Reveals

Over the last month I have gradually come out of the pregnancy closet.  The first one started with my extended family. 

At the beginning of December we always get together for a Christmas cookie exchange and I usually bake the sugar cookies and everyone decorates their own at the exchange.   So this year I also made and decorated some for everyone to enjoy while they decorate.  I cut out some cookies in the shape of little onesies and decorated them as Dr. Suses's Thing 1 & Thing 2.  I forgot to take pictures of them so I don't have any to show you :( but they were cute!

I was a little late getting tot he exchange so it wasn't quite how I planned it.  I wanted to put the two Things on top of everyone individual pile of sugars so when they came in and had a look around, they would see them.  But by the time I got there, there was already a few people there and they were all hanging out in the kitchen.  My mom and sister tried several times to get them to leave the kitchen so I could set up, but it was no use, someone always stayed behind!  So instead, I put two cookies each on several small plates that my mom had set out for appetizers, then covered them with a napkin and brought them over to the table 2 or three plates at a time so no one would notice.  I thought I was being weird so someone would notice, but no one did.

Once we were all seated, I waited a few minutes, but no one even looked at the small covered plates so my mom finally had to tell everyone that there were a couple of cookies already decorated to enjoy now under the napkin.  Once everyone saw the cookies, it took a few minutes for it to sink in and even then, people were a little nervous to say something in case it didn't mean what they thought.  They were kinda looking between me and the cookies so I smiles and did some jazz hands before my  Aunt tentatively asked "are you trying to tell us something?"

There was many congratulations and then when my mom said something about twins, it finally clicked what the cookies meant and there was a whole other round of congrats.  Everyone knew our journey, so there were a few tears from everyone and they were so happy for us.  My cousin started slowly growing red trying not to cry before finally breaking down.  I swear you could see the line of red rising from her chest, up her neck and over her face.

There was one Aunt missing from the cookie exchange so we called her on speaker right away and told her about the cookies.  She just kept saying "awe that's cute" and then I said "oh ya, and they are in the shape of little onseies." again, "Too cute!".  Then there was a long silence while I waited for her to get it before I just jumped in and said "This is taking forever, I'm pregnant with twins!" Again there was silence before she said congratulations in a shaky cracking voice (she was obviously crying).  It was bitter sweet telling her because she herself was infertile and adopted both of my cousins.

Eventually we all got settled into decorating sugar cookies.

For D's extended family, he really had no interest in doing a grand reveal to his extended family so instead I just signed all of our Christmas cards "Love Erin, Dave, Babies M & M, and Jak".  Thankfully the cards were delivered before his big family Christmas on the 22nd.  Some of them got it, but others were confused and wondered if Jak had puppies.  We were the first to arrive that day and I was a little surprised that his Aunt started talking to him about work before saying anything.  Apparently she wanted to wait until she could confirm with his mom before sticking her foot in her mouth if she misunderstood.  Once D's mom arrived and set everyone straight there was many congratulations.

I didn't realize I had made my reveals so complicated that it took so much thought, but apparently so.  I decided to take a different approach at work.  For a few weeks I conducted a social experiment where I stopped hiding my bump and waited to see if anyone would say anything.  Only one person asked my coworker M who lied and then promptly told me of the inquiry.  No one else dared ask.  Eventually, just before New Years, I told a few people at work and then instructed them to spread the word so I wouldn't have to tell anyone.  I really don't know how some of them can still not know, it's really pretty obvious now...

The picture in the bottom right corner is from this past weekend compared to the top left corner from October.

Look beside you

CD9~CD11

First let me explain today's Cycle Day (CD) number.  Normally, CD1 is the first day of AF and stims or other drugs start on CD3.  However, because this is an IVF cycle, and my body procrastinated with AF, things happened a little differently.

