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Lilypie Pregnancy tickers

Lilypie Pregnancy tickers

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Me Crazy? Possibly, but this doesn’t help!


Most women I know can tell you they are about to start their period, usually because there is key symptoms that clue you in paired with knowing when your period is due. 

If I cry for no reason, almost guaranteed that I will start my period the next morning. 

It usually goes like this.  Cute Coca Cola Polar Bear ad comes on TV. My throat tightens a little bit, my face swells and gets red, and tears sneak out of the corners of my eyes.  Why? Because they are just so cute and touching!! (BLAH - I mean really??? The rest of the time I don’t even care about those silly cartoon bears) and promptly the Warrior Princess will laugh.  Because she knows!! 

Crying because the sky is blue?  That’s just one symptom of a long line and lucky for me I suffer from several of them:

Cramps
Mood Swings and Stress
Swollen Tender Breasts
Fatigue
Food Cravings (I’m sorry did I just eat a whole pizza??)
Bloating
Headaches

Whew!  That’s quite a list, scary part is it isn’t complete. 

Guess what?  These just so happen to be the early symptoms of pregnancy also!  Here are a few more:

Most obvious – missed period BUT you can still have something called implantation bleeding.
Nausea
Frequent Urination
Elevated Body Temprature.


Needless to say, it can be crazy making!  As I head closer to taking another pregnancy test and I battle with these different symptoms, I just don’t know what to think of what my body is telling me.  If you have been pregnant, did you notice anything different before getting a positive pregnancy test and if so what? 

July 4th here we come!!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Countdown has begun

This is what my life has become, all the authors warned me about it in the bazillion books I read, breaking your life into two week cycles.

Waiting to ovulate
Waiting to test

Seriously, this is enough to drive a normal person nuts, but an already slightly off kilter, unmedicated person?  Watch out! ;0)

Everyone has that story:  they know someone who from the stress of trying to conceive couldn't.  Then after years of trying and finally adopting they get pregnant.  There is no solid research that confirms this, but it is reasonably to believe that if you are in constant stress you are less likely to conceive.  Stress is your bodies flight or fight response in constant motion.  If your body is in this mode it probably won't want to spare resources to create a new life. Now, I tend to run pretty intense anyway so this has been great practice for me in balance (Cynthia you must be proud to hear me say that).

And if it just so happens to have resulted in a pedicure (can't get those at the salon when your pregnant because of all of the icky chemicals) and an amazing massage to help in that balance.  So be it!  Small price to pay, I say!!



Speaking of which, I am going to do a little plug here for my massage therapist.  She got me through my car accident and now she will help me through this.  It is amazing what a massage can do for you!!  I wanted to be completely zen before I went into the doctor's office.  Her name is Hannah Keefer at Le Chat Noir in Tacoma, http://www.massagebyhannah.massagetherapy.com/ tell her I sent you!  No she isn't paying me and hasn't offered me a kick back, I just like her that much.  I often drool, it's kind of embarrassing.

My point is that for some reason it has taken trying to get pregnant to remind me to take care of myself and reduce stress in my life.  Don't wait for something like this, take care of yourself today.  It's totally worth it!!

20 Questions

As I update you on the happenings and scheduled events there are bound to be questions that come up that would not occur to me on my own. Inquiring minds want to know and I would love to tell! So, if you have a question send me an email at mjschrum657@gmail.com and I will answer in a post. Don't worry I will keep you anonymous but I might assign you your own nifty pseudonym.
I am pretty much an open book or I would not be blogging so this helps me to know what you want to hear about.

Thanks everyone!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Take 2

This month we are moving the action to doctor's office!  There are a couple of benefits to going to the clinic, the biggest one?  Better technology.  For example, at home I get to make an educated guess on when I am going to ovulate based on all of these different signs and symptoms:  body temperature, mucus consistency, and of course the tried and true peeing on an ovulation predictor kit and waiting for the smiley face!

When you use the clinic they can literally do an ultrasound (or as my barista calls it, "egg tickler") to see exactly which ovary will pop out the egg.

Quick lesson on eggs:  your body prepares several eggs every cycle.  But only one of those eggs will actually get released, the rest just get absorbed by your body.  WELL not completely true, sometimes an extra one sneaks out and Voila! Fraternal Twins.  But for the most part, one lucky egg is headed into the great unknown of our uteruses.  Okay back to the original birds and bees lesson.  Your eggs are held inside of follicle.  The follicle that gets the biggest is the one that will release the egg.  You can actually see the follicles with the "egg tickler" as they are developing.

On day 11 I went in, and I had a follicle on one side that was 12 something and on the other side 12.5.  Sooo, basically we couldn't tell which ovary was going to pop that baby out.  What we did know for sure?  I was going to ovulate late this month.  Apparently the 12 range isn't all that spectacular for size.

On day 14 I went back in and POW there she was, busting at the seams!!

Here for your viewing pleasure is my follicle holding the egg.  Yes they let me take a picture, the sacrifices a blogger must make, like saying "is it weird if a I take a picture?"



That night I went home and had to have the Warrior Princess give me a shot of HCG in my every so soft and fluffy  belly.  (It actually stung a little bit I am just trying to make it sound nice).

The HCG acts as a trigger for my follicle, it basically said:  listen hear egg, in 36 hours you are going to bust a move out of here so don't get too comfy.  In my mind I was really saying, oh happy egg, are you ready to go out an play??  Good Egg, Happy Egg.  :) (zen thoughts).

36 hours from the trigger shot I will go in for the IUI.  Yay!!! Round 2 here we come.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

BFN


BFN, what does that mean?  I kept seeing it on blogs and message boards and on websites.  BFN, OPK, DPO and then as was introduced to you in the last post TWW.  
Well, BFN means Big Fat Negative :( BOO! lol

I mean rationally I know the likelihood of getting pregnant on the first try is relatively low.  And as most of you know I am a betting woman and well... I wouldn't have taken this bet.  

Emotionally I went all in!  I totally had myself psyched out that I wasn't, but I was and I am.  I mean I can't say I know many women who look forward to getting their period but I never thought I would cry about it either!
The nice thing was it ended the suspense, no more wondering, waiting, thinking and can I tell you: don't go garage sale shopping if you aren't sure! It was like putting an Iced Americano in front of me and telling me I couldn't drink it.  Why couldn't I buy anything you ask?  Because the Warrior Princess might have said that I wasn't allowed to buy anymore baby stuff until I am actually pregnant.  You see, I might have amassed a small collection over the last couple of months.  What? Don't look at me that way!  It's called planning people, planning.  

But you know there is a little saying in sales, each no means you are closer to a yes. So hot dog, this means I am just one try closer to getting a BFP!! (Big Fat Positive)

Keep an eye on my tracker at the top of blog for key points this month.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Two Week Wait

The TWW or Two Week wait is the hardest part of this whole process! Are you or aren't you?  What should you be eating, what not?  What kind of excercise can I do?  How soon can I take a pregnancy test?  It is very stressful!

To help everyone track where I am on my journey I have added a tracker to the top of my blog so you will know where I am in my cycle pertinent to different goals:  Days to ovulation (basically when I will go to the clinic) and then Days to taking a pregnancy test (or to AF - Aunt Flo arriving lol, these are the official terms of blogosphere I will have you know.  Technical aren't they?)

Welcome to my rollercoaster!  It is a crazy one for me so it might be for you too.