Catching Up

Writing a book has a way of taking over all your free time. But now that the manuscript is in, I can get back to actually blogging again.

It's a bit weird now, because more people I know are aware of this blog, but with the book coming out based on my blog writings, it makes sense to keep on keepin' on.

This month also marks the fourth anniversary of when I began blogging. I sort of miss my blogging heyday when I had stuff to say regularly and lots of people left comments. I miss those comments, people! Then again, writing sporadically over the past few months if not two years will explain the (mostly) radio silence.

There's actually an upcoming event that lends itself to blogging: we're gearing up for another round of IVF.

Though I haven't blogged about it at all, we've been trying for kid number two for ages. People I know who have had their second children months ago conceived after when we first began trying. We did an IVF cycle this past summer, which got me pregnant, but things never progressed properly. The embryo stopped growing around week 5, and soon after, I had a D&E and was just eager to try again. Pregnancy loss that early is quite common, and it took me longer to chase my insurance company for reimbursement for certain out of pocket expenses I paid for up front than it did to recover from the entire experience.

(Jaded much? What can I say--nothing's ever straightforward when it comes to conception and me.)

We also did a frozen embryo transfer in the fall with two embryos that were created back in 2006 when Toddler L was conceived. We had sort of high hopes that since Toddler L is so fabulous, some of his embryonic siblings might be equally great. Alas, not to be: the FET yielded no positive pregnancy test. Our fertility doc told us that our the success rate for an FET is about 15 percent for a woman my age and with my health history, compared to about 30 percent for a fresh embryo transfer. So despite the fact that we still have a pair of 2006 embryos in storage, it's back to IVF.

The fertility doc put me on Metformin, with my Kind Endo's blessing, because he claims the Met helps my hormones stay in order. All I've noticed is that my blood sugars seem a lot less rollercoaster, particularly after meals and during the night. I'm loving Metformin, and I plan to ask my Endo if I can stay on it. Any other type 1 gals out there on Metformin?

Fittingly, my box of IVF meds *just* arrived as I am typing this post.

I'm not sure how many rounds of IVF I'm willing to do after this one. I'm at the point where I fully appreciate the son I have and wouldn't be crushed if he were my only child. I consider myself an IVF vet by now, but I'm pretty weary.

Let's hope the third time's the charm.