Happy Valentine's Day

I'm the luckiest woman in the world. My Valentine calls me mommy. 

2011 in Review

I can finally say, "Tomorrow is the day!"  Our first ultrasound is at 0830 tomorrow and I am so nervous/excited. I am excited to find out how many we have in there but more than that I am excited to find out that we have a healthy baby growing in there and to hopefully hear/see the heartbeat. 

I haven't been feeling many symptoms but one that is persistent is definitely the exhaustion.  I had doubts as to whether Christmas dinner was even going to be made because SIL and I spent the afternoon snoozing on the couch. I didn't even get dressed this year--Okay, I did get dressed but just in clean pajamas.  I have been so flipping tired and last night I even broke the Cardinal Rule of, "Thou shalt not fall asleep during a Harry Potter Marathon!" ::gasp:: I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore so I took a little nap and then we finished the movie later.

It's hard to believe 2011 is coming to a close. SO much has happened this year and it's just totally flown by so I thought I'd take a few minutes to reflect on the ups and downs of this past year.

1. What did you do in 2011 you never did before?

Went to England!!!!
IUI/Surgery/IVF
Watched the entire World Series from start to finish (Go Cards!)
Cut down a Christmas tree
Went to a professional soccer match

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Last year I made the promise to myself that I was going to try to get rid of negativity in my life. I succeeded somewhat by eliminating a few things (and people) from my life.

For 2012:

To take excellent care of myself so that I can have a healthy pregnancy and L&D

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, my sister had my beautiful niece, Charlotte, in October!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No. We recently lost four pilots in a training accident but they weren't close to me.

5. What countries did you visit?

England

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

A successful pregnancy, more patience (hello annoying customers!) and the ability to just slow down and take it easy without feeling guilty.

7. What dates from 2011 will be etched upon your memory, and why?

May 25--the day we left for the UK
August 27--the day of my laparoscopy
November 25--the day of my egg retreival

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finally getting pregnant. Hands down.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Hmm, I'm not sure that I really failed at anything this year other than our four IUIs.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Infertility but other than that I've been very healthy.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Tickets to the UK, my Kindle, my embroidery machine and a round of IVF

12. Where did most of your money go?

Fertility treatments and a trip to England

13. What did you get really excited about?

Our trip to the UK, the birth of Charlotte and finding out that I was finally pregnant.

14. What songs will always remind you of 2011?Party Rock Anthem-- LMFAO. Hands down.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or Sadder: Happier

Thinner or Fatter: Fatter.  My weight has been fluctuating this year because of all the damn drugs I've been on.

Richer or poorer: Probably a little poorer just because of all the infertility treatments we've done. 

16. What do you wish you'd done more of:

Exercise, hiking, walks with the dogs, just get out of the house more.

17. What do you wish you had done less of:

Stressing, crying

18. How did you spend Christmas?

My brother and SIL drove down from Seattle and spent a few days with us. It was fun!

19. What was your favorite TV program?

Parenthood

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

The Hunger Games Trilogy

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

LMFAO and Adele

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Muppets

23. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

Gosh, how sad is it that I can't even remember what I did on my birthday this year? I was 27 though.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Being debt free and not having to go through all the infertility struggles we went through.

25. What kept you sane?

Mike, my fur-kids and the support and love of my family.

26. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:

That it is possible to see the light again, no matter how dark and twisty of place you're in. Things do get better and dreams are worth fighting for. Happy New Year's, dear readers!

Oh Tannenbaum!

I happily slept the day away yesterday and decided this morning that I was feeling well enough to go hunt down the perfect Christmas tree. We were expecting a call from the embryologist around 9 but when we didn't hear from him by 10 we had him paged.  We never heard back from him but they did tell Mike yesterday that no news is good news. Still, we want to know how many embryos we have growing so we'll call and bug him again tomorrow. I am still SO bloated. Thank goodness for long sweaters to hide the fact that I can't button my pants! I had to use the old hair-tie-looped-through-the-button-hole trick and pray that my pants didn't fall down while we were out today.

