Pump free....

Well, last night at the grocery store the Zofran pump started going all crazy and beeping at us. We turned it off until we got home. I needed to change my line and medicine bag anyway, but when I went to remove the catheter from my stomach, it was already out and bent up......

So, I noticed it had been leaking a little. I am not sure how much medicine I have been getting the past few days but I have felt fine. I decided to leave it out until this morning to see how I felt.

Still so far, so good. I have my pills with me as back up but I am going to try to hold out for awhile! Hopefully, I am done with it. I am officially into my second trimester now, so I should be feeling better anyway.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Baby Dance Party

We went to my first regular ob\gyn doctor appointment today! So different than seeing an infertility specialist.

I'll spare you most of the details but we did get to have another ultrasound. Both babies were doing well and moving all around. One was kinda hiccuping or something because its whole body was moving. That same twin also had its face toward us. The second baby had its arms above its head and was kicking. I cannot believe how much they move and I cannot feel a thing. Soon enough though they will be jabbing me in the ribs!

Next appointment is in four weeks. Now it is on to cleaning out the house and making room for babies!

Our History - in a nutshell...

A lot of people have questioned if twins run in the family or if we had "help" in conceiving them. Well, most of you know we had "help". But for those of you who do not know the entire story, here is a brief history of what Mike and I went through to end up with our twin pregnancy.

September 2004 - we have our wedding, I mess up my birth control on the honeymoon and decided to stop taking it all together. We did not necessarily want babies right away, but birth control and I really did not get along. It made me moody, etc. We just left it up to destiny.

December 2005 - I start to worry that something might be wrong because I have not ended up pregnant in over a year. I went to my doctor and she put me on Clomid to stimulate ovulation. It is a pretty cheap pill you take once a day, on 5 certain days in the month. The doctor checked my hormone levels through blood work twice in the cycle. Pretty easy to manage.

July 2006 - My regular ob\gyn determines after 6 months of Clomid, and no pregnancy, that we might need to see an actually Infertility Specialist. So, we make an appointment with Dr. Neeoo Chin in Fairfield. After reviewing both mine and Mike's history, running some standard tests, he diagnosed us with "unexplained infertility". There was no reason why we were not conceiving.

Over the next 15 months we go through treatments with Dr. Chin. First, it is just Clomid pills again, with an ovulation trigger injection, and timed artificial insemination. That does not work. We moved on to injectible drugs. This is where is gets really pricey. Luckily, our insurance covered 80% of the doctor visits/procedures, but it covered nothing for the drugs. I was taking a shot, given to me by Mike, 7-10 times a month. Each monthly cycle, with drugs and procedures included, cost nearly $500.

We did these injectible treatments six different times with rest cycles in between, either for my reproductive organs to rest or to save money for the next round. Dr. Chin finally said he would be happy to continue this process, but he really felt that we were having fertilization issues and that we might need to move to In-Vitro Fertilization with Dr. Awadalla.

January 2008 - We head to Dr. Awadalla's office in Hyde Park for our consultation for IVF. We have no real clue about the process or how much it costs, but felt it was important to check out this option. The process seemed easy. A lot more drugs, doctor's appointments, shots, MONEY, etc. But the success rate was pretty decent given our age and good health.

February 2008 - I was put on a daily injection on Lupron to shut down my ovaries. They do this so when they begin to stimulate them again, all the egg follicles grow and mature at the same rate. I took this injection for about 3 weeks, then moved on to the injections for stimulation. I have always responded well to these drugs and this time was no exception.

March 17, 2008 - Harvest time! It is a minor surgical procedure where I was asleep, Dr. Awadalla went in and removed the mature, stimulated eggs from my ovaries. We ended up with 26 good eggs! Surgery wasn't too painful. Mike does his business at the same time so that the eggs can be put in a dish with the sperm to fertilize.

March 18, 2008 - The dr. office calls to say that 11 of the 26 eggs fertilized. This is great news. Usually only about half fertilize so we were pretty much on target.

March 22, 2008 - Of the 11 fertilized eggs, only 2 actually make it to the transfer date. We were bummed as we have none left to freeze in case we need to do this again. Regardless, the two, very strong and healthy - now 8 cell embryos - are transferred to me.

From here on the blog pretty much picks up on the rest of the story. We had to wait awhile before we knew if it worked or not, but obviously it worked out very well for us. Not without a lot of pain, sickness, etc. But I am pretty sure it is going to be all worth it in the end!

Mother's Day

I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day this weekend. It was fun! Mike got me a body pillow to help me sleep more comfortably at night and I got many other cards, flowers (from the babies), etc. that I really appreciated. I know the babies are not here yet but I already feel like a mama!

Our cousin is a boy!

Auntie Sarah is have a baby boy shortly before we make our grand entrance to the world! We sure can't wait to meet him and spends lots of time playing, swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool, and making our parents insane!

Ultrasonic soundwaves reveal growth, development, blobs

Had another ultrasound today, the last time we saw the chil'ren they looked like tadpoles.. now they resemble blobs about three times the size of tadpoles... Also, no more IV drip and Zofran pump will continue another 3-4 weeks or until Katie decides she is ready to shed the tangled mess of cords and bags.

Return of the Nurse

The home health nursing agency came back to move the various ports/needles around. IV fluids are dropped to one bag a night (two if necessary) and Zofran continues. Now the dull pain from the former needle locations are setting in. But, not puke induced dehydration is a good thing.

Why go to the ER when the goods can come to you

No more waiting in the ER like a chump. After jumping through multiple hoops with the medical carrier and home health services, we narrowly avoided a trip to the ER when another serious bout of dehydration. A home health nurse came and put a tap in mom's hand and stomach. A daily dose of IV fluids and a 24/7 Zofran pump put an end to nausea. Carrying around a pump isn't the coolest (it has a shoulder bag, not a fanny pack) but a constant flow of meds keeps the sickness at bay.