Whew!

Oh the drama!

I started my period on Monday which meant I was to call the nurse and tell her so that she could get my treatment schedule. I did and then I called DH to fill him in on the dates. He wanted to talk to the RE to get statistics on breastfeeding while doing IVF. I told him that there really isn't that much information out there, but to go ahead and call if it would make him feel better about dropping all that money.

Tuesday I get a call from the RE saying that she talked to her colleagues and the IVF director of the clinic and said that she could not do an IVF cycle on me while I was breastfeeding, saying that breastfeeding can cause poor ovarian stimulation as well as uterine contractions during embryo transfer. She also said that if I did happen to have a successful cycle, that my chances of miscarriage would be increase as well if I continued to nurse during the pregnancy. When I asked her about specific statistics and research showing this, she was unable to give any. I told her that I was fully aware of those risks, but felt that my chances were better now than they would be later when my son, W, weans as I have no plans of forcing the issue with him since I have strong family history of early menopause. I believe very strongly in respecting his needs and allowing him to wean as he is ready, and while he could surprise me and wean next week, I doubt very seriously that he will wean before another year has passed. After I told her this, she came right out and told me that if I was comfortable with the risks, that I could *lie* to them and tell them that I weaned and that I could go ahead and cycle. Yes. She told me to lie. Not just once either. She told me that numerous times in the course of the conversation.

I talked to DH later that evening and we decided to wait until my next cycle so that I could work on "weaning." Needless to say, I was distraught. I wanted to cycle NOW! I wanted to be pregnant NOW! I was acting very much like my nursing 2 year old.

After discussing my dilemma with the best group of online friends that I could ever ask for, DH and I decided to go on and call the nurse this morning and tell her that I was ready to wean. My message to the nurse was something like this:

Hi Nurse. This is Breastfeeding Mama. I talked to Dr.-Told-Me-To-Lie on Tuesday and she said that as long as I weaned that I could go ahead with this IVF cycle. I am ready to continue with this cycle and just wanted to make sure that all my appointments were still scheduled.

I felt pretty good about that message because I didn't come out and say that I had weaned, just that I was ready to continue with IVF. Ironically, when the nurse returned my call, I was breastfeeding DS. Everything is a go!

I start birth control pills tomorrow and will take them through November 21. I have my trial transfer on November 12 and the injection class on the 19th. My baseline blood work and ultrasound are on the 25th with an estimated week of ER of December 7. ET would be 3-5 days after that.