Ever since we listened to the McKenzie's voicemail this afternoon, the rest of the day has been pretty surreal. The outpouring of love from family and friends has been overwhelming. We know that there have been so many tears of joy shed today in our honor and we are so touched by your love and support. My husband and I have both agreed that sharing good news is much better than sharing bad news.
Sometimes it seems like today was just a dream! We were just hoping that somebody would still be pregnant with a Baby Johnston. Not sure that we ever expected to have BOTH of us still pregnant. Apparently, my body wanted to show the world that it was capable of getting pregnant. We've been trying to have a baby since January of 2008 and never once have I gotten a positive pregnancy test. This is the furthest we've gotten in any treatment cycle. And now not only are we blessed with a positive test for me, but we have a positive test with my sister carrying our baby. Craziness! :) God is GREAT and we are so thankful for everyone's prayers! Again, it's still very early in the pregnancies - so we appreciate your continued prayers and support. All we can do is pray that the good news will continue and our hCG levels will continue to rise.
As of now, we still don't know how many babies are developing inside of us. With the positive beta tests, we can assume that each of us has at least one baby inside of us. We won't really know how many babies are inside each of us until Dr. Williams does an ultrasound around 7 weeks. Assuming that the blood tests continue to show the HCG levels doubling as expected - the 7 week ultrasound will be scheduled about 3 weeks from today. Each blood test will be another hurdle for us to pass, but the ultrasound will probably be the next big milestone within the pregnancies. We will of course accept as many little miracles as we are given - but are ecstatic about the thought of welcoming two babies into our lives this fall. Based on the retrieval date and an online due date calculator I found, a single baby would be due on 11-7-2013 and a set of twins would be due around 10-16-2013.
Prayer Requests: When my husband called to share our wonderful news with his parents we learned that his 96 year old Granny is in the hospital. She was feeling weak yesterday and went to see her doctor. They admitted her to the hospital to keep an eye on her while they figure out how to adjust her heart medication. My husband called her room in the hospital to check on her and also share our good news. She responded with a very happy, "Are you kidding me?" :) We also learned tonight that our good friend's grandma had a heart attack and is recovering in the hospital while the doctors try to figure out the cause. So I'd like to request some prayers for Granny and for Grandma Betty tonight. Please also continue to pray for Annsley & Breann as they continue to get stronger each day. And here's to hoping the Osbourne family gets good news to kick off the month of March. Good night!
We are still in shock and beyond thrilled... but we FINALLY got good news from Dr. Williams office this afternoon. I will share more details later (of course). But McKenzie left the good news on a voicemail - we have a recording of us listening to the voicemail which is pretty priceless. I just need to figure out how to upload it and get it on the blog somehow, without making it too public. We were all on pins and needles and then I think it turned to shock when she said she had "double great news" to share. She told us that both tests came back positive and both of the numbers look great. They want to see our levels at about 50 at this point and mine was at 205 and Chrissy's was at 233. So both very nice, high numbers!! We are both still PUPO and considered 4 weeks pregnant. The next steps will be for us to repeat the quantitative beta test on Monday - they want our levels to be doubling every 40 to 72 hours! It's still VERY early in the pregnancy - but we couldn't ask for any greater news at this point.
This afternoon we've had so much fun calling our parents and other immediate family members to share the good news! We could tell how nervous everyone was to hear our news - but we are so thankful that we had great news to share!! Thanks again for all of your love, support, and prayers!
Disclaimer: We know that you all will be going out of your minds with excitement and rejoicing in this amazing news! But PLEASE do not post anything on Facebook about us (or on our walls) that would make anyone think that anything is going on. If you want to post something very vague about great news today - that's fine. While we have invited you along on this journey, the same invitation has not been extended to all of Facebook. :) Feel free to post comments to this blog or reach out to us via email or text or phone.
