I had plenty of ideas of how I was going to let you all know “the scoop”.  But when it came down to it…I’m at a loss.  So I’m just going to put it out there.

Eric and I are expecting a new addition to our family in October; October 21st to be exact! 

There I said it!  PHEW!

I’ve been holding out on spilling the amazing news for so long because it was so early when we found out, as we knew it would be.  And it still is so early.  6 weeks= SUPER EARLY! 

So we actually found out for sure on Tuesday February 12^th (14dpiui #1) when I had my first positive beta, 198.  Two days later (16dpiui #1) it jumped to 490.  One week later (21 dpiui #1) up to 3291.  Now as of yesterday we are over 5000 and they don’t dilute over 5000, so we don’t know the exact number. 

Of course I didn’t wait until the actual first beta.  No.  I started testing at home at 10dpiui.  I got a very faint line that first day.  I wanted to know whether it was still the trigger shot or an actual positive, so I tested again the next day and got a slightly darker line.  The following day I tested again, and en even darker line popped up.  Yup, I was pretty confidant it was real, but Eric kept me grounded and wanted to wait for any excitement until we had the two initial betas to make sure there were numbers and that they were going in the right direction.  Man, were we shocked.  I still am in shock! 

We have only told our parents, and a few very close friends.  We want to wait to tell the rest of our family and friends until we hit the 8 week mark. 

My first sonogram was last Tuesday, with a different doctor.  Long story short, my doctor had an emergency and couldn’t make it to our local office so we had to go to the main office and have our sono by a different MD that we’ve never seen.  He showed us two gestational sacs.  We flipped!  One was exactly half the size of the other so he said it was possible that it would disappear.  On yesterday’s sonogram we only saw 1 sac.  I will also say that the sono machine from yesterday was not nearly as high tech as the one at the main office; I mean the clarity was like night and day.  So my doctor said we will see what next week’s sono shows.  I will take this opportunity to add that both Eric and I are just as happy with one as we are with two.  So we will see what happens.  My gut feeling is that there is just one little one in there.

Yesterday was definitely a milestone.  We got to see how much the sac has grown and got to see the tiny little flicker of our precious little ones heartbeat!  It was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen!  We both stared at the screen in amazement.  It was an incredible moment for us as parents to be.

So that’s the update.  And that’s why I’m super fanatical about the whole fever thing…See “SICKO” post from earlier today.  I can only take Robitussin DM for my chest congestion and Tylenol ONLY if my fever goes over 101.  I hate to take anything, especially in the first trimester.  But I’m dealing.  Lots of rest and fluids is keeping me going.  No appetite, but I know I have to eat a little something. 

I’ll post the sono pics as soon as I scan them in!

Thank you all for being so patient with me over the past couple of weeks!!  It was well worth the wait, right?

This morning went perfectly.  We got up nice and early, got ourselves together, produced a specimen, and scurried out of the house to make our 9am appointment.  We weren’t sure what the morning traffic would be like so of course I was anxious that we would get caught up in a nightmare traffic jam and show up outside the “within 1 hour window”.  But we actually flew there, with no hold ups, in about 20 minutes, so we were 20 minutes early for our appointment. We had to fill out some more paperwork, hand over his ID, and wait for the lab to come take the little cup.  25 minutes later they came out to get us, handed us the tube of high test swimmers and we were set to go.  The procedure was as nothing as nothing could get.  1, 2, 3 and it was over.  They let me lay there for a few minutes and then I was on my way.  Simple. 

Before they did the insemination, they actually did another sono to see if the follicle was still there.  If it was, they would schedule a second IUI for tomorrow morning; to make sure we hit it right.  The follicle was already collapsed, which means the egg released, so the one IUI would be sufficient. 

I also went for my acupuncture this afternoon.  Such a euphoric feeling, it’s wild.  I love it!  He had needles in the top of my head, both ears, legs from the knee down, and he performed a technique called moxa which is basically mugwort burned on the skin.  Smells nice; incense like.

So that was that.  I didn’t do much else today, kind of just layed around and did some work on the laptop. 

