Tuesday
Well...there isn't much to say about today...we slept in, moved to the couch, ate, watched TV, hung out, and were bums. Thats pretty much it. It was a rest day for me after the transfer and we really didn't do much at all.
Brian did make a run to the store to get more eggs (I'm STILL eating 5 egg whites a day and my last day is tomorrow...thank goodness). He brought back ice cream. We tried it. That wasn't ice cream. That was gross. That shouldn't be sold to the public. Cue in drinking lots of water to get the nasy taste out of our mouths.
On a positive note, we did finish all the Walking Dead episodes that are on Netflix. We want to know what happens in Season 5...but it doesn't come out until september. Of course. Oh well, staying up until 2:30am was worth it!
Wednesday
Because of the late night with zombies last night, we slept in even longer today. By the time we woke up, it was practically lunch time - I REALLY didn't want another plate of egg whites this morning, so we opted out of breakfast and just decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe for a good ole American lunch! We thought we needed to have a good burger since we had the gross burger the other day at Goodys. So we got around and headed into Athens.
We got off the train station for Hard Rock Cafe and we started walking around trying to find it. This place was loaded with tons of shops!!! So we did a little looking too. We finally found the restaurant and soon found out that it had only been in business for 2 weeks. So they just had cocktails and appitizers. Good enough for us, we are hungry! Yummy American food!!!!!!! We walked around the shops a bit and then head back out to the shopping. We really didn't have any plans for today because hitting up some of the metro stops that have exhibits of things they found while they were creating the metro lines, but that's about it. So we walked around and looked in the shops, it was more local things - kind of like an outdoor mall. We finally found onzies!! Well, 4 of them to be exact. And we didnt' like any of them, so we are still onezie-less.
We did hit up a bakery and tried baklava and macoroons. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Brian liked it all, but I liked the mini baklava rolls the best, the big thing of baklava tasted like pumpkin pie to me.
We also went into a toy store. A four story toy store. Holy cow. It was huge. We were trying to find a thing for the baby without much luck. We did find Disney stories in Greek! So...back story first -
Last night, I was talking to Ashley and she said her and Johnathan had thought of a nickname for our baby. (We have lots of nicknames for the kids - River is E or Bug and Miles is Squishy). They came up with Nemo because we have fought really hard for our kiddo and we traveled all across the ocean to get him/her! We loved it, so Little One, AKA Nemo, needed a present at the toy store. What better than Finding Nemo in Greek??? Heck yes!
The rest of the day we really just walked around and played it by ear on what we wanted to do. We just went from train station to train station and got off, looked around, walked in shops and then hit up another train station. It was a fun, relaxed, exploring day!
When we finally got the home station, we struggled getting a cab...and then the guy got lost. We finally recoginzed where we were and directed him to the house. He tried to put me on the phone with a guy that could speak English and that was an utter disaster - but we finally made it home. We relaxed, I ate my egg whites (that now makes 45 egg whites in 9 days) and its time to watch some TV before bed.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Embryo Transfer - Day 17 & 18 - July 26 & 27
Sunday
Well...today was a rough day. Brian and I were exhausted from the past two days of being in the sun all day and we really didn't want to do much. But...we knew that we would be apartment bound for the next two days because of the embryo transfer and me needing to rest to allow the embryo to implant. So we forced ourselves to leave the apartment today.
It took a while to get out of bed, we didn't end up heading into Athens until noon. We decided to walk around the Plaka and then go to the Acropolis museum that we didn't go to when we visited the Acropolis because Brian had his knife on him the last time.
Plaka up first. The plaka is basically a large area of town that is just filled with shops. We got off the metro and started walking around. The directions we had made it feel like we were going in the wrong direction. So we just kept walking. Follow people, turn, walk, turn, etc. Suddenly, we arrive! ha! I told Brian I knew where I was going the whole time. :) We walk around the shops, but really they have a lot of the same things over and over again. We weren't really there to shop, we wanted to find something for the baby, but we don't really need anything else. We don't buy little trinkets/statues/paintings unless we know exactly where it will go in the house, otherwise it will just sit there useless - we were more walking around for the experience. We are looking at all the shirts and decide we want to find a onezie for the baby. Can't find one. Keep looking....nope. Can't find one anywhere. Where do the people of Athens get clothes to cover the kids??? We finally decide that all the babies must just walk around naked all the time because onezies do not exist.
As we are walking, we soon realize that we made it to the Acropolis on accident! Go us! We are hungry and all the cafes at the Plaka district are charging an arm and a leg for food that should be a lot cheaper so we ended up going to the same food place that we went to our last time at the Acropolis. Pretty sure the cook recognized us because he didnt put the lettuce on the gyros or maybe it was just a happy accident. Either way, they were delcious.
Then we headed up to the Acropolis museum. They would yell at anyone who took pictures, so there aren't very many pictures - but we did what we could. It was really need to see how they reconstructed things that had been destroyed over the years. We decided as we were walking through and reading the plaques that we should have went there first and we would have had a better understanding of what we were looking at when we visited the actual Acropolis. They had a video that was really interesting to watch and we learned quite a bit. We did conclude that our historical knowledge of Europe was pretty lacking. No matter what, we still enjoyed looking at all the historical artifacts.
After the museum, we came home and crashed. We were both wiped, a really long vacation sounds great - but man, sometimes you just need a day off to recoup from the vacation! Especially with this intense heat and sun! When we we relaxing, we heard from a previous tennat of the apartment with Ruth who went through IVF and she gave us the key to netflix!! I investigated, got a VPN and voila - WE HAVE ACCESS TO NETFLIX!!!! So freaking exciting. Now we are back to watching The Walking Dead. Yay Zombies! So we spent the rest of the night hanging out with Rick, Daryl and the gang. :)
Monday
It's embryo transfer day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get so caught up in this, that I forget that a lot of people who would read this, don't really know IVF and the process we go through...but this is the day that we all look forward to in an IVF cycle. Its when the embryo has been growing in the lab for 5 days and now its time to put it back in me and hopefully it attaches, stays, grows and we get a baby!
