Good News!

I almost went to bed without updating!

I got the call at work today at about 3pm. The nurse said that my HCG level had risen appropriately. Actually, she kind of scared me by saying "your level skyrocketed". Ummm, isn't that bad? Then she said, "Oh no, I mean it was just fine."

Anyway, after some prompting she gave me the actual numbers of 275 last Friday and 1216 on Monday 72 hours later. I love this graphic at babymed that you can plot:

So I know it's too early to decorate the nursery but I'm pregnant! And excited. :) She said the will have me keep my mid-April appointment (sans ultrasound) at about 9 weeks and the best I can hope for is that maybe they can hear the heartbeat by doppler. Ugh. This no ultrasound is gonna kill me.

News Tomorrow, I Hope

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, and check-ins. I really, really appreciate it!

I have been feeling pretty good, actually. The bleeding is totally gone. Following the first discovery I did have a tiny bit of spotting this weekend but always brown. Now I haven't seen anything the last two days. And I'm also very happy to report that the cramping is gone. That had me worried well into the weekend.

I went for my second blood draw today (although the 11 inches of snow we got last night almost cancelled that!) and I very much hope to hear results tomorrow. I promise to post tomorrow night if I hear.

Thanks again, friends. :)

Update 2

Sooo...

I don't know what's going on. There has been no more bleeding since what I found yesterday at lunch time. There's been maybe some residual but nothing like what I saw that freaked me out. So that is good. But unfortunately I have had a lot of cramping today. Ranging from mild to moderate.

I went to my OB's office today to get a blood draw for HCG and I'll repeat on Monday so they can determine whether the level is rising appropriately. Did I tell you that they normally don't do an ultrasound until 20 weeks?! I think if my levels are appropriate that I may be demanding one now.

That's all I got for now; just playing the waiting game and hoping it will work out.

Update

At lunch time I found I was bleeding. Brown; more than spotting, less than a period. It has stopped but I have moderate cramping too. Not looking good. Waiting to see...

Prayers and good thoughts please.

Wow, You Guys

"Geez, she had one negative pregnancy test and disappeared off the face of the Earth."

I know. But seriously guys, it's been a crazy few months. My little department of two at work turned into one. The guy who recruited me to work with him resigned after 23 years with the company! And he had the nerve to have his last day on my one year anniversary with the company! You may remember that my company had a very bad year last year but luckily things have been much better. I am very impressed by our new CEO and we would all surely be out of jobs without her. But we still have a long way to go. Anyway, I could go on and on about how stressful my job has been but suffice it to say... I've been stressed.

Couple work stress with raising a two-and-a-half-year-old and baby making has just taken a back seat this time around. It is all I can do to use my OPKs early and often enough. Seriously, I could tell you my cycle day, BBT, and anything else cycle related every day last time. This time I have had to look back at the calendar and try to recruit hubby into helping me remember the first day of my last period.

Then things weren't happening quickly like I expected. That first month I had a positive OPK but then a BFN. Then the second month it turned out that ovulation was probably going to happen over our Christmas trip. When I was super sick. And we were sleeping in the guest room at my in-laws' house. With our toddler in the same bedroom. Right next door to MIL and FIL. It was not a conducive situation, to say the least. We gave it a last ditch effort the day we got home but too little, too late it seemed. Month three seemed to bring about no ovulation. So I got doc to up it to 100 mg of clomid for this month.

And then... anybody still reading? This morning I used what was supposed to be a super sensitive pregnancy test (10 mIU/mL detection limit). One of the dip kinds. To an amateur it would have looked negative but my keen eye saw the faintest little line. On my lunch break I got a digital test (supposedly less sensitive at 25 mIU/mL detection limit) and lo and behold, after three minutes there was the one word: Pregnant.

I'm pregnant you guys! By my calculations I am 3 weeks 4 days. I know; it's extremely early. So I'm quite nervous yet given my 50% success rate of pregnancy leading to an actual baby but I'm throwing it out there to y'all anyway. I'll keep you posted. :)

Bummer.

Got my period on Friday.

This was the first time that I've been trying to get pregnant, actually ovulated, and failed to get pregnant. :(

Oh well, better luck next month.

Go Time!

Just got this:

Which explains the feeling of toting around grapefruits in my abdomen for the last two days. Today only the right ovary still hurts. Never experienced that particular symptom the last time around. Yeeowch. Praying for only one egg!

And also, today, this:

Sorry, I can't tell you what my wish was!

Trying for Baby #2

Is that an empty fiver of clomid? Why yes, friends, it is!

We're officially trying.

This time around is different and weird so I have no idea what is going on right now. I took the fifth pill on Friday. But apparently the world has changed drastically since my last rodeo in 2009. I didn't have a period this time and I wasn't given progesterone to induce one. I'm told now if you don't have a natural period you just start taking the clomid and call that Day 1. Except then all the days are different than a normal cycle and I have no idea when to expect ovulation. I pretended that the clomid was days 5-9 (what my doc would do with a period) and started testing for ovulation today, Day 11. No line yet; no surprise. So, we wait. I wasn't going to temp this time around because I'm all cocky having a success under my belt and everything. But then I decided that this is so different and it would be nice to have the info. So I guess I better start that tomorrow.

