Our TTC Journey

After reading so many TTC blogs I really wish I had started this one when we were still trying.  I would love to have been able to look back over that now that we are here with our beautiful daughter:)  It all began in December 2006 when I proposed to Ciara.  According to her how I proposed was that I told her I wanted to get married and have a baby and that if she wasn't up for it then she was welcome to leave.  I of course do not remember this happening when I actually gave her the ring (or that I told her she was welcome to leave) but I'm sure some version of this did happen shortly after.  The original plan was to get married in the Spring of 08 and start trying to have a baby shortly after.  Before the year ended I had decided we were moving things up because I wanted to a spring 08 baby and that meant we were getting married that June.  Luckily for me Ciara was a good sport and went along with my plan:)

I started some loose charting in Dec/Jan (I did perfect this with computerized software later as you can see) and we started looking for our donor.  We found the perfect one and were put on a wait list.  We were told it could take up to a year for a specimen to become available so when we got a call in February that there were vials available we 

jumped on it.  The plan had been that we would store them until we began trying right after the wedding...but we couldn't wait and by April we were going for our first try.  We had done a small amount of research but I was pretty sure Tyler (not what you would call planned) was proof  that I was extremely fertile and all we would have to do was insert the little swimmers and voila I would be pregnant.  By this time I was recording symptoms and temping and using ovulation kits to help us time when we would do the insemination.  The first cycle we did three inseminations at home - but I think we actually missed the day I O'd.  I was so certain that I was pregnant I started testing at 8dpo.  The first few days I was convinced it was just too early and I continued to try to find more sensitive tests that would pick up the HCG I was sure my body was creating.  With each day that I became more obsessed and spent more time "researching" on the internet.  One day I was sure I had so many pregnancy symptoms that I jumped up off the computer to go and test again...when I found I had run out I went right to the pharmacy to buy myself a test.

When the second try didn't work we went to a fancy fertility clinic for the third.  We had a not 

so great experience there and paid about $600 just for the IUI.  Because we were less than thrilled with the people there and because we were paying for everything out of pocket with a little more research I was convinced we could do the IUI's at home.  Each month we learned a little bit more and added a little bit

 more.  While we continued to try at home I added to our arsenal ovulation kits that smiled when you were surging(I even have a pic because I posted them to TTC boards I was on), a ferning microscope, cervix gazing (my least favorite because we were both HORRIBLE at it), pre.seed, a fertility monitor, IUI catheters, and Cl.omid.  The end of July (our fifth cycle) we had a midwife come to the home and train Ciara how to do the IUI correctly.  

For those of you who know me IRL you know that I can get slightly obsessive about things (prime example: the slight stalking of elementary school crushes TEN years after the fact).  Like many people I have encountered in the virtual world I have been sucked in during this journey TTC consumed my world.  After the IUI with the midwife did not work we got a prescription for Cl.omid and I tried that for two more cycles with no luck.  Cl.omid made me into a scary MOODY person and was not particularly fun!!!  During my TWW of our seventh cycle I found a clinic that did minimal stim IVF.  This procedure cost about the same as a medicated and monitored cycle of IUI at the fancy clinic (we went back for a second consultation after try #6).  When I met with the doctor at the new smaller friendlier wonderful clinic he said he could do minimal stim IVF with me but was almost certain he could get me pregnant with a medicated and monitored cycle (that cost about two thousand less than the other clinic).

So in October I stopped charting (could not have been happier about that!!!!!!) and put 

myself into the hands of the new little clinic.  I started with Cl.omid and then added injections of G.onal F (only four days of injections if I remember correctly) and then did an HCG trigger.  After the insemination they gave me progesterone suppositories.  On November 4, 2007 we got our BFP!!!!!!  

While eight months felt like an eternity to me I know there are some who would have loved to be able to say it worked on their eighth try.  And of course I would do it ALL over again in a heartbeat to get this....