My baby is 9!

I'll try to make this fast as I only have 20 minutes left of my lunch break.

Two and a half weeks ago, on May 12th, we celebrated Dave's 9th b-day! Usually Kevin and I split celebration/gift duties, I get stuff for Les and he does the same for Dave. However, I think Dave got the shorter end of the stick because usually Kevin doesn't do much, if he remembers. Anyways, this year I wasn't able to do anything "just-in-case" because I had been in Florida the weekend prior and I was at work/BSC the day of. But when I got home from BSC, there was a surprise for Dave and me.
While I was out Kevin got Dave a cake from 3 Dog Bakery!! He remembered and drove across town while I was at my BSC to pick it up. Below is Dave's 9th birthday photo with her cake. All I can say is all those agility and obedience lessons paid off! Only once did it look like she was going to break her "wait" and try to gobble down her whole cake.
Finally she gets to have her cake!
Of course she shared with Les (maybe not willingly).
Finishing up! All in all, I think a nice birthday treat!

Technically 1 Year

A year ago today Kevin and I finally agreed to start TTC. Before our wedding, I tried to convince him that we should start trying right away (my kids and marriage rule) but he said he wanted time to adjust to being married. I was confused by his hesitation as we had already been living together for a year. More if you count that I was always over at his apartment when we lived in Ohio even though I technically lived with my Tia and Uncle. But I agreed. Then in March, I realized that if I got pregnant right away (ha!) that I would be due around Christmas 2008. Five days before that would be Mum's 60th birthday and also 2008 was a England Christmas year. So I pushed it back two months to May. Well May finally arrived and Kevin was still hesitant to start TTC. We talked about it a few times. My main argument was our advancing years and that I wanted at least 3 kids. My plan was that I would have kid #1 by 31, kid #2 by 34 and kid #3 by 36. I wanted to keep the babies on this side of my 30s rather the late 30s. Kevin's main argument was that I should lose weight before getting pregnant. He had all sorts of articles and research on the health of babies born to mothers who were overweight/obese. So for most of May we disagreed.

Then for Memorial Day we went to visit my parents. While there we had a big cook out with a bunch of my high school/college friends. One of the couples had two kids, about 4 and 5. I think watching those kids interact with me, my parents, and their parents is what made Kevin change his mind. Suddenly he was all for starting right away. Finally!

And now it's a year later and we are still TTC. Of course between January and August, I'd only had 1 visit from AF that Provera had brought on. I probably never ovulated during those months, so can I say it's been a year if getting KU wasn't even a possibility?

In August, it'll be one year since I took my first Clomid pill to help TTC, so maybe that will be when I feel it's really official.

Cycle the 8th

**After finishing this post I realized how long it is. I'm sorry! Thank you if you read all the way through. If you don't, I won't be offended.

Okay I've mentioned several times that I have always felt a calling to adopt. Before thoughts of TTC, before Kevin, heck before I grew up, I always wanted to adopt. I don't know if I innately knew that I would have trouble TTC or if God gave me a nudge to help me cope with IF, but it's always been the plan. Kevin not so much. Not that he was against adoption but he always thought of it as something you did if you couldn't have kids. So back in Jan/Feb when we went to the JFS adoption workshop and had our first appt with Dr. G, we agreed to give Dr. G a few months/cycles and if nothing happened, go ahead and start the adoption process. So in a way I've been looking forward to this cycle, if only because it means that we can move forward with adoption if it fails. That's sounds horrible doesn't it? It's just hard to give up your dreams or keep having to put them off. And for me the dream was having kids, not getting pregnant.

CD4 - Monday

I return to RIC and in my email inbox is my receipt for the HMG & HCG. $600!!! Oh. My. Goodness. That's a lot of dough. That's 3 return flights down to Florida to visit my parents. Just shy of a return flight to England. It's almost 6 months of agility lessons. For both dogs. It's a lot of money just so that I can might possibly get pregnant. And that's if it works this time. I've ovulated 4 times this year and still I'm not pregnant. I'm more than ever convinced of my calling to adopt. I feel like I'm wasting my time and money with the RE, this is not going to work. So when I get home and talk about it to Kevin, I tell him that I'm done. I'm so over these endless trips to the RE, my obsession with CM, CDs & BBT, the mounting bills, and mostly my body stubbornly refusing to produce better results with more powerful medicine. I tell him that this is the last medicated/assisted cycle. I know he's not ready for adoption, but I'll wait and when he is ready, we'll start the adoption process. He says okay and then proceeds to give me my first shot of HMG.

