Cerclage

On December 1, I left work to go to my scheduled high risk appointment. I remember the week before my high risk Dr mentioning something about my cervix being short.  But I was too naive to think that was a problem.  I went in for my appointment, and immediately my dr told me my cervix was about 1cm long and I was dilated about a 4.  I still didn't know what any of that meant, but he made phone calls to AV hospital to see if their on-call OB-GYN knew how to perform a cerclage.   He did not.  So Dr. Devore had a friend down in LA who could perform them.  I called Zach at work to come pick me up because we needed to drive down to LA to get this procedure done ASAP.  I was not supposed to walk, but they allowed me to walk out to my car to wait for Zach. 

We made our way down to Pasadena, where we went to Dr. Karimi's office.  We made it in a good enough time and he was waiting for us.  He did an ultrasound to check for his self and decided I needed to get a cerclage that night.  The hospital was right across the street, so they wheeled me over and got me admitted. 

Unfortunately, there were no available time slots in the OR's for me that night, so I had to wait until morning.  Zach went and picked up Arby's for us for dinner, and it was the most delicious thing.  He even got salted caramel cookies, that I had become addicted to after that point.  All night, we heard many women go through labor and screaming down the hallways.  It was hard to get a good night sleep.

The following morning, which was a Friday, I had my cerclage.  They gave me an epidural but I was awake, since general anesthesia is not good for the babies.  Everything went well and they took me outside the OR in recovery until the numbing wore off.  It happened pretty quickly though. 

The boys were doing well! All of their monitoring showed that they were great!  I told the Dr that I did not want to go back to work...ever!!  I was so fearful of more complications since I was already worked too much at my new job.  I had this feeling for weeks, that I needed to go on bedrest.  I stood all day long, I was never given a real break.  And the tech that was supposed to be the float always made me give breaks.  It made no sense!!  I was not in a good position to be working as hard as I was. So Dr. Karimi agreed that he would write me out of work for the remainder of my pregnancy.  What a relief?!

After the cerclage, they kept me another 24 hours to monitor me.  I had noticed I was leaking fluid, and it kept Dr. Karimi on edge!  The last thing he wanted to do was to somehow rupture a placenta and cause amniotic fluid to leak...or cause me to go into labor.  They did a couple tests and monitored everything and then I was finally released on Saturday.  I was under strict bedrest orders.

Problem with bedrest when your husband has to work..is I still had to get myself things to eat, or make dinner.  But I am so grateful for Dr's who were willing to get me the care I needed immediately.  Our boys were under great care!

I Love It When We're Cruising Together

Even though we knew I would be pregnant, and we weren't entirely sure how my pregnancy would go, Zach and I booked a 7 day cruise to Mexico.  It was pretty much a last "hurrah" for the two of us before the babies arrive.  But my pregnancy was great, and we go the clearance from my OB/GYN to travel.  I wasn't sick during my pregnancy, but I did have a bad food aversion.  I learned that the smell of food would make me have no appetite.  So if I made something for dinner, all the time it was cooking, and I could smell it, I wouldn't want to eat it by the time it was done.  So I was living off of Snickers bars and Ensure. 

When I was told that that was my problem, I started going to get something to eat at a fast food place, and eat it as fast as possible before I wasn't hungry anymore. I was so paranoid that I wouldn't give the babies enough nutrients, but I was pretty sure I was getting atleast something from the Ensure and my prenatal vitamins.

So on the cruise, I pretty much lived off of french fries and steak! haha That was one of the benefits of  being on a cruise and having food 24/7 available.  It was a great trip for Zach and I.  And something I enjoyed while pregnant.  I never got seasick.  But we never took full advantage of all that the ship had to offer.  I was so tired that I would want to be in bed by 8pm and all the comedy shows or any show started later in the evening.  So I watched a lot of TV or slept.  Zach did go enjoy himself in the casino though.  And made a few friends.

I loved showing off my, very tiny, baby bump.  But more than anything, it just looked like I had too much to eat.  The only time I recognized that I had any issue was walking through Mazatlan.  There wasn't much to do there.  We walked through the town and I was tired quickly.  So we would stop to rest every once in a while.  And I noticed my fingers starting to swell, so I had to chug some water to hydrate myself.  They returned to normal quickly, but it didn't take long for us before we returned to the boat to just hang out by the pool.

