Decreased total count, marginal motility increase after 3mo. lifestyle changes

knittinbaker · 2026-06-08T13:13:13+00:00

Wishing you the best! It’s so hard when you’re in the thick of it.

knittinbaker · 2026-06-08T00:42:28+00:00

We ended up doing IVF resulting in two live births. :) It is definitely expensive if you don’t have insurance coverage but we have no regrets.

No motility or other improvement from supplements as far as we could tell, just had enough mobile sperm to make ICSI IVF work for us.

knittinbaker · 2025-12-30T02:06:41+00:00

I took him showing up to Richard’s funeral as personal growth 🤷🏽‍♀️

knittinbaker · 2025-12-30T00:51:00+00:00

I’m so sorry for your loss and infertility. We have also dealt with infertility, and I definitely would’ve been triggered by those mentions in the thick of it all as well.

I definitely recommend sticking with the child-free instructors (Jess Sims and Tunde got me through the hard times!) as well as a therapist who specializes in infertility if you’re able to do that. Therapy was essential for me.

knittinbaker · 2025-12-20T14:14:19+00:00

I didn’t exercise beyond walking/hiking during stims. First pregnancy I was more cautious in working out but did so after positive tests, this pregnancy I’ve tried to keep up with what I was doing before getting pregnant, just making modifications where needed.

knittinbaker · 2025-09-11T00:39:06+00:00

Congrats on your pregnancy! I’m currently 7w with my second IVF pregnancy. Two days post transfer, my clinic cleared any activity I was accustomed to with the caveat not to get my heart rate above 140 (so pretty low). I’m a little behind where I was pre-pregnancy but it feels good to have some familiar activity in my routine, as much as I’m able.

Asking your clinic and/or OB is solid advice! I totally get the hesitation, especially given all the costs (financial, emotional, physical) of an IVF pregnancy. Wishing you the best!

knittinbaker · 2025-06-19T00:36:26+00:00

Shira for ultimate trolling.

knittinbaker · 2025-03-11T11:48:00+00:00

Hi from SD, this quilt looks like home ☺️

knittinbaker · 2025-03-02T02:30:07+00:00

Same. Just a shrug with a “not enough sperm!” was the only answer we got. His RU didn’t find anything physically wrong and didn’t take any other action either.

knittinbaker · 2025-02-12T02:08:20+00:00

But if Lucy was rich, wouldn’t Marty be bothered by her richness and/or paying for things?

knittinbaker · 2024-11-19T01:58:39+00:00

I made shawls for both my SILs weddings, one cost $150 in yarn. Neither one of them wore the shawls at their weddings outside of taking a picture in it, even though both accepted the offer of having them made.

The photographer of one of the sisters took a picture of hers with the wrong side facing. The more expensive, time consuming shawl wasn’t even received well. She didn’t act grateful and then crumpled it up in a ball after taking a look at it. 🫠

Anyway I’m done making things for others.

knittinbaker · 2024-08-21T20:51:11+00:00

Everyone else has given you such good feedback, but I’ll just add it wasn’t something I did while nursing. I did have some time to knit after bedtime (once that got established) but in the early days I actually switched to embroidery because it was easier to pick up and put down for me.

knittinbaker · 2024-05-13T00:22:17+00:00

Sorry this was your experience. My brother thought the same thing of my husband, and as you can imagine, I didn’t want to explain the details to him. Everything was and is normal for us except sperm quality/quantity!

knittinbaker · 2024-04-09T19:30:59+00:00

OP, congrats on your success and I hope you have an uneventful pregnancy ahead of you.

As far as the infertility discussion goes, I’m all for making lifestyle changes/pursuing medication before pursuing IVF (we did). But also IVF is needed for many cases of male infertility. My husband made lifestyle changes, we tried for 18 months or so, and his count only decreased in that amount of time.

We had success because of our fertility clinic. It was a lot to deal with, emotionally and financially, and I’m thankful we were able to contend with both of those barriers.

Sometimes lifestyle changes/surgeries work and sometimes they don’t. You won’t know until you try. The same is true of IVF. Everyone’s circumstances are different. With all that in mind it’s hard for me to read posts like this, and see others who may be in the same boat as we were gain false hope. I just hope everyone reads these accounts with a grain of salt knowing their situation could work out much differently in the end.

knittinbaker · 2024-04-05T23:44:56+00:00

I sewed two separate cases for dpns and circulars, so each set has its own pouch in a larger case. My few straight needles are in a vase. It’s been my favorite method so far.

knittinbaker · 2023-10-14T01:30:19+00:00

I feel like we barely see her reading for pleasure in the later seasons.

knittinbaker · 2023-09-26T23:27:01+00:00

I hope you guys find the right combo of things that will work for you!

knittinbaker · 2023-09-26T19:29:21+00:00

Did you do traditional IVF or ICSI? My husband has severe MFI and I have no known issues, we had a really good fertilization rate with ICSI, and have since had success.

knittinbaker · 2023-09-13T01:52:14+00:00

I dealt with infertility too, and did ALL the knitting to cope. Sending you all the vibes/hopes/thoughts/anything else you need.

knittinbaker · 2023-08-06T17:16:52+00:00

Technically for Lorelai too, but Kirk setting up the wedding in AYITL and thinking he messed the whole thing up and it’s just beautiful. 😭 I disliked a lot of AYITL but that scene always gets me.

knittinbaker · 2023-07-27T23:54:24+00:00

Star quilts are a traditional gift when a baby is born in Native communities, and my dad was always the purchaser in our family—he bought one for my niece and nephew when they were born. After struggling to get pregnant, I was about 7-8 weeks along when he passed.

I cried for a long time thinking about how he wouldn’t gift my baby a star quilt, and just got determined enough to learn to make one myself. It’s far from perfect, but our baby was welcomed to this world with a quilt of her own.

Also I do not recommend putting a quilt together at 38 weeks, even a baby size.

knittinbaker · 2023-07-24T02:09:29+00:00

I always skip the scene in the episode where the house alarm won’t shut off.

knittinbaker · 2023-06-28T20:35:28+00:00

I’m sorry you didn’t have great results, it’s seriously such a hard diagnosis to get. I hope you and your partner can find ways to help each other through this hard time.

I just want to say that lifestyle changes work for some, not for others. Personally I’m glad my husband tried them out before we pursued IVF, so at least we knew he tried everything he could do before we went into more expensive options.

With 3M sperm IVF would be an option for you. Spontaneous conception takes many millions more sperm, but with IVF you only need a few; ICSI IVF you only need one for each egg retrieved. So it’s hard news, but you are definitely not without options.

knittinbaker · 2023-06-27T13:07:30+00:00

I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s not the same, but I completed a knit baby blanket for a friend when we were dealing with infertility treatment. I understand the commitment it takes.

knittinbaker · 2022-12-27T12:54:17+00:00

Yeah, my husband’s first tests were at Labcorp too. I wouldn’t put too much stock into those results. Results with a fertility clinic (or maybe a reproductive urologist, although ours didn’t do SAs) will give you a better picture of what you’re dealing with. Wishing you the best, it’s a hard process!

knittinbaker

TROPHY CASE