Thu 5 Apr 2007
The Journey Starts Yesterday
Posted by Liza under Personal, TTC, Are you bored yet?
Yup. As of yesterday, we are officially Trying to Have Another Baby. (I’ll be calling it TTC, for trying to conceive, from now on, because I’m lazy and that’s what all the kids on the Internet call it.)
We met with the very nice woman who runs the fertility practice that Jill picked — mine was horribly inconvenient — and we SO enjoyed talking with her. If I’d met her before I picked my docs, I probably would have picked her too.
And even though we had several entertaining digressions, including women’s basketball and our adoption attorney, the meeting still was much shorter than the 2 hours booked.
That’s because we already have a donor, so she didn’t have to spend the usual 40 minutes discussing “how to pick a donor,” and Jill has already been charting, taking prenatals, and we’re generally familiar with the whole TTC process.
For all of that, she also gave us a discount on the cost of the visit. Bonus! Especially since she is an “out of network” provider, so our cadillac health insurance only covers 70% of the visit, and will probably be a pain about that. (Still, we have some coverage, so I really can’t complain.)
Now, we have an onslaught of tests. And by we, I mean Jill. But after my experience between our DC and ATL doctors, I have become a complete convert to the idea that running a zillion “does everything seem to be working properly?” tests before spending hundreds of dollars on an IUI cycle, is a very good idea indeed.
Hopefully, all of the tests can be done over the next 6 weeks. And REAALLLLLLY HOPEFULLY everything will come out in the normal range.
If that happens, then we’re “good to go” with trying. And if we’re really, really lucky, Jill could wind up getting pregnant almost exactly 2 years after I got pregnant with Noah, giving us 2 little Aquarians.
Unresolved related thoughts:
- We only have 4 units left of our donor. That makes for difficult decisionmaking in terms of how many insems to do per cycle.
- This practice prefers Letrozole to Clomid, which is apparently much more predictable for creating 2 or 3 follicles per cycle, not 2 or 3 or 8 or 15. And their clinical results are only 3% multiples using Letrozole; Dr Google says results are about 8% for mothers taking Clomid.
- So maybe we do 2 insems on the first cycle (assuming one happens) where there are 3 follicles? The theory being that if we have the most targets and the most swimmers, we will have the the best chance of pregnancy. Undecided but leaning that way.
- It turns out that you can get on a WAITING LIST for a donor, and if any of his swimmers come back on the market, you might get them. How weird is that?




April 5th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Oh, such excitement! Jill, do we say “break a leg” since you’re a theatre chick?
April 6th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Or “break an ovary”?
April 6th, 2007 at 4:45 am
Yay Jill! I love being an Aunt! Good Luck!
Hopefully I’ll have to send back some of the maternity clothes in a few months… I have made some updates to the collection!
April 6th, 2007 at 8:06 am
This is very exciting indeed! Given what I know of your parenting skills, this is a very lucky child we’re about to meet…Love from NTEN.
April 6th, 2007 at 8:44 am
good luck.
ok, maybe i’m just weird or gross or something, but isn’t it kind of crazy that somewhere out in the world there is a guy probably spilling his “seed” willy nilly into condoms and kleenex etc. with no idea that there are people elsewhere in the world who would really like to have it?
April 6th, 2007 at 8:51 am
A mailing list??? Pray tell, are you using California Cryobank? please tell me you are …
April 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Congratulations! I’m glad you found a great practice.
I would vote for a single insem per cycle. Two insems do not double your chances of pregnancy, so if you have limited supply, you’ll maximize your odds by spreading the vials over the highest number of cycles.
Good luck!
April 6th, 2007 at 9:49 am
When we first started looking at donors, we got crazy on that thought, Jen!
They’ve raised the costs on the kind of donor we used, which are now $405 per shot!!! It was “only” $285 when we bought ours 3 years ago.
The cost per unit, which varies depending on BOTH what “category” of donor it is (with or without advanced degree, for example) and what type of assisted reproductive technology it will be used for, ranges from $170 - $570 per shot!
FWIW, we decided that this was the kind of purchase where price was about the least important factor (esp since we could pay for it with those pre-tax flexible spending accounts; it is a qualified medical expense). So we ignored the various category classifications and selected based on our criteria and intuition.
Lucky for us, our choice turned out to be in the middle price range.
April 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am
I’m really into this grandma gig, so keep up the good work! Noah and TBD (Aunt Anna aint telling on name possibilities, so for now the soon-to-be-born cousin is To Be Determined) will love having an annoying little sister/brother/cousin to follow them around. I’ll just have fun with all of them.
Love, Grandma
April 6th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Oh, gosh. Liza, your grandma reads your blog. Or is that your mom? Anyway, whoever it is… wow.
Congrats on new baby almost!
I’m still so torn on having another kid, mostly because we can’t, in good conscience, use the same guy. And I think that’s the crux of all of it. And that sucks.
Wishing you a speedy journey to parenthood of two!
April 6th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Yeah, Estelle, Noah’s Grandmas BOTH read the blog. My mom comments occasionally, Jill’s mom tells us her thoughts on the phone.
I totally get your stress about the same donor issue. We’re lucky enough not to have any serious medical issues so far — I don’t know what we’d do in your shoes. Thanks for the good wishes!
April 7th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Best wishes and blessings on Jill’s ovaries! I love that you’re going for a bio-baba mix for both of you.
April 7th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Feminist Mafia — sorry I missed your comment, it was lost in unmoderated comment spam until just now.
Not Cali, Fairfax. (Our swimmers were acquired long before Estelle’s family nightmare came to light.) And not a mailing list; they’ll call if more of our guy comes on the market (pun semi-unintended) and we have 48 hours to buy or pass on him and be dropped from the waiting list.
Thanks, Carrie! We’re excited about the bio/baba for both aspect too. It’s also part of why we want to use the same donor. The genetic connection certainly isn’t everything, but we feel like it’s another thread knitting our family together.
April 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I’m a little late with the congrats, but they’re nonetheless heartfelt!
How exciting for you as a family. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for success on the first try.
I’m so interested in all these bits about donors and insemination and the whole bit. I hope you’ll continue to share your journey?
Congrats again to you, Jill, and Noah.
AND BOTH GRANDMAS! (I LOVE that the grandmas read the blog. LOVE!)
April 8th, 2007 at 6:04 am
Lizzy, I will be sharing the whole roller-coaster. Jill and I discussed it, and I won’t be going into superlative detail on some of the tests and procedures, but everything else is fair game.
I love that both Grandmas read too! And at least 1 Grandpa reads regularly. I think in each household, there’s a regular reading grandparent and an occasional reading grandparent.
Plus work people! And yet, here I am posting this stuff anyway. Am I crazy?
April 9th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Wow…I guess I didn’t know you guys were moving towards another baby!!! That is very exciting news.
Good luck.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Congratulations you three! Soon to be you four, the dieties willing! I have the image of a rollercoaster chair, having just click-click-clicked to the top of the first hump, releasing and whooshing down the first of many hair-raising and dramatic twists and turns. Up go the arms! Yahooie! May you have a swift and successful ride.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Hooray for babies–present and future.