I swear I am going nutso. I need to step away from the computer but I just can’t. All of a sudden today my ovaries ache again and my boobs are swollen and tender. I was trying to ignore it… until I read this (an excerpt from this blog that I read). In today’s entry, Jen thinks she is hyperstimulating after IVF- she explains it this way:

“Now, usually, when a normal woman gets pregnant the HCG in her system causes that one, now empty follie, to fill back up with fluid. Kind of like refilling a deflated balloon. Newly pg women refer to it as the pregnancy bloat. It usually goes away in a few weeks.
Here’s the catch.
With IVFers – there are dozens of empty follies that can all fill up again. So basically it’s pregnancy bloat times, oh, a million… All of this is actually GOOD – it means the HCG (pg hormone) is in there.”
When I read that I got the shivers. Is this the reason my ovaries ache again? Because I have 5 follicles filling up with fluid?? Because I’m pregnant??????
Like I said, I need to step away from the computer. And to quit thinking about it all! I still have 5 days til my early hpt!

Bren has leveled up to 5 word sentences now. On the day we came home from our Thanksgiving holidays, I heard him say these 3 five word statements:
“Let’s go get the cat.”
“I’ve got a big water.”
“Oh wow- look at that!”
*****
My ovary twinges have turned into ovary aches. I am once again tender there. I am also sensitive to what I eat- some things just do not taste good. Only 5 days until I take my first pregnancy test. I am nervous and excited and hopeful. Trying not to obsess over it but it’s not working. Implant little embies!!!

Time I started getting nauseous & puking last pregnancy- 7 weeks
If I am pg, how far along I’ll be at Christmas- 7 1/2 weeks
What my MIL just announced will be served for the Christmas meal- Chicken, sausage & shrimp gumbo
Egads, no wayyyyyyy!
*****
6 dpIUI. In a few short hours I enter the final 1ww (1 week wait)! I am going slowly mad. Did I mention slow?? A dry nose (actually would be promising since it was a first sign with Bren if the weather wasn’t so dry that we are all chapped just about everywhere) and ovary twinges here and there. I was extremely tender in the ovary areas for 2 days post IUI. Still very positive and hopeful. First hpt will be Monday morning at 12 dpo.

OMG! OMG!
OMG…OMG…OMG! That’s the phrase of the morning. This is why:

Yes, those are 5 eggs!!! I was suspicious when they didn’t find anthing on my hard to reach left ovary and I was correct- there were 2 bigguns more! OMG… 5! 5. 5!!!! One is definitely on the small side though and either shrinking or the measurements were off one of the days.
So the story goes…
We arrived at 7:30 this morning and waited to be seen until 8:45! Pre-Thanksgiving rush apparently! We went back and they immediately showed us the “sample.” Teensy amount of pink liquid in a vial with my name on it. The specs: 28+ million motile sperm. The doctor said they like to see at least 14 million motile so we had twice as much as needed. I also found out the original date of the sample- 8/29/1990!!! This is 15 year old sperm!!! I think it has pretty good specs even if this one is about 4 million lower than the sample 4 years ago.
So I got my bottom half undressed and wrapped myself in a sheet and laid down on the examining table. It was really cold in there so we were joking about that. The lady doctor was really nice and did a great job being gentle with the speculum. Then she cleaned off my cervix with a q-tip and inserted the IUI tube-syringe in and placed the sperm at the top of my uterus. A few scraping sensations were all I really felt. It was over in a minute or less! I made a few jokes like “So how many times HAVE I had a tube stuck in me anyway?” Everyone was laughing. We waited while I laid there 10 minutes more and then we went into the U/S room. I asked if the U/S was part of the IUI and she whispered “I won’t charge you.” 😀 Heh. My lucky day!
So I hopped up onto that table and we looked at the trail up my uterus which was the path of the IUI. That was cool. Then she measured the 3 eggs in my right ovary. The 2 largest on that side grew 1 to 1 1/2 mm each in the last 24 hours. She moved onto the left ovary and asked how many were there yesterday. The nurse and I both replied “none”. Then I went on to explain that I was baffled because I felt pain and pressure on that side too. She told me my ovary was pretty far down and she didn’t want to hurt me. I replied that she wasn’t hurting me and she could press harder. A blob flashed on the screen and she says, “Yep. There’s one here too! I must have missed it yesterday, I am sorry about that.” She called out the measurements- a nice fat, juicy one again, so the nurse could write it down too. My mind started reeling- FOUR EGGS?! OMG! FOUR EGGS! I was snapped back into reality when she called out ANOTHER measurement. I stated, quite incredulously, “there are TWO eggs on that side??!” She said, “Yup!” She saw in my face a mini-freakout and tried to calm me by saying that the rate of twins with Clomid is only around 8%. But I am pretty darn certain that is a general statistic for every Clomid user- not a women with 4 beautifully sized follicles who triggered with Ovidrel!!!
After I got dressed, we were handed our chart and told to call in 15 days or when I got my period. We were wished a happy Thanksgiving and sent over to go pay. DH snuck a quick xerox copy of our semen spec sheet and he jotted down the follicle sizes too. Then we paid- total cost (remember, free U/S) today was $303.
We went out and had a yummy celebratory breakfast with one of us saying “OMG!” or making the famous Home Alone OMG face every few minutes. I have bled a small amount since then- to be expected. I am sure the tube hit a few potholes on it’s journey to the top of my uterus! We made a quick stop at the library to pick up a few videos and a book on tape for the road tomorrow. On our way in, we saw a women with a toddler boy and a baby too. The baby was wearing a red and white sleeper so I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl. We took it as a good sign though. Last time, we saw a couple with their newborn baby as we were leaving our IUI appt and I took it as a good sign then too.
What am I feeling? Excited with my odds of conceiving. Apprehensive about my odds of conceiving more than twins. I will be so shocked if I do not get pregnant because everything, every step of the way, was perfect or better than perfect.
It’s going to be a long 14 days!
PS- Actual follicle specs (the numbers are averaged together):
Right:
25×15
23×21
17×9
Left:
27×22
25×15

