CD1, IM Injections, and more Animals

So, my period officially showed, so we are now schedule for Cd3 bloodwork on Monday and we'll get started with the next phase of this IVF cycle - Estradiol Valerate injections!

This is my first time on these and I did NOT know that they were going to be IM injections. I was naive and assumed they'd be sub-q until I saw that bottle yesterday and saw the words - Sesame Oil and IM. Gulp.

I haven't done any IM shots before and haven't been looking forward to them for the PIO shots during the 2WW, but I still have a while before that comes. But nope - starting next week, my husband will be aiming a giant needle at a target on my butt!

On a lighter note, here are some more pics of some animals from my mom and dad's volunteer trip to South Africa. I don't remember all of their names, but I'll do what I can!

Here's the mom and baby giraffe to go with the daddy from my post below:




Daddy giraffe with a bird perched on top of one of his horns:



Peek-a-boo!



Springbok? There were a lot of deer-type animals so I can't remember all their names!



More deer-type guys and gals:



Water Buffalo type guys:

Pretty Zebras keeping a close eye on my parents!

A couple pics of Osteriches:

This one was spreading his feathers in alert if I remember correctly:

Monkey see, Monkey do!

Some antelope-y type thing - can't remember the name!

Hi!

Just some birds having a bath ;-)

And on a different note, here are some of the housing near where they were. Such a different world between the races there and where and how they live:

It's hard to see in this picture since it's so small, but across the water there are the nicer houses - such a distinct division:

A lot of the house roofs are kept down with rock as seen here:

And lastly, some kids that gladly posed for a picture as my parents went by - how cute!:

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My mom took a billion pics - they were so awesome to look at - especially the ones that had so many different types of animals just all hanging out together - it was so cool to see! It's too bad that the pictures on here are so small - I wish I could make them bigger!

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I hope everyone's doing well and are almost done with their holiday shopping!

Tag, I'm It!

And thank goodness I was tagged - I have been such a boring blogger lately! I'm still stuck on Lupron since my period has yet to decide to show and it has been so crazy at work as I've been trying to clean up before vacation, so I haven't been updating my blog or reading others.

But, the lovely, beautiful Nikki has tagged me, so here goes!

1) Choose the 4th picture folder on your computer
2) Choose the 4th picture
3) Explain the picture
4)Tag 4 other people

This is the male giraffe from the giraffe family that seemed to follow my parents around when they were in South Africa earlier this year on one of their volunteer trips. My mom took a TON of pictures and this family was so cute - a mom, dad, and their baby. I would love to see all the things they saw on their trip - just out roaming around where they were working. Crazy!




And just for fun, here are a few other pics.

These 2 are of the male rhinocerus that didn't like the fact that my parents were around. It was a male/famale pair and the male kept working his way closer and closer to my parents. And as he got closer, he started stamping his feet - and they took it as a sign to book it out of there!

And just to give some perspective on how big he was - he's huge (standing in the middle and laying on the left)!! My dad is 6'3 and he was quite a bit taller than him and just giant. I knew they were big, but had no idea they were that big!

Also, in the above pic are about 3-4 different type of deer-type animals, spring-bok, buffalo type things, zebras - just so many animals all hanging out together on the ridge!

I'll take a look at the rest of the pics from their trip and maybe I'll post some more later. The pics were so cool!

And now, I tag:

Sandi

Melissa

Shawna

Amy

Hope everyone's doing well!

CD28 and counting

Nothing too exciting going on, still. 15 dpo and still waiting for the period to show. Normally I'd have gotten it already and be pretty much done, although I did O early this month, but the lovely meds are delaying things again.

So - let's get on with it already - I want to move forward, pretty please?! Plus, once I get it, I'll have a better idea of when I'll start stims and when my RE appointments will be so I can better plan our holiday travel. As it is, I really think they'll probably line up with my holiday travel and interrup that just like it has previous cycles - cancelled our 1st anniversary trip to Jamaica and 3 other drive-to attempts at an anniversary trip. Maybe someday we'll actually get to go somewhere! lol

So - we may end up seeing our family for a day and that's it since my appointments usually end up being every other day. Gotta love it.

But, I guess it's all worth it for a chance at a baby, right? RIGHT?!

Winter Wonderland

We got a huge ice storm last night and it looks so beautiful outside right now. Everything is covered in a thick layer of ice. The sun is shining so the bare tree branches and everything is just sparkling and glittering in the sunshine. And when the sun's not out, it's just a sea of white winter wonderland.

On the same note, there is so much damage everywhere as a result of this storm. Full tree across roads, power lines down everywhere, thousands and thousands without power, and it's supposed to get down to 10 F tonight.

It's kind of funny how something so absolutely beautiful can so amazingly destructive, no?

Maybe it's Mother Nature's way of saying "I'm Sorry"? ;-)

Not too much going on...

On day 4 of this cycle. So far nothing too exciting, really. Some headaches, tired, some pains in the uterus/ovaries area, but nothing too annoying. 4 shots of Lupron down and just waiting for my period to show before I get into the hard stuff. Pretty exciting, eh?! LOL ;-)

1st Injection tonight!

So - IVF#3 "officially" starts tonight. We do our first Lupron injection and honestly, I can't wait!

8:00 can't come soon enough! ;-)

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm! It was -10 here this morning with wind chill. Brrrrr!

My Parents

I am a very proud daughter. Each year my parents take vacation time 1-2 times a year and go somewhere to help out. And I just dropped them off at the airport yesterday to do it again.

Every year since Katrina they've gone down to New Orleans to help tear down/build back up. And this year they wanted to build a house so they could hopefully get a family back in their home by Christmas. They have also gone to Brazil a couple times, and last year they went to both South Africa and New Orleans.

They'll be in New Orleans for about 10 days and then they just le tme know that they decided to go back to South Africa in February/March to help again.

I am just so proud of them I could burst. Using their own vacation time, their own money (especially since they don't have much to begin with), their own tools, etc... to go help those in need. They are such good, selfless people (in more ways even than this) that if I can just be half the people they are, it would say a lot.

OK, gushing over, sorry about that. But yay mom and dad!

Quick Update

Hey there! Not too much going on right now. Just settling back into work after the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was tough to do, but we all know it had to be done ;-)

But, in TTC news, we are now less than a week until IVF#3 officially begins. We begin our first injection on Monday and then by the end of January we should know if it works. I'm nervous, but getting excited. Once I start injections, I feel better about the whole process.

Hope begins to filter in (gotta love hope - the bearer of both good and crushing news) and it brings back a sense of control. With each injection we do, we know we are actually doing something that could get us that baby. So I say - bring in the injections and the dates with the wand - I'm ready!