#179 9DPI (02/25/13)

It seems so hard not to think “This time it worked.”  The problem is I have nothing to compare it to.  For this TWW, I feel like the little child in the back of the car “Are we there yet?” And just like the little child, there is nothing I can do to speed up getting to the destination faster.  What can I do to make the test come out true?  Alas, there is nothing that can be done, so we are still adhering to waiting until Saturday, which is 14 DPI, one day shy of when AF is supposed to arrive.  Any sooner would be a waste. 

As for phantom symptoms, I’m still getting dizzy/light headed fairly frequently.  If this isn’t pregnancy, it is something I probably should have looked at.  (If it isn’t just my head playing tricks on my that will go away should I get a BFN.)  My boobs are a bit more tender than usual, but as AF approaches that could be just a side effect that I had never noticed before.  My stomach feels “alive/active” for lack of a better description.   But me noticing this could be just the fact that I’m paying more attention to my uterine area more than I ever have in my life, and the “alive” could be the constipation I’m having issues with because of the prenatal vitamins, it could be my body preparing for AF, or could be my Crohn’s flaring up a bit.  Periodically, I’ve also been having random cramps/back ache like AF was starting.  The last random phantom symptom is I’ve been a little more spaced out than usual, noted by Deb, as well as a little more tired than usual.

This documentation of every little thing is to be able to record what is happening, for next month, and I’m going through the TWW again, I can look back and see this is what happened last time, and not to stress about it, just get over it.  

Update:  This afternoon I'm feeling extra irritable/moody, most like a PMS symptom I usually get the week before AF for a day. This is not promising.  

#177 Tinge (02/20/13)

Am I psyching myself up for a heartache?  Am I getting excited over gas?  Today I’ve been a bit crampy.  I’ve been trying to let myself think it is just gas or general stomach issues, in an effort to not get my hopes up.  It feels a bit “pokier” than usual menstrual cramps, but a pretty close comparison.  Well, this afternoon while on the loo, I noticed a pink tinge on the toilet paper.  This is too hard not to think this is implantation, but at 4 days past ovulation/implantation, isn’t it too soon?  Is my body crying wolf just to make me think I’m pregnant?

Alas 10 more days at least before I can take a HPT.  

#176 4 DPI (02/20/13)

We are finally in the first Two Week Wait.  The IUI went well.  The IUI nurse complimented me on my cervix.  It is a good shape and position for baby heads/delivery.  That is good news.  The odd part was; they didn’t have me lay still for any period of time.  While I asked a few questions and what not, I stayed on the exam table, and didn’t rush getting up afterwards.  

Our sperm numbers were pretty good I think.  Post thaw this is how the numbers went; total sperm 76.4 Million/ml.  Our vial was .5ml and they used .1ml for testing.  Of those sperm 42% Highly active, 2% Slow but active and 56% Immobile.  The amount of active sperm I got was 13.4 million.  The clinic said that was fairly good.  So we are hopeful.  Once we got home we did some research on how long it takes the sperm to reach the end of the fallopian tubes.  Surprisingly the little guys make the journey in as little as 10-30 minutes.  With the IUI, closer to the 10 minute mark. 

The day of the IUI, every little twinge had me wondering if that was the sperm meeting the egg, or if that was my official ovulation, or if it was just general stomach issue, or plain psychosomatic and my head just playing tricks on me.   Since then, I’ve had a couple things where, Is this a sign, but in reality, I know it is way too early to have signs of anything, so I’m blaming the HCG shot for them.  Some symptoms include dizzy (which I get periodically for no reason anyways), upset stomach (usually caused by the prenatal vitamins, which I think is the full reason of morning sickness anyways, lol), sensitive sniffer, (this is a new one, as most smells I don’t register unless directly in my nose or very overpowering.  The downside to this is, I get the odorous diapers as my wife is very sensitive.) 

It seems things are getting calmer, and imaginary symptoms are getting less (dizzy spells still happening a bit though, and had an odd urge for hot sauce on dinner last night).  But everything could be coincidence, and just hoping everything is happing as planned.  We still can’t help but wonder if the sperm met the egg, and the egg wasn’t a prude and let the sperm in.  My uterus feels welcoming though.  

I have a few pictures from the day I will post when I sync my camera.  

