I haven’t done a baby update in a while.  The last information we got was some time ago, I just haven’t posted it yet; not because its not important, but because I couldn’t write about it at the time.

First, lets look at what has changed.  The wife and I had a heart-to-heart and really talked about what we wanted and what we wanted to do.  Our original goal was “A baby no matter what” and our list of options, in order of preference was as follows:

1. Get pregnant the old fashioned way
2. in Vitro fertilization (IVF) using Cindy’s eggs and my sperm
3. in Vitro fertilization using an anonymous egg donor and my sperm
4. Finding a surrogate mother
5. Adoption

Through the meetings we’ve had with our fertilization specialist and Cindy’s other doctors we eliminated some out of impracticality (or impossibility) and others out of preference, and to narrow our focus.  Our goal is now single-dimensional:

• in Vitro fertilization using an anonymous egg donor and my sperm

There are advantages to this course of action.  The success of in Vitro fertilization is directly related to the age of the egg donor; the younger the egg donor, the greater the chance of a successful pregnancy.  This is independent of the age of the one carrying the baby.  Cindy certainly isn’t old (mid-thirties) but for this purpose, there is a disadvantage to using her eggs.  Also, the results of the Clomid Challenge test indicated that using her eggs may not be a viable solution.

So, our current course of action:

• In order to increase our chances of Cindy successfully carrying a baby to term, it was recommended that she lose weight.  Cindy isn’t terribly overweight, but given her other health problems, it was highly recommended.
• We are both going on a one-year weight-loss program.  I’m doing this with her because (1) I don’t want her to go through this alone, and (2) I could sure stand to lose some weight as well.
• In about one year, we will go back to our fertility doctor and begin making plans for this process.

So that is our status.  For now, the Baby Chronicles is on hold.  I’ll keep you all posted in a year or so.  Cheers!

We got a phone call yesterday from the fertility clinic in Lebanon. The news was not good.

As previously reported, Cindy was undertaking the Clomid Challenge test, which measures her ability to create viable eggs. They said that her “level” was too high. They require that the “level” (level of what, I don’t know, I didn’t talk to the doctor) be no more than 14. Hers was 16.

So, the upshot is that we cannot use her eggs for in vitro fertilization. However, all is not lost. Our next step is to set up a meeting with the doctor and look into the possibility of using eggs from an anonymous donor. We are still determined to have a baby, so this is only a minor set-back.

(Thats Lebanon, NH, not Lebanon, the small, mountainous, country in the middle-east.)

The wife and I are trying to have a baby, and currently, the wife is undergoing a Clomid Challenge to determine if she can produce an adequate number of eggs for the process. Since she had a tubal ligation many years ago, before we even met, we need to get pregnant by in Vitro fertilization.

Yestarday (Wednesday) was Day 3 of her cycle, so we had to get blood work done to establish a baseline. I took a day off from work, and we picked up our godson, Mathew whom Cindy babysits for, and headed north to Lebanon and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock hospital there. After they took her blood, we went to our chinese/japanese restaurant in downtown Lebanon, a little place called Tokyo Peking (or Peking Tokyo – I can’t remember, isn’t that funny?).

Next, starting on Day 5, she has to start taking Clomid, and then on Day 10 (next Wednesday) we go back for more blood work. We get the results a week later.

I’ve decided to track our “baby quest” here on this blog.

Our next steps, as instructed by our fertility doctor, was to take a Clomid Challenge Test. This is a test that Cindy will take in order to determine her ability to produce lots of eggs:

The clomid challenge test is an examination of female hormone levels which uses the medication clomid (clomiphene citrate) to enhance the findings of women with decreased ovarian reserve. The clomid challenge test is also known as the clomid challenge, the clomiphene challenge test, the clomiphene citrate challenge or simply CCCT.

Essentially, on the 3rd day of the next “Cycle” we will have to go in and get bloodwork done. On the 5th day, my wife has to start taking a medicine called Clomid. On the 10th day, we go back, get bloodwork again. About a week later we get the results. We’ve already identified that Wednesday we will have to go in for the first, baseline, blood test.

So, what then? If the hormone levels look good, we can proceed with the IVF process. If they do not look good, we will have to look at some other options, such as egg-donation, surrogacy, or adoption, pretty much in that order.

The kids are still in Vegas with their biological father, and they will be for another week.

My wife and I had an appointment in Lebanon at the big hospital up there, to look at some options for us having a baby. Yes, we are trying to get pregnant.

Now, getting pregnant is easy for most people. It seems like everyone we know is getting preggers and popping out babies lately. Unfortunately, Cindy had a tubal ligation many, many years ago after Aaron was born. A couple of years ago, we started a proceedure in order to have a child by in vitro but we didn’t develope enough folicles (eggs), and we had to abandon that effort at the time. It was very hard to hear that news, after we had invested so much time and hope in the procedure (it was months of giving Cindy two or three injections per day). We were depressed and upset, and we gave up.

Now, we are trying again. We could be in for a long, hard road like last time, but we are determined to have a baby, one way or another.