Tips to Using Lovenox

This is a new tip post on how to do Lovenox injections. Many will find that it's not so much the needle that stings more so the medicine. Some days are more painful then others. Overall it's not to bad and here are a few things I've picked up while using them both in our last pregnancy and with this one.

• If you notice a knot, basically a hard patch where you did an injection and it is stiff try to stay away from injecting on any hard part of that area it will hurt like no other.

• I don't ice as I find it tends to make my bruising worse (Which is weird considering Ice constricts your veins lessening blood flow, but it does for me) and tightens my skin causing a bit more resistance when I put the needle in.
• pinch nice and hard it'll help with the pain.
• before you take the cap off (I use pre-filled syringes) , tap the needle so the air bubble goes near the needle. I push the plunger in once (again while the cap is on) I find it helps to loosen up the plunger for a better controlled injection.
• Before I inject I get rid of the air bubble, again helps with loosening up the plunger making for a smoother injection. Instead of the awful jerk you can get at the start.
• I find if I alcohol swipe the area afterwards I bleed more and often bruise worse. So I stick to Kleenexes on the area. 
• DO NOT RUB IN. Don't rub the liquid in. I hate that I can't do this as I notice I get so many knots that I otherwise might not have if I could have rubbed the area. But with lovenox it's a no no.
  
  Please note not all of these tips will work for you and some of my donts' you may actually find you like to do. That's ok and is perfectly fine (besides the last tip). Hopefully I was able to help ease the pain that can be Lovenox Shots. We have 9 months of these needles, mid as well find some way to manage them.

6 week scan

We had our second ultrasound today. We have great news and not so great news. We saw a sac and a little baby in there with a little flicker that was the heartbeat. It was so so amazing to witness. The second sac was no longer there, the nurse practitioner said the baby either reabsorbed into the body or that he/she is hiding. They will be sure to check at future ultrasounds but for right there there is one little baby in there.

Here's the scan photo from today. I shocked at how much I'm able to see. The little head (bent down) the little nubs for arms. It's truly a beautiful sight.

6 weeks 0 days Ultrasound

We're very excited and feeling utterly blessed. We realize again that anything cn happen but this is a great start!

IUI #3 Update

A picture is worth a thousand words! And this should say pretty much how our last IUI went. We're cautiously optimistic. After 4 losses we are trying to maintain the realistic thoughts that anything can happen. For now we're pregnant. We had our first ultrasound and baby is measuring well. I'm hoping 2013 will be our year. As of right now our due date is November 15th.

But wait there's more......


We're as or right now pregnant with  TWINS! It's still very early on and Baby A was measuring really well and on time. Baby B was very tiny and the Nurse Practitioner couldn't get a good hold to get a shot of Baby B. With that we'll be having another ultrasound this week when we're 6 weeks (again still early on) but we should be able to really see if Baby B is going to be viable or at least give it a good shot.One thing to note my beta's were rising on the slow side starting up. 13dpo - 87 , 17dpo - 226, 24dpo - 3507 (this was a huge relief to see our numbers bounce back up with the third beta). Our progesterone has been very high our 17dpo wast 57 and 24dpo it was >40 (different labs, and this one didn't give numbers over 40)

Again we know anything can happen and it sucks that we have to be this cautious with our emotions. But we're trying to be as positive as possible. Every pregnancy should be celebrated to a certain extent. This one is no different. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

We're on Lovenox shots, Crinone (progesterone), hCG shots (aka booster) every 3rd day, Metformin, Low dose aspirin and Pre-Natals. Lots to take but if this what helps give us our take home baby I'll do it for however long is needed .

New Year, New Hope

It's amazing how a change of a day can some how help reset your strength and hope. I have been feeling so much better, I have been feeling more like me the happy me that I lost at about a year mark of this journey.

I'm excited and nervous for tomorrows appointment. I'd love to get the news that we'll be put on fertility meds tomorrow but in retrospect I'm happy we can try again so soon. The other side of me is absolutely terrified, I'm terrified of (oddly enough) getting pregnant again. I'm terrified of what that does to me emotionally, how much worrying I put myself through. I know this time around no amount of comforting words will make me feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel and I'll just have to find ways to cope with the anxiety that pregnancy seems to plague me with now. I'm in high hopes that the anti anxiety meds I'm on (which are pregnancy safe btw) will help curb that anxiety and over obsessive nature I get once we get pregnant. I almost don't like the person I become, very negative and such a worry wart. I am going to try to hold onto the thought that the medication they had me on with Angela helped and WORKED. That I know at some point will be a helpful thought that I wasn't able to have with our last pregnancy as it was our first time on the RPL protocol.

