Let's Talk About Being Baby Hungry

I'm probably the most baby hungry person on the planet haha and I think that I just really need to vent. So bare with me for a sec. For the last 4 months Garrett and I have been making preparations for having a baby. Those preparations include; me getting health insurance, meeting with a genetic counselor, finding a fertility specialist that does PGD (I'll explain later), and WAITING! In the mean time, ever day that I'm on Facebook, I see another baby announcement from one of my friends. Sometimes I think, "Wow, the Lord must think I need some humor in my life." However, I don't think it's funny. Well that's not completely true, I don't want people to think I'm being a Negative Nancy. I do laugh, and find joy in other's getting pregnant and having babies. But when is it going to be my turn? haha Out of everything I'm learning right now the most important thing is that the Lord has a plan and special timing for everything and everyone. My turn will 

Before I go on, I think I need to explain myself a little. Garrett has a genetic disorder called Marfan's Syndrome. It's a connective tissue disorder that has several side effects, but the most serious is his heart. Because his tissues don't stick together very well doctors have to watch his aortic valve to make sure it doesn't rip or tear (that would be bad if it did). Eventually (within the next 2 years) Garrett with need open heart surgery to replace his aorta. Along with this major surgery, Garrett has regular echos, MRI's, and other health test, in order to properly monitor everything. So with that said we've decided to do a form of IVF where they'll genetically test all the embryos before implanting them. This means that they'll only implant the embryos that are free from the Marfan's gene and also any other genetic abnormality. Such a blessing that this is even possible. Garrett has a very mild form of this disorder, but it can be extremely debilitating in the worst scenarios so we don't want to take the risk of it.

Sooo... with that said, we've had a lot of family and friends ask us about what we're doing and I figured it'd be easier to keep everyone updated on here...

So on February 7th we began this journey. Our doctor is Dr. Matthew Peterson at the University of Utah. He's AWESOME! And we're very excited to work with him. Here's a great link explaining the whole IVF process, including all the great drugs I'll take :). This is just the IVF stuff, since we're not just doing that and we're adding the PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis) that will add on a few more steps:
      1. After egg retrieval and semen sample, they'll mixie mixie and wait 5 days. At that point the embryo is what's called a blastocysts.
      2. (This is when PGD comes in) From here, they'll take a few cells from each blastocysts and send them to a lab to be tested. They'll screen for the top 100 most common genetic disorders along with Marfan's syndrome.
      3. They'll collected the viable embryos and freeze them for 2 months. They do this to reduce risks of birth defects and many other complications.
      4. After waiting those 2 months we'll be able to do the embryo transfer. And they'll only transfer 1 embryo.
      5.  They'll wait 9-10 days and do a blood test to confirm pregnancy and they'll also another ultra-sound at that time.

And that's basically the whole process! When it works (pray it works) we'll have a baby in 9 months! I thinks what's most incredible thing is that we have 21 other people (doctors, nurse, lab tech, etc) on our team who meet twice a week to discuss our case. We have all their cell phone numbers at our disposal and they've even told us they'll do everything in their power to make insurance pay for as much as possible. Their ultimate goal is to get us pregnant and that's that! I get chills thinking about it :) It's such a blessing! 

(this picture was before they started the tests.... Little did I know what they were going to do to me... Tricky tricky haha)

So on Tuesday, Feb. 18th I had my first preliminary tests done. They did what's call a sonohysterogram, which basically means that they use an ultra sound to measure my ovaries, uterus and everything and checked to make sure that I didn't have any ovarian sises and pollips. Don't worry passed with flying colors and I'm, "Clean as a whistle."

Next week, I'll start my injections and I'll get my treatment plan for the remainder of our cycle. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated :)