Before we started our doctor had reassured us that with one egg retrieval we would be able to have atleast 10 kids, if we chose. We were so excited to get things going and move past this hard procedure. Unfortunately the whole invitro process was nerve racking, with surprises and anxiety around every corner.
Probabley the biggest fear I had going into all of this was my fear of needles. We won't get get into it, but let's just say I had had some tramatic experiences with shots and getting my blood drawn that would freak anyone out.
Each day Tom gave me 2 to 3 shots in the stomache. I also had my blood drawn every couple days. After all was said and done, I was poked 30 times.
Tom and I both, were put under for simple surgeries in preparation for the embryo implantation. It was funny to watch Tom wake up after his surgery, those drugs really make him silly!
As the doctor monitored our egg growth we were sad that I wasn't producing as many as expected. When the time was right, 7 eggs were harvested. After fertilization only three eggs became healthy embryos.
With only 3 healthy embryos, a chance for 3 or less children, my hopes of never dealing with all those needles again faded away. I knew I'd have to do all of this again to bring more kids into our family. Who knows, maybe I'll be content with three kids.
The doctor then encouraged us to only implant one embryo which would give us a 65 percent chance of success. She left the choice up to us, we could implant one or two embryos.Tom and I prayed about it and we both felt the same, we wanted to increase our chance for success to 75 percent with implanting 2 embryos instead of 1.
10 days later did a blood pregnancy test and were positive. Then we went in for an ultrasound at 6 weeks to see if one or both of the embryos had took. To our surprise they both had! We got to see them and hear their heart beats. What a special moment. Tom was on Skype because he was our of town during the doctor visit. It was so cool and exciting!
I surprised my parents with this fax:
At our 8 week check up we were excited to see one baby moving a ton. We were also able to hear their heart beats again. Our excitement continued to grow.
At 13 weeks, on July 13th, we made our official announcememt on facebook: We are excited to announce that we are 13 weeks pregnant with twins! Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement as we have gone through invitro to bring these little ones into the world!
Wednesday we are going to our new doctor in Washington, we will be 15 weeks along. I really miss our babies. It feels like forever since I last saw them, 7 weeks. Who knows, maybe we'll find out their gender.
So excited for this new adventure. Can't believe it's really happening! :)
