Shelton & Brandi

Hello! We're Brandi & Shelton Koskie. Since 2006 we’ve been one of the many couples on the In Vitro Fertilization journey. We were the first IVF fundraiser blog, and thanks to the generous help of many, in we had our first successful IVF attempt. Nine months later, we had a beautiful girl, Paisley. You’re invited to follow along on our journey from infertility to parenthood.  Learn more

Infertility Myths: Factors that Can and Can’t Affect Your Fertility

I like to peruse the Yahoo! Shine homepage from time to time, as it’s like a juicy chick magazine without the Earth-killing paper waste and $3.50 fee.

One of the top stories today was this very interesting list about the things that can and can’t have an affect on your fertility.

Things that can prevent pregnancy / negatively influence fertility:

> History of STDs
> Recent DepoProvera
> Irregular cycles
> Overweight or Underweight
> Age (yes guys, there really is a biological clock. its ticks get slower after 30 and again after 35.)
> Not enough sex or too much sex
> Family history of infertility

Things that have no influence on fertility:

> How wet or dry you are (you know, down there)
> Sex positions
> Female orgasm
> Extended use of birth control
> The Herp

See the article by Dr. Kate in full here.

Written by Brandi and posted under IVF and Infertility News

IVF Egg Retrieval, ICSI, Embryo Transfer and Pregnancy Test

It seems almost impossible that we’re here. Three years ago we launched this site hoping to raise awareness about infertility, raise some funds for our treatment, and chronicle our experience with infertility and IVF. I feel satisfied that we’ve done all three. I’ve absolutely loved sharing all of this with you, and can say that it has helped me maintain my sanity, as this site has been my virtual therapist.

So what’s next, where do we go from here? A lot of people are asking and so here is the answer – we’re making a baby! Here is the schedule for the next week:

> Sunday 8/2: Egg retrieval. This surgery takes place at the surgery center at 8am and will hopefully yield at least 17 healthy eggs.

> Sunday 8/2: ICSI, or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection. They will do this on Sunday once the eggs are retrieved and the sperm is thawed. One sperm will be injected into one egg, and then kept for a few days to let those early cellular division stages take place.

> Sunday 8/2: Begin progesterone injections. With the GIANT NEEDLE in my hiney! Begin the doxycycline pills.

> Tuesday 8/4-Friday 8/7: Embryo transfer. At the earliest this will happen Tuesday, at the latest Friday. A catheter will be placed in my uterus and ONE (and only ONE) embryo will be transferred inside. I will not be put under for this, but given something to relax a bit.

> August….? : This is where we’re going to go dark for a few weeks. At this time we do have a blood test scheduled for a pregnancy test. But we’re not saying when it is. Aside from our clinic we are the only people who know when it is, and we’re keeping that way. I always thought I’d likely wait through my first trimester to announce a pregnancy, just to be sure. I’ve really struggled with when the best time would be to make that announcement since we have this site. We’re so grateful to have so many people following our story and such a huge team of cheerleaders crossing fingers, legs and hairs, praying, sending good mojo and dancing the hully-gully! However, Shelton and I want to take some time to let this news be ours. I’m not going to make everyone wait an entire trimester, but I am going to ask that everyone give us a few weeks to be comfortable with the news, whichever way it goes, tell a number of close family and friends, and then we’ll let the world know!

Then know that just like with our IVF, we’re not going to keep any detail quiet. I’ll resume blogging the next nine months and invite all of you to come along as we anxiously await baby Koskie, sure to be the cutest monster anyone has ever met!!!

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Written by Brandi and posted under IVF Journey

IVF Shots Day 18 – Stim Day 9

Yesterday was kind of a roller coaster. I went from feeling great, aside from a little continued pain, to terribly nauseated and in bed at 9:55 on a Friday night. (Welcome to the rest of our lives I guess!)

Started the day with our LAST LUPRON SHOT!!! I’ll grant you, if I had to take those forever, it would be no bigs. I don’t even feel them. Nonetheless, good riddance! Then it was off to our fourth ultrasound and bloodwork of the week. This one had the best news yet, we’re done! My ovaries have responded incredibly well and we stopped our regularly scheduled shots yesterday. That means Thursday was our LAST MENOPUR SHOT!!! If you’ve never taken it, or are planning to take it, let me put it this way, it’s fire water. It’s like filling a syringe with fire and then injecting it into your belly. It’s so uncomfortably painful. So again, good friggin’ riddance!

