Gestating, Cooking - it's all the same.

Poor old cooking blog. I got distracted by a big project - a big cooking project. The baking of a baby. I wasn't actually pregnant when I made the last post, but I was imminent. How do I know? Science m'friend. Science.

In actual fact the making of Katarina was a lot more like baking than the usual making of a child. Kat was made with the help of the bakers at Monash IVF - and I have to say that we didn't hold much hope for the process. Shows what we know.

We decided mid 2014 that we weren't going to keep trying to have a baby. We gave up. The boat had been missed, the ship had sailed and other nautical terms to mean we were done. And then my Dad offered to pay for IVF. And my friend April implored me in a heart felt manner to try "just once".

We thought about it. I have a sort of ideological issue with IVF which hasn't entirely gone away with the using of it. I feel that if you can't get pregnant naturally then that might be a message from the Universe. That's a pretty harsh way to look at it, especially if you are childless, which I was not. I already had Gabe so I was in a pretty good position truth be told. But... but... I wanted another child and there ain't no logic to that - it is the strongest imperative that we have as humans. So my liberal minded, what about the planet, no interference issues went out the window and lay on the sidewalk. I didn't go get them again.

There is a keep calm for everything.

We visited with Monash IVF - the basically the best in the world at this. They were very nice and very conservative in their estimates for success. We had to be "realistic".

"I will do one round and no more" I stated. My baby Dr (Dr Nick), smiled at me in a way that indicated he had heard this before.

"No, I mean it, I have no intention of doing more than one".

"That's a good plan" he says, smiling that smile - still.

That is someone called Jakob and not my Doctor, but it's a good approximation of the smile.

So, police checks and children checks and health checks and money money money. Not my money, lets be truthful, just lots of it.

At the end of 2014, I underwent the process required to release lotsa eggs. They pump you full of this drug that puts all your eggs in one basket - or two, so to speak. You inject yourself each day in the stomach - and then around the ninth day you give yourself the BIG injection (same size as the others - double dose) and then you have blood tests to see if you are ready to go.

Lots of eggs, very good. Few eggs, very bad.

Then it's time of the harvest. So, what do they want? Well, at least 12 eggs. I only had 11 follicles so that meant that the best I would offer up is 11.

That was still ok Dr Nick had said.
Let's just see what we get Dr Nick said
Let's not count our chickens (he may as well have said).

The harvesting. An artistic rendering.

Two eggs.

So. You see, we knew that it was over. The whole endeavour was over. Two eggs was a hopeless position. We knew in the way that the nurses looked at us and the sound of Dr Nick's voice.

They called the next day to tell us that only one had fertilised. One. We had one embryo. Fab and I looked at each other and we looked away and we prepared ourselves.

• They grew it to a 5 day blastocyst. 
• They biopsied it. 
• The biopsy came back fine. 
• They froze it. 
• They unfroze it 2 months later. 
• They put her inside me (see what I did there.. changed it to her). 
• They called me two weeks later to tell me I was pregnant. 

On November 1, 2015 Katarina Clelie Kahwati was born.

10 minutes old.

So, folks, I was cooking - it was a complicated process and I didn't think that I would be able to do it. In fact I was positive that I couldn't. Lucky for Fabian and I there was a tiny little girl that was so strong, healthy and ready to be born that she proved us wrong at every turn.

2 months old and a delight.

 We love her, we are blessed, we are grateful. Thank you Universe. Thank you.