So I woke up this morning and I was thrilled. In a few hours, I was going to be pregnant! Throughout our whole journey with infertility, I've always hoped to be pregnant. I've dreamt about it and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. There have been times that I've thought I was pregnant if my period was a day or week late (thanks to irregular cycles) and I'd be hopeful, but I was never able to see a positive pregnancy test. I've never been pregnant.
Until today.
In the infertility world, there is an acronymn that is PUPO which means Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise. That's where I am right now! I have an embryo inside me and hopefully it is thinking that it likes its new home and it would like to stick around until its a healthy baby ready to meet the world. But no matter what the outcome is, the fact that I am currently pregnant is something that I will always have. And its a pretty damn good feeling.
So little one, I saw your picture today and I already love you. Please decide to stick around and meet your Dad and I in 9 months. We are SO hoping this works so that we can all be a happy family. You have a lot of people in the world who are anxious to meet you one day, so if you could just remember the process of mitosis and keep it going, that would be great! I know at least half of you have heard me teach it about a million times, so you should know the process pretty well - you got this! Keep growing little one, keep growing!!!!
Well...today was a rough day. Brian and I were exhausted from the past two days of being in the sun all day and we really didn't want to do much. But...we knew that we would be apartment bound for the next two days because of the embryo transfer and me needing to rest to allow the embryo to implant. So we forced ourselves to leave the apartment today.
It took a while to get out of bed, we didn't end up heading into Athens until noon. We decided to walk around the Plaka and then go to the Acropolis museum that we didn't go to when we visited the Acropolis because Brian had his knife on him the last time.
Plaka up first. The plaka is basically a large area of town that is just filled with shops. We got off the metro and started walking around. The directions we had made it feel like we were going in the wrong direction. So we just kept walking. Follow people, turn, walk, turn, etc. Suddenly, we arrive! ha! I told Brian I knew where I was going the whole time. :) We walk around the shops, but really they have a lot of the same things over and over again. We weren't really there to shop, we wanted to find something for the baby, but we don't really need anything else. We don't buy little trinkets/statues/paintings unless we know exactly where it will go in the house, otherwise it will just sit there useless - we were more walking around for the experience. We are looking at all the shirts and decide we want to find a onezie for the baby. Can't find one. Keep looking....nope. Can't find one anywhere. Where do the people of Athens get clothes to cover the kids??? We finally decide that all the babies must just walk around naked all the time because onezies do not exist.
As we are walking, we soon realize that we made it to the Acropolis on accident! Go us! We are hungry and all the cafes at the Plaka district are charging an arm and a leg for food that should be a lot cheaper so we ended up going to the same food place that we went to our last time at the Acropolis. Pretty sure the cook recognized us because he didnt put the lettuce on the gyros or maybe it was just a happy accident. Either way, they were delcious.
Then we headed up to the Acropolis museum. They would yell at anyone who took pictures, so there aren't very many pictures - but we did what we could. It was really need to see how they reconstructed things that had been destroyed over the years. We decided as we were walking through and reading the plaques that we should have went there first and we would have had a better understanding of what we were looking at when we visited the actual Acropolis. They had a video that was really interesting to watch and we learned quite a bit. We did conclude that our historical knowledge of Europe was pretty lacking. No matter what, we still enjoyed looking at all the historical artifacts.
After the museum, we came home and crashed. We were both wiped, a really long vacation sounds great - but man, sometimes you just need a day off to recoup from the vacation! Especially with this intense heat and sun! When we we relaxing, we heard from a previous tennat of the apartment with Ruth who went through IVF and she gave us the key to netflix!! I investigated, got a VPN and voila - WE HAVE ACCESS TO NETFLIX!!!! So freaking exciting. Now we are back to watching The Walking Dead. Yay Zombies! So we spent the rest of the night hanging out with Rick, Daryl and the gang. :)
Monday
It's embryo transfer day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get so caught up in this, that I forget that a lot of people who would read this, don't really know IVF and the process we go through...but this is the day that we all look forward to in an IVF cycle. Its when the embryo has been growing in the lab for 5 days and now its time to put it back in me and hopefully it attaches, stays, grows and we get a baby!
So I woke up this morning and I was thrilled. In a few hours, I was going to be pregnant! Throughout our whole journey with infertility, I've always hoped to be pregnant. I've dreamt about it and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. There have been times that I've thought I was pregnant if my period was a day or week late (thanks to irregular cycles) and I'd be hopeful, but I was never able to see a positive pregnancy test. I've never been pregnant.
Until today.
In the infertility world, there is an acronymn that is PUPO which means Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise. That's where I am right now! I have an embryo inside me and hopefully it is thinking that it likes its new home and it would like to stick around until its a healthy baby ready to meet the world. But no matter what the outcome is, the fact that I am currently pregnant is something that I will always have. And its a pretty damn good feeling.
So little one, I saw your picture today and I already love you. Please decide to stick around and meet your Dad and I in 9 months. We are SO hoping this works so that we can all be a happy family. You have a lot of people in the world who are anxious to meet you one day, so if you could just remember the process of mitosis and keep it going, that would be great! I know at least half of you have heard me teach it about a million times, so you should know the process pretty well - you got this! Keep growing little one, keep growing!!!!
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Boat Day! - Day 16 - July 25
First up, how the embryos are doing!
Same report as yesterday, 5 embryos are beautiful and growing great, 3 are doing okay! We won't get a report tomorrow on Sunday, they will just keep them in the incubator to keep growing! Then we go in on Monday for the transfer to put one back in! Keep growing little ones, keep growing!
