IUI #6/3

I’m so over these injections.  Knowing that we’re almost done has not made doing them any easier.  One more gonal-f tonight and then a novarel tomorrow and then, cross your fingers, I’m done injecting hormones into my body.  YAY!

I went in for a follicle count and blood work today.  She found 5 follicles, but only one looked like it would be dominant.  I’m a little bummed out.  We decreased the meds in hopes that 6 follicles would go down to maybe 2 or 3 follicles, but it looks like one it is.  My estrogen came back at 374, so we definitely have 1 really solid follicle, maybe even a second by Friday.

Friday is IUI #6/3.  It will only be cycle day 11.  It’s rather early, but if follicles are ready, then they’re ready, right?

This seems to have gone fast, but the early IUI coupled with the fact that I’ve been done with a horrible cold since this past weekend is probably why.  I’ve heard it’s going around and with the huge number of different students I see on a daily basis, it’s not surprising that it got me.

What do I do when I’m sick?  Knit socks of course.  The socks that I started a couple weeks ago got finished up last night…

 

Find the pattern here.

You can also catch a glimpse of the new nursery floor and wall color in that picture.  I’ve been too sick and/or preoccupied to take good pictures of it so far.  I’ll get there eventually.  For now, I’d prefer to nap on my couch. 🙂

OHSS Continued

Nothing super new to report for the most part.  I’m still in a fair amount of pain off and on, though it’s a different kind of pain than it was.  It’s more of cramping pain and less of a stabbing pain.  I’m having a hard time differentiating between symptoms of a possible pregnancy and symptoms of the OHSS.  I feel a lot different than I did when I was pregnant before.  I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.

I still can’t be on my feet for very long before I start to really feel bad.  I’m managing a load of laundry here and there, and I’m thankful I can teach and study sitting down.  I’ve had a really light workload from my classes for the past 2 weeks, so that’s been a huge weight lifted as well.  I’ve been able to lay down when I need it and not worry so much about getting things done (although, I think there might be something growing on the dirty dishes in the sink… yikes..).

On a positive note, when they drew blood for a CBC last Thursday, they also decided to check my hormones just to see where they were.  I wasn’t supposed to start taking prometrium until Friday and my progesterone check wasn’t supposed to be until Monday.  BUT, my progesterone was already at 15 all by itself 4 days past the trigger shot. 🙂  My progesterone has never gone up on it’s own before.  I know having progesterone in your system isn’t indicative of a pregnancy, but it’s good to know my body can do some things naturally (you know, naturally if you don’t count all of the extra FSH shots and hcg trigger I had pumped my body full of).

I’m having weird dreams too.  Last night, I dreamed that Dr. B’s office didn’t tell us that we actually had 5 mature follicles.  I’m obviously subconsciously terrified of high order multiples.  Although, I don’t blame myself for it.  Twins?  Awesome.  Triplets?  Do-able, maybe.  Quads or more?  No, thank you..  One or two would be just right. 🙂
I also had dinner with President Obama.  He asked for my advice on something super top secret and important.  😉  But that could have been because we stayed up ridiculously late waiting for his speech last night. 😉

Skill has been keeping me excellent company for the past week.  After we lost the baby, Jeremy lifted his “no dogs in the bed” rule.  The new rule is that Skill has to be invited onto our bed, he isn’t allowed to sleep in our bed at night, and he has to get down if one of us is feeling crowded.  It’s been so nice to have company while I’ve been feeling so bad.  The cats are great, but they usually do their own thing for most of the day.  Skill is always with me and is always totally down with all of the lounging.

Today is 9 days past IUI #2.  In less than a week, we’ll know if it worked.  I’m ready for this cycle from hell to be over one way or another.

OHSS

Yep.  I’ve officially developed the dreaded Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome.

The cramps I was feeling the days after Monday’s IUI were just a precursor to yesterday’s OMG I’M DYING, SOMEONE IS STABBING ME WITH A KNIFE pain.  After a brief call to Dr. B’s office, I was told to take some tylenol, rest, and come in for an ultrasound in the morning… Talk about tough love.

Today they found lots of fluid in my abdominal cavity and enlarged ovaries.  Woo! The bad news?  There’s nothing they can do about it other than keep an eye on it for now.  The good news?  It won’t affect my ability to get pregnant this cycle.  Even worse news?  If I am pregnant, it’s going to last even longer thanks to the excess hcg that will be in my system.  At least then it will be worth it.

They’re checking my white blood cell count, just in case, and I was told to clear my schedule and stay off my feet for a while and to hydrate like crazy.

I had to stay home from class last night, so I was home for Halloween.  I hung out on the couch and watched Jeremy hand  out candy.  This is the first time we’ve ever handed out candy, so it was kind of exciting.  Until Jeremy opened the door with the bowl of candy and said, “Hey, little girls..” to 2 little girls.  It was a little creepy.  We had to have a discussion on the proper way to talk to small children without freaking their parents out. 😉  He had the hang of it by the end of the night.  He definitely made the evening humorous though.

Skilly and Bella really liked the activity.  They had never seen Trick or Treaters before.  Alice hid under the bed. 😉

10 days until testing day.

