Having children is one of the most priceless gifts couples could have and couples who are experiencing difficulties receiving these gifts would understandably be all too willing to give every option on the table a chance.  One of the most popular options is IVF or in vitro fertilization – the option I chose to take in my journey to motherhood.  It is one of the safest, most affordable, and widely accepted assisted reproductive procedures all over the world.  IVF, however, is not for everyone. Successful pregnancy and consequently live birth through IVF involves a host of factors that you should take into consideration before you make your decision.

The process of IVF is highly demanding both financially and physically.  IVF cost in Singapore would come up to about SGD18,000 or nearly $13,000 for one cycle alone.  You have to be ready to shoulder the IVF cost of several cycles given that studies suggest an average of three to six cycles of IVF treatment before successful pregnancy is achieved.  Once you have the cost considerations settled, you have to weigh your physical considerations.  To start with, IVF could be a good option for you if you are younger than 35 years old – an average success rate of 50% is observed in clinical studies of IVF procedures in subjects within this age range.  The duration of fertility issues as well as other issues concerning your ovarian function would also influence the success rate of your IVF procedure.

Finally, as the IVF cost is not cheap, you want to make sure that are indeed ready to go through what the procedure requires and that you will be able to complete your IVF cycles until you successfully conceive.  In previous posts, I have broken down the IVF cost for you and somehow let you in on what I had to go through in my journey to motherhood.  Now, to help you determine whether you are ready for an IVF procedure or not, here’s a quick look at how IVF is done:

1. After the necessary medical checks, your doctor will start you on hormonal medication to stimulate your ovaries for egg production.  This was quite a challenge for me since I am afraid of needles.  You will have to inject this medication yourself or with the help of your partner at home at the same time everyday until the follicles are ready as determined by a laboratory scan.

2.It’s back to the hospital again to have your eggs retrieved either through a needle inserted through your vagina or a laparoscopic operation.  Don’t worry, you will be sedated during the procedure and will not feel a thing. Your eggs will then be combined with your partner’s sperm in a laboratory dish to start the process of in vitro fertilization.

3.And Once fertilization is achieved, usually after a few days, the embryo is placed into your uterus through the cervix with the aid of a catheter.  It takes a two week wait, on bed rest combined with hormonal treatment, in order to determine whether the embryo has successfully latched on to the uterine wall and the pregnancy is confirmed.

My embryo transfer went pretty well according to my doctor. After the 15 minute procedure, I had to lie on bed for the next four hours. And then the next couple of days, I have restricted activities as well. I only got up to pee, bathe or eat. It was pretty tiring not to be able to do anything so once in awhile I would still go online to chat with my Marces:  Peh, Kaye and Fedhz . Beside from my hubby, they are the ones who kept me sane during this waiting time.

After being home bound for 8 days, I decided it’s okay for me to go out last Sunday. I mean the embryo should have implanted by 8 days I thought and besides I have been feeling a little bit pregnant the last couple of day already.

So what have I been feeling, you might ask…well I have been more often hungry but then again maybe that is because of watching too much Asian Food Channel or Discovery Travel & Living Channel but seriously my boobies especially my nipples have been feeling tender for days.

I am already saying to myself, you’re pregnant girlie, you’re pregnant!!!!! But I also didn’t want to get to excited. My hubby have been asking me how am I feeling, or do I see any changes so I told him the changes I have noticed. He also thought that my breasts looks different. I was thinking of doing a home pregnancy test on Saturday but I resisted as I didn’t want to feel down.

So Sunday we went to watch How to train your dragon. Wonderful movie!When we arrived back home, I couldn’t wait any longer and took the test. When I felt like peeing, I went and peed on the stick and was so happy to see the two lines!! Now that was really exciting but I still tried not to be overly excited as it could be a false positive. I guess after being hurt so much the last time I got pregnant, I have became more cautious. So I waited for Tuesday for the real test.

Tuesday, I woke up really early, earlier than usual. We went to the clinic and let them take my blood. I am so excited…just a couple of hours and we will know for sure if I am really pregnant at 2:30 pm the receptionist called and congratulated me.

I am ecstatic! She asked me to come back and see the doctor. I went and got some medicines to help me support this pregnancy. I hope all works out. Now what I am hoping is that my baby continues to develop.

I’d like to take this chance to thank everyone who sent me their positive vibes, prayers and well wishes and especially to the Marce Club who have helped me keep the blog active during my bedrest.

I was anxious to get my period this month since I wanted to have another embryo transfer…but it hasn’t come up to now. It is unnerving! I checked the net for some answers, they say:  stress, being overweight,medications could result to delay in menstrual cycle. I don’t think I am overweight nor am I taking any medications except for the folic acid and vitamin. Stress – I don’t know if I am stressed. I mean could waiting for my period be stressful for me?

