Today's ABCs of IF

Stole this from SLESE.  Figured I'd break up the 2WW with a little alphabetical fun!

A. Age when you started TTC: 31

B. Baby Dancing or Sex: BD!

C. Children wanted: At least two - I'd like 3 really, but DH isn't sure.  But I know they're harder to take care of that it seems from the outside, so maybe I'd change my mind at 2.  :)  We still float the idea of adopting or fostering a third.

D. Dogs/Cats/Fill in Children:   None.  I wouldn't mind a dog, but as we both work long hours, it doesn't seem appropriate.  And we don't really have much of a backyard or anything.

E. Essential Oils/Vitamins/Snake Oils: Yes!  I'm on a new pre-natal from the doc (with TALC in it!  Really?  This is good for me?), I usually take some fish oil every day - and cod liver oil if we're in Vitamin D winter, or I think I won't get any sun.  And I'm on a Gre.ens+ kick - it can't hurt.  And maybe is making my skin slightly better?

F. Fertility Meds I’ve taken: None.

G. Gain: Well, a stronger marriage.  No weight gain, since I haven't taken any fertility meds.

H. HSG (Hystosalpingogram): All clear!

I. Infertile Pet Peeves: IF being referred to as a disease.  Drives me insane.  I have a post swimming around in my head about this.  I view IF as a symptom.

J. Job title: Senior Engineer

K. Kid’s names you’re afraid will be taken by the time you can use them: Can't really share - has to stay between myself and DH.  I will say we were planning for an Eliot, but it got scooped up recently by close friends.  D'Oh!

L. Length of time TTC: 18 months.

M. Miscarriages: 0.  Never ever ever been even a little bit pg.  :(

N. Number of times you’ve switched OB/GYNS, REs, FSs: Once.  So far.  Depending on how things go this year, I may jump ship.

O. Ovarian quality: good or ok.

P. POAS or wait for AF: After the first few months - wait for AF.  She shows up reliably enough.

Q. Quote from an obnoxious fertile: "Oh, just go off birth control, you're be pregnant in four months!" x3

R. Reproductive Endocrinologist: Dr Awesome.  Is smart, sometimes funny, conceited, and assures me he will get me pg.  To me this means nothing - he has no stake in the matter.  If I'm not pg in two years - he can say, "oh well", but the cost/heartache will be significantly higher for me.  He's also said, "Just relax and stop trying." "Why do you want kids anyway?" - all of which are yellow flags for me.

S. Sperm: Not so good.  First test came back pretty good - but second one is making us look like we're MF.  DH in for surgery next week that might help.

T. Time you tried naturally:  Still am.  Am quite suspicious of IVF.

U. Uterus quality: Retroverted, but ok.  Small fibroid outside.

V. Vagina: You mean whooha?  Vajayjay?  Vagine?  Ah... ok, I guess.  (And we all know about my cervix!)

W. What baby stuff do you already have?: Nothing.  Believe it to be back luck.

X. X-tra X-tra Hear all about it! How many people know the ins and outs of our crazy TTC journey? My wonderful blogsisters, all the lurkers out there, my two bffs, one other friend, my closest Aunt, and some of DH's friends.

Y. Yearly Exam (do you still go in even though someone sees your lady parts most months?): Yes.

Z. Zits: Yes.  Terrible skin.  Used ProA.ctive for a while before the wedding, but now refuse to put such chemicals on my skin, although it did work for me.  For a while was getting ovulation blemish and period blemish, when on Chinese herbs.  Skin is pretty good for far this month, nothing too bad.

So now you’ve read mine. What are your IF A to Zs?  (I reserve the right to re-post this in a year to see how it's changed!)

LH is 48

What on earth does that mean?   Well... Doctor Google didn't really help me out too much on this one.  Seems a little high, but generally ok.  The nurse seemed pleased when she called.

My CM was pretty crappy this month.  That is disappointing.  Was it all the goat milk/cheese?  I can't think of anything else really bad or less-optimal I've done - nary a drop of vino has passed my lips.   Although I've had soy sauce a bunch of times, in general I've barely had any gluten - although I suppose that is supposed to take like 60 days to matter.  And I've been pretty good about exercise - although one can always exercise more (if you're me anyway, and tend towards lazy).

Next month we'll be in recovery mode for DH, so we'll be taking it 'off', I'm assuming (back to a glass of vino now and then!).  So maybe month after that I should buy some Ferti.leCM or some Royal Jelly? 

Anyone have experience with Fer.tileCM?  Have you actually taken it?  Did it improve CM?

Today is rather gray out, and I'm very blaah.......

"Your cervix looks like it's been in a knife fight"

 HAHAHAH
ROFL
Seriously, this makes me laugh every time I think of it.  Direct quote from Dr A.  Hahahha.

So it seems I have some scarring from that cervical cryosurgery from back in the day.  He said it wasn't a big deal.  (Oddly enough, he said "When it's a ten pound baby up against some scarring, we know who'll win that battle".  I don't think I quite get that.)

All in all, the physical was pretty good (I mean the prognosis - not the part where everyone looks at my hoohaa, and the doc is all up in my lady business).  Dr A was pretty jovial, and not mean to the techs, so that was good.   He said my ovaries look good ("This woman has some nice ovaries").  My follicles are continuing to look good. 

