I think I may be back

So it has been months and months since my last blog. I have absolutely no idea what is going on with all of you guys. I am going to spend the rest of tonight finding out though. I am so sorry that I deserted you guys I just had to get away from everything ttc related for a while. I just couldn't do it anymore. Everything was just overwhelming me. So I took a break. I didn't plan to take a break I just did it. I just stopped everything, stopping blogging, stopped talking to my girls on bbc, stopping ttc, stopped everything.

I guess I should go way back and fill you guys in on what you missed.

First off my sister had her baby. She is amazing, beautiful, wonderful, and my sister is a fantastic mom. I got to be there when my beautiful niece was born and it was like nothing else I've ever experienced. My sister was a natural at child birth. She only had to push for about 5 minutes! Can you believe it? I was just in awe of her the whole time. All in all it really was an amazing experience.

I also got a new job. I am still bartending but I now bartend in a four star hotel bar. The money I am making now is really amazing considering I haven't even graduated yet. I am just really happy and excited about it.

So that is the happy news. The bad news is that I was diagnosed as having PCOS. I think that may be the reason for my sudden ttc break down. I was actually pretty blindsided by the diagnosis. I mean I knew I had a few of the symptoms (acne, weight gin round my mid section, not being ble to get pregnant) but I always thought that it was because of DH's issues not mine. My periods are always so regular that I just never thought that it was a possibility.

I must admit I wasn't as devastated as when DH was diagnosed with azoo but I did cry at the doctors office, actually bawled is a more apt description. I was so embarrassed but there was no way of keeping it back after all we have been through.

Since then my sister (not the one who just had a baby) has also being diagnosed with PCOS. She isn't even ttc. She just passed out at work one day, was rushed to the hospital, only to find out that one of her fallopian tubes had collapsed, due to a large cyst on one of her overies.

The doc put me on metformin for the PCOS and thyroid meds for the hypothyroidism. Oh ye, did I mention that I also have hypothyroidism? sigh. I don't seem to have much of a reaction to the metformin alone I don't think, but the thyroid meds are awful. They make me dopey and hyper, jittery and tired, they are just terrible.

I did one round of clomid + progesterone (while also taking the metformin and thyroid meds) a few months ago with just timed BDing. It didn't get us pg but it was a success in that it did make me O. I did have some pretty yucky side effects with the clomid as well. It was fine at first but after O it gave me the worst hot flashes which lasted for months. I also had the worst PMS of my life. It was terrible, I was an emotional wreck for about 4 days. I felt pretty sorry for poor DH after that.

So after that we took about 2 months off. No ttcing at all.

Now we are considering an IUI. Since the clomid didn't treat me that well the RE is going to let me go strait to an IUI with injectables.

I am not really sure what I want to do now though. I am not sure if I really have what it takes to try anymore. I am exhausted emotionally. I just feel so much happier when I am not ttc. DH does not understand this at all. He is frustrated that I have completely given up on ttc naturally. What he doesn't seem to understand is that it is impossible. The RE said that without meds he gives us less then 1% chance of conceiving naturally. I mean that's nothing. That means it's impossible. The emotional wear and tear of the bfn's every month are too much to take when the chances are not there. Dh's answer to this is "you never know, miracles happen", my answer to that is "you watch too many movies".

So now I am just debating on what to do. To try or not to try, that is the question.

I don't even know if anyone will read this now, it's been so long. But if you're out there reading this please let me know you're there nd how you are. I miss you guys.

Need pairs of eyes

So good news and bad news.

The good news is that I got my pre-seed in the mail and it helped us tramendously. It really made bding feel so much better. And because of this our last two tries have been very successfull. So I got my first +opk on the fourteenth and we dtd the next two days after so I am feeling really good about it.

Also more good news is that it was our fourth anniversary today. It was great dh came home with a beautiful orchid for me and took me out to a fab dinner. It was great.