Today was boat day! When Simon and Ruth picked us up from the airport on Monday they asked if the liked boats and we said yes! The forcast and waves were great today, so we decided to go for a boat ride on their boat!
We slept in, ate breakfast and then headed up to the main house to meet them. Went to the boat yard and got on the boat, got all the supplies and got the puppy (ini) on as well. The boat people towed us across the road and put the boat in and off we went.
We went over to an uninhabited island across the way and there is a cove over there with a beach and really nice water. When we got over there, we unloaded and tried out their "easy breathe" masks for snorkling. Those things are epic! You can see a wider view of the water and you can breathe out your nose and mouth! They rock. We saw seaweed, coral, sponges, little fish and sea urchins! We just swam round and round and then came back in for a bit.
Simon cooked his burgers and they were delicous! Ini was having the time of his life. He would go out, swim and then come back to the sand and practically burry himself in it! Then repeat. Beg for food, chew on his bone, swim, cover in sand, swim, cover in sand, eat a burger, chew on bone, etc. He had a fabulous day! We hung out on the beach for a while and introduced Ruth to Nutter Butters! :) Went back out with the easy breathes and looked around some more. It was a relaxing, fantastic day!
We loaded back up and tried to get in some deeper water to use the easy breathes to try and see bigger fish, but the sea had gotten a bit more rough by the end of the day. We got out anyways and we ended up seeing two sunken boats! They were small, but it was fun to be able to see how the organisms just take over as their new home! Then we packed up and headed home.
We really were proud of our selves with the amount of sunscreen that we used today - but I guess it wasn't enough for me. I was already burnt from our acropolis trip, but now my face, neck, and shoulders are fried. I didn't add to the area of the sunburn, it just feels more intense. I guess a night of aloe vera and standing in front of the air conditioner is in order for me. Brian isn't bad, just a few splotches here and there.
It was a really fun day and we are beyond grateful for Ruth and Simon's hospitality! They are more and more amazing every day!
Same report as yesterday, 5 embryos are beautiful and growing great, 3 are doing okay! We won't get a report tomorrow on Sunday, they will just keep them in the incubator to keep growing! Then we go in on Monday for the transfer to put one back in! Keep growing little ones, keep growing!
Today was boat day! When Simon and Ruth picked us up from the airport on Monday they asked if the liked boats and we said yes! The forcast and waves were great today, so we decided to go for a boat ride on their boat!
We slept in, ate breakfast and then headed up to the main house to meet them. Went to the boat yard and got on the boat, got all the supplies and got the puppy (ini) on as well. The boat people towed us across the road and put the boat in and off we went.
We went over to an uninhabited island across the way and there is a cove over there with a beach and really nice water. When we got over there, we unloaded and tried out their "easy breathe" masks for snorkling. Those things are epic! You can see a wider view of the water and you can breathe out your nose and mouth! They rock. We saw seaweed, coral, sponges, little fish and sea urchins! We just swam round and round and then came back in for a bit.
Simon cooked his burgers and they were delicous! Ini was having the time of his life. He would go out, swim and then come back to the sand and practically burry himself in it! Then repeat. Beg for food, chew on his bone, swim, cover in sand, swim, cover in sand, eat a burger, chew on bone, etc. He had a fabulous day! We hung out on the beach for a while and introduced Ruth to Nutter Butters! :) Went back out with the easy breathes and looked around some more. It was a relaxing, fantastic day!
We loaded back up and tried to get in some deeper water to use the easy breathes to try and see bigger fish, but the sea had gotten a bit more rough by the end of the day. We got out anyways and we ended up seeing two sunken boats! They were small, but it was fun to be able to see how the organisms just take over as their new home! Then we packed up and headed home.
We really were proud of our selves with the amount of sunscreen that we used today - but I guess it wasn't enough for me. I was already burnt from our acropolis trip, but now my face, neck, and shoulders are fried. I didn't add to the area of the sunburn, it just feels more intense. I guess a night of aloe vera and standing in front of the air conditioner is in order for me. Brian isn't bad, just a few splotches here and there.
It was a really fun day and we are beyond grateful for Ruth and Simon's hospitality! They are more and more amazing every day!
Friday, July 24, 2015
Adventures! - Day 15 - July 24th
Today was all about new adventures! Before I get into today...an update on the embryos because Mom wasn't too happy with that not being the first news... :)
Yesterday we thought we had 6 fertilized eggs...today they called to say two more popped up and we actually have 8!! The doctor said that 5 of the 8 are "beautiful" (her words) and the other 3 are "okay" YAY!!! I will very hapily take 5 beautiful embryos! Grow little ones grow!!!!
Now, for the day - We started off sleeping in (do you see a theme yet?) and then got around. Brian was a bit confused on what to wear today because we were going scuba diving!!!! It was entertaining to have him question over and over and I just got dressed and sat and waited. :) He figured it out rather quickly.
Simon and Ruth had mentioned to us that scuba diving was an option for us to do while we were here. They offered the full certification which lasts a few days or we could do an introductory dive for just a few hours to get the experience. We thought about it...and decided to go for it! This year is all about new things, we've finished our biggest remodel, gone skydiving, made embryos and now scuba diving!
So we let them know last night that we wanted to do the intro course and they set us up for a 1030 appt. Simon (our rockstar driver) took us to the dive place and it was awesome to drive along the cost. So freaking prety!!! We arrived, introduced ourselves, watched an intro video (which Brian then turned to me and asked "is it weird that I'm more nervous for this compared to skydiving??") haha. Then we filled out our paperwork and started to gather supplies.
Suits first. Make sure they fit and then take them down to the hips so that we don't burn up waiting. Then flippers.
The guy asked our shoe size and I told him and 8
...he looked really confused.
Euro size??
No, no, no - american.
Ahhh!!!
That makes more sense because an 8 in euro is itty bitty!!!
