Relaxing Doesn't Make Babies

Keeping Busy

Oct 1, 2006 — 10:28 pm

Last night, while I was supposed to be cleaning, I ended up spending hours on an excel calendar. I downloaded a yearly calendar that is awesome! All decked out with formulas to automatically generate pretty much any calendar you want, just type in the year/month you want it to start with. But I wanted to show TWO years. And that was a pain in the ass. I couldn’t figure out the stupid arrays, there were things pointing to variables that I couldn’t find, and I was getting very irritated. Plus the stupid conditional formatting only accepts 3 different options, and I need 5.

I did finally figure it out half-ways. I have a calendar for 2005, 2006, and 2007 on different sheets. For any date up until the current date I have it highlighting my ovulation days and cycle start days. From the current date for the next 6 months it highlights my predicted ovulation and cycle start days. It’s pretty cool, I think. But then I’m into that ultra-geek stuff. :) I just absolutely love playing with numbers. My cycles have given me so much data to track, it’s so much fun.

Other than that there is nothing to report really. My period is finally ending, after having been heavier and more painful than my usual periods (but not overly so). But two days of pain and nausea and four days of pretty substantial bleeding is about all I can take.

Still no results from the doctor. Den did call, they said they don’t have them yet but they’ll call when they do. So more waiting. As if I don’t have enough waiting to do, right? Hopefully we’ll get the results tomorrow.

CDC Live Birth Rates

Oct 1, 2006 — 11:45 pm

Here’s some interesting data: the CDC’s ART report on the Springfield clinic’s birth rates. I would be very interested to get newer data.

Edit: I was poking around my insurance provider’s website and the RE’s website for more info. I found out that I do NOT need to get a referral to the RE. I am covered to visit ANY specialist in the network without a referral. Yay! That’s a good thing. I do need to get pre-authorization for any infertility treatments, including any medication though. I don’t know how that would work. But the RE’s website mentioned that they have someone to help you with insurance, so that will be nice.

I know I had emailed requesting a brochure from the RE clinic… I never got one. I might have to call and ask for one.

Pregnancy Info

Oct 2, 2006 — 12:25 pm

An informative link, will be needed later: Ask Dr. Sears: The ninth month. Detailed info about labor and the physical feelings and changes during that last month.

In The Limbo

Oct 3, 2006 — 1:26 am

I’ve been saying to myself and DH a lot lately – “We’re on cycle TWELVE.” Oh my gosh. It’s so depressing…. though not as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I’ll freak out when we officially hit the one-year mark. Now I’m kind of looking forward to it – in that “let’s get this OVER with” kind of way. I’m tired of waiting. I want to find out what’s wrong and do something about it. I’m ready for the next stage, damnit. But cycle 12? TWELVE? God.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on my binder. I keep all my notes in my binder: all my charts, all my statistics (cycle length, ovulation days, etc), I keep notes of all my doctors visits since we started TTC, and I’ve just been working on the section for all my doctors’ information. I’m putting together info on the RE clinic. I’ll probably be calling soonish to find out how long a wait I’d have to get an appointment… but I’m trying to wait until we get the SA results to make the appointment, since if the results are bad I’ll be making an appointment ASAP. If it’s good I may just call for info.

I may go see my midwife again to keep her updated on our progress and discuss with her, though, I don’t know. I hate to pay $15 for no reason, but I feel like I should at least let her know where we’re at.

Births on TV

Oct 3, 2006 — 5:44 pm

I like to watch baby shows on TV. Right now I’m watching House of Babies (I forget what channel it is), watching a water birth. And what’s really amusing me about it is that they blur the mother’s breasts… but show the baby’s head crowning. Even more amusing is when the shows show the crowning head, but blur the mother’s pubic hair. It’s just so funny what “they” decide is appropriate for TV!

I’m excited to be watching a natural birth. I have a journal buddy on a forum who is planning for a natural birth as well, she’s at 37 weeks, and I’m so excited to hear how her birth goes! I really want to hear input from people who have gone through it really trying, because the people who just tell me to get an epi because, why not? totally don’t get it.

