Procedures

Monday October 14th, 2002 Cycle Day 1	Cycle Day 1. Began at 3:00 pm. Called Dr. Scotto who gave us the go-ahead to begin the medications. Started the Decapeptyl injections this evening (future injections were in the morning). Gwen: "Thank you for being so easy on my first injection! Good job. Didn't hurt."
Tuesday October 15th, 2002 Cycle Day 2	Decapeptyl injection at 6:00 am.
Wednesday October 16th, 2002 Cycle Day 3	Decapeptyl injection at 6:00 am. First Gonal-F® injection at 6:00 am. Second at 6:00 pm. Reconstituted medicine with large needle, but changed it before drawing out medicine from ampule. Wasted short needle because it wouldn't reach to the bottom.
October 17th through the 20th, 2002 Cycle Days 4 - 7	Continued injections and medication.
Monday October 21st, 2002 Cycle Day 8	Injections and medication. First ovarian ultrasound at Dr. Scotto's office. Many follicles on the left ovary. Some on the right. Return Wednesday for ultrasound.
Tuesday October 22nd, 2002 Cycle Day 9	Injections and medication.
Wednesday October 23rd, 2002 Cycle Day 10	Injections and mecication. Ultrasound. Follicles are larger.
Thursday October 24th, 2002 Cycle Day 11	Injections and medication.
Friday October 25th, 2002 Cycle Day 12	Decapeptyl and one Gonal-F® injection in the morning. Doctor said not to give second injection. Ultrasound indicated it was near time for egg retrieval.
Saturday October 26th, 2002 Cycle Day 13	Last Decapeptyl injection at 6:00 am. Profasi® (hCG) injection at 9:00 pm (36 hours prior to egg retrieval).
Sunday October 27th, 2002 Cycle Day 14	Ginoxil.
Monday October 28th, 2002 Cycle Day 15	Egg retrieval. Arrived at clinic around 7:15 am. Went to room at 7:30 am. Filled out paperwork at 8:15 am. Egg retrieval completed at 0930 (took less than 20 minutes total from leaving the room to returning). 18 oocytes (eggs) retrieved. Sperm collection at 10:00 am. Left clinic at 4:00 pm (bed rest for Gwen). Could have left earlier, but nurses didn't rush us out.
Tuesday October 29th, 2002 Cycle Day 16	Began progesterone. Used 23G 3/4" needle to inject. Was extremely difficult to work with medicine with a small-gauge needle. Some oil seeped out of the injection site and the site bled more than with the Gonal-F® injection.
Wednesday October 30th, 2002 Cycle Day 17 IVF Cycle Stopped (OHSS)	Continued progesterone. Used larger needles -- 20G 1 1/2" to draw medicine; 22G 1 1/2" to inject. Much easier. Doctor visit. 12 eggs out of the 18 retrieved were mature and were fertilized. Out of those 12, 10 were Grade I (best quality) and 2 were Grade II (good quality). Ultrasound indicated that risk of ovarian hyperstimulation was too great if we went ahead with implantation (ovaries would continue to enlarge afterward). Implant was scheduled for October 31th, 2002 but was cancelled. The three best embryos (taken from a video monitor on implant day). Stopped progesterone injections and began noretisterone acetate pills (Primolut-Nor® brand) to sustain endometrium until Cycle Day 1 (approx. 15 days).
Friday November 8th, 2002	Doctor visit. Ovaries are near normal. Follicles have shrunk and have little or no fluid indicating that everything is OK.
Thursday November 14th, 2002	Stopped noretisterone acetate pills.

Frozen Embryo Transfer #1 Journal:

Sunday November 17th, 2002 Cycle Day 1 New Cycle (FET)	Began Progynova® pills and another round of Decapeptyl. Progynova® is estradiol, which is necessary to build the uterine lining (endometrium).
Monday November 25th, 2002 Cycle Day 9	Doctor visit. Ultrasound indicates uterine lining is building normally. Instructed us to give last Decapeptyl injection on Sunday, December 1st, 2002 and to also begin Prontogest (progesterone) injections on that day.
Tuesday December 3rd, 2002 Cycle Day 17	Embryo transfer day. Arrived at clinic around 11:00 am. Signed paperwork and went to room. Transfer began at noon and took less than 20 minutes. They had thawed 6 of the embryos in order to select the best 3 or 4. We decided to implant only 3. Some doctors recommend implanting 4 for women over age 35. Gwen had just turned 35 on December 1st. Two of the embryos didn't do too well after the thaw. The division had slowed down considerably while the others had resumed normal activity. We were able to see the embryos on a monitor, but weren't able to get printed pictures. We took digital pictures off of the monitor (above and on home page). Doctor Scotto told us to wait 2 hours at the clinic before going home, but we ended up staying 3 hours (we fell asleep!). Instructed Gwen to have 3 days of bed rest and to take pregnancy test on December 17th, 2002. Continue all meds until pregnancy test. Will find out what to do after results.
Thursday December 12th, 2002 Cycle Day 26	Progesterone shots are becoming more painful. Changed to a 1 ¼", 23G needle with a 2.5cc syringe. The 2.5cc syringe has more room to draw medicine and get rid of air bubbles. Late night cramps. Stopped early A.M.
Monday December 16th, 2002 Cycle Day 30	Pregnancy Test (urine) at 3:15 a.m. -- Negative Confirm with blood test at hospital.
Tuesday December 17th, 2002 Cycle Day 31 Negative Beta hCG test. End FET Cycle #1	Beta hCG at 0.2 (must be between 5 to 50) -- Negative
Monday December 23rd, 2002	All medications stopped.

