In short, it's not going well. At all. I hope that this "month" goes better. Last "month's" cycle was only 22 days.
Here's what's wrong with me.
Here's my mid-month update.
Well, since that happened, I'll update you again.
My odds of getting pregnant on the Follistim were about 65-70%. The odds of multiples were 30-35%. So, in short, my odds of getting pregnant were AWESOME. I was pumped.
The last time I left you, were in in the middle of injections, which most people take for 8-10 days. I took them for 12. You read that right. 12!! It was crazy. I was spotting the whole time, which the doctor credited to a cyst on my left ovary collapsing and bleeding a bit from the high levels of estrogen running in my veins. I had to take the shots for 12 days because I was spotting and my lining wasn't thick enough to support an egg implanting.
I took my trigger shot (a high dose of hcg) when I had 4 mature eggs (the goal was 3-5) on the evening of February 12. The next morning, I started having SERIOUS heavy bleeding. FOR NO REASON. The doctor said that the hcg probably made my estrogen plummet and trigger a period. I was at work and ended up on the maternity floor for "products" because the bleeding was so bad. Awesome. He brought me in for an ultrasound to see if I had ovulated, and I did! YAY! Good news. But my lining was SO thin. He said there was still a shot that I could get pregnant, so we kept our heads up. The bleeding stopped on the 17th.
I went in for some additional blood tests that day and my levels were great. My nurse said that so far, my blood work was indicative of a pregnancy and I was over the moon. And then I went in again on the 20th and all of my number had PLUMMETED and she said that there was NO WAY my body could support a pregnancy in it's current state. And then the next day, I started bleeding again. This time, it was my actual period. My cycle was exactly 22 days long.
I called the office and they were like, ahhhhhh, NO! That was on saturday.
I started another cycle on monday the 25th. I went in for my ultrasound monday morning and bloodwork and they found a 2 inch cyst on my right ovary. It's new. Thank you Follistim. They told me if my estrogen levels were over 60 that I wouldn't be able to do another cycle until the cyst was surgically drained. TRIGGER MY ABSOLUTE FREAK OUT!!
I went to work with all sorts of horrible things running through my mind and when my nurse finally called me at lunch I was considering quitting the Follistim until the summer and hoping that the cyst would collapse on it's own. But my estrogen was only 51!! Praise God. So I started taking my meds again that night and now were are trying to speed up the cycle from 12 days to less than 9 because Troy and I are traveling to visit a friend in Colorado next weekend and will be unavailable for 4 days.
With that said, I am SO HOPEFUL that everything goes better this round. And that it goes faster. Otherwise, my doctor is writing me a note to carry large needles and medication onto a plane...so we are now on cycle #2 of Follistim. Here we go again... In good news, the medicine is AMAZING and I feel like a million dollars.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Working Mom # 3 - Communication and Support is Key
This is Mandy. I've known her since I was about 9. Woah. She encouraged me and gave me all the resources to use cloth diapers with Avery (which we have done since she was 10 weeks old). All the stresses of being a working mom can be overwhelming (especially in NoVA), but when you have a support system behind you, she shows how you can be healthy, enjoy your job, and your child without the guilt.
Here's Mandy:
My name is Mandy and I should probably start this off by saying one of my first full-time summer jobs was watching Natalie and her brother Tyler. (To be honest, I was really watching Tyler... Natalie was already old enough to take care of herself. Her mom and step-dad felt it best to have someone a little older there while they both worked and because Natalie and Tyler had some summer activities they didn't want them to miss. And so began my working career. And it has continued non-stop, in full-time or part-time capacity, to present day. I share this little story because working has been a very big part of my life for 17 years. And having a kid hasn't ended that, at least not yet.
I was fortunate to be able to take 3 months off from my job after I had "A." And to be honest, I was very conflicted about going back. I enjoy my job (I work for a newspaper in Washington DC) but having a tiny little thing that depends entirely on you really makes you think. We found an in-home daycare that is near my husband's office and she seemed really great, but I won't lie, that first week back was pretty rough... figuring out when to pump, worrying about A, even though I knew she was probably doing fine, thinking I was an awful mother for not deciding to stay home, etc...
But in the end, I stayed at work and A kept going to daycare. Overall, it is a good situation: I get 8 hours to interact with adults (not in my family) and do something I love to do and A gets quality time interacting with other kids her age, with some age-appropriate learning thrown in. And living in NOVA (Northern Virginia for those of you who don't know), having two incomes is a major plus, even if 1/4 of my salary is going to daycare.