We met this cute little couple at dinner one night.  They overheard us talking about how expensive the drinks were.  I usually resorted to drinking lemonade, since it was pretty much all I drank.  But they were avid cruisers and told us that we could bring any amount of drinks or snacks on the ship.  So they usually bring a few cases of soda and snacks to go back to their room and veg.  We also told them how we just found out we were having sweet little twin boys, and they told us they had twin boys too!!  It was pretty exciting to be sharing that with them!  Plus, it's always fun to brag about our babies!!

Boy. Girl. Twins. Alien

I knew from before we got pregnant that I wanted to have a secret gender reveal.  I had mentioned it to my sweet friend, Kelly Peterson, and she offered right away to throw one for us.  From the moment we found out we were pregnant with twins, I was convinced it was twin girls.  From my easy symptoms being similar to other people who had girls, I had convinced myself right away.  And because of my feelings, I think I had Zach convinced as well. 

When we were finding out the gender, I had both my regular OB/GYN appointment and my high-risk appointment a day apart.  So I planned to get them both to write down the genders for me, just to be positive.  I had Dr. Ngo write it down first, and I gave that envelope to Kelly.  She immediately checked it, then started crying.  Of course I was emotional, but it just made her happy.  But because she had seen Dr. Ngo for June, and was originally told she was having a boy, she wanted me to get a second opinion from my high risk dr.  After my high risk appointment, I took over that envelope and she ensured me that both drs said the same thing.

We had the gender reveal at our friend, Jaime Bell's house.  We had a lot of people show up!!  It was so great!  The Bells, Peterson, Higgins, Kramers, McCulloughs, Russells, Amanda Smith, and Valene Harris.  Kelly handed people silly string cans to spray at us after we did the last baby reveal.

Kelly also decided that she wanted to do the gender reveal one at a time, so that it was apparent each baby was an individual.  I thought that was really nice of her.  She handed me a cannister of confetti to pop open.  I put one hand on top, and one hand on bottom to twist... our first baby is a BOY!!!  I was in complete shock!! A boy?  I was so sure it was a girl!!  Ok, so the next one must be a girl.  I'm gonna have a boy and a girl.  Zach was handed the second cannister.  He twisted..and again, BLUE confetti!  Two BOYS!!! Everyone started spraying us with blue silly string! There was blue confetti everywhere!!

It was so much to take in, and seriously, such a surprise!!  I was so emotional!!  And so excited, but I had my mind so set on girls it took me a minute to adjust to having two boys!! But I was so stinking excited!!!

Kelly gave us a pair of these super sweet little boy shoes.  I am so grateful I get to be the mother of these sweet little boys!! 

Twins

I drove down to Beverly Hills for an ultrasound to see how things were going. I had my labs drawn and a quick ultrasound.  I was a little curious to see if we had any embryos split or anything.  But Dr. Surrey had to be the one to do the ultrasound, that way he could relay any important information.  When the image came up on the screen, I could see these two little black blobs.  I jokingly said, "well I know there's not 4!" and he responded with, "well there's not one either."  His sense of humor is really hard for emotional/hormonal women.  Because my heart sank a little!  For a brief second I dreaded having to go through the whole process over to try again.  Then he said, "because there are TWO." 

I can't even being to explain how happy I was to know we were having twins.  As soon as I left the office, I sent Zach ultrasound pictures and gave him a call.  We are so excited!!  We just love our little jelly beans!!

Verdict

After the transfer, I was told to wait 10 days before I could go in and get a blood test to determine whether I was pregnant and if the IVF had worked.  By that point, I was back to work carrying on my normal day.  So it was August 10, and I got up as early as possible to go to the lab across the street from my work to get my blood work done.  I knew the sooner I did that, the sooner Dr. Surrey's office would call with the results!  I worked, and waited, and worked...and waited.  I was almost done with my work shift, but a little stressed because I hadn't heard from Dr. Surrey's office. 

I tried calling the office but they hadn't received the results yet.  So I tried calling the lab to see if they had the results, and they only had an automated calling system.  So stupid!! I couldn't even talk to an operator.  I realized I didn't get off work until 5pm and the lab closed at 5pm so I left a few minutes early to drive across the street and find out what was going on!! And of course I got there and it was already closed!!

I was so anxious and annoyed and sat in my car and started to cry!  It was so silly because I had already waited 10 days.  What was 1 more day?? But I was dying to know!!  I started to drive toward home, and while I was on the lake bed between, Rosamond and Edwards, where my phone signal is the worst, I got a call from Dr. Surrey's office! I was so paranoid I was going to drop his call or something.  But somehow, there were no issues.  I pulled into the parking lot, just before the gate, so that I could get the results without being on the phone or interrupted by the gate guard. He was a little confusing in his call, so after he was explaining stuff, I just straight up asked, "so am I pregnant?"  To which he replied, "yes, you are pregnant." 

