Updates

92 days until I start my stim shots for our 1st IVF. Next month we do the mock transfer, start BCPs, & get our meds, I guess? Or would that be in November?

We had our 1st MAPP class last night. Got to connect with a few of the couples & that was nice. We're still very interested in fostering. Although the home visits/studies, paperwork, references, etc seem very intimidating. I mean, how painful would it be to finally get to a point where adoption is your choice, then you are under scrutiny for everything about your house, location, church membership, family/friend relationships, etc.

I know, other people do it... you have to when you are adopting. But, it just seems to add more pain/frustration/insecurities to the mix.

Seems weird to think that people get pregnant if they "try", pop a baby out, & take them home without any outside help/ART/social workers, etc. Weird how infertility changes us.

In money news, we are over 63% at our needed funds for IVF. Kind of exciting. Our last major fund raiser (the 2nd yard sale) will be at the end of the month... assuming we don't have a hurricane come through that weekend. I've already been selling clothes, some DVDs & book, too. Got $144 already in "presales" for the yard sale. Here's to hoping we get $500+. I dare say $800-$1000. Mmm, that would be nice.

Yard Sale #2 Progress

We have received so many donations for our 2nd yard sale (scheduled for 10/25/08) that I started going through the stuff & put some ads on craigslist. I sell 'em cheap, so I wasn't sure if I'd just be doing too much work for too little money... but since Sunday, we've already made $38.70 in pre-sales. Pretty cool. And we'll probably do more. Here's a shot of our guest/craft room filled with clothes. I know it's messy, but this way if someone wants a certain size... I can pop the box in my car & meet them in "town". (Oh, yeah... we live in the country. We commute to "town" for work, so sometimes it works better for others to meet us after work!)


The goal for this yard sale was initially $500. With all the stuff we've gotten (including several pieces of furniture), I think we may get $700-$800 at least! Pretty exciting.

Also, we will be receiving a car from a family member. This will allow us to sell my car... which will help us with savings for the IVF/ICSI in December & hubby's tuition due in January for the spring semester. Paying graduate rates suck, but at least we don't have to go into debt for it. Something to be thankful for... since I still owe almost $3k for my undergrad degree. That I'm now working on an associates degree. LOL. Life is weird.

Less than 2 months until my mock transfer. And with my cycles (which was 1 day late...), it appears I will need to start the BCPs in October to match up properly for the Dec4 start date.

We also just got the application for fostering & adoption with the agency we picked out. We plan to still fill them out & attend the MAPP (I found out what it means: Model Approach to Parenting Practice... umm, I think that's right. It's something like that! LOL)

Article Featuring our Fertility Clinic

Since this article posting... FIRM actually has 150+ babies born from cryopreserved oocytes/eggs. The best in the nation.

Oocyte Cryopreservation

Check it out if you wanna read.

FlippyFloppy

Yes, I am. "IVF December: I'm so excited" "IVF December: Maybe I should wait? Will we have enough money?"

Well, TODAY I feel excited. I went back over our money building & we will have enough for the cycle without having to borrow anything. Shelling out that much money will be painful, but what I am hoping for is that we can have at least 2 or 4 blasts to freeze. I don't want to do the oocyte freezing as the low success rates & I don't think PN stage is really giving the embies as good of a chance. The strongest survival rate of the thaw is the blasts & I felt much better about this decision when I found out from my cryo lady that they do not expire the cells. They wait & continue letting the embies grow until they arrest or stop functioning. I guess I was worried they would just say "These don't look as good, so we're not freezing them" & let the little guys die. I'm glad to hear they continue nurturing them until they are ready to freeze or arrest on their own.

So, I don't want to get my hopes up too much about the fresh cycle, although I want it to work... but I do want to have some FETs to roll off this cycle. Since we probably won't be able to do another IVF cycle. Depending on how this cycle plays out, we will still have many decisions to make. I guess that's another thing I was trying to put off, by delaying IVF a bit longer.

But all factors seem to be pointing to December as the right month. Even the start date they offer (because of the holidays, they only do 2 start dates in December... normally they cycle every Thursday, I guess?).

Will probably flop tomorrow, but for now I'm flippy. And excited. And nervous, but hopeful. Thankful we have an option. Thankful we can afford it.

Looking Into Other Options

Well, I started calling around to take the MAPP classes around here. I'm not sure if it's just a Florida thing, but to foster or adopt (at least through the agency we plan to adopt through if that ends up happening) we have to take the 30 hour MAPP class.

So, I thought since we will have to take it eventually & it's free & the certification doesn't expire... that we'd look into it.

We're signed up to take a 5wk course starting in October. I really enjoyed speaking with the one girl about registering & getting info about fostering & foster-to-adopt.

I'm still getting highs & lows about the high expense of IVF & the big chance it may not work. Maybe it's part of self-protection, but I'm having more & more feelings to delay the cycle. Nursing school is not nearly as important as becoming a mother, but I'm wondering if I should just wait 3-4 months to give me the best shot of completing nursing school on schedule. If I couldn't because I was pregnant... hello... it's a win/win situation period. But it would also give us more time to save & allow me to feel a bit less restrictive when it comes to saving.

Anyone out there understand what I'm saying? If I knew it would work, I'd for sure do it. I'm just wondering how miserable the Christmas/New Years holidays may be. Then again, the tax implications will really be better to do the cycle this calendar year. And if I did get pregnant with a singleton, I'd probably be able to finish out the program unless there were complications.

So much to think about & I'm so sick of having to think about it. And wonder what the RIGHT thing for us is. I just wish I knew.

Much love out there to everyone cycling & waiting & already got their BFP.

Can I Just Say...

That I love my clinic?

In the past two days, I've spoken with the financial manager for numbers, the IVF nurse, & someone in the cryo office.

Talked about the procedure for either oocyte or embryo cryo (at either PN, day2, day3, or blast stage), the cost, the possible effects, tons of stuff. And I'm pretty much a nerd when it comes to finding out AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE about something I'm interested in. So, I ask lots of questions.

The nurse is great & always is patient, non-rushing, calm, non-judgemental.

The financial side is on top of the money & helpful.

But the cryo lady was awesome. You can tell she loves what she's doing. The oocyte program is kind of her baby, but she is well experienced in the embryo program, too. She was so informed & answered all of my questions. Even offered me her email address.

This makes me feel that nervous/shaky/excited kinda thing. It's exciting knowing this is on the move & my body just reacts this way. Crazy.

I will still plan to head over in October for the mock transfer. I can start the BCP as early as October or as late as November. It'll depend on my cycle.

And I love the fact that they keep saying how young I am. I sure don't feel young, but I guess I am pretty young compared to many of their other patients. Of course we don't know how good my eggs will be, but statistically speaking they should "work" pretty well. I certainly hope so.

Will keep ya updated on our progress.

Anyone Done...

oocyte cryopreservation instead of embryos?

We're looking into that. Haven't called to find out how the process would work, but we're pretty interested. Just wanted to put feelers out to see if anyone else out there had done it.

Still not too much going on IF-related. Except for saving & planning add'l fundraisers.

Hope this post finds everyone out there doing well.