Introducing the McDonald Boys

David Wayne McDonald III (Trey)
October 16, 2009
7:35 PM
4 lbs 10 oz
17 1/4 inches

Ty Randall McDonald
October 16, 2009
7:36 PM
4 lbs 1 oz
16 1/2 inches

The boys were born at exactly 32 weeks. They are both in the NICU but doing very well. Both boys are breathing on their own! They are currently being fed through tubes but taking the feedings well. They are both under bili lights but Trey's might stop today. They are both considered "intermediate" in the NICU and are in Isolets. Trey will hopefully be moving to an open crib with in the next few days! No estimation of when they will be able to come home but hopefully it will only be a few weeks. The first picture is Trey and the second is Ty. They don't look alike at all! Trey has dark hair and Ty has light hair!

Bed Rest

Well the last week has been pretty eventful! Last Thursday I went to Dr. L's office for my bi-weekly appointment to measure my cervix. Unfortunately it had gotten even shorter and was cause for alarm. Dr. L came into the office and said that she wanted to admit me to the hospital and have the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor check me out. David and I were shocked to say the least! They rolled me out in a wheel chair and took me immediately up to labor and delivery and got me a room. I changed into a gown and got back in the wheel chair to be wheeled to the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor. During the ultrasound examination at this new office my cervix kept fluctuating between 1cm and 1.7 cm. Definitely short. The major cause for concern however, was that I had started funneling. This means that my cervix was starting to open at the top. I wasn't dilated thank goodness. The Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor, Dr. Hughes, told us our options and mentioned a cerclage. A cerclage is a stitch around the cervix that helps keep it closed. At 23 weeks it was borderline too late for the cerclage but she explained the risks to us. The risks included infection and the possibility of rupturing the bag of water. David and I had to decide if this was what we wanted to do. We decided to go ahead and go through with it. Dr. H scheduled the Cerclage procedure for the next morning and I was wheeled back up to my room for STRICT bed rest....this, unfortunately, meant the use of a bed pan! The next morning around 9:30 I was taken back for the procedure. I was given a spinal block. Once Dr. H started the procedure she found that I had dilated 1 cm overnight....while on STRICT bed rest. It is a really good thing we decided to go through with the cerclage! The procedure went well and I was taken back up to my room. I stayed overnight Friday night but I was allowed to get up for bathroom breaks. Around 2:30 on Saturday I was released with orders that I remain on bed rest at home. I am allowed to get up for bathroom breaks, a brief shower and I am allowed to sit up to eat my meals. Other than that I have to remain in a reclining position.

We went for a follow-up appointment yesterday. Both babies are looking great (we found out last week that they weigh about 1 lb 5 oz and 1 lb 4 oz). The cerclage is still in place and everything is closed up. My cervical length is holding steady at 1.4cm. I will be seeing both Dr. L and Dr. H every two weeks so I will get a little jail break from the house. Tomorrow and Saturday I will be going to L and D to get steroid shots to start strengthening the boys' lungs in case they are born prematurely. Hopefully we will make it to 36 weeks with the bed rest.

As an added note, thank goodness for my mother-in-law. She has come by every day so far to help out. She gets here around 9 and leaves around 2. She lets Chipper out, brings me my meals and bless her heart, she has been a cleaning machine! It makes me tired just to watch her! David is going out of town this weekend for a work related softball tournament (I INSISTED that he still go). My parents are going to stay with me for the weekend to help with my meals and such. Everyone is being so helpful. I couldn't ask for better family and friends. This is going to be a long road but a road that is definitely worth it! Once I have Trey and Ty healthy in my arms it will seem like a distant memory! Oh and I am getting out of jury duty!

20 Weeks

17 Week Belly

This is kind of a sucky picture but this is what my "baby bump" looked like 2 weeks ago. I am going to take another picture when I turn 20 weeks on Friday. I am a lot bigger already. Please ignore the fact that we needed to weed eat the backyard! LOL!

We've Chosen Names!

Our baby boys will be named David Wayne III (nicknamed Trey) and Ty Randall. I cannot wait to meet them! I had a great appointment on Thursday. Everything is looking good with me. I have finally gained weight! The doctor was happy about that. I'm 19 weeks now and I have gained 8 lbs. My goal is to gain no more than 30. I hope I can do it! Trey and Ty are looking great too. I took my grandmother along with me so she could see the ultrasound. She loved it. We heard the heartbeats as usual. They were 162 and 149. The ultrasound tech finished up all the anatomy and everything is wonderful. Hearts, spines, brains, fingers and toes.....looking good! We were even treated to a 3d ultrasound which I normally find creepy but actually enjoyed since I was seeing my babies! I am already seeing the doctor every 2 weeks. She wants to monitor my cervix which makes me happy because I've seen too many maternity shows (ie: Birth Day or Deliver Me) that focus on cervical incompetance! I don't want that to happen to me.