He hands me a pair and my feet are swimming in them. They are huge! Trial and error until he gives up, gets Brian his and then comes back to me. Finally gives me booties and we find some flippers that work. Then comes the mask, we each get one. Time to head outside.
Brian didn't have booties with his flippers, so his feet were burning on the pavement. We get geared up and weighed down with equipment, then head to the beach. Once we hit the water, an O ring on Brian's tank gives out and air starts going every where! Scared a little kid next to us, poor guy! So Brian has to go back in and get a new tank and they switch out his flippers to give him booties too.
As we are waiting on them, we are just floating in the lovely water - it felt great! We finally get all ready and do practice excercises. We have to take out our regulator and put it back in, use the purge button, signal for and use another divers secondary regulator (called an octapus), clear out our mask under water and such. We only struggle with clearing out our mask, but other than that - we are good to go and we finally get a hang of it.
We spend about 40 minutes under the water and looking at the coral, sponges and little fishes in the cove, we go about 6 meters down and it was super neat seeing it all. It was fun to look at the swimmers from below too! Overall, it was a really neat and cool experience. We get done and head back to shore to pack up and get our certificates for our first dive. Go us!
Call Ruth and her and Simon are on their way to pick us up. When they get there, we go to lunch at the 1 restaurant. The restaurant is T_____ 1, but I couldn't tell you the T word for the life of me. We all order and share a platter of greek food, a salad and french fries. It was delicious! We had a great time just hanging out, eating awesome food and enjoying the great company.
On the way home, we stop at the supermarket to get supplies for the boat trip planned for tomorrow with Ruth and Simon and then head home.
Once home, Ruth gives us a tour of the main house. We are staying in the apartment that is like their basement with its own separte entrance. We have seen the sitting room/dining room/kitchen many times but not much else. Holy crap. Their house is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Breathtaking. You should see the views from all the balconies. Wow.
We hang out for a bit, facetime with Mom and then relax in the cool air conditioning. Once the pharmacy opens again (around 6pm after their seista) we head there to get some more meds for me. Ruth gave me some she had on hand after egg collection, but I needed to replace her stock and get me more. I give myself props for taking pictures of the med boxes and then just showing it to the pharmacist because it made it MUCH easier. Crazy thing was, my bottle of aloe vera was more expensive than a box of meds. Wow. How meds are so different in the states.
When we got back, we opened the gate and Dippa (a puppy) escaped out the gate! So Brian got his run in while chasing down the dog. :) All puppies are accounted for and safe inside the gate! Time to just relax, eat dinner and sleep before a day out on the ocean tomorrow!!!!
Yesterday we thought we had 6 fertilized eggs...today they called to say two more popped up and we actually have 8!! The doctor said that 5 of the 8 are "beautiful" (her words) and the other 3 are "okay" YAY!!! I will very hapily take 5 beautiful embryos! Grow little ones grow!!!!
Now, for the day - We started off sleeping in (do you see a theme yet?) and then got around. Brian was a bit confused on what to wear today because we were going scuba diving!!!! It was entertaining to have him question over and over and I just got dressed and sat and waited. :) He figured it out rather quickly.
Simon and Ruth had mentioned to us that scuba diving was an option for us to do while we were here. They offered the full certification which lasts a few days or we could do an introductory dive for just a few hours to get the experience. We thought about it...and decided to go for it! This year is all about new things, we've finished our biggest remodel, gone skydiving, made embryos and now scuba diving!
So we let them know last night that we wanted to do the intro course and they set us up for a 1030 appt. Simon (our rockstar driver) took us to the dive place and it was awesome to drive along the cost. So freaking prety!!! We arrived, introduced ourselves, watched an intro video (which Brian then turned to me and asked "is it weird that I'm more nervous for this compared to skydiving??") haha. Then we filled out our paperwork and started to gather supplies.
Suits first. Make sure they fit and then take them down to the hips so that we don't burn up waiting. Then flippers.
The guy asked our shoe size and I told him and 8
...he looked really confused.
Euro size??
No, no, no - american.
Ahhh!!!
That makes more sense because an 8 in euro is itty bitty!!!
He hands me a pair and my feet are swimming in them. They are huge! Trial and error until he gives up, gets Brian his and then comes back to me. Finally gives me booties and we find some flippers that work. Then comes the mask, we each get one. Time to head outside.
Brian didn't have booties with his flippers, so his feet were burning on the pavement. We get geared up and weighed down with equipment, then head to the beach. Once we hit the water, an O ring on Brian's tank gives out and air starts going every where! Scared a little kid next to us, poor guy! So Brian has to go back in and get a new tank and they switch out his flippers to give him booties too.
As we are waiting on them, we are just floating in the lovely water - it felt great! We finally get all ready and do practice excercises. We have to take out our regulator and put it back in, use the purge button, signal for and use another divers secondary regulator (called an octapus), clear out our mask under water and such. We only struggle with clearing out our mask, but other than that - we are good to go and we finally get a hang of it.
We spend about 40 minutes under the water and looking at the coral, sponges and little fishes in the cove, we go about 6 meters down and it was super neat seeing it all. It was fun to look at the swimmers from below too! Overall, it was a really neat and cool experience. We get done and head back to shore to pack up and get our certificates for our first dive. Go us!
Call Ruth and her and Simon are on their way to pick us up. When they get there, we go to lunch at the 1 restaurant. The restaurant is T_____ 1, but I couldn't tell you the T word for the life of me. We all order and share a platter of greek food, a salad and french fries. It was delicious! We had a great time just hanging out, eating awesome food and enjoying the great company.
On the way home, we stop at the supermarket to get supplies for the boat trip planned for tomorrow with Ruth and Simon and then head home.
Once home, Ruth gives us a tour of the main house. We are staying in the apartment that is like their basement with its own separte entrance. We have seen the sitting room/dining room/kitchen many times but not much else. Holy crap. Their house is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Breathtaking. You should see the views from all the balconies. Wow.
