3 big fat follicles!!! :)

I had my ultrasound and estradiol blood draw today. To my surprise and amazement, my follicles are ready!! I have 3 big follicles in my left ovary. A follicle is considered mature once it reaches 15 mm in size. Mine are 14 mm, 20 mm, and 21 mm. :) Dr. Schmidt shared my excitement today. He told me that it appears we have finally found the right cocktail of meds for me. To give a comparison, my follicular phase (the amount of time between the first day of my period and the day of ovulation) was 19 days last month (and even longer in previous cycles) and will be 14 days this cycle. That may not seem significant, but it is a really big deal. In a "perfect" cycle, the follicular phase is 14 days. I have never had a perfect follicular phase in my life. So, this is huge. I was on cloud nine driving home from the doctor's office. Unfortunately, it took me awhile to come off cloud nine enough to fall asleep today. Last night was my first of three 12's in a row at work, and I only ended up getting about 5 hours of choppy sleep today. :( But it's ok. Maybe the sleep deprivation is a sign of things to come in about 9 months? ;)

So, Carol (my wonderful nurse!) called this afternoon with my instructions for the next few days. She told me that my estradiol level is 164. In some past cycles, it never even got that high. In the cycles when it did get that high, it took a lot longer. So, I am going to do one more night of injectible meds (1 of Bravelle and 1 of Menopur, instead of 2 Bravelle and 1 Menopur) tonight, and then I will do my HCG trigger injection tomorrow night at 9 PM. Then, Friday will be the big day. We have to be at the lab at 7:30 AM for Brian to do his thing, and then we have to go next door to the office at 9 AM for insemination. I am trying my hardest to not get my hopes up, but of course those attempts are futile. Everything seems to be going right this time, and I can't help but believe that this is a good sign.

So, here we go again ... :)