Well that's the news for now. TTFN!

The McBabies Are.........

Both boys!!! I am so happy to finally know so we can start buying stuff! I never in a million years thought we'd have two boys. I thought for sure we'd have two girls or a boy and a girl. I'm very happy that they are the same sex. I think it will make things easier. As for me, I will be 17 weeks tomorrow and in good health! I'm going to start appointments every two weeks though but that makes me happpy because I will get an ultrasound everytime and I LOVE to see my boys moving around and hear their heartbeats!

12 weeks 6 days

First OBGYN Visit

As I said in the last post, I was referred back to my regular OBGYN. I had my first appointment on Monday, May 11 (the same day I lost my job!) I met with the nurse practitioner who asked a lot of family history questions and gave me a lot of information. My blood pressure was good. Even though I don't have high blood pressure, I worry about it a lot. According to the NP, I should only gain 25 lbs throughout this pregnancy. Yikes. I'll try my hardest! Once I finished with the NP I was sent for blood work which was not a fun thing. I have had my blood drawn so many times through the course of fertility treatments and it is usually no big thing for me but the phlebotomist was awful. She bruised me up and could barely get blood out of either arm. That has NEVER happened to me before. Enough about that. I don't want to think about it too much because I will have to get blood drawn again eventually!

Now for the highlight of the appointment. I didn't know that I would be getting an ultrasound during this visit but I did! Little did I know that I would also be hearing the heartbeats through the ultrasound. I told David he didn't have to come to the appointment because it would just be a lot of yapping. I feel really bad that he missed out on the heartbeats. Anyway, both babies measured at 9 weeks 1 day. I was 9 weeks 3 days at the appointment so that is really close! The heartbeats were 186 and 176. Nice and strong. I'm so happy things are still looking good. The ultrasound picture is posted above. It isn't very good quality because it was my very first abdominal ultrasound.

My next appointment is June 4 and I actually get to meet with Dr. Leinenbach. I also get another ultrasound and we'll get to hear the heartbeats again! David will be coming along this time! I don't want him to miss it again!

Appointment Updates

So I've been missing in action for a little while. I've just been so tired and didn't really feel like updating things but now I should have plenty of time because I lost my job on Monday. American General cut about 10% of the workforce here in Evansville and I was part of that 10%. It's okay though because we were trying to work it out so I could stay home once the babies are born. Now I'm just starting a little earlier! Anyway, on to the appointments.

We had an appointment at Dr. Gentry's office on May 5. We saw both heartbeats again and everything looked good. We were referred back to my regular OBGYN. It's going to be weird not to go to Dr. Gentry's office anymore. It is amazing what a difference two weeks can make. The ultrasound pictures actually look like babies! How exciting! The pictures above are from that visit. I will post the updates from the next appointment in a separate post.

Ultrasound Results

I'm very tired from stressing out the last couple days so I'm getting ready to take a nap. I will post more details later but I really wanted to share the news......we are having TWINS!!!!!

Beta #2

The result is 965! It doubled and then some! Woohoo. I don't have to go back for another beta. I am supposed to call on Monday and schedule an ultrasound for the next time Dr. G is in town which will be about a week an a half from now. I can't wait. Once I see a heartbeat (or two!) I will be able to relax a little!

No News

I waited and waited for the results of my second beta yesterday but I never got a call! We decided to contact the nurse on call to find out what happened. She said that sometimes it takes quite a while to run labs when testing progesterone and the lab probably didn't finish running my blood work before they left for the day yesterday (they closed at Noon). WHAT!!! I was the second person to have my blood drawn and I was out of the lab by 8:05 yesterday morning! Oh well, hopefully I will get a call today but the negative Nancy in me keeps thinking that they lost my sample all together. Sheesh.

Well.....