We hang out for a bit, facetime with Mom and then relax in the cool air conditioning. Once the pharmacy opens again (around 6pm after their seista) we head there to get some more meds for me. Ruth gave me some she had on hand after egg collection, but I needed to replace her stock and get me more. I give myself props for taking pictures of the med boxes and then just showing it to the pharmacist because it made it MUCH easier. Crazy thing was, my bottle of aloe vera was more expensive than a box of meds. Wow. How meds are so different in the states.
When we got back, we opened the gate and Dippa (a puppy) escaped out the gate! So Brian got his run in while chasing down the dog. :) All puppies are accounted for and safe inside the gate! Time to just relax, eat dinner and sleep before a day out on the ocean tomorrow!!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Tourists! - Day 14 - July 23
Today was all about being a tourist!
We woke up this morning and got around. I didn't sleep much last night, I woke up about every hour - so I was wide awake to get Brian up and out of bed on time.
Ruth's husband was going to the store this morning and offered to take us to the train station so that we didn't have to pay a taxi - SWEET!
We rode to the train station, and I'm starting to kind of remember where we are at when we turn on roads. Kind of being the key word. With words of advice and armed with maps, we hit the train station for the first time. We bought our ticket and they are only 1.20 a piece! Cheap! We got on the train and headed in for Athens. At one point we have to switch train lines, and we of course went the wrong way. Totally my fault. I saw a sign that started with "A" and ended in "opli" and I figured it was the Akropoli (Acropolis in greek). Just kidding - it wasn't. Apparently the signs tell you which way the train is headed and they post the last stop on the signs. No big deal, went one train stop down and then headed backwards.
We got off the train station and our noses were asulted in the best way with yummy smelling pizza. Seriously, it was 10am and we were ready for lunch it smelt so good! We wondered down the street and got in line to get the tickets for the Acropolis. It was a long line. Like seriously long. We were not expecting that for 10am on a Thursday. As we are standing there and starting to sweat...a lady comes over and says there are two lines! No one was using the second booth! So we hurry on up and we get in rather quickly. We decided to get the combo pack which allows you entrance into lots of historical sites and it was only 12 euros each. Not too bad. We start the treck up. and up. and up. and up. There are small sites on the way up and the great thing is that they had signs in greek and english explaining what everything was. The theatre was really neat and Brian enjoyed that. I thought the seats that were carved for comfort was crazy! Thats a lot of effort back in the day!!!
Keep going up, lots of ruins that are basically big rocks at this point. The cool thing was when the sign would have a picture of what it would have looked like in it's prime. That was neat! It's amazing to see how everything changes throughout the years/centuries. I can't wait for the day of augmented reality when its all projected to what it used to be and people walking around in time period clothes then show what's left now. That will be incredible.
Keep going up. Now, when we say up - I'm not joking. Up and Up and Up. The acropolis used to be the safe haven if Athens was ever attacked and so it had to be pretty high up there...and it was!
We finally get to the top and there are tons of people! We are basically cattle hearded into the main area and then we can walk around. The huge pillars and buildings are breathtaking and then when you throw in the view of the whole city, its mind blowing. The city is huge. HUGE. It spans out in all directions and it is just amazing. We walked around all of that area and read signs. There was a lot of info on the initial reconstruction attempts about 100 yrs or so ago and they all messed up. So now they are going back and restoring again so that the structures last. Intersting history though. Once we had our fill, we headed back down.
Once we were down, we hapily enjoyed some frozen lemonade to cool down. I swear, I've never sweat that much!!! It was HOT. Then we went up this rock formation that they used to use for judgement of criminals, kind of like a prehistoric court room. Not only did you get a great view of the city, but you can see the acropolis pretty well from here too.
By this time we are starving. We wanted to try some gyros. We walked around the building surrounding the Acropolis and found a hole in the wall selling gyros. Those things are cheap! We got a huge bottle of water and two large gyros for 5.40 and they were delicious!! Yummy yummy yummy. We want to go back for more. Then we got gelato and it was just as good. Not too bad to eat a really filling lunch for less than 10 euros.
We were then going to go to the Acropolis museum for the rest of the day before heading home. While we were standing in line we saw the hold up, every had to go through a metal detector. I asked Brian if he had his knife on him and he said yes. Well crap. Guess we will have to go back later. We have plenty of time, so I'm sure we will make it in. We didn't finish our combo pack today, so we have to go back and finish walking through all the other sites anyway and it's not like we are lacking on time. By this time, we are both tired from being in the sun all day so we headed back to the train to catch one to head home.
Two stops out from home and the train stopped like usual at a stop...and then the lights flickered and then it asked everyone to get off because that train was done for the day....okay....weird. So we do and we wait for another to come through and we make it back to the station. Grab a taxi and head home.
We hung out for a bit and then decided to go to the pool and take a swim and lay in the sun for a bit. That was lovely and relaxing. Now we are just hanging out in the apartment, planning out some other activities for Athens and Brian will be cooking soon. Really, just recouping from a long day of walking in the sun.
Today was great because I felt like a tourist on vacation and not stressed about the IVF. When we did get home, we got an update on how things were going. So as of yesterday...
They collected 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature, they injected all of them with Brians sperm and they came in this morning and 6 of them had fertilized. So currently we have 6 growing embryos in the lab. Grow little ones grow!!! Right now the plan is to implant one on day 5 - which would be monday and we will get an update everyday about how they are all doing.
Today was a great day. :)
We woke up this morning and got around. I didn't sleep much last night, I woke up about every hour - so I was wide awake to get Brian up and out of bed on time.
Ruth's husband was going to the store this morning and offered to take us to the train station so that we didn't have to pay a taxi - SWEET!
