IUI #1 (Second Time Around)

Ovulating 6 eggs is hard work!  I am in so much pain, I can't even stand up straight.  I am just lying in bed groaning and holding my breath.  I thought I should try and update the blog in between groans.

First of all, why in the heck did Winter have to choose today to finally make it's appearance??!!  The drive is normally an hour there, an hour back, but today it was an hour and a half there, 2 hours back.  And the highway was closed on our way back, so we had to take backroads.  Apparently there was a 26 car pileup in the lanes I was driving in on the way there, about 20 minutes behind me.  Man, am I glad I missed that!

Now, onto the IUI - there's not much to speak of, except that we only got 6.7 million sperm.  We are both disappointed with this, but there's not much we can do about it.  Hopefully at least one of them will function properly, find one of the SIX MATURE EGGS I have, and create a baby.

The nurse was so sweet.  She was really young, probably mid twenties, very pretty, and the whole time she was doing the IUI she kept asking if I was okay, if there was any pinching, warning me that there would be pressure, that I might feel cramping, etc etc.  She must have asked me if I was okay 5 or 6 times.  I finally said, "I pushed a baby out of my vagina without an epidural... trust me, this is nothing."  

Okay, I'm in so much pain, I feel like I should have asked for an ultrasound to check my ovaries while I was there.  I'm starting to worry about having OHSS or something.

Sidenote: it's 2:40pm and Noah is in his crib, but NOT sleeping.  He didn't sleep at all in the car either.  That sure made the harrowing 2 hour drive home super fun.  Thank goodness I bought a portable DVD player for him this past weekend.  I don't know how we would have handled it otherwise.

First and Only Monitoring Appointment

Today was my first (and only) monitoring appointment for our first IUI for our second baby.

Or maybe for our second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh babies.

There is a very good reason this is my only monitoring appointment.  I went into the ultrasound this morning and Holy Guacamole, that was a lot of follicles!

A follicle of 16mm or greater almost always contains a mature egg.  Some clinics say 15mm, my clinic says 16.

On my right ovary I had 4 follicles at: 22, 18, 12, 12

On my left ovary I had 6 follicles at: 19, 18, 17, 15, 10, 10

Um, yes, you counted correctly, that would be FIVE mature follicles.  And that 15mm follicle?  Well, that was at 11am.  By this evening it is probably 16 or greater.

My uterine lining was 12.8.

So, I guess there goes my "poor responder" status.  In the past I have been on a combination of Femara, Clomid, and Injectables.  In one cycle I got one egg, in two cycles I got 2 eggs, and in one cycle I got 3 eggs (I got pregnant in my fourth cycle when I had two eggs, for the record).

This time, with 5mg of Femara CD 4 - 8 (started a day late), and 150IU of Bravelle CD 6 - 10, I had 5 (possibly 6) mature follicles on Day 11.

I was (and am) pretty excited.  But at the same time I am pretty freaked out that I might end up pregnant with higher order multiples.  There is a very thin line between "Oh frick, only 2 follicles??  Let me go to my car and cry"  and "Oh yay, 5 follicles!  Oh shit, we might have quadruplets."

Then again, we've done an IUI with 3 mature eggs and lots of sperm and didn't get pregnant with even one baby (which is probably why this cycle isn't cancelled or converted to IVF).  I feel like it's going to be all or nothing.  Either the sperm will get 'er done and we'll have several babies, or it'll suck and we'll have no babies, despite having 5 or 6 eggs waiting.  I hope I am wrong and there is a happy medium.

Like I said, I am triggering tonight, and we are doing our IUI on Thursday morning.  Wish us luck!  Pray for us!  I would prefer to have just one baby at a time.  I could deal with twins.  But please, please, no triplets!  And I'm sure it goes without saying, no quads, quints, or sextuplets either, please!!!

Cycle #5

I'm late in posting this, of course.  Writing about cycle info just isn't high on my list of priorities when I have a rambunctious (but wonderful) 17 month old toddler running around.  However, this is my most reliable place to store information, so here it is.

Cycle #5 was very different than my previous cycles.  I ovulated (or appeared to ovulate) much earlier than I have been.

-It was a 31 day cycle.

-CD 1 was Tuesday, July 5.

-I had EWCM from CD 15 to CD 19 (July 19 - July 23).

-I had very sore nipples on CD 19 to CD 21.

-My period came on Friday, August 5.

-I think I ovulated on CD 19, July 23.

-My luteal phase was 12 days. I think.

So this cycle was 8 days shorter than my last two cycles, but my LP seemed to be one day longer.  I found it interesting that that change happened so quickly, instead of my cycles gradually getting shorter.  Also interesting is the fact that Cycle #6 seems to be following along in Cycle #5's footsteps.  EWCM on the exact same cycle days.  The difference this month is that I haven't had the super painful nipples.  Just slightly painful on CD 19.  This makes me doubt whether I really ovulated or not.  Not that I can really know for sure anyway.

I should be getting my next period just in time for our new pool to be open.  Because let's face it: despite all our efforts, we are not going to get pregnant by ourselves.  Stupid male factory infertility.  My body may appear to be fixing itself, but you just can't overcome MFI without ART.

Cycle #4

Cycle #4 has come and gone.  It was incredibly similar to cycle #3, which is guess is probably encouraging.  I'm hoping this means that despite the fact that I now have very long cycles, my reproductive system is, in fact, working.

-It was a 39 day cycle.

-CD 1 was Friday, May 27.