My calendar told me to start stims on Sept 20th no matter what day AF started and since AF started the same day as I was to start stims it was kinda like CD1 and CD3 at the same time (i.e. CD1~CD3).  This was ok because of all the other drugs I've done so far (OBC and Suprefact).  Those got my body to essentially a baseline zero and would have kept me there whether I started stimming on CD1 or CD7, it still would a been a forced 'CD3'.  If that makes any sense...

My FC refers to my CD as the later day (CD11) but in my head it's still really early and feels like CD9 so I'm counting both.

My first visit back to the FC since I was given my calendar almost a month ago was on Tuesday (CD6~CD8).   [See, this is why I've been double counting - on the first FC visit this cycle I was still bleeding and that's not usually the case.]  Anyway, Tuesday's visit was pretty uneventful.  I had the standard U/S & BW and met with one of the RE's and a nurse.  There was no measurable growth yet.

I'm not worried and as the RE pointed out, they want to make "wake up" my ovaries slowly so that I don't overstimulate in order to get the highest quality eggs.  He did say that if my E2 (estrogen) levels were low he'd call in the afternoon to raise my Puregon dose.  I didn't receive a call so I continued at 100 units for Tuesday and Wednesday night.

I went back to the FC yesterday morning (CD10~12) to check follicle sizes and E2 levels and things are finally starting to grow!

Right: 10, 10, 9, 9
Left: <10 p="p">
Well, at least the right side is growing.  Lefty is still lazy!

I go back tomorrow morning to check again.

Yesterday was a busy day.  Not only did I visit the FC, I also had a consultation with a new Naturalpathic Doctor.  While I liked my ole one, she just didn't have the experience with fertility issues or the availability that I need.  This new ND had done lots of research on infertility and has even spoken at a meeting of the local infertility support group.  Not that I have ever been to a meeting, but I read their blog.

I'm happy that I will be able to have 2 more appointments with her before Egg Retrieval.  The first will be to complete a physical before she can officially treat me and the 2nd will be for acupuncture.  The FC said that if I could find an acupuncturist who can see me on the day of transfer both before and after transfer, that it has been proven to increase the odds of success.  I'm really happy that I can get at least one session in before retrieval and possibly be able to book the two appointments on transfer day.  I'll try for it, but I won't get upset if it doesn't work out.  The ND doesn't seem to thing it's as necessary for it to be on the same day, the next day would be just as good.

********

Part of my job is to attend to tenants units with contractors if the tenant is not home.  Today I had to babysit a contractor in a number of units while they worked for hours.  I forgot to bring my Ipod with me so I wrote this post while I waited.

In one of the units, there was a piece of art on the wall that had a great saying.  I wish I had my Ipod because it would have been a good instagram (which I just started using) but a good "old fashioned" digital photo will have to do.

Ketchup

I don't have any updates of my own right now, but there are some things I really should catch up (get it, ketchup? Lame? ya, I know) about.

March 22, 2012

That was a big day.

First, my sister had her second surgery.  It was something she had been waiting for, for a long time.  She found out with only 6 days notice, so it happened pretty quickly.  The surgery went well, better than they had expected and she is healing well.  Two things sucked about the timing though.  First, it was the day before 'The Hunger Games' was released and she had been looking forward to it for ages.  Second, it was 7 days before her birthday which would mean that more than likely, she would be in the hospital for her birthday.  Which she was.  I sent some flowers and a balloon to her room and hoped that helped cheer her up.

Secondly, my Friend T gave birth to a baby boy!  Her water broke on Tuesday afternoon but she did not go into labour on her own.  24 hrs later, she was induced and another 20 hours after that he was born. 7lbs 14oz and cute as a button.  So far I've got to spend about half an hour with him and he was asleep the whole time.  For the first four days of his life he was unnamed, poor little guy... but they finally decided a very strong name.  I don't want to put it on here to protect their privacy, to give you a hint, his first name is the last name of a former president and always reminds me of Jim Carey in 'The Truman Show'.

Escape

I don't read.

Don't get me wrong, I can read... I just choose not to. I have never enjoyed it. Growing up, I was never good at it. It took me a long time to read a book, so when I did read it was always an assigned book for school, not something I was doing for pleasure.

