Did you know that your story is truly inspiring?

Hello friends around the world. Long time no see. I have been working on a project which is not quite up and running yet but watch this space, I will have more on that soon.

In the meantime I wanted to tell you about someone else’s pretty amazing project in the Infertility world.

If you have followed my journey for awhile you may recall that I got myself a Fertility Coach after things had been going on for awhile. Her name was Karenna and she honestly kept me sane and grounded through my last IVF cycle, waiting for the genetic testing results, through my miscarriage and subsequent pregnancy preparing for my VBAC. I honestly cannot rave about her enough. Anyway, Karenna is very passionate about helping women who are stuck on this particular shit of a journey (ummm my words, not hers. She is much more nicely spoken than potty mouth me), and she is creating an online space called Your Fertility Hub which she intends to make into something pretty damn amazing. Part of that is collecting people’s stories.

I’m just going to leave the blurb she has about this below for you to check out. There are links you can follow to submit your own story. You can also contact her directly if you are interested in contributing further content for her site.

Note, Karenna is currently offering a free 30 minute consultation to anyone who registers during these early stages so get on in there. She is amazing and you can be anywhere in the world as she consults over Skype. We did all our sessions that way and despite my early scepticism it actually worked really well.

Back in the coming weeks to tell you all about my new project. Woooo!

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Did you know that your story is truly inspiring?  Your fertility story may be just the right support and information to help someone else going through infertility and we’d love you to tell your story on Your Fertility Hub. Your Fertility Hub is a new website and community which aims to inspire women and couples, help make their fertility journeys more positive and assist them in getting the right information, tools and support to find their way out of infertility.  We are looking for individuals who have gone through or are going through infertility to tell their stories. We know just how important other people’s stories are to people and we want to showcase as many as possible on Your Fertility Hub.  Each inspiring story will talk about that person’s unique journey, say what helped, what worked and what didn’t, inspiring quotes or tips and although not completely anonymous will only display first name and a thumbnail image. It’s so important to put a face to a story so we really appreciate your courage in submitting your story. Click here to submit your story Thank you and we will be in touch to confirm your story and to send you the link once live for you to review. Currently the new site is aiming to go live in early August and we will keep you posted.

That thing I said I wasn’t going to do this month

This might as well be me.

Obsess. That’s the thing I wasn’t going to do.

I wasn’t going to obsess over when my new cycle might start as I knew it would be weird with the miscarriage last month. And I was just going to be a chilled out little monkey in a Just call me Yoda kind of way. But guess what? I’m actually not a Just call me Yoda kinda girl. I’d like to be. But I’m not. And I should know this by now.

A funky little headspace

Ugh. I simply cannot figure out how to write this post and that’s a bit of a strange experience for me. Suddenly it’s like I don’t know how to convey my feelings.

As you know, things have mostly been going along OK since the miscarriage. Looking at it now I should have expected there would be a crash at some point. I was doing far too well, even I thought it was strange. In fact, I thought it was kind of wrong that I wasn’t more outwardly devastated. I had a couch day last Wednesday and got up Thursday all perky and normal, feeling fine. I had my moments but really, I was bumbling along alright.

Pumped and ready to rumble

Hello hello gorgeous bloggy friends. I hope life is treating you all well and making lots of smiley happy faces in the place where you live.

I am fabulous post holiday. I will post some eye candy of our trip in the coming days (read: when I’m laid up after my op and have nothing better to do but write posts and watch TV) but the short version is IT ROCKED and I fell in love with Squamish. Such a pretty little area of BC.

1 boy and 2 girls

You know when you commence on this IVF journey that you are in the business of making babies – teeny tiny little humans – so I’m not sure why it came as a surprise to me when I recently learnt the gender of our “abnormal” embryos.  Well the 3 tested in the first round of testing we had done anyway.

IUI#3 – 12dpIUI – It’s all over red rover

Well I don’t  know what that faint line was that I thought I saw. Wishful thinking?