CD5, CD6 & CD7

Nothing major TTC-wise happened on these days. Got the shots like normal, nothing disturbing. Non-TTC wise I got in a car accident on Wednesday (CD6). Everyone was fine, no injuries. It involved one slow moving car backing out of a parking space (me) and another car cruising for a parking spot and stopping right behind said backwards-moving car. I totally didn't see the other car until I felt the crunch of the cars colliding. In moving forward back into my space, my back bumper was ripped off. I dropped off my car at the body shop on Thursday and since then, we've been a one-car family again. Except it's more annoying this time around.

CD8

My big appointment. It was scheduled for 8:30am. We were going to be able to see what twice the dosage had done for me. I show up at Dr. G's office and R greets me with a "What are you doing here?" Apparently Dr. G went on vacation early. And somehow mixed up what Friday my appt was so then the staff couldn't call me to reschedule or send me to the coverage RE's office. So after some phone calls & checking charts, it was decided that I should go see the standin RE. Whose office doesn't open till 9am and is across the river. J gets me an appt at 9:40am and I head across town. I got to see a new RE for my u/s. He found a 6mm and 9mm follicle on my left ovary and couldn't see anything on the right. I was kinda upset at this because last cycle lefty showed up early and then fizzled out. Plus nothing on the right! Anyways, he bumped me back up to 300ius HMG for the next three injections and made an appt for me on Monday. This left me in a bit of a predicament. I only had 6 vials (75iu) at home. So I call J to find out what to do and she says that she has some she can lend me but that I'll need to pick them up by noon. No problem! Today is Kevin's work from home day so he can just swing by around noon to pick them up. I call Kevin. He reminds me that I have the only car. Ugg! So I call J back even more panicked. I tell her there's no way I can travel back to their office to pick up the meds (I'm already an hour late to when I said I'd be at work) and that Kevin doesn't have a car. She suggests that she leave them in a bag with my name on it and taped to the door. I can pick them up when I get out of work (again an hour later than normal because the appt took so long). I see no other option so I agree. Hopefully nobody will swipe my meds. Then about 2pm Kevin callls. He had ridden his bike down to the office (6 miles each way) and picked up the meds so they were now safely at home. Crisis averted.

CD9 & CD10

HMG injections continue. They're getting more painful and I'm now bleeding a bit. My mail-order Rx finally come in.

CD11

This u/s (at coverage RE's office cause Dr. G is still on vacation) is scheduled for 12:20pm but the RE is late so I end up not seeing him till 12:40. He sees a 10mm and 13mm follicle on left but can't find the right. After several minutes he gives up. He has me stay on 300ius and says that he thinks that if I do an IUI, it will probably be at the weekend. However he's concerned that he can't find my right ovary so he wants me to go see Dr. G the next day (when he's back). After a whole afternoon of back and forth with J about the necessity of me coming in on Tuesday vs. Wednesday/Thursday I finally cave and agree to come in on Tuesday. I just thought it was silly because really, how much could it grow in 1-2 days if there wasn't anything there on Friday. But whatever.

CD12

I show up to Dr. G's office armed with my HMG (to replenish the office meds). When Dr. G figures out that I just saw the RE the previous day, he asks "What are you doing here today then?". Grrr. So u/s again and lefty has a 15mm follicle and righty (after a bit of looking!) has a 9mm follicle. 300ius for the next two days and I should come back on Thursday. I know they're trying to stay on top of this follicle situation, but seriously, I. have. work! That evening when I'm about 5 minutes away from home (and 30 minutes away from work) I realize I've left my HMG in my desk drawer. I rush back to work and then home, arriving an hour and fifteen minutes past my normal time for my injection. I end up missing the BSC baby shower for one of the ladies. Worst of all I subject my BSC & CISG buddy, S, to being there alone because I have no way of getting ahold of her to tell her I'm missing the class. Here I was looking forward to her being there with me because we could deal together and I abandon her. Luckily she forgave me when she found out what happened.

CD13

HMG still painful and bleeding. What the heck is Kevin doing?

