I don’t know if there are just more infertility stories in the news recently, or if we are just more aware of them, but we found another wonderful story a few days ago.
It seems a New Orleans couple had frozen embryos at a clinic during 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The clinic saved the embryos and implanted them in the mother- and recently gave birth to their new baby boy!!! They gave him quite a fitting name- Noah.
Congratulations to the parents and welcome little Noah!
While trolling around on the web this morning, I found a couple of infertility-related news articles that were pretty interesting.
The first, it looks as though scientists are persuing research to conduct a uterus transplant. This would be performed on women who have lost their womb for a variety of reasons, including birth defects or surgery. How progressive is that?! Women who had no alternative but surrogacy could possible carry their own babies. I think it’s brilliant, as is their plan. The uterus would be taken from a deceased donor and placed in the woman. She would have to live with it for three months without any complications. They would then implant previously frozen embryos. After the delivery, or two years, the uterus would be removed, so that the woman wouldn’t have to stay on anti-rejection meds her entire life. I say brilliant again! You can read the full story here.
Next, the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is now a mommy herself!! She gave birth to a little boy in December. How wonderful for her and her husband. You can read about it here.
Hello everybody! I feel like every post I start goes “ sorry it’s been a while.” I HAVE NO EXCUSES. So my goal is to start getting here a lot more frequently, because after all, that is the point!
We had a pretty topsy-turvy, hellacious year last year. But it’s over and gone and we rejoiced naked in the streets. Not really, but we did rejoice. Part of the reason my posts are so few and far between, as I have mentioned previously, is that we’re just in this holding pattern. Nothing is really developing and so I feel like you don’t need to keep reading about all my sappy up and down emotions.
When we started this last year, our target cycle date was February, as in next month, starting our hormones and such this month. That’s not happening. A lot of reasons really, the money isn’t there yet and we don’t want to force that, we’re not under a strict “should have had it done yesterday” timeline like a lot of couples are, and the closer we came to the end of last year, I knew we needed some emotionally boring time for a while. I need my entire mind, body and soul to be in tip-top shape, and I’m getting a lot closer. I also changed jobs at the very end of December, and so a little adjustment time was needed.
But have no fear, we are still planning to do our cycle. In fact, we are scheduled for the February IVF class with our clinic. That gives me the willies because they will teach us how to administer my shots, injections, needles in my skin!!! I know Shelton will be a pro. At this point we’re looking at the April/May cycle, but possibly the July/Aug cycle. This class will really help us make up our minds.
The topic everyone wants to know about- the moolah. Well, we’ve raised an exciting $5836!!! (I’m really behind in updating that page too. I’m so bad!) Unbelievable, and we’re just more grateful than we’ll ever be able to express. So we have close to $4000 of that, because of expenses already incurred. We have our FSAs which I discussed in a previous post. Due to expenses taken out of that for my surgery, we have the full amount of Shelton’s remaining. We expect to get a significant tax return. This leaves us only needing to borrow less than $5,000. It’s getting so close!
This site was never intentioned to be solely about the donations, and we’re so glad that so many people get that. So many of you have reached out and just said thanks for the information, for the candid stories and for stepping out and talking about infertility. That was so important to us. We’re still hopeful that we’ll be able to raise more money that we need and be able to to help out one or ten or one hundred other couples. That would just be the ultimate.
So I’m feeling pretty good these days. More like myself again and that is such a good feeling. Shelton and I are both working all the time and enjoying our time together. We feel like we’re in this weird grey zone between the married without children and impending parenthood. We’re taking advantage of the freedom while we have it, but also looking forward to not having that anymore. It’s an interesting place to be. I know we’ll have more updates more frequently and I will get better about writing.
Thanks to all of you who still stop by to catch-up. Thanks for all the donations. And we wish you all have fabulous 2007!!
A couple of days after Christmas will mark one year since Shelton and I found out we were not going to be able to have a baby without the assistance of IVF. One whole year. It’s so small and yet it feels like a lifetime. I can remember the Christmas before that, in 2004, telling family over the phone that by the next Christmas I’d have a huge belly to celebrate with. We’re now approaching one more Christmas and while my belly might be a little bigger, it’s not for the right reason at all.
