Trying to bring children into this crazy world

Ori and I got married about two years ago, and since we live in Israel (the land of baby making) it's pretty common that I get asked about twice a day why we don't have kids yet. I usually smile politely and say "ah, you know I'm still young!" but really, I'm not.

I'm 34 and not getting younger, but like good wine, I'm certainly getting finer.

So for all of you who ask or have wondered in the past, no, it's not that I don't want to have kids, it's just that for some people it's simply not that easy. Ori and I have been doing IVF (in-vitro fertilization) for over a year and a half. For those who don't know, let me just quickly explain the process (based on what I've been going through, although I know this varies)

Once the woman gets her period, the woman starts injecting hormones (usually by needle to the stomach), during the next 14 days or so, you have to go to the hospital every other day for a Ultrasound and blood test. At around day 14, assuming your eggs are looking good and ready to be extracted, you are asked to come into the hospital and the doctor retrieves as many eggs as possible. Usually during the extraction the woman is under full anesthesia (I actually prefer not to be, because this is probably the most dangerous part of the process, and also my HR always goes down to like 38 so it's a bit stressful). Right after that, the eggs are fertilized with the fresh sperm in the lab and left to multiply the cells for the next 3-5 days until a healthy embryo (blastocysts) can be transferred back into the woman's uterus. If there are more than 1 blastocysts, they are usually frozen so they can be used again next month in case the one that was just put in did not multiply and turn into a pregnancy. This gets me to the next stage- once you have been "inseminated" you have a 12 day waiting period, during which you usually are still taking hormones (either vaginally or orally) until you can take a pregnancy test and see whether or not the embryo "stuck". Yes, those 12 days are the 12 longest days in the month. On the one hand the doctors say there is nothing you can do (or not do) during the wait, but if you go onto one of the IVF Facebook groups you'll find advice from eating a pineapple a day to not exercising at all during that wait time so you try something different every month in hopes that this time it will stick.

So yeah, that's what we've been doing for the last 18 months or so, with constant hopes, failed attempts, heartbreaks, and hormones. (Not recommended if you didn't already guess..)

We've been trying to stay positive and keep ourselves busy during that time and I have to say that although we haven't succeeded in baby making, we sure have succeeded in keeping ourselves busy and (pretty) positive.

If you are curious to hear more, feel free to write to me. I would love to share with you personally more in depth.

#marriedlife #ivf