Yep, Still Lazy

So this week I am 35 weeks pregnant, and still lazy, hot, tired, and bitchy. I have been off work for the summer for a while now, and I am having a hard time getting anything accomplished around the house. I am totally unaccustomed to not working, and I don't really know what to do with myself. I started working when I was 16, and have never been unemployed since then. Not that I'm unemployed now - I still draw a paycheck, it's just summer. Summer before last, I took 15 hours at ACC, so I didn't have any free time, and last summer, I kept Shelley every day, so she kept me busy, but this year I'm kind of at a loss. I just kind of wander around the house, and hope I get a little something done. It's just that I'm tired all the time, so my motivation is really lacking.

I have been nesting some. We got a bunch of really great stuff at the baby shower, so I have been making Brad move furniture and hang new ceiling fans and all kinds of stuff to get the nursery ready. I have acquired lots of hand me down baby clothes, since a friend's baby is a giant monster baby, and has outgrown all of his stuff really fast. But as a result, I wind up washing and folding all of the baby clothes, and it reminds me how much I absolutely hate - no HATE folding baby clothes. It had been a long time since I had to do it, from when Jack and William (nephew & ex's son) were little, but now I remember. It is like folding a huge basket of nothing but socks and underwear that don't match. I hate even folding my own socks and underwear, and they are likely to sit in a basket until I notice my spastic cat has started dragging them all over the house, hiding them like they are her babies, and trying to nurse them. So to have to fold a huge basket of baby clothes is pure torture. I do not enjoy it. Maybe if they were little girl clothes that were cuter...

Anyway, the nursery, is mostly put together, but it is pretty bare. One thing I have not gotten yet is a lot of the decorative items that are on the registry. I guess those will have to come a little at a time, as we get the money. But for now, the baby does at least have a dedicated space of his own, so that will have to do. We can put stuff on the walls as time goes by.

The baby shower turned out really great. My mom and sisters did a good job of hosting it, and it was a success.

Lots of people showed up, and a good time was had by all. My little sister had the inmates  at the prison custom make a rocking zebra and a toybox for the baby. I am in love with the zebra. It is so adorable.

 

 After the baby shower, some of my closer friends and family stayed and we had a little pool party. Two of my friends have babies that were about 4 months old at the time, so the babies got to go swimming too, and they had a good time. The water was warm, and they enjoyed splashing. 

 

This is Misty, and her son Jax Danger.

  

This is me, with Jennifer's daughter Ella B

So anyway, I had better get going, and hopefully get some crap done around this house. Today, I get to work on addressing wedding invitations for Shannon, my best friend who is getting married in August, but is currently in India, so I get to do the invitations. I'm ready for her to come home!

15 Weeks

It has been a long week. I am exhausted. I keep having to go to the chiropractor because my back/pelvis keep getting out of whack while I'm at work. When I come home, I rest for a little while, and when I try to get up again, it hurts so bad I can barely walk. It holds just fine when I'm not at work, but it keeps slipping out of alignment when I go to work and deal with the kids. It's very frustrating. I'm 15 weeks along, with 25 to go. Oh well. It will be over eventually.

I do, however, have some good news. We got our tax return back. $6603. Not bad, huh? So after we pay the house taxes, and a few outstanding medical bills, we are going to get trees. In the 24 years that Brad has lived in this house, he has never gotten around to planting trees. We have a couple hackberry trees that have come up on their own, but they don't really count. So we are getting trees. We are going to get a bur oak, which will get absolutely huge, and a Monterrey oak. The Monterrey oak is also known as a Mexican white oak, and in this area they are generally evergreen. They lose their leaves in colder climates, but here in temperate central Texas, they stay green all year. We are going to also get some fruit trees - peach, apricot, and plum. The peach tree we get will be a Sam Houston peach tree, which is the same variety I grew up with. We may also get some crepe myrtles, and maybe a bradford pear or a flowering dogwood. Maybe also a sycamore. If you can't tell, I'm excited about trees, and the promise of shade.

The tax return is also going to allow us to go on a little trip during spring break. Brad has March 18-22 off. That's five whole days. On the 18th, which is our one year anniversary, we will be finding out the sex of the baby. Then after that we are going to drive up to Dallas to see Brad's sister and my best friend Shannon. I'm excited about getting to go out of town. With all the fertility treatments, it's been a long while since we have had the time and money to go anywhere. During the beginning part of spring break, I am going to try to get down to San Antonio to see my friends Penny and Jenny, and Jenny's new baby. I haven't seen either of them in well over a year, I believe. It may have been longer than that. Anyway, I'm out of here to go find something for dinner.

