Friday, April 13, 2012

Frequently asked questions



I thought I would take a post to answer a few of the questions that have appeared recently by email or as a comment here. Have a burning question? Ask away. Chances are someone else is wanting to know, too. I'll try to answer as soon as I can.

1. Could we put up a pregnancy ticker to make things easier for you guys to follow along? I actually have two pregnancy tickers tucked down at the bottom of the blog page. I suppose I could put another one much higher up (gulp). How about this - I will think about it. Does the placement make a big difference to you? (Oh wait, I'm supposed to answer questions here, not ask! But let me know, anyway).

2. Are we still considering using a surrogate - not as a back-up plan but as a way to add to our family in addition to the baby we are already carrying? Good question. The answer is no, not right now. We hope to be very lucky and maybe have our hands full come this fall with this little one (fingers crossed). The embryos we have remaining are not very good quality anyway (although they are chromosomally normal). I don't have high hopes that they could make a baby. But if things turn out ok with me this pregnancy, I would imagine that I will try to carry any pregnancy that could potentially result from them.

3. Did the technician doing the nuchal give us a guess on the baby's gender? Nope. We didn't ask and she didn't offer. I think it's early to see the gender at this point by ultrasound. Will and I are thinking it might be a girl. But we shall see...

4. What is our guess on why we transferred three chromosomally normal blasts but only got pregnant with one, particularly since this time we have the immune issues taken care of?  Ooh. Another good question. Your guess is as good as mine, but here's my guess anyway. I think it takes a lot more than normal chromosomes to make a baby. And given our track record (110 eggs retrieved through all our IVFs....and this is the farthest along we've gotten...), I'm betting we have some other issues that make our embryos less likely to grow into living children. Like maybe mitochondria or other non-genetic but still lethal problems when the cells try to divide and replicate. It's also possible that even with the immune treatments, my uterus is still not the easiest place to implant. It would be interesting to get Dr. Schl.'s thoughts, but this is my best guess.

Ok, that's it for now. I'm tired, and I'm also out of time. More to come, soon. Thank you guys for all of your thoughts and encouragement - you have no idea how helpful you are.

Mo

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16 comments:

  1. mo,
    this is a great diversion... i am sure you will get some more questions!

    about your surrogacy answer, i am thinking that there is a certain time in a pregnancy when something inside of you shifts, and you are willing (or feel like you have to) put plan b,c,d's aside for the time being, and let things be. or, there is something to be said for having more than one iron in the fire, but at some point, it is more about the fire than the irons, and only one iron will do. you know?

    my question to you is...
    does your list of blogs on the side bar get a lot of traffic? does it bring a lot of traffic to your blog every day? i have to admit, some times i come to your blog just to find new blogs, the blogs that you have stumbled upon somehow. i wonder how much traffic they get coming from your blogs every day?! i don't keep a blog, so i have NO idea about the inner working s of the blog world, but i am going to assume that there is a way of tracking these things?

    tick tock, tick tock, the minutes are ticking away toward to end of your first trimester... tick tock...

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  2. Glad over here too that there aren't more pressing concerns to post about! Get some rest!! Waiting for the FAQ that'll come about six months from now... now that will be something!

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  3. also, mo...
    i know it no news to you, but i checked out your ticker and you have a LIME in there?!!! wow!

    a lime. faq- pants getting a weeny bit snug?

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  4. Wow, thanks for asking my questions! Yes, plural ;) I asked the first two. I can't believe I never noticed your TWO tickers on the bottom. Sorry about that -- I'll start scrolling down. Thanks also for the thoughtful answer re: surrogacy.
    Have a wonderful weekend!! Happy 12 weeks,
    C in Ohio

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  5. *answering* not asking. Clearly I'm tired and need to sign off.
    C

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  6. An answer for Anonymous at the top of the page -- I come to your blog both to get updates on your journey (all the while crossing my fingers and hoping wishing praying for you and will!), and to use your blogroll to follow the other blogs I like. So I'm disappointed when you don't have a new post, but come sometimes even when I know you won't posting to get links to other blogs.

    A question in response to one of your answers. I see you're using the term "gender" of the baby. Do you make a distinction between sex and gender? Just curious since you and Will both are in the medical field and you're in psychology.

    Thanks!

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  7. Ditto the first poster. Your blog roll rocks!

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  8. Love the F&Q! I also wanted to post on your Doppler post...I had one and would drive myself nuts trying to find the heartbeat. I ended up putting it away and returning it after my pregnancy was complete. I found it more anxiety than help. So don't freak out too bad if you have trouble with it, I still couldn't find her heartbeat at 16 weeks but my OB always could!
    (Happy 12 weeks!!!)

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  9. The blogroll is indeed one of the many wonderful things about Mo and Will's blog to me!

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  10. Yea! 12 weeks!! Awesome. So so happy for you!!

    Hugs,
    Jacky

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  11. Welcome to the 2nd trimester! Wahoo! So very happy for you. Question-- what was your Mom's reaction to the wonderful news? How about Will's sister?

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  12. Hmmmm......I think you're right on your gender guess :)

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