Update!

Ok, lots of good news, so lets get started.

First, I hit my goal of being under 300 pounds by my IVF consult. I am at exactly 299 now, which puts my total weight loss from this time last year at 50 pounds. To say I am proud of myself is an understatement. I have never stuck with a weight loss regimen this long before. I hit two plateaus in that time, and yet I stuck with it and got the help I needed and I am almost to the final goal. The ultimate goal is 287, which will be an exact BMI of 40, but I have decided I am taking it a little further. I want a little extra wiggle room in there, so I want to be down to 284 (or less if I can) by the time I start stims for IVF.

Now on to the really good news. Everything at my IVF consult yesterday went perfectly. I had the meeting with the IVF nurse/coordinator. When we walked back to her office and sat down the first thing she asked was "How much have you lost so far?" When I said 45 since April and 50 since last January her jaw was on the floor. She asked if I did anything other than diet and exercise and was especially impressed when I said nope, just diet and exercise. She told me repeatedly how proud she was of me. This is one of those times I am so happy I go to a small clinic. I haven't seen this nurse since September, and yet she remembers my story and what we are doing without even having to look in my folder. It makes me feel like more than just a number on a file.

So we dove right in and I asked her all 26 of the questions I had typed up and brought with me, and the hubs asked his 1 question (can he drink before the IVF or should he stop completely?). But basically, she thinks we have a good chance of this working given how hard I have worked and that I have been doing the weight loss in a healthy way. They have a group of women starting in the beginning of February, but since I still want to lose about 15 pounds we decided I would wait until March to start our first IVF cycle.

In the mean time we are going to get all the initial IVF testing out of the way. I have the sonohysterogram (SHG) this Friday, the purpose of the SHG is make sure the structure of the uterus is ok, no polyps or fibroids or anything in there. Then next Monday I go in for the trial transfer, it is basically just a practice run at the embryo transfer. Apparently they map out the uterus and the RE will decide exactly where he wants to aim the embryo(s) at transfer. We'll also get more blood work done, another semen analysis for hubby, and an appointment just to go over and sign the consent forms.

I am also starting Birth Control Pills today. It seems so counter-intuitive to go on birth control to get pregnant, but they have to suppression the ovaries before they can bring them back up with the hormones.

So that is the gist of things. I am so insanely excited I really can't accurately describe it. Even if the first one doesn't work, through this process we will at lest hopefully get more answers about why we haven't gotten pregnant yet. But I won't lie, I am convinced the first one will work. When I say that, keep in mind that I thought every single IUI was going to work, and we all know how those turned out. So the count down is on, a little over a month and a half to starting stims for our first IVF!