My belly

I have been wanting to post, but I haven't had any time to myself lately until today. Lots of good things to report! First, I have finally found a good use for my pot belly: a pincushion. When I do get pregnant (not using "if" here), no one will be able to tell until my third trimester, thanks to the genes from my mom's side of the family. Petite from the waist up, skinny from the thighs down, but kind of like a small beach ball in the middle.

Seriously, people have done a double-take at my stomach and exlaimed, "You're pregnant!" when I definitely was not. But now, that convex accumulation of fatty tissue is the perfect place to inject my fertility meds. Very accessible and thick enough to forclose any chance of hitting an organ with the needles. Nice to have a good use for it at last.

My belly is more bulbous than usual right now, due to my ovaries taking up five times as much room as they usually do. Which leads to the next bit of good news. I had an u/s on Friday and another one yesterday, and those follies are a-growin'! Here's the progress:

Friday 2/22
Follicles on left ovary: 12 mm, 11 mm, 10 mm and 5 small
Follicles on right ovary: 14 mm, 10 mm and 4 small
Lining: 9
Estradiol: 682

Monday 2/25
Follies on left: 18, 16, 15, 15, 12 and 3 small
Follies on right: 19, 15, 14, 14, 11 and 2 small
(look at how that right ovary caught up!)
Lining: 15
Estradiol: 1690

Woo hoo! I got to talk with Dr. D (the RE) yesterday, and he thinks we will get 10 eggs at retrieval -- some mature, some less mature, and some very mature. That sounds great to me and HK.

Today will be my last full day of injects. Tomorrow I will go in for one more u/s and bloodwork, and if all is well, I will give myself the "trigger" shot. The shot contains hCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, aka the pregnancy hormone. When women pee on a stick to see if they are preggo, those drug store tests are measuring the level of hCG in their urine. hCG is very similar to lutienizing hormone (LH), the hormone that surges right before a woman ovulates. Thus, in the realm of assisted reproduction, hCG is used to trick your body into thinking it's time to pop a follicle and release the egg inside. Controlling the time of ovulation allows you to schedule inseminations and egg retrievals for optimum egg availability.

Ovulation happens 40 to 45 hours after trigger. About 36 hours after my trigger shot, Dr. D will go in with a needle and suck out as many eggs from the follicles as he can, just before they are ovulated. Hopefully, we will get at least one egg that fertilizes and then implants when inserted into my uterus five days later. Then I will gladly welcome any resulting increase in the size of my belly.

As I was telling some friends yesterday, I am getting excited about the IVF, and at the same time I am afraid to get too excited. Trying to keep stress to a minimum. Very thankful for the love, support and prayers of friends and family.