...all the above describe the state of this blog. Holy shamoley it's been awhile, BUT, for kinda sorta good reason. I am pa-reg-nant! And I've been feeling completely barf-tastic since mid-August. Even if I would have had the energy to post, no one wants to hear how I ate a box of Rice-A-Roni for dinner eight nights in a row.
A leetle background though because I cannot not acknowledge the efforts of many that went into this pregnancy. Two years ago when we did our first round of IVF, we had a total of five embryos. Two were transferred at that time, one stuck, and that's how we got Mac. With three leftover embryos, since frozen, and no "oh it always seems to be the case that after IVF people naturally get pregnant" a la Charlotte-York-from-Sex-And-The-City-type surprise, we went back for round 2. Sort of. Round 2 was much less difficult drug-wise, as my body didn't need to produce eggs- just had to be ready to receive.
We elected to transfer a single embryo, and were are incredibly fortunate that it stuck as well. I'll admit to having been a bit of a downer in that 10 day wait. The statistics were still not really on our side- 47% success rate for frozen embryo transfers at our clinic. Much like the majority of our total infertility treatments, I felt I should keep my hopes low so as to minimize the disappointment of a failure. The power of a positive attitude? Nah, not me. But in any case we have since learned that it is another boy. This is one tough dude though- imagine spending the first two years of your conception frozen in a test tube.
It has been a rougher pregnancy for sure, with much more sickness. In hindsight I chalk that up to the estrogen supplements I had to be on (not necessary with a fresh embryo transfer, like our first round). I've also been having issues with my body not producing enough progesterone to support the pregnancy, so it's been 136 nightly butt injections. Don't get me wrong- I am not complaining. Like other moms who have had infertility or pregnancy complications, I will do whatever. it. takes. I no longer care if I'm that pain in the butt patient at my OB office. Whatever. No one is going to be proactive for my baby on my behalf.
I'll end with an interesting story that proves how heartbreakingly uncommon infertility and pregnancy complications are. Two weeks ago my husband and I took a 10-day trip to Asia. On our way home we had a daylong layover in Seoul. The airport sponsors free cultural tours into the city, so we signed up as a fun way to kill time. Of the 14 people on the tour, two were a young couple originally from Minnesota. They now live in Montana, but explained that they still rent out their home in MN and visit often.
After a tour of Gyeongbokgung (yes, I had to Google the spelling) palace, our tour took us to a restaurant. The couple asked if they could join us at our table. Our small talk continued and the husband mentioned that they were in the process of trying to have kids. I could read between the lines there and I piped up that we went through IVF to have our son. That really opened the conversation, and it turns out they will be doing a frozen embryo transfer this month at our very same clinic with our very same doctor.
Halfway around the world, and we find a connection with infertility. Not to get all Disney, but it really is a small world....after all.
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