CD33

***I tried to post this last Thursday but for some reason it didn't post. So here it is finally...***

Last Saturday when we were getting ready to leave for the soccer game/trip to Savannah, I wondered if I should pack supplies for AF's visit. On Friday I started getting cramps/twinges/pressure and so thought that she was going to arrive on Saturday or Sunday. I decided to risk it and go unprepared. Well AF never showed, the PMS symptoms continued. So Monday I decided to to take a BBT. 98.65°! The highest bbt I've ever had!! I was so psyched! Then Tuesday I took another bbt and 98.4°. Not as good as Monday, but still a solid post-o temp. Wednesday morning it was 98.2°. Hmmm. So enough to confirm ovulation (based on usual pre and post O temps), but I don't know when I ovulated so I have no idea what day of my LP I'm on. However, I looked back at my past charts and this seems to be the usual post-O pattern before AF starts. The cramps/twinges/pressure have continued so I've started taking supplies with me to work.

Tonight there was a lot of down time at agility so I started thinking... I usually ovulate on CD17-21. Later when I don't have a HCG trigger. So CD22 + 12 day usual LP is CD34. No AF yesterday. No AF today. Tomorrow will be CD34 and it's highly unlikely that I ovulated later than CD24. So I broke down and decided to stop by the dollar store for a few tests. Nothing crazy. Just three to make it through the weekend. Kevin was suspicious when I said I was making a stop before I got home. I told him yesterday about my ovulation confirmation, but I don't think he knew we were near possible POAS.

Thursday Rundown

Why is it that the 2ww seems to take forever, but the 2 weeks till ovulation just fly by? Today is CD10. I temping during our break only so that I have some kind of record for these two months. Monday or Tuesday (I can't remember when) my temp was 97.66 - higher than my normal pre-ovulation temp. Today it was 97.88. Woah! That's a post-ovulation temp. Of course now I'm super curious what it's going to be tomorrow morning. I promised Kevin I wouldn't temp on the weekends - so we could sleep in - so I guess I'll have something to look forward to on Monday. My mind keeps racing back to my theories of having another cyst and so I'm wondering if that cyst was a new follie that could rupture sometime on CD8 or CD9. A couple of days ago I did have some left ovary pain which I thought was follie growing ovary pain, but could totally be ovulating ovary pain. Then reality comes back and I know this scenario is highly unlikely. Sans med, my usual ovulation day is CD24-CD26. So again, you can see why I'm actually looking forward to temping now.

Saturday we're going here. Kevin's climbing partner, B, has been wanting to go play on their Flo.wRider. He's been trying to get Kevin to go for ages and Kev finally agreed. So they're taking a class in the morning. And somehow I agreed to do it as well. I figure it will be a good picture taking opportunity if nothing else. The only downside is that the park is about 2 hours away and the class is at 8:30am and you have to be there 15 minutes early! I've already called the sleeping spot though. Kev and B can drive us out there.

We're thinking of entering Les into an agility run-thru the last weekend of August. It's a low-key event and you pay for each run so if your dog is doing horrible you can stop early before you've paid too much money. I think Kevin would enjoy doing it and I know watching better handlers with their dogs will drive home some of the points I been trying to make.

12DPIUI

Kevin and I had a good weekend. I convinced him on Saturday to go clothes shopping for him. And a few items for me. I used the excuse of getting him clothes for his birthday as well as clothes for the cruise to get him to go. I use to hate shopping with him. We'd make a list of all the stores we would need to go to and then we'd get to the first store and he'd complain that he had a headache and was tired and wanted to go home. Yes, this is my husband, not my three year old child. It got to the point that other than the grocery store and S.am's Cl.ub, I refused to go anywhere with him. But he's gotten a better attitude and I've gotten better at stragegically planning the trips. Like I always end the trip with a visit to K.ohl's which is Kevin's favorite department store. He'll go in there and come out with at least 3 or 4 shirts for work. Even if he doesn't NEED any new ones. Strangely, they are a weakness for him.

So I shaped up pretty good at taking my bbts this cycle. I got in IUI day, 1DPIUI, 2DPIUI, 5DPIUI, 7DPIUI, 8DPIUI, 10DPIUI, 11DPIUI and today. IUI, 1DPIUI, & 2DPIUI were normal, with normal ovulation shifting temps, but then on 5DPIUI there was a huge jump and I started to get excited. These temps were the highest of any temps I've ever gotten since I started charting last October. So last night I was looking at the pattern rather than the temps and there's not a second shift. I doubt implantation would have occured before 5DPO so I would have needed to see a second shift sometime between 5DP0 and 10DPO and there hasn't been. And then this morning my bbt plummeted. 97.93°. Still above the coverline, but I think it's on it's way down. AF will probably arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. Or maybe even tomorrow as I'm starting to feel AF/uterus pains. But I'm hoping Thursday because then that will mean another normal LP.

