Hello dear blog, internet, and real life friends… 🙂
I wanted to write a quick post to bring some clarification to all of you and to our current situation… and to get your input on something! 🙂
Basically, I feel like I’m bombarding everybody with fertility posts on Facebook and Instagram (#ctpfertilityjourney) because James and I agreed we wanted to be public about the process in the hopes of educating others on what exactly the process is, and what those facing infertility go through. That brings me to a question I want to ask all of you… Do you feel like we are doing that? Or are you just getting annoyed with posts about our appointments and experience without any real clarification?
Meaning… Should we be doing more? Should we be doing less? Or is what we are doing OK?
We really want to bring more clarity to this for those who truly want to learn about it in hopes of better supporting their family and friends going through it. That being said, I’m not positive I know how to do that in the best way without feeling like it is all I talk about (since we are in the midst of it right now), and boring/frustrating people who are tired of hearing about it. (Or maybe I’m projecting and feeling like you MUST all be sick of hearing about it… aren’t you?!) While at the same time I feel like I should be explaining more of what we are specifically doing at each appointment… but honestly, it is pretty intimate for the most part (pokes, prodding, tests, ultrasounds) that I really don’t think you want to hear about… nor am I sure I want to share the specifics of! haha.
This is all to say… what would you like from us? Do you feel like we are sharing too much? Too often? Not enough? Do you have questions?
I really want to use this experience to help others and I hope we are doing that – but I’m hitting the point where we are going to appointments a lot, and I really don’t want to annoy you all away by over-sharing on FB and Instagram (since I only post occasionally here, those are the two places I’m most worried about). So please let me know!
And while I’m on here talking about this – I might as well update you so you aren’t all confused about where we are at with all the appointments I’ve been posting about lately! Basically, we are at the very start of the cycle for our first IUI. That means I just went in yesterday for my “baseline testing”, which is getting blood drawn and doing an ultrasound to see how my ovaries and uterus are looking at the start of my cycle. They want to make sure everything is looking good and ready to go before we start the process – and they want a starting point to monitor the process from. I’ll go in next week Thursday again for more blood work and another ultrasound to monitor what has changed since the last appointment. The whole point is to keep track of the changes in my body, so that when I’m close to ovulation I can give myself a shot to force ovulation to happen so that when we do the IUI, we know exactly when I have ovulated – obviously. (It’s all about timing, people.)
This first attempt at the IUI we are doing naturally, meaning that I am not on any medication to start. We are just tracking my natural cycle, forcing ovulation with a shot, and I’m taking progesterone to help better prepare my body for possible conception & to maintain a healthy pregnancy if I were to get pregnant. If this doesn’t work the first time around, we’ll adjust the process for the next cycle after discussing our options with our doctor.
All that is to say – we are just doing a whole lot of tests and monitoring right now, and I’m assuming we’ll be doing the IUI (which is really what this is all leading up to) towards the end of the month…. which is when we’ll really need all your good juju, prayers, happy thoughts, and whatever else you want to send our way! 😉 And obviously I’ll be keeping you updated about that date since that is really the big moment.
So that is it! That is where we currently are with things, and please let me know your thoughts to my questions above if you care to let me know if we are doing okay, or annoying the living something out of you. haha
And now – we are off to enjoy a beautiful Easter weekend with my family in Wisconsin!!! Thank you a million times over again and again for all your support!
This is one of my favorite photos from last Easter of our niece photobombing us during a self-timer pic! haha (Because no post is complete without a picture!)
See you all back here on Monday!! Love. Love. LOVE! xoxo
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(If you aren’t aware what an IUI is, I suggest reading more about it HERE. Many people get it confused with IVF, which is a more in-depth (and expensive) process.)
