Alphabet Dating - X Date!

X Date was at the end of December so it was perfect for Xmas! We try to incorporate alphabet dates into anniversaries or birthdays so we can save money, so this was good timing. We celebrated Christmas together, which including putting up the trees together, going shopping for presents, and watching Moana on Christmas Eve. We had a moment to ourselves on Christmas Day when we opened presents from each other, and are still going to spend a few hours together where we play board games without distractions.

Alphabet Dating - V Date!

For special occasions - birthdays, anniversaries, holidays - we incorporate the alphabet dates so we aren't trying to find the money for 2 dates in one week. V Date falls in November around Kirsty's Birthday so it was Kirsty's choice for what we did. She decided to do another escape room for her Birthday. There were 2 escape rooms beginning with V - the one we preferred is called Vacancy and is themed around a hotel room. But that was fully booked. So we chose Virus which is about a Zombie outbreak. We failed. It was very hard. Possibly because we don't know much about zombies. We did really well in the first escape room we did because we were interested in the topic so maybe a Zombie themed room was a bad choice. We will not give up though! We will escape one day! After we did the room, we went in some shops and Kirsty bought a book which then set off the alarms in every other shop we went in. For dinner we had TGI Fridays with Kirsty's birthday money which was delicious as always. We sat on the upper level and it was decorated for Christmas and looked very pretty. We watched Arrival at the cinema which was really good, we knew there was a twist in but had no idea where or what it was so all the way through we were trying to work it out. When we got home we lit the Birthday cake and read together. Then while she was in bed I drew her a last birthday present - a flowery border around a cute love quote to give her the next day.

Alphabet Dating - T Date!

For T Date Kirsty came up with the best idea - Trapped! Escape rooms are really big right now but it's hard to find ones that are suitable and reasonably priced for just 2 people. Breakout Manchester's rooms are for 2-5 people and are one of the cheaper options near where we live. We chose a medium difficulty room, Identify, the story of this room reminded us of Cluedo. We had never done an escape room before so at first we were a bit wary of what to touch and try, but we did get into it and start digging through stuff. We did really well for our first time and got quite close to completing it! We are planning on going back to do another room for Kirsty's birthday in a few weeks. We also had our annual Halloween 'party' (Trick or Treat). We dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert, watched a few films, carved pumpkins, had Halloween sweets and Pizza Hut.

Alphabet Dating - R Date!

For R date Kirsty chose to recreate one of our dates that we used to go on a lot. We would always go to Pizza Hut (restaurant) that is a few minutes walk from our house and get a favourites platter, a pizza to share and have dessert. Which is exactly what we did! They rarely have the favourites platter on the menu at most Pizza Huts and it's one of our favourite things to get so I was so glad. After Pizza Hut we came home and read books on the settee. It was nice to do something together that wasn't watching TV.

Alphabet Dating - Q Date!

We had a holiday to Pontins Prestatyn booked for the second week of September so I used that holiday for my date - Quality Time! It was a really fun holiday with no distractions. We went for breakfast together, hired a fun bike, played crazy golf, went swimming, watched evening shows, got dressed up every night, took fun photos. We went with my parents but it didn't make it any less fun because we still got to do our own thing. These are some of my favourite photos from the holiday.

Beginning IVF!

I made a post detailing our TTC journey so far but at the time we weren't sure what route we were going down next.
We are now at the next stage and are just counting down the days until we can start the process!
After initial tests and discussions with a fertility specialist, we have decided to have IVF with ICSI using donor sperm and are going to purchase a multi cycle plan with Access Fertility which takes a lot of the pressure off us. There is obviously still a chance that IVF won't work after 2 tries but, knowing that we have paid for a second go, it definitely makes that first attempt less stressful.
I have had all of the initial tests that I need - AMH, general blood tests, HSG, cervical smear, weight. I need to have an updated antral follicle count at start of September and we are going to ask what steps we need to take to be able to start IVF after that. If possible we would like to start in time for my next cycle at the end of September.
I'm so excited and anxious to start because it feels like we have been waiting for so long. It has been a sad, heartbreaking few years and I just want for us to be able to take the next step. We have a list of baby names already!
The main thing we would need to do after a successful cycle (and at a safe point in pregnancy) is create a room for the baby. I would love for us to put a double bed and cot in the front bedroom but we have a new wardrobe and drawers in there so it depends where everything would fit. If we can make it fit I would love to use it! Our current bedroom is the attic so at some point during pregnancy and once we have a baby we would have to move rooms no matter what so that would be the next big challenge.
I'm going to update this blog once we know when we can start IVF. We will also be filming our experience for home videos and uploading some onto our YouTube channel.

Alphabet Dating - O Date!

For O Date we went Outdoors! We had a few hours before Kirsty's Doctor appointment so we used the time to go to Sale Water Park. We walked around, took some photos and had snacks - orange Lucozade, orange Fanta, Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Dairy Milk with Oreos. Whilst we were there we sat on a bench and read a chapter of Harry Potter. Then in the evening we also went to see Finding Dory which is a film set in the Ocean! We are going to go back to the water park with a picnic when the weather is better.