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. 

HERE WE GO!!!

Here We GO!!!
On Friday we turned in all of our consent forms and received our final calendar. It's official we start treatment now... So from this day on I'll start taking a prenatal vitamin (which I've been on forever now), Baby Aspirin 81mg low dose, & CoQ10 to help with healthy egg quality. These medication along with the Metformin, and two other medications will continue all the way through treatment. Below is roughly how our calendar will play out.

• July 20-27 I'll start the birth control
• July 24-28 Jeremy and I will both start a z-pack to clear any infection that may or may not be in our systems.
• July 29 I will go in for a baseline ultrasound & water ultrasound along with blood work
• July 30 MY BIRTHDAY!!! :)- August 8 I'll start two separate inject-able medications  
• Blood work days will be Aug 1 & 4 
• Ultrasound days to count and measure follicles Aug 4-6-7-8
• by Aug 4th We should have mulitple follicles and they say by Aug 6th my ovaries will reach the size of oranges. So by this day its pretty much try and stay as comfortable as possible and take it super easy.
• On Aug 4th we could possibly start a new medication to stop early ovulation like I stated in a past post we don't want my body to start ovulation early it will mess up the whole treatment plan. So this medication will stop it and then when all the follicles are ready they will do a shot of HCG and that will trigger ovulation.
• Aug 8 is the day we mostly will use the HCG to trigger 
• Aug 9 Jeremy will take another antibiotic 
• Aug 10 RETRIEVAL DAY-  on this day we will go to the our Dr. office and they will put me under lite anesthesia and go in and retrieve all the follicles surgically. Its about 45 mins or so then I'll be sent home to rest. on this day Jeremy will give his sample and they say about 4 hours after the retrieval they will inject each egg with a sperm through a procedure called ICSI Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection. 
• Aug 11 We will receive a fertilization report on how many eggs were fertilized.
• Aug 13 they will call us with a day 3 embryo report to let us know how our little embryos are growing and what their cell counts are.
• Aug 15 One last embryo report on how many made it through the 5 day incubation period in the lab and then they will be frozen. 
• Here is a link to our clinics webpage about the IVF fertilization process if your interested https://www.utahfertility.com/infertility-diagnosis-treatment/in-vitro-fertilization-salt-lake-city-utah/

After the IVF process we will be doing a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) which will take place 4-6 weeks after the retrieval day which is Aug 10. At this time I will be put back on the birth control to control my hormones. When its time I will be taken off the birth control and it will start all over again with a cycle day 3 baseline ultrasound but instead of the medication to grow follicles we will start medication to get my body for the Transfer of the embryos back into my uterus (ideally we are wanting to transfer two embryos but that is all upon contingency that we are able to freeze mulitple embryos on Aug 15).

Oh My Gosh we are so excited for this but totally scared. We have been staying positive and staying completely stress free. After such a long wait we have so many conflicting emotions from "Yes!!! We're doing this" to "CRAP we're really doing this" to "What if this doesn't work" to "Oh My what if it does". We can't really describe all the emotions we are currently feeling but we can tell you this we feel your love & your prayers. Your support is making this journey so much easier then it would have been if we would have done it alone.

We are truly blessed and so grateful for every single one of you who keep sending your love, support, and prayers. Thank You We can't wait to keep you all updated on our progress and as always keep an eye out for updates they will be coming more often now.

Love Jeremy & Shalamar 

Please if you ever have any question about stuff that's going on feel free to ask us. We seriously don't mind answering them.

Exciting Update

So we know we said we would be starting treatment in September, But we are happy to announce that we are starting early. We have an appointment tomorrow with our IVF coordinator in Pleasant Grove. We will go and take all of our consent forms and talk to her about our IVF calendar which will map out our whole treatment plan from day one to transfer day. We will also be getting another semen analysis done to make sure we have no problems on that end since my body is giving us trouble already Cycle Day 1 for me suppose to be July 3 and I was suppose to start the birth control when I started, well here we are almost 2 weeks late "Nope we're not pregnant" my body is just being stubborn meaning I didn't ovulate last month so that means no cycle. So most likely tomorrow at our appointment our coordinator will prescribe me a medication called Provera which will force my body to start. Once I do, I will call her and start the birth control for about 3-4 weeks then once I stop taking it, cycle day 1 should come shortly after where I will call her again to set us a cycle day 3 baseline ultrasound which measures the lining of the uterus and makes sure there is no cyst's on the ovaries. They will also perform a water ultrasound which will measure the shape of the uterus and make sure there is no polyps any where within the uterus. On this day will start our fertility medication at this time I'm not sure what they will be or how many I'll be on until I get the calendar tomorrow.

