Here we go again...

As usual, life has been too busy for me to update as frequently as I'd like. Here's a brief recap of the past few months:

- Eli finally started crawling (around 10 months). He has a silly way of doing it -- he uses his left knee and right foot. He can actually move pretty fast that way, surprisingly. Also it makes transition to sitting or standing easy.
- At 11 months, Eli started really enjoying walking while holding onto someone's hands for support. He's currently able to walk with only 1 hand being held and can stand unassisted for a few seconds. I'd guess he's probably just a week or two away from being able to walk on his own!
- We had a really nice visit with my mom and dad in June.
- We had a really nice visit with Chad's parents, siblings, and our friends in Seattle. Eli did (mostly) great on the flights there and back. After nearly getting bumped from the return flight, we learned that we should always bring 24 hours worth of baby supplies on board with us...
- I finally finished crunching at work (yay!).
- Chad has started crunching at work (boo).
- We are probably going to put our house on the market next month-ish and hopefully upgrade to something bigger. Keeping a home in show-ready condition with a toddler, 3 cats, and 1 dog will be interesting...

 And to explain the title of this post, we are back on the TTC (Trying-To-Conceive) roller coaster. Are we crazy to go through this again? Quite possibly! Are we looking forward to pregnancy and the first 3 months of newborn hell? No, not at all. But we would really like Eli to have a sibling who's close in age.

I met with our Reproductive Endocrinologist, Dr. Abdallah (now at American Reproductive Centers), on Monday. We are going to take the conservative route this time and have opted for IUIs (intra-uterine insemination) instead of IVF. The reasons for this are twofold: 1. My insurance actually covers IUIs, so our out of pocket costs will be minimal. We can't afford another IVF AND purchase a new house (after selling our current at a loss). 2. We're not convinced that we actually need to do IVF in order to conceive. I did get pregnant 5 times before the IVF (including 2x from IUIs). Assuming that my primary problem is my blood clotting issue, IUI should work if I start the blood thinner injections right away.

I started Clomid (an inexpensive fertility medication that will likely have a very minimal effect on me, but will hopefully regulate my follicle development a bit) last night. On Monday I'll have an ultrasound to see what my ovaries are up to. Assuming everything is going well, the IUI will probably be around July 26th.

Wish us luck!