Thursday, September 8, 2011
Quick Update
I've been going to the acupuncturist for 2 months now. My LP has increased by 2 days in that time, but it's still short. I'm glad it's moving in the right direction, but I'm frustrated it hasn't changed more. I need to get more serious about what I'm eating to ensure that I do all I can to help the LP. Today I ate really poorly. I'm going to start keeping track on my blog to make sure I'm eating well. I ate lots of veggies today, but the only fruit I ate was part of an apple. I also ate a bunch of white flour banana bread, ice cream and chocolate.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Back At It...Again
So, just like before, I started typing my blog and got pregnant. Awesome. Right? Nope. I had another chemical pregnancy. Not fun. I wasn't that upset since it was really early, but it still sucks. I thought that ttc for only 5 months and getting prego was awesome! So much better than the 21 months we dealt with last time.
I've been putting off going to acupuncture since our health insurance sucks! You'd think that working for a large healthcare company, like GE Healthcare, they would have good insurance, but they don't. They used to. They recently changed things and claim it's so that employees are more proactive in their healthcare choices and that they give people more options. All of this is just a load of shit. What they really are doing is making employees pay a huge chunk of their own healthcare. I completely understand why a company would want to do this, but feel like GE went about this in a really crappy way. They say that they pay for preventative care, but that anything else comes out of pocket until you've reached your maximum deductible for the year. Prenatal care is NOT considered preventative, so it's all out of pocket until you reach their large deductible. We haven't been attacking the whole ttc thing since we don't want to reach out maximum $9,500 deductible for two calendar years. We'll hit that deductible with a delivery. If we were like a normal couple, we could try to get pregnant toward the end of one year to ensure that we have most of our prenatal and delivery in the same year. Of course we aren't like a "normal" couple and can't ensure that it won't take years to get prego. We just have to hope that we will have most of the prenatal care in one year. My goal would be to get pregnant in September so that our 20 week diagnostic ultrasound would be after the first of the year. That would save us a chunk of money. On the off chance that we had twins again (eek) we would really appreciate all the care being in one year because we can't afford to hit the max 2 years in a row by choice.
Anyway...I started going to my acupuncturist last week. It felt so good to go again. I was much more relaxed the first week than I was for my first appointment years ago. Knowing what to expect made it a lot easier. I left her office feeling awesome and with some Blossom 3 pills. I took those CD13-16 and then waited to O. And now I'm still waiting on CD18. At this point, I'm hoping my body waits another day or two so Cork is home in time. He's traveling this week and has been gone since Monday morning.
I need to get back into my diet. I bought stuff today so I can cut wheat and dairy out again. I haven't been as good about those as I could be. I talked to the acupuncturist today about what I should and shouldn't be eating. My tongue is a big give away that I'm eating wheat. It's swollen with nice teeth marks on the side of it. I'm sure I'll get rid of the swollen tongue once I knock wheat out of my diet again. I think I'll start keeping a food log as a way to make sure I keep certain things off my plate. The eating things was much easier the first time around when I 1) didn't have kids yet 2) had been ttc for almost 2 years and 3) wasn't feeding kids at every meal. I know that sounds weak, but it's true. When I'm standing around, barely sitting for a meal, it's easy to finish what I've made for them rather than make something separate for myself.
I've been putting off going to acupuncture since our health insurance sucks! You'd think that working for a large healthcare company, like GE Healthcare, they would have good insurance, but they don't. They used to. They recently changed things and claim it's so that employees are more proactive in their healthcare choices and that they give people more options. All of this is just a load of shit. What they really are doing is making employees pay a huge chunk of their own healthcare. I completely understand why a company would want to do this, but feel like GE went about this in a really crappy way. They say that they pay for preventative care, but that anything else comes out of pocket until you've reached your maximum deductible for the year. Prenatal care is NOT considered preventative, so it's all out of pocket until you reach their large deductible. We haven't been attacking the whole ttc thing since we don't want to reach out maximum $9,500 deductible for two calendar years. We'll hit that deductible with a delivery. If we were like a normal couple, we could try to get pregnant toward the end of one year to ensure that we have most of our prenatal and delivery in the same year. Of course we aren't like a "normal" couple and can't ensure that it won't take years to get prego. We just have to hope that we will have most of the prenatal care in one year. My goal would be to get pregnant in September so that our 20 week diagnostic ultrasound would be after the first of the year. That would save us a chunk of money. On the off chance that we had twins again (eek) we would really appreciate all the care being in one year because we can't afford to hit the max 2 years in a row by choice.
Anyway...I started going to my acupuncturist last week. It felt so good to go again. I was much more relaxed the first week than I was for my first appointment years ago. Knowing what to expect made it a lot easier. I left her office feeling awesome and with some Blossom 3 pills. I took those CD13-16 and then waited to O. And now I'm still waiting on CD18. At this point, I'm hoping my body waits another day or two so Cork is home in time. He's traveling this week and has been gone since Monday morning.
