Shots Shots Shots

     I think the song Shots by LMFAO may or may not be my new theme song in life. ;) It has been a busy last couple weeks in our lives! Between doctor appointments and needles, I'm about ready to just open up my own practice. Haha but I'll keep dreaming. I started my medication injections on the night of May 10th. They started me with two different injections once a day to help stimulate my ovaries and help produce follicles. (Follicles contain my eggs) Thankfully my best friend was in town visiting, who also is a nurse and offered to do the shots for me! Such a huge relief, otherwise we would of been waiting alllll night for me to get over my fear of needles. After the first shot was done, I was much more relaxed! The needles are so small that you can barely feel them which is super nice. I mean let's be honest, getting poked in the stomach multiple times isn't the most exciting thing to have to go through.

First night of shots!

     I was/am having to make visits to the doctors every other day to have blood work done along with an internal ultrasound to check my hormone levels and to see how my ovaries/follicles were doing. Every visit our doctor kept saying hoe great everything looked and kept my medication dosage the same each day because my body has been responding to it exactly the way it should be! Let me tell you, it is SO nice to hear some positive things come out of a doctors mouth after hearing so much negative for so long! :) Thankfully I have only had a few side effects from the medications as well which have included nausea, headache, little bit of bruising on my stomach and some major bloating in my stomach which has been my least favorite part. Haha. I'm naturally a skinny girl, so to wake up with a little belly is like WOAH! Luckily I can just blame the meds. ;) 

Hopefully soon there will be a little baby Hempel in that bloat! 

     It's was beyond wonderful to have Meghan out to visit us for an entire week! She's like a little piece of home and to have her here during all the chaos made this past week much easier to get through and not over stress about the little things. Unfortunately Brett was busy with work and wasn't able to make it to any of my appointments, so Meghan made a good stand in husband. ;) If only I could keep her out here forever! 

    

     This past Friday, I had to add one more injection into the mix which is to prevent my body fro ovulating so when it comes to do my egg retrieval, my eggs will still all be in my follicles instead of releasing like they do in a normal cycle. That put me up to three shots every night! Talk about a party. ;) I was able to overcome my fear of needles right before Meghan left and have been giving myself my own shots for the last three days! I was pretty darn proud of myself!

Giving a whole new meaning to body shots!

     

     Only a couple more shots left and then it's on to our egg retrieval and making those little embryos! Thank you a million times to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers during this whole process. We are so so excited that this is all actually happening and we are making wonderful progress through everything! Please keep sending good vibes and baby dust our way in the next few days as we will most definitely need it! 

     Xoxo 

April Showers Bring May Fertility Drugs?

     The month I have ever so been waiting for is finally here! I've never been so excited for it to be May 1st! The ball is FINALLY starting to slowly move towards starting IVF. Thank goodness. April was a good month, Brett's parents came out to visit us for a weekend which was great! It was nice to have a little piece of home here with us. My best friend Meghan bought a ticket to come visit us for a week in May which I'm SO pumped about. Also my Mom and brother Jaden bought tickets to come visit us for six days in the beginning of June! :) We have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks and couldn't be anymore excited.


     On April 29th, I finally after what seemed like was never going to happen received an email from my IVF coordinator with my medication protocol! So many emotions hit me while reading it. I'm so excited, nervous, anxious, ready and a little scared to go through this whole process but Brett and I seriously have the best support system! People I have never met have reached out to us with kind words and prayers! It really is the best feeling knowing that so many people have our backs through this all and are just as ready for Little Baby Hempel as we are. <3

I'm drowning in fertility drugs and there is five boxes in the fridge! 

     I drove down to La Jolla, CA this morning and picked up my fertility drugs! It was kind of an overwhelming feeling when she handed me THREE full bags of medicine along with a sharps container. They definitely are not messing around. ;) I take my last birth control pill on May 7th and meet with my IVF coordinator the same day to have an ultrasound done to make sure everything is good to go and also to have her go over all my medications with me and how to inject them! I then will start injections on the morning of May 10th for 10-12 days. (Hopefully starting my injections on Mother's Day is a positive sign!)  Every two days after starting my meds, I have to go have blood work and an ultrasound done to check my hormone levels and to make sure my follicles are growing like they should. We are set to have our egg retrieval done on May 22nd then the embryo transfer five to six days after that! It's all going to happen so so fast but we are more then ready! :)

     Please continue to pray and send good vibes our way that everything goes smoothly and soon we will be making our dreams a reality! <3 I will be most likely be posting more blog updates throughout my medication journey just to keep everyone up to date and share my lovely horemonal feelings. ;)

Thought I'd share a little IVF humor! 

     Xoxo