Monday, April 27, 2015

6-8 dpo Triphasic??

This has been an odd cycle and I'm hoping that's a good thing! I usually ovulate on Cd 14 but have had a late one on Cd 20, never and early one. Well, this time I O'd on CD 10! How odd?! But despite that being weird, it may work in our favor. I think I mentioned in the last post that our schedule has been way off with the late O a couple months ago and now thanks to this early O, we are back on track! K left for work last Friday so our timing on the night before (CD7) would've been pointless if I were to O on the normal day 14. BUT on Saturday I started getting positive OPKs (thought this is strange!) and they continued until Monday morning. Sunday (O day) I know exactly when I must have released the eggy because around 9-10 pm I got the worst cramps and pressure in my ovaries. I don't usually feel ovulation, just notice the ewcm and when heartburn starts a day after. I knew it had to be O with the cramps and the positive OPKs! Had another + the next morning (but I hear it's not always good to do an OPK in the am) and negative that afternoon.

I decided to start progesterone cream this cycle because looking back at my cycle with my youngest, that was the one month I did prog too and I think it has to help because I tend to have low post O temps which usually indicates low P (and that was an issue last time we TTCd as well, had to be on prometrium for first trimester. I am also taking food derived prenatals, vitamin D3, magnesium, and Vitex (this is supposed to also help progesterone and LP length).
Fast forward to my post O temping (for those unfamiliar with this term, temping is using a BBT thermometer to track temps throughout the cycle to pinpoint ovulation and possible pregnancy)...first few days my temps are the usual after O, 97.3 to 97.5 until I hit 6 Dpo, then it jumped to 97.7! 8 Dpo and 9 Dpo (today) it has been 97.9! This feels like a triphasic pattern but I'm not getting my hopes up too high because it could just be attributed to the progesterone cream. But I hope it's better than that!!😊

I am expecting AF to show up on CD 12 If my Lp stays the same as it was last month. But given this temp shift so early, I may test on CD 10! I hate to do that and then be disappointed but the sooner I find out the better so I can get in to my Ob early to start betas, progesterone testing, and get on my  methylfolate for the MTHFR and prometrium. Guess I should be on the folate already so I may go ahead and order some anyway. I have folic acid in the prenatals I take but due to the MTHfR, my body ignores or can't process it.

Well, I will keep temping and post to update soon! Praying this is it because I'm not sure if we will be trying as fervently as last time (stress and uncertainty about this even being a good idea are really getting to me!)

Sunday, April 12, 2015

CD4...On to April

Ugh...the "luck 'o the irish" was not with me in March so we are on to April! Having a hard time figuring out how our schedules will work out this month because AF decided to show up 2 days early, further confirming my suspicion that my LP progesterone levels are not so great. From the few cycles I've followed in the last 6 months, it looks like even though I thought I was ovulating like clockwork on CD14 with a 14 day LP (textbook 28 day cycle) that is apparently not the case..2 cycles ago, I O'd on CD21 and had an 11 day LP. Last cycle I O'd closer to day 14 but still with an 10-11 day LP. I'm assuming my LP is now consistently 11 days (since between O and LP, usually LP is more likely to be consistent). SOOoooooo, how do I get back on track? If this month is like last month, my O date will fall somewhere around the Wednesday during my hub's work week..same EXACT problem we had last time we TTC. (He works in another state, 7 days on, 7 days home) I was so sure that this time around we'd only have to try for a month or two since it seemed like my cycles were normal,  I know I'm O'ing on my own, and schedules were looking great..thanks again mother nature for throwing a monkey wrench in things :-(

After looking back out our BFP cycle in 2013, I forgot that I had been using progesterone cream that month. It gave me such awful headaches that I swore to leave it alone and just stick with what my ob gave me but I completely did not even realize that the only month I used it was the month we conceived little man! So looks like I need to get back on that awful stuff and get the progesterone to going again. I'm also going to pick up some V.itex (chasteberry) and hopefully between the two, my O date will get right and my LP will lengthen out. That would put our schedule back on track! But, despite all my well laid plans, I know that all of this is in God's hands. And like last time, He's probably going to surprise me when I feel like I've failed! Sure hope so! Just praying we don't spin our wheels for 8 months trying to get scheduling to work out..

So ladies, if any of you have had similar issues, what did you do? Any natural supplements help? I'm determined not to go the medical route this time (C.lomid and all that) and let it happen naturally. I know God's timing is perfect and all my manipulations of hormones and whatnot could all be for naught, the control freak in me is hard to silence! lol Anywho, here we go, round 2!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Here we go again...2 years later!!