Den came home in the middle of one of these birth shows. He got a little grossed out. LOL! “He’s videoing it! I am NOT doing that. Eewww eewww!” LOL He cracks me up. He keeps telling me how he’ll be fine during the labor and I just laugh. I think he’s going to freak out. ;)

Checklist

Oct 3, 2006 — 11:35 pm

A checklist posted on one of the forums I go to. Thought it’d be fun to take a peek and see how I’m doing.

More…

Infertility Etiquette

Oct 4, 2006 — 2:01 am

I’m filing this under Information, I had lost this link. A really good article for helping people to understand: Infertility Etiquette

Aches and Pains

Oct 4, 2006 — 7:52 pm

I’m in a decent amount of pain tonight. I worked all day cleaning – which involved a lot of crouching down. Which hurts my knees, and apparently works calf muscles that never get worked. Cause ow. Achy.

But the weirder, more prominent pain is in my stomach/uterus – I really can’t tell which. When I got home I felt really tender in my lower abs, both sides, just inside of the hips. And then after I ate dinner I got up to go pee and nearly doubled over with a shock of pain right through the center. I don’t know what the hell that was. I carefully walked to the bathroom, still feeling twinges of pain, and peed. Now it feels okay – but still tender. WTF? I hope this isn’t some new infection like another UTI. That would piss me off. I get wicked bad gas cramps frequently, but this was different from that.

In other news, there is no news. Den called me at work today and I started getting nervous and excited, waiting for the test results. But instead he only had called to talk to me about picking up our new bed – which is exciting, but not the damn test results. Do many labs take over a week and a half to get SA results back to you?? This waiting is killing me. When I answered my phone I was unsure what to expect. I guess a big part of me is expecting Den to say, “It’s bad news.” I really do expect that. And yet I fully accept that he could tell me everything is perfectly normal.

I’m so tired tonight. So, so tired.

SA Results

Oct 5, 2006 — 7:25 pm

Den called his doctor to ask about his test results yet again. They called the lab. Lab had no record of him, apparently. So he told the doctor’s office that YES he was there, with the paperwork faxed from the doctor! I guess they ended up finding it, as he called back with the results. I got them faxed to me here.

Color, viscosity, liquifaction: Normal
Count: 89 million (Reference: 60-200mil)
Volume: 7.0mL (Reference: 2.0-5.0mL)
pH: 8.5 (Reference: 7.0-8.0)
Motility: 70% (Reference: 40-100%)
Forward Motion: 3 (Reference: 2-3)
Morphology: 68% (Reference: >=60%)

pH is a little high, but otherwise it is all completely NORMAL. So we keep trying, I guess. Make an RE appointment for after the 1-year mark and see what to do with me.

Gearing Up

Oct 9, 2006 — 6:51 am

My temps are being a bit wonky, which makes me worried that it’ll be difficult to tell exactly when I ovulate. Which I’m definitely gearing up to do. I should ovulate in the next two days.

Other than that I just keep on. Den’s results have made us hopeful again for this cycle – it’s quite possible that this could be the one. I waver back and forth between, “Yeah right, it’ll never happen,” and “I’m sure this is it!” Same as usual, I guess.

There’s not a whole lot going on in my head right now, though I hear snippets of thoughts saying, 12? It’s not fair!

Den and I got our new bed that I’ve been wanting for years. A king size, cushy and comfortable. I’m sleeping really well. So I’m all ready to get pregnant now. (There’s NO way I could have shared that futon with hubby while pregnant. One of us would have ended up dead, and I highly doubt it would have been me.) We also got a dishwasher, though it still has to get installed. So that’s two of the three… four things that I needed done before a baby. Now we just need to finish another room of the house (the breezeway or the basement – I’m thinking the former would be more cost-effective and logical) to make space for baby. And when I get pregnant we start on the baby’s room. I would like to stay ahead of the game, though, so we aren’t feeling rushed during my pregnancy. (Ie, so I don’t completely freak out when pregnant and start screaming randomly at DH about how nothing is done.) There still will only be room for one baby, but that’s a hurdle we’re going to have to jump when we get there. Right now I’d be happy with just one.

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