Hard to Believe

It's hard to believe that two years ago today, I was getting my period post-failed IVF and that today, I had the greatest gift of all...my sweet AR!

 

Happy birthday Jesus! Thank you for all of our blessings. Prayers to all you mommas-to-be out there that this time next year, you have your greatest gift in your arms. Love and hugs!

Where It All Began

I took AR back to WU where it all started. As I got off at the exit, I remembered how many times I'd taken that exit and been a ball of nerves...as Dr. K called to tell me the embryos had thawed nicely, on my way to get my blood drawn for pregnancy tests, on my way to have my egg retrieval, on my way to hear IVF would be the only way we'd ever have a baby and this time, I was still nervous but for a different reason. I was worried about what if I walked into a waiting room full of women wanting a baby more than anything in the world. I was so scared I was going to upset someone because I'd been in there place and I know that seeing a baby at your infertility clinic is the last thing you want to see. Luckily, Dr. O had told me to come during a time when they usually didn't see any patients so there was no problem.

Everyone in the office was so happy to see her. I was bummed Dr. K wasn't there (she's the one who did my retrieval and transfer that I got pregnant) but I did get to see Dr. Val and her nurse Mary. Everyone wanted to hold her and they were all very happy for me. I thanked them all numerously and told them thanks for putting up with me because it was all worth it. Dr. Val, who is sometimes not the most personable, even said, "This made my day. This is what it's all for."


Dr. Val and AR

My favorite fellow, Dr. O and AR. He was great with her, probably helps that he has a daughter a month older than AR. I could tell he's a really good dad.

They made my dream come true so the least I could do was make their day. It was great to see everyone but it was nice to be there on different terms than normal. Prayers and baby dust to all the patients still on their journey!

Happy Mother's Day!

A quick shout out to all the mothers out there! Mothers to sweet babies, to angels, to furbabies, to those who are a mother in their heart. I know today can be a tough day when you're dealing with infertility so go out today and CELEBRATE YOU!

Thoughts on Newt?

I'm sure you've all read the news but I'm interested to see what you think about Newt Gingrich on the topic of IVF...Republican or Democrat. Here's a link to the article.

Here is just an excerpt from the article, "Gingrich added that he would also create a commission to study the ethics of in vitro fertilization, which has involved the creation of hundreds of thousands of excess embryos stored or discarded by fertility clinics.“I believe life begins at conception, and the question I was raising was what happens to embryos in fertility clinics, and I would favor a commission to look seriously at the ethics of how we manage fertility clinics,” Gingrich said at a news conference outside another Baptist church here. “If you have in vitro fertilization, you are creating life; therefore, we should look seriously at what the rules should be for clinics that are doing that, because they are creating life.”

Thoughts???

Stress Free Infertility

Hey guys! I'm featured over at Stress Free Infertility. Please go check it out! Happy Monday!

What NOT To Say

What not to say to pregnant IFers that is, feel free to comment with anything you think should be added:

"How many?"
I'm pretty sure if there was more than one, I would say that right off the bat. For me, it's tougher to answer this question because it brings back the thoughts of Baby B and having to explain that.

"See I told you if you stopped thinking about it, it would happen." OR "Did you have to go through treatment?"
Yes, I've heard all the crazy stories too of people who just stopped thinking about it and the "pressure is off" and then it just magically happened. Besides you wouldn't ask people who got pregnant the good 'ole fashion way, "So what position did you use?" It's kind of the same thing.

"Next time..." or "When are you going to do this again?"
AH!!! Seriously, let me get through this pregnancy first before I even start contemplating a next time. At this point, I'm saying we won't do any more treatments. It's just so much on you financially, physically, emotionally...and to go through it with one child already (more power to you mamas out there that have done that)-whew! I won't say never though.

So that's my tips of what not to say to a pregnant IFer. And the "m" word is strictly off-limits and not allowed to be said in my presence. There's like a whole separate list of what not to say to pregnant women in general that I won't even get into, for instance..."it's the hormones."

Happy Friday all and I'm thinking of you today Bobbi! She's have a C-section today with her little FET miracle Tristan!!!

This is why I heart blogging!

Much to my surprise, I woke up this morning to a sweet email in my inbox. My newest follower, Ash, had sent me an email. Apparently, I don't hide identities real well because she was able to figure out who Dr. Val and Mary were! Oops! She went on to write:

"I want you to know that your blog helped me know what to expect and even find humor in what we were going through. I am fortunate enough to say that my first IVF worked and I'm now 13 weeks pregnant with a singleton after transferring two fair quality embryos. Again thank you..."

I was almost in tears! Aside from documenting my own journey, my goal of this blog was to help other women in the same situation. When I was first facing infertility, I wanted the down and dirty truth and I scoured the web looking for answers. This is why I blog about EVERY LITTLE DETAIL! It makes me feel so good that she was able to gain something from my blog. I feel like this blog has met its purpose.

