Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Waiting...

Well, cycle day 24 has come and nearly gone, and still no AF (still spotting, though).  Good, I guess.  I'd like to move on with the next cycle in one sense, but don't want that to happen if there's a chance of me being pregnant (of course).  I've been keeping myself quite busy lately with my list o' projects and will repost them below to show my progress.  They do seem to do a good job of keeping me occupied, but they're things I enjoy doing or will be much relieved to have completed.  I also hosted a potluck at our church today, which went pretty well considering it was my first time organizing something like that.  I am relieved that's done now, though.

Without further ado, the list of projects and my progress:


1)   Strawberry baby hat
2)   Scarf for me
3)   Hubby's hat (just get it started - at least cast on)
4)   Order honeycomb blinds for Kidlet's room
5)   Finish sewing curtain for guest room
6)   Finish knitting Santa toy
7)   Crochet turkey towels
8)   Catch up on two months of bookkeeping
9)   Catch up on two more months of bookkeeping (ugh!)
10) Fix Sweet Pea and Betty Bear (two of Kidlet's stuffed animals)
11) Repair various torn children's books
12) Organize guest room and hall closets
13) Glue dinosaur bank
14) Glue book and send set of books to friend

Well, it appears I'm a few days behind my goal, so I'll have to get crackin' tonight...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Got the Munchies

Since starting this whole hormone-driven adventure, I've noticed my clothes getting a little snug.  I am not one to worry too much about my weight.  Thanks to rheumatoid arthritis, my metabolism seems to constantly be in overdrive.  (To the point where I was quite underweight after my daughter was born - that was a rough pregnancy, and yes, I would love to do it all over again.)  I must say I'm a little pleased that I finally have curves where a lady should have them.  Don't know if I owe them to the hormones, or the fact that I am 32, and no longer the youthful thing I once was.  Possibly it's due to the fact that I've got the munchies and can out-eat my husband who is 4 inches taller than me and outweighs me by 40 pounds.  Possibly.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Pro Progesterone?

Well, I'm spotting.  This is nothing new for me, but in the past it has correlated with an unsuccessful cycle.  Not that I'm all that surprised given our circumstances this cycle, but I didn't even get a week of blissful I-might-be-pregnant daydreams.  Sigh. 

Anywho, the title of this post points to one of my personal infertility questions.  Should I take progesterone during the two-week-wait?  My OB gave me the opportunity to try one Clomid cycle prior to her referral to the RE.  This followed a round of Provera to induce a real period.  (I was anovulatory and bleeding/spotting for the cycle prior, and had no clue where to start counting what.)  The Clomid was a bust, as I ended up getting the LH surge on day 20 of my cycle, at least a full week later than usual.  Perhaps not unusual for the IF crowd, but fairly unusual for me who usually has a surge around day 12-14.  But, I digress. 

I had experienced spotting during previous cycles about 5-7 days before I expected my period.  It had become so predictable that I knew when to expect my period based on when the spotting started.  So, when my OB prescribed the Provera and Clomid, I asked about progesterone, which I had read could relieve spotting.  She said it wouldn't hurt, so I had a prescription for 25 mg suppositories to take twice a day.  Now I understand that this amount is really inconsequential when it comes to having a real effect on your blood progesterone levels, but at the time I felt empowered.   When I began IUI with the RE, they increased my dose to 100 mg daily (in the evening), the minimum dose they recommend.  Well, even with the 100 mg dose of progesterone, I had some mild spotting.  I called the nurse. 

This cycle, I decided to forgo the progesterone because of the side effects, and because I, not my doctor, suggested the progesterone in the first place.  When talking to the nurse prior to the date I would have started the progesterone, she told me that they rarely use progesterone for patients, and I wouldn't normally be someone they would recommend use it.  Naturally, I am curious as to why a person would have spotting.  So, aside from the lovely idea of implantation bleeding, she spoke of a hormone shift (forgot to ask which hormones), and chemical pregnancy (!!!).  So, as of this past Friday, I'm spotting.  I guess that means I could expect AF anytime on Tuesday. 

