Ok folks, before DH and I start our second IF journey, I'll bring you up to date on what's happened since the amazing CJ was born.


We eventually had our first "family" Christmas. OK, so CJ had no idea what day it was at his first Christmas, and his second was a house full of visitors that he doesn’t normally see all at once, but it is what we have been dreaming of for years! You know you have all these pictures in your head of what it will feel like, things you will do, places you will go….. Christmas was just one of those. There was the first time I popped him into a baby carrier and zipped him inside my jacket to take the dog to the park. His first trip into the shops, with me, at last pushing a pram. Signing Christmas and Birthday cards with his name, all these firsts that would probably seem weird to most, but to us were amazing. For his first Christmas poor wee guy was being propped up in a baby swing that seemed huge, in front of the tree, wearing daft Santa hats - poor wee man!

We have a wonderful picture of CJ on DH’s shoulders taken on Ayr beach in the middle of March. His first time at the beach! It’s a bright cold day, and we were all wrapped up. To us it sums up the dream, the image you had in your mind when you hoped you would eventually become parents.

Now we hope for a sibling. CJ loves company, and loves playing with his friends and cousins, if it doesn’t happen, we will of course be gutted, but we are so blessed to have CJ, I don’t imagine it will be as tough as our previous negative cycles….. or I hope…..

First thing that had to be sorted before we could start again was the fibroid. The fibroid appeared when we got pregnant, it grew at the same rate as CJ and as you will have read, we weren’t sure until the last minute whether or not a natural birth would be possible. I had an amazing consultant throughout the pregnancy, Dr Willocks who really looked after us. After CJ was born she arranged appointments at GRI to see what their opinion was on whether the fibroid should be removed or left if we were having another cycle. It was decided it had to go as the blood supply that supplied the fibroid also supplied the ovaries, and as you take ovary stimulating drugs, it was not an option to leave it. By this point it was the size of a16wk foetus, so key hole surgery was also not an option – it had to be a myomectomy. Oh joy!!

Anyway as I said Dr Willocks was fantastic, but had to eventually pass me on to the surgeon who would be doing the operation, lovely wee man Dr Oat or Oak – can never remember!! Anyway, I had already decided I must lose weight; it just wasn’t coming off quick enough. Dr looked at my notes and said; oh you’re normally quite slim, you were 12 stone 6 lb when you started you fertility treatment. I almost burst into tears pointing at my 14stone belly, this isn’t me, I said, I felt fat when I started my treatment, so you can imagine how I feel now! Anyway, only managed to get down to 13 stone 7lb before operation. Fibroid weighed 4lb – just my luck it wasn’t heavier, lol!!

I did an interview with the Daily Record along with my good mates I met through Fertilityfriends website. I was unsure how DH would feel about the sudden exposure, but he was totally fine about it. It's weird how the whole IF journey started as something we kept quiet and hidden, but has now become something we are so proud of. There are not many relationships that could survive it, and I know of one that did fall apart. I then did another just recently with the Sunday Mail, about how keeping this blog kept me sane - here I go again! The photographer took great photos of me and the wee man in the back garden!

This time round we are going to do pgd on the embryos. Saw the lovely Helen Walton at GRI on Wednesday who explained everything. It was pretty intense. On the one hand you know it will be a “good” embryo that’s being transferred – but that’s only if it survives the biopsy. We start again in the New Year, so I’ll be getting back to Rhona for my acupuncture towards the end of the year.