NOT SO MUTE MONDAY: Emotions (& Cycle 3 Update!)

The past two months have been an absolute test of my patience and convincing myself that I’m actually good at keeping a secret! I thought about using yesterday as the perfect forum, but alas time got in the way, and in a way I’m sort of glad that I didn’t because there are so many wonderful mothers who deserve yesterday’s spotlight this year! So if you’ve been a polite reader and haven’t scrolled ahead… Mr.DJW and I are THRILLED to announce that we are expecting our lil’ one around Thanksgiving time 2012!

I have to write this down before I forget this amazing moment of realizing that we’re pregnant! (March 9, 2012)

I’ve never felt this kind of anxiety, excitement, joy, fear, love of my belly EVER! By the time you guys will be reading this I will most likely and hopefully be about 13 weeks along.

Written March 9, 2012 Evening:

This morning I took a Wondfo test that had come with my Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor on a whim. Let’s be honest, I’ve been taking dollar store tests for the last few days! All with BFNs. So I wasn’t shocked when I looked at the test this am and saw another BFN. It happened to be a morning that Mr.Dubs and I were getting ready together and I reluctantly told him we weren’t pregnant. Later, right before I left for work, I went to show him the BFN… only to be surprised by a faint pink line on the test line. I heard stories about false positives and evap lines (it had been 15 minutes or so when I saw the faint line), so I jokingly showed Mr.Dubs asking him if I was imagining things. He said no, because he saw something too! We both laughed it off, saying that there’s still hope, and went to work.

Of course I spent any free time I had at work researching faint lines on preggo tests, only to be inundated by the busiest afternoon I’ve had at work in a few weeks. I didn’t have time to think about that faint line.

I got home around 6 today and told myself that I wouldn’t test again until tomorrow when my period was due. But, then I remembered reading about using OPKs as a pre-pregnancy test and I had 20 or so of them left from my first TTC purchase. On a whim, since I had to pee anyway, I decided to use the OPK. LO AND BEHOLD TWO LINES! I started getting excited, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. So I grabbed another test, OMG TWO LINES AGAIN!

At that point, I ran to the dressing room where I had stashed a digital test for if my period was late. I dipped it in the same test cup and waited an agonizing five minutes, staring back and forth between the two OPK strips and the timer and the digital test.

The minute I saw “PREGNANT” pop up on the screen, I screamed! My poor dogs were so frightened by mommy! LOL. Mr.Dubs wasn’t due home for another hour… so I cried, laughed, and told our furbabies ‘we’re going to have a baby’ over and over again!

I quicky printed out a sheet of paper “Soon to be the world’s greatest daddy!” And left that and the test on Mr.Dubs’ dresser, because that’s where he goes to change right after work.

He called a lil bit ago that he was on his way and I was able to keep my cool. Now I’m feverishly typing this post from my phone so I don’t miss any of these feelings, thoughts in the future.

I’m scared shitless, but SO SO SO HAPPY! I said a quick prayer and can’t thank God enough for blessing us with this opportunity to be parents.

So I guess it’s true what they say, THIRD time’s a charm!

—

Needless to say, I have a TON of posts lined up for the next couple of weeks, that I’ll be posting until I’m caught up real time in my pregnancy journey.

Until then… thanks for reading lovaaahs and hoaaas, I’m so excited to share this next chapter of our life with you!

Cycle 2

January 2012 was our second cycle of TTC for babydubs; that resulted in a…

…BFN! (big fat negative) no babydubs this month!

You can check our TTC journey progress here: Cycle 1

When I left you last, we were gearing up for a better attempt at TTC our second cycle. I’m proud to report that we are getting better and better each month. I know more than I ever learned during 5th grade awkward, period lecture about the female reproductive system and feel more and more prepared with each passing cycle (mind you it’s only been two!)

When I spoke to you last at the end of Cycle 1, I mentioned that my cycles were “unusually long.” Well – I take that back. LOL. Apparently, my body has longer than average cycles (~36 days). At first, I was worried that this would me a harder journey to baby, but from what I’ve heard around these parts and from my doctor – as long as I’m “regular,” a longer cycle should not weigh against us in our journey to baby dubs.

Mr.DJW and I had “a lot of fun” trying to figure out a BABY DANCING schedule that would fit our schedules without losing spontaneity. He was a trooper, listening to all my mumbo jumbo tid bits and info about TTC and baby dancing! Thank goodness for dear husband, without whom I’d be an absolute nutcase! (:

Just to give you a recap — we mostly used the “every other day” method around the week of ovulation. I used OPKs and received a positive on CD21~22… I think we gave it our best shot for what we know to do at this point. I suck at temping/charting, so after we realized that we weren’t pregnant this month – I ordered a digital fertility monitor from eBay - which will be here any day now! I’ll be back with updates on how it helps/doesn’t help our journey!

