I’m still alive…We are in Houston at our home away from home trying to keep our sanity while living in a hotel room.  With the sun shining, spring winds blowing, & perfect temperature we are almost pissed to be stuck out here.  To say that we would much prefer to be at home working outdoors is an understatement.  We arrived Saturday night in torrential down pours that had much of Houston and outer areas flooded. Fun!!  So far we have visited the Dr’s office twice once only for blood work which could have been done at home IF someone would have mentioned that our calendar had been revised.  Today we did get to take a look and see how things are progressing.  There are 15 follicles at least 10mm and many others that they did not measure.  This is good for In Vitro.  I’m still awaiting a phone call from the nurse about my medication dosage for the next couple of days and I bet they reduce it by half which should slow things down as far as follicle growth.  We don’t want too many, too few, too big, or too small.  How’s that for picky?  So far our egg retrieval is still scheduled for Sunday morning but I’m really hoping it will be pushed up to Friday or Saturday.  I’d love to be home in my own bed by Sunday night.  Depending on the retrieval and my pain level we will try to come home a few hours after the retrieval.  There is a Bed, Bath, & Beyond right next door and I’m going for a visit tonight to purchase some additional fluffy pillows, blankets, & possibly a foam mattress for the back of the Tahoe.  That should make the 6 hour trip more comfortable after they inject a HUGE needle through my vaginal wall and into my ovaries, yeah?   Fun! Fun! Fun!  As you can probably tell by my sarcastic analysis of things I’m not doing so hot.  I’m tired, bloated, having hot flashes from the pits of hell, & plain bored out of my mind.   Hopefully this will be over soon and be the last time we have to endure the not fairs of infertility.  One more….we just want one more child to complete our family.  Is it too much to ask for?

If you want to keep up with our In Vitro process I’m Twittering daily.

What’s going on…

Monday I started the Lupron.  I had to give myself the shot for 4 days…on the 3rd day I felt the needle IN my stomach and on the 4th day I just couldn’t do it.  I had to run over to my neighbor’s house and get her to do it.  Thank goodness I have a great friend right next door and she h  appened to be home.  She is usually working out of town during the week.  Shots and needles do not bother me but I just cannot do it myself.  I think those 3 times are all I have in me.

We leave next Saturday for our extended stay in Houston.  I feel better about it now but will probably be miserable once we get there.  I really want to be home this time of year.

Today we planted the garden.  HL and I have tried to keep this tradition.  I know, I know it’s Good Friday but to us what better way to give back to the earth, family, & friends than to plant a garden.  Makinlee helped too and it was a great educational experience for her.  It was also nice to see that she could tell a butter bean, green bean, & pea seed from the other.  She calls planting the garden “making food”.  Exactly little one, exactly.

Here is the much asked for photo of the new ducklings.

All 6 are still doing well and the best news is the one that was not getting around very well is good as new.  Apparently he had a hard time coming into this world.  Mom, dad, & babies are now living happily in what was the dog pen complete with kiddy pool.  Now that they are seperated from the chickens my hens should get their breeding belt back. Poor things played hell while momma duck was unable to service her man.

Tomorrow we are headed to my sister in laws for lots of food, friends, family, & egg hunts and Sunday we will do the same with my mom, dad, & grandpa and then drive over to my other sister in laws to play with their new foal.  He’s gorgeous and I cannot wait to get my hands on him.  I plan to try my best to talk them in to selling him to us but I probably will not be able to.

Monday we will start building the new chicken coops for the Seramas we are going to pick up in May.  We are also adding Silkies, Golden Seabrights, & Bobwhite quail.  HL and I are still arguing over the quail aviary specifics but we are slowing coming to an agreement.  He wants one things and of course I need it my way.

We have decided to raise several breeds of fancy chickens instead of jumping back into larger livestock right now as we save, save, save to pay off this farm!

We are following Dave Ramsey and have already paid off 2 credit cards & HL’s truck!!  Whoohoo!  In 18 months we will be debt free except for the house!

Okay it’s a lot but staying busy keeps us sane, happy, & healthy!

Happy Easter!

I’ve lost track of time.  Lost my focus.  Lost my desire to create. Blah!  I have spent most of my time back from Houston outside preparing for spring.  Looking  and waiting for the renewing vigor that comes with warmer days and sunny skies.  I need a serious kick in the pants to get me moving and motivated to live and walk in my shoes again.  I have accomplished a mountain of things and those things I will share in the days to come.  For now I must go help HL get ready to return to work.  He’s leaving tomorrow for Jakarta.  Sometimes the life of an oilfield family sucks.  We really miss him when he’s gone.

We made it home Saturday night after a complete and total let down in Houston.  The medications did not do their job correctly and the cycle was a complete bust.  I didn’t even get to go through the IUI or even be converted to IVF.  However, we knew that this was going to be a trial cycle since it’s been so long since we have tried anything.  We now know that my body is apparently healthier and reacts strongly to the stimulation medications.  Therefore, we have decided to try IVF in April.  Our Dr feels we have a high chance of becoming pregnant on our first try.  He told us that because I’ve had a successful pregnancy that we have a 75% chance of getting pregnant again with IVF.  It’s scary as at this time I do not know a lot about the process but we have several books and a pile of information they sent us home with.  I haven’t had time to stop yet and read up on everything but I plan to tomorrow.

This week we are working in the garden.  We have decided to use the Mittleider Method of planting which will make things much simpler for me to deal with when HL is away at work. We have a lot of grow boxes to build this week.

Makinlee and I also prepared our Worm Condo today and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little guys.  This is the best compost for organically fertilizing all of our plants and our little kitchen herb garden.

I’m also knitting socks at night while catching up on my favorite TV shows.  I plan to have several pair ready for IVF retrieval and IVF transfer.

We have a lot of projects planned and I hope they help keep my mind off of the failure of this IUI cycle.

9! We have 9 growing follicles which is way too many for an IUI cycle.  Right now only one is leading the pack at 12mm which is good.  My medications have been reduced and it’s a fingers crossed kind of thing.  If all 9 continue to grow we may have to redirect to IVF or cancel the cycle all together which would suck.  I’m not sure what my E2 level was today as we missed the actual phone call and only got a voice mail from our coordinator and for some reason she never relays the level unless I ask.  My uterine lining looks good at 8.8mm.  This was a concern for us last time but that looks great and right on track.  We go back on Wednesday and hopefully a few follicles will jump out ahead and some will lag behind.  We certainly cannot have 9 eggs releasing at IUI time. Scary!  We won’t one healthy baby, just one!

We finally have our internet back.  HL is home and we are getting ready for our trip to Houston next week.  We are busy, busy.  Nothing new right now but I will be updating regularly through the treatments.