#175 Valentine’s Day (02/15/13)

Nothing says I love you like, jabbing your loved one with a needle.  Alas, it was not like I had prepared myself for, the worst.  Last night at midnight, my lovely Sherpa wife gave me the HCG shot to stimulate ovulation.  I didn’t even feel the needle.  She is a great Sherpa nurse.  Of the two options given we decided to put it into my thigh. Deb pinched the skin as instructed, and I didn’t feel a thing.  An added bonus is, given my tendency to allergic reactions, I didn’t get the rash that a good portion of people get temporarily at the injection site.  That was a bonus. 

For Valentine’s, tonight, we are going to the Hot Springs nearby.  Having a lovely relaxing night, in a lovely hot pool, which hopefully will be the last time I can enjoy such luxury for 9 or so months. 

Last night, we noticed that Valentine’s has been a fairly significant holiday for us, without making a point of it.  Our first Valentine’s, we were away on Vacation in Fernie (which I had planned before meeting her), within 2 weeks of meeting each other.  We have been inseparable since.  Our next Valentine’s we got our first together puppy Tuffy.

 

The following year, we went to Las Vegas; more so because we needed a holiday than because we were celebrating Valentine’s.  Our Fourth Valentine’s (this year).  We are getting the first try at being ultimately creative, and making a baby.  (And going to the hot springs.)  All of these things happened on Valentine’s day, not because it was the day itself, just because of life timing.  

#175 Follicles Update (02/13/13)

The results are in.  My egg has grown to 1.8.  Not quite enough for the HCG shot tonight, but tomorrow night at midnight, my darling lovely Sherpa (Deb) will be giving me the shot.  It will be a lovely Valentine’s day thing to do, the start of our official attempt of trying to make a baby.  That’s a lot of maybe, and it is hard not to get to over excited, but we both realize that this is just that, an attempt.  No guarantees.  It is still nice to feel like a puddle of goo because we are so smooshy about finally getting to this point. 

This also means, after about one year of getting everything ready to try, we have finally scheduled our first IUI for Saturday afternoon.  It is great that it is Saturday because then I don’t have to go to work after the fact.  We can make it a lovely day, maybe go to the zoo, and just have a relaxing day for us.  This does mean our trip to the states will be postponed.  We could go on Sunday/Monday instead, if the packages we are shipping to the boarder have arrived, or just next weekend.  

#173 Follicles (02/11/13)

This morning was my first follicle measure for this month.  They are still small, but that is to be expected on day 10, as I usually ovulate around day 15 or 16.  The one to keep an eye on is 1.5 cm and on the right side, it needs to be about 2 before they will do the hCG shot.  That is just one good size egg, which takes some stress of twins off the plate, the rest of my eggs were under 1.  The additional plus is that it is on the right side, which is the opposite side of my rubber nub (polyp) in my fallopian tube on the left side.  All is well with my eggs thus far. 

Deb came with me, but they wouldn’t let her in for the ultrasound, and the follow up appointment was just to say my eggs were too small, and give me the measurement of the eggs and say keep my ultrasound appointment for Wednesday.  It was nice to have Deb there to wait with for the appointments though.  She is coming to the next one as well, because that is when they will be giving instructions on giving the hCG shot and she sort of needs to be there for that as there is no hope on this green earth that I will be able to give myself a shot.    Deb has this vision of her running from the other end of the room with the warrior holler as she runs towards me, then stops right before injection and says “I can’t do it.”  I have faith in her she will be able to do it. 

Acupuncture has been going well, and I love chiro.  I had a double appointment on Saturday.  Chiro helps keep my stomach/digestion in check, as well as my hips.  I don’t know how I did before chiro, it is great.  The meditation during acupuncture is great, and I’m getting good vibes that it helps from the fertility clinic.  I don’t think they can officially say people should do it, but they have responded positively that I am doing it and have been for a few months.  The day of the IUI I will be going in for a pre and post acupuncture appointment; which if my IUI is on Saturday might delay the road trip to the states, but all for a good reason.  I do miss the massages, but I’m saving my coverage money for when I’m pregnant and need them for my back or feet or to pamper my pregnant belly/body.

On a side note, my crohn’s ultrasound went well.  I didn’t even need the contrast ultrasound because nothing is flared right now.  With nothing being flared there is nothing to contrast, so no IV and a fairly quick, normal belly ultrasound.  

