We're Back!

The trip was awesome! The flights sucked. Hard. But I don't want to focus on those. The trip itself was just so relaxing. We went to Sandals Royal Caribbean and we pretty much did nothing but lounge at the pool, lounge at the beach, lounge IN the pool, eat, drink, and take evening strolls. Not a bad way to spend our anniversary/baby moon if you ask me! ;-)

We have been to Jamaica before, so we didn't bother with excursions this time - we really just wanted to relax and that we did. Our room got upgraded which was nice so we ended up with a bar right in our room (DH took much pleasure in that), besides the other bars on site, and there was a pool about 10 feet outside our back door/patio. Oh - and one awesome thing about a pool? You can lay on your stomach - on a floaty or whatever - and it doesn't hurt! lol

There were two resort cats that we saw just lounging around periodically (so cute) and during our night time strolls, we saw so many crabs just walking around. Big and small. It was pretty cool!

The weather was great, people were nice, and there were lots of choices of restaurants or even 24 hour room service (which we took full advantage of and had breakfast in bed/on our patio every morning!). I'll post pictures once I finally get them off my camera.

And the best part? DH finally FELT the baby move! He saw it for the first time on the 4th of July, but he's never been able to feel it. Everytime he put his hand on my belly, the little guy would stop moving. :-( But not this time - gave him a nice big kick!

Tough life, no?! lol

Yoga

So I signed up for a pre-natal yoga class and last night's was the first class. I wasn't sure what I would think going into it but it wasn't too bad. Just a couple things I had trouble with:

1) Breathing. I don't know about you, but whenever I think about the process of breathing, the thing that usually happens so naturally becomes almost impossible to do. And the fact that she kept constantly telling me to think about breathing in... breathing out... I could not for the life of me breath comfortably! And I had to actually make myself inhale and exhale each time. Sooo not natural or relaxing at all. Anyone else like this or have suggestions?!?!

2) "Yoga-ese". I know it's not officially a word, but it's what I call it when referring to the way the instructor was speaking and things she said. I know it's not right, but I just had a hard time getting into all the talk about "the universe", and that I wasn't "running toward anything" and that the universe was happy, energy, etc... I know that's a big part of yoga and will be something I have to definitely work at not rolling my eyes to.

Other than that, it was great - will take me a couple sessions to get familiar with everything and not have to look up to make sure I'm doing it right. And the oddest thing - it's upstairs from my RE office. It was so weird going back there! I was hesitant about going to a pre-natal class at an RE's office for the simple fact that I would HATE for an IF patient to see a bunch of ladies with pregnant bellies walking around. Ouch. But, thankfully, the class was at 7:00 pm so the RE's ofice had long since closed.

I will miss next week's class while in Jamaica, but they said I could make it up during any of the other yoga classes - yay!

And now, speaking of Jamaica. We'll be there TOMORROW! So I leave you with this awesome pic - another great way to relax other than yoga. ;-)

2 Days!

2 more days of work and then we're off to Jamaica. Aaaaaahhhhhh.....

The countdown has begun and the packing has commenced. DH is still dependent on crutches which makes me sad, but I'm thinking a few days laying at the pool/beach can help - we canNOT wait!!

I passed!

Today is 27 weeks (and start of 3rd tri!) and had my last monthly OB appt today - from now on out, we go every 2 weeks. Wow!

Got the results of my glucose and repeat thyroid tests and I passed them both as well as the standard blood pressure, weight, heartrate, etc... So - here are the results:

Glucose: 88 -- well within passing range, yay!
Thyroid: 1.4 -- so staying on same 50 mcg dosage
BP: 90/60
Weight: +1 from last month, total +7
HB: fluctuated between 148-152 -- nice and strong!

They also gave us the official go-ahead for Jamaica and we leave this Friday! We canNOT wait!

