After 7 long years...

I can finally shout to the world that I am pregnant! Yippee!!! :) (Thank you God!)
This past Wednesday was 20 weeks and yesterday we had our Level 2 scan to make sure that everything was measuring the way it was supposed to. Everything looked great. Oh, did I mention we are having twins?
Twin A is 12 ounces (55th percentile) and Twin B is 15 ounces (78th percentile). I was also told that Twin B has a Buddha belly! <3
I haven't posted before this because, well, I've been exhausted, but I have also been afraid. We've only known loss and sadness for so long, I was afraid to jinx myself.

I am trying very hard to take this day by day and just be grateful for my 2 little miracles. I am a very anxious person, however, so every little cramp or pain scares me. I know I am probably the most annoying patient at my doctor's office, but I don't care. I call often!

We also found out that we are having boys! There is no doubt about it. I am so in love already!

How exactly did we get here? Well, I'm not sure. This past summer, I applied at Rutgers, long story, but it was a plan to get me to Colorado to see Dr. Schoolcraft. I was accepted and applied to take an online class. I even bought a Rutgers sweatshirt! lol
I also continued to be gluten free. I heard about it helping with egg quality and I decided it was worth trying. I had been gf since January and I will tell you what, it was really hard! I really missed bread and pasta!!! But I just kept thinking that if it would help me get my family, I would do it. (Or anything for that matter!)

Anyway, I convinced my dh that we should just do one more IVF here, with the same doctor we've always used - I know I've said this before, but I love him. Anyway, we went in to talk to him and asked him to make a few changes just for the heck of it. We wanted to use Follistim instead of Bravelle. We had been told by other doctors that Follistim was shown to be better for some women with implantation issues. We had only used Bravelle in the past.

We also wanted to do a 3-day transfer. We have only had 5-day transfers and so we thought, why not? Maybe they'd rather develop inside of me rather than in the lab.

We continued to use the medications suggested by Dr. Kwak, but we were done with IVIG. It was expensive and we tried it twice. We thought that was enough.

So he agreed and we tried it. I believe I ended up with 14 embryos (I have this all written down, but am too lazy to go look!). We chose to transfer 5. Now I know that sounds like a lot and my doctor is not a crazy doctor that wants me to be octomom. However, we have had so many failed cycles and last time had tried transferring 4 and nothing happened. Also, he said that with 3-day transfers, it isn't as clear how many good quality embryos you are transferring, so transferring more made sense. He also gave us the lecture on selective reduction that we had heard so many times before.

They were able to freeze 6 embryos after day 5. WHAT? We never have many, if any, to freeze!!

I honestly didn't feel any different over the 2ww than I ever had. Well, I did burp a lot, even more than usual, but really, I was prepared for a failed cycle. We were in Babies R' Us getting my friend's baby a present when the call came. I made my dh answer it because I always answered it and I thought he should hear the bad news and then he could tell me. Heather, the nurse, would not tell him and insisted that we both were on the phone. SO, I put the phone on speakerphone right in the store and she shared the news. We were all so excited and I started to cry. She said they were fighting over who would get to call! The beta was good, over 400, and it was such an amazing feeling to hear good news.

We are considered high-risk and my MFM doctor is my OB. He is about an hour away, but was highly recommended by my IVF doctor, and so it is worth the drive. I've gotten to see the babies quite a bit and I can always go in for a scan if I'm feeling anxious.

I continue to pray and thank God daily. I also continue to hope that everyone else that continues to suffer will also get their miracle.