We rode to the train station, and I'm starting to kind of remember where we are at when we turn on roads. Kind of being the key word. With words of advice and armed with maps, we hit the train station for the first time. We bought our ticket and they are only 1.20 a piece! Cheap! We got on the train and headed in for Athens. At one point we have to switch train lines, and we of course went the wrong way. Totally my fault. I saw a sign that started with "A" and ended in "opli" and I figured it was the Akropoli (Acropolis in greek). Just kidding - it wasn't. Apparently the signs tell you which way the train is headed and they post the last stop on the signs. No big deal, went one train stop down and then headed backwards.
We got off the train station and our noses were asulted in the best way with yummy smelling pizza. Seriously, it was 10am and we were ready for lunch it smelt so good! We wondered down the street and got in line to get the tickets for the Acropolis. It was a long line. Like seriously long. We were not expecting that for 10am on a Thursday. As we are standing there and starting to sweat...a lady comes over and says there are two lines! No one was using the second booth! So we hurry on up and we get in rather quickly. We decided to get the combo pack which allows you entrance into lots of historical sites and it was only 12 euros each. Not too bad. We start the treck up. and up. and up. and up. There are small sites on the way up and the great thing is that they had signs in greek and english explaining what everything was. The theatre was really neat and Brian enjoyed that. I thought the seats that were carved for comfort was crazy! Thats a lot of effort back in the day!!!
Keep going up, lots of ruins that are basically big rocks at this point. The cool thing was when the sign would have a picture of what it would have looked like in it's prime. That was neat! It's amazing to see how everything changes throughout the years/centuries. I can't wait for the day of augmented reality when its all projected to what it used to be and people walking around in time period clothes then show what's left now. That will be incredible.
Keep going up. Now, when we say up - I'm not joking. Up and Up and Up. The acropolis used to be the safe haven if Athens was ever attacked and so it had to be pretty high up there...and it was!
We finally get to the top and there are tons of people! We are basically cattle hearded into the main area and then we can walk around. The huge pillars and buildings are breathtaking and then when you throw in the view of the whole city, its mind blowing. The city is huge. HUGE. It spans out in all directions and it is just amazing. We walked around all of that area and read signs. There was a lot of info on the initial reconstruction attempts about 100 yrs or so ago and they all messed up. So now they are going back and restoring again so that the structures last. Intersting history though. Once we had our fill, we headed back down.
Once we were down, we hapily enjoyed some frozen lemonade to cool down. I swear, I've never sweat that much!!! It was HOT. Then we went up this rock formation that they used to use for judgement of criminals, kind of like a prehistoric court room. Not only did you get a great view of the city, but you can see the acropolis pretty well from here too.
By this time we are starving. We wanted to try some gyros. We walked around the building surrounding the Acropolis and found a hole in the wall selling gyros. Those things are cheap! We got a huge bottle of water and two large gyros for 5.40 and they were delicious!! Yummy yummy yummy. We want to go back for more. Then we got gelato and it was just as good. Not too bad to eat a really filling lunch for less than 10 euros.
We were then going to go to the Acropolis museum for the rest of the day before heading home. While we were standing in line we saw the hold up, every had to go through a metal detector. I asked Brian if he had his knife on him and he said yes. Well crap. Guess we will have to go back later. We have plenty of time, so I'm sure we will make it in. We didn't finish our combo pack today, so we have to go back and finish walking through all the other sites anyway and it's not like we are lacking on time. By this time, we are both tired from being in the sun all day so we headed back to the train to catch one to head home.
Two stops out from home and the train stopped like usual at a stop...and then the lights flickered and then it asked everyone to get off because that train was done for the day....okay....weird. So we do and we wait for another to come through and we make it back to the station. Grab a taxi and head home.
We hung out for a bit and then decided to go to the pool and take a swim and lay in the sun for a bit. That was lovely and relaxing. Now we are just hanging out in the apartment, planning out some other activities for Athens and Brian will be cooking soon. Really, just recouping from a long day of walking in the sun.
Today was great because I felt like a tourist on vacation and not stressed about the IVF. When we did get home, we got an update on how things were going. So as of yesterday...
They collected 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature, they injected all of them with Brians sperm and they came in this morning and 6 of them had fertilized. So currently we have 6 growing embryos in the lab. Grow little ones grow!!! Right now the plan is to implant one on day 5 - which would be monday and we will get an update everyday about how they are all doing.
Today was a great day. :)
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Egg Collection - Day 12 & 13 - July 21 & 22
Tuesday
Today was our bum day. We are both jet lagged and exhausted, so we slept in until noon. Then we put away all our clothes into the closets so that we weren't living out of a suitcase for the next few weeks. I felt a bit light headed after so I took another nap.
At some point in the morning, we gave Mom a tour of the place via skype and talked for a bit to catch up on everything.
Once we were up and around we went to the main house and got directions for where everything is around the house. We even have handy little map to guide us around.
We decided to take a walk to the beach which is about a 10 minute walk. It was gorgeous. The water is a beautiful blue and the breeze felt great. We did forget to take any pictures, sorry guys. I blame the exhuastion. I didn't feel like getting in the water yesterday, but Brian went for a walk in there. It was really rocky and he ended up tripping and falling. It was funny to watch from the shoreline. But when he was drying off he realized he cut himself pretty good on his foot. Nicely done. He now wears my Monsters Inc, Sophia the First and Minion bandaids on his feet. He rocks them. :)
When we left the beach, we walked to the market to grab some food to last us. I have downloaded an app on my phone that is a dictionary where I can scan Greek writing and it will translate it to English for us...but smart us left my phone at the apartment and only took Brian's phone. Bah! So we relied heavily on the pictures of the packages. It worked out in the end.
Once we had groceries, we walked back to the house. Brian made spaghetti for dinner and we just hung out. We watched the Avengers to pass the time and skype'd with Brian's mom. Then it was bedtime because wednesday was a big day!
Wednesday
It's egg collection day!
