My Favorite Time of the Year!

Welcome to our Home!

Some of the outside decorations

It's starting to look a little like Christmas!

Grayden at 5 1/2 months

Iron Bowl 2008

Jonathan and I started decorating our house for Christmas this weekend. We are going to get our tree next weekend. We got our tree last year a little to early and it dried out so we are trying to wait a little longer. I just love this time of the year!

I know that a lot of you know we had a very eventful Thanksgiving this year. My mom was drug by her car 20 ft the night before Thanksgiving. She was rushed to Emergency Room and we stayed there until early Thanksgiving morning. Jonathan went to Birmingham to see his family and I decided it would be best for me to stay here with my mom. She is doing better just really banged up, has severe road rash, and stitches on a 6 inch cut on her head. Please keep her in your prayer for a quick recovery.

I am getting ready for 2 doctor's appointments this week. One at ART to check on my ovaries and see what is going on with my cysts since I've been on birth control for 2 weeks. My other appt. is with my ENT regarding my surgery to remove one of my lymph nodes. I will keep everyone posted on the outcome of both appointments. Have a great week!

Passing Time

I just wanted to jump on and let everyone know, not much has been going on around here. I was sick all last week with an infection in one of my lymph nodes. This is something I suffer from like 2-3 times a year. It has been going on for about 4 years. I already had one lymph node removed the day before my 21st birthday and I am going back to my ENT on December 4th to discuss removing this one. I saw him last Thursday and he wanted to get rid of the infection before he touched it. I have been resting a lot and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.

On the fertility side of things. My follow up appointment is a week from tomorrow, Dec 1st. I will have my ultrasound to see what the status is on my cysts.

Sorry this is such a boring post, but I just wanted to give everyone an update.

Friday's Appointment

I had my normal baseline appointment on Friday morning. Except things did not turn out as they usually do when I'm getting ready to start my meds for a new cycle. When I got there they drew my blood. Then I waited for my ultrasound. As soon as Sarah started the ultrasound I knew something was wrong. She was looking at my left ovary and saw a really big cyst. It was over 3.0 cm. It looked like it almost took up my whole ovary. Then she went to the right and found one on it too. This one only looked like the size of a tennis ball. It was a lot smaller. At that time there was no point at her counting follicles, looking at my uterine lining or anything else.

She stopped the ultrasound and she gave me 2 options. The first one was to start birth control this weekend. The 2nd option was to not take anything this month and see if they went away on there own. If I chose not to do the BC and they were still there at the end of this cycle they would put me on the birth control anyway. I chose to take the birth control with great hesitation. I told myself after taking it with my IVF cycle I would NEVER take birth control again and now look I'm still trying to get pregnant and about to begin another 3 weeks of something that makes me feel horrible. I will begin the nuvaring tonight. I made an appointment for December 1 to come in and do a ultrasound to see if they are going down. I will not be doing any medications this month or treatments. I am now on complete pelvic rest.

We are praying that they do go away this month. We are also praying that they go away and not rupture fast. This can very painful and dangerous. There is a chance if they do not go away surgery may be needed to remove them. Hopefully we won't have to get to that point.

I have to admit I left the office crying and very upset, but not so much that we were having to wait this month out. Jonathan and I had discussed if we should take a break this month. He was starting to get concerned about the stress my body was going through after doing this month after month. I knew in my heart that I probably needed a break too. Not only physically, but emotionally.

Standing there in ART checking out everything just hit me, all the failed treatments, the pain of going through this every month, the desire to have a child that I would put myself through anything to have, the financial stress, the fact that my body as a woman had let me down again, and just everything else. I am so grateful that God made this decision for us. As much as I want this. I know we both need this break.

Alright, It's time to get ready for dinner. Have a great week everyone. I'll be back soon. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Especially during this time. The Holidays were tough on us last year and I'm sure it won't be any easier this time around. Good Nite!

Broken

That is the perfect word to describe how I feel right now. We found out today that IUI #3 was not successful. Please keep us in your prayers.

I apologize for the shortness of this post, but I just don't feel up to writing tonight.

Blog Slacker!

That is what I've been. I apologize for not posting for several days. I have been sooooo tired. I have been on my routine progesterone for over a week now and it wipes me out. I had my progesterone level checked last Tuesday and it was 19.9. This is the highest it's been since I've been at ART. Even though it was high they would have liked to have seen it at 20. Since it was not quite there I had to increase my progesterone from 2 a day to 3 a day. Many of you may know, but progesterone is what rises rapidly doing the first part your pregnancy. It is very important to keep a pregnancy, until the placenta is formed. ART keeps a very close watch on all their patient's progesterone. The standards are a lot higher than what a regular OBGYN would like to see. I guess it's good since your paying so much money to get pregnant you don't want to risk anything you can control and have a miscarriage.

I guess that's all I have to update you on right now. It's 7:21 and the bed is already calling my name. I will check in soon. Night!

Happy Halloween! A Couple Days Late!

Elmo already in the Candy!

Riley and his daddy blowing bubbles!

Playing the Duck game!

Uncle Jonathan and Riley playing in Aladdin's Castle!

Checking things out in Build A Bear!

All ready to go to Nite Nite!

I want to apologize for not posting on Friday like I said I would, but it was not a very good day for me. My appt that morning went fine. My ovulation was moving along like they had hoped so we did not have to do another insemination. That was not the reason I was having a bad day. I was just having a down day. I think the HCG shot kicked in because I was really emotional and irritable all day.

Jonathan had to do inventory at work so I did not get to see him until midnight. I went over to my parent's to see Riley all dressed up as Elmo. Grayden was sick and did not need to be out in the weather so he stayed with his great grandmother (MiMi) and great grandfather (Pops) that night.

Saturday night Riley spent the night with me and Jonathan. We took him to the mall to play in Aladdin's castle, to Build A Bear (which he LOVED), and to get some dinner. After we left there we took him to Toys R Us to look around. We had a such a great night. He is such a sweetheart. We can't wait til Grayden feels a little better so we take him out.

Now we are just waiting to see if this round of IUI worked. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.