Our new venture, FertilityPod, has launched. Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out new features and services to help support those who battle infertility as well as help connect fertility professionals with the community.

We encourage you to check us out and connect with [...]]]>

Our new venture, FertilityPod, has launched. Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out new features and services to help support those who battle infertility as well as help connect fertility professionals with the community.

We encourage you to check us out and connect with us on Facebook here and Twitter here.

If you have any questions about FertilityPod, please email mmcgrath@fertilitypod.com.

We hope you enjoy our new venture. Thank you in advance for your support!

I am just finishing my first pack of birth control pills in order to regulate my cycle for our upcoming FET in March. About 10 days about I had a “sono-mock” done by one of our fertility doctors. This procedure involves a mock transfer as well as filling [...]]]> Okay! Round 2 – Here We Go!

I am just finishing my first pack of birth control pills in order to regulate my cycle for our upcoming FET in March. About 10 days about I had a “sono-mock” done by one of our fertility doctors. This procedure involves a mock transfer as well as filling the uterine cavity with fluid and viewing it with ultrasound to make sure that everything looks good. Both procedures went smoothly and things are moving right along. After I finish this pack of pills, I will continue into a second pack and then begin Estrace in order to help build my uttering lining. The past two days were a little rough, I experienced a migraine each day, from which I believe is from the pills that I am on. The first migraine wasn’t too bad, but yesterday’s was an entirely different story-that one was a whopper! (So far so good day-keep your fingers crossed!)

I also began acupuncture again from the same gal who treated me before. At this point, I am just going once a week and then once we are about a month out from the transfer I will begin going twice a week. It gets tricky trying to work out all of these appointments with a one-year old around. I enjoy relaxing once I am there.

This is getting very exciting, but along with the excitement does come nerves and a bit of anxiety. We will be doing a single embryo transfer because that is all we have left-and we are sure hoping it brings a beautiful little addition to our family in late November.

Kate was our first successful FET after many failed IUI’s and a failed fresh IVF cycle. Our hopes were definitely down after the failed tries but we got [...]]]>

Kate 1 Year Old

Well, our little girl, Kate, just turned 1 this past week. This year has definitely flown by but with many memories that we will hold tight forever.

Kate was our first successful FET after many failed IUI’s and a failed fresh IVF cycle. Our hopes were definitely down after the failed tries but we got through the tough times and now we have just put the first year of Kate’s life on the books with many more wonderful years ahead of us! What a wonderful year it has been….the best year of Wendi and my life. There have been ups and downs and challenges and tough days but this little girl puts a huge smile on our faces each and every day. We love her with all we have…and couldn’t imagine life without her!

We have a lot of things going on right now as well. We have 1 frozen embryo left that we will be using in an FET after the first of the year. If he or she is as feisty as Kate, we’ll likely be blessed again! That is our hope as we journey back into the life of fertility treatments and the stress it brings!

We will also be launching a new web venture, FertilityPod, which is a social network and expert community aimed to help those struggling with infertility to offer support and hope. It’s something we can use ourselves as we battle infertility and we hope others join us to help get through this stressful and tough part of trying to start a family. Look for the launch shortly after the new year! You can also follow us on Twitter @FertilityPod.

Other than that, we just want to enjoy each and every day with Kate. She is our miracle. We are blessed and we want to soak in each and every moment with her.

Wishing everyone else out there who is struggling to start a family the best of luck. Especially to all of the females who sacrifice so much going through fertility treatments. We know first hand that it’s a very tough thing to go through but there is hope and support. We’re always here as well to chat with anyone who just needs some support or someone to talk to about their own fertility journey.

I knew I wanted to breastfeed Kate and began doing so shortly after her birth. After a bit of help from the postpartum nurses, we were a great team and both mommy and baby were successful! Although it did take quite a bit of getting used to, I really enjoyed our moments together [...]]]>

I knew I wanted to breastfeed Kate and began doing so shortly after her birth. After a bit of help from the postpartum nurses, we were a great team and both mommy and baby were successful! Although it did take quite a bit of getting used to, I really enjoyed our moments together when I was nursing. It truly is an amazing bond!

