Thrillers, Fillers, and Spillers

Be prepared, there are lots of pictures in this post! Personally, I love seeing at least one picture per post anyway, so I included several in this one.

We had a pretty relaxing weekend. Haley's birthday party was Saturday, and that was pretty fun but long! I now know when we have kids that I will pick up my children promptly at the party ending time. They party was over at four, and some of the parents stayed around talking until about five! We were ready for them to go! Here are a couple of my faves from the party:


The Birthday Girl!

Apparently, Ian felt the need to steal a couple of drinks. This is one of my favorite pictures of him ever!

After the party on Saturday, we had our favorite houseguest, Chris, over for dinner. Interestingly enough, he is probably our most frequent visitor, even though he lives three hours away. Nobody wants to hang out with us except for him! :) We had wine, cigars, and conversation on our back porch...

Not the best picture of me that's ever been taken, but the ones of Ry and Chris are pretty cute!

Most of what I did for the rest of the weekend involved planting flowers. I planted flowers in our flowerbeds as well as flowers in the pots. For those of you who have asked before, I plant the pots based on the "thriller, filler, spiller" concept. Basically, you plant a "thriller" (something that's kind of tall) in the middle, "fillers" (colorful stuff that takes up room) around the filler, and a couple of "spillers" (something that trails down the side of the pot). Here are the pots I planted this year:

Thriller: Purple Reed Grass, Fillers: Coleus, New Guinea Impatiens, Regular Impatiens, Dianthus, Spillers: Ivy

Thriller: Purple Reed Grass, Fillers: Coleus, Impatiens, Double Impatiens, Purple Salvia, Spillers: Vinca Vines

Thriller: Majesty Palm, Fillers: Coleus, Double Impatiens, Impatiens, Spillers: Ivy

Thriller: Mexican Petunia, Fillers: New Guinea Impatien, Petunias, Million Bells, Salvia, Spiller: Ivy

Thriller: Hibiscus, Fillers: Petunias, Million Bells, Heather, Salvia, Verbena, Dianthus, Spillers: Sweet Potato Vines

I've already said this once, but I will say it again: I LOVE making these! It's fun to me. It gets a little expensive, but they last all summer long (with constant watering) and make the deck a peaceful place to have dinner or just sit and relax! See....


Okay, off to our bike ride. Also on the agenda for tonight...the season premiere of The Little Couple. Thank goodness for TLC this summer because there is nothing else on TV! My DVR doesn't know what to do with itself.

Welcoming Myself Back to the Blogging World...

It's been way too long since my last post! In my last post, I talked about the fact that I ovulated and that we were waiting to see if I was pregnant. I feel like most of you already know this, but I did not become pregnant from the most recent cycle. I was really upset about it at first, but I feel like that was more of anxiety than actually being upset that it didn't work. I had been waiting and waiting, and they didn't call me until the very end of the day. I cried and cried for about 20 minutes, and then I was pretty much okay. I had some Chinese food and a diet Coke, and I felt much better. :) I have to keep reminding myself that what happens is all part of God's plan for us. This was just not the time. When it is time, it will happen!

I was supposed to start a new cycle on Saturday, but after an ultrasound on Saturday, the PA, Katie, said that the cycle was a no-go. I have two very large cysts in my right ovary and another pretty big one on my left. Katie said that we will wait three to four weeks before beginning the next cycle to give the cysts time to go away on their own. When I start the next cycle, I will be doing injections for at least a week but probably closer to two weeks. I asked Katie if there is any way to know the reason I didn't end up pregnant last month, and she said that it could be a number of things. After she saw the cysts, she said that they could have had something to do with it. Their growth would have been fueled by the combination of pills and injectable medication. It's nothing life-threatening or anything like that...they will just go away. I have another ultrasound at the end of the week for them to check the cysts again to make sure they're going down. We will go from there to determine when I will start my injectables again.

I am maintaining a positive attitude about the whole thing. Katie commented several times about how she loved my positivity, and I told her that it would not help things to be negative, so why be that way? I guess they come across a lot of people that get rude with them or just take out their anger on them when things don't go the way they want them to. It's understandable because the whole process takes a toll on your emotions. It was exciting when I started, then I became stressed and worried when my follicles weren't growing like they should have been. Then it was exciting when I knew I was supposed to be ovulating, and then a little stressful when the doctor wasn't sure if I ovulated. Then it was exciting to find out I ovulated, and then stressful to wait another whole week to find out whether or not I was pregnant. I'll be real--in this week, I was looking for every possible pregnancy sign, when really, pregnancy signs don't usually show up until at least about two weeks after conception, and many pregnancy symptoms are symptoms of starting your period. I already described what happened when I found out I wasn't preggo. Anyway, I can definitely see how the people at the NHC deal with all kinds of emotions. This should be all the fertility talk until Friday.....

