Sinking in...

All of this is starting to sink in and feel very real. Not that its a bad thing necessarily, but it does feel a lot more scary than it did a few months ago. 

Today I received more paper work now that we've been matched with a recipient. We've also set a date for the 2nd counselling appointment (required) and at this appointment we will be meeting the matched couple. 

I had always been open to meeting the recipient couple but to be honest was more comfortable with the idea of being anonymous. In saying this though, I can understand how important it may be for a recipient to meet the person donating genetic material! 

So, some of the paper work I got today was: 
Bloods screening forms for me and hubby (HIV, Hepatitis B,C, Syphilis)
A second health and lifestyle declaration form (gotta cover all their bases)
A consent form and a hard copy of the recipient's profile. 
The egg stimulation plan 
Oh, and a form for getting my GP to do high vaginal and Chlamydia swabs... nice... 

All of this needs to happen 1 month before my cycle commences... Still not sure when thats going to be, but they said that the recipient is not in a hurry and perhaps April/May might suit them better.  

The egg stimulation plan is quite interesting. I gave it to hubby to read- he really hadn't thought about how involved it would be and did see why I was so keen to do it before he started university again. 

It goes something like this:

Day 1: Phone clinic (first day of period), collect injection pack from clinic
Day 2: Commence daily Gonal F injection (300iu) every evening. To grow your eggs
Day 6: Commence daily Cetrotide injection every morning. To stop you ovulating. (first to happen at the clinic)
Day 8: Vaginal scan to count and measure the follicles in your ovaries. Blood test. 
Day 9 (onwards): Vaginal scan every 2-3 days at the clinic until your follicles measure 17-18mm
Trigger injection: Buserelin (at clinic)
Egg collection: 36 hours after the trigger injection. 

(Note at the bottom: please wear nana knickers and not a g string)

!!!

Phew

Not getting cold feet (have this deep desire to go through with it all) but feeling a little overwhelmed and a bit nervous. 

xJ

Matchy matchy

So much for sleeping on a decision. I thought about it all for a good couple of hours and emailed the clinic straight back with a big YES. 

This couple had been through a whopping amount of IVF cycles with no success. It just astounds me and amazes me that someone can go through that, but still be stronger for it (in their profile, they said that it has only made their relationship closer).

I had an email back from the clinic and they had to pass my profile on to the couple and wait to see what they said. I had kind of assumed they had already done that, so that was quite nerve-wracking to think that so soon they would be looking at the stuff I had written about myself. 

Got a phone call just now to say that the couple had accepted my profile and they would like to meet both me and hubby!! 

Feeling very nervous about it all, but excited too.

xJ 

Matched!!

I had a phone call from the clinic today. They asked whether I would consider a recipient! I told them about weaning- we have decided to let it be a bit more natural (which is good. I was just a bit impatient I think), but the nurse said the people she has in mind are not in a hurry. 

Not even 10 minutes later, I got the email from them with the information. 

I thought it had been strange to write about myself in this way, but it felt even stranger looking at someone else's details like this and thinking that these might be the people I donate my eggs to. 

Hubby was home (he has finished university for the year) and we read through it together. They sound wonderful and we felt a number of different connections- one of their favourite places to holiday was where we went on our honeymoon. 
We both immediately felt like it was a resounding yes (we were told, its absolutely fine if you have reservations or feel like there is no connection), but we will sleep on it overnight and email them back. 

One step closer!

xJ

Waiting...

Not a lot has been happening on the donor front here as we really have to wait until my littlest boy is weaned from breastfeeding. So in other words, life goes on.

I had a phone call from the clinic yesterday touching base about that. No pressure, of course, but I feel more than ready to take the next steps... except with regards to weaning.

Littlest person is nearly 10 months and is still having 2 feeds a day, plus some comfort sucking/food at night (really need to get onto tackling that so we can all have a bit more sleep!)

I'm much more ready to stop breastfeeding at this point now though than with my first. I think partially as I had so many issues with latching/blocked ducts/the dreaded mastitis with my first boy so it felt so triumphant to go until 15/16 months. With this one, I feel much less connected in terms of feeding (does that even make sense?) so I'm quite keen to stop sooner rather than later. (in other terms, I'm a wee bit over it) 

Hubby and I had our first argument about this yesterday though. He thinks I'm rushing it to even think about weaning in the next couple of months. 

Part of my thinking was to do the donation in the university holidays which would mean less stress for hubby, but perhaps that was wishful thinking. 

Still right on board to do this, but might have to think about timing a bit more seriously over the next month as the clinic will be due to call me again then. 

x J