Yay!!!!! The nurse called today around 1:15 to say we are pregnant! My beta was 379. For those of you who don't know what a beta is, it's a test where they measure the level of the pregnancy hormone HCG in your blood stream. This number should double every 48 hours so I go for another blood draw on Friday. If it doubles and all goes well, we are looking at 2 weeks from today for an ultrasound! During the ultrasound we should be able to see the heartbeat(s) and find out how many babies we have! Woohoo! We definitely aren't out of the woods yet but I feel much more optimistic this time and I just know that all the prayers and well wishes we have received from friends and family are making a HUGE difference. An enormous THANK YOU goes out to all of you! Keep the prayers coming so that David and I may deliver a happy and healthy baby! We really appreciate each and every one of you!

Going Insane

I think I am going to drive myself insane! I have 8 days to go and I can't relax my brain. The nurse told us that I wouldn't feel any pregnancy symptoms because all the hormones I took to prepare for the FET are the same hormones that your body produces during pregnancy. So why am I sitting here imagining symptoms? So far I have conjured up a little nausea, cramps and extreme fatigue. Oh man. It's going to be a long 8 days!

The Dreaded Two Week Wait

The FET went really well yesterday. The embryologist thawed 3 of our 5 embryos and all 3 made it! That is wonderful news. We have 2 embryos left in storage which we difinitely did not expect. All the research I have done shows that no matter how good the embryologist is all of the embryos won't make the thaw. I guess we just proved that research wrong!

Dr. G transferred the 3 thawed embryos into my uterus but not without some difficulty. It is me after all. Anything that can go wrong will. Sad but true! The nurse hit the nail on the head when she said, as she came into the room, " Carrie are you being difficult again?" I replied "of course!" Apparently my uterus lays straight up and down and was tilted just a little bit. That's all fine and dandy according to Dr. G but the darn catheter just would not go in! So after what seemed like an eternity of being poked and prodded he switched to a different catheter and it went in on the first try. Thank goodness! It most definitely was not that uncomfortable last time. I just had to grin and bear it! So now I'm sitting at home relaxing until I go back to work tomorrow and I am slowing counting the minutes until April 8 which is when I get to take my pregnancy test. The two week wait is torture.

As you can see above, I've included a picture of our precious little embryos. You can't really make out much but the little white lump circled in red is all 3 of them laying together. I really hope that at least one of them takes! Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes and prayers!

A few more days...

Only a few more days until the FET and the nerves start to show up. Not because of the procedure itself but the outcome. I have always heard that FETs don't have a very big success rate so the doubts start creeping their way in. But...I have to tell myself that there is hope. The nurse told me a couple weeks ago that our chance of pregnancy is about 45% which is MUCH higher than I thought. I also learned that a fellow PCOS sufferer (you know who you are!) became pregnant with her twin girls following an FET! That is amazing news! I hope and pray that David and I should be so lucky! Two and a half days to go!

And the lucky day is....

We have a date scheduled for the FET. It is set for March 25 which is almost a week later than I anticipated. The later date is due to Dr. Gentry's schedule. He won't be in Evansville that week and we kind of need him there! I have to take 6 extra days of shots to accommodate the change but I don't mind. I just hope this cycle works! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

A little bit of good news

I was a little bummed because the packaging on the antibiotic I was prescribed to treat a UTI said that it could not be taken at the same time as fertility meds. I decided to call Dr. Gentry's nurse to find out why and she said that because Lupron isn't an actual fertility medication I can take it at the same time as the antibiotic and we can go ahead with the protocol for the frozen embryo transfer (FET)! I am so excited! I will take my first Lupron shot tonight and will continue for another 25 days!

The History

David and I met in 1995 at Wesselman's Supermarket. We became friends and talked to one another quite often. Fast forward to early 1996 when the words "It's you fool" changed the course of our relationship forever. We were just two crazy kids who had their whole lives ahead of us. We waited quite a while to get married but happily tied the knot, after 7 years of dating, on May 17, 2003. David and I decided to start a family immediately. So....we tried. And tried. And tried. The early "infertility" years are kind of hazy to me these days but to sum it up we ended up trying the fertility drug Clomid for several months with no luck and then in August of 2005 I diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and told by my OBGYN that I would have to go to a fertility specialist. This starts what I like to call the Dr. Gentry years.

We met Dr. Gentry for the first time in October 2005. I was given medicine to treat PCOS and was told that I had to take the medication for one month before we would start any fertility medications. In November we did yet another round of Clomid , this time under the care of Dr. Gentry. I was told the Clomid didn't work properly and that my body did not grow any eggs that were "mature" enough to release out of my ovaries. Bummer. Our next course of action is to start injectable medications but we will have to wait out a cycle to let my body rest.

