Try Try Again Baby

Hello friends and family, We have a date for transfer!  This  Monday, April 2nd, at 11:30 AM  we will be transferring one of our precious embryos back to Jess. The big day is finally almost here and we are filled with anticipation, excitement, and nerves. Jess has had to start injections again.  They have been a struggle this second time around so we would appreciate prayers for that.  These injections are different in that they are intramuscular rather than subcutaneous so the needles are much bigger and have to be injected much deeper into her body.  She is feeling quite sore and wishing she could go back to the old injections, something she never thought she'd say.  Prayer Requests: 1. Please pray that Jess would be able to endure the painful injections. 2. Please pray for a successful transfer  on Monday  and for a successful pregnancy to come of it! 3. Jess's grandfather on her other side of the famil...

Hello friends and family, First of all, we just want to say how incredibly astounded and blessed we feel by the outpouring of generosity we have received from family, friends, loved ones, and even strangers on  the GoFundMe page  created on our behalf.  From the bottom of our hearts: THANK YOU. God has continued to provide in many different ways; all of which have been unexpected.  Frankly, we are still a little bit in shock. As far as  updates  go, we had an appointment this morning to see if Jess was on track for our upcoming transfer.  Things are progressing, but we're not quite there yet.  We go back for another check next week. We are trying to be patient as we wait for our official transfer date.  This will come once we get the green light to start injections again.  Right now it feels like lots of waiting.  Something you'd think we'd be used to by now. ;)  Prayer Requests: 1. Please pray...

Hello friends and family, Thank you for faithfully praying for us even during the lack of  updates  the past week or so. While not much has changed in our fertility status, it has been quite a roller coaster of emotions lately. We were quite happy to hear that we ended up with a total of 6 embryos to freeze for future cycles.  Though we wish all of our embryos could have made it, six is a really great number for the average cycle and Jess is relieved that she will not have to go through this process 13 more times. We are in a bit of a waiting period right now.  Jess is on estrogen to prepare her body for transfer and we will find out at our next appointment if she is ready to start injections again. Once the injections are started, we will then receive our official transfer date.  Then we will get to wait some more and pray as hard as we can that the embryo implants and results in a healthy pregnancy. Prayer Requests: The past couple of...

Hello friends and family, We are thankful to share that 5 embryos made it to "full maturity" on Wednesday.  As of today (Thursday) one more had made it giving us a total of 6 frozen embryos right now.  Four more are still maturing and we have lost 3 so far. The doctors have also told us that the frozen embryos are "grade A/B" which means they "look great" to them.  What that means exactly, we are not sure but we will take it!  Our future babies are already overachieving... they get that from Jess. The next step now will be to wait for Day 1 of Jess' cycle to begin the hormones in order to begin the process of transferring one of our precious ones back inside Jess. Prayer Requests: 1. That we would trust that the "still-growing" embryos are in God's hands. 2. Continued patience and peace. 3. Praise! Jess has been able to avoid any signs of overstimulation and seems to be in the clear! Love you guys! Doad and ...

Hello friends and family, Not too much to  update  today.  Thankfully, Jess still seems to be recovering well with no signs of overstimulation. We got word today that all 13 of our embryos are still growing and looking great so far.  They will "rest" tomorrow and Tuesday and we will get an  update  on Wednesday to hear how many have made it to day 5.  On the very plus side, no more shots for this month! Prayer Requests: 1. Please continue to pray that our babies would survive and grow and that we would trust God no matter the outcome. 2. Please also pray for patience and peace as we wait - for day 5, for our transfer day, for our baby. 3. Please pray that Jess continues to recover and has no complications.  So far, so good! More Videos Trigger Shot.  Last injection of the cycle! :)  Egg Retrieval Thank you and we love you all, Doad and Jess

Hello friends and family, Another quick one today.  Out of the 27 eggs retrieved yesterday, 17 of them were mature enough to fertilize.  Out of the 17 fertilized, 13 of them survived that process and are now our growing embryos! For some, this number may seem low - we started off with 50 follicles and are down to just 13!?  The attrition rate for all of these phases is very high so we feel grateful to have started off with a high number so we have some buffer as we get closer to the actual number of embryos that we will end up with when all is said and done. For others, this number may seem high - 13 babies?!?  Again, the attrition rate is very high and we still need our embryos to survive to "blastocyst phase" which will be 5-6 days after fertilization.  We will feel very lucky to have 6-7 make it to day 5 and even then, the odds of pregnancy could only be 30-50% which would be 2-3 babies who make it to live birth. Right now we are just praying f...

Hello friends and family, Just a quick  update .  They got their power turned back on and we were able to move forward as scheduled.  Jess was a complete champion and... well... laid 27 eggs!   This is more than double the "average" of 8-12. After a short recovery period at Shady Grove, with a very talkative post-anesthesia Jess (videos to come  ), we were home and in bed by  noon  today.  Jess is in pain/discomfort but in great spirits.  Now we wait and pray for the fertilization process.  We should hear back tomorrow on how many eggs make it to embryos.  From there we wait to hear how many become blastocysts, which is when they can be frozen. We will keep you posted!  Thank you all for the many prayers and barrage of love that we have received these past couple weeks.  We could not do it without you guys. Thank you and we love you all, Doad and Jess ...

Hello friends and family, We’re typing this up as we sit in a dark waiting room ready to be called back for retrieval. The waiting room is dark because, yes, they have no power.  It’s always an adventure when the two of us are involved! As of right now, we’re scheduled for an  8:15  surgery time. Once again we rest in God’s hands. Oh and check out Jess’ new socks we made last night: Thank you and we love you all, Doad and Jess