The Big O

The big news of today is that..............I ovulated last week when I was supposed to!! I spoke with one of the clinicians at the NHC today, and she said my bloodwork confirmed that this happened. Now, we wait until next week when they can conduct a blood test to check for pregnancy. I really can't even take a home test until then because the hcg injection they gave me last week would possibly/probably cause a false positive. More waiting! Please pray for us during this week.

This weekend was nice. The weather was beautiful, and we were able to relax on Saturday and spend time with our moms on Sunday. Our friend, Jamane--yes, it's JAmane, not JERmaine :)--came over with her sweet little girl, Jaidyn. I can't believe how big she's getting! Here's the one picture I was able to take that turned out halfway decent:
She and Ryan had a great time running back and forth all around our yard while Jamane and I sat and talked. Good practice for him! Obviously, Sunday was Mother's Day. Here are the planters I made for our mothers as their gifts:
I LOVE making these. Last year, I made one for our front yard and four different containers for the deck in our backyard. It gets expensive because you have to buy so many plants to really fill them and make them look good, but I've learned to buy them at Wal-Mart, and I can use more plants because it's so much cheaper! I can't wait to make my own--I might do that this upcoming weekend. We didn't take any pictures with my family this week, but here are the best couple from our "photography session" at the Jeffersons' house:
Ry and me...with his semi-fake smile :]
My favorite Brother-in-Law and Pseudo-Sister-in-Law..lovebirds :)
This is best family photo, which turned out pretty good! This was at the end of the "shoot," and some of our participants were over it by the time the first picture was snapped. :) It turned out pretty good, though! I can't believe both kids are actually looking at the camera and smiling. Miraculous!

Work-wise this week, I am going to try to evenly split my days, doing half and half for each job each day. I have done this only a couple of other times, and I don't know why I don't do it more often. It makes it much less stressful! I'm hoping that since I don't have any doctors appointments scheduled for this week, that I will be able to finish early on Friday. I haven't been able to do that in about three weeks or more. Wish me luck!

Waiting

Okay, here's the deal. I had the hcg shot a little earlier in the week, followed by the timed intercourse, and went in today for the NHC to make sure I ovulated. They did an ultrasound, which was inconclusive. The left ovary basically just doesn't matter at this point. The right ovary is three times the normal size--the PA didn't give a reason, and I didn't think to ask, but she didn't make it seem like it was a big deal. When they measured my follicles, there were several really large ones--29, 24, 24, 19, and maybe a couple more. For ovulation to have occurred, a few follicles would have burst and released eggs. When I went last week, they were expecting about three to be released. Today, the doctor said three may have been released and that the large follicles left in my ovaries may just be cysts (remember, the PolyCYSTic Ovarian Syndrome), which I believe are just follicles that hold unmatured eggs. They took blood to check my Progesterone levels--if they're really high, this means I've ovulated. If not, then I haven't.

If I haven't ovulated, the PA will prescribe another injection for me to give myself that is, again, supposed to "make" me ovulate. She said it's kind of like a backup. I pray that I have already ovulated and that we can just wait the two weeks to see if I'm preggo based on the initial injection. She is supposed to give me a call tomorrow with the results, and we will go from there. Another waiting game. More uncertainty. Another bend in the road. I know it's all part of God's plan for us, though. I am aware of that and trying to keep that in my head at all times and, again, remain positive! Please keep praying for us.

I am so ready for the weekend! We did most of our indoor/outdoor household cleanup this evening, so we have the whole weekend to hang. I'm not sure what we'll do, but it will be nice to just relax and also to sleep in a little tomorrow. I think the weather's supposed to be kind of funky, so we'll see. Maybe some Open Houses? :)

Spring has Sprung

Not much to say about the baby stuff or anything related to that at this point. The only issue I've noticed was that I had hives last night accompanied by major itching on my fingers, arms, and legs. Then when I woke up this morning, my legs were itching like crazy again. Not sure if it's related to any of my medication I'm taking, but that's the only thing I can think of....

