Random picture of some nice ducklings at work
This...is why I've been such a crappy blogger, blog reader and especially blog commenter over the last couple of months.
This...is why I had a week or so of feeling (and being) pretty darn sick back in May (and couldn't complete BEDM).
And this...is part of (but not the only) reason why we bought ourselves a new car.
This is Findus*.
Travel back in time to 1st May 2014 and I was having an egg collection operation as part of our second IVF (ICSI) treatment. They collected 10 eggs on that occasion and 8 of them fertilised overnight. By the 6th May 2014, two of the little embryos were looking really good; one of them was transferred to me there and then (which sadly wasn't successful); the other plunged into a freezer at -196°C to be stored ready for us to use at a later date.
That later date was originally September and I started taking the medication in August last year. The transfer date was all set for 19th September and then what did I do on 18th September? Fell off my own doorstep and spectacularly fractured my ankle, that's what.
Fast forward 6 months from September (the length of time the orthopaedic consultant specified I had to wait for everything to heal) and I started taking the medication again in March.
Exactly 1 year to the day, on 1st May 2015 that frozen embryo was defrosted and transferred. Two weeks later, for the first time in 3 and half years, we actually saw those two little lines on a pregnancy test.
Today is 12 weeks and 4 days and in theory (keeping everything it's possible to cross, crossed) Findus should be joining us in January.
At the moment, it's about 25% excitement, 25% disbelief and 50% 'oh-my-god-I-can't-get-too-excited-because-I'll-jinx-it-but-what-if-I-don't-believe-in-it-surely-that'll-jinx-it-too?' thoughts. We've had three scans so far - two early ones at the fertility clinic and one normal 12 week one at the local hospital (which strangely, was done at 10 weeks and 5 days). All the medical people seem to have a hundred times more confidence than I do; what's going through my mind all the time is "my body hasn't worked properly for the last 3 and half years so what on earth makes everyone think it's going to work now?"
I'm hoping all those thoughts are fairly normal though.
*Obviously we're not going to put 'Findus' on the birth certificate but we did think it was rather appropriate for a little one who spent a year in the freezer.