Day 1 of Solo Parenting COMPLETED!

My husband is away for the weekend on his Bike for MS ride. It's a 150 mile bike ride from Quincy, MA to Provincetown, MA over 2 days. He's been looking forward to this weekend for a while and I'm so happy that he had a good ride today (although he reported that his ass hurts mightily from the seat on the new bike). I was worried that it would be tough to be alone with Ian all weekend. I solo parented last year on this same weekend, but that was with a 3 month old who didn't walk, open cabinets, or stick his hands into the toilet. And it turns out that Ian and I had a FANTABULOUS day. He woke up really early (5:10 am) and didn't nap all that well (only 1 hour and 20 minutes), but he was a super happy and fun kid today. In the morning, my mother-in-law came over to watch Ian while I mowed the lawn. Then after Ian's nap, we went to the grocery store (where Ian got a treat of 2 Dunkin Donut munchkins). Then we had a neighbor's birthday party to go to. When Ian hit his crib tonight at 7:30 pm, he was asleep in less than 30 seconds. Awesome stuff. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed every single minute of today (well, except for maybe the moments when Ian decided it would be fun to sit on my stomach and then jump up and down...I felt bad for the poor little embryo trying to snuggle in!)

Transfer!

I'm so happy to report that we had a successful single embryo transfer this morning. We had three 3-day embryos frozen individually and the first one that the lab thawed was viable (so we still have 2 embryos frozen). This embryo was initially rated an 8BF and after thawing, it was still rated an 8BF! (See here for my blog entry explaining this embryo quality rating.) This was the best news we could have received. My RE told me that only 50% of 3-day embryos survive thaw and they are considered viable even if 50% of the cells die. So the fact that the first embryo they thawed was viable and the fact that none of the cells died was FANTASTIC news!

I was really hoping that this was the embryo that would be chosen for us today. When I got pregnant from my fresh IVF cycle, it was from a 6AF embryo. My RE told me that if she had been the doctor on call that day, she would have chosen the 8BF for me instead. So now I get a chance to see what might come from this little embryo! What could have been my first child might now be my second child! It's all a little strange and hurts my brain when I think about it too hard.

Looking back at my blog entries, I discovered today that we did our transfer for Ian on June 24, 2008. So almost exactly 2 years later, we are doing another transfer. If this transfer results in a pregnancy and this pregnancy results in a baby, my due date will be Ian's birthday (since Ian was born 1 day after his due date)! Crazy stuff.

And now the 2 week wait begins (although I'll probably POAS in 8 days since with Ian, I got my first positive home pregnancy test, albeit extremely faint, 11 dpo). If anyone is out there and reading this, please cross your fingers for me!

15 month Pediatrician Visit

I took Ian to the pediatrician this morning for his well-baby visit. He's doing great! Here are his stats:

Height: 32.75 inches, 90th percentile
Weight: 24 pounds, 8.7 ounces, 50th percentile
Head Circumference: 49 cm, 90th percentile

I asked about the development of verbal skills and mentioned that Ian has about 10-15 words that he says himself with meaning. The doctor thought that this was actually slightly above average and that he would expect 15 words around 18 months. So that made me feel really good.

Ian got a bunch of vaccines this morning and it was difficult for me to watch. He cried out in such pain when the needle went into his thigh and I actually teared up and almost starting crying. I hate seeing him in pain, even though I know that the shots are in his best interest.

Speaking of words that Ian says, I was changing his poopie diaper yesterday and said, "Boy, that diaper is stinky! Stinky, I say!" And Ian totally repeated the word "stinky" which came out as "tink-eee". And he did it again so that my husband could hear. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what "stinky" means, but it's so cute to hear him parrot the word back! It's really fun and amazing to watch him do new things every day.

Lining Check

I had my lining check this morning. The ultrasound tech said it was 9.7 mm. She said that the doctor should be pleased with that because she thinks they like it to be over 8.0 mm. I will wait for the call this afternoon to tell me what to do next, but if I continue to follow the protocol, it means decreasing Estrace and starting progesterone shots tomorrow night.

*Update*

The doctor just called and said everything looked great. He said that I was "perfect" right now with a lining of 9.7 mm and an estrogen level of 492 and that I should just keep following the protocol. We start the progesterone shots tomorrow night. I'm not really looking forward to that. But I'm sure my husband and I will get back into the swing of it easily enough. I am still so shocked at how easy the FET protocol has been. I wasn't even waiting for the phone to ring this afternoon and when it did, I was like, "Huh, I wonder who that is!" I hope that a FET works for me and that I never have to do IVF again.

15 month Achievements

Ian is 15 months old today. He is amazingly awesome and I love him more every single day. Here is a list of the words that he can say:

1. Ball

2. Banana ("Nana")

3. Kitty (said with total excitement, a big smile and pointing whenever he sees our cat)

4. Mama

5. Dada

6. Hi! (said to everyone)

7. Shoe ("Dooo")

8. Hat ("Ha")

9. Bubbles

10. Vroom Vroom

11. Thank You (although when he says it, it sounds nothing like Thank You)

He can also wave hello and goodbye, blow kisses, point to his nose (ok, well he really points to his mouth) when asked where his nose is, clap his hands and we've been teaching him to give a high five.

Ian LOATHES having his runny nose wiped. He will squirm and twist and cry and maneuver in anyway he can to avoid having anyone touch his nose. I just figured all kids did this and didn't want to cooperate in nose wipes. While that is true and most kids don't like it, I've been informed by one day care worker that she has never seen a kid squirm to get away more than Ian does. Ha. I'm not surprised. I can't even blow my nose without gagging. Yes, we have nose issues in this household. :-)

Boring FET Update

I'm just chugging along on my FET protocol. A lot of other bloggers who are going through an FET have commented on how the FET takes so much less energy and causes so much less stress than an IVF cycle. And it's totally true. I wasn't waiting for my phone to ring today wondering when the nurse would call. I wasn't panicking about the fact that my follicles weren't growing or that they weren't growing in pack. I wasn't worried about the number or quality of eggs that I would produce. So compared to my one and only IVF cycle, this is such a piece of cake. (Of course, I have the new worry that my frozen embryos won't be viable after the thaw, but a girl has to have something to worry about, right?!)

