Magsorette...New Orleans Style

My first trip to New Orleans was a success! I had so much fun for my little sisters Bachelorette Party while there and got to experience a new city! My favorite part was probably how low key everything was.  And the food was pretty amazing. 

My little sister, the bride-to -be!

Shark Attack...my niece loved that I brought her home the shark to play with.  She was so surprised! 

You can't go to New Orleans and not go to Cafe Du Monde.  Honestly, I didn't see the big deal, but I'm glad I went!

The four cousins on the trip!

Barrett and Samuel. They made the trip.

The big group!

Family Rivalry 2013

Every year, K-State and TCU play in football.  This year, the game was in Manhattan, Kansas and my sister, her fiance, my dad and his wife all came up for the game. We had a lot of fun (maybe too much?) and K-State came out on top! 

Here's a few tailgating pictures and some at the game...

CCRM & IVF #2 Update

So we've been taking a complete break from all things infertility related.  To catch you up to date:

We had our one day work up with CCRM in Colorado back in June 2013.

Everything looked great except for...dun dun dun...my ovarian reserve.  We decided to move forward with an IVF at CCRM at the end of July 2013/August 2013.

We ended up with retrieving 5 eggs with only 2 mature at that time.  2 more matured over night and one of each fertilized with ICSI.  We froze both embies on day 3...One was a 7-cell with 10% fragmentation and 4-cell with 15% fragmentation.

Here's a few pictures from our trip to Colorado.  While there with our retrieval, we were able to do some exploring with Albert and Daisie.

With neither embryo being super great quality, and day 3 at that, we decided to transfer both in October.  Unfortunately, neither one took.  Dr. M thinks it was due to quality (not a big surprise there) and wanted to regroup to figure out a plan next.

Talk about devastation. This was such a difficult time for us, but we weren't giving up hope.  After regrouping with Dr. M, we decided we were going to try again with my own eggs before even considering donar egg or embryo adoption.  She recommended we try again at least 6 months from now and suggested I get on a slue of supplements/meds while going gluten free.  Hey, whatever it takes.

So, here we are.  In a position of disappointment but we haven't given up hope.  We have age on our side.  We have hope on our side. We have faith on our side.  Here's to round #3...

Marc and Dan's Wedding!

It's not every day that two of your best friends get married...to each other! Greg and I were both in the wedding party for our good friends Marc and Danielle.  It was so much fun and such a beautiful wedding! 

Bridesmaids with the Bride

Getting our hair done!

Can't forget Starbucks!

Greg and I with the Bride and Groom!

Baker tennis girls...love you all! 

St. Louis Cardinals, Zoo, and Music

We went to St. Louis with our good friends and had a wonderful time! 

1st on the agenda, a Cardinals game of course! After the game, we spent the night out in downtown St. Louis.  Casino fun, bar, beers, rumchata, and White Castle. Let's just say that White Castle is never a good decision the next morning.

We then went to the St. Louis Zoo the next day, which I had been dying to go to for awhile. Below you'll see a snuggly gorilla eating some lunch. 

And last on the agenda was an Alkaline Trio show in St. Louis.  It was a great show but it wasn't so fun driving back to Kansas City that night for work the next morning.  

Ahhh....while we are young. :)

This bridge as a special significance for me.  While I was an assistant tennis coach, our team played in St. Louis during spring break one year. The head coach actually tried to drive the bus under this bridge but it didn't fit. We drove all the way back to Kansas from St. Louis with 1/2 a roof on the bus. Crazy. 

Happy 30th Birthday, Honey!

Today my wonderful, caring, sweet, handsome husband turned 30. We had a surprise party for him at the Royals vs. Cardinals game and he had no idea it was coming. Thanks to all of the family and friends that made the trek in the "hurricane" type storm.  It meant the world to have you there!

A plan is never a plan

I haven't updated in a while.  It's been a rough few weeks.  With our first failed IVF, well I don't even know if it would be qualified as a full IVF because we never made it to freeze/transfer...and then some news from friends, mother's day and a recent test, it's been a whirlwind.

So here's what's happening:

Our 2 embies stopped dividing on day 3, so we didn't make it to transfer as I previously published.  DH and I were so ready to just take a break and do something for ourselves.  We talked to our best friends about going to Vegas in July...they were in! Awesome! We just wanted to get away from everything, take a break and spend time together. Well..about 5 days after we booked the Vegas trip, my friend wrote me an email to tell me she was pregnant.  Not planned at all, obviously.  While my heart sunk and I was in shock, I can say that I am happy for her.  She knows everything we are going through and was so worried about how we would react.  That's how you know she is a true friend.  So...Vegas is a no go.

I decided to call my RE and get my AMH retested before we went in for our WTF appointment.  I was thinking to myself...I've been on all of these supplements for 6 months, it has to have gone up.  No, I was wrong. Dead wrong.  My AMH (which measures ovarian reserve) is now undetectable at <.16.  WHAT???? HOW???  Such devastating news.   I had a major breakdown thinking that I was probably at the end of the road of having my own biological children.  When we met with your RE, she suggested that we move to Donar Egg, but said she would do it again with my own eggs if that is what we wanted.  She wouldn't change our protocol, which made me question if we should get a second opinion.

So that's where we are today.  It was so fast, our plan is a 180 from what we had planned...taking a break and going to Vegas over the summer.

I'm happy to say that we have a phone consult with Dr. Minjarez at CCRM next week.  This is the best clinic in the country and I have all the confidence in the world that if we can get pregnant with my own eggs, it will be through them.  I'm curious what they say and what they will recommend as far as protocol.  Thanks to the ladies of TB for all of your help and advice!