Fertility Foods

I am a reader. Much to my wife's dismay, I read things, and then I want us to change because of them. I

often start conversations "So, I was reading today..." to which she groans, then listens, and usually goes along with whatever ridiculous thing I have just discovered is very important. Mostly it has to do with environmental things, chemicals that we should avoid, how most sunscreens cause cancer etc.

Being somewhat of an observer in this baby-making adventure I've been enjoying reading things about how to increase our chances, and make our baby a super healthy genius. My first stop on this journey was to learn about fertility foods.

Some things I have learned:

• Sometimes full fat dairy is best. This includes whole fat yogurt, and ice cream. (I've decided to skip the full fat yogurt and stick with it's non-fat alternative, but Ali's enjoyed the upgrade.) Apparently women who consume full fat dairy have more regular ovulation. WAHOO!

• Asparagus has something like 65% of your daily dose of folic acid. That mixed with the pre-natal vitamin is basically like liquid gold for a baby. We've been eating it a few times a week.

• Red pepers have more vitamin c per serving than citrus fruit.

• Farm raised salmon has antibiotics in it, and artificial coloring. Better to stick to the wild kind. Plus the omega-3 fatty acids help to regulate reproductive hormones, increase blood flow to reproductive organs, and relieve stress. (Not that there is anything at all stressful about this process.) 

• Blueberries and raspberries have a ton of  antioxidants, which can help with happy, healthy eggs! 

Then of course there is a long list of foods to avoid. For example: sandwich meats, raw fish, hot dogs, coffee, soda, sugar (cough, cough). 

Basically, we've discovered that the so called "fertility diet" is basically the same as eating healthy. We've been indulging in lots of organic fruits and veggies, happy farm raised antibiotic free chicken, wild haddock and salmon, whole fat organic yogurt (for Al, I still stick to the fat free kind). We are excited that summer has arrived and our food options are becoming more plentiful. 

Time Keeps Ticking

It's sort of a funny thing, planning to have a baby, without actually having one. As each milestone passes we imagine what that particular day will look like next year. As Christmas approached last year we thought "Maybe we'll have a baby next year." That was kind of a long shot, since we weren't really ready to start trying at that instant. But now that we are all of these holidays and celebrations it seems more and more likely that we might actually have a baby before the next one rolls around.

In April, it's my birthday.

In May, it's Mother's Day.

In June, it's Ali's birthday.

When we did our first iui in April our due date would have been December 27th. A few days early, and we could have had a Christmas baby. A few days later and our child could have shared a birthday with his or her cousin, our sweet niece Hannah, who is now 5 months old.

When I started seriously reading other blogs of women trying to get pregnant the same way we are I was excited to come across so many women in the same boat as us. People around our ages, just starting to try to conceive. Now it seems like all of them are well on their way to mommy-hood, which makes me both hopeful, and a bit jealous.

If we get pregnant in the next couple of months we will have a baby for all of those occasions next year. Which could certainly happen, but is obviously not guaranteed. Any way it shakes out we I need to remind myself to be patient. Once the tiny human comes we will have it to share in celebrations with us for the rest of our lives.

Preparing for Round Two

It's hard to believe it's been a few weeks since I've written. We were obviously disappointed about Ali's inconveniently (for us) timed ovulation last month, and the fact that we were over 1000 miles away when we would otherwise be having an iui. However, something magical happened in the last few weeks.

We relaxed.

Don't get me wrong. It has been ridiculously busy. We have been away most weekends since Easter visiting with family and friends, and just generally being booked up. It's not that we forgot that we were in the midst of this incredible journey to make a baby, we simply remembered that the life we have right now is really awesome. And we lived it. We lived our lives free of thermometers and ovulation or pregnancy test and without the worry of what was happening in Ali's body. (I think she might have even eaten a hot dog at a BBQ a couple weeks ago!) We spent time on adventures together imagining walking the beach with an infant in a carrier, or being on trails with a toddler. It was great.

We start testing again on Thursday, which means we have appointments starting again next Saturday (for the following 2 weeks). All signs point to iui next Monday, as in a week from tomorrow, based average cycle length, etc. But get this, my sister graduates from high school next Sunday. My family lives an hour north of us, which means an hour further from the clinic. Her graduation is in the afternoon, so we COULD make it to an appointment early in the morning and be back for the graduation, but it would mean something like 7 hours in a car that day....which seems not at all fun.

I am hoping and praying with everything in me that it happens on Monday instead. For my convenience, so I don't miss any time with my family, or my sister's graduation. So I don't have to spend so long in the car. So I can be in Boston on a day when the Red Sox are not playing a home game literally right across the street from the clinic (which makes parking expensive or impossible). Something inside me tells me, based on how the last two months have gone that it will happen on Sunday, and I should just be prepared for that.

So, as we enter into round two we are reminded that this not-yet-conceived human is the boss of us, and we are filled with a bit more hope and excitement and joy than before. Those things have to count for something.

Missed Opportunity

Our insemination appointments this month were schedule May 9th through the 23rd. We have a BIG window of appointments each month, due to varying cycle lengths, but ovulation is most likely to fall during the first week. We made appointments knowing that from May 10-13th we'd be in Memphis for Ali's sisters college graduation...AKA 1400 miles away from our sperm. That made ovulation testing extra fun. On the first day we expected negative results. Then we started hoping for a negative result (which is not something people trying to conceive hope for.) We were counting down how many negative tests we needed to get before we would be excited for a positive. The magic number was 6. As we approached the 4th test we were getting hopeful. But instead, in the Memphis Airport bathroom we got a positive ovulation test. Which meant that we couldn't inseminate this month. We were disappointed because we had just spent the whole day in Boston and if the positive test had come one day sooner we could have snuck in a trip to the clinic. If the positive came 36 hours later we could have made it to our appointment late Monday after our flight landed in Maine.

The good news is this seemed to be an ordinary cycle. It's good after the last two which seemed a bit off (one very long, one with a random positive ovulation test too early.) I feel strangely ok with missing this cycle. Don't get me wrong, I was disappointed at first, I want a baby so bad that sometimes I actually physically ache for it. But the body is something that we can't really control, and I feel like this weekend we were exactly where we needed to be...it's hard to feel regret for that.

Maybe I'm guarding myself from disappointment. Or maybe I'm just going with the flow. Either way I can't help but think that this extra month means that I'll have more vacation time saved for when a baby arrives. Also, we'll have more money saved, in case we need to buy more swimmers, or lots of cute baby things.

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking and in just 10 days we'll be making more appointments and preparing to try again.