Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The End

I've neglected this place for many months, almost 9 months actually. Which brings me around to the reason for this post. I just reached the oh so exciting mile stone of my unfulfilled due date. You know, from that blip of a pregnancy I had back in May.

I'm sad to say, things haven't changed. No spontaneous pregnancies, no sudden windfalls allowing for unlimited rounds of IVF and no bundles of joy left mysteriously on my doorstep.

With no babies on the horizon and no immediate plans for aquiring one, I'm trying to put it out of my mind and muddle through this ridculously bad era of my life. With that said, I'm not planning on continuing this blog.

If you're reading this, I'd like to say thank you for your support and lots of luck with your family building.

Signing off.

Stephanie

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

When This No Longer Helps

I'm not sure what to do, but I think I know what I'm going to do.

I've come to realize, at least for the moment, blogging isn't helping, it's hurting. Not the writing of the blog so much as the reading of blogs. Maybe it's that I'm no longer reading the right blogs and I need to find some new ones, but I'm not sure I have it in me to seek out what I'm missing.

Let me explain...

I took inventory of my google reader list, and a trend has revealed itself. Of the 23 blogs I read regularly...19 are pregnant or parenting. To further break it down, 7 are currently pregnant and 7 have given birth in the past 6 months-year. The remaining 5 have had children and two of those are trying for more. Only 4 blogs in my list have not conceived or given birth to living children and of those, two are actively trying. So... I'm in the company of two other primary infertiles still trying to get knocked up...out of 23.

Now can you see why blogging isn't really helping with the healing? LOL

I'm happy for all of the pregnancies, I'm not wishing anyone was NOT pregnant/parenting, but so many people are moving on and leaving me in the dust(one has even lapped me in the past two years!). Their posts no longer reflect my situation. In a sick twisted way, it was nice to be surrounded (if only in the blogosphere) by others fighting their way to parenthood. But now that I'm surrounded by pregnancy and baby posts, I feel all the more alone.

I recognize it's selfish and hypocritical, because if I had remained pregnant, I too would be leaving others behind and occasionally posting about the trials and tribulations of being knocked up. But I'm not pregnant and I am somewhat alone.

I just can't muster the appropriate level of enthusiasm to comment anymore. It's like being at a baby shower or picinic where everyone is sitting around chatting about their kids. It's just painful and awkward and I don't need that right now, know what I mean? I wish I was stronger or could pretend that I don't care, but I'm not and I can't. I need to take some time for myself and come to terms with this.

So, for now, I'm signing off. I want to thank you all for your support and wish everyone success with their family building. You're a great group of ladies, I really mean that. Perhaps I'll re-tool my blog when I have some clarity, but for now, I'm out.

Stephanie

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Done

The bleeding started on Friday and has finally tapered off -just spotting now. I didn't really expect it to go on as long as it did considering it was a chemical.

I spent Memorial Day weekend crying my eyes out, I was hurting physically (I really hate cramps) and emotionally. The feelings I have about all of this are so mixed. I'm grateful that I had those few day of pregnancy, it's more than I've ever had before. For a few days I was able to revel in the idea that I would be normal, and have a child.

M and I very quietly discussed the possibility of a future with a family of our own. It was nice, especially on our 7 year anniversary. It was the only thing we wanted, and for that day, we had it.

Of course now that it hasn't worked out, I feel like a huge loser. I know I shouldn't tie my self esteem to my infertility, but of course we all know that it doesn't work that way. I am trying to stay sane and move on, honest, but it might take some time. It's hard to be sociable when things suck so much.

I can't completely reconcile that it's over. I keep thinking there must be something else I can do. I'm not sure what that is, but for now we're taking it one day at a time.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bleh

It's not unexpected. My second beta is 14. Impressive isn't it?

I'm sorta thankful for such a low number, at least it doesn't leave any wiggle room for hope. A doubling number would have just put me into beta hell and I'm glad I'm not there. It also rules out an ectopic, as the numbers would have been higher for that.

Don't misunderstand, I wanted to stay pregnant, I want a baby that looks like M very much. He really deserves to be a father. I'm so sad that he can't have that, and I'm the reason.

I've had a good cry, but so far I'm not as upset as I thought I'd be. M is very sad that it didn't happen. He really thought it would and had a lot of hope. We've talked about the next step, but only a little.

For now, we're focusing on ourselves and living child free. I know I probably won't be satisified with this for long, but right now it sounds nice. M has cheered me up by talking about the places we'll go. He even suggested we move to Europe, ha ha (I would too!).

Monday, May 18, 2009

Eh

Sorry for taking so long. It's not that I'm trying to be coy or keep good news from you, I haven't had any news to share.

I went for my beta on Saturday, and did that suck. I'm using stupid, stupid Labcorp and had to wait 2 hours for a 30 second blood draw. Since my RE is in NY, I have to have my lab results sent up and it's not efficient. Stupid, stupid Labcorp didn't even send the results until Monday, so here we are, 2 days later.

My first beta is...12

Yes, you read right, 12 at day 14.

Not good.

Pretty much doomed to fail.

Possibly ectopic.

Before I knew my results, I had to call the clinic in NY 3 times to have them fax a prescription for beta number 2 today. Of course, by the time this happened it was already 12pm so I don't have the results of today's beta yet. Stupid, stupid Labcorp was unable to get it together even though STAT was written across the prescription in big letters.

I know that there is *hope* but I don't have much of it. Even if the beta doubles, that's not enough really. A quadruple wouldn't really satisfy me either. It would need to be over 100 to keep my head in the game.

Hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow morning. I'll update when I know something.

Oh, and did I mention, I spotted a little today and my symptoms are rather non-existent.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Am I Dreaming?




I know it's not easy to see, but there is definately a line! I can't really believe it. I tested yesterday morning 9dp3dt and had a faint, faint, faint line on a FRER. I wasn't sure if it was a positive, evaporation line, ghosting, etc even though I saw something within the 10 minute window. I tried to take a picture, but it's so faint that it's not visible.

I took another FRER and had better results in the afternoon, but also super faint. I went out and bought a Target brand test and it gave me a positive right away, so I'm pretty sure it's not just my imagination. ;)

I still can't believe I've gotten to this point. I've NEVER had a positive, EVER!

I took another FRER and Target test this morning. The FRER wasn't as dark as yesterday and the Target brand was the same. I'm trying not to obsess over the lightness/darkness of the lines. I know different tests can have different sensitivities and a line is a line.

My beta is tomorrow. I'm cautiously optomistic, but nervous of course. This is our last and only chance at a biological child, so I'm praying for a good outcome.

Thankyou to everyone who has been cheering me on!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Home Again at 7dp3dt

Ahhhh, it's so good to be home. I can't believe I was away for a month!

Not much new with the waiting, I have symptoms, but we all know that they're meaningless. Oh, but nausea and adversions to smells on a plane is a good time, let me tell you.

I've taken two tests. The first was a super faint postitive from the HCG at 5dp3dt and the second was this morning. It was definately not positive.

I'm going with the every other day testing method, I think it's working for me. ;) I know I'm a Negative Nelly (no pun intended) but I'm not feeling it. I was hopeful the past few days, but today, not so much. I'm trying to prepare, thinking ahead to what this summer and what this year will be like.