The second time around...

Alright, it's been awhile, but it's time for an update. On May 16th we went back to the doctor for my midcycle ultrasound. I learned that I had four, let me repeat, FOUR dominate follicles. Now doesn't that defeat the word dominate?! That gives me four chances. Four chances to ovulate, four chances to be fertilized, four chances for implantation. Sounds good, right?? The doctor was pleased and scheduled me for insemination a couple days later, on Saturday. Thursday night, Amanda had to give me an injection of hCG, called a "trigger" shot to force me to ovulate. That was really rough for her!! She held it together until after the shot, then she cried. She had a really difficult time "hurting" me although she knows that shots are no big deal for me. It's a good thing we don't have to do that everyday.

Saturday morning we had to be at the doctors at 9:45. We arrived with plenty of time and got in pretty quick. This insemination was done by a doctor i have never met, who had read my chart ahead of time, and assured me that this would be quick, easy, and gentle. He was so nice about everything! The whole thing took about 30 minutes and that includes emptying my bladder, undressing, the procedure, and the 20 minute wait laying on the table after the insemination.

So now we wait...
And wait...

While we were waiting I was able to display my fabric art in the artwalk during the Durand railroad days. It was a really neat experience. It's very empowering to have complete strangers compliment your work. I enjoyed it, i had an offer from the art store next door asking me to sell/display my artwork in their place. I've been thinking a lot about that and can't decide if that's what i want to do. I enjoy creating art, i like to look at it when it's completed, but I'm just not sure if i want to wholly commit to truly doing it. I'm still working on that in my head, so we'll see.

As this past Saturday rolled around, it's been a week. We had a very busy weekend, full of fun! It helps to take our mind away from constant hoping. We were in Frankenmuth, Holly, Grand Blanc, and Auburn Hills this weekend. And I'm not kidding when i say... Pregnant women and newborn babies are stalking me! They are EVERYWHERE. I hope it's just a good sign.

So today, Monday, May 27th, Memorial Day, we are at day 259 of 280 days. (it starts on the first day of my period). My period would start a week from yesterday, June 2nd. I'm not sure when we are taking a test yet. According to my really cool day by day pregnancy book, today the zygote is firmly embedded into my uterus.

So let's hope, pray, and keep positive thoughts for the next few days.

While we were waiting we did lots of fun stuff in several different cities, took a leap outside of my comfort zone with art, and tried really hard to not simply lose our minds.

Follow up...

On April 30th we had our follow up appointment to find out about the hysteroscopy I had. The doctor said that if he didn't know that i had endometriosis and if he hadn't seen ultrasounds that look like i have a small uterus, he would say that everything looks normal. He said my uterus looks normal :) He is no longer concerned about this size or shape. Endometriosis will always be a concern, but not a big one. So...good news! I have a normal uterus! He gave us the ok to try intrauterine insemination (IUI) again. This time he doubled my dose of clomid, which will make me produce more eggs, also increasing the likelihood of having twins. And he put me on Metformin, a drug usually used to regulate blood sugar of diabetic people. He says there is literature to show that using clomid and metformin together will increase the likelihood of getting pregnant. So I'm trying it! So this month looks like this:
-Day 1 of my cycle, first day of my period: Monday, May 6th
-Day 3, today, May 8th i start taking Clomid.
-I take Clomid for 5 days.
-My midcycle ultrasound is scheduled for next Thursday at 9am. They will look at my ovaries to see if there are any dominant follicles. A dominant follicle is basically an egg ready to be "dispersed" into the fallopian tube.

So, we'll see! Now we wait for the ultrasound ;) In the meantime, we will be working, living life, and enjoying the beautiful weather!

The beginning...