I can still remember the first big adult novel I read as a 14yr old. I was camping with my Grandma and my cousin and just in case it rained, I took John Grisham's The Client. That was the first book I enjoyed reading, I even read it when it was sunny. After that, I would only read John Grisham novels, and it would take me months to finish one.

This habit continued until well into my university career. Actually, I had so much reading for school throughout University, that I didn't think about touching another novel until I graduated. That is, until the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out. I went to see it with my sister and my best friend. We bought tickets in advance to the theater in my hometown; it was one of the old school theaters with the little red folding seats that gradually inclined toward the back of the theater. The theater had even blocked off a section of seats for people who had bought advanced tickets with metallic Christmas garland.

We felt special.

The HP release was a big deal to my sister and I went because my mom was paying for my ticket, I hadn't seen J in years and she was going to come, and being in university I hadn't seen a new movie in forever.The movie was great, and the company was even better. It got me intrigued to find out how much different the movie was to the book. I borrowed the book from my sister and figured since it was a children's book I would be able to read it quickly and easily when I got back to my dorm. I was right, it was quick and easy, and good too! It was too quick and easy and good... I wanted to read the others in the series so I borrowed the next two from my roommate. I had them done before I went home again and then borrowed the 4th from my sister. I was hooked!

I couldn't help but think that if I'd had a series of books this good when I was growing up I might have taken an interest in reading. But then again maybe not. I mean we did have some good children's authors when I was growing up; Beverly Cleary and Grodon Korman to name a few. But there was something about Harry Potter that had me hooked - me and the rest of the world!

I didn't even recognize my self when I was the one who prompted my sister to pre-order 5th and 6th book. And I have no idea who the crazy person was who went to an event at midnight in downtown G-town where the stores all changed their name to ones from the series and stayed open late to celebrate the release of the 7th and final book, and who was super excited to know that she was only 3rd in line... who was that?? I believe I was possessed.

Since then my love for books has only grown. Every time I go home, I steal books that my family has finished reading. When I find an author who's books I like have a running character, I try to read in order them from the beginning even though the stories aren't necessarily dependent on each other. It has only been since D moved out that it has become an issue. That's when I was introduced to the Twilight Saga.

D and I went to see New Moon in theaters shortly after it came out. The theater was packed with teenie-boppers that drove me nuts. I didn't really pay that much attention to the movie because the kids behind us were talking and being really cruel to each other all through out the movie. At work the following Monday I told my co-worker that I had seen the movie, she is a HUGE fan and hadn't seen it yet. She wanted to talk all about it and compare it to the book, but I had no insights for her since I had not read it. She told me that I should, I would love it.

I borrowed Twilight from her, read it and returned it in less than a week. Then she lent me New Moon on a Thursday and I finished it on Saturday. On Sunday I decided I couldn't wait till Monday to get the next one from her so I went out and bought Eclipse for my self. I finished it Monday night and started on Breaking Dawn which I finished in a day or two. And so began my sudden and intense love affair with books.

Since then, I have re-read all four books plus the first half of the unfinished fifth book; Midnight Sun. For Christmas, my sister in-law gave me two books; Something Borrowed and Something Blue by Emily Giffin. I have since read both of those. Yesterday went online to see if the local bookstore had the next two books in stock and decided that this affair could get expensive. Instead, I went to the local library and borrowed them. I finished half of one last night and had to force myself to put it down at 1:30am so that I could get up for work this morning.

If you total all that up, that's 4 Twilight-saga books times two, plus two more; that's 10 books in 1 month. It may not seem like a lot to some people, but for me, that's HUGE!

I don't even watch TV any more, I just come home and read. It's weird. I don't know who this person is that has taken over my body. Maybe it's just because my life is rather boring with out D at home so it feels better to delve into the life ofsomeone else for a while. I don't know. I like that it's a little more satisfying that watching something on TV, or even a movie, because I book can keep me captivated for a longer period of time which makes the time that D is away go by much faster.

