Got home yesterday and my GF had kindly unpacked the large refrigerated box of medications and stuck them on a shelf in the fridge - this is how they looked before I sorted them out and moved them to a crisper drawer. This is several thousand dollars worth of fertility drugs which I am lucky to have only had to pay about $1,000 for, thanks to my amazing healthcare coverage.

As you can see... I am preparing for an IVF, at long last. The cycle will probably start around Feb 28, and then the egg retrieval and embryo transfer procedures will probably be the week of March 14. My birthday is that week, as well, so I'm excited that this is all finally happening :-) Not much will be happening until then so this is just a quick note to get me back in the habit of posting here.

What's happened since I last wrote? Well, I assisted at a hypnobirth class last fall, met a lot of amazing pregnant couples who were planning on using hypnosis for their births, and ended up meeting my first doula client. I assisted at the hospital birth of her daughter in October - it was an amazing experience which I will blog about another time. I just assisted at another 4 week session of hypnobirthing classes and may have a new client, who is planning a home birth at the end of March. I'm thrilled at the chance to assist her and see a midwife in action. I will of course have a backup doula in case she goes into labor the week before, when I am having my IVF. But I hope that doesn't happen because I don't want to miss it!

In other news, I spent most of December and the beginning of January taking care of my dad after he had emergency surgery for an aortic aneurysm that was hemorrhaging and had started to tear. He was very lucky to survive and is doing well, but I spent 5 weeks helping him recover. Now I'm back home (we live on opposite sides of the country) and trying to get back to my normal routine and also recover and catch up from what was a very intense time. Taxes are done, to-do list is getting shorter, and all of my miscellaneous appointments will be out of the way soon, so all I have to do then is work, see my fertility acupuncturist twice a week, and get pregnant. Oh, and have a birthday party!

See you next month...

Love,
M