Thursday, September 30

My favorite things

I absolutely love this time of year. Season changes are so invigorating for me. I always feel so motivated, so energized, so not how I normally feel.

Fall makes me want to be home with the windows open, music softly playing, tea steeping, dogs sleeping, breeze drifting, bread baking, rocking chair rocking softly and feeling like everything is right in the world.

Needless to say, sitting in my cube with the halogens overhead and the overconditioned, cold air is a far cry from where I want to be. Luckily it's end of month, so I'm naturally reactively busy. I don't have to be proactively busy right now.

Here are some of the things that keep drifting through my head right now:
  • butternut squash soup with rosemary and gruyere croutons
  • camping trips
  • pansies and violas
  • falling leaves
  • the apple cider I make in the crockpot with butter in it. mmmmm butter.
  • the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I have at home now. I make them with lard. mmmmm lard.
  • comfy sweatshirts
  • classical piano music and how I should start playing piano for 15 minutes a day
  • naps on the couch
  • how much I can't wait to have kids during fall

Tuesday, September 28

TTC: The adoption option

I'm not ready to give up on having a biological child. There are still a lot of options for us down that road.

But I'm still ready to start exploring adoption. You may have noticed that I have a link to a blog done by an adoption counseling agency added to my blog list.

I need something to focus on other than what my temperature is every morning and checking the toilet paper every time I wipe to see if maybe today I'll have fertile mucus.

I haven't ovulated this cycle and I'm showing not signs that I'm going to.

That was really hard for me to type.

Wednesday, September 22

TTC: Taking a break

Apparently Husband is the first person since the beginning of time to require the rHCG shot. The Walgreens pharmacy we usually use didn't have the prescription. We then asked if another Walgreens had it. They didn't. They won't even order it for us.

We tried to get them straight from the Doctor's office. After all, it's the same shot they give me once a month to ensure ovulation. Wrong. The dosage is different and they use a prefilled syringe for me.

The wonderful nurse we work with found a pharmacy in Austin, close to our house that does carry the prescription. Only the syringes are not prefilled. The pharmacy tech was supposed to train Husband on giving himself the shot when we picked up the prescription. Only he couldn't because no one knew the dosage. Argh! Face palm.

In light of this, we are not going to do an IUI this cycle. We are going to give the shots some time to work on Husband and we will try again next cycle.

That's not "technically" a break from trying to conceive, especially not after what we did last night (wink wink). But I don't have to get my follicles checked or schedule two more appointments for the inseminations. That's also about $200 we will save.

Babies are expensive.

Thursday, September 16

TTC: Update

Well, since this started with TTC and not Pregnancy, you can guess how the IUI went.

I am not pregnant. I am day 5 of my brand new cycle.

I'm doing okay, surprisingly. I'd like to think the reason I'm handling this round of infertility treatment with calm and positiveness has to do with me being more mature; but I really think it's because I'm not on clomid. It could also be that Husband and I have discussed adoption and have a time table for when to begin that process. He is much more involved this time around. I think that helps.

I had my start-of-cycle ultrasound and have no cysts. That means the really big follicle that I had did turn into an egg. Husband will learn to inject himself with rHCG on Monday. Good times.

Here's to next time!

Friday, September 3

TTC: Two week wait, again

Thanks to TLo, I've discovered a source of cheap pregnancy tests. They now cost me about $0.73 rather than $4.00. I bought a pack of 50. I'm now peeing on more sticks than ever before.

We did an IUI on Thursday and Friday last week. Husband had some of the best numbers so far and my uterine lining was both quantity and quality. I started testing this past Sunday. That would be 4 dpo. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early. I wanted a baseline.

I tested this morning and it's still negative. I'm not supposed to test until next Thursday.

So, how am I doing during this two week wait? Pretty good! I'm not really all that stressed out about whether or not I'm pregnant (despite my incessant testing). I feel hopeful that, even if I'm not pregnant this time, we still have a good chance of making it happen next time. That hope makes this time period much easier to bear.

Getting caught up

Last weekend Husband and I were in a wedding in Dallas. We were both very happy to be a part of the union of these two people who are perfect for each other. And I got to get all dressed up and fancy. My dress was long and a little silky. Husband kept putting his hands on my hips and rubbing them while telling me how great I looked in that dress and how much he liked that dress. I had to remind him that people are around and maybe he should keep his hands to himself (tee hee).

We had a great time. I think the bride and groom were even able to enjoy their wedding.

I've had a rough time getting back into my work groove. I'm really excited about this weekend and getting to spend it mostly at home. Being out-of-town for the past four weekends has taken its toll on me. I need my home. My rocking chair. My food. My dogs. And I will have 3 glorious days of this!

Yesterday I started a T-Tapp bootcamp. I basically have to do a 50 minute workout 4 days in a row. I didn't make it through the whole workout yesterday, but I did what I could and it lasted 50 minutes. Today I'll try to do a little bit more.

Have a terrific and safe Labor Day Weekend!