My DD arrived healthy and beautiful. Both DH and I were so stunned to see her, to have her, and to know what we did to get her. The day after she was born I was alone with her in our hospital room and the enormity of the situation hit me and I cried and cried happy tears. I didn't feel any more love for her than I did for either of my boys, but just knowing what we went through to get her, and the pain and sadness I felt when I truly believed I would never have her, make a HT birth very different ...

What a difference a week (and a few other changes) can make! Today we got the results from DH's second SA and he passed (i.e., we are approved for MS)! Volume was 2.2 ml, concentration 69 million per ml, for a total of approx. 140 million. I am in shock at the huge improvement. Here's what DH did differently (he's my hero):

- Drank a TON of water all week. Morning of the SA, woke up and started drinking water, water, water.

- Upped his vitamins to 4 Fertility Blend ...

I know that so many questions are asked about the cost of these procedures, so I plan to document mine in this post as they are incurred. I'll just come back to this post and update it as needed. When possible I'll post the "Actual Cost" of something. The "Amount I Paid" will be what I had to pay after insurance picked up some of the tab. All of these are in U.S. Dollars.

Event Actual Cost Amount I ...

There's a lot of talk on the board about which vitamins & supplements to take and how much. Some women take a bunch, some take only a prenatal. I figure that since I've got the time I might as well take them so that later if I do not succeed I don't look back and think "what if" I'd taken this or that.

A while back Michaela (our resident fertility guru) recommended the book Perfect Hormone Balance For Fertility by Dr. Robert Greene [url]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307337405/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0307337383&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JZ4T3Q6C7YQP921CXP6[/url] ...

This is the story of how I conceived my daughter through MS/IVF/GSN during the summer of 2010. Many thanks to Dr. Potter and his nurse Lori at HRC who made this possible.