Let's Party Anyway

On Friday 11/7, I got up at the butt crack of dawn and drove to Austin for bloodwork and an ultrasound. I had the labs drawn at about 7:00am and the ultrasound at about 7:45. It was CD7. My endometrium was at 11.0. My left ovary had 6 follicles that measured 8,7,7,6,5,5mm. And it was the underperformer. My right ovary was being the overachiever again, and had 12 follicles that measured 7,7,7,6,6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5mm. That's a total of 18 follicles that she measured! And I think there may have been a few hiding, as well. And this was with me on a very low dosage of follistim (75, 75, & 50 for the first three days). Can you imagine if she had put me on a standard dosage? Later on, they called with the lab results, and said that my E2 was at 68. I don't know if that is high or low or what, but I am going to verify that number when I talk to them again. I was in a class full of yelling kids when they called, so I could have heard wrong. The dosages they gave me for Fri - Sun were 75,75,50 again. I go in again tomorrow morning for more labs and an ultrasound. I wonder what things will look like then. I have gotten pretty good at this whole injecting myself thing. I did it in the truck in the parking lot of the Golden Wok restaurant last night right before dinner. Easy as pie.

Yesterday Brad and I went to a wedding for a mutual friend of ours. We had a lot of friends there, and it was nice getting to visit with them all. And Brad looks really sexy when he's all dressed up. So I had an ulterior motive for wanting to go. But it was nice. Then we went to JC Penneys and returned most of the clothes I had bought the other day. I have decided that I will stay at my job with the school for the time being. Mostly because the insurance is paying for more than I thought it would, and the leave policy is more generous than most places offer. The pay still sucks, and I am still miserable, but I will put up with it for now. If I stick with it, I will have the summer off, and if I get pregnant this cycle, the baby(ies) would be due in August sometime. That would give me the last couple months of a pregnancy off, which would be really nice, especially if there are any complications. But, usually, planning just screws shit up, so I'd better just stop now while I'm ahead. So that's all for now. I will update more tomorrow after I the doctor's appt and lab work. Now I'm off to eat left-over dim sum. Yum.

Fertility, Friends & Football

I went to the doctor on Wednesday, and had a baseline ultrasound. No cysts, so I started Clomid last night. The Dr. thinks I did ovulate, and we just managed to miss it somehow. She kept the Clomid dosage at 100mg on days 3-7. She did say that my ovaries have the classic polycystic appearance, though. Big surprise there. So I'm supposed to do the OPKs, and if I haven't gotten a surge by CD17 (I usually don't ovulate until CD16 or 17), then I go in for a trigger shot.

In other news, one of my best friends from high school is pregnant. I found out today through her mother, who is like a second mother to me. Her mom and I work at the same high school, so we see each other frequently. This friend of mine lives about an hour and a half from me, and we only talk once every few months, but I still consider her one of my best friends. I'm kind of hurt that she hasn't called to tell me, especially considering that she is already around 20 weeks along. If I were pregnant, she would be in the top 5 non-family calls I would make. I really hope that the fact that I am dealing with infertility is not what has kept her from calling me. I am excited for her and her hubby, whom I have known since we were kids. It's great news, and my infertility doesn't keep me from being happy for her. Jealous, yes, but it's okay. I'm not too fond of baby showers right now, although I never really was, and pregnant ladies do make me a little jumpy, especially when I see them doing things that are not good for their baby, but that's okay, too. I will probably call her in a little while, and tell her a little birdie told me she has good news.

Tomorrow, I get to take the younger of my two nephews to his PeeWee football game. Here in Texas, we start 'em out young. Jack is 6, and it is his second year playing football. And I'm talking full-contact tackle football, not any of that wussy flag football shit. It involves helmets and pads and cleats, and is so much fun. Hell, there are even little bitty cheerleaders. My older nephew, Cole, is almost 10, and he has a game tomorrow, as well, but his is out of town. My sister is taking him to his game, and Brad and I will be taking Jack to his here at home. This is Cole's fourth year of football. The boys love it. It keeps them in great physical shape, teaches them teamwork, and runs out all their energy. Their behavior is so much better during football season than it is during the off season. During the off season, they just have too much restless energy. This year, there is only one weekend (homecoming) where the two boys have their games at the same location, so Brad and I will be doing football duty quite a bit this season. While I love going to their games, these first few games are hell... literally. It doesn't start to cool off around here until at least October... or later. Tomorrow, we are going to roast. The high is forecasted at 97 degrees, and I think the game is at noon. What fun.