#169 hCG? (01/23/13)

Well, yesterday I went for more blood work.  From Friday to Tuesday my levels went from LH 10 > 4 and Progesterone 5.6 < 30.  So timing something didn’t quite work for catching the positive OPK’s properly.  The clinic recommends next month I do follicle monitoring ultrasounds and use the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) Trigger Shot when the time is right. 

This does increase the possibility of twins I think. This is does make for me being a bit more nervous on this, but I think it is worth it.  The amount of stress I’ve had peeing on three sticks at a time to see which ones work for me, and to try and pinpoint my ovulation has been hair raising.  HCG doesn’t guarantee twins, nor does it guarantee pregnancy.  Just helps things be a bit more relaxed about the process I think. 

One thing is for sure, Deb will have to give me the shot (if I don’t get it at the clinic), as I will not be able to give myself the shot.  I’m too nervous about needles.  So next month is hopefully the first go at this, which is the next step to this long process of getting the TTC journey started. 

From what I have read though, it does mean I can’t take a home pregnancy test early because it will give false positives.  I will have to truly wait the two weeks, or until AF shows up.   

Does anyone have experience with hCG shots?  

#168 My eggs may have stage fright (01/21/13)

The clinic called on Saturday and said my progesterone levels were 5.6, but I still haven’t surged.  So I’m still testing.  Still negatives this weekend and today though.  They said to call back today if I still haven’t had a positive OPK. 

Today is CD18, so there is still time.  I don’t have spin (EWCM) though.  I’ve all ready been through the stages; however spin was a very short window, now I’m back to infertile mucus.  Maybe my eggs were getting ready to go, all systems go, and then Poof decided to stay in their follicle where it is safe, stage fright. 

Friday was a very emotional day, and it took a good night’s sleep to come out of the funk.  However Deb was very glad it happened, as she had slight reservation that I was doing this just for her.  Based on my reaction she now knows, I’m also doing this for me.  So at least my melt down served some purpose.  See everything does happen for a reason. 

At this point, if we have missed this month, I will be ok with that; still sad, but ok.  If the clinic calls for more blood work, I will go in.  I don’t have high hopes for a run this month, but still would be a great turn of events if we do.  

#165 CD13 (01/16/13)

Positive? Negative?  Confusion...Arg. 

The top test is First Response OPK.  The bottom is Wondfro.  In the digital reader FR came up NO.  The wondfro is a clear double line.  Same pee cup sample.

My fertility clinic only recongnizes CB or FR.  Should I go and buy some CB or test again later this afternoon with FR?  Or just test again tomorrow, as my clinic recommends only testing once a day?

Over all going in on Friday/Saturday vrs tomorrow is all around better.  

Anticipation of first Insemination is driving me bananas. 

#164 Christmas Recovery (01/14/13)

The weekend weigh in went well.  I’m back down to just about what I was in early December; a loss of 3.7 pounds this week.  That is partially due to TOM the week before, but it is at least nice to see on the scale again.  So I am classing myself to have recovered from the weight gain over Christmas.  Now it is time to continue losing weight.

We are trying to work out every other day; so far doing fairly well.   This weekend we kept fairly busy, and come Sunday night I was ready to just sit and relax and watch some TV.  But, bless her, my wife got us going to work out. 

Our eating habits are getting back under control.  Our main faux over Christmas was desserts and sweets; a typical weakness over the holidays.  Hopefully next year I will be a bit better at this lifestyle change. 

Once pregnant (in theory), I hope to not use that as the ultimate excuse to eat everything/anything.  Relatively in second/third trimester, they say you need an additional 300 calories.  That isn’t much extra, so I hope to be able to maintain my general eating habits and just include extra milk in a day, and a small snack to two.  I think I need to read up on cravings and what they mean to nutrition deficiencies.  Try and be prepared as a defence for cravings.  (One week or less to my first IUI.)

#162 CD1 Came Early (01/03/13)

Well, I had this dream, my first cycle ovulation day would be on a weekend day.  Have acupuncture, have a relaxing insemination, go back for acupuncture, and have a relaxing day with my wife.  Poof, that dream is coming to a probable end.  AF came a few days early thus I will more than likely be ovulating on a regular week day, and thus have to try and fit these things into my schedule.  Maybe I can try and swing my work schedule to work on a weekend, to have my ovulation day off, or a half day. 

