Another round of IVF is upon us! But first, a big congrats to all the BFP’s I’ve missed, big hugs to everyone else still struggling and a big hello to everyone who’s reading this :). I felt some guilt for disappearing and not being able to be supportive. But I have to remember that these breaks are important and you can’t give your all to anyone when you don’t have anything to give. So I switched off and put my feet up and prepared for a relaxing month and a half off… or so I thought.
The first 3 weeks were a nightmare. A nightmare. I had a huge work deadline this last term that became suddenly life or death in the last three weeks. I was had to teach myself how to finish the project in new software and we ended up having to restart a few times, abandoning all our best laid plans. I hardly slept stressing about the project and the last week, I worked 16 hour days for 7 days straight. A nightmare. Now, my poor husband works 14 to 16 hour days for 6 days a week so in actuality it was an eye opening experience for me. I’m definitely going to be less “complainy” with him. I don’t know how he does it. I was a whiny little b*tch those last couple of days.
Thankfully the nightmare ended with a long weekend. We planned a quick Groupon weekend getaway about an hour out of town. We did some hiking and eating and drinking. It was much needed because when we got back my parents landed in the country. They’re here for the month. It’s really good having them here and I was able to take all of last week off to do some touristy stuff. We did Newport, Boston and a few others here and there. This weekend we’re going to New Hampshire and their last weekend we’re going to Martha’s vineyard and then they leave :(. They’ll have been here for a month but it feels like it’s flying by.
And amidst all of this, my best friend gave birth to her second son. He’s so cute! I love his fat cheeks! And Game of Thrones wrapped up their most incredible season to date. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I’m in a GoT discussion group (don’t judge!) on whatsapp and we’ve all decided to start from season 1 to keep us going until season 7.
And so… here we are… IVF Season 4. I just got the call to start birth control this evening. We still have 2 weeks before stims start but here’s my tentative timeline for this cycle.
July 17th: Stop birth control pill
July 18th: Suppression Check/Baseline appointment
July 20th: Begin Lupron
July 26th: Begin Gonal F 225 iu
August 5th: Retrieval with PICSI
Phew, just writing that is making me excited. August is my birthday month and so far has consistently been the best month of every year for as long as I can remember. I’m putting it into the universe that this trend will continue. When I turn 35 I will be celebrating our awesome results. It’s going to be a great cycle, my friends!
It’s good to be back.
Tales of a 30 Year Old Nothing 
YAY! You are not too far behind me as yesterday was my last BCP! We are set for a transfer around 7/26 and I’m hoping a BFP in August which is also my birthday month. Go Leos! Hoping the rest of this month goes quickly (not in regards to your parents leaving of course) and August brings lots of wonderful news to both of us 🙂
Whoop Leos!!! Everything of the best to you as well!
So good to have you back!! Roll on August xx
Whoop!! Thanks my friend!
I think it’s good to take a break sometimes, and I’m glad you did what you needed to do. I also enjoyed reading your update today, you sound pretty good right now and obviously excited to get going on the next cycle. Sending you love and hoping that this year your birthday month is the best one ever! 🙂
Ah, thank you so much Mrs MPB! I’m feeling pretty good but I know I’m going to have to actively choose this feeling everyday.
Hopefully your birthday month is lucky for you this year!!
Thank you!
Welcome back!
Thanks my friend!! Good to be back.
Wishing you all the luck! And sending you hugs. Xx
Thanks Nara!!
Congrats to optimism and ivf excitement, hang on tight! ☺
Thank you so much!
Wahoo, good to hear from you! July 17th, the day you stop bc, is my birthday, so combined with retrieval happening on your birthday month, I’m thinking this has to be a double good sign. 😀 Keeping everyone crossed for you. Xoxo.
I’ll definitely take that good sign!! Thank you. I hope you’re doing well! xx
Hello! I’ve been following your blog and I noticed that we are on almost the same cycle for IVF with ICSI, my potential retrieval is on August 2nd. We’re cycle buddies 🙂
Hey cycle buddy!! Thank you for following! And I see you’re in my hood too! Best of luck to you this cycle. Do you go to the fertility clinic in Providence?
I go to Women and Infants in Providence! We see the director there. Are you in RI?
I live in about 30 min outside of Providence in MA but we go to a clinic in faraway northern Mass. I would love to go to a clinic in RI. I didn’t even know the bcbs ma has in-network clinics in RI. If this cycle fails I think we’re going to consider taking our business elsewhere. It’s nice to know we have closer options.
My insurance covers them! I teach in MA but live in RI – only problem we had was genetic testing coverage but that was through our urologist not Women and Infants. However it worked out and we got it paid! I love our doctors, I’ve met almost all of them between retrievals and transfers.
It’s good to have you back! I love the Boston area. J and I went to Newport last time we were in CT. It was beautiful there! Praying that August continues to be any amazing month for you!!!
I really don’t appreciate it enough. I’m wary of Boston traffic but we took the train in. I’m definitely going to do that more often. We didn’t nearly explore enough of the city.
Here’s to IVF season 4 & a fabulous August! Wishing you get your magic this time xxx
Thank you very much!! I’m wishing the same for you! xx
Thanks lovely x
Yeyy!!! Glad you had a nice break (apart from the work thing 😫)! August is going to be a good month for you 😊
Thanks! I’m determined to have a good August :).
Yay welcome back! Your positivity just what I need to hear right now as I’m feeling pretty lost without a plan or any hope after three ivf resulting in 2 chemicals. Are you doing anything differently this time?
Well, we’re trying a new protocol and we’re doing PICSI which will hopefully choose better sperm. So I’m more hopeful. My RE seems more determined too. I’m cutting down on my vitamins since my RE is isn’t keen on them. I’m just doing the prenatal and ubiquinol. And I’m just going to actively choose positivity every day. I know there will be hard days but I’m going to take it day by day. Things are going to be different. The outcome may be the same but we’re at least taking a different route and that makes me hopeful. I felt pretty lost after this last cycle failed as well and I reveled in the sadness. It took me a long time to wrap my head around 3 failures. I was very depressed for a while and I think I hit rock bottom so nowhere else to go but up. Take your time and feel all your feelings. You’ll come out of it. You have to. And a break from all things infertility really helped me as well. Come back when you’re ready. Sorry for the long response. Sending you loads of hugs in the meantime.
Don’t worry about the long response! I think it gets harder as you become one of those ‘difficult’ cases…and even smaller subset of the infertility population. And also people run out of things to say to you…so it’s easier just to not say anything. Anyway just posted about my NK results, which add another issue, but on the plus side another thing to treat. I think we’re gonna have to throw loads of money at our next option whatever happens….just got to decide what is the best one for us. My parents and husband are quite pro donor eggs but I’m not sure if I’m ready to give up on my own eggs yet.
So glad you are refreshed and rejuvenated! I’m hoping this cycle is THE ONE and will be rooting you on!
Our summer plans seem similar – I was just on vacation in NH for three nights last week, and we are going to the Vineyard later this month! I can’t wait for more time off of work lol. 🙂