The serious things.

Once again, it has been several months in between blog posts. I still think about it all the time and have decided to start blogging about one of the main things that has been on my heart lately.

As some of you know, Shaun and I got married in April 2014. We decided that we wanted to start a family right away, so I went off birth control in June 2014 and we starting trying to get pregnant.

While some people get pregnant right away, that is just not the case for others. It seems like I hear people say all the time that they got pregnant on their first try or within a few months of trying. What you rarely hear are the stories of those who took many months or even years to have a baby. Reality is, 1 in 8 couples struggle with infertility, and we are one of them.


After trying naturally for a year, I turned to an infertility specialist. We had some initial testing done - blood work, HSG, semen analysis, etc. What we ended up finding out was that everything on my end came back good, however, my husband's sperm count was on the low side of normal and he had very low motility. After the doctor gave us the results, she proceeded to tell us that we would probably never get pregnant naturally.

Looking back, that probably wasn't the best thing for her to tell us, especially at that time. We left the hospital feeling slightly defeated.

The doctor ordered another analysis for Shaun that ended up coming back worse than the first one.
The plan moving forward was to start oral medication for me, to increase follicle production and IUI (intrauterine insemination) to increase our chances of conceiving. I also researched some supplements for Shaun to take to try and help his sperm production and motility.

So far, we have done five medicated cycles with oral medications. Our first medicated cycle was with 50mg Clomid and I produced eight mature follies (potential eggs) so our IUI was cancelled for fear we could end up with HOM (high order multiples.) Our next three cycles were with 5mg Femara (letrozole) and I had three follicles each time; we did IUI on the second and third cycle, but not the fourth since it fell over Christmas and the offices were closed. Our last IUI was with 100mg Clomid and I ended up with five follicles. I think we could have had a great chance on this cycle, however, Shaun was gone for work during that time. We were able to freeze a "sample" for the IUI, however, we lost a LOT of motile sperm during the freezing/ thawing process.

The good thing about all these tries, is that each time we did an IUI and we got Shaun's results back, they got better and better. We attributed his initial bad results to a three month-long underway that he had just come back from. During that time, lack of sleep and high stress were inevitable, most likely causing his initial test results to come back so low.

This month, my doctors have decided not to have me do anymore oral medications and to move on to an injectable medication. I started two nights ago with an injections of 75 iu Follistim, which we'll do for six days. On the seventh day, I have an appointment for an ultrasound to see how many follicles have grown. I'm a little nervous because using injectable medications can cause OHSS (ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome.) If we end up with too many follicles again, they will cancel the IUI.

The kicker in our situation is that, ever since we got to Hawaii, we knew that there was a long deployment in our somewhat near future. We still had a while to try and we hoped to be able to time it so that I would have the baby after Shaun came home.

We've been trying for 19 months now with no luck and this is our last chance to try before Shaun leaves. As ridiculous as it may sound, he actually took leave from work so he could be sure to be home from work when it's time for the IUI. I'm praying that with this new medication protocol and Shaun's now normal test results, this month will end with a pregnancy for us.

Sorry for the long, detailed post (still probably doesn't include everything!), but just trying to get the blog up-to-date.

Will post more updates soon!


Aloha,