This does explain my extreme chocolate craving yesterday though.  I had figured it was way too early to be PMS cravings and just thought it was my diet enemy Amy coming forth.  Which I did cave in to and had some chocolate. 

Yesterday I had scheduled my appointments for acupuncture on January 19^th, which would have been a great day.  I even had to reschedule after looking at the Fertility Clinic’s times for weekend IUI’s and found they only do afternoon appointments on weekends.  Now I will more than likely need to reschedule again.  I think I will talk with my boss a little bit to see how they want to handle these appointments.    Alas, all the talk about starting this month and my body reacted “Ooohh it’s time to start here we go.”  Hopefully it is open and receptive and we have compatible healthy sperm and we get the one shot trial.  We’ll see how it goes. 

But the insanity of officially Trying To Conceive is beginning and it is CD1

#161 Happy New Year (01/02/13)

Well, over the holidays, the diet went out the window, exercise didn’t really happen, and I’m back down to only 10 pounds lost.  Alas, it is an old habit that is going to be hard to break.  It is the new year and time to get back on track. 

We had a wonderful holiday season though.  My wife made me a lovely command centre for the kitchen.  It is a beautiful up-cycle of an old picture frame.  It has a calendar space, a white board area for our weekly meal planning, and a magnetic space to hold the note pads for grocery lists and post-its she put magnets on, as well as clips for notes for each of us for to do or things for the week, and of course in my favorite color, Purple.  I’ll try and post a picture of it soon. 

As far as New Year Resolutions, I don’t really have any per ce.  Still working on the typical, trying to exercise more, lose weight, eat right, organize the house, purge clutter, pre house nesting, and get pregnant soon. 

In my heart I do feel 2013 is going to be a good year.  Let’s hope my heart is right.  

#159 OPK’s (12/21/12)

Yesterday I got my first positive OPK.  Woohoo.  For getting to know my cycle I purchased some of the cheap OPK’s from Amazon.  Last month was my first one trying, and I didn’t get a proper positive.  However I had been using them in the morning only, and that was recovery from surgery.  I was a little worried I would need to be going in to the fertility clinic for daily monitoring to catch my ovulation, instead of the simple home version.  Alas my worries were unfounded.  After talking with my doctor he said I should test in the afternoon.  That worked.  My OPK’s work, and so I’m confident the ones I am required to use by the clinic (expensive version that we will be picking up for next month) will work.  Today would have been my first insemination day, just in time for the Christmas closing, but my teeth are the delay, damn.  But it’s better to get things fixed now rather than when I’m pregnant if my tooth acts up, putting major stress on me, which would put the stress on the theoretical baby. 

One month to go for first try.  

#156 Surgery Follow Up (12/11/12)

My polyp removal was a success.  My uterus is in good shape.  My right fallopian tube is good and clear.  My left fallopian tube has a small polyp that he left alone.  The doctor showed me a picture, it looks like a little rubber nub.  It isn’t cause for concern, and once you start to play with the fallopian tubes, things can get fried (his word not mine) pretty easily, so he left it there.  This is a bit step forward.  We have clearance to go ahead on my next period.  Which would be now, but because I have one more tooth that should be fixed before pregnancy, it will be in January. 

The countdown is on.  Approximately 38 days to my first IUI.  We are hoping the stars align and we are one of the few that gets a home run on the first try.  Not holding my breath, but hoping.  I went through Deb and my plan for pregnancy with the doctor and he did caution I may want to try more than three times, I mentioned, I realize that, but for now, this is the plan.  Virgos, we need a plan of action first, winging it doesn’t work. 

OT – I’m slowly getting my groove back towards weight loss.  The show The Walking Dead is helping with that.  We’ve signed up for Netflix and now I mostly limit my Walking Dead watching to when I’m working out, thus motivating me to get on the treadmill.  Whatever works I guess.  We’ve also been pretty good about eating healthy too.  

#153 Update in General (11/08/12)

Well, I was right, I didn’t get in and out of IM appointment as quickly as last time.  I got in to see the nurse right away, but then was waiting for the doctor for two hours.  Apparently the doctor I was supposed to see got snowed in, so he was filling in.  He said I was a low risk patient for surgery next week.  That is good news, nothing I didn’t know though.  As a precaution he might order a nebulizer before surgery to make sure my asthma is calm.  Not a bad idea, so that at least made it a little worthwhile for an appointment. 

