#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. 

#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. 

#119 Too Much (08/21/12)

Do you ever feel like there is just too much going on?  Like you are juggling and you start with one ball, then add another, and anther.  Three balls not too bad, but then more keep coming, you keep adding to the circle of balls you are juggling until you feel if anything else comes at you everything will come crashing down. 

Crohn’s is somewhat new to my life.  My mom lived with it from her 20’s and in the end died from a spinoff of the disease.  It is funny though, it never seemed to be a topic of discussion in our house growing up.  I knew she didn’t eat green vegetables as they hurt her stomach, and a few other things here and there.  She occasionally had to have Boost meal drinks on top of her meals to help boost her calories.  Over the years she had multiple surgeries to remove pieces of her intestine.  I’m pretty sure she was on prentizone to help manage the crohn’s.  Even though I lived with someone majorly affected by crohn’s all of my juvenile life, I don’t know much about the disease, probably more than the general population, but not much.  Now that I have it, (one juggle), my Virgo self needs to research it (two juggle). 

In the attempt to lose weight (three juggle) in order to get pregnant (four juggle) my wife and I are eating healthy, which is helping for the diet requirement for Crohn’s which was suggested, basically eat from the Canada Food Guide, and minimize animal fats. Originally I didn’t think that was much of an issue, but my wife brought up the question “Does that include dairy and eggs?”  In our house that is a major source of protein. Thus we may have possible major changes in diet (five juggle), but at the very lease tracking my diet through My Fitness Pal back to a higher degree of accuracy to get a better view of my macros, including the vitamins I take to make sure I’m getting the nutrients I need, especially for when I’m pregnant.

Also along the trying to get pregnant list, the polyp is the next issue (six juggle). Not a major thing (hopefully), but still something bugging my noodle. 

Then we have the general living category, learning to can fruit and deal with a mass harvest (seven juggle).  My job, thankfully isn’t that stressful, but does occupy a fair amount of my day (eight juggle), preparing the house for before I get pregnant (pre nesting), like personalizing the master bedroom (nine) organizing our storage (ten), clearing out non essentials to make room for baby stuff (eleven), preparing for the cruise (twelve).  That is a dozen things up in the air right now, some more stressful than others; the last one a good one, but we’ve never been on a cruise so I don’t know what to prep for. This is all stuff that is either a have to deal with or really want to deal with but I’m feeling very overwhelmed.  I just feel I could sleep for a week to let things settle in my head then have a game plan.  But for the most part, everything is happening as it happens.  As long as the dozen juggles doesn’t turn into a baker’s dozen before the cruise, I think the cruise will give me the much needed rest from the regular day to day to come back with Vim and Vigor to attack the next thing that needs to be dealt with.

#93 A Selfish Moment (07/11/12)

Today and yesterday I’ve been going through my wife and my finances.  I’ve been planning for future expenses, and paying down debt, the cost of getting pregnant, and baby expenses, plus planning for reduced income while on maternity leave.  For these costs and being at $0 consumer debt by the time baby is born, it is possible. 

Now here comes the selfish moment.  Before baby arrives, I want a vacation, a true sit on the beach, relax have a few drinks, swim no worries vacation, or a cruise, but same concept.  Ideally a beach vacation would be nice anywhere from late November to late January.  However we are planning to try and get pregnant, around the end of September.  Going on vacation during morning sickness is not my idea of a good time.  So that leaves, either go in September before I get pregnant or delaying pregnancy.  In addition to that dilemma the cost of said vacation, to achieve the above goals, (unless delaying pregnancy) that is not feasible. 

Part of the reason we are looking to get pregnant sooner than later is the grandma factor.  My grandma is 90 years old.  If health permitting she mentioned she would fly over to Canada from England for the birth of my baby.  That would be a huge honor.  With her being 91, time is kind of in the essence. 

The reason I would like a vacation before pregnancy is this fact, once baby arrives, my wife and I will no longer have the option to vacation alone, for about 20 years.  Maybe we would be able to get a weekend alone for a mini vacation solo.  We do plan on vacationing once kids arrive, but financially and reasonably that wouldn’t be until baby is about 1-2 years old.  Even at 1 year, I’m looking at 2-3 years before another chance to go to Mexico, or cruise etc. 

