And this is what $4000 worth of meds looks like...

I feel like I have buried treasure in our house. It is like our own little pot of gold....only I don't hope to catch a leprechaun. I am going to catch a baby!

We had our injection class yesterday. It was proceeded by a baseline ultrasound and some bloodwork (which I did not know I was having done!). I was so nervous that we were going to get cancelled for this cycle because of the whole snafu with the antibiotic. But I wore my lucky penguin necklace and kept rubbing that little penguin for all the Positive Penguin Vibes (PPV) I could get. More on the penguin front in a bit....just know that it worked! We are on for IVF and Nurse D gave us the start of our meds. I had to order the Lupron from another pharmacy (which I did this morning) and that will get shipped to us on Monday. I officially start my first injection on Thursday morning. It is two injections a day for about 10-12 days. Every twelve hours. Can I say I am excited about this? Nope. But it is eye-on-the-prize time and I am focusing on the fact that we will be parents when this done.

During the class, we had to practice mixing the drugs and then injecting them. It was all pretend meds (just sterile saline) and we injected into a foam block. Even for this my hands were shaky and sweaty. My stomach felt like I was riding a roller coaster. I feel like I have it down about mixing the meds but the whole shove the needle into my belly part...not so much. I am going to try doing the first one myself but BJ will be there to back me up if needed. But the fact is that I have to do it myself at some point because I have to go to Fort Bragg by myself and who will give it to me then? So here are some pics of the process...I plan to photo document this whole thing.

My meds...chilling on the counter waiting to be used...4 boxes each - $500 each!

One box of each med opened...this is the contents. Do you see the needles????

Our calender. It is a day by day guide of what meds to take and when to take them. Pretty much know that I will be a hormonal mess the week of the 8th...thank goodness that I will be at Bragg and BJ will be home! I won't be driving him totally crazy with all my wacky emotions!

My Penguin Necklace

So let me explain the penguin. I joined an infertility message board a few months ago. I am an information addict. I want to know every.little.thing.about.every.little.thing when it comes to this whole IVF process. I tend to be one that if I prepare myself for the worse...what ever happens in the end is something I can handle. Case in point, I thought I was going to have to do PIO (progesterone in oil) shots after the ER and ET. I was all in a panic because these are IM shots and I could not wrap my head around the fact that I would have to give them to myself. Sub-Q into my belly...sure! IM into my rear...hell no! But I gathered my info and all but accosted every nurse I met with a plea to do the shots for me. Well, I found out yesterday...no PIO shots!....I have to do progesterone suppositories. Easy! Phew! So back to the penguins, this board I joined adopted the penguin as their mascot because of the lengths penguins go to have a baby. Both penguin parents share the responsibility of carrying the egg through the harsh weather and then when the chick arrives they both care for the chick...feeding and protecting it. So the ladies on this board send each other PPV and put pictures of penguins on their siggies (the info that appears at the end of their posts). So a few weeks ago, I was out shopping and while I was at Walmart...I saw this necklace. I nearly fell over. I told BJ about it and he got me this necklace to wear during our treatment. I plan to wear it to every appointment. It is my good luck charm. :) So far it is working!

So I have to share my recent splurge.

I kept seeing a commercial (I have no idea what it was for) that one of the actors is wearing these adorable red shoes. Every time I saw it...I loved these shoes more and more. I finally decided to try and find them. Zappos to the rescue! I searched for red shoes and scoured every page...then I found them. At first I was bummed because they did not have my size. But I read the reviews and everyone commented about how they run very narrow. I checked my size in a wide width...they had them! So I ordered them and two days later they were delivered! The fit is perfect and I can't wait to wear them. I figured since I can't really buy clothes right now...refuse to buy maternity before I am official pregnant but don't want to invest in clothes that I may not be able to wear at all...shoes are doable! And my other reasoning...while pregnant, I can't wear heels but I need nice shoes to wear to any events that I need to attend. Hence these shoes...

The beauties!

Mom's visit

We have been having a great visit with my mom. She only has two more days with us and of course the weather is now starting to get nice. Figures. It has been an interesting two weeks. We got a crazy amount of snow the first weekend...and then it just stayed cold. And there is not a whole lot to do here in the great metropolis of Jacksonville when it is cold out. So hopefully it will be nice out for the next couple of days so that we can do some outside things. Our evenings have been spent watching the Olympics...GO USA! We did go take the tour of the USS North Carolina in Wilmington. Very cool (especially as a new Navy family!) to see the inside of this ship. It is amazing how each ship is like its own city. We even got to see the sick bay...complete with dental office! It was the highlight for BJ and me...I know we are corny!