The other thing I've been thinking about is the twinges I've been having in the left ovary area. I looked back at the blog and realized that around 9-10DPO last cycle I was having the same thing and if I had to describe it the best description is that twinge you get before you're about to ovulate and your follies are growing. Last cycle I just dismissed it but then this cycle ended up being delayed because I had a 15mm follicle on the left side at my menses test. And this cycle I've had the same twinges around 9-10DPO so I'm thinking if we did a menses check we're prolly going to find another largish follicle.
Now I'm about 95% sure this cycle didn't work. It was the best shot we've had since we started this whole TTC thing. I've been a little emotional about it but mostly calm. I decided not to say anything to Kevin until AF shows up. Usually in the mornings he'll ask me about my temp but this morning he didn't. Maybe he can tell.

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.

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.

...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.

So. Hilarious.

This morning at 3:30am, Kevin and I awoke to the sound of a thump-thump-thump. We look over and Les had fallen off the bed! She was sleeping on Kevin's side of the bed. She got up and looked at us like we were the culprits that caused her to fall. Dave, who sleeps on her bed on my side of the bed even got up and walked over to make sure Les was okay. Then she decided to jump on the bed. And then Les got back on the bed. So from 3:30am to 6:30am all of us were on the bed. It was a bit cramped.

R. called me this morning to get my temps from Tuesday, Wednesday and today(98.1°) and she seems to think that I have ovulated. She's not sure if it was on Friday or Tuesday though. She said it's rare though not unheard of for someone to ovulate that late after a shot. Whatever. So I'm either 6dpo or 2dpo. I'm going to go with the 6dpo cause then I'm nearly half done with my 2ww and also maybe I'll actually make it to a 14 day LP, even if I am cheating. 

Holy Tender Boops, Batman!

Seriously, they are hurting! I don't ever think they've been this sensitive before. It all started Tuesday afternoon. I noticed that the girls were responding to accidental bumps (I'm a D cup so accidental bumps happen all the time!). I thought maybe it was because of my soccer game on Monday and how much running I did in that game. And then on the way home last night from BSC I started cramping up and seriously was concerned that AF was coming. Which is totally awkward because I didn't even know that I ovulated! And then this morning my temp went way up to 98° which is weird. I'm not sure what the heck is going on but whatever, I'll take what I can get.
Last night Les and Dave got promoted to Level 6! They'll now be doing agility outdoors! They're still not 100% consistent but they get better all the time. I'm kinda afraid what's going to happen in September (they're spending the month with my parents down in Florida) but hopefully they won't slide backwards too much.

He's Making Me Do It

I don’t wanna, but I have to.  I called R at Dr. G's office to find out if I can have a p4 test at the end of the week but first Dr. G wants me to continue taking my temps for the rest of this week so he can try to figure out what is going on. That’s not so bad since I get up at 6 am during the week. Hopefully I can stop by the weekend. My temp this morning fell again. Bummer.

One of the ladies at my BSC is pregnant and the group has decided to throw her a baby shower at the last class. She's really nice and does a lot of the organizing for us so I'm glad we can do this for her. At first though, when the emails started, I had to wait a few rounds before I finally could reply. I'm so grateful S (my friend from ISG) is in the class with me! After last week's IF day and the constant talk about the preggo lady and childbirth, it's nice to know that I've got someone next to me thinking & feeling nearly the same things as me. A bit of misery loves company I know, but if only I had someone like that with me 24/7 (husbands don't count).

I'm Giving Up on BBT

That's right! I'm no longer slave to that IF ritual every morning. No more waking myself (and Kevin) up at 6 am on Saturdays and Sundays just so I can take a freaking temp that always depresses me. This weekend: Friday my temp was in my normal range at 97.4°. Saturday it jumped up to 98.0°. Yes! I ovulated. Then Sunday it dropped to 97.6°. WTF??? And today it was 97.7°. Both of those are below my 97.8° usual coverline. I've got a couple of theories which include the current heat wave in RVA (it was 94° on both days!) and missing winter blankets (did i mention it was 94° each day this weekend?). But now I'm thinking that I might call my doctor and request a P4 test for this Saturday.
Last Thursday evening we went round to #25 to drop off a Lasagna Stoup we made for them. Good thing we did! Visiting at the time was their MIL and BIL as well as a neighborhood kid who was playing with their 4 year old. I sat next to Mr. #25 to get a look at the new kiddo and he asked me if I wanted to hold him. Can I just tell you a wave of sheer panic overcame me. I think I answered something along the lines of "No! I don't hold babies, just look at them." BIL shared that he was afraid of holding the baby too and that it took a while for him to get use to it. But the fact that the first emotion I felt was panic made me question if I am ready for a baby? I've never been a newborn baby fan - I fall in love with them when they're like 5/6 months old. What the heck am I going to do?

