We heard it!!!

Yesterday we had our very first ultrasound appointment and we got to hear the heartbeat of our little one. It was the most amazing thing ever, for now. I had to cry when I heard it, How can something so tiny make such a beautiful sound? We saw one sac and only one little one in there, so it won’t be twins.

We are now officially done with the wonderful IVF folks at Walter Reed and have decided to be safe and go with the OB at Bethesda Navy hospital. GO Navy! They are better prepared for high risk pregnancies etc., so I don’t mind having a longer drive out there. I will make my appointment on Monday, so we’ll see when they can see me there.

The wait is over.

Well, it has been over for a while, but I was waiting for the second test results to make sure it’s really true.
It worked! We’re actually pregnant.
I still can’t really believe it, but it is slowly sinking in. I am going to be real mom!! Amazing.
Now, of course I am waiting for the next appointment, which will be the very first Ultra Sound. I am also looking for signs and changes, so I am over-interpreting every kind of pinch or pain I feel. So far everything is OK though. According to my calculations I am 4 weeks, 5 days pregnant. Just about 35 or 36 more weeks to go!!!!

Waiting Game

You know what’s the most frustrating thing about this whole IVF process is? The wait after they transfer your embryos back. See, I went in last Thursday to have the eggs removed. They then fertilized them and transferred them back on Sunday. Note, not all were transferred, as I had 10 eggs that fertilized, but we chose to stick with only two little ones, Now, it’s been 3 days and nothing has happened. I had no appointments and feel OK (finally). Next Thursday, the 15th is when I finally get to take a blood test to see if it all worked and I am actually pregnant. Until then I get to sit here and imagine what’s going on inside me, or not.

Back and Forth

All along we were told that our surgery date for the egg retrieval was going to be on 1 November. When I went for my appointment on Friday though, they told us we could already have it on 31 October. Great, we thought, A Halloween conception. That can only be a fun baby, right? Well, after my appointment today the doctors think that it should be 1 November. Oh well, the baby will still be fun and I get to work one extra day this week.

Other than that all is well. We’re just exhausted from all the driving to Walter Reed every morning, just to be there at 6 AM each day. That makes for a long day. I don’t think I’ll be watching Heroes tonight.

My. Head. Hurts

I would describe it as an undercover headache as it’s not really full-blown. It’s hiding in there somewhere and every once in a while I make a certain movement and ouch, there it goes.

Oh Well. It may have to do with the fact that I got up before 4 AM today. All I can think about is a nice big fat dinner and my PJs and my bed. In that order, although I am not opposed to having dinner in bed.

We’ll see.

Ouch

I started taking the Gonal F and Menopur shots on Sunday and while the needle prick actually hurts less than the Lupron one, the meds sting. First of all, it’s a lot more to inject and I can feel the sting inside, where I inject it at. It’s really weird. Last night I started taking those shots in the stomach so that I can actually see how far the plunger is down. I have to take those twice a day, which sucks, but compared to what’s coming with the HCG and the progesterone, I think this is great for now.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the hospital to get my blood drawn. Since I live in VA and the clinic is at Walter Reed I will actually take the metro there tomorrow so that I don’t have to deal with all the traffic after the appointment. That way I get to work better. The down side is that I have to take the very first metro. Oh well.

As far as side effects go, I feel fine. I am a little crampy at times, but nothing special.

OK, I have to go to CVS and get more needles.

My Meds

Junkie

And no, I don’t mean anyone of these guys.

I feel like a junkie because of all the meds I have sitting on my dining room table. I should take a picture of it all.
I have two shopping bags full of Menopur and Bravelle. And yes, please Google them if you feel inclined to do so. I may post more on the meds later. Then I have a somewhat smaller bag full of Gonal F and a whole bag full of needles. It just hurts to look at it. There are also the really big 1 ½ inch ones for the Novarel (HCG) and for the Progesterone. Precisely for the latter two meds the nurse drew some really cute shapes on my butt so that the hubby knows where to inject me with them. We did a test yesterday with simple Sodium Chloride and it wasn’t that bad, but I heard the Progesterone is though since it is in oil, but we will see.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big the day. My baseline appointment is finally here.
To this day I have still not had any side effects, which I hope will continue. I should get more meds tomorrow too, so who knows how many injections I get to have each night.

