And the gender is.....

Tuesday November 27, 2012   After weeks of anticipation we are finally 16 weeks and the day has arrived to find out whether we will be welcoming a little boy or girl Connell to our life. I cant believe its finally here! Its still so surreal after the journey we've had that we have gotten to this point. We packed in family to the ultrasound room including Sara's mom, brother and sister in-law on speaker phone. The little one was a difficult in the beginning, crossing the legs and shying itself from us. We had to poke around a little but we got our answer. A definite boy!!! After that he was not shy at all. Showing his legs, face and bum as many times as we wanted. Our ultrasound tech, Barbara, was amazed at how active he was. I guess we'll be feeling some kicks here soon!

Baby Update :)

We just wanted to finally update all our family and friends on our baby journey so far. Its been an emotional rollercoaster but we feel so blessed to have experienced everything we have.

    Around 8 weeks we had another ultrasound scheduled with our doctor. We found during that ultrasound that we unfortunetly had lost one of the twin babies. It was a bitter sweet because right after that we saw the remaining baby jumping around on the ultrasound screen with a strong heatbeat, as healthy as can be. We felt blessed to still have our one lil bean still surviving stong.
    At 10 weeks we had another ultrasound to have one more look at our baby. It was such an amazing experience to see feet, hands, and several other body parts developing beautifully. We still had a strong heart beat and to our surprise we were able to hear it for the first time! It was such a sureal feeling. At this point we had officially completed our journey with our IVF doctor, Dr. Shapiro. A simple "Thank You" couldn't express the feelings we have for this doctor and staff. They made it possible for us to have our little miracle and we are forever grateful.
    At 14 weeks we returned to our regular OBGYN for a routine visit. Everything was great! We once again were able to hear our little ones heart beat which the doctor said it beating strong. We were also told that in two weeks we will be able to find out whether we will be having a boy or a girl! Its an amazing thought that in less than six months we will be holding out little baby in our arms. Our official due date is May 12, 2013. We will continue with some updates as we go along. Thank you all for your love and support. We love you.

13 weeks

Two Heart Beats!

Thump....Thump....times two! We are pleased to announce we have two healthy heart beats. Baby A and Baby B at this point are about seven weeks and growing healthy. We have another ultrasound in two weeks.We'll continue to keep everyone updated. Thank you all for your support and love.

Our baby Journey update

August 3, 2012  We wanted to update those who aren't already aware that round one of are embryo placement unfortunetly didnt work. It was difficult news to recieve but we got through it and have been preparing for round two. Dr. Shapiro is recommending that we transfer two of our frozen embryos this round and is very optimistic that this round will have a  higher success. We are so excited for another chance at becoming the parents. We are so thankful for everyones support and love. It has continued to encourage us through the ups and downs of this process. Thank you all and we love you.

First Ultrasound

May 16, 2012 Sara had her HCG levels checked to see whether or not her level was over 1600 in order to complete the first ultrasound. Dr. Shapiros office called confirming the levels were perfect and we were ready to schedule the ultrasound. We arrived at Dr. Shapiros office on Saturday May 19 to have our first look at our miracle. The nurse confirmed one healthy sac had implanted perfectly and is growing nicely. Seeing that little dark circle, the beginning of life, on that screen was amazing.

The doctor would like to see us back in ten days to follow up with our next ultrasound to see the heart beat. We are both so excited to see our new little baby grow. We will have more pictures to show as we go along. Thank you all for your support and love.

                                                     "Our first family photo"
                                                  

Embryo Transfer....successful

April 29th, 2012 we arrived at Dr Shapiros office for our fresh transfer of our embryo. Dr. Shapiro was very happy with the development of all the eggs fertilized. At this time he recommended we transfer one. Considering that twins would be more of a stress on the mother and the babies. We took Dr. Shapiros recommendation and decided to place one. The transfer was quick and fairly comfortable. Clint was able to stay with and watch on the ultrasound monitor as the embryo was placed through the catheter into the uterus.

It was difficult to see, the Dr. said at this time the embryo, to the naked eye, is about the size of a grain of sand. Sara was instructed to rest in bed for the next three days. We would be able to return for a pregnancy blood test in ten days.We returned to our hotel for one night, then headed home.

May 5th, 2012 after a couple of blood tests taken here in town, we received a call from Dr. Shapiro with some surprising early news....WE WERE PREGNANT!!! The doctor said that Sara's HCG level was high enough that he could officially relay the news. We were ecstatic! Everything was falling into place. We couldn't wait to tell everyone who was hoping and praying for us. We return now for one more blood test Wednesday May 9, 2012 then again for our first ultrasound of the embryo in 12 days.

    We wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers through this journey. Its been so comforting to always know how many of you all we had behind us always. We are going to continue to update you all with all the news of now the pregnancy. Thank you, we love you all.

The Retrieval and Aspiration

April 23, 2012 we arrived at Dr Shapiros office for a pre-op appointment to make sure everything was good and ready to go. Sara's blood work came back normal and the measurement taken of the lining of the uterus was exactly what the doctor had hoped. Dr Shapiro plans on collecting 22 eggs that had developed over the last twelve days. We are ready to move forward with the egg retrieval and Clint's aspiration tomorrow with Dr Sussman!