Not Sure What to Think Anymore

Okay, recap:
Friday: take 1 provera, get positive OPK;
Saturday: BBT of 98.1 - know that it's possibly higher due to the provera I took the day before.
Sunday: BBT of 97.5 - not great, but not too low
Monday: BBT of 97.2 - really low, my average coverline is 97.8
So that's where I'm at. I'm not sure what to do or think. Did the provera cause a false positive OPK? Did it cause my body not to ovulate? For good or just delay it? Should I stay under the assumption that I did ovulate and do the 2WW? Or do I go ahead and say f*ck it and take the other 9 pills of provera?
Kevin wants to assume that I did ovulate. He says that the OPK was really dark and if my hormones were preparing for ovulation that we should go on that. Also he swears that he was cold last night/this morning and he thinks it is too soon to switch to our summer blankets.

I'm open to any suggestions...

I'm not sure if you've noticed...

But this weekend saw a slew of posts going up. I'm developing this habit of starting a post and then getting really busy so I figure I'll finish it later. Then I think of something else to write and so I start another post the next day and then all of a sudden it's three days later, I've got three unposted unfinished entries and I need to get them out for today's post to make any sense. So yes, they are backdated, but it's the only way I can keep everything organized.
My temp today was not in the optimal area. Lower than I would have liked, but higher than pre-ovulation. So much so that if I do get that rise on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday, FF will likely decide that I ovulated Sunday instead of Saturday. Then again, if I don't see a rise by tomorrow then I think I'm going to just give up on this one and move on to Cycle #7.
This weekend has been pretty boring for us. A lot of relaxing and watching TV, although I've still not finished watching the finale of ER. I did catch the WPS game and it was pretty good. I didn't realize that Heather M.itts and Kelly Sm.ith were both on the Breakers team. They are both ex-Charge players so I might have to switch my allegiance. We'll see.

No hesitation stabbing me...

I finally got the fax on Tuesday evening. I was able to get a payment method sorted out but didn't send it off till Thursday. I've been kind of weird ending this cycle. Normally when I know a cycle is over, I'm usually wanting to fast track getting the next cycle started but this cycle I've been dragging my feet ending it. Also since my appt last Thursday I've had cramps and twinges on the left side. I just feel like if my left ovary is finally working I should let nature take it's course. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally picked up my provera Rx and I was still hesitant to use it. I knew they were going to ask me about it at the appt this morning so I just broke down and took a pill with breakfast.
The appointment this morning went okay. I can't believe I've gotten to the point where I'll be injecting myself with stuff and have Kevin injecting me with stuff. They had us practice so I got to stab myself with a needle in the stomach. I had to look away. I couldn't watch myself do it, but once it was in, I was okay. Kevin did well giving me a shot on my backside. R. even commented that he showed no hesitation stabbing me with a 2 1/2 inch needle. She said that was really good because it would cause me less pain. I'm not sure how I feel about Kevin not being hesitant. I guess I should count myself lucky. I guess.
Then today when I got home I decided on a whim to take an OPK. And it came out positive! Like right away positive. I was pretty sure that provera wouldn't cause a false positive. So I'm taking it as a sign to not take the provera. If my temps don't have a sustained rise by Tuesday then I'll start the Provera again. And yes I know I can't trust tomorrow's reading because the provera I took this morning will skew it too high. But still I'm hopeful. Also, Kevin wants me to call Dr. G and talk about getting some LP support during this 2ww since I've had short ones before.

Random

This cycle has been one of the weirdest that I've had in a while. Ever since the start of this cycle, I've had these sharp pains in my right ovary (I think) throughout the days. Finally a couple of days ago it suddenly stopped. I took an OPK but it came out negative. And then the next morning my temperature was 97.8°. I normally only get temps that high when I've ovulated, but I knew that this temp had to be a blip. This morning's temp was higher than normal, but not high enough I think. So I think I'm good. I'm anxious to see if Femara works for me.
I had my infertility support group meeting today. I always look forward to these meetings because it's a great group of ladies. We all have different stories and circumstances but we have this common thread.
Kevin and I have recently started watching the Col.bert Rep.ort and the Dail.y Sho.w with J.on Ste.wart. They're actually quite amusing. I didn't think I would like them since they're pseudo-news but I can see why they're becoming more mainstream.
Only four days till Wiki gets here. Only five days till my parents get here. Also, this week is only a four day work week. Yay!

