Maybe Just One More Day

Yes, dear reader, I know that I am crazy.  I may be the only blogger out there who has not tested before the required 14 days.  Let me know if you are crazy like me and actually wait two weeks.

I was going to POAS (pee on a stick) this morning, but as we were heading to dinner last night, K was informed that travel plans had changed and now she needed to fly to San Francisco Monday morning instead of Chicago.

OK.

But the flight to SF from NoLa was sold out...woohoo!!!  That means one more day with me in NoLa!  I am working Monday-Wednesday, but she'll join the team for dinner and I'll wait ONE MORE DAY to TEST!

However, today I have what I refer to as the PMS headache...it's my low grade headache that comes a day or two before I get my period.  It's not migraine painful--I do suffer from migraines, but it hangs around all day no matter what and that's what it's done all day today.

Quite annoying and a very probable sign that I'm not pregnant.

Testing, Testing ONE day to go

I was going to test on Monday morning which will b 12 days past insemination. I have my POAS strip with me and I'm ready to go.

K flies out on Monday morning and I want her to be there when I test, so Monday it is.

This TWW has been really strange.  I found that I am really focused and more aware of my body than I've ever been before.  Any time I feel weird in the belly I have two thoughts, "either I'm pregnant" or "I have gas".

Let's hope it's the former, shall we?

Swamp Thang

One thing I've always wanted to do is get out on the bayou in an airboat.  These things get up to about 50 mph and can get in narrow canals functioning in water as shallow as 1/8 inch.

Sunday morning found us, six in the boat with noise cancelling earphones on roaring down the intercoastal waterway to the Jean Lafitte bayou.

Not only was it gorgeous scenery, but it was a blast!  

We went with Airboat Adventures and while I don't necessarily think feeding 'swamp crack' to the gators is the right thing to do, I admit it's pretty funny to see alligators eat marshmallows.  Unless of course they don't know what they are...

I even got to hold a baby alligator which was awesome.  He was making these little grunting noises and it was totally adorable! Soft, oh so soft.  Yes, I can see why they make shoes out of you--but I will not buy them!

We saw over 20 alligators in the one and 1/2 hour tour, a great way to start off Sunday morning.

Eating Your Way Through New Orleans While Waiting to Find Out if You're Pregnant

K loves food.  She's Italian, the whole family is talking about what is for dinner while they are still eating breakfast.  When we got together eight years ago, I thought I appreciated food, but lo, I did not.  

After eight solid years of talking about food, planning meals, cooking, baking, shopping, and eating I can say that I now enjoy good food more than I ever thought possible.

I also work out more than ever before because while I enjoy a great dinner I also want to fit in my clothes and quite frankly after saving all my money for baby-making, I can't afford a new wardrobe!

So what do we have planned for NoLa?  Not drinking!  Just eating, listening to good music, seeing the city and meeting a new friend that I'll be working with planning my org's summit next year in NoLa, Jan. 2009.  This will be my third trip to NoLa, but the first time with K and free time to enjoy it while not working.

Since food is the most important thing to K, I wanted to make sure that we ate well and have made all reservations accordingly--with the help of Chowhound--and I can't wait to enjoy some New Orleans cookin'! 

We are staying at the Iberville Suites inside the Ritz Carlton French Quarter.  It's a hidden secret and one that I highly recommend.

Restaurants lined up are Dick and Jenny's, Brigtsen's, Stella!, Commander's Palace and of course some random place for a po'boy, crawfish if possible.

Kick Off to New Orleans Also Known as "How to Make Your TWW Go Faster"

This TWW completely sucks.  I knew it would be hard, I never knew it would be this hard.

Keeping that in mind, when a business trip to New Orleans had to be planned (and wow, planning travel around these two week intervals is hard!) I thought I'd go down the weekend prior and enjoy myself.

Since K works as a consultant and travels M-TH, she can fly anywhere for the weekend--it doesn't have to be NYC.  So, with my company and her company paying for our flights--we figured it would be a nice getaway to wait out those last days before testing.

Last night I was invited, courtesy of the New Orleans Visitor's Center to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  My steak was delicious and it officially kicked off my 6-days of New Orleans eating!

Afterwards, we were treated to the Broadway show, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" which was a great production.  We had the chance to go backstage to meet the cast afterwards and as much as I really wanted to shake hands with James Earl Jones and Terrence Howard, after a huge dinner and a 3-hour play what I needed to do was go home, pack for New Orleans and get some sleep.