WOW! I can't believe it's been 2 years already! Our C man turned 2 on April 3rd and all of a sudden, his daddy and I feel like we are ready for another! Are we crazy? Maybe slightly lol our family would certainly say so considering this would be #6 for him and #3 for me! As terrible as it sounds, the day I found out he was going to be a boy, I was already dreaming of trying for another when he turned 2! I haven't even considered it up until now which is so crazy that it's 2 years exactly since then! I think at the time my logic was that his oldest half sis would be 18 and heading off to college. Well, she is 18 (as of Dec 26th) but this last year was WAY different than any of us expected! In April of last year (shortly after C's 1st birthday), she was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in her femur. Long story short, she spent 9 months in treatment at St. Jude in Tennessee (6 hours away, many many many long weekend trips!!) but we are so blessed because she is still with us and if you saw her on the street, you would never know what she went through or that she has a titanium femur and knee now! She got to come home in January of this year and was given the "all clear" so she is doing great! She has a couple of lung mets that have been there from day one but they aren't growing so they are just continuing to watch those at her 3 month scans. Well, despite that arduous and crazy journey, she is still going to graduate with her class and go to college in the Fall!! What did I say..blessed!! God is amazing!!!

Now, back to our "plan"..about a month ago, my bff found out she was expecting #2 (her 4 yr old is my sweet God son :-)) and that did it! lol Baby fever bug attacked me with a vengeance! For some odd reason I was having prego symptoms that came out of nowhere that month (even though hubs and I were taking all preventative measures except BC) but turned out it must have been sympathy symptoms! lol I kept telling myself NOOO this can't be, I can't handle another! But in the back of my mind I couldn't help but start hoping lol Well that was it, I knew I wanted to try for another but have been so anxious and hesitant to move forward since we live in such a small house, are trying to remodel and sell it this year, and of course the thought of H having a relapse and going back into treatment is always at the back of our minds :-( But, hubs and I talked it over (after he spent the last year telling me he was way too old to have another at 37 lol) and we both feel like maybe we might get our little girl this time but of course, we had that same plan last time and God had better plans! :-) So this time, while I dream of ribbons and pink everything, I am going into it knowing that even if God decided to bless us with another little man, I would still be thrilled!!

So this has been the first month "not trying not preventing" since I have to jump into charting and all that again and I don't know what's what anymore in my cycle. We have agreed to not go crazy this time and just accept God's will whether we fall prego or not and we won't be doing treatments or doing all the hormone testing and all that. We just are going to trust God's will is perfect and if He means for us to be blessed again, we will be! I DO know that after having C, all my periods came back completely regular and I have been ovulating on my own (as far as I know, I get tons of EWCM like clockwork around day 14 so I must be.. right?) so I think that this round may not be as difficult as the last (I'm praying so!!) and we won't end up spending a year TTC but just a few months maybe? Recalling last time, I was dealing with major PCOS issues after having the awful M.irena IUD removed and none of my cycles were regular and I wasn't ovulating.

But.. here I am in the TWW at about 10 dpo. Symptoms so far have been a bit odd this cycle but seeing as how I've spent the last 2 years ignoring all symptoms throughout every cycle, it may just be that I'm paying attention now. For the first few days after my "assumed" O date (last Sunday, CD14), CM dried up of course as usual and I had major indigestion for about 5 days. Temps have hovered around 97.6 with a dip on 6 DPO down to 97.4 then back up to 97.6. UnfortunatelyI've had quite a bit of cramping, bloating and small pulling type twinges. I can't recall ever having cramping in my LP but again, maybe I was and ignored it! I do know that I never have AF cramps until the day she shows up so we shall see if I do that this time! I don't seem to have any breast tenderness and after looking back at this time 2 years ago, I did have that so that's discouraging. One weird thing that has happened this cycle is last night I woke up at 2:30 a.m. to a major night sweat which I can't ever remember experiencing before. Then when I temped at my usual time this morning, my temp was all the way down to 97.3..very odd and I don't know whether to look at it as a good sign since it's out of the ordinary or a bad sign..Anyway, I will probably test tomorrow morning since I'm obsessive like that. And keeping my prayers going! So there it is guys, here we go again! :-D

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Where Have I Been?

