1dpiui (and a bowling mishap)

Yep, the deed is done!  I had my sixth iui yesterday...it took three tries to conceive Miss K, and this is my third (and probably final) try for numero dos.  All told, I did a total of six days of Folli.stim (150), five days of Fem.ara before that, and one ginormous (at least it felt that way) dose of Preg.nyl for my trigger shot.  With a huge needle, no less.  I ended up with one very big follicle, two medium ones that might have been viable at the time of the iui, and quite a few smaller ones.  More than I've had at other iui's, so maybe that's thanks to the Folli.stim.  Everything else my RE said looked great: my lining, the "specimen", my CM, all of it.  I don't think I could have asked for any better conditions, so here's hoping the stars were aligned in my favor.  And now...it's time to sit back and wait.

I can honestly say I pulled out all the stops with this try, and did everything I could, short of IVF.  Last week I was at the clinic on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday.  Thank goodness for a fabulous colleague who covered part of my first period class on Monday and Wednesday--I had very early appointments--and refused any kind of compensation for it.  He's getting cookies, though, and he's not allowed to turn them down! :)  My Thursday appointment forced me to miss forty five minutes of parent conferences, and luckily I only missed two that my amazing student teacher covered for me.  And because we all made it through sixteen hours of parent conferences, four after school on Wednesday and twelve (!!) on Thursday, 8 am until 8 pm, we had no school on Friday, my iui day.  I am still so glad for that, since I felt like absolute crapola afterwards.  I don't remember feeling so awful after my other ones: lower back soreness, and achiness that was kind of like mild cramping.  It lasted all evening, and I spent yesterday evening curled up on the couch.  Thankfully I feel a lot better today.

You know, I feel really good about everything.  If K asks about a sibling later, I can definitely say that I gave it my all.  If it doesn't work, I know with 100 percent certainty that we will be JUST FINE.  No regrets either way.  Yeah, I'll be sad for a while, but I know that there are a LOT of advantages to having an "only".  I can already tell, though, that it's gonna be a LOOONG two week wait!!


PS:  We had a bit of a scare today at a birthday party for one of K's preschool friends.  It was a bowling party at a nearby bowling alley, and she had an absolute BLAST.  After cake and presents, the girls wanted to bowl some more, and K was right there with them.  At this alley there was a metal slide-type thing that you roll the ball down, which gives it momentum down the lane.  During the whole party K was easily able to pick up the child-sized bowling balls and carry them, with arms underneath, over to the slide.  But unfortunately, this time either she slipped or dropped the ball, and landed on it face-down.  You can always tell by that scary cry that she's definitely hurt somehow.  The ball landed on (or rolled on) her hand, and my first thought was that maybe she broke her wrist or her hand.  Thank goodness it's fine, just a little sore.  She also got a bruise and a cut under her chin, and a tiny cut in her mouth, which I never was able to see.  But I tell you, it's no fun seeing blood coming out of the corner of your little girl's mouth and on her chin.  I ended up getting napkins and a cup of ice from the snack bar, and it all looks SO much better now.  Scary, but with a happy ending.  And to think I was considering having her birthday party in March at the same bowling alley!!  Yeah, I'm still considering it, though...we'll see.

Probably my last T42 attempt...

Yes.  Things are really picking up speed in this could-be-last Hail Mary attempt for number two.  (no offense to Catholicism intended, I swear)  I don't know whether I have another attempt in me, though I'm so completely thankful my RE is willing to go ahead with this try.  He actually seems to have NO problem with it whatsoever, possibly because I really don't have any fertility issues other than advanced maternal age (oy), and because I actually managed to have a healthy baby at the ripe old age of forty.  Forty!
He likes to say that I am in the rare one to two percentile category on the bell curve, which I guess is kinda flattering, maybe.  He also has a sister, Nancy, who had a baby naturally (!!!!) at age forty-seven, so you might say he knows that crazy miracles can happen.

• I just finished five days of letro.zole (Fem.ara), and not a moment too soon.  I swear I had a low-grade headache nonstop for all five days.  I don't remember any side effects from last time, but then again, I can't deny that I'm getting older...
• I did my first Folli.stim injection tonight, and it wasn't too bad at all.  Thank goodness I had a video to follow along with.  The injections 101 appointment with the nurse at my RE's office took a full hour and a half, probably because although she had watched the injections process taught to someone else, she had never done the teaching by herself before.  It all worked out fine because we just went over the instructions booklet together, but holy buckets, that appointment was long.  I have two more injections tomorrow evening and Sunday evening.
• My next ultrasound appointment is bright and early Monday morning.  He's going to check the state of my follicles, and decide when I should do the Ovi.drel shot to trigger ovulation.  Insem day might actually be this coming week!  Yikes!
• I turned forty-four on the eighth of this month.  Great birthday, but sobering as well, considering what a long shot this is.  But somehow I feel really, really hopeful, too.  I don't know why.

So there you have it.  I have a BIG week ahead of me.  I keep trying and trying to prepare myself that in all likelihood, this attempt probably won't work.  But it's hard.  Really hard.  I still feel hopeful, maybe because I've never done injectables before and now I really am doing the absolute most I can manage (can't afford IVF, after all).  I really want this to work.  Like, I can't even put into words how badly I want this to work.  And this blog space is pretty much the only place I can be completely honest about that. 

It's going to be a very, very sad day for me if it doesn't work.  But I also know that I'll just be sad and move on, because I am lucky enough to have the world's most awesome 3.5 year old girl who brightens up every little corner of my world. And that's no small thing.

(Another post all about her is coming soon.)

Here is a pic of my beautiful new niece, Piper Rose, whose one-month birthday is this Tuesday, October 22nd: