Author: unravelingtheyarn

Just me and my thoughts on infertility...

Today was a trial

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Today was a trial. Last night was a trial and I assume tonight will be one as well. I wrote out a post that appeared me venting about my day, but then I deleted it. Why? Because I am thankful. I’m thankful for the struggle. When you’re having one of those days or weeks or months, remind yourself of what you have and be thankful! ♥️

Also – would love a prayer for good news on Friday and little man to recover from his tonsilectomy because it’s been a tough recovery so far and feeling a little helpless for him.

One more day

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I titled this post one more day, but then I laughed to myself because I’d like to say one more day til we know if IVF is successful but it’s not just one more day. It’s one more day to see if there are any embryos that made it then 8 more days to see if it was successful, then 2 more days to see if it is still successful and then 2 more days to see if it’s still still successful. And then it’s the rest of the pregnancy waiting on pins and needles to see if little one(s) is developing as he or she should or if something is wrong, etc etc. One more day is just the beginning of it.

Tomorrow is transfer day. I say that cautiously optimistic because we haven’t had an update on the embryos since the day after retrieval which actually has been quite a relief. Last time we got an update day after retrieval and on day 3 and day 5 (day of transfer). Last time around we started off with 18 egg, 13 fertilized, and ended up with 2 “poor” embryos but we got our sweet Z man from those and that is more than I could have wished for. This time around we got 19 eggs, 13 fertilized and we will see what tomorrow brings. I’m a bit overcome with emotions as I think about tomorrow morning. I recall last time the dreaded call we recieved, letting us know there were only 2 that made it and they were “poor” and needed to know if we wanted to proceed. Ehhhhh. Not the call you’re wanting to get the morning of transfer but I rudely said, “I mean, ya….were already this far, what’s it going to hurt.” And a moment we dreamed would be filled with excitement was torn into pieces and we began our IVF journey with low expectations. Boy was I beyond wrong. Zayden proves that to me every single day. ❤️

But tomorrow, I try not to think of it but I’m dreading that morning call and nervous what they may say, but I pray I take whatever news with grace. I have to admit, I’m a little sad that I’ve been a bit distracted this IVF journey. I’ve been a little distracted on all aspects from my faith to being consumed by every aspect of it. I’m not real sure why but I feel a little guilty but maybe it’s me letting go of the control because I know I have no control. I never did, but sometimes it’s easy to think that you do, like if I eat this or that, drink more water, do all the IVF tips, take my meds or shots exactly at the right time every day but that’s not how it works. It’s not in my control, or Jason’s and although all those things may improve chances, it really is out of our control. So whatever happens tomorrow, no matter what they say on the call, I know there is a bigger plan!

❤️ Thanks for the love and prayers friends! Also, continue to pray for my sweet friends B & C, they have big moments coming up and could use prayers!

Little prayer

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I can’t sleep, maybe from some nerves or may be from not having Bubs by our side. Either way, I’ve been laying in this big King size bed and not getting any sleep (while Jason is in sweet Dream land of course) 😂

So I decided to do something different and write out my prayer.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this beautiful quiet morning and the opportunity you’ve given us to be here. We know so many don’t get the opportunity to do IVF once let alone twice and we are so grateful for this. Thank you for my family taking care of our awesome little man, and all the support we get from family, friends and strangers that just have heard or read about our story.

Please give me peace dear Lord. Please help me to feel calm and confident that you have this in control. And please help me understand that no matter the outcome, you’ve got this covered. I also ask for wisdom for the Dr, anesthesia and nurses to do their best and make the best decisions for us. And my body to do well with the procedure and come off anaesthesia easily. And please give Jason strength to put up with me 😊

I pray for tons of healthy eggs Lord. Healthy everything in fact. And that they find their home this weekend. Please keep those embryos strong and growing as they should in preparation for next week!

