Long time, No Blog!

  I have only been at this blogging thing for two weeks and here I am already slacking! I do have  a good excuse though, to keep lifting to a minimum, I've been leaving my computer at school all week, I finally brought it home today seeing as implantation would have already taken place. So I figured I was safer now to bring it home for the three day weekend! I love myself some President's Day!!

 Well seeing as I haven't blogged since Monday I should probably give the update on what's been going on since then. To tell the truth, pretty much nothing! I went back to work on Tuesday and since then I have been more tired than I have ever been in my entire life! Like whole body aches, takes effort to move from place to place tired. I never had mono, but pretty sure this is what it feels like! I am thinking it is caused by the progesterone shots or maybe early pregnancy? Hoping the latter! I've been coming home after work and just crashing on the couch. My dear dogs and good friends, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, Rachel, Ross, and Joey have also kept me good company. (Complete series of "Friends" on DVD= Best. Purchase.Ever). To be honest, I haven't even been thinking much about the pregnancy test one way or the other. I, of course am really hoping it worked, but have tried not to focus on it too much, because then it becomes all consuming! We go in on Monday morning for the blood pregnancy test and will get the call later that day, luckily I don't work that day, which just makes for a better environment for receiving such an important call. Last time, I got the call in between Parent/Teacher Conferences... yeah, that sucked!

 So I am keeping the positive thoughts and prayers and I can feel all of yours, keep them coming please! Have a wonderful weekend. I am waiting on Rhett to get home, and our pizza to arrive. Fridays nights are usually our night out but this exhaustion had other ideas and the p.j.'s have already made their debut. It's fine by me though, night on the couch with my three boys and two snow babies sounds like a divine date night to me!

Happy Valentine's Day!

 I feel like a very lucky girl this Valentine's Day. I am at home on my last day of bed rest, and feel very relaxed. My mom and Rhett have taken amazing care of me! My mom leaves in about an hour and I am sad, but know I will see her again soon! I feel very blessed to have my two added Valentine's to take care of too, my lil snow babies. I am working on sending Valentine's love their way and asking them to stick for mommy!

 Bauer showed his love for Valentine's candy today. My mom left some chocolate on the bed for about 3 minutes to come grab a ziplock bag from the kitchen. She returned to find Bauer had ate about 12 pieces of chocolate, which as we know is just fabulous for our furry friends. I called the vet and they told me we were going to have to give the lil guy hydrogen peroxide via syringe (which due to all the shots, I had plenty of!) So with me holding him down, my mom shoved some good old hydrogen peroxide down his throat to induce vomitting. The vet said if it worked, no need to bring him in and thank God it worked, boy did it work! Thank goodness for my awesome mom for cleaning that up, bending and stretching are against doc's orders, so no cleaning for me for a while!! So that was an interesting turn of events today, never a dull moment with Mr. Bauer!

 I hope all of you have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Thanks for all your love, please keep the prayers coming! This time next week, we will know if our lil baby Valentine's made a home in mommy!

Welcome Home!

Well, I'm back! It has been two days since the embryo transfer, and I haven't blogged because I literally have done nothing but lay around, watching movies, and hanging with Rhett, my Mom, and Boomer and Bauer! It has been fantastic so far! I keep rubbing my belly and praying that our lil "snow babies" or "tot-sicles" both nicknames Rhett and I have for our once frozen embies will stick! Here is a little update on the day of the transfer!

Rhett's "welcome home" meal

The cute sign on our table!

My "welcome home" meal

 As you know the embryo transfer was scheduled for 11 on Friday, so Rhett wanted to take me to a nice breakfast beforehand. He took me to one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants ( isn't he great?) and right on our table was this sign that read "life". Ours was the only table that had this and we took it as a great omen! We just had to snap some pictures of our last meal before welcoming our lil snow babies back home! (above)

 After breakfast we headed downtown for our big procedure! We were told to arrive an hour before our appointment, but since I like to be early for everything we were about an hour and a half early! We sat and I started drinking my water bottle because your bladder has to be full for the procedure. We were called back by about 10:20 and they came and did an Ultra Sound, I was told I got the uterine lining of the day award, it was thick and a lovely home for our little snow babies to burrow in. Then the doc came in, showed us our adorable lil embies on the t.v. and in they went! So now we wait... and pray. So far I feel great, minor cramping from time to time, but I read this is usually caused by the uterine walls stretching and making room for baby or babies! I thank you for all the prayers, thoughts, posts, texts, and calls. You all are wonderful! Keep the prayers coming!

Our little "snow babies" Welcome to the fam!

Lucky Numbers

 I have always been one to believe in luck, how much I wasn't even aware until a second grader in my class pointed it out to me last week..

 I was sitting with a group of students when I brushed my hand across my face to find the itching nuisance that had been bothering me for the past ten minutes was in fact an eyelash! "Yeah, now I can blow on it and make a wish!" As I thought for a minute and blew it off my finger, a curious second grade girl asked, "So, what did you wish for?" "I can't tell you, or it won't come true", I replied. She looked at me thoughtfully and said, " You know, Mrs. Stenzel, you wish an awful lot. Before I knew you, I thought all you could wish on was shooting stars, but you have taught us we can wish on stars, when it's 11:11 and now eyelashes." I hadn't realized how "wishful" I was until then, but I think there is a lot worse things you can be!

 With that being said, I got the call today.. and tomorrow, February 11, 2011 my transfer will be at.... 11! 2/11/11 at 11? I'll take it! So say special prayer tomorrow for us at 11! I've got a new pair of lucky socks my mom bought me for Christmas (they ask you to wear really warm socks to help with blood flow) and my luckiest charm of all... Rhett! With these two precious items in tow, it can't be anything but fabulous!

