Long Overdue Update

Well, I got a confirmation e-mail the other day from LesbianFamily.org indicating that they had added this site to their blogroll. YaY! However, after our attempt in December, we got a little discouraged. The first time we attempted pregnancy we were successful, the second time, not so much. So, I didn’t really have anything to write about up until this point.

BA and I went on a pregnancy hiatus and decided we were going to wait to attempt again until May. We are trying to avoid a Christmas baby. Christmas babies get screwed!

We are right on schedule with ovulation and I am hoping that we will be successful in our second attempt (even though the chances are small). I will keep updating though because now, we are public! Yeah!

Fort Worth, TX

Well, our swimmers are in Fort Worth, TX and should be arriving safely by 5:00PM on Friday, December 12, 2008. This weekend, we inseminate. I am sorry that this post is not going to be longer, but there is not much else to say. I will have more this weekend regarding the procedure and how it went.

So exciting!

It’s Getting Close

So, this is the week. We have been waiting six months for this time to hit. We’ve talked about it endlessly and have prepared in the best way that we can.

We had a minor scare with the Cryobank. Apparently they had updated their website and included an personalized page with all of the goodies that they offer for your individual account. These particular features include information on donors and vial storage. So, I clicked on the vial storage section to see what it had to say. Shockingly, the site said “You have no vials in storage”. EEK (just visualize the squeal from LL Cool J in the Old Spice Swagger commercial). I made a quick call to the Cryobank and they assured me that we still had six vials of donor #5812 safely in storage, waiting for us to give the shipping “go ahead”. Phew!

So, tomorrow we make the call and schedule delivery for Friday. Saturday and Sunday we will inseminate. It’s so scientific… but so intimate at the same time.

I am so excited!

Our First Doctor’s Appointment

Well technically, it’s not our first. It was a follow up appointment that our awesome Dr. D told us to schedule in six months after we lost Ava. That was the minimum amount of time that we could wait to try again. B isn’t getting any younger (don’t be mad, lol), so we wanted to try again as soon as possible.

We got to the office and Dr. D was very complimentary about B’s weight loss and how well we had progressed over the past five months. Our primary goal for this visit was to learn how to perform an intrauterine insemination. We performed our first insemination at home and it was an ICI (intracervial insemination). This is where the specimen is placed around the opening of the cervix.

We have six “vials” of baby batter left with the bank and those vials contain IUI specimans. This particular speciman is washed which is specifically produced for IUI inseminations. We wanted to do it at home again, but we were told that we would have to visit a doctor’s office in order to have the procedure done.

HowEVER, Dr. D being the awesome doctor that she is, told us that she would teach me how to do it so that we could avoid unnecessary appointments and we could then do it at home.

So, yesterday’s appointment we did just that. B was ovulating (which we knew because her cycle is SO right on) so we were able to actually perform the procedure, but without the specimen.

We are planning to inseminate around the middle of December and day by day, we are getting more and more excited.

I probably will not write for a while, at least until we do the insemination. However, I wanted to get this going because during the last pregnancy, the “baby blog” helped keep friends and family current on what we were doing and how the pregnancy was going.

Until then…

A little history…

Track back eight and a half years ago…B and I met online and it was the start of a beautiful relationship. We spent many years having fun and living life, building a home, and spending time together.

We always knew that we wanted kids, but finding the right time was the key. We eventually decided that we would try in February of 2008. So, on February 13 and 14 of 2008, we performed an insemination at home. Roughly ten days and five or six pregnancy tests later, we were pregnant. We were thrilled. We knew the chances of getting pregnant on the first try was very small. Fortunately, we were very lucky.

B knows her body very well and we knew when she was ovulating so that made things much easier.

Over the course of four months, B was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and so we had to alter the foods that she ate and her activity levels. We worked very hard to maintain her levels and keep her steady so that the baby would be fine.

Life is very mysterious and we went through a very tragic event. On June 6, 2008, B ended up in the emergency room with a threatened miscarriage. She was admitted to the hospital and where she was on strict bed rest until we could technically get the baby to 23 weeks. Unfortunately, on June 10, 2008, Ava Marie was born premature and she lived a short life of 30 minutes. We will forever be touched by her presence in our life and we will never ever forget her.

What ended up happening is B’s cervix weakened, causing the amniotic sac to fall down into the cervix and eventually break. There was no other option other than delivering early, otherwise Ava would have suffered severe disabilities due to lack of movement in the womb.

So, after much mourning and months of getting our life back in order, we are ready to try again. We’ve gotten healthier, lost some weight, started exercising, made modifications to our home, and have taken the time to heal.

We are ready.