April 24, 2012 bright and early at 5:30 am we arrived at Dr. Shapiros office for Sara's egg retrieval.She was placed under anesthesia for her procedure. The procedure only took about 20 mins to complete but about an hour of wakeup time. The procedure went great! 22 healthy eggs were retrieved from the ovaries. Sara went back to the hotel room to rest while Clint returned to the office for his procedure. Clint's procedure was completed with a local anesthetic so that he would be comfortable but awake. Two tissue samples were taken from Clint  to fertilize all 22 eggs collected. Dr. Sussman returned to give Clint the good news, everything went well and they had collected enough healthy sperm to fertilize all the eggs collected . Clint returned back to the room with good news and to rest up with Sara. We had the much needed helpful hands of Clints mom Jeanne to help nurse us back to health. Both doctors advised us to take it easy for the next couple days while we heal.

April 25, 2012 we returned home both still a bit sore and tired. We eagerly waited for Dr. Shapiros call with the news of how the first 24 hours went in the fertilization of the embryos.About 1:00 the doctor called with our news. 13 of the eggs were fertilized and are growing healthy. He was very happy with how everything went. We are instructed to have Sara completed blood work at our local hospital for an update with how everything is looking. Sara will start a new set of injections to prep her uterus for the placement of our healthy embryos this Sunday, April 29.We couldn't of asked for a better outcome. We are so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Its been an amazing road and we are almost to the end of our IVF Journey.

Ultrasound and Blood Work

Wednesday April 18, 2012 we arrived at Dr Shapiros office for blood work and an ultrasound to see how well the Menapur and Gonal-F medication has been affecting the production of eggs in the ovaries. The ultrasound revealed 5 eggs produce in the right and 10 in the left. All were developing at normal pace. The doctor would like to keep medication doses the same and see us back on Friday April 20 for another ultrasound and blood work.

Friday April 20, 2012 we returned to Dr Shapiros office for another ultrasound and blood work. To our surprise our ultrasound showed many more mature eggs than just two days prior! We had 25 total eggs that had developed. We were so excited. We did receive some changes from the original schedule, although we have produce many more eggs than the previous visit, the eggs still aren't to the size that the doctor would like in order to retrieve them. They would like us to return on Sunday April 22 for another ultrasound to allow mesurement of the eggs. They do believe the follicles will be ready for retrieval by Tuesday. So we are continuing injections for another couple of days but were getting so close!

Beginning Medications

April 11, 2012 Sara started Menapur and Gonal-F injections. These medications are meant to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs. They are injected once a day for twelve days. So far everything has gone smoothly with no side effects other than a little sleepiness. We went down early Saturday morning for blood work to see how Sara is reacting to the medications. Everything seems to be on track and we should be back down Wednesday April 18 for our first ultrasound to see the folicles produced so far. The doctor is planning our retrieval date of the eggs for April 22, 2012.
  We are getting so close and will continue to keep everyone posted with each visit. We are so thankful for everyone's support and love.

One more step closer.....

March 14, 2012 at 7:30 AM we arrived at our first of three doctors appointments that day starting with Dr Shapiro. We had to complete our first Ultrasound and blood work to allow Dr Shapiro to gather information on Sara in order to start our first cylce of IVF April 11th. At this appointment, Sara was placed on a prescription to get her body ready for everything to come. We scheduled our next blood work appointment to check how things are going March 26th.

  Next it was off to Dr. Lori Logan our Genetics Councelor. She went over all our previous blood work we had completed in St. George. Sara was tested for 34 different Cystic Fibrosis genes which she was negative as a carrier for. Gathering that information allowed Dr Logan to know what our chances were conceiving a baby with Cystic Fibrosis. We were very pleased with the results and decided to move forward.
  Our last and final doctors appointment was with Dr. Sussman our Urologist that is going to complete Clints procedure April 22, 2012. Dr Sussman reviewed all of Clints bloodwork he had completed and was very happy with all the results. All of Clints levels were in normal ranges and he was very optimistic with moving forward with Clints procedure with no complications.
   After our full day of jumping from dr to dr we decided to finish the day up with some PF Changs. At the end of the meal they always bring out some fortune cookies to top ya off. After opening up mine, I got chills down my spine. I leaned over and showed clint and it read, " your dearest wish will come true within a month" This was our sign of many that everything is going to happen exactly the way it should. We're so excited to continue our journey.

Blood work.....check!

Bright and early at 6:30 AM Clint and I arrived at the lab to have our diagnostic blood work completed. 18 viles from me and 9 viles from Clint later and we have officially completed step one. Even though it is only a baby step of the many we are going to embark on in this process, it feels great to know we are one step closer. We should be getting back our results in a few weeks then we can follow up with the Genetics Counselor and the Urologist  the first part of March. I truly feel as long as we stay strong and positive and take this journey one step at a time, before we know it we'll be holding out little baby boy or girl....or both :) in our arms.