Part of me is hoping for a small miracle, that I am pregnant but another part of me is saying don’t count on it too much. To end my burden, we decided to get a home pregnancy test to see what the deal is…it was negative.

I finally decided to email my doctor this morning and ask him if it’s normal to be so late. He replied that I shouldn’t worry about it. There could be two reasons, it’s either it’s just late or I am not ovulating.

I hope it’s just late.

Note: The cost of the medicines could vary from case to case.

Consultation Fees: 150 + 60 +60+60 +60+60 + 60 = 510 ( USD 365 )

Lab tests: 120 + 75 + 170 +75 + 82 = 522 ( USD 373 )

Ovulation Medicine: 260 + 830 + 830 +399  +694 = 3,013 ( USD 2,155 )

Doctor’s Fee: 1,070 + 430 (egg retrieval) + 750 ( Embryo Transfer) = 2,250 ( USD 1,610 )

Hospital Charges: 7,703 (egg retrieval)  1,754 (Embryo Transfer) = 9,457 ( USD 6,765 )

Freezing of Embryo: 600 ( USD 430 )

1 Year Embryo/ Egg Storage Fee: 200 ( USD 142 )

Pregnancy support medicine: 942 +376 +51 +120 = 1,489 ( USD 1,065 )

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Total Cost for 1 Cycle : SGD 18,050 or ( USD 12,910 )

If you plan to do IVF  in Singapore you should know that one cycle takes about 6 weeks starting from taking the medication. I suggest you contact several clinics you want to visit and ask them everything you need to know as early as 2 months before your planned IVF cycle.

It’s a very sad day. It’s so frustrating thinking about what went wrong.  I thought to myself I got pregnant the first try so I should be able to get pregnant again on the second try especially that now we have placed 1 extra embryo than the last time.

It’s cruel because I won’t get answers from my doctor personally till we see each other again in a few weeks. I shed a few tears after the call.

We don’t know yet exactly what’s next if we are going to do another try with a different doctor here or do it in Manila where we will be moving soon or start looking into adoption.

I hope that my next period normalize. My doctor said that I need to get atleast 3 normal periods before we can consider the Embryo Transfer again. He told me to visit the clinic when I get my 2nd period, to check (I guess) if my body is already getting back to normal.

So I am guessing we would do it again in November – if all works out.

MommaWannabe has officially a bun in the oven!!! Thank you all for the well wishes and prayers!!! I love you all!!!

I was home bound for two weeks as you all know. It was boring to stay all day everyday at home. I thought to myself, “ Now I know how it is to be on house arrest.”

Some of the things you can do too if you are on house arrest, I mean on a bed rest :

1. You can do some interior design planning or if you are expecting a baby you can plan for his/her room already.

2. You can also busy yourself in organizing photo albums.

3. You might have bought books you still have not found time to read yet, so this is a great opportunity to catch up on your reading.

Just take it easy!

The first couple of days was alright but after several days this is becoming the longest 2 weeks of my life. I must be on bed rest, not move too much. I had to stay at home for the whole duration.

Why? Because we have to make sure that the embryos stay where they are suppose too.

Anyhoo, if you are going through this at the moment, just try to relax and read the next post on What to do when you are in a bed rest.

[All this happened on July 4, I am just retelling my experience for the sake of the ones who will be going through IVF as well and of course so that you get to know what I went through I am already pregnant:)!]

Embryo transfer occurs normally after 3 or 5 days of the egg retrieval. In my case it was three days after. Now today is a really important day as well. As I told you on my Egg Retrieval post, I mentioned that I had 27 eggs. They were joined by my husband’s sperms and only 20 have fertilized – it is still a pretty good number. 2 of them were not of good quality, 2 embryos will be transferred in me.

We arrived in the hospital thinking it would only take half an hour or so. But that is not the case. This is one of the thing I didn’t like about my fertility clinic, they did not explain well that it would take the whole day.

When I arrived at the OR, my doctor showed me the pictures of my embryos and these are my two babies that they have put back inside me.

Oh by the way if you are doing this make sure that you have a full bladder. This is another thing they didn’t really explain well to me. Before they do the operation, they will be doing a scan to see the uterus and they can only see this if you have a full bladder. I peed before I went to the operation because I didn’t know – well they had to pump me with water via a catheter – not really a comfortable experience!

It had to be done. When they were already able to see the uterus, they went on putting the embryos to me. It didn’t really take long.

So after the transfer, I had to lay for four hours and there’s no going to the bathroom. If you have to pee, you would have to do it on the bedpan.

I was dischared after the 4 hours rest. From this day on I would need to be on bed rest for 2 weeks.