Other updates:
- We had our nieces (ages 7 & 9) here since Wednesday and we brought them back home yesterday. Was fun, but I will admit I was ok with driving them back home after the visit, too! lol

- Now that the girls are gone, we are instead dog-sitting. Dog comes tonight and his daddy picks him back up Thursday night. We leave Friday morning. Let's just say it'll be nice to get away for the pure simple fact that no one will be around and we can finally be alone! We haven't been alone, especially on the weekends in I don't know how long! (And yes, I know we won't be alone at all when the baby comes, but it's ok - it'll be our baby!!! lol)

- DH woke up Saturday morning and couldn't move his knee or put any pressure on it. He's not sure what he did, but we went to Urgent Care yesterday and the doctor thinks he sprained it. It's only slightly swollen and DH doesn't recall doing anything to have resulted in a sprain, but he went for x-rays today just in case it was anything else.

So needless to say, we'll make quite the pair at the resort - the pregnant girl and the guy on the crutches - won't be hard to forget! lol

You have GOT to be Kidding Me!

WTF! Over a month ago, we called the travel agent we used for our honeymoon to re-book our anniversary trip to Jamaica. We were supposed to go last year, but it kept getting postponed due to treatments and therefore we never met.

Three weeks later and numbers attempts at contact later, she FINALLY gets back to us with some potential flights/dates. I get back to her immediately with our selection.

She called me when I was in PA 1.5 weeks ago to confirm, get my card info, etc... and to book the flight. Yay, right?!

No. I called USAIR today to confirm what name they had me under since my passport still has my maiden name and they didn't have a reservation for us. At all. On ANY flight.

So then I look at my credit card statement and NOTHING has been booked. No flight, no resort, nothing.

I DON'T GET IT! If it wasn't for the fact we already had money invested in this trip with them from last year, they would have been fired a LONG time ago. I just don't understand it. They were soooo good last time. And were for others I referred to them as well. But now? WTF!

If she caused us to lose the fair/rates or if there are no seats left on that flight, I don't even know what I'm going to do.

OMG!

I'm Sorry!

I'm so sorry for the last few posts being downers. So today, I'm chaning that. Despite the kitty situation, we really did have a wonderful last 11 days. DH is a teacher so had the time off already and I had last week and the previous Friday off for vacation. We spent a lot of time out on the boat (DH fishing and me relaxing and reading in the sun), the 2 trips to Syracuse for the Retrieval and Transfer, my Nestie GTG (DH fished), a BBQ, rented movies, spent time in the backyard just hanging out, and a fun-filled trip to Lake George for a few hours.

For those who don't know, Lake George is a village (and lake, of course!) about 45 minutes north that is quite the tourist area due to it's beauty (lake, mountains, etc...) but we decided to go up anyway for the day to get away and take our mind off things. We sometimes forget to take advantage of some of the local fun things to do - everyone else does, why not us!

So we drove up, had lunch on the water, walked around, got ice cream, browsed some shops, went to the beach, just relaxed and looked at the views, went mini-golfing, etc... It was just so nice and relaxing. A great way to close out the weekend, you know?

So I hope everyone else had a good summer and Labor Day weekend. Did you do anything fun?!

2dpR?

OK, so I made that up - 2 days past Retrieval. Yup, I'm a dork - but I thought it was a pretty good way to describe it. So our 3 day transfer is tomorrow at 10:15. Can't wait!

We've spent the last couple days just hanging out. We took the boat out (Tom fished and I read and relaxed in the sun!), went for walks, grilled, had dinner with a friend yesterday, etc... Not sure yet what we're going to do the rest of the week to and the last few days of our vacation. Maybe a quick trip up to Lake George or something, I don't know. Just something relaxing and vacation-y - guess we'll see. As long as it helps me take my mind off the dreaded 2ww, I'm good!

As far as side effects go, I'm still bloated, but the ovaries haven't hurt as much as they have the last couple days. They didn't hurt yesterday morning, but by the end of the day they started aching - I've learned I probably shouldn't lay on my belly to read while in the boat - oops! Either way, much better today - bring on the transfer!

So what do you think? Are all 3 embies still kicking? Or did we lose one? Or did the 4th one catch up? I'll let you know tomorrow!

