Adventures in Babymaking

For real that should be the name of my blog, maybe someone else has thought of that already, if not, then I guess it's still available.

Our trip to Colorado Springs was fun and essentially uneventful. We did, however, talk to Bobb.y Bro.wn at the dealership when we were getting our car serviced. Anybody else find Do.g the Boun.ty Hun.ter to be a guilty pleasure? It's my late night favorite when nothing else is on.

Of course I was also ovulating during our trip. I guess this meets the "take a vacation and you'll get pregnant" standard...as "just relaxing" hasn't worked yet, we'll see how that one turns out.

What we did discover was some of the most difficult ways to make a baby:

1. Try BDing on your in-laws guest bed, adjacent to the dining room which seconds as a TV room on the squeakiest bed known to man.

2. Try staying at a friend's place overnight, and end up staying in his parent's house (the friends were house sitting) where they have 2 cats and being seriously allergic. It's not easy to get your husband to have sex when your eyes are swollen to twice their size and your voice makes you sound like a man.

3. Try to have sex when you get home after a hike in the mountains when you're used to a lower elevation. Everyone is out of breath.

Side note: Consultation for second opinion is this Thursday morning. Let's hope I'm pregnant and won't need his help. Unfortunately, I won't find out beforehand as I'm early in the TWW.

Wah-Whoooooo!

No, I'm not pregnant, but a big thank you to the universe goes out today anyway!!! Hugs and Kisses from me!

The office manager where I work, who started 2 years after I did, was fired last night. I feel bad for him as a person, now is not the economic time to be without a job, but he was not the right person for the position. He made my life miserable and made me hate work. I only went for the money and for the sake of the patients not for the betterment of the practice. I was a stressed out mess and constantly complained to H who told me to tell off the manager or leave the job (not going to happen! we can't afford it with H in school right now).


That being said, I'm now FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!


It's the same type of free feeling like at the end of the day when you take your bra off. Pure relief.



That  news made my whole week, tonight I start my vacation with that news in mind. Wah-Who!



Side note: I'm hoping this will leave me stress free and get me knocked up.

Baby Making (Veggie Style)

 Get you're minds out of the gutter, I'm not talking about having/using cucumbers in bed.

We just put together a garden in the backyard this weekend (I helped, I have the sunburn to prove it!). I've obviously needed to create something for awhile and since I am apparently incapable of growing an infant inside my body I thought I'd grow some veggie babies in the garden. Tomatoes, Peppers and strawberries this season. I'll nurture and care for those instead of a fetus and hopefully my biological clock will slow down and my mind will be occupied with something other than infertility. I will hopefully have a very fertile backyard garden. In case you didn't know, plant reproduction is very similar to human reproduction (Read Club TTC's blog post about tree sperm if you disagree).

It took way longer than I thought to get it together, but the garden looks fantastic so I'm glad we took the time to make it look nice. And although H didn't want to help at first as he thought it would be a lot of work (and he was right) he did chip in and do most of the work on Sunday.

We have a very southwestern yard where it is mostly rocks, but last summer we had a landscaper put in a concrete pad for an extended patio, put in sod because we couldn't get grass to grow (we had them insert a sprinkler system too, because remembering to water it was likely our problem), they also put in palm trees and a cypress tree. The freak February storm killed our palm trees and we've had one removed (they have to come back to do the other because they didn't have enough manpower to take it out as it's probably 1000 pounds). That storm also killed back the cypress tree so it is now growing from the ground rather than the branches.

Because all of that wasn't enough for me, and neither was all of the potted plants I did back in March, we decided to clear room for a garden this weekend. We moved backyard rocks out of the way to make room. It took all of Saturday to for me to clear an 9 by 6 foot area as the landscaping rocks had been moved around for the concrete pad we had put in so they rocks were a foot and a half deep where the garden was to be (and BTW H was still refusing to help me on Saturday so I did this by myself).

Early Sunday we lined the dug out area with large stones (25 pounds a piece, whew that was a lot of work). All went well until H decided that he needed to fill in the cracks in the stone border we created with loose dirt. My patience was limited at this point due to 2 days of hard labor and what was sure to be severe sunburn. He was dumping dirt everywhere (including into the landscaping rocks) although I was sure the cracks would be filled when we filled the cleared area with dirt and compost he continued to do it. He finally quit when I threatened to start kicking him in the balls if he continued. (BTW I was right, the remaining cracks filled in fine when we dumped in the bagged dirt.