The big thing of these two weeks was the Mardi Gras Party at the Officers' Club. It was a lot of fun...however, I wish we could have stayed later but BJ has not been feeling that great and we were both tired and ready to just go home and get in our jammies. We are old. The funniest part of the evening...I realized that I have blog readers that I would have never guessed. (Hi General Ayala!) Yep that's right...the very General that I got to ride with for the Christmas Tour of Homes (there was a blog post about the whole thing) read my blog. Apparently, anytime someone references the 2nd MLG (darnit, I did it again!), there is an e-mail alert that is sent to him. I was embarrassed at first but in the end we had a good laugh about it. He really is a great guy and told me he was glad to read something positive. I just never realized who was reading my blog and quite honestly was never greatly concerned....I just write this stuff out and put it into the universe. I get a comment here or there but really did not think anybody was that interested. And he is the second person to tell me they read my blog....Hi Karen! I think it is pretty cool though.

And since the weather took a turn for the better yesterday....we took the pups to the beach. They love it! We let them off leash and they just run and run. We take puperonis with us so that they come right back to us when we call them...bribery at its finest!

I may have screwed up...

A little background...

Around my birthday, I started feeling pretty crappy. I ended up with a pretty nasty sinus infection. I went to urgent care (since I could not get in at the Naval Hospital) and the PA gave me a script for an antibiotic. I spent a week on that and then saw my main doctor at the hospital. He changed my antibiotic to 21 days of Augmentin. I have been taking it for about 10 days. Well it dawned on me Monday...antibiotics and birth control pills don't mix!

I called Nurse D yesterday and told her what was going on. She agreed...antibiotics and BCP = not good. I decided to not take anymore antibiotic (I had not taken one Monday night or Tuesday morning) and hope and pray that the pills do their job and suppress my ovaries. We won't know until Feb 25th when I go in for my suppression check ultrasound. Ugh. Why I am so stupid? I could have screwed this all up and have to wait to cycle.

Irony

This humors me. I have to take birth control pills to get pregnant. Didn't many of us women take these to prevent this from happening? Hehehe!

So I took my first one today. I have to take these until we start stims. I will probably only need the one pack...maybe one week of the second pack. It is really surreal that this marks the start of this journey for us. A little under two weeks until our injection class...still trying to find a solution to this whole needle thing. There has to be way around it right? This is 2010...don't we have better technology for getting meds into a person without a needle? Ugh...it is for a good cause though...

Our Busy Calender

Our calender is getting booked up. It is great to have so much to do but at the same time, a bit overwhelming.

My mom is coming to NC to visit. I am really excited to have her come out and help me do some decorating. While she is here we have several events happening...a tea with the OWC, a wine tasting, and a Mardi Gras party. And those are just the ones we are committed to! In preparation for her arrival, we are spending most of the day today cleaning the guest room and bathroom. Fun.

Tomorrow we are going to a Super Bowl party with some fellow 2nd Dental Battalion members. I am really looking forward to meeting some new people and getting a chance to catch up with those we have already met. I plan on sporting my Seahawks jersey...I am a proud fan regardless of their season performance. This will be one of the last events that I will be able to enjoy a drink. I am actually very excited for that prospect! No better reason to not being able to drink than being pregnant.

We are also finalizing our plans for a couple of trips. We are going to Florida for our niece/god-daughter's christening and out to Seattle for my uncle's wedding. And in my true optimistic form, I will be pregnant for both of these events! I will be in the beginning of my second trimester when we go to Seattle...which means I will be showing. I will get to show off my baby bump to my family. I am so excited for that!

And sometime this summer we will be attending our last DMB concert as non-parents. It will be baby's first DMB concert...in utero but still first none-the-less. Upon realizing this, I told the hubby that next year, we would be taking our baby to their first DMB concert. He told me no. :( I am still trying to convince him that if we get lawn seats it would totally work. That and maybe some baby ear plugs. So this might be our last DMB concert for awhile....sigh.

So lots going on for us but it is all fun stuff...love that!

The call I have been waiting for!

WE ARE DOING IVF IN MARCH!!!!!!

I am beyond excited and can't wait to get started. I called both our moms and let them know and my mom said "well you should end up being due the beginning of December". It hit me then that we will be parents by the end of this year. (Yes I am being the eternal optimist.) So our timeline is this:

Feb 14th - start BCP's
Feb 25th - baseline ultrasound and injection class
March 1st - start stims (this is a tentative date)
March 8th-19th - at Womack for monitoring and ER/ET (this will be sometime the week of 3/15)
March 31st - pregnancy test (beta)

Typing this all out just blows my mind! Like I said I am beyond excited!