I didn't sleep well last night from the anxiety/excitment. I woke up at 1, then at 3, 4, 5 and 6. Finally just laid there and played on my phone. Once Brian was up, we got around.
Our taxi was picking us up to take us to the clinic in Athens at 8:15 and my apt was at 9. Ruth came down to make sure we were up and ready to go. I wasn't allowed to eat/drink anything for 8 hrs before the procedure...so when she asked how I was feeling, I said "hungry" - she said "tough!" Haha, she cracks me up. At least I follow directions. :)
Kosta (the taxi driver - not to be confused with Kosta the doctor) picked us up and took us into the clinic. We were a bit early, so we sat in the waiting room and took a pre-collection selfie.
They came and got me and took me into the room to get changed into the gown. Went into the procedure room and they put me to sleep. I've never been under anestetic before, so it was a unique experience! I don't remember anything, and then I was awake! I laid there for a bit and then got dressed and went back to the waiting room to meet up with Brian. The whole process took about an hour and while I was in there, Brian gave his sample to them.
Kosta (the taxi driver) came back to get us and took us home. I laid on the couch and I was awake! I thought I'd be sleeply all day!!!! We watched a movie, I kept down some sips of water. Ruth wanted to wait a bit before I ate to make sure I kept down the water...I'm impatient and hungry and ate a piece of beef jerky. :) Then she came down to check on me and gave me the okay to have some bread. Later in the day I had my mandatory egg white omlet. I've kept everything down so far.
I'm feeling okay. I'm really swollen/bloated and that's really uncomfortable. Ruth gave me some pain pills to help with that. Apparently when they drain the follicles, they naturally fill back up with blood and that's what causes the swelling - so thats normal. I did some reading and it should go down in a few days. I am using a heating pad and that helps tremendously!
So...the results!!!
They collected 19 eggs!!! Holy crap!! That's a lot!!!!
Of the 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature and have the potential to be fertilized
They did ISCI (where they inject one sperm into each egg) on all 12 and we will hear back tomorrow morning on how many have been fertilized!
So thats really good numbers! Yay! Hopefully we have some good news in the morning and the little embryos keep on growing! The plan is to get them to grow for 5 days and then they will take 1 and implant it back in to make the baby.
But...technically - we (with a little help from science) there was an attempt to make 12 embryos today!!!!!! That's crazy and awesome to think about all at the same time!!!
I do start more meds tonight to prepare my body for the embryo transfer - but I'm excited to keep this process rolling!
Tomorrow we plan to go into downtown Athens and do some exploring for the first time now that the hard part is done! So lots of pictures tomorrow night, sorry for the lack of pictures today.
Today was our bum day. We are both jet lagged and exhausted, so we slept in until noon. Then we put away all our clothes into the closets so that we weren't living out of a suitcase for the next few weeks. I felt a bit light headed after so I took another nap.
At some point in the morning, we gave Mom a tour of the place via skype and talked for a bit to catch up on everything.
Once we were up and around we went to the main house and got directions for where everything is around the house. We even have handy little map to guide us around.
We decided to take a walk to the beach which is about a 10 minute walk. It was gorgeous. The water is a beautiful blue and the breeze felt great. We did forget to take any pictures, sorry guys. I blame the exhuastion. I didn't feel like getting in the water yesterday, but Brian went for a walk in there. It was really rocky and he ended up tripping and falling. It was funny to watch from the shoreline. But when he was drying off he realized he cut himself pretty good on his foot. Nicely done. He now wears my Monsters Inc, Sophia the First and Minion bandaids on his feet. He rocks them. :)
When we left the beach, we walked to the market to grab some food to last us. I have downloaded an app on my phone that is a dictionary where I can scan Greek writing and it will translate it to English for us...but smart us left my phone at the apartment and only took Brian's phone. Bah! So we relied heavily on the pictures of the packages. It worked out in the end.
Once we had groceries, we walked back to the house. Brian made spaghetti for dinner and we just hung out. We watched the Avengers to pass the time and skype'd with Brian's mom. Then it was bedtime because wednesday was a big day!
Wednesday
It's egg collection day!
I didn't sleep well last night from the anxiety/excitment. I woke up at 1, then at 3, 4, 5 and 6. Finally just laid there and played on my phone. Once Brian was up, we got around.
Our taxi was picking us up to take us to the clinic in Athens at 8:15 and my apt was at 9. Ruth came down to make sure we were up and ready to go. I wasn't allowed to eat/drink anything for 8 hrs before the procedure...so when she asked how I was feeling, I said "hungry" - she said "tough!" Haha, she cracks me up. At least I follow directions. :)
Kosta (the taxi driver - not to be confused with Kosta the doctor) picked us up and took us into the clinic. We were a bit early, so we sat in the waiting room and took a pre-collection selfie.
They came and got me and took me into the room to get changed into the gown. Went into the procedure room and they put me to sleep. I've never been under anestetic before, so it was a unique experience! I don't remember anything, and then I was awake! I laid there for a bit and then got dressed and went back to the waiting room to meet up with Brian. The whole process took about an hour and while I was in there, Brian gave his sample to them.
Kosta (the taxi driver) came back to get us and took us home. I laid on the couch and I was awake! I thought I'd be sleeply all day!!!! We watched a movie, I kept down some sips of water. Ruth wanted to wait a bit before I ate to make sure I kept down the water...I'm impatient and hungry and ate a piece of beef jerky. :) Then she came down to check on me and gave me the okay to have some bread. Later in the day I had my mandatory egg white omlet. I've kept everything down so far.
I'm feeling okay. I'm really swollen/bloated and that's really uncomfortable. Ruth gave me some pain pills to help with that. Apparently when they drain the follicles, they naturally fill back up with blood and that's what causes the swelling - so thats normal. I did some reading and it should go down in a few days. I am using a heating pad and that helps tremendously!
So...the results!!!