Good Morning & Happy Beta Test Day! :) Hope everyone slept okay. It took me awhile to fall asleep last night, but I slept like a baby until my alarm went off at 6am. I then proceeded to turn off the alarm and fell back asleep. I woke up around 6:40am and texted my sister that I just got up and would be ready in 5 minutes. She came down to my house and asked me if I had any dreams last night. I didn't, but she did. Her dream was that she found out that I was having some spotting. And when she asked me about it, I was mad because I told her that it was pretty much a full-on period and that I had already told her about it. ;) Another friend texted me that she had a dream about us last night, too. In her dream, we were in this airport parking garage and the boys were playing poker. And I was sitting at a desk with a lamp working on work stuff and baby stuff. She said when we saw them, my husband went up to her and swung her around. :) Dreams are so funny! Anyone else have any dreams from last night to share?
We had a little lab order sheet confusion in the parking lot this morning. My sister's folder had quite a few lab order forms - but none of them had today's date written on it. Mine had today's date on it, so we were trying to find a matching one for her with today's date. When we couldn't find it, we weren't sure which of the other lab order forms to use and didn't want to mess things up! So we walked down to ORM to figure out which one she should be using today. Shortly after getting inside and explaining our situation to the receptionist, my sister found the lab order form with today's date on it - so we were good to go! Crisis averted - whew! :)
There was nobody in the waiting room or at the receptionist desk when we walked into LabCorp. So we signed in and waited for them to call us back. After a few minutes, we were still waiting - though we could hear them talking in the back. I thought the door made a noise to let them know someone walked in - so I got up and opened/shut the door. The buzzing noise triggered by the door did the trick and they quickly called us back to room 4. ;) It was nice to have some company- we just chatted while we waited for them to draw our blood. We were both getting lots of texts of love this morning - so we were reading and responding to those as well. The guy drew my sister's blood and then I was next - pretty quick and painless. Here's to hoping that our blood is full of HCG!!
Plans for "The Call": They never really give you a set time that they're going to call with the results - though it is typically in the afternoon. Although my sister has her seminar this morning, she's planning to head home after that since she wanted to be with us when we got the call. She's been working long hours this week - so she promised Wendel (her 4 year old son) that she'd have lunch with him today. We were thinking that we could get the call anywhere from lunchtime to beyond - so there was a little concern that they might call while she's eating lunch with her boys. If they called before she was at our house, she asked if we could just tell Nancy/McKenzie that we'd call them back when she was able to walk down (which would only take a few minutes). I told her I would talk to my hubby and that we could figure something out. She gave me a kiss on my cheek, I wished her luck at her seminar, and we went our separate ways!
On the drive home I tried to think of ways we could make it work. My only concern with her suggested plan was not about having to wait a few extra minutes for the results. It was more about hearing Nancy/McKenzie's initial tone and analyzing it for the extra minutes while we waited. Another option I thought of was that we could just not pick up on their call - to avoid hearing any tone. And then have my sister come down and then call them back. We know that they wouldn't leave this type of information in a voicemail. When I got home, I talked to my husband about it and he suggested that I just call Nancy/McKenzie and ask them to not call before 1pm. Brilliant! :) So I gave them a call and was able to speak with Nancy. I explained the situation and asked if they could call us after 1pm. Nancy told me that they actually have a staff meeting today, so they probably wouldn't call us until sometime in the 2-4pm timeframe. She also told me that she'd be with patients so McKenzie would be the one calling us today. I feel like there was a hint of disappointment in her voice - such a sweetie. Then she asked how we were feeling today and about things. I told her we didn't really feel any different and that we were scared and excited. So even though we'll all have a to wait a little longer today to find out - the good news is that my sister will be able to be with us when we get "the call."
