So much information!!

Well we are back from our short trip to Toronto, and the end result was not what we expected but still good news.  We met with probably the nicest Doctor I have ever met and I work in a hospital.  He is a reproductive specialist that works at TCART, and he spent 3 hours with us explaining all the processes and options available to us.  J got an ultrasound to check her ovaries and uterus, everything looks good except there was something odd with her left tube.  He wants J to have a hysterosalpngogram or Sonohystergram to ensure that both tubes are open.  After we spoke about all the options, the Doc suggested that we start with IUI instead of going straight to IVF.  He said that because J's uterus is looking good, and because she is still young it would be good to try this first.  Next cycle J needs to get blood work on day 3, and if everything looks good with that and if her left tube isnt blocked then we are good to try the cycle after that.  For the first try we are going to travel back to Ontario, we are going to use Letrozole for egg stimulation and we will have to be in Ontario for 4 days for the IUI.  We picked out possible sperm donors last night, we decided to go through Xytex because they have a good list of Canadian ccompliant donors.  We are well on our way, I dont think I will ever be more excited for J's period to come....I am counting down the days

Flying to Toronto Tomorrow!!

So tomorrow is the day we are flying to Toronto for our appointment, I know it is only a consult but it just feels like an such a big step.  Yesterday was our 1 year wedding anniversary, we had a great meal at home with some chocolate fondue!  We were chatting about the last year and how fast it has flown by and it hit me that we could have a baby for our next anniversary if everything goes smoothly (fingers crossed).

We went out and bought the "What to Expect before your Expecting" book, and we made a list of questions to ask at our appointment.  We fly out at 6:30am tomorrow and I am finishing the laundry and packing a small bag.  I am debating taking pictures of our trip, I am not sure if it overboard or not.  I think I would really like to look back on our journey, I will ask J and see what she thinks

Exciting Times Ahead

Vacation was great, we were in South Florida and we got some well deserved R&R.  During our trip I called home to check the voice mail and there was a message from our Dr's office saying that our Dr wanted to speak to us.  This got J quite nervous because she had just completed blood work for our Home insemination consult.  When we got back into town we stopped in to the Dr's office and he told us that he had been in contact with a colleague in Toronto that does IVF and we should give him a call.  We called his office and we have a appointment this weekend.  This process has gone from a snails pace to a whirlwind.  So we are flying into Toronto on Friday morning and our appointment is on Saturday morning, and then we hop on a plane that night to come back home.  The first appointment J will have some blood work done, an ultrasound and we will speak about the next steps.  Our family Dr said that we could do all the monitoring here and only have to travel back to Toronto for the egg retrieval.  It seemed like we had a clear view of how we were going to proceed with this process, it is a bit crazy how fast our plans have changed but I am happy with our change of course....as they say you have to roll with the punches.  

On a side note, we went and saw that Justin Bieber movie last night and beside loving the movie (which I am embarrassed to say), there were a lot of concert scenes and I saw all the parents in the audience singing along with all the songs and just as excited to see Justin Bieber as there pre-teen daughter.  This made me think about what I am going to be like when my son or daughter are so excited about something that they feel like it is the end of the world if they weren't apart of it.  I plan on being that parent that supports that kid, and I will wear the ridiculously overpriced concert t-shirt, and I will help glitter that poster.      

I wonder what everyone was doing in May 2010?

Why is it that when you start focusing your life around creating a new life, it seems like everyone around you has a new baby.  Recently I have noticed in the stores, restaurants, and even at work there are new babies everywhere.  Was everyone really bored in May last year?   Last night we went over to visit friends from work that just had a baby girl, and she was of course cute as a button (which now that I think about it, I don't find buttons that cute, but I digress). Seeing J hold that new baby in her arms gave me a quick glimpse into (fingers crossed) our future, and it was wonderful!

Both J and I have been spontaneous people and worry about the consequences later, which has worked for us.  But now we are entering this new phase in our lives where it is time to be "grown ups" and really plan for the future.  We have made a household budget, started focusing our clearing up some debt, and really thinking about our daily decisions.  It is actually amazing how proud I feel when we sit down and look at our options and ask ourselves: "Do we need that", or "We could get this cheaper at a different store".  I feel that this a great lesson for us first off and more importantly this is a great lesson for our future children.  Isn't funny the mind set you get yourself into when thinking about children, I am constantly asking myself "what do I want to make sure my kids learn to be a good person?" 

Why is the beginning never the beginning?

I guess introductions are in order, myself "E" am a 28 year old that has the most wonderful wife "J" who is 32 and we are starting our journey in growing our family. We met five years ago and became good friends but I was seeing someone else at the time. "J" told me that the first time she saw me she knew that we would eventually end up together, and here we are married for almost a year! (High five for J being persistent!!!). Currently we live in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, but we are both originally from Ontario. We came here for work but do plan to move back to Ontario in a year or so.

I thought it would be a good idea to start this blog to help us document what we are about to go through with this journey and maybe it will help others that are in our situation. The internet is where I go to for most of my research and I enjoy reading about other couples and their experiences. I can't remember how many times I have written the the Google search bar "Canadian Lesbians TTC", I sure Google remembers me and thinks "not her again...". I wanted to write this with a Canadian perspective, I have accumulated a lot of knowledge from other blogs written from American lesbians but I have had a hard time finding the Canadian support.

So we are not far into our TTC journey, we decided it was time to start thinking about the process in April 2010. We started looking up info in the web, spoke to our family physician, we both got physicals done, and of course we started drooling over all the cute baby clothes and gear. We decided that J would carry the first baby due to her being a bit older then me (her clock is ticking so loud I am sure the neighbors can hear). We started charting temperatures every morning and decided that we would do that for a few months and see where we are then. I made a phone call to the fertility clinic here in town to see how fast we could get in. I guess fast isnt the word I should use, the receptionist informed me that there is a 13 month wait....I was floored, I am sure she could hear my heart break over the phone. After about a week of J and I moping around we remembered that "Rome wasn't built in a day", and everything good is worth waiting for, and in the meantime we were going to look at all the options available to us. We looked at all the Canadian companies that will send sperm nation wide to try and make a budget on how much we should expect to pay for this adventure, and I realized one thing....I should get into the sperm business! We went the next few months just charting temperatures and trying not to get too excited. October rolled around and I had a bit of a freak out and decided that there was no way I could be responsible for a little life, heck I can barely remember to pay my cell phone bill on time. And we decided that we would wait a bit and revisit the baby idea in the new year. Which brings us to about now, we are back on track...I am getting better at paying the cell phone bill and we are ready to figure this out again. Temperatures are being taken, we have contacted Repromed in Toronto to get info on the Home Insemination Program, and we are back drooling over baby furniture, clothes, and accessories.

I guess that is all for now but I will update as we continue on.