Doc Martin

Tuesday of this week, we had a consultation with Dr. Jaffe. Both D and I agree that Dr. Jaffe has a similar bedside manner to Doc Martin, which if you're unfamiliar with the show, means that she essentially doesn't have one. I find the fact that she doesn't sugarcoat anything oddly comforting though. I feel confident that since she hasn't driven us to tears(yet), that our prospects for pregnancy are good. Anyway, she did say that because D has a low ovarian reserve (this is based on AMA level; she has a .6 and .7 is preferred), she'd like to take an aggressive approach with us -- meaning that D will take ovulation inducing drugs and the doctor will monitor follicular growth through ultrasounds to determine the optimal time to inseminate. This was the first we heard of this low reserve, so we were pretty concerned, but Dr. Jaffe seemed unfazed. In fact, when D asked if that meant that this would be our only chance to have a child, she answered with an emphatic "No" but added that if we want a second, we shouldn't wait too long after the first. Our plan for the end of May / beginning of June will look like this:
1. D will call to schedule an ovary check on day one of her cycle.
2. The ultrasound ovary check will occur on days two or three.
3. If everything looks good, then D will be started on a five day regimen of
Letrozole (we chose this drug because it has less side effects and is less likely to produce multiples than the more popular and less expensive alternative Clomid).
4. On day eleven of her cycle, D will have another appointment for a follicle scan to see how her follicles have responded to the drug.
5. D will then be sent home with an injectable drug called Ovidrel to induce ovulation and be instructed to administer it on a particular day (based on the size of her follicles in the scan.)
6. Two days after the Ovidrel shot is administered, D will then be inseminated through an IUI procedure (this is where the concentrated or "washed" sperm is injected directly into the uterus.)
7. A week after the IUI, D will go in for a Progesterone check.
8. One week later, we'll either be excitedly buying pregnancy tests or waiting around for the next time we can try again.

It actually felt really good to finally order some of our donor specimens to be shipped from California Cryo to CRM -- it felt like the beginning of something. What's weird is I have almost begun to feel like my contact over there at California Cryo, Shawn, is an old friend since I've spoken with him so often about paperwork, medical authorization, etc. So when Shawn wished us "Good luck being Mommies!" before he hung up with me this last time, I couldn't help but smile.

D and I have been tossing around baby names for weeks now -- actually we've made about a zillion solid name decisions that we thought (at the time) were definites and (as would be expected) consequently reversed those decisions -- we already went through Sophie, Sophia, Isabel, Isabella, Jaden, Sebastien, and Skylar. Right now, we like Gracie and Hannah for a girl and Dylan and Jaxson for a boy. I'm partial to Gracie because my grandmother's first name began with a G, but I have a feeling we'll go through a few million more than this before delivery day.

I'm about halfway through She Looks Just Like You: A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood by Amie Klempnauer Miller. It's not the greatest writing I've every seen, but it's certainly heartfelt (I teared up a few times and was thankful that I had my sunglasses on.) There are so few books about our experience! Perhaps if this all goes as planned, I'll write one. : )