While I had someone, I asked him about weight loss and nutrition.  He in general said to go to a nutritionist, as he didn’t want to give me bad advice.  So I did say what we were doing for Carb/Protien/Fat proportions, and asked where squashes fell in the vegetable category ie potatoes > broccoli.  It is somewhere in the middle, which is what I had figured.  Overall, our diet plan is pretty good, from what he was saying.  The problem is sticking to the plan. 

As far as our “diet” is going, the past few months have been a valley of denial.  Not going completely off the rail, but we’re not really making progress either.  My wife stopped logging onto MFP a while ago now.  Without her doing it along side, I’ve been lazy with my logging, and not doing it to the extent it should be done, as well as missing days entirely. 

I’ve stopped walking at lunch, even before the snow arrived.  The main reason was sweat.  The more I walked, the more I wanted to walk.  That is great in theory.  The downside to this is; it is a break at work, and the first place I sweat is my head.  My hair was beginning to look pretty slick in the afternoons.  Yuck.  The doctor gave me an idea though.  Nearing the end of the day, go up and down the flight of stairs in our building a few times.  It is only a few minutes of workout, but it is more calories burned than walking, and it is at the end of the day, so I wouldn’t need to worry as much about the sweat in my hair.  So I’m hoping to get that into action, maybe even today.  I say this as I snack on Kellogg’s Krave cereal, with 0 nutritional value, other than “fortified vitamins” I’m sure, as an after lunch snack.  It is a good think I only have a measured portion of this, as this cereal is a very moreish item.  If left unchecked I’m sure I would eat the entire box.  Alas, I think we will buy these anymore once the box is done. 

 

On the hopefully up side of our diet, we have purchased a book; A Year Full of Recipes.   So far this is inspiring us to cook from scratch, thus having less processed foods.  With some modifications to reduce oil used and various spices we don’t care for, these recipes have been a hit, and most meals being between 300-500 calories with sides on the recipe.  My wife has been doing the cooking so far, which is a lovely thing for her to do.  They are very filling dinners that are fairly nutritionally balanced, without overdoing it on the calories.  Yes they have some deserts, and we will probably make them, but the idea is only have deserts once/twice a week, instead of every day, which is a routine we have fallen into, even if they are small desserts.

 

I hope this meeting with the doctor is enough to help get me started again, be more focused on losing weight, while I have the time, before I try to get pregnant.  In the past year, since we bought the Wii Fit, I have lost about 12 pounds.  That is one pound a month.  This is not a large progress, but it is solid progress in my eyes.  We’ve made small changes here and there, but seem to lack the combination of using the small changes together to make a larger difference.  Hopefully over the next year we can work on that.  The one thing is though, we have been at this a year.  We haven’t been 100% goal oriented, but have majority kept going, kept plugging away.  I think this is the longest period of time where weight management has been at least remotely on my mind.  Some things have taken the focus off, Deb quitting smoking, going on a vacation, clearing a hoarder house, and a cruise full of buffets, but we have kept going and kept most of the weight loss off, so now is a time to start going down again. 

Everything in life has peaks and valleys, but at least life isn’t flat and boring.  

Sorry for the long winded post, just a lot to say today I guess.

#132 My thoughts about getting Pregnant (09/20/12)

Well, today my wife was trying to get caught up with my blog.  She came across this post Pinnacle Pregnancy Point.  The main comment was about

Today is the day I find out if my body is ready for me to become a mom.  (My mind is still in debate.) 

She was worried I am not on board with the pregnancy any more.  That I had kind of gotten on the pregnancy train, and now I couldn’t get off.  That isn’t quite what I had meant. 

Am I worried about getting pregnant; yes.

Do I still want to get pregnant; yes. 

You can see the debate that happens in my head which prompted the sentence above.

One fear I have about becoming pregnant is gaining too much weight and ending up on bed rest because my body won’t support the extra weight.  That is the one fear that is above and beyond the usual pregnancy fears of miscarriage, diabetes, birth defects, not being able to get pregnant, toxaemia, Crohn’s flaring up, asthma getting worse, allergies getting worse (the last bunch, I’m hoping it follows other trend of getting better.) and the dreaded morning sickness.  My stomach used to be fairly iron clad, used to take a LOT to get me to puke; now I get queasy a lot quicker.  We have a few pregnancy books, which I’m sure will instill a few more fears, but I still want to do this.  

