danak1: My story...Samantha is 6 mos old today (long, long)Samantha is 27 in (90th) and 19 lb (95) and 17 in head (75th). so she's come back down to the weight chart. I'm actually glad as I didn't want a 30lb 1 year old. It seems she's growing a lot like her brother. I hope no one minds me posting here. The place to post the stories is already on p. 2 and I didn't have time earlier. Let me begin by saying I just don't have the time to post as much as I'd like. Lots of lovely babies and supportive moms here, but work is crazy. I think I'm close to the oldest here, if not the oldest. I turned 43 a couple of weeks ago. I'm a scientist married to another scientist. DH is 48. We met in '92 and married in '95 and tried to start a family almost immediately. I figured it would be difficult for me since I'd never had anything but 60-70 days cycles since AF first showed her face. I can't tell you how many people told me that was norma. A few years before I met dh, I had investisgated why I was suddenly have midcycle pain. To make a long story out of that, never found out why but did get rid of some mild endo that caused the stabbing cramps I'd always had. Anyway, I'm digressing already.... Right after we married, dh was diagnosed with Grave's disease so we put the serious baby making on hold until his thyroid was settled down and treated. When that was nearly done, I had some blood work done that was suggestive of PCOS. Always with me things were suggestive of PCOS, no one has told me that is what I have. I don't always have the inverted fsh/lh ratio, just sometimes, and have borderline high levels of what pcos women do. Also I know from experience that weight makes no difference in my cycles. That said, we were referred to RE, who began me with clomid back in '97. I get resistant to these drugs, so after three cycles 50 mg no longer worked. Bummed, dh and I went backpacking in CO and came back to discuss whether we could fit a cycle into the 17 days we had from day 1 to when dh had to go away on business. RE's nurse thought it looked hopeful from my chart so we did our first cycle of 100 mg. On day 16 u/s and bloodwork showed ov on its way and so we did our thing. then ds went away (on our 2nd anniversery, no less). Unbelieveably, I got pregnant (talking about meeting a deadline!) The nurse at the RE's office even dreamt that I had gotten pregnant before we knew I had. Gave birth to ds in 6/98. Since it had been relatively easy to conceive ds, we thought we'd try again for a second. Somehow I thought all we'd have to do was another round of 100 mg clomid! I bf ds for 10 mos then he self weaned. I had monthly cycles for about 4 mos then went back on clomid, this time with ob. In hindsight, I don't think I was ov yet. according to bbt, if I have a normal length cycle, I don't ov, it is just breakthrough bleeding. Anyway, with 100 mg clomid, I didn't ov in a timely manner. Upped the dose to 150 and did ov but had all the bad side effect of clomid, bad lining, no mucous, etc. Ended up back with RE, where we did some clomid/injectible cycles, but still didn't get perfect cycles. low p4, thin lining etc. I kind of felt that I needed a cycle where the environment was more conducive. Plus I was not getting any younger. In December of 2000, after a year of trying, we had the talk with RE. He recommended doing straight injectibles. I asked him if doing 3 cycles of injectibles would give me same odds as doing one round of ivf. He said ivf would be better. That was the first time we began thinking about ivf. We decided that if we did ivf, we'd only do it once and that would be our last try. No birth control but no drugs and we'd take what we got. We didn't think it was fair to ds to spend more money and time on a sibling. We were more fortunate than many to have that one child. I also wasn't sure I wanted to keep trying after I turned 42 as for me the abnormal chromosome risk was just too much. Somehow or other I ended up thinking we should do a round of injectibles first. That got postponed for nearly three months as I found out in 1/01 that I had an early miscarriage. Natural pg, but one form a day 35 ov. I don't think my eggs are healthy in those situations. I was shocked but since I found out I had positive beta on day 3 of my next cycle, I already knew the pg had ended. Then I had to wait a cycle...one of my 60 day cycles. We did injectibles, but that went bust as I had a dominant follicle and probably was just too old for one egg to be good enough. But it told the RE how I responded. On to that one ivf. We had 18 follicles, 17 eggs and only 8 fertilized. Of those we did a day 3 transfer of 4 that weren't stellar. As psychological self protection, I told myself it couldn't have worked. We went to FL memorial day weekend of 2001 to a cousin's wedding. I tried not to think of being pg. Strangely, twice on that trip I dreamt I was pg. I had the first driving shift back to MD from FL and I was sooooo sleepy. So unlike me. I also seemed to be getting nauseous. By the time we got home I was suspicious and when dh went out to the store I did a hpt. It was positive. That day RE called to wish me luck about the next day's beta. I had the fun of making him squirm between telling him I'd done the hpt and what the results were. Anyway, that pg was Sam. The only weird thing was trying to get my amnio results from peri on 9/11. It didn't seem important. I did get them later. I actually had been told in a message on 9/10 that there were good news. But I had to hear it again. The pg was uneventful until the end when a big baby was suspected. She turned out to be too big to descend and got stuck in my hip. She'd been there a few weeks, I believe seeing as that is where she was for my u/s for size. On the day of the second induction attempt, after being on pitocin all day, a c-section brought my stuck little girl into the world at about 8:45 that night. They had reason to worry about her size as she was 10 lb 2.5 oz. She also had lots of hair and my crooked pinkies. She's a wonderful baby. Always very happy and easygoing. She and ds are very much alike in temperament for the same age. Hard to say what she's going to be like as she gets older. As ds has gotten to toddler and preschool years, he has turned out to be quite 'spirited' (do an internet lookup about spirited children). MORE and VERY are words that quite aptly describe him. Quite trying at times, sometimes I think because he's so very smart. Sam may turn out to be much the same. I'm already warning them at daycare (lol!). To end this. Sam ended up inheriting more than my crooked fingers and small nose. She also has a minor heart defect that will be fixed in the spring...she still has the murmur. It also looks like she has mild torticolis (she tilts her head to the right slightly), probably from spending those weeks wedged in my hip. From what I've read, it's caused by damage to a neck muscle in utero or during delivery. We're going to be going to physical therapy soon to see what they think. From everything I read, it is totally correctible in the first year of life. I am totally blessed to have these two beautiful children and to have had them with such relative ease in terms of IF. Now we have finished our family and I am so on the other side of the ttc fence. thanks for reading, leigh |