A big congrats and good luck to Ashley and thanks for following!

Infertility Funnies!

While doing research for MIA, I came across some of these infertility cartoons and couldn't help but LOL so I figured my fellow IF ladies would enjoy a good laugh as well.

This one is DH's biggest fear!



I know we're not the only couple to have this occur in our house!

So true!!!

Hope this brightened your day!!!

Quotes

Thought we could all use a little inspiration...





I think the last three are my favorite. Tell me, what quotes have gotten you through your journey?

You know you're TTC when...

- the Big 'O' no longer refers to orgasm, but instead to ovulation

- you show everyone who will look at your bbt charts

- every twinge is a potential sign: ovulation pain OR perhaps implantation

- it no longer strikes you as the least bit odd to check out at the pharmacy with both HPTs and tampons in your cart.

- you schedule your social events around your ovulation day

- if your OPK comes up +, you cancel all social engagements that night so you can BD & lie with your legs elevated and butt up in the air afterwards

- you talk using mysterious acronymns that only your ttc buddies understand: ttc, BD, ewcm, bbt, opk, 2ww

- your morning motto is: "Don't talk to me until I've taken my temperature"

- you take your temperature more than once a day (committed TTCer)

- you refuse to finish decorating that 3rd bedroom in your new house, because you can't stand the thought of getting it just the way you want it only to have to tear it apart next month in order to make room for the nursery you'll be needing.

- you put off buying any fall/winter clothes, because you hope they won't fit by the time the weather gets cooler.

- you clip coupons for OPKs and HPTs

- your doctor says, "Now take these home and inject this needle into your stomach every day" and you don't even flinch.

- you spend more on OPKs, HPTs, and fertility supplements than you do on clothes

- the thought of nausea makes your heart skip a beat!

- you make a mental note of what day of your cycle it is before you say "ok" to a drink

- you get sick but make sure you can take the medicine in case you are pregnant...and would rather stay sick if you can't take the medicine..

- you finally look forward to mornings! Another opportunity to take and record your temp!

- you refer (and think) of your husband, not as his real name, but as the letters "DH" in real life

- you suffer silently from Infertility Vision (IV) - defined as the ability to see pink lines that nobody else can see. It's a very common condition among POASers during the days leading up to the official test day. Research is still being done, but at present there is no cure for it!

LOL! I love this list especially the referring to your husband as DH, the not flinching at needles and talking in code. When I had my ER, everyone thought I was going to the Emergency Room and I had to explain...no, no...Egg Retrieval!

Taken from here

"Invisible Loss" by Deb Grissett

I'm really enjoying helping with the Midwest Infertility Awareness Conference. I'm contacting authors and such to donate for the conference and I've spoken to a couple that are super nice. Today, Deb Grissett called me and we talked on the phone for 20 minutes about the conference and our journeys. She's helping put on an expo in Jacksonville, FL in November. It was a really uplifting conversation and exactly what I needed today. I'm leaving you with a clip of her song that she wrote. Deb dealt with secondary infertility and after 6 years of trying for a second child, her husband and her decided that one was enough for them but she's still very active in the IF world. Thanks for being out there Deb!

A Picnic

Back in June, the "other" clinic held their Annual Picnic for all past, present and future patients. I took this as an opportunity to meet the good doctor without that crazy $175/fee. I had met a patient of his on Twitter so I knew she was going to be there. When they sent out the invite, it said to bring the whole family including babies. I tweeted back, "Are furbabies okay?" They replied, "Absolutely!" DH had something going on so I loaded up the female furbaby (our princess) and headed to the park. Here we are entering the picnic:

We had a great time visiting with my new Twitter friend and her husband, found another patient that was from my hometown and found out she knew my dad, and had a good visit with the doc. He was so easy to talk to and informative! I could have spent the whole afternoon chatting with him but he was in high demand. All his patients wanted to show off their little miracles and he held and loved on each of them. Some of the ladies had shirts made that said, "Dr. S' Miracle." After having gone through IVF and be a part of the IF world for almost 2 years now (yuck!), I feel like I'm in a much better place to discuss treatments, other IF clinics in the area, reasons, etc...with the doc and other patients. It felt nice to talk to someone who knows what's going on and not have to explain what IVF stands for, that 8 embryos don't mean 8 babies and who knows why PIO feels better in the butt than anywhere else.

After lunch and visiting, the other clinic wanted to get a group photo that they were going to hang up in their office. Feeling like a party crasher, I tried to sneak out but when you've got a 60 lb dog with you, it's hard to go unnoticed. So here I am crashing their photo but by their demand:
I'm wishing and praying and hoping that we don't have to use the other clinic but if for some reason our FET fails (which I'm feeling REALLY good that it's going to work!), I think its safe to say that my decision has been made where we'll go.