So bad news is that my chart is driving me crazy. My temps are so eratic that it makes me wonder if I am having an anovulatory cycle. The funny thing is though that my temps seem to be following a similar pattern that I have had before so I sm not sure what to think. If anyone wouldn't mind taking a look at it and letting me know what they think I would really appriciate it.

http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/27d21a

Not again

So today is CD12, and the first day of our EOD schedule; or so I thought. We BD'd twice today and...nothing. Arrrrrg! Each time took forever too. I am exhausted, and sore, and fed up. I am beginings to think that maybe this is just not meant to be.

It took me five years of waiting for dh to be ready to have a kid, then a year of ttc, 6 months of meds for azoo, and now this. I can't help but think "is someone trying to tell me something"

Premature optimism

So obviously it is early in my cycle, I am only on CD9. But I am feeling optimistic about this cycle. I have ordered some preseed. I have got some folic acid to start taking again. I really think that Dh is really on board to give this a great try this cycle.

It is the last natural cycle that we will be attempting and I have high hopes for it. Obviously that means that I will probably be going crazy later on in the cycle, but that is far into the future at this point so I am not too worries about it now.

I also ordered some Internet cheapy hpt's. I am planning on testing early this cycle. Last month the am I or aren't I part is what drove me nuts, so this cycle I have a new plan. I will test as early as possible and as the negatives keep showing up (which I obviously hope they don't) I will become more and more prepared for AF. That way I wont be devastated when she actually does show up.

I know, believe me I know, that repeatedly seeing no second line on a hpt can be heart wrenching, and I am sure that I will change my mind after a few months of seeing them again. But for now this is my plan and it couldn't be worse then last month.

As of right now though I am excited and looking forward to the weeks to come. This is my month, I am going to have that as my mantra!

My love list

Ok sorry for the cheese factor here, but I am going to post my list of things I love, big and small to remind me (when I get crazy and stressed out during my 2ww this month) about how I have it good.

Ok here goes, in no particular order...

My DH
My dogs
My brothers and sisters
My Mum
My Dad
My Step dad
My new house
To cook
To garden
My TV shows
Video games
Stand up (funny ones anyway)
My best friends Courtney and Mary
My extended family
My Nanny (Grandmother)
Baths
Lamps
Salt and vinegar potato chips
chocolate (especially orange)
Coffee
The smell of vanilla
Warm towels
My IPhone
My fireplace
Crossword puzzles
Curry
Sunday dinners
My in-laws
Making artwork
Spring weather
Christmas
Peking duck
Playing board games
A great book
A great movie

to be continued

Migraines, tension headaches, or something else?

So I went to the doctor today and they have no idea why I am getting these "headaches". He says that my headaches don't fit the exact profile of a migraine because thay don't typically come on only one side and I get no type of aura's (flashes of light or spots that sometimes a precursor to migraine attacks). He also said that they don't sound like tension headaches because tension headaches don't usually come with nausea and light and sound sensitivity.

He did say that it could be a combination of both but he finds this unlikely since I have no personal or family history of either.

he did give me migraine and tension headache meds though and he wants me to try them for no longer then one week. Then if they don't work after the week is up he wants me to come in for an MRI to make sure I don't have any anomalies like a tumor, but not to worry. I mean come on, who's not going to worry when a doctor says to you come back in a week and we'll make sure you don't have a brain tumor? What kind of crap is that?

As for the meds I tried them tonight and they are definitely a no go. They tension headache meds did nothing while the migraine meds made me feel worse. So I don't think I'll even wait the week if this keeps up.

I just hope they find something that works. I'm sure I don't have a brain tumor, but it is still scary. Why do docs always have to make you so nervous?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of my friends in the blogasphere.

So AF came and went, as I kind of knew she would. She came to visit me early this time which makes me think that my timing was very off and that we probably didn't BD until after I O'd.

This month Dh and I discussed making sure that we BD EOD from the 12 to the 18 day of my cycle. That way we cover every eventuality. Also I think I will go back to using OPK's again. And possibly even temping. I enjoy temping later on in my cycle because it gives mr something to do with myself.

