So, it would seem that number 13 wasn’t quite as luck as we’d hoped.  For all of the interventions we tried to make with science, nature still had enough strength to intervene and put a stop to our plans.  As a friend put it, number 13 obviously just wasn’t Baby Woowaa.  It wasn’t fun finding that out but we tried and we can try again.

We have an appointment with our Doctor at the end of February to discuss our next steps.  We’re lucky that we have three more candidates on standby in the freezer.  Hopefully one of those WILL be Baby Woowaa.

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Something to make you smile…

What song would you use to make an England or Britain day silly song?

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That little blob of messy, cells is number 13 of 15 fertilised eggs that Repromed have had in the incubator since Friday morning.  This little chap(ess) was chosen because he/she is made up of so many cells that you can’t count them anymore.  They’re all merging together, just as they should be.  There are already three more of these little, tiny things frozen for the future .  This little guy/gal was picked from those four because, apparently, there is already a tiny hole in him/her, which is, so we’re told, good and a sign that he/she is already ready to start the next phase.

This, tiny, weeny little thing was introduced to us on an iPad, in the hand of a smiling embryologist.  It was then shown to us “live” under the microscope before being placed on the thin end of a very thin, device and dropped inside me.  The Dr gave me an ultrasound wand to hold over myself, pointed at the embryo’s new home, so that we could watch the entire thing.  We got to see the end of the bendy straw sneak in there and drop it in place.  We also got to see it, sat there, afterwards.  Strangely, it kind of glowed in there.  I’m not sure why, but there was a definite light patch where it was sitting against me.

They write the number they've taken on your hand so you can see when you wake up.

It was a bit touch and go as to whether we’d be allowed to transfer the embryo today.  The doctor was aiming to retrieve 10 eggs on Friday; he got 29.  That’s a sign that my ovaries were very stimulated.  I was a bit shocked when I saw that inky number on the palm of my hand, I knew that there were 27 follicles on the Monday of that week but I wasn’t expecting there to be that many reaching the point of producing and egg… instead I ended up with 2 more!

Having sorted through those eggs we were told that 19 were mature enough to be inseminated with.. we’ll call it man juice… (lol) Having injected 19, by Saturday lunchtime 15 of those had fertilised.  Then it was just a case of wait and see.  Today there are 3 in the freezer, one in me, one that has 14 cells, another with 11, another with 8 (all of which are being left over night to see if they get to the stage the one you see pictured above is at – if they do they’ll be put in the freezer too).  There’s one with only  a single cell, after 4 days… lazy …and cells like that will not be frozen and kept for the future.

We’ve been really lucky to collect so many eggs as it will reduce the chance of me having to go through the whole process for a while.  We can use up each one of the embryos that are frozen, should we need to, before I (or indeed Matt) need to hand over some more.

The reason that it was touch and go was because, as we were told by the doctor today, in the past if they have collected 29 eggs they just cancel the embryo transfer.  That’s because, in order to produce so many eggs at once (i’ve just given up over two years worth of eggs in one go) my ovaries have to become enormous.  As a result, I am really bloated and a bit sore.  At the weekend I was REALLY sore and walking at the pace of a snail.  I’m on hormone therapy now too and the side effects of that include bloating too! However, they changed my trigger injection to Lucrin (instead of Ovidril) and this seems to have made all the difference.  Lucrin’s hormone release is shorter, meaning that my body has had longer to recover and calm down. Under instruction from the doc i’ve also been drinking 2.5 ltrs of water everyday to flush out as much as I can. Of course, i’m still taking the more traditional oestrogen (Progynova) and progesterone (Cronin) but all the Follicle stimulating hormones have wandered off.

Because my bloods showed normal levels of hormones, i’m not dehydrated and my belly shrunk a little less than an inch in a day, the Dr let us go ahead.  There is still a risk that I will still end up with OHSS (Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome) but if I do begin to feel ill, this time it will be because the pregnancy hormones are kicking in… which also means … I’ll be pregnant!  As long as we’re vigilant we’ll be fine  I’m sure.

Every step of this process has been a risk.  The risk of OHSS has been there at every step of the way.  If the Dr was happy to offer us the opportunity then we decided were we happy to take it.  So now all we have to do is sit and wait.  The next hurdle for me is a pregnancy test.  If there’s no period (sorry boys) by the 8th of Feb I have to pop in for a blood test.  That’s how we confirm pregnancy here – something I know N8Girl would have appreciated when she found out she was pregnant

Keep praying, crossing fingers and sending us positive vibes.

Go number 13!

Strange facts…

• On Friday we were laughing when we realised we had chosen parking space 13 as we headed to the operating theatre.
• Yesterday my mum sent me a silly email asking how the little ones were.  We made a joke that number 13 needed burping…
• Embryo 13 was chosen.

Spooky!

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Had my second scan today and we are ready for egg collection.  I am a little “busy” (as they describe it) with far more active follicles than I probably should have so they’ve changed my trigger injection to help my hormone levels… level out.   Wish us luck!

