Slow and steady wins the race

We’re now on day 11 of estradiol pills. I had a blood draw on Monday and my estrogen was at 71.8. They want to see it at around 50 so they were happy with that and bumped me up from 1mg twice a day to 2mg twice a day.

I had another draw on Friday and my estrogen was at 158 which she sounded happy about. They then bumped me up to 2mg 3 times a day which I’m to continue until they tell me to stop.

I don’t have any crazy symptoms. I’ve been sleeping really well that’s mostly it. I do feel a little dizzy from time to time but nothing out of the ordinary.

My only real symptom I notice is that I am bruising terribly from all the needles. Acupuncture too which is weird.

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Everything is moving along slowly but quickly too, if that makes sense. The days themselves are dragging but, my goodness, we have 10 days left. One more weekend and it’s transfer time. Maybe this will be the longest week of my life.

Oh, I remembered another symptom that can be attributed to the asprin probably. I can’t drink anymore, which is greeeaaat! I’ve been trying to drink but I get tipsy way too quickly and not in a good way. I actually had to hand over my beer to the hub last night. Bittersweet.

Okay, I made him go get me cheesecake in the snow earlier and now it’s cheesecake time.

Mwah! Check in after my Wednesday blood work and ultrasound appointment!

In the Trenches

So I’m feeling guilty after my last post about me keeping my FET to myself. Like people would be rolling their eyes while reading thinking “this girls thinks too much of herself, who needs her.”

Why did I feel the need to unburden myself or announce that I’m unfollowing people who have been supporting me through my journey. Why did I feel the need to make my problems your problems?

This certainly wasn’t my intention and I’m sure it wasn’t perceived that way at all. But as you can see, I tend to be self deprecating (my blog title says it all, really) and feel like I’m not good enough for people to care about. I guess now that I’m in the trenches I find myself hyper sensitive. I worry that this won’t work and we’ll be childless forever and I’m struggling to take it one day at a time.

Fuck you infertility. I’m furious that you’ve turned me into this person.

I just want to apologize again if I offended anyone and, honestly, I really can’t stay away, I have been reading all the ‘unfollowed’ blogs anyway just to make sure you’re all doing well. It just helps me not feel that pit in my stomach when I get the email alert. If I go find a blog to read on my own I feel like I have more control. All I want is control :).

So the lovely Eventual Momma suggested that I put my blogs on a delay so that way I can keep posting and keep my sanity so I don’t jinx this FET.

We’re on day 4 of Estradiol (generic Estrace) and we have a transfer date set which is crazy to me. Two more weekends. Wow. I’m taking 1 mg twice a day, 81 mg of low dose aspirin, a prenatal and 4 fish oil pills. Taking the fish oil because my skin is ridiculously dry this winter and it’s really helped in the past.

I’m not feeling any different but after acupuncture I noticed a bruise on my knee where one of the needles went it. I assume this if from the aspirin. I bruise like a peach anyway so I’m not too phased about it. I’m also badly bruised from my first blood draw but again, this is nothing new to me.

There’s nothing of import to report, though. Tomorrow is blood draw number 2. My clinic’s satellite office recently moved to another place in Providence and my usual ultrasound tech and blood draw person aren’t there anymore. I’m not happy about that. I didn’t know their names but I really liked them. The new blood draw person was sweet and the needle didn’t hurt at all going in but I can’t get a read on the new ultrasound tech. She asked me if I wanted to put the wand in myself. Um no thank you, I’m not going to do that in front of a stranger. This process is awkward enough. She seems nice enough, I guess, but I miss my buddy. Last year I had an ultrasound on Halloween and she was dressed as a sperm. I mean, come on! How do you not love her?!

Anyway, that’s enough from me. Thank you everyone for the support and understanding. I am forever grateful and I wish I had all your addresses so I could send you something.

