Saturday Running Around

Thursday night before I left my friend J emailed me to tell me that she was going to be in Florida this weekend. She lives in NO but her in-laws and stepson's mom live there. She asked if I wanted to get together for an lunch on Saturday and I told her that it would be kind of tight but that I would try. We texted back and forth Friday night and had tentative plans for an early lunch.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early for breakfast with Chicken, Chicklet and fiance J. Then Chicken and I went to get facials. It was okay, but like a professional massage it's something I never have to do again. We also got manicures at the same place. But they only had one manicurist and one facial(ist?) so we had to alternate instead of doing them together. That was kind of a bummer.

One of the reason Kevin didn't come with me on this trip was because he was running a 10K Saturday morning. It was his first road race ever and I was kind of bummed out that I didn't get to be there. But I had knew it was a possiblity since he decided to run in it. Anyways his wave was suppose to take off at 8:42 and he called me at 8:30 saying that he was in touching distance of the parking garage but had been stuck in race traffic for over an hour. So he missed his flight. Luckily they allow you to drop down in waves so as long as he made it to the start line by 10am he would be okay.

Right as I was going in for my manicure J texted me to say that they got in really late (like 3am!) so could we reschedule lunch to the Sunday. Which was good because there's no way I was going to make it out of the salon before 11am.

Kevin had signed me up for race notification to be texted to my phone when he reached the half way point and finish line. They didn't come through so I got more and more worried during the manicure that he didn't make it to the start line. But while I was waiting for the facial to start he called and left me a message letting me know that he had finished with a time of 46:29. Pretty good for his first race! Even though I had warned him about the other people running the race, he was surprised by how much it affected his run.

After we were done at the salon we went back to Chicken's and I hung out there till it was time to leave for the shower. It wouldn't have been worth it to drive all the way back home. The shower was held at a beautiful park on a hill next to a lake. More food (Yay!) and more games. Of which we won two of them! We being me, Wiki and myMom. We got to use our phones for one of the games to get answers and my ipho.ne worked better than Wiki's iphon.e 3GS!

When we got home I laid down on the couch for a rest and then GV started moving and kicking. I called myMom over to feel and we waited. After a few seconds GV gave her a good kick. As soon as myDad walked in the door (from a church function) she boasted about being able to feel GV. So then my sister and then myDad tried. Luckily GV cooperated for all of them and wasn't his usual stubborn self. I guess only Kevin has the hands of calmness. Hope that's true after GV is born!

That evening Wiki and I went back to Chicken's for a hair and makeup party. Chicken is wanting to do both herself (or have a friend do it). So we got together for some pizza and experimentation. Friday night I had gone through all the gifts and figured out which ones I would need right away and which could wait a month (when myMom and myDad drive up for their visit). While we were at the party myMom got everything to fit into one suitcase. And it was under 50 lbs!

So another 11:30 bedtime. But I did get to talk to J and we decided to go to mass together and then brunch the next day.

Calmness

That's me, Mrs. Calm. Well with some minor moments of anxiety, but I just say a quick "Our Father" and it all goes away. Tuesday was just a particularily rough day for me. Not only was I dealing with all this preggo stuff but I got into three separate "discussions" about plans for soccer. Nothing major, just a difference of opinions that eventually got worked out. I just really don't like confrontation. For years, I coached with three other people so any parent/coach/club issues that came up, I knew I wasn't alone and that they would stand behind me. But since I moved away from them, it's just been me by myself. I know the club is behind me, but sometimes I forget. Anyways, like I said, it got all worked out by EOD Tuesday.

Tuesday night when I went to bed I really dedicated myself to praying. I say little prayers all the time, but this time I really wanted to release everything over to God. So I prayed. I prayed about a lot of things but the thing I stayed away from was praying for this pregnancy. That might sound weird but I reasoned it out in my head that asking for GV not to be a blighted ovum or miscarriage seemed somehow to doubt that God had given me this incredible gift and was moving me along His plan. So I prayed for my family, Kevin's, all of you. And I drifted off to sleep still praying.

Wednesday was the complete opposite to Tuesday. I just felt so much better, not as anxious and able to think about this pregnancy in a positive mood. I felt so much better that when Dr. Grrr called I didn't answer the phone. I was in such a good place that I didn't want to bring up the events/feelings of the day before. But of course I did call him back. He did a great job of reassuring me that I was normal (with normal minimal pg symptoms) and based on what he's seen so far I have nothing to worry about. And in the end he reminded me that nothing we do right now is going to change anything about GV. If somthing is wrong on Tuesday nothing I did, Kevin did or Dr. Grrr did could have changed that. Tuesday we'll know and take the steps necessary at that point. It really did make me feel better. He also reminded me that he was the doctor on call this weekend so if anything changed (spotting, cramping, bleeding) I could call and know that he would be the doctor answering.