A week from today I’ll go in for blood to check my levels. They are looking to see that my progesterone is at a decent level to sustain a healthy pregnancy, in the event that I get pregnant this cycle.  If it isn’t, they will give me injections.  Then there’s another week long wait before I get any results to see if the insemination was a success.  Countdown begins…starting…now.

Ok, so the results are in and tomorrow, 9am is GO TIME!  I am so excited and so anxious it’s ridiculous.  I am so very hopeful that this will be it and on the other hand so scared to get my hopes up in case it does not succeed. My E2 was 280 which was significantly higher than the 154 it was on Saturday.  Also, my LH soared to 43.6 today, from just 9.4 on Saturday.  They told me to administer the trigger shot and show up with a good sample in the a.m.

OK…administer the trigger shot?  Myself?  Hhmmmm.  Yeah, not so much.  I figured I’d be able to wait for my husband to get home to do it for me, but the nurse told me it would be best to do it now, since I’m surging.  I called my girlfriend, whom even though she had never given herself or anyone else a shot, said she would do it for me.  That’s the kind of friend she is…will do anything for you…even if it means sticking a ½ inch needle into your subcutaneous belly.  I decided to give another friend a try before making her do this, one whom went to nursing school but has since decided to become a teacher.  Nevertheless, I thought maybe she learned to give shots in school.  No luck.  But, her mother is a nurse up at the local hospital and was on her way over…S-C-O-R-E!  What luck?  So I dashed around the block to her house and she was there waiting to stick me.  It was nothing and I could have done it myself, but I was a nervous wreck; between learning that tomorrow was the day and then thinking of sticking my belly.  I mean, yeah…no.  I’m the kind of person that if I don’t wear earrings in my second hole and then try to put one through, I get freaked out about breaking that tiny layer of skin.  That little pop sound, ewwww!

Anyway, so that is taken care of and now tomorrow is the big day.  I called my acupuncturist immediately and let him know that I have my appointment tomorrow morning (as he wanted to see me immediately following the IUI) and he told me he would come into the office early to treat me.  I thought that was super awesome of him.  So I will come home, lay low for a bit, and then head up there for a 2pm appointment.  Then back home to lay low some more.

Exciting day coming up folks, really exciting day!

Ok so I had another monitoring session this morning at 7am.  My lil’ 16.5mm follie has grown to 19mm since Saturday!  Woot Wooot!  I am so attached to this freakin fluid filled sack…God help me when I find out there’s actually a baby in my uterus.  It’ll all be over then…talk about LOVE. He didn’t want to trigger this morning.  He told me that I would get a call this afternoon (protocol for monitoring sessions- they always call by 3pm that same day with your levels and follow up schedule) letting me know if I will be having my IUI tomorrow morning, or another monitoring session and the trigger.  It all depends on my levels.  Basically they want to see my estrogen at around 200.  A few days ago it was 154, with the 16.5mm follicle.  If they see that my LH is elevated, surging on my own, then I will definitely have the IUI in the morning.  He handed me a sterile cup so we are prepared.  I’m really hoping that tomorrow is the day.  I’m so anxious at this point.  I just want everything to work out…but I do know deep down that whatever is meant to be will be.  Especially in this case. 

So now we sit and wait.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you just how far away 3pm is, right?  Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Walking into the office this morning was a relief…there was only about 8 women in there.  On Saturday it was a nightmare, to say the least.  Our wait wasn’t actually that bad, only about an hour and 20 minutes so I really can’t complain.  But it was pretty amazing.  You see we planned on leaving the house at 6:30am, to make it to Plainview (about 20 minutes away with no traffic) by 7, and wait on line if we had too, as the monitoring is first come first serve starting at 7am.  We actually didn’t leave until 6:45 and still had to stop for our morning fix, so we actually got there around 7:15…not bad.  Although the parking lot was already packed, with the exception of about 5 spots.  Holy crap!  I was freaking out.  Remember I had my acupuncture session at 9:30, so everything had to go pretty according to planned (in my head).

There were about 4 cars following us in to the lot, and 1 in front of us, so you could only imagine the angst trying to beat the other 5 ladies to the door.  I mean come on, 5 ladies in front of you equals about 40 minutes extra wait time…easily!  So we get into the office and it’s packed but we get a seat.  They called me in immediately for my blood. 

