I feel like this last week has been a huge step forward in my plan to become a single Mum. Last time I spoke to you things were moving again but there was a lot still up in the air. Today has been a BIG day for me.

Since I last wrote my thyroid function test showed that my TSH (thyroid stimulation hormone) levels are rising. This means that my thyroid isn’t doing the job it really should be doing, so my pituitary gland is making more and more TSH to try and boot it into action! Unfortunately the action of my body doing this increases the chances of miscarriage and also poor fetal development. This is because the baby depends on their mother’s thyroxine to help their brain development. This is why, what may be a normal TSH level for your GP may not be ok when you are trying to get pregnant. My TSH level in January this year was around 3.5, the clinic wants it to be 2.5. My blood test in July showed that my TSH has risen to 6.3. Now depending on where you look this is either normal or high! Either way it is absolutely too high for my clinic so I am now on a minimal dose of Levothyroxine. Job 1 done!

Job 2 was my progesterone test! Oh progesterone! This is the hormone that is produced by something called the corpus luteum after ovulation. In basic terms it tells you if you have ovulated! Something I didn’t know, even when studying to be a midwife, was that you could still have a period without ovulating! To me this did not make sense! I am still finding books to read up on this as my inquisitive brain needs to know more! Anyway, due to not having a regular cycle (anywhere between 24 and 34 days) getting the timing on a progesterone test is not simple, particularly when you have to book a blood test a month in advance at the GP! Fortunately the clinic can cover this and, having checked for my ovulation surge, today I went to the clinic for, hopefully, an accurate result! Of course, once I got there, having drunk 2 litres of fluid on the way over to bulk out my veins, my lovely nurse struggled to get blood out of me! Job 2, done (just)!

Then came the biggie! That decision that I didn’t know how to make. They little swimmers and where they were coming from! I quickly removed the US banks from my searches as they go massively in depth on the donor… too in depth if you ask me. In fact, I think I know more about some of them that my own family! So it was down the Europe or UK. My criteria was not what I consider picky, blue eyes with light hair. I got a choice of 3 from the UK and 2 from Europe! I picked one! Yes! Oh, out of stock! Looked through again and I just kept coming back to the same one. I emailed the back, I waited, I waited, they replied… I ORDERED THE SPERM!

These are not words I EVER thought I would be writing and I must say this whole thing has lead to some, quite frankly, hysterical conversations with friends! But I did it!

This is why I now feel things are really moving. I need to take another blood test (oh yeay) in 6 weeks, fingers crossed TSH level will be back down and boom… we’re off!!!

This is finally happening!!!!!