Yesterday was also Chicklet's 3 month birthday! Wow! I can't believe she's been around that long. Chicken posted new pictures and she's so precious. myMom thinks she's looking more and more like Chicken.

Today has been relatively calm too. Kevin and I are preparing for this weekend. I have four(!) soccer games, one on Friday & Saturday and two on Sunday. One to watch, two to coach and one to play in. Plus this weekend we are going to Les and Dave's first agility competition. We were going to go to it on Sunday, but then my game (the one I coach) got rescheduled for Sunday so we had to switch to Saturday. This means I'll miss Dave's Jumpers run but I should make it for the Standard one. Gonna be busy this weekend, but I'll be sure to keep you all updated.

Road Trip!

I'm waiting here at work for Kevin to come pick me up. We're driving down to Florida today and should make it to my parents house pretty late. But we've been planning this trip for a while. Ever since Chicken told us that she was due at the end of July. I figured she'd have enough visitors the first month that Chicklet was around and now that she's 5-6 weeks or so, she should be less scary. The only baby I've ever had to hold (in my adult years) has been my cousin's kid born back in '99 (cause seriously D gave me no choice, just handed the baby over!). Since then, nobody else. Not that people haven't offered, I just refrained from it. Give me your kid when he/she is 1 or 1 1/2 and I'm great. Younger than that induces all out panic on my part. Great for someone trying to become a mother, right? But people tell me I will change when the kid is my own. I sure hope so.

Once we knew that we were going down for the long weekend and knew that the cruise was coming up we decided to drop the dogs off at my parents. We're gonna be gone for almost two weeks and didn't want to put the dogs in boarding. So we asked my parents and they agreed to meet us half way in October to retrieve the dogs. I'm gonna be a whole month without Dave and Les! This will be the longest Dave and I will be separated since I brought her home from the Pu.blix parking lot! And what's Kevin gonna do? He's really into agility now and the "season" is starting. He's already disappointed that we're going to miss the start of it because we'll be gone, but now we're gonna miss a further two weeks because the dogs will be gone. What is he gonna do those three nights a week he usually goes to classes? We're sure gonna be some case without them!

Wednesday I texted Chicken to make plans - I suggested Kev and I come over on Saturday and then we could do dinner Sunday night. That way I'm spending time with Chicken & Chicklet but still get to spend time with my parents. Chicken texts me back and says Saturday is fine but she needs to talk to me about the rest of the weekend. Yesterday she called me for all of five minutes and says how she and Jon have a strict rule that Sundays are family days. How they're always inundated with family members visiting so for their sanity they receive no visitors on Sunday. So could we do dinner on Saturday instead (whereas I thought us spending the day with them on Saturday included dinner?!?). All I'm thinking in my head is "Seriously? I'm driving 24 hours round trip to come and see you and your kid and you can't have dinner with me, Kev and my parents on Sunday evening?" I know it's unfair but my feelings were hurt. I said something about totally understanding and then she had to get off the phone. I'm not sure if I was hurt because of this incident, because of our IF struggles (you know it factors into everything I'm feeling these days) or because our friendship has been changing (starting before the KU announcement).

Ooh, I started a new crochet project last Friday:
Know what this turns into? This:
I finished it in less than 24 hours. Her name is Chloe and she's for Chicklet. I'm making another one called Kylee. She's gonna be a bear.
I'm not happy with Chloe's head (looks kind of messed up to me)
so I might redo it before tomorrow. Kevin asked me if I needed a book for the drive tonight and I was like "Nope! Got my crocheting to do!"

kroh-shey blang-kit

Chicklet got to go home today. Chicken was kind of relieved, only because she thinks this means that she'll get more than two hours sleep at a time. Between Chicklet, the doctors, the techs drawing blood, the nurses, visitors and phone calls she wasn't able to sleep very well. I don't think it's going to be much different at home (except the doctors, nurses and techs part), but we'll see how that goes. Chicklet is the first grandchild on both sides and both grandmas live pretty close, so maybe that will help?

Anyways, I wanted to show you all Chicklet's blanket. I ended up getting it done by my second deadline (mostly cause of my layover during my June trip down there) so Chicken had it in plenty of time.

This is the blanket with all 80 squares but pre-border. I did about 9 rows of treble cluster crochets all around.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished blanket but luckily Chicken posted photos of the nursery on her blog and a couple of shots had the blanket in it.

When I go down in September, I'll try to get a photo of Chicklet in it or if Chicken sends me a photo I'll post it.

6DPUIU

Chicklet was born this morning! I got a text message from Peeta that she came out weighing 9lbs 10 oz and 20 1/4 inches long! Holy crapola, that's a big baby!

