On A Break

I know this blog is dedicated to my journey to conceive a rainbow baby, but after almost 6 years of trying, and about 7 months without insurance, Mike and I have decided to take a break from actively trying. What we are really doing is NTNP or not trying but not preventing, which means if we happen to conceive while we're on this break, we won't be upset by it.

This break is going to actually last until the beginning of March 2012 when Mike gets insurance through his new job. Until then, I'm working hard on getting control of my hormonal imbalance with progesterone cream and vitamin d3, along with a daily multi-vitamin and iron supplements.

I am a member of a website run by Wray on Progesterone Therapy, and she is who really got me started on using progesterone cream and most recently vitamin d3. She is not a doctor but is another woman like me who wasn't content to let a doctor put her on potentially harmful drugs when there were natural alternatives. I highly recommend checking out this site and reading some of the comments to see if you are experiencing what some of her readers are.

Just because I'm taking a break doesn't mean that TTC (trying to conceive) isn't going to be on my mind. In fact, I think with this break, it's going to relieve a lot of the stress Mike and I have been under because we haven't conceived again.

Part of the stress about TTC for us are my own fertility issues, but the other part is, there's a 50/50 chance with every pregnancy that the chromosome defect Mike carries could be passed on. We could increase those odds to about 80/20 if we do in vitro fertilization with PGD, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, but that costs about $20,000 that we don't and probably will never have. So, until we can afford that or we win a scholarship from INCIID that pays for the IVF, we are going to continue trying the old-fashioned way.

I have to talk about INCIID because they are a great way for couples like us, or who have other fertility issues, to get IVF paid for. INCIID is an organization that does an unlimited amount of IVF scholarships each year for qualifying, accepted couples. So, basically, you have to go fill out an application, pouring out your heart and explaining your fertility issues, AND if you are accepted, you have to further qualify with a participating fertility specialist who would perform the IVF. Then, you have to raise $3000 in donations to INCIID before they will give you the scholarship. If the IVF round is not successful, then you can reapply. Because we'd need the PGD to go with the IVF we'd have to come up with $3000-$5000 on top of the donations to pay for it.

This organization helping us is really our ultimate goal because we know from our story alone we would qualify, we have a lot of family and friends that would help us raise donations, and my parents agreed to take out loans from their 401k to pay for the PGD if we need it.

So along with even more research during this break, I'm focusing on getting my insulin resistance under control so I can lose some of the 100lbs it helped put on me since I got pregnant with our daughter. If I can lose this weight, and the vitamin d3 and progesterone cream work, then hopefully we'll get pregnant again this year either naturally or possibly be able to qualify for the scholarship.