-I had EWCM from CD 25 to CD 28 (June 20 - June 23).

-The one OPK I took on CD 28 was extremely positive.

-I had sore nipples on CD 29 and 30.

-My period came on Tuesday, July 5.

-My luteal phase was 11 days (this is assuming that I actually ovulated, which I'm guessing I did since my body gave the exact same signs on the exact same days during cycle #2)

My nipples didn't hurt quite as much during this cycle.  The three cycles before this the pain was excruciating, although the number of days with excruciating pain was less each cycle.  This cycle I was sore, but it wasn't terrible.  I think I probably neglected to write down some of the sore days because of this fact, but it probably doesn't really matter.

We really tried this month, and felt fairly optimistic.  However, I was not surprised that it didn't work out.  I'm pretty sure I'm ovulating, but we still have crappy sperm to contend with.

I'm still not sure at what point we will be moving on to fertility treatments.  However, I have an idea that would be easier for us to implement.  My clinic usually has everyone come in on CD 11, no matter what, and then the size of your follicles determines when the next time you come in is.  If your follicles are all small, you take two days off and then go in for another ultrasound.  Rinse and repeat until something shows up or they put you on BCPs to start a new cycle.

Well, I'm not having any fertility signs until CD 25, so this would be a big waste of time for me.  I was thinking it might work for me to wait until I have EWCM, and THEN go in for an ultrasound, and if I was actually ovulating we could just do an IUI with a natural cycle.  This would mean I wouldn't have to stop nursing and wean Noah before he's ready in order to take the fertility drugs.  I would much rather weaning be a natural process that's led by him.

So that's what I'm thinking at the current time.  Although despite that plan, I'm still not ready to rush to the RE.  I'm not looking forward to another HSG, more appointments, long drives... I'd be more than happy to get pregnant naturally at this point, but I'm not ready to jump through hoops yet.  I'd rather Noah be older before I start with the hoop jumping.

Cycle #3

Cycle #3 is old news, as I'm currently ovulating - or at least my body thinks it's ovulating - in Cycle #4.  But I need a reliable place to record my info from Cycle #3.

-It was a 39 day cycle.

-CD 1 was Monday, April 18.

-I had EWCM from CD 25 to CD 28 (May 12 - May 15).

-I had moderately sore nipples on CD 28 (May 15).

-I had really sore nipples from CD 29 - CD 30 (May 16 - May 17)

-My period came on Friday, May 27


This cycle seemed more under control than the last one.  My EWCM was not as prolonged, and I didn't have sore nipples for as long.  I think I probably ovulated on the CD 28, May 15th, my last day of EWCM.  This would put my luteal phase at 11 days.

We gave it a shot again during this cycle, like the cycle before, but obviously it was not successful.  My heart wasn't really in it last month, though.  So it's okay.

Cycle Info

It's Wednesday.  I wanted to go into town to run errands today.  Instead I am stuck in my house.  On Monday I got my period, and its so heavy I can't be away from a bathroom for longer than an hour.  So instead I am baking a chocolate cake (I've been craving chocolate like nobody's business), listening to music, and hanging with my little man.

While I'm feeling annoyed at being house-bound, I thought I would write out my last cycle information (since this blog is my catch-all space).

-It was a 42 day cycle.

-CD 1 was Monday, March 7.

-I had EWCM from CD 27 to CD 32 (April 2 - April 7).

-I had moderately sore nipples from CD27 to CD 31 (April 2 - April 6).

-I had really sore nipples from CD 32 - CD 35 (April 7 - April 10).

-My period came on Monday, April 18.


I'm really not sure when (IF??) I ovulated.  I'm guessing maybe on April 7th, give or take.  That was my last day of EWCM, and also the first day of really, really (I mean really) sore nipples.  That would make my luteal phase about 10 days long.  When I was doing treatments and was actually successfully ovulating, my LP was 12 days.  This was only my second cycle after giving birth, and I'm still BFing 10+ times a day, so it's normal that my LP be short for awhile.  Just like it's normal to have such a long cycle at the beginning.

I do know that I never noticed so much and such pronounced EWCM in the whole time I was TTC.  So I do wonder if I actually am ovulating.  I wish I didn't have such a bad track record with OPKs.  I just can't trust them because of my high LH.

I'm glad I decided to keep track of all this.  I'd like to see a pattern emerging.  I had EWCM for 6 days, which is kind of a long time, and sore nipples for 9 days, which is quite a long time.  And I got my period a mere 7 days after all the symptoms were gone.  I was expecting it before Sunday, but really didn't think I was going to get it on Monday. 

So I will continue to track my cycles and symptoms.  And we will continue to sprinkle a few 'marital relations' in amongst the EWCM, just in case. 

It's the Infertility in me.  I just can't let a cycle go by without giving it a try.  Even though I don't have the burning desire to get pregnant again right now, and I like things how they are, I do want a couple more children.  And a natural-miracle-pregnancy would still be welcome.

I wonder if this is what normal people feel like when they decide to have a baby.  Not all high strung and "LET'S GET PREGNANT RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!!!!" but just casually seeing what will happen.  I wouldn't know, because it was never casual for me.  From the second I was able to try to get pregnant, I wanted it to have happened 3 months earlier and was very bothered when it didn't.

And even now, we most likely will not be getting pregnant without ART.  So why is there this little tickle in my brain telling me that just maybe we will???  My logical side tells me otherwise, but that teeny voice is still there.