God laughs

I’ve been patiently waiting for my period to come and for the genetic testing report.

The genetic testing report takes about 10-14 days so I have plenty of time to fill with fruitless worry.

In order to calm my mind, I begin to plan out different scenarios of what could be.

Thinking positively, I am assuming the report will come back with a huge green light.

“Why wouldn’t it?” I think “Dr. B thought this blastocyst looked really healthy, even better then when we did our first round and had our sweet daughter”. I’m almost convinced.

Thinking my period would come on Wednesday, I get all prepared and start counting the days to when the FET would take place and what the due date of our baby would be.

Yes, me and my calendar again. Making trouble.

It doesn’t come.

I look to Thursday and move the FET date and due date one day.

It doesn’t come.

I think it must come Friday and move the FET date and due date one more day.

It doesn’t come.

I try to rationalize why it must come of Saturday and move the dates once more.

Each move of the day means another move to the due date for our hopeful baby. With that thought then comes all the others like, what months will I have pregnancy sickness, what months will I feel too swollen to move, what months will I be up all night with a newborn… you get the picture.

Future-tripping. Living in the future and planning, worrying, getting excited over the things that are yet to come and that actually may not ever come.

MYOB USERS – Helping you to keep track of what's due and when | Atticus Business Accountants

My period still doesn’t come.

I am so frustrated at things I cannot control.
If it would just come so I can start the protocol and meds then it would feel more like a guarantee that we will have a baby.

That’s it! I’m looking for some comfort and assurance that we will have a healthy pregnancy and baby.

I’m looking for some solid ground to stand on when I feel like everything is up in the air.

My period doesn’t come.

I wake up on Sunday, defeated and decide to delete all my potential dates from my calendar.

I surrender to the process and to the timing God has for us.

I even begin to think that God is protecting us from starting the medications because He already knows the outcome of the PGS testing.

I prepare myself for this potential reality.

My period begins to come.

Monday morning, I wake up and I have my period.

Was it the letting go of control or was this just the plan all along.

All that mental energy I spent leading up to this day.

Can I bypass all this next time I’m going through something that has a bug question mark in the middle of it?

Either way, I am thrilled.

I call Conceptions to schedule my outside monitoring baseline monitoring appointment.

Conceptions will do outside monitoring for other IVF clinics in the country. I will go there instead of flying back to Atlanta for the 30-minute appointment.

I have a spring in my step.

We are starting this whole next phase and I can’t wait to get this going and on to the transfer!

We got the call.

Dr. Brahma was short and to the point. From the seven that were fertilized, one made it to day 5.

My heart sunk a little bit as I was hoping for at least 2.

What is Blastocyst Culture in IVF | Advantages of Blastocyst Culture

I am grateful for the one though.

She mentioned how she was pleasantly surprised with the one because of our numbers that we were working with. I recall the previous conversation with her where she mentioned our attrition rates are much higher than the norm.

Our first retrieval in 2018, we had 12 fertilized and two make it to this stage. Today, we had seven fertilized and one make it.

I learned that ‘normal’ attrition is 50%.

So she seemed hopeful because this particular blastocyst is a high grade- even higher than the one we had in our first retrieval (which is now our daughter).

We jump off the phone, glad to hear to report.

We begin the two week wait for the chromosome testing (pre genetic screening- PGS/PGT-A) to see if everything is normal for us to transfer this little blastocyst back in me for a pregnancy.

In the meantime, I wait expectantly for my period to come.

I had so many hormones in my system for that stim cycle that I can feel the heat in my body.

I need to get these hormones out of me.

I have night sweats that wake me up.

Drenched in sweat, I feel the hormones racing throughout my body.

Once I get my period, I pray all of this will be washed out of me.

Hubby and I decide that since the report was so good with the grade of the blastocyst that we are going to begin the Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) process as soon as I start my period.

I am anxious.

The feeling of wanting so much for this to be the plan.

Do you ever have that sense that you have an idea and timeline that makes sense and when it falls into place you think, “cool, so glad it worked out the way I thought it would”?

Well, I have that all the time.

I have the tendency to plan the future out with all the details that seems right to me.

For example: I look at my calendar and like to add things and estimate when other things will happen and I find myself in a calmer state when I have a perceived sense of control over what will happen.

The downside of this is my level of disappointment when what I had so perfectly plans doesn’t work out.

Same is true today.

I look at the calendar and plan out when I hope to get these icky hormones out of my system and what that would mean for our little one blastocyst that we hope will be our baby.

It’s not healthy thinking and it sets me up for let down. So I check myself.

Stay in the day, be present with the moment and turn off that ‘future-tripping’ brain that wants to figure everything out.

Hilary Maxwell

Trusting God in the Journey

More waiting makes more planning

The Blastocyst Report