CD8 and an Update!

Dr Awesome decided because of my cycle last month that he would like this cycle to be medicated for our dIUI. I started my Femara (Letrozole) on Friday, my CD3 through yesterday on CD7. Overall I haven't had any real side effects but then again I've had a sinus thing going on with some low grade fever and attributed my headaches and hot flashes to that... Monday is CD 13 and we are scheduled for an ultrasound first thing in the morning with a follow up insem and trigger if all goes well. We are doing insems 2 days in a row. I feel at peace with this TTC journey. We have been through so much over the past 3 years from failed surrogacy attempts, my hubby's stroke and following recovery, and dropping toxic family members. Love and I have rebuilt our life and went from being in a dual income household, to nothing until Love was recovered. He had to medically retire as a physician because in his chosen profession he needed both hands functioning. He finally knows what he wants to go back to school for and is working toward that, and I am happy to say that I just received a job offer. WAHOO! We are very happy that we have made hard but necessary changes in our life and are ready for baby now in God's time. I have a sense of peace not only over our TTC but in life in general. I feel so blessed to have my husband home, healthy, and we are both ready to finally have a baby together! It has been 23 months since Love's stroke and I have been off work since that night. I have looked for jobs, and between our move across country and back I just hadn't found anything. I hadn't found anything until this week that is. You may remember last month when I interviewed for a job and had a horrific interview experience.. if not read all about that interview from hell . Well this past Monday I had another interview for my former job that I worked until Love's stroke. I had both places call within a 24 hour period and offer me a job! SO I am no longer unemployed. In fact I have 2 jobs to choose from! WAHOO!!!! I will receive insurance benefits as of April 1st. Everything is falling into place and I couldn't be happier... ESPECIALLY if I get knocked up next Monday!

ICLW: Getting to know you...

Hello fellow ICLWers Welcome to my bloggy home! I hope you are all having a fabulous week so far. I figured I should give you the skinny on my story here at Birdie's Family Journey. Love and I went on our first date in November of 2008, engaged in April of 2009, and married in August of 2009... yes that was a whirlwind but I have to tell you not a day goes by that I don't thank God for my husband.  Plus we wanted to add to our family ASAP and we aren't spring chickens! I have 2 grown children from my first marriage. Froggy almost20 and Bug who just turned 18. If you want a breakdown of why I can't carry my DH's baby go here. We started our journey to baby via surrogacy during that fall, and were matched to a wonderful surrogate, who had to back out due to a home electrical fire right before our appointment for psych evals, and cycling. We were so very sad but understood that she needed to focus on her home and family. We went through a few potential matches including a family member match. We were all set to to on our journey and prepping for a June cycle when my dear hubby had a stroke due to unregulated hypertension April 30, 2010. Life changed in an instant, One month before his 37th birthday my hubby was suddenly in a fight for his life. At that instant we went from a dual income family to a no income family, and luckily we had money saved, and the ability to fall back and regroup. I had changed jobs right after we married and didn't have FMLA time allowed so not only did Love's private practice end my job did as well, while my husband was in surgical ICU and in a coma I was told by my workplace.

I spent the next year being Love's personal cheerleader and after almost 4 months in the hospital he was able to come home to a newly renovated place (had to be done for him to come home)... and we continued with on average 9-11 appointments each week for the first few months then it backed down to around 6 appointments each week and tapered off until last July when he stopped all outside therapies. He no longer practices and is medically retired, his Bp is now under control and he is feeling like its time to restart our journey in a new way. We know we still want to pursue surrogacy in the future because we have 3 frozen embryos that are great quality. We do however want to have more than 1 child so they have a sibling.  We have an appointment on February 15th to start a dIUI cycle. I look forward to sharing our journey with you all and please leave a comment, follow me, and I will for sure be following you ladies and gents back!

Birdie and Love About Town

picture courtesy of virtualtourist.com

So Love and I went out to eat this evening to one of our favorite Thai places here in town. (There are 2 we absolutely adore and both treat us the same!) Since Love's practice was in the downtown section we used to frequent this place a couple times a week. Isn't it funny how the owners of tiny restaurants become almost like family? We love their visits table side and how it is here in our "hometown" even though we both grew up in different areas, as professionals we have been in this area for quite a while. Everyone here in the area still treats my hubby as he was treated before his stroke, and that is nice. It's one thing that was a bit different when we moved briefly out of the area.

My hubby had a stroke in April of 2010. Directly after seeing his last patient of the evening he came up stairs to our place above the commercial building and within 5 minutes I was calling 911. That evening changed our life instantly. I will post about that night and the subsequent journey to healing in another post but tonight I just wanted to say how wonderful it is to have people around us that see Love for who he is on the inside, and aren't stopped by the sight of a fairly young man walking with a cane, or riding in his wheel chair, with his left arm and hand non functional, and his leg impaired.

I think one of the biggest struggles we've had is of family members on my side treating him like he is half of a person because of the disability now. It has been very frustrating in our infertility journey when people ask questions like, "Aren't you afraid he won't be able to help you with kids?", or "Why would you have children now?", like my husband is a burden to me. He isn't and many people with disabilities have babies everyday. He can actively contribute to our lives and to society and I find it so oppressive and frankly hurtful when I hear those types of things.

When we walk into this restaurant and are greeted with  "Hi Doctor Love! It's so nice to see you and Birdie out tonight!" The conversation turns to our move across country and back and how great it is to see us again. The families in both this restaurant and the other one in town that we adore are Asian and my hubby and I go to these places when he is in need of "comfort" food.  I realized tonight that I come to these places when I just simply need the feel of family. Nope they aren't our family... but they are wonderful with the way the treat my husband. They are helpful if he needs his chair pulled out, but don't treat him like an invalid, or someone with a low IQ. They still look at him as a peer, ask probing questions. Talk about his former practice, occasionally ask medical advice even though he is not practicing now... in short they treat him like a whole person, looking past the shell of his body and seeing the spirit inside him!