aj does ivf

 This post is coming a bit later than I had planned, but so is life with a toddler, work, buying/selling a house, etc. (Sorry, kid - already getting the second child treatment.) I won't bury the lead any longer - we're pregnant with #2! It's been a wild ride but we are so happy to have the opportunity to expand our family again. We are so very lucky.  Backing up - I want to make sure I document this transfer process because it was very different from Wyatt's - goes to show every baby / embryo is different! Must remember this when I do the comparison game once the baby gets here...  We decided last year (around this time) that fall 2023 would be a good time to jump back into the IVF pool again. I could have my best hot/feral-mom-summer and then get back to business. While most (fertile) people can just say, 'oh what the hay! let's give it a go!' and throw caution and birth control to the wind, our family planning requires a bit more than that. Because it had ...

Greetings. As I am officially into my second trimester (!) I wanted to take some time to log the things I wish I had known going into this journey. I know this blog has been passed around to people that I may not know personally (what's up strangers!) and that makes me so very happy. If this weird spot on the internet can give others who are going through a similar journey some guidance/hope, than I'll feel really good about myself - which is always the point.  So here goes my list of things I wish I had known when we started on this fertility rollercoaster: 1. The year of "trying" was the hardest for me.  The year we spent trying wreaked emotional havoc in our household. Having sex every other day for 3 straight months sounds cool until you have to do it. And peeing on sticks every day, multiple times a day, is really frustrating. Taking your temperature every morning and charting it was fucking annoying. In the thick of it, I felt lost and hopeless - I knew somethin...

Well hello again. It's been awhile. Thank you for your patience and diligence in checking this lil' spot for updates. We have many of them for you.  The most important one being...  WE ARE PREGNANT! I am writing this the day after we found out and I'm swimming in constant excitement and then drowning in ever present worry. This is the moment we have been working so hard towards - it felt like we were at the top of Mt. Everest yesterday (except for the 95 degree heat in Chicago). There were days when I never thought we'd reach this point and days when I was sure it was around the corner. The ups and downs of this journey have been jarring - but crying in Evan's arms yesterday clutching a test that finally said "pregnant" was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Indescribable happiness, relief, joy, exhaustion, worry, and excitement flooded my thoughts. Could this really be happening?! But before we get into all my doubts and fears - let me tell you th...

A reminder - where we’re at: We have been waiting for genetic results from the 10 embryos we sent to be tested.  After our last great call where we were told we had 15 (!) embryos, the embryologist told me that they would be calling back on Wednesday, 7/21 in the afternoon. So after waiting by the phone literally all day yesterday, CCRM didn’t call us with our results. I was livid. I had made dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant for us to hopefully celebrate (Elizabeth in Ravenswood - highly recommend.) And instead of celebrating we just talked shit on CCRM and how insensitive it was to not follow through. There are very few certainties in this process, so when someone tells you that something will be happening at a particular date and time - you latch onto it.  So I woke up this morning, started aggressively cleaning the house to pass the time until CCRM opened and I could start to call every 15 minutes to harass them, when my doctor called. We have 8 genetically normal ...

I've prided myself on bringing humor to this experience but I don't really know how to make this post funny.  We got a call Wednesday at 10:30am which was unexpected - the clinic said they usually call in the afternoon. I was alone as Evan was working on his golf game (working hard or hardly working.........) I answered, already starting to shake as the embryologist said, "We will be sending 10 embryos to genetic testing and have another 5 we'll be freezing."  15 EMBRYOS!!!!! That's insane! I almost collapsed. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we'd have that many. It really shocked me. I guess our DNA likes each other - they just never had a chance to meet.  I made her give me the grades for all 10 being sent to genetic testing. Grading of embryos is a qualitative process in which the lab looks at the inner mass where the cells are actively dividing and what will become the bebe and the outer lining which will become the placenta. On Day 3 of divisi...

hey there - I'm alive! I had egg retrieval surgery on Thursday, 7/1 and we were able to fly home to Chicago on Friday, 7/2. We've been hanging out (mostly horizontal for me) and trying to will the bloat away. I will say that I am feeling worse in the last 3-4 days after surgery than I did the entire time on shots. I look 4 months pregnant and can't shit for the life of me. All of the miralax, prune juice and coffee haven't saved me from the constipation - this shit sucks, literally.  Had a bit of a scare on Friday night after I stupidly thought taking a steam shower might help my situation. Poor Evan was trying to figure out why I was crying and yelling on the toilet for like 5 minutes until I just curled up in the fetal position, naked on the bedroom floor. God, this man loves me.  I've been slowly feeling a bit better - usually feeling best in the mornings, and then over the course of the day feel like i have 10lb dumbbells in my stomach. Hoping that...