So we meet again....

This morning I met this guy again.... 

I think he was more excited than I was. The ultrasound went great. My uterus and ovaries look good and right where they should be at this point. Tomorrow I'll start estrogen pills twice a day and the estrogen patch that I'll change every 3 days. Our next appointment is October 7th : ) 

Alissha 

What Infertility Has Cost Us

Lately I've been wondering how much we've spent on fertility treatments, tests and medications over the last year and a half. I decided to go through all our receipts and add up what we had and that's the number I got.... $21,383.51. That doesn't include the hundreds I've probably spent on pregnancy or ovulation predictor tests over the last 3 years and 9 months or what we will still be spending over the next month or so. 

I'm not surprised by how much we've spent. We've definitely felt the impact and even more so lately with the cost of IVF. Our health insurance doesn't cover any fertility treatments or any of the fertility medications, so pretty much everything has been spent out of pocket. We've paid for everything ourselves with the help of credit cards and try to pay cash as much as possible so we don't have to charge anything. It's hard. 

I know there are other couples out there that have spent way more than we have and for that, I feel blessed. I've seen some couples set up Go Fund Me accounts to get help paying for IVF and I really have mixed emotions about that. It's something I wouldn't do, but to each their own. 

We would spend ten times what we have already to have a baby of our own. We get asked if we've considered adoption and I get a little annoyed with that. People think it's so easy to adopt and if we can't have children of our own that's a logical alternative. What most don't understand is that it can be very expensive to adopt and it's a lengthy process. Until we've exhausted all efforts to have our own biological children, we won't be looking into adoption. 

Alissha 

Plans for our FET cycle

This go around I want to do things a little differently. First and foremost, I want to some how not be so stressed or overwhelmed by it all. I think going through it before will help since I'll know what to expect this time. I'm going to try my hardest to steer clear from Google and over-analyzing everything that's going on with my body. My goal is to take it one day at a time. 

I really want to wean myself off of caffeine by the time we do our transfer, so I've switched to half-caff coffee for starters. So far so good! 

Of course I won't be drinking heavily or drinking at all after our transfer, but I think it's okay to have a drink here and there on the weekends or special occasions. 

As far as the gym goes.... I really didn't get back into it like I thought I would after finding out we had a chemical pregnancy. I'm not going to make excuses because they're all pretty lame, but I have been trying to go to the gym or stay active atleast 3 days a week. I think it's important to listen to your body and eat healthy. Hopefully over the next week or so I can get back into my routine, just not as hardcore. 

Yesterday I started my first dose of birth control and we got our treatment calendar for the cycle. There's less ultrasounds and blood work and I won't have any injections this go around. We have our first ultrasound and blood work scheduled for September 30th (my birthday!) and then I'll start estrogen the day after.  If everything goes as planned, our embryo transfer should be October 21st : ) Finally having a date gives me some relief and something to look forward to. I know it's going to be here before we know it and then the two weeks we have to wait for our pregnancy test will take fooooorrreeeeevvvver! 

Alissha 

Day 1!

After being 4 days late, and thinking for a split second that maybe I got pregnant naturally (Ha!) my cycle finally started today. I couldn't wait to call our fertility clinic to start our frozen embryo cycle. We were a little worried the embryo transfer would interfere with our planned trip to the 49ers and Chiefs game on October 5th, but it turns out the frozen cycles take a lot longer to prepare for than a fresh IVF cycle! 

So, tomorrow I'll start birth control again for a couple of weeks to suppress my ovaries and get the timing of the transfer just right. After the birth control, I'll start estrogen in pill and patch form to build up the lining of my uterus to at least 8 millimeters, about 2 weeks. When it reaches that marker, I'll start progesterone (yuck!) to prepare for the transfer. Once things are going as planned, they'll thaw our babies and schedule the transfer. The nurse thinks the transfer will happen mid to late October! We'll get our calendar with all the dates within the next 24 hours, but for now.... I am so excited to be starting this crazy journey again and feel so hopeful that we'll be pregnant by the end of this year : ) 

Alissha

Patiently waiting...

....for my period to start and be able to call my doctor to get the ball rollin' on our frozen embryo cycle. I'm pretty sure all the medications from our last IVF cycle screwed with my hormones and are delaying my period.  I'm usually pretty regular and start around day 28, but were at day 31 and still nada. I've felt super achey with mild cramps since yesterday, so I know it's on it's way... but the waiting sucks. Why is it that when you don't want your period to come, it's always right on time and when you actually want it to come, it's late?!?

C'est la vie.....

Alissha