Week 5

From every calculation I can find online, I am in my 5th week and will be in my 6th week on Sunday.  That would put this pregnancy due October 7th.  That will put 7 family birthdays within 7 weeks of one another.  That will be interesting!  But I'm still just thrilled to be preggars and not on any more fertility drugs!

For those who are not familiar to the problems of infertility, let me walk you through a few things of the process.  Day 3 of a cycle, you go to the fertility clinic.  There they do a pregnancy test (the cup donation type) and a wand-type (vaginal) ultrasound to make sure you don't have a cystoblastoma (a really big cyst) from the last cycle.  They measure your uterine lining to make sure it's doing what it's supposed to do.  All so much fun while in the middle of a cycle.  That night you begin taking the fertility pills and continue through Day 7.  Sometime around Day 5 if you're going to be using shots, you start administering them to yourself, but they must be injected within an inch of your belly button.  Fine for the first few days, but by day 10 or 11, your belly's a little sore.

Day 9 or 10, you go back for another wand-type ultrasound to see if there's any progress and they measure any follicles on your ovaries that may look promising and may adjust the amount of follicle stimulating drugs you inject.  In my case, almost always going up in doses at least for a few more days.

Day 13 or 14 you go back for another ultrasound where they measure potential follicles and do blood work to see if you are surging.  Depending on the size of the follicle(s) and whether or not you are surging,  that night (at the designated time they tell you, you will give yourself what's called a "trigger shot" (a dose of hcg in shot form).  Then 36 hours later you go back to the fertility clinic and the doctor will do the IUI (intra-uterine insemination, aka the turkey baster). 

Four days after that, you "insert" progesterone pills into the area closest to the uterus (you can figure that out for yourself). 

Keep in mind, it's over 50 miles round trip to the nearest fertility specialist here.  Also keep in mind that insurance does not cover any of this.  Also note that all of the fertility pills and shots cause severe emotional shifts in your personality and when you're like me, you try hard to keep that part to yourself, almost wanting to implode.  I'm not a girly girl but found myself weeping, shoulder shakes and all, at the absolute LAMEST things on television. 

Then, 16 days after the IUI procedure, you may take a home-pregnancy test.  For those who may be starting into the whole infertility pursuit, let me put this out there:  the digital tests are great as a yes or no resource, but it is far more harsh to see the words "NOT PREGNANT" in the window than the traditional minus sign.  I'm just warning. 

If anyone ever were to question my commitment to having a family, I will pull out my receipts and calendars for the last year and a half and show them the effort I've put in to having a kid.  My first thought when I tested preggars was,  "Oh, thank goodness, no more fertility drugs!"

Now having said all that, it has been an interesting journey.  And having an amazingly adorable product from my previous 4 year journey, I know it's all worth it.  Every mile driven, every ultrasound, every shot, every mood swing, every moment is worth it. 

Next week we will have our first official pregnancy ultrasound.  That will tell if it's a "singleton" or "multiples" (one or puppies I say).  Here's how I feel about that.  One will be fantastic.  Two will be great.  Three and we'll have to get a new car.  Four and momma's gonna need a new nervous system!

But life is an interesting ride.  Especially when dealing with fertility issues. :)

In medias res

This may be the beginning of this blog, but it certainly is not the beginning of this story.  As many who read this may know, we have had a lot of issues when it comes to getting pregnant.  We started trying to start our family as soon as we got married.  After several procedures, months of hormones, a miscarriage, another procedure, and even more hormones we were blessed with our son, Jayden.  Since we had to have a c-section with him and it was wider than anticipated due to his noggin's circumference, we had to wait a full year before the doctors would let us try for a second. 

A year and a half, more injectable, ingestable and insertable hormones than any one person should ever have to endure, I can say that we have graduated to the next stage.  Finally! 

Since we pretty much know, down to the hours and minutes of conception due to clinical help, this baby should be due October 7th.

Now because of the increased dosage of hormones, by the time we got to the IUI procedure with 5 potential follicles.  For those that are not up on their fertility protocols, the doctors monitor very closely your follicular progress.  I started out this final cycle with 8 potentials and by the time of the procedure had dropped 3 and gone down to 5 follicles.  Had all 8 gone to maturity, they would have skipped the procedure for this cycle.  I know, clinical and boring.

So yesterday morning I felt something a little off and decided to take a test even though I wasn't supposed to be able to test until Tuesday, it came up positive.  I called the fertility clinic and spoke to my nurse just to reassure myself that it couldn't possibly be from the hcg shot I had to give myself 2 weeks ago.  She said that it was not a false positive but I shouldn't be able to get a reading on a test this early.  She seems to think there is possibility of having multiples given the risk factors.  We'd be thrilled with just one healthy one but we'll see what our test results show on Monday at the doctor's office.