Life is a Beautiful Ride

I am a little behind on posts.  I have tried to write this post for 3 days now.  I made some changes to it yesterday and it didn't save!  So here I am trying again!

Almost 4 months old!

April is a special month for us.  After 3 years of trying and 4 unsuccessful rounds of IVF, the 5th one finally worked.  I took this picture last Friday the 8th because that is the day we did the transfer last year.

April 24-30 is also Infertility Awareness Week.  Not a lot of people talk about infertility.  I know I didn't.  It's a hard process and it changes you.  I saw this quote the other day (not sure by who)

"Infertility damn near broke me, but it also brought me my greatest blessing in life: a little girl I would walk through fire for today."

So much truth in that statement.  For anyone that has struggled with infertility you know the feeling.  I am so thankful for all the encouragement I got, all the people that listened to me and all the prayers we got.

For those of you who are following along (not sure if anyone is)...I left off on the last post with us doing the retrieval. 

You go in for the retrieval and then have to wait 5 days before the transfer.  So last year on April 8th, we went in for a transfer.  As I mentioned in the last post, this was the best cycle we had.  When we arrived at the clinic we learned that we had 7 embryos that made it to day 5. That is the most we had ever had.  They chose the best 2 to transfer which means that we were able to freeze 5.  We had never had any to freeze.

The transfer process is very short and you are awake the whole time.  After the transfer we had to wait an hour before we could go home.  After my hour was up, we were free to go home.  I just had to take it easy for the rest of the day.  

Next comes the waiting game!  We didn't go back for blood work until April 17th. So I had 10 long days to wait!

My parents came to stay with me because Collin was going out of town and I was suppose to take it easy.   My parents brought these geraniums to us last April when they came.  I have a knack for killing every plant we buy.   Collin laughs every time I want to buy plants.  He says our house is where plants come to die.  We have managed to keep these alive for a year!  I see these 2 plants every time I drive up in the driveway and I am reminded of our sweet Ella. 

I am so glad that we never gave up.  I will never get tired of seeing that beautiful smile!  We are so lucky and I count my blessings everyday.

Yes, we are having our challenging moments getting her to SLEEP!  She doesn't like to go to sleep, but once she does she is down for 10+ hours!  Some nights it takes us 2+ hours to get her to sleep.  I am hoping that it is just a phase.  Doesn't she realize how precious sleep is??

We will survive.  I am trying to enjoy the extra snuggles and enjoy the extra rocking.  She is growing way too fast.  Time needs to slow down.

Life ain't always beautiful but it's a beautiful ride.  Our beautiful ride brought us this special little miracle baby!  

Feeling Sentimental

A couple posts back I touched on our IVF journey.  Well one year ago today,  we did our last egg retrieval. I have to admit I had no expectations.  This was our 5th retrieval.

Some of you might be familiar with the IVF process and some (like me when we started) have no clue.  It's a long and hard process.  After weeks of multiple daily shots, weekly and sometime bi-weekly blood draws and ultrasounds...you are ready for the egg retrieval process.  You never know what to expect.  With the other retrievals I had high hopes so this one I was trying to be neutral.  

The retrieval process is very time sensitive.  We had to be there at 6:45 am.  It's done under local anesthesia and takes maybe 30 mins.  We chose a wonderful Dr. who was so great and I can't imagine going on this journey with another one.  I would have to go back and look at how many they retrieved this time.  I do remember this was our best one yet.  After the retrieval there are still daily shots to take and it's a waiting game.  You have to make sure the eggs fertilize and then they grow to 5 days.  The transfer is done on the 5th day after the retrieval. 

I explain all this to say...one of those little eggies we retrieved gave us Ella!

So as I sit here writing this and watching the ACMs with "our greatest adventure" sound asleep in my arms,  I am feeling sentimental.  We have come such a long way in one year.  She was 15 weeks yesterday.

My many faces!

Time needs to slow down.   She's growing too fast.  I'm trying to live in the moment and enjoy every second.  So if I blow up your newsfeed with A Daily Dose of Ella, it's only because we are so in ❤️ with her.  I honestly didn't know if I would ever know what it felt like to be a mom.  I will say it's the hardest job and the most rewarding job I have ever had.  I would not change the adventure that we went through for anything in the world.

April 24-30 is National Infertilty Awareness Week so in the next couple of weeks,  I will post more about our journey.  I recently read an article on Facebook about IVF and it explains the process so well.  If you are interested in reading here's the link to the article.  http://www.self.com/wellness/2016/03/11-things-you-should-know-before-considering-ivf/

So tonight I am going snuggle Ella a little longer and cherish this little blessing!

More to come!