The ultrasound was very busy yesterday. There were, from what we could see, 12 follicles (holding the eggs) on my right ovary and 5 follicles on my lazy left ovary. Our nurse “Y,” who we love!, did the ultrasound and showed us on the screen where my ovaries are actually touching. Afterward we spoke with “M” and I was like, no wonder I feel like none of my pants fit and I’m in so much pain. She agreed, the follicles are full and my ovaries have expanded and pushing out.

The other good news of the day? Retrieval is scheduled for tomorrow!!! We have to check-in at the surgery center at 7am Sunday, retrieval is scheduled for 8am, and we could be there for a few hours, including recovery. Sunday you ask? I’ve been told that not all IVF clinics make themselves available on weekends. Make sure yours is! Otherwise you’re compromising your cycle. They need to take those eggs out at just the right time. So I’m eternally grateful that our doctor, nurses and the entire surgery team are giving up a precious Sunday morning to poke holes in me.

Last night at precisely 8:00 I did my Ovidrel injection. This comes in a pre-filled syringe that’s been nesting in our crisper for the past few weeks. This is the “point of no return” shot, the “Houston, we are go for launch” shot, the “this shit is getting real” shot. This is an HCG injection (human chorionic gonadotropin) and is responsible for helping the follicles mature and triggering the release of mature eggs. It’s taken exactly 36 hours prior to egg retrieval. Apparently I was supposed to alert my health care provider if I had severe upset stomach and vomiting – good thing I didn’t go all the way.

The blood test showed that my estrogen was soaring somewhere around 2500 yesterday (400 is normal). The day before it was about 1500. So by my mathematically handicapped calculations, my estrogen increases about 41 points every hour. So I could very easily be around 3500 this morning. EVERYBODY LOOK OUT!!! I’m actually surprised that I feel as well as I do. I figured with estrogen that high Shelton would have stitches in his forehead and I’d be bawling because our dog’s bowl was out of water again. But alas, no tears. No need to panic.

Last night you would have thought Shelton and I had actually brought home a baby. We were just so romantical and sweet and whatever (insert nausea) with one another. We did a lot of talking last night. He told me he was proud of me for getting through all of this fairly easily, and for doing it at all. Thanked me for not going off the deep end and expressed how excited he is to have a baby. I pretty much echoed all of that – telling him there is absolutely no way I could have done this without him, and no way I’d want to have done it with anyone else.

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Written by Brandi and posted under IVF Journey

IVF Shots Day 15 – Stim Day 6

Folks, yesterday was a breeze!! I felt great all day long, save for some random nausea that lasted about an hour mid-afternoon. This headache is still lingering but I’ve decided it can suck it and choosing to ignore it. That is when it’s not beating on the back of my eyeballs like the police on a door in the middle of the night.

Shelton and I have a fantastic system for my morning Lupron shots. I do absolutely nothing and he does everything! It’s marvelous. He leaves for work about an hour before I wake up, and it’s better for the safety of everyone in our neighborhood if he not speak to me before I’ve had time to really wake up. So he walks over in the morning, pulls the blanket back, gently says good morning and swabs my stomach with alcohol and then does the Lupron injection. It’s so fast and painless I probably wouldn’t know he’s doing it if he didn’t let me know, we do a quick kiss goodbye and I go back to dreaming.

I took myself on a date last night, and let me tell you, it was hot! I’ve got some birthday money stashed from last week so I used it to get a pedicure and then a plate full of yummy Mexican food at Abuelo’s. It’s one of the few places I have no qualms about eating by myself. I sat at the bar, enjoyed some chips and salsa, green chili chicken enchiladas, and a beer. An ice-cold, touch of lime, Dos Equis lager off the tap and it was SOOOOO GOOOD!!! I savored every sip. It was just one and I haven’t had a drink for about a week, and considering how great I’ve been feeling, figured it couldn’t hurt. Then, I tried to grab a new book but they were sold out. Finally, I returned home in time to give myself the Menopur shot and watch Bachelorette: After the final rose.

For the record, I do not typically watch this show. But the trainer, Matt Johnson, at DietsInReview.com was on this season so I watched the whole damn thing and got sucked in like a hopeless romantic college freshman. While I really wanted to see her with Reid, I think she and Ed make a stellar match!!

