There were many things I wasn’t quite ready for when embarking on IVF, the amount of needles, the 5am alarm settings, the 1.5 inch bum injections! But one thing I certainly wasn’t expecting was the sheer volume of liquid I had to consume. I couldn’t go 5 minutes without bursting for the loo. I can now proudly say I know where every accessible loo is in the Marylebone/Bond Street vicinity! I can also say, not so proudly, that I have several ‘desperate worst case scenario drills’ ready and waiting if ever needed.
I’m generally very happy to drink water (though at 4 litres a day towards the end I was struggling). But milk? Not so much. When the Doctor said I had to manage 2 litres of milk (that’s not pints boys and girls, that LITRES) a day, I felt pretty sick.
When I tried to squirm out of it with excuses like “well I’m only 5ft1, surely I don’t need as much as a normal sized person” I was told there was no getting around it. It was the certain protein in milk I needed for egg growth and no, if I ate a load of chicken, fish and cheese it wouldn’t cut it. I have since found out that not many clinics suggest this ‘milk drinking’ but I guess anything’s worth a go.
I managed to get through a fair amount whilst waiting for repeat blood tests in the last week or so by hanging out in a local Le Pain Quotidien (which I still have no idea how to pronounce). Decaf Lattes and a glass of milk were the order of the day, luckily made better by the discovery of a Cinnamon Biscuit spread. Forget the milk, I think I put on about 10 pounds alone just through this amazing stuff!
In the morning it was milk smoothies (sounds so gross doesn’t it) with spinach, banana, half a carrot, honey and whatever other fruit was lying around.
I made custard from scratch, milk and butternut squash soup, hot milk with honey, hot milk with cardamon and cinnamon… Anything with white sauce was on the menu for dinner, all topped off with another glass of whatever amount that was still left before bed.
Seeing your waistline balloon through bloating, water drinking and about 500 extra milk calories a day isn’t much fun. Especially when you know you may just be doing all this for nothing.
In our case, this time, we were. Kind of. We did get 10 eggs in collection, I suppose I can thank the milk for that. We now have 3 left in the freezer. Which means with a little bit of luck I can take bulk buys of milk off the shopping list for a while.