1st IUI

You want to see reason #556 that infertility sucks???

(Sorry this is so fuzzy...I took it with my iPhone)

Chris looks a little too excited about stabbing me with that thing...ha! He gave my the HCG trigger shot at 9pm Sunday night and I went in today at 10:45 for the IUI. I have to say it was really interesting. Chris's count was OUTSTANDING so hopefully they find their way to my eggs. Now I'm in the awful 2 week wait before we know anything. PLEASE be praying that this is the one and only time we have to do this!

I also need to say congrats to my husband and the FR Wildcats on their undefeated season in district so far. Last night was a SERIOUS whooping. BAD. Like you pray that it ends soon because you're beyond humiliated for the other team. The Wildcats beat Wichita Falls 23-0. One of the middle school coaches Chris works with sent a text today saying "congrats on your football score last night!" SO TRUE. The Wildcats play Ryan Friday so my fingers are crossed for no rain!

Why Bother Making Plans???

I'm not sure why I tell y'all what is going on with my eggs because it changes CONSTANTLY!! I went to the doctor Saturday to check on my follicles and they had grown about 2 mm in 2 days so they STILL weren't ready. Dr. Haas decided to have us wait until Sunday at 9 pm to get the shot and then do the IUI at 10:45 Tuesday. Chris and I have decided to take the entire day off work to hang out and enjoy each other after the craziness we've been through the past couple off weeks with meds, doctor appointments, etc. I really don't have an "feeling" on this cycle but Chris truly thinks that an IUI is all we've needed this entire time. He says it may not necessarily be this cycle but he thinks we'll get pregnant with an IUI soon. I guess time will tell!

On a separate subject, our sweet dog has MAJOR separation anxiety. She'll sometimes throws up when we leave and other nasty stuff to let us know how much she hates that we leave her. We crate her everytime we leave the house and she's always like her cage and would go hang out in there if we were busy with other things. The past month, everytime I come home there's a big pile of drool at the door of her crate. I thought it was weird so I looked it up and there's a lot of beagles who drool when they're anxious. Then last night, we came home from dinner at a friend's house and she had CHEWED AN ENTIRE METAL BAR OFF and chewed the base of another one so that it was popping off. There were drops of blood in her cage and some on the carpet just in front of it. We looked all over her and couldn't find any cuts on her so it must have been in her mouth. WHAT IN THE WORLD?? We threw out her crate and we're going to try letting her roam the house when we leave. I'm mostly concerned with potty in the house because she's not a chewer (unless it's a metal dog crate apparently) and she mostly sleeps during the day. Hopefully she will hold it like she does in her cage. Her crate was kept in the room that will HOPEFULLY be the nursery one day so I'm hoping that was the Lord's way at getting that room cleaned out to prepare for our miracle IUI baby...HA! That's what I'm praying for!

Growing Follicles

Today I had my ultrasound to check on my follicles with Dr. Haas. The original plan was to look at my follicles, take the Novarel shot, and IUI on Friday or Saturday. That was changed rather quickly once he took a look at my follicles and saw that the two biggest were only 16 mm and 15.5 mm. So instead of going in Saturday for an IUI, I'm going in to look at my follicles again. BUMMER. He doesn't want to do the trigger shot until the follicles are at least at an 18 so hopefully they'll be nice and big on Saturday. The good news is I have two this month that look like they'll release eggs. I'm hoping that because there are two, it will double our chance of it working. Maybe even twin baby Crowders!

I promise other things go on in my life besides just fertility fun but I know that most of you reading want to know what's going on so I'm trying my best to keep you updated. Keep on praying for our miracle baby!

Getting my GRADE on

Can I just say I HATE grading papers?? I remember in elementary school me and some other girls would ask to stay inside at recess to help other teachers grade papers and now that I'm an teacher, I can't stand it. It doesn't help that I let it pile up a little bit before I really start tackling the grading. I spent the entire night parked on my couch gettin my grade on. Who's jealous???

Pray for tomorrow...going in for an ultrasound to look at my eggs. Hopefully there will be several BIG ones ready for an IUI Friday or Saturday!

Tough Night

Man, I am SUPER down tonight. I don't know if it's all the meds/hormones or what but I have been crying most of the night. In the past week, I've found out that two of my friends are pregnant. I'm happy for them...REALLY, REALLY happy for them but my heart hurts. I hear them, I'm excited, and I immediately wonder when or if it ever will be my turn. I know I should be hopeful right now with all the treatment were doing and a FABULOUS doctor who's finding out more and more about why this is going on with us but I'm just burnt out. It probably doesn't help that I'm full of crazy infertility meds and baseball season is in full swing meaning I never see my husband.

I really would love it if you could pray for me. I'm asking for God to take away this desire to have a baby if it's not His will. If the Lord wants me to continue to work at this, I absolutely will but if we are not meant to have children, I pray this desire goes away quickly so I can focus my time/energy/money toward something else.

Alright. My pity party is officially over. The END.

The Latest and the Greatest

So I had my MRI done on Monday and there was no tumor...or it there was it was so tiny the MRI machine didn't pick it up. We went to the doctor Tuesday to start round #2 of treatments. He decided to take me off the Femera and put me back on Clomid and up the dosage to 100mg. I had one large follicle with Femera but we're hoping for several this time. I'll start Estradiol Monday, take it through Wednesday, and have an IUI on Friday or Saturday (depending how my follicles look at my appt Thursday). So that's the new plan of attack.

While we were there, he gave me some updates on my blood work. Turns out, all my hormones are out of whack. My progesterone and estrogen are both low, my prolactin is high, and my thyroid is low enough to effect ovulation. Sometimes I ovulate, sometimes I don't, and when I do, it's a crappy egg. So my chart FINALLY has a diagnosis on the top..."Ovulatory Dysfunction." This sounds completely ridiculous but I'm SOOOOO happy! "Unexplained Infertility" super sucks. With ovulatory dysfunction, it's fixable. So we'll see what happens with this next round. I couldn't be happier with my doctor. He's fabulous!

Today is the last weekday of spring break...boo! I'm trying to talk Chris into letting me be a stay at home dog mom. I don't think it's working =(

Pituitary what????

Let's just start this by saying I hate going to the doctor. I absolutely despise it. I hate the smell, the atmosphere, waiting forever...pretty much everything that goes on there. That's why I know God has a sense of humor. Me, total doctor hater, is going through infertility. I go to the doctor almost weekly now, take medicine, give myself shots (not yet but I had to learn for next month), and blood drawn. UGH.

So today I check my phone during Study Hall duty and I had a missed call from my infertility doctor. Strange. I immediately start freaking out. My friend Beth was in the room and tried reassuring me that it was probably just to reschedule an appointment. Problem was, I didn't have an appointment. Obviously something was not right. After freaking out the last several hours of the school day, I called them back to find out what was going on and to stop myself from going into cardiac arrest. She told me that my blood work came back and my prolactin levels are low. They want to do an MRI to see what is going on with my pituitary gland. This makes me both extremely excited and scared out of my mind. I'm happy because I have been to 3 doctors now and this is the ONLY guy who's checked everything out. This could be a simple fix and then we're on the road to parenthood. I'm petrified of what exactly could be wrong but hopefully this is the missing link to find out exactly why our 28 months of trying for a Baby Crowder have been unsuccessful.

As I've been ending every post these days, please pray. Pray that if something is wrong, they find it and can easily fix it. Pray for my nerves as I have a mild heart attack every day from today until March 9th at 2pm when I have the MRI. Pray for a peace that surpasses understanding from the Lord. I know he has all of this in His mighty hand so pray that I'm reminded that every day. He is good!