Shelton had class last night which meant I was on my own for the evening Menopur shot. I had talked to my mom about coming over to do it, but then at the last minute I sent her a text to say I was fine and could handle it. Total lie. I was completely freaking out. I didn’t want her to do it, nor anyone else for that matter. I wanted Shelton, but he wasn’t available, so I had to do it myself. These Menopur shots really hurt. I’m not being dramatic, they are awful. I trust how Shelton does them and we’ve gotten comfortable in the way in which we do the shots. I was too panicked to deal with anyone else. Shelton offered to let me drive to the school and he could do the shot in the car… but getting the Menopur shot mixed and ready required 46 separate supplies and by the time we’re done our bathroom looks like a chemistry lab. And let’s just say the Xterra isn’t exactly a sterile environment. And for that matter, neither is the public restroom at the school.

So alas, there I am in the bathroom trying not to cry. I had the hardest time getting everything mixed. The pressure in the syringe as I was drawing the liquid out would force the liquid back into the vials and out of the syringe. I felt like I had a big backwash mess of Menopur. I finally got the syringe loaded, spot on my abdomen clean, and watched the needle go in and started the injection. I swear to God everything goes into slow motion when I’m giving myself shots. The same thing happened two weeks ago with the Lupron. I HATE IT!!! It hurt like hell and I was certain I didn’t do it right – I kept watching to see if it was going to spill out of my stomach or get another gynormous bruise to match the one on the left of my belly button. But all is well. I didn’t break anything.

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Written by Brandi and posted under IVF Journey

The Benefits of the IVF Waiting Game

I’ve gotten this question before and when I responded to a “KJ” last night, I thought this was something I’d go ahead and share with everyone.

“…wanted to ask you how the wait was cause it looks about 18 months for us…”

How was the wait? Honestly, it was a blessing in disguise. We first started trying five years ago and I think all the time – what if we had gotten pregnant then? Or what if we had done the IVF 3.5 years ago when we found out. I think about all the things we’ve done in that time – where we’ve gone, things we’ve done, our careers, etc. and realize that most of it wouldn’t have been possible with a baby. So while my ovaries have screamed at me more times than I care to count and I’ve watched nearly every person we know have a baby, including my little sister last week, and drooled, cooed, ahhed and jealousy watched them hold their babies…. I’ve been grateful too. I’ll never ever get this time back. I’ll never have this chance again to take a career risk like I did 2 years ago, or sleep in every Sunday morning with my husband, or stay out much later than planned with friends, or any number of other things we’ve done BECAUSE WE’RE IN OUR 20s! I’ll never get this time back alone with my husband, just the two of us. We’ve had eight years together as a duo and it’s been precious and perfect. I think we’re going to scratch our 7-year-itch by turning this into a trio!

Anytime someone asks about waiting, baby vs. no baby, and how they wish they could just get pregnant already – I remind myself, and them if they want, that it will happen when it’s supposed to happen. And rather than having spent the past five years pouting, moping and being generally depressed about the fact that we don’t have a baby yet, I spent that time enjoying my life, appreciating what I DO HAVE, and putting my energy into building as positive a marriage and life as I possibly can into which I can bring that little burping, pooping, screaming cuddly monster home.

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Written by Brandi and posted under IVF Journey

IVF Shots Day 14 – Stim Day 5

No wonder I’m so tired. I apparently spent the weekend making eggs. Twelve to be exact. Just call me dodeca-mom – I’ve got 12 eggs inside me! I had my ultrasound at 8am, and think I probably showed the clinic staff how much I’m not a morning person. We were told everything looks “absolutely perfect.”

Yesterday afternoon I started noticing some dull pain in my pelvic region and right side. I liken the pain to what I usually feel when I have ovarian cysts. Almost like a pulled or strained muscle sensation, or as if I had a kidney infection. I knew something was up when I noticed that. Sure enough today they found eight eggs on my right ovary, and four on the left. She said I might make a few more, but for now we just want these to grow. The goal is 16mm – currently the largest are 12mm and the smallest are 8mm (if I remember correctly). They did blood work today and found that my estrogen level is 572 (normal is about 400). On retrieval day they estimate it will be around 4000. Finally, we learned that my retrieval day could be 8/3 or 8/4, but of course won’t know for certain for a few more days.

This morning I really didn’t feel well at all. The headache is still here, a little nausea, and extremely fatigued. I did today what I’ve been saying I need to do for days – I took a nap! And not just a catnap, but two whole hours! I felt much better after I woke up and had a little lunch. By the time the evening started I started feeling tired again. So I’ve been resting all night.

My Menopur shot tonight HURT LIKE HELL! I mean, I screamed. And Shelton removed the needle and had to stick me again. The needle is longer than other needles we’ve used and so he thinks he might have hit muscle tonight, saying it felt like he’d actually hit something when he stuck me. Whatever it was, it was awful and I hope we don’t have any more shots like that.

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Written by Brandi and posted under IVF Journey