They collected 19 eggs!!! Holy crap!! That's a lot!!!!
Of the 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature and have the potential to be fertilized
They did ISCI (where they inject one sperm into each egg) on all 12 and we will hear back tomorrow morning on how many have been fertilized!
So thats really good numbers! Yay! Hopefully we have some good news in the morning and the little embryos keep on growing! The plan is to get them to grow for 5 days and then they will take 1 and implant it back in to make the baby.
But...technically - we (with a little help from science) there was an attempt to make 12 embryos today!!!!!! That's crazy and awesome to think about all at the same time!!!
I do start more meds tonight to prepare my body for the embryo transfer - but I'm excited to keep this process rolling!
Tomorrow we plan to go into downtown Athens and do some exploring for the first time now that the hard part is done! So lots of pictures tomorrow night, sorry for the lack of pictures today.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Whew - Day 10 & 11 - July 19 & 20
Lets see if I can remember everything that has happened. There has been a lot and lack of sleep might mess with my brain. I'll do my best...
When we left off, we were sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for our midnight flight to Paris. We watched a few episodes of the Walking Dead and then we finally boarded! That flight left on time!! Most of the flight we slept and watched movies on the seat screens. Not too intersting of a flight.
We jumped ahead in time 7 hours on that flight, so we arrived in Paris at around 2pm Paris time. We looked into possibly making a quick run to see the Effiel tower before our next flight that started boarding at 6ish, but every post said that you needed at least 5 hours and with all of our bad luck, we didn't want to risk it.
So we hung out in the airport. We walked around all the shops and bought a souvenier gift for the baby (a Effiel tower top toy) and we watched some Netflix to pass the time. Brian got a notification on his phone that our bags were not on our flight. Bah! So we went to a desk to see what was going on...aparently in all the reshuffling of our flights, our bags got send on a different route. They were sent to New York, then to arrive in Athens at 9:45am on Monday. We were going to be arriving in Athens at 11:10pm Sunday night. So that didn't work well. We talked to Ruth and she said we could just drop by the airport on the way home from the clinic the next day and grab the bags or the airport would deliver them to us. So problem semi solved.
Flight to Athens is delayed.
More delay
Even more delay
So now we are about to board and we won't be arriving in Athens now until 1am and thats really late for Ruth and Simon to come get us, especially when they have to drop of their family at the airport on tuesday at 4am. So they need sleep. So since our bags are stuck anyways - Brian and I decide to just hang out at the Athens airport overnight until they can come get us on Monday later in the morning. We looked into hotels and they were stupid expensive for us only being there for 8 hours. So we are just going to chill in the airport.
We finally board, by this time we are just done flying. We get to the airport and talk to the baggage people and everything seems to be in order. We grab some food and walk around the airport. We find an empty corner that we can lay down in and maybe get some sleep.
It was cold. The floor was stupid hard. Not comfortable, and not much sleep came to us. But we tried. We also noticed that our feet/lower legs were really swollen. Probably from sitting for such long periods at a time. I'm happy to report that all extremeties are now back to normal size.
We woke up and walked around some more, went to check on our baggage. My bag is there!!! Yay!!!
Brian's bag is not.
Brian's bag got put on a different plane that won't be in until 5pm on Monday. Of freaking course. So we set it up to be delivered to the house tonight. To pass the time until Ruth and Simon arrived, we decided to watch some Walking Dead. Just kidding - Greece doesn't have Netflix!!! WHAT??? Apparently they don't have Amazon Prime either. W.T.F.
We watched Guardians of the Galaxy instead. Movies it is I guess.
We watched Guardians of the Galaxy instead. Movies it is I guess.
We finally meet Ruth in person!!!!!!!!! And she comes with a ride to leave the airport!!! We've never been so happy to see an airport in the rearview mirror.
We head straight to the clinic for an untrasound and bloodwork. My bloodwork came back and my estrodiol was over 2000 and the ultrasound showed good follicle growth in both ovaries. Yay! Good news. I am responding so well to the meds that they want to get my levels down just a bit before the transfer - so Kosta (the doc) told me I had to eat 5 egg whites a day and drink loads of fluids. (Later today, I had my first egg white meal. Delicious). Got the meds for the trigger shot and headed home.
We were shown to the apartment we are renting from Ruth and its gorgeous here. Absolutely gorgeous. Walked in the door to the apartment and we passed out. Brian showered and I just laid on the bed and I was out. We slept for about 5 hours and then got up and went to the pool! Ruth said that some physical excersise would help wake us up enough to last the night but then wear us out to be able to go back to sleep tonight. (We are now 8 hours ahead of KC time). Their pool is beautiful and we hung out in the sun for a bit.
Ruth and Simon have 7 dogs (I think I counted right) and they are awesome. They are super sweet and just want pet 24/7 and cuddle time. Pretty much exactly like Ally and Jack, so they make me happy. I love puppies!!! They help fill the void because I miss my puppies!!!
We came back to the apartment and I showered. It was the best shower of my life. No joke. Amazing. Got around, ate my eggs and then headed up to the main house for dinner.
Simon and Ruth cooked us chinese food and it was delicous. Then we had "daddy cake" for dessert. Pretty sure it was 150% chocolate with a crumbly crust. I'm sure the dogs will love me with all the crumbs I probably spilt, but it was yummy and rich.
The airline called and they just dropped off Brian's bag!!! Yay!!
So right now I'm stuffed and I'm back to being really tired!!! We are just hanging out in the apartment. I have to do my trigger shot at midnight tonight, so once that is done, I'm going to pass out yet again.
The weather here is wonderful and so far, things are looking up! Tomorrow we had planned on being bums, going to the beach and then the egg collection will be at 9am on Wednesday morning! Thank you everyone for all the positive thoughts/prayers/good vibes...looks like our luck is starting to turn in our favor. Keep 'em coming!
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