The nurse called me today and told me that my E2 levels are 212 (and they look for anything over 200 at this point in the protocol). My directions are to continue following the protocol, which means an ever increasing dose of Estrace. On Sunday the 20th, I go back for more blood work and an ultrasound to check the thickness of my uterine lining.

Pregnant in One Month?

I'm in a 2 week wait right now although I'm not waiting to see if I'm pregnant. It's 2 weeks before my transfer! Today was day 5 of my FET protocol and I had my first blood work done to check my estrogen levels. Apparently, anything over 50 is on track and mine was 107. So I just keep on trucking along the protocol as written. As of tomorrow, I increase my dosage to 2 pills 2x daily instead of 1 pill 2x daily. It's kind of strange to know that in one month, I'll know if I'm pregnant!

It is very likely that my transfer will be on Friday the 25th. That's good news given that my husband plans to be gone that weekend on his Bike for MS ride. Apparently, after the ultrasound on the 20th, they'll be able to make up any deficiencies in my lining with extra drugs, so it's unlikely that the transfer will have to be pushed into the weekend. So if we have a viable embryo after the thaw process, then the transfer will happen in 2 weeks! Exciting stuff.

Started FET protocol

I finally got my period tonight (on day 34 of my cycle) and so I started my FET protocol, which involved taking 1 mg of Estrace. I have to call the RE tomorrow and get my "official" day 1 assigned to me. The transfer is then tentatively scheduled for 19 days later. Unfortunately, because my period came later than I expected, the transfer might be on the weekend that my husband is away on his Bike for MS ride. It's really not ideal timing because I don't want my husband to miss his ride, but I also don't want to be alone and dealing with the stress of whether or not the embryo(s) thaw and are viable. And then there's the fact that I'll have to take valium for the transfer and can't drive. Oh yeah, and I can't have a toddler in the room with me while they do the transfer!! Luckily, my in-laws live super close and can easily help out if it comes to that. I'll stop stressing until I have more facts. I'll also ask the nurse if it is possible to delay the transfer until the Monday after that weekend without adversely affecting our chances of success. Here we go!

Improvised Toys

Ian clearly missed all of his bigger push toys while we were vacationing in St. Croix. Here's how he improvised...This plastic stool was good fun all week!

FET Update

I have all the drugs that I need for my FET protocol, but unfortunately, can't get started because I haven't gotten my period yet! I've now had 3 menstrual cycles post-partum and they were all 28 days long (which surprised me because that is a much shorter period than what I had prior to my pregnancy). And so now I'm on day 32 of my cycle and no sign of Aunt Flo. I wonder if traveling/vacation/stress/scuba diving affected my cycle or whether I'm just reverting to the longer cycles that occurred prior to pregnancy. Either way, I think the longest cycle I've ever had is 34 days so if I don't have my period by Monday, I'll call the RE and ask what we should do. Now that our diving vacation is behind us, I'm ready to get this show on the road!

Vacation Report

We're back from our vacation in St. Croix. Overall, we had a great time scuba diving and were able to do two dives a day for five days. I actually felt like a good diver on this trip (as compared to some of the earlier trips we have done). I didn't have any trouble maintaining neutral buoyancy and I didn't use more air than my husband (which was generally the case in the past). This time around, my husband actually used more air than me (because he was wielding the underwater camera and it takes extra effort to take good pictures). I am truly proud of myself and my husband because we actually had a problem underwater and knew how to handle it without panicking. We were down around 40-50 feet after about 10 minutes of diving and all of a sudden, it was taking extreme effort to suck in a breath of air and even then, I was only getting my lungs half full. I quickly kicked over to my husband, gave him the out of air signal, and pointed to his octopus (his extra regulator). After a moment of confusion (my husband was like "really? you really need my air?") and a moment of me wanting to kick his ass, he gave me his octopus and we slowly surfaced. It turns out that my tank wasn't turned on all the way, which explains why I had air for the first 10 minutes of the dive before it ran out. Once we fixed the problem, we went back down and had a great dive. But I was SO proud that I remembered my training from 1994 and even more proud that I didn't panic and either try to steal my husband's air or pop up to the surface. And I'm so thankful that my husband remained calm and was there, as my buddy, to protect my life. I've learned my lesson about "full-service" dive shops and will, from here on out, always double-check that all of my gear has been properly set up.

Here are some scuba diving pictures to enjoy:

The rest of the vacation was slightly less pleasant. Ian was very cranky for the entire week. I think he missed home, especially all of his toys and he probably also missed the activity that daycare provides him. I'm also pretty sure that he wasn't a fan of the heat and humidity because his mood always seemed to improve once we got back inside the air-conditioned condo. The flight home from San Juan to Boston was really quite bad. Of the 3.5 hours of flying time, I think Ian cried for a total of 1 hour. He was just so over-tired and didn't want to sit in his seat. And yes, we were those people on the plane with the screaming child. I felt awful and stressed and wished there was something I could do to make it better, but I was helpless. But Ian did enjoy playing in the pool and on the beach and I'm glad we were able to do that with him.

I think it will be a really long time before we take another vacation like that. We will hopefully have another child soon and then traveling with 2 will be even harder and so I think we'll wait until the kids are a bit older for the more adventurous travel. Instead, we'll stick to visiting my parents in Florida. :-)