Things I did

I figured I would write a post about all the things I did differently for this successful IVF cycle. I actually changed a lot the second time around and not all of it was healthier either. We went into that first round of IVF not knowing at all what to expect and with so much hope we really thought that would be it all that money and time and effort had to work. So when I started taking pregnancy tests close to the beta I was just so so sad that we went through all of that and I just knew it didn't work. We transferred two embryos they were both graded okay and nothing came of it. I did everything by the books bed rested for three days no alcohol no hanky panky it was rough but I tried so hard to give it the best shot ever and still nothing. That was in December I don't recommend doing a cycle so close to the holidays I had imagined being pregnant for Christmas and telling all our family it was really hard on us. So we took a month off to heal and save up money its pretty hard to come up with money like that when your only 23 years old and have no family that can help you out it was all on us. Come February we were ready to give it another shot we saved up as much as we could and we only had to take out a small loan for the rest unlike the first time we took out 11 thousand dollars on our home equity but still I dont regret that. This time around I started going to acupuncture once a week its was pretty expensive and my insurance does not cover anything for any of this everything we paid came out of our pocket we had zero help. I honestly believe one of the things that truly helped make this cycle different was doing the acupuncture. I never felt so relaxed and positive in my life. I felt like I had this amazing energy every time I left an appointment it was so great. I started that about a month before we did the egg retrieval. My husband has been taking fertilaid for a few months since the first round of IVF I don't really know if it helped make a difference or not but we figured dealing with male factor it couldn't hurt. So come transfer day we had six embryo's left on day three two were grade A one was 8 cell and the other was 10 cell and already compacting which they said could either mean it was really strong or that it was defective and thats why it was going so fast. The others were not doing so great they were slow and were only at 4 cells grade B. So when they said we could transfer three I was so worried why would they let a 23 year old transfer three embryos it seemed risky and I thought they must not think its going to work I was kind of sad but I trusted them so I went with what they suggested. We chose the 8 cell the 10 cell and the best 4 cell now I wish I could know which one of those little fighters is my little flicker but I am so grateful I trusted them who knows if I would have only chosen two maybe it was the slow 4 cell we will never know but i'm thankful for the decision we made that day because I am pregnant. So after getting home I did bed rest but only for 24 hours the next day we went to wendover and had a last hoorah! I didn't really take it easy we walked all over the place and I even had a few drinks I just tried my best to not constantly think and worry about what was going on it there. I did take some different medications this round the first time the only thing I was on was PIO. This time he had me take dexamethasone, baby aspirin, estrace and the PIO. I dont know if that made the difference but something along those lines made this time around work its really such a gamble I don't think it matters if the embryo is perfect or if they tell you its in bad shape you hear so many stories I really think none of the grades matter. When they called and said we had none make it to freeze again I was really sad about that I didn't want to have to go through it all again and we didn't have money to do so anyways we wouldn't have been able to try again for a long time so that was a scary thought. I think if its going to stick around and work thats just what is going to happen I don't know though its all just so crazy and scientific. The biggest thing for me this time around was I didn't worry I didn't stress about everything I did was going to make it not work I just went on as normal as I could and when I started testing I didn't get all stressed out about the two days of negatives I just went with it I knew nothing I could do would change the outcome so I didn't get sad but when I got that first squinter I wont lie I got this feeling of could it be did we actually do it this time it was so surreal it still is. I am just so happy and I hope everyone makes it we all deserve this so much it just makes us stronger going through this and we are going to love those babies something fierce with an outlook we wouldn't have otherwise.