Either way I've been trying to keep my excitement just to excitement. I've been really focusing on my health and learning to live with PCOS. I turned to the South Beach diet and so far I've found between it and weight watchers it really caters to my PCOS minimizing carbs to a huge extent which is what I needed. Weight watchers is an amazing program but it opened my eyes to the fact that literally not every diet program works for everyone. Sometimes per-existing conditions will require a different approach be taken. So I've been working out and really putting a good foot forward with my eating. So far I'm down 4lbs and have hopes of being down 10 lbs by my the time I have my IUI done.

So I've been one busy little bee, between going to Canada to see my family, to having a slew of photos to fix up, and I'm designing my Future Sister in Laws wedding invitations. There's so much to look forward to and so much to do in so little time. I like my activity level now though and I really think it's attributing to my happiness as well. It always feels better to know that you're doing something and not just sitting at a computer. I found it really played into why I wasn't happy. It was my excuse for not getting up and doing things with my fitness and overall things with my family. That's just me and was a huge eye opener over how much time I literally spent on the internet. Others know moderation where I didn't. So 2013 my word of the year is "Moderation" this will speak to many facets of our life. Moderation in food, moderation in internet, moderation in money. Moderation is my key :). 

Hope - a powerful emotion

 A photo I took in the Dominican Republic just after our second loss. ©Barnhart Photography (If you'd like a copy of this photo please message me)

For me, the way that I've been able to keep going on even after the time we've been trying combined with our losses is I still have hope. Hope is such a powerful emotion. Sometimes it's stolen from us from cycle to cycle, but more often then not we find a way to get that hope back. Women who've been trying this long are soldiers and amazingly strong Always trying to find that little ray of light. Sure we're not always positive about this journey but the fact that at least once a cycle we're able to see that light and motivation is to me simply amazing. The strength to pick yourself up off of a very worn and cold floor is admirable. When I feel exceptionally low I search out inspirational quotes, I also let myself grieve our journey. Allowing myself to grieve enables to me to feel what I should feel instead of hiding it and letting those feelings linger, which I found would make me worse if I bottled it up. When I'm feeling great and motivated, I use those times to help pick someone else up or perhaps offer a bit of hope and help when they need it most.

Now some will think I'm calling myself admirable. No that's not the case. What I am saying is that the fact that women can go so long in a journey and still even after all that time find hope. I still am dumbfounded how I found the strength to continue after our loss. I thought for sure internally I was completely done. I think part of me is so stubborn and see's all this energy that we put into it that I just couldn't give up. Another big thing was Angela gave us hope, Angela let us know it wasn't the medication that failed us or even my body. It was an unfortunate turn of events where she had a genetic disorder that no matter what we did, it was an unfortunate and inevitable event that she would leave us sooner then later. That took such a huge weight off my soul. I no longer felt "it's my fault. " "my body failed me." "the medication protocol they had me on was all for nothing." it wasn't any of those . She restored more hope in me then I ever thought I could fee. I feel more optimistic about our medical plan then I have since our first loss. I know we can get pregnant and I know provided genetics are on our side that when we do that this protocol has been proven to help us sustain a pregnancy.

Our next part in our journey will be to see a Genetic Counselor as I think I already mentioned in a previous post. That will be Jan 14th. I'm hoping that all we hear from them is that this loss was a fluke and that we're not predisposed to have it happen again or another genetic disorder appear. So for now I'm focusing on that. I'm a tiny bit worried that we could have our dreams dashed by news such as genetic problems no matter what. That will crush me and probably put and end to our TTC journey and possibly in our journey to become a family larger then 2 and 2 pets. But hope keeps me positive that perhaps we'll be thrown a bone here and finally on the correct path to our take home baby. 


Plan of attack after the Genetic Counselor will be to hopefully start our second IUI. Which I'm really hoping is all we need to get pregnant again. I'm just hoping it takes one time, unrealistic expectations? Perhaps but a girl can remain hopeful ;)


Your thoughts and payrs as we go onto this next step is greatly appreciated as always < 3