So I've been going through and deleting old emails and see that I've gotten tons of comments on posts that I had no idea were there! So sorry guys, after the little munchkin arrived I totally slacked on posting and have basically ignored the whole blog since then lol. While I was in the midst of our TTC and pregnancy journey, I had all of 2 followers and never any comments but one here and there so I assumed that no one was even reading but maybe I should pick this thing back up! Will be giving some thought on transitioning to a lifestyle/weightloss/health blog :-)

So I guess I will give an update on our little corner of the world and for all the ones that commented and I missed, I'm so so sorry! I will keep you guys in my prayers and hopefully some of you (or all of you!) have gotten your BFP's by now! :-)

Little Man is now 10 months old! I still cannot believe that in less than 2 months he will be 1! This year has flown by, it feels like just yesterday I was crying my eyes out at the sight of his sweet newborn squishy face!
He is 21.6 pounds, not even sure how long he is but judging by his clothes size, he's almost the size of a 2 year old lol. He is now in 18-24 month clothes and pushing the limits on those! He is very tall for his age but that's expected since I am 6' tall and his daddy is 5'10" (he actually has some 7' tall cousins on his side!). He is definitely going to be bigger than his older brother who has always been about average on height and weight. I keep telling him, you better quit pestering your little brother because one of these days he might be bigger than you lol. But they are the sweetest together. Big brother is 8 1/2 years older than him and just adores him :-) We've had to curb some slight jealousy now and then since he's always been the baby but it hasn't been terrible. More than anything he worries about him a lot and wants to always make sure he's ok. Which just makes this mama's heart melt! Besides big brother C, he has 3 half siblings who just think he hung the moon. It's funny to watch them compete for who gets to take him to the car or carry him around the house lol.

So little C is not crawling, something I'm always worried about but his brother did not crawl either (scooted on his bottom forever!) and I'm thinking he's just gonna stick to rolling and then go straight to walking. I always say my children don't fit anyone's mold of "normal" in any area but they are always very bright and just sweet as pie so I know he will catch up in the physical areas where he is lacking. I'm constantly comparing him to friends' babies who were born the same month and are already walking (what!?!) but factoring in he is much taller than most babies his age, I'm assuming that is why mobility is a little tougher for him. He gets from point A to point B either by rolling or slowly scooting forward on his belly so he is at least moving. Big C did not walk until he was 18 months due to hypermobile joints and it looks like that will be little C's problem as well (you should see how floppy his little ankles and wrists are). But knowing what needs to be done (learning from big C's physical therapy at 18 months) we can hopefully have him walking not too long after he turns one. Other than that, he's a smily, crazy, goofy and very smart little boy who keeps us cracking up on the regular :-D.

As for plans for another baby, right now we are content with our two boys and their 3 halfsies. As much as I dream of a little girl, God may be saying we are done. I won't in any way complain though if He decides we need another but given the struggle we had conceiving little C and my health problems, we won't be actively trying again. But that's not to say God may have other plans and surprises for us but we will leave that up to Him for now :-)


Thursday, April 11, 2013

He's Here! Chase's Birth 4/3/13

I can't believe he is finally here! And so perfect! Chase made his grand entrance on Wednesday, April 3rd at 12:41 pm via scheduled c-section. He weighed a whopping 8 lb. 8 oz! This is big for a baby 2 weeks early but definitely not as big as we expected which proves those ultrasounds can be off by up to a pound or 2. At my last ultrasound 2 weeks before delivery, he was measuring 8 lb. 4 oz. so to have only gained 4 oz in two weeks is pretty unlikely so they were off a bit (thank goodness lol). Unfortunately, he lost a pound in the first 3 days so he dropped to 7 lb 8 oz and was only up an ounce on Tuesday at his well baby check up.

Now for the big story :-) ...

Due to the MTHFR and his expected size, the docs decided he needed to come 2 weeks early so we scheduled for Wed the 3rd. We arrived at the hospital that morning around 9:30 and they started prepping me. At this point I wasn't really worried (although my anxiety had been high all week, I was surprisingly calm) but my sweet hubby was terrified. Even though he's been through 4 births, he felt as though it were just like the first. But I think it was the fact that we were having a c-section (and all of the other children were vaginal deliveries) was what he was so worried about. At about 12:15, they had me ready to go and the doc was all set up in the OR. They wheeled me in by myself and had me get on the table and sit sideways while the anesthesiologist administered the spinal. This was AWFUL!!! I remember my epidural with my first and it was nothing..this was so painful! Once he had that done of course everything started going numb and they had me lay flat with my arms stretched out to the side. What I was not prepared for was the awful feeling that set in. It was like I was on the verge of a major panic attack and needing to vomit at the same time and not being able to breathe either. It felt like a ton of bricks were sitting on my chest and the more I tried to breathe the harder it was and the worse I felt. I never want to have that feeling again, it was extremely scary! But my anesthesiologist was awesome, he talked me down and did his best to keep me calm. He gave me some oxygen which really helped and once my husband got to come in I was feeling a little better. Then the fun began. Once they started pulling, the whole table shook and it felt like my ribs were being pulled out. Very weird feeling! But I felt no pain at all and it took about 5 minutes to get him out.