With that said, the tenderness, leaking, engorgement, and back pain did cause a little frustration. I was impressed at how fast the baby weight came off as well, and I do attribute it to nursing. When Kate was around 2 months old, she began fussing a bit at the breast and I became a little worried. She would nurse, but not nearly as long as she should have and sometimes I wouldn’t even have a letdown. I knew she wasn’t getting enough to eat. I became more and more concerned and started reading everything that I could about nursing. I thought maybe it was something “with me” and she wasn’t getting enough milk, or maybe it was coming too slow or too fast?!

It wasn’t long before, I had a lactation consultant come to the house to offer breastfeeding advice and support. She weighed Kate and even watched her nurse. Maybe it was possibly a latch issue? When the consultant left, she concluded it was the dairy in my diet that was causing Kate to nurse for a few minutes and then pull off, cry and push away. I can’t tell you how frustrating this was, being a new mommy and I couldn’t feed my baby! She told me to cut the dairy out of my diet and things would improve.

I immediately cut the dairy out and was anxiously waiting for things to get better. I was told it could take a few weeks. Things did not get better so in the meantime we were at the pediatrician 3 times and were finally referred to a gastrointestinal specialist. (Keep in mind the pediatrician really didn’t think it was a food issue, but he was perplexed, as was everyone else that I shared my struggles with.) The GI specialist agreed that it was a food tolerance and more specifically a protein intolerance in ALL dairy foods and possibly even soy.

So I continued to cut out the dairy and I really watched the amount of soy I ate. Things would get better for awhile and then she’d become so incredibly fussy so we’d end up back at square one. During all of this, I was pumping throughout the day and trying to nurse here and there. I didn’t want to lose my breast milk, because I was so committed to nursing. After about 3 more months of pumping and sporadically nursing I had to call it quits because we didn’t see consistent improvement with Kate. I had such a hard time quitting as I felt I was a failure. The specialist said that it could be too many things causing the problems: dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, nuts just to name a few.

There was no way I could eliminate all of this from my diet, especially because we still didn’t know exactly what item(s) were the culprit! So in the end, we put Kate on a very specialized formula called Elecare and that did the trick. After having her on this formula for about a week, she was an entirely different baby!

Moral to the story: you can’t plan everything and although I would have liked to nurse her for a year I learned I needed to “Go with the flow!” We now have a very happy and healthy baby that is almost 9 months old and is gradually working in wheat, soy and dairy. The GI believes she has outgrown the intolerance.

Hopefully others who experience this will see our post and be able to check into any food tolerances earlier than later. It was a pretty easy fix with the special formula (Elecare) once we got the problem pinpointed.

It’s been way too long since I last posted. Baby Katherine is already here and is just shy of 9 months. Who ever knew that 9 months could go so fast? Let’s rewind to last December when our little princess arrived.

We went to the hospital for an induction on a Thursday, [...]]]>

It’s been way too long since I last posted. Baby Katherine is already here and is just shy of 9 months. Who ever knew that 9 months could go so fast? Let’s rewind to last December when our little princess arrived.

We went to the hospital for an induction on a Thursday, thinking that I would deliver by that evening. The induction began early that morning and I was hooked up to Pitocin and even had an epidural by 7 a.m. (The epidural was due to a low platelet count, not pain at that point.) The next three days were spent in Labor and Delivery….drugs, interventions, pushing, contractions….you name it!!! Finally on Saturday morning, we had a C-Section (my bones were too narrow to deliver her naturally!) It was quite the ordeal getting her into this beautiful world (induction + 3 epidurals + 3 days later = spinal and c-section and one tired mommy!)

I remember the moment that I first held her and I thought to myself mine, she’s actually mine! It’s an amazing feeling holding your baby for the very first time. Even more amazing is the fact that not too long ago we even wondered if we’d be able to have children. The once microscopic tiny frozen embryo was now a beautiful, dark haired baby. I am reminded everyday that miracles do indeed happen.

So now at 9 months we are enjoying life as a family of 3 and couldn’t be happier! I am so looking forward to keeping you updated in all the pleasures that life holds with a baby as well as the joys of celebrating a successful Frozen Embryo Transfer.