IVF Timeline

Okay guys Tom & Emily had a good question they posted on a comment page I and thought this would be a good place to address that answer. Anyway, their question was, "What's your timeline?" I got to thinking and I thought most of you would really like the answer to this question as well so I had to pull out my calendar for this one...

I start my injections on Saturday, February 3rd and I'll follow the same routine for the first week. Then on Saturday, February 10th I'll discontinue my birth control pills, but continue with the Lupron injections. They expect me to have a minor period (I'll believe "minor" when I see it) for the next few days and then on Valentine's Day Jim and I will go in for our baseline ultrasound, to make sure I have no cysts preventing us from proceeding. From there things will really start to get hectic and intense since I will be expected to go to Albuquerque on a daily basis for ultrasounds and blood draws.

My follicles will be retrieved sometime during the week of February 25th...could be as early as Monday and as late as Friday. Immediately following the retrieval my follicles will be fertilized and will sit in a petri dish for either three or five days...this will all depend on the follicles. The fertilized follicles will then be transferred back into my uterus sometime during the week of March 5th. And finally our big day will be March 14th, this will be our first pregnancy test. If this test is positive then we will retest again on March 16th to make sure our numbers are doubling as they are suppose to.

I know this was a lot to absorb in one blog so I'm really hoping I didn't confuse any of you. As things proceed I'll try to make more detailed posts about our progress.

IVF Medications Have Arrived

Well my cocktail of IVF medications have arrived (they came via mail). I received five different injectable medications and I begin my injections on Saturday with 20cc's of Lupron. Luckily this is a medication that I'll be able to administer myself and I will not need Jim's help. So, starting Saturday I'll become a human pin cushion. Oh and apparently I need to place a call to my doctors office because I'm missing my heparin injections. Here's a quick run down of all of the medications that I'll be taking starting Saturday (oral and injectable):

Necon (birth control)
Baby Aspirin (81mg)
Prenatal
Lupron (20cc)
Z-Pack (antibiotic)
Lexapro
Trazadone

Jim's First Woodworking Project

I often wonder about my husband...did he ever grow up, or is he still 6 years old and excited about his toys? Then I remembered...as men get older their toys just seem to get more and more expensive but the excitement never fades. Jim has slowly been working on acquiring tools so that he may try his hand at woodworking and this week he was really excited because he finally felt ready to take on his first project. On Friday he took a break from work and bought the last of the tools that he thought he might need for his weekend project.

This morning I was awoken pretty early when I heard/felt Jim moving around in bed and realized he was in the process of getting out of bed. I rolled over and looked at the clock..it was 4:45, so I asked Jim why he had gotten up so early and he told me that he couldn't sleep...he was to excited about his day. All week Jim has been talking about this woodworking project he was planning on doing today and I guess the excitement of his tool pron prevented him from sleeping. So at 4:45 Jim got out of bed...please keep in mind that it's hard to get Jim out of bed before 7:30am so him getting up that early was a shock. Anyway, after I made him breakfast this morning he got right to work constructing two saw horses. Him and Jimmy finished them about an hour ago and the following pictures are the end result.

On The Road To IVF

Okay guys, here's a quick update on our IVF stuff. Jim and I met with Jayme today to discuss our "calendar" for the next couple of weeks. Jayme will be our IVF nurse coordinator for the next several weeks helping us schedule appointments, keeping our medications straight, and keeping our sanity at a relatively low level. Our calendar indicates that I'll start my injections on February 3rd and our baseline ultrasound will probably be on Valentines Day. We're still scheduled for retrieval the last week of February with transfer being the first week of March. Unfortunately, Jim will be in training the first week of March so I have my mother lined up to help me get home that day. Also, once I get home I'll be on bed rest for the next few days so I'm sure my mother will be tying me to the couch since all of us know how well I handle bed rest...haha.

We also received a little bit of annoying news today...since we are now in a new year the Center For Reproductive Medicine (CRM) has decided to up their costs. Of course we are already paying an arm and a leg to have this procedure done and now they decided to increase their charges by $500 for IVF and $200 for freezing any possible follicles. DAMN IT!!!! We can never seem to catch a break! We budgeted for the original amount (an amount I'm not comfortable discussing here) and now we'll pretty much be cutting it close. I swear if it's not one thing it's another....

