Love and Science

Blech. Day 3 of stims and I'm sick. I caught the crap Scarlett and Matty have. I also woke up with my period. After some panic and phone calls to my doctor's office, I learned this is perfectly normal. But of course. I'm off to work, so here is today's video.

It's not summer time, nor is the stimming easy. I am on day 2 of stimulation and am doing pretty well so far. It hasn't been as bad as I initially thought it would be, but I'm also only on day 2. I've started doing vlogs of my stimulation, my goal is to have a whole compilation by the time we're done. It's so important to me to document this journey for us and to have videos for Scarlett to watch as she gets older (and the new baby too!). So I will be adding the links to the videos in the blog and will update with a blurb daily. So. It's been a week or so since I last blogged. I was struggling last week. I had a hellish time getting my medications, it included nearly 10 hours total on the phone, 14 days and a hell of a lot of tears. I hit my breaking point. Even though I was able to get everything resolved and get the price down from 6k to $206, it took it all out of me. That night I sat down and cried. A lot. I asked Matt why we were doing this. Why wer...

Are we having fun yet? The answer is no, nope, not at all. It's actually pretty hectic over here, trying to get all of our ducks in a row before the 25th. Friday I had my baseline blood work and ultrasound. I had to have everything within normal limits before we could move forward with our IVF protocol. Like every baseline I had, we're all set. And the ultrasound probe and I continue to cultivate our relationship, while my poor right AC vein remains the primary source for blood tests. My dear friend, probe Matty and I had our IVF nurse consultation this morning at Highland Park Hospital. We met Barb, our IVF nurse. She's fantastic. IVF nurses remind me a lot of ER nurses, incredibly smart and with a twisted sense of humor. AKA, the best kind of people to know. Helen is my nurse out of the Buffalo Grove clinic and I love the woman. She returns every crazy email from me in record speed, and has given me more hugs than I can count. Especially on the days I drag my hi...

This is a tough post for me to write. I am candidly open about WHAT is going on in my life and HOW I go about doing whatever it is. This is no exception when it comes to our infertility. Our need for IVF struck a nerve for me. In the back of my mind I always considered that we may need some fertility assistance (hello genetics) but I assumed the involvement would be rather limited. As I mentioned in my previous post I truly thought IUI would be successful, that maybe I had a inhospitable vagine environment and once past the cervix it would be an immediate success. I honestly thought once we admitted we needed help and sought it, we would be one of those couples who got pregnant while still doing diagnostics. I am heartbroken to say we were not. My last post was centered on what is next physically for me (because as Dr. Jacobs says, the guys just need to show up). However, the greatest challenge for me is simply, me . I have been dealing with the struggle of true infertility for...

I've been debating whether or not to start publicly writing about our experience trudging through infertility these last few months. My two biggest hesitations being the taboo around bedroom talk (because we all know how glamorous assisted reproduction is 😜 ) and also the possibility we would conceive quickly. Well, here we are. I'm neither pregnant nor shy about discussing our infertility. So, how did we get here? Matt and I have been trying to add to our family for two years, August marked two years of no success. As most of you know, Scarlett was the result of all the stars aligning mixed with a little bit of inebriation. Infertility runs in my family down my maternal line, I always thought that I would possibly need reproductive help, and Scarlett proved that wrong. I assumed that when we planned to have another child it would be as simple as having a night out in Chicago with Lindsay and Andrew. But alas, one of my biggest fears slowly became a reality. One in eight...