Hold Us Together - Matt Maher Live

My current favorite song! (Scroll down to the bottom of the blog to stop the playlist if you wish to play this video.)

In Vitro Fertilization Intro (IVF)

Welcome to my first real post about our latest in vitro fertilization (IVF) journey. I have mentioned it during my last few monthly posts, but there really wasn’t too much to say back then. Some of you reading this may have followed our journey the previous times, others not. Whatever the case, I am going to brief you (or maybe not so briefly) about the whole process of in vitro fertilization. I will provide the details of where we are at in the coming months or so, because I know a lot of you want to pray specific prayers for us, and it is also kind of therapeutic for me to share. So keep checking back! Needless to say, our heart’s desire is to have another child, but as we have been praying about the direction to go over the last few months, we hopefully have our hearts okay with the end result of this attempt even if it is unsuccessful. We know God is in control!

IVF is “performed” over 2 cycles. In a woman, each month one egg (sometimes 2) starts maturing at or even before the start of her period. With IVF, the whole purpose is to get a bunch of eggs to mature at once. So, in order to do that successfully, there needs to be a “suppression” cycle to not have one egg already maturing, and thus ahead of the others. Birth control pills are used to suppress. So, at the start of a cycle, active birth control pills are taken for about 3 weeks or so to suppress.

Then, with the start of the next period (2nd cycle), the stimulation cycle begins. The woman gives herself injections of hormones a couple of times a day for an average of 12 days. This is done with small needles in the abdomen. This isn’t as scary as it sounds. I was nervous about doing it before I got started the first time, but then found out it wasn’t bad at all. The needle is just like an epee pen, if you are familiar with those. Ultrasounds and blood draws are done every other day starting about a week after the birth control pills have ended to watch the growth of the follicles and determine when the eggs are ready for retrieval. An egg matures inside a follicle. The follicle is visible on ultrasound. The size of the follicle determines the maturity of the egg inside. One to two dozen or so eggs are hopefully matured with this process. In a woman, every month a “batch” of eggs comes up and one matures. The rest are discarded by the body, so this process doesn’t have any effect on the number of future eggs because they all are coming out of the current “batch”. Didn’t know you would be learning so much about a woman’s reproductive system, did you?

Then after the ultrasound that says the eggs are almost ready, the egg retrieval is scheduled for the day after next. The egg retrieval is done under “conscious sedation” (basically out and don’t remember). The doc goes in through the vagina and pokes through to the ovaries to retrieve all the eggs. The eggs are handed over to the lab. The eggs are analyzed and determined if they are of good quality. The good ones are then fertilized. Then the embryos are watched as they hopefully grow for 3-5 days.

Then on either day 3 or 5 the best 2 embryos are transferred via catheter into the uterus. That is a simple procedure that basically is like getting a pap with a full bladder (for ultrasound guidance of placement). The number that are growing and the quality is what determines if the transfer is done on day 3 or 5. About 9 good embryos are needed in or to wait until day 5 (we didn’t have that many on either of the first 2 times). Any other good embryos on day 5 can then be frozen for future transfers. Progesterone shots are also started on the day of the transfer. These are a little bit harder because the needle is bigger and it goes in the backside. But I have done it myself for 3 periods of time, one being for about 10 weeks! If a pregnancy happens, then the progesterone shots are continued until about 9-10 weeks gestation to make sure the body has "caught on" to the pregnancy.

Then the waiting game begins. About 2 weeks later is the first blood test. HCG levels are measured. 5+ is considered positive, but they like to see 25+. If positive, then there are 2 more blood tests, 2 days apart each. The HCG levels need to at least double to continue to be positive. If all three tests are positive, then a pregnancy has occurred. A few follow up ultrasounds are then done at the clinic to ensure that a viable pregnancy is occurring, and also to determine how many babies are in there! After that, it is on to the regular OB doc at about 9-10 weeks gestation. Got all that? Feel free to leave questions/comments on blog posts or send me an email at swhunter84@verizon.net. This is how our precious Shaun started life, so here’s to another little miracle baby!

Our tentative timeline is as follows:

January 15 suppression cycle began
February 11 stimulation cycle to start
February 15 Frequent ultrasounds and blood draws begin
February 22 estimated egg retrieval
February 25 estimated embryo transfer
March 9 first blood test

I Can Only Imagine...

....is the top Christian song of the decade. The top 20 of the 2000 decade are playing and listed below!

1 MercyMe - I Can Only Imagine
2 Tree63 - Blessed Be Your Name
3 Newsboys - He Reigns
4 MercyMe - Word Of God Speak
5 Shust, Aaron - My Savior My God
6 Nordeman, Nichole - Holy
7 Casting Crowns - Voice Of Truth
8 Mullen, C. Nicole - Call On Jesus
9 Casting Crowns - Who Am I
10 Third Day & Caedmons Call - God Of Wonders
11 Tomlin, Chris - Holy Is The Lord
12 Tomlin, Chris - Indescribable
13 West, Matthew - More
14 Tomlin, Chris - How Great Is Our God
15 Camp, Jeremy - Walk By Faith
16 Building 429 - Glory Defined
17 Casting Crowns - Praise You In This Storm
18 Newsboys - You Are My King
19 Third Day - You Are So Good To Me
20 Camp, Jeremy - Take You Back

Busy time of the year!