But what I do know is that we are beyond so excited to start our first IVF. Its been such a long road   6 1/2 years and we are completely ready to go full force into this treatment. We have high hopes and are truly blessed to have so many of you praying for us and supporting us through what can a very stressful and rewarding experience. We know this treatment isn't 100% promised and know that no matter the outcome we have been blessed with such amazing families and friends. We are eternally grateful for everyone and everything you all have done with helping us with our fundraiser and continuing to help us with you love, support, and prayers

 Thank You With Love 

Shalamar & Jeremy 

Pre-order Your Tamales Now!!!

We will be doing ordering a little different, by having you place a pre-order first that way we are not over making and having to many left over.

• Orders will be first come first serve, your name and number will go on the order list and we will let you know where your order falls on that list and we will contact you with a date and time for delivery when your order is ready. 
• Tamales are a minimum of $12.00 a dozen and are only sold by the dozen
• You can order how many orders you'd like. Please keep in mind that you will be pre-ordering so please make every effort to keep your order once its placed.
• Our Tamales are bomb.com, all the reviews we have received from people who have order them Love them! on that tiny note we are by no means professionals and our tamales do vary in size, we try to keep them within a certain amount of oz.'s but again we're not professionals.
• Tamales are homemade with Pork & California red chili they are mild so everyone can enjoy them 
• We will do delivery but we will only be dedicating two days out of the week to do so.
• Last day to get your order in is July 8, 2016

We'd also like everyone to know that this is for a fundraising cause all proceeds raised are going solely to helping us have a baby through In-Vitro Fertilization. It will help with all doctors visits, medications, blood work, ultrasounds, and the IVF procedure its self. This procedure is NOT covered by our medical insurance and Its very expensive for our first round we are looking at around 13k or more depending on how my body responds to the medication.

ORDERS WILL BE READY SUNDAY JULY 10th If you'd like your order delivered please try to be available on this day the only next day that we will be doing delivery's will be July 15th after 5pm

Ordering is easy Text us 385-313-4365 or private message us on facebook 

You do not have to pre-pay only pre-order
We accept Cash or Check
Checks payable to Shalamar Graham

We are super excited to start making more tamales because they are so yummy and we love sharing a little piece of our family with yours.

Thank you
Jeremy & Shalamar

It's almost July! What? Only 2 months left!!! Oh Yeah & Tamales

It's so crazy to think that these past three months have flown by, I can't believe it's already July in two days which means at the end of August we will be contacting our fertility center to get medication started in September for our first ever IVF. We are getting super nervous and very excited at the same time. This next step in our treatment is scary its new territory for us everything from the finances and the medications that I will have to take daily (numerous injections and oral medications). All the doctor visits I will have to attend almost everyday for monitoring to well what if this doesn't work to oh my gosh what if it does work!!

No matter how scary this is for us, we are beyond grateful that this is even an option for us, we can not express enough how extremely thankful we are to everyone who has helped us with donations, the tamale fundraiser, and the donations to our yard sale. Without you this wouldn't be possible for us.

Our hearts are filled with so much love from all the support we have received from our families, friends and complete strangers. During both of our fundraiser we have had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people who either are or know someone who has or is struggling with infertility in all its different types. We have be blessed by all their hugs, prayers, best wishes, and their stories of their personal journeys. We also made a new friendship with an amazing couple we met during our yard sale who is also struggling with infertility. We have been truly blessed to be loved by so many even those who barley know us and if anything we have learned that there is still so much goodness in this world even when sometimes it feels that there is more bad.