My cousin J is taking his first set of vows next weekend in Trenton, NJ. Since we live relatively close to him (the rest of our family lives in Texas), we decided to head up there for the big event. J told me his parents and two of his sisters (he's got 4) are coming. It will be good to see them all. Mostly. I don't really get on with Uncle D. I might have mentioned I was a bit of a trouble maker when I was little and somehow I always dragged RR, J's oldest sister, along with me. But I'm sure it will be fine.

Round 9 v2.0 is going well. I've been having weird pains and stuff in that lower area. Mostly on the left side, but some on the right. I'm not sure what it is. Last night Kevin gave me the HCG booster shot. It was the worst shot he's ever given me! Oh! The pain! I also haven't taken a good bbt since the morning after ovulation (thurs). Friday morning I was moving around a lot and then remembered to bbt. By that time I was way up. Sat and Sun I didn't bother. Monday morning I slept in a hour past my normal temping time so it was high again. Then I took it downstairs to record them on FF and forgot to bring it back up for this morning. Kevin offered to go get it, but I just told him not to bother. I'm going to try to get in a bbt tomorrow.

I've got to go to the dentist tomorrow to get some fillings redone. I'm tempted to reschedule. With the way irregular schedule I had last week, plus knowing that next wednesday I'm going to be late because of the homestudy, I think I should hold off on any non-necessary appointments.

Okay SPOILERS here if you haven't seen HP6 (or read HP7). Highlight from here down to the next paragraph if you've seen HP6 and want to read my take.
Overall I thought the movie was good. The kids are better actors, most of the over-acting is done by insignificant side characters (*cough*LavenderBrown*cough*) and they've gotten better at cutting out the things that don't really need to be in the movies. There were just two things I didn't like. First that Ginny was the one who hid the potions book. In the book, Harry hides it, intending to retrieve it once the heat is off and so marks the spot with a bust, wig & tiara (which we learn in HP7 is a diadem). He recalls seeing the tiara in HP7 and so knows where to get it from once he realizes what it is. If he didn't hide the potions book in the this movie, how's he suppose to remember about it in HP7? The other problem I had was that there was no Hogwarts fight scene at the end. My dad saw the movie this past weekend and as he's never read the book, he thought this one was a boring. He said it needed a fight scene. I agree. Get rid of the unneeded attack on the Burrow (Hello! Where's the escape from Privit Drive/Wedding going to take place then?) and the anachronistic bridge collapse and put in the Hogwarts skirmish. Then it would have been much better. But other than that, I didn't really mind any of the other changes and thought the movie did a good job of carrying itself, both as the 6th movie in a series and standing alone.

Sunday we celebrated the 3 year anniversary in our house! These past three years have been filled! We got engaged, got married, found ourselves battling IF. I lost a grandfather and Kevin lost both his grandparents. We hosted the inlaws with no major catastrophes. We're still trying to tame the front garden and haven't gotten grass to grow in the back yard. Oh yeah, it was filled. We went to Red L.obster to celebrate. We have friends who make fun of us, claiming that RL is not real seafood, but I remember when I was little we only ever went there for special occaisions. My birthday or Dad's. And so now, when I think of special occaisions, I always think Red Lo.bster. I always get a half order of crab legs and Kevin always gets the Alfredo Linguini with Chicken. If you can't tell, we're creatures of habit.

IUI #2

I'm sitting here at work counting down the minutes till I can leave for IUI#2. Kevin's going with me but I'm meeting him there. Then I'm taking the rest of the afternoon off. I was willing to come back this afternoon, but Cupcake told me not to bother. I'll still sign in from home cause I'd feel guilty if anything came up.
Monday's u/s appt was scheduled for 3:30pm. But since my boss was leaving for a week long sales pitch trip he needed tons of collateral and sales material from us marketing people before he left at 2pm. I managed to get it all done (cause I skipped my lunch!) by the time he left and then with finishing up all the other things that needed to be done Monday, I ended up not leaving till 3:30. Luckily Dr. Grrr's office was nice and they saw me as soon as I got in (around 4pm). We did the u/s and they found a 22mm & 16 mm on the right and the 18mm on the left. Now I know the drugs are strong but somehow I don't think that follicles can grow 4mm overnight. It's always fustrating to go to the coverage RE's office because stuff like this always happen - they can't find my ovary, measure wrong, or I end up having to see Dr. Grrr the next day anyways. What's the point? Anyways, Dr. Grrr told me to trigger as late as possible on Monday night and then scheduled the IUI for 12:15 today. Pray that he can stay on schedule. He has an ER this morning so we might have to wait a bit. Hopefully not though.
One thing Dr. Grrr was concerned about was my E2 levels. From what I can find on the internet they should be around 150-200 per mature follicle. I had them checked on Friday and Sunday and they were 229 and 378 respectively. He said they weren't terrible numbers, but a bit low considering I have 3.
My bbt (yes I'm back at it again!) this morning was 97.45° which is a good pre-ovluation reading for me. Hopefully tomorrow it will rise! I wonder if it will be higher than normal because there are 3 follicles? And of course I'm freaking out that I won't have a temp rise. But I've made the decision that I'm going to temp the whole 2ww. I need some kind of hint which way things are going.
In other news, Chicklet will be here in less that a week! She's weighing approx. 7lbs 6 oz already! So they're planning on doing a c-section a week before her due date. I'm sad that I'll be missing it, although not having to be right there might be better for me psychologically. Also it's a bit of a relief that she's coming a week early. Otherwise she would be being born right around 14dpo. If I got a BFN it would be a double blow. I know, it's a bit selfish, but these are the thoughts in my head.

