Today is the day!!!

Can you believe it today is the day! Today is transfer day and we are beyond excited for today. I think we are both feeling so much it's hard to say we feel one way or another. Our biggest emotion is excited & happy.

We did so much this week to get ready for today. We went out and got grocery's and dinners for the weekend. Jeremy will be head chef this weekend hahaha. He'll be awesome! We also got snacks and drinks. Jeremy moved the mattress to the basement since this is where we will be staying all weekend relaxing and watching all the shows we recorded throughout the week and funny movies. We also prayed every night to Saint Anne & St Gerald like we've been doing since April.

As we woke up this morning the emotions where already running high. We got up and Jeremy gave me my progesterone oil shot. We also wanted to pray to St Anne & St Gerald as well to God to hear our prayers and give us strength today and in the days afterward. We had a much needed cry together  It was mostly a happy cry, that finally today could change everything for us. We have been being so strong and so busy that we finally just got time to realize that this is really happening. We have been overwhelmed with so much love from everyone. Our hearts are just over flowing with so much joy. 

One day can change everything. This could be that day!!! This is that day! We have been praying for a day like this for almost 7 years. We have never been as close as we have been in the last couple months and now today. I have never had another life inside me and today we are transferring two possible lives. We could become pregnant today. Oh my gosh this is happening. We are being as positive as we can. We are very hopeful. But at the same time we are scared so scared. The outcome of the good and bad are scary but that being said we couldn't be happier that we get this opportunity to go through this IVF and frozen embryo transfer. We are truly blessed and forever indebted to everyone who has helped us get here. Without everyone's help, today wouldn't be happening and we can not begin to express how grateful we are. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! We love everyone!!! 

We have some new news so previously our transfer was set for 5:00pm today that has changed and we are transferring today at 1:30pm so literally just in a few hours from now. 

Please say a little prayer for us and send all your ***STICKY BABY DUST*** & Positive thoughts and vibes.

Jeremy will post a small update on Facebook later today to say how everything went. We just ask that in the days to follow that we don't get overwhelmed with questions whether they took. We will let everyone know in good time. Please & Thank you

Wish us luck and baby dust 

With love 

Shalamar & Jeremy 

Ultrasound & Blood Work 9/15/16

Today's doctors appointment went great. This visit was to check the lining of the uterus, to make sure it was thick and good to go to transfer the embryos. They also took blood to check my estrogen levels. We just received the phone call from our clinic and everything looks great the lining is looking great and blood work was normal. So that means we got the go ahead to continue with our scheduled calendar.
This is how it breaks down.

• We will continue the estrogen injections every Friday and Tuesday.
• Sunday Sept. 18th we will start the progesterone oil injections daily until our doctors says to stop.
• Monday Sept. 19th I have another blood draw and I'll start a z-pack
• Tuesday Sept. 20th I'll start a medication called Medrol I'll take that twice a day until transfer day.
• Friday Sept. 23rd at 5:00p We will go in for the transfer of our two embryos back into my uterus. That night we will also start progesterone suppository's and will continue that daily. 

Today this became real to me. Its happening and I honestly couldn't be happier. We are all educated on every possible outcome. We are very hopeful its our turn to be pregnant and become parents. October marks 7 years trying to conceive our first child and we believe its our time. We pray daily and know we are in all your prayers. Thank you so much for your love and support. 

With Love

Shalamar & Jeremy 

8 DAYS TILL TRANSFER 

Time To Start The Transfer Process

Its finally time!!! Time to start the process of getting my body ready for the transfer of our little embryos. That's correct you read that right Embryos! We have decided to transfer two of our embryos.

 Our Transfer Date is Scheduled for 

September 23, 2016 @ 5:00p

"We have embryos and soon they will be in the uterus" this sounds so weird coming out of my mouth. Only because we have never been to this point on our own and it's really hard to believe that this is happening for us. But it's reality and we are so excited to do this transfer. 

So the process officially started today September 1st which means in only 22 days transfer happens. To get started I had a baseline ultrasound and blood draw today. The ultrasound checked the lining of the uterus and made sure that it was thinned out which it was. The blood draw was to check my estrogen levels which are normal. We paid for the Frozen Embryo Transfer and turned in more consent forms.

The FET consists of mulitple injections of Estradiol Valerate every Friday and Tuesday starting tomorrow until the doctor says to stop. Which is followed by a blood draw on Sept 8th and another blood draw and ultrasound on Sept. 15th to check and make sure the lining of  the uterus is looking good for the transfer. If the lining looks good then I will start another injection on Sept. 18th called Progesterone Oil and I'll take that everyday from that day on until they the doctor says to stop. On the Sept. 19th I'll start another Z-pack for five days and have another blood draw. Sept. 20th I'll start a medication called Medrol twice a day for four days. Then Finally the Big Day September 23rd Transfer day on this day they will have thawed & prepped our embryos and will transfer them back into my uterus their new home and I'll start progesterone suppository's that day and everyday until they say to stop. 

