It's a Girl!!!

Harper Robbie is here!
She is the most perfect, beautiful, little girl that I have ever seen.
She is 9lbs 6oz, and 20 inches long. She was born at 2:26 on 2/26.
I am so proud of my baby sister. I can already see what an amazing mother she is, so calm and loving.
I cannot wait to smother her with love, and hugs and kisses, and I am looking forward to giving her a baby cousin to play with.

Bruises, Baselines, Shingles, and BABY!!!

I got my first bruise of the cycle. I captured it on film for your viewing pleasure. It was the same shade as Katie's bridesmaid's dresses for a few days. I think the color looked good on me.

Yesterday was our baseline ultrasound and blood work. Everything looked good on the scan. My lining is where it should be and my ovaries are nice and "quiet". They measured the number of antral follicles that I have right now. It looks like a potential max of 15 on my right side and 13 on my left. That will be plenty, considering that the doctor is only aiming for 10 to 15 total. I didn't receive a message on my medvoice line, so that means that all my hormone levels are doing what they should be doing right now. We are still on track, which means that I will start my stim drugs on Saturday. Yay!

I had been having some pain in my arm for the last 4 days or so, and a rash soon followed. After scouring all of my medicine paper work for side effect and warnings, I pretty much diagnosed myself with shingles. It made sense- my immunity has been suppressed by the drugs. I had an appointment this morning, and sure enough, I have shingles!
I was absolutely freaking out.
I thought for sure this ivf cycle would be cancelled and that we would have to wait even longer than we already have been.
My fertility clinic called me shortly after I left the message about my diagnosis and reassured me that everything will go on just as scheduled. The rash should be healed by the time we retrieve the eggs so there should be no risk.

Unfortunately, there is a risk to newborns who have not had chickenpox. So when my mom called me this afternoon to tell me that I was going to be an aunt in just a few hours I had a bit of a break down. Of all the times to get shingles right when my sister is having a baby.

Well... I must have a separate entry for her announcement.

The Sort Of Start

While I really began this ivf cycle a few months back when they started me on birth control, today was the first day of the "serious meds".
I took my first Lupron shot this morning, and I'll take my dexamethasone tonight before bed.
Lupron is the drug that will completely shut my reproductive hormones down, basically putting me into a state of menopause. This makes my body completely dependent on the FSH and LH meds that I will be taking in a few weeks. It will also prevent me from ovulating on my own. I will continue to take a low dose injection of Lupron in the morning while I am doing my injections at night to stimulate follicle (egg) growth.

The dexamethazone is a steriod that is suppose to increase my egg quality while decreasing the chances of my body rejecting the embryos.

I am avoiding the list of side effects for any of these drugs. I feel like if I read them then they will start to manifest.

I have already apologized in advance to Joel for how I may behave. I am hoping to get through this with him still loving me. With the combination of drugs that they will have me on I will somehow be experiencing the hormones associated with pms, a pregnant woman, and a menopausal woman all at the same time. This may get ugly!

On a more exciting note- we are counting down the days to my new niece or nephew's arrival. Not fast enough for Ashley, I am sure. The baby is due in just three days time, and I cannot wait! I am asking for lots of prayers for Ash, Josh and the baby. May they have a safe and healthy delivery into the world!

Meds

Our meds arrived. They arrived by Fed-ex, overnight in a gigantic box. I took a lovely picture to capture how overwhelmed I was by them all. Only a few are new to me, and mostly just the pills for that matter. I've used a number of the injectable meds already.