Kate & Tina Make a Baby

[this-tragic-affair]

Charities/organisations to avoid:

PETA: They’d rather spend their money on publicity campaigns than on the animals in their care. PETA killed 73.8% of the animals in their care in 2015 (x)

FCKH8: Is a for-profit company that exploits oppressed groups for money. They’re also wildly uninformed, and spread misogyny, cissexism and bi/panphobia, as well as stealing their posts/designs (x)

Autism Speaks: They spend most of their money on researching a way to eliminate autism, heighten the stigma against autism and don’t have a single autistic person on their board (x)

Please support other, better charities, and feel free to add any others you can think of to this.

[tequila-tekaylah]

Susan G. Komen for the Cure: CEO makes insane amounts of money, they deny a lot of requests for wigs/help with treatment/etc., and have attempted to sue other charities that use the color pink as part of their anti-breast cancer campaign. ( x x x )

[reproductivejusticeandliberty]

The Salvation Army: They promote the hatred of LGBT+ people, work with fundamentalist Christian groups to support conservative politics and rip off and exploit workers. ( x x x )

[shitpost-senpai]

Wounded Warrior: They take money that should be spent on veterans and blow it on huge opulent parties for the company bigwigs. 26 million in 2014 alone wasted! ( x x x )

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

^ Important reminder to NOT waste any money donating to these groups

[ayellowbirds]

Reblogging because of the added info about Wounded Warrior.

[kateandtinamakeababy]

also - The American Red Cross. Massive overhead, very poor oversight.

[mediamattersforamerica]

This amazing video is well worth taking a moment to watch, via NBC News.

[lickystickypickyzzz]

another one.

[kateandtinamakeababy]

After 8 years of dreaming, 3 years of planning & trying at home, and one perfect round of IVF, Tina and I are so excited to be welcoming a baby to our family in August! #baby #twomums #twomoms #samesexparents #ivfsuccess

[miles-b-morales-deactivated2026]

Why a lot of Millennials don’t like Baby Boomers.

[kuhdeejuh69]

YO

[chasin-thegoodlife]

I hate family guy but I love this

[kateandtinamakeababy]

What a place to live. #Australia #Sydney #beach

[my-ownenemy]

You learn to stop, and breathe, and smile You learn to live without

[kateandtinamakeababy]

Chilling with this super cool pup, Charlie. #NYE #petsitting #dogsofinstagram

[micdotcom]

The first plane of Syrian refugees headed for Canada touched down in the country late Thursday, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was on hand to welcome the arrivals. Just a few hundred had landed, but Canada is on track to accept many, many more.

[texnessa]

Heart eye emojis.

[slackmistress]

NO I AM NOT CRYING

[kateandtinamakeababy]

Australia used to be as awesome as Canada. It seems we've decided to let the inmates run the asylum lately though. Internet high five to Canada and your awesome government.

[rayinberkeley]

[kateandtinamakeababy]

A+ trolling.

[kateandtinamakeababy]

BFP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 pee tests, and a blood test, and it has confirmed... WE ARE OFFICIALLY PREGNANT!!!

[kateandtinamakeababy]

Waiting game

It’s been a long waiting game, but it is almost over.

Tina’s period is due Thursday. We have a blood test on Friday. 

In the meantime, life has decided to fuck with Tina. She’s currently on a flight on the way back from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was sent over there following a work emergency on Sunday night, and has spent the last couple of days there. 

It’s really sucked not being able to put my hand on her belly and talk to the little bundle of cells. I’ve been doing that every day, asking it to pretty please stick and grow in to a healthy baby. 

6hrs and I can go and pick her up from the airport.

(probably should get some sleep...)

Tomorrow night, a cheapie pee test. 

Thursday, another cheapie pee test.

Friday, a proper pee test and a blood test.

Cross your fingers for no period on Thursday, and a sticky baby!

[kateandtinamakeababy]

Oh boy...

It’s in there. A little 8 cell embryo has been transferred in to my beautiful wife’s uterus.

It was the fastest part of the whole process, and the doctor said we were done and we were both all...wait, what? Already!? It’s that quick!?

Crossing all our fingers and toes that it is a sticky little embryo, and in two weeks time we get a BFP.

[brisbone]

Saying you child is your “kid” is an insult to goats everywhere.

[zooophagous]

I’ll insult moms everywhere. Fight me Pam.

[cakelikeowen]

Fuck you, Barbara 

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

You want to do this now, Helen?

[ohgodshesloose]

Oh it is on Brenda

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Eight o clock after the PTA meeting, Joan

[saddest-faery-gothmother]

Uhm, my kids will be going to bed at 8, Sandy, because unlike SOME mothers I put my children to bed at a responsible time!

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Don’t you bring my kids into this, Janet

[martinscorsissy-deactivated2019]

You’re right Sandy, we shouldn’t bring your C- average kids into this. We should, however, bring your 2013 Honda Odyssey that reeks of failure and cigarettes from your midnight affairs with the mail man.

[kurtwagnermorelikekurtwagnerd]

At least I have a man touching me, unlike SOMEONE I know. When was the last time Frank so much as looked at you, Jackie?

[loptrcoptr]

C-Carol, you’ve gone t-t-too far!

[cu2co3oh2sio2]

NONE OF YOU ARE INVITED TO THE CASSEROLE POTLUCK! That includes you, Cynthia…

[bando--grand-scamyon]

[blvckdynamite]

God this is magical

[kateandtinamakeababy]

Egg collection day.

Kate here.

I’m sitting in the waiting room while Tina is in for her egg extraction. It’s about the time I would normally get up in the morning, and I’ve been up and busy for almost 3hrs already, and I have to hope this is some strange boot camp preparation for parenthood.