We ended up taking a couple weeks off from fundraising and spending some much needed time together.

As we have promised we will be doing a couple more rounds of tamales. We are thinking of starting back up after the holiday around July 10th and throughout the month of July only.

We will be doing ordering a little different, by having you place a pre-order first that way we are not over making and having to many left over.

• Orders will be first come first serve, your name and number will go on the order list and we will let you know where your order falls on that list and we will contact you with a date and time for delivery when your order is ready. 
• Tamales are a minimum of $12.00 a dozen and are only sold by the dozen
• You can order how many orders you'd like. Please keep in mind that you will be pre-ordering so please make every effort to keep your order once its placed.
• Our Tamales are bomb.com, all the reviews we have received from people who have order them Love them! on that tiny note we are by no means professionals and our tamales do vary in size, we try to keep them within a certain amount of oz.'s but again we're not professionals.
• Tamales are homemade with Pork & California red chili they are mild so everyone can enjoy them 
•  We will only be doing delivery's twice a week but you can come pick up your order if it is ready. 

We'd also like everyone to know that this is for a fundraising cause all proceeds raised are going solely to helping us have a baby through In-Vitro Fertilization. It will help with all doctors visits, medications, blood work, ultrasounds, and the IVF procedure its self. This procedure is NOT covered by our medical insurance and Its very expensive for our first round we are looking at around 13k or more depending on how my body responds to the medication. 

If your interested in pre-ordering your tamales now you can do so. Please keep in mind that delivery will be somewhere in the middle of the second week of July. We will only be doing delivery's twice a week but you can come pick up your order if it is ready.

Ordering is easy Text us 385-313-4365 or private message us on facebook 

You do not have to pre-pay only pre-order

We are super excited to start making more tamales because they are so yummy and we love sharing a little piece of our family with yours. 

Thank You so much again to everyone, we know these next two months are going to fly by quick and can't wait to start treatment to help grow our family.

Our First Appointment with the IVF Coordinator

We had our plan of care appointment May 25th  and met with our IVF coordinator for the first time. We we're super nervous because we didn't know what to expect, but as always as we walked through the door of our clinic we felt so much love and support from our amazing team of  healthcare providers who are all working so hard to help us achieve our main goal of having a baby.

We sat in the waiting room for 15 mins and then our coordinator came out to greet us and took us back to her office. We sat down in the office, on the desk there was a white folder. She sat down and opened the folder we started with the consent forms.

• Consent for In-Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer-

 -We went over what will happen, she went on to explain the procedure and all the medications I would need to be on from Oral meds to Injections (oh my to many to count). We discussed that there will be tons of blood work, ultrasounds that will be preformed almost on a daily bases when the medications are started. How the egg retrieval will happen and when they will be fertilized with the sperm. We talked about ICSI- Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection- The process of inserting a single sperm into a mature egg, to optimize its ability to fertilize an egg.
-We also went over what might not happen which range from the development of eggs, that no eggs will be obtained (less than 1% probability), that once an embryo is transferred back into the uterus that it could fail to implant which no pregnancy will occur.
-That there could be complications like bad reactions to medications, problems during retrieval, if I get pregnant I could miscarry (20% of pregnancies) as with any normal pregnancy, and risk of more than one gestation's.

• Consent for Cryopreservation (Freezing) of Embryo(S) 
• Consent for injection of sperm into human egg (ICSI) its risks and benefits
• Consent to Cyropreservation (Freezing) of the Sperm - for back up sperm 
• Consent to administration of Gonadotropins*, HCG*, or Clominphene 

Just saying we understand that in the course of our infertility therapy, ovulation inducing drugs will be prescribed in order to stimulate the growth and maturation of eggs and follicles. That we understand the side effects of the medications from abdominal discomfort, production of very large numbers of follicles, that with Gonadotropins there is a 20-25% chance of multiple pregnancy, mood swings, and pain at the injection site.

