A Contest

My mom and I decided to enter a mother-daughter look alike contest one of our local newspapers is having for Mother's Day. 

How do you think we'll do?

 My Mom and Me

My Mom, Sister and Me

It really is a shame that it's not a sound-alike contest.  My mom and I sound EXACTLY alike.  We confuse my dad, my grandma, my siblings, my husband...EVERYONE!  It's pretty awesome.

Riddle Me This, My Lovelies...

What are the side effects of the trigger shot?

Weird temperature issues?

Ridiculous fatigue?

What about the prometrium suppositories?

I start those today, so it'd be nice to know what to expect.

I love you all so much, because you rock!

Sugar Doll

My super blogger friend, Minta, nominated me for the Sugar Doll award.  I'm not sure where it originated, but it seems fun nonetheless.

So, the rules are:  I have to say 10 things about myself then give this award to 10 fellow bloggers.


10 Things About Me:

1. My middle name is Melodie.  My mom thought it sounded like a song.
2. I have known by best friend for as long as I've known my husband. (Since 3rd grade)
3. My youngest cat, Latte, has a handful of stuffed toys that he drags around and leaves in random places after Asher goes to bed every night.
4. Asher almost got the middle name Nathaniel, but then we decided on David.
5. I love to read, and I read pretty fast.  (Thanks, Mom!)
6. I lived in Minnesota for 4 years while I was a teenager.
7. I failed my driver's test the first time. (In my defense, it's a lot harder in MN than everywhere else.)
8. The feel of a fresh umbilical cord touching me sicks me out.
9. I have a habit of twisting the loose strings on things.  Blankets, clothes, whatever.  I've done it forever.
10. I have to wear a pink bridesmaids dress at an outdoor wedding in August.

10 Bloggers (in no particular order):
1. Krista
2. Brenda
3. Alisha
4. Jamie
5. Sass
6. Wishing4One
7. Infertili-T&A
8. Low Fat Lady
9. Jessica
10. Jenicini

Trigger Shy

That is me with my trigger shots.  Pardon how I look in that pic.  I've been up since I got up last night to go to work, so I look like crap.

Well, after going yesterday for my ultrasound, we got the good news that both my follicles were 16mm.  They said I should do one more night of follistim and come back this morning for one last ultrasound to see where the follies were, then decide whether I'd trigger today or tomorrow. 

After searching high and low to find someone to take me since I worked last night, I finally got my grandma to take me.  It was really kind of eerie how empty that place is on a Saturday morning!  I got the same ultrasound tech that I had yesterday, and she is awesome.  My follies are 18mm and 19mm! Yay!  So, the nurse said for me to trigger sometime today, then do the timed you-know-what 24 hours and 36 hours after said shot.

So, here's my question: would be be bad to do it at 34 hours?  I'm kind of not wanting to get up at 2am to do the deed, if you know what I mean.  My other question is: how long does the trigger stay in my system?  I know that it will turn a pregnancy test positive, so I don't want to get a false positive whenever I test.  Should I just test in a week or so to see if it's out of my system, or is that too soon?

I love having you knowledgeable ladies as resources! 

Thinking Thin Thursday and Randomness

I'm actually pretty pleased with myself this week.  I managed to lose 3.6 pounds despite eating like crap for a couple of days while babysitting my siblings.  I'm just glad I lost at all.  After last week's pitiful results, it was a refreshing change of pace to see a smaller number on the scale.  I even had to redo my weight loss ticker to account for it.  My newest goal, in case you've forgotten, is to weigh what my license says I do.  haha  That just shows how very much of a lie my license is!

I can't remember how many days of exercise I got in.  I know it was at least one.  On Monday morning, Nick and I walked down a certain street in a nearby town that had a lot of houses for sale.  It was close to 2 miles according to mapmyrun.com.  I really need to do better with getting to the Y or going for a walk or whatever.  My stupid work schedule is really not conducive to working out regularly.  Asher and I did go and take an almost 2 mile walk this morning.  Well, he rode in the stroller, I did all the work. 

