The Horrible Seemingly Unending 2WW

Well here we are 5DPO and it seems the time is literally DRAAAAAAAAAGING. So far I have had two people think we could test the day after our ICI and I cannot tell you how badly I wish that were true! I have been hyper-sensitive to absolutely everything going on with my body these first few days. I read all about CM (ranging from dry, to cloudy, to stringy and cloudy) and cervical positioning (high and soft), and signs/symptoms of conception. Of course I realize that all of these things so early really mean nothing and everyone is different.

However, I am writing today because starting last night, all day today, and as we speak I have been having really bad back lower back pain, as well as intermittent pain in my lower abdomen. At first I thought once again I was imagining things (like I imagined the potential breast pain) but I am definitely not imagining this. I would love to know if anyone has experienced these types of symptoms so soon. All I know that I had better be pregnant because if not I’ll be pissed I didn’t take any pain meds!

So followers, readers, passerby’s while I know everyone is different please drop a line or two on how your first few DPO’s were and whether or not it resulted in a BFP or BFN.

 

SURGE!!!

Well here we are again. I am sure you’ve missed us! Since we last wrote we have not only picked our donor, but have received “the goods” as well. We have been tracking EVERYTHING this month just to be sure that we get our timing perfect. However, I’m sure we all know that nothing is ever perfect and so we’re just hoping it’s “good enough”. I have been tracking my BBT for quite some time, but not as consistently as I should. According to that my temp should be rising either tomorrow or the following day. I also started testing the pH of my CM to see if that would provide any useful clues. It has been in the 5-6 range until this afternoon when I tested it and it was clearly a 7. I think this is good news because at that same time I tested for my LH and saw that it tested positive.

Now the difficult timing part comes into play. We have two vials this time so we have essentially two shots at this; but there are so many opinions on when the best time to inseminate are. I had thought we would try 12 hours and then 24 hours after the surge, but I talked to our Dr. and she said 24 – 36. I also read an article I found on pubmed.gov which says the best time may be 24 +/- 6 hours from the surge. All I know is I am getting anxious! Especially since my tracking tells me that I have an LH surge one day and a temperature spike immediately following the next day. This concerns me since I have heard once your temperature spikes you have already ovulated and it is too late to try. It’s a shame we only have two samples and no ultrasound to provide exact timing for us. Perhaps we should look into an at home ultrasound machine!

It is such an exciting time for us, and we have both convinced ourselves that it will happen on the first go round. While I know that probably seems wishful thinking to most, I cannot think of it any other way. I mean why would you? I seriously doubt Peyton Manning goes into his first game of the season thinking “Oh we’ll probably lose this one, but there’s always next week.” So why should we think “Oh we probably won’t get pregnant on the first try.” (Yes I just used a Peyton Manning analogy!)

So needless to say blog readers, sometime within the next 24 hours we will be getting pregnant! I will try to report back as soon as possible, because I have found that reading other people’s journey’s has helped us so hopefully we can help someone else.

 Positive surge!

Our baby daddy has arrived!

What it looks like when you first open the box.

Royce is protecting the goods!

This kids have no idea what's in store!

A family shot was nearly impossible to obtain!

 

Almost Time!!!

Well it is official, we are the worst bloggers ever!!! Thanks in advance for anyone that has still stuck around for our adventure.

Just a brief update from our last post I (L) started taking the prenatal vitamins to prepare. At the time I think we thought we would have already tried by now, but as luck would have it we are still delayed. I began the tracking my temperature but nothing seemed to jump out at me. We finally found an OB/GYN and she is pretty awesome. I was worried that we may have to go through a couple before we found someone we liked, but she is completely comfortable with us and we with her. She suggested doing the OTC ovulation test kits which I started last month. Again results were mixed. I appeared to have ovulated twice, once extremely early which was probably a false positive, and another around the usual time expected. However I tested positive in the morning, but by evening I was negative again. This delayed us from trying this month as I will need to go get a blood test on Day 21 to determine if I am ovulating long enough without medication.

Speaking of medication I am beginning to consider trying Clomid during my first attempt. We had discussed only using this if after 2 – 3 tries we weren’t pregnant, but I am nervous about screwing up the timing and think any advantage would be helpful. I guess we will have to wait and see what the test results come back to see if I am in fact ovulating long enough to ensure we had enough time to inseminate.

