All 3

embryos are still with us and seems to have a great time in the lab, the embryologist told us on the phone today. Will know more tomorrow about the development. Our RE is planning for a Day 5 transfer. We keep praying for those 3 golden ones.

My last beer for 9 months!

Cheers... to all good things to come!

Hope

If you look carefully you can find those small signs that carry your dream.

When we sat on the gras in Julie`s garden this Sunday, Henry looked up on the sky and saw a cloud formed as a heart. We all looked at it together and we then saw a face in it; eyes, nose and a smiling mouth. It was just for some secounds and then it vanished. We took it as a sign for a baby to come - Sanna`s sibling. HOPE!!!!

(we did not take a picture, I found this one online)

Keeping the faith...
Day by day, we play the game.
Wait.  Wait.  Wait.
Anticipation makes us crazy.
Wait.  Wait.  Wait.
In the dance of IVF.
Joy will come.

Yohoo!! All 3 have fertilized

Great news from the lab. All the three eggs we retrived yesterday have been fertilized (har blitt befruktet). It means we got 3 embryos that we hope will start growing. Will have next report tomorrow morning. We are happy!!! and off to the Mall of America, ready for some fun and shopping.

Our New Magic Number

3 eggs... and maybe a 3 day transfer.

Time will tell.

Saying prayers & staying positive!

How many follicles?

So, here we are... Monday morning, and my first call of the day comes from the doctor's office and Dawn says, "DeNae called me and she had a sinking feeling on Saturday that no one called you to tell you to start PIO on Sunday."  Well, lovely...  just lovely.  Nope, no one called.  Good thing my body responds well to the medications and is overjoyed at being pregnant.  One less cc of progesterone isn't going to mess up this girl's cycle!

Waiting on pins & needles today for Hanne's retrieval and number of follicles!  We're all very aware that it only takes one...  and so we all wait...  for the news today... the first of many waiting games we will play in the days and months ahead.

Keeping the faith in all things possible,

A fine summer's day

We had a beautiful summer day to just *be* together and catch up... Sanna got to feel the grass under her feet and we all delighted in her JOY!



SaHanna & Tommy joined us for church and then my parents came over to have a bar-b-que with us in the backyard. I think we could have just lounged around this way for days on end. Alas, tomorrow is a big day for Hanne, so Cabbie de Foreman took them back to their hotel where they will all sleep well and have pleasant dreams.

Egg retriveal will be Monday morning. We did the HCG shot (its BIG!) last night, so we are ready for the next steps. Just read on an IVF site; its not the number of eggs that counts, it whether there is some golden ones in there or not. Quality over quantity. From the ultrasound scans we seem to get something between 4 and 7 eggs out. Will be very exiting to see the end results.

Today we are off to church with Julie and her familiy. It will be great to spend the day with them.

And by the way; did we tell we went to visit the Abbot Hospital and the birth center there, were Sanna was born. O`boy we want to go back there in a 9 months time!

5

5 seems to be our number this time too. Went to a new ultrasound this morning and there are 5 big follicles growing there. And the nurse says; this looks good! So it looks good and we are very happy. I will go in for a new ultrasound tomorrow morning and retriveal will be Monday or Tuesday. Now we are ready for a nap, more later!

Hanne, Tommy and Sanna

Look who I saw in Minneapolis!

Step One in Hanne's IVF Dance

Step 1: Ovarian Stimulation with Fertility Medication

In preparation for IVF, FSH injections are given in the early part of the cycle so that the FSH level never declines, as it would normally. This sustained elevation of FSH, which is all that the administration of ovulatory stimulation hormones amounts to, sustains almost all of the thirty or so antral follicles so that no single follicle can gain dominance over the others. Therefore, the number of eggs retrieved in a hormonal stimulation cycle for IVF is directly reflective of your antral follicle count, and your antral follicle count is directly reflective of your total remaining number of eggs.

Found that paragraph online today to be quite informative.  For those who are new to this journey or may have questions, I'll drop in a few notes in the coming weeks to assist in the learning.

Source

...wordless wednesday...

Ready & Waiting in MN

On all accounts, we are ready and waiting for Team Norway to arrive back in Minnesota tomorrow afternoon!   Skimming ahead in Hanne's post to see a NUMBER was first in my reading this morning.  Whoohoo ~ the magic is with us again!!

JP took me downtown this morning (so we could ride in the sane lane and beat traffic).  I had my final appointment for lining check this morning also and it was "perfect @ 11".  I am now in a holding pattern until Hanne's HCG, when we will get a transfer date!  Of course there are many more steps and waiting on pins & needles until transfer, but so far in this roller coaster ride they call ivf/surrogacy, we are on board and headed up the first hill at a good pace.

