A Plan

Yesterday I visited my reproductive endocrinologist (RE) for the first time in almost two years(!), and now we officially have A Plan.

I’d originally intended to wait a little longer, but last week I had my annual OBGYN appointment, and of course the fact that we were already trying to conceive came up during my visit.  I mentioned that it was hard to know how long to try on our own before going back to the RE, especially since we don’t know whether things are the same or worse than they were at my abnormal HSG right before we conceived our son two years ago.  I also mentioned that the HSG seems to be helpful, or at least lucky, for us since both times I’ve gotten pregnant before it’s been the cycle after an HSG.  She encouraged me to go back to the RE and talk to her about getting another HSG sooner rather than later — as she said, it won’t hurt (too much), it will give us more information, and it might help!

So after that appointment I called the RE’s office, and they had a cancellation this week so they were able to get me in right away.  Yesterday I made the trek back down (it’s about a half-hour drive — in the smallish college town where I live there are no REs so we have to go to one of the large state hospital systems).  It felt so odd walking into that building again, realizing that I hadn’t been there for two years!  And since it’s National Infertility Awareness Week, they had cupcakes in the waiting room — hey, sucks to be infertile, but here, have a cupcake!  Actually, I thought it was very sweet — they were clearly homemade, and I wondered who among the office staff took the time to bake cupcakes for all their patients.

The RE was very sweet, and excited for us, and positive about our chances of conceiving again.  As expected, she gave me a talk about cutting back on breastfeeding before we start getting serious about intervention.  But she didn’t take as hard a line as I was expecting — she said that once a day was probably OK.  She would have been happy to put in the order for the HSG right away, but she pointed out that to maximize the fertility benefit it might make sense to wait until I’ve cut back on breastfeeding.  I was cool with waiting a few months — as I’ve mentioned, we’re really not desperate to get pregnant immediately.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trying to at least wean off of daytime pumping, since I dislike it so much and I’m not convinced that at this age there’s really any benefit to breastfeeding four times a day as opposed to two.

So, here’s the plan: I’ll slowly (super-slowly, since I’m so prone to clogged ducts!) wean off of pumping during the day over the next ~month, but continue to nurse morning and evening, plus maybe a little extra on weekends or sick days if S asks for it.  I have the order for the HSG whenever I’m ready, which I’m thinking will be around July or so — if he’s still nursing then, I’ll see how I feel about cutting back to one session (probably bedtime, since he’s often impatient with the morning session anyway — too excited to start his day!).

So that means that we’ll keep trying on our own for a few months, then probably do the HSG and my bloodwork mid-summer, then try on our own for a few more months while my husband gets his testing re-done, and then if nothing has happened by mid to late fall, we’ll be ready to escalate.  The timeline I discussed with the RE is that we’d like to be pregnant within about a year, but it’s OK if it’s not immediate, so we’re content to try this for a while.  She’s optimistic about our chances for a spontaneous conception.  I’m happy with the plan, my husband is happy with the plan, and it just feels good to HAVE a plan and know what to expect.

So, we’ll see what happens.  I’m feeling more positive these days about trying again.  And little S is a huge light in my life, making me appreciate so concretely every day how fortunate we are to have him, even as we look towards a hopeful future of perhaps, someday, a family of four here on Earth.

Dragging My Feet on Trying Again

I’m curious whether any of you have ever felt this way.  Before we were pregnant with our daughter, and then again after her death, I was laser-focused on getting pregnant as quickly as possible.  I was temping, I was charting, I was using OPKs, I was doing everything I could to time things properly and maximize chances of conception.  This time around feels… different.

I want another living baby, very much.  Therefore, I want to be pregnant again.  And rationally, I realize it makes sense to start trying now.  It has never been easy for us to get pregnant, and it probably won’t be this time either.  I’m 34, so Advanced Maternal Age is staring me in the face.  If we want another kid, there’s no time like the present, clearly.

But… our son is still so little.  Our breastfeeding relationship is still going strong.  He’s only just started reliably sleeping through the night.  I’m enjoying the mommy-daddy-baby triad and am not eager to upset it with another little one, even though it’s absolutely what we want for all three of us in the longer run.  Starting over with a newborn sounds exhausting.  Being pregnant again sounds exhausting.  Heck, even getting pregnant again sounds exhausting — getting pregnant with my son was an exhausting and heartbreaking almost-2-year-long haul, counting everything we went through with my daughter.   That’s part of what makes me eager to get started sooner rather than later, but it’s also a big part of what’s making me reluctant.  I just can’t imagine going through it all again.

So, I’ve been dragging my feet a bit.  Just last night my husband asked… isn’t this the week?  And I was surprised to realize that it was, and I just hadn’t really been on top of keeping track.  But he’s keeping track, apparently!

Are we really ready to get back on this roller coaster?  I know that another living baby in our family will be more than worth it in the long run.  But it’s been a LONG run to get to where we are now with our son, and it’s daunting to think about going through it all again.  There’s also my tenure clock lurking in the back of my mind.  If all goes as planned, I’ll submit my materials about a year and a half from now.  Another baby between now and then would practically require me to push back that clock.  But since it’s probably going to take us a while, it still makes sense to start now so that ideally our pregnancy will be timed (ha!) so that my due date would be shortly after I submit my materials.  So there’s the gamble about trying to time it so that it’s soon… but not too soon.  But I also fully subscribe to the mantra that there is no good time for a baby, and that the potential pitfalls of waiting too long are far more dire than the pitfalls of moving back my tenure clock a bit… or even than not getting tenure at all.

Maybe it’ll be easier this time.  Maybe we’ll surprise ourselves and get pregnant quickly without intervention (unlikely, but possible).  Maybe I won’t lose another pregnancy.  Maybe the Lovenox will just inject itself every day.  Maybe we’ll get a magical easy newborn (ha).  Right now, it just looks like a lot to handle, and I’m tired (but not newborn tired, thankfully!), and I want to enjoy my son, whom I love to the very depths of my soul and with whom I never feel like I get to spend enough time.  I’m sure this ambivalence is normal.  But I’d love to hear any thoughts about how to get past it.

In other news, S continues to delight.  He’s walking and climbing all over the place these days, and starting to communicate.  No clear words yet, but definitely several expressive gestures that he uses in different contexts (I won’t call them “signs” because they’re not the official ones that I’ve been using with him, but he has clearly developed his own signs — instead of “all done,” for example, he’ll grab the front of his high chair tray with two hands, and just this morning he also did it when he wanted to get out of his jumparoo.  It was very clearly the same communicative gesture in a different context, and it was so cool to see that he is actually putting together the pieces for communicating with other humans!).  He’s big into blocks and wheels and gets delighted whenever he manages to balance a thing on top of another thing.  He’s very snuggly and pretty social and loves to hang out with our friends and family members, or walk outside and just look at the world and touch the bushes and trees.  I simply can’t get enough of him these days!  Having another little one to watch grow up has to be just as great… right?