The other day, when I was putting the cap back on my needle, it went through the cap and poked me in my finger. It still hurts now. But that is a small price to pay for the joys that are to come :))

When it Rains…

You know the rest.

Sometimes things just happen out of nowhere and it makes you feel like somebody wants to screw everything up for you. And all you get to do is keep going and hoping it’ll all work out in the end.

Day 11

I know I am going to jinx myself here, but this the 11th day I am on Lupron and so far I have not had any side effects.
There was one incident when I got a little too emotional in the morning because I was soooooooo tired, but that might’ve been regular grumpiness.

I have been waiting to post this, but I figured that 11 days is pretty long, but who knows. Stay tuned for the “told you so” post.

The never-published Post

Well, it should be more like the never-written post, but there were attempts over the last two months.

It has been somewhat stress-full lately, leading up to this month, which I like to call conception month. For the last three weeks I have been taking the birth control pill, even though I don’t even want to control that. Now I am on Lupron, which I have to inject myself with each night. Today was actually my first shot. It is quite different if you’re giving yourself a shot or somebody else as I have done many times before with my stepson when he was still on growth hormone. But all went well and I am still alive.

Reading over all the side effects and especially patients’ comments doesn’t make me feel too good about Lupron, but I keep in mind that most of them took it for other reasons.

I take it to completely suppress all production of eggs as the clinic, meaning my doc and the nurses would like to control that part of my cycle.

I am not very good at describing such medical details, but I hope my few readers (are there any?) will get the gist of this.

Now, the plan is for me to continue this for about two weeks. I will actually stop with the pill this weekend. Then, is my so-called baseline appointment which is meant to get a good reading of the status of my status (??). Then I will get more meds, which are then designed to overproduce eggs. They are called super-ovulatory drugs. Once that is done, the eggs will be retrieved and fertilized and then put back and then all should go well from there. While I am looking forward for that day, I am trying to keep focused on what is happening right now.

So, if I won’t post for another two months or so, you know why.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Today is the husband's birthday, so in case you read this:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Love you.

E.D. Hirsch

I just came across this guy who apparently wrote several books concerning what your child should know or learn. Well, actually the hubby read about him.
It’s called the Core Knowledge Grader Series.

My question is, if anybody ever heard of this and if so, how is it? I haven’t had much of a chance to look into it yet, but I did put the books on my Amazon Wish List.

Better Late Than Never

I have finally managed to update the book I'm currently reading on the upper right there, see?
It's Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (is there any other?).
Although I am already half way through with it, I supposed it will be a while before I am actually done with it.
So far I am not too impressed.

It's Marjoram

I have been growing other herbs this year and my marjoram just took off like crazy, so I gave lost of it away this weekend.
We sprinkled some on grilled chicken the other day and it was really good.

Guess the Herb

I want to believe

Just found this via The Dudge Report:

'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot

One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands.

An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in Pilot magazine.

Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light".

Did I ever mention that I am a huge X-Files fan?

Random Metro Fact

It has been a long time since I wrote anything about riding the metro, but every once in a while I feel like I need to speak out.

What makes people think that playing their PSP with the volume all the way up and screaming at the game while on the metro, is OK?
Just a question.

20 Years Ago

I have been meaning to post about today’s anniversary all week, but I messed up and others have probably done a much better job any way.

Check out the video at Hot Air.

Thank you.

Is it just me?

