Welcome, ICLW!

This is my second month with ICLW so I thought I would leave you all with a little bit of background information about me and my infertility journey thus far...

My husband and I got married in June of 2001. After we got married, I went back to school to become a teacher. I've been a teacher since 2003 and in October 2006 we gave birth to our lovely boy Stathis. I got pregnant our second month of trying. I used to joke around that all I had to do was think about getting pregnant and I could get pregnant. Karma really is a bitch, I guess. Some infertility goddess heard me and thought she would teach me a lesson.

In January 2007 my husband was packaged out of his job and decided to go back to school himself to be a teacher also. We decided that we would start trying for baby # 2 in January of 2009. January to June of 2009 we tried naturally and I just got a feeling at that point that something was wrong. In October of 2009 I went for my yearly physical and my doctor referred us to a local Fertility Clinic to get everything checked out.

We met our fertility specialist, or RE as they are commonly called, in December of 2009. After a month of tests that included 2 semen analyses, an endometrial biopsy, a clomid challenge test and an HSG, we discovered that my husband has a low sperm count. To top that off, only 2% of his sperm were considered normal. Everything came out clear on my side. I was a little worried because even though I get my period like clockwork every 28 days, I was concerned that I was having annovulatory cycles. I honestly never thought that our problem could be male factor infertility.

Our RE recommended that I come to the clinic for 2 cycles unmedicated for monitoring. We disvovered during these two cycles that I ovulate when my follicle reaches 1.6cm and the RE prefers follicles around 2.0cm. My hubby submitted more samples for analyses and it was discovered that he had good DNA in his sperm, so our RE felt that with a little assistance, we could definitely get pregnant. I've carried a child before, from my husband's sperm no less.

As per the Dr's advice, it was recommended that we try IUI with injectibles. We underwent our first IUI in June. We didn't get pregnant, but at least we discovered how I respond to the gonal-f.

We decided to try again this month and with an increase in dosage of gonal f, I released two follicles (one was 1.9 and the other 2.1) and we had our back to back IUI's on Sunday and Monday of this week.

I am obviously super hopeful that the procedure worked. We had 7 million washed sperm on Sunday and 3 million washed on Monday. I had 2 eggs. Mathematically, it should work. In reality, I think that this whole infertility thing when we try to narrow it to numbers is a crap shoot. We are basically gambling with mother nature and we've put the coin in the slot machine and we are hoping for 3 cherry's to line up in a row. So I have my pregancy test on July 31st, which is 10 days away.

I am going to be keeping very busy so that I can keep my mind off of what may or may not be happening in my uterus. I find blogging very therapeutic and am always inspired and learn so much from other people in this community! I wish everyone all the best.

The purpose of me having this blog is to look for the signs that I feel God gives me daily so that I can remember my purpose here on Earth and to remind me about the good in this world, even when something as big as infertility came knocking on my door. I hope that my optimism can convince the wary and wounded to keep up the fight. Namaste