Hello ICLW!

Holy mackerel is it seriously ICLW already?  Where the heck did the month GO?! 

Hello to anyone new out there!  I haven't done ICLW in a few months because we've kind of been stagnating and I just didn't know what to say anymore.  But, we're back in the swing of things, now. 

Here's the mini-review:

I'm Rebecca (36) and my DH I have been "trying" for about three years -- coming up on our anniversary in a few weeks.  The incredibly detailed details are in Our TTC History  tab above but the brief summary (well, as brief as I'm capable of) is this:  3 years, 24 natural cycles, 2 horrid Clomid cycles, 4 Femara IUIs, 2 Follistim IUIs, lots of cycles canceled for cysts, 1 hysteroscopy, 1 laparasocopy, 1 "surprise" no-help pregnancy, 1 missed miscarriage found at 11.5 weeks.

Which leads us to now -- our first IVF cycle.  I finished up my last BCP on Sunday and have been spotting and cramping ever since.  (Actually, I started spotting and cramping before my last pill which seemed a little weird.)  Tomorrow morning is my baseline scan and, hopefully, I'll get the go ahead to start stimming tomorrow night.  Retrieval is tentatively scheduled around October 4th-ish!

We met with the embryologist on Monday.  Love her.  Last time I saw her she was about 9 months pregnant (in June) coming out to chat with a couple who'd brought their twins in to meet her.  They called her "the mixmaster."  :)  She is incredibly friendly and positive and intelligent.  She spoke to us like intelligent people which is kind of nice.  We talked about my DH's new test results.  It looks like his HOST is right on the border between "good" and "bad" (50%) and his morphology (at least this time) was 2% when they're looking for 4%.  Now, given the way they do these tests (pick about 200 sperm at random out of a sample of 80 million or so) these things can really fluctuate.  (My DH the statistician isn't impressed with the power of the test...)  But, regardless, it does seem like it might be something that could be affecting our results.  Not necessarily "the final answer" but not helping, anyway.  So, I think ICSI is definitely the way to go.

Anyway, I mention that she was pregnant because later that night my DH called up the stairs to me "hey, she was the same embryologist we saw in June, right?"  Yes.  "Wow, she sure seemed amazingly perky and awake for having a two month old!"  (His picture of early parenthood is his sister who looked like a zombie for the first year because her older son NEVER slept more than 30 minutes at a time.)

Beyond this IVF stuff, I am exhausted and have incredibly little time right now.  I had a huge proposal due this past Monday and another even huger (it's a word...) proposal due next Tuesday.  Not to mention a stack of lab notebooks and homework on my desk to grade and an exam to write before Friday.  And, of course, making sure I have something to talk about in class every day and that my students have chemicals for labs.  The group I'm working with for this proposal for next week has been meeting every night for three hours each and will continue to do so until Tuesday afternoon.  Work is nuts.  BUT, it will ease up as of Tuesday and I'll be able to re-focus my energy on my uterus when the time comes. So, that's good.  Meanwhile, I'm going to try my darndest to fully participate in ICLW but it may involve 3 am comments -- and nothing good ever happens after 2 am!!