• Consent for Administration of Lupron which stops premature ovulation. They don't want me ovulating early because of the mulitple eggs/follicles it will ruin the whole cycle and they need complete control of the cycle 
• Consent for low dose Aspirin
• Consent for Administration of Birth Control  

After all the consent forms we talked about how our plan of care would go once we started treatment. We went over an example calendar from start to finish. We're looking at about two/three months of meds and doctors appointments.

I found out that my egg reserve is high mine is around a 8 where most women my age are between 1-3 meaning I have a lot of eggs to grow, Its possible we could end up with 20-30 eggs which not all will fertilize, out of the ones that do fertilized they will grow them in the lab for 5 days. The day after retrieval we will get a fertilization report letting us know how many lived past day one and what their status is. Two days after that we will get a day 3 assessment of the embryos by this day (about 60% will have died off) then by day 5 we will get another report (about 40% more will have died off) and the rest will go in for freezing.

We are doing IVF w/ICSI and a Freeze all cycle- Meaning normally we would do the transfer of an embryo on day 5-6 after fertilization but since my high number of egg reserve and high chance of estrogen levels there is a possibility that I may get (OHSS) Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome which can be really serious. (I'll post a link below about this) So after day five of growing we are freezing all the embryos that survived and will do a transfer 4-6 weeks after CD1 of my next cycle which will include more injections to get my body ready for transfer day. After the transfer its a waiting game to see if the embryos will implant and stick.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007294.htm

So where do we go from here, we are planning to start our treatment late August first of September and are shooting for the transfer late October beginning of November. All of our funds will be due on the day of our baseline ultrasound which will be around the first of September. We are really looking forward to doing this treatment to have our first baby but we are still a long ways away from having enough money for this procedure. We are looking at $7000 for the procedure $4,500 for Meds and $2000 for the freeze all and transfer. We have sold so many tamales and are so thankful to everyone who helped in with the fundraiser. We are also doing a Yard sale to raise money but even with doing all we have done already that barley covers the cost of the medications. So we are asking from the bottom of our hearts that if anyone can please help and donate to our Go Fund Me fundraiser or to our Mountain America Donation account even in just a small amount it will help out tremendously. Our medical insurance doesn't cover any of the treatment. Jeremy and I work full time with Jeremy getting a part-time job on top of his full-time in hopes of getting a little extra money for treatment.

We are eternally grateful to everyone. Our families, friends, and even strangers who have helped and has kept us in your thoughts and prayers. We love all of you so very much can can't wait to one day share our miracle baby with all of you who believed in us and helped us have him/her.

Thank You with Love - Jeremy & Shalamar Graham

Small Update

We have our first appointment with the IVF coordinator coming up Wednesday the 25th. We're super excited, we'll be finally finding out what medications I'll be on and get a plan of care from here on out. 


TAMALE FUNDRAISER:
We're now taking orders
minimum $12.00 a dozen 
Pork with California red chili 
they are mild so everyone can enjoy them


YARD SALE: we are doing a yard sale June 11, 2016 
If you have done some spring cleaning or just find that you have treasures you no longer want would you please consider donating them to our cause. We will be more than happy to come pick up anything you might want to donate.

If you'd like to donate for the yard sale or get some Tamales 

Please call or text 

Shalamar 385-313-4365 

Jeremy 385-242-5219

Tamale IVF Fundraiser

Ready! Set! Finally More Homemade Tamales!!!

If your new to our fundraiser here is a little about us... 
We are raising money to help with the medical and medication cost of IVF. We have been trying to have a child for 6 years now and In-vitro Fertilization is our last option in having a child of our own. You can read our full journey on this blog.

Our Tamale Fundraiser is getting ready for its second round of orders. We will be making them within the week and they will be available this weekend 5-20-2016 for delivery or pick-up. 

We've had nothing but great reviews!! 

We hope if you haven't try'd them yet, that you'll get to this time.
If you have try'd them and enjoyed them and want to order more this is your chance.