So on a completely unrelated note, we have so much new growth in our yard in terms of flowers blooming and plants greening up and growing. For example:


The almost-done pansies.

















Beautiful rose bush that's finally established....

















The literal first bloom out of all of our hydrangea bushes!

















Look at all of the rosebuds hanging off of this that haven't even bloomed yet!

















Last picture of flowers for now...I promise. Gorgeous!

















I love our flowers and yard. That will be one of my favorite parts of our new house when we move (wink wink)--planning it all out and planting everything. Just to be clear, we have not even looked at any houses in-person recently, our house is not on the market, and when I bring up moving, Ry acts like he has a hearing problem. I remind Ryan all the time that I will have to hurt him if we miss the opportunity in terms of pricing on our next house as well as the low mortgage rates. I do love our house, but with the baby hopes we have going on, things would just be better in something a bit bigger. We'll see when something actually happens in that area. Ry will probably want to wait until I birth triplets and then decide that it might be a good time to expand our square footage. That would be so him.

Sooooooooooooo tired. Goodnight!

More Follicle Talk...

I felt like I worked for an hour today and was at the doctor for 10. I actually only worked for about 6 hours today and was at the doctor for 1.5 hours. I spent a good portion of the time right before the appointment freaking out--and I mean freaking out. Like, felt like I was going to be sick from anxiety. You get the picture. I was soooooooo nervous about the follicles still being small!

At the NHC, they collected a sample for the Postcoital test, and everything looked really good. The P.A. said that there were millions and millions and millions of sperm, meaning that my body was not killing them off, so we are good to go on "timed intercourse" instead of Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). I will not go over the specific timing for our sake and yours, but it will be within the next week. One of the doctors will give me a shot of HCG, which will cause me to ovulate. The timed intercourse occurs after this, and then I go to the office to take a pregnancy test a couple of weeks later. I don't know that I'll be able to wait until I actually go to their office to find out if a test will be positive or negative. They'll be doing a blood test, but I feel that I will have to take a home test before I go. I will need to be mentally prepared for the "no," just in case.

This is all occurring, by the way, because my largest follicle was 16.5mm. The next largest two were 13.5 and 13.9. The P.A. said that this was perfect because these three should all grow just a little bit bigger before they are released, and three is a good number. If it was many more than that, it would be close to a level of being unsafe. You can't have 10 eggs coming out! Also, my uterine lining was 10mm, providing plush, 4-star accommodations for any possible teeny-tiny J's.

Overall, I feel very positive about the visit today, but again, I am being realistic. Not pessimistic but just preparing myself for all possible outcomes. I cannot get all excited until I actually have a baby J in there for a couple of months!

Now, off to watch 24 and maybe a little Gossip Girl, then bed. I am planning on working about 10 hours tomorrow to make up for the time that I missed today. Can't wait! (more sarcasm...I can't help myself ) :)

BIG Eggs

Not much to say about a normal Sunday. Reese helped me with some laundry......

...and then I went to church. Since I've still got the head cold going on, I sat in the congregation instead of singing with the choir. It is nice to do this every now and then, although it feels weird not being up there singing. Afterwards, we went to lunch with the J fam at Red Lobster, and then I stopped by the mall. The rest of the day was relaxing. I guess I might have taken a mini-nap, and we took a bike ride.

Of course, since it was Sunday, we went to Omi's for dinner. My mom told me yesterday that she had something for me, and this is what she brought:

To you, it might look like a basket of Easter eggs; however, it is a basket of BIG eggs. As in, BIG follicles for eggs. She brought me big eggs....I LOVE them and her. They will stay around the house until the eggs on the inside have turned into developing babies. Here is a picture of Reese reacting to the big eggs:

Not only was he barking but also "digging" around the basket. Additionally, he attempted to pick a couple of them up in his mouth. The whole basket probably weighs more than he does--the eggs are marble or something like that. Hopefully this is not the way he reacts to our future J's.

