Our Journey So Far

I love lists…This planning to TTC sure needs one

Winter 2007

• My sister, who is 3 yrs my junior, announces that she and her husband are pregnant
• The announcement has me imagining C and I with a family

May 2008

• My sister gives birth to our niece, G
• C and I start talking about the things that would have to happen for us to be able to have a baby

July 2008

• C and I attend a dear friend’s Fourth of July BBQ. Her wife is reading Stephanie Brill’s book and they have a TTC time line. On the way home I ask C if she thinks we’re ready to have kids. She says sure, someday and that she wants to think about the when.
• July 25: We decide to go to B.arnes and No.ble together to purchase Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper’s Lesbian Conception and Pregnancy books
• We talk about a time line and decided that Fall 2009 will be when we start TTC

August 2008

• I finish reading the books.
• I begin charting my BBT, cycle length and CM
• We talk lots about donors, semen, finances and what we need to do before we can have a baby.
• Came up with our official to do list: 1) Update electrical in our apartment (if we have our air conditioner on our fridge stops working) 2) Fix kitchen (our cabinets are falling off of the wall) 3) Have our ceremony! (we’re hoping for Sept/Oct 2009).
• We talked about wanting a biracial donor so that we can each carry a child and they will be biologically related
• We looked at some websites for anonymous donors (and learn that there aren’t that many biracial ones available).
• August 24: We agree on our first choice for a potential known donor (PDK1) and will ask him in one month.

September 2008

• We both have gyno appointments to make sure that we are physically healthy
• I begin going to the RE to make sure that all my parts are in working order  because I suffer from sever CD4 menstrual cramps and am convinced something is amiss

November 2008*

• November 3: RE puts me on birth control pills to help me with my awful menstrual cramps because she can’t find anything structural wrong
• November 8: C and I attend my cousin’s baby shower and we get utterly caught up in the baby-ness and decide to start TTC ASAP!
• We decide that our officially to do list is the same, we’ll just have to work extra fast to get it all done while TTC.
• November 8-10: C and I revise our budget, talk to the RE and pick an anonymous sperm donor from a cryobank (that’s right we abandon the idea of using a known donor)
• November 10: We purchase 12 vials of sperm and RE tells me to just finish the packet of birth control pills that I’m taking and come in my next CD3 to get bloodwork done
• Let the TTC begin!
• Note the plan at the time I started this blog was to wait until November 2009 before TTC. Go here to see some of the reasons why we changed our minds: https://waitingformavis.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/keeping-in-touch/

December 2008

• December 7: 10:21am IUI#1
• December 22: 15DPO for IUI#1 officially negative (via beta and period)
• December 24: CD3 and prescribed Clomid 50mg for CD3-7
• December 31: CD10 follicle check reveals 12 follies over 11mm! Unless some are reabsorbed this cycle may be canceled

January 2009

• January 2: CD12 follicle check reveals 4 mature follies, so this cycle is officially going to happen
• January 5: CD 15 follicle check reveals same 4 mature follies
• January 6: 10:30am IUI#2
• January 19: 7:30am start period at 13DPO
• January 20: negative beta. Last visit with first RE practice
• January 21: CD 3. First appointment with new RE practice. Expect to be able to try this cycle. Going to use a new donor from a new cryobank. CD3-7 take 25mg Clomid
• January 28: CD10. Follie check reveals 3 to 4 good ones on right side. Lining is 6 so start estro.gen patch. Ovid.rel shot at 6:20pm.
• January 29:CD11. 6:30pm HSG (Two REs say it’s okay to do right before an IUI). Tubes are all clear.
• January 30:CD12. 10:20am IUI#3 (with old donor b/c new donor’s counts are no better and we still own 10 vials of old donor)

February 2009

• February 13: Negative beta. Prolactin level tests at 31 (just above normal range).
• February 14:8am start period. Happy Red Day!
• February 17: CD4 baseline u/s shows 2 10mm follies on left. Begin taking 25mg of Clomid until CD8
• February 21: begin estr.ogen pat.ches
• February 23: CD10 b/w and u/s shows 2 follies on left: 18 and 25.8mm. Prescribed .25mg of cab.ergoline to be taken 2x a week to bring down prolactin. Ovid.rel shot at 9:30pm.
• February 24: CD11 get test results: prolactin is 20 (highside of normal range) and TSH is 1.68
• February 25: CD12 11:06am IUI#4 (with two vials of old donor used at the same time)

