A long one...

Okay, I warned you, but this is going to be a long one. Many of you already know almost all of this, but I wanted to get it somewhere where it would be forever. So, just skip the parts you don't want to read.

Where do I begin?? First of all, I wasn't sure how much of this I wanted to disclose, but as my friend, Melissa, and I have been checking out other blogs on the same thing it has been so helpful to me. I only hope that I can be helpful to others in the same way. Plus, this will be a great journal of information for me (since right now it's on a small piece of paper next to the computer).

It all began at the end of May 2004 when we were celebrating our one year anniversary. Jason and I decided that it was time to start our family. Obviously, we didn't know the plans God had for us! For the first 2.5 years (yep, that's right!) we didn't really give it much thought. We just went about our normal "business" and figured it would happen. In October 2006, I started tracking my cycles and reading things online about ovulation and when was a good time to try, etc and told myself that if we weren't pregnant by my next appointment, we would check into this more. After 3.5 years went by (I was coming up on my 30th birthday and five year wedding anniversary), everyone was asking when we were going to have a baby and everyone around me was getting pregnant and having babies (love you ladies!!! and, thanks for letting me drool over your kiddos!), I figured it was about time to get serious. Now, if you know Jason at all, you know that he is not a worrier and is very calm so he just kept saying it will happen. The good thing was that he was totally up for whatever I wanted to do. So, at my appointment in October, I finally asked my doctor what we could do. They took a blood sample and ran some tests and then took a sample from Jason and everything appeared normal. Since there was no real reason for us not getting pregnant (that they could see), we started on some medication. Here's how that went:

November 2007 - 50mg Clomid, no injection (Jason was out of town on a business trip)
December 2007 - 50mg Clomid with Ovidrel, BFN
January 2008 - 50mg Clomid with Ovidrel, BFN & HSG procedure
February 2008 - 50mg Clomid with Ovidrel, BFN
March 2008 - 50mg Clomid with Ovidrel, BFN

I read lots of blogs and found one particularly interesting (Suz). She got pregnant on her first round of Clomid with quadruplets (yep, that's right FOUR babies!!) so I had really good thoughts about trying the Clomid. After the first couple rounds came and went, I will admit that it started to get pretty frustrating, disappointing, sad, etc, but I just wasn't quite ready to move on to more serious stuff. After five rounds of Clomid, my ob/gyn was ready to refer me on to a fertility specialist (RE - reproductive endocrinologist). I wasn't sure where this would lead us, but I knew that my neighbor, Tiffany, had seen Dr. Jarrett, and she couldn't say enough good things about him. AND, he is in my network for my insurance. Of course, we are only praying for ONE baby (I know they were, too.).

We had our first appointment/consultation with Dr. Jarrett on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. I was shocked at how quickly we were able to get in to see him (two weeks after I called). The other great thing was that we were able to meet with him in Bloomington! (For those who aren't familiar, Dr. Jarrett's main office is in the Indianapolis area. He goes to Champaign once a week and comes to Bloomington about once every other month. Needless to say, we were VERY lucky to get in with him so quickly and not have to drive to Champaign or Indy. And, the best part is that he was so easy to talk to and very knowledgable.) Dr. Jarrett ordered two tests to be done with Jason's sample - SDD and SDFA . Here's the next two months:

April 08 - TTC naturally (this is when we made the appointment to see Dr. Jarrett)
May 08 - TTC naturally (test results not in yet)

On May 23, 2008, we received the results from Jason's tests...NORMAL! The nurse even said that she had never seen the results come back so good. What a blessing! But, this still leaves us wondering why we can't get pregnant. The new medications were called in to Walgreen's so I picked them up to be ready to start on the next cycle. I guess I thought that I was only picking up three medicines (Letrozole, Ovidrel, and Progesterone)....little did I know that it was six different things! I had the Letrozole (pills), Bravelle with needles and syringes (injections I have to mix! - little nervous about that one), Ovidrel (injection I've done before), and lots of Progesterone pills. But, the good news is that my insurance is AWESOME! I paid only $80 for medications worth over $1,000!

My June cycle was such a bummer! I really thought we would be able to get started this month, but I started my period while we were on vacation. Unfortunately, I didn't bring any meds with me because I thought I wouldn't have to take them until after my ultrasound. If only I would have listen to my instinct and brought them because we could have started them if Dr. Jarrett would have let me start unmonitored since I don't have a history of cysts.

So, that brings everyone up to date. We are now in the middle of our first IUI! Insemination is tentatively planned for next Tuesday and Wednesday. Please keep us in your prayers!!

For those of you who don't know the infertility lingo...here's your lesson:

TTC - Trying to Conceive
BFN/BFP - Big Fat Negative/Big Fat Positive (as in pregnancy test results)
IVF - In vitro fertilization
IUI - Intrauterine insemination
HSG - Hysterosalpingogram (test to determine if the tubes are open or blocked in any way)
RE - Reproductive Endocrinologist (this is the specialist)