I Can't believe how EARLY this is! That's 8:15pm UK time

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It’s been just over a week now since the IVF cycle started. I’ve been injecting myself in the belly every night between 9 and 10pm.  I started the second lot of medication 3 days ago.  The second injection stings a bit but an ice pack before and after I’ve given it to myself seems to calm it down a lot.  I’ve even been back to the clinic to have a scan. (Not a very dignified experience!).  I was hoping, perhaps naively, that after the scan they’d tell me to stop taking the drugs and tell me when my surgery is.

I’m feeling quite swollen and bloaty now.  Apparently I have 13 follicles on each side and each one of them is currently about 13 mm in size.  They all need to grow to around 2cms.  So, that will be 13, 2cm, follicles on either side of me… It feels very strange.  I’ve never been so aware of my internal organs!  I can actually feel them.  They ache and they feel heavy.  I’ve been joking about how I almost feel a little like I need an internal bra to support them as I move about.  My walk has certainly got slower!

Those of us who’ve experienced period pain will be familiar with the kind of ache I’m getting.  It’s a bit like when you really need a wee and your bladder’s pushed to aching point.  Except I can’t have a wee ad relieve the pressure.  I have to wait for my collection date.  I’ve also got to drink 3 litres of water a day so I do need to rush to the loo frequently! lol

It’ll be interesting to see how this feeling of bloaty, tightness compares to the early stages of pregnancy.  As it is I currently feel like a hen swinging around several eggs. I’ve explained to Matt that makes him a cock (lol) he asked me whether he was supposed to wander around me in circles clucking.

Side effects wise I’ve been really lucky.  I honestly haven’t had to put up with much.  I’ve had one headache and i feel a bit fuzzy headed sometimes but other than that I’m fine.  I haven’t turned into an evil, mood swinging monster yet nor have I felt like bursting into tears for no apparent reason.  It’s all good.  Just heavy especially for the hour or so after my injection.  I can see why they tell you to do it at night – I can just sleep it off.

I think the key for me was to be OK with the fact that I was putting these medications into my body.  That having headache, a swollen belly, or a fuzzy head was OK and not a reason to panic or down tools for the day!  Sounds silly but this feels like a massive thing and so putting a bit of context around it and calming myself down helps!! lol

Unfortunately, after the scan they decided that I’m not “cooked”  and so they upped my medication and sent me away again until tomorrow.  Tomorrow morning I have to do the whole internal scan thing again.. hoping that they will be a bit bigger this time. Hopefully, tomorrow they’ll tell me when the surgery might be.  In the meantime, I’ll keep working on the tatoo of needle holes around my belly button.  I’m going for a smiley.  Well… I might as well have some fun whilst I’m at it!

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What a lovely face I could pull at 22. Why'd I choose this one?!

Matt and I have been together for nearly 12 years and married for 3 and half. We’ve travelled the world, bought and sold houses, studied for a degree each, helped each other develop our career pathways and started new businesses together.  We’ve emigrated to the other side of the world so that we can experience life in another hemisphere.  We’ve achieved a lot together but there’s been one thing evading us – children.

One of my favourite students (I know I don’ t have favourites yadah yadah) told me, 3 years ago, that I’d better hurry up if I didn’t want to attend parents evening with a Zimmer frame – that actually made me laugh.  (Teenagers are amusing little creatures – they think 26 is middle age.) I’ve had adults I’ve worked with tell me how much they enjoy still playing tennis with their kids because they had them whilst they were younger – hint hint – and I’m bored with the assumption that people make when you meet them that because we’re in our 30s and married we must have young children.

It’s not that we don’t want them.   In fact, I remember one argument when we were 24 and unmarried where Matt suggested we have a baby before we were married – babies are something we’ve been discussing for a very long time.  We’ve always known that we wanted a family of our own and although our adventures have delayed us a little, we’ve actually been trying to create baby woowaa for nearly two years.  To some, that might not seem very long but every ‘big fat negative’ is actually pretty hard to take –  it gets harder to take with ever month.

About a year ago, we did some ‘investigations’ and were referred to a fertility clinic.  It turns out that, for us, there is actually a biological reason why we haven’t given conceived a baby Woowaa.   Our chance of conceiving naturally is pretty low.  We were told by a GP with sympathetic eyes that, if weren’t in any rush, we could just keep trying and see what happens, he told me to read the content on the Repromed site.  It was “NO” number 20 that helped us make our decision. 20 months might not be long to some, but for us it was long enough.

Yes, biscuits are a very important part of the injection process.

We’ve been in the expert care of Dr Angela McClean of Repromed, Adelaide for the last 12 months or so.  We’ve both been poked, prodded, scanned and tested.   It was through this process that we discovered that Matt has a unsually low white blood cell count which prompted a whole line of enquiry that was quite scary but thankfully fruitless.  We’re both proven fit, healthy and ready to be parents. We’ve made the decision to start IVF treatment.  In fact, the reason I’m writing this now, having stayed very quiet about it for all this time, is because I started the injections last night.