Fert Report, Kitty, and Plans for Today

Hey there! Got our Fertilization Report this morning. Out of the 9 eggs they retrieved, they were able fertilize 4 of them. They weren't able to tell me why they couldn't do the others, but I'm assuming they either weren't mature or something - will have to find out Thursday when I get to the Transfer. And of the 4 eggs they got, 3 of them had fertilized this morning. She said the 4th may catch up by Thursday, but at least, as of now, we have 3 - so that's a good start!

It's actually very similar to last time - last time we got 10 eggs, they injected 4, and 3 fertilized! lol

So we have a 3 day transfer scheduled for this Thursday at 10:15. Can't wait! And it was nice of them to push it out by a couple hours compared to last time since we have to travel 2 hours to get there. Woohoo!

Here's my list of drugs:

- Prometrium (200 mg) - vaginal supps 2x daily (oh so messy!)
- Estrace (2 mg) - orally 2x daily
- Doxycycline (100 mg) - 2x daily for 3 days
- Baby Aspirin (81 mg) - 1 daily
- PNV - 1 daily
- B6 - 1 daily
- Levothyroxin (25 mcg) - 1 daily
- And then I add in a multi-vitamin 1 daily.

As far as symptoms/side effects, they are better today. Yesterday I was extremely bloated, ovaries hurt to walk, move, etc... although it wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle it. And I was stuck "taking it easy" lol. Nice when you don't HAVE to do it, but boring when you do ;-) Needless to say it's worth it and I spent much time on the Nest and watching TV.

Today the bloating is down so far and the ovaries aren't nearly as achy. We are now getting ready to take the boat out for a couple hours - I am on vacation after all! - and then I'm meeting a friend tonight for dinner to celebrate. My fert report and her divorce finally being finalized!

Lastly - in case anyone is curious about the kitty, there hasn't been much change. He is still losing weight but we are still doing the force feedings. Just don't always get him to keep them down. But we're still trying. And, on that note, I'm off to go feed him again, let him outside, and then pack up to head out on the boat!

I hope everyone has a great day and I'll talk to you soon!

Follie Check #3 - Trigger tomorrow, Weekend Plans

Six. That's it. That's all the measurable eggs that I have. WTF? Leftie is doing ok and has grown them well, but righty has basically done nothing. Still. Here are my numbers from today's u/s:

Leftie:
20.7
18.9
18.5
18.5
17.8

Rightie:
12.2

Pretty pathetic, eh? This is even worse than last time in a way - fewer measurable eggs. But, at least it looks like there will be at least 5 good mature (hopefully!) eggs come Monday at the retrieval (only had 4 mature last time). And you know what's funny? It's the sad little Rightie that I feel the most - go figure. I will cross my fingers that the one on Rightie catches up, but I seriously doubt it. So it's looking like we'll end up with just a few embies again this time and none for freeze.

So let's hope this one works!

OK, here's my protocol for the next few days:

Tonight: no change - 150 iu Follistim, 5 iu Lupron
Tomorrow: Trigger (Ovidrel) at 10:30 pm, no Follistim or Lupron
Sunday: no injections! No baby aspirin. No food/beverage after midnight
Monday: ER at 10:00 am
Thursday: potential ET

It's actually pretty good that I won't be doing stims tomorrow night because I am going to an Upstate NY Nestie get-together and I don't want to worry about making it back into town in time or having to lug them around with me all day in a cooler! lol

I'm actually looking forward to the GTG - I've been chatting with these girls from all over the state for a while now and we finally get to meet! I've gone to some local Nestie GTG's and a few of us are carpooling over together, but meeting some of the others from Upstate NY should be fun. We are going to the Finger Lakes area - having lunch and then going on a boat cruise. Ooh, gotta remember my camera!

I'm also officially on vacation until September 2nd - yay for me! We were planning on going north to the Adirondacks to my parents' house and then to hop over and see my sister/nephew, but now that we have to go to Syracuse on Monday and Thursday, it wouldn't make any sense to to go - too much driving in very opposite directions lol Oh well - so is the way with all of our vaca plans this year, but baby comes first!

