Queer Conceptions - August 2012 - Page 15

[pokeyAC]

Good luck wishin'&hopin'! We'll be waiting with fingers crossed!

Thanks everyone for your truly kind words and funny emoticons!  I did get some good news yesterday.  I have an opportunity to move around a little at work and earn more money.  I have time to think about it and time to prepare before it happens, but I think it will be a go. 

[Cananny]

Yay Angela !!!!!!!!

[carmen358]

Congratulations, Angela!! Super excited for you and your family
 

[redrockband]

Congrats Angela!!!! I don't know how to to the whole veggie thing but imagine many happy dancing veggies. 

Good luck wishin! 

Nothing new going on here, have a skype call planned with potential KD this weekend, looking forward to it, but trying not to be too overly optimistic. I do have a question though, we bought some prenatal vitamins the other day but I was extremely overwhelmed with the options. We eat a mostly local and organic diet, stay away from medication for the most part and any unnatural products in general. Does anyone have suggestions for a good organic vitamin? Also related, DW brought up a good question. Are prenatal vitamins all that necessary if you eat a healthy diet? I thought yes, better to take the vitamin, but DW isn't convinced. 

[pokeyAC]

Folic acid is very important.  It's best to start taking it at least 3 months before you actually start TTC.  I would start that now if you haven't already.  My doctor advised me to wait until I was actually pregnant to start taking prenatals because the iron can be constipating, but I take them anyway.  I think it's up to you if you start those early. I take a Rainbow Light once daily and it is food based.  I like it.

[carmen358]

Yes, folic acid is super important and as pokey said, it's important to start taking it a few months ahead of time. Extra B vitamins are also important. If you'd rather skip the prenatal - have a look at the ingredients of a high quality one (I took SISU Multi Expecting) and if you feel like there are other things you might be missing in your diet you could always pick and choose what to supplement.

[outdoorsy]

My primary care doc says a multi and folic acid are fine, no need to do prenatals yet per se.

But when I had my annual with my GYN a couple weeks ago, she said to stop taking a multi because it's better to get it from food. I was like, what? I've been taking these for like 20 years. And I've been going to her for a while, and she never said this before. Apparently she read some article(s). I'm not sure if she's keeping up with the research, as she says, or whether this is more of a fad. She said to just take folic acid and vitamin D.

I am planning to run this by the RE.

[KnittingTigers]

My RE said that just taking folic acid was fine. I despise swallowing large pills, so I was happy to hear this.

Pokey, congrats on the new work opportunity! It's good to feel challenged by your job.

2justicemamas, good luck with the donor interview!

Everyone, thanks for the good wishes. I'm feeling less pregnant today (what does that even mean at 13dpo?!?), and so, I'm looking forward to my second beta tomorrow, which will hopefully provide some good news. Not quite ready to join the Q&P list yet.:) I was looking at the sperm bank website today and saw that our donor (who is fairly new) is already sold out except for sibling inventory! Not sure if this means that he reached his family limit, or just didn't have many vials, but either way, I really hope we don't have to go through the process of choosing yet another donor!

Also, just a heads up, I am going to try and change my user name to be a little more private, so watch for a new tiger-themed user name soon.:)

Okay, back to work. The academic year is beginning, and things are hopping around here!

[wishin'&hopin']

Hey KnittingTigers--it's interesting that a bunch of newish donors at sperm bank of california all seemed to sell out at once.  I am wondering how many of the donors actually hit the ten family limit (I know our's didn't...)  I actually tried to get my head around the notion of having to use a different donor (if things somehow don't work out and we use all of our vials) and it helped to read a BUNCH of profiles and find donors who seemed like they'd be great AND it helped to think of all the things that make our family a family that are completely unrelated to genetics (for example, everyone in our family gets the same kind of personalized ornament from Bronner's Christmas Wonderland for the tree).  

