Lost!!!

I just lost all the info I had on my last 14 cycles…ughhhhh!  I use the kindara app and I went in to check and see what cd the mid cycle cramps started last month and all the data was gone.  So frustrating.  I do think they had started by now though.  I’m on cd18 or 19 and today was the first cramping I have really felt and it was much better than last months.  I put Young Living’s peppermint oil on and it went right away.  

I do have to say, if you’ve never tried Young Living, I highly recommend getting their starter kit.  I very rarely take OTC’s anymore.  I can count the number of times on 1 hand since November and I used to go through a bottle of tylenol every couple of months due to cramps.  If you’re interested in hearing more or trying them out, let me know and I’d be happy to get the info to you.  

Other than waiting to see if this 2nd month of doing a natural cycle since surgery is going to bring us our miracle, I am just gearing up for the Fall daycare schedule.  I’ve gotten quite a few calls lately and the hardest part is turning people away.  Infant care is so difficult to find in my area and I feel so guilty turning them away.  We are also taking care of J’s cousins little girls for a few days in August while they are away.  Plus, my Sister’s dog at the same time.  Between the 3 girls, daycare kids, 2 dogs and 3 cats, that week may be a little on the crazy side, lol.  

I hope that you are all doing well and staying sane in your respective cycles.  Know that you are all in  my thoughts and prayers.  

Hugs~Dawn

OPK’s

It’s not very often that J says something dumb pertaining to infertility.  He’s generally very supportive and knows when to speak and when to just hold me.  Last night, was not one of those times.  I am on cd 10 and was running low on opk’s.  We had to stop and return stuff at Walmart so I figured I might as well pick some up while we were there.  Now, I personally like the easy to read, smiley face opk’s.  Sure, they’re a little expensive, but worth it to me.  After we rang them up (we were in self-checkout), J says, “what do we even need them for?  We can do it without them.”.  Ummm, no, no we cannot!  We haven’t even been able to get pregnant with a u/s, trigger shot, and putting the sperm right up there!!!!  I compromised and didn’t buy them last month because he wanted a “relaxing” month of trying.  Then I was paranoid because I didn’t know for sure when I was going to ovulate.  This month, we’re doing it my way!  I told him to never tell an infertile woman she doesn’t need opk’s and to be happy that I tend to wait for AF to show up instead of buying hpt’s.  🙂

DeCluttering

There is just something about decluttering the house that makes me feel like I’m getting a fresh start.    It’s not totally decluttered, but we’ve gotten a good start.  The best part…I got some quality time in with my Mama.  🙂

Let me start at the beginning…it’s rummage sale time.  🙂  I have fond memories of my Mom’s rummage sales when I was kid.  They were always a fun time where I usually sold lemonade and brownies.  As an adult, they’re still fun…but man is getting ready for them a bitch, lol.  So, J and I started finding all sorts of stuff in the basement and garage to sell on top of what I had already had set aside months ago.  My Sister has 5 kids so she usually has quite a bit in the sale and she’d have a heck of lot more if she could find time to actually go through her house (she’s a bit of a pack rat).  And then my poor Mom always does the most work (because it’s usually at her house) and always has the least amount of stuff in there.

So, I took a load over there (about 30 min. away) Thursday and then J and I each had the truck and our car full for loads to go yesterday.  J came back home to hang with Rocky and I spent the night at Mom’s.  1 am and several mosquito bites later, we finally went to bed.  5:30am we were up and finishing what it was too dark to get done the night before.  My favorite thing about rummage sales is spending time with my family.  It’s usually Mom, my Aunt, my Sister and I…this year, my Aunt was going out of town and my Sister was with us last night and then just a couple hours this morning before having to volunteer with her daughter for Christian Youth in Action.  

Although we missed them, I did love the time with my Mom and also got to hang with the nieces and nephews.  Quite a bit of J and I’s stuff sold and we made a decent profit, the rest is either getting put on the local buy and sell sites or it stayed at Mom’s because tomorrow we’re opening up the majority of stuff to the public to take and donate what they can to “Family Promise of Monroe County”.

I don’t know if any of you know about Family Promise, but it’s a national program that works with homeless families to turn their lives around.  It came to our attention in 2011 (I think) that there were 92 homeless kids in my hometown.  We decided something needed to be done so my Sister did some research, found Family Promise and we’ve been working on getting the program started in our county ever since.  It’s a lot of work and it takes a lot of time, but we are hoping and praying to be open by Jan. 1st or at the very least have the end in sight.  It is so, so needed in our area.

Back to my original thought when I started this…decluttering feels like a fresh start and Monday will start my fresh start on getting back into running.  We’re also a week in to a new cycle.  I’m praying things have settled down a little more in there since my surgery and my typical mid cycle cramps will start to go away.  And of course praying this natural cycle works but I also know that more than likely we’ll head back to IUI’s after this month.  I hope all is well with you Ladies.  I think about you all often and always look forward to your posts to see what’s happening in your world.  I don’t think I’d be able to get through this as well I do without you!!  