They actually had 2 nurses doing the blood, to make it go faster.  I couldn’t have been behind the doors for about 5 minutes, not even, for blood when I walk out to find our seats taken and about 6 more women in there!  Damn!  So we are standing off to the side and the number of women pouring into the office was just incredible!  Some serious operation they run over there…very well orchestrated I have to say.  By the time we went in for the sono, there were women standing everywhere.  By the time we came out, 10 minutes later, there were women sitting up the stairs and in the upstairs waiting room.  It was crazy! 

So yeah, this morning was nice, only 8 women.  In and out…literally.  I’ll update later!

It has definitely been one of those non- stop weekends for sure.  It was a long time coming since we’ve been pretty lax about our weekend schedules and have had no real structure, which kind of kills me. There are many thing to be done around our house; things like purging our bedroom, spare rooms, and hallway closets; painting here and there, both upstairs and down; and finishing some moulding work throughout the living room/ dining room areas of the house.  We have been saying that we are going to start working on all that is unfinished in the house, to get organized and have things finally be complete.  That is very important to me.  So we decided to sit down with a calendar and pick projects to be completed for each month.  We will spend some time each weekend to complete our projects and still have time to enjoy ourselves.

That being said, if I had one word to describe how I feel right now, it would be “accomplished”.

Today I purged and completely cleaned our downstairs coat closet.  Now you may not think that this is a big deal, but it is.  It’s not your normal hallway coat closet, it’s almost the size of a bathroom, it’s pretty big.  We had a ton of shit in there to be thrown out and / or donated.  Now it is spotless!  Also, yesterday when we finally returned home from our myriad of doctors appointments, I began going through all of our Christmas decorations that until now, were always stored in our downstairs spare bedroom closet.  I also still had about 6 boxes of crap in that room from when I lived at home with my parents to go through.  I ended up having 7 huge bags of garbage, a billion empty boxes to recycle and 4 boxes of donations- Christmas decorations, stuffed animals, clothes, you name it.  There are also a few items that I’m going to put up on eBay. 

So, yeah…accomplished…both my closet and spare bedroom are looking good.

**And now for the good stuff**

We had a monitoring session yesterday morning and I got to meet Dr. Kreiner himself!  For those of you who live on Long Island you have probably heard his name on the radio amongst other sources.  It was kind like meeting a celebrity…a celebrity who was going to look at my hoo-hah 2 minutes after meeting me…what a whore I am!  He prefaced the exam by telling us that he couldn’t find the last 2 patients’ ovaries.  LOL.  Anyway, so he does the sono and says that I have 1 dominant 16.5 mm follicle on the right side.  I asked him where the other follicle went (remember on Thursday I had 1-11mm and 1-13mm follicle) and he told me it went to small follicle heaven.  LOL, again.  He definitely lightened the mood for us, the fact that he was dressed in jeans and a button down flannel helped a bit too.  So they called with my hormone levels later on and told me they wanted me back for monitoring Monday am.  Basically I’m hoping the follicle will be around 19-20mm by then, so they can administer the trigger shot that I’ve been carrying to every single visit since day 10 (we are now on day 16). 

After the monitoring I had my fist acupuncture visit.  After just one session I can tell you that I absolutely L-O-V-E it!  I felt like it almost put me into this trance like state.  It was pretty cool.  I had about 20 needles in me- I think there were 6 below the knee in each leg, 4 in my belly under my navel, 1 in each hand and 1 in my ear.  He started the visit by taking my husband and me into his office and doing a brief medical history (my husband sees him too for shoulder/neck issues and has given him background on our fertility journey).  He explained that expects to be able to improve the quality of the dominant follicle and possibly help some others to grow larger, giving me more of a chance.  During the treatment, I laid there with heat lamps on me for probably about an hour and it went by so fast.  Probably because for once in my life, I felt relaxed; so relaxed!  After he was finished taking the needles out, he placed a tiny seed in my left ear.  He said to leave it in until after the IUI.  It is supposed to combat uterine contractions.  He also wanted me to call him with my hormone levels later that afternoon.  I did and he told me to let him know what my levels are from Monday’s monitoring session as well.  He also wants to see me immediately following the IUI.  He is a young guy; super nice and so easy to talk to and get along with.  I’m happy.

