Lots

Lots to catch up on!! And I am so glad that song spoke to some of you- of course you're welcome to post it on your personal blogs!!!

We had a great weekend- of course it was over too soon. Had a sort of "pang of IF moment" while I was hanging up clothes and listening to the neighbors yell at their kids (our neighborhood is pretty much in the middle of what used to be a pasture, so voices carry really far....). I mean, God, I know that our kids will not be perfect and we will likely have to raise our voice at them at some point in their lives, but we are praying for a child to love and not one to yell at because they are squirming out of their car seat....

I took a test on Saturday (12dpo), and it was negative, so I pretty much had a chance to prepare myself for CD1, which finally came this morning. I am so thankful that I started on time, although I wasn't really expecting to. I am trying again to go cramp-pain-med-free this time!!! I'm hoping I can do it- I didn't get to acupuncture yesterday, but I'm hoping to go on Thursday.

And I wanted to thank you for all your comments and prayers as we decided whether to get a second opinion. We have decided to cancel the consult and stick with our current RE. We are encouraged that our RE has decided to change the protocol on his own (and who knows, he may have even consulted the other RE's about my case before talking to me about it). I really wanted to respect Mr. A's guidance on this one- he has been so supportive and awesome through all of these medicines and treatments, and so when he felt we could cancel the consult, that's what we went with.

(Funny story- well sort of funny anyway- my sister and her hubby just got news that he was selected to be part of the faculty on one of those seme.ster at sea programs in the fall of 2011. They were thinking of starting to try for kids this summer (GULP), but for the hypothetical child to be able to travel with them, he/she has to be at least 6 months old by August 2011. (I'll give you a minute to do the math.) Yes, that's right, they'd have to conceive by June (think, one or maybe two cycles) (ANOTHER GULP) for the baby to be old enough to get the shots required for an international tour. Mr. A and I were discussing this as we were making dinner last night, and he goes "Do they even know about how cycles go? Does she even know when she ovulates? Does she know about peak temperatures?!" HA!! SO stinkin cute. No wonder I married him!)

So anyway, my CD3 ultrasound is on Thursday, and I'm expecting to start stims that night like my previous follistim cycles. I'll be adding Ganirelix this time, but not until my follies are bigger. I'm so hopeful that I will have better follicle growth!!! I sort of feel like we cheated the system, since we said we were only doing IVF once. Although we didn't get to go through ER/ET last cycle, I still feel like we're getting a big second chance with this cycle. I know we didn't get an "official" IVF BFN, but it sort of feels that way, and before March, I would have expected we wouldn't get another shot, but here we are! We are definitely lucky.

Question for you: I have been taking progesterone suppositories after ovulation. Clearly my progeterone is still lackluster. My RE said he'd prescribe PIO if I wanted for this cycle after ER, but he doesn't think it necessarily works any better. I think I'd like to try it, but what would you do?

So I am estimating that I might be PUPO by Mother's Day. Does that mean I finally get a flower at church?