And yes, there will probably be lots of pictures of Reese. I can't help myself--he is our baby for now! When we have our real babies, I promise to try to have more pictures of them than the dog :)

A Quick Update

We just got back from the doctor's office, and I am ready to clean house!!!! (just a hint of sarcasm there) The basic scoop is that the "dominant" follicles grew, but not that much. I have to continue the Pen until Monday, when I return to the NHC for an ultrasound and also for them to do a Postcoital Test. The main follicles grew to over 10mm instead of just the 9mm from before, so that's good, but he said the goal is for them to be at least 16mm. Also the thickness of my uterine lining has increased by 2 mm since the last visit and needs to increase by at least 1mm before Monday, which should be no problem because he increased my estrogen dosage to 3x daily instead of 2x.

I am trying to keep positive--keep praying for me/us because we need the follicles to grow! The doctor did not make it sound like this would be too much of a problem, but we will see. He talked most of the time about how the medication from the Pen greatly increases the chance of having two or more babies...I told Ryan we need to go look at some houses! :) Hey, I'm always trying to come up with good reasons for that--this is the perfect one. More room for more babies...but seriously, at this point, we will be happy to have what God wants to give us. If that means nothing this month, then we will trek on to next month. I am being hopeful but realistic. Okay, off to cleaning. Can't wait!

Saturday Mornings

So, this is my first post! It feels a little weird writing like this, knowing that the main purpose is for other people to read it; however, I'm already really liking it. This should be good.

I know the name of the blog may sound a little corny, but I don't care! When trying to think of blog names, all I could think of were things that involved love and family. I can't name it anything child-related yet, so I'm happy to go the love route at this point. I really am so in love with my husband, and I have so much love for my family. Of course there's also Reese, who I love like a child. As I am writing this he's standing on my stomach, licking my typing hands.

Now on to daily blog-type information. Of course, it's Saturday morning. Usually on Saturdays, Ry and I sleep in until about 9-ish, and once we're up, we're doing inside and outside housecleaning. This morning, I woke up on my own at 7am because I could barely breathe with all of the snot that was in my nose, throat, and what feels like my brain (sorry for the gross factor, but it's true). I think it's also partially related to nervousness about my doctor's appointment this morning. Yes--an appointment on a Saturday! Everything is all about cycle days, and cycle days don't just happen on weekdays.

Backing up a step, I guess I should explain the basic info in terms of what's going on with us "fertility-wise" right now. Ry and I have been trying to make a mini-J since about 7/08. In 12/08, I found out from the gyno that I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), which makes it much harder to bet pregnant based on random or lack of ovulation. For further details you can read about it here. The gyno put me on a medication that was supposed to help with the ovulation issue, but it didn't end up doing much. Earlier this month, we decided that it would be a good idea to see a doctor that specializes in infertility to make sure that there's nothing wrong with Ry in terms of fertility and that there were no additional issues with me that needed addressing. We decided to go with the New Hope Center and are SO happy with the way things are working there.

There are NO problems with Ryan, thank goodness. So at this point, it's all about me--which usually I like, but in this way, not so exciting. My problems are all ovary/ovulation related. I took Clomid for five days and had an ultrasound on Thursday to check how the follicles in my ovaries were looking. Basically, they need to measure the size of the follicles to see that at least one of them is getting bigger, becoming dominant. To be considered mature and ready for ovulation, the follicle has to be approx 20mm. On Thursday, my largest was 9mm. The doctor gave me an injectable medication called a Gonal F Pen that is supposed to make the follicles grow, grow, grow! So, the appointment this morning is for an ultrasound to check the follicle sizes. I am praying that they grew. PS--giving myself a shot with the Pen was interesting yesterday. I had to stick myself twice yesterday because I messed up the first time. If I have to continue it over the weekend, Ry will be taking care of all future injections.

I am really, really hoping for some follicle growth. It really is disappointing to hear the doctor say, "Sweetie, the medication didn't do much for you. Your follicles didn't grow too well." It's a double-edged sword, too, because on one side, we're thinking about the money that's being spent here. If I don't become pregnant this month, we will have to pay for another month of treatment, which could cost up to about $2500. On the other side of the sword, we really want a little J that's not a dog. We want to be young-er parents. People might think that we should have waited a little longer before going to the NHC, but I don't feel that way at all. We are doing what we need to do to get what we want. It sounds weird said in that way, but we have to have assistance to have a child. Sure, we could poke and hope for the next few years and we might end up with a baby, but that's not the way I roll. It's amazing what a true miracle pregnancy is.

I guess that will be about it for now. I am hungry and need to get myself together to get to the NHC at 9.20. I know this was long, but it was largely about explanation. Stay tuned for updates about the follicles!