So pending my 1 dominant follicle is between 18 and 22mm when I go tomorrow morning, we will be set to trigger and then hopefully rock the IUI Tuesday morning!  Which reminds me, I have to leave myself a note to get a sterile cup and maybe prepare a performance of some sort ;-)  We’re looking for a big count here!

I’ll be back in the morning with an update!

On Friday’s my husband works from home because he has his recurring appointments to deal with his neck / shoulder issues in the morning hours.  He has been having neck / shoulder issues for about 2 years now and it is finally starting to improve.  After seeing an orthopedic surgeon, a physical therapist, a spinal surgeon, a neurologist, back to the physical therapist, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist and now physical therapy yet again, he is experiencing significant leaps and bounds due to the later three ‘techniques’.This morning he comes home and hands me a folder of information from his acupuncturist.  He tells me about the wonderfully informative conversation he had this morning with the guy in regards to acupuncture for fertility issues.  He tells me to read through the info and if I want, call and make an appointment for a consult. 

Being the super excited little school girl I am, I take the folder, run to the kitchen, make myself some soup for lunch and dive into the folder choc full of info!  I read everything, picked up the phone, and scheduled a consult for TOMORROW morning, immediately following my monitoring session. 

I have to say, I have it my mind that I will have some acupuncture and than literally float out of the office I’ll be so relaxed.  See, there go my crazy ass expectations getting the best of moi again.

Hopefully a little acupuncture can help balance out all my imbalances and pump some extra blood into my baby making organs!  Let’s go qi!

Have any of you loyal readers had acupuncture for fertility issues?  Or for anything for that matter?

Is the weekend really over already!  WTF?  That was, like, the quickest one ever!

I can’t say we did all that much, but we had fun.  Saturday night I went out to celebrate my friends 24th birthday.  We went to a restaurant just 3 minutes from my house, Babylon Carriage House.  They have delicious food and a great atmosphere.  I had the most perfectly grilled filet, cooked medium- butterflied, of course (Don’t flog me for not eating filet rare to medium rare, please…I like things dead before they enter my mouth)  And the truffled mac and cheese served along side was unbelievable, although so garlicky that my husband is still keeping his distance!  Pair that up with a nice glass of Rosemount Shiraz and you’re in business!

After dinner we ventured down the road 1/8 of a mile to The Post Office.  Here we chatted like school girls and downed coconut martinis.  Oh how I will miss coconut martinis.  It was a really fun night!

Sunday morning we went to my in-laws for breakfast, French Toast breakfast to be exact!  She makes the most u-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e french toast ever!  **Although I have to give mad props to my husband who serves up the most impeccable croissant french toast.  Yes he makes French toast with croissants, instead of bread….UNREAL I tell you!  Then he slices up apples and cooks them with cinnamon and maple syrup to drizzle over the French toast…MING!**  Anyway, we were there from 9:30 until about 1pm (we had lots to catch up on!)  and then we headed 2 miles over to my parent’s house to catch up with them.  We spent another 2.5 hours there and didn’t get home until around 4.  It was a wonderful day of visiting and now both sets of parents are fully caught up on My Fertility Stories…or should I say “Our Fertility Stories”.

After we got home we still had our normal weekend stuff to do, like food shopping, and little things like that.  We took care of that and as we were walking into the house with our groceries, a truck pulled up.  A huge truck full of men in black masks holding baseball bats!  Just kidding.  It was friends of ours that are actually going in to have their first baby, a little boy, on Wednesday! They stopped by and were here for an hour or so.  It was unexpected and nice to see them outside of a ‘function’.  I like visits like that, impromptu. 

Anyway…Now the news many of you are waiting to hear…

We went in for day 10 monitoring, super early this morning.  I have 4 maturing follicles on my right side and only a couple on my left.  On the right they are measuring 11, 10, 9 and 7.5mm and on my left only 7 and 9mm.  I go back in 2 days, unless they tell me otherwise when they call with the blood results later today. 