Robbins Family Update: Just wanted to take a moment to give an update on the Robbins family - whose 28 week twin girls were born on February 26th! Here is the update that their mama shared yesterday regarding Ansley (A) and Breann (B)... Robbins update: A is doing great (for how small she is). No set backs, just steps forward. Not on a vent, already eating and all bloodwork is good. B had a tough 24 hours. She ended up on a vent, but is already making great strides. Going to try and eat today and get off vent ASAP. All other bloodwork is good. I am doing great...ready to go home! J is taking full advantage of her grandparents, and will not be able to meet her sisters until they come home. Thanks for all the love and support. God is good, and we have felt His love for us through it all! And this morning she posted this picture of little Ansley. She said she's going to post a picture of Breann in a few days because all of the wires from her lung issues are very scary. Despite all of the exciting and emotional roller-coaster they've been on this week especially, we still got a text from the Robbins wishing us well today. They are the best! :)
Thanks Again!!! We can see you all are just as anxious as us as the blog has already received over 100 hits today. Now at least you know that we won't get the call until sometime between 2-4pm and that you can expect a post from me later today whether it's good or bad news. If it does happen to be good news - then you will be in our "circle of trust" and we will need you to contain your excitement and not go spreading the word or posting anything on Facebook. Even if it's positive, we have to keep in mind that it's still VERY early in the pregnancy - so we'll be waiting until at least the first trimester is done (and maybe a few weeks after that) before we go public with the news.
We appreciate all of the love that we've been getting via emails, texts, vague Facebook posts, and blog comments. We actually had a friend stop by to give us hugs on her way to work while I was writing this post. :) Another friend texted me last night saying, "May tomorrow be the beginning of many celebrations to come!" Thought that was a nice way to phrase it. We will do our best to take deep breaths, stay positive, keep the faith, and have hope for something to celebrate tonight!
Well, it's hard to believe that tomorrow is almost here! That's right, my nephew start swimming lessons tomorrow night. ;) Oh, and we may also be getting a life-changing phone call to let us know if any of those 4 embryos transferred on Valentine's Day have made themselves at home in me or my sister's wombs. I talked to my mom yesterday and she told me she has a good feeling about it. She said that we are both pregnant and that we're getting 6 babies - then laughed. ;) Tonight when I talked to my parents, my dad said that my mom knows we're getting "good news" tomorrow and said we shouldn't even bother spending money on the blood tests. I appreciate their positive thoughts and energy!
Tomorrow's Agenda: Our last Beta Test was back in May of 2011, so some of you may not remember the drill. And I know we have some new folks following the blog this time around - so let me explain how tomorrow will work. We don't have a set appointment time for our blood draw tomorrow - but if we want the results the same-day, it's best to go to the Lab Corp next to Ohio Reproductive Medicine. My sister actually has a seminar that she's hosting and presenting at - so we're going to plan to get there right at 7AM when the lab opens. We'll take our quantitative beta HCG lab order forms, they'll draw our blood, and we'll go our separate ways. Then later in the day (most likely around lunchtime or in the early afternoon) we will get a phone call from Nancy/McKenzie telling us the results of the blood test.
During dinner tonight, we were talking about "the call." I was asking my husband if he thought that they would lead with the good news first if only one of us is pregnant. He thinks that they'll start with my results regardless. I've been referring to tomorrow as the "results show." And my husband has joked that at least when we get the call, they will get right down to business and we won't have to wait to find out ".... after this commercial break!" I told my husband that I want to record the phone call tomorrow - which at first I think he thought was crazy. But I figured if we do get good news - it would be something cool to have on video. We did a little role playing last night after I threw out that idea. He called my cell phone with the home phone pretending to be Nancy - while I recorded the call with his phone. The video is quite hilarious and I was cracking up at his impersonation of Nancy. As you all have probably become to know, we tend to use humor to deal with things.
No Work for Me: For our two other beta test days, I did work in the morning and ended up having to tell my manager I couldn't work the rest of the day when we got our bad news. I'm hoping for great news - but figured I wouldn't be able to focus in the morning anyway and didn't want to have to deal with the added stress of taking the afternoon off at the last minute. So I just took the whole day off - hoping that we'll be celebrating with tears of joy tomorrow afternoon!
Quantitative hCG Test: Tomorrow morning, my sister and I will both be getting the quantitative hCG test done. It will be just like any other blood draw from our perspective. But here's some info I found online that explains more about hCG, the quantitative hCG test, and what the hCG levels indicate.
