Babble, a parenting site, has posted an extensive article about men having kids in their golden years. The piece does a pretty good job of exploring the personal, financial and social aspects of older men having kids via vasectomy reversal. As the father of a vasectomy reversal baby myself, I found the article fascinating.
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Shortly before our son was born, I became aware of a firm offering support and supplies for home semen analysis. Kokopelli Technologies offers several reasons for doing home fertility tests, but this one resonated with me…
“Male fertility often fluctuates a great deal from week to week. You should not give up if one or two semen analyses show low sperm counts or poor motility.”
I suspect that my soldiers are in better shape than my fertility tests would suggest. After all, we were successful. I know it only takes one, but I’m betting it wasn’t as bad as the results portrayed.
Ken Mullen, the owner of Kokopelli Technologies, offers a variety of products for conducting fertility tests in the privacy of your own home, from microscopes to condoms designed for semen collection.
I’ve corresponded with Ken a bit and he seems quite devoted to helping other people achieve their dreams of parenthood. I highly recommend going and checking out his site.
It’s been a few weeks since our son was born. I, who was so reluctant, am totally in love with this newest member of our family. Sure, there are still moments of parental insecurity, some related to age, some the norm for any parent. But all in all, I fell really good about being a dad again.
Lisa and baby are doing great. We thought for a few days that he might be colicky, but I think we just weren’t reading all his cues that well yet. Lisa says it’s more than that – he cries when he has to poop and sometimes he spits up a bunch. Both are related to gas. Ha! Poop talk! Yep, I’m a dad again.
Anyway, we’re fortunate that we’re both at home, at least for six months or so. Then we’ll see if we can swing it so that Lisa only works part-time; since I work from home now, that would allow us to forgo outside the home child care. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Right now, we just want to focus on getting through the first few months.
Yesterday afternoon, at 1:51 p.m., Lisa delivered a healthy baby boy via Caesarean section. Less than 18 months after the vasectomy reversal surgery, we have our child!
The C-section followed a long and difficult labor. Contractions started around dinner-time Friday and by bed time were coming every 12 minutes. Lisa lost her mucous plug around 11 p.m., and it was deep red instead of the preferred light pink. So we decided to go into the hospital; contractions were only six minutes apart at that point. We live a short five minutes away and it wouldn’t have been a big deal were they to send us back home.
An all-nighter followed. Lisa did incredibly well but by 4 a.m. was quite exhausted. She was given fentanyl to help with pain, but it slowed the labor somewhat. Things eventually ramped back up, but the baby couldn’t get past the cervix. His head was turned the wrong way, and in addition to back labor, this meant a more difficult angle for delivery.
Lisa’s cervix got to 9.5 cm or so, and they decided to have her push, but it was to no avail. It turned out that the baby was pretty large too and after awhile, the cervix began to get irritated and swollen, greatly reducing the chances of a successful vaginal delivery.
Contractions were strong and regular, so pitocin wasn’t going to be helpful either. We could have kept trying, but at that point Lisa had been in the hospital, in labor, for 14 hours. So upon the doctor’s recommendation, a decision was made to have the baby by C-section.
It all turned out great; mother and son are doing fine. He weighed in at 8 pounds, 10.7 ounces. I’m hoping Lisa feels well enough to share her perspective in the next week or so. I told Lisa last night how proud I am of her. She labored long and hard, but I know she is a little disappointed that she wasn’t able to deliver vaginally.
What’s important now though is that we have a healthy, beautiful baby boy. He’s nursing well and all is fine. Now we just have to get mother and child home from the hospital. That could come as early as tomorrow.
Finally, a big thank you to everyone out there that has offered their support over the past 18 months. Your comments and emails are greatly appreciated!
Today is my official due date! However, I have no signs of impending labor. No burst of energy, no loss of mucus plug, no flu symptoms, not even Braxton Hicks contractions. According to small town doc, who we saw today, I’m effaced, but not at all dilated. He does think that I may have a relatively fast labor, since I’m so effaced, but who knows.
What I know is that I’m ready. The house is ready, I’m done with work, we’ve frozen a bunch of meals, and there’s nothing more to do but the birthing! I’m uncomfortable, although not so much that I can’t sleep at all or that I can’t move. We are continuing on with our lives, and plan on going out for dinner tomorrow night with a friend unless I’m in labor. Does that make us crazy?
Yesterday was one week until my official due date, and we had yet another visit with small town doc. We’ve definately discovered another disadvantage of small town life. My doctor is going out of town three days after my due date, so if the baby is late, we’ll have to have the “on call” doctor. I’m sure he’s competent, but I’ve never met him and he doesn’t know us or our desires for how this birth will go. We’re planning to schedule an appointment, just to meet him, but I hope it’s not necessary.
Vasectomy Reversal Support Group is a vasectomy reversal message forum that developed when the International Center for Vasectomy Reversal (ICVR) dropped their message board.
You must register to view or participate in the VRSG forum, but I encourage you to check it out. They have great forums, including ones devoted to pre- and post-vasectomy reversal concerns, TTC, semen analysis, success stories, etc.
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With only a couple of weeks till I’m a dad again, at age 52, you’d think I might be terrified. And I’m sure that on some level I am. But there really hasn’t been a lot of time to think about it. We’ve been busy preparing for our son’s arrival, assuming the ultrasound tech and doctor are right about it being a boy. We’ve been through childbirth classes and done the last minute shopping. On the domestic front, we’ve got a very small house, so I’ve been trying to help make room for all the accouterments of parenthood. And we still haven’t agreed on a name, but we’re getting closer. To top it all off, I’ve recently embarked on a new job that has me working from home, so you can see that change is the rule here rather than the exception. Lisa’s got another week at work and then she’s going to pack it in until the baby arrives. Our small home is about to get quite crowded!
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We’ve been busy baby shopping, getting rid of stuff in the house so that we have room for baby, and learning all about the labor process. After going through the childbirth education classes, I certainly feel more ready for labor and delivery. Initially, the classes terrified me, but after more info and repetition, they were reassuring and I’m much more motivated to try for a natural birth (although I’ll do whatever I need to if my or the babies health is at risk).
For being so close to my due date, I feel pretty good, although it’s getting more difficult in the last few days. People keep telling me I look small for how far along I am, but I feel pretty huge. The doctor says everything is normal – the baby is measuring as he should be and is expected to be 7 1/2 to 8 pounds by my due date.
As requested, I’m posting a belly shot so you can get a look at how big I am. 
Recently, I came across a press release stating that the “Center for Male Reproductive Medicine boasts a vasectomy reversal success rate of 98% and is recognized as one of the best facilities in the world.”
The problem is, I’m not buying it for a minute. As I discussed in my post on vasectomy reversal success rates, there is a big difference between patency and pregnancy. Patency, in terms of vasectomy reversal, means the return of sperm to the semen. More broadly, patency is defined as “the condition of not being blocked or obstructed.” That’s not too difficult to achieve following a vasectomy reversal. But getting enough sperm to result in pregnancy is another matter entirely. I’d love to know what their pregnancy rate is, but I couldn’t find it on their website.
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