March 2009

• March 7: brain scan with and without contrast to examine pituitary gland (potentially the cause of my elevated prolactin levels)
• March 9: 12DPO negative beta
• March 11: CD1
• March 13: CD 3 baseline u/s shows 34mm cyst on left ovary, so must take BCP and cannot inseminate this cycle. Learn that I have a pituitary adenoma and must continue to take .25mg of cab.ergoline 2x a week to keep pro.lactin levels with in TTC range. My pro.lactin is now down to a healthy 9.3.
• March 23: last day of BCP
• March 24: u/s shows cyst now 12mm and small enough to begin stimming
• March 26: Begin 5mg of Fem.ara for next five days (CD2-6)
• April 1: CD8 follie check reveals 5 in right ovary: 18, 16, 13, 13 and 12. Cyst that had been on left ovary is now a flat shadow.  Lining is very thin @ 6mm. Begin estro.gen patch immediately. RE tells me to take 5mg more of Femar.a tonight
• April 2: CD9 trigger at 11pm
• April 4: CD11 10:52am IUI #5 with NEW frozen donor spe.rm with much better count (30 total motile)
• April 10: prog.esterone=12.6! That’s without supplementation folks!
• April 17: 13DPO negative beta. Plan is to move on to injectibles.
• April 21: CD4 u/s and b/w. An RE at my practice says to take 150ui of Follistim. I ask for less and RE says take 75ui. I decide to take 25ui from CD4-6 b/c the thought of OHSS scares me.
• April 24: CD7 u/s and b/w 1 dominant 16mm follie and a bunch <8mm. I am instructed to coninue with with 25ui of Follistim CD7-10 and them come in on 4/28 CD11 for b/w and u/s
• April 27: CD10 My body is showing numerous fertile signs and I get two positive OPKs mid-morning. I call and change my 4/28 appt from a monitoring app to an IUI
• April 28: CD 11 u/s and IUI#6 at 10:51am with 1 28mm follie, 9.5mm triple striped lining and 16million total motile sperm
• May 1st: consultation with new fancy RE. Progesterone check reveals P4 is 5.15 so I begin the Evil P.
• May 12th: CD2 u/s and b/w with new fancy RE and am clear to begin Follistim tonight. CD2-12 take 75ui of Follistim
• May 15th: Fancy (regular) endo diagnoses me as insulin resistant. I can no longer eat any sugar or simple carbs. C agrees to live this new lifestyle we me. Endo thinks that this is contributing to all the BFNs. He prescribes max dosage of Metformin. I’m to work up to taking 3 850mg pills per day over the next 3 weeks.
• May 15th: follie scan reveals three follies on the left and one on the right
• May 22nd: follie scan reveals three 18mm follies (two on left and one on right) and one 12.5mm follie on left
• May 23rd (our 6th anniversary): started to surge, take Ovidrel shot
• May 24th: IUI#7 with 18.7million total motile sperm

June 2009

• June 4th: 11DPO BFP! Due date February 14, 2010!
• Beta hell ensues:

-15DPO beta 257
-17DPO beta 840
-19DPO beta 1039
-22DPO beta 5351

• June 15th: Two sacs and a shadow of a third!

July 2009

• July 1st: Two heartbeats! Twinville here we come!
• July 2nd: C has ACL recostruction surgery
• July 17th: At hospital growth scan learn that at 9weeks 5days Hayden (Baby B) has no heartbeat

August 2009

• At the beginning of August at around 13/14 weeks I wean off of Metformin

September 2009

• At 20 weeks we learn we’re having a girl! Her name will be Isadora Br.adleigh

October 2009

• We take a 5 day dream trip to Ireland (where C’s maternal grandmother was born)
• We decide it’s the perfect time to gut renovate our kitchen (procrastinators we are)
• At 23 weeks I pass my first 1hr glucose tolerance test with a 71