse and doctor recommended that I get an epidural to help my body relax and hopefully dilate more. At about 2:00pm on Monday they checked me and said I had made it to 4cm. I finally agreed to the epidural in hopes that it would help me progress. I did not want to get an epidural from the get go but whatever was going to speed up the process I was game for. They came in around 2:30pm to do the epidural and shortly after my Doctor came in and broke my water. The waiting game continued. I was slowly progressing still and by 8:00pm I had made it to 6cm. We were all starting to have a little hope that he was on his way soon. By 10:30pm my epidural had worn off so the nurse had to refill the meds. She also checked me again and I was still at 6cm. She noticed that my cervix was starting to swell and that was a sign that things were not going well. At 10:50pm we decided that a C-Section was what needed to happen in order for this little man to come out. They brought in all of the needed dressings for both Johnny and I. They pumped me full of morphine so all of my body from the chest down was numb. They wheeled me back got me prepped and went to get Johnny. With all of the meds I had taken I was very nauseous and could hardly keep my eyes open while laying on the OR table. All that I remember was shaking really bad and the doctors telling me that I would feel a lot of pressure. Bentley Jayce was born at 11:53pm on Monday, May 23 2016. Weighing in at 9 pounds and measuring 22 inches long. Thank goodness we choose C-Section when we did because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice, and he was sunny side up. We are so blessed to have been given this little baby and are so grateful for this precious gift. We will cherish every moment we have with him.

Nursery Project

Even before I was pregnant I knew that if I had a boy I wanted a sports theme nursery. So once we found out we were gunna have a litter mister we began shopping right away. I wanted to more of a vintage type sports but that turned out to be a little more difficult than I thought.

I found the crib and dresser that I wanted right before Thanksgiving. I saw that Target was having a sale on the dresser so I bought that right away and then Target had a special that if I spent 75.00 on  Black Friday that I would get a coupon to save 20% on a future purchase. So I went ahead and made a trip to Target and got some necessity stuff so I could get the coupon. Well when it was time to use the coupon the crib that we wanted had got out of stock. Go figure. So I waited and waited and waited and it still never came back in stock. We found out through the manufacture that it was on back order until March. I decided that I would wait it out. Well then it got to be beginning of Feb and I started to freak out so I changed up what crib I wanted and we got that order (thanks to Grandma).

I changed out the knobs on the dresser so that it would match the sports theme. Our friend Reilyn made an awesome growth chart with the sports decals on it. And Johnny and Sean put up a floating shelf for accent pieces.

We set up the crib so that we could get a better idea on placement for the letters to spell out little mans name. They of course had to be hand painted first. ;)

I really wanted a glider chair but did not want to spend 600+ on one that was comfy and that matched the room so I found one on a local site and just threw a throw blanket over it for the time being and called it good.

Reilyn also helped us by hand painting each of the balls that became the side table. It turned out awesome. :) (It needs a little touch up paint still but I love it)

I got a couple of wall decorations and a cube stand to hold all of the extra stuff, and that completes the nursery.

I love it and I hope that as our little man gets older he will love it just as much.

My Pregnancy

Well I haven't blogged in awhile so I thought that I would take some time to share a little bit about how my pregnancy has been going. To be honest I can't really complain about much. In the beginning I had some issues with the rash but I think it was all from the medications I was pumping in my body. At 7 weeks I would throw up if I ate avocados or guacamole. I was super sad about this because I LOVE both. That finally went away after a few weeks thankfully. The main cravings that I had were anything and everything sweet. I really liked life saver gummies. :)  The first trimester went by super fast. I don't think I really got a bump until I was about 10 weeks, and even then I just looked like I was really bloated.

 The second trimester definitely drug out I felt like. We took a baby moon in Novemeber. We had a nice time and enjoyed the time just the two of us. Nevaeh wouldn't come because we went on a cruise and she is afraid of cruising. We think she is crazy!!  I think the only thing that I had was really really bad heartburn and super bad headaches. The weird part was is that I got heartburn when I was hungry. I got medication for the headaches and by the time I was 16 weeks I found that I was having fewer and fewer. We had our anatomy scan done on the 18th of December and brought Nevaeh and my mom. We all got to see the growing mister and Nevaeh loved that she could see her brothers hand or face on the ultrasound. She didn't really like when they did the double check on the gender. It was pretty funny.

December 26th I felt movement for the first time. I can't say if it was a kick or a punch but it was something cool for sure. By the time I was 24 weeks I was able to feel movement all the time. My new candy craving had become Mike and Ike's. Oh and Ice chips. I just couldn't get enough ice I felt like. This was a little bit concerning just because they say you crave Ice when you are anemic. But I got tested and everything was fine. The heartburn was definitely more and more. I was taking Zantac at least once a day and sometimes twice a day. Usually I would have to take it right before bed or I would be woke up by it. Not fun at all but if that's the worst I have then I am fine.

February 12th I had to go and take my one hour glucose test. I was kinda nervous about this because of all the horror stories of how horrible the drink was. Personally I didn't think it was that terrible, The worst part was having to drink it on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. I passed that with flying colors. The same day we were able to go with family to do our 3D ultrasound. It was really cool to see the facial features of our little guy. We have determined by these photos that he will look just like his daddy.

We are now in the 3rd trimester. Starting to freak out a little. We have officially started to tackle the nursery project but time is flying by for sure. We have lots of things to do before we are ready for little man to make his debut. We cant wait to meet him that's for sure.

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