So this is awesome, we’re right on track for cycle day 10.  The earliest we will be able to rock the IUI will probably be this weekend, but we will see where we are come Wednesday!  I have to keep reminding myself that the past 2 months on Clomid I still didn’t ovulate until well after day 14, more like days 21- 25 actually.  I’m just hedging my bets that since I took the Clomid days 3-9 as opposed to days 5-9, I will ovulate earlier.  Again, only time will tell.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are starting your week off well!

Today is already cycle day 7, and therefore my last day of this round of those tiny little rage inducing pills, other known as Clomid.  I have to say that this cycle on Clomid has brought out the worst symptoms.  The night sweats have reared their ugly head morning, noon, evening and night.  I guess it’s kind of like when they say morning sickness, and so I’ve heard and read, it’s more like morning noon and night sickness.  The mood swings…oh the mood swings.  Seriously, one minute I couldn’t be in a better mood and the next, I’m wondering what could possibly be so bad that I’m so sad.  It really sucks.  **Queue the masses of women telling me that I’m not alone in my Clomid symptomology.**

I still say I’ll do it over and over and over again to reach our goal of becoming Mommy and Daddy.  Whatever it takes.

So as I’m so excited to be about to take my last pill this morning, right after I finish breakfast (remember my full stomach B.S. from yesterday?), I open the tiny little blister thingy and….ooooppps!  Right into the garbage pail.  Little sucker slipped right outta there faster than I could have ever reacted to snatch it up!  (LMAO…I said ‘snatch’.  Sorry if I’ve offended anyone by using that word, but there’s kind of a little joke that I won’t repeat right now and I just think the word is extremely funny.  Kind of like when someone refers to a ‘box’…Kim, Fran, I know you are rolling!)  Once again, I digress, but what would a post be without one by this point, right?  So the pill lands in the garbage pail, smack in the middle of a puddle of egg yolks that I dumped in there just 20 minutes sooner while making my egg white omelet.  I contemplated washing it off, but that would have been absolutely disgusting, so I said to myself…”Shit, now what??”  Then I light bulb popped out of the top of my head and I remembered that I still had leftovers from the last cycle since my GYN always called in a 2 Rx’s for me at a time!  And last month I cut the package open and managed to cut into the pill itself and turn it into dust.  So there were a few extras!  Done…that was easy!

So while it’s probably too early to be feeling any kind of aches or pains down there around my ovarian area…last night I felt some cramping.  May very well just be all in my head, but I hope it’s because it’s “working”.  I read that taking Clomid on days 3-7, results in more follicles, while taking it on days 5-9 results in more mature follicles.  So maybe I have tons of little ones forming and they will now begin to mature…YIPPEEEEE.  Monday can’t come soon enough.  I know they won’t be ready to trigger come Monday, but at east we will get to see where they are at this point.

See you soon!

OK.  So today consisted of 2 trips to the doctor’s office; one at 7am (day 3 blood work and sonogram), the next at 10:30am (information session about the rollercoaster ride about to take place during this cycle); and a massive headache, a headache like I’ve never had before…Bright Light…Bright Light.  Oh, how it hurt to look at bright light.  It subsided for about 4 hours as a result of taking three Motrin, but has just come back to haunt me.  I think maybe it’s a sign that I should go start dinner?

So basically, here is what’s about to happen over the next couple weeks:

• I will start Clomid 50mg tonight (days 3-7)  Look at me getting all wild and shizzz…taking Clomid days 3-7 instead of the 5-9 I’ve gotten used too.  Talk about living on the edge, huh.
• Go back to the Specialist for day 10 blood and sono (Monday 1/21) to monitor progress thus far from the Clomid
• I’m awaiting the arrival of my Ovidrel trigger shot in the mail and I will keep this bad boy in the fridge and then take it with me to my day 10 visit, and every visit thereafter.
• The frequency of every visit after the day 10 visit really depends on the size of my little follies and how they are maturing.  Basically we want them to be between 18 and 22mm to schedule the IUI.  So if they are at 14 mm come Monday 1/21, I may have to go in the following day to monitor again to see if they have grown any further.  If they are only at 10mm, I will go back in 2 days for further monitoring.  Get it?
• When the timing is right and we have not yet detected my LH surge via blood but there are perfect size follies, either the office or myself (ehhhh…my husband) will administer the trigger shot to pump those babies out of there and into the tubes.
• IUI will then take place within 24 hours or so.
• I will go back to the office a week after the IUI for bloodwork and sono.
• Two weeks after the procedure I will go in for a pregnancy test and sono.

