Today I will start taking the pill again and will be on it for 21 days. After that it will depend on the protocol our RE gives us on Friday for this next IVF cycle. I am getting excited for Friday and am starting a list of questions for our RE about what may have gone wrong with our 1st cycle and how he thinks our 2nd try might be different. I understand that he may not have a theory about why it didn’t work and that will be okay.
Last night Bob and I went to a free patient education seminar hosted by our RE’s office called “Investigating Adoption.” We were curious to learn more about this option in case we would decide to pursue it if and when we are not successful in having another child through IVF. Going into the seminar I thought it might be realistic for us to start the adoption process now, in conjunction with IVF treatments, so that if IVF ultimately doesn’t work for us in the next year or so, we would have a “head start” on adopting, which we understood could take anywhere from 9 months to 2 years or more. Being the crazy multi-tasker that I am, I guess I thought I was being both proactive and efficient to see if it would make sense to get things going now, so that if IVF doesn’t work for us we would already be on the road to adopting a child and would thus “save time!” After 3 years trying to conceive another child, trying IVF for another year before starting the adoption process seemed like an eternity to me, in terms of when we might finally actually have another child join our family.
All that said, after listening, learning and asking a lot of questions at the seminar last night, Bob and I were very overwhelmed with everything that is involved in the adoption process and realized that it does not make sense for us to attempt to purse adoption while actively undergoing IVF treatment. We heard a lot of things that we found very interesting and encouraging about both domestic and international adoption and we certainly plan to seriously consider both options down the road, if and when we either exhaust our insurance coverage for IVF/FET treatments and/or our RE tells us that he no longer thinks we could be successful with treatments, whichever comes first. However we now realize that it is too much for us to consider trying to pursue both at the same time. We want to be able to give whichever avenue we choose to try expand our family, at any given time, our full energy and attention.
More and more we are also opening ourselves to the idea of being content in moving forward with our lives as a family of three. We feel very blessed to be in a happy marriage with an amazing son and have not ruled out the option of going on with our lives with our only child who we love so much. If we went that route we realize there is still a slim chance at some point we might conceive another child on our own, which we would welcome and love, but it is unlikely.
What I found most helpful about last night’s meeting and Bob and my discussion following it was that we now have a clear and realistic understanding about the pros and cons of domestic and international adoption and the process involved if we choose to pursue either someday. I am pleased that Bob and I are on the same page about our plan going forward and we feel that it is best for our family to focus on only IVF treatment right now and the hope that gives us that we might be able to expand our family that way.
Three of the past four nights Sean has woken up with a dry “pull-up” diaper! We are excited for and proud of him! We have been giving him some positive reinforcement (i.e. little toys as rewards) every morning that he does so and it seems to have been motivating him. Another big milestone in our little boy’s life! Sean got up at the bright and early time of 5:45 a.m. today (proudly running into our room to announce that his pull up was dry and that he was going to go to the bathroom next) and didn’t get a nap this afternoon, so I am off give him a bath and get him ready for an early bedtime!
Thank you for reading and for your continued support, thoughts and prayers.
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