As I was waiting in the room for my ultrasound, the most recent issue of Minnesota Monthly was available for reading.  The cover story was Best Doctors for Women 2010 [their annual guide for the best physicians in the Twin Cities]....  and as I flipped ahead to see if any of my doctors were listed, there under reproductive, was our very own Dr. Campbell.   Such a great feeling to be in good hands again for this sibling project!


Waiting patiently,

Results so far..

This is day 5 of stimming meds and I went in for an ultrasound and estradiol check. Way to exiting the last day before our travel to the US!!! Anyway, the doc had problems finding my ovaries, which is normal when you have my diagnosis, the ovaries can fload around a bit. So it took him quit a while to find anything, and I was just lying there waiting, waiting, waiting.... while I just wanted to shout out; "Hey, do you see any follicles in there or not?????"

Finally he said: If this is your ovaries (???) I see 4 small follicles on the right ovary and 2-3 small ones on your left.

He would have expected more and bigger ones, but with my previous cycle history I am very happy. There are 6 eggies there already, that is so much more than "NO EGGS" at this stage.

My body is with me and with this amazing international surrogacy team that we are!

Do you remember this picture? The ovary girl. Its very special to me, its a precious gift from our Angel Julie. Now its the right time to bring it up again and let it shine over us with its wonderful message.

Love and hugs from the the Norwegians!

Tomorrow we will see you all in Minneapolis!

Hen on track again, new protocol

Yes, luckily the Lupron drama is over. I was supposed to use a Microdose Lupron Protocol for the IVF-treatment. This protocol is only used in a few clinics in the US. While Lupron is sold at every pharmacy, the Microdose Lupron is just available in a few pharmacies that does this mix as a special mission... In Europe its not for sale at all. So not the smartest choice of protocol. To solve this problem my RE in Trondheim and our dr.Campbell in Minneapolis finally agreed that switching to another much more common protocol would be the best solution. I will be on the ANTAGONIST protocol, with no Lupron of any kind at all.

Tha da; there we got rid of the lack of meds-problem and there is no problem with the time frame either. So it all worked out just fine in the end. I have also heard that many women without uterus is very happy with the outcome of this Antagonist protocol.

So its all back on track. After all this cycle-rescuing work I did celebrate with a warm bath last night and also a glas of cold white wine. Even if I have given myself a ban of alcohol in this egg-making period, I believe that glas made me and all potential eggs very good :)

Have a great weekend! All the best from the IM Hanne

And on ~ this~ side of the ocean...

And so it seems that things are falling into place, just as Hanne is going crazy with (or without) Lupron in Norway.  Just three short weeks from today, we could be at BLASTOFF and transfer.  Time will go quickly now, but of course slow down exponentially in the 2 week wait!

May BOTH sides of the ocean feel a sense of peace and calm as medications, protocols and bodies align for this wonderful sibling project suddenly before us!

A looopy Lupron drama

The ideal way to spend your days prior to an IVF-cycle... probably a lot of sleep, relaxing days with yoga, breathing exercise, zero stress, ultra healthy food, nice music, walks in the park or at the beach... being treated like a queen... just to make sure there will grow a lot of GOLDEN EGGS....

Well, this is not my reality at the moment. When dealing with international IVF cooperation between US and Europe problems can sometimes occur... I am on a Microdose Lupron protocol were the medication Lupron is used. My RE in Norway wrote me a prescription based on dr. Campbells prescription, so I could by my meds at the local pharmacy. I just wanted to double check that the meds I got here was ok - we have different brand names - with our clinic in Minneapolis. Then this Lupron stuff did not make sense to dr. Campbell and then a soon week long process has been going on back and forth - and I wont bother you with details (well dont have the energy), but I have been freaking out a few times and me being hormonal in addition because of the BCP. Its ugly, I wake up in the night thinking about "Lupron" alternatives, I have read so much about this drug on the Internet that I guess I soon can graduate on the topic. I have problems breathing when I start worry about the lack of meds a week before I should start cycling. Hopefully I can post here tomorrow and say; now its all fine, I have a prescription. Meds on board and its was all just a tiny little detail that worked out great in the end of the day...

Shhhh!

Quiet ovaries on board.    hahaha.

I had my baseline ultrasound this morning @ CRM, followed by a blood draw.  Things are looking good.  Tomorrow I start Estrace and decrease Lupron.  Whoohoo!!

After spending the day walking around the Minnesota Zoo chaperoning Henry's 5th grade class today, I also had my life insurance exam.  I think her scale was broken.  Okay, well, let's just say that losing weight has not been my goal lately because I know I'm going to need the extra fluff for carrying another Baby Kleiven!  At least that's what I'm telling myself.  I am healthy, the EKG readout said so!

Life is good,
Team Minnesota

You know you might be a little excited when....

• your ticker now says ONE MONTH until transfer
  
  
• you purchase a lot of maternity clothes on eBay,
  not yet pregnant
  

• you get to STOP BCP's
  and don't mind daily pokes of Lupron