Anyway, I've been super into looking at houses for sale online recently.  We love where our house is now.  It's out in the middle of nowhere and close to family.  We rent from my grandparents, so obviously we get a good deal on rent/utilities.  It's big enough for us--we have an entire floor we don't use for anything but storage!  If I was super fertile, I'd be happy with all the room to grow.  But, as it is, I hardly see us needing an additional 3 bedrooms. 

We have a laundry list of things we'd love to see in a new house.  Central air being high on the list.  It's kind of a pain in the butt to haul the window units down from upstairs every year, then haul them back up when it hits fall again.  I'd love something with an open floor plan.  I love the look of houses where you can be cooking or whatever in the kitchen and still associate with the other people in the house.  We also only have one bathroom and it's about the size of a postage stamp.  You could literally sit on the toilet and put a foot in the bath tub and wash your hands at the same time.  lol  It's also slowly sinking into the crawl space.  But, my grandparents hired a guy to re-do it, so that complaint will soon not be an issue.  (But it does bring up the fact that I feel guilty looking at houses when they're going to be re-doing the bathroom.  It makes me feel like a terrible, ungrateful granddaughter.)

 Then, comes the worry about money.  The long-term plan is for me to reduce my hours at work so I can be home with Asher more, especially when it comes time to start the homeschooling.  It worries me to take up a mortgage payment and utilities and property taxes and such, when I currently bring in half our income.  You can find pretty decent houses around here for not a lot of money (nothing like you'd see on House Hunters, to which I attribute my sudden love for house hunting.  Stupid HGTV.), so the payments wouldn't be terrible every month, but it still freaks me out.  I'm a planner and organizer and it all messes with my system.  lol

Wow.  I didn't mean to ramble this much about it.  If you've made it this far in my rambling, I'm impressed. 

I go back for an ultrasound tomorrow, so hopefully my follicles are cooperating.  I REALLY don't want to have to shell out more money for meds and wait at that freaking pharmacy again.  I may shoot someone if I have to go there again.

In Which I Curse My Ovaries

Two follicles. 

Two. 

One is 9mm, the other 8mm. 

They're supposed to be 18mm. 

I, evidently, have a ton of 4-6mm ones, too, but they don't count. 

So, the PA upped my dosage to 150IU.  She says, since I'm overweight, the meds don't work as well.  Nothing like being constantly reminded that you're probably infertile because of your own fatness.  I go back Friday at 11 for a repeat ultrasound.

This is all very inconvenient, since I have to work Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.  I have to find someone to work part of my shift Friday night so I can maybe get a nap in between getting home from my appointment (which I will be attending on no sleep) and having to go back to work that night.

The kicker is that I waited for more than 90 minutes for one vial of the Follistim.  Last time, I waited more than 2 hours for 4 meds, so I thought my chances were good of getting out of there within half an hour.  No such luck.  Of course, I get down to the pharmacy and ask to get a refill of the Follistim, which I was assured had been ordered previously, and they're like, "Well, we need the physcial prescription you were written previously to be able to refill it."  Of course, the actual script is back at my house--2 hours away.  So, I haul my butt all the way back up to the RE clinic and tell them the deal.  They straighten it out, and I go back to the pharmacy and wait for more than an hour an a half.  I was not happy.

Then, of course, is the fact that our pre-authorization isn't through yet, so all the meds are out of pocket.  $257 later, I finally get to leave.  So, today, I get to poke myself twice since I'll be finishing up my previous vial and starting a new one.  Lovely. 

I'm really hoping that my dumb ovaries kick into gear because I don't want to shell out more money and wait another 90 minutes for more Follistim.  Plus, it would be mighty handy to have our trigger and subsequent timed intercourse fall over the weekend while I'm off work.

Of course, since I said that, it probably won't happen.  ugh

Can you tell I'm in an awesome mood?

Don't Mock My Fat, Please

So, after seeing Mrs.Bee's video of giving herself her Gonal-F injection, I thought it might be fun to do one, too.  I sound like an idiot, I've decided.  I'm not nearly as fun to listen to as Mrs.Bee is, with her awesome accent.  But, without further chatter, here it is:

Thinking Thin Thursday

Yeah, right.

I suck.

0.4 pounds this week. 

And that's with having hit the Y twice AND done the Wii Fit at least 3 or 4 times! 

What the crap?!??!

Should we blame AF?

Let's go with that.