PREGNANCY MENTIONED BELOW THIS POINT

Frozen Embryo Transfer #2 Journal:

Friday March 14th, 2003	Initial visit to Doctor Scotto.
Tuesday March 25th, 2003 Cycle Day 1	Began Decapeptyl® and Progynova®.
Monday March 31st, 2003 Cycle Day 7	Uterine lining check: 8.4mm Doctor Scotto did this last cycle, but we didn't ask what the measurements were.
Wednesday April 2nd, 2003 Cycle Day 9	Uterine lining check: 10.7mm
Friday April 4th, 2003 Cycle Day 11	Uterine lining check: 11.5mm
Monday April 7th, 2003 Cycle Day 14	Uterine lining check: 12.1mm Last day of Decapeptyl® injections. Doctor instructed us to begin progesterone and baby aspirin today. Transfer scheduled for Wednesday.
Wednesday April 9th, 2003 Cycle Day 16	Arrived at clinic at 1:00 p.m. Transfer began around 2:00 p.m. Thawed all six remaining embryos (frozen at Day 3 of development): Some of the thawed embryos (taken from a video monitor on implant day). The far-right one is a 3-cell embryo that was not transferred. Out of the six embryos thawed, the following were transferred: one 8-cell embryo one 7-cell embryo two 6-cell embryos One of the embryos that was not transferred was at the 5-cell division stage. The other had reached only 3 cells of division and was not suitable for transfer. The lab technician checked the catheter after the transfer and found that one embryo was stuck in it. After the second attempt, the embryo was successfully transferred.
Tuesday April 22nd, 2003 Cycle Day 29/ 13 DPT 3DT (13 days post transfer, 3-day transfer)	At-home pregnancy test showed positive. Scheduled Beta hCG test for Wednesday.
Wednesday April 23rd, 2003 Cycle Day 30/ 14 DPT 3DT Postive Beta hCG test.	First Beta hCG was 375.1 Normal indications for 1-2 week gestational age is from 50 to 500 mIU/mL Called Dr. Scotto. Told us to continue the current therapy and see him Monday afternoon.
Monday April 28th, 2003 19 DPT 3DT	Appointment with Dr. Scotto. Told us to complete therapy for 3 months. Can now use a different type of progesterone which is required only once every three days. Did a preliminary ultrasound and discovered a gestational sac that measured 6.3 mm. It's still too early to tell if there is anything in it or not.
Wednesday April 30th, 2003 21 DPT 3DT Second Beta hCG test (quantitative).	Second Beta hCG 9,296.0 Had to ask several times if it was "nine-hundred twenty-nine point six". The nurse replied, "No. Nine thousand, two-hundred ninety-six point zero."
Thursday May 8th, 2003 Gestational Age: 6 weeks, 1 day Ultrasound #2	The gestational age of the embryo is now approximately 6 weeks and 1 day. Different calculations based on menstrual period date and actual embryo transfer date gave slightly different results (6 weeks, 1 day vice 6 weeks, 3 days). Gestational age is normally calculated from the end of the last menstrual period. We had our first appointment with Dr. Ragan at the US Naval Hospital. He was very busy today because he had been gone, but took the time to see us between patients. He did our second ultrasound, which indicated an approximately 18mm gestational sac containing a 4.4mm embryo and a yolk sac. We were barely able to see the heart beating. If we would have gone two days earlier (as scheduled), we may not have been able to see this. The picture on the left shows only the ultrasound printout. The one on the right has labels for the embryo and the yolk sac. The gestational sac is the dark around surrounding the embryo and yolk sac.
Saturday May 10th, 2003 Gestational Age: 6 weeks, 5 days (recalculated) Ultrasound #3	A little scare today. Noticed some brown spotting and went to the hospital immediately. Dr. Ragan happened to be there (working on his day off instead of relaxing!) and took us immediately for an ultrasound. Everything turned out to be OK and the embryo had almost doubled in size since Thursday. The heartbeat was clearly visible this time. In the scan below, only the embryo is visible. The yolk sac is behind the embryo and could not be seen at the same time.
Wednesday May 21st, 2003 Gestational Age: 8 weeks Ultrasound #4	Ultrasound #4 today. The neural groove is clearly visible (outlined in the right picture below). The picture is a frontal view of the embryo.
Tuesday June 17th, 2003 Gestational Age: 12 weeks	Finally told everyone the good news. Called Kevin's parents and put the heartbeat on the phone (from a doppler-type heartbeat monitor called a "BabyBeat"). His father couldn't recognize it, so Gwen told him what it was. He was excited. Click here to hear the heartbeat at 12 weeks.
Wednesday June 18th, 2003 Gestational Age: 12 weeks, 1 day Ultrasound #5	We had ultrasound number five done today at the US Naval Hospital. The fingers are clearly visible now and the baby is moving around. The picture on the far right has the hand and placenta labeled. Click here to see a video clip of the baby moving (approx. 800K, so it may take a while to download on slow connections). Note: If the video clip doesn't work properly, right click the link and select "Save Target As..." to save the file to your hard drive for viewing.
Thursday July 3rd, 2003 Gestational Age: 14 weeks, 2 days Ultrasound #6	This was our last visit with Dr. Ragan at the US Naval Hospital. He retired from military service and went back to the U.S. Thanks Dr. Ragan for everything you've done for us. We'll miss you! Video clip of Baby K. (Approximately 900K, so it may take a while to download on slow connections). Note: If the video clip doesn't work properly, right click the link and select "Save Target As..." to save the file to your hard drive for viewing.
Monday July 28th, 2003 Gestational Age: 17 weeks, 6 days Ultrasound #7	First appointment with Dr. Schweitzer at the US Naval Hospital. July 28th Video clip of Baby K. Look closely at the baby's hand (where the doctor is pointing). The baby hiccups at the end of the clip. (850K file, so it may take a while to download on slow connections). Note: If the video clip doesn't work properly, right click the link and select "Save Target As..." to save the file to your hard drive for viewing.
Thursday August 14th, 2003 Gestational Age: 20 weeks, 2 days Radiology Appointment	We had our radiology appointment today. No video this time -- the lab technician didn't allow Kevin to go into the room while she was performing the ultrasound. She let him come in afterwards, but didn't allow him to take pictures -- something about "hospital rules". We did get some printouts of Baby K's ultrasound pictures though. The first and second pictures are the same one, with the second one labeled. The third shows Baby K's face and the fourth is a labeled side view.
Tuesday November 4th, 2003 Update	Sorry it's been so long without any updates. Everything's fine. We've just been negligent in updating the site. We had a few ultrasounds (pictures didn't turn out though) and... IT'S A GIRL! "Baby K" is now Baby Nellia (ne-LEE-ah -- accent on second syllable). (The name "Nellia" is a derivation from Kevin's mother's name. Her name was Nell. )
Monday December 1st, 2003 Gestational Age: 35 Weeks, 6 Days	Ultrasound: Estimated weight: 2,722 grams (approximately 6 lbs).
Tuesday December 9th, 2003 Gestational Age: 37 Weeks Routine Visit	Routine visit and ultrasound today with Dr. Schweitzer.
Tuesday December 30th, 2003 Gestational Age: 40 weeks. Update	We had another ultrasound today and also a non-stress test. No cervical dilation though, so it looks like Baby Nellia won't be born on the estimated due date (EDD) -- tomorrow. Here are her latest ultrasound pictures. The one on the right is labeled. The non-stress test machine monitors the baby's heartbeat, movement, and any uterine contractions the mother may experience. Everything was normal. Below is a picture of the test in progress.
Wednesday December 31st, 2003 Estimated Due Date	Baby Nellia wasn't born today as projected. We'll schedule labor induction if it doesn't happen on its own by next week. We'll add a "Labor and Delivery" section to document Baby Nellia's birth.
Tuesday January 6th, 2004 Update	Baby Nellia hasn't arrived yet, so we'll have to have labor induced. That's scheduled for the first thing in the morning. We'll call the hospital at 6:30 am to ensure that a room is available. If all goes well, Baby Nellia will be born sometime late Wednesday or Thursday. Kevin will send an e-mail and will update this site as soon as Nellia is born.
Thursday January 8th, 2004 2:14 pm Central European Time Happy Birthday Nellia Dae	Nellia Dae Kilburn was born today at the US Naval Hospital in Naples, Italy by cesarean section. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. One and five-minute Apgar scores were both 9 (out of a possible 10). Here are some pictures for now. We have posted our labor and delivery journal -- use the link button at the top (L & D).