Versatile Blogger Award

I’ve been struggling with what to blog about that isn’t IVF related until D-day so I’m extra thankful to A Calm Persistence for this nomination. I’ve been meaning to do this for a few days now but I’m struggling to find 7 interesting facts about myself. hmmm let’s see.

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These are the rules when you are nominated:

1. Post the award on your blog
2. Thank the person who nominated you
3. Share seven facts about yourself
4. Nominate 15 blogs
5. List the nominees and let them know

Seven Facts About Me

1. I am not a girly girl, try as I might. I have 2 older brothers and all of my parents’ friends had 2 boys too. I have girl cousins but the age gap was too big to be too close to them and let the girliness rub off. My mother never wore makeup nor shaved her legs (she’s from the old school) so I never learned how until late in high school. And to top it off my dad was overly strict so I wasn’t allowed to pierce my ears or wear nail polish until well into my teens. I eventually found my own girl friends and they plucked my eyebrows, made me stop wearing baggy pants and made me try new hair styles other than a low pony tail. I’ve since learned how to do my nails, pluck my own eyebrows and wear a tampon and for that I am eternally grateful. I’m even learning how to a cat eye now. Progress!

2. I.love.beer. I’m sure I’ve said this before, countless times. I haven’t had one in a long time. Or any alcohol for that matter and I’m sad but keeping my eyes on the prize.

3. I fancy myself a pretty good cook and I spend a lot of money on kitchen gadgets to help hone my skills. My next challenge is to start making my own cheese. Just need to get another mold. I don’t think the one I have is going to work for halloumi.

4. I’m bored with my career. phew. It feels good to say that “out loud”.

5. My one major pet peeve is when people spit. It’s disgusting. Stop it! It’s one of the few things that make me extremely angry.

6. The other is racism. It obviously falls under the umbrella of general ignorance but growing up in apartheid South Africa (even though my brothers and I were very sheltered from it) has made me overly sensitive to racism and it really gets under my skin.

7. I’m extremely absent-minded and my husband haaates it. I’m trying hard to work on it but it’s a real point of contention in our marriage.

Yikes, that took me a few days…

My Nominations:

1. Planting Beans

2. Our Egg, Her Nest?

3. Eventual Momma

4. Awaiting Autumn

5. Meet the Hopefuls

6. Mama et Maman

7. Waiting on My Rainbow

8. How We Met You

9. pilivimosira.wordpress.com

10. Solving the four years of infertility mystery

11. heybabym

12. What to Try When You’re Trying

13. www.plan-b-chronicles.com

14. mamajo23.wordpress.com

15. Sweeping Up the Broken Pieces

Hope you have a second to accept my nomination. Sending you all lots of love!

Lucky Sock Exchange.

I hope I’ve reblogged this properly! Very excited to try my first Lucky Sock Exchange! Lucky Sock Exchange 2015.
Feel free to join too! It looks like a lot of fun!

chels819's avatarTrials Bring Joy

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Guess what time it is!? Time for our next TTC Exchange! This time …. Lucky Socks! If you are interested in finding out more, click (here to continue reading} and get all of the FAQ’s on the exchange, plus learn how to sign up! You aren’t going to want to miss it! The deadline to sign up is Wednesday, March 11th, don’t delay! The link will bring you to a page that will answer all these questions you have, like:

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Imagine a Protective Bubble, If You Will…

So I think before I mentioned that I’m really superstitious. But I tend to invent my own superstitions based on my past.

Firstly, I don’t write my husband’s name or me new last name when I’m doodling. The reason is that in the past as soon as I’ve lovingly doodled the name of whomever I’m dating, the relationship came to an end very shortly afterwards. Within days… it’s clearly linked to me writing their name on a piece of paper. I haven’t written my husband’s name once and look how far we’ve come… Just sayin’…

I also don’t save my husband’s name under a pet name on my phone. Again, any written confirmation of a relationship spells doom. I always did this in the past and noticed that my brother didn’t do it with his wife and their relationship is perfect. The only reason they’ve been together for over 10 years is because of this fact :).