The bads were there too: A got sick a record 10 times her first winter in daycare and she was still under 1. That has to be a record right? I can't remember the last time I had a cold until I had a kid. It is so true: they are germ factories! And then there was pumping... good lord. My office was "accommodating" as in they gave me a room with a door to pump in, but I had to coordinate with another pumping mother in my office and the door didn't have a lock, so we had this silly sign we had to put up that said "IN USE." I kept joking with my close coworkers that everyone knew what we were doing so we might as well have that sign say "MILKING." With my deadline driven job, it was really hard to find the 2-3 20 min times to pump with two women using that room. There were ups and downs, but with the help of good ol' Medela I was able to do it for 16 months before we started weaning.
Something that is both a positive and negative is my work schedule. As I said I work for a newspaper and it publishes 7 days a week. This means we have to have people in the office everyday. Thankfully by the time my husband and I were talking about kids, I had one weekend day off. My current schedule is Sun-Thurs. This means I watch A on Fridays while my husband is at work and my husband watches her on Sunday when I'm at work. It is nice to have one day just mommy and daughter, and I'm sure my husband loves daddy-daughter days but that also means we only have one day together as a family. That is pretty rough and one of the things I don't like about this working mom thing... it is even less time as a family then a "regular" working mom.
A typical day involves waking everyone up by 5:30 a.m., leaving the house by 6:15. My husband dropping me off at Metro by 6:45 and then dropping A off at daycare before he heads to work. Then working until 4 or 4:45 (depending on the day) and Metroing back to my husband who has already picked up A. Then the commute home usually takes double the time it does in the morning. When we get home its a run for me (if the traffic/weather isn't too bad), dinner, play for 1/2 hour with A and then she goes to bed. Then I get to breathe and maybe read or watch a show with my husband. Running, reading and TV are how I relax. (And thank goodness for recording/downloading devices or else we'd never see any of the new shows out there!)
As my daughter turns 2, overall, I don't regret my decision to be a working mother. I think she is getting a great thing by interacting with other children 4 days a week and learning how to be a little independent. I get to do a job I love and interact with creative people to produce a quality product. As you can see, it is super hectic on weekdays, so I can't deny I sometimes think about how being a SAHM might be an option if we have another kiddo. Daycare for 2 here in NOVA is insane and might not financially make sense. I dream of a day when I don't have to coordinate with my job, husband, daughter and dog just to get a run in during the week. I also think I'd enjoy doing all those fun kid activities I see on Pinterest. And after doing the mommy thing once, I'd like to think the second time might be a little smoother since I might actually know what I'm doing - at least a little.
Here's Mandy:
My name is Mandy and I should probably start this off by saying one of my first full-time summer jobs was watching Natalie and her brother Tyler. (To be honest, I was really watching Tyler... Natalie was already old enough to take care of herself. Her mom and step-dad felt it best to have someone a little older there while they both worked and because Natalie and Tyler had some summer activities they didn't want them to miss. And so began my working career. And it has continued non-stop, in full-time or part-time capacity, to present day. I share this little story because working has been a very big part of my life for 17 years. And having a kid hasn't ended that, at least not yet.
I was fortunate to be able to take 3 months off from my job after I had "A." And to be honest, I was very conflicted about going back. I enjoy my job (I work for a newspaper in Washington DC) but having a tiny little thing that depends entirely on you really makes you think. We found an in-home daycare that is near my husband's office and she seemed really great, but I won't lie, that first week back was pretty rough... figuring out when to pump, worrying about A, even though I knew she was probably doing fine, thinking I was an awful mother for not deciding to stay home, etc...
But in the end, I stayed at work and A kept going to daycare. Overall, it is a good situation: I get 8 hours to interact with adults (not in my family) and do something I love to do and A gets quality time interacting with other kids her age, with some age-appropriate learning thrown in. And living in NOVA (Northern Virginia for those of you who don't know), having two incomes is a major plus, even if 1/4 of my salary is going to daycare.
The bads were there too: A got sick a record 10 times her first winter in daycare and she was still under 1. That has to be a record right? I can't remember the last time I had a cold until I had a kid. It is so true: they are germ factories! And then there was pumping... good lord. My office was "accommodating" as in they gave me a room with a door to pump in, but I had to coordinate with another pumping mother in my office and the door didn't have a lock, so we had this silly sign we had to put up that said "IN USE." I kept joking with my close coworkers that everyone knew what we were doing so we might as well have that sign say "MILKING." With my deadline driven job, it was really hard to find the 2-3 20 min times to pump with two women using that room. There were ups and downs, but with the help of good ol' Medela I was able to do it for 16 months before we started weaning.