And dear Lord, please take care of bub while we are traveling and keep him safe and let him feel all the love that we know he’s getting! We pray for safe travels and good healthy outcome today. Thank you for being there, always. Thank you for being our rock.

Oh and, please please help B & C to also have an amazing outcome. B’s retrieval is tomorrow and I know she’s traveling with a small one and that has to be hectic. Please keep her calm and give her an incredible outcome. And give C patience and not to overthink results but have an incredible outcome next week as well. Give their Dr wisdom and help their bodies to produce the best and healthiest eggs possible. You know they deserve this and I pray they will be so successful this time! ❤️ So please healthy bodies, eggs and good levels! And if things are not in the cards for any of us, please give us peace and help us to understand you have a plan.

Thank you for everything. I love you, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

In the back of my head I hear Zayden quietly saying, “I luv you dog” and pointing to the sky as he does after most prayers. Translation: “I love you God.” Hoping He appreciates being called a dog in this instance. ❤️

Procedure at 8:45 am 🙌

Momma guilt

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Mom guilt. That dreaded feeling can be the worst. I’m currently feeling a few different emotions, mostly out of sheer exhaustion and uncomfortableness (physically) but I have pinpointed back to Mom Guilt.

I’m sitting here in Starbucks parking lot typing this. Just sitting in the parking lot because my stomach is swollen and uncomfortable so have feet up on dash and probably getting looks from passerbys but I don’t really care. 😂 I had every intention of going inside, getting a decaf coffee and working a little while I wait for Dr results today. Waiting to see if I need to drive back up here tomorrow (which would be the 3rd trip to KC this week) aka 21 hours of driving to and from KC THIS WEEK. Y’all, it’s exhausting, but love the reason we are doing it.

Anyways, sitting in the parking lot, debating with myself, if I need to drive back to Arkansas or not, just to come back tomorrow at 7:30 am. The answer is no, I don’t NEED to drive back to Arkansas. I’m tired, I’m uncomfortable, I have tons of work I could be doing or housework I could think about doing, but more importantly Zayden is going to miss me and what if I end up missing something important in the next 30 hours or what happens if he falls and just needs his mama?? Here’s the deal I don’t need to go home today.. Only crazy people drive 21 hours when they can easily stay in town and see friends, get a pedicure, maybe shop, right? But the Mom Guilt is real. I know he is fine with an extremely capable and awesome I might add, nanny, and hubs is there to take care of him when she leaves. They will probably have Mac n cheese or order pizza because those two things Jason is a pro at doing 😂. Zayden may ask where I am or be a little sad, but he will be ok! But the Mom Guilt is just weighing extra heavy on me today. I feel bad every morning this week that I had to sneak out of bed at 4 am and he woke up crying to see me leave. 😭 Part of my brain is saying, you’re leaving your child for just a potential child – and then my silly brain goes down the rabbit hole on how unfair that is. Arghhh. Does the Mom Guilt ever leave? Do you ever know you’re making the right decision when it comes to your kids or do you always question things?

Alright, Mom Guilt aside, things in IVF world are going good. I have a killer support system, from family doing what they can to cover Z shifts as needed, friends staying the night to take care of pups last minute, friends letting crash their house last minute, and just neighbors or friends saying they’re there for us if needed, and friends from literally across the US sending us cookies just to brighten the day 😭😭😭❤️. It may seem like a small item to them, but the love that is pouring on me when I’m feeling a bit down is overwhelming. All this love just makes me want to adopt and have all the babies we can so share this love with them! Killer support system is so so important and have been blessed in that arena. Speaking of support system, I have two other friends going through the exact process literally right now (say a prayer for them too please, B & C).

Tests have been going pretty good, just slower than planned, which means more drugs. Tentatively, we are looking at Friday retrieval and next Wednesday transfer. So prayers are appreciated (for me and my two friends if you have an extra prayer for them, they definitely deserve it). ❤️

To all those mammas (or dads) that are experiencing the parent guilt – I feel ya. You’ve got this though. If not, holler at me and I’ll talk you down from it. 😊

Going on 21…months

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Where has time possibly gone? Zayden is 20 months and we love watching him watch us.

