TW: Infertility
The secret is out, we are having another baby! We are due August 24th with another little boy, and are over the moon with excitement! Truthfully, I can’t think of anything more special than having two little boys only 22 months apart.
In case you didn’t know – I have two siblings, and while I love them both lots, we are each 5 years apart and have always been at very different stages of life – I just turned 33, my brother is 27, and my sister is 22. We are quite close, despite the significant age gap, but I always hoped to have my kiddos closer in age.
Gosh, I’m so lucky. That is not lost on me.
Given my transparency in the past around our infertility and use of IVF to conceive Asher, I wanted to share a bit more about what things looked like this time.
I wish I could say, “oh my gosh, it’s a miracle, we got pregnant on our own” but that wasn’t the case. We tried and were unsuccessful – but thankfully, we had 4 more frozen embryos from our IVF cycle in January, 2021, so all hope was certainly not lost.
In summary, were able to successfully transfer this baby on the first try, so we still have 3 more embryos on ice! More details below for those who are interested.
The Timeline
July-August: We decided over the summer that if we were unable to conceive on our own by Asher’s first birthday (end of October) that we would move forward with a frozen embryo transfer.
August 16th: We had our first consult with our fertility doctor at Fertility Solutions – the one who helped us conceive Asher and has been with us since the start of our journey! Our embryos are on ice with their facility in Massachusetts, and we never considered transporting them to another facility because we love them so much and it’s quite easy for us to travel up there for care due to my family being local. At this appointment our doctor reviewed the two different pathways for a frozen embryo transfer – a natural cycle or a medicated cycle. We weighed the pros and cons together, and I left the meeting with a decision to make at some point over the next couple of months.
October 17th: We had decided to move forward with the frozen embryo transfer, and due to a few reasons chose the medicated cycle. Those reasons were primarily that (1) it would mirror some of what I did in my cycle with Asher which was emotionally reassuring for me, (2) it gave us a lot of control over the timing since we would be traveling for the transfer, and (3) it would require slightly less monitoring, which was helpful as I was doing my monitoring out of state through my OBGYN clinic.
October – Early November: Before we could do the transfer, I needed a handful of updated labs and procedures. October 10th I had a transvaginal ultrasound and hysterosonogram with saline infusion. October 29th I had labs completed that included HCF, comprehensive metabolic panel, CBC and GFR. Everything came back ‘normal’ so we were ready to start my medications for the cycle, which were very straightforward (in my opinion, and compared to IVF).
Somewhere around November 14th: Started Estrance, 2mg, 2x daily.
November 21st: Increased Estrance to 2mg, 3x daily.
November 28th: I had another transvaginal ultrasound as well as Estrogen and Progesterone labs.
November 30th: Continued Estrance 2mg, 3x daily and started progesterone 1mL injection in booty every evening.
December 6th: Embryo transfer in Massachusetts – no change in meds, nothing added or removed, all stayed the same!
December 15th: Pregnancy test back in Virginia, positive! Beta was 181.5!
December 19th: Beta #2, Estrogen and Progesterone labs. Beta #2 was 782.8!
December 27th: Beta #3, Estrogen and Progesterone labs. Beta #3 was 10,573!
December 27th – January 26th: Continued to monitor Estrogen and Progesterone levels but all of my meds remained unchanged. Ultimately, I was on 2mg, 3x daily of Estrance and 1mL Progesterone injection for 9 weeks at that point – labs all looked good to I started to wean off my meds. It took a couple of weeks to fully wean off of everything and I followed my clinic’s recommendations but gosh, that was hard, I had no idea the impact weaning off my meds would have on me at nearly 11 weeks pregnant.
In Summary
I am lucky. I am lucky to have had this opportunity, to have had the embryos, to still have 3 embryos, to have such a supportive clinic and local OBGYN who helped me navigate the process this time, and to have a husband who gave me a lot of injections in my booty and who was able to hold my hand during the embryo transfer and every ultrasound after. I am so grateful for this baby, for our growing family, and for science.
I know this process isn’t simple, and it isn’t easy, and for many it is much, much more difficult than it was for that. I am thinking of every single one of you who is experiencing this process or who has experienced it in the past.
I am always here to answer questions or to be a support system for someone who needs it.
– With love, Carissa
A Blonde Escapes 