Back to the Blog

So I haven't posted in quite a while... oh, say six months or so, but I've wanted to. Really, I swear. It was just hard to post