CD14

My appt was at 11:30 originally but J called and asked me to come in 15 minutes early. I show up by 11:20 and there are two people in the waiting rooms as well as the exam rooms full. Seems Dr. Grrr (his new nickname!) is running late and has an office full of patients. At noon (when I told work I'd be back) I'm finally shown to an exam room and it takes another 10 minutes before Dr. Grrr shows up. Lefty is sporting an 18mm! Dr. Grrr says I'm ready and that I can trigger that night and have an IUI on Saturday. He comments again how I only produced 1 follicle even though we doubled the meds. According to him I should have follicles everywhere! Hello what about the fact that I have a 18mm follicle on CD14 when that usually doesn't happen till CD20 or so? Anyways, I'm a bit nervous about triggering 2 days before the IUI so I wait until right before midnight to get the HCG.

CD15

No more regular injections! Plus it's Friday! Plus I didn't ovulate (for once a good thing)!

CD16

Kevin goes in for his pre-appt at 8am and then comes home. We watch a bit of TV and then head to coverage RE's office (the same one I saw on Monday) for our noon apppt. IUI was painless, but uncomfortable. About 20 minutes after the procedure we were sent home. The RE said I could go back to normal activity. Pssshaw! I took a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day and took the rest of the day way easy.

CD17, CD18, & CD19

BBTs are up which means I ovulated on Saturday. Awesome!

CD20

Today. I'm also 4DPIUI and 4DPO. Kevin keeps saying that DPIUI stands for dots per inch-user interface. Oh that funny guy! Tomorrow is the HCG booster (5000ius) to help my LP. As of right now it's the last shot ever.

It's good to be back

I didn't intend to take a break from blogging, it just kind of happened. First things first, I'm fine. Things have been busy at home and there's a cube-stalker at work, so I've had to force myself to get out of the habit of posting on my blog and checking and commenting other's blogs at work (always on my breaks of course!). This week is going to be slow -- I'm in the 2ww now, my show's series/season finales have all aired, BSC is done & indoor soccer is on a between season break -- so I'm hoping to catch up.

Alright, let's get started with what's been happening over the past two weeks:

The shower weekend was great! I flew down on Saturday, got picked up by the parents, went food shopping, got mani/pedis with Chicken and her future MIL & SIL & then went to mass with the parents. Literally one after the other. Next I went home and worked on shower stuff. Pita (Chicken's sister) came over around 9:30 pm to set up/decorate. She was suppose to be by around 6pm with her mom but something happened (wasn't explained to me) and she ended up not coming over till much later sans mom. Other than food my big shower projects were the blanket, crocheted mini-rattle swag (as a party favor), and corsages for Chicken and grammas-to-be.

• I actually finished the blanket two weeks prior, I just had to finish off the beginnings and ends. 80 squares x 2 = I didn't get it done on time. When I gave one to Wiki's BFF at her shower, the blanket got passed around and fondled by everyone and I didn't want anyone to see it unfinished so I didn't give it to Chicken at the shower. I showed it to her after (her future MIL gave her one at the shower that she had someone else make for her) so that she could see it, but I've brought it back with me to finish off. Yeah, 2w later and I still haven't finished it! This week!
• Originally I was going to make the rattle swag in four colors - purple, pink, yellow & white, but I ran out of time. I only did pink and purple. I got myMom and myDad involved in making the bows and finishing off the beginnings/ends for me. I did have a few left over though, so good thing I didn't make all four colors!
  
• We got Chicken an orchid corsage and attached various ribbons and rattles to it. Then we bought some baby socks, rolled them up to make little rose/flower buds for the grammas-to-be corsages. It took myMom and I about 10 false starts, but we finally found some web directions that worked and here's what we came up with.
  

Sunday started early, with me getting the burgers ready and chicken marinating. Then myMom and I drove down to church to go to myDad's Kof.C Mother's Day breakfast. Good Stuff. Afterwards we ran to walm.art to pick up last minute items, rushing to be back by 10am cause that's when the girls were suppose to arrive.

At 10:30 it was still just me and myMom. BFF A had gotten lost and Pita was somewhere between her house and mine (a 45 minute trip one way) having not left until about 10am. They finally arrived around 10:45 so we had a few minutes to finish the decorating & set up. Most of the guests arrived within the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately Chicken's future MIL wasn't one of those and as she was bringing the drinks & chips, we had water & only a veggie tray for the first 45 minutes of the party. But it was fine, everyone was talking/mixing and I think the J (the baby daddy) was the only one who noticed the lack of appetizers.

