ICLW February 2011 - Consider This Cherry Popped

First ICLW for me - I'm proud that I'm doing this, especially in the wake of some kind of sudden blogging depression/fear that I'm experiencing. So here is my story:


My husband and I got married on November 9th, 2007 and we started trying for a baby that night. Fast-foward five months to Pregnancy #1 in March 2008, lasting 12 hours and ending in a chemical pregnancy. We continued trying for another year using OPKs, timed intercourse and Pre-seed. That resulted in Pregnancy #2 in March 2009 but ended at 9 weeks in a sudden and traumatic miscarriage after many ultrasounds of a healthy pregnancy with a strong heartbeat each time and a healed sub-chorionic hemaetoma.

We began fertility treatment later that summer of 2009. Our doctor told us the day of our first IUI (w/ Clomid) that my husband's count (2 million motile post-wash) was too low and that we'd need IVF/ICSI, we were devastated. We'd known his count was low but not that low. That IUI failed. My husband did not want to do IVF so we continued with IUIs and he saw a Fertility Urologist who put him on 50 mg Clomid every other day. His count increased after three months and we concieved on our 3rd IUI but that ended up being ectopic and rupturing the day after Thanksgiving which resulted in emergency surgery for me but they saved my right tube. I switched doctors within the OB/GYN practice at that point as I wanted to get more aggressive with treatment. IUI #7 with injectables was another "winner" in April 2010 but after not seeing a fetal pole by 7 weeks it was deemed a blighted ovum. That was another surgery I had to endure.

We decided at that point that maybe IVF was the way to go. We had one bad visit with a local clinic and hated it so we kept doing IUIs while we were in limbo. I came across a Newsweek article about a clinic in St. Louis, Missouri called The Fertility Partnership where the cost was nearly 50% of most clinics and the doctor cared about the patients and their well-being, not becoming rich off the process. We decided to stop by the clinic on our way from Iowa to Arkansas for a cousin's wedding and we loved the look and the people. I had a phone consult with the doctor the day after my birthday and we scheduled a trip to the clinic for mid-October 2010. After a wonderful meeting with the doctor and his staff, we knew we were in. We did many more blood tests and I had a Laparascopic/Hysteroscopy with Tubal Dye Study and was diagnosed with Endometriosis Stage I-II but clear tubes.

We traveled back and forth from Iowa to St. Louis this January and completed our first IVF cycle (all out of pocket) and received many new diagnoses from the treatment. I apparently make terrible eggs (weak "shell") and possibly have a clotting disorder in addition to Natural Killer-type cells. Finally my AMH (Anti-Mullerian Hormone) level is below a 2.0 and that shows Ovarian Dysfunction.

IVF #1 included 20 follicles, ICSI and Assisted Hatching, 4 embryos that made it to the 3 day transfer, 2 transferred embryos, no frozen embryos. Today, I am 7 weeks pregnant with a singleton whose heartbeat was confirmed on an ultrasound last Friday at 6 weeks 5 days. We are extremely hesitant to get too excited and are taking this day by day, but obviously we are beyond thankful to be expecting and hope so much that we have a take-home baby in October 2011.

Thanks for stopping by!