Growing Inside Shrinking Outside

I’ve now been a father for an entire year. After spending so much of my life waiting and hoping for that to happen, and going through IVF and all its emotions with my wife, I am so incredibly proud to call myself a dad. This past year, I have held a baby every single day, and every day I think about how one day he’ll be too big to hold. Every parent I know says that time goes by so fast and…

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I am afraid I don’t have enough space on this blog for all the thoughts and feelings I had tonight. After work, we took a drive out to a nursery to buy some plants for the garden and do some other small errands. It was the perfect sunny spring evening with the perfect temperature and the perfect breeze. When we got to the nursery, it was calm and the…

Previous: Abortion August 24, 2024 The week of our 8th wedding anniversary. Once again not something we imagined we would be doing surrounding a life event. This time feels different. I think it feels almost like our 2nd IUI. We know what to expect now and the trip into the fertility clinic feels so routine and uneventful. It’s nice to feel comfortable about these things. Another difference…

After many years of trying to have a baby, our first pregnancy ended with an abortion. I think it’s important to take the time to address the reality of the situation.

Trigger Warning; Abortion/Miscarriage/Loss. Previous: Embryo Transfer #1 Throughout my entire childhood, I always knew that my mom had trouble getting pregnant and ended up going through 5 miscarriages before I was born. I listened to her talk about it, and I knew that she had names chosen out for each one of the siblings that I never had. I never quite knew how to feel for her. I never…

We talk about what it's like to have our first IVF embryo transfer.

Previous: Andrea Part 5: Stims May 7th, 2024 The mood going into our first embryo transfer was optimism and excitement, finally being here and feeling so close after many years. Before the procedure, Andrea needed to have a full bladder. When we got to the front counter to check in, I told her I was going to go to the washroom and the person at the counter joked that I had to have a full…

Embryos are not babies. But they are a critical step. In this part of our journey, I tell you all about how many embryos we get, and how we got them.

Previous: Fertility Part 21: Follicles We drove into Vancouver in the morning, April 2,2024. The night before felt strange, not having any other injections to do, but it was oddly relieving as well. We got checked in pretty quickly and set up in a prep and recovery bay. They came to take her blood pressure and other vitals, talked through the entire procedure, and put in her IV. Andrea had a…

After doing "Stims", we find out how many follicles are growing. The hope is that we can retrieve as many eggs as possible from them to become embryos. #donorconceived #IVF #IUI #infertility #maleinfertility #donorsperm #ttc #ttccommunity

Previous: Andrea Part 5: Stims I wrote this on Easter morning (March 31, 2024). As I sit in our Fertility clinic in Vancouver on Easter Sunday morning (2024), I’m a little scared and a little excited. At this point we’ve done 9 days of injections and this is the first ultrasound that should tell us how many eggs are growing. Obviously a high number is good, but also if it’s too high then my…

Andrea shares the next part of our journey from her perspective. This time focuses on the injections needed to grow the eggs needed for IVF. #ivf #iui #donorsperm #ttccommunity #mfi #azoospermia #infertilityawareness #fertilityjourney #ttc

It is my 30th birthday. A Saturday. I haven’t slept that well (no surprise there). I have a medication centre set up in my dining room. I have boxes of medications, needles, alcohol swabs, and treats for after. Our drink fridge is now also a medication fridge and it is from there that I take my first box. We had picked up the medications the week before from the pharmacy. When the prescriptions…

Previous: Infertility Part 15: Final Diagnosis As I mentioned in my last post, once my own final diagnosis was complete, we were able to move forward with our next steps at the fertility clinic. This process went lightning fast compared to all other aspects thus far. They were in touch very quickly to book appointments for us and get some final testing for Andrea completed. The following all…

This is quite delayed in getting posted, but sometimes delays are needed in the infertility process as you'll read here. We stopped posting after we suffered a loss but we are glad to be back, walking you through our story. #infertility #IVF #IUI #donor

Written March 2024 about events taking place November 2023 -January 2024 After our third failed IUI, it felt natural to take a bit of a break. For one thing, we were out of donor sperm samples and there were no more available from the same donor, so we knew we would have to wait or find a new donor. I was not ready to go through that all over again yet, and Andrea was not ready to put her body…

We did 3 IUI's and while they didn't work, and they were full of heartache along the way, we still learned a lot and are stronger for having gone through it together.

Written Aug/Sep/Oct 2023 We had purchased 3 samples of donor sperm for our IUI’s (Intrauterine Insemination). Read more about the prep and first attempt here. The first one had some physical symptoms attached to it that were new for Andrea. We didn’t know what they meant, but we tried not to read into it too much. We wanted to keep our expectations in check, and eventually it resulted in a…

This is the first big procedure and it really felt like a special moment. We had waited a long time to get here and finally feel the real possibility of a pregnancy.

Pre-IUI After going through the process of purchasing donor sperm, it was delivered to the clinic from the sperm bank just in time for Andrea’s cycle, which meant that we could get started right away, the very first month. In preparation for the first IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) procedure, Andrea had to call the clinic on day 1 of her period, and then get an appointment booked for an…

Feelings about donors. I was the first person to suggest using a sperm donor. I did this literally the night of my initial diagnosis. While I knew this was an option we could pursue, and I was immediately willing to put it on the table, it doesn’t mean this was going to be without complications. Somewhere along the way, I recall talking to Andrea about giving birth in the future and the…