The Known Donor Question

We have been talking a lot about what to do if our next two cycle attempts don't work out.  Finically unless there is some sort of windfall of cash, two more tries is it as far as the fertility doctor is concerned.  But we REALLY want another baby and so we have been thinking about other paths, which naturally leads to the idea of a known donor with at home inseminations.  We really don't want to use a total stranger for this, that's just too weird for us, but how to approach the known donor thing is weird too.  It's weird to brainstorm all of the men we know in the area and consider them.  We have two or three that we might consider.  But I'm not sure how to ask them.  Will it be weird if they say no? Will it be weird if they say yes?  Would it be better to just do ICIs at home with frozen sperm?  It would be more expensive but do able at least a few times.  And legally how complicated is a known donor?  I found a lawyer locally who does this sort of thing, but does the cost of the lawyer defeat the purpose of using a known donor?  Is someone who lives an hour and half/two hours away too far?  Is it too close for it to be someone S works with?  Is it too impersonal to send a Facebook message to the "candidates" seeing if they'd be open to it or does it need to be an in person conversation?  Any readers use a known donor?  I'd love to hear your experience!

Next week we go to Mexico!  I'm so excited!  We have decided to skip this cycle as S will probably ovulate like the day before we leave, which is not only too stressful, but also it would be annoying to not be able to drink on a vacation at an all inclusive just because of a TWW.  S would be SO mad to do that and then end up not pregnant.  I'm a little nervous about how things at the resort will work with Jude.  He is a picky eater and goes to bed by 7.  So I'm going to pack a ton of snacks that I know he'll eat and we will just have to do the best we can with playing it by ear in the evenings as to if we keep him up, one of us stays in for the evening or what.  No matter what though it's going to be fun and a well deserved break from work stress for S.

-Liz 

A Messed Up Cycle but a Fun Weekend

So we are guessing that by testing only in the afternoon that we missed S ovulating this month or she just didn't ovulate this month.  Not sure what happened there, but I think next month S will probably go back to testing twice a day again.  And randomly she started her period today, even though she is only on like cycle day 19 or 20, I think.  So weird and not like her.  Now I am not sure what is going on with this cycle and when we will next inseminate.  We have a trip to Mexico planned for next month and timing wise things were going to work out so that if we did inseminate then we'd know pregnant or not before we left.  Now, if she ovulates in two weeks like normal then it puts her in the TWW during our trio, which would be so annoying.  So skip this next cycle and not try again til December?  That sucks too.  

This weekend we went to the Texas State Fair and had too much fun and too much fried food.  We met S's dad and brother.  So the guys took Jude on the rides for the most part and I can't believe how brave he was.  Oh and he is still sleeping through the night, even on an air mattress at S's brothers house.  Crazy.  He gets his next toy reward tomorrow if tonight is another success and I think it will be. Now for some state fair pics.

Sticker Chart

Jude has always been a terrible sleeper.  He gets up a million times, he is hard to put to bed, he gets up early, he wants milk all night long.  And at 3 1/2 it's getting more than old.  Recently he has been getting up 1-3 times a night, which hasn't been too bad.  He just wants us to come in his room and lay with him for a minute or two and then he is back to sleep.  Sometimes it's because of a bad dream or something else scaring him but more often it is just out of habit that he calls out for us.  

So, to try to stop this on Sunday S made him a sticker chart.  The deal is that if he sleeps through the night and doesn't yell for us and stays quiet in his room until his bunny clock (which I really recommend if you have problems with a super early riser, basically you program it to show when the bunny should be awake and when he should be alseep) is awake the. He gets two stickers.  If he gets up just once he gets one sticker.  And for every ten stickers he gets a new toy.  So far it is working!!  I can't believe it.  The first night I was convinced was a coincidence, he had gotten the flu mist the day before which seems to wipe him out a bit.  But now it's been four days and he has slept all through the night every night but one.  And the night he got up it was only once and he was scared.  With how awesome he has been doing if he sleeps through the night tonight tomorrow he will have enough stickers to get a toy already!  S is a genius and I'm the most well rested I've been in YEARS, seriously.  

In TTC news we are still waiting for S to get the positive OPK.  Hopefully it will be today as she is on cycle day 15 or 16, I can't remember which.  The doctors office wanted her to just test in the afternoons so we are a little worried we missed it.  But you'd think you'd have a positive in the afternoon still, that it wouldn't be THAT easy to miss.  We will see.  

-Liz 

Breath Holding Spell

On Thursday at Tball Jude had what doctors call a breath holding spell.  So scary!  He was at practice and they were running the bases as a group.  Around second base he tripped and fell and the kid running close behind him fell/stepped on him.  Ouch!  I could tell from the stands that he was hurt and started coming onto the field to comfort him when I saw that he was still down but not crying.  One of the coaches went to pick him up and set him on his feet and you could tell he was just limp.  So I run flat out to him and his face is red/purple and his lips are turning blue.  He isn't breathing and his eyes are rolling back in his head.  I grab him from the coach and slam him to the ground and start blowing in his mouth and hitting his chest, swearing the whole time.  I'm convinced he is dying, that's how frantic I was.  He comes to and starts crying, thank god.  One of the moms there is a pediatrician or pediatric nurse or something like that and she looks him over and he seems fine.  So we go home and he is fine but this is worrying.  He's done something like this twice before, once when he fell and once when he was just throwing a fit.  But both times it lasted like 20 scones and we were right there to get him breathing again.  So S called our pediatrician and we went in this morning with him just to be sure he was ok.  He has a slight heart murmur so we wanted to be sure that wasn't an underlying factor.  Anyway, they said it was a classic breath holding spell and that he was fine, it was just a scary thing some kids do, but they will be fine, it's not going to hurt them at all.  Whew!  Anyone else's kid scare the crap out of them this week?

-Liz 

Fertility drug discussion again??

I called to tell the dr. I had started my period and would see him in 14-16 days for the IUI treatments. He had the nurse call me back and explain that he suggests a stronger treatment.  I thought we had this discussion already and I made it clear that I wanted to try naturally for a while, but apparently not clear enough. So...I am curious, how many unmedicated cycles did your dr let you do before trying to push drugs into it?  I want a few more. Really I want as many as I feel like without being bothered about my decision again.  We have done 3 unmedicated and 1 medicated try this round. Everything on ultrasounds looks good...eggs and uterus look how they should. I already did the dye test and it was normal.  I feel like it is just a matter of time.  Am I crazy to feel like doing them unmedicated should not be an issue??  How many times did your dr let you try without medication?

-s