Although we have yet to plant anything and still have to install a short fence to keep the dogs out, I feel successful.

Here's hoping we have a successful summer harvest and that my little veggie babies are tasty.

Side note: We are heading to Colorado Springs for the long weekend with a few extra days of vacation thrown in so I hope that I can keep up with your blogs while we are there. We are bringing a few plants back from H's dad's greenhouse for our new garden.

Second Side Note: Mary did come to help do the gardening, so I want to make sure that she gets credit. But she did spend most of the time supervising and tanning in the sun.

Third Side note: I will post a pic when we actually plant the plants.

Sh*t my head thinks up: version 2

As you all are aware, I'm still making the 1.5 or so hour drive to work 3 days a week. Usually 2 of those days are spent by myself, but sometimes I have a student with me and sometimes H comes with me to keep me company and sits in the spare office or runs errands all day (He's basically my chauffeur, but there are way more stores especially the local/organic/natural foods stores). This give me ample time to think, so here is version 1 and below is version 2 (I changed the name as I like this title better).

1. "I definitely have hypochondriases fertilitosis".
-Being an undiagnosed infertility sucks just a little less than be having unexplained infertility. Since you have nothing specific to blame your problems on. It makes you question everything you do, every piece of food you eat or liquid you drink, where you go, what you smell, things you've done in the past. I analyze every twing, cramp, drop that comes from my who-ha, the time I take my temp, the placement of the thermometer, how fast it takes my temp, the time I take my herbal medications as well as my thyroid medication, timing of sex or absence of sex on a particular day, etc, etc, etc. I now take wheatgrass daily, evening primrose oil, vitex, baby asprin and a new prenatal. I have so much more to look at now! Gosh, maybe I should start analyzing my hangnails or how often I apply chapstick, maybe that will help. Every cramp is possible implantation, every 0.10 of a degree of change in BBT is a for sure sign that I'm pregnant. I definitely have hypochondriasis fertilitosis...OK, so maybe I made that up, but it should definitely be a real thing.

2. "They cost $40 and smell like cat piss!"
-So, there are not many choices of places to shop in the Dumpo, but there is one Natural foods store and I like to buy things there because I just think that all the things they have for you are better than you can find elsewhere, but I also hate giving my money to Walmart (as Walmart is bound to take over the world someday). Anyway, I was about out of my prenatals (purchased from Walgrenes just to spread the wealth a little) and found myself at the natural food store. I decided to purchase one of their mid-level $ prenatals. Last night I took the first pills and here's how the conversation went.

Me: "I have to take 4 of these?!?!?! I only had to take 1 of the last ones!"
H: "Oh suck it up and take them, they're not that big."
Me: "It's not that, it's just that...They cost $40 and smell like cat piss"
H: "Sh*t! You spent $40 on those! They better be made of something much more expensive than cat piss!" [H leans over and smells them] "They do smell like cat piss"..."Bahahahahahah, good luck with that one"

Thanks a lot honey.

Unrelated side note: The Meatball's OK!! She finally pooped out the bowling ball late on Monday night. She's been a little off on her feeding/pooping schedule, but it all seems to have worked it's way out. Of course, she's back in the pantry as often as possible to try to have another go at it.

Second side note: Also, I've scheduled a consultation with the only other gyno in town. He does IUIs. I'm going to go see what he has to say and maybe I can pay him off so that he'll let me do an unmedicated IUI. If his opinion is in agreement that I should just wait and see, then I'll wait until the end of he summer to pursue a 3rd opinon.

Third side note: Mary says I should exercise like crazy around O time, that it will help with EWCM. I figure she should know, she exercises, produces EWCM and has 2 kids, but are there any other opinions on this in addition to my hopefully entertaining post above? What have RE's and other docs said to you about exercising while TTC.

Forth side note: Click the tab above and check out my latest BBT. For those who love to analyze those things as I do, have at it!

When a Meatball eats a Bowling ball...

...nobody gets to sleep!!!

It was a long night last night.