Also I have decided to start using preseed and taking baby asprin every day.

On a side note, I don't know if I ever mentioned it before but I have been having terrible migraines for the last 3 months or so. They are becoming pregressively worse and more frequent. I am going to the doctor tomorrow and I am a little nervous.

ttyl

Oops

Ok, so I am terrible at taking my temp first thing in the morning. I always forget, I do other things and then remember to do it about a minute orr so after I wake up. So this cycle I thought that I had a bright idea to take my temp everday at the same time after sitting still on the couch for a while. Let me tell you, this does not work!

I let myself get all excited about my temps being so "high" this cycle. So after taking my temp the same way I have been all week I suddenly decided to take it again after I realized I had been lying still for about an hour. The temperature drop was almost a full degree, doh!

What I did realize from this cycle though is waiting to test does not work for me. I thought that waiting until I missed AF to test would help me be less obsessed, it didn't. In fact it made me obsess about every other way you could "tell". It made me check my temp in worng ways, it made me check my CP and CM every time I went to the bathroom, it made me obsess about non existant symptoms.

Next month I am just going back to testing early. At least when I do that I start to get jaded by 11DPO and I learn to accept the impending BFN much easier.

I know that this way is definitely not for everone, but it is what works for me.

Next time will be different

After talking to DH about whether or not to do an IUI next month, we made some desisions. We decided that we are going to get some bikes. LOL. Ok so here is the conection, we decided that we are out of shape. That since Dh has never been a, shall we say, minute man. That sex is a bit of a work out that neither one of us is very well equiped for.

I have got to tell you, after about 20 minutes of bumping and grinding I am ready to call it quits.

So we decided to get bikes and we will hopefully excersize a lot more. Dh is much more into this idea then I am, but we shall see.

That being said, we also decided that next month will be our last natural try. If we don't get pregnant next month after doing everything we can by ourselves, we will get medical help.

I didn't really want things to work out like this but I am tired. Tired of not being pregnant. At this point I will take all the help I can get.

Doesn't count

I am so upset with my DH right now. I just feel like he is being totally insensitive. I have been kind of emotional today (I suppose that means AF is right around the corner) and he is being such a jerk. I told him that I have watched 23 people get pregnant while we have been "trying" and he said that "it doesn't really count". I was flabergasted, I mean why would it not count? He said that because we didn't have any sperm that none of this last year counted because we have been trying with no chance of success. That this is the first month that really counts at all. He thinks that I am just being "negative".

I feel like putting it that way just discounts all of the pain I have been through so far. Like I haven't really gone through anything at all because it didn't even count.

I am just so upset right now. Am I overreacting here?

9DPO, arggg

This is why I hate ttc...the waiting. My type A personality does not do well with the unknown. I wish I could say that I have been calm and collected. I wish I was all of those things and more. I am a veteran of ttc, I should know better then this. I should know how to relax by now.

Ok so maybe that isn't something that comes in time. Maybe it's something you either have or you don't have. I should really get rid of my account on ff. Ff is what kills me, I have to check it twice a day. Why I don't know, it's not like the information on it changes.

Ok I need to try to keep my mind on other things. I need to face the fact that we more then likely were too late this cycle. The statistics are against me. Maybe if I can convince myself that there is absolutly no chance of me being pg I could relax.

latent blogger

Sorry i haven't been posting much at all recently. I went about a week without the Internet because of the move, but apart from that I have been so busy with the new house.

Now that's out of the way, onto what has been going on with me.

If you can remember way back to my previous blog, we were debating on whether or not to "try" this cycle. Well, we decided to go for it, but it didn't exactly go as planned. First of all I had been planning on doing the EOD method of trying since DH's count is still kind of low. Well that method back fired big time. We tried to stick to the schedule but the first day we were supposed to try, we couldn't because DH had to work all day and I had to work all night and we actually didn't even see each other at all that whole day. So that was a bust.