I know Tina mostly writes in here, partly because I am slack but more because I am not so great at articulating my thoughts and feelings.

Today though, I wanted to tell you all - and potential bean sprout - just how damn proud I am of my beautiful wife. She has put her body through a hell of a lot going through this IVF process. I’ve been sticking her with needles daily, she’s been getting blood taken several times a week, had internal ultrasounds, and has had to deal with feeling generally bloated and kind of gross. Despite all of that, and despite her small fear of needles, she has been an absolute champ. She hasn’t complained once - not even when I stuck her with a needle before I realised I hadn’t put the drugs in to the syringe yet!

We gave the clinic three donor options, and they called us yesterday to confirm which we will be using. I am so happy with the one we got. He’s the most like me out of the three, I think, and that was really the most important thing to us. Not just physically, but his personality as well seemed reasonably similar - as much as you can tell by reading the information they give you. He was a super cute child, and a cheeky, boyish looking adult. He also has blue/hazel eyes. I have blue eyes, and Tina has hazel :)

And now it’s a little later. She came out of hospital fine - some cramping and a bit woozy, but mostly fine. She’s napping on the couch at the moment, finally getting to relax. They extracted 7 eggs, and have just called to update us. 6 of them fertilised. We have six potential children, all chilling out in a Petri dish (or however they are stored). We’ve done absolutely everything we can do. Science has done its part. Now it’s just up to those little cells - I’m sending them as many positive vibes as I can in the hopes that they will start dividing and doing what we want.

We’ll get a call tomorrow to update us about how they are looking. My hope is for at least four to be viable. In three days time, one will go back in to my wife’s belly, and the rest in to the freezer.

Right now, I couldn’t be happier. I just hope with everything I have that the cells decide to stick, and grow in to a beautiful baby.

[kateandtinamakeababy]

In 12.5 hours, I will be going under general anaethesia and my egg collection will happen.

All the drugs are in me, my blood work looked good this morning, and all the paperwork has been sent to the doctor and hospital.

This feels strange.

[kateandtinamakeababy]

4 more days

... until egg retrieval!

went in on Friday to have another scan, and my lining looks “beautiful”, according to doctor Clark, and I have about 12 eggs that have gotten bigger.

After the scan was another blood test, and man... I am a really good human pincushion! When they finished up there, the nurses ran me through the next few days.

sunday: last puregon shot

monday: last synarel sniff, blood test to determine when i have the trigger shot, which will be monday night

tuesday: another blood test to make sure the trigger is doing its job

wednesday: eggs out!

friday/saturday: transfer

i also start the hcg shots on friday, and there are 4 of them to take.

my blood test is on the 11th of december. this happens to coincide with BOTH of our work christmas parties, so i have a feeling we will make an appearance, then bounce.

this has been an insane experience... but for all my anxiety, i have been lady zen the entire time. nothing is a big deal, everything will turn out alright, which is not my normal MO.

we also went to the herbalist this morning (she is working with the IVF doctor and all is okay there). I have been working with the herbalist since i moved to aus about 7 years ago, and she was really impressed with how my adrenals were doing. she also has a great way of calming my fears. we talked through the general anaesthetic i will need to have for the retrieval, and she talked me through all the protocols.

she also said she could see that y uterus was very happy, and that my ovaries were also busy, but didn’t seem hyperstimulated.

basically, everything is great and i am also mentally happier than i have ever presented to her.

she also informed me that the pain in my chest was because of my breasts... which i hadn’t noticed, but i can say... they have hurt, especially my nipples.

if you got to the end of this, congrats. we are starting to get excited.

[kateandtinamakeababy]

Our first IVF cycle

Hey there. :)

so... We are in the middle of our first IVF cycle.

We got back from our cruise to NZ on 12th October, and then went for a blood test on the 13th... thinking that we would do our first cycle after Christmas.

Turns out, I was good to start then!

So I started birthcontrol on the next day so that they could down regulate me, and a few days later I went in to the clinic to put the down payment for the cycle down. Kate and I also got to spend about 45 minutes with the awesome IVF nurse and she showed us all the drugs and what would happen and what it would look like.

So, while I was taking the birth control, I started the Synarel on the 30th of October. I am not the biggest fan of things going up my nose, but the spray is on our medication list in Australia, so it was $33 as opposed to $350 for the needles that do the same thing.

So, at that point, I was on birth control once a day, and Synarel 2 times a day, 12 hours apart.

My period came right on time and when I went in for my scan on 5th November, I didn’t need the scan, and they took some blood from me, then gave me about 40 boxes of medication, all shots!

That afternoon, they told me that the blood work was perfect and that I could start my shots on the 8th November.

So, here we are on the 15th November. I had a blood test on Friday to test my LH level (which was perfect), and tomorrow, I go in for a scan to determine how I am looking and when the egg collection will be.

My hope is for a collection this Friday. We have our donors chosen, and I am really ready to get this show on the road!

How are we doing?

Well, Kate has been a total legend. She’s in charge of all the drugs and she has done a great job of needle stabbing me. She’s been super, super supportive when I have been a little nervous or not feeling my best (like today).

I have been... surprisingly zen about the whole thing. I am normally the panicky anxiety ridden one, and I have really just gone with the flow. I had to travel to Papua New Guinea for a work emergency (I do emergency care for a cruise line) and so I had to stab myself for two days, and I have been feeling okay until last night. I have been pretty nauseous the last few days and I don’t think I will get sick, but I also don’t want to eat... which has been kind of a constant thing since I started the Gonal-f injections a week ago. And today, I could smell EVERYTHING. Kate was eating cherry tomatoes whole about 6 feet away from me and man... the smell.

We are trying to be cautiously optimistic.