I will admit, reading the blogs that I have, has helped get over the initial fear of even trying, and seeing the end result as to why we do this. 

http://2-moms.blogspot.ca/

http://2momstobe.blogspot.ca/

Are two main ones I have read. 

The next fear is one, I hope most people share, “Will I be a good mom?”  My wife is sure I will be, and I’m positive she will be, but still worried I won’t be.  Not having maternal instincts kick in, not trusting what to do.  But the end argument is “you won’t know until you try.”

#131 Sperm Relief (09/17/12)

As mentioned before in #126, our sperm donor is no longer in the system.  I was getting very stressed over having enough chances to have two pregnancies.  Originally my wife and I said, we would try three times each to get pregnant, otherwise, we would adopt, thus in the end would need 6 vials from the same donor.  We didn’t purchase all at the same time, and should have. 

Today, I got an email from our sperm bank, leading me to believe we could buy more, but do it soon.  I thought there was some mass confusion on this, so I emailed back to double check. They responded there are the last 3 vials available; please respond soon as there are other clients interested in them.  I emailed and texted my wife urgent to call me to double check with her.  I have just placed the order to have the remaining three we wanted/needed.  That is a huge perfect birthday present for me.  I am just tearing up waiting for the response that the vials will be ours. 

There is always a chance that I won’t get pregnant in three tries, or my wife won’t get pregnant in three tries or we both could get pregnant on the first try and have extra, but then we are covered for more kids if needed.  Our original plan was to each try three goes and go from there.  We should have just stuck to that and purchased the 6 right off the bat.  But at least now, we have the “supplies” to follow our original plan. 

I guess now I need to book the acupuncture and massages to give things every chance they have. 

I just got the email from the bank.  The order has been placed and the sperm will be in transit to Canada.  They will hold at their location until we order a transfer to Calgary.  Woohoo.  My nerves are still a little bit on edge, until they get here and we have paid for them, but this has helped tremendously. 

#128 Timeline of IUI (09/11/12)

Well, it has been a fairly long journey to get to this point, and it is going to be a bit longer.  The trip started pretty much at the beginning of this year when my wife tried to quit smoking.  That took a few months, then testing for Rubella, and getting on the wait list for the fertility clinic.   It was about five months ago that we got the phone call about when we might get our first appointment.  After testing, purchasing sperm and more testing we now have a new timeline. 

The surgery to remove the polyp in my uterus is scheduled for mid November.  That is another two months away, then another cycle after that for our first attempt.  Late November would be my first ovulation after the surgery.  That is too early in my opinion, no healing time.  However the next ovulation would be over the Christmas/New Year period, which after reading a few other blogs, I’m not convinced our clinic will be open those days.  I’ve emailed the clinic to check. 

On the upside, that gives me more time to lose weight, on the downside, that is lessening the possibility of my Grandma flying over for the birth, even now that is a remote possibility.  My boss is happy of the delayed timeframe.  She is in slight denial that I would be leaving for maternity leave.    

As my other posts before this one, New Month, New Vigor or New Month, New Motivation, I need to kick up my weight loss again.  I don’t think I’m the only one that goes through this cycle of three steps forward and two steps backwards, or should I say three pounds lost, and two pounds gained.  As long as it doesn’t turn into two pounds lost and three gained, repeatedly it is still technically progress. 

So now I need to get rid of the cruise pounds, and continue on my weight loss lifestyle.  Going from full buffet for a week to normal is a hard transition.  I just had three cookies with Tea Tuesday.  Not a good diet choice.  Our vegetables haven’t been cut yet for our lunch salads either; Sunday had very good reasons, Monday medium good reason.  But tonight it is the night they have to get done.  I think my body is craving the veggies again. 

My current goal is to work out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, NO EXCUSES.  The closer I get to possible pregnancy the more worried I am that I will be put on bed rest because my body can’t support the weight of baby and pregnancy gain.  Well, today is Tuesday, and I have a million other things that need to be done, but I NEED to put working out in the top three. 

