Our TTC Timeline

Our Journey to Conceiving Our Boys

September 22, 2010 – 2 girls fall in love
May 2011 – They move in together
November 2012 – Decided to start trying to have babies!
December 2012 – Most of the month was spent staring at computer screens filled with profiles, medical histories, and baby pictures of little Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Colombian, Guatemalan, Mexican, Spanish, Brazilian donors.
January 2013 – Made our first appointment at the fertility clinic with our amazing Reproductive Endocrinologist.  Hysterosonogram and Hysterosalpingogram show everything is good! Started our first Clomid cycle on 1/23/13.  Cycle #1 is under way.
February 2013 -We’re ready for insem! Ovidrel on 2/3/13 @ 9pm.  Insemination on 2/5/13 bright and early.  On  2/18/13 we’re seeing red, literally. BFN! Back to the drawing board! Another Clomid Cycle starting.
March 2013 – 3/2/13, we are on vacation with friends in the Poconos, PA.  We get up at 5am after a night of playing board games and talking crap, and drive the 2 hours back to NYC for an insemination.  Trigger shot in front of very curious friends the morning before.  3/14/13 Aunt Flow shows up, even though all signs and symptoms point to pregnancy.  Cycle #2 is another bust!
April 2013 – Clomid cycle #3.  Insemination on 4/1 after Ovidrel trigger on 3/30 @10pm.  4/10/13 The red headed devil (Not Callie, btw) shows up screaming 3 days early. Cycle #3 is down the drain.
May 2013 – New Donor, New Medication.  Hello Letrozole!  Cycle #4.  Many more mature eggs! Fingers crossed, and hoping hard.  Insemination on  5/5/13 after trigger shot.  5/22/13 the crimson wave washes away our hopes and dreams.  Dr. K asks what we want to do next.  We decided on one more cycle before taking the summer off.
June 2013 – 6/7/13 early morning, we triggered one last time before reevaluating our plan (and finances) and head over to the clinic for an insemination on 6/8/13 noonish.  Hoping for a BFP on my birthday 6/21, but instead “Shark Week” is a few months early! We take time off to regroup. Cycle #5 is awash!
July 2013 – I start a new job on 7/17/13 with AMAZING benefits.  Domestic Partnership benefits cover up to $50,000 of infertility benefits.  FREAKING SWEET! 7/25/13 Callie and I become registered Domestic Partners in the state of NY. Let the 6 month qualification period begin! This month, we take a break.
August 2013 – Continuation of a much needed break. Find the “Known Donor Registry” website.  We begin correspondence with several potential donors.  After assessing our bank accounts, our funds are running low and we gots no dividends for continued cycles.  We narrow down from 6 to 2, and from 2 to 1, after a 15 minutes encounter at Dunkin’s turns into a 3 hour ” I’m so glad we’re getting to know each other, my gut says this is it, you’re so funny, you and Sammie are so similar” affair.  We set up appointments for medical stuff, and discuss insemination for the next few months until medical insurance kicks in for Callie.
September 2013 – Our first at home cycle with our known donor. Awkward at first, but not so clinical and more intimate for Callie and I.  9/10/13 and 9/11/13 back to back at home insemination’s.  I did my best to “help” Callie get pregnant.  On 9/27/13 Callie is once again dealing with her red headed cousin (she actually has one, but this was not her).  We weren’t too upset because compared to the $2300 we were paying per cycle (not including medications) the $4.67 some odd cents we paid for a specimen cup and syringe were a definite win! Temping didn’t work for us, so just CM checking and “My Days” app. Bye bye Cycle #6.
October 2013 – Not sure of the dates on this cycle, but needless to say, another BFN! Thanks for nothing Cycle #7!
November 2013 – Went to a new RE to get a second opinion.  Fresh sperm is usually better than frozen, so 2 fresh sperm AI’s and nothing?! Something’s gotta be wrong right?! WRONG! All $5,000 later to prove what we already knew…there wasn’t a damn thing wrong.  Possibly something wrong with the alignment of Callie’s hips, but only way to find out would be invasive surgery. Not gonna happen, buddy!  Cycle #8 sometime during the blur of this month (holiday shopping, new job with crazy schedule, parties, Callie’s grandmother gets L-Vad to keep her heart beating, lots of emotional family stuff) and it ends like all the others.
December 2013 – Getting all of our paperwork ready to get Callie approved on my insurance (Domestic Partnership papers, Lease Agreement, Proof of beneficiary on my 401k and life insurance, things of that nature) and file for her to be added under my benefits.  One more at home AI at home with JC (he gave himself that name, not us, which we thought was funny) but not before we had a 45 minute convo before he did his business.  But the Christmas spirit skipped our house and no baby JC (see why it’s funny!?!?!) to announce at Christmas Breakfast. There goes Cycle #9.
January 2014 – We finally get Callie approved on my insurance.  Not before a crapload of crazy insurance company drama, of course.  Insurance isn’t effective until March 1st.  We call our original RE (one of the best in NY and an approved Center of Excellence) and talk about IVF. We get all of the paperwork from our Family Dr., the 2nd opinion Dr, and take it all to our best guy, Dr. K.  He tells us the IVF protocol and we wait.
January 4th, 2014 – Sammie proposes to Callie with an amazing scavenger hunt
February 2014 – No movement, but we find a new donor that we hadn’t seen before, who resembles me in every way possible.  This is our 4th donor, but this is the best one, hands down!
March 2014 – We call the insurance company on 3/1/14.  They didn’t even need a Dr’s approval.  When she asked us what test we had already, we listed tests she’d never even heard of! We were approved.  We called the Dr’s office and we started monitoring.
April 2014 – A few more tests. Another PAP exam.  Callie starts Birth Control.  She takes if for 18 days.  She’s miserable. Me too.
May 2014 – 5/6/14 we start Folistim injections and menopure.  I torture Callie (and also myself!) every day with injections in her abdomen.  We also do 2 nights of Ganirelix to keep Callie from ovulating.  There are TONS of mature follicles.  We are hopeful. 5/13/14 at 3am we wake up to give Callie her injection of Ovidrel.  5/15/14 is egg retrieval day.  17 eggs retrieved, 13 fertilized, 9 make it to blastocysts.  Tuesday 5/20/14.  We implant our 2 best embryos, cross our fingers and hope for the best! Thursday 5/29/14, as I am going through the drive-thru ATM, I got a phone call.  We were officially PREGNANT! 4 weeks!
June 2014 – 6/6/14 We go to our first ultrasound appointment.  The doctor confirms that there are 2 implanted embryos.  We are in shock, but totally in love (with each other and with our babies).  6/12/14 is our 6 week check-up, and we hear two glorious heart beats.  Officially having twins!
October 12th, 2014 – Callie is officially on bed rest.
November 1st, 2014 – These two moms get hitched!
January 10th, 2015 – Callie’s water breaks while “nesting” and getting our living room ready for the impending arrival of the twins, over a small disagreement about a three drawer plastic container.  She thinks she has peed her pants…for over 1 hour.  We call the midwife and doctor and are on our way to the hospital within the next hour. We are told that a c-section is necessary as baby B has gone transverse.
January 11th, 2015 – Noah (born 12:43am) and Levi (born 12:44) are welcomed into the world by two very happy and exhausted Moms.

It’s been one hell of a journey so far, but we’re happy as our two peas in a pod!