Jsme těhotná is Czech for WE ARE PREGNANT!!

Let me back track a bit. I usually spot before my period and on Thursday I had a little spotting so I thought that I was out for this cycle but then it went away. Friday, riding the public transport felt like bring your worst smells with you day. Saturday, I woke up at 7am and took the pregnancy test and I didn't see a line right away - already feeling defeated because of the spotting, my heart sank. After I finished in the bathroom, I looked again and there was a faint line. WHAT!? Jason was still sleeping so I crawled back upstairs and said I need you to look at this because I think there is a line. He was groggy but I turned the lights on anyway and he said the line isn't as dark as the other one and that I should wait until tomorrow to test again. PSHA!! I ran downstairs and took the other pregnancy test and it was immediately positive!! I showed Jason and he agreed that it was definitely positive. And then I cried. Like sobbed. And Jason asked if they were happy tears (because although he didn't say it, I was ugly crying.) Once the tears ran out, I was in shock. This was the moment we have been waiting for but I wasn't quite sure I could believe it. We called the doctors office and went in for a blood test at 10am - it was Saturday but the nurse said that she would rush it so we could find out later that day. At 3pm she called and said the blood test is positive (I'M PREGNANT!!) and my hCG was at 107 (which is good because it was only 8 days after the transfer of our 2, 5-day old frosties) 

Now in a normal pregnancy, that would be it until your first ultrasound at around 10 weeks or so but with IVF they usually check your beta (hCG) a few times to me make sure your numbers are doubling properly. So within 48-72hrs the beta should at least double. This morning (48hrs after the first blood test) we went in and had my blood drawn again. The nurse called us an hour ago and said my hCG was at 462!! What a relief!! I am not sure that I'm going to feel safe for awhile - usually people wait to announce pregnancies after they are past 12 weeks due to miscarriage rates being higher before then but as we have been blogging, we can't and don't want to keep this a secret. WE ARE REALLY PREGNANT!! I really am in shock still. I keep announcing to Jason every so often that I am pregnant. And he has decided to start calling me "baby mama" - it is so silly but I don't care. So far, other than most things smelling bad, the other symptoms I have are sore boobs (ouch!!), feeling queasy, and one bout of vertigo and general dizziness. The vertigo happened on Sunday morning and I thought Jason was lifting the mattress and dumping me out of bed like a dump truck would do. I woke him up because I was yelling whoa! whoa!! Glad I haven't had that again!! But I'll take the slew of crazy pregnancy symptoms because it just confirms the pregnancy!!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for your support through this whole process. It has been a long road and while it has been hard sharing all of our struggles, I am happy to share some joy. We will keep posting updates as we will go in for an ultrasound in a few weeks to find out how many babies are in there! We'll be thrilled with one, two or three!! Estimated due date: July 3, 2016.

So much love - katherine

Try to be pregnant this time

As of this morning, we had 3 frozen embryos and the doctor suggested we select the best 2 for a FET (frozen embryo transfer) and those are the two from my eggs. This morning I called at 8am to see if both made it through the thaw. The woman I talked to on the phone said call back at 9am and we will know then. Know what?! I tried to get her to explain why we needed to wait an hour -- were they not looking good?? I waited for the English speaking embryologist and she said she was about to thaw them now so we would know in a hour. Whew!! At 9am I called and she said both looked good after the thaw and to come in at 10:30am. Yay!!!!!  This is an non-stimulation cycle but not to worry I still have plenty of drugs to take. They decided to hit me with all of the drugs this cycle to help my chances of becoming pregnant. I've been taking Prednisone once a day -- it is meant to help the body accept the embryo and not fight it off as if it were an intruder. I did a trigger shot Saturday night to induce ovulation (which occurs 36 hrs after the shot) so they would know when I ovulated because they want the FET to occur 5 days after ovulation. Now I have started taking the max dose of progesterone as well as added estrogen 3x/d. After the transfer, I will have daily injections of Fraxaparine, a blood thinner, that should help to prevent any clotting. The transfer went smoothly this morning and the doctor said to me -- try to be pregnant this time. It was very sweet and funny because of her word choice. She also printed an ultrasound picture after the transfer and said, now come back in 3 weeks and get another one! I want to say that I feel really hopeful (and part of me is) but also I am scared that this is not going to work but I am doing my best to stay positive. We keep joking that we could end up with triplets as we transferred 2 frosties and we also tried the old fashioned way this cycle as the egg wasn't collected after ovulation. Now THAT would be crazy!!

Our two blastocysts before transfer.

The red circle is where the 2 blastocysts are located (the bright white spot). See larger picture below.

The darker circle is my uterus/ uterine lining. And the bright white dot is where they are located. The white color is the media and air from placing them.

In other news, we are still torturing ourselves with the autoimmune diet and as an added bonus, we've both lost weight -- Jason lost 10 lbs since starting the diet (a total of 25 lbs since leaving home!!) and I've lost 8 lbs. Get ready for TMI -- although all the drugs are making me constipated so it should be more... We cheated a bit on my birthday and today for lunch because we didn't want to break our transfer ritual of eating french fries. Man were they yummy!!! Jason has been looking for jobs and has a promising lead in GJ. We miss our family and friends and would really love to go back to GJ. I found a house that I fell in love with and our friend Val went and looked at it for us while we FaceTimed her. It's tiny and adorable and perfect for us to start a family in but we didn't get it. I was pretty devastated - still am. It's hard to explain, but that house gave me something to look forward to. I could see Jason and I living there and our day to day life. The current owners have a child so the 2nd bedroom is set up for a nursery. It gave me something I could be excited for regardless of our outcome here. I keep hoping that somehow that house can be ours. We have a back-up contract in place so if anything happens with the first one then we could get it but it is unlikely. I've looked at other houses but nothing calls to me like that one and definitely not enough to put in an offer while not actually being there. I will say that I had been in the house a few years ago so I had a general feeling of what it was like. Speaking of coming home, we booked our tickets for our return and arrive the evening of December 14!! 

For now, I am taking it easy after the transfer. Keeping my feet warm (warm feet = warm uterus) and planning to eat a whole pineapple over the next 5 days (core and all). There is something in the pineapple that is suppose to help with implantation. I am willing to try anything!! For real. We are still soliciting love, well wishes, lighting of the candles, prayers and any other goodness you can send our way.

xo - katherine