TTC Baby #1 vs. TTC Baby #2

Had my first in-person appt at our fertility clinic and was struck by the differences between this year and 3 years ago.

Blood work

Baby #1 – I fretted all day, waiting for the results to come in and then poured over them, looking up the values online to double check whether they were normal

Baby #2 – Forgot to check my email for the test results until 5 days later and then gave them a once over and called it a day.

Body Prep

Baby #1 – Fertility boosting yoga stretches each night. Prenatal, vitamin D, coQ10, B6, every night. 2 mugs of smelly herb tea daily as prescribed by my acupuncturist, as well as many needle sessions. Daily meditations. Extra strict diet – not for calories but for nutrients – like full fat dairy serving each day. No caffeine. No alcohol.

Baby #2 – prenatal and coQ10 vitamins daily. Did smelly herb tea for a few days and then kept forgetting to drink it. Keep forgetting to call my acupuncturist and refill the herbs and schedule more needle sessions. No meditation. 1 cup of coffee a day. Plenty of full fat dairy servings (i.e. ice cream every night). No fertility boosting stretches.

First In Person Appointment

Baby #1 – Nervous, excited. Counting down the days. Daydreaming about getting pregnant. Did some down-there grooming before the appt. Wife came with me and held my hand.

Baby #2 – Kept forgetting about it. Was deep in work mode and barely left for the clinic on time. Thought about grooming but decided it’s nothing the doctor hasn’t seen before. I told my wife she could just stay at work. “Just be there for the inseminations.”

During the appointment

Baby #1 – Was sweaty and nervous. Super bummed that we likely wouldn’t start inseminating that cycle (found what turned out to be two large uterine polyps that needed to be removed.)

Baby #2 – Totally chill and had a nice conversation with Dr H. She actually tried to convince me to inseminate this cycle as I’m about to ovulate and have a large follicle ready to go, but my brain immediately screamed “IM NOT READY!” So I held off. Even though she kept saying “are you sure? I really want to get that egg.” 🤣

Granted, it’s very hard to see if my polyps have returned when I’m about to ovulate and my lining is super thick. So the verdict is still out on that question. But everything else seems to be ok. Dr. H doesn’t want to use Clomid the first cycle because my body develops a lot of follicles and she’s worried I’ll have multiples. But she’ll prescribe it if the first try is unsuccessful.

So for now we’re booked for a March insemination with a monitored cycle and a trigger shot. I have no idea why I’m not ready now or for a February try. S asked me why we’re not trying in February and I didn’t really have a good answer. Although I am concerned about us starting Mabel in full-time preschool in late Aug and making sure we give her enough time to adjust to that before we turn her world upside down with the arrival of a baby. Soooo, I guess the answer is, March just feels right? Who knows, S may change my mind on that and we might try in Feb. Stay tuned.

In other news, I hate flu season. We’re on night 3 with a feverish toddler who’s barking wet loud coughs and can only sleep while being held by one of us at a certain angle so its easier for her to breathe.

That open-mouth breathing just breaks my heart in two!

Donor drama

It seems slightly dramatic to call it drama. But I like the sound of it.

We knew we wanted to use the same donor for Tiny Human #2 that we used for Mabel. He didn’t have any pregnancies listed on his profile when we picked him – which was just a month before we got pregnant. When we submitted to the sperm bank that we had a baby, they asked if we were interested in a sibling with the same donor and we said yes. So they said they tend to put vials aside for the Sibling Registry and for us to just let them know when we were TTCing again. For some reason, I guess because his profile said no pregnancies, I assumed we were the only family or maybe there was one other.

Fast forward to yesterday, when the sperm bank emailed me and said our donor had 4 FAMILIES and all 4 were interested in siblings. But they only had 7 vials left, so they were limiting each family to 1-2 vials. So if we wanted 2 vials we needed to order them ASAP. Cue panic!

Within 10 min (after texting S to confirm we wanted to do this) I whipped out my credit card, called the sperm bank and bought 2 vials. We really can’t afford to buy them right now, hence the credit card usage, but I would have been so stressed at the thought of being the family with just 1 vial. Just 1 shot at using the same donor! I’m stressed enough as it is at the thought of just 2 shots at this.

Before this, I was pretty laid back about TTC – still drinking coffee, taking prenatal vitamins but kinda sporadically, not really exercising or doing yoga. But that has changed. Now I’m only drinking decaf. I’m shaking up my diet to include more veggies and full fat dairy, and I’m back to stretching and doing fertility yoga moves. I feel the pressure now.

I got my blood work back and everything is normal. I was expecting changes from my fertility blood work 2.5 years ago, but it’s almost exactly the same, which is great. I have a phone consultation with the RE, same Dr. as last time, on Jan 15th. And then onto the in-person appt sometime after that. A little nervous about that first ultrasound, as last time I had a couple uterine polyps that had to be removed. Fingers crossed they haven’t grown back. I’m guessing we’ll be inseminating in March – if everything goes smoothly. Maybe April. Eeeek- that seems like no time!

Because we only have 2 vials of the Donor, I’ve considered asking to use clomid. For Mabel, I had a monitored cycle, no drugs, and the a trigger shot once I had a large enough follicle. Maybe if the first IUI doesn’t work, I’ll ask for clomis for round 2. It does seem weird to ask for it if my ovarian reserve is fine. I have no problem ovulating, just looking for ways to increase our odds.

Now for cute photos:

pretty sure Santa triggered Mabel’s fight or flight reflex. She didn’t unclench those fists until she left his lap.