Crud.

My question for you, then - anybody using progesterone for spotting?  For other issues?  I'm trying to understand this, and not having much luck.

Monday, November 2, 2009

List o' Projects

Well, this is a teeny bit ambitious, but do-able.  Here goes (in no particular order):

1)   Strawberry baby hat
2)   Scarf for me
3)   Hubby's hat (just get it started - at least cast on)
4)   Order honeycomb blinds for Kidlet's room
5)   Finish sewing curtain for guest room
6)   Finish knitting Santa toy
7)   Crochet turkey towels
8)   Catch up on two months of bookkeeping
9)   Catch up on two more months of bookkeeping (ugh!)
10) Fix Sweet Pea and Betty Bear (two of Kidlet's stuffed animals)
11) Repair various torn children's books
12) Organize guest room and hall closets
13) Glue dinosaur bank
14) Glue book and send set of books to friend

(Items crossed out are completed.)  This list of things must be done by Saturday November 12th, or I have to relinquish one of my massage gift certificates to my husband.  That ought to be motivation enough! 

Projects

Well, in order to keep myself occupied during the next couple of weeks, I am assigning myself a pile of projects to finish.  I am the type of person that is good at starting projects, but not always the best at finishing them.  This includes things like curtains for a guest bedroom, a hat for my friend's new baby, a Christmas present (from 2008 - also a hat) for my husband, etc.  So, I have two projects done.  A couple of things needed gluing, and are now sitting next to me drying.  Two down, twelve to go...  Perhaps, to keep myself honest, I should list them here and post when I actually finish them.  List coming soon...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Over Before it Began

Well,  I know I promised to post yesterday, but things were pretty disappointing at our IUI, and I needed some time to process it all. 

My husband and I are dealing with both male and female factor infertility.  I have irregular ovulation (ranges from day 10 to day 20 of my cycle), along with a clotting factor (prothrombin G20210A gene mutation) and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome.  (These last two were likely the cause of our daughter's pre-term birth at 33 weeks gestation after pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome.)  My husband has extremely low sperm morphology (<0.5-0.5% Krueger).  In previous semen analyses, however, all other numbers were great, so we were told it was likely a non-issue. 

Fast-forward to yesterday.  Before each IUI, the lab does a "mini" semen analysis.  Last time, the numbers were great (33.3 million motile sperm post-wash - basically ideal).  This time, the number was 0.6 million motile sperm.   From what I've read, most clinics recommend a minimum of 2 million motile sperm.  They didn't cancel us, since the work was essentially done, but I guess I won't get my hopes up for this one.  The only cause we can think of for this change is the fact that he had the flu (likely H1N1) in late September.  We've been told it will take about 3 months for this to show its effects on his numbers, but who knows.  In the meantime, we've both sworn off caffeine and alcohol (well, him mostly, as I've been doing it during the two week waits anyway).  We had a fun time at a Halloween party thrown by a coworker of his last night, and he enjoyed his last beer and liquor for a while.  Guess what he'll be doing to celebrate a positive pregnancy test?! 

Friday, October 30, 2009

The 11th Cycle's a Charm?

Today was our Day 12 ultrasound to determine when we could go ahead with IUI #2.  I had an LH surge on my own this cycle (as I did last cycle).  It showed up on my OPK this morning, so they went ahead and scheduled the IUI for tomorrow.  I had two lovely follicles this morning.  The left follicle was 28.5 mm and the right follicle at 22.5.  My uterine lining was in the range of 6.1-8 mm, and trilaminar ("great", according to the doctor).  Thankfully, this doctor, Dr. P we'll call him, decided that I didn't need to give myself an Ovidrel injection because I had my own surge and the HCG shot would be redundant.  The Ovidrel made me very tired and nauseated after our last IUI, and of course made me wonder if we had been lucky enough to have it work on the first try.  Alas, no.  So for now, I feel bloated and am intensely aware of the location of my ovaries.  But, to me that means that I have not ovulated yet.  That is a good thing, since we have some time to kill before the IUI!  Until tomorrow!