Then the 3 days following the transfer of our embryos I will have my PRINCESS Days meaning I will be on bed rest and get to relax and do nothing for those days. Jeremy and I will set up our downstairs like a retreat (Just Kidding) but we'll make it comfy for me to spend the next three days there and he will be in charge of everything including dinner Awe! (Just Kidding again) He will try his best. 

After my Princess Days we will have a two week wait they say its the hardest two weeks ever because after the two weeks we will know if our embryos took and if we are pregnant. We plan on staying as busy as possible to make the two week wait less stressful and easier. Like we have mentioned before we haven't yet decided if we will be sharing our results right away. This is so scary and exciting for us and we just want to do whats best for us during this very important time in our life. We are so grateful that we have so much support and prayers. When our embryos turn into babies they will have so many people who will love them and can't wait to meet them. We are so excited for the day to come where everyone will be able to meet the baby/babies you all prayed for and helped us have. 

This is it!!! Here we go!!! Please Keep us in your prayers that our embryos will stick and grow into healthy babies and that it will be our turn finally to bring a beautiful child into this world and become Parents. 

God Bless all of you thank you so much for following and taking this journey with us. We are truly blessed with so many amazing people in our lives. We love and appercaite every one of you. 

With Love The Graham Family

Egg Retrieval & Our Little Embryos

We're so sorry it's been so long since we've been able to give an update we've been so busy. It all started the second week of August we had doctors appointments everyday from August 6th - 11th. On the 12th Jeremy and I moved into our new home and then the egg retrieval ended up being on August 13th @ 8:00a. The retrieval went great it took about one hour then we were sent home. That day was pretty good as for pain the following days after I was miserable, I semi hyper stimulated it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I felt that way for about 4 to 5 days. 

The day after retrieval Sunday August 14th - We received a fertilization report, they retrieved 25 eggs, we had 15 eggs that were good to inject with a single sperm, 

out of that 15 eggs 8 of them actually fertilized. 

Day 3 embryo assessment was Tuesday Aug. 16th - By this day the embryos needed to be between 6 &10 cells. 7 out of 8 of the embryos were where they needed to be at that point.

Day 5 embryo assessment / Freezing day was Thursday Aug. 18th- On this day three of our embryos were frozen at the blastocyst stage and they were still watching the other five in the lab and wanted to see if they would grow into their last stage of a blastocyst.

Day 6 they called and let us know that they froze only a total of 3 embryos. 

We officially have the beginning stages of our future babies. We have 3 embryos and we couldn't be more excited. We've never made it to this stage on our own and feel so blessed to have these 3 little embryos of ours waiting for us to transfer. (We can only transfer 1-2 embryos on transfer day and we're not sure how many we want to transfer at this point)

The next step is the surgery I mentioned about the fibroid's that need to be removed from my uterus. That surgery is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday August 25th at 10:00a. 

So I'll keep you posted on that. 

As for the transfer of the embryo, we'll know more on Friday after I have my transfer plan of care appointment with our IVF coordinator. This appointment will be about when I'll start the next round of injections and medications. We should also be getting a transfer date soon. 

I'll keep you all posted as we enter into this next step in our journey. We'd also like to add that after the transfer we aren't sure whether or not we will be sharing if the embryos took or didn't. We will enter that when we get there. There is so much that could go right and wrong and it will all depend on how we are doing emotionally and physically. This journey has been rough. rewarding and harder than we thought it could be. We are very optimistic but also very wary of the possible outcomes of our journey. May God be with us as we go through our next steps and may he watch over our little embryos and help them stay healthy as well strong and may he help us achieve a full term pregnancy with a healthy baby. May he give us strength to get through this no matter the outcome. 

We are truly blessed to have so many of you keeping us in your thoughts and prayers 

Thank you so much for supporting us and being here for us. 

With Love The Graham Family 

Trigger Shot Day

Alright we got the go ahead to do our Trigger shot tonight. This shot is going to do the opposite of what the ganirelix (suppressed ovulation) did. It's called Lupron and it will send in a sense a message to the brain to release the LH hormone to start ovulation. Exactly 36 hours from 8:00pm tonight we will have Egg retrieval. It's scheduled for 8:00am Saturday morning. After the Egg retrieval they will fertilize the eggs with the semen through the ICSI procedure (injection a single sperm into a single egg with a needle). After that we will get updates for five days after fertilization to see how our embryos are growing they will grow in the lab for those five days and then they will freeze how many embryos make it to day 5. 

We aren't doing a traditional IVF like I've said in previous posts we are doing a Freeze all cycle which mean after the five day growing stage in the lab they will freeze all the embryos and in about 4-6 weeks we will be transferring 1-2 embryos back into the uterus. I will still have to have the fibroids removed from my uterus sometime after retrieval and before transfer but I'll keep you all updated on that as it comes. 