Something that is both a positive and negative is my work schedule. As I said I work for a newspaper and it publishes 7 days a week. This means we have to have people in the office everyday. Thankfully by the time my husband and I were talking about kids, I had one weekend day off. My current schedule is Sun-Thurs. This means I watch A on Fridays while my husband is at work and my husband watches her on Sunday when I'm at work. It is nice to have one day just mommy and daughter, and I'm sure my husband loves daddy-daughter days but that also means we only have one day together as a family. That is pretty rough and one of the things I don't like about this working mom thing... it is even less time as a family then a "regular" working mom.
A typical day involves waking everyone up by 5:30 a.m., leaving the house by 6:15. My husband dropping me off at Metro by 6:45 and then dropping A off at daycare before he heads to work. Then working until 4 or 4:45 (depending on the day) and Metroing back to my husband who has already picked up A. Then the commute home usually takes double the time it does in the morning. When we get home its a run for me (if the traffic/weather isn't too bad), dinner, play for 1/2 hour with A and then she goes to bed. Then I get to breathe and maybe read or watch a show with my husband. Running, reading and TV are how I relax. (And thank goodness for recording/downloading devices or else we'd never see any of the new shows out there!)
As my daughter turns 2, overall, I don't regret my decision to be a working mother. I think she is getting a great thing by interacting with other children 4 days a week and learning how to be a little independent. I get to do a job I love and interact with creative people to produce a quality product. As you can see, it is super hectic on weekdays, so I can't deny I sometimes think about how being a SAHM might be an option if we have another kiddo. Daycare for 2 here in NOVA is insane and might not financially make sense. I dream of a day when I don't have to coordinate with my job, husband, daughter and dog just to get a run in during the week. I also think I'd enjoy doing all those fun kid activities I see on Pinterest. And after doing the mommy thing once, I'd like to think the second time might be a little smoother since I might actually know what I'm doing - at least a little.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Pregnancy and Peeing Rocks
Anyone who has been pregnant will be able to relate to this.
I am a desert creature. Like, I never drink water. Ever. I MAYBE drink 2 cups of coffee, have a soda, and a glass of water in a day. And that's kind of stretching it. I just don't required liquids. I'm never thirsty.
When I got pregnant with Avery, Troy was pushing fluids on me. Like huge. Constantly refilling my water. Making me chug a whole glass 1x every 30 minutes on weekends. He would stand there and stare at me while I finished it and immediately go and refill it. It was awful. I just felt so full all the time. And for whatever reason, I find going to the bathroom annoying and disruptive. I'm weird. I know.
Well, as a result of me working full time while I was pregnant, Troy only got the chance to chase me around with cups of water from 5-10pm on weekdays. Which ensured that he was making me drink about 6-8 glasses of water in 5 hours. Which equated to me getting up to pee ALL NIGHT LONG. Like 4-6 times a night.
Towards the end of my pregnancy, I could barely make it to the toilet before the pressure of the baby on my bladder would just push it out with so much force it kind of sounded like a water hose.
One night it was particularly bad. I had already been up to pee a couple of times and I got up again. Sure enough, there goes Troy's mouth again:
Troy: WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!?!?!? PEEING ROCKS? Geez, it sounds like an avalanche. Could you be any louder?
Natalie: Are you kidding right now? You did this to me.
He didn't remember it the next day either.
I am a desert creature. Like, I never drink water. Ever. I MAYBE drink 2 cups of coffee, have a soda, and a glass of water in a day. And that's kind of stretching it. I just don't required liquids. I'm never thirsty.
When I got pregnant with Avery, Troy was pushing fluids on me. Like huge. Constantly refilling my water. Making me chug a whole glass 1x every 30 minutes on weekends. He would stand there and stare at me while I finished it and immediately go and refill it. It was awful. I just felt so full all the time. And for whatever reason, I find going to the bathroom annoying and disruptive. I'm weird. I know.
Well, as a result of me working full time while I was pregnant, Troy only got the chance to chase me around with cups of water from 5-10pm on weekdays. Which ensured that he was making me drink about 6-8 glasses of water in 5 hours. Which equated to me getting up to pee ALL NIGHT LONG. Like 4-6 times a night.
Towards the end of my pregnancy, I could barely make it to the toilet before the pressure of the baby on my bladder would just push it out with so much force it kind of sounded like a water hose.
One night it was particularly bad. I had already been up to pee a couple of times and I got up again. Sure enough, there goes Troy's mouth again:
Troy: WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!?!?!? PEEING ROCKS? Geez, it sounds like an avalanche. Could you be any louder?
Natalie: Are you kidding right now? You did this to me.
He didn't remember it the next day either.
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