He is watches us when he’s being cute to make sure we see it (like when he’s dancing)

He watches us when we cook, when we talk, when we clean, when we pet the dogs, and on and on. He is watching all the time and you can see his mind just working away figuring how things work and what works and doesn’t work. And basically, how to play us (or I have to assume that’s his master plan) 😂

He knows I give a warning before a timeout, so he knows he can get away with something one time.

He knows when I say “One more cartoon/book then it’s bedtime” that that usually means two more.

He knows if I have ice cream, he gets ice cream so he’ll take a popsicle, eat it, then wait for momma to get ice cream and cuddle up with me so he gets best of both worlds. ❤️

He knows if Dadda whistles, he’s coming to find and tickle him.

Everyday we are so thankful for this sweet boy and the love he gets from others. He’s learned alot the past couple of months and I’m blown away by this.

Some new things:

He’s starting to learn letters and what they stand for. He can pick up and say about 15 or so letters, all his shapes, all the basic colors and starting to make shapes now. I meannnnn, that’s pretty impressive in my book.

This past few months, we’ve really seen his personality come out more. When he’s tired at night, he’s done playing, it doesn’t matter what’s going on, he will put himself to bed (our bed) and lay down waiting for us to join.

Dancing and singing (jibberish) are his jam.

He’s jumping (ha, and it’s pretty comical)

Smiling on demand – and my goodness…it’s the best.

Saying more and more that I can’t even keep track of. Every day he will casually say something and Jason and I exchange a look like did you teach him that? 😂

This month was sadly our first emergency room encounter. Whew, and that was scary. Never do I want him to have to go through that again but I’m sure this won’t be out last trip to the ER in the middle of the night. Zayden ended up getting severe croup and Dad happened to be out of town, and he had to receive 2 rounds of steroids, 6 breathing treatments and lots of popsicles before we were able to go home. Next month, we will have hospital stay to remove his adenoids & tonsils, in hopes it will help with his sleep apnea. He could use the extra Zzzs as could we.

Any mammas out there that feel like their little one isn’t sleeping good, or something feels off? Trust that gut feeling…his Ped wanted to watch everything and see if his symptoms worsened but I decided to get him into an ENT. We did a pulse ox test and his oxygen levels at night were very low, and have determined his oversized tonsils are causing blockage, which = restless sleep every night which could lead to very overtired baby and parents. 😴

Thankfully, the good Lord has given us extra energy and we are looking forward to the night we don’t have to worry about if he will catch his breath and breathe again through the sleep apnea or if he won’t. Trust me, we are just ready for him to be as healthy as can be.

What I’ve learned this month, Zayden is stronger than me. And gosh I’m thankful for this. I’ve also learned and continue to learn every day that God has a plan for this little guy, a big plan and I can’t wait to watch it unfold.

Here we go again…

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This blog began a few years ago as my infertility journey and has slowly changed to Zayden’s journey. At first I felt a little guilty that my depressing, sad blog turned into an over abundance of cute little things Z does. But then I realized he’s such an incredible gift…he IS the journey and I’ll continue to document his life.

Today, I have a little deja vu as I tell you we are attempting IVF again. We still are actively pursuing adoption and it’ll happen when it’s supposed to. We thought we wanted to try IVF once more and if it doesn’t happen, then we understand that’s God’s will.