Regarding vitamins...we've always done a Flintstone multi-vitamin and then extra folic acid.  Figure the multi vitamin can't hurt (we eat really well, but still extra nutrients to cover bases doesn't seem like a bad idea) and folate is really, really important for neural tube development.  The acupuncturist has given DW a bunch of other supplements/herbs to use (which she is) but when I was TTC our first child and pregnant I just did a multi and folate (and then a prenatal once I was able to stomach them in the second trimester).

[pokeyAC]

KnittingTigers and wishin' - We are going to be choosing a new donor from TSBC.  Seems like it's time for a change.  If you have any good suggestions, let me know.  I feel like I keep reading the same ones over and over again.

[KnittingTigers]

Okay, everyone, sorry- my username got switched really quickly! This is Angela- I'm switching to KnittingTigers (Tigers for short?) just to a bit more private.

Pokey and Wishin- I have a bunch of long profiles for TSBC donors somewhere. PM me if you want them.
 

[wishin'&hopin']

Beyond our rough sketch of what we want physically in a donor (in our case someone who sounds like they have my DW's coloring and build) I always read with an eye towards the question, "does this sound like someone I'd enjoy spending the afternoon with?"  So, the artsy/whimsical/social worker types have a leg up in making the cut (for us!) and because we are only willing to use ID release donors we also feels strongly about how the donor answers the question about their ID release choice (folks who use "father" language don't tend to make our cut either).  As far as "intelligence", I generally prefer to hang out with smart interesting people--so if they sound smart and interesting, that improves the odds that we'll pick them (we place less emphasis on advanced degrees than other folk might).  

The criteria donors have to meet, medically, to qualify to donate are really high so with the medical stuff, I look for stuff that things like diet or exercise couldn't have changed (for example, cancers with a genetic component worry me more than high cholesterol, which altho' it has a genetic component is vastly affected by personal health habits) and for things that I want to avoid b/c of doubly whammy possibilities based on our own genetics.  

Ultimately, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say upon seeing their baby for the first time, "geesh, I wish we'd picked a different donor"

[wishin'&hopin']

KnittingTigers...is this where I confess that we ordered the long profile for our donor AFTER our son was born? 

[fmorris28]

Goooood evening ladies! well, im new to the post but i've been doing A LOT of reading from the past threads. I stumbled upon the thread while I was looking for info before using MWSB. Heres the long story short. My partner and I are going for our 2nd IUI next month. First one was Feb 2011 with a donor from Xytex, but was unsuccessful. We're ready to try again next month and I was thinking about changing donors. Oddly enough I only saw the donor we wanted to use mentioned 1 time throughout the thread!! During my cycles I'm taking 50mg's of Clomid, but wonder should I also add the HCG shot? We've really got our hopes up and want this one to be it, would the shot increase my chances much? I'm 24 and in good health. I stopped smoking and the 1 drink or so I had a month have cut out...along with sodas and coffee. I take prenatals everyday (with DHA and RHA) [i hope its RHA lol] I'm trying to make the womb hospitable ya know? Any tips or anything ladies? Just keeping my fingers, toes, and anything else able to cross, CROSSED!

[lovestreet13]

BFN on my blood test yesterday.  Dumb.  Then a very painful AF started today.  I actually left work today because my cramps were so bad.  Maybe that's a downside of having a nice, thick uterine lining??  Nah... my period every 3rd month usually sucks anyway.

On Sunday evening, DP and I discussed our plans in case we got a negative test...  We are out of sperm, I am between having insurance (had it until July 31 from old job, starts on Oct 1 for new job), and we have bills to catch up on.  Instead of paying $800 for Cobra for the months of August and Sept, we figured it would be a better use of our time & money to just pay off the bills from the July & Aug insems, and wait until October to do another try.

Not that I'm excited about waiting a month, and yet in some ways it will be nice to have a break.  If you remember, we just bought our fixer-upper house in June.  Most of the walls are primed, waiting for paint, but there was no way I was going to paint if I might have been pregnant-- even with a no-VOC paint.  Now I can take this month, actually help out with fixing up this house, finally have our housewarming party with all our friends (and drink some wine!), and then when insurance starts again in October we'll start trying again.