I need to get back into my diet. I bought stuff today so I can cut wheat and dairy out again. I haven't been as good about those as I could be. I talked to the acupuncturist today about what I should and shouldn't be eating. My tongue is a big give away that I'm eating wheat. It's swollen with nice teeth marks on the side of it. I'm sure I'll get rid of the swollen tongue once I knock wheat out of my diet again. I think I'll start keeping a food log as a way to make sure I keep certain things off my plate. The eating things was much easier the first time around when I 1) didn't have kids yet 2) had been ttc for almost 2 years and 3) wasn't feeding kids at every meal. I know that sounds weak, but it's true. When I'm standing around, barely sitting for a meal, it's easy to finish what I've made for them rather than make something separate for myself.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Back At It
The last time I started this blog, I quickly found out that I was pregnant. I figured we'd test the waters and see if the same holds true this time around. After nursing my twins almost non stop for 16 months, they miraculously slept through the night without nursing. About 3 weeks later, my old friend AF finally paid a visit. Because it took us so long to conceive last time, Cork and I decided we were not going to waste any cycles this time around. We started trying immediately. It didn't matter though because my hormones were crazy and my body was broken.
My first cycle was 46 days. I didn't ovulate until CD 40 and had a LP of 6 days. Six freakin' days...which tells me that I either 1) didn't O and just had a slight hormonal shift to bring on my period or 2) my egg was all dried up and shriveled by the time it was released and my corpus luteum had no idea what it was supposed to do.
I had done a ton of research the first time around and decided that before going to the acupuncturist or RE, we were going to try a few home remedies first. At the beginning of the year, I started:
1) drinking 1/2 a lemon juiced into hot water
2) drinking 1 cup of peppermint tea
3) switched from prenatal to Geritol vitamins
4) started taking royal jelly
5) started taking Trader Joe's brand Very Green
This was added to the folic acid, calcium, grape seed extract and fish oil that I already took.
My second cycle was 32 days, with ovulation on cd 24 and an 8 day LP. Not bad considering my history. For that cycle, I had also added in soy isoflavones and vitex. The SI is used by many people in place of clomid to force early ovulation. The Vitex is used to regulate hormones. Obviously one or both of those worked for me considering the lengthening of my LP and the shortening of my cycle. I was extremely sick at the beginning of this cycle and I'm not sure how much of the soy my body absorbed. I had started it on CD3 and instead of doing it CD 3-7, I continued it until CD9 and ramped up the dosage. I took 100 mg the first few days and then 200 mg the last 2.
I am currently on my third cycle. I ovulated on CD 22 and so far I'm 6 days into my LP. My graph is looking awesome, almost identical to my pregnancy graph from last time, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm way too familiar with how deceiving a chart can be. I'm hoping to see a nice implantation dip and then a triphasic chart. I have continued my vitex, and took 200 mg of soy isoflavones on CD5-9. I'm trying to get good quality eggs, not more of them. I don't think we need a second set of twins. One more baby would round out our family well.
Right now, I'm just happy if I can get myself to O earlier in my cycle and lengthen my LP. Pregnancy would just be an added bonus. I haven't experienced the huge letdown each cycle like I used to. I know what my bodies issues are and am happy if I can just fix those a little bit. To me, knowledge is power and I believe that I have the knowledge this time around to at least give us a chance to get pregnant.
My first cycle was 46 days. I didn't ovulate until CD 40 and had a LP of 6 days. Six freakin' days...which tells me that I either 1) didn't O and just had a slight hormonal shift to bring on my period or 2) my egg was all dried up and shriveled by the time it was released and my corpus luteum had no idea what it was supposed to do.
I had done a ton of research the first time around and decided that before going to the acupuncturist or RE, we were going to try a few home remedies first. At the beginning of the year, I started:
1) drinking 1/2 a lemon juiced into hot water
2) drinking 1 cup of peppermint tea
3) switched from prenatal to Geritol vitamins
4) started taking royal jelly
5) started taking Trader Joe's brand Very Green
This was added to the folic acid, calcium, grape seed extract and fish oil that I already took.
My second cycle was 32 days, with ovulation on cd 24 and an 8 day LP. Not bad considering my history. For that cycle, I had also added in soy isoflavones and vitex. The SI is used by many people in place of clomid to force early ovulation. The Vitex is used to regulate hormones. Obviously one or both of those worked for me considering the lengthening of my LP and the shortening of my cycle. I was extremely sick at the beginning of this cycle and I'm not sure how much of the soy my body absorbed. I had started it on CD3 and instead of doing it CD 3-7, I continued it until CD9 and ramped up the dosage. I took 100 mg the first few days and then 200 mg the last 2.
I am currently on my third cycle. I ovulated on CD 22 and so far I'm 6 days into my LP. My graph is looking awesome, almost identical to my pregnancy graph from last time, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm way too familiar with how deceiving a chart can be. I'm hoping to see a nice implantation dip and then a triphasic chart. I have continued my vitex, and took 200 mg of soy isoflavones on CD5-9. I'm trying to get good quality eggs, not more of them. I don't think we need a second set of twins. One more baby would round out our family well.
Right now, I'm just happy if I can get myself to O earlier in my cycle and lengthen my LP. Pregnancy would just be an added bonus. I haven't experienced the huge letdown each cycle like I used to. I know what my bodies issues are and am happy if I can just fix those a little bit. To me, knowledge is power and I believe that I have the knowledge this time around to at least give us a chance to get pregnant.
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