If all goes according to plan (and I know that that is not always the case) then in about a year we should be actively trying to conceive (TTC). In the meantime, we’re in the process of preparing to conceive, or pre-conception planning (PCP) as those of us in an online community I’m a part of refer to it as. Many of the small things on our PCP list have been accomplished. (Yay!) That only leaves the biggies: funding and moving.
Over the last six months we have:
- Attended monthly Maybe Baby meetings and gotten a sense of the local queer future parents
- Set a time frame for saving for our “baby fund,” first sperm money then maternity leave money
- Drastically reduced our spending and begun to actively save a good chunk of change each month
- Begun taking vitamins and eating more nutritiously
- Visited my new OB/GYN for a consult and signature on the cryobank forms
- Completed all the requirements and set up the account at the cryobank
- Seen the baby picture of our (hopefully) donor, HD
- Emailed with someone pregnant by our HD, potential half-sib
- Obsessed that HD’s specimens will sell out and therefore check the status daily
- Been offered a lovely crib and dresser/change table set by friends who’s last child will outgrow it before ours comes
- Begun to look at our options in terms of where to move and how to accomplish that next year
The plan:
Buy 12 vials of sperm by 12/31/08. We’re doing this so that we have a good amount on ice for 3 years which we hope will result in at least 2 babies. This timeline will also hopefully avoid increased cost that generally take place every Jan 1 and give me peace of mind so I don’t have to obsess that it’ll sell out. Once we have ‘em, our focus will shift to hopefully moving. C wants to move before beginning ttc, I’m okay with staying put until we know I’m knocked up. If we can comfortably move sooner, I’m all for it though. We’re waiting until next fall because I’m beginning a two-year grad program and a conception date after September 2009 would result in birth after I graduate. This blog will chronicle the highlights from now until then!
