The Plan

I officially am rejoining the ranks of ”infertiles trying to conceive”. I am afraid, in some ways, to begin this journey because the last 8 months have been bliss. I have not been concerned with my ovulation date, my period date, my two week wait, nothing. I’ve casually sipped on a glass of wine whenever I wanted it without giving a thought to a potentially growing bean in my tummy. The process of fertility treatments is an all-consuming one that few people understand if they haven’t been through it.

So now I begin this all-consuming process again. I am trying to cut my caffeine consumption drastically…this shouldn’t be too difficult since I was still very careful with caffeine when I was breastfeeding only a few short weeks ago. I am carefully monitoring my vitamin supplements to ensure that I am getting everything I need. I am paying attention to where I am in my cycle to obsessively monitor my underwear with every trip to the bathroom in order to gather some clues as to my ovulation status. Oh and believe it or not…that long ago forgotten feeling…libido? It has kinda sorta returned. I think this is largely due to hormones, because now that I’ve stopped breastfeeding, I have a lot more interest.

So today I am entering my first “fertile window” since before my last IVF. I am scheduled to ovulate about 3 days from now. I have no idea why I have hopes for becoming pregnant naturally but I do. I know the likelihood of us needing assistance is strong, so I am not going to wait around for this to happen on its own, but we have a mandatory one cycle wait before we can do anything with the fertility specialist, and there is no official reason that I shouldn’t be able to get pregnant on my own, so I’m going to try and I’m going to keep my hopes high.

Here’s the plan:
This month:
Try naturally. The fertility specialist would like to give my body a month to get everything back up to speed and also to see what happens with the first cycle. He wants to see how long it lasts, how things go and kind of do a very low tech determination if I’m probably ovulating on my own or not.

Next month:
- I have an order in my purse for several lab tests that will be done on cycle day 2/3 next time. Just the standard stuff plus a few new tests they’ve come up with since my last time around. Many of these can be drawn on any day of the cycle, but for simplicity, they’ll draw them all at once on that day.
- TW will also have his swimmers tested (they always test ridiculously well, so I’m not too worried about that).
- We will do a “follicle growth series” where I will be monitored by ultrasound in the days leading up to my ovulation to determine if the ovulation is going well.
- Scheduled insemination for the appropriate time.
This cycle will be unmedicated. Normally I might not want to waste time with that, but my insurance pays 100% for 6 IUI’s before paying a dime for IVF. (We are sooo very blessed to have insurance coverage for infertility…I remind myself of this every single time I get frustrated with my job or the process.) We actually really don’t want to do IVF this time around, but with 6 free IUI’s we are fine with doing a month unmedicated.

Following months:
Medicated IUI’s – In my opinion, we should do all 6 that my insurance wants us to do prior to IVF. If they all fail, TW and I will have to discuss how far we are willing to go. I personally feel pretty confident that we can get pregnant with 6 IUI’s, but I think if you don’t get pregnant within the first 3 your chances decrease (because obviously whatever is wrong with you is not getting resolved with the medication and process). I’m very hopeful that my body is now an “old pro” at getting pregnant and that my hormones might be perfectly balanced for supporting a pregnancy right now.

I’m excited. I actually don’t enjoy the state of pregnancy physically. I, of course, loved the idea that I was nurturing human life in my womb…who doesn’t love that who comes from a background of infertility? The condition itself though…not a fan. I had a pretty textbook pregnancy, nothing too difficult, but a lot of common discomforts, so I am a little nervous, but I am ready for the challenge.