Dr Surrey fan club.

Today was our (phone) consult w/ Dr. Surrey about what to do about #2. He was super congratulatory on the pregnancy, asking how I was doing, how the pregnancy was going, etc. The big hang-up with #2 is what to do about breast feeding. It's apparently a big deal. Everyone (and their cousin) says to breastfeed, and then has a caveat (which I"m not going to get into here...). Dr. Surrey said that he didn't want cycling to get in the way of breast feeding, BUT that I would fall into the should cycle ASAP category. W/O BF'ing, he'd like to see 1-2 'normal' cycles before doing testing again. (wants to repeat FSH, Clomid challenge test and do a hysteroscopy to see how the uterus has fared). After the testing, he said I could cycle as soon as the cycle after that. (can you imagine??)

WITH breast feeding, he said a period should generally come back in 6 months, and then do the testing 1-2 cycles after the period has returned. But some women don't see a return of their regular cycle (I was always a regular cycler, thankfully!) until completely weaning altogether. So really, who knows. *shrug*

We said we'd like to do the same thing again, and just not transfer the embies until a later date... he said that was a perfectly fine idea, and there was no ill effects seen by them of leaving the embies vitrified for a longer period of time. Since we did CGH, he said he'd probably recommend that again, but now micro-array was another option. He said that the technology isn't ready yet, but there's more potential for micro-array to test for more things than just chromosomes (CGH only does chromosomes).

So, in summary, the SOONEST I could cycle for #2 would be w/o breast feeding, and could be as early as October. (2 months for cycle to appear, one cycle to do the testing, then do stims the next cycle-- so that'd be 4 cycles from delivery). The LATEST would be well, um... never- already missed the boat. Regardless of *when*, I'm worried that the testing results alone will put me out of the running to cycle again.

One of his final comments was "Enjoy your pregnancy, I'm not going anywhere." Kind, but not exactly comforting to a paranoid semi-infertile.

ETA: D and I do not agree on what to do next, or when... he also heard a completely different conversation than I did w/ Dr. Surrey. Breast feeding is still an issue we have to work out.

Happy Easter!

Easter... ahhh, another one of those kid-centric holidays. Usually it's a low-key weekend with maybe a family dinner involved. This year Cynthia became Catholic, so we went to the 3-hour Easter Vigil Mass. Today we went over to my brother's house for family dinner (at 3pm, I never really did understand that). Today wraps up a very *busy* week in the fertile world around us! FOUR of our friends/family told us they were pregnant. Only one was remotely expected.
Big congrats go out to:
Donna 14w along
Marnie 16w along
Lori 17w along
and
Patricia 5w along after IVF #2 at SIRM in LA. (they transferred 2 5day blasts after not having any make it to ET for IVF #1!)

All of these would usually be seriously traumitizing announcements to hear. Tho now I strangely don't care. You know, congrats to them and all that, but I'm not internalizing it as horrible news, and oh-woe-is-me... I find that kind of surprising.

In other 'moving on' news, we have a phone consult set up w/ Dr. Surrey on the 21st to talk about #2. I don't know if it's even possible to use my eggs, will I have to do the testing again? How long do we have to wait? Will breast feeding mess with any of the hormones up more, do I need to not BF to proceed w/ this? Lots of unknowns.

What I *do* know is that when the testing was finished in May 08, Surrey said we had to cycle ASAP if we wanted to use my eggs. And now it'll be at least a year later. It's at least worth asking the questions before making any decisions (of course!). If we are able for me to cycle again, it probably would be ASAP. We would do the same genetic testing and then a later FET. But really, I'm not that crazy to have intentional 'Irish twins'. We'd probably leave 'em frozen for a year or two, then do the FET. If not, well... ummm... then it's back to the drawing board. Having only one child has never been an acceptable option for either of us.

Oh, and I'm almost 32w along, all is well... so now I'm just going to move on to the Next Big Thing to obsess about!

What? Labor and delivery? Isn't that the Next Big Thing? Well, perhaps.... but I'm enjoying denial again. It's quite lovely.

Slacking...

Ok, so I've totally ignored my blog for a good month now. I have some catching up to do! Please scroll down to read the updates, I'm back dating things as they happened so it'll be accurate time-wise... (for posterity!)

TODAY's news is that baby's coming home outfit arrived. I hemmed and hawed over it for months, and finally decided I couldn't find anything cuter, so went ahead and bought it. It's *adorable*.

Do you know how to 'have a baby'?

D has always been insistent that we take classes to 'prepare' ourselves for the baby's arrival. I prefer denial... I'll deal with it when it's happening. Regardless of whatever class you do or don't take, the baby *is* coming out! So, last Sunday we had our 8 hour "how to have a baby' class at the hospital I'll be delivering at. It was semi-useful. I *did* get almost an hour massage/back rub out of it during the relaxation techniques segment. It was a loooong day. I know D was glad to have gone. Now he thinks we should take (or I should, at minimum) a 'baby care' class. Ugh. We'll see.