Ok I first have to point out again that I do not originate from this part of the world, so even after almost 8 years here some things are still very foreign to me.
Any way, the reason for this useless post is seersucker suits. Until today I didn’t even know what they were called, however coincidentally I have heard the term seersucker suit many times before.
To make this end very quickly all I wanted to say is that I think they look hideous. At first I noticed elderly men wearing maybe just the pants or just the jackets, but soon I saw whole ensembles and I am beginning to wonder if any of these people have friends or family who could tell them how terrible they look. I am sorry if I offended anybody, but so far I have yet to see a guy in a seersucker suit that looks good in it.

Labels!!!

I am such a loser. Who knows for how long Blogger has had the ability to have labels, but I just now figured it out.
Oh well, I am going to play around with that for a while. Finally I have something to do.

National Day of Prayer

I just took a look at my calendar and noticed that today is the National Day of Prayer.
Hmm….I wonder why I haven’t heard about it until now??
For more info go here.

Straw Widow?

There is a saying in German, that you are a so-called straw widow or widower if your spouse is temporarily gone. So I guess that’s me for now. I will get him back though for a few days by the end of this week, only to lose him yet again.

It’s OK though, since I take this time to get real useful things done around the house. Except for today because the world’s best TV show is back on. I love Heroes. I can’t wait.

You should feel great!

Somebody searched google for : "I have my oath ceremony tomorrow how should i feel" and found their way over here.
Well, I hope you're excited and happy, the way is finally over.
Congratulations!

No News is Good News.

Or at least, that’s what they say.
Did you know that a viral infection or a bacterial infection could cause your thyroid to go nuts? Now, I’m, not a medical professional, so please correct me, if I am wrong here, but apparently that’s why my TSH levels were off. TSH is the thyroid-stimulating hormone.
So what happened was, that just when I got all my blood work done for the fertility treatment, I happened to have abnormal TSH levels. So they had me repeat the test and that time the levels were even worse. I went to see an Endocrinologist who ordered more tests that kind of supported his theory of me having some sort of hyperthyroidism. So, then he sent me to Nuclear Medicine (fun, huh?), so that they could do a thyroid scan. The doc there asked me I am there, because my thyroid looks OK, maybe a little UNDERactive. SO, guess what? More blood tests. Now my thyroid is underactive which is normal if I really had just an inflammation, since now it’s trying to stabilize itself.
In any way, by the end of this month I will get yet more blood drawn in hopes that my thyroid is OK, which means the fertility folks will be happy and me too.

Sports anyone?

I have added a new blog to the blogroll. Go check out American Legends.

6 more Days

In 6 days, on the 28th, this blog will have its 4th Blogiversary. Since I missed this very important event in the past I figured, I’d better get this out now before I vanish again for a couple of weeks.

About Time

So I decided to scratch the big post I mentioned last week. Because there are continuously new updates it didn’t even make sense any more. Plus, I guess I just had to wait until I wanted to write about all the new stuff going on here.

Well, so what is it you think (or not).
The short answer would be that the husband and I have decided to have a baby. The long answer would be that we’re really special and are going to try In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Since we already know what the issue is, this is pretty much the only choice. We had our initial appointments already and just completed all blood tests. It should take about 6 months until we can get started from what I can tell, however apparently yours truly has a screwed up Thyroid (who knew?) so that has to be fixed first since apparently the thyroid plays an important part in this whole getting pregnant thing. So, I’ll see the doc on Thursday and then we’ll see.

So, that’s what’s going on. We are excited but with caution, especially since we haven’t even gone to the Orientation session.

Still There

I know....lazy me...

Anywho, all is OK. Some interesting developments lately. I have been writing the same post for months now and I don't think it will ever get posted.
But eventually I will post an update. I promise.

OK, back to work..I mean TV :))

Go Patriots!!!!

Oh Please!

That’s all we need. Beckham in the US. As if that will make me watch MLS. NOT.

-via The Drudge Report

41-14

Go Gators!

I'm Ready!!