The other big news on our end is after months and months and months of looking for donors I believe we have finally narrowed it down to one! It seemed like every bank we liked we found some horrible story so we would move on to another. We finally settled on 2 banks and from there began to search for the “perfect” donor. Well guess what.  .  . We found him!!! Unfortunately there were only 5 vials left. Bummer. Since we both want to carry at some point we felt we should look for someone with a little more inventory. The search began again. Well this time I believe we have a winner. Narrowing it down to an individual is so exciting for us. We were able to look at a childhood picture, and there was even a picture of him as a young boy which I found helpful. While I realize you can’t tell much from a child’s picture this was the first picture I saw that I thought the child was really cute; not just cute in a mother’s eyes cute. We both agreed that we liked this donor, and that was enough to decide he was the one. Can’t wait to see how his (our) offspring turnout!!!!

Finally, I (L) told both my parents and Grandma about our plans. Fortunately everyone was super excited. I was worried at first as they did not take my coming out as easily, but they were more happy and excited than I could have ever imagined.

So things have kept moving, and my guess is that they will begin to move even faster now. We look forward to this journey and also look forward to keeping up with all of you on your journeys. Enjoy your week and I promise to check back in sooner next time!

L&K

PS If anyone has any experience with Clomid I’d love to hear about it. Thanks.

 

Long Time No See!

Happy Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. We’ve been gone for quite sometime so I thought I would get all the holiday wishes out of the way! I hope everyone had a great holiday season; I know we did. K and I went back to Indiana to visit my family, and while we were there K’s brothers and sister in law drove out from Kansas to be with us as well. Needless to say it was one of the best Christmas breaks I can remember.

I took everyone’s advice and began taking pre-natal vitamins about a month and a half ago. We had originally thought we would begin by February or March and I wanted to make sure I was able to handle them well as I’d heard some brands cause symptoms in certain women. February and March are coming up so fast, and it is a little scary thinking about all that still needs to get done. I am confident February is out, but I think that by March we should be trying for the first time! We are still in the middle of deciding which bank to go with, they all seem to have such pro’s and con’s associated with them. Here are the few we have looked at:

Cryogenic Laboratories out of Minnesota: We really like them because they allow us to look at pretty much everything for free. Unfortunately they do not have a huge number of open donors which is important to us.

Fairfax: This is the bigger sister site to Cryogenic and while we liked them originally, I keep reading negative reviews about the number of siblings they allow, as well as the updating of medical history from the siblings. They do have a larger inventory, but you have to pay for everything which can really add up.

Xytex: Seems more expensive, and allows the most family units that I’ve seen. Probably not the choice for us, at least as of now.

TSBC: Love that they limit the number of family units to 10. I am assuming that this is why their inventory is not very large, which is a problem if you can’t find a donor you want. They also don’t seem to have much online, everything like child photos has to be mailed to you.

California Cryo: Looks like the largest and most well known. They are accredited by AATB (as are Fairfax and Cryo Lab) and their inventory is vast. However, I do not like the fact that I couldn’t find anything related to the number of donor siblings/family units allowed.

I’m hoping we can pick a bank within the next couple of weeks and pick a donor within the next four. That way we should be able to order everything so that it is read by March. I have begun to track my basal body temperature in the morning, and will start tracking my cervical fluid as well. I’m currently using fertilityfriend.com because they are free and have an iPhone app (it’s easier to record my temp on my phone than to remember to log in on a computer) but am open to other tracking services.

Hopefully I will be able to blog more frequently as we both have new positions at work which allow us to have a normal 4×10 schedule. No more shift work makes it easier to track everything!

Hope everyone in blogland is doing well, and staying warm – we are virtually iced in here!

L&K

 

Prenatal Vitamin Advice

Let me start off by saying I am a procrastinator. Having said that I was supposed to have scheduled a doctor’s appointment for this week so KT and I could begin discussing with the Dr. what we need to do to start preparing for children. Guess who didn’t make the appointment?!

With our work schedules we don’t have a lot of time off together to make it to Dr’s appointments and so we will no doubt have to wait another couple of weeks before we can try to get in to see her. In the meantime I was wondering if anybody had any helpful information on prenatal vitamins. More specifically:

1. When did you start to take them?
2. Did you go OTC or have your Dr. prescribe them for you?
3. If you did go OTC any suggestions on what you feel worked the best for you?
4. Do you think they are needed?

Question 4 is because I have to admit I am not sure if prenatal vitamins are needed 100% of the time, or what they are really used for in the first place. I realize I need to research this more, but I am currently in the middle of remodeling our bedroom and bathroom and while I would like to sit down and research, I would also like to return to sleeping in our own bed at some point in the near future! (I have included a picture of the “progress” made so far today.Did I forget to mention that I am a procrastinator? That instead of blogging I should probably be cleaning up this mess I started?!)