• Tamales are sold by the dozen 
• Minimum $12.00 a dozen 
• there is no limit to how many dozens you can order
• They will be on a first come first serve bases, If we run out we will put you on a waiting list and you'll be contacted as soon as the next batch is done.
• When you order you will set up a pick up or delivery date
• Orders will be held up to 24 hours after scheduled pick up or delivery date after that we will message you to see if you still want your order, if not or we can't get ahold of you the order will go to the next person in line. Please if you change your mind just let us know that way we can get take your order off the list.
• You can also pre-order by putting your name on the list now and we will contact you as soon as your order is ready. We will give you 24 hours to reply back if you still want your order then it will go to the next person on the list. 
• Don't worry... If your order gets pushed for a reason stated above you can always reorder.

Here's how to order

Text or email is the fastest way to order

Shalamar 385-313-4365

Jeremy 385-242-5219

ivfbabygraham@gmail.com

you can also Facebook message us we have our messaging set to receive messages from people not on our friends list.
Shalamar Delgado-Graham
Jeremy J. Graham

We are also doing a IVF Fundraiser Yard Sale on June 11, 2016 
We are asking if you have any treasures you don't want any longer and want to donate them please would you consider donating to our cause. We are willing to come pick up or meet up to take them off your hands you can contact us with the information above.

Thank you everyone who has supported our cause by donating, ordering tamales, and donated items for our yard sale. As well to everyone who continues to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are externally grateful for all your love, support, and kindness.

All proceeds are solely going towards the 

IVF procedure and medication costs

Love The Graham Family 

Childless Mother's Day

Mother's Day for myself and other infertile one day mommy's can be really hard. I'm not one to be saddened on a day like this, I usually make it through this day without jealousy but this year it was hard. As I scrolled through my Facebook wall, I saw many wonderful mothers getting Mothers day wishes and I myself have sent some out. But not once did anyone wish me a happy mothers day and it's probably because no one wanted to offend me or think because I haven't had a child of my own that I'm not a mother.

I'd like to say that even though I may not be a mother in the sence of the word, that I haven't given birth or been pregnant. I became a step-mom in 2010 and remained a legal parent up until 2014, when we made a decision that was in the best interest of the children but in my heart I still love our kids and always will, Just because we can't see them doesn't make our love any less valid. I'm also a mother in my heart to my future children. I have dreamed, wished, prayed, and longed for my child everyday for 6 1/2 years. Many people have told us "not try so hard that it will come naturally" "that if it is in Gods plans for us we will be parents" Or maybe "It's not just meant to be".

Let me ask you this, say your child was never born, say you never became pregnant. Would you have just given up on trying? Could you imagine not having your child? What if you heard over and over the above statements or got left out on these special days.

I understand that for some people what we are going through is taboo and may seem like we are overreacting or that we are seeking pity which is by far the last thing we want, we want to educate others and help people better understand that infertility is real and has many many ways of affecting a couple. That no matter how calm we may be, or how patient we are. Becoming parents wont be as easy as relaxing and waiting for it to happen, That without medical and sciences help it just wont happen for us.

I believe that Gods plan for how a couple conceives a child is different for everyone. You may have just try'd once or didn't try at all and got your beautiful child or you try'd for years and conceived naturally. But for us God gave us doctors to help assist him with helping us through science to conceive that if we didn't try so hard by going to multiple doctors visits and doing painful fertility treatments that the possibility to become parents wouldn't even be an option.

So I just want to remind everyone that on days like mothers day, fathers day, and grandparents day or holidays in general. There are many who struggle on these days with infertility, loss of a parent, and loss of a child/grandchild ect... and just because you can't see how hard it may be for those who struggle. Try and remember they may be grieving and not to forget them

Yard Sale Fundraiser

Hi everyone, So we started going through some of our stuff kinda like a small spring cleaning project, since we moved in February and thought hey we should put some of this stuff in a yard sale to help with our treatment. So in June we are planning a yard sale fundraiser to also help raise money for our up and coming IVF.

If your doing some spring cleaning, and find treasures you don't want, please consider donating them to our cause!!

Text or email us
If you'd like to schedule a pick up of any items you would like to donate.

385-313-4365
ivfbabygraham@gmail.com

Thank You - The Graham Family

Tamale Meal Ideas

Need some ideas on how to prep your tamales or meal ideas for the whole family. We have just the post for you.