On the second scheduled day we tried...and tried...and tried. Dh was just not going to "finish". I was getting sore and frustrated so eventually we just stopped. I have got to tell you guys I was so upset, and I did not hide this from DH. This led to DH being so upset with me that we didn't try the next day either, which admittedly was probably best because I was actually in pain from trying for so long the last time.

So finally it is the day of O and we tried successfully. I am pretty sure that it was too late though, all EWCM was gone by that point.

So our chances are slim this month. I have got so say though, what I was scared of has happened anyway. I am back on ff everyday, I am already counting the days, I am 5DPO btw. I am frustrating myself. I am back to being upset and negative about ttc. I wanted this time to be different. I wanted to be cool, calm, and collected like I have been these previous months. I swear that ttc is just not good for me. It makes me crazy, obsessive, and upset.

I need to get a grip.

Sorry that I have to come back after so long of not posting with such a negative post but this is how I am feeling right now, and unfortunatly this is typically where I vent.

Confused

I think I must be confused. I am so incredibly happy that DH's count has gone back up. I have been so excited that we have officially been given the go ahead to start trying again. For some crazy reason though, I have been thinking of reasons why we should wait. Reason one is that I wanted to lose a bit of weight. Reason two is that I always thought that it would really suck to be born in December. Reason three I stopped taking folic acid supplements a while ago when we stopped trying and you should really take them months in advance.

What am I doing? Why am I sabotaging myself? Am I scared that this might actually be a possibility now? Or am I scared of feeling that old sting of disappointment that I am getting used to feeling?

I think maybe deep down that I might have thought that this might not happen for us. That maybe I am scared of getting my hopes up again. If I do this, if I actually alow myself hope, I am putting myself back up on that precipice and I may fall. I am scared.

Ok so I am now officially in my 30's

almost 30

I have an hour and a half left in my 20's! Ahhhhhhhh

We have more sperm!

We had our four month check up today and the results were as follows...

Volume 2.50
Density 21.60M/ml
Motility 40%
Forward progression 2.5

Total count 54.00M
Total motile 21.60M

Oval 30%
Amorphous 70%

Clumping 1
Round cells 4-5
Viscosity 2


The count for us, is amazing!!! I could not be happier!!! I was really hoping for anything over 10M, and we have 54M, I am ecstatic! I am slightly concerned about the viscosity issue, I'm not too sure what that means, but all in all I am overjoyed!

Eventful

He this week has been semi eventful. I say semi eventful because there have been a few actual events but there have also been emotional ones.

First off, the actual events. I went with my sister to the doc for her first official ultrasound. I have to tell you, it was an extremely emotional experience. At first I wanted to go because I thought that it would be nice to be there for my sister and to hear the heartbeat. What I didn't bank on was how crazy it would make me feel. I was in the waiting room while she had her preliminary pap smear done and it hit me that this was going to be my first experience with an obgyn relating to pregnancy. I suddenly thought about how this was going to be the first time I would actually hear a baby's heartbeat, and I kind of freaked out. I suddenly had the urge to run. To make up some excuse as to why I had to go outside and miss being there. I had no idea I would feel so strongly about it. I have heard people talk before about how hard it is to see other people get to be pregnant while dealing with IF but so far I have dealt with it pretty well, this was different.

So I fought the urge to run, and I am so glad I did. I don't think I will ever forget it. It was so amazing to see that little baby. I had no idea that it would look so much like a baby already. I also had no idea how amazing it would be to see my sisters face light up in awe like that. I am so happy that I got to share that with her.

I can't say that her girlfriend felt the same way about me being there. She actually seemed incredibly mad that I was there. I also read on my sisters facebook that her fantastic day quickly dissipated after she got home. SO I imagine that they got into a fight about it. I am so sad for my sister that this is happening to her. I am starting to realize that her girlfriend is just not treating her very well at all. I wish that there was something I could do. It is a pretty helpless feeling.

