IVF'n for Baby Sikes

Transfer complete!! Our embaby looks good. The doctor said that the transfer was smooth and everything looked great! Now we wait! 9 long days until we know if the transplant was successful. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 We have faith!

❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Prayers Please!!!

One Day!!! It’s been rough, but we are making it! Transfer time is Monday at 2:30 pm. (3:30 our time)

4 Days!!! Started my PIO (Progesterone in Oil) shot today. Found out that I get to take those for 12 weeks every other day! Not fun but I know it will be worth it!!! Dirk is the best shot giver!!

We are down to a single digit countdown! So far, everything is looking really good! They want a thick uterine wall instead of a thin one, and my ultrasound showed mine thicker than they anticipated so that’s good. Thought they might move our date up but as of right now, we are keeping the October 24th date! 9 DAYS!!

It has been a while since I have posted. Our transfer date got moved from September 21 to October 24th bc I have been so sick. Starting back teaching really took a toll on me.. I’ve had strep, flu, covid, bronchitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis and stomach bug. It’s been rough. But I’m getting acclimated to being around kids, and we have 13 days until transfer!!!

We got one!! They called us yesterday and told us that we have one embryo!! Our transfer day will be September 20! We are very excited and thankful! It only takes one, and we got that!

The embryologist called today. We have 4 blastocyst as of right now. We still have 4 more growing. The ones that we do have are of good grades. But grading really doesn’t matter. It really comes down to if they have enough chromosomes. They will let us know tomorrow how our other 4 blastocyst babies are doing. In two weeks we will get the report of which ones are viable. It only takes one. So, I have faith that God will give us the one that He wants us to have if not more 😊.

This might help explain everything. Our numbers are pretty close.. 75% of 18 is about 13/14. 80% of that is around 11. It continues on. Dr G told us during our first meeting that he expected we end up with 3/4 chromosomal normal embryos. It only takes one!! 😊

18 eggs retrieved. Only 13 were mature. 11 eggs fertilized. Now we wait until Monday to see how many blastocysts we will have to send off for CCS testing. (CCS testing is making sure they have enough chromosomes.)

We got 18 eggs! They said anything over 20 messes with the quality. They said quality over quantity! It was quick! And I’m doing really well! It wasn’t too bad! I’m ready to be home, so we will fly home tomorrow.

Today is the day!! Egg Retrieval and fertilization! I think we will know how many eggs they get. Tomorrow will know how many mature eggs we have and how many fertilized. Prayers please ❤️❤️❤️

Well Dirk gave me my trigger shot last night at 10:15pm. I had to take another one at 11:15 pm and then today at 11:15am. My egg retrieval is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:15am. Our Reproductive Endocrinologist will be doing our retrieval. We lucked out bc it’s not always that your doctor can do the retrieval. Today we are enjoying the day. The weather is nice! High 79 😊 We are going to go to some museums and eat some good food! So glad my husband ❤️ is here. I’ve missed him so much!

They printed this off this morning… it’s pretty cool to know that one of those follicles will have an egg that will some day be our baby. ❤️

25 follicles (not all will have eggs though)!! Trigger tonight for egg retrieval Tuesday morning!! Everything looks great! They say typically follicles over 14 mm will have mature eggs, but they even see 10mm containing mature eggs. By Tuesday, I think I will have a good many follicles over 10mm.

I now have too many follicles to count! They are only counting the ones over 12mm. They said that I am progressing so well!! I will find out after my labs today about when they will trigger. ❤️❤️❤️

Had a small scare yesterday. My faith was definitely tested. All I can say God is amazing! A little back story about what happened… if I got Covid, my treatment would be immediately canceled. All the medicine I’ve taken, all the appointments, travel, tests… we would have have to redo and pay for. Yesterday was my covid test at the facility. It was a PCR test. While waiting to take that test, my doctor from home called me to tell me that I tested positive at their clinic. I took a covid test before I left for Colorado to make sure I didn’t have it before I wasted a trip. I took the test on Friday, July 1. I didn’t get those results until yesterday. Anyways, I contacted my prayer warriors and prayed hard myself. And I got my results this morning!!! Negative!! Praise God!

I now have 21 follicles. My biggest measuring 16.5 mm. Nurse said that one of my follicles tripled in size! They said that I would probably trigger early, prob on Saturday for a Monday retrieval. Things are progressing!! Acupuncture went well. It loosened me up a lot and relaxed me! Pics in comments!