Crazy About Cats

Okay, I'm sure some of you are sick and tired of seeing pictures of my animals. However, since I don't have children yet I do have a bad habit of doting on my animals. Anyway, Jim and I shot a few cute pictures of the animals this weekend that I thought I would share with all of you...

Here's a great photo that should be the latest ad for Weight Watchers...fat Sasha lying in front of the fireplace. I promise she eats the dog food and not her regular cat food. Can someone tell me how I can get one cat to lose weight and the other to gain weight???

This one should read...all dressed up (or packed) and nowhere to go. Jim used one of his gift certificates this weekend to buy himself a router and Sasha decided the box was bought for her. She spent something like half an hour in this box....just hanging out.

And finally here's Nanook all wiped out after playing with Sasha.

Sorry, I didn't manage to get any cute pictures of Corki this weekend...he's just not as photogenic as the other two.

In His Natural Habitat

Ahh, what a weekend. I've been wanting to have a date with my husband for the last several weeks but things keep coming up and we keep having to reschedule. This weekend however, we finally had our date and it was a wonderful break from all of the busyness to reconnect with each other. Our plans were as follows; go ice skating around 2pm and dinner in Espanola at some point. In true Liberty fashion nothing ever seems to work out the way we hope.

We got to the rink at about 2pm only to find that there was a hockey tournament going on, which meant no public skating until 7pm-ish. Jim was rather hungry at this point so we decided to go to Espanola for a quiet dinner and eventually end up back at the ice rink. Dinner was very tasty and we finished early enough to go back to the house and relax. We were actually at the house long enough to watch a few movies. Eventually we did end up at the rink again, only to find the tournament was running about an hour late. Not wanting to drive back home again we decided to just stay at the rink and watch the rest of the tournament.

For those of you that don't know Jim very well (or Canadians in general) he's a huge hockey freak. So it was certainly a treat watching his face light up while he got to watch some live hockey. Okay, I realize it was just girls playing, but he still enjoyed himself. Oh, and since we got to the rink so early once the tournament was over and ice was resurfaced Jim and I were the first ones on the ice. Not only that, for about 15 minutes we had the entire rink to ourselves...extremely peaceful.

So anyway, I took a few pictures of Jim skating...or should I say Jim in his natural habitat. I'm not sure how well you can tell, but it was snowing while we were skating (Los Alamos is home to the only regulation outdoor rink in the state).

I think this is a great picture of Jim! You can tell he is really enjoying being on the ice.

Can you see all of the wonderful snow in the background? That's the accumulation of the last several snow storms and once again it's snowing tonight.

In the end our date was really nice even though it didn't start out as planned.

For me it was a rather busy weekend as I spent most of the weekend at the office finishing up my quarterly reports (with the exception of Saturday afternoon). However, you'll be happy to hear that all of my year-end reports have been completed, my quarterly reports have been completed, and the auditors could walk in tomorrow and I wouldn't blink an eye. At last my hard work has finally been completed and I can spend the rest of the month relaxing...or so I hope. So with that said, I decided to take the next few days off from work so that I may mentally calm down...I'm so looking forward to doing nothing for the next couple of days.

Breathing a Sigh of Relief

Well I can honestly say that I'm finally breathing a sigh of relief...kind of. I've been really busy at work the last couple of weeks trying to prepare our budget and get ready for our strategic planning session and I'm finally done! I wish you could see my excitement! I've been so stressed out trying to get everything done, making sure that everything was perfect (remember I'm a perfectionist), and now I'm done!

Okay, I have to admit my stress isn't fully over...I still have an audit to prepare for and this weekend I have to do the Call Report for FID. Luckily, the auditors will not be here for a few weeks but the Call Report is due on Monday. So, once I get the Call Report done I do plan on getting a few days to myself. Trust me I can't wait...

I'm Still Here

Okay guys I promise I'm still here and alive and well. Things have been extremely hectic around here (well at work that is) and by the time the evening comes I'm to beat to turn on the computer. I've been putting in a lot of overtime the last several weeks since I feel like I have a mound of work to do. The good news is I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and even though I know this week is going to be hard I also know it will be over soon. So, I really don't have anything for you guys I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about you. I'll try for a better post within the next couple of days.

