How babies are made...

I thought I'd give you a brief little up-date of how babies are made (or attempted to be made) in the Marshall family as it is a very romantic story, and I'd hate for it to be skipped over on the blog. For weeks Chelsea injects herself with hormones (ooo la la). Chelsea and Derek take two days to drive out to California for that is where babies are made best. They stop at Nick and Sonni's in St. George so Chelsea can do drugs (inject her nightly hormones). They stay the night with Raleigh and Tara. Chelsea's Oregon girlies throw her a good luck party while Derek catches up with old mission companions.They stop by Geoff and Aleena's to meet the new twins and congratuate Geoff on finally giving his two weeks notice. They watch Aleena handle twins effortlessly and wonder how the heck they would pull that off. EEK! Maybe they should driveback home, but they push on.

Arrive in Cali and stay at Derek's aunt's house in Covina. She's nice enough to let them stay there while she is away in Utah for Christmas. The next morning, they drive to LA for an ultrasound to see how Chelsea's eggs are cooking. Then, they meet up with Chelsea's good ol' bud Doug and his amazing wife Tamara (who also have twins- sort of). Doug and Tamara took Chelsea and Derek to the Venice Beach (in December- the weather was awesome about 75 degrees and sunny every day we were there). We got to watch a skateboard competition and roamed around Venice Beach enjoying good company and awesome weather.That night Derek's brother-in-law Jon flew into LA just for the night to stay with us. Actually, I think it had more to do with keeping his Delta airline status than us, but it was fun to have him nonetheless. He made us get up early in the am to take him to the airport, but that was okay because I had to be in to the clinic that morning for a blood draw. Afterward we went to church and then got to take a Sunday nap! Later that night, my "Aunt" Julie had us over for an amazing dinner and we played some mean Pinochle (a Cichowlas-mom's maiden name-tradition).

Monday morning we went to the clinic for another ultrasound and labs, then met up with my awesome roomate Wendy, who got us into Disney's California Adventure for free! And even more exciting, at 8 pm this even I injected myself with hcg which was hopefully the last shot my belly will see for a long time. Whoo hoo!
Tuesday morning we went back into the clinic for more blood work. And then we went to Disneyland and acted like two kids in a candy store running like crazy to get fast passes to our favorite rides and having a fabulous time. The only disappointment was that I promised Derek that for dinner we could eat at the ESPN Zone so he could watch the Las Vegas bowl and his precious Cougars. Unfortunately, the wait for dinner was 2 hours and instead he had to instead get text up-dates all night from his sister who was actually at the game.Wednesday was the day the magic happened. I got to wear this awesome outfit to the operating room so they could harvest my eggs.When I woke up from my nap, they informed me that they had retrieved 16 eggs! Then afterwards each little egg was injected with one of Derek's sperm by our embryologist, and we waited for the up-date he would give us the next morning.

That day I felt mostly fine with just a slight pain over my ovaries if I walked to much. So, we went to see Avitar in 3-D. I'd recommend it and because I was in pain (wink wink) and thus could make Derek do anything for me, I got him to take me to see:It rocked!!!

The next morning we were awakened by a phone call from our embryologist who informed us that our eggs and sperm had performed very well and that we had 11 fertilized eggs. Then, though I was still not 100%, we took advantage of the weather and went golfing at a near by par 3 course (more to my advantage than Derek's). And thought I think he was embarrassed about it because the course was so short, I made Derek rent me a gold cart. We had a blast, and I actually played pretty well.And an action shot, those looking for the new Tiger see here:Later that day (Christmas Eve- when can you ever golf on Christmas Eve?), we drove down to San Clemente to stay with my cousin Terry Allen and his family. They were kind enough to let us crash their Christmas party. It was so great to reconnect with them. Christmas Day we opened presents. Terry and his wife were nice enough to fill a stocking for Derek and I. Then, we went to see Sherlock Holmes (two movies in one week)! We spent the rest of the day visiting with my long lost cousins and wishing our family that we were away from this Christmas a merry Christmas via telephone.

Early Saturday morning, they had picked the best two of the litter to place back in my uterus. It was so neat. They wheeled them in in an incubator like they put new born babies in, let us have a look under the microscope at them, and then gave us what will hopefully be the first pictures of our future babies.
The worst thing was that I had to have a full bladder which made that ultrasound probe pushing right over my full bladder to assure that these adorable little embryos were placed in exactly the right spot a very pleasant experience. It was done in a matter of minutes, and I found it funny that on his way out the door the doc said, "good work team!"

Then began my 36 hours of bed rest. This was the worst part for me. Luckily, most of it was spent in the car. We stopped in Vegas, had lunch with my brother and his girlfriend, spent a little time with my good friend Natalie, and shacked up with Nick and Christi Graham for the night. Then, off to Utah and the cold and the snow we returned.

And that my friends is how babies are made in the Marshall Family. Kind of fun huh?!? Unfortuanately, they were unable to freeze any of the extra fertilized eggs so we are really hoping this go works. January 7th is the big day when we'll find out if I'm pregnant or not. Wish us luck! Thanks to all who let us crash at their house along the way and to all who kept us in their thoughts and prayers.