I did some research and found out that Ovidrel takes up to 48 hours to cause ovulation. IUIs are typically done between 36 and 40 hours after triggering. Also, follicles grow up to 2mm daily. Follicles that are 17mm are mature enough and ocassionally even a 15-16mm follicle will release an egg. So best case scenerio, my wee little eggie could reach up to 18.5 by the time of ovulation. I’d say that it is definitely a contender. 😀

That’s THREE eggs! Wahoo!
I don’t know how much that 3rd one will grow by the time I ovulate (which will probably occur tomorrow evening) but it is on the small side. It’s probably not big enough but I am not giving up on it, lol. But I do have 2 beautiful fat & juicy eggs! That’s enough to double the odds of conception AND give me a chance for twins!!
Had an Ovidrel trigger shot in the belly today. Wasn’t too bad, but yeesh- the belly?? And my insurance did cover all but $10 of it. Had sticker shock on the ultrasound cost though. $260 for 5 minutes!!! Insurance paid half there. Still… 😕 Hopefully, I won’t need any more of either.
IUI is tomorrow at 7:30 am. *YAWN* Not again! 😆 I did get out of the “make sure you ovulated” ultrasound the next day however since I am going out of town. Saved myself $130.
Tomorrow the 2ww begins! I am really excited!! Now I am going back to bed. Heh.

No + OPK so far so I am going in for a follicle ultrasound bright & early tomorrow morning. I hope to see at least 2 fat, juicy ones so I can get a trigger shot right then and there and have the IUI on Wednesday sometime. Wish me luck!

Me: Brendan, what color is this M&M? [Holds up green M&M]
Brendan: Ummmm, [puts hand to chin] I think blue.
Me: Nope, try again. What color?
Brendan: It’s yellow?
Me: Nope. It’s green.
Brendan: Good job, Mom!
Darrell and I are starting to wonder if Brendan is color blind. The colors he gets correct most frequently are pink and yellow, followed by orange, white and black! In practice, I usually ask about the basic four- red, blue, yellow and green.

we have ovulation pains! 😀 They are mostly on my left side. I also had about 4 drops of pinkish blood last night. :/ OPKing twice daily starting today. Still only faint lines. I am hoping for a Saturday morning or afternoon IUI… but I may be dreaming! LOL. The waiting is very hard.

Bren has said some really cute stuff lately, despite his having the croup.
While we were at Target getting his meds and doing a bit of Christmas shopping, Brendan got tired of being in his stroller and yelled out, “Ayudame! Help!” *Rolls eyes* Thank you Dora the Explorer. LOL.
A few days ago we rented “Christmas with the Kranks” and were watching it in the living room. We had set Bren up on another tv with “Lady & the Tramp”. About halfway through the movie (which was pretty dumb BTW) there is a pretty camera shot of the beautifully decorated and lit up neighborhood. Bren walked in at that moment and said, “It’s Christmas!” Darrell and I looked at each other with bugged eyes and silly grins. We had no clue he knew about Christmas. This Christmas is going to be a blast now that he is older. I can’t wait to go driving around and looking at the lights and to put up our Pooh lawn decorations.
Last night while getting ready for bed, Bren was carrying around what we affectionately call “the booger sucker”. It’s a nasal aspirator that you use to clear out a baby’s nose. This particular booger sucker happens to be one of Bren’s favorite toys of late- it’s a “sky”. It does kind of resemble a rocketship. While putting Bren in his PJs, Darrell asked him, “What kind of sky is that?” His reply? “A booger sky”. Hahahahahahaha.
*****
No sign of approaching ovulation as of yet. Two OPKs have only had faint 2nd lines. We have arranged for our friend Dobie to come stay a few days starting Friday evening. So perhaps we’ll be lucky to have the IUI Saturday morning or afternoon- but if I don’t get a + OPK by Tuesday morning, I still have that ultrasound appointment. Gonna keep us busy this weekend making homemade sausage for Christmas presents and I also have 5 sweatshirts that I am designing iron-on transfers for. I bought the special transfer paper for dark shirts. I hope they turn out well. We also plan on having a Thanksgiving meal here with Dobie. It’ll be fun.