I can't wait to go home...
and sit on the couch...
and read...
what's wrong with me???

Birthday-Harry-Potter-Wedding-Shower-Extravaganza!

Awesome Weekend. The best one I have had in a long long time. It started on Friday when I went to the movie theatre straight from work to get in line for Harry Potter. I knew it was going to be a packed theatre and I needed to get perfect seats. My Sister picked J up from the GO station and met me at the theatre after I was seated. In honour of J's birthday last week, I treated both of them to dinner and a movie. Dinner consisted of Hot Dogs and Berttie Botts Every Flavour Beans aka Jelly Belly's.


Harry Potter was an awesome show; the best one, in my opinion, other than the first one. I liked that although it dealt with some very heavy subjects, there was still a lot of humor. I had read some reviews that were knocking it because the audience was expected to know who all of the characters were and that the movie didn't do enough to bring in new fans. But really, if they had, it would have been a 5 hr movie! Be realistic people... with a book that big, things will have to be assumed and parts are going to be cut. There was really only one scene from the book that I really missed in the movie and that was Dumbledore's funeral. The end of this movie could have been a real tear jerker if there was some effort put into it.

The next morning J and I went for a walk with the dog down to a local hippie coffee shop, and then to the park to sip our cappuccino and eat muffins. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and it wasn't too hot or too cold. The dog was behaving, even catching the Frisbee a few times AND BRINGING IT BACK occasionally. We made our way back to the house past the beautiful gardens and huge houses that surround our little townhouse complex, and I was reminded of how much I love our neighbourhood.

Soon we had to get going to my Aunts house for my final (finally) bridal shower. On our way I had to stop quickly at the mall to find a sweater to wear over my dress because I am always cold. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to find a white cardigan sweater in July?? We had to go to 4 stores and were 'fashionably' late to the shower. Oh well, the party doesn't really start until the bride gets there anyway right?

I have been looking forward to this shower most of all. The others were wonderful, but there is just something about sitting in a room surrounded by people who have known you your entire life. These people all remember 'little girl' me and are now getting to be a part of 'grown up' me. There was even a surprise guest; J's Nanny was able to come down! I have only seen her at funerals lately, and other than that and J's practice wedding, I haven't seen her since I was about 8. She still remembers me as the little girl who got chased by their golden retriever. That was so nice, I'm happy that she came.

I was also happy that my own grandmother was able to make it down. When I had talked to her last she wasn't sure she was going to make it. She doesn't like to sleep at either my mom's or my aunts house, so she was planning to drive down and back to her house, that's 2 hrs there and 2 hrs back. We were all impressed with how well she behaved. My Grandma likes to be the center of attention. I'm not sure if it's a form of dementia or the start of Alzheimer's or something, or if she has always been like this and I'm just becoming more aware of it as I grow up, but when the focus of conversation is not on her, or on a topic that she choose, she can't stand it. At one point near the end she did go and sit outside.

After the party, one of my other aunts went over to my moms house and us girls, my mom, my aunt, my sister and I, sat around and chatted for hours. We ordered Swiss Chalet for dinner and I didn't get home until 11pm. So tired.

Amazing day. Amazing weekend. Thank you.

Better than Christmas!

Today marks the start of an incredible 3 day wonderful, fantastic time! First today. As I write this, someone is cleaning my house! Since D has got so sick it has been incredibly hard to keep up with the housekeeping. Whenever I tried to clean, he would get upset that I was doing all of the work. He would try and help only to have to stop after an hour of cleaning. He would want me to take a break with him so that he wouldn't feel guilty. So since our entire house takes more than an hour to clean, only parts of it were getting looked after. So my mom came to the rescue! She has sent us her cleaning lady for the summer to help us out. For which, I am eternally grateful. As if my mom doesn't do enough for everyone, just one more thing to add to the list of why my mom is the best in the world.

