I'm one of those bloggers...you know. The ones that blog and blog and then have a kid and nothing. For weeks. For months. And in my case, like a year and a half! My last post was about 17 months ago - around St. Patrick's day, 2014. I knew then that I would most likely be MIA for awhile. My priorities totally shifted with a kid. And time has become a precious commodity.
I had predicted that we would be pregnant or at least trying to get pregnant by the next year. And it is true. Logan turn 1 in November 2014, I had stopped breast feeding (yes, give me a gold star for making it 12 months!), so thoughts started turning to #2. My husband and I aren't getting any younger, so let's do it.
Unfortunately for us and many others who have struggled with infertility, it's never as easy as it sounds. And we weren't one of those lucky, magical people that struggle and then "oops" find out they are pregnant naturally. Nope. Not us. Fortunately, I'm a realist and a Type A planner, so we had stored 4 vials of the same donor sperm we had used to conceive Logan.
So in December, we tried, using the usual 2 vials during the cycle. All natural, just an ovulation predictor kit, a wish, and a prayer. Negative pregnancy test. In January, we tried again with the very last 2 precious vials of sperm. My brother called me during the 2-week wait to inform us that "oops" they were pregnant with their 3rd kid. Really?! Trying to rain on my parade - even though I was very happy for them. Another pregnancy test for us. Same result. Negative. We were out. We checked the cryobank for some more and there were no more available and/or no more for sale. We were very disappointed and didn't know what to do next.
After much discussion and chats with the cryobank, we had a only a few options. We could be put on a list to wait and see if any of our donor's sperm became available for sale (meaning, vials could be sold back to the cryobank when no longer needing to be stored). So we got on the list. Then, if we wanted to "reactivate" the donor, we could at a significant cost. The cryobank would contact the donor (at a cost) to determine if the donor was willing to donate again. If no, we're out. If yes, he would go through the same time consuming testing and donating process (at our expense). This can take up to a year. And then, there is no guarantee that his new donations would be acceptable for donation. And even if they are, we then still need to purchase the vials that we need (at 500-800 a pop). This is not a cheap endeavor. Lastly, we could choose a new donor.
We didn't really want to choose a new donor because we really wanted Logan to have a full blood sibling. A partner in crime. Someone in the same boat. Someone who came to be in the same fashion. But we really don't have the cash flow or the time to spend getting the donor to donate again. What to do?
As we were figuring this all out, one day in February, I was at the gym. I got a phone call from the Cryobank. Lo and behold, one lonely vial had come up for sale. Would we be interested? Hell yes! I couldn't get off the elliptical fast enough!
So, we purchased the one vial and called the fertility clinic to see if we could do a medicated, clomid and HCG IUI cycle. It was on for my next cycle in March. One year from my last blog post. I was in the 2-week wait during St. Patrick's day. I thought about posting at that time, but didn't.
Then, on a Monday morning in March before work, I took a pregnancy test. It was positive! It was meant to be. Fast forward 21 weeks (I'm 25 weeks now), and I'm sitting at the lab doing my 3-hour glucose test. I had a few minutes (or hours) so this post was born!
We are having a boy. Due 5 days after Logan's 2nd birthday, November 30th, 2015.
