Sitting in the ultrasound room of my RE's office today, covered in a paper sheet, I definitely had a moment of "I can't believe we're doing this again." It feels... strange.
To recap: we had our consult with Dr. B a few weeks ago to start the process of a frozen embryo transfer. She reviewed the details of our last retrieval and went over some general stats about FETs, but to be honest I didn't hear much. I was sitting there the whole time thinking a) I can't believe we're here again, and b) are we really ready for this!? After meeting with her, we visited the lab for more blood draws and peeing in a cup. We left that day with our "to-do" checklist and instructions to call on day 1 of my period. It felt like we were hitting the ground running and for some reason that surprised me.
Anyway... fast forward about a week and it was the day before we were leaving for our trip to Hawaii when my period arrived. I had hoped it would come before the trip so that I could squeeze in the ultrasound that's supposed to be on days 2-4, but unfortunately it seemed we would have to put that off until the next month. I was also supposed to schedule a saline sonohysterogram for days 6-12, which meant I would have to come in our very first day back from vacation (day 12). Nevertheless, I dutifully called the nurse who assured me we could actually do the SSG any time during the week after our trip, as long as she started me on birth control pills (the regular ultrasound will still have to be next month).
I started the pill on day 5 (while we were in Hawaii) and today I went in for the SSG (day 16). Dr. B assured me that everything looks fine and said my uterus has "healed nicely" from the pregnancy and delivery. We weren't expecting any issues, but she did want to ensure that there weren't any physical problems on the inside that could pose an issue for a transfer. She did note that I have some rather large follicles "bubbling up" (as she phrased it) on both ovaries, so apparently the pills didn't fully suppress me this time around. But she didn't seem worried, just indicated that they would keep an eye on them.
So here we are. Things are happening and we're checking stuff off the pre-transfer list. I'm supposed to keep taking the pill and then will go back for a visit next Wednesday to discuss the schedule of events for this FET. She mentioned putting me on estrogen and progesterone to prep the uterine lining. I did confirm that I can keep taking my probiotic (since last time I developed chronic UTIs that my OB attributed to the vaginal progesterone). Aside from that, I don't know much about what will happen and when.
I assume I'll still need an ultrasound on day 2-4 of my next period, but I'm not 100% sure when that will come. My cycles have been anywhere from 21-28 days in the past year (which is strange for me since they were always pretty consistent at 28-29 days). If I get my period on the early end of that range, it might be as early as next Wednesday. If it's at the later end, it would be sometime the following week. But I don't know how the pill will affect that. And I'm a little concerned about the dates because we have 2 out-of-town weddings the first part of September (including 1 that I will fly to over Labor Day weekend). I don't think those will interfere with the schedule, but I suppose they could. And if they do, then it might just mean postponing it all a month? I'm not really sure. It wouldn't be the end of the world, but I do kind of want to keep the momentum going now that we've started...
Part of me (a very tiny, little bitty part of me) thought/hoped that we'd be one of those lucky couples who just get pregnant the old-fashioned way after #1 was done. I can't even begin to count how many people "confidently" assured me that this was not only possible but actually very likely to happen. Sometimes you just need one successful pregnancy to straighten everything out! Or so "they" proclaimed. The problem was, none of these people were a) infertility patients, or b) medical personnel working in the field of reproductive medicine. So no, I didn't believe them. But I still sort of hoped it might be true.
And it isn't that I'm really shocked or even disappointed that it didn't happen that way. But it would have been nice to not have to go through this whole rigamarole again. It felt very strange to pick up the phone, call a doctor's office, and say "Hi, I'm a former patient of Dr. B's. I'm calling to schedule my next baby."
It's just very... surreal.
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