The Fertility Carousel

Reaching for the brass ring on the fertility carousel (again!). (Because I already caught the brass ring on the infertility carousel and I want to get rid of it!) Two years of trying to conceive, but I finally got baby E. Now we begin going around and around again. Infertility sucks.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Time to re-open the carousel?

Hello again. It's been a while.

E is now 13mo old. Not walking yet, crawling all over the place, and saying new words every day. Seriously, she knows a lot of words. The latest one is sock. Ok, sure, it sounds more like "sahh" but she only says it as she's holding or grabbing at a sock, so I think the meaning is clear.

I always thought that we'd start trying for number 2 once E turned 1. We put money in our flex account for it... but that's as far as I prepared for it. "Prepare?" you ask. Well yes, mental and emotional preparation. Can I handle 2? Will I be destroying E's happy little world by introducing another child? And the big question... do I have to wean her.

Yes, you heard me, wean her. Despite the dismal statistics on nursing in this country, I am nursing my 13mo old. Nursing to sleep at night and for naps and any other time she wants it. And we co-sleep most of the night, so she nurses at night too. Not really sure how many times a night as I'm asleep through most of it. (Although last night she stayed in her crib until 4:30am! So that may be on the way out.)

Anyway, we went to the RE for a consult today. My old RE left the practice and the infertility field, which was very disappointing as I loved her. The main doctor in the practice, who we saw today, is Dr. G. It just seemed like a much bigger practice now - whereas before, Dr. D did all our ultrasounds herself, I don't think this would be the case anymore. I told Dr. G that I was still nursing. He said to let him know when she was weaned and then we could start. Said that prolactin hormone lowers the chances for implantation, so why go through all this when you're still nursing? Didn't seem to be any room for flexibility, but I didn't press the issue. Maybe I should have.

I've done some more research online... I don't see anything to say that it would be harmful for E or #2. But it would be pretty much impossible to know if the nursing interfered if the IUI didn't work. And it's a lot of money. So can I justify spending the money and doing something that might sabotage it? On the other hand, can I take away something that gives my child so much comfort for a "maybe baby"?

I don't know.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Brandy said...

I hope this doesn't sound like complete assvice but I thought I would pipe up a little here. Please ignore if you prefer. :-)

Are you having regular cycles with ovulation of any kind? My only thought is that if you are cycling and things are getting back into a pattern then the breastfeeding shouldn't be an issue. I was never one of those women who are lucky enough not to have periods while breastfeeding and ended up with a huge surprise pregnancy when my son was 9 months old. Of course he didn't come along so easily, which made the surprise even that much better. Anyway, my point is, breastfeeding is not a HUGE factor in implantation and if other factors are meeting up to make possible IUI's work I would go for it.

Good luck!

3:39 PM  
Blogger Jena said...

Hi Brandy - Thanks for the comment.

Yeah, I've had regular cycles since E was 3mo old. Whether or not I actually ovulate is another question, annovulatory cycles is my problem.

So for 10 cycles we have not been avoiding and nothing has happened.

I guess my problem with trying while still BFing is that if I'm spending ~$3k (cost of meds, monitoring and the double IUI), can I justify anything that reduces its chance of working?

8:57 PM  

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