Oh what a month we've had....we made it through the Christmas and New Years and have been trying to figure out what's in store for 2021.
Let's recap our Christmas first -- we again stayed home for Christmas and celebrated at our house. Christmas Eve we "Zoomed" with Dustin's family and made pizzas. We opened the gifts we shipped to each other on our Zoom and made the best of our holiday apart. We set out our cookies and milk for Santa and waited patiently for Christmas morning. Christmas morning, my mom and Michael got to our house early so that they could see what Santa brought Declan. We ate casseroles I prepared for breakfast and then opened our family gifts. Overall it was a day where we just relaxed and played with our new toys. Santa brought Declan a tent, garbage truck and a Mr. Potato Head.
We celebrated Christmas with my dad's side on the 26th and while we were hesitant to all get together for Thanksgiving, we decided to have a semi-outdoor socially distanced Christmas together in Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve's heated garage. We hadn't seen everyone since Declan's birthday back in October so it was good to get together. Declan has so much fun playing with Abigail and Henry and showed off just how smart he's gotten lately.
Christmas with my dad's side also allowed me to catch up with my sister-in-law. While Kahla and I don't get much of a chance to talk regularly, I cherish the times we do get the time to talk. I trust her and know I'm lucky to have her as a confidant. We sat away from the rest of the fam and talked about the last few months, including how she was feeling after a COVID-19 diagnosis, how married life is going for both of us, and our fertility journeys. I also filled Kahla in on something I'd been holding onto for weeks....we went back to our fertility clinic to see about the options for using our remaining frozen embryo.
Back on October 20th, we set up an appointment with the FP office to talk to the doctor. The doctor and embryologist reviewed my chart and thought that if I wanted to use the embryo, I probably could. They could not be sure that it would result in another child but if we wanted to implant it, we were free to do so. The embryo has a quality of BB and with me being 34 when it was frozen, it may be of better quality that if the decided to retrieve additional eggs at 37. We made the decision to get on the list for the next open FET cycle, which happened to be January.
So we started the protocol in December with more birth control to get my cycle regulated and on January 8th, I started the fertility meds for the FET. The thing that is different with the FET (frozen embryo transfer) compared to the egg retrieval and fresh transfer I went through back in January 2018 is that I don't have to do the stim shots as I did before. This time, I'm on a steroid (Prednisone) and two Estrogen hormones (pills and gels). I had my first monitoring appointment this past Tuesday (01/12) and met with my fertility coordinator and the doctor. My ultrasound showed that my lining was where it needed to be and in the words of my doctor, my uterus is excellent.
I go back for a second monitoring this Tuesday (01/19) and start my progesterone oil shots and we're scheduled for the FET on Tuesday, January 26th.
Again, besides talking to Kahla about deciding to pursue the FET, we haven't said anything to anyone. We're going to wait awhile to see how everything turns out and then tell our families about our journey. Personally, I am fine with whatever happens. Just like when I went through this journey with Declan, I know everything is in God's plan. I'm so grateful and lucky for my miracle son.
I'm hoping to be able to update more on the FET process over the next few weeks but it all depends on how much time and energy I actually have to do so. Life with a 2 year old and my full time job can be absolutely insane somedays and by the time I sit down, I'm usually asleep 5 minutes after that.