So onto the more emotional events, as if that wasn't one of them. Dh and I have been fighting a lot since we decided to buy a house. It seemed as though DH was having misgivings about the whole thing although he never said so. He would just be moody and almost mean to me. So this went on for about a week and a half when I finally lost it and we got into a huge blow out fight. It turned out that DH felt like I thought of this as my house that he was going to be living in since the down payment was a gift from my father. I was really shocked. We had talked about how my Dad was going to do this for years before hand and he had never said anything negative about it. SO after we talked and I explained to him that I don't think of anything as only mine, that we are married and everything we have is communal, he calmed down. Now he is really happy about the whole thing, and we are getting along great! Isn't it funny though how one person can be thinking something so completely opposite from the other?

After we talked, like really talked, lots of other things came up too. Like I found out that since we have been going through the IF process that DH has been wanting children more and more. This was a real breakthrough for us because I one point DH wasn't even sure he wanted children at all. So to think of him longing for this as much, or even close to as much was an amazing feeling for me. We took a walk around an area where our restaurant was the other day and DH wanted to stop and watch the children playing with the fountains, it was so great. We even spoke about how since this process has been so hard that he was even hoping, as I am, that we could possibly have twins. He even went so far as to suggest triplets, which I am hoping was a joke, lol. He also mentioned the fact that he is no open to the possibility of IUI's, which was always a no go for him because of the fear of having twins. Not even the money issues that I mentioned put him off. I was ecstatic!

So it has been quite a week. I honestly couldn't be happier. Now we just need some good news next week on DH's SA and we will be overjoyed!

Change of plans

So we are moving forward on the house. We signed the contracts last week and I did the walk-through today. There was really very little wrong with the house, just a few scraped walls and some clean up issues, nothing that couldn't be easily fixed. I am going back tomorrow with blue painters tape to mark off any area's that I see paint chips or just places that need touch ups.

I went shopping for furniture today as well so that is always fun. I found a really nice bedroom set that honestly has enough furniture to fill the master and provide some for the guest bedroom. I can't wait to get shopping for real next week!

Now on to ttc news...

We have an appointment with Dr. L in about two weeks to see where DH's sperm levels are. I am super nervous about this appointment because it will be at the four month mark. Dr. L said that we should be on track anywhere from 3-6 months so this should be a really good indicator of where we are and where we will get.

Also I can't remember if I had mentioned it previously but we had decided to put ttcing on hold for this cycle and next no matter what the SA results where. This month is already super stressful with the new house and the move so it wouldn't exactly be an ideal time to find out I was pregnant. Then if I got pregnant the next month we would have a December baby and DH and I thought that we would rather just wait if we had the choice. So here is where life gets in the way of good planning, lol. I called the pharmacy yesterday no refill DH's presciption and the nurse tells me that they are no longer carrying the generic hcg. The company that they get it from was out of it and they decided that the name brand company was more reliable.

So ok I can understand this logic but the name brand one is much more expensive and comes with only three weeks worth of medicine. So since the medication is now going to cost a hack of a lot more then we previously thought giving up two cycles doesn't sound as smart as it once did.

Unfortunately for me it is slightly late this cycle to realize that. I will be Oing tomorrow. We are going to give a a good college try tomorrow but I highly doubt that someone who more then likely has a pretty low count would succeed with just one try.

SO I guess that after our appointment in two weeks then we can reevaluate whether or not we are going to try and skip March or not.

For now though I am feeling really good. I love our house and I can't wait to move in!

Drama

So as many of you may remember my sister and I have had some issues lately. I wasn't exactly happy about the fact that she recently became pregnant under less then favorable conditions. We have, since then, primarily worked it out. We are talking again, even though it does stay slightly politer then usual. We have made dates to hang out, though for some reason or another it always seems to fall through. We haven't had the make up talk yet, but I feel pretty confidant we will. All in all the situation is resolving itself.

