Come All Prayers

So yesterday, after our wonderful church experience...Matt and I went to a local chinese restuarant and had lunch. After lunch was over and they brought out the fortune cookies, one of the fortunes said..."Focus on the color purple this week for good luck." Though I don't believe in fortunes, I do believe in coincidences and found it oddly unique that we obtained this fortune and we were also starting our third round of fertility treatments this week. Reproductive Endocrinologists (and OB/GYN) colors are purples and yellows. So this gave us hope. :)

Well this morning, after only 3 hours of sleep, I got up out of my wonderfully comfortable bed and began getting ready for my drive to Jacksonville. My appointment was at 7:15 am and I would have to leave by 4-4:30am to get there in time. And this time was uniquely different because I was going alone. Matt has been by my side and gone to every doctor's appointment, but he had prior engagements today that he just could not get out of or postpone until later in the afternoon.

I was also seeing a different doctor today. Through our process we have seen Dr. Kevin Winslow and on a few occasions, Dr. Daniel Duffy, and today was one of those rare occasions. Dr. Duffy came in and did the initial ultrasound which checks to make sure there are no cysts on my ovaries (which is what I am prone to) and to make sure the uterine lining is good. Well in the words of Dr. Duffy, I am "ripe and ready to go." I expressed to him that we were going to have to be a little more aggressive in treatment this time because this was the third round and no offense to F.I.R.M (the doctor's office name) but the drive to Jacksonville was getting rather tiring. In response, Dr. Duffy stated that he understood and we would start out aggressive, but that he has another current patient who responded well to treatment and is currently pregnant with quadruplets. I laughed and informed him that in no way did Matt and I wish to be "Octomom and Octodad" but that we would be happy with whatever God blessed us with in hopes that He would not give us more than we could manage, both emotionally and financially.

He sent me on my way after some bloodwork and tonight, I begin my injections...again. All prayers are accepted!

Get Your Facts Straight

Recently, I have heard that Matt and I have decided to go through fertility treatments, basically because we want a baby now and don't to wait for nature to take it's course. So I want to clarify a few basic facts to help you be better informed about our situation.

First, Matt and I decided to do fertility treatments after I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (or PCOS for short). You can check out more on PCOS here: http://women.webmd.com/tc/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos-topic-overview. A well known couple with PCOS (for example) would be Jon & Kate Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8. Now by NO means are we trying to have multiple children, we just want a happy healthy baby.

Secondly, because I have PCOS and Matt has some male infertility, then the combination of us "doing it the natural way" could possibly take many, many years, if it ever worked at all.

So...the way Matt and I look at the situation is: God blessed Matt with a great job that has provided us with excellent benefits to cover all of our infertility treatments. So this enables us to do an unnatural process to obtain a great blessing. Besides...who are you to judge? Just because we can't make a baby the "old-fashioned way" doesn't mean that the way we are doing things isn't the way that God intended them to be. God has always made it clear that he would never give us more than we can handle, so maybe this is God's way of saying, "I know you both are strong enough to go through all of these treatments and for that, I have provided you with a way and a path to seek the baby you both want."

A New "Home"?

So today, Matt and I tried out a new church--CrossPointe Church. It's located in an old supermarket, which yes is very unique, but it's not about where you worship...it's about that you worship. It was a very exciting and awesome experience for the both of us. The atmosphere was very casual and laid back and it was very clear that God was truly at work in this building and these people's lives. I think we fell in love with a potential new home.

Third Time A Charm?

Well, the two week waiting game is over. Our 2 weeks was up on March 27th. I received no positive and still hadn't gotten my next cycle, so I called the doctor's office to find out my next step. Well no sooner had I hung up the phone and my miracle happened and my body actually started my next cycle on it's own. What a blessing this was considering I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and very rarely do I "start" on my own. So even though it was after hours, but I called the doctor's office back and thankfully got a hold of a nurse and have an appointment for Monday, March 30th at 7:15am. So we decided, since we have medication left from our last cycle, we'll go for one more round. Maybe the third time is a charm?

Maybe Baby?

As of March 2, 2009 we began our second cycle of fertility treatment. This cycle is more of an aggressive treatment for us as we are using Menopur this time instead of Clomid. For those that don't know, Menopur is an injectable drug which is more natural in stimulating the follicles and Clomid (as Dr. Winslow describes it...) is more of a brain medication, which stimulates the brain signals, instead of the body. We have made several trips to Jacksonville the past couple of weeks checking on hormone levels and checking the size of follicles.

After a few days of injections we started out with approximately 7-9 follicles. I went home and visited my mom for a weekend and when I got back we had another appointment to check the size of the follicles. One of them had shot way up to 12 cm, while the others were 6-8 cm region.

Our last "inspection" appointment was on Friday the 13th. All of the follicles had dispursed except for one...the one that was 12 at the start. Follicles have to be between 17-22 cm before insemination can occur. At first glance, the follicle was only 17 but when he moved the wand to a different angle, the follicle was 19 so they gave me my HcG shot, inseminated, and sent us on our way.

Now...the 2 week waiting game. On the 27th we will find out if it took or not...and if so...then stick poppy seed stick!