Those words were music to my ears.  I had never felt so much joy and excitement!  I immediately drove to the BX to get a pregnancy test.  Just to have visible results that we were, in fact, pregnant.  I got home and immediately called Zach to tell him the good news.  He was sleeping, but it was such a good call!  We both started crying and just felt so much joy that we were gonna have a baby...or two!!

Transfer

On July 30, I had to drive down to Beverly Hills to have all my blood work done and make sure everything was good to go.  What freaked me out was that we didn't have the correct paper work from Zach approving me to implant his embryos.  He mailed it to the office, but they couldn't find it.  And what made it worse, was that he was supposed to have it notorized so it wasn't like I just went and forged his signature.  What was I supposed to do? The transfer was the next day!! I was freaking out a bit because I had been doing all the injections and I had my heart set on getting those embryos implanted! I didn't want to wait another second!!

What we ended up doing was we Facetimed Zach and watched his sign it.  And we took a screenshot of him holding up the paper, with his signature and his I.D.  It wasn't formal, but they allowed it as proof that he was all in!  He just had to send that signed paper to the office for their records.  What a relief!!

That night, mom came to Edwards to prepare to take me in for the transfer.  I was told to drink 3 liters of water.  So I was chugging water all the way down there, and then we stopped across the street for breakfast first.  I had to pee so bad!!! I was dying!  We went upstairs to the office to get all signed in, and I thought I was going to pee my pants.  They let me go try to just "pee a little" for relief. How in the world is that possible?  I was able to stop, but it didn't relieve the amount of discomfort I had.  

When they took me back, Dr. Surrey emptied my bladder a little so I wasn't uncomfortable during the procedure.  Mom sat next to me in the procedure room, and she made a video on my phone and Facetimed Zach on her phone.  That way Zach could be apart of the process.  

The embryologist came in and asked how many embryos we wanted.  We agreed on 2.  Then she went back to her lab to get them.  She came back in, checked our names to make sure they were correct, and then there was an ultrasound tech doing an ultrasound while Dr. Surrey took a catheter that placed the embryos in my uterus.  We could see the catheter on the screen to atleast know where that was being placed.  They tilted me upside down for a little bit while the embryologist went to her lab to use a microscope to make sure the embryos were no longer on the catheter.  A few minutes later, they came in to tell us it was complete!! So cool!!

They wheeled me out, and mom stayed for a few days because I was on strict bedrest.  It was nice having mom to help me out.  I just laid on the couch and we watched a lot of movies and tv shows.  It sure was hard not being stressed out by the whole process.  I was so scared to go through all of this and it not work.  Those hormones are not easy.  I was crazy to everyone, I am sure!!

The Results are In

I can guarentee I would have a lot more emotion in these posts if I posted regularely.  But instead, I got lazy, and depressed and didn't update at all.

So after I had my surgery, and got my results back, it showed that I had plasma cells showing an infection.  I was on antibiotics for two weeks, and then had to go back in a week later for a biopsy.  I was awake for the biopsy and he went in with some tiny curette to scrape out some cells from my uterus and it hurt like a Mother! I had to have a full bladder and he told me to just "relax" while he scraped my insides out, and I tried not to pee.  Thanks Dr!

I waited all weekend, basically with high hopes.  I was not expecting any more delays, but when the Dr called (a day earlier than I expected), I was devastated to hear my infection had not gone away :(  I needed to be on another antibiotic another 2 weeks to redo the process.

Of course, the pharmacy I had them call my Rx into was right across the street from the hospital, and during the night a drunk driver had hit the power line and I couldn't pick up my Rx.  When I went back a little later, they said they never received it.  Needless to say, I was discouraged from the results, and really frustrated I couldn't get the prescription filled right away. Since the power was out at work, I was able to get off work early and I did finally get my Rx filled on base.

I finished my two weeks of antibiotics, and had my biopsy.  I got my results back and they are clear!! And I got the go ahead to start my injections.  I started injections July 7 and there's just something about the peace of moving forward.

When I told Zach my results were clear, he texted back, "I am going to be a dad!" It was so stinking sweet, and I started to tear up.  We still have to get through this process, but I am so glad to have him for support through everything.  I love him so much!