We Pulled The Trigger!

Time for a major update in our journey. Last night (Friday) Jessica administered what will, hopefully, be her last two shots leading up to our IVF treatment. For the last 12 days or so, the daily routine has been to explore the city, eat some food, drink some wine, and come back home by 9:30 so that Jess can poke herself in the belly with one (sometimes two) shots. We have also had a total of 3 ultrasounds with our doctor to measure the development of her follicles, and to make sure that she is responding well enough to have eggs harvested for fertilization.

During previous IUI treatments she had administered similar drugs and responded well to them. This time was no different. To put things in perspective for me, she describes it as having two bunches of grapes continually growing inside her belly. Sounds SUPER comfortable and enjoyable...not! Through all of this though she has been one hell of a trooper, even on two separate nights where she had to stick herself an extra time after forgetting to remove the air bubbles from the syringe.

Today is Saturday and we are taking it easy in preparation for the procedure tomorrow. We went to the grocery store (where we are absolutely out of place) to stock up on food and snacks while she recovers from the anesthesia. In addition to retrieving eggs tomorrow, the clinic will also collect a sperm sample for fertilization of the eggs. TMI? Sorry, but...*SPOILER ALERT* That's how babies are made. After that we wait about 5 days for blastocysts to form, then decide on how many we want to transfer, how many we want to freeze for future procedures, and possibly donate some of the embryo's for others to use.

Things up to this point have seemed to move relatively slow, but the pace is definitely picking up! As of today we have just under 3 weeks left in Spain. We have enjoyed every moment up to this point. Our recent adventures have taken us to La Sagrada Familia as well as Castell de Montjuic. We have also gotten to do more exploring around our apartment. We found some fun shopping spots, delicious restaurants (our favorite place is "Teta de Monja" which translates to "Nun's Tit"), and a gelato shop beneath our apartment!

Anyways, we just wanted to give a quick little update on where we are at, and what is coming our way in the next few days.

Poke Count

Arm: 0

Stomach: 16

Ultrasounds: 3

P.S. We hope everyone back home has been doing well! We heard there were some pretty decent rain storms that came through the Boise area, and that it's starting to get quite warm now! You are not alone, the temperature here is rising as well, but not as fast as the humidity! We are excited for what tomorrow holds, as well as the next few weeks, but most excited for the next 9 months and beyond! The homesickness is also starting to set in. We are starting to miss our families, friends, and our dogs! We can't wait to come home and sleep in our own beds. And I can't wait to get home and drive my truck!

Until next time!

- Cole