test

I'm in what will *hopefully* be my first and only IUI cycle.  It feels weird to be doing all of this from a distance.  I will get baseline monitoring on Monday and move forward from there.   I'm not particularly optimistic for this cycle, nor am I pessimistic.  I know it only has around a 20% chance of success at best.  Part of me feels so ambivalent about this.  I suppose I'm trying to protect myself emotionally.  If this cycle doesn't work, I'll go SCUBA diving and drink mai tais in Honolulu right after my period stops.  If we do get lucky, I'll happily abstain from the diving and drinks and enjoy my 7 days in paradise.   I hope to be better about updating as we move through this cycle!  

Our donor went in to make another donation for us, and the freeze/thaw test was bad.  Really bad.  The sample went from 32 million to 1.7 million, which isn't even worth the IUI.  The doctor asked if we would be able to have a fresh donation the day of IUI so that the numbers can stay good.  For that to happen, we will be travelling for the IUI.  The little one and I will be driving the 6 hours back "home" to do this.   Meds have been ordered.  I'll be on 100mg of Clomid +3 days of 150iu GonalF, trigger, then hopefully back to back IUIs.  (I don't know that donor will be able/willing to come in two consecutive days).  I'm expecting AF in about a week.  I can't believe we are here already.  If it doesn't work, we will try again in September.   I'm still nursing.  Since my previous post, the Little Cutie has finally taken to drinking another kind of milk.  That makes me feel so much better about the potential of drying up when I start meds.  ...

Today is CD 1 and we are going for the IUI next cycle.  I believe we'll be using clomid for ovulation induction.  I'm super excited, but still need to figure things out.  I'd love any thoughts, opinions, advice, etc.  As I've mentioned, we moved states 10 months ago, which has created some issues.  Our sperm is in old state.  My old Dr. said they can ship it to us, or we can go back there for the procedure.  We can do monitoring here, and just go back for the procedure.  Or, we can stay just stay here.  We really don't want to tell anyone what we're up to, so in that sense it makes sense to stay here.  On the other hand, I really like my old Dr. and I would love to have some time to visit with friends back home.  We have no trips planned to go back right now and I would really like to go this summer.  It would also be a welcomed escape from the oppressive summer heat.  I think I'm leaning towards going back for it, bu...

Sorry I'm late with the update.  It's been one hell of a week.   On Monday, I planned to take J to baby dance (a free class!!) to help wear her out before her nap, so I would be more likely to have uninterrupted time for my consult.  We were running late, so I decided to take her to the park instead.  While turning into the park, a lady who wasn't paying attention slammed into my car at over 40mph.  We are fine-- just shaken up.  After waiting for the police to come and all of that stuff, I made it home less than 10 min before my consult was set to begin.  The little cutie was exhausted and went down easily for her nap, thank goodness.  But, my head wasn't all in it.   The Dr. was great, and gave me more info on the two vials we have in the freezer.  Apparently, there are only about 5 million sperm in each vial, so he would want to use both at once for IUI.  Apparently the samples didn't freeze/thaw well.  BIL has agreed to donate more for us, and ac...

We have some exciting things brewing over here!   Last week, we took a trip back to visit our families.  Some relatives were visiting from the other coast, so we decided to plan a visit at the same time.  We had a great time hanging out.  On the last day of our trip, I got to meet up with one of my best friends who lives 6 hours from where we were, but was also in town visiting her parents.  As I drove past my RE's office on the way to see her, I started thinking about a second baby.  I really wanted around 3 years between births, but OMG how the baby fever has kicked in!   It didn't help when my friend mentioned that they would likely start trying in the fall for their second.  Her first is 7 weeks younger than my little cutie.  We talked a lot about the benefits of closer and farther apart spacing.  I really like the farther spacing so that J would be more independent, but do see the benefit of closer so that they play together better.  So, now I want to try sooner.   ...

Despite the lack of insurance coverage for IF that we have, I never really thought about how lucky we are to live in a country that allows such a wide range of fertility options.  Getting our official diagnosis, azoospermia, was SO devastating.  I can't even imagine how much more devastating it would have been if we lived somewhere with no options.  We were (and still are!) lucky-- we had options.   I read this article  recently that discusses some of the issues people face when they leave their country to pursue treatments they can't get in their own country.  If we lived in Italy, we couldn't have created our beautiful little girl.  Surrogates are illegal in France.  " A Turkish woman who becomes inseminated abroad with donor sperm faces three years in prison."   Can you even imagine?  Not surprisingly, people are coming to the US for fertility treatments that are illegal in their country.  Then, many of them face issues trying to get their kids recognized as ...

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday! One of my favorite things to do is make delicious things-- whether they be food or drink.  To help motivate me to try new recipes, to find new recipes from you, and to help encourage me to post, I thought I would start a weekly recipe feature.  Please join in and post a recipe on your blog.  Then link back to it below, using the handy Mr. Linky feature at the bottom, so others can find your recipe.  Also, please put a link to this post in yours, so others can participate too!  The more the merrier!  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I was walking down the alcohol aisle at the grocery store, I spotted caramel vodka for $8.99, so I decided to splurge, as I LOVE caramel.  I also picked up a small jar of caramel, thinking it would be a nice addition to a drink.  When I got home, I started looking up recipes for caramel martinis, but couldn't find one that worked with the ingredien...