IVF 1.0 starts TOMORROW!!!!

To my male readers who do not want to read about bodily fluids unique to females, too bad :-D

So remember how I met with Nurse Awesome (that's her new nickname, I've decided) in October and we figured out that if AF stayed regular, we'd have to push IVF to the end of January? (The reason for that is because the embryologists have down time around the end of Dec for the holiday season.) Well, AF was late last month (which was incredibly frustrating for me since there was no way I was with child) and she was right on time this month (incredibly heartbreaking since it was our last natural TTC cycle). So I called Nurse Awesome to let her know that CD1 was yesterday since they want to keep track of that before IVF. She called back and left a message about calling in birth control for the next 2 cycles for a January IVF. I called back, left a message and said "that's fine" and told her what pharmacy I use. Then she called back with fan-freaking-tastic news :)

She double checked the calendar and realized that if I start bc tomorrow, and continue taking active ones through December 24th WE CAN START STIMS ON THE 26TH!!!!! This is a whole month ahead of schedule which is freaking amazing and it's the original time that P and I decided that we wanted to do it. I am excited and nervous and full of HOPE that this will work for us.

So I now have roughly 4 weeks to get in the best shape possible-I CAN SO DO THIS. Tonight I am having my last bottle of wine for what I hope is a very long time ;-) Tomorrow I will be heading to the studio for Zumba and TRX, which will continue until the doctor says I need to slow down. Tomorrow I will also be getting my bc pills, Metformin refill, Folgard refill and Prenatal refill. Oh, and I'll be setting a therapy appointment tomorrow!

For real, I am stoked for this. I really am. I am determined to remain hopeful and optimistic through this process. We WILL be parents <3

Menu Plan and Meatless Monday, sort of

I fail miserably whenever I try to formally plan out all my meals for a week. I just cannot do it. There are nights when I just want cereal for dinner...there I said it. And cooking for one SUCKS in my opinion.

So this week, I'm going to try something a little different. Rather than spelling out what I'm going to eat every single day at every single meal, I'm going to make it simple. I WILL NOT EAT OUT THIS WEEK. That's it. I commit to eating what I have at home (or what I buy at the grocery store) rather than eating out at all. What that will most likely translate into is cereal and fruit for breakfast, soup and or sandwich for lunch, and who knows what for dinner. It will NOT involve restaurants, fast food or delivery. I expect you people to keep my honest with this.

I will start my week with a Meatless Monday dinner. I have left over cooked veggies from making shrimp fajitas the other night (y'all know my love of all Mexican food); to those I will add black beans and maybe more veggies. I'll put those in a tortilla topped with guacamole, hot salsa sour cream and cheese. To make it vegan you could use vegan cheese and vegan sour cream, or just leave them out. I'll serve my veggie fajita with a side of vegetarian refried beans and brown rice.

For those who don't have a clue about making fajitas, here's what I did:
* I start the first 3 and let them cook while I do the veggies*
Heat about 1 Tbls of veggie oil in a large pan
Cook your rice
Heat refried beans
Rinse, drain and heat the black beans
Add sliced veggies (I used green peppers and a yellow onion; I might add red peppers the next time) and cook to your liking. I like my wilty and not really crispy
Heat a tortilla (or however many you want) in the microwave
Put the black beans and veggies in your hot tortillas (that sounds kind of dirty...I like it) and top with whatever you'd like.

Do you have a vegetarian or vegan recipe that you like? If so link it in your comments!

Meatless Monday

The countdown to IVF 1.0

Well, R&R is over (please read my deployment blog for details) and I am not miraculously pregnant. We both knew it was a long shot but I had so many good signs of ovulation...*sigh* Guess tonight I'll finish off the beer and wine in the house to drown my sorrows.

If AF decides to stay on schedule, IVF 1.0 will happen in late January. That gives me 2 cycles to get my body in tip top shape for baby making. Between all the eating out and drinking we did over R&R, I have about 15 lbs to lose before starting the IVF medications. The clinic did not tell me to lose weight but I want to lose it because 1) I need to fit into my clothes and 2) I will put on weight with the stimulating medications. I have been a total slacker in the fitness area due to a 4 week long respiratory infection (I *hate* viruses) and then 2 weeks of having P home. Starting tomorrow, I'll be back on track with Zumba and eating. I'll also be back in therapy to help me deal with all the stress and anxiety caused by IVF, deployment and work.

So, to all my lovely friends out there who have done IVF-do you have any advice for me? Here's what I'm currently planning/doing-continue with the FertilAid and FertiliTea (you can order those here); exercise, including prenatal yoga; therapy; and possibly acupuncture. With our IUIs the only injections were Follistim and then the trigger shot. If you did others, what meds were they and did they hurt? In short, HELP PLEASE :-p

Dear Anonymous,

I know that your IP address is in Leesville, LA so I assume that I know you from Ft. Polk. Identify yourself and I will publish your comments on here. They went to my SPAM comments rather than my real comments so you're lucky that I bothered to read them. BTW-as a rule, I don't publish comments from folks who don't have the courage to put their names on their comments.

I truly have no idea who are and if you knew me on FB or Twitter, you'd know that my husband has been home on R&R so I haven't been bothering to blog or check my blog....I had more important things to do ;)