His first cry... all I can say is it was the most amazing sound and all my fear fell away. My husband and I cried and cried and to see that little face when they brought him around for me to see before they swept him away to be cleaned and checked was just surreal. I don't remember being very emotional when my first was born for some reason. I was overjoyed but I didn't cry. This time I bawled! I felt like all of the emotional roller coasters we had been on from the struggle to conceive to being high risk were all so worth it. Nothing in this world compares to seeing your baby for the first time. God is so amazing to give us that experience and it's just beyond amazing!

We were so thrilled that he was breathing good and all checked out perfect so hubs got to carry him back to the recovery room where the family waited. Of course that 20 minutes or so it took to close me up felt like an eternity! When I got back to the room I know I looked like I was in shock lol. They handed my little guy and OH how beautiful! He has his own look but looks alot like his big brother did. We are still trying to figure out who he looks like more lol.

Now for the not so fun part...recovery. I swear I've never been through anything more difficult and more painful in my life. Not to scare anyone but I think I would go through natural childbirth with no epidural 10 times over before going through a c-section again. But my case is probably a bit different with my back problems. Something about that spinal really messed up my back and I think that pain was even worse than the incision pain. When all the anesthesia wore off and they had me up and walking I thought I would just die! Even on percocet and ibuprofen 600, nothing even touched the pain. They finally gave me Lor.tab 10 and that took the edge off just for a little while. I was in the hospital for 3 days and I thought it would never end. The bed was too short so I could never get comfortable and needing to feed every 2 hours meant I got zero sleep. I think I literally slept a total of 45 minutes overall. To sum it all up, it was not fun and I hope I never have to do it again but it was all worth it. If we happen to have another child, I will fight for a vbac with all I've got for sure!

Today I am much better which is why I was finally able to post. I've been able to get up and down without too much pain and caring for Chase is getting easier. He is such a good baby! He never cries unless he's extremely hungry and I really think he would sleep through the night if I let him. Compared to his brother as a newborn, the difference is night and day! But we are so very thankful and I can't wait for his daddy to come home tomorrow. With his work schedule, he had to leave the day after we came home and has been gone all week. So this next week is going to be wonderful with him home!

We are just so overjoyed and blessed!

Friday, March 22, 2013

1 week 4 days to go!

I can't believe I am less than 2 weeks from delivery, WOW! And not only that but this little (or big!) guy is literally as big or bigger than an average full term baby at only 36 weeks! He weighs 8 lbs 4 oz according to the perinatologist on Tuesday of this week. Like OMG! My first son was 7 lb 14 oz at birth and he was born at 39 1/2 weeks! So I am officially bigger with this one now than I was with him at full term. Geez! And boy does my poor pelvis and back feel it! Moving around is getting really difficult, rolling over at night requires an act of Congress, forget bending over to pick something up OR to even put on a shoe...and talk about active! My entire body seems to shift when he rolls over! So funny and so weird to watch!

We are just beside ourselves with excitement now and I feel like there's no way I will get everything done on time. My OCD nesting is at an all time high but I can't do much at one time because I just wear out and my legs and back give out after about 30 minutes of cleaning. So frustrating...
We are installing new carpet in all 3 bedrooms (great timing huh?) and I am chomping at the bit to get it done. With hubs only home every other week it's very difficult to schedule such a task. We are having it installed by the store we bought it from but getting their schedule to work with ours is not easy. Hoping we can get it done before bubs comes home but it's not looking likely right now. Really wanted to avoid all the new carpet "fumes" and debris floating in the air! Not sure what we're gonna do....

