The Story of Little Mojo - Payson Olmstead Eberz

   After trying for a few months the old-fashioned - and frankly, the more fun - way, we decide to get help. We choose to see Dr. Thomas Vaughn of the Texas Fertility Center (TFC). Not only does TFC have excellent success rates, but Dr. Vaughn is essentially the only person recommended.

    We have a few inconclusive diagnostics. Without an immediately obvious cause, we first try Clomid treatments. After no luck there, we decide to skip the fairly invasive and expensive laparoscopy. So in March, we start the In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) process.

   Dr. Vaughn performs the egg retrieval today. It is an out-patient procedure in which several of Moe's eggs - having been stimulated to grow over the past month with a concoction of injected hormones - are removed and delivered to the St. David's embryologists - Rita and Tim. We get some good news here, learning that they retreived 14 eggs, nearly double the average. The embryologists will perform some preparations and then will fertilize them. The procedure takes place at St. David's Medical Center.

   The embryos, each only 8 undifferentiated cells, are transfered by Dr. Vaughn into a waiting Moe today at St. David's out-patient facility.

These pictures link to larger versions, each in the neighborhood of 200,000 bytes.

   Back at the Texas Fertility Center, our first sonogram after transfer is performed today, with the hope of seeing the beating heart of a fetus. We find 3 pregnancy sacs, each containing a fetus with a strong and regular heartbeat. However, only one of the fetuses is of such a size that Dr. Vaughn believes with some confidence that it will make it. The other 2 are quite small and he is dubious about their potential. Still, you never know. Thus, he schedules us for a sonogram in two weeks time.

   It bears stating that, regardless of how good things look at any given moment, we can't know how it's going to turn out. In this respect, it might remind you of everything else in life. Consider that this the beginning of what we hope to be a long life of worrying about the well-being of our children.

How To Read These Pics

   Give up now; just marvel in the technology. If you're still reading this, then you're a bad listener, so who knows how you expect this description to help you. On each pic are a set of white crosses, that are quite difficult to see on the small thumbnails. They mark the head and the tail of the fetus, though nobody knows which is which at this point. Beside the fetus - and only clear in the first pic - is what looks like a ring. It is all that remains of the yolk that powered the fetus's growth before it got plugged into mommy.

(These guys are not necessarily in the same order as the embryos pictured above.)
Peanut #1	Peanut #2	Peanut #3
These pictures link to larger versions, each in the neighborhood of 180,000 bytes.
From "Today's Cartoon by Randy Glasbergen", posted with special permission. For many more cartoons, please visit Randy's site @ http://www.glasbergen.com/.

   At the Texas Fertility Center, our second sonogram is performed today. Our expectation was that Peanut #1 remain healthy, while the uncertain fate of Peanuts #2 and #3 should be resolved. In fact, Peanut #1 is very healthy. Peanut #2 is almost as small as two weeks ago, and without heartbeat. Peanut #3 has grown quite a lot, but also appears to be without heartbeat.

   Of course, we have mixed feelings with the results - elation at the health of #1, and sadness at the apparent loss of #2 and #3.

   A couple technical details:

• Peanut #1 is perhaps slightly larger than is customary for this point in development, measuring nearly 21mm compared to the expected range of about 16-18mm.
• Peanut #2 measures 4.3mm, barely larger than the 4.0 measured two weeks ago. Dr. Vaughn expects that it didn't make it more than a couple days past the previous sonogram.
• Dr. Vaughn seeks carefully for a heartbeat in #3, but finds nothing. He's actually kind of surprised that it grew so far - 18.5mm, nearly as big as Peanut #1 - before succumbing to some unknown condition. He tells us there's less than a 1% chance that #3's heartbeat is present despite our inability to find it visually.

   We talk with Dr. Vaughn for a few minutes. He tells us that we won't be coming back to see him - at least, not until we want to get some of our 5 frozen embryos out to try again. I should note here that TFC, unlike a commonly referred fertility doctor here in Austin, only gets people pregnant. Once you're pregnant, they send you on to a non-specialist obstetrician. Of course, this gives TFC the ability to concentrate on what they do best. Which they do very, very well.

   After a few minutes of mourning, we gather ourselves. We leave the examination room to chat with the nurses. Our joy is palpable. One of the nurses tells us that we've "graduated".

(These guys are not necessarily in the same order as the embryos pictured above.)
Peanut #1	Peanut #2 (Photocopy)	Peanut #3
These pictures link to larger versions, each in the neighborhood of 150,000 bytes.