So there you have it…What do you think?  Going in a good direction right?  I’m more than thrilled with everything that has taken place in the past 7 days.  It feels like things are finally falling into place and I’m feeling very confidant. 

I also want to mention that Kim over at JoggingInCircles tagged me for a MEME.  I’m not blowing it off and I promise to do it tomorrow Kim!
 

I got my period…All by myself may I add!  So I did ovulate on that cycle and we are now off to a fresh start.  The games actually begin tomorrow, day 3.

Tomorrow morning at 7, I have to go down to the office to have “cycle start” blood work and an ultrasound.  Then I go back to the office at 10:30 for a Clomid cycle IUI information session and to get my results from the u/s and blood.  I guess it is then that they will explain everything that will be taking place over the next cycle; from the monitoring schedule to the scheduling itself, and so on and so forth.

So, yeah!  I’m pretty damn excited. 

I was spotting, which is something that has never happened to me- it is either all or none, Friday night.  This of course led me to believe the obvious (to me anyway), its implantation bleeding and I’m actually getting pregnant, like right now!  I had a hard time falling asleep due to all fantasies that consumed my mind.  Yeah, not so much.  By Saturday mid morning it was O.N.  Sadness instantly filled me, but that was followed by excitement, knowing all the greatness that lie ahead.

Today my husband and I went for our blood work up, for all the “life threatening” stuff they test for when you go see a specialist.  I jokingly turned to my husband as we were patiently waiting in the waiting room, and said, “Their probably going to take like 8 vials of blood.”  He didn’t flinch because he pays stuff like that no mind.  He’s not a baby at all when it comes to any of that blood, procedure, etc. rigamero.  So they call me in after a little bit and the nurse starts picking out all the vials she needs to pump full of my red stuff.  I’m waiting and waiting and waiting, and she keeps pulling and pulling and pulling.  So finally I say, “Just how many vials of blood do you need??”  She looks at her sheet of stickers and says, “Hmmmm, 15.”  15??!!!  WTF??  Are they using my blood to come up with the next crazy vaccination?  I was just joking when I said 8 to my husband.

When I had day 3 blood back in September, there were 7 vials.  Now today, 15.  Now tomorrow I go for day 3 blood again.  Will there be another 7 vials?  Is that even safe?  Do I have that much blood for them to take out of me?  Don’t I need that blood to function, stay conscious, SURVIVE?

Anyway…she makes sure I’m ok with her taking so much blood and what am I supposed to say, “No?”  So she starts, and then asks me if I can hold the first vial, because it is glass and she does not want it to fall and break.  Sure, I’ll hold a vial of my hot blood…that will feel so wonderful, make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Thank God I didn’t pass out.  I did great, my husband took one look at all my vials lined up when he was done with his 4, yes he only had to give 4 vials, and said “Holy Shit.”  Yeah, no shit.  Why is it that the women get the shaft with all this fertility crap? 

I hope everyone had a terrific weekend!  If you’re in the tri-state area, I hope you’re ready for a messy night/ morning!

More tomorrow.

UPDATE:   I have reposted yesterdays post about our consultation with the Fertility Specialist, after somehow deleting it from my site!  If you didn’t get a chance to read it, go and get yourself caught up before reading todays post!  No, no, now, not later!  Go…What are you waiting for??

OK, so my husband and I were supposed to go for our blood work last night but the poor guy didn’t get home from work until around 9:45, so we will go tonight once he gets home, pending it’s before 8 (that’s when they close)…that will be step 1 complete!

Something I forgot to mention yesterday was that I have to make an appt to go in for a Clomid cycle IUI information session.  I called yesterday afternoon to schedule that.  That will be on Monday 1/14 at 10:30am.  Step 2 complete!

I love checking things off.  Accomplished is the word that comes to mind

As I mentioned yesterday I had blood taken and they would be calling with the results.  I am anxious to start the Provera so I can get my period and start my next cycle in preparation for the IUI! 