Or the fact that people at work keep bringing cookies and freaking cake in.  How was my pre-menstrual (then just menstrual) self supposed to say no to cookies and cake?  Ugh.  Of course, I also went to supper with friends last night.  I only had 2 tacos, but still, probably not great. 

Also, today won't be any better.  I have a STUPID 4 hour long nursing education at work (that they make us do 4 times per year), and they serve breakfast.  Of course, I COULD take something healthy to eat, but I don't want to.  If I'm going to sit through them yapping for 4 hours about things that have little bearing on my department, they're going to feed me, by golly!  Then, I'm having lunch with my bestie as payment for her watching Ash while I go to the aforementioned meeting.

I'm a little irritated with life right now.  Can you tell?

I've got 2 more nights of femara before starting the follistim.  Ultrasound appointment is Tuesday morning.  You can pray that all is well that day and I can trigger without having to go back for another appointment, because I work Wednesday-Thursday-Friday nights next week, so I really don't see how I'd fit in a 4 hour round trip to the doctor when I'll need to be sleeping.  This whole infertility thing is really inconvenient. 

Sorry to be a whiner.

She's HERE!

The WITCH arrived yesterday.

Finally.

It took her long enough.

Sheesh.

Now I'm ready for her to leave again.

That is all.

Thinking Thin Thursday

So, I realized that I forgot to do a "Thinking Thin Thursday" post last week in all the post-adoption excitement.  Sorry about that.  I only broke even anyway, which is better than gaining, in my personal opinion.

This week, I lost 1.2 pounds, which is pretty good considering that I ate like crap all week! lol  We got our Wii Fit in the mail at the end of last week, so we've been doing that regularly.  I think any little bit helps, don't you?  We're both highly competitive, so we like to see who is better at what.  He's better than me at pretty much everything, so when I do beat him at something, there's a lot of gloating and smack talk involved.

On another note, AF has STILL not showed up.  If it hits Monday and she hasn't arrived, I'm calling the RE to see what to do.  I just want to get on with this next cycle, already! Ugh!

Adoption Day!

On Wednesday, March 31, 2010, this little dude

OFFICIALLY became Asher David!

(And, yes, I think this judge was a hobbit.)

We had LOTS of family there...

Like my Dad's side of my family (except my Dad)

And Nick's family (except his sister and her husband)

And my Mom's side of my family (except my sister, her fiance and my niece.  And Brenda.)

And my grandparents

And another of my grandmas

(who wouldn't open her eyes in either picture we took!)

Unfortunately, Ash popped a high fever that afternoon and required a trip to the doctor.

We are SO happy that it was finalized!

Here is our first OFFICIAL family picture!

The PLAN

First off, I promise to post an "Adoption Day" post soon.  I'm away from home right now, so I can't link to the pics.  Suffice it to say, it went well and Asher is officially adopted.

The real reason for this post is to tell you all about the RE appointment I had the 1st.  This could get long, so feel free to ignore me.

Before you ask, no, the evil AF did not show her face (and still hasn't, as a matter of fact).  I called the day before and asked what I should do.  They told me to go ahead and come in and they could probably do it anyway along with the Follistim teaching.  So, the three of us sashayed out of the house at 7:30 in the morning to go to my 9:30 appointment.  Asher was remarkably well behaved on the trip and ate breakfast on the way.  Nick and I had great conversation about homeschooling.  It was as great a car ride as I'd enjoyed in quite awhile. 

They did end up doing the ultrasound, and I had a great conversation with the ultrasound technician about foster care.  It did, however, feel like she was ultrasounding my tonsils when she was digging for my left ovary.  It's evidently up really high, as they said it was during the HSG.  She ended up having to do an external ultrasound to find it.  It is there, though, so that's good.  The doctor said there was a small cyst there, but nothing to worry about.

Anyway, when it came time for my actual appointment, they did their usual weighing and vital signs.  (My blood pressure is always borderline when I'm there, but it's fine when I take it at work.  I even sit there and try to relax beforehand, but it doesn't work.  ugh)  The nurse, who I loved, did the teaching with me and let me play with the follistim pen.  She gave me a big folder of information, which I read every word of during my nearly 2 hour wait at the pharmacy (more on that later).  Then the doctor came in.  Let me tell you this: there must be a million doctors in this practice, because I've been there a ton of times and I rarely see the same one twice!  I did like this guy, though.  He might be my favorite.  Him or the hippy one I saw awhile back.  He talked with me and set out my plan.  Of course, I can't start said plan until stupid AF shows up.