I’m writing about this now so that I can share the journey.  This blog has always been about sharing.  Its read by lots of people looking for information about how to emigrate from the UK to Australia.  Now, as our life moves towards a different kind of journey, maybe we can share some thoughts that will support others who are experiencing the same thing.  I wasn’t ready to share these private events before.  Maybe I am now.

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Well it’s not really that much of a surprise to see these little  furry creatures in Morialta Conservation Park but there you go!  See if you can spot our furry friends, the koalas, in these pictures. (They get bigger if you click on them

We took the photos in Morialta, a conservation park about 45 mins drive from our home here in Adelaide. It’s a place we’ve walked many times. We’ve e taken some of you with us on occasion.  Unfortunately for the cute koalas, Sunday was a very misty, rainy day so they were very active.  Most of them were curled up in a little ball, like hedgehogs in trees (without the spikes I guess).  After last weekends 43 degree heat I imagine the rain and the low 20 something temperature had them feeling a little chilly.  Poor things!

Just waking up

Look really carefully

apparently Koalas don't appreciate the rain

They're cute though aren't they!

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I am so looking forward to 2012.  I have so many things to look forward to! To begin with, in April, there will be the birth of two  niece (s)/nephew (s) (One official and one unofficial).  I also hope that I can add a miniature ’woowaa’ to the list of 2012 births – we’ll just have to see.  Then of course there’s the very real chance that Matt’s business will take off meaning that he will finally be happy at work.  If it doesn’t? Well then he’ll get an equally lovely chance in another (who knows what) job to finally be happy at work

We had a lovely Christmas – as you might have been able to tell from the piccies in my last post. We were both really lucky and had so many presents! Thank you to everyone who sent something over – I know it’s not easy.  The fun part about delays in postage is that Christmas keeps on going.  Since Christmas day we’ve had more cards from relatives and friends and even an extra pressie from one (CHOCOLATE BUTTONS and SNOW! – she knows me so well! )

and i haven't drunk a drop...

We spent the New Years weekend over in a place called Marion Bay.  Its about a three hour drive from our place.  We’ve been there before with Pete and Caz and they invited us again  We definitely couldn’t’ say no to the sea, sand, sun (40 flipping degrees it’s been all weekend) and the opportunity to have no mobile signal, no internet, no Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Google plus and all the other techie things that Matt and I both fill our days with! Instead there was sitting, talking, reading, (crocheting… just a bit ) and relaxing.  We even managed to keep Matt down at the beach for four whole hours.  That must have meant that he was really relaxed!

Matt and Pete in Innis National Park

Of course I also managed to achieve my first Jelly Fish sting….  Not as bad as you’d think.  I’ve never been stung by any animal but if there’s one thing in the sea I am scared of it’s jelly fish… the sneaky, see through little critters are just so hard to spot and then avoid!  One got me right on the shoulder blade!  We managed to up the anti though when we got home.  We arrived back at the house and headed straight back to the beach (I know… terrible life it really is).  At 40 degrees the best place to be is in the sea.  We were quite happy in there too until the RSL set off the Shark alarm. We didn’t actually get to see the beastie in question (that would have been cool) but we did have to vacate the lovely cool, bath water of the sea pretty sharpish! Unfortunatly, we were forced to lie on our towels in the sunshine until we dried off….  shame.

We have had one cool change today meaning that we’ve gone from 42 to 36 over night. Another is expected this evening that will bring the temperature down to 25.  After the last few days I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t have to “rug up” a bit! lol 25 will feel chilly.  The temperature are evening out to the low 30s now though.  It’s a shame the weather wasn’t like this for ma and pa last year.  I don’t think they believe me when I tell them how HOT it gets! It’s never happened when they’re here.

Anyway, that’s enough from me about what we did – you  can see for yourself  Here are some silly pictures of our shenanigans at Marion Bay

Now, as for New Year’s resolutions: I’m going to be brave and record mine here…. where it will be in Google and archived and everything (so it will have to be done).

1) I will either join a choir or get some vocal training – It’s about time I returned to that.

2) I will carry on with my Pilates every week, even when I feel rubbish, and will try and add two more classes a week to the mix (Zumba is good fun and maybe I can work my way back up to body attack/pump.)

3) I Will  try again with my book.  This time I’ll pick a local publisher and I will have an ISBN for it by the end of 2012 – so help me!

4) I Will finish the two iPod apps I have written for lesson planning and publish them to iTunes

5) I will be happy and healthy so that I can support my family and friends to do the same

What about you?

This set starts on Christmas Eve.

I’ve been adding to it since lunchtime yesterday  Enjoy!

Thanks for all the lovely pressies  We’re having lots of fun with them all

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here’s a little something from us to you!