Being in charge of the food was awesome. It kept me busy and while I was able to say hi to everyone, I couldn't get caught in deep conversation (past 2 or 3 questions) because I always had to get back to the prep. I missed most of the games and I think for a while Chicken was getting annoyed, but really it kept me from thinking about the reason everyone was there. Finally everyone ate, all the games were over and it was time to open gifts. I was fine almost the whole time, J's family were all really nice and loved to make fun of him because he wasn't always sure what things were (he once called a matching bloomer a "cute hat"). Honestly it wasn't until the end of the gift opening that I got teary-eyed so I went to the bathroom and let myself go for a minute or so and then got back to the party. I had to concentrate hard on not seeming upset, but thankfully the party was breaking up at that point. Chicken stayed a few extra hours to hang out (and try to beat myDad at poker - her obsession) and then she left.

Afterwards my parents and I went to go see St.arTr.ek. It was awesome! I've always been a tre.kkie, along with my whole family. I was excited to see the film especially with my parents. Kevin says he wants to go see it, but he'll never actually pay to go to the movies to watch it and I wanted to see it on the big screen. Anyways, I thought it was really good but I did have one issue with one subplot. In not wanting to give away spoilers I won't mention it here, but if you want to discuss, just email me.

I flew home on Monday morning, making the drive straight in to work. My indoor game got cancelled so I was able to go home and go to sleep. I needed it!

Okay, this is enough for today, I'll be back tomorrow, I promise! And just to make sure you come back tomorrow I'll update you all on our 8th (and possibly last) cycle of TTC.

Ohio, not Florida

Six months ago I thought I would be in Ohio this weekend instead of Florida. MyMom has one sister, B. Tía B has two sons D & lil G. D is 11 months older than me, lil G about 3 years younger. Growing up, D & lil G spent most of their years in Germany. They finally moved back to the states, to Georgia, when I was in the 8th grade. The following year myMom, myDad, Wiki, Grandma, Grandpa and I moved to Florida. My grandparents were always wanting to go visit D & lil G (they never got to see them while they were in Germany) so Wiki and I often tagged along. Right before Senior year of HS, they moved again and then kept moving every year or so (Uncle G was in the Ai.r F.orce). They finally settled down in Ohio.
Anyways, back in 2004, Tía B called and said that lil G was getting married. Then a few months later she called to say that he wasn't getting married anymore. A few months after that, she called to say that lil G had gotten his new girlfriend pregnant and the first grandchild was going to be born in February of 2005. J was born and plans for marriage were put in place, but nothing really materialized. They had an off and on relationship that finally collapsed right around the time that I got married. Wait, there's more!
In the summer of 2008, Tía B called and said that lil G was getting married. His new fiancée wanted to get married in the church and so they wouldn't be getting married until the first weekend in May 2009. Well fast forward to January and myMom calls Tía B to check on some things before booking her flights and Tía B tells her that there isn't going to be a wedding in May. Not because they've broken up, but because lil G's fiancée is pregnant. She's due in August 2009 and so wants to have the wedding after the pregnancy & birth.
My mom sends me an email to let me (and the rest of the family) know. When I got this email, I was like "Wow!" I was in the beginning of a new cycle, just having come off an anovulatory 45CD cycle. Also, I had just learned that Chicken was pregnant (obviously you can tell which affected me more).
These were the first pregnancy announcements that came with a stab of pain since now I was dealing with infertility. Since then, I've been trying to figure out how I should deal. This is my conclusion.
I believe that God has a plan for me. It is His plan and the best plan. I trust in His plan. I believe that God wants me to be a mother, but how He will make me a mother, I have no clue. All those women who get pregnant, whether by choice or by accident, are just women who happened to get pregnant. Just because they got pregnant doesn't mean that I will not have kids one day. Those lives/souls were never meant for me, so how can I mourn the lost "opportunity" when it was never mine to begin with? Does it hurt when I find out about it? Yes. Does the start of each new cycle cause pain. Yep, but it's okay. Because I trust in His plan for me. I trust that I will be a mother one day.