Don't call me. Wait! Do call me!

When we had the big appointment with the RE, he stated that if he didn't call me back for some reason that I should call him. Give him about two hours and if he nor the nurse nor Ms. J calls me then I'm to call them again. I took this policy very liberally this week.
Monday: During the snow storm of the century I call the office to let them know that I started spotting the day before. Dr. G had left a message stating that the office was open, he was the only one in though and so to leave a message. So I did. That was about noon. Dr. G called me at 9 pm (he did warn in his meeting that if he's going to call, he usually calls late). He wanted me to get b/w done the next day. I told him that Monday was only CD1, but he said it was CD2 if I started spotting on Sunday. I told him it started on Sunday night and it was very light, but he didn't seem convinced. So he asked me to fax him my charts (he makes me do them on his chart sheet, no FF) on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday: Fax the charts over around noon (cause I needed time to actually do them all) and then called to confirm that they got them. They called me back around 4 pm to say Dr. G wanted me to get the b/w done today. I called the lab and found out they closed at 5. There was no way I was going to be able to get out of work early to make it to the lab so I called Dr. G's office back and asked if there was somewhere else I could go because I wasn't going to make it to the lab before they closed. They said if I went first thing on Wednesday morning, that I could wait till then.
Wednesday: I got to the Lab about 7:25am (they open at 7am) and it was packed! Some people on the list had signed in before 7! Nice to know for next time. Waited 35 minutes to be seen, blood draw took about 5 minutes including signing all the forms and paying and then I was out of there and only 15 minutes late for work.
Thursday: Called Dr. G's office and asked if they'd gotten my results yet. Ms. J answered and said yes they had. She'd put my file on his desk and he would most likely call me that evening to let me know what was up. No call from Dr. G.
Friday: Didn't get a call all day so around 4:45 I finally called the office. Dr. G answered and it took him a while (4 minutes! I checked my phone timer) to find my file. Said that my b/w came back normal, I didn't think to ask him if it was normal for a regular lady or normal for someone with PCOS. I said okay and then asked him what the plan of attack was for this cycle. He asked me if I had started metformin yet and I said no, I never got the Rx for it. He said he'd call it in and then gave me the spiel about starting out slowly. He asked me if I had only been doing Clomid before and I said yes, but that it took 150mg to get me to ovulate. So he decided that I'm going to do Femara (2.5mg) this cycle. He didn't say anything about triggering or an u/s and I didn't think to ask. I was just happy to actually get a Rx at that point. He asked for my pharmacy # and said he'd call them in. I was working late so I called my pharmacy at 5:30 to find out if they had my Rx's yet. They hadn't gotten it yet. I called at 6 when I was leaving work, they still didn't have it but said they that they hadn't checked their messages since 5:30 and they usually get a bunch right after the dr.'s offices close, so to call back at 6:30. I called back at 6:25 and they had my Rx and said it would be ready at 7:00. I asked if when I needed to start the Femara (Dr. G didn't tell me) and they said Day 5 which was yesterday. Kevin went climbing last night so since he would have to pass the pharmacy on his way he picked them up. The weren't ready till 7:30 which was annoying, but he waited. So around 10 pm last night I took my first metformin and Femara.
Side note: The warning stickers on the side of the Femara bottle are pretty funny. One of them says: "Do Not Use This Medicine If You Are Pregnant Or Plan To Become Pregnant" and the other says "Keep Out Of Reach Of Children." WTF! I'm taking these pills to get pregnant and have kids! What kind of sick joke is this?

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!

I'm a Saboteur!

Remember how I posted about Les possibly making it out of Level 4 before Dave did? Well it happened. On Tuesday. At the end of a horrible class on Tuesday (Dave and I are NOT returning to any classes taught by that woman again!) the instructor approached Kevin and said that Les was good to move on to Level 5 but that Dave was not. Did he want his card, or did he want to wait till Dave was ready? Kevin took the card but told her Les would stay in Level 4 till Dave was ready to move up too. This is what we had already decided before the class. Knowing what was going to happen, I asked Kevin last week what we would do if Les advanced out. We only have one "dog" car so it would mean all four of us hanging around for 2 hours while each dog had their turn. He decided that both dogs would just wait for each other to both advance out of the class. The instructor(a different one) last night said that Dave prolly only has one or two more weeks before she'll be ready.