So, the tree! We went to a little Christmas tree farm about 10 miles from our house and had such a good time looking for our tree.  Mike grew up with real trees but this is the first time we've had one as a couple.  It was so fun and definitely a tradition I'd like to continue.  I'm paying for it now because I'm experiencing a lot of cramping but our our tree is beautiful.

 

I'm glad H has big muscles!

MIND THE GAP

Decorating our tree is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Every ornament on our tree was a gift, is handmade or was purchased on one of our various trips. Every year we put on the Christmas classics like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, I make a batch of mulled cider and we reminisce as we hang each ornament.  This year we had a few new ornaments from our trips to England and Leavenworth, WA,as well as an ornament we purchased last Christmas from our local zoo.  Oh, and I can't forget the awesome World Series Champions ornament!

The finished product!

It was a fun day full of Christmas cheer and the house smells wonderful.  Tomorrow we might tackle the exterior lights or I guess I should say Mike will tackle the exterior lights and I will most likely be on the couch with my heating pad.

Retrieval is Friday

This is going to be brief because I  am already at my brother's house and posting from my phone.  My ER is going to be Friday at 0800 and we are expecting five fertilizable eggs. Leftie sucks and did not produce any good size, mature follicles. Doc is not expecting to get anything from that side.  :/ I have targets drawn on my as$ and no shred of modesty left. Mike did my HCG at 9:00. He needs a lot more practice because  holy fuck it hurt!  I am not looking forward to my PIO shots starting on Sunday.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am so incredibly grateful that I have a day off from blood draws, injections and ultrasounds. I hope that all of you have a very blessed day, wherever you are. <3

Crackers.

After my blood draw yesterday, H and I went to the commissary. Mike generally has no patience for rude and stupid people but yesterday was particularly bad since he had just come home from the field and he was easily agitated. I am a raging hormonal mess. It was not the ideal time to be grocery shopping.

So even though we're having a vegetarian/vegan Thanksgiving I thought it'd be nice to grab a cheese ball for Mike to enjoy since he's not too big on the vegan cheeses my sister-in-law makes. I told him that we needed Rit_z crackers to go along with the cheese and so he pointed them out on the lowest shelf. Without even taking the time to consider how irrational this would sound I puffed out my bottom lip and said, "But I want the SNOWFlAKE Rit.z crackers!!! "Because, you know, there's a HUGE difference in how they taste.  :pout:  Mike rolled his eyes, smiled to himself and we went out to the warehouse where they keep all the seasonal stuff.  Guess what? No snowflake crackers.

I had finally accepted that I would be having plain, boring Rit.z crackers on Thanksgiving and I had move on to look for some sparkling cider for SIL and I. When I turned around I saw my knight in shining armor standing there, holding a box of Snowflake Rit.z crackers. He loves me.




P.S.  I ate half the cheese ball on the way to doctor's appointment #2 last night and yes, those damn snowflake crackers were delicious.

Infertile Holidays

Mike and I seem to have the same discussion every holiday. We talk about how awesomely different our holidays will be once we have kids.  Coloring Easter eggs (that only Mike will eat) , playing Easter bunny, buying cute Easter dresses and suits. It will be wonderful.

SIL saved the day and brought Vegan Peeps and Chocolates

I've been waking up with crazy hot flashes--a side effect of the HCG shot I had last week? Ive been kind of crampy today but no other "symptoms." I know it's too early though and I know should stop charting since the meds can make my chart all wonky but I can't stop. It's kind of like a safety net and I *should* know but 12dpo whether or not AF is going to show up.  I'm going to test again later this week to see if the trigger shot is out of my system. This 2ww is going by way too slow!

In other news....one month from tomorrow we will be boarding a plane bound for the UK! =)

Happy Easter everyone, especially all of us who celebrated with empty arms. I hope that by next Easter we are all able to play Easter Bunny for our little ones!