In the beginning....

I have always found that beginning a blog was the hardest thing to do. From picking a name to figuring out what to say in the first post, it is all like getting out of bed in the morning. I have had a variety of blogs in the 10 or so years since discovering the art, but I am hoping this one last a bit more since I will be writing about my upcoming family.

My wonderful hubby, Brett, and I meet 10 years ago this coming April. I would love to say that it was love at first sight, but alas, it was far from it. He was really cute and had me doubting my recent choice of boyfriends until he opened his mouth and promptly stuck his foot into it. Needless to say, his first impression wasn't too endearing. At some point, he started growing on me, and we started dating in October of '02. After just over 4 years of being together, Brett finally popped the question with a wonderful surprise proposal with the help of my family on Christmas Eve '06, and we were married in October of  2008, our sixth anniversary.

In the September prior to our first wedding anniversary, we made the decision to start trying for a family, and I stopped taking birth control. We didn't think it would take long, but it was very clear within a few months of being off the pill that something might be wrong. We didn't focus too much on it though because we were trying to purchase our first home at the same time so we chalked it up to the stress related to that. When things didn't straighten out afterward, we started talking to my obgyn at the time. Testing in May confirmed what we were afraid of; one of us was definitely having a problem. That person was me. Apparently, my body was not producing the hormones needed to ovulate and keep a pregnancy, and there was a possibility I had Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). A HSG procedure in July confirmed is was mainly a hormone disruption since my tubes were completely clear.

While the news was pretty upsetting, my obgyn luckily had what we thought was a solution. I would try using a fertility drug clomid in order to help me ovulate. The first round occurred in September. Everything went fine. I had ovulation and a nice shot in the butt to help hopefully seal the deal. Unfortunately, my lack of hormones caused me to lose everything in what was called a chemical pregnancy. We tried a second round the next month, and we discovered afterwards that we had ovulated before the time and missed the chance to conceive. We took a break for the holidays in hopes it would give a us a fresh start. Everything went fine with third time, and we were really hopefully. However, things were interrupted to deal with a family situation. My younger sister unexpectedly gave birth to my niece, and the stress of the situation prevented us from giving the care we needed to our situation.

After three failed attempts, my obgyn ushered us on to reproductive specialist. We sat down with the specialist, and he gave us the really skin on all the testing. Brett got a glowing review, and I got an official PCOS diagnosis. This lead to the fact that we had a 1-5% chance to actually become pregnant on our own. Normal range is about 20-25% each month. We were given four options, three IUI and IVF. Since we were are the beginning of our journey, IVF wasn't on the table. We opted for the third IUI option of a combination of daily shots. First round IUI round didn't start off well, but after a medicine hike, I ended up ovulating 8 eggs along with another 6 waiting. So the specialist made the smart move and told us no go for the IUI since I could possible be the world's next octomom.  The second round had me only producing one egg, and the IUI did not take for conception. At that point, the specialist said we might be better suited to IVF. We decided to a take a break for a couple of months to explore our options.

While taking the treatments, I had started researching PCOS. I discovered that I had several obvious symptoms early in my twenties, and if my obgyn at the time had listened, the issue might have been controlled early on. I decided to switch obgyn to see if a second opinion might come in handy. The new obgyn listened to me and placed me on some meds to help lose weight. The weight lose could possible help trigger the hormone I needed to get pregnant. Brett and I were also beginning to seriously research adoption. We were considering one more IUI cycle before going the adoption route. However, we were presented with the situation of adopting my niece. We happily agreed to start the process.

Around the same time, I made the realization that I hadn't gotten my cycle yet. This wasn't too abnormal for us considering what we had gone through, but we decided to check things out anyway. I took the test that night not thinking too much about it and with little hope. We were a bit shocked when a very faint plus sign came up. Not wanting to get excited, we assumed it was faint because the test was a bit old. I had one more test, and I decided I would check in the morning for confirmation. When I took the test the next morning, another faint plus mark came up again. It was a bit darker than the first, but it still wasn't enough for us to be sure. I purchased another test at the store and took it when I got to school. This time there was no denying what the answer was. This plus sign was very dark and affirmed that I was pregnant. We were psyched about the situation but nervous considering our past.

By 9 weeks, we had a strong heart beat, and the baby has been developing right on plan. In February we learned that we were having a boy, and he is currently due to arrive on July 9th. Tomorrow I head in for my 6 month appointment a little early since next week is the week before state testing (being no-no time to take off even for a doc appointment).

I decided to redo this blog in order to keep tabs on journey to his birth and the changes to our lives after he joins our family. I named the blog after the foursquare point for our house. When I told Brett about the name, he decided to point out the irony of the fact that managed to reference not one but two different books which I had yet to read. I guess I have to actually finish the Hitchhiker's series now.