Day 17 of Injections- IVF Series 2

Today marks the 17th day of injections for Chris and I during this second round of IVF. That's in total, 24 injections thus far (not including in office blood draws). You would think after doing this before I would be a pro at it right? Yeah, not so much.

Chris however is a pro. I honestly don't know how he puts up with me and my needle phobia. The first night we did the stomach injections (Gonadotropin-Follistim & Menopur) it took me an hour and a half to finally lie down and let him give me the injections. That is a case of the MAJOR YIPS.

For those of you that don't know what "the YIPS" are, it's when I completely freak out and nerves take over. I broke the number one rule when dealing with something that makes me nervous....I had way too much time to sit and think about it.

Chris was on Spring Break from work this past week which has been wonderful having him around but this past Thursday it was a lazy rainy day that turned into 12 hours of me sitting around worrying about my injections that evening.

We finally did it and have had a few other YIPS instances since. Over all the Menopur injection still remains painful. The Follistim injection is in a pin form this time and is at a higher dosage. It doesn't hurt as badly as the Menopur but it does leave bruises.

Lovely yellow and green bruise on my belly from our injections.

What helps me get through the YIPS and the pain is the thought of our Baker Baby. I have always said I would do anything it took so that we could be parents and even when I'm crying and having a meltdown I do eventually suck it up and do what needs to be done.

Ultimately I know how lucky we are to get to try IVF again when so many can not and I have to have faith and trust in the process.

I go back to the doctor this Wednesday for monitoring. They will be doing another blood draw to see how my hormone levels are as well as an ultrasound. This is when things start getting a bit more serious as they will be looking for follicles.

Refresher on Follicles:

See those black blobs? Those are follicles :) No that's not my uterus 

Follicles are what contain the egg and what we are stimulating my ovaries to create more of. Wednesday our doctors will be looking at the ultrasound determining how many follicles we have and measuring their size. The larger the follicle is the more mature the egg it contains is. So bigger is better in this case.

We had some follicle size issues the first IVF series we did back in January so they up'd our drug dosage in hopes of combating that problem. (lots of follicles just not enough larger sized guys at first). Prayers, rain dances, every appendage crossed that we don't have those issues this go round. 

Much love to friends and family who have been so amazing during all of this. Off to get ready for my evening injections.