We've also toyed with the idea of trying insems at home, because it's so damn expensive for every little thing at the clinic.  But I'm reluctant to try that way because it puts a lot more pressure on me.  Temping, charting, ovulation testing, making sure I'm right on my days...  I'm not sure how some of you ladies do it!!!  For me, I'm not sure that I will, or even can right now, devote as much time and attention as that requires.  It's enough just trying to get to the clinic 6 or 7 times a month!

Congrats to all of you with BFPs!!  It's so exciting to see this happening!!
 

[SplashingPuddle]

It's been a hard very days, as I've developed ovarian hyper stimulation and my abdomen needs to be drained tomorrow. I look 5 months pregnant with all the fluid build-up. It's very painful.  Definitely a hard part of IVF. The good news is that the initial preg tests are positive, but hyper stimulation worsens in pregnancy vs. non-pregnancy. I'm trying to stick with the positive of being pregnant, but I'm too sick for real excitement yet.

[cordelia15]

lovestreet. . sorry about the BFN and the bad cramps.  Since I'm in the taking a month off boat too I know that can be hard.  Seems like you have a lot of good things to get done though and that seems a nice focus. . hope the cramps leave soon.   Sometimes I just wish I could do everything in a clinic instead of at home.  I love doing at home but it does feel like SO much pressure! 

tara.. sorry about the painful part of hyperstimulation.  .hope your BFP sticks and everything moves ahead in a good way!

fmmorris. . welcome and good luck!  I don't know, it sounds like you are doing more than I am to get ready so I have little advice!   

Knitting tigers. . welcome :)  though your profile pic reminds me of someone else who used to be on this board 

[redrockband]

Thanks everyone for the vitamin and folic acid information, very helpful indeed. I think I'll stick with the prenatal vitamin for now. I have heard that multi-vitamins can be bad for you but the only research I could find was that in men too much, I think it was vitamin D, has some negative effects. 

Hope everyone is having a good day. I have the fourth day of training for my new job today. I am trying to see the positive, but everything about this week has reaffirmed all the reasons why I never wanted to work for a national nonprofit ever again, sigh. 

[pokeyAC]

fmorris!  I hope your stay is short and sweet.  We look forward to getting to know you better.  The HCG shot can help with timing.  Are you doing 1 or 2 IUI's in a cycle?  If you're only doing 1, it's so important to get the timing as close as possible, and that can be tricky unless you are great at tracking your cycle.  Sounds like you are doing lots of things right, so I hope it happens soon for you.

lovestreet - I'm so sorry about your BFN.  They always stink.  That painful AF is kicking you when your down too.  That's not nice.  I hope your break is restful and productive.  I have learned that taking a break is one thing we can control in this process.

Tara - I'm sorry you are feeling so bad.  That does sound really uncomfortable.   But, Congratulations!  I hope you are feeling better soon and that the little bean sticks around.

[KnittingTigers]

Lovestreet, I'm so sorry about your BFN. Enjoy working on your house! I love painting, and wine, so I hope you take some pleasure in it.

Tara, I'm so sorry you're feeling badly. I've had friends have OHSS, and it sounds horrible. On the bright side, congratulations!

Wishin', When I started TTC my daughter, I totally tried to pick a donor who seemed like he'd make a cool dinner guest. In the end, I didn't get pregnant with any of the "nice guys," and finally called the bank and asked who in my top ten list had the highest sperm count. The person who had the highest count was the person I'd ranked lowest on my list, because although he seemed healthy, he just didn't seem very dinner-guesty. I switched to him for my next cycle, and got pregnant immediately. Apparently nice guys finish last, even at the sperm bank.:)

AFM, I just got the results of my second beta- 212 at 14dpo, with a doubling time of 37 hours. We have our first ultrasound scheduled in two weeks! Though I still feel very anxious, I'm going to embrace being pregnant, for now at least, and move myself over to Queer and Pregnant for my updates. I will still be on this board to check in on all of you. Let's keep the BFPs rolling in!