Anyways, yesterday as we were loading into the car, I closed the door after the dogs had jumped into the back seat and immeadiately, Les turned to me with a look on her face like "You eeeeeee-diot! You've just shut the door on me!" I opened the door right away and tried to get her to come out of the car so I could figure out if I caught her foot or her tail but she didn't want to come out. I finally had to reach in and lift her out. As soon as I put her on the floor, she turned around and got back in the car. There was no way she was getting left behind just cause she got hurt! She reminded me of past soccer players that roll their ankle or take a bad fall but get up and keep going because there's no way they're giving anyone an excuse to pull them off the field. So we went to class. Les didn't have the best class. She was a little shaken up, favoring one of her back legs - I couldn't tell which - and not doing well. Dave on the other hand had a stupendous class! But I'm not sure if it's because she really was on par last night or if it was because Les was not her usual stellar self so Dave didn't pale in comparison. Afterwards Kevin accused me of sabotaging Les so that Dave would look good. He was only joking, but I still felt bad.

**********

Yesterday when I noticed my temps going down, I commented to Kevin that we were going to have to make sure that we cuddled and slept right next to each other so that my temperature would be nice and high in the morning. I was kidding because I know that cuddling and being hot doesn't stop the progesterone from petering out, only being pregnant does. However last night I woke up in the middle of the night super hot! Kevin was like right next to me! I scooted over on the bed and went back to sleep and like 5 minutes later, woke up again because Kevin has moved closer! Soon I was right on the edge of the bed, trying to keep the covers on me and not fall off. I eventually had to do a "cat stretch" which pushed Kevin away and re-established my bed space. I woke up to take my temp like normal and Kevin asked what it was. 98.23°! He had this huge grin on his face, proud of doing his part in keeping my temperatures high. I didn't have the heart to tell him the high temp was probably due to interupted sleep and moving around more than usual. But still a high temp is a high temp, one that can keep the hope alive for one more day. But still, for you chart stalkers out there, take no stock in the high temp this morning. I have managed to sabotage my own BBT chart.

******

btw, that "You eeeeeee-diot!" from earlier is totally to be read like Ren always tells Stimpy.

8DPO and visits

Today is 8DPO and I have to say I'm not feeling too excited. I'm mentally preparing myself for AF because I'm just that sure that this cycle wasn't the one. It's always weird but I spend the first week of the 2WW optimistic and hopeful that it worked. And then when the 2nd week starts and I see my temps going down (albeit slightly) it's like someone let all the air out of the balloon. It sucks! So now I guess I wait. 12DPO is next Tuesday. We'll see how I feel then.
My sister, Wiki is coming to visit! I'm sooooo excited! I haven't seen her since my wedding! She lives in Colorado so it makes it hard, but we talk on the phone every day, sometimes even twice a day. I remember when Kevin and I first moved away, he was astounded by how much my sister and I talked and that we called each other multiple times during the day. It took him a while to get over it, although now I will retreat into another room to talk when she calls. I love listening in to people talking on the phone and in my head guessing what the other person is saying. I guess I just figured Kevin liked doing that too. Not!
Two weeks ago, Wiki lost her job. She was a corporate trainer for a national company and they had a "reduction of workforce" and my sister was one of the affected. It sucks! She was just getting her head above the water and now she might sink back under. She had a series of moves that caused her not to have a steady income for a really long time (14 months!) and that ate up her savings and put her into debt. Hopefully she'll be able to find a new job soon, one just as awesome as the one she had before (she really liked her job).
One good thing that came out of the awful mess is that she's coming into town! I had a $200 credit at Jet.Blue so I decided to fly her out here. Luckily she had a break in her soccer schedule (yes, she's a coach too!) so everything worked out. She's going to be here for 3 work days so I need to figure out what I'm going to do with work/her.
Speaking of visits, one of my cousins, RR, is coming to DC this weekend. RR is 2y5mos younger than me but growing up we were always really close. She was the good one and of course I was the troublemaker. But we got along because most times she would just do/play what I wanted. Yes, I was a brat when I was younger. Anyways, a couple of years before we moved to Florida, her family moved away (still in Texas, just 14 hours away!) so we only got to spend summers together when her family would visit our grandfather. We stayed close throughout high school but then college life started and I was distracted and then she went away to college and we never really got that bond back. We both lived in Ohio at the same time but on opposite ends so we didn't really connect then either. When we see each other we're still good, but it's sad to say that I don't think of her often, usually only when I see a status updated on faceb.ook. In fact, that's the only reason why I knew she was coming into town. Because she said something in her status and so I wrote on her wall. I'm not even that confident that we are going to be able to connect. I guess we'll just have to see.