To back up, I was supposed to quit birth control and start the clomid the same month. That would have been easier because I would have had a "period". But oh woe the headaches I was having! I think I told you about my two trips to urgent care. I couldn't take it anymore. So I quit the birth control but I wasn't ready to take the clomid yet. For one thing because any resulting baby would have been due at the same time as C's birthday but more importantly because I was lazy and hadn't been taking my folic acid long enough (naughty!).

On a side note I am still having headaches almost daily. Some days are worse than others but at least no more migraines (knock on wood). I am not sure if it is still hormonal or from my neck being a mess or a little of both. I went to a new chiropractor on Black Friday (they had a promotion called "Back Friday", heh heh). They did some scan along my spine and he proceeded to say, "Your neck is messed up young lady" and then he looked at the info sheet I filled out and said, "Oh, and here you have indicated that your neck is messed up". Long story short he gave me the craziest, scariest, biggest adjustments of my life, I almost cried from relief, and now we are best friends. There is still work to be done to make up for the long time I have been without a proper adjustment but I hope it will help with the headaches. God willing.

Well, I detect that C's nap is over. I will keep you posted on the cycle.

And thanks for all the love on my last post. I still have more than 0.4 readers! Very exciting!

So Much to Say, So Overdue

Please excuse me as I clear away all the dust and cobwebs...

I'm a Hoosier y'all!!

Remember my last post 1800 years ago? I pondered what a resident of Indiana is known as... Turns out that it is actually and officially a Hoosier. What exactly is a Hoosier, you ask? Well, nobody agrees on that but all of the possible definitions basically mean hick. So hooray for me(?)!

Anyway, I've been thinking about writing for all of the past 1800 years that I've been gone but it just seems like so much has happened in the meantime that I just don't even know where to start or what to include.

I imagine I have 0.04 readers left so it probably doesn't matter. So maybe I should just make a really vague bullet-type list and if anybody reads and/or cares and/or has questions and/or I feel like elaborating, then I will elaborate. Geez, my reader(s) are so lucky to have my stellar blog. Here we go.

• Moved to Indiana. Yay, there was never a real winter so my Arizona-fied body didn't freeze to death!
• Being away from hubby for four months was far worse than I thought it would be. On the day that he finally arrived with my dad (and his brother who helped drive) for good I bawled on his shoulder for like five minutes. I vaguely remember my BIL taping it.
• C finally got to drinking and tolerating actual cow's milk, but refused it out of a sippy cup - ever. She now drinks it out of a big girl cup and apparently that is an acceptable way to enjoy milk. For awhile all we had was water (refused juice from sippy cup too).
• Hubby got a teaching job here and likes it but he has to bring work home for the first time ever in his 9-year career because Indiana has all these new teacher performance requirements so he has to make goals, gather all this proof, make formal lesson plans, and a bunch of other B.S. that really good teachers like him should not have to do but whatever.
• My job is in the crapper. Yep, the one we moved 1700 miles for. Very shortly after starting, there were a bunch of layoffs and we were on the brink of bankruptcy (this is public knowledge - not revealing company secrets). We lost almost all of our execs to firing or resignation. Since the layoffs, many more people have left. My department can't pull in any work so I am "temporarily" working in a job that I never wanted. Company is still really struggling. Not sure what my next move is.
• We are on the brink of potty training but putting it off a bit because...
• We are headed to Disney World for four days next Friday!! (Goodness gracious, do I need a vacation)
• Having a total midlife crisis about what to do with my life (career) and tired of moving and being laid off and whatnot.
• My kid is hilarious and cute and charming 80% of the time and a teething, terrible-2's mess the other 20%. So, you know, not so bad!
• Was at Urgent Care yesterday and exactly one month before that for the most soul sucking migraines I have ever had. A shot of ketor.olac and a shot of Zofran and, bang, good as new. It's my birth control causing it and killing me and I am kicking it to the curb and gonna get back on the TTC horse next month. Eek!
• What kind of crazy person doesn't know where they will be working or living 6 months from now and yet is still going to try to conceive? Hahahahahahaha, that's me.

And if that was all I posted today I know my readership would most certainly fall to 0.0001 readers. And so, I will leave you with this taste of our 2-year pics from back in July and beg for your forgiveness and for you to come back to me and lead me to believe you care about me:

This Is Really Happening!

Our cars and all of our other stuff was loaded up today to be moved. Can I just say how much I love a full service move (so far)?!

We are staying at my parents until mom, C, and I fly to MN on Monday. She doesn't sleep as well away from home. She is asking for toys that are packed. She's not herself and cried a lot today. :( I have no idea what to expect once we're away from Hubby.

Probably the next time you hear from me I will be an Indiana-er. Um, Indiana-ite? Indian? Indianan? Hey, the next time you hear from me I will be a resident of Indiana! :)

P.S. Blogger is a jerk today and I can't comment on your blogs!