HCG stands for "Human Chorionic Gonadotropin," the pregnancy hormone which is produced by the placenta and enters the blood soon after implantation and is detected with pregnancy tests. HCG is being produced by the placenta and enters the blood stream as soon as implantation happens, about one week after fertilization and ovulation, when the embryo implants and the placenta attaches to the uterine lining.
A quantitative human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) test measures the specific level of hCG in the blood. HCG is a hormone produced in the body during pregnancy. Quantitative hCG measurement helps determine the exact age of the fetus. It can also diagnose abnormal preqnancies, such as ectopic pregnancies, molar pregnancies, and possible miscarriages.
Below are what the different levels of hCG mean in terms of pregnancy. So anything between 5-25 would mean we have a chance, but over 25 would be better news. For my two previous beta tests in 2011, I think I got like a 0 and a less than 1 on my beta hCG tests.
hCG under 5 mIU/ml: Negative. Not pregnant
hCG between 5-25 mIU/ml: "Equivocal". Maybe pregnant maybe not. Repeat test in a couple of days
hCG over 25 mIU/ml: You are pregnant!
Blog Stats: Thought you may be curious to know that the blog tracks basic stats in terms of how many people are visiting the site each day. I'm not sure how accurate it really is - but as you can see below, the peaks definitely coincide with whenever anything exciting is going on. I have a feeling we may be getting quite a few hits tomorrow - with everyone checking in. I just pray that we will have good news to share with you all tomorrow.
Baby #33: I think I've mentioned that 3 of my cousins are expecting little ones this year. On my dad's side of the family, we started assigning numbers to everyone in order of birth or marriage into the family - starting with my grandparents. I'm #10. :) And #30 and #31 are due in March with #32 due in June. So we are hoping that tomorrow's news will give us hope that we'll be adding #33 to the family. Back in Nov/Dec, one of my other cousins had a dream that implied that my sister and I were both pregnant - so we're hoping that her dream will become a reality.
Mix of Emotions: We are feeling a crazy mix of emotions as tomorrow approaches - nervous, anxious, scared, excited, & hopeful. The hopes and dreams of this whole cycle will either continue or come crashing down tomorrow. I know that many of you are feeling quite anxious about tomorrow as well. We do appreciate you all following along and supporting us every step of the way. We know we'll need your love and support no matter what type of news we get tomorrow.
In closing, I'm going to leave you with a song that I've shared on the blog before. Here's to hoping that later tomorrow we could be holding up a sign saying, "We're both pregnant." or "I'm pregnant." or "She's pregnant with our baby." :) Good night!!
So you all knew I was definitely blogging tonight about our beta test eve! But when I was in the middle of my blog post, the Internet on our laptop stopped working for some reason. :( I have it saved and will try to post it in the morning. I'm creating this post from my Weebly app on my phone. Kinda wondering if this is a sign that I should be going to bed. Big day tomorrow.... hoping for at least one positive test result!! :)
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for the Robbins family down in Georgia. I'm thrilled to report, that the twin girls are still safe and sound in their amazing super-mom's belly. I still can't believe they weren't born this weekend. It sounds like they put our friend on magnesium (and maybe some steroids) to stop labor and keep the babies in over the weekend. But as of last night, they had stopped the meds and were going to let nature decide when the twins would arrive. Today they made it to the 28 week mark and are still cooking in their mama's womb. Excited for them to make their arrival and I'm sure their mama's in a whole lot of pain these days - but at this rate, I think they just might have a March birthday! Congrats on the 28 week milestone to the Robbins family and continued prayers for them!
