New Adventure - New Hope

Today we leave for New York. Our desire for a child has led us to a clinic in Albany, New York. We will soon begin an IVF cycle.

First a warning, I don't have much modesty. I don't mind telling it like it is. I am no longer embarassed about anything having to do with getting pregnant. Sometimes it might be too much information. I hope no one is offended.

We have tried a number of things over the almost 2 1/2 years to have a child but we haven't been successful. I have taken fertility medications, peed on a million sticks, taken shots, taken my temperature every morning too many times, had artificial inseminations, check cervical position and cervical fluids and yes, I have just relaxed. Truth is neither Drew or I are young.

Here is a brief description of what we are doing in New York, an IVF intro:

On the third day or so after I start my period I will being injecting myself several times a day with fertility medications. One of the meds helps me grow a large number of eggs. The other med keeps me from ovulating or releasing the eggs to my fallopian tubes. I take these meds for around 10 days. During these 10 days the doctors keep a very close eye on me. I will have bloodwork and ultrasounds every other day or every third day in the beginning and when the eggs start reaching maturity I will go in every day.

Once the eggs are mature I will stop the meds I have been taking and I will inject another drug (trigger) which helps the eggs with the final stage of maturation. This drug also causes ovulation so it has to be timed precisely with egg retrieval.

36 hours after the trigger I go to the clinic, I am sedated and all the eggs are retrieved. It is done via the vagina with a super long needle and guided by ultrasound. I will then rest for a bit and they count the eggs. Drew would have done his part in a cup. Each eggs is then injected with one sperm. This is called ICSI. The egg/sperm combos are left to rest and you pray they fertilize.

3 days after the eggs are injected they will look at them and hopefully we have some beautiful embryos. The clinic will look at the eggs and if they are doing really well and we have quite a few we may wait until day 5 to transfer them. If the number is few and they aren't the top of the line we will transfer them on day 3. The grade them based on the number of cells they have, if they have fragmentation, and how they look.

After the embryos are placed into my uterus we wait. We should know in about two weeks if we are going to be parents.

We appreciate all thoughts and prayers.