A Little Update: We're Having a Baby!

Um, we finished the kitchen. Well at least the counters and the sink, but not the cabinets yet. The day we started the kitchen we found out we're going to have a baby! I simply did not trust myself to blog about anything and not slip in a mention or two our accomplishment (yes we feel like we've done something fantastic) so I kept mum. Sorry to anyone who was waiting to hear how our new counters turned out. LOL

There are very few people in my real life who knew about our struggles with getting pregnant. I have some friends from my elementary and middle school days who knew the basics. I basically kept everything off of Facebook since I'm just more private than that, and I assembled a team to help support me as we navigated the confusing and sometimes stupid world of infertility. So I owe a HUGE thank you to my TTC (Trying to Conceive) team; Chris, my boss at TreePeople who is an amazing inspiration and my example of what it means to be a wonderful and cool mom, Steph, who is my BFF (we like to throw this term around) and supported me through way too many tests and setbacks, Amber, my baby sister who takes care of me more than I take care of her these days and who never ever gave up and just knew "her" baby was right around the corner, and of course, Scott, the world's best husband. I'm serious. I  challenge any of you to a husband showdown. This is a man who took it upon himself to wake up with me at 4:00 am everyday to record my temperature, remembered every pill, ultrasound, & doctor's appt. and basically managed this whole mess from the get-go.

I so admire all of the women who are able to blog about infertility and all of the ups and downs that go along with it. I was barely keeping it together throughout mine and couldn't face half of it myself let alone keep someone else in the loop. But I know how much I have been helped by hearing about other people's struggles so I will give you all the quick and dirty version of our two year journey to this point.

December 2008 - Saw new OBGYN for annual exam and told him my concerns about irregular periods and that I was hoping to start trying to get pregnant over the next year or so. Our amazing doc declared, "Oh we can get you pregnant," which Scott enjoyed quoting throughout the process. But I couldn't undergo testing to find out if anything was wrong because I was still on the pill. Quit the pill that day.

March 2009 - Had a slew of blood tests done and diagnosed with PCOS. Doc gave me a choice to go on Metformin if I was ready to try to get pregnant, or on a different kind of birth control pill. We opted for the pill since we were going to be taking on our new house and remodeling that summer.

August 2009 - After moving and starting the bulk of our remodel we had to admit that even though we thought that this whole baby thing would have to wait until the whole remodeling thing was done, we were ready to at least start preliminarily trying. I called our doc and changed my never-filled birth control pill prescription to the Metformin prescription. We were officially trying.

December 2009 - With no luck after almost 5 months of casually trying we decided to get more aggressive and start taking something to help me ovulate. We decided on Clomid but our doc wanted to be sure Scott was not part of the problem before putting me on it. We made an appointment for a semen analysis for after the holidays.

January 2010 - Semen analysis Part 1 - Scott went to the clinic only to find that the only place to um, test, was a public bathroom. An old lady decided that banging on the door might help things along. Yeah, not so much. The test came back wacky and we had to re-do.

February 2010 - Wised up and did the test at home. I waited in our garden and we flew down the freeway to turn it in. Test came back better but still wacky and we were referred to a urologist.

March 2010 - Urologist appointment was the one bright spot in our very slow, sad start thus far. The doctor took one look at what we had been told were low numbers and basically gave us a benediction to go home and just get started. He declared Scott's numbers completely within the normal realm and told us to come back if we weren't pregnant withing a year.

April 2010 - First round of Clomid - 50 mg. No ovulation. No dice.

May 2010 - I'm out of town for work so the cycle is a bust.

June 2010 - We up the dosage to 100 mg. Follow up with an ultrasound. Ovulate but still no luck.

July 2010 - Stick with the 100mg. Baby sister get's married. Times are crazy. No ovulation probably due to stress.

August 2010 - Up the dosage to 150 mg for good measure. Success!

September 2010 - Loose the baby at 5 weeks. Chemical pregnancy.

October 2010 - December 2010 - Break

January 2011 - Back in the saddle so to speak. Up dosage to 200 mg. Ovulation but no luck.

February 2011 - Woo hoo! We finally have a sticky baby!

So there you have it. The long and long of it all. All in all I would say we were pretty lucky. Many people have to go through so much more to be successful. As Scott says, "We only took Clomid 5 times so we were only really trying for 5 months." Gotta love that male optimism.

We're now 19 weeks and moving along pretty well. Even I'm feeling optimistic! Next month we start on the incredibly small (9'x10') spare room in our house we're turning into a nursery and we're doing it 100% eco on a tiny budget so I'm hoping that will be fun to post about on my end, and read about on yours. Thanks for sticking with us through our long break. I'm looking forward to getting back into posting.