Just so everyone knows the Tamales are already fully cooked and frozen right after they cool to keep their freshness. We usually will take one dozen out of the freezer and it will stay good in the fridge for at least a week. But if yours is still frozen when you get home you can put them straight in the freezer and then take out what you need to make your meal.

Heating them up-- you can do it multiple ways

1. Simply place how many tamales you want into a sandwich bag with the husks on and heat in the microwave for 1-2 mins or until heated all the way through. Then remove from husk and serve
2. You can also place them in the oven until desired temperature 
3. You can fry them in a frying pan to desired heat (remove husk before heating)

Meal Ideas

Breakfast

1. Simply heat them up, remove husk smother with Enchilada sauce (you can get this at any store down the Hispanic food aisle or you can make your own), Top with cheese.Then serve with fired eggs and enjoy

Lunch/Dinner

1. Heat up, Remove husk, smother with Enchilada sauce or Chili Verde top with cheese and any other toppings you might desire. examples- onions, jalapenos, sour cream, gacamole or salsa. Serve with Rice and beans

Other

1. We also just like to heat them up, take the husk off and just eat them just like that

Please if you have any ideas on how you like to eat and serve them up feel free to share in the comments to help others try something new.

Tamale Update!

We are beyond grateful for all the support that went into our first round of fundraiser tamales.

They came out amazing and it seems that everyone who has ordered them is enjoying them. 

If you wanted to get some of your own and just haven't had a chance to, we still have some. Ordering them is super easy just send me or Jeremy a text and we can usually get them out to you the same day or the next. We will continue to make the tamales as long as we keep getting orders. We want to make sure that everyone gets to try them that wants to. If you'd like to try them but just can't yet let us know.

Again thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for your help and continued love, prayers, and support 

Please Share our story we still have a long ways to go but are very optimistic that we'll reach our goal

Love- Jeremy and Shalamar Graham

385-313-4365 Shalamar

385-242-5219 Jeremy
https://www.gofundme.com/ivfgraham

Fun Making Tamales

YUMMY!!! We finally made our first couple batches of Tamales. They smell Delicious and Taste amazing this first round we made with Pork and California red chili. We have dozens made up and ready to go and we can't wait to share them with everyone who wants to try them.

They will be sold by the dozen (12 per bag)
with a Minimum of $12.00 a dozen

Orders will be first come first serve.
But don't worry!!!
If you don't get to try them this round we'll put your name and contact information on a waiting list and we'll follow up with you as soon as the next batch is done.

However after we've contacted you we'll only hold them for 24 hours and then they'll go to the next person on the list. So please let us know as soon as possible if you'd like to keep your order.You can always reorder if you happen to miss the deadline. We just want to make sure it's fair for everyone who wants to try them.

We will fill orders as fast as we possibly can with it just being my mom and I making them. But can guarantee them to be fresh from the latest batch.

We'd like to thank everyone for helping us out with our fundraiser and to everyone who has already donated. We are forever grateful and hope you enjoy the Tamales

Follow up with our blog periodically to see what we will be doing next. 

If your wanting to get some please text, email or message us on Facebook. 

Text --

Shalamar 385-313-4365

Jeremy 385-242-5219

email us-- ivfbabygraham@gmail.com

Thank you with love- The Graham Family 

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. I'm Shalamar I'm 29 and my husband Jeremy is 36 and we have been married for six years as of this past February. This blog is about our journey to becoming parents, we started trying for our baby shortly before we were married in 2010. We have gone through years of fertility treatments as you will read in the below posts and we are hoping to start our IVF journey this year. I'll be using this blog to update and educate our families and friends on this new adventure. As well as to help raise awareness about Infertility & PCOS. Please if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments or you can email me at ivfbabygraham@gmail.com.

What having a child means to us

We will finally get to hold our prayers in our arms, like we prayed about everyday for years. We'll hear our child's cry and melt away. All of our hopes and dreams will have came true and all of our future dreams will have meaning. I will finally be a MOMMY, and Jeremy will finally get to be a Father. We will finally get that feeling all you parents say you feel. The love at first sight, unconditional love, and the feeling of being that little blessings everything. Our parents will finally get to be grandparents and spoil the heck out of their grandchild. My brother will finally get to experience being an uncle and he'll be one amazing uncle.

Holidays will be blessed with the laughter and love of  children. We'll be able to attend birthday parties and family functions without the fear of breaking down. We will be able to go shopping and instead of dreaming about when we could use that for our child we could actually buy it and use it.

Instead of fertility doctor appointments, numerous blood draws and fertility drugs oral or injections
We will have well-child visits with sticker and suckers.

There will be no more

• patiently waiting for our life to start
• crying over failed cycle after cycle
• fear or never having children
• dreams that wont ever come true 

The possibilities are endless to what a child will bring to our family. We live life to the fullest already but to share that with our child/children will be a blessing. To have our child carry on the memory of the life we gave them and to have their own children to bless us with grandchildren one day. This is what having a child means to us. LIFE the ability to do what God put us on earth to do. 

As for now we will keep fighting, and keep pushing through this journey. We will embrace everything we have had to go through to get where we are today because we know all the waiting, tears, fears, and the pain of treatments will have been worth it.

Fundraising Information

We have come to our final option in having our miracle baby. This treatment is very extensive and aggressive and very expensive. It's called IVF w/ICSI in-vitro fertilization with - Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection. We have tried everything possible and have had all sorts of tests ran in order to try conceiving. It’s just simply impossible for us to conceive on our own without medical and science's help because of our medical issues. 

We have given up so much to try and make this possible for our family. We have savings and medical insurance but we don't have nearly that much in savings and our medical insurance doesn't cover anything for IVF treatments. We have moved back to my parents’ house and we're putting every dollar we make into our baby fund. But even doing all this it would take us years to save and we're so ready become parents. 

We'd really like to try this treatment, with it we would have a 65% chance of becoming pregnant and if it works we could become parents as soon as next year. For me becoming a mother for the first time will be the biggest blessing in my life and as a couple a completely life changing experience that we are waiting patiently for.

Please help us in making our dreams of becoming parents a reality.

The money we raise will solely be going towards our Medication and IVF treatment. Our treatment cost  is a little more than $13,000.00 this includes everything in the below image. -minus the embryo biopsy and storage and doesn't include if we have to a frozen embryo transfer instead of fresh embryo transfer.

We have a few ways for those of you who would like to help with funding.

• Go Fund Me www.gofundme.com/ivfgraham
• We will be doing a couple fundraisers periodically such as making and selling Homemade Tamales for a minimum of $12.00 a dozen

If you can't donate we completely understand and your love, support and prayers will continue to keep us going and is one of the most priceless gifts you can give us.

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts...
We are eternally grateful for all the love and support we continue to get from our families and friends and can’t wait to share our little miracle with every one of you one day soon. 

 



God Bless 

Love- The Graham Family

Post Order

Currently all the posts below this post will run oldest to newest just so they can be read in order of a our time line. Anything after this post will be current and the latest post. Thank you

Get to know Jeremy

Jeremy is an only child, he was born to Susan Holland on August 5, 1979 here in Salt Lake City, Utah. He grew up in a small naborhood in Magna where he lived all through school with his Grandma Lola & Grandpa Max Sayer and his mom. He has many childhood friendships that have extended over the years. He Graduated from Cyprus High School 1997. He is a hardworking, goofy, loving, kind, and selfless person. He always treats others equally and always see's the good in everything and everyone.

Jer became a father to his beautiful daughter Nevaeh on February 5, 2005 and then to his handsome son Taytem on April 19, 2006. It was unconditional love from the first time he laid eyes on them. Jeremy is an amazing father, he loves and supported his kids from the day they were born. Unfortunately he hasn't seen or spoken to them in years due to a messy divorce and the other parent.
He misses them dearly every single day and there isn't a day that passes that they're not on his mind. He knows they wont be little forever and one day he will have the opportunity to be in their lives again.

In February 2009 Jeremy met Shalamar...