My ultrasound today showed 17 follicles which is really good. They said that the normal follicle size at the beginning is 7-11mm. Mine are measuring from 8-12.5 mm. They want the follicles to be 16-20mm before they retrieve the eggs. So we are on the right track. I do not have an ultrasound tomorrow, but I have fertility acupuncture at 12:30. So I will let y’all know how that goes! 😳😊❤️

I hate this mask, but I will wear it for the sake of this baby making process ❤️😂😊

Well I did my shots by myself this evening. Struggled with mixing Omnitrope, but Dr Warrington helped me. Then struggled again, and one of my IVF buddies FaceTimed me. I really hate that Dirk wasn’t here, but farming is farming❤️ . I’ve got to figure out how to do it myself anyways. He won’t be joining me in Colorado for a week after I have been there. I got a little weak in my knees watching the needle go into my skin. Wish I could do it blindfolded, but that doesn’t seem realistic. 🙄😳🤣

Suppression check went well. No cysts on my ovaries. My blood work came back normal. I’m flying out Monday, July 4 at 8:55 am and will arrive in Denver at 11:35 am. I start my 3 shots a day tomorrow!!! Prayers please❤️

It’s not really that big.. still not fun though. Anyone that knows me knows that I hate needles. I don’t mind shots as long as I don’t see them. 2 days until ”3 shots a day- one in the morning and two in the evening.” Tomorrow is my suppression check to make sure that everything is good to go for Friday! I will post an update when I get my results. Prayers please!

He gave me a shot this morning!

IVF in my terms.. or what’s happening or going to happen…
Right now I’m in the priming stage. I’m on testosterone (😳) and just started Ganirelix which is a shot I take for 3 days. This will tell my ovaries to not make an egg for next month. I also just started taking estrace (estrogen). So far no side effects except maybe a little from the testosterone. Dirk gave me my shot this morning. ❤️

Next Thursday I have my suppression check. They will make sure that I I have no cysts on my ovaries and check my estradiol levels and something else. Since my results have to be same day, I have to go to Greenville for my ultrasound and then to Jackson for my blood work. If all goes well, I start three shots a day the next day, July 1.

I will be taking 2 shots to make my ovaries make more eggs and that they all grow at the same time. Another shot is Omnitrope which is a growth hormone. Not sure why I’m taking it.. from what I’ve read it’s something new in IVF. I’m also taking Dethamexasone which I think is a steroid. It’s a pill. I will be doing shots from July 1 to July 10/12.. then I will take a trigger shot to tell my ovaries to release the eggs. Exactly 35 hours later, I will be put to sleep and they willl retrieve my eggs using a catheter with a small needle and camera on it. We will find out how many eggs they retrieved. The next day they fertilize each egg. They will do ICSI which is where they choose one s***m and they will inject it into each egg. They will then let us know how many eggs fertilized. Then they wait for 3 days. The fertilized egg (I think it’s called a zygote) will go from two cells to four cells to 8 cells by day three. Sometimes one of those cells will fragment. So it will be 7 cells plus little pieces. On day 3, they will let us know how many embryos we have. Day 6 they have over 100 cells and have formed an inter cell mass that will be the baby which is surrounded by the trophectoderm which will be the placenta. (I will post a picture.) They will take 3 cells from the trophectoderm that will be tested to make sure that our embabies have enough chromosomes. We won’t get our results for this for 3 weeks from day of egg retrieval. But in the mean time they will freeze our embryos using a method called vitrification. We will be notified of how many embryos we have that have the right number of chromosomes.

They say the number of embryos from Day 3 to Day 6 will decrease bc some of them will die. Also each embryo is graded before it’s frozen. But it really doesn’t matter about the grade. It matters if it has enough chromosomes. They will be able to tell us the s*x of the baby as well.

6 to 7 weeks after egg retrieval will be embryo transfer. I just found out that I will have to take more shots and not the fun ones to get my uterus ready for transfer..progesterone in oil. I thought I would be done with shots after egg retrieval, but no. They wait until you have committed to tell you that there will be more shots.

So that’s pretty much IVF in my terms.

We decided to create this page to keep everyone informed about our IVF journey. I was a little hesitant at first bc not only will our successes be shared, but if there are any failures, those will be shared as well. This is all new to both of us. The unknown is scary. But our first consult was good. Our doctor sounded very positive. All of my numbers are good. I still have a lot off eggs at good quality. The only negative thing is my age. So it’s all a guessing game. I heard not too long ago someone on one of my podcasts I listen to say that I can either be positive and have hope and be disappointed, or I can have no hope and still be disappointed. The outcome is the same on both. So I choose to remain positive, have hope and faith in God. It’s truly out of my control. I’m scared as hell, but I am at peace with whatever is going to happen.
So welcome to our journey. Please be advised that these hormones I will be on are no joke. So I apologize in advance for any crazy or sad posts. Who knows how I am going to react 🤪😳😊❤️.

We do ask that no one shares our posts or this page 😘.

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