Well, they called with the results and told me I have to wait another 2 weeks to see if I get my period, NOT TO TAKE THE PROVERA, because the results say I ovulated this cycle!  YAY!  So if after 2 weeks I still do not get my period, I have to call them and go in for more blood and an ultrasound to see what’s going on.  Do they think I may be prego??  JK.  Of course that’s a possibility if I ovulated but I’m not getting my hopes up…like I said, my boobs are beyond huge and sore and I feel like I will get my period any minute.  I’m complete with breakouts on my face and everything!  So only time will tell.  Why is everything “2 weeks” when we are dealing with pre pregnancy things?  Did God know how long “2 weeks” were when he thought this whole thing up?  Something tells me he didn’t!

So I wait…and keep myself busy with plenty of learning and creating!  My friends have all been wonderful through this whole process too; offering advice from their own experiences as well as those of others.  A special shout to Kim over at JoggingInCircles…She helps me pass the time.  Thanks Kim!  Kudos to you…thanks for making me laugh DAILY!

Hope everyone has a terrific day!

As you know, my husband and I met with the fertility specialist for the first time yesterday.  In both mine and my husband’s minds, the only way this visit could have gone better is if he would have told us I was pregnant.  To be honest, I knew what to expect but at the same, I didn’t.  After all this was a specialist, so there should be more involved, right?  I had read through the enormous packet of info they sent me immediately after scheduling the consultation and read each page carefully.  Most of it was the patient info I had to fill out, the rest was information regarding IVF and their success rates, and then a tiny paragraph about your first visit.  In that paragraph they let you know that your doctor would sit with you and review your history, at which time I would have to spew out my story for the 1,749,025 time, and I could also expect to have a transvaginal ultrasound.  OK.  I can do that. 

So we get there 15 minutes early, as asked, and sit in the waiting room with All My Children buzzing in the background.  I am nervous.  I am anxious.  I am freezing!  I don’t think the heat was on at all!  (The nurse said it had something to do with the embryo lab upstairs, I don’t know…makes sense, kind of.)  Immediately I am called in so the nurse can take my vitals- weight, pulse, blood pressure, all that good stuff.  Then I am directed back out into the waiting room to find my husband involved in a magazine article, where I proceed to annoy him with questions he can not answer. 

Out of nowhere came a distraction. An acupuncturist playing “Pimp My Practice”.  She didn’t work for the specialist; she instead has an office about 15 minutes from there.  She came in, as if she were a patient, put her baggage down and came over to introduce herself.  My immediate thought was “Are you kidding me, I don’t want to make friends right now, not under the stress I am under for this initial appt.”  Then she handed me her business card and started talking about acupuncture and its benefits to fertility when used in conjunction with the Western approach.  (Notice how I say ‘fertility’ as opposed to ‘infertility’- Have you read The Secret?  If not I highly suggest you click on the link, purchase it and read it from cover to cover immediately upon receipt!)  I do think acupuncture is quite interesting and have spoken to my husband about possibly sessions.  It works by increasing blood flow within the uterus and spleen, amongst other body parts and organs, and helps redirect the flow of energy within.  It totally makes sense to me.  We will see.  I digress, as usual.  So after about 25 minutes and wishing she would find someone else to pimp herself out to, she went to speak with one of the specialists.  Phew!  I didn’t have anything else to say to the woman! 

We waited for about 45 minutes before being called in to meet with the doctor.  He apologized for the wait and led us into his office. There we sat and started our visit with a photo taken of my husband and I, which I thought was cute.  We went over the basics; he reiterated some of the info I had filled out and asked a few additional questions of both my husband and I.  We had a few laughs, which was fun and put me at ease a bit.  He is super nice and I am very happy with him! 

