Stewie

Meet Stewie:

Of the 2 that fertilized 1 arrested overnight.  This is "Stewie", an 8-celled minimally fragmented embryo.  Sorry for the crappy photo; it's actually a photo of the photo we were given & my parents' scanner is dead.  As for the name, Vid is a huge Seth MacFarlane fan & when I asked him what we should call this embryo he immediately thought of an evill cartoon baby, LMAO.  Beta is 1/9.  I'm going to try my best to hold off peeing on sticks but can't guarantee I'll be able to resist.

2

Of the 6 retrieved, 4 were mature & 2 fertilized with ICSI.  We will put those back on Saturday morning.  I know it only takes 1, but after 4.5 years of this I have little hope.  Vid is praying like I've never seen before.  Beta will be just days before his birthday; I hope I don't ruin it.

6 pack

Retrieval was this morning.  We got 6 eggs.  I'm disappointed & really think they should've let me cook another day or 2 to get my E2 over 1000 (It was 831 Monday morning & I triggered that night).  I also wonder if the Clomid I took for #2 really aided in giving me more eggs to work with since we didn't do that this time around.  If we need to go through this bullshit again I will insist on adding that back.  

Monitoring

E2 is 179.  Numerous follies on both ovaries with none over 12.  Tomorrow I add Ganirelix to my Follistim & Menopur.  More monitoring on Saturday.  The nurse (who I've known since I 1st started infertility treatment 3 years ago) said if she was a betting woman she thinks retrieval will be the 26 or 27th.

And away we go yet again...

It only took Aunt Flo 5 days to visit this time versus 8 for IVF #2.  Not sure waddup wit dat, but I'll take it.  So, I went in for my wanding & blood work to get the blessing from up on high to start stims.  It's go time!  Tonight I begin shooting up, taking 225 of Follistim & 150 of Menopur.  I go back on Wednesday morning for more monitoring.

Waiting for Godot, or rather, Aunt Flo

Took my last BCP yesterday & am now waiting for Aunt Flo so we can get this show on the road.  Last cycle she took her sweet time & came 8 days after popping that last pill so I'm prepared to "hurry up & wait".  My meds should arrive this week too.  We will officially be in our new house as of Saturday; I've been spending my weekends painting.  I am looking forward to new beginnings in many ways.  However, I'm already convinced this has failed & am looking to see when we can financially afford to cycle again.  But if we get some more frosties maybe we'll do an FET versus a fresh cycle which is so much cheaper.  And now I'm rambling...

Infertile with a Turtle

Because Christmas isn't painful enough for us infertiles, what with all the adorable faces (more every year!) staring at you from holiday cards, now there's Elf on a Shelf. And of course, 90% my parent friends seem to think gives them license to plaster photos on Facebook (sometimes several times a day) of whatever their kid's elf is doing.  A few examples:

To be fair, I also have some friends with kids who have a wonderfully sick sense of humor too:

But that's maybe 0.1% of the Elf on a Shelf posts. 

Since I have no kids it'd be kind of creepy to participate in this.  What's an infertile to do?  I have an idea!  How about "Infertile with a Turtle"?  I'll insert a photo of a turtle into some of my favorite travel pics.

Here's an Infertile with a Turtle at Chenonceau, France:

  

Infertile with a Turtle at Gullfoss, Iceland:

 

And finally, Infertile with a Turtle at the Grand Canyon:

 

How about you?  Let's see your pictures.  Comment with a link to your blog. :)