IUI #2 Today

I have not been as good about blogging every appointment this cycle, so I should probably cover all my bases with what has happened with this cycle. To avoid making this post way too lengthy, I am opting to note events through bullet points. Otherwise, this would be the longest post ever! I will say that I have tried to stay more relaxed than the last cycle, despite being incredibly busy this month.

• December 27, 2011: AF was still MIA, so Provera started.
• Spotting for the last few days of Provera (called RE about it).
• January 5, 2012: CD 1
• January 6, 2012: Baseline u/s. Everything looked good.
• January 7, 2012: Menopur injections started.
• January 9, 2012: Gonal F injections started.
• January 13, 2012: CD 9 u/s. Scan looked good; es- 318.5, LH- 3.9, prog- 0.48.
• January 15, 2012: CD 11 u/s. Lots of follies; es- 1309, LH- 5.17, prog- 0.49.
• January 18, 2012: CD 14 u/s. Still lots of follies; es- 2103, LH- 2.47, prog- 0.54. (RE asked if we wanted to switch to IVF...not in the budget).
• January 20, 2012: CD 16 u/s. Fewer follies; es- 264.94, LH 0.66, prog- 0.74.
• January 22, 2012: IUI # 2 completed. The two week wait begins.

After the excitement of our first IUI only ended in yet another negative result, I decided to try a different attitude this time. We have kept this cycle much more low-key. A lot more people are aware of our efforts because we said something in our Christmas letter and my husband has been talking about it a little more with some of his friends and family, but I haven't given a play-by-play to anybody. I haven't even had to miss much work with this cycle.

This IUI was different than the first one. The plan was to back off on meds once my follies started looking good, so my body didn't go overboard like last time. Well...the same thing happened this time, but they took a different approach. Our last IUI was performed by RE's nurse who is the one we see for all of our appointments. However, since this one fell on a Sunday, RE did the procedure himself...at the office that is further from our house (1 1/2 hours versus 45 minutes). Because of this, my husband had to "collect" at the office, rather than at home. So, he did his thing and we went to breakfast, then returned to the office, so RE could do his thing. Now, I'm doing my thing...praying that those cute little swimmers that I saw on a tv screen this morning find their way to a healthy egg that I hope was released by one of my ovaries and that they decide to stay a while, say 9 months or so.

Fresh start

Another year has ended and a new one has begun. With the new year in full swing, so too are our efforts to expand our family. January 1 meant that we have more flex money to spend, so we opted to go ahead with our next (and hopefully last) IUI attempt. I had my baseline appointment on January 6th with my next ultrasound scheduled on the 13th. I don't know what is wrong with me this time around, but I have a completely different attitude about this cycle. Previously, I couldn't wait to talk to my sister about it (she has been my confidant though all of this...other than my husband of course) and I was more than willing to talk about it with others if they asked. Currently, I don't want to talk about it, which is crazy because we made the decision to tell everybody at Christmas about our efforts, so more people have started asking about it. My husband has really appreciated talking about it with more people, but I haven't. I just want to hurry up and go through the motions of all of this and get it over with. I of course want a positive result, but I am not feeling that emotional roller coaster that I usually have of "I can't wait...I hope it works...it better work." I'm just numb. I think it is that we have been unsuccessful so many times that I just can't take any more devastation. I am soooo hoping to get excited and that we get a positive result, so I will have good news to share for once.

As usual, my baseline appointment went well. My numbers were okay and I've started my injections. Friday will be here before I know it and we'll see how well my body is working, but I'm expecting things to look just fine. AF hasn't been all that disagreeable this time. Just some cramping and bloating, but otherwise tolerable. The plan for this cycle is basically the same as last time. The only difference will be that rather than freaking out and increasing my injections if I am slow to stim, they are starting on a higher dose earlier and will then back off the dose even if I have a slow stim (which I always do). The hope is that I won't hyperstimulate like I did last time. The goal is to have only 1-4 great follicles rather than 9 good ones. Everything else went fine last time, but for some reason, my husband's swimmers and my eggies either didn't meet up or decided not to stick around. When it comes to that part of our cycle, I will do anything I can to encourage that part of this cycle to happen. We really need this one to have a positive result.

If for some reason this doesn't work, my husband announced the other day that he is ready for us look into to moving out of state. We are tossing some ideas around, but I believe that if more treament is needed, we just might move to Maryland, because then we could get insurance that would cover future treatments (and it is a state we were already considering moving to). That would be SWEET. Of course, the sweeter option would be for this cycle to work.