Jack Spratt

Jack was created on my husband's 30th birthday.  This was no rendezvous in the park. 

The previous fall we had decided that we wanted Lily to have a sibling.  We had put our names down on the adoption list for Saskatchewan and had spoken to our contacts in Nunavut and it didn't look like adoption was going to happen again for us any time soon.  We returned to the fertility clinic looking for suggestions and answers.  We needed to know what they thought after our previous failure.  We thought that they would tell us that our chances were lower because of a previous failed attempt, but the opposite was true.  They thought they could take our issues from the first cycle and use them to make a better cycle this time.  We paid our registration fee and were told that they would contact us in April.  They called in January to see if we would be ready to start our birth control so we could cycle in March.  I knew this would make for a December baby and I never wanted a December baby....it wasn't nice to get all their presents in one month and I was worried about them being the youngest in the class.  But, if I had learned anything, it was not to be picky...so I got really excited instead. 
A second IVF cycle is so different from the first.  The first time you are positive it will work.  You are terrified of the needles and interested in every part of the protocol. The second time you are not fooled by the first timers' excitement, the needles are boring, and you try not to think about what is happening at all.  We used a different drug to stimulate the egg production and this time we got more and they were ready in half the time.  (As an aside, we had a 30th birthday party early because we knew that we would be busy at Scott's actual birthday.  I had been drinking...totally different from cycle #1...and the alcohol thinned my blood so much that when I had to do my shots that night, it wouldn't stop bleeding.  We hadn't told anyone about this cycle so I was searching our bathroom for band aids for my belly....Yup...I went upstairs to shoot up at my husband's 30th birthday.)  On retrieval day we got eight eggs, six were fertilized, two implanted, and two frozen.  The first cycle we moved our bed into the living room so I could be entertained while on complete bed rest.  The second cycle I tried to be on bed rest but I had a toddler and so my bed rest was a bit less restful.  The first cycle I stayed on bed rest for three days.  During the second cycle we went for a walk because it was the first spring day and Lily wanted to splash in puddles.  I tried not to get too excited but when the day passed where I knew our cycle had failed the first time, I couldn't help it.  I ran to the bathroom every hour to check if I had my period.  I tested to watch the drugs leave my system.  I promised Scott I wouldn't test for a positive test and that we would wait to hear the results from the clinic....but I broke my promise.  When I got that first positive I could not believe it.  I had dreamed of that moment for so long and I had no idea what to do.  I tested throughout the whole pregnancy and was sad to see the positive tests go away after Jack was born.  The day of the ultrasound we found out that both the embryos had implanted but one of them no longer had a heartbeat....but there was a beautiful fantastic strong heartbeat on the screen.  I just wanted to stare at if forever.  I rented a doppler monitor so I could hear that beautiful sound whenever I wanted.
We had done it!!  And I now have two incredible kids!!