   Monica feels some potential problem symptoms today and goes in for a semi-emergency check-up. Since we're now "graduated" from TFC, she goes to the Renaissance Women's Group, where our expected future, and highly-recommended, obstetrician, Dr. Linda J. Litzinger practices. Monica sees a nurse, who tells her that everything is ok, but sends her to get a sonogram anyway.

   Everything's ok, and we get some bonus data points. Baby Mojo is currently 36mm. That's right - huge! Last "average" size we have is for yesterday, 22 to 28mm. Incidentally, this is the first sonogram taken from the outside.

Baby Mojo, 10 weeks, 36mm.

This picture links to a larger version, in the neighborhood of 80,000 bytes.

   Today is our first obstetrician appointment. Having returned from a trip during which Monica spent 70% of the time with migraine symptoms and medicated, we had been worried for the baby's health. We meet Dr. Litzinger at the Renaissance Women's Group. She uses a tool to try to hear the baby's heartbeat, telling us first that it can be difficult to find it with this tool this early even if everything is fine. We seem to get it briefly, but she can't find it again so she sends us upstairs to Dr. Darby for a sonogram.

   Everything is fine, and little Baby Mojo puts on quite a show for us, wriggling all around (it's still too small for mommy to feel).

Baby Mojo, 11 weeks 5 days, 58mm.
Look at that beautiful profile! (It's dimly visible in front of the facial bones.)	The baby turned and raised a hand upwards as if waving. (Either it's an alien, or the still-forming skull reflects more sound than the softer flesh.)
These pictures link to larger versions, each in the neighborhood of 80,000 bytes.

   We go to the obstetrician's office for a check-up. Phillip makes a short recording of the baby's 163bpm heartbeat. [What's "bpm"?] [Tech note: Non-Windows users might not have the necessary software to play the linked audio format. Believe me, i apologize for providing a Microsoft-specific anything. I'll try to replace it later.]

   Paula joins us on our trip to the Renaissance Women's Group.
   While there, Nancy examines Monica/Mojo with a sonogram. Nancy has 19 years experience with this, and spots and describes everything easily. She identifies the sex of the baby for us! Don't click here if you don't want to know what it is! As they had invited us to bring a blank videocassette, we get about 7 minutes of the sonogram on tape. Baby Mojo is very active, kicking, turning, and waving the whole time.
   After the sonogram, we go to the obstetrician's office for a check-up. There Anna checks the baby's heartbeat with a doppler listening device. Phillip makes a short recording of it. [Tech note: Non-Windows users might not have the necessary software to play the linked audio format. Believe me, i apologize for providing a Microsoft-specific anything. I'll try to replace it later.] As expected, the baby's heart rate this time is just slightly slower. [How does human heart rate change with age? Why is it the larger a warm-blooded animal is, the slower its heart beats?]

Baby Mojo, 20 weeks 1 day.
The sole of the left foot. Looks like baby mojo will have no trouble picking up juggling clubs.	A simple profile, including the torso.
"Shhh"	The left leg.
These pictures link to larger versions, each in the neighborhood of 80,000 bytes.

   Today, I lay Payson on the bed while doing some preparation or other. I dropped something and said "Oops!" as i bent down to retreive it. Already (as usual) in a happy mood, Payson laughed openly at my exclamation. This lead to over three minutes of the "Oops!"/laughter cycle, a clip of which i provide. [Tech note: Non-Windows users might not have the necessary software to play the linked audio format. Believe me, i apologize for providing a Microsoft-specific anything. I'll try to replace it later.]

I recorded the audio with my Palm Tungsten T, seen on the bed to the left of Payson.

This picture links to a larger version, in the neighborhood of 130,000 bytes.

• Some pictures of (macroscopic) people at various points in the process.
• Info on Jo Bellonci, our superlative, Montessori-trained doula.
• A "So You're Considering IVF" document summarizing some of the things we thought might've been good to know from the start.

Acknowledgements

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We give our thanks to the following people, who made this page possible.

Dr. Thomas Vaughn and all of the personnel at the Texas Fertility Center. Dr. Vaughn personally called us one weekend when we were worried and invariably responded to off-hours calls and pages.

The IVF group at St. David's Medical Center , including Ruby, our co-ordinator and Rita and Tim, our embryologists. The staff at The IVF group were very attentive to calls and pages.

Randy Glasbergen, whose work is showcased at http://www.glasbergen.com/. Randy was most enthusiastic about the site when i contacted him for permission to use his work, which he gave readily. He's a very cool guy and an excellent net citizen. If you have a minute, please visit his Cartoon Gift Shop.

-email ojo