On the fertility goals, I have also put an email into our friend who is a Fertility Acupuncturist, who owns a clinic that focuses on Fertility, which also has massage, and chiropractic, along with a few other services. Currently I have three extended medical plans which has coverage for such things, and two of which have amounts that expire at the end of the year, thus, I might as well use them up.  So I am trying to be one relaxed cookie by the time I go for the first IUI treatment.  If only the plans also covered Manis/Pettis, that would be the ultimate relaxation day. 

#127 What would you tell yourself? (09/10/12)

I have been reading this blog Two Moms To Be.  On one of their earlier posts entitled What Would You Tell Your Pregnant Self.  The video is very precious and I thought it was worth sharing.  The video was found by Two Moms To Be on http://www.npr.org/blogs/babyproject/ . 

This link, I think is directly from YouTube. 

As a hopefully soon to be pregnant woman, this video was fantastic.  I appreciate any comments from moms to a person hoping to get pregnant soon. 

#126 Catch Up (09/10/12)

Well, it has been over a week since my last post.  First major concern, last Friday, I found out, or donor for sperm is no longer in the system, and may not have sperm available for second pregnancies.  We are now having regrets not purchasing the full six at the time of purchase.  Alas, all things happen for a reason.  We will see how things go.  But it was a shock to our planning.  We are soon going to blitz through the sperm banks again and look for CMV positive donors as well, as a possible to save the current purchased items for my wife who needs CMV negative.  There are multiple options, but while we have the subscriptions for full profiles, we might as well use it. 

For the past week my wife, my MIL and I have been on vacation.  We went on a Cruise to Alaska.  It was a fantastic experience.  I had been worried about sea sickness, as I’m very prone to motion sickness in general, and while in Mexico, on various excursions on boats, experienced it to a varying degree.  Alas, I had my herbal Gravol in my pocket and took it when needed and was good to go.  I’ll post a few more pictures in a few days, with a bit more detail of our trip.  But here is one of a bear crossing our pathway while at a park in Juneau, and a rainbow we saw while on our boat.

The cruise was a floating buffet, so it was hard not be eat a lot.  It was diet killing, but worth it, I think.  In the end, I gained about 6 pounds, hopefully I can burn then off quickly.  Not holding my breath though, but will be working on it diligently. 

It seems Sunday was a day of days.  We got off to a slow start to have a morning to relax, watch some TV and started laundry.  While we were going through flyers to make up our shopping list we got a call from my FIL.  My MIL had slipped in a grocery store and was being attended by EMS and would be taken to the hospital, he just didn’t know which one yet.  Thankfully nothing got broken, but did end up with a lot of pulled ligaments in the back/inside of her legs. 

In the evening, while I was trying to take out the food processor to cut celery and cucumber for lunches, I sliced my thumb pretty good.  I yelled out ouch, and my wife yelled if I was ok, from upstairs, and I said “Not really.”  I had managed to get to the sink before blood started flowing quickly, but couldn’t get anything to put over it to stop the bleeding.  She rushed in and handed me some paper towel to be able to get me to the first aid station in our house upstairs.  We were on the debate on stitches or not, but once my thumb was above my heart for a while it stopped bleeding, one trip to emergency in a family per day is plenty.  So she put on a make shift butterfly bandage and taped/splinted me up so I couldn’t move my thumb and bust open again.  By this time it was after 10:00 pm and we still hadn’t had dinner, my MIL didn’t want the casserole I had made, she only wanted mushroom soup, so we made her some, then dished out the casserole for the three of us and took the plates/bowls to their house. 

While we were there, MIL finally reached the point where she needed some pain killers.  She hates taking anything, even for a headache.  So my wife went to our house to get something for her.  While there she let out the dogs for a quick run outside.  When she went to let them in something happened.  And this part is a good chuckle, only because he is ok.  My dog Tuffy was running full board into the house, but he missed the first step by a hair and ran straight into the slate riser.  It resulted in a temporary TKO (Total Knock Out).  My wife said Eep, and while she was wondering what to do, he regained consciousness.  He was a little wobbly for a bit, but seemed fine otherwise.  The story reminds me of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, so I have to chuckle. 

Now we are finally back on track, ready to work off the cruise pounds and process crab apple trees, browse sperm, and follow up when my Polyp surgery is.  Never a moment to say, what should we do today, there is always a long list of things to keep us busy.