Being a mother is something I’m looking forward to.  When we were planning 2012 this was supposed to be our relax year to just have an “us” year.  Well, that went out the window.  The beginning of this year we were still organizing the new house, we did get to real Vegas in February though.  That was a go, go, go vacation, not quite relaxing, but a lot of fun.  Then we had the stress of trying to get the house next door for my MIL, and my wife quitting smoking.  Then we did get the house, so that put panic into clearing out MIL’s old house of years of stuff and plants, and fixing what needed to be fixed, in order to get the house staged and on the market.  Directly after the house went on the market, we go the house next door.  In case you haven’t read my blog, it was a Hoarder’s house.  It was in complete disarray.  We have been working very hard ever since, cleaning it out and fixing what needed to be fixed and cleaning it.  Even though it feels like we have been doing this section for a long time it has only been two weeks.  The other house, we were working on for about a month before that, to a varying degree.  We will be doing the cleaning, painting and then moving the old house contents to new house until August 1^st.  It is going to be a crazy month. 

In August we may be able to relax a bit, but that is when fertility appointments will gear up a little.  Then if the stars align perfectly, I will get pregnant.  So, September would be the month for a vacation.  Before I met my wife, my life was mellow, so to speak, other than the crazy of ex husband.  I didn’t do much, I watched TV at night, I worked in the days, and I relaxed on weekends.  Those days are long gone.  For the better, don’t get me wrong, I love my life and appreciate my life.  I just wish it wasn’t so crazy all the time.  This brings me to the vacation part.  I feel we both have been working our butts off, and deserve and long overdue, do nothing but appreciate nature vacation.  This will allow us to unwind a bit, stave off a nervous breakdown, which I am a little prone to meltdowns.  Then we will be calm and ready to get pregnant and start the next cycle of crazy busy being pregnant and early stages of motherhood. 

Am I being selfish saying “I need a vacation before pregnancy, or during?”  I mean we did get a vacation early this year.  Some people don’t get one vacation a year, never mind two.  Should I just be grateful for the one I had, and the bundle of joy I will be getting, and the prospect of my grandma being there for the birth of my child? 

Maybe, I’m just overworked at this point and will feel better after mid/late August, once I get our household cleaning back into order and general errands caught up enough to be able to relax in a clean home, without a daunting to do list hanging over my head.  

#55 Post Mock Vegas (05/22/12)

I love my wife for having an imagination and creative side.  Mach Vegas was a lot of fun.  I got home and she had set up the house as a hotel, signs all around, welcome to Vegas, and pictures of slot machines etc, and with room numbers on the doors.  She met me in a fedora and big sunglasses as the “receptionist”.  I couldn’t stop smiling/giggling as she checked me in, gave me a room key, and a tour of the hotel.  We became tourists in our own city.  In the theme of Las Vegas we went to all the casinos, ate out a lot, did some sightseeing and shopping. 

Along with Vegas theme came eating out.  Friday and Saturday we came in under our calorie goals, not quite on really good clean foods but we kept it from being a total binge weekend.  Sunday however came the other Vegas ritual; buffet.  We had a Sunday brunch buffet and ate too much.  I would like to note though, we were fuller faster than normal.  But end result ate TOO MUCH.  Sunday evening was the bad icing on the cake so to speak; a BBQ dinner with family.  Sunday was an overall over eating binge day; buffet with, eggs, bacon, crab salad, noodle salad, fruit (some covered in chocolate), waffle with whip cream and strawberries, ½ croissant filled with chocolate and multiple desert tastes, dinner was an appetizer of cheese artichoke dip with crackers, and alcohol then the main was BBQ pork with roast potatoes, corn on the cob, bread, salad, alcohol and cheesecake for dessert.  The day end was about 1000 calories over at best estimate for the buffet and food cooked elsewhere.  It might have been more.  I tried to log everything though, even though it was a binge day. 

The other side of Vegas was lots of walking, which was good to help offset the extra calories a bit. 

Monday, even though it was a day off, it was back to reality.  We did our shopping, cleaning, cooking, cutting etc.  The weekend was a fantastic weekend, even though Sunday cost me a pound maybe a pound and a half. (Next day I did an extra weigh in to see the weight cost)  We will see when it all ends on Saturday, on the official weigh in.  I’m going to bust my but to hopefully battle the binge and lose more than the gain. 

#54 Viva Vegas (05/18/12)

Today is the day starting the long weekend.  For this long weekend my wife and I are having a Stacation.  I know vacations are usually doom to a diet.  Will a stacation be the same?  I’m letting my wife plan the whole weekend, and other than the theme of Viva Vegas, I don’t know what we will be doing.  She did say a LOT of walking to stay in tune with Vegas, as when we did go, we walked, and walked, and walked.  You get the idea.  It would have been neat to see how many steps we did with the fitbit in Vegas.  Alas let’s hope this isn’t too bad on the diet. 

Monday we will try and work off calories, as we will be doing some severe gardening to get rid of the Jiffi pot plants that are starting to take over our kitchen.  We are having to rework a garden patch that hasn’t been used in years and has been taken over by dandelions and some rhubarb.