Update: Life is good

It's been mid-February since I posted.  I did write one post a month or two ago, but it never made it to the 'publish' phase.  So, as quickly as I can (before the morning nap implodes - as it did yesterday - but, fingers crossed, hopefully not today), here's a quick rundown:

1.  7 months and 2 weeks - can you believe it!?!  E is so, so, so much fun these days.  Crawling (mostly in reverse, occasionally forward), grabbing everything (magazines at the grocery checkout - yep!), making lots of noises and blowing lots of raspberries and generally taking everything (and everyone!) in.  I can't believe how much fun this age is.  It really does make up for those first few really hard weeks and months.

2.  Back to my long-term 2 day/month consulting gig + a short-term, fairly intense, consulting project mostly in the month of March that took me on my first international trip since quitting my full-time job 2.5 years ago!  It was a quick one, thankfully.  I left Saturday night and was back by Wednesday afternoon.  Doha has changed a lot in 6 years since I was there last!!

3.  Vacation two weeks ago in Kiawah - bliss.  Having Mr.Right with us all day, every day was fantastic. He got to spend so much time with E.  We did almost nothing - went to lunch at the Seabrook club one day with family friends.  The rest of the time we napped, went to the beach, rode bikes (E in a trailer which she loved!), walked the dog on the beach and ate (cooked in the condo - no restaurants because E's bedtime is 6:30/7).

4.  TTC#2:  oh yeah, back at it.  Well, we've been "at it" since E was 6 weeks old, but as I think I reviewed in my last post from February it took a while to get my cycles back.  So, we've had maybe 3 or 4 "real" cycles but no BFP - of course.  We went to see Dr.Dry week before last about using our frozen donor-egg (sister) embryos.  I had Day 3 FSH, etc. done last week and revealed an FSH of 10 (I had previously had 9, 10s, 11s over the years.)  Dr.Dry talks about the body 'resetting' after a pregnancy and the FSH isn't bad, but we're not that hopeful.  I'll be 42 in less than a month and it took us 2 years of trying to get a genetically normal pregnancy.

Nevertheless, I'm dragging my feet a bit.  Mr.Right was all ready to jump right to the frozen embryos.  Of course, I needed to get HSG and mock embryo transfer done again and then a month of bc pills before a transfer.  We decided while we were in Dr.Dry's office that we'd see what the FSH said and if it wasn't crazy high we would give ourselves one more month on our own.  In the meantime, I'd get the HSG done between end of period and ovulation (Dr.Dry claims HSG can sometimes be 'therapeutic' - essentially clearing things out for an egg to drop).  But, I couldn't get on the schedule for HSG until day 11 of my cycle (this afternoon) and I tend to be an early ovulator so I was worried it would mess with the (albeit incredibly slight) chance of getting pregnant this month.  So, Sunday night as Mr.Right was suggesting a roll in the hay, we decided to delay the HSG.  I'll do it next month while on bc pills - screw the therapeutic effect for this month.

I know I'm dragging my feet a bit.  And to his credit, Mr.Right said he'd let me delay going to the donor eggs for months if I wanted to.  Of course, I know the statistics are such that even 6 or 12 more months of fooling around by ourselves will not get us, statistically, very much closer to a pregnancy - and especially a genetically-normal pregnancy.  But, I don't know, I feel like I just want a little more time.

We have ruled out doing any kind of IUI or IVF with my eggs - even though Dr.Dry suggested we might try IUI.  I don't respond well to the stimulation drugs.  And, frankly, I can not imagine how I would manage getting into the office for bloodwork/ultrasound every other day with E.  I know I'll have to go for one or two lining checks for the FET, but I think we can figure that out.

We were done with IUI and IVF with my eggs before.  And we're still done.  Not going back there.  I am prepared to use the embryos created with my sister's eggs.  I was before we miraculously got pregnant on our own and I will be again.  It might just take me a month or two to, once again, let go of my own eggs.

5.  First plane trip with E this weekend!  Aaack!!  I hope it goes well.  Only a 1.25 hour flight, but still.  I fear turning into those people I used to avoid in the security lines at the airport.  Oh well, I guess I am that person now!

At the beach, 3 weeks ago: