TMI warning. Just sayin'. Read at your own risk.

I found out on June 18 that the fetus, which was about 15mm, or just under the diameter of a dime, had stopped growing and had no heartbeat. Although I could have waited for the tissue to come out on its own during… Read full post »

Just a quick update - more later.

Sad news; at my 9 week ultrasound on Friday morning we saw that the baby had stopped growing and had no heartbeat. Since I am having a miscarriage, I will need to go in for a D&C on Thursday (operation under general anesthesia). It was… Read full post »

 

 

[I waited to post this until I felt ready to share the news. There is such an important difference between "a little bit pregnant" - "pregnant" - and "having a baby". Things can go wrong at any stage, but as much as I want to share… Read full post »

 

[I should have posted this Monday May 3 but I was exhausted from the Doula workshop! This picture and the picture from last week were postcards on the wall in the bathroom where I took the Doula training class. ]

So on April 29 I went into the fertility doctor's…

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[I originally wrote this post on April 28 but Salon was "down for maintenance" and my post vanished into the ether. This is my attempt to reconstruct what I wrote that night.]

Wednesday April 14 - Day One (False Start)

I took a month off, but…

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Hello friends... I am back. I've missed you. I've been lurking and reading your blogs... just haven't had much to say.

When last we spoke, it was my birthday, and I had just gotten my negative pregnancy test results. Needless to say I was a bit down.

After three months of frenetic fertility… Read full post »

Not pregnant. Will keep trying. More later.

As I wrote in my last post, I was taking follicle stimulating hormones this month to increase ovulation activity... I thought I would have two ova for fertilization but during this morning's trans-vaginal pelvic ultrasound we saw that my right ovary had already released three eggs and was about ready… Read full post »

 

This month's liquid nitrogen vapor tank arrived from the sperm bank this morning, looking like something you need a hazmat team and a bomb squad to safely disassemble.

I have been trying to post every time I see my doctor or something else of note…

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This month will be my third IUI attempt. I will have the best chance to conceive that I've had so far, since I will probably be ovulating on the "good" right side, and I will be taking follicle stimulating hormone. If it takes, I'll be very thankful* (and maybe have a… Read full post »

Just a quick update after the two week wait.  After over a week of interesting new symptoms -- pregnancy dreams, a "heavy" feeling in my uterus, lots of little cramps and twinges, etc., I had a pregnancy test on Tuesday which was negative. Not surprising really, as this month I ovulated… Read full post »

On infertility message boards everywhere, the two weeks from ovulation to the first day of your period -- the two weeks from conception attempt to pregnancy test -- are referred to as the 2WW or The Dreaded Two Week Wait.

All I can say is, thank GOD for the two week wait.… Read full post »

I've been injecting myself nightly with follicle stimulating hormone for the last 6 days. The idea was that it would stimulate the growth of several eggs at once. It worked up to a point -- I have three large follicles on the right and one on the left -- but then… Read full post »

I am not a morning person.

However, it has become clear that I have too many fertility-related things to do before work every day, so I am willing to get up early to make this happen. Despite my best efforts, once again I found myself arriving at work after noon and… Read full post »

The fact that I am posting this on a Wednesday tells you something about what my Monday was like!

As I mentioned previously, I was on progesterone and estradiol for 10 days, with no major side effects except that I felt kinda pregnant and my period was a little late. It… Read full post »

Take quick home pregnancy test. Negative, but inconclusive.
Drive to lab. Blood test.*
Drive to work.
Wait until 3PM. Get the call from the doctor's office: results negative.
Get instructions from the doctor to stop my current meds, call her on day 1, see her on day 2 or 3, start fertility hormones after… Read full post »

Mittelschmerz (German: "middle pain") is a medical term for "ovulation pain" or "midcycle pain". About 20% of women experience mittelschmerz, some every cycle, some intermittently. I like to think of it as "pain in my middle".  Alright, I'm not actually in pain, but I'm sooo aware of my ovaries… Read full post »

You never know what you are putting into your body these days. You just have to read the ingredients on EVERYTHING.

Like for instance, I vaguely assumed the little squirt of washed IUI-ready sperm I was injected with on Thursday morning consisted of sperm and nothing but. Not that it matters, but… Read full post »

Ok, despite my best efforts, I really was too excited about this morning's IUI to sleep much last night. We got there at 8:30AM and had an ultrasound. This was the first one my partner has been present for, so she got to see the ultrasound view of a uterus and… Read full post »

An ex-boyfriend of mine once said that the problem with pregnancy is that it's way too easy when you are trying NOT to get pregnant, and way too hard when you are trying TO get pregnant.

What are the odds?

According to my fertility doctor, it looks like this:



And according to this article:

Number… Read full post »

I'm so lucky to have a job that's been flexible about doctor's appointments... and I'm so lucky that one time when my girlfriend was visiting me at the office, she discovered the "guest" bathroom -- just a single toilet and stall, great for when you want some privacy.

For instance, when… Read full post »

I'm not quite to the point where I need a pill sorter, but there are a lot of pills I have to remember to take every day to support my fertility. I have a system of strategically placing bottles in various locations around my house and office so I can take… Read full post »

When I went to the lab for my last blood test (they check a whole slew of hormones and things to make sure you are in top form for a conception attempt) there was a bulletin board in the staff lunch room with a bunch of pictures of imaginary typical patients… Read full post »

I think I need to be creative about my blog entry titles or no one except my loyal friends are going to read this, so this is an attempt to be more interesting.

Today I had a marathon dental appointment followed by a transvaginal ultrasound at the fertility clinic. So I had… Read full post »