Beagles are one of the only dogs known to eat themselves to death.

H woke me up from a nap around 5 yesterday and told me it was my turn to feed the dogs. We don't free feed, the each eat a specific amount 2x a day. When I got up after a minute or so, he said that he found Mattie the Meatball in the pantry with the door closed and that someone must have shut her in there. I didn't think anything of it as she often wanders into the pantry, it's like her own little smellfest in there. I just proceeded to feed all the dogs and while doing so, noticed that Meatball didn't eat her food. This is very unusual for her as she is usually the first one done. She just walked away and went to lay in the living room.

After I fed the dogs, I went to refill the plastic 2 gallon container we use to serve them from. I picked up the 40 lb dog food bag from the floor to dump it into the container and noticed the top of the bag had been chewed. She had gotten the ziplock open and had her fill while she was stuck in the closet!!!

I went to look at her and sure enough she was lethargic and pathetic looking.

We gave her a mixture of peroxide and water to induce vomiting. And although she did vomit, only 20 or so pieces of food came up. I took her for a walk, and then came back and fed her more of the mixture only to have her vomit up foam. We did the mixture again at 10 pm when we couldn't get a hold of the vet. The combination of food and peroxide made her belly swell up like our little beagle had eaten a bowling ball.

When the vet did call back around 11:30 PM, he recommended letting her have water and walking her a little, but as long as the vomiting stopped and pooping started he said that she should be fine. He said that little dogs rarely suffer from bloat (twisted stomach) like big dogs do. I took her for a walk again at midnight or so.

She puked again a little after midnight, this time brown foam (maybe some mushy food was in it?) but kept drinking a little water (we did try to limit her water).

I was so worried about her I could barely sleep. I left her with H today as I had to commute to work. He will take her to the vet if she seems worse. I can't stop thinking about her though.

She still hasn't pooped and it's 11:00 AM, H is going to take her to the vet to see what he has to say.

Side Note: AF just came, ran to the bathroom before publishing this post. Not to upset as you see I have other things to worry about.

Second Opinions?

I need ideas here people.

I went back to see doc on Tuesday for a follow up on bloodwork. I had that bloodwork done that morning because the people in the lab are slow...very slow. I was lucky that it got there on time.

There is some fantastic news...my TSH is now at 1.7. Well within the range of normal (under 5) and well within the appropriate range for TTC (according to you all is below 3.0).

I talked to Doc about what we do now and he said that there was nothing to do. I ovulate per my BBTs, my tubes are open per my HSG and H's SA is acceptable apparently. I'm really not sure if there was any other blood work done, but I'm pretty sure I had something done on CD 10 at some point in time (likely when the found out my TSH was so high)

I asked him how long we should wait before considering an IUI and he said a YEAR. A FUCKING YEAR!!! Fuckin' Fuck Me Fuckity-Fuck!!!!

His rational is that 80% of normal couples get pregnant in the first year, 90% within 2 years and the other 10% have true infertility and need intervention. He said that with my TSH just now being under control, this should be considered the start of our first REAL year of TTC (it's actually my 16th cycle TTC!!!).

Does this sound insane to anyone else!!! I am not a patient person when it comes to this subject.

Another part of his rational is that we shouldn't pursue expensive procedures when it could now happen naturally. Now H and I are not the Rockefellers, nor are we related to Bill Gates, but we can afford to throw some money into this.

H and I haven't made an official decision, but we are thinking of giving it 3 months or so and then pursuing a second opinion. I think 3 months of a normal TSH along with all of our other normal functioning body parts, as well as BBTing, OPKing, and timing intercourse should be enough.

Any other opinions would be welcome. There is one other gyno in town (who's a bit of a creapo I hear) all RE specialists require a gyno referral and I'd have to drive to El Paso, TX to see them (but, hey, it's not Albuquerque). One of my patients is a 34 year old female gyno who now works in El Paso, I'd be interested to hear her opinion.

Should I go now? Should I wait 3 months? Should I wait a year?

Do I need a second opinion? Or 3rd or 4th for that matter?

Unrelated side note: Spent mother's day with Mary and her kids. (she sort of let me adopt them for a day) We planted flowers in her yard on base and her kids played in a blow up pool. Junebug was a hot mess of popsicle, dirt and sunscreen by the end of the day.