Hope you all of you are doing well - have any plans for the weekend?

I'm a Bachelorette

For a little over a week. DH got offered a fishing trip to Northern Quebec (for free!) that I couldn't let him pass up, so I dropped him off last night at his ride's house and he is already in Canada, on his way to the North. There won't be any cell service or phone/computer access so I won't get to hear from him until next weekend sometime when they're on their way back home.

We've been away from each other for this amount of time, but we've at least been able to chat. Not saying we can't do it, but we just love talking to each other. Especially this coming Monday which will be our 1st wedding anniversary.

We were going to go to Jamaica for our 1st anniversary, but as we know, we had to cancel that one since it ended up falling during our 1st IVF cycle. Then we were going to go to Portland, ME this weekend, but we cancalled that so he could go on his trip. We were looking at rescheduling, but all of the hotels we want to stay at are booked for pretty much the rest of the summer - oops!

So now we're trying to figure where to go and when for our Anniversary. It may end up being in September at this poing! lol But, if it is, it'll have to coincide with a day already DH gets off. Since he's a teacher, it's not as easy for him to just take time off like it is for me. He gets lots of time off, but it's not as flexible when he does, you know?

So this week I am going to spend time cleaning up around the house, running errands, watching chick flicks and treating myself for dinner a couple of times. That, and figuring out where to go for our anniversary - any ideas?!

I'm back!

We are officially back from Rochester and our week of crazy driving. It's nice to be back and not have to travel anywhere for a while, do I did enjoy being away and not having to be at work!

We got a late start on Tuesday because we had to wait for DH's car to be fixed and then to hear back from the vet. By the time we heard back from everyone it was about 6:00 pm, so we didn't get into Rochester until a little after 11:00. It always takes us longer when we tow the boat, but it was worth it to be able to take it out - the weather was gorgeous for it!

We pretty much spent the week handging out on the boat, spending time with his family or at picnics. Even went to go see Sex and the City with his sister, which was good - there was no way I was going to drag DH to that one and none of my friends were interested, so I was just assuming I'd have to wait until rental. But nope - and it was good!

Having all of the activities helped take our mind off our love 2WW, but it was still hard - I'll get into that more in my next post. But, in the meantime, here are some pics from the weekend because you know I love to share pictures!

First up, pictures of Riley - he had to go with us because he's still on meds. But the good news - he has successfully eating and not vomited for the last week - how awesome is that!

I liked this picture b/c it made him look like an evil kitty lol

And he of COURSE, made himself comfortable while there!

Here's a pic from out on the water:

While out, we stopped off and had lunch overlooking the water and while there, were "entertained" by a couple of birds having some, uh, fun:

DH's parents got a new chihuahua - a cute little one named Beja - not sure what it stands for since it came with that name (she's 5 years old) - she's still a little skiddish since she came from an abusive home, but she's getting better!

And last, but not least, Rochester has a ton of dear roaming around the neighborhoods and his parents get a lot of them through their backyard - so here's a beautiful gal for your viewing pleasure!

We got back last night, unpacked a few things, and now I guess we're here to stay for a little while. I hope everyone enjoyed their long holiday weekend!

Off on vacation!

Jamaica. The beach. Yummy drinks. That is where we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to be doing right now. Our one-year anniversary trip to Sandals Whitehouse. Wouldn't that be awesome?! And we could both absolutley use it after all the stress we've had in our lives the last few months. Aaaahhhh - maybe we'll just look at pictures of our honeymoon trip lol

But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we're both ok with having to postpone/cancel our trip. While it would have been awesome to be there, staying back and doing this IVF for the potential to have a baby(ies) is all worth it.

So, instead, we are packing up the boat and the cat (still have to give him meds three times a day) and off to spend time in Rochester with his family and some friends. As long as we're away from home, making the 2WW pass by faster, and not at work, I'm all good!

They don't have internet service, so I most likely won't be back online with another update until Sunday/Monday. See you then!