These last couple of weeks have been greuling… and during my TWW, I stayed away from working out (excuses, excuses): so my goal this month is to focus on myself, my body, and really try to be mentally and physically healthy!

Baby dust to all my fellow TTC women! Cheers to a successfuly Cycle 3: Third time’s a charm? (:

Cycle 1

Happy New Year, friends!

While I have some fun posts lined up from our holiday break, I wanted to get back into the swing of our TTC journey.

December 2011 was our first official cycle of TTC for babydubs; that resulted in a…

…BFN! (big fat negative) no babydubs just yet.

No worries! With the start of the New Year, hubby and I are uber excited to embark full force on this journey! While we weren’t lucky the first time around, we have high hopes for the coming months of 2012!

However, I wanted to recap our first month for those that are in the same boat, will be trying in the future, and just for my own memory’s sake

After being on the birth control pill (ortho tri-cyclen lo, loestrin, generics, etc.) for the majority of the past decade, we “pulled the goalie” in October of 2011.

I’ve never had too many complications with any types of medication and didn’t think that I’d be affected by coming off birth control. Boy was I wrong; and did I ever pay for it!! I’m not sure if it’s my age (28) or an all-around sense of awareness that I’ve matured into, but the symptoms coming off birth control were terribly painful. Back pain that kept me immobilized, nausea that kept me from eating, and just an all round bitchy mood that, for the most part, was gracefully handled by dear hubby! <3

I had an unusually long cycle coming off BCP. 38 days. While on the pill, my cycles were 23-24 days on the dot. However, I vaguely remembered that my cycles before BCP were around 30 days, so I put aside my paranoia and waited it out. This second cycle (1^st cycle of TTC) was 35 days, so I can definitely see myself regulating back to my normal pre-BCP cycles.

I half attempted to temp, but didn’t at all chart through December. I started reading and researching and paying more attention to my body, but we decided not to get all robotic in our baby dancing, because we want to keep it “fun & exciting” for as long as possible!

While we actively baby danced throughout the week of my (supposed) ovulation, I didn’t feel any different and started feeling my usual PMS symptoms and wasn’t surprised when the period came 3 days early. I’d tell you that I’m disappointed, but in all reality, Mr.DJW and I are just starting to figure out my cycles and our baby dance “schedule” so I’m not too surprised that we weren’t the one-shot baby team!

With the holiday activities, we’ve been enjoying our time together with the furbabies and are super excited to get going on our journey. More updates to come soon!

TTC Journey: Abbreviations

Now that I’m trying to revamp my blog into a TTC journal… I figured I should preface early on in the journey with a pretty comprehensive list of acronyms (defined) you may come across and think “WTF does that mean?”

I probably won’t use all of these terms, but wanted to provide all possibilities in an effort to continue my lazy typing habit and dispel any confusion for readers.

2ww – Two Week Wait – Luteal Phase – 14 days after ovulation
AF – Aunt Flo, menstruation, period
AFK – Away from keyboard/keys
AH – Assisted Hatching
BBT – Basal Body Temperature
BD – Baby Dance, Sex
BFN Big Fat Negative (Pregnancy Tests)
BFP Big Fat Positive (Pregnancy Test)
CB – Cycle Buddy – Same cycle day as yourself!
CD – Cycle Day
CL – Corpus Luteum
CM – Cervical Mucus
CP – Cervical Position
DD – Dear Daughter
DH – Dear Husband
DP – Dancing Partner; spouse, or significant other
DPO – Days Past Ovulation
DB – Dear Boyfriend
DS – Dear Son
DTD – Doing The Dance, BD, sex
EC – Embryo Cyro/Freezing
EDD – Estimated Due Date
EPO – Evening Primrose Oil
EWCM – Egg-White Cervical Mucus
ER – Egg Retrieval
ET – Egg transfer
hCG – Human Chorionic Gonadotropin – detected in HPTs
H&H – Happy and Healthy
HPT – Home Pregnancy Test
HSG – Hysterosalpingogram – x-ray
ICSI – Microfertilization
IUI – Intrauterine Insemination
IVF – In Vitro Fertilization
LH – Luteinizing Hormone – detected in OPKs
LP – Luteal Phase, days between ov & AF
O or OV – Ovulation
OPK – Ovulation Predictor Kit
POAS Pregnancy, pregnant
PG Pregnancy, pregnant
PNV Prenatal Vitamin
RE – Reproductive Endocronolgist
SA – Semen Analysis
SAHM Stay at Home Mom
ROBI – A term used which refers to Robitussin or Guaifenesin Syrup (expectorant) used to thin CM
SO – Significant Other
SOD – Sex on Demand
TCOYF “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Weschler
TR – Tubal Reversal
TTC – Trying To Conceive
YI – Yeast Infection