Amanda and I have been traveling a fertility journey. So I've been thinking that I'd like to document this journey. When we see people that we love, we are often asked "how's it going" and I really don't mind talking about all of this (don't be afraid to ask me any questions!) but I thought we could keep everyone in our loop if we started a blog about our adventure. It's also a healthy thing for me to journal about what we've done.
First, this first post will be long because I'd like to start at the beginning. The rest of my posts shouldn't be so long.
Second, I apologize if I don't follow all of the appropriate "blog etiquette" as I've never done this before.
And lastly, please comment, ask questions, and enjoy :)

Amanda and I have always known that we wanted to have children and that it was going to be a long process for us. Not only are we lacking in the male physiology, but I struggle with Endometriosis. So not long after getting married, we just jumped right in! Our very first appointment was on January 2nd, 2013, at IVF Michigan in Flint. We met with an IVF doctor and we discussed the possibility of me having blocked fallopian tubes (requires a procedure), how my endometriosis plays a role, the process to getting pregnant, genetic testing, hormone testing, and ultrasounds. He was awful! No emotion, he didn't seem to care at all. We got very few answers from him. When we were done talking with the doctor, we talked with a nurse who was 100% better at answering our questions, and pointed us in the right direction.
In the month of January I had all of my hormones tested (all came back normal!), i had genetic testing done and learned that I am a carrier for cystic fibrosis (which is ok because all sperm is also tested for that) and a carrier for a VERY rare disease (only 100 people in the world have been diagnosed with this) called Meckel-Gruber Syndrome type 1 (a risk we will just have to take), I had a hysterosalpingogram which looks at the uterine cavity and fallopian tubes (my fallopian tubes are not blocked!), and a saline ultrasound to closely look at my ovaries and uterine cavity (after the ultrasound the doctor was concerned that I might have a small uterus, a fibroid, or both. The test was labeled "inconclusive").
On February 12th we had our follow up appointment at IVF Michigan in Ypsilanti. We learned that the Flint office doesn't "deal with donor sperm" so we had to see a different doctor. We were so relieved to have a new doctor! We met with Doctor Shamma in Ypsilanti and he was fantastic. He was very knowledgeable, very understanding, and very willing to do what we wanted. We decided that we wanted to first try Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and i literally said, "I just want to wing it!" And the doctor replied, "ok, let's wing it!" He did an ultrasound that day and showed some concern about the size and shape of my uterus but said we could try a round of IUI before doing any more expensive tests. So this is what the process looked like:
-A month of birth control pills to make me have a regular cycle.
-Day 1: period starts
On this day we are to call the office and tell them who we selected from the list of donor sperm. Yes, it's exactly as you imagine it, it lists the man's race, ancestry, blood type, eye color, hair color, height, body build, skin tone, education/occupation, and interests. This list seems to be a point of humor for everyone, including us! It's just so stereotypical of what you'd see in the movies. (to tell you the truth, the whole sperm thing in general had lead to NUMEROUS hilarious conversions!)
-Day 3-7: Take Clomid, a drug that makes me produce more eggs than usual. This is the drug that gives us a 20% chance of having twins.
-Day 12, 13, or 14: Mid-cycle ultrasound to look at my ovaries to see if there are eggs to be released. If there are eggs, we move to the next step.
-evening of the ultrasound: Use injectable HCG, which is the hormone that makes me ovulate.
- 36 hours after the HCG injection: Travel to IVF Michigan in Rochester Hills for insemination!

We went through this whole process from day 1 on March 13th to insemination on March 28th. Then we waited...

And waited...

And waited...

And then after losing our minds, going crazy, obsessing, taking 2 pregnancy tests, living the longest 2 weeks of our lives... My period started. Now what???

We went back to the doctor and he recommended a hysteroscopy (a very minor surgical procedure to put a camera through my cervix and actually see what my uterus looks like). I had that hysteroscopy on Friday April 19th. It was pretty easy, quick recovery. We had a follow up appointment on April 30th... That's my next post :)

An epiphany I've had since the start of all of this is to stop waiting. This is a hurry up and wait journey. If we are constantly waiting for the next thing, we are going to miss the things happening now! So if I can control my head at all, we are going to take this one day at a time, and enjoy each and every day. Maybe not every single thing of each day, but there will be something good about every day :)

So, while we were waiting, we started a blog!