So what is IVF. Basically it is when an egg is fertilized by sperm in a laboratory dish. Simple right?!?

Here is how the doctors make this happen.

You start by seeing a specialist and they help you decide if IVF is right for you. In our case it was our only option so that was easy. Then they scare you with lots of big words, statistics and dollar signs. If you are still in then they give you your options for start dates. The specialist in Wichita only does 6 cycles per year so we chose August in the hopes that if it works we can have the baby after John graduates from Fort Hays State but before our insurance deductible resets(isn't that super romantic).

Once your date is chosen you begin the preliminary tests. There is the semen analysis, where they make sure the little swimmers are good (ours were). There are blood tests to make sure you don't have any STD's or Zika or the measles etc. There is a test where they checked out my uterus to make sure there were no abnormalities. There are many others but since our case is pretty cut and dry we got to skip most of it. Once the tests were done and our cycle date approached I was put on birth control. Seems counter productive right? What the birth control will do is prevent me from ovulating until we are ready to start the drugs. Let me tell you, birth control is no joke. My hormones are all kinds of weird right now.

So here is what is about to happen. On August 14th I will go to Wichita for a sonogram to make sure everything looks good. If all goes well that evening we will start the injections. In order to maximize our chance for a pregnancy we need as many healthy eggs as possible. In order to do that we need to hyper stimulate my ovaries. To do that I am going to be taking hormones. The way these hormones are administered is through subcutaneous injections (little needles in my belly, arms or thighs). These injections have to be done the same time every night for 10 days. In that 10 days I will go to Wichita every 2-3 days for a sonogram and a blood draw so we can monitor my follicles(think of them as little egg sprouts). Once the doctor feels I have enough follicles at a mature length we will do a trigger shot(big needle that gets injected into my butt...so glad John has to do that injection because, no, just no). 36 hours after the trigger shot I will be in Kansas City at KU med where they will knock me out and use a super long needle to extract the eggs. While I am passed out John gets to have the pleasure of providing the sperm (again with all the romance). Then they will put the sperm with the eggs and let the magic happen. sleeved maid of honor wears that is modest and conservative

Still with me?

When I wake up they will tell us how many eggs we made. The doctor says only 1/4 of those eggs will make it to the embryo stage so the more eggs the better. Over the next 3-5 days we wait for the eggs to grow into embryos. Once they reach the blastocyst stage we will have our final product. Most likely we will get one or two viable embryos. Anything more than that will be a major blessing.

This is where we change course. In most cases this is where we would do an embryo transfer and they would place one embryo in my uterus then we pray and wait for 10 days to see if it implants. However, we have elected to do a procedure called Preimplantation Genetic Screening or PGS. With PGS they will biopsy some cells from within the embryo wall and test them for any chromosomal abnormalities. We want to do this to ensure we are transferring an embryo that will have the best shot at becoming a baby. The downside to PGS is that we won't be able to do the embryo transfer until late September or early October. So once thy biopsy is done they will freeze our embryos and store them until it's time for transfer.

Wow that was a long post.

I will update you as things begin to happen. I hope this wants too much information for you. If you want to hear more or have any questions we have a lot of info to share so don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for joining us!