Fran the Follicle

Meet Fran the follicle! Turns out the pesky leftover cyst is still around this month, so IUI's are still on hold. I was actually planning to take another month (or maybe two) off from Clomid and IUI's anyway, so I wasn't too bummed out.  I'm certainly not missing giving myself the HCG shot!

I'm feeling pretty good about the acupuncture and herbs that my hubby and I have been doing. I guess only time will tell how much of a difference they make!

I also started doing BBT charting, which is actually pretty fun....

No this isn't mine, if only it were this perfect!

He's th.. thi... thirty!!

Well, we didn't celebrate fathers day this weekend, but we did celebrate my husband's birthday. He was actually born on Father's Day, although this year his birthday fell on a Saturday.

It's kind of funny, ever since we got married six years ago, people have been asking us when we were going to have kids. I never knew for sure, but figured that it would definitely be by the time I turned 30. It's also pretty funny to think about how far away thirty seemed back then. Even when we started trying two years ago, it seemed certain that we would have at least one kid by now. 

For my husband, I guess the dream of having a kid by the time he turned thirty is over. For me, well, I still have one more month to go. My birthday is in exactly thirty two days. At this point it looks pretty doubtful that I'll be pregnant by then, but I can still dream... for 32 more days.

I never really thought about my life after thirty. Well, I imagined what my life would be like, but when it came to putting a deadline or date to certain things, it was always- I'd like to do x y & z by the time I'm thirty, or I'm sure that x y & z will have happened by the time I'm thirty. Now all of a sudden, thirty isn't some number in the distant future, it's only 32 days away!

As far as everything to do with getting pregnant goes, we are still on the holistic journey this month. Taking our herbs, and getting acupuncture every week. Tomorrow will be my fourth, and Friday will be my husbands third. He is pretty proud of the fact that he can now swallow six pills at once! Since he takes about 20 pills a day between vitamins and herbs, I convinced him that taking them one at a time was going to consume his life! It only took him about 3 days to make his way up to six- guess I'm a pretty good teacher ;)

Going the Holistic Route

This month is dedicated to all things natural!  I went to the doctor for my baseline ultrasound on Monday to get our third IUI underway, only to hear that I still had a very large cyst (follicle) from last month.  Now I know why they do baseline ultrasounds- to make sure that you DON"T have one of these! She said that it should go down soon, but that we can't do anything IUI wise this month. As I walked out, she told me "Have a nice June, give us a call next month!"

I went to the acupuncturist on Tuesday for my second appointment and heard that my husbands tie breaking semen analysis was in! In a nutshell, it was not as bad as the first (which gave him 0% normal morphology) and not as good as the second one (which gave him 14% or greater normal morphology). It was actually closer to the first one, giving him 5% normal morphology, which is still pretty bad (normal is >14%).  I guess it's kind of like getting a D in school- you didn't fail, but you still did pretty badly!

I feel a lot better now that we have a third opinion.  The acupuncturist said that he has had a lot of success improving morphology- even doubling it! So, to make a long story short, we will both be doing acupuncture for fertililty!  I figure that it can only help, even if we end up resorting to IVF, at least the sperm, eggs, and my uterus will be in better condition!!  I left with a bottle of pills (herbs) for each of us. Four pills three times a day for me on days 4-14 of my cycle, and six pills two times a day for my hubby (to make it easier for him to remember)!

I'm feeling very optimistic and exited about embarking on this holistic journey!  I really believe that it is going to make a difference. I'm also pretty exited about having a month free of doctors appointments and Clomid!

The sun will come out....

I'm feeling pretty optimistic today! No, I'm not pregnant, but the two things that we have been talking about doing for months are finally happening.

1. Acupuncture
2. Third semen analysis- for the long awaited tie breaker!

I really don't care what the results are for the semen analysis, I just have not been comfortable with the fact that we have two completely opposite sets of results from two different places. I just don't want to be wasting money month after month with IUI's and the like, if ICSI is really the only option.

As far as acupuncture goes, I have heard many good things about it, in terms of improving fertility, so I'm exited to be finally trying it out.

Regardless, I am feeling more optimistic today than I have felt in months. By mid week next week, we should have results for the semen analysis, I will have had my second round of acupuncture, and I will have had my third baseline ultrasound. Busy week!

(I did take the acupuncturist's advice this morning, and eat 2 organic eggs for breakfast!)

Alternative Methods

Today I tried something new (well, new for me, anyway)... Acupuncture!  The place I went to specializes in fertility acupuncture, so I figured, why not? Anything to improve my odds! The appointment was almost 2 hours long, and was mostly spent in a room answering what seemed like a million questions- the majority of which were about my period.  Way more thorough than any doctors visit. At the end of it I had an acupuncture session, he said that since I did not know whether I was pregnant or not, he would just do something to support the luteal phase of my cycle. I had needles on my head, face, arms, legs, hands, feet, and stomach! He also put a heat lamp over my abdomen. It was pretty relaxing, and not painful at all. He examined my tongue several times, took my pulse and gave me his observations.

He told me that I should avoid cold foods, like cold salads, beverages etc. This would be okay, except my favorite thing to make is a fruit smoothie!  He said that the best thing was to drink whole milk and full fat dairy products (if I had cysts, or fibroids etc. I would have been told to avoid dairy), lots of steamed vegetables, organic eggs and grains. He also said that in the beginning of my cycle I should eat red meat (my husband will love that one!). He gave me a whole binder about natural fertility and acupuncture that I have yet to look through, and sold me whey powder with stevia sweetener (not artificial sweetener) and green powder.  He said he will wait to see if I'm pregnant or not to decide what herbs to give me.

 I have another appointment on Tuesday, so I'll let you know how it goes!

I have not taken a pregnancy test this month.  If it were last month, I would have taken 2 by now. I'll know by tomorrow anyway depending on if I get my period or not. I really am done seeing those lonely pink lines.