After about 25 minutes he sent me to empty my bladder and then head over to exam room #2, where I would have my ultrasound.  I undress fro the waist down and then the doctor, the nurse, my husband and the UPS man come into the exam room and the ultrasound starts.  NO.  Of course the UPS man didn’t come into the room but everyone else did so it really wouldn’t have made a difference if he had.  All we would have needed then would have been a video camera and we could have made some serious bucks “leaking” that onto the web!  Something I thought kind of funny was that the doctor started asking me about what I do for a living and how I got into it…can we say distraction?  I wanted to say, come on buddy…I have had so many of these done in the past year; they really aren’t a big deal.  Anyway…I won’t bore you with all the details like I already have; I’ll just get down to the plan of treatment:

- My husband and I have to go for some blood work; they need to make sure we do not have any life threatening diseases.
- They took blood from me to see if I in fact ovulated this cycle.  They will call with the results today before 3pm and depending on those results, I can start Provera to bring down my period since today is now cycle day 34 and nothing (although I have serious symptoms- HELLOOOOO Boobage!)
- Once I get my period I have to go down for cycle day 2 or 3 blood work, to start my treatment cycle
- I will then start Clomid 100mg (up from 50mg the past 2 months) days 5-9 and then be monitored via blood and ultrasound constantly to see if I am responding to the meds and detect my LH surge.  NO more peeing on sticks…You were right Nola!
- Upon surge detection, I will be scheduled for an IUI (for those of you who don’t know what this is I’ll explain later)
- We will go 3 rounds this way, Clomid cycles with IUI.  We will decide if trigger shots are needed to release the egg(s) once the action starts.

Without getting all technical on yo azzzzz…I will explain an IUI

IUI- Intrauterine Insemination.  Basically all this is, is putting the sperm right at the ‘finish line’.  They will take a sample from my husband, and pick out the strongest swimmers.  They will then proceed to wash the sperm to get all the fluid off of them.  Then they will load them into a catheter and insert it.  Placing the sperm right at the fallopian tube takes away the distance they need to normally swim, and takes the possible hostile mucus out of the equation.  Often times Clomid can turn the mucus hostile and the sperm can not survive the journey.  Seems simple enough, right?

I have to say that I knew my husband would be amazing throughout this whole journey, but he has even exceeded any expectations I had.  He has been my rock for the past 4 years and continues to get stronger every day.  He is always there for me and for that, amongst many other reasons, he is the best!

Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes!  Please know that it means a lot and it is greatly appreciated!

So there you have it!  What do you think?  Yeah you, all you people who I know read this blog but don’t comment…how about it?  Show some Love and leave a comment, it’s really easy!

Today is the big day!  Yep, 2pm is my consultation with the fertility specialist.  My mind and body are consumed with so many different emotions right now…I’m anxious, fearful, hopeful, and excited- just to name a few.  Last night my anxiety got the best of me and I was having a hard time breathing, that happens sometimes when I’m overly stressed; whether I’m conscious of my stress or not.  The only thing I can try and compare the feeling too, is having a cinder block sitting on my chest.  Of course I have never had the experience of having a cinder block on my chest, but you understand what I mean.  If a cinder block where ever to be sitting on my chest, I’d imagine it would feel similar to my difficulty breathing.

So I laid on my couch reading the latest issue of Revenue Magazine, listening to SoundScapes on cable….Dork.  But it worked!  Before I knew it I was feeling better.  However, I can definitely feel that feeling coming back again today, and am trying everything in my power to keep it at bay. 

I heard that this place gives complimentary massage while you wait as well.  Yippee!  If this is what it takes to get a “free” massage, then OK. I’ve seen pictures of the facility and it is HUGE!  It’s like a small hospital.  They do everything there.  They even have chiropractic care, yoga, acupuncture and massage; besides the typical therapy, counseling and the obvious- the embryo lab and IUI and IVF departments. I’m hopeful that we will be able to make this work with medication only, but we will not rule out IUI or IVF if those were our only options.

Also, something I thought was pretty neat…a friend of ours that initially had a hard time conceiving their first child, is in the hospital being induced with their third today (their 2nd boy)!  I thought it was just kind of coincidental, as she even brought up, me seeing the specialist for the first time today while she is in the hospital giving birth.  It’s like we are both hitting 2 major milestones.  Did I lose you there?  As you will start to notice, I tend to think a lot more into things than ‘normal’ people.For anybody else who has gone this route of seeing a specialist, or for those whom it took longer to conceive naturally than would have thought, I would love to hear from you!  How were you feeling during the process, what emotions consumed you?  Did you discuss it with family or keep it to yourselves?  I look forward to hearing from you!

Wish me luck!