Krystie - if they're putting you on the pill you'll be doing a down regulation cycle - sounds like Nay did an antagonist cycle (the second needle each day stops you from ovulating until they want you to) - with a down reg cycle, they put you on the pill to get your hormones flat lined. give you are going through PGD, you may go on it for longer than the normal time frame, as they manipulate AF to fit you in with the clinic. from what i know of melb PGD they can only do two patients through PGD at a time - this may have changed, but it's still a very small number - so they need you to be on a certain time frame so they may keep you on the pill for four or five weeks before taking you off for AF to arrive - could be sooner. generally before they take you off the pill, they will start you on either a nasal spray (synarel) twice daily, or a daily injection (lucrin) - these will complete the down reg and stop all natural hormone production. it basically puts you into drug induced menopause! (so warn DH - you can get a little ummmmm moody with these ones!) - these will continue once you start on the stimulating drugs. given you have no fertility issues as such, you will probably be on a low level of hormones so as to avoid overstimulation. you'll be closely monitored like Nay said - be prepared, BT's and dildocam become a regular part of life! lol.

when you get to the right sized follicles, you'll stop the down reg drugs and have a trigger shot to make you ovulate. about 36-48 hours later you'll go for egg pick up - for me, this was done under twilight sedation so i was unconscious. given this is your first cycle (and hopefully your only one!) they will take it very gently with the stim drugs so as not to cause you any dramas

once your eggs are fertilised, they'll take you to day 2 or three before the PGD happens - there will only be two or three cells in each embie at this point so they're tiny! they will take one cell and amplify the genetic material in that one cell to check for the genetic anomaly you mentioned. you probably know this but i figure the other ladies may not! lol

if the anomaly shows up, that embryo won't be transferred. you may end up with large number of eggs/embies but many discarded. they will also only transfer the ones without the anomaly that are considered to be of the right quality.

not sure about what you've been told, but generally they ask that you have a CVS or amnio to again check the genetics. given it is all based on a single cell when testing, it's not 100% guaranteed to be accurate.

hope that helps on that front!!


on the rest of your post - i soooooooooo feel for you on the unsettled baby. two nights ago E had a meltdown - screaming so bad and so distressed. took ages to settle her. last night, she was fine until we went to bed - and then she lost the plot again. she was so distressed. nothing was helping. we gave her panadol (no nurofen at night for our poppet - it makes her hyper and ruins her sleep!), numbed her gums, offered boob and cuddles. ended up laying beside her in bed, snuggled up, singing round and round the garden (it worked the night before cos i'd taught it to her during the day! lol) - eventually worked. she cried again briefly when daddy moved her to bed, but it wasn't the distressed cry, it was more a cry of grrrr daddy, i was comfy!. she woke a couple of times through the night, but booby was enough to resettle her

i fessed up to DH about my face being sore. i don't know if it's tooth related - just keeping an eye on it. last time, if i pressed on my gums, i was in agony - this time i can't feel anything in there - more just under my nose it's kinda like a lump. could be a blind pimple or something - will see how i go. am not going to ride it out if it gets bad though - i'll work out a way to get to the dentist if it gets more ouchy! i promise!! Bella is too scary to ignore lol

today, while e is content playing, i'm going to make a photo book for DH and I - won't be able to get it printed for a while, and probably won't get it all journalled and stuff, but i want to play with our wedding pics - we've been married four years today! yay us!