And lastly and I’m not even sure if this qualifies as a superstition… I don’t tell anyone about when big tests come up where I have the potential to fail. I’m sure this isn’t that weird though but it’s rung true for me for a long time. So much so that my friends have adopted this one when I tell them to. I passed my drivers license test on the first try after not telling anyone except Mum because she paid and after my friend failed her driver’s test 5 times I told her to tell no one the 6th time  and she got it after that. 3 of my friends since then have passed their driver’s test on this theory so I believe in this one wholeheartedly.

I’ve also applied this to job interviews. I was unemployed for a year and a half when I got here and after countless failures when I came to this final interview I told no one except my husband and I was a shoe in.

And again, before that with regards to getting my green card. I told no one about my interview to get the 2 year green card which went off without a hitch. But then when I applied for my 10 year green card I told everyone and we got an RFE. That’s when they send you a letter to insinuate  that they think you’re lying about something on your application and they need more evidence to prove you’re not. I eventually got the green card after this but I was upset that I hadn’t stuck to my guns.

Of course, there’s not scientific evidence to prove any correlation but I think, practically, it has to do with the fact that the less people who know the less pressure you’re under. Whatever the reason, it seems to have worked in my life thus far.

I’m sure you know where this is going… We’ve decided to keep the FET process between just the 2 of us. Partly because of my superstition and partly because I’ve been very open about everything thus far with my friends and family and N and I haven’t really had much privacy throughout and while I’m okay with it, I think he would appreciate it.

I’ve also been going through a dark time as well, hence no real blogging and I hate to say this but I’ve had to unfollow some of my favourite blogs. Not unfollow, unfollow, but I’ve set it so that I don’t get instant emails anymore. Just until I can get a handle on my emotions. I’m feeling impatient and irritable and I need to go into protection mode for a while I think. I am also feeling not so confident about this FET and it’s exacerbating everything. My acupuncturist keeps repeating that I have to be as stress free and calm throughout this process as possible so I’m trying to follow that as best as I can.

Of course that means I won’t be blogging about the FET when it happens. I’ve said some things on my instagram account but I’m going to take an instagram break as well… if I can.

I think what I’m going to do is blog as we go along because I want to record it but I’ll start posting the blogs after we have the result.

Please know that I’m very happy for all the BFP’s but it’s hitting me a lot harder than I thought it would and it’s becoming a bit overwhelming. I’ll catch up on all the stories when I feel stronger.

Wishing everyone continued success. I hope we’ll be joining you soon. I love you guys and I know you get it :).

Sleepless in Massachusetts

I had a terrible night last night and I fear there will be more to come. My husband left me this morning. No not like that :). He’s gone to St John for work until Saturday (sorry, if you think that joke’s in poor taste). I have trouble sleeping when he’s not there so last night I was already tossing and turning thinking about the lack of sleep I’ll endure when he’s gone. So it was a mixture of bitter sadness and extreme excitement.

Excitement because of this. I was working in the tv room last night and I heard my husband call me from the bed room, “Hun, did we ever find out the sex of the embryo?”

“No, I think we’ll ask the Dr G if we get a positive”

“…Oh… I know what it is…”

“WHAT??!!!”

“Yeah, they sent us the results of the PGD test and I accidentally read it”

“Oh my God, you know what we’re having??!!!”

“Yes do you want to know?”

“Yes!!! … No!!!… hmm yes!… Wait, you actually know what we’re having”

“Yes! it’s right here”

“Oh my God, I don’t know. But I don’t want you to know if I don’t know. Dammit! I had a plan. Of course I want to know. Why would they send us this? Okay tell me. No wait! Okay yes. Argh… Yes! what is it”

“It’s a XXXXX”

Queue several OMG’s, uncontrollable laughter, some more OMG’s, a very happy chair dance and a perma smile for the rest of the evening. I must’ve read the sex over a few times just to let it sink in. I even think we agreed on a name. And by the time we got into bed I’d decorated the baby’s room and sent mental gender announcements to everyone. I had to reign myself in a little bit. Okay, N had to reign me in. I asked him if he was excited and he said we have a long way to go still and he was saving his excitement. I said he was right but right now at that moment we had a little XXXXX. He cracked a smile. I know he’s excited too.