Survival Of The Fittest

Okay guys I really do apologize for the long wait between posts. I've been house sitting at my aunt and uncles house for the last several days so that they may take care of a family emergency, and as a result I've been away from the computer. Anyhow I have a few things that I would like to talk about tonight.

Real fast, I tried to update our family photo and apparently Blogger didn't think I should update the photo. I tired for over an hour...don't worry I'll keep trying and hopefully you'll see our latest photo.

IVF News; I finally started my period on December 31st and to my surprise I was actually a few days late. I'm never late, you could time my cycle by a clock and I actually took a pregnancy test. Of course it came back negative, but I was hoping if I took a test then I would start my period...no luck. In the end I was four days late. Anyhow, I never thought I would be excited to start my period, but this time I was. Starting my period signified a few things for Jim and I...we are now officially on the IVF rollercoster! Yes, the next two months are certainly going to be a rollercoster for both Jim and I. However, we're very happy to be on this rollercoster together and most important we are excited about the end results.

So with the start of my period I was able to start taking my birth control pills...still feels kind of weird but we are certain that the doctors know what they are talking about. Oh yeah, I get to skip the placebo week and go straight into the next pack. Which means this could be my last period for about 11 months (thank goodness). At this point I'm just taking the birth control pills and the prenatal vitamins. If memory serves me correct, I think I'll start my injections on February 3rd. I do know I have a doctors appointment on January 23rd to discuss my calendar of meds and appointments so by then I'll have an exact date.

Okay, so into the main post of the night...survival of the fittest. As I write this Jim sits on the couch extremely tired and extremely sore...barely able to move. I'm sitting here tired, but at least I can move, the soreness hasn't hit me yet. So you might ask, what did you two do? I took Jim skiing today...hehe. Yes, I have to laugh but I can't laugh to hard. Mainly I'm not laughing at Jim as much as I'm laughing at my sister. You see, I took Stefanie and Mark skiing for the first time a few years ago (two years I think) and I had the best laugh of my life. Stefanie never made it past the tow rope, but at least Mark made it down the bunny hill...once.

So, when I took Jim skiing today I thought I would see a repeat of the time I took Stefanie and Mark skiing. To my surprise Jim did awesome! I really did think he would spend most of the day on his butt and my sides would be sore from all of the laughing. Nope, he skied great! Jimmy and I even had him down some black diamonds (these would be considered expert runs and all have moguls). The weather on the hill was great, you couldn't ask for better conditions. Jim did however spend some time on his butt, and when he got on his butt it would take him a half hour to get back up, so I did get my laugh in. Here are the only pictures I took of our fun filled day at the ski hill:

Here's a random shot taken from the ski lodge at one of our many breaks.

Here's Jim on his butt with Mike behind him trying to help him up. We all helped him and none of us could get him up. Eventually he got up on his own.

Half hour later, here's Jim up and going again. Things went great from here on out.

U.S. Capital Tour

On Friday December 22nd after we defrosted thanks to our walk in the Botanic Gardens we were finally ready for our tour of the U.S. Capital. After we went through all of the security stuff we entered the building excited about our tour. Then we met our tour guide...not sure if I could classify her as a tour guide or not though, she was horrible. She talked very quietly, we couldn't understand her, and she rushed us through much of the building. Once we got past the the horrible tour guide we had a really good time.

I went to DC in the 8th grade as part of a class trip and had forgotten that I had actually been in the Capital building before, then I walked into the Rotunda. Once in the Rotunda it all looked familiar to me and I had remembered being there before. One noticeable change, during my 8th grade trip we were able to see more of the building. A change I'm assuming is a direct result of 9/11. Anyhow here are some photos of the Capital building inside the Rotunda. Keep in mind as you few these photos this is the exact place where the former President Ford laid in state until today.

This is actually the ceiling...in case you were unsure of what you were looking at.

Here's Jim and I in front of the Capital building. Notice the Capital Christmas tress behind us. Oh, it's also raining...

Here's Mark and Stef in front of the Capital building.