welcome to birdland

this past weekend we headed to maryland for a quick visit with the fam. one of the weekend's highlights was our first mlb game of the season. orioles vs. rangers. luckily our seats were in the shade. well, i should say mom and dad's season tickets were in the scorching sun. fortunately after the 5th inning we were all able to sit together in the shade. here's more pics from the game as well as pics from the weekend before when aaron was able to use his new fly-fishing pole for the first time. didn't catch anything but had a fun time trying.

too early to tell

since many you have been following the progress of our IVF procedure and know that we should have some answers by now. i thought i'd enlighten you. friday we got our BFP (big fat positive) with a beta hcg of 84.5. (for the first beta they want the number to be above 50, so we made the cut.) i went back on monday for another blood draw and the number had increased to 311. (they like to see the number double over a 48-72 hour period, so all was still good.) yesterday was my last beta and my number jumped to 1232. so we are officially preggers! finally. it's still early and we have yet to do an ultrasound to see if it's viable. but i thought i'd inform my friends and family that actually read this the news. i don't think we'll be making the official announcement til after the ultrasound which is scheduled for may 12. and yes, it'll be 2.5 weeks before we'll actually know how many "took." i know that's the next question everyone has. your guess is as good as mine.

teaching an old dog new tricks

awes is getting a little better at composing a photograph. just a little. ;)

made for walkin

$3 thrift store find. yes, my shoes match my decor. they've been getting much love the past week. the sun finally decided to make an appearance today.

urban sewing

got an email today from urban outfitters advertising their new sewing line. included, is my current sewing machine, at least the updated version of it. lots cute and adorable. of course, it's a little much to be paying for buttons and embellishments. but i thought it was worth a mention.

weekend work

the house is slowly getting painted. this past weekend i decided to do a small project and painted the foyer area. i needed a color that would somewhat compliment the green so we went with this blue. i can't believe how much the molding and wood are popping with the addition of color. we got our chairs last week and are waiting on the couch. the next room to conquer will be the living room. i have absolutely no clue what i'm going to do in there.

PUPO with three

so i had my transfer monday afternoon. the embryologist called as i was pulling out of my driveway. i thought they were going to tell me they're pushing the transfer back to wednesday. (i was told that it could be a 3, 5 or 6 day transfer but plan on 3) instead she told me that my RE wants to put back 4 embryos. 1 (8 cell) 1 (7 cell) and 2 (6 cell). this totally caught me off guard. we had already discussed we'd transfer 2 and that had been my mindset all along. being in stupor, i said okay. what?!?

since we didn't know what day the transfer was gonna be on, awes really couldn't take off work. luckily, jerome was able to take me down again. he even set up a little bed for me in the back of his suv with an air mattress, pillows and blankets. too sweet.

awes called while we were on our way to check if the ET was going to be that day. i told him yes and that they want to transfer 4. he started to freak and kept repeating 2, we only want 2. i told him i'd talk to my RE once i got there to find out the details and then decide. since we had a failed cycle last time my RE thought it'd be better to put back 4. so i decided to split the difference and put back 3. so i'm officially PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise) with triplets! crazy! i still can't get over it. this time the embryos weren't as far along as they were last time. hopefully being in their "natural" environment, they'll thrive better. fingers crossed. let's hope i at least make it to the blood test next friday without mother nature (AF) rearing her ugly head again.

documented

yes, this was taken yesterday. shortly after my ER. i appear to be to be in a hazy fog. a happy, druggy fog. to my surprise 15 eggs were retrieved. a few more than last time. got the report this morning. 15 retrieved, 12 were mature eggs, and out of those 12, 10 fertilized. so far so good. right now i'm scheduled to do a three day transfer. which will be monday at noon. there is a chance, if the embryos are doing awesome, we'll be do a 5 or 6 day transfer. i have to call monday morning to find out. fingers, toes, and anything that can be crossed is crossed. a big thanks to everyone for all your support. love you guys!!

baby mama drama

without the baby, mama but plenty of the drama. i triggered last night for an 8:30a ER on friday.

i went in for a scheduled u/s and b/w yesterday morning. i go to a satellite clinic in hickory, about an hour away. on my way back home, awes calls me and tells me my charlotte clinic called his office looking for me. weird, they have my cell phone so i have no clue why they would call his office. anyways, i call and leave a voicemail with my nurse asking if they meant to call me at his office and that they can reach on my cell or home number. meanwhile, i had planned to accompany greyson and her in-laws at looking at a couple of houses she and brett are interested in purchasing. we were doing a quick tour of our house when i heard my cell phone ringing upstairs. i missed the call but didn't think it was that big a deal. just them telling me my blood values and how much medicine i'd be taking that evening.

the nurse leaves a message telling me i need to call the office and tell the receptionist it's urgent that i speak to my nurse. she also tells me that i need to come into their office in charlotte that same day. huh? it's already 3pm and by the time i get there it's gonna be around 5:30p, at the earliest so i start to get a little concerned.

i call back immediately and my nurse puts my RE on and he explains my e2 levels and follicle count/sizes aren't corresponding and he needs to see me in person to do another u/s. with the numbers he's seeing we might have to convert to an IUI and there's a possibility we might be bumped from the shared risk program if we do convert. so i started to really FREAK OUT.

luckily awes was able to leave work early and we headed down to charlotte by 3:30. we got there about 5:30p, did an U/S and luckily my follicles were bigger than the satellite clinic reported. still a smaller number then he'd like to see but at least we get to do the ER. phew! they wanted me to trigger at 8:30p and where's my trigger shot? at home in my fridge, 2 hours away. so we had to scramble to get another shot before we left town and at 8:30, i gave myself the trigger in the car. yeah, and both dogs were also with us.

awes: "should i pull over for you to do that?"
me: "nah, the dogs are pretty comfortable and if we pull over they'll be crawling all over me. just keep driving."

i went back to hickory this morning for more b/w and tomorrow we head to charlotte again for the ER at 8:30 a.m. this time we're doing a 3 day transfer so ET is on monday. man, when things start to roll, they really start to roll! crazy!!