Then tomorrow! Harry Potter Day!!! My bestest friend, J, and my bestest sister, H, and by bestest fiancee, D, are all going to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have had this day mapped out for weeks. How J is getting our house, who is standing in line, I even bought the tickets last week. Tonight I am going out to buy special themed movie snacks, that's how excited I am for this movie. I am very happy that this has been something that has brought my sister and I closer together. HP is something we have bonded over. We have gone to see every movie together within the opening week, it has been great.

And After Harry Potter? How can it get any better?? Why another shower of course! This time it is with my family. I will know everyone, there will be some people there that I haven't seen in a long time. There will even be people there that I have seen recently, but only in unfortunate circumstances, it will be so nice to have a happy occasion to share with them. It is going to be so much fun, I can't wait!

High Tea

A couple of weeks ago, I had my first bridal shower. it was a wonderful tea party hosted by D's aunts complete with little finger sandwiches and big hats. I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but life has got in the way too many times.

For me, the shower was a weekend long event because my bestest friend J came to visit all weekend! The festivities started on Friday when I picked her up at the train station and we went shopping for our weekend project, a bird mobile. We headed over to Len's Mill Store and bought a bunch of retro cool fabrics to create our little birdies. Once home we ordered pizza, watched movies, and started sewing.

Saturday morning we went to the Farmers Market with my friend T and ate dumplings for breakfast and enjoyed the hustle and bustle and sunshine of a local Farmers Market. In addition to our bird mobile, we had another mission we had to complete before the shower. We needed a hat, because who has a hat fit for a fancy tea party hanging around any more??

Value Village was our first stop to try and find cheap big fancy hats. They had nothing. But they did have the Fisher Price Roller Skates that J and I used to have as kids, and believe it or not, I could still get my feet in them! It was, albeit, very tight and once my feet got too sore from skating around the store, we headed for Wal-Mart where I had previously seen hats for under $10. Sure enough, we found a couple of big floppy hats that were on budget - Mission accomplished! Back home to make more birds!

Sunday was the shower, it was so nice to be surrounded by the people closest to me and my new family and to be welcomed in so warmly. The food that one of the aunts prepared with her neighbour (a complete stranger to me) was fantastic! And there was sooo much of it with so may choices. I didn't get to try one of everything, but I'm sure all of it was just as wonderful as what I did try.

There were fun games and prizes, and the gifts that I received were wonderful. I have already put most of them to use, however, the lingerie will have to wait until after the wedding right??

When I got home from the shower, I pulled up to the house and called in for D to help me unload the car. No Answer. I could hear the TV on in the bedroom which meant that he was watching it from in bed instead of on the couch. Generally, that's an indication that he is not feeling well or is in pain. So, since the car was parked on the street, I unloaded it before going up to check on him. When I got upstairs, he was indeed in a lot of pain.

I have to say that the best gift of the day was not wrapped in paper, and it did not have a bow. It was a hand made card from D's cousin's daughter.

Weddings are when a

princess falls in love with

a prince and gets married

Everybody is happy to

see you get married.

True loves forever.

Have a good wedding.

The true gift of that card was when I showed it to D, and through all of the pain, he smiled and said it made his day.

Lemonade

A text msg conversation between me and my best and dearest friend:

Julz: What's up this weekend?

Me: Not sure, will depend completely on how D is feeling

Julz: Right
Julz: How's he at the moment?

Me: So so

Julz: :(

Me: I had to change his dressing last night for the first time

Julz: Eww

Me: Ya, but I couldn't say that or he would feel too bad, so I just did it with a smile, I kinda felt like a mom

Julz: Ha true. Well you can always say ew to me babe and I will never tell him
Julz: Man you two have to deal with a lot

Me: We try to make a lot of lemonade

Julz: You really inspire me to be a more positive person. I am so lucky to have you as my bff*

Me: But sometimes we just throw the lemons at the wall


*Julz, I am so lucky that I have you to confide in!


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