Shots

 I have been saving all the needles from my two rounds of IVF and I finally had Nate take some pictures of them all for me. It was amazing to see it all together and I truly can't believe that I poked myself that many times. I definitely had divine help and having an end goal always helps with determination and will power. I was thinking as I was setting all the needles up that only someone that has gone through IVF would want a photo shoot of their needles. :) It will be strange throwing them away. They were kind of like a badge of honor and reminded me of what I have gone through to get to this point. I am very grateful that it all worked out for me and we are very grateful for this little miracle baby girl that is growing and squirming inside of me.

-First round of IVF-

-Gonal-F- I poked myself 12 times with this medication. This was the first shot I gave myself and so I threw away some of the medication bottles before Nate suggested that it would be a good idea to have them for a picture at the end. I am glad that he thought of it! 

-Menopur- According to the needles that I had I poked myself 10 times even though I thought it was the same amount of times at the Gonal-F.

 -Cetrocide- I poked myself 5 times with this medication. All three of these medications aided in my follicles/eggs growing so that they could be taken out of my body to see how many of them became embryos.

 This one shot is called Novarell and it was the shot in my bum that had to be given at an exact time that told my body that the eggs were going to be taken out I think 36 hours later. I didn't give myself this one but during the second round of IVF I realized that I can poke myself in the bum and did it lots and lots of times.

-Second round of IVF-

With this round since we used frozen embryos I didn't have to do any shots before I got the embryos put in me but only after the embryo transfer. This is progesterone in oil that helped keep my little baby inside of me during the critical first trimester. I poked myself in the bum 73 times plus the three needles in the middle are the times that I hit a vein and had to poke myself twice in one night.

All of my needles and medications waiting for when I was ready for this photo shoot. I have a lot more space on my bathroom counter now that this is all gone. :)

 Organizing the needles.

I was thinking of the best way to display the needles for a picture of all the needles and medications I had to use in order to get pregnant. Originally I thought about doing a circle around the ultrasound but decided on a rainbow shape. I thought this was fitting since this baby would be a "rainbow" baby. A rainbow baby is a baby that is born following a miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss. In the real world, a beautiful and bright rainbow follows a storm a gives hope of things getting better. The rainbow is more appreciated having just experiences the storm in comparison. The storm is the loss of babies and for me this was an ectopic pregnancy, losing three babies through IVF, and dealing with infertility. The rainbow is the beautiful baby that is growing inside of me and so I thought it was perfect to do the shape of the needles in a rainbow.

This is all the needles and medications that I used not including the mixing solutions and mixing needles.

 And this picture is with all the needles and medications including the mixing solutions and mixing needles.

 We are so grateful for you little one! We are all so happy that you are joining our family and even though it was such long and difficult journey to get to this point it makes us appreciate you even more. We love you little girl!