Though I am sure most of you already know this… I just wanted to give a little background to our trying to conceive (TTC) story. Bob and I met in college at the University of Illinois through mutual friends on September 2, 1996. We started dating a month later and got engaged on March 15, 1999. We got married on September 23, 2000. We waited 1 1/2 years before we started TTC, as we wanted to settle into our marriage/new life together. When we did decide to start a family we were able to conceive our son Sean Owen after 10 cycles of trying and he was born on October 2, 2003. Our pregnancy was relatively normal and he was born via c-section at 41 weeks after a long augmented labor. Sean is now 3 1/2 years old, he is a sweetheart and so much fun to be around! We feel very blessed and lucky to have him as our son!
When Sean was 9 months old (July 2004) we started trying to have another child. Since then we have had three pregnancy losses. It took us 5 cycles to conceive our 1st Angel baby who we lost on 12/1/04 at 7 weeks, estimated due date (EDD) would have been 7/20/05. It took us 8 cycles to conceive our 2nd Angel baby who we lost on 8/19/05 at 4 weeks 2 days, EDD would have been 4/26/06. It took us 2 cycles to conceive our 3rd Angel baby who we lost on 11/4/05 to an interstitial ectopic pregnancy that was removed (via c-section) at 7 weeks 5 days, EDD would have been 6/18/06 (Father’s Day). We had to wait 6 cycles before we could try again after the ectopic to give my uterus time to heal from the surgery. My right tube is blocked and u/s techs have had problems “finding” my right ovary, so we are not sure if that is even functional. Since we have been able to try again in April 2006 we have not had success.
We were referred to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) at our annual appointment with our OB/GYN in January. Our RE gave us a 1-2% chance of being able to conceive on our own now in any given cycle (based on our history and test results, though they mostly came back normal). He feels our best chance is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). He gave us a conservative estimate of a 25% success rate. Due to concerns about my uterus being able to handle multiples after the surgery to remove the ectopic, they will only put one embryo in at the Embryo Transfer (ET). They plan to go for a day 5 transfer (hoping the embryo will have made it to the blastocyst stage), do Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) and assisted hatching (if needed).
It has been a long road for us TTC another child and we are feeling the most optimistic than we have in a long time with this 1st cycle of IVF. We know that there are no guarantees, but we feel some hope that we might be able to conceive again. With our history of losses we understand that is only half the battle, but we are trying to take this one step/one day at a time.
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What a journey you have ahead of you…I’m happy to have become a part of it.
Here from the future. I don’t think I even knew the details of your three losses. So much to endure. I’m so sorry you went through all of that. I can’t imagine waiting all those months to get pregnant, only to do so and loss it, again and again. I would have lost all hope. And then to know of the loss still ahead. I don’t know why some people have to endure so much suffering before they get to where they want to be. And of course the suffering makes it so they never really get there, not really, not in the way they originally had hoped. I’m so glad you have your family now, though I’m so sorry that you had to endure so much loss to get there.
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