The month started out with playgroup at our house. It is at our house about once every 4 months. Let’s just say that it is sometimes controlled chaos, with up to 8 toddlers running wild! We are all happy that we are still getting together twice a month, and plan to continue way into the future.

Christmas is really the only other thing to blog about. (Read about Christmas Eve day on my previous post.) Christmas eve we went to my Aunt’s house in west Seattle. That has become our tradition in the last several years. This was with my parents and sister. We had a good visit. Aunt Corinne always makes such a good roast for Christmas Eve dinner, and she doesn’t even eat it because she is a vegetarian! Shaun got an Adventure Bible from them. He always wants to read it too, along with his other bible and other books. He is really getting into reading and he expects it before bedtime each night. He is starting to sit longer and listen to books, depending on his mood, yay!

Christmas day was a long one, but fun. Our tradition since we have been married is to go over to my parents house for brunch, then open presents with them and my sister, then my cousin’s family comes over and we open presents with them, then my mom’s cousin’s family comes over for dinner. This year my aunt & uncle were not there because they are traveling all over Europe and beyond for a year, so it was kind of different, but they still sent presents for Shaun! Here are just a few of the items Shaun got. No child in this family is spoiled, are they?

Little People Town
"Choo Choo" train race track

Matchbox cars
Sesame Street House

Pooh Laptop

IVF update: We plan to start the 2 cycle process in mid January as long as everything is a go. This month we have been working on getting ready for it, like getting blood work and various tests done. They need to make sure we haven’t contracted any diseases like hepatitis or HIV (like we would….) since they last checked and make sure my hormones are in the normal ranges, etc. We could have started the cycle this month, but we didn’t want to feel stressed and overwhelmed, so we decided to take it slowly. Plus, looking ahead on the calendar, if I were to get pregnant, it would have put the due date right smack dab with our 2 birthdays. That wouldn’t be so bad, but it gave us a sign that we shouldn’t rush.

Happy New Year! I can’t believe we are almost in 2010! It just seems like a couple years ago we were all worrying about the Y2K thing. That was 10 years ago now! Time sure flies!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Today is Christmas Eve! I took today off, (get tomorrow off), and am also taking Monday off to make it a 5 day weekend and mini vacation. We are starting the tradition this year of making Christmas Eve day a family day together. This year we started off by braving the stores! We left the house at 8am and got back at about 10am. It was already getting crowded! We quickly went to Target, Walmart & Fred Meyer for some last minute purchases, a return, and some food for tomorrow.

Next, we started a new tradition; Shaun and I baked a birthday cake for Jesus! Shaun loved to help; he got a big grin on his face when he was helping to stir. He also really liked licking the spoon when we were done. He wasn't sure how to do it at first, but once he got a taste, he said, "Yummy!"

Next, we had lunch and put Shaun down for an early nap at noon since we will be leaving at about 3 to go to our Christmas Eve get together at my Aunt's in west Seattle.

Now, I am doing this post and wrapping the last minute presents while Bill is cooking bacon for our brunch tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Opposite Christmas Carols!

Want to play a fun game? What is the real Christmas carol? Name the real Christmas carols below! Don't peak, but the answers follow.

1. Noisy Day
2. Sally the Green Foot Hamster
3. What Adult Was That?
4. Disregard, The Unofficial Angels Speak
5. Down On the Ground Floor
6. Go Away All Skeptical
7. Tinkerbell is Leaving the City
8. Satan Work Us Sad Ladies
9. Running In the Summer Wasteland
10. Sunny the Warmgirl
11. Grief From the Stars
12. Scrub the Floors With Buckets of Ammonia
13. It Went In a Noon Fog
14. Oh, The Big City of Los Angeles
15. Here Out of Bed
16. Grouchy Young Demon Scrooge
17. Oh Wicked Day
18. Peanuts Chilling in a Closed Freezer
19. The Last Easter
20. Car Ride
21. You Three Queens of Washington Were
22. Moron, It’s Hot Inside
23. Do Not Rain, Do Not Rain, Do Not Rain
24. The Month of Flag Day






Answers:

1. Silent Night
2. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
3. What Child is This?
4. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
5. Up On the House Top
6. Oh Come All Ye Faithful
7. Santa Clause Is Coming to Town
8. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
9. Walking In A Winter Wonderland
10. Frosty the Snowman
11. Joy To the World
12. Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly
13. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
14. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
15. Away In A Manger
16. Jolly Old St. Nick
17. Oh Holy Night
18. Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire
19. The First Noel
20. Sleigh Ride
21. We Three Kings of Orient Are
22. Baby, It’s Cold Outside
23. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
24. The 12 Days of Christmas

Santa Visit 2009!

Well, as you can see, Shaun did not like sitting on Santa's lap very well! We went and visited Santa at Alderwood Mall today. I got away from work and met them there. Shaun was fine up until we sat him on his lap. He enjoys looking at Santa in books, movies, pictures and even in person, as long as he doesn't get put on his lap! He even said, "Santa" in an upbeat way when he saw me scan the picture into the computer. Oh well. People tell me that the screaming ones are always the funnest to look back at in the future.

Hope the holiday season is treating you kindly!