I’ve been on a few pills and one injection for the past few weeks. Everything was looking good until last week, I wasn’t “suppressed” like they would like me to be so they decided to push our entire plan back a week. If this Wednesday my levels are still high, we will stop and reevaluate (whatever that means). In the meantime, they doubled my meds. It’s a little frustrating but I know God has perfect timing. Actually, the delay my Dr has made has put me on a similar schedule as two of my lifefriends going through IVF. Talk about having a good support system! ❤️

Today was the first day I’ve struggled with the medication. Two different times today I’ve felt dizzy, serious headaches, nauseous, hot and overall just crummy. It’s all normal and apart of the journey but it is just a gentle reminder that infertility is not for the faint of heart. I question if I’m strong enough to do it again, but we’re going to try so I need to be. Luckily, today is also the day Zayden has been overly sweet (he is almost every day, but today he just knew I needed some extra sweetness).

I’ve so thankful for the opportunity to be able to do IVF and thankful God thinks I’m strong enough to handle this.

17 & 18 months

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Wow, what a past couple of months it has been! Our little boy is becoming the sweetest little man I could have ever asked for. Of course, he’s ornery as can be but that’s what keeps me on my toes! ❤️

We didn’t add any new travel to Zayden’s list this month, but within the last month was the first time I left Zayden with someone else for over 24 hours, let alone traveled across the US for 4 nights. It was so sad (for me) but he seemed to be content with my family keeping him busy!

I can’t even keep track of all the new words he says because every day it’s something different. Like today I told him to “Get Down” (off the table because safety kid) but he looks at me and said get down. 😂 He hasn’t been putting multiple words together until the past couple of days and it’s really throwing me off guard!

Zayden, you know a few colors: purple, blue, white, black and nana (which is translation for yellow)

Also, a few letters (and there is no rhyme or reason to these letters but for some reason you know them: B, Z, Y, O, D, S, and sometimes you’ll actually get A right, but still working on the rest of the alphabet.

You know a ton of numbers but you think they are all 2. 😂😂 So we have a little work to do in that department.

You’re going through a picky eating stage, but a few things stay consistent like yogurt (your fave), oranges, blueberries,PBJ, beans, sushi, shrimp, sweet potatoes, cheese sticks mac-n-cheese, cheese quesdillas, cheese enchilada, grilled cheese…see a trend? Recently mama has gotten smart and started making “cheese” home made hot pockets but hiding veggies in them which surprisingly works.

We are done breastfeeding. Whaaaat. I’ve kept a little more quiet about breastfeeding up until 17.5 months because honestly I was tired of people’s comments. “You haven’t cut him off yet?” Etc etc etc. Y’all should be applauding any mama for feeding their child let alone nursing for this long! But that part of our journey is over and you did great with it bub!

You still love to read and paint and color everything! Thankfully, we got smart and got you those magic markers that only color on certain things!

Every day I am blown away by what new thing you’ve learned or can say or do. I’m also blown away how high you can climb in seconds. 🤦 You’re going to give me a heart attack before I’m 34, but this is what I’m told boy life is like! And we love every single minute of it.

So proud and thankful to be your mama.

Moment 4 | Understanding Our Infertility

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The most recent moment to our infertility journey you may think end with having Zayden. But infertility is not something that just disappears after having children, it sticks around, haunts you some days, traumatizes you some and tucked in your heart forever.

Throughout my pregnancy, I was a bit of a hot mess. I was surprisingly calm through most of it but I worried every single day what was going to go wrong, when I would lose Zayden, if I was going to die during delivery. Literally I thought about every possible bad scenario and would replay it in my head. I did everything I could think of to not think like that but it was inevitable.

When you walk through life with infertility, it sticks around, haunts you, traumatizes you forever. Granted, I thank God every day for that sweet baby that He gave us but I worry. Will he fall and hit his head, will we get in a car crash, will a pop fly hit him one day when he’s old enough to play baseball? I’m sure my parents used to think the same thing about me, and guess what – the answer is ya, probably. We can’t control what they do or what happens to them. But we can be thankful for every moment we get to share with him.

When I started this 4 piece blog about understanding our infertility journey. I initially thought Moment 4 was this big epiphany I had after having Zayden, but the more I thought about it, I don’t think I’ve had my moment 4. I don’t fully understand why God chose us to go through this journey…

Maybe He wanted us to not take any second for granted.