The past few days I’ve been feeling really down again and I haven’t been this sad since we first started. I think it’s a culmination of so many things, but this constant desire to be a mom never fades and makes it so easy for me to slip back.
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. I love the cold and the lights, the food and giving gifts, I love Christmas cards, I love how it brings people together. And I just can’t get into it this year. Christmas is less than three weeks away and I have not put the tree up and at this point I don’t plan to. For the first time in five years there are no lights on my house. I did get all of our cards out. And while there are so many reasons that are making this season tougher than most, but I think a lot of it comes back to our infertility.
I get the biggest joy out of giving gifts. And it’s not the material item wrapped up, it’s the joy that person shows when they receive the gift. But this year, there are no gifts. Shelton and had a long, hard discussion months ago and decided that we just couldn’t afford to sacrifice a Christmas budget this year. Probably for the better because I usually go overboard!! We also asked that we not receive any gifts this Christmas- we figured we already have so much, the one thing we want is a baby, and they could donate the money they would have spent on a sweater or picture frame.
Our family was blessed with the arrival of another new member this week… a little girl. She is beautiful and went home to the most AMAZING people who will make AMAZING parents. I can’t help but be so jealous of the excitement that is in their lives right now, and that they will experience on Christmas morning.
We’ve invited all of the family to our house for Christmas dinner and hosting them here will be both our gift from them and to them. And I’m going to get all the joy I can from that, and thank God for the many blessings I do have, and not the ones I feel I’m lacking.
We’re wrapping up Thanksgiving weekend in Oklahoma City, where we spent the holiday with Shelton’s clan. As usual it was a jam-packed house with more food than one could possibly consume, but somehow we managed.
We did not split the holiday between our two families this year as we usually do. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal, but as the weekend progresses I’m missing them more and more. I get everyone for Christmas though, so we can wait a few more weeks.
One thing that is very different from my family and Shelton’s is that before we eat, we all go around the table and say what we’re thankful for. I didn’t get that opportunity this year.
During what has quite possibly been the worst, most trying, stressful and challenging year of my life, I’m so happy that I can still smile and have a list of thanks a mile long.
I’m thankful for my incredible husband and the bajillion ways he makes me smile, laugh, feel beautiful and wake up every morning. I’m thankful for the two great jobs we have. I’m thankful for the amazing families and friends we have who have surrounded and showered us with love and support this year. I’m thankful that we ultimately have perfect health. I’m thankful for the thousands of people who have visited Baby or Bust and reached out to us either by email or donation. I’ve never known that perfect strangers could be so generous. The support from all of you has been so appreciated.
This year has not treated us kindly. We started the year learning about our infertility and every single day I’m still working through that and what it means and how it affects our lives on so many levels. It gets easier, but it never goes away. And then this fall my parents divorced. It was quick, but not entirely painless. And while the situation is better now and I think it is for the best, it’s still difficult to deal with. I’m thankful that my parents have made this an amicable split and remain friends. I’ve never been through a divorce of any kind before, so I’m learning as I go.
I’m very ready for this year to end. Hopefully when the clock strikes midnight on the 31st next month, it will box up all the crap that has happened this year and let us start fresh and new. When the clock hits midnight, Shelton and I will celebrate six years since we started dating, and that’s pretty exciting! I’m tired of my heart feeling so sad and I’m ready to get out of this funk I’ve been in and keep pretending isn’t there. That’s my own fault though. I think I’d be a puddle somewhere by now if it hadn’t been for all the wonderful blessings in our lives, many of which I listed above. In the face of all the bad, I’m so glad I can look around and see myself surrounded by so much good.
Thank God for that.
A friend forwarded a link today to this story, about an Ohio couple trying to adopt. They are selling some tickets on EBay for prime seats to this Saturday’s Michigan/Ohio game so that they can raise the money they need for their expensive adoption… as all adoptions are so expensive.
I applaud their wonderful idea and hope that they fetch a very pretty penny for those tickets, and get that much closer to their baby.
I’ve been all over the internet and Ebay today trying to find the auction page or a site with contact information. I’d love to make a donation in BabyOrBust’s name… since I don’t really need football tickets. If this couple or someone who knows them sees this, or you have a link, please send it to us. We’d love to get in touch with them.
Bravo to more creative efforts to raise money for having babies!!!