Low on Progesterone: This weekend we were in my husband's hometown visiting with his parents, his brother & family, and his 3 grandparents. So great to see everyone and hang out. On Saturday night, I got some texts from my sister saying that she had run out of progesterone after her evening shot. Unfortunately, since we were out-of-town - I had my progesterone with me and didn't have any extra at our house. Since her progesterone was so high last week - I told her that it definitely would not be a big deal for her to miss her progesterone shot on Sunday morning and that she could use some of mine for her Sunday evening shot. Since we have to use speciality pharmacies for our fertility meds, I told her that I would call the doctor's office on Monday and get some more ordered. I was a little surprised that we ran out before the beta tests - you'd think they would've given us enough to at least make it through that. I felt bad that my sister was stressing over it - but my husband and I were not the least big concerned. We just felt bad that she felt bad about it. This morning I called and left a voicemail for Nancy/McKenzie asking if they could call in a prescription for me for progesterone. I also told them that since my sister is taking 1 mL in the morning and 1mL at night - a 10mL vial would only last her 5 days. So I wasn't sure if I should get two 10 mL vials to get us through Monday - since I need 1/2 mL a day. I missed McKenzie's call - so she left me a voicemail. In her voicemail, she let me know that if we had enough to get us through today, I could just order the refill through the mail-order pharmacy (which is a little cheaper) and they could have it arrive by Tuesday. She also let me know that my sister should only be taking 1mL in the morning and no shot in the evening, since she's doing the progesterone suppository. I knew my sister would feel bad - but I'm 1000% confident that she was following the directions that they told her. Sounds like she got her instructions over the phone on the Friday before the transfer - she said she wrote it down and repeated it back to them. I feel bad that they didn't go over the post-transfer instructions when we left the office on Tuesday or write it out for her. We have reassured her that is really is no big deal and that too much progesterone is much better than not enough progesterone. Hopefully the extra progesterone is helping the little embryos to get warm/cozy inside of her womb. As long as she doesn't get the shakes as she goes down from 2mL to 1mL a day of progesterone, we should be good to go. I refilled our prescription with the mail-order pharmacy this morning and it will arrive tomorrow. We should have more than enough to get us through Monday. "Why Monday?" you may be asking. From past experience, I know that even if Thursday brings negative test results for both of us - they will ask us to continue our shots and re-take the blood test on Monday. Even though the chance of the test becoming positive are pretty much impossible - they always have you take the 2nd beta test regardless.
No Symptoms: Lots of folks have been asking how my sister and I are feeling. Unfortunately, despite a few new-found zits that we are jokingly referring to as "pregnancy zits" - we really don't have any symptoms to report. My sister thinks it's still too early in the pregnancy to be noticing any symptoms anyway. If either of us are pregnant on Thursday, we would be considered 4 weeks pregnant.
The 28th: Speaking of Thursday, we are getting a little more scared as the day approaches. When we were walking back from my sister's house tonight, we were joking about how we'd be okay with skipping Thursday this week. Then my husband said that he's going to feel the worst for my sister on Thursday if things don't pan out. We just don't want her to feel bad after all she's done to try to help us out. He went on to say that we've been through this before and know we can handle it - but this will be a different experience for her since she's been so involved. Of course we're hopeful that there's going to be great joy on Thursday for all to share - but you just never know what's going to happen. My emotions are swinging back and forth between the two extremes. Part of me thinks "This has just GOT to work this time." And then the other part of me wonders how these results could be any different than what we've received in the past. On Saturday night after my husband went to bed, I was reading through some of my previous negative beta test result posts (from February & May of 2011) and I definitely teared up a couple times. I'm definitely still hopeful that we are going to get good news. And I know that even if we do get a positive test on Thursday - it would just be the first of many hurdles in the pregnancy that we'd need to get through. But we've never gotten a positive pregnancy test in our 5+ years of trying and 4+ years of various fertility treatments. So getting past this pregnancy test hurdle would be a great milestone. I know it's all out of our control and up to His plan. We are just hopeful that this time is FINALLY going to be our time. Despite the anxious feelings of doubt and fear that are starting to creep in as the 28th draws closer - we are definitely doing our best to keep the faith alive! Until we know the test results on Thursday, we just have to...
My husband's grandpa is 91 years old and a retired veterinarian. :) This morning he told us he was praying that we'd get twins. And here's another part of our conversation that I shared with my Sissy that I thought you all would enjoy!
