Hi everybody!

Wow! Here we go! Let me introduce myself and tell you a little bit about the journey I am on.
My name is Kristi and I'm 41 years old. Trust me that little bit of information will be useful in a minute. I have 4 beautiful children L is 24, a teacher, and married to the sweetest man. I couldn't be more proud of anyone in my life. C is almost 22, she still lives in my home state and is an absolute sweetheart of a girl. I love her more than life itself. J&P are 7 years old and the unmitigated lights of my life! They are sweet, caring bundles of mischief and energy just like 7 year old boys should be. F is my soul mate. He is a caring loving man who alternately drives me to distraction and adoration. I can't imagine my life without him.

After C was born I chose to have a tubal ligation (TL) b/c I was in a marriage that was doomed to fail, and being only 20 years old with 2 children both conceived while on birth control, I just couldn't risk getting pregnant again. When I met and married F we knew we wanted children so we consulted with my OBGYN who informed me that a tubal ligation reversal (TR) wouldn't work and that our best bet was IVF. Since I was still relatively young at 34 years old it would be a breeze. So off we trotted to the RE for IVF. It took the good part of a year and almost $100,000.00 but we did eventually get pregnant. Imagine our surprise when we were told that I was having twins! We were alternately scared and overjoyed. The pregnancy was a nightmare and full of fear and stress, but at 35weeks I gave birth to beautiful, big, healthy identical baby boys. The surprises never cease!

That brings me to last summer (2007). We were driving down the road and F asked me if I ever think about "it." What? I asked him what he was talking about and he asked me if I still thought about having another baby. OMG! This was a dream come true. I couldn't believe he was willing to consider this. It has been my dream for 4 years to have another baby. There was only one problem. I will not ever do IVF again. I just can't put myself through the mental and physical rigors that it entails. I had done research into a TR 4 years ago and found a wonderful doctor and even had an initial consult with him, but life intervened and we never followed through with the surgery. Now F was bringing it up on his own. I contacted the surgeon again and in October of 2007 I scheduled the surgery for late November. Unfortunately life intervened again and F got very ill and was in the hospital for 3 weeks with Levaquin resistant pneumonia. He developed a pulmonary abscess which and he was not allowed to fly so we had to postpone the surgery. I was devastated and angry. I don't know what I was angry at, but I was angry just the same.

On January 20th we flew to Louisville, KY to have the surgery. It was a huge success and I ended up with tubes of 10.5 cm and 10.25 cm (anything over 4 is great!) The surgeon said that my tubes, "should work." Well they do!

After my recovery period I got pg the first try out of the gate. Unfortunately it was a chemical pregnancy and I lost it at 4w4d. I was sad, but also hopeful since it was obvious that my tubes were open and now I could get pregnant. We threw ourselves into trying again as soon as possible. I ovulated again 3 weeks after the miscarriage and got pregnant AGAIN! God is so good and we were thrilled when a very early u/s showed us a gestational sac. Unfortunately this pregnancy was doomed to fail as well. An ultrasound at 5w3d showed that the sac had not grown. I went back the next week and although the sac had grown and my numbers had gone up there was nothing in the sac. I was crushed. The Dr. gave me some medicine to hasten the miscarriage and now we are in a holding pattern until July.

When I went to the Dr. with my first miscarriage in March the Dr. was astounded that 1. I wanted to get pregnant at my age and 2. that I had a TR. According to him TRs never work. Well obviously they do! Then when I got pg again so soon after the m/c he refused to believe that it was a new pregnancy and ordered an ultrasound. As I tried to convince him that it was a new pregnancy he told me that it was virtually impossible for a woman my age to get pregnant 2 times in 2 months. Uh, really? Well guess what? I DID! I switched doctors after that ultrasound. My new doctor is a dream and I pray that the next pregnancy will be a keeper.

So that is my journey so far. I will post updates on the wait, the emotions of dealing with a miscarriage, the challenges of TTC with school aged children at home and basically anything I can think of. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. Tell your friends and my God sprinkle baby dust on all who desire it.

Kristi

PS. Although my real name is Kristina the only people who call me that are my in-laws and F when he is mad so Kristi will work just fine!