We are staying positive and really can't believe we are doing this it feels so surreal But its happening and we couldn't be happier. Please keep us in your prayers that we have mulitple mature healthy eggs that will fertilize and that we may have multiple embryos make it to freezing and they will stay healthy and make it to transfer day. 

Thank you so much for all your love, support, and prayers 

Day One of Injections

Today I had my follow up ultrasound and blood work everything looked good and we were given the okay to start our first shots and jump into our treatment. So here we are officially starting our IVF journey and we have so many emotions but mostly we're excited and blessed that we are even given this opportunity. I have blood work on Aug 3 and multiple ultrasounds Aug. 6-8-9-10 and we are looking at having egg retrieval on Aug 12. We are praying for my ovaries to grow mulitple healthy mature eggs and that I don't get to uncomfortable during the next two weeks. Please keep us in your prayers! I'll keep you all updated as we go.

Woohoo Day One Of Shots

Today's Ultrasounds

I had my baseline and water ultrasounds and it looks like we wont be starting our injections tomorrow. When it comes to our fertility Jeremy and I are always a hit and miss, its like if one thing is going right there's one thing that's not. Its never smooth sailing so I guess we should have expected a tiny speed bump so here it is.

On the baseline ultrasound they checked my ovaries and the outer part of the uterus. My right ovary already had 12 follicles forming on its own which is good. My left ovary had a least two cysts on it. "Funny thing is all through treatment last year I never had one cyst and now boom two like I said road bump" and then the outer part of the uterus (the lining) was measuring a 6 which isn't to bad needs to be below a 4 which it would have gotten to within the cycle. 

On the water ultrasound they fill the uterus with water to check for any abnormalities in doing this they did find two masses that they are calling fibroid's (meaning)- its around "knot" of uterine muscle growing on the uterine wall. Which makes its very difficult for an embryo to grow in the uterus. So in order to move forward with treatment we will need to have them removed through a procedure called Hysteroscopy where they will thread a small camera though the cervix up into the uterus for the the Doctor to observe the growths and then remove them by something they call scrapping the uterus. This will help remove the growths and thin the lining making it a little easier for the embryos to stick to the uterus for implantation. 

So after all that said here's the good news. We are doing a freeze all cycle. Where they are just growing the follicles/eggs and then fertilizing them like I've stated in past posts and since we wont be transferring the embryos into the uterus right away we will do the hysteroscopy sometime after the retrieval  date and before transfer date. I'll go in for another ultrasound on Monday August 1st to recheck the lining of the uterus and draw blood to check my estrogen levels to see where we stand with the two cysts and we'll go from there .

All of our dates will change from what we thought they were going to be. The thing with infertility is that its totally unpredictable and can change on a day to day week to week bases. We'll keep you all updated as we continue down the bumpy road of journey this is just one road block. There are sure to be more we still have a long winding road ahead of us but we are staying optimistic. 

Thank You for all your continued love and support 

A little quote I found to get me through hearing this today.

Medication Arrived Today

We finally have all of our medication, all of our fertility injections arrived today in that big box below. Oh my we're so ready for this. I just wanted to do a quick post to show everyone
whats ahead of us for the next couple weeks.

This is all the medication we are both on

All the injections are for me (Shalamar)

The second picture shows all the medications Jeremy and I are on (Orally & Injections). The calendar on the left side of the picture is our treatment plan. Its use is to help us to know when to start and stop medications. The other paper on the right has all of my doctors visits for the next three weeks.

So to go over the medications real quick in the third picture. 

• Top left side is the Gonal F its the FSH hormone that stimulates the ovaries to grow follicles/eggs. I will take this medication for 10 days straight. 
• Next to the gonal going right is a medication called Catrotide its the ovulation suppressant
• Next to that is all the syringes to be used 
• Bottom Left side starts with Lupron and next to that is the HCG injection they are used together to induce ovulation 24-48 hrs before egg retrieval.
• Next is just the alcohol swabs, gauze, the sharps container, and the needles
• last on the row is Menapor which will be used with the Gonal for 10-11 days 

All these medications are on top of all the oral meds we are already taking. except the birth control that ended today and the z-packs that end tomorrow. 

We are due to start the injections on Saturday. Woooohoooo bring on the shots and the hormonal roller coaster. My poor hubby!!! I do love him so!!! He is so strong!!! He will be the one who gets to endure the brunt of this wind of emotions he is my rock and although he doesn't have to go through all the shots, doctors visits and pain he is going to go through his own wave of emotions. This treatment is going to be an amazing journey and I am happy to be going through it with this wonderful man. 

I have my first official IVF appointment on Friday. Where I will meet with the anesthesiologist to hopeful get cleared for egg retrieval. Then I'll have the baseline ultrasound to check for cysts on the ovaries and check the lining of the uterus. As well as a water ultrasound that will check the uterus for its shape and if there are any polyps and they'll draw some blood. If all goes well we'll start injections.