A shot in the dark...

 This title doesn't refer to our chances of getting preggers this Friday, because I am very hopeful, more to the literal meaning this saying has taken in our lives! Our nightly routine in the Stenzel Household goes as follows:
1. crashing on the couch ( I won't even admit how early it is)
2. being woken up by my dear hubby to get a few shots  ( poor guy doesn't get home til 8, and in this neck of the woods, the sun as long since said it's good-byes, hence the "shot in the dark")
3. stumbling to the bed to pass out with a heating pad on injection site (we'll leave that site to the imagination)
4. waking up to a burning feeling and promptly turning off and throwing said heating pad to the floor.

I know, I lead an exciting life, watch out! But it truly will all be worth it. When the kids start to misbehave I'll show this a pic of what I had to endure to get them (totally kidding, of course, I think we'll leave the whole science aspect of their conception in the vault of things you never tell your kids) but in case you are curious here is one of my nightly shots..

The pictures don't do the needle justice, but take my word for it,  it's HUGE! This shot is the progesterone shot that Rhett gives me to help prep my uterus for the transfer. I get another shot in the stomache called Lupron to supress some hormones that we don't want to elevate. I wear nightly patches to increase estrogen, take baby aspirin to increase blood flow to the uterus, a prenantal, and an antibiotic (not sure why I take this). As you can imagine, I have a check list by the fridge to make sure I've done it all!
 In other news, my mini-vaca has officially begun. I took tomorrow off for some R&R, and am going to sleep in, have an acupuncture treatment, watch a chick flick, and just generally take it easy before the big day! Friday we have the transfer, and they will call me tomorrow with the official time. (I will be sure to post the time when I find out, so you know when to pray like crazy for us on Friday! ) My mom comes in town around 6 on Friday to help take care of me and hang out during my bed rest! I will be resting Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and head back to work on Tuesday. I am not going to lie, really looking forward to some pampering!
 I was reminded today of how much I can't wait to be a mommy....
 We are starting a "Pennies for Patients" drive to help raise money for children who  have Lymphoma and Leukemia. I had the first and second graders gather around me and we talked about what cancer is and how we are going to raise money to help sick kids. They had sweet, innocent questions that I answered to the best of my ability and then I handed out their collection boxes and sent them off to pack up to go home. One little girl in my class came up to me and said, "I have 100 cents, Mrs. Stenzel!" I was thrilled she knew 4 quarters were a hundred cents. I then saw her go back to her seat and put all 4 quarters in her box. She had earned the money and brought it to buy lollipops at the end of the day, she said she would rather give it to sick kids instead... I love the innocence and love that children exhibit, how selfless and loving they can be, I can't wait to instill these values and beliefs in our future children... so bring on the shots, they will be distant memory when we hold our baby full of innocence, wonder, and love for the first time.

The Countdown is On!

So the big day is this Friday and I am getting so excited. Last time around I feel like I was super nervous, but this time around I feel much more relaxed and calm, and just plain pumped up! Doing a frozen cycle has been a lot less grueling, only one 6 a.m. doctor's appointment a week as opposed to 7, yikes! There are a lot less shots involved this time too! I mean as much as I like getting needles the size of my hand injected in me on a daily basis, I would have to say less is more!
 I bet four years ago when we got married Rhett hadn't envisioned saying to me, "Honey I'm home, ready to get all shot up?" Oh the romance of IVF....

Blast From the Past

So I thought I'd write a little blurb on what's been going on and what's to come with our treatments in the past few years...

  We tried on our own about a year and a half with a drug called Clomid which is a drug that is supposed to help women with a condition such as mine ( Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) to help me ovulate. It didn't work, so once we got on a good insurance plan through Rhett, we moved on from my Gynecologist to a Reproductive Endocrinologist at the Fertility Centers of Illinois in May of 2010. We started working with a great doctor who suggested we start treatment by doing IUI which is a combination of follicle stimulating shots and an insemination at the end, once the follicles are ready to release an egg... turns out my body loves the meds and I was cancelled due to producing too many follicles. Talk about one extreme to the next! The doctor said if we don't cancel you, you'll end up with a show on TLC. I had like 12 follicles.. Octomom, you ain't got nothing on me! I decided not to die, and agreed going on with treatment was not such a peachy idea after all. This was back in July.

Boomer says he is already good with "kids"

 The next step was to try IVF. We started treatment for our first cycle back in August but went on to be cancelled again due to fear of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation, a condition in which too many follicles have been grown and can cause fluid build up around vital organs. I was devastated at the time but my wise, level-headed husband tried to tell me, he'd rather have me alive then go on with treatment, I see now, that he's right but there was a lot of crying and arguing on my part back then, have I mentioned that hormones are insane? Rhett has the patience of a Saint...
In October we started another round of IVF and went on to retrieve 16 eggs and had  12 embryos made! Which were wonderful results! With my "lucky socks" ( I am very superstitious, sorry Catholic Church oops) on we went in for our embryo transfer in early December and two beautiful embryos were implanted and all went well. Then for the next few days my wonderful mom and husband waited on me hand and foot as I was on semi-bed rest for the days following. But two weeks later... we had a negative pregnancy test. It was such a let down and I of course wanted answers. But, there really is no way of knowing why it didn't work.
 Now we are on to our next adventure... a frozen embryo transfer. We froze our remaining "embies" as I like to call them, for a future cycle and here it is! This Friday we will transfer two back in, and I can't wait! My mom is coming to help pamper me and I can't wait to see her! Fingers crossed this time it works! Boomer and Bauer really want a sibling or two and our niece Lucy told me last Saturday when we were babysitting she wants a cousin, and who am I to disappoint?