Call me crazy.  Or just old.

Post Insemination Acupuncture

The way acupuncture for fertility works is you have a pre and a post insemination session and in between you go for a balancing session.  Since I started going the same month I did my first IUI, I don't know how beneficial it is as they say it usually takes a couple of months to balance your Qi/Chi.  But when I arrived today she told me that she'd had three other women in sessions that day who told her they were pregnant.  Purely coincidental?  Possibly.  But I'll take good signs where I can find them!

I feel like I'm trying to create this perfect balance of (1) not wanting to expect to be pregnant because statistically the odds of that happening are so small and (2) keeping positive about the fact that I could be pregnant because women-even of my age-do get pregnant on their first try.

I do pretty much consider this try kind of like a trial run and am not getting my hopes up, but nevertheless, I can't help but be a little excited that maybe, just maybe, I'm going to get pregnant easily.

A girl can hope.

This is Burlesque Not Drinking

I have a couple of friends in from Kansas City, MO this weekend and we thought we'd take these midwest lesbians to a show they probably don't have back in KCMO.

If you haven't been to Murray Hill's "This is Burlesque" at Corio, you're in luck because they have extended the run and added a few late shows as well.

This is our 2nd time and we enjoyed it just as much--with the exception that "Viva Vi*gra" was missing from the line-up.

As our group of five made up the only lesbians in the house AND we'd scored a table right by the stage, Murray had a great time heckling us--all in good fun.  Tassles and Titties!  How could you not have fun?!

This was the first night of my entire life that I could not drink and it was hard.  Much harder than I thought it would be.  It's always been a choice of maybe I will or maybe I won't.  I'm not a big drinker to start off with as I'm such a lightweight. If I drink two glasses of wine, I'm totally buzzed and good for the night.  Mostly, I drink maybe twice a month.  

K doesn't drink at all, which makes it really easy and many of my friends either don't drink or are very light drinkers.  It hasn't always been this way and the tales that I could tell of the party days gone by.  And the photos, oh dear the photos of past crazy days!  Trust me, when my kids say "mom, you just don't understand," I'll have plenty of stories to tell and the photos to prove that oh, yes, I do!

But around three years ago, alcohol stopped liking me and it started being not fun.  I realized I could either keep partying like a rock star (fun while it lasted!) and suffer from a killer all-day debilitating hangover (not at all fun) OR could enjoy the occasional glass of wine and call it a night.  K decided about a year after that it wasn't working at all for her anymore, sobriety works and quit drinking altogether.

So, what I'm going to try to do from here on out is not drink at all.  I don't know if I can do it because I never knew how hard it was to go out and not have a drink or a glass of wine.  But it will be better for my body, period.  Wish me luck!

Swim Swimmers Swim!

D-Day.  I slept late, made a full-on decaf cappuccino and walked up to the VEFC for my 11am appointment with the super sperm.

To remind you, this is my first ever IUI, so when the nurse brought in the vial, I admit my mouth dropped.  There was no more than 1/2 inch and it boggled the mind that there could be 13 million sperm in there.

When I remarked about this, my nurse told me a funny story.  She has a 9-year-old daughter who is quite informed about mom's line of work.  The daughter said, "with that many sperm, you would think at least one could find its' way to the egg."  

To which her mother replied, "Yes, you would think that, but men are stupid."

Ha!  I love my nurse!

I had a few word's with Seth's sperm.  Told them they were about to embark on a very important mission and while I knew some would get lost and other's would just spin in circles like eternal Sufi's and while all that whirling is great fun, all I needed was one to keep going and find the egg.  They had 24 hours.  Get to it.  Go!

I'm one of those people who likes to read sign into things--usually good signs.  So this is what my nurse and I came up with today:  Today is the 20th.  The vial was marked donated on the 20th (not March, but June) and is the first day of Spring!  Hello!  Fertility, New Birth and Life!  Being the semi pagan/Buddhist I am these are great signs, no?

It didn't hurt at all, slightly uncomfortable and then it was over.

K couldn't be there, which kind of sucked, but was mostly OK.  If she's out of town and the baby comes early and she's not there I'll be pissed, but right now it's all good.  After all, I can call here while waiting for the swimmers to swim.  Except she's in a meeting and isn't picking up.