Dec 21, 2005 I take a pregnancy test and believe it or not it's positive!!! Yippee.

January 1, 2006 Happy New Year, you're having a miscarriage :(

March 2006 Surgery on ovaries

Between April 2006 and December 2007 we did multiple rounds of injectable medications in conjunction with IUI (also known as artificial insemination) but all of these cycles ended in bitter disappoinment and we realized that it was time to move on to In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). I never dreamed that we would have to go this far to have a baby and I even struggled with the decision a little bit because, as a Catholic, IVF is a sin. In the end my desire won out. Here is how it went:

February 2008 - Test done on uterus to check for polyps, lesions, cysts or anything else that might prevent implantation. I aced that one!

March 2008 - Started injections to suppress my natural hormone functions

April 2008 - Started follicle (egg) stimulating injections, 2 to be exact. That makes 3 shots a day. Then another 2 pills on top of that. Very fun!

April 15 - IVF 1 canceled because my estrogen level plummeted. Of course I'm difficult and can't be a normal case. Dr. Gentry says he has never had this happen before. We'll try again.

May/June - Long story short - read above. Same protocol same result. Cancellation. Ugh. IVF 2 down the drain.

At this point we decide that we are going to take a LONG break and try again when we get back from our family vacation to Disney World. We made this decision because contrary to popular belief, giving yourself 3 shots a day isn't very fun! During this long break, I'm determined to make the next attempt work so I stop drinking soft drinks, start drinking water only, give up sweets and lose 25 pounds in the process. This next attempt just has to work now!

October 2008 - IVF 3 Will we make it to retrieval this time???? Yes! After taking all the injections listed above we successfully grew eggs without my estrogen dropping, hooray! On Nov 1st 20 eggs were retrieved, 17 were mature, 13 fertilized! On Nov 5th two of the best quality embryos were transferred into my uterus (according to Dr. Gentry, the nurse and the embryologist those 2 embryos were EXCELLENT quality so this gave us great hope that they would implant)
Now we have to wait until Nov 19th to find out if we are pregnant.

Waiting

Waiting

In the meantime, we find out that 5 of the 11 remaining embryos continued developing and were viable enough to cryopreserve for future use.

Waiting

Waiting

November 19, 2008 Guess what......big fat negative. How disappointing.

December 2, 2008 Based on the excellent quality of the embryos he transferred, Dr. Gentry is having a difficult time believing that I'm not pregnant and feels that there MUST be something wrong with my uterus that is keeping the embryos from implanting. I am sent to St. Mary's for an MRI.

December 5, 2008 Of course the MRI comes back clear. There is nothing wrong with my uterus. It's just "one of those things" and we'll have to try again. Sheesh!

So anyway, that's the not-so-brief history of my and David's attempt to start a family. Our story is full of ups and downs and a lot of heartache. Fortunately, we aren't alone. We have great family and friends who have been with us each and every step of the way.

Now that everyone is up to date on the history, this blog will serve as way to keep readers up to speed with our current attempts! If you have any questions about a particular procedure, don't hesitate to ask. I didn't want to put too much detail into the story for the fear of TMI!

Of Course....that's just my luck!

David and I have 5 embryos that were left over from the in vitro cycle we did in October. The embryos were frozen for future use and we decided to do a frozen embryo transfer as our next attempt to get pregnant. Just as I'm getting ready to start the medications that need to be taken during this process I develop a urinary tract infection and have a prescription called in. I just picked the pills up from Walgreen's and in BIG BOLD letters emphasized by a green highlighter I see the words CHECK FOR PREGNANCY AND USE OF FERTILITY MEDICATIONS. I absolutely cannot take this antibiotic with fertility meds. Of course I can't! Well I guess we'll try again next month.

A Video is Worth a Thousand Words

The first time I watched this video I bawled my eyes out. It is so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. I couldn't have explained our journey better myself. Please take a moment to watch this video and walk a while in our shoes!

http://www.tearsandhope.com/emptyarms_video.html

Just a Start

People often ask me for updates on the emotional roller coaster that David and I call infertility. I thought I would start this blog to document all of the highs and lows related to this journey and to keep my friends and family informed. Hopefully, this blog will be informative and help you, the reader, gain a better understanding of what we have been through and what we will continue to go through until we meet our ultimate goal...to become parents! So please check back often and feel free to ask questions and offer opinions!