Sam and his "crocodile" from his Big Brother, Will :)
Happy Friday! I have some wonderful news to share - Samuel Dean was born this morning. We were able to swing by the hospital to visit tonight - he and his mommy were doing well. Will is now a big brother and was sporting a cute big brother t-shirt. And Sam's daddy enjoyed taking picture of me while I took pictures of Sam and the frog. So happy for the Blickhan family!! We love you guys!
Sam is in good company as he shares his birthday with our first President (George Washington), my dear friend (ELAINE!!!), and our little neighbor buddy (Ethan). :) We hope they all had wonderful birthdays, too.
Tonight I'd like to request that everyone redirect their prayers for us to the Robbins family! Sherrie is 27 weeks pregnant with their twin girls. And her water broke this evening, so she's in the hospital trying to keep them in for at least 24 more hours. We know that God will look after Josclyn's mommy and her new baby sisters that are on their way! Lots of love and hugs to K-Rob and his 4 girls!
Progesterone Check: Before heading back into work today, my sister and I had to swing by Lab Corp to have our blood drawn. Today's test was for progesterone to make sure our levels were high enough. Progesterone is a hormone (a chemical messenger) produced by the ovaries that is necessary to support pregnancy. It is essential for ripening the uterine lining so that the embryo can implant in it. The progesterone in oil shots that we're doing are routinely performed after an embryo transfer during an IVF cycle, to help support the endometrium. Some doctors measure progesterone levels 4-6 days after embryo transfer; and if the levels are low, they increase the dose of progesterone given. The good news is that both of our levels were great today! Nancy left me a voicemail this afternoon saying that they wanted it to be over 15 and mine was 38.5. :) I sent out a group text to my sister and our husbands to see how her progesterone levels were doing. My sister's progesterone level was at 52.5 - way to go, Wamba Land. :) We're both supposed to just keep doing what we're doing. This test doesn't really indicate whether either of are pregnant - just makes sure our progesterone levels are high enough to continue supporting a pregnancy.
Snow Babies: I also got a voicemail from Kelly today as well. She wanted to let me "and Joe" know that they were able to freeze two of our embryos! They told us on Tuesday that the embryos have to make it to blastocysts in order to be frozen. So it sounds like two of our morulas (that weren't picked for the transfers) did make it to the blastocyst stage. Since two of them did that in the Petrie dish - I'm hopeful that the ones in my sister and I were able to get to the blastocyst stage and beyond! When I texted my husband the good news, he responded with, "Nice! Awesome news! See morulas do continue to grow!" :)
Inspired by an email from Spare Bear :)
One Week: So crazy to think we'll know the result of the first beta test - one week from now. I'm hoping that we'll all be crying tears of joy from some positive news. In the voicemail that Nancy left me, she was saying that our beta test was next Thursday for me and Chrissy. And then she said, "So...um...congratulations- well - I shouldn't say congratulations - we don't know yet.. Good luck!" ;) I'm thinking she just meant congrats on making it this far - I can tell she's sincerely hoping this works for us and cheering us on. It would be great if she had some GREAT news to share and congratulate us on next Thursday!
On a side note, I kinda felt a little queasy this morning at work. Trying not to read too much into it because I could've been imagining it or wiling myself to feel that way. We'll see if the same thing happens tomorrow, or if it was just a one-off. Not trying to get anyone's hopes up - just wanting to be fully honest with you all as you join us on this journey. Other than that, I'm feeling pretty normal.
My husband and I got married in 2005 and tried to start our family back in January 2008. We started our 1st round of in-vitro in December 2010 - which is when this blog was started. Despite a near perfect cycle, it resulted in a negative pregnancy test in February 2011. We were fortunate to get 6 extra embryos from that cycle that were frozen. In March 2011 we started a Frozen Embryo Transfer cycle. Despite another great cycle (on paper), all 6 of our frozen embryos had to be thawed to get 2 good ones for transfer - which failed to result in a pregnancy. In 2012, we took the first half of the year off and then tried a couple rounds of IUI with and without fertility shots - still no baby. In 2013, we did our 2nd round of in-vitro with my sister offering to be our gestational carrier. We ended up transferring 2 embryos into each of us and were blessed to welcome 4 babies in October 2013.