Next on the list is one of my best friends in Texas who will answer the phone on the toilet so won't be weirded out by the fact that I'm calling her, hips held high, from the insemination table.  "Hey"  "Hey" "What are you doing?"  "Going to the bathroom"  "Oh, yeah.  I'm laying on a table at the doctor's telling the swimmers to swim" "What?"  "I just got inseminated" to which she replied the best reply EVER.

"Oh my god, that is so cool.  It's like we just had sex.  I'm going to remember this conversation for the rest of my life"

And then she got all over-protective girlfriend on me when I told her I had to go to the bathroom,  "don't push too hard" cuz she was scared the sperm would fall out.

My mom, who texts like a 13 year-old, sent me the cutest text message and is so excited for me. 

Out of all of the family member on both sides of our families, it is my mother--the born-again Southern Baptist from a red state--who has been the most supportive and accepting of what K and I are doing.  She doesn't care if it's K's eggs, my egg's  or what, she just thinks it's great that we're having a baby.  My mom has come a long way with acceptance over the last 20 years and I am so happy to be able to share all of my news along the way with her.

OK, if anyone out there has any fertility prayers to say or little dolls or amulets you'd care to rub, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

Fifth Anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq

With the ongoing crisis in Tibet, I’m surprised our dear President has not declared war on China in order to give the Tibetans their freedom.
I mean, it’s working SO well in Iraq.

Honestly, I cannot believe this idiot declared just today "a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror".
Huh? Terrorism has gotten worse, not better and by the way, Where is the World is Osama Bin Laden?
How this sorry excuse of a human being stole the Presidency TWICE is a sad reflection on the state of America’s citizens.

Because really, do you elect the leader of the free world based on if he’s someone you’d go have a beer with rather than, I don’t know, someone who is intelligent, well-spoken, accomplished and can LEAD the free world??
Yeah, not so much as 50% of Americans are just as stupid as our dear George and we’re spending $600 Billion on a never-ending war instead of education.
Nice. I think it’s his strategy, keep Americans stupid and they will continue to vote with their emotions instead of their brains.

I really hope the history books go down portraying him as the WORST PRESIDENT EVER.

Needles, Needles Everywhere

It’s Day 13, which means more needles. Today I’ve had needles in my arm, my head, my ear, 5 in my stomach, my hand, my feet, my legs and well, there are probably more I don’t know about because I shut my eyes.

The E2 from the blood work was 202, so moving along nicely.

The rest of the needles came from acupuncture. At this point, I’ll try anything that might given me a better margin of a chance.
I started seeing a fertility acupuncture specialist last week and this was the second session.
When I mentioned where I was going and the RE I was seeing, she gushed about the Center and also knew my RE personally.

I’m glad to hear that I’m in such capable hands. I’ve been hearing from so many people—“oh they are the best”! So, I think if anyone can get me pregnant, the VEFC can do it!

Edited to Add:

My acupuncturist is Melani Bolyai at http://www.naturalqi.com

She has excellent recommendations and so far I am very happy with her.

Day 11 Bloodwork and Ultrasound

This was our first Day 11 set of tests for my upcoming IUI and we were pretty excited.
Not so excited to get up at 7:30am on a Saturday morning.
Very excited that the young doctor with the dildo cam looked a whole lot like Katherine Heigl of Grey's Anatomy.

She got a great laugh out of "dildo cam"--she'd never heard that one before, but she did say that a lot of husbands have remarked "that thing gets more action than me" Ouch!

So, uterine wall is nice and stripey, thickening away.
E2 was 115 and she found three follicles, all about the same size of 1cm.

I'm happy with all of that, moving along quite nicely for the first month and no drugs.

Operation Sperm-$7,000 Mission Accomplished

The missing paperwork was a blessing in disguise and potentially saved us $5,000 as I ended up buying 12 vials, not 20.

AND, I found out the vials are $565, not $595--not a huge difference but I'll take the $360 in savings.

I talked to a few other women, did some more research and decided that since I am going to be having ultrasounds AND doing a trigger shot to time my ovulation, I am OK with only doing one vial/one insemination per month.

I have full confidence that Dr. VID knows exactly what he's doing. He told me if I want two, he'll do two, but he's fine doing only one.

I've had this feeling since walking into the VEFC a couple of months ago that I would be getting pregnant in May. So, I decided to go with that and only ship enough to see me through May.

When it came time to fax in all of the papers and make the transaction--I found myself stalling. Frantically I started searching on other sperm donor sites looking at other profiles to assure myself that we were making the right decision. I like Seth, I really do! But maybe there's someone even better....

Has anyone else been down to the wire and found themselves doing this??