Junebug and Wyatt early in the day

Junebug later in the day post popsicle and sunscreen and now add a layer of dirt. Me on the left Mary on the right.

Just a few little things

Sorry in advance for the length of this post, I combined multiple thoughts into one post.

1. Thank you to those of you who gave me the "Versatile Blogger" award:

Bridget at The Lost Stork 
Ants at Making Baby Giraffes
Jen at Chronicles of Violetta Margarita

There are rules to accepting this award.
1. Thank the person who gave it to you (see above...thanks again)
2. Tell 10 things about yourself
3. Nominate 15 new blogs you have found.

I'm not always one to color within the lines, so I'm breaking the rules.

So...as for 10 things about myself...I listed 3 things about myself back in February during the last round of awards. I bet I can come up with a few more.

-1. I have horrible handwritting, so everything that can be typed gets typed. I even try to avoid using post-its, so I use the stickies program on my mac very often.

-2. When I grow up I want to be a truck driver. I think it would be cool to see new places, listen to books on tape and live in what is essentially a tree house. I'd have to give up my current job to do this so I simply don't think it will happen.

-3. I am a very good handy man. I can install drywall, run electrical wires, re-roof a house and simply have an intuitive sense for how things work. When it comes to fixing things around the house, if falls to my hands unless it involves heavy lifting or things out of my reach.

-4. I'm very good with computers and do some of my own re-programming, therefore, for work my boss and I do all of the computer work for our practice rather than hiring it out.

-5. Given that I know computers and construction, you'd think I have some knowledge about cars, but I don't, and it's very frustrating for my husband who has a strong (to say the least) interest in cars, mostly modern cars. I can't tell you one thing about the engine of a my car, but I wish I knew more.

-6. I'm surprised that I can keep up with other people's blogs, because I am a horrible long distance friend. You move away or I move away and it's "See Ya". I can't seem to keep in touch, even with facebook and text messaging. I have a hard enough time keeping in touch with my parents and siblings let alone long distance friends.

-7. I like to knit and wish I had more time to keep up with that hobby.

As for new blogs I've discovered, please check out my right hand column as those are the blogs I follow and the people who write them are some of the most honest, entertaining, supportive people I know.

Also, if you don't do it on a regular basis, please check out LFCA and read/follow some of the new blogs that are posted each week, those girls need support just like we do. 

2. I know that the above could be a post in and of itself, but I don't know how soon I will be able to post again. So, also, about our trip to Phoenix. I finally got the dreaded "So when are you guys going to start having kids?" question. And it frickin' blind-sided me. H and I were out to brunch with his parents (who came from Colorado), his uncle (who's birthday party it was that brought us to Phonenix) and his aunt and her daugher (H's cousin and aunt came from Florida for this party). After we ate, we were talking about what our favorite subject was in high school (his cousin is 14) and out of nowhere, his aunt turns to us and says it. We hadn't prepared anything and didn't know what to say, so I look to H and he blurts it out to everyone, "We're actively trying but can't get pregnant, Michele has a thyroid issue that we are trying to take care of before we try anything else". We got the predictable response "It'll happen when it happens." But, in general, they were supportive. I think we embarrassed his aunt because H told me later that she apologized for bringing it up and asking in front of everyone.  I'm sure the question will come up again so I will prepare H a little better because I think the word ovulation came up in the original conversation with his aunt and that's just a little TMI for some I know.

3. Finally got to hang out with Mary again, she's back and I'm back, and if you didn't go back and read it, she thanked all of you for thinking of her during a difficult time. Also, Mary and I are trying to plan when we will have a chance to try some new wines we are interested in and she tries to plan around my 2WW. Granted she follows my blog, but also as of late she cycles one week behind me so she knows my schedule. She says to me today, "I ovulate today so maybe we can drink next weekend". Now I know she isn't planning on any more kids and her boyfriend is stationed in England, so I say "How do you know you ovulate today?" (Me thinking "As I haven't posted anything recently"...as in, "I didn't post anything last week that I ovulated" and also, I'm a week behind due to last cycle being sick). She looks at me and says "I have EWCM". I think she may have been reading some of your blogs too.