
Welcome to our ongoing adventure of trying to make a baby. This journey started at the beginning of 2019 and has become quite the unexpected uphill climb for the two of us. Together we’ve battled infertility and a global pandemic together and our journey has only just begun.
Samantha’s Turn!
Samantha here! Sooo it’s officially my turn. Phew! This has been a wild ride! We have realized that we have zero control here and that we have to surrender to the universe and just do everything that we CAN control.
2020 – Continuing Our Baby Journey
2020.. This is fine..
7-part 3: TWW & Results
For the first week and 3 days, I felt absolutely nothing. No cramping, no back pain, no pain anywhere else, no cravings, NOTHING. I’ve spent the last few weeks convincing myself that it’s fine and totally normal. One week and 4 days comes along and now I’m starting to feel some tenderness and a little…
7 part 2- Insemination
This time around, Dr. Jaffe was able to do the insemination, which, not gonna lie, felt more legitimate somehow. While we were waiting in the room with our tiny tube of sperm, I asked Sam how long sperm can live at room temperature so she asked google. I can guarantee that her phone has the…
Our decision
After talking it over with Dr. Jaffe and discussing everything amongst ourselves, we decided to go ahead and try one more time with me(Steph). Who knows if I will be able to try again in the future, but losing the last pregnancy at least showed me that it was possible for me to get pregnant.…
IUI number 6 – TWW & Results
Week one has been smooth sailing aside from the bit of nausea from the trigger shot. The first day of week 2 I started getting some cramps and throughout the week getting a little nauseous. I was laying in bed 2 days into week 2 and felt so gross. My hunger has been all over…
IUI Number 6 – Insemination
Insemination went smoothly. There were something like 47 MILLION motile sperm, which is apparently a lot. We’ve been working out and have been cooking healthy meals and we’ve been doing Whole30 for 2 weeks at this point (halfway to 30 days!). I’m both excited and hesitant about this one. It’s our last attempt with me,…
IUI Number 6 – Part 1 – Pushing through!
Well, this is it, folks! The final countdown. This will probably be the last attempt for Steph since we don’t have the money to cover IVF, so we will be trying IUI with Sam sometime in the months after this one regardless of the outcome. But boy, is our jar of hope overflowing for this one to work.
Making a Baby, IUI 5 – Part 2, Insemination and TWW
This is our 5th overall attempt, but our second attempt with CRM. We went to the gym to get one last workout in before the big day. All of the jitters from final exam week were finally gone (I passed both classes!) so this IUI I was actually pretty relaxed. We talked to the nurse…
Making a Baby, Future Planning
Samantha here. We figured it was time for more of an update to what our future looks like. We had to get realistic. We would like to have a big family, and no matter how many high hopes, well wishes, fertility crystals, and prayers that we have, the facts are still the facts; Steph’s egg…
Making a Baby, IUI 4 – Part 2, Insemination and the dreaded TWW
Greetings! We went in Sunday morning at 10:30am to get inseminated. (Exhibit A) We were called right back which was amazing. Everything went smoothly and the sample they looked at had RAPID motility and like 34 million sperm, which is fantastic! Plus it was a full hunters moon the night after our insemination so hopefully,…
Making a Baby, IUI 4 – Part 1
New Doc, new drugs, new IUI, who dis?
Fall is Here and Here We Go Again!
We got a second opinion fertility Dr who suggested Steph be gluten free for 90 days before trying this thing again. She’s switching up her meds slightly and put her on a strict gluten free diet so here’s where we are with that.
Infertility and Celiac Disease
Roughly 1 in 17 women are experiencing infertility due to Celiac Disease. Yep, that’s the “fad” diet where you don’t eat bread, pasta, or anything else with gluten. Only it’s not a fad, it’s a VERY real thing.
Making a baby, IUI 3 – Results and plans
My period decided to come 4 days early so that’s another BFN (big fat negative) attempt. It’s all just really emotionally exhausting. My logical brain can’t comprehend why it’s not working. What now?
Making a Baby, IUI 3 – Part 2
We had our second appointment on Monday (CD13) and I have 2 follicles on my RIGHT side, which is new since the last 2 times have been on the left.
Making a baby, IUI 3 – Part 1
After our second negative test, we geared up for our third run. Now, because we’ve been to the fertility office so often, they pretty much know how I react to the meds.
Making a baby, IUI 2 – Part 4
…Another negative test. We go in tomorrow for round 3.
Making a baby, IUI 2 – Part 3
We scheduled our insem. appointment but because it landed on a Monday and to avoid paying extra fees in shipping and delivery, we switched donors. This allowed us to just pick it up locally and avoid about $300 extra dollars. But then another wrench happened to our plans.
Making a baby, IUI 2 – Part 2
We made it through the second ultrasound for attempt number 2. We’re starting to talk about IVF just in case.
Making a baby, IUI 2 – Part 1
Samantha here! I thought I’d write from my perspective for a change. This process has been quite a whirlwind! Here’s our second attempt:
Making a Baby, IUI 1 – Part 4
Our first attempt didn’t stick. This post goes into the nitty gritty of the insemination and the two week wait. I get pretty “up close and personal” in this one – just a forewarning.
Making a baby, IUI 1 – Part 3
My meds got switched because my body wasn’t responding to the pills. Now Sam gets to stab me with needles!
Making a baby, IUI 1 – Part 2
We were back at the fertility Doctor this morning! This was a follow up to check on my follicle growth and also do the HSG test.
Making a baby, IUI 1 – part 1
I got my bloodwork back to determine my AMH, or ovarian reserve numbers, as well as my CMV status, which sort of dictates which donors we can look at. So far, the results aren’t necessarily bad… just different than we were expecting. Also, it was my first experience with an internal ultrasound – so there’s that.
Our First Fertility Appointment
Holy moly. Monday, we went to our first fertility appointment and shit just got REAL.
Prepping for our baby adventure
We’ve decided that it’s time to start talking about making babies!
Our Fertility Journey
Trying to make a baby has pretty much consumed our lives since January 2019 when we started going to doctor appointments. I’ve been documenting our journey via blog posts including costs and our experiences. We had initially planned to post-date all of our blog posts until we got a positive pregnancy, but that hasn’t turned out the way we were expecting.
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