I spent the rest of my sleepless night buying clothing, setting up play dates and counting baby toes in my head. I was quite a bipolar night. One minute was soaring amongst the clouds with other happy mothers the next minute I was inconsolable thinking how would I recover if this embryo didn’t take. Part of me wishes I didn’t know because if it doesn’t work I wouldn’t be as attached. But part of me is so happy because this is the farthest I’ve ever let myself go with my daydreams and plans and I’ve actually let myself enjoy it.

I know that we’re nowhere close to being out of the woods. But right now, today, as I’m sitting here I’m a mom to a little XXXXX and I’m pleased as punch.

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Trying to keep busy

Laying on my couch working from home today. The storm (Juno) has passed but my road hasn’t been ploughed properly so I’m not going anywhere.

Not much to update except I received a call from Freedom Fertility for my meds. It came to about $1,100 and I found a $50 off coupon for the Crinone so that’s good. If you don’t know this already, you can call 1-888-PROGEL8, press option 2 and they’ll email you a coupon for Crinone!!

I also booked an acupuncture appointment for Saturday. We went before we started IVF treatments but didn’t stick to it because it started becoming too expensive. I love love the doctor and I’m very excited to go back.

Other than that I’ve just been battling with the jealous monster. It’s a daily battle and it’s taking me longer and longer to get over it when it hits so I’ve been trying to keep myself super duper occupied so I don’t go onto FB or my ttc instagram or normal instagram for that matter.

I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm. Trying to cut down on carbs and refined sugar. I made carb free bread which was pretty gosh darn good. I also made paleo brownies with almond butter. Husband doesn’t like them but I think they’re yummy. Yesterday I made breakfast burritos. The tortilla was made with eggs and ground flaxseed, filled with salmon, onions and red pepper and guacamole. And today I’m going to make shrimp tacos with carb free soft tortillas again. I’m loosely following the 14 day meal plan from Paleo Grubs and I’m loving these recipes. I also found the best meal plan website called Yumprint to help me organize my recipes and it makes a grocery list for you and everything. Very excited about this new food venture.

I’ve also stopped flat ironing my hair in an attempt to get my curl back as I have a bit of heat damage. My new plan (read: pipe dream) is to start a curly hair instagram account and then when I have a good following I’ll start a curly hair youtube channel, then youtube will pay me a salary and I can quit my job. A girl’s gotta dream right? I have the account set up (@deescurls if you’re interested in curly hair pics) and I’m trying to get over my fear of selfies so I can get it going.

I have to get back to work now but here are some pics of the food I’ve made. Have a good day everyone!

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not carb free, but who doesn’t love sushi.

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paleo bread, get the recipe here

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paleo brownies, get the recipe here

Track of the Week

The clinic sent us the quote for the FET yesterday and had increased the price by $1000 without telling us. This means we may have to push it back another month. The finance lady said that they had a price increase effective January 9th even though she’d quoted me the lower price in December and that’s what we budgeted for. Of course we’re not going to take it lying down but I was feeling deflated and ready to quit again when I read the letter. My husband said we’re absolutely not paying that price, we’re paying the price we agreed upon when we discussed it with them at our last appointment. I admire his fighting attitude when it comes to money and I’m very glad he’s going to take the lead on this because I just don’t have the energy.

So today, I’m not going to worry about anything. I’m going to enjoy this weekend. Especially since it’s our 4th wedding anniversary on Sunday. We don’t have much planned except dinner tomorrow night but it’s going to be a great weekend and we’ll deal with our troubles again on Monday :).

This is my don’t give up message to everyone today. Keep marching on.