The plan is as follows:

• CD 3-7: Femara
• CD 8-10: 100iu Follistim
• CD 11: Ultrasound (where hopefully all will be well and I won't require to get another cartridge of Follistim)
• CD 12 (hopefully): Ovidrel trigger shots (multiple! Because I'm a fatty!)
• CD 14+ (hopefully): Progesterone suppositories

They gave us the choice as to whether we'd do an IUI (intra-uterine insemination) or try one cycle old school.  We chose to do it old school this cycle, which the nurse said is a fairly common choice among couples with good sperm counts.  I figure if it doesn't work, we'll decide next cycle which we want to do.  Of course, we're praying hard core that it will work this first shot.  Yet, in the same breath, I tell Nick to not get his hopes up.  While we're on the subject, I'd greatly appreciate prayer than AF doesn't show up on Saturday.  If she does, CD 11 will fall on a day when it would be impossible for me to make the trek to the doctor for the ultrasound.

So, the nurse says that she'll send the prescriptions to their pharmacy, because it is usually cheaper there than at "outside" pharmacies.  We head to the pharmacy (Ash and Nick had been playing in the waiting room for the maybe 30 minutes it took for the ultrasound and teaching).  We get there at 10:40, and only one of the prescriptions has arrived.  We're given a pager and told it will go off when they're ready.  We quickly realize that Asher is not going to cooperate during this wait, as he is "waited" out.  So, I send Nick with him to get gas, assuming that by the time they get back, I'll be done. 

Wrong.  They drive around for awhile after getting gas, Asher takes a small nap, and I read the crappy magazines they have in their waiting room.  Meanwhile, I'm hearing horror stories from my fellow pharmacy prisoners about previous times when they've waited up to 4 hours for medications. 4 HOURS! 

By the time it hits 11:45, I am in an awful mood, have read all the information in my folder and flipped through the 2 magazines they have that aren't super stupid.  I'd texted my mom, my best friend and Nick.  I'd talked to my sister on the phone.  I'd contemplated making a scene so they'd hurry up.  I'd asked my mom if she'd call in a bomb threat (she said no). 

Finally, it hits noon and I get in line to ask about it.  The lady says, "Oh.  We didn't have one of the medications, so someone had to go down to "general" to get it.  It will be a bit."  So I say, "I've been here an hour and a half.  I have a grumpy toddler in the car."  She tells me it shouldn't be "too long."  I go sit back down, and 20 minutes later my pager beeps.  I cheer aloud and said, "FINALLY!"  I go to the counter and tell the lady my name and give her my pager.  I hear the pharmacist say, "I'm almost done with it!"  I think to myself, "Why did you call for me if you're almost done? Why not wait until you are done!?"  After waiting 10 more minutes, they FINALLY called me to the window, where they ask if I have questions and they give me the total: $475. 

"Holy Crap!" I say.

"Yeah, I know," the lady says.

With tears in my eyes, I swipe my card.  The pharmacist hands me my bag of loot and I tell him, "Well, this has been the most delightful pharmacy experience of my life."

I get out to the car, and I see my wonderful husband and son have gotten me flowers while on their drive.  I tell Nick how much the meds were and he tells me it's fine.  Then, as we're waiting in the drive through for our lunch, I burst into tears.  I cry that my ovaries are dumb, and it's not fair that there are women who brag that all their husbands have to do is look at them wrong and they're pregnant, and why does stupid medco not cover the injectibles?  He reassured me that it was fine, we had the money to cover it, and yes, it does suck, but we both know that our infertility has changed us for the better.  I concede, and eat my sandwich.

We had decided to make the most of our trip and go to the nearby outlet mall.  We spent about an hour and a half there and got a few things for Ash at Old Navy, The Children's Place and Carter's.  Asher slept most of the way home while Nick and I had more great conversation about random things.

All in all, it was a good day.  It had it's ups and downs, but the important thing is I got to spend it with my boys.  There is no better kind of day.