But anyhoo...here we are, hurry up and wait. Seems like the last week always drags by no matter what. Hubs is out of town for work this week so that makes it even longer but we at least have something amazing to look forward to when he comes home. All our kiddo's are just beside themselves and I'm so very glad they are looking forward to his arrival and not dreading having yet another sibling to deal with lol. At least I know Cayden isn't for sure since he is practically an "only child" most of the time since the others don't live with us. But he is definitely seeming to hone in on the fact that he won't be the baby anymore. It's hard and some days I just cry thinking about it and when he has a bad day at school I feel so guilty for some reason. Like I'm not doing enough to let him know he is still my baby and always will be. So just praying that all goes smoothly on that front. As well as delivery. Having a scheduled C-section is new territory for me and I'm a little freaked out but I know God's taking care of us and all should be well. Just not looking forward to the recovery but I guess the upside is I will get 2 extra weeks home with my new snugglebunny. Yay!

Hope everyone is doing great, I know I'm following a few ladies that are due close to the same time. Keeping you all in my prayers! :-)


Thursday, March 7, 2013

Delivering 38 weeks!

So we saw my perinatologist yesterday and I asked the big question that no one has brought up yet: "When can I deliver?" His very quick response was "You need to be pregnant for 27 more days so I recommend delivery at 38 weeks". WOW! All this time I've assumed he would be a week early just so we made sure my husband was off of work (in the oil field, there's no such thing as vacation, sick days, or paternity leave) which we originally thought would be the week of April 8th. Well, I popped out of bed yesterday morning and the first thing to cross my mind was OH NO! I got his days off all mixed up! So he will be off the first week of April and not the second week which really got us to worrying since we have not been sure what the docs wanted to do about delivering early due to the baby's hugeness. And boy does he feel huge! At our last appointment he was 6 lb at nearly 33 weeks and he has consistently gained half a pound a week for the last 2 months it seems. For some reason they did not measure him yesterday so we don't know how much he weighs right now but I would bet close to 7 lbs. My first son was 7 lb 14 oz when he was born at 40 weeks....yeah, huge difference and absolutely NO explanation for it! I am 6' tall and my husband is 5'11" so we are both fairly big people and it may just be a genetics thing. My husband's aunt had 4 babies, her smallest was 10 lbs and the largest was 14 lbs (Holy Cow!!) and she had them all naturally...ouch! And she is only 5'2". Craziness... So I dunno, all of my husbands kids have been under 9 lbs at birth so I don't necesarily think it's his genes so probably mine. My mom and her sister were both over 9 at birth. But regardless, here we are with monster kid but he is healthy and active so I'm not too worried. Some kids are just big!

So, April 2 is the BIG DAY for right now. I thought it might be super neat to have him on April 1st and make it a great April Fool's prank to tell the family that instead of the huge boy we were expecting, it's a girl lol. Only because every person in my family (with the exception of my mom) was so sure this would be a girl  so they'd get a good kick out of that. But we are pretty sure it will be the 2nd and that is totally cool with me. Now I know there are a lot of people that will argue that choosing to have a baby early due to size is not a good idea and if I thought I could handle the last two weeks I would but I trust my doctors exclusively and they know way more about my medical conditions and what could or couldn't happen than I do. I've never once met a person who had a baby 2 weeks early (full term is technically 37 weeks) and had any problems or who have less than a perfectly normal baby. I'm really not worried at all. Well I guess I can't say "not at all" because I have so many weird medical issues, I worry that something could go wrong but I'd worry anyway no matter what. It's hard not being able to see and hold your baby and not know what's going on inside your body but I think that is something most moms worry about anyway. I'm just going to trust God and know that He's got this, we're good!

Speaking of medical issues, my oh so wonderful back and pelvis that have held up so well this entire time are starting to give out on me. At my babyshower last Saturday (which was awesome btw!) I started having the old familiar twinge in my right butt cheek. That spot right next to where your leg connects to your hip socket. Kind of hard to explain but sends pain into the center of the butt cheek and when my chiro fixes it, I always have to be on my stomach for her to get to it. Well, now I can't lie on my stomach on her table so she has to try to adjust me from the front and it just doesn't do the trick. So each night for the last 2 nights I have been barely able to walk at all, it's excruciating. Not only that spot but my entire pelvis and lower back just feel like they've been pummeled with a sledge hammer. During the day, my stomach muscles and ligaments right in front of my hips hurt so bad that walking is a major chore. Not fun...But nothing much I can do about it. It's what I've expected all along and I'm so amazed I've gone this long but I'm thankful that I am in the home stretch and if I can manage to stretch and exercise and not over do it, I think I can hold out. Well I have to lol. Ugh, but it isn't fun!

I guess that's all for now. All I can think about now is in 26 days I will be holding my little man finally!!! It't starting to feel so much more real! And I have to figure out how to get everything done!!

Praying for my fellow mama's out there, hope everyone is doing great! :-)