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.

I Screamed Like a Girl

Since I was little, I've always loved roller coasters. And the best part of the free fall is screaming all the way down. I've also noticed that if you yell while you're getting a shot, it doesn't hurt as much. Of course, warn the person that is giving you shot that you're going to scream and that they shouldn't panic or think they're doing something wrong. You're just screaming so that you're not thinking about the shot you are enduring. It doesn't hurt as much. At least that's what I've convinced myself.
Tonight was my last HMG shot. No more until next month (if this month doesn't work). All day today I've been having weird ovary pains. At least I think they're ovary pains. Tomorrow I go in for an appt with Dr. G to see what state my ovaries are in and what is the next step. I'm hopefully optimistic.
I'm on square 71 of Chicklet's blanket. I was hoping to have it done this past weekend, but now I'm shooting for this weekend.
I'm so glad it's finally going to be Friday! This week has gone by so slowly. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Chicklet's Blanket

I finally started Chicklet's blanket when the family visited. It's cream colored although the photography makes it look white. It's a combination of treble and double crochet clusters, following a flower motif. I'm making little squares and then joining them up to make the blanket. Here's the basic block:
And here's a set of five:
I'm making eight rows of ten, here's the first row:
Doubled to be twenty squares:
And half the blanket (40 squares):
I'm currently on square 65 of the 80. I'm going to put a border around the whole thing. I'm trying not to make it too big. Four years ago, I made one for Tommy K (Wiki's godchild) and it was way too big. If this one gets big as well, I'll make a smaller every day one. As soon as I get to 80 (hopefully this weekend) I'll post an updated picture.

Sticky

Yesterday while we were at
mass, it started snowing. Nothing different than other times it has snowed in RVA, but kinda weird cause it's March. While Kevin and I were sitting at IHOP, I commented that it was too bad that the snow wasn't sticky. At that point the ground and streets were still clear and unsnowed. We went back to the house, did house things and then around 4:00 got ready to do our weekly grocery shopping. We took one step outside and ended up in a winter wonderland! There was snow everywhere! My car was covered and everything was white! It was crazy! I wanted to move my car into the garage, so Kevin went to the shops by himself while I brushed off the snow off my car, moved it into the garage and pulled out all our snow gear. While I was out I saw #36's dad and kid and #54's kid out trying to sled in the snow. Now our street does rise, but its pretty gentle so if you don't have some kind of momentum already, you're not going to go pretty far or fast. We, however, live at the top of a hill from the street. So I told them if they wanted to that they could use our drive way. They did for a few hours and then went home. We even had some fun and Kevin and I went out about 10 pm and did some sledding ourselves.

Well, this morning all the neighborhood kids made the trek with their sleds, disks and snowboards to the top of our driveway and completely compacted the snow! Then the parents built an embankment on the street so that the kids could turn onto the street and keep going! Some of the kids
were making it to two or three houses down the block from our driveway. We had kids and parents coming from other neighborhoods to slide down our driveway. In the evening, #36 brought out their fire pit and #30 brought s'mores suplies and we all camped out. It was a lot of fun. However in the course of the evening, I found out 3 of my neighbors are pregnant and due in the next couple of months. My next door neighbors(#25), my next door next door neighbors(#43) on the other side and the neighbors(#42) across the street from them. Even Kevin was a little shaken by the news. I seriously had no idea!

And speaking of unexpected, AF showed up last night as well. I kinda knew it was coming but I was hoping that it at least hold off till tomorrow. This means that I only had an 11dpo which is on the short side and could mean an LPD. I called Dr. G and he called me back around 9:30 pm. I'm to fax him my temps tomorrow morning and then he's going to decide when I need to get b/w done.

One good point, I guess, is that Kevin and I are definitely off to Egypt in September. We booked the cruise and flights today so there's no backing out now. We were holding off till we knew how this cycle went, because I didn't want to be 7 1/2 months along and trying to get around Egypt. So we decided not to book it until we knew this cycle was a bust. Truth be told, I'd have given up Egypt in a second.

Oh, FYI: Chicklet is a girl! Yay!