In the meantime I will listen to the wise and sage-like advice of all those who read this blog.

 

Religion Anyone?

So last weekend K took me and the dogs on a fun filled adventure up to Whidbey Island where we walked on the beach, took in a play, had an amazing dinner, enjoyed some wine tasting, and simply enjoyed spending time with each other. During that trip we had a couple of discussions on raising children and for the most part I think we agree on pretty much everything.

However, I wonder what has been some of the more difficult decisions you as readers have had to make in regards to raising your children? I think for us it is the type of religious upbringing we want our children to have. L was born and raised Catholic, and is well aware of the Catholic churches stance on homosexuality, yet still holds out hope that things will change. K had a different religious upbringing which included attending college at a Mennonite school in which homosexuality was strictly forbidden.

I realize that this is a deeper topic that needs more attention than a simple blog, but I was curious if anyone else had these same issues?

Oh and don’t worry, I’ll be posting some cute pics of the “kids” once I get the pics on the computer!

 

Random Events

Random Event #1

So last night as I (L) was watching the MNF game drinking a beer I jokingly say something along the lines of,

(L):”Who knows, maybe next year at this time I won’t be able to do this!”

(K)”I know. Hopefully you’ll be as big as a house!”

(L)”Um that would mean I’d need to get pregnant by FEBRUARY!!!”

So the breakdown for me was the fact that in order for me to get pregnant by February we would have to find a donor bank, find a donor, make sure my cycle is being tracked, find a doctor, and the list goes on. Not to mention it would have to take the first time! When I stop to think about it there is so much to do before we even begin and if we really want to start at the first of the year then we really need to get going. Don’t get me wrong, I really want a baby and to get pregnant, but thinking that next football season I could potentially be pregnant really put it in a different perspective! (Oh and let’s not forget we want a “honeymoon” our “one last hoorah” before we begin trying!)

Random Event #2

Tonight we went to spin class. As some of you may know we were in Cabo a couple of weeks ago for our nuptials. Before that I was a total gym rat. But since Cabo I have not been to the gym once. Well sure enough tonight’s spin instructor was the spin instructor from hell (see pic below).

I am really hoping that this devil lady has not ruined any chance of me ever having a baby. However, she may in fact just have been trying to condition my body for the future pain childbirth will bring. Regardless I hate this devil woman, but I keep going back for more.

Anyway, I realize this was kind of a lame post but I’m trying to get into a rhythm of posting blogs on a somewhat regular basis. Now if only K would get to posting hint hint .  .  .

 

Well, here we are

So this is the first time we have ever blogged, so please be patient as we begin this journey!

I (let’s go with L for the moment) am a 33 (very soon to be 34) year old lesbian. I recently married my best friend and partner in Cabo San Lucas Mexico. It was the most fantastic journey ever. We were surrounded by our closest friends and family, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather! My partner (we’ll go w/ K because I am very unoriginal!) is a 27-year-old lesbian (surprise surprise!). We are currently raising 2 very furry, four-legged children and felt that it was time to move on to the 2 legged variety! K is on board for the blogging, but I have a feeling I will be the main blogger in this family!

Our very good friends told us all about the blogging world and the information they received from reading others posts. I began ready and trying to learn as much as I can about the TTC community and process and realized that we may be WAY over our heads! I figured there has to be other like us out there, so why not go at this together. I hope you stick with us as we begin not only the journey of motherhood, but the journey of blogging as well!

Now to get down to business:

I (L) will be the one to carry first followed by K. Our plan so far is to find a sperm bank, find our donor, and inseminate. After reading others journey’s I’ve realized we may need a little more planning! But we we’ve been married less than a month, and while we loved the vacation with our friends and family we decided we needed one more with just the two of us prior to children. This should give us at least 6 months before we really start begin TTC. For the time being I will begin charting my cycle (I’m using http://www.fertilityfriend.com/ for those interested), finding a doctor, researching sperm banks, and of course saving as much money as we can. I find it personally outrageous that our insurance company will provide benefits for birth control, abortion, vasectomy’s, etc. yet won’t help those who actually want to conceive a child. (Sorry, I’ll get off of my soapbox now!)

Well that’s it for now. I’m sure as we continue I’ll be able to add more, and hopefully become a better blogger. Until then, thanks for sticking it out with us!

L&K