After much ado...

(And by 'much' I really mean a TON...)

...I'd like to announce that Matt and I are expecting TWINS!!!

WOW! I know, crazy!

I am due January 6th, however, these little ones will most likely be making an appearance around Christmas. We should find out their genders some time near the end of August. I'm currently at 13 weeks and everything is looking great so far. We are super excited!

The story...

Many of you know about our struggle with infertility... We have been through a lot during the past 3 or 4 years. In January we decided to head back to the IVF fertility clinic down in Charlotte to begin getting ready for the IVF process. I had to go through another huge batch of tests before we could get started, but we were ready to go by mid March.

At this time we signed our life away and received this this huge box of meds in the mail (I called it the 'box of pain').

It contained all the necessary drugs to turn me inside-out and upside-down and make a lot of eggs in a single month. I think during this time I gave my self roughly about 75 shots (4 per day, ouchie!). Truthfully, they were not as bad as I was initially thinking, most of these were given with an insulin saringe (which is really tiny), but everytime I held that needle in my hand and was about to jab it into my skin, I wondered 'WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU THINKING! Who voluntarily stabs themselves like this?'.(my daily meds...)

Well, I got through all that and was now ready for the egg retrieval. This is a surgical process where they go in and suck out all the eggs in your ovaries with a needle. It was really quick and the pain wasn't too bad, I just felt like someone had taken a few punches at my abdoman. In recovery they told us they retrieved 25 eggs! Which is about double the amount they were expecting/hoping for.

In the end we had 4 successfully fertilized eggs. They grow the embryos in a petri dish for 5 days if they can before transfering them back into the uterus. So, on day 5 the little guys looked like this...
At this point they are called a 'blastocyst', about 100 cells. We decided to transfer 2 back in and cryo preserve the other 2 for possible future use. I was on strict bed rest for 2 days after the transfer. My fabulous mother came to help out during this process and made sure I didn't get out of bed (thanks mom!!! You're the BEST!).

Next came the waiting and the next round of shots... I was encouraged not to take a home pregnancy during this time as my body was still full of crazy hormones and drugs that might affect the out come on one of these tests. I began taking progesterone shots which helps out with early pregnancy, especially for those who have had miscarriages in the past. These shots were a bit more intense then the others. I wasn't able to give them to my self, so I had a great friend at my church help me out (Matt refused to stick me with needles and my friend is a skilled nurse, so I think it all worked out well). These shots were about 10 times bigger than the others and needed to be administered in the bum once a day. Now, these ones did hurt a bit, but Kara was awesome and I'm super thankful for all her help!!! During this time I struggled with a little bout of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (meaning my ovaries were still over active because of the meds and my abdoman was filling up with fluid...). Luckily, I didn't require hospitalization and was sent home with a prescription to drink 3 diet cokes a day to help rid my body of the extra fluid (twist my arm, why don't ya :).

I was unable to control myself (mostly because I had it on hand), but I did take a home pregnancy test during this 'waiting period'.It wasn't very dark, but you can see a faint second line there! My first pregnancy test at the doc was scheduled for 12 days after the transfer, but because I came in with the ovarian issue, they decided to do the first test at 7 days after the transfer. It was early, but it came back positive! I had 2 more pregnancy tests each 3 days apart. The numbers kept going up, so everything was looking good!

At 7 and a half weeks I had my first ultrasound, and here's what we saw...Two little 'rice krispies' (as the doctor was calling them) growing away. The doc was able to get a heartbeat for each of them and they were both measuring perfectly. As you can see, they are growing in separate sacs which means that both of the transferred embryos took and they are fraternal, not identical twins. At this time the doc had me go off the progesterone shots. My bottom was SO thankful!

I had one more ultrasound at 9 weeks with the fertility specialists before they released me to my 'real' doctor. At this point they looked like little gummy bears.The heart beats were good and I was released to begin seeing a regular OB-GYN. (by the way, 'dichorionic' means fraternal twins...) Before leaving they gave me a big bag full of goodies and coupons. Here was one little gem...I'm kinda sad they only gave me one, I really need 2 of these :) So cute.

It was kind a hard waiting 3 weeks before I would have my first appointment with my new (if you can call him new, I've already been through a lot with this office...) doc, but I got through :) This next ultra sound was at almost 12 weeks.They're getting too big to see together in one ultrasound view. They are looking like little people! I have to savor this one because I won't have another peek at them until August, when we get to find out what they are.

Matt and I are SO excited for these little ones to join our family! Thank you some much to all of our friends and family who have been such a support to us during the past few months! I really don't think I could have gone through all that was necessary without you!

Love,
Krista & Matt