Maybe He wanted us to be a rock for someone else going through a struggle?

Maybe our struggle was preventing us from more heartache, someway somehow.

Maybe He needed us to be a voice to someone else going through infertility.

I can’t really speculate because our journey is ever-continuing and will be something we struggle and question every day. So we will enjoy every moment He has given us, the sad, the bittersweet and chaotic moments and continue strong down our journey. ❤️

Moment 3 | Infertility Uncovered

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“Chasnie, none of your embryos are going to make it.”

We got around this morning and the hotel room was pure silence. We were both anxious and cautiously excited about that day. Today was the day for transfer. Last we heard 4 days ago we had 13 healthy embryos! 13!!!! Then we got the call. See they told us at our last appointment they wouldn’t call unless they had bad news. Instantly my anxious, excited mood changed and I started to break before the call came through.

(Paraphrasing bc I don’t remember the exact words due to my mind set) “Chasnie, none of your embryos are going to make it.” WHY was this happening to us again? I get it, it doesn’t happen the first time for most people but I had 13 embryos, I knew it was going to work. She continued, “There are a few that are currently here, but they are rating so poor that we can’t rate them but you can put them in if they survive. Do you want to move forward?”

So many thoughts racing through my head, but I didn’t hesitate to say, “Uh ya… I mean, we’ve gotten this far, if they’re still alive when we get there, we are doing this.”

I text my family and a handful of close friends and just asked for prayers. Prayers for strength for those sweet babies and prayers for peace for us. We needed them, we needed the prayers. We felt alone. We were in an empty hotel (construction was going on and literally we didn’t see anyone besides the front desk when we were there). And we felt like He had been given up on us. Once again, we felt like God was telling us, your time isn’t now. But how could this be? Hasn’t it been long enough? Haven’t we lost enough? Haven’t we fought enough? What we’re we doing wrong? We literally followed every instruction to a T. We made sure I rested and didn’t get stressed out. I gave up working out like I was instructed when that’s all I wanted to do. I gave up fun events and get togethers bc the timing didn’t mesh with injections or I was tired. This may all seem like measly things we gave up (and they are) but we started to feel like ALL of this and ALL the hormones were for no reason.

So we prayed alot, cried some and got our minds right. Then we went into the doctor a couple of hours later and transferred 2 embryos. The doctor told me she wasn’t going to talk to me about the ones that didn’t survive nor would we talk about how poor these 2 were, because stressing about it that day was not what we needed. Grateful for this, we agreed.

We transferred those two poor little embryo that day and God (yet again) showed us just how powerful He is. Below is a reminder.

I could sit here and tell you how I mourned that 2nd embryo and how I still mourn not having my two tubes to have just a surprise pregnancy, but the truth is we received a miracle. Not all stories end on a positive note like ours did. IVF doesn’t work for so many families and it’s important to remember it never happens like we plan or think or pray for. There’s a bigger plan that we may not see now or even in 10 years but there is a plan. Be thankful for what yo have been given, but also don’t give up faith while waiting to see what He has in store for you! ❤️ My heart goes out to all the families struggling and will pray for you all!

Moment 2 | Infertility Uncovered

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This week is National Infertility Awareness Week!  If you’ve been following along the past couple of days, I’ve been sharing 4 moments in our infertility journey that have opened my eyes to the bigger picture.  These moments are a little more personal than I care to share, but I think it’s important in sharing our story, not just to mend ourselves, but to help others on their journey.  I know sharing their stories isn’t for everyone, but I feel like God placed certain situations and certain people in our lives to help us grow and to help others grow.  So…I’m sharing, no matter how difficult the stories can be at times, I just remind myself, there’s a bigger reason for our infertility journey.  I’ve come to understand it more over the past 9 years, and leads me to Moment #2.