Hugs~Dawn

Impractical Fun!

 

Here she is…my new to me, impractical, fun car!  Now, she just needs a name.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.  🙂

I’m Back…and so is Reality!!!

Wow! It has been a Wonderful month off. I slept in almost every day, drank wine, ate whatever I wanted, had lots of fun with J and got a few things done that I needed to do. Not all of the list got finished, but that’s okay. We had a great time in CT, visited NYC a couple of times and Newport, RI for a day.

I also got a new (to me) car. I wanted to go practical(Toyota prius), but we couldn’t even afford to lease one, much less finance one. We ended up with a completely impractical but nicely priced Saab 9-3 convertible. J was gunning for it and really wanted it and I didn’t really want it at all. In the end, I love it and I’m glad we got it now. We were going to try to make it through the summer with just one vehicle, but I didn’t realize how much I would feel like my independence had been taken away.  I don’t have any photos of it on my computer yet, but I’ll post one when I do.

Reality sets back in tomorrow. The kiddos come back and I have new little one starting that I need to get to know.  I only have 2 til the end of summer and then 1 from last year comes back and I have a 2 1/2 yr old boy that will be starting.  J is outside right now working on getting our yard fenced in.  Right now it’s more for the pup then the kids, but they will soon be running faster then me.  🙂  

As for ttc, this first natural month did not work.  I started spotting on Friday morning and was full flow by Saturday.  What was weird this cycle is the cramps that I go.  Dr. R thought that the surgery would alleviate the cramps, but instead it was worse.  I started getting the mid cycle cramps late in the night on our first night driving back home from CT.  I had barely started to feel them and BOOM…they really started hurting.  I got my peppermint oil out and did slow breathing until it kicked in which took a little longer than it normally does.  This happened probably 5 or so times over the next few days.  Then about 3:30am Sat. morning, my menstrual cramps started.  Did my peppermint oil (until now I haven’t had to take OTC meds in about 6 months for my cramps) and it just wasn’t doing it.  Finally at 4:15am, I took tylenol because I was in so much pain.  I was curled up in a ball and couldn’t help the tears that were coming out.  Poor J always feels so helpless in those situations.  I will definitely be calling the clinic tomorrow to see if they have any idea why they got worse.  J also wants to try one more month of natural ttc before heading back to IUI’s.

This last weekend flew by…I got to spend the day with my Sister yesterday talking to people about Young Living Essential Oils at a vendor fair and then today we took the motorcycle to J’s hometown about 45 min away.  A hs friend of his is in town with his fiancé and his parents held a get together today so everyone could see them.  House got cleaned and toys are sanitizing.  Time to finish up and get to bed.  I hope all of you are doing well and having an enjoyable summer.  I’ll try not to go off the grid for so long this next time.  Hugs to you all!!!

~Dawn

Belonging

Have you ever felt like you completely belong in 2 different places?  Unfortunately, my 2 different places are 18 hours apart.  We have had an Amazing 9 or so days here.  It has been filled with laughter, friends, love and wonderful food.  If it wasn’t for my family, J and I would move out here in a heart beat if he found a teaching job here.  Just for the fun of it, we’ve been looking at jobs and houses online.  Daniel has been begging us to move back out here and it’s hard to resist his adorableness.

So far we have eaten at most of my favorite places at least once if not twice ( I didn’t make it out last summer so I had to make up for missing all my favorite food last year).  Rode our bikes to the beach (and then lost our bikes and bike rack off the back of the truck on our way to Newport, RI  on Saturday, oops), celebrated Halle’s 21st Birthday at 21 Club in NYC last Saturday, went into NYC last Monday, celebrated Justin’s 24th Birthday on Tuesday, had a reception at the Lucas’ Wednesday night so all the kid’s and I’s friends could come and see us at once, laid on a raft in the pool (a lot), gotten together with friends I haven’t seen in years, gotten a mani and pedi, went to port this past Saturday, hung out with my Best Friend (although we didn’t get nearly enough time together) and hung out with my kiddos (even though only 1 of them can still actually be defined as a kid).  

Oh and more BDing then we’ve done in a long while, especially with J being out of town and then my surgery.  Per hubby’s request, I did not do OPK’s this month but I did use the soft cups.  It was very nice to be able to just hop up and go and not have to lay around for 30 minutes.  I’m quite sure I ovulated sometime Sat into Sunday.  I started feeling twinges on my left side Saturday evening and had a lot of pain all day yesterday.  Today was much better.  Here’s hoping this “vacation and relaxing” works.  🙂

I will do a post with some pics from the last week or so.  I tried inserting them here and it just goes right in the middle of my paragraphs.  I’m not the best blogger out there…that’s for sure.