HSG-tastic

I had my HSG test yesterday.  I’m not going to lie, the procedure itself was excruciating.  The 600 milligrams of ibuprofen they had me take an hour before hand didn’t even make a dent.

Dr. M. put a catheter through my cervix.  The catheter had a balloon on the end, which she then inflated.  She injected the dye and quickly took a series of x-rays.  The whole thing took less than 5 minutes, but I thought I was going to die.  I’m sure actually being pregnant and going through labor greatly rivals how awful it was, but to date, this was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.

As soon as she took the catheter out, the pain decreased almost completely.  I had a really dull ache the rest of the day.  Last night, I really just felt uncomfortable, but today I’m feeling pretty crampy.

The procedure itself hurt a million time more than I imagined, however afterwards hurt considerably less than I was expecting.  I suppose it was a good trade off.

And now for some pictures, yes? 😉  My mom was awesome and came with me.  They let her stand behind the glass with the computers.  She took pictures for me.  Because she’s the best.

Yep, those are MY lady parts. 😉

Not sure what you’re looking at?

All labeled, just for you 😉

And just what were the results?

Perfection.

Here is Dr. M informing me that, not only are my lady parts perfectly shaped and in the perfect places, they’re also perfectly clear…

I may or may not be crying here.  It was involuntary..  Don’t judge me. 😉

 

 

 

So now?  We wait.  Jeremy’s next test is at the end of March.  If he’s got perfect swimmers, we start on clomid and cross our fingers.  If not, then she passes us off to an infertility doctor and we start seriously considering insemination and continue to cross our fingers.

She wants us to continue to try this month because I haven’t ovulated yet and the dye may have washed some gunk out of my fallopian tubes that the x-ray didn’t pick up.

So for the rest of the day, I’m hanging out with my stick on heating packs.  I’ve got acupuncture later and I’m dragging myself to my kickboxing class after that.

Also, I sent in my deposit for grad school! Wooo!

Pollen and Dog Collars… Wait.. What?

Pollen season has begun here in Aurora!  Yesterday boasted a 9.4 out of 12 for the pollen count.  Today is slightly lower, but promises to increase this weekend.  I. Can’t. Breath.  My skin itches.  My eyes itch.  My entire mouth and throat itch.  My head my float away soon.  And I can’t take a single gosh darn dose of medicine…  Why?  It’s bad for the baby I don’t have yet.  Ridiculous.  Would I be so irritated if I was already pregnant?  Probably, but I would keep it to myself.  Now, I’m just angry about it.

On a positive note, I got my first ever positive ovulation stick last week:

❤

After last month, I decided to invest in the ClearBlue digital ovulation sticks.  They’re a little more expensive, but I LOVE them!  They don’t make you interpret line darkness and are super easy to use.  A smiley face means you’ll ovulate within 12 to 36 hours.  A circle means nothing has been detected.  Then a few days later, you can confirm ovulation with a thermal chart shift. =)  So much easier!

It helped us time everything.  We timed it so well that fertilityfriend.com has given our chances of conceiving this month as “high” and gave us an approximate testing date.  Yea right.  I’ll believe it when I see it. 😉

I stopped in to see my dermatologist last week because my breakouts have gotten out of control with my constant hormonal shifts.  She said it’s amazing that humans ever get pregnant since there are so many obstacles to overcome.  I love her.  She gave me some baby friendly meds and told me to keep her updated. 🙂

I haven’t been knitting much this summer.  I think it’s the heat.  I didn’t knit much last summer either.  Until allergy season started and I was stuck inside our air conditioned bedroom.  A couple days ago, I couldn’t get socks out of my head, so I sat down with some fabulous purple variegated sock yarn and started working on Kalajoki Socks:

Love

It’s a fun pattern.  I need to get them done because the knitting group I’ve taken over starts on September 6 and I need samples.  Have I finished the Snow Day socks?  No.  Why?  2 of the needles broke in transit somewhere and I am short one #2 needle.  Boo!  What’s really a bummer is that they have maybe an inch of stockinette and then the ribbing and they’re done.  Note to self:  tiny wooden needles don’t travel well.

In other news, I’ve finally started working on Upcycled Dog Collars for our store.  I’m using old neckties and they’re turning out so cute:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79968444/upcycled-necktie-medium-dog-collar

Our toys are all eco-friendly and it’s been important to me to at least offer an eco-friendly option for collars too.  I’d love to use hemp webbing as that’s far more sustainable, but it’s REALLY expensive.  We may get there eventually, but I’m not going to rush it.  My office can’t really hold many more new materials unless I seriously cut back on my yarn stash.  And that’s not happening.  Plus, we’ve figured out how to make the most out of our serious lack of space if we add a baby into the mix… and more store supplies are just not in the picture.

That’s all for now.  I’m a sewing fool today. 🙂

Moving Pains.

I. am. exhausted.

We’re moving this weekend.  In fact, the first load is leaving in about 12 hours.  Am I packed? Not completely.  Should I really be writing a blog?  Probably not.  Then, why am I?  Because I need a quick break.

