A very long overdue post

Dearest friends in the blogosphere,

I hope someone out there is still reading this.  I feel very bad that I have not posted in soo long!

The great news is that I am pregnant.  Almost 14 weeks!

I am sorry you missed out on the drama that was our final insemination attempt.  It was touch and go on the timing and we told no-one we were giving it a final attempt.   I surged just in time for an insem on the last day we were in our old city,  the last day the clinic was open before it closed for Christmas, me forgoing the post-IUI rest period to leap out of the stirrups to drive A to work before going home to meet removalists and scrub mould off bathroom ceilings, before packing the car and us driving off for a weekend of hard-core hiking  in the Blue Mountains and time in Sydney with A’s parents before we flew to my hometown and then to our new country.  We lodged all the forms and scripts for IVF before we left.  And, me, being so convinced it hadn’t worked, and so sick of putting my whole life on hold, drunk a beer on a warm summer Perth evening (and boy I enjoyed it!).

There was drama with the BFP.   No period but clinics closed over the new year period so no blood tests possible either.  HPT would not work.  Us staying with my parents and sneaking out to the pharmacy to buy HPTs and then sneaking in together to cafe bathrooms to stare at little pee sticks that kept giving negatives.  When the clinic finally opened (our clinic has branches all round the country that we could use), we were there for a blood test the minute the opened their doors (it was 17DPO).   We got a call from our clinic (they fax the results to them) later that day. It was a very cautious phone call that said ‘ well there’s some pregnancy hormone there so technically you’re pregnant but you’ll need to do another blood test because normally we like to see the levels a lot higher than that by this stage’ (the HCG was 35).   So it didn’t really feel like we were pregnant.  I remember sitting in the car in my parent’s carport out the front of the house, after having taken the call, and us both going ’so at least it can happen’ but feeling numb and then wandering into the house like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The second blood test, on the day before we left, showed the HCG levels at around 391 (it was now 20DPO). (by this time, we were back in Sydney for a day before leaving Australia) and the call came in while were sitting in the food court in a shopping mall, me having to go into the toilet corridor to be able to hear a word of what was being said, and the nurse  telling me that I would need to arrange an ultrasound for 7 weeks.  I was gesticulating to A and giving her the thumbs up and then we wandering around in a daze and kept shopping.   I don’t think we had quite absorbed it.

And a few weeks later, our 7w ultasound showed a strong beating heartbeat and our little baby. That was incredible turning point for us.  It was real. Our baby was on its way.

I haven’t blogged as A and I were very keen to kept it quiet until we got to the 12 week mark .  (There are a few people IRL that read this blog.)  We really enjoyed the private joy that the 12 weeks provided.  I was very sick those first few months.  We were in a new city, new jobs and to begin with we were in this awful short-term serviced apartment. I was throwing up daily.  It was horrible.  Then we moved into our house, I started to feel better, my belly started to grow, and we started to share our news.

Sharing the news has been incredibly full-on and I look forward to blogging about all the various reactions.  It’s been exhausting managing a lot of not-so-positive ones including the (now former) friend who said ‘I wish I had told you sooner how I felt about lesbians having children, so that you wouldn’t have gone ahead and done this’.   Family has been tough too. But friends have been overwhelmingly supportive and that’s why they’re friends.

So, there’s enough material from the past 3 months to keep me blogging until the baby arrives.  I feel really sad I haven’t been able to share this sooner with my internet friends.  I’ve still be following all the blogs, and I was inspired by the wonderful news of the arrival of Vee and Jay’s Bonus Ball.  Welcome!  Vee and Jay’s story has been so inspiring and its so wonderful that their much longed for child has arrived.  I so appreciate how all you wonderful women in the blogosphere share your lives, it really enriches mine.

For those of you interested in the details, the baby’s EDD is 17 September 2009 (even though the date based on my LMP puts it at 9 September, the late rise in the HGC (and the size on the ultrasound) indicates that conception didn’t take place until a week after the IUI. Something I thought was impossible with frozen sperm.)  I am glad to go with a later date as it means less impatience and I can get away with working closer to my due date.

Anyway, thanks so much for sharing the journey this far, and I look forward to sharing the rest of the ride with you all

xxx

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