The Coombs Family

On Thursday May 25 we had the transfer of the embryo. I have been a nervous wreck and hardly able to sleep for the last week. Caleb keeps saying very positive things about how excited he is. And I am very excited too. It's crazy to think that I could be pregnant right now. But I also have a lot of emotions on what will happen if it didn't take. The chances are better than 50/50, so that's good. And I want to be positive! So I keep acting like "unikitty" on the Lego movie, "stay positive, stay positive". My darling sister went with me to the transfer. That morning I woke up early, cleaned the entire house like a crazy person, and then we headed to Portland. They gave me a valium which made me crazy tired. They did the fake transfer, it worked, and then the real transfer. The embryo thawed appropriately, which means it lived, and that was also something that I was super worried about. Not all of them make it through thawing but ours did! I had to drink...

I got a call today from the embryologist and only one of our embryos has cleared testing. One beautiful little boy who has all the DNA we need. One perfect little embryo who has made it through thick and thin and did everything he was supposed to. I am happy that it's more than zero. And yet, I was really hoping for more than one. I think I pictured this difficult decision one day where I would have to chose the gender and ask myself hard questions like "how many do I implant?". When the doctor called I just cried. To go from 20 eggs to 12 to 6 to 3 to 1. Just doesn't seem like the odds are in our favor. I called Caleb right away and he is always trying to cheer me up. "Babe, one is better than zero. At least we have one! It's going to be ok". I know he's trying to cheer me up. But I worry about our odds since I've had a few miscarriages and difficulties in the past. I just hate the pressure of just one shot to get it right. And the doctor isn...

This is the most exciting transformation yet. I mean, seriously, this before and after....crazy!!! Most comfortable dental chair ever! New cabinet and floors Caleb needed stitching that reminded him of motorcycles Old versus new doctors chair Old cabinet Old dental chairs Side by side comparison of old versus new

I'm still home recovering from surgery. The embryologist called today and only 3 of the eggs have made it to day 5. They are sending them for DNA testing. I got off the phone right away and just cried, and cried. And text my sister. And called Caleb. And then cried. And then I found some really sad movies to watch that made me cry harder. Then my doctor called me: They also said that I can't have any implantation or plans to implant until my blood count is back up. Obviously babies need blood, and I don't have enough. Here's what he said: My hemoglobin should be at minimum 12, preferably higher. It's currently 8. My hematocrit should be at minimum 35, preferably in the 40s. It's currently at 23. Then he gives me permission to eat LIVER. GROSS! And steak, and spinach. I've been eating chicken broth, and chocolate. Probably not the diet he was hoping for. We were initially going to try and implant in May, but he doesn't think that will happen. A...

I went in on Thursday the 30th as planned. Everything went well. They only got 12 mature eggs, and we were hoping for more based on the tests. So that's not a great number, but it's not terrible. My wonderful friend Lindsey brought me home from Portland. The doctor gave me Tylenol with Codeine for cramping and said to go home and rest. You get a local sedation for the procedure, and Versed, which is my new favorite drug. So fun! It made me so happy! Lindsey and I got an hour drive home to catch up. She stayed here for a bit and I fed her daughter Lizzie fun snacks and started to feel crampy. They told me to expect cramps, so I told Lindsey that I was going to bed and she left and headed home to Portland. That was around 11:30 am. I ate a piece of banana bread, took my Tylenol and hoped for good sleep. Around 2:30 I was not feeling well at all. I started to really get nervous. I had this overwhelming feeling that something was not right. I called the doctor and spoke to a nurs...

Ok, so I went in for my final ultrasound and they finally said my eggs are the right sizes and so are my hormones. So I get a trigger shot, my last shot, on Tuesday the 28. Then on Thursday the 30th, we go in and have the egg retrieval done. Caleb will go with me and do his thing at the same time I do mine. Then the embryologist meets up our parts and tries to fertilize. We will find out on the 30th how many eggs they were able to get. But we won't know if they fertilized or not until the day after. I am so ready to be done with my shots. And done trying to hide this from everyone. They said it will take a couple of weeks before the swelling goes down, but at least the pressure is immediately gone.

I've gone in for ultrasounds every other day for the last week. My stomach feels huge, is very bruised, but my eggs aren't growing as much as they hoped. So they doubled the Follistim dose to 300 instead of 150. I am also taking Ganirelix now too in the morning. It's pretty interesting getting shots every morning and going to work. I'm trying to find stretch pants and sometimes they even feel too tight. They were hoping that I would trigger sooner and the egg retrieval would be on Monday 3/27, but the little eggs aren't growing as fast, so they are adding more days. Every day that I extend the shots costs us $1,000. Obviously when you get this far into it, you wouldn't wan to stop for that. But now I know why the range is so spread out on cost. You don't know if it will happen sooner, or later, and every time they double the dose, it's more money. And more fluid I have to be injected with. Boo. Hoping my eggs get the message and start growing so we can t...