The problem I am having now is with her girlfriend. We all work together, my sister, her, and I. Things at work have become literally intolerable. For some reason her girlfriend has decided that she hates everyone we work with including me. We have had no explanation as to why that is and no efforts to fix the situation have even come close to working. I really don't know what to do at this point. She is just so increadably rude and mean to everyone at work. It is making being at work like torture. I have tried to talk to my sister to try and find out what is going on but she just says that she doesn't know. I haven't even tried talking to her myself because she looks like she could snap and go mental on anyone at any second. The only thing that I can fathom is that she is upset that bits of information have leaked through and eventually gotten to everyone else at work but that doesn't seem like enough of a reason to be this excessively mad.

I should mention at this point that my sisters girlfriend and I have been practically best friends for about 10 years, and that since she has been dating my sister that we have become more like family lately. The same goes for my work, we have all been there so long that we all think of each other as family. So if she had issues I would think that she would want to at least try to work things out at some point, but apparently not.

We are all kind of hoping that she quits at this point but that wont stop me from having to have her in my life even if it stops for the rest of the staff.

If anyone has any advice or perspective I would greatly appreciate it.

Award

Thank you so much to Elise who gave me this award. Please check her out at http://latebloomer13.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/hey-look-at-what-i-have/#comment-132 she has been through an amazing journey of IVF and is now pregnant with her first child. She is very honest and optimistic, and is a really great read.

The instructions that go along with this award are as follows:
•Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
•Copy the award and place it in your blog
•Link the person who nominated you for this award.
•Tell us 7 interesting things about you
•Nominate 7 bloggers
•Post the links to the 7 bloggers you nominate.

Here are 7 interesting things about me...

1. I am from Britain and I am now living in the US. I moved here when I was about 11 years old, moved back when I was sixteen, then came back to the US when I was 20, and have been here ever since. I haven't been home in 7 years and I'm finally going to get to go in March! I can't wait!

2. I allow my DH to keep poisonous snakes in our home. Everyone says that I am crazy, including DH's parents. I know, I know, it is kind of crazy but it makes DH soooo happy so I just try to pretend that they're not there.

3. I have somehow made it through my entire life without breaking a bone, beeing stung by a bee/wasp/hornet, or spending one day in a hospital. Uh oh, I really need to go knock on some wood now.

4. I am a English lit major with a minor in studio art. I am still currently a student at the age of 29. I returned to college at the age of 27. I have no idea what I am going to do with this degree but it is my greatest ambition to write and illustrate a children’s book.

5. I am the oldest of 7 children! Most people can't imagine growing up with that many children in this day and age, but I loved it! I am so happy that we were such a big family growing up and holidays are amazing!

6. I am color blind. It is one in hundreds of thousands chance for a girl to be colorblind and I was the lucky one. This also means if I have boys that they will all be colorblind too...sorry boys.

7. I love to garden, but I have only had other people's gardens to tend to so most of what I have planted so far has been bulbs. I can't wait to get my own house so that I can plant whatever I want.


I would like to mention that I love to read other people's blogs. The ones that I do read, I read religiously. So for those of you that are on my list and many of you who I couldn't fit on here, thank you so much for writing. Most of you have no idea how much I treasure you.

1. Dana, whose whit and wisdom inspired me to blog in the first place http://thebabydaydream.blogspot.com

2. Baby on mind, who showed me what a blog could be http://baby-on-mind.blogspot.com/

3. Brandles, who's struggle I have most identified with http://babymakinglab.blogspot.com

4. Jen, who's optimism is contagious http://novembers-girl.blogspot.com

5. Kelly, who has just had her first baby, http://themetcalfmiracle.blogspot.com

6. Resh, who inspires me to cook, when I forget how much I love it http://rkitchen.blogspot.com/

7. Nikki, Who makes me laugh and cry when I read her blog http://journeytobaby1.wordpress.com/


Please check out these blogs, these are some really amazing women!