⁸"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
⁹"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
¹¹So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
                Isaiah 55:8-11

It is Cycle #8's turn

That's right, today is CD1. It was kind of a shock, but not really. I'm finding that the more cycles I have, the better I am at spotting when AF is going to come. Sounds funning coming from a 31-year-old, doesn't it?
Last week I prepared my RE for the fact that I was going out of town this weekend and this was going to be the weekend that AF would come if I wasn't KU. So when I called them, they were totally good with me coming in today. It was funny because when the doctor confirmed that AF was visiting, his answer was "That sucks." Ha!
So plan for next cycle: I'm gonna start the injections on Monday. He said I could do Sunday, but I don't want to have to get my dad to do it. That's just wrong. So we're starting HMG on CD4. Because last cycle's results weren't so hot, Dr. G wants to do 300ius for two days and then 225ius for two more days. Last cycle was 150ius so this is quite a jump!
Also, we're going to use another 5,000ius of HCG as LP support. If I ovulated on Friday, then that means that I have a 13 day LP. Which is good, because it's the longest one I've had, but Dr. G would still like it to be 14 days. If I ovulated on Tuesday then my LP was 9 days. Which is average for me and a worse situation.
I had a friend from my CISG tell me about this vitamin called Op.tivite that is suppose to be awesome at extending your LP. I'm currently in the middle of my Who.le Foo.ds PN vitamins but as soon as I'm done with them, I'm switching! I'll try anything! Yes, I've even got a box of flax seed at home. I've not used it yet, but it might become a staple in my diet.
Tomorrow I leave for Florida for Chicken's shower! I'm so excited, but not really excited about all the things I have to do before the shower.

Movin' On Up

Last night was Dave and Les' first Level 6 agility class. This is a big step because it's the first time that they do their agility stuff outdoors. Lots of new smells, new textures and new things. Who wants to do the same obstacles. I didn't get to go because of my soccer game so Kevin took them. He said they did really well.
While there, he sees a notice that the rates for agility are going up. Right now we pay about $60 per dog per month. 2 classes a week, so about $6-$7.5 per class. Really not that bad because I use to pay $10 per class when Dave was younger. But now they're only going to let us come to class once a week. That's $12-$15 a class. Which sucks! Oh, we can pay almost double of that and get to go to as many classes a week as wanted, but really, who needs more than two classes a week? I've already told Kevin to prepare himself for the fact that after the dogs get back from Florida that we might not pick back up again. We're paid up until right before they leave. I'm sorry, I love my dogs, but there's no way I'm paying 240 bucks a month for them to jump around and sniff.

...Outta Mind

Dr. G doesn't like using FF so he has me transfer my temps to these charts he has. I could just bypass FF, but I like having instant access that I can play around with. Anyways, today I was transferring the temps over and seeing those good temps made me smile inside. Which was good, because all day I keep thinking that I'm having pre-AF cramps. There's this general heaviness that usually happens the couple of days before AF arrives. So far 10DPO (which just happens to be today) is my average LP, but I did have a 12DPO once. I am so glad I haven't been bbting. Although I do admit I went through Kevin's usual hiding spots to see if I could find where he hid my thermometer. It was a moment of weakness! I'm glad I didn't find it! But now I need to figure out his new hiding spot. On principle of course.

Outta Sight...

Friday morning I woke up to a with a fantastic BBT. I also woke up with a tickle in my throat. I immediately panicked about the tickle because I cannot get sick for a third time while TTC! Seriously being sick without being able to take nyquil is the worst! Kevin has been nursing a sore throat/runny nose for the past week or so and I was not going to catch it! Luckily since that morning that tickle hasn't come back. Whew!
So with my fantastic BBT on Friday, that meant that FF could confirm ovulation. Of course, it thought I had ovulated on Tuesday instead of last Friday. I just pushed it back to Friday. Not that it matters, I can't test till next Tuesday anyway per Kevin's request that I only test when he's around. I've also decided that I'm not temping for the rest of the 2ww. Isn't it amazing how much a good temp gives you hope? How you're floating on a cloud with "proof" that you might be pregnant? Yeah, that's where I was Friday morning. And you know what? I liked that feeling. I don't want it to go away. So I told Kevin to hide my thermometer and I removed my chart from the blog. Outta sight, outta mind, right? At least I know I won't be obsessing about it and clicking the link all the time. It's not like it's going to change between now and then. Also falling temps during this week always depresses me and I don't want to be upset before my trip this weekend. I want to be in a good mood until next Tuesday.