Anyway woke this morning with a full bleed so the fairies didn’t  bless us with a baby this month but we will keep asking.

We at least have so many plans for the future with this new clinic that I feel less disappointed than I would have if all my hopes were hanging on this outcome. Onwards and upwards eh?

Thanks for all the support last night with my crazy line post. You guys ROCK.

IUI #3 – 11dpIUI – I tested

Yes I tested, of course I did. It’s so stupid early for a test. I didn’t even do it with the wake up wee so I can’t even really be sure it was prime testing conditions but anyway I TESTED because…CURIOUS.

And I got a freaking squinter. I hate squinters. So far for me they usually mean chemical pregnancies so I DO NOT have a lot of faith in the suckers.

Plus there’s the whole “oh it could be an evap line” although to be fair I could see the squinter after the 3 mins and the evap line is normally if you see it an hour later or something like that. So that’s where we are at.

Given that we seem to mostly get abnormal embryos AND my recent blood tests were all weird I am not holding out hope for a successful pregnancy. And I can’t even tell Eric because he told me not to test (of course he did). As if, Eric. As if.

Preparing for the main event

I had no idea when we embarked on this quest for a second child that the journey would be far different to the sprint we ran to get baby no. 1. In comparison to this journey, which feels more and more like a marathon every day, baby no. 1 was an easy 5k. You know what? I think 5k is probably even a strech. We did more like a 100m dash. No hurdles.

As we’ve progressed through the process I have come to realise that the race hasn’t even begun yet. Not really.

Avoid taking L-Arginine for Infertility

I think I mentioned in a recent post that I have been reading the book It Starts with the Egg by Rebecca Fett.

This is a brilliant book and if you are struggling with infertility in any way, shape or form then I highly recommend you give this book a go. I think it cost me all of $6 to download on Kindle. Seriously.

There are a lot of things that I love about this book:

IUI #3 – A different experience

So IUI #3 for us was definitely a different experience than the previous two I have had and although things didn’t go perfectly (what does when it comes to infertility, right?) I actually really preferred it.

The main difference was that this time I was having the procedure done at the clinic as opposed to in my Dr’s rooms. It was waaaaaaaay nicer in the clinic. They had nice meditation music playing in the background and it just felt like such a nice space. Incidentally it is the same room I had my one and only transfer in but the whole thing felt so much different that time.

Anyway, THIS time. So this time one of the lovely nurses did it which was also soooo lovely. Girls get what if feels like to have things shoved up your hoo haa so I find that they are just so much more considerate of the whole process.

Also because the room was so much more spacious it was easier for Eric to fit in there beside me so we were able to hold hand throughout the procedure. I closed my eyes and did some deep breathing while Eric put his other hand on my chest and breathed deeply with me. It was a really magical moment and at least a nice way to have what is a rather invasive procedure take place.

We did have one small glitch – the nurse wasn’t able to get the probe through exit from the cervix into the uterus. Sometimes it clamps itself shut too tight and they can’t do it without causing too much trauma. Instead she deposited the sample right near the exit and then tilted me backwards on the bed for 20 mins to give the spermies a chance to swim through the barrier. She said I had loads of fertile CM hanging about so I feel ok with this. The CM is what helps the spermies get where they need to go so at least they had the ride they needed and weren’t going to be stuck trying to hail a taxi or even worse, WALK.

We then ended up having a chat with the nurse for the 20 mins. It was so pleasant and nice. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed an IUI so much! ha Weird.

You know if I have a great egg in there then it seems like it would have been the perfect conditions for a baby to get started. And even though we had the glitch it just didn’t feel like that big of a deal.

I feel like I have been consistently healthy for the longest continuous period prior to this IUI so if the whole 90 day egg cycle before the time of ovulation is true then hopefully that has all had an impact and made a beautiful healthy egg for me.

It has been a lovely day. Thanks for your support peeps.

Whoops…almost forgot a song. Here you go!