Finally I called K, took a deep breath and just faxed them in. There. DONE.

March FSH Day 2 Test

I did my Day 2, FSH and E2 today and they came back great!

FSH 8.5, E2, 43

Dr. VID is happy, I’m happy!

I go in on March 15, Day 11 for more bloodwork and U/S (ultrasound).
From there they will determine what my levels look like and how many follicles I’ve got growing in there.
One way or another though, it looks like I’ll be doing my first IUI in less than two weeks.

How exciting!

I was missing a document that the Cryobank needed for storage and so my 12K order didn’t go through yesterday.
Today I was too scared to place it. Maybe I only need to use one vial per cycle? Then I could buy less.

What to do, what to do….

I’m going to ponder and do it tomorrow for sure. I need to talk to K again and with her schedule it’s hard to find time to talk during the week and right now….she’s on a plane coming home!! Yeah!

$12,000 Worth of Sperm

Oh My God. We finally chose "Seth the Architect". No, his name is not Seth, but he is an architect and after K referring to everyone by their height I started giving all of the donors names that corresponded with something in their life. Works for me. I would die if I found out his name was actually Seth. I don’t even particularly like the name Seth, so again, it just popped into my head for no reason whatsoever.

Now that we have finally decided that this is the one, we’re buying 20 vials.

Providing we try two times / cycle and that we use Seth for K and myself, that only gives us five tries each.

We’ll ship six vials (three months worth) to our VEFC and they will charge us $250 for six months storage.

The others we will leave at CA Cryo and after three months, if I’m not pregnant we’ll ship out monthly (we think) for $190 shipping / month.

Hopefully there will be some leftover to get K pregnant in a couple of years...that's the plan and we really would like both children to have the same donor.

CA Cryo will store for free for one year and they will also buy back unused vials for ½ price.

Also, if we decide Seth is no longer working out for us and we want to switcheroo, we can do so for $150 providing they never leave the facility.

I cannot believe that each vial is $595 each.

Oh, that 12K? Does NOT include shipping or storage fees!!!

I’m dying right now.

A Half Caffeinated Life

One of the things about getting pregnant I’ve been dreading more than anything (other than the inevitable weight gain) is…giving up my morning cappuccino. I do not buy coffee drinks in the morning and I don’t care that much for regular coffee. We have some fancy schmancy machine that came with a DVD to learn how to use it. K had to teach me to make an espresso. For the love of God, I’ve been making espresso years longer than her…but this crazy machine is her baby. Every morning, I make an Italian espresso cappuccino and drink it out of a big steaming bowl while I check my email before going to work. It’s a ritual, I love it and I’m not willing to give it up. So, I switched to decaf. Well, to be exact, I am weaning myself off by going half/half and seeing just how bad it is.

It’s pretty bad! This is the only caffeine I have all day. I don’t drink soda or tea and I’m so tired!!

This is the first weekend in six weeks that both K and I were both in NYC.
The weather wasn’t the greatest, but we made the most of it.
To keep myself from napping the weekend away—which is what I felt like doing--we kept ourselves busy running errands, hitting the gym and going to a pilates class.
And then…we mostly walked around and ate!

Saturday, we were honored to be chosen for “date night”. We don’t get to see this friend very often as she married with two children and lives in NJ, so it was a real treat! She came to the East Village and we were able to have a nice dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, “Haveli” http://www.yelp.com/biz/haveli-restaurant-new-york
had a quick dessert at “Pudding”, the little sister outpost of ChikaLicious just across the street, http://www.chikalicious.com/ got coffee for Liz and Katie (Oh God I Wanted ONE) at “Tarallucci e Vino” http://taralluccievino.net/ and saw the movie “The Other Boleyn Girl”. The movie isn’t going to win any awards, but two hot girls with heaving bosoms is never a bad thing for a couple of hours.

Sunday we had brunch with a great friend we hadn’t seen in six weeks and found a new place, “The Smith” http://www.chow.com/places/19521 Loved it and will go back there for sure!
Later we walked to Chinatown and met three friends for dinner at a Vietnamese place, http://www.chow.com/places/19521
We walked down here last Sunday night for dinner and enjoyed it so much, we brought three friends! Cheap and Delicious!

We are so anxious for Spring to arrive so we can be outside all weekend, walking, exploring and eating! Maybe I’ll wake up more when the sun shines longer.
Mostly, I’m happy that I don’t have to travel anywhere for a month.