Moment #2:

I heard a heartbeat.  Surprised, I looked over my shoulder at the nurse and she said oh, that’s not a heartbeat, that’s just your blood pumping and she quickly turned the sound of the machine off.  She was lying to save my sanity.  

Ughhhhhhhhhhh. Where do I even start here?

This day was one of the scariest days of my life, literally.  Probably for Jason as well and we’ve both done some crazy scary things in the past but this day took the cake.  I woke up about 4:15 and was headed to hot yoga. I felt fine and ready to start the day, sat in my car and I felt a little sick to my stomach.  I thought to myself – you’re fine, just indigestion or something – keep moving along.  I made it about 3 miles down the interstate before I turned around and came back home.  I layed on the couch from 4:30-8:00 waiting for this “indigestion” to go away.  I debated going to the doctor but figure nah, you’re fine.  Looking back now, I was just being stubborn and a little stupid.  I was in the most pain I’d ever felt as I layed there curled up in a ball on the couch, this was not a stomach bug. Jason finally asked me what my gut was telling me, do I need to take you to the ER.  Yes. That was it, yes my gut (or the pain in my gut) was telling me something was wrong.  I needed help.

The ER was a typical ER & always so many people.  We waited for over an hour and finally they took us back.  In the same breath we found out I was pregnant, we found out it may be an ectopic pregnancy (again).  I’ve done research on this, the chances of someone having 2 ectopic pregnancies in 2 different tubes is pretty rare, but I  honestly wasn’t surprised.  We knew what was coming next.  I thought they’d take me back to surgery right away and the tube would erupt and we’d be no longer able to have kiddos the way we wanted to. However, they took me back to do some bloodwork and an ultrasound to confirm it was an ectopic.  I was sitting there waiting to hear the yup, it’s an ectopic, let’s go back to surgery.  Instead, I heard a heartbeat.  Surprised, I looked over my shoulder at the nurse and she said oh that’s not a heartbeat, that’s just your blood pumping and quickly turned the sound of the machine off.  She was lying.  I knew what she was doing, she was trying to save my sanity.  Shortly after, the doctor came in, told me it was unusual that an ectopic pregnancy would have a heartbeat but we needed to go into surgery to remove the tube right away.

“Wait.  Wait a second.  I need some time.  I want to keep my tube.  Wait…there’s a heartbeat?” – Me

“Sure. We have all the time here. No, we need to do this surgery now and you always have the option of invitro.” – Doctor 

So many thoughts were going through my head in that moment.  Can an embryo survive as an ectopic pregnancy?  I mean, I know it can’t because I’ve been told that, but can it really and they just don’t want to do it?  How does it have a heartbeat?  Wait, how am I even pregnant?  I want to celebrate and mourn all at the same time.  WHY AM I STILL SITTING HERE IN PAIN?  This is the second everything started to make sense.   I didn’t really know the extent, but I knew that little embroyo was gone and my tube had ruptured.  I had bled a little over a liter of blood into my abdomen. No, this was not indigestion, this was me fading fast.

I honestly don’t remember much else from that day or week or really that month for that matter.  I was mourning, pissed, annoyed, exhausted, basically all the negative adjectives I can think of, I was.  I was physically sick and weak. My entire stomach area was covered in bruising.  I questioned everything, I pushed Jason away, when all he wanted to do was support me.  I threw myself into whatever would keep me busy, and I “seemed” fine.  But…I was not.  I was broken.  And here I was at a point in my life (yet again) where I couldn’t understand why God was letting this happen to us.  Why was it necessary that I experience this. Hadn’t I gone through enough?  It’s GREAT that He thinks I’m strong enough to handle this, but news flash – I am not.  I was pretty mad for quite some time.  Eh, I may still be upset when I think about it from time to time.

What I didn’t know…. Our story wasn’t over.  It was just another step in this journey.

Ps. I’ll never forget that sweet heartbeat that I got to hear for a few seconds.  That was the little bit of miracle I needed to push through.