Thanksgiving at the Beach

I have been at the beach in Florida visiting my in-laws for the holidays. Today was a gorgeous day and I took a long walk on the beach. As I as walking along I snapped the attached picture with my i-phone. It was sunny and just perfect today and I even got sunburned. Nothing like a tank top tan in November.

Thanksgiving day we had a nice dinner and spent the day visiting and chasing around our 3 year old niece. I missed shopping on Black Friday but I did go to the movies with my sis-in-law. We saw Blind.Side and it is a great movie. Today more hanging out but I managed to take a nice long walk. We are headed home tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to seeing my fur babies. My friend S and her little poodle have been house sitting for me and taking care of the kitties.

The Estrace is going well and I haven't had any side effects (that I'm aware of but my DH might disagree). I started he Endometrin suppositories yesterday and tomorrow I will begin the Doxyclcyline & Medrol. In six long days I will be having my transfer. I can't believe it is almost here.

Unexpected Surprises

I received the nicest surprise in the mail on Monday from my friend D that lives in North Carolina. The angel is holding a seashell and on the bottom of the angel it says "thinking of you". This gift could not have come at a better time. I had just come home from visiting my friend J at the hospital. She gave birth to twins (b/g) on Monday after a battle with infertility. I'm so happy for her but it is a painful reminder that I started trying before her and I still have nothing to show for my 3 year battle with infertility. Thanks D for your thoughtfulness.

I went on Tuesday morning for my lining check. I had an ultrasound and my lining measured at 8.3. I'm totally on track for the transfer next Friday. I have to go back on Tuesday for the cervical stitch and discuss how many embryos to thaw out. We are only planning to put one back.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We are in Daytona Beach Florida spending the holiday with my in-laws and my DH's sisters and 3 year old niece. I'm sure I'll have some stories to blog about later.

Same Story - Different Nephew

I had a lovely pre-Thanksgiving dinner at my dad's house today. I even baked a broccoli casserole to take with us. It was a lovely day and all of my family was there, including my niece who lives in Tennessee (her husband is in the Army) and my nephew who is in the Army in North Carolina. It was nice to be together and I got to hold my 19 year old nephew's 3 month old baby. She is a darling little girl with big eyes and a sweet disposition. As I looked at that little miracle my heart skipped a beat or two thinking that maybe this time next year that will be me.

As the day came to an end and just a few of us were sitting in the living room my sister R said guess who's pregnant. Only my married niece and unmarried 21 year old nephew were in the room. I of course looked at my niece as my nephew's girlfriend raised her hand. WHAT?? I was in shock (which probably saved me from bursting into tears right away). After the shock wore off I had to excuse myself so I could have a mini cry in the bathroom. I felt like someone had slammed me in the heart with a sledgehammer. Both my sister's hugged me tight when I came back in the room and said how sorry they were. My nephew is in college on a baseball scholarship with a promising future as a professional baseball player. I know my sister R is crushed because this of course changes everything. They both have 3 semesters of college left but the baby will be here in July so I have no idea what will happen now. Every baby is a miracle and gift from God. I have to keep reminding myself of that, but could the timing be any worse for them? I feel like God is playing a cruel joke on me. Really. My brother & nephew both had a baby this year and now my other nephew is expecting. 3 new babies are entering my family in 1 year and I'm about to enter my 3rd year of just trying to get pregnant. No one ever said life was fair.

IVF FUN! WHAT???

I went to pick up my reading glasses tonight at the eye doctor (yeah I know I'm old) and it reminded me of what happened last week when I went to get my eyes examined. The female doctor was asking me of any changes and I said my eyes seemed to be drier than normal. She asked about any changes and I said I'd been taking hormones for IVF and her comment was FUN! After I closed my mouth I just looked at her and said "not really". We left it at that. Yes it was fun the first time when I was naive and thought it would work and I'd have a sweet little baby nine months later but after 5 IVF's and 3 years later there is nothing fun about this process. Fun is a roll in hay that results in a baby nine months later.

I started my estrace pills last Sunday and after a few days of headaches I feel like my old self again. I normally get headaches when estrogen is reintroduced into my system but they only last a couple of days. I go on Tuesday for an ultrasound to check my lining and some blood work. Things are going slowly right now but at least I have Thanksgiving and a trip to the beach to distract me. My in-laws live in a condo over looking the beach so that will be a nice way to spend the holiday.

I took this photo Saturday at the Atlanta Zoo. I imagine this what I will feel like after eating an early Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday at my dad's house and then another Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with the in-laws. I even plan to help cook dinner on Thursday and for those of you that know me IRL (in real life) you know this will be a huge undertaking for me. I really dislike cooking but hopefully everything will turn out yummy and I won't have to help with the dishes.

No More Panties

I have been transferring clothes from my old dresser to my new dresser and I was doing this I suddenly noticed I have a LOT of panties. They were all just jammed in my old dresser but I decided to stack lay them flat in stacks by color. So I stacked and I stacked and I stacked. I started to realize I have a LOT of panties. So I started counting them and my final number was 164. That didn't include the stack I threw away or the ones still in the dirty clothes hamper. I have enough undies to not have to wash for almost 1/3 of the year. I really have no idea how I've managed to amass so many undies, but guess what arrived in the mail today? My V.S. panty coupon, I guess one more pair can't hurt.

Nemo enjoying the new bed and acting like we bought it just for him. Oh right, we did!

Fur Babies

I have 2 darling little fur baby kitties Roxie (black & white female) and Nemo (solid black male). We've had them about 1 1/2 years and they are brother & sister. My question today is how much is too much? We just bought new bedroom furniture in order to upgrade to a king size bed because there wasn't enough room in our queen size bed for all four of us. Does that make me a crazy cat lady? We do love our new furniture and so do the kitties. They think we bought it just for them, oh right, we did.

I went to my last scheduled baby shower today and it went well. No tears this time so I'm making progress. My friend M looked great and has only gained 25 lbs and has 7 weeks to go. She decided not to find out the sex of the baby so it will be a surprise. We all complained because everyone was forced to buy gender neutral gifts. I guess that element of surprise will not come into play for me if I get pregnant because my best 3 frozen embryos are boys. I have 2 girl embryos but they are both slow growers so they will be last ones to put back.

I start my drugs next Sunday and I'm having the stitch put into my cervix on Dec 1st and the transfer will be Dec 4th. The time won't pass by fast enough for me! I'm so ready to take the next step.