He said my follicles are going to vote conservative in the election.  It is my right ovary that will likely go this month.  hahahhah!  He also named a follicle "Jack" after Jack Layton.  hahahha.  Too funny!  [This is Canadian political joking - we've an election coming up].

He said my pelvis is a good size - good enough for an 8 pounder (haha - um, aren't we getting ahead of ourselves?).

I do have a fibroid which is hanging off the outside of my uterus, but he said it isn't a big deal.

All in all, nothing really amiss.  Which I am somewhat wary of, since I am worried we'll meander over towards MF only... but I don't really believe that to be true at this point.  It was only one bad sample from DH.  But who knows - maybe all that acupuncture and being really good this month will do the trick.  That's what I'm betting on.

Even though it is NIAW, I have still chickened out on telling my friend.  DH has been brave and told two of his friends recently ... he even told them he's having surgery.  So probably I should buck up.

Reveal!

Prayer buddy reveal!!

So I was praying for Hebrews 11:1!!  :)  FUN!  She's like a super star of Catholic IF bloggers.  And things are looking up for her!  :)

On the flip side, My Heart Exults was praying for me!  She is like a professional lenten prayer buddy - excellent!  I'm so grateful to her for all her prayers this lent!  :)

I've another wanding scheduled for tomorrow.  My follicles and levels looked "great" yesterday (CD8). So...uh...all that gel they use for wanding... is that spermie-safe?  Should I bring some prese.ed and ask them to use that?  Is that ridonculous?  Ok, I am being too hyper.  It will only be CD10.  I will probably ovulate CD15-16, that will be too long for spermies to last anyway.

I also have a physical with Dr A scheduled.  I'm sort of intimidated.  I think he was training a new wander on Sunday, so he was there as well - and he was kind of mean and short tempered with her.  Like a smart guy that has no patience for slow people.  Yikes.  Well.... I suppose it is good to have a smart guy on your team, it's not like I have to go out for coffee with him.

Hoppy Easter!

Hoppy Easter, as my Aunt always says! (And then she'll shake your hand, and you'll come away with a little chocolate egg.  Love it!)

So, my dear DH is scheduled for his surgery May 10th.  So soon!  He got someone's cancellation - so it's either do it May 10 or in the fall.  I think after surgery it will be like 3-6months before we can expect good spermies.

So I am thinking it is like this cycle or bust.  (Well, by 'bust' I mean wait 6 months - which seems like a long time at this point).  I have a physical with Dr A on Tuesday, so I'll talk it over with him.  But basically the surgery is before we could do an IUI - I will be at the end of my monitoring cycle.  So I guess I will pull out all the 'stops' this month!  No more wine for me - until we're in spermy re-creation time (post surgery), then I can have a glass here or there again.

I am slightly worried we're rushing into this surgery.  It feels so fast!  One minute, everything is amazing on the male side, next minute we have severe MF and he's going in for surgery!  Yikes yikes yikes.

On a more positive IF note, a friend of ours who got pg after they had been trying a "long time" (I was skeptical - "long time" can be like four months for some people) - well, it actually turns out they had been trying for  2.5 years.  And she finally caught after she quit her job.  A few months later - preggo!  :)

TEBB

So I had my first wanding/blood test on Tuesday, guess when my next is scheduled for??  Easter Sunday!!  I don't know why this seems so shocking to me, but it does.

I guess I don't really have anything new to report.  I am now at the TEBB stage of things (Tail End Bleeding...B?  What does the B stand for?).  It was weird, I felt oddly cramp-y this afternoon, even though that shouldn't be the case at this stage in the cycle.

They keep saying everything looks excellent.  I suspect I will have an excellent cycle (Murphy's law or the acupuncture kicking in?), and they will blame everything on my poor DH.  DH may be having surgery to help correct his issue, I want to ask Dr Awesome his opinion.  I will be seeing him Tuesday for my physical, so they tell me.  I'm sort of impressed they go to the trouble of a physical.  Although I don't expect he'll find anything amiss (other than these weird pressure headaches I've been getting, but I don't think those are related to fertility).

I have decided to try and go gluten free for 60 days, and see if anything seems different.  I have been reading lately about how gluten sensitivity can be sub-clinical... in which case, waiting to go to a doc and take a test isn't really going to work so well.

In flour mill news, you CAN mill popcorn and get corn flour, which can then be turned into tasty cornbread.  :)

Smooth, CS.

The baby party today was awful.  A 4 week old, 5 month old and 4 month old in attendance, plus a 3 day old who didn't come but new Dad did.  These are all my friends!  They have too many babies!!!  Besides us, the only people that didn't have a baby or toddler was two single guy friends.

I think at least a couple of people have sort of seen the writing on the wall - I am super interested in babies, we've been married for well over a year, I'm not super career oriented, no baby has appeared... maybe a good time to stop asking.

So I only got told once that I should have a baby.  It was by Tansly, of a previous post.  I made some sort of negative weird reply, then left the table, to go talk with another table.  Smoooooth.  The subject didn't come up again, and I didn't raise it.  They did come by our house for a visit, but I chickened out - I didn't tell them of our trouble.  Maybe through email?

Anyhoo, I am staying in tonight, skipping dinner with the in-laws.  I feel like I need to de-tox after all those babies, and all that smiling and acting nice.

Oh, but I do see that JBTC got a BFP!  Yay! Excellent news when an IF lady catches.  I had just decided to start following her (since she organizes the lenten prayer buddy circle), and whammo! I see a post with two lines in a picture!  :)