I’m really looking forward to leaving this apartment, but this is reminding me for the 4th time in 3 years how much I HATE moving.  It’s unsettling and such a pain.  When we moved into this apartment last year I told Jeremy I didn’t want to move again until we could afford to hire movers to do everything for us… Yea, right.  Hello, my name is Jessica and I’ll be your mover today! 😉

Jeremy has been working crazy hours lately.  I think he sneaked into bed around 4 am yesterday and as of 11 pm tonight still isn’t home.  I’m really missing him.  I think more for the support than anything right now.  Moving and midterms don’t mesh well.

I have a suspicion that the bronchitis/pneumonia/cold/sinus infection I just finally got over is making its way back.  Slowly but surely.  I was feeling pretty good for a couple weeks, but I think I might be trying to do too much.  Spring break starts in a week though, so there will be plenty of time for sleeping then. 🙂

Bella and I took a quick break earlier to respond to some emails… We didn’t want to get up…

Off to finish packing the bedroom.  Falling asleep on my squishy bed almost sounds like a better option.

Knitting and Sleeping

I’m still alive… for now…  Feeling better than before, but still not feeling good.  I don’t think I realized how sick I was when I went to the doctor last week.  I’m more exhausted than ever and still sleeping a ton.  My chest is still sore and tight and I’m still congested.  The snowstorm in the midwest was a huge blessing this past week.  I only went to school on Tuesday and got to stay home and sleep the rest of the week.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten quite a bit of knitting done… 🙂

First, I sewed the buttons Jeremy picked out onto the cowl I made him for Christmas.  It matches his hat and I thought he could use it with the bitter cold weather that was coming our way.

"Thermis" by Kris Knits

Next, I finished the sweater I made my mother-in-law for Christmas.

"Iced" by Carol Feller

I finally finished the Flying Saucer socks I’ve been working on since August.  I bought the yarn during the Chicago Yarn Crawl last summer.  The German fingering weight yarn is wound with two strands and then dye injected to give you two almost identical toe-up socks.  They’re psychedelic and I love them.  They’re a little itchy though (75% wool will do that), so I’m going to soak them in some conditioner and hope they soften up.

 

Schoppel Wolle Flying Saucer Yarn - 2112 - Kommando Socke

I worked on my baby hats for Save the Children as well.  I’m up to 20 which is far fewer than I hoped to have done by now.  I’ve still got a couple weeks before I have to ship them out.  They’re going to mothers in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.   Next time, they should have this going on from February through July.  My Christmas knitting really kept me from getting as much done.

 

Baby Hats for Save the Children

I’ve also been working on two other projects.  My “Snow Day Socks” and my mom’s birthday present.  Neither are finished yet, so you don’t get any pictures. 😉

Meanwhile, we have 3 weeks until we move and I’ve been packing like crazy.  I’m looking forward to it for sure. 🙂  Well, maybe not the actual moving part.   I have a feeling that unpacking is going to have to wait until spring break.  hehe.

Penguin Pajamas

I hate the color of my living room.  It’s beige.  An ugly beige.  And I’m sick of looking at it…  Go to the bedroom?  Same color…

Day two of being a couch monkey.  I’d like to report that I’m feeling much better, but I don’t think that’s the case.  At best I’m feeling the same.  Boo.
The building manager who lives a couple floors above us stopped by this afternoon to drop off our rent statement.  Usually he just slips it under the door, but it just so happens that today of all days he couldn’t seem to get it to fit and knocked on the door.  I’m scrambling out from under my mountain of blankets to find a robe and trip over Alice who finds the most productive thing to do when someone knocks on the door or rings the buzzer is to hiss uncontrollably… Meanwhile, I’m yelling at him to hang on a second and finally answer the door in a bright pink robe and the fleece penguin pajamas my brothers gave me for Christmas.
“Oh… Are you not well?” is the first thing he says.  Gah… I hate being sick.

That was the excitement of the day.. I need a nap…

I’m sick of being in this apartment.

Couch Monkey

I hate being sick.  I know, who doesn’t?  But it’s not the actually feeling sick that I hate, although that’s a bummer too.  I hate not being able to do anything.  I came down with a cold 3 weeks ago and ‘lo and behold, it’s officially turned into bronchial pneumonia… and a sinus infection…  Therefore, both Jeremy and my doctor have pretty much forbidden me from leaving the couch or bed for the next 5 days…  No school, no Stitch and Bitch, no working out, no errands, no cleaning (oh darn 😉 )…  I. am. a. Couch Monkey.

I hate sitting still.  I’ve been a knitting maniac already and I’m sure before my 5 days are up I’ll have lots of pictures for you.  My Flying Saucer socks are almost done and they’re AWESOME!

Other than my current 5 days of vacation, school is going well so far.  I’m really enjoying my classes and professors.  I’ve recently decided to apply to Roosevelt’s Sociology graduate program.  Yikes, eh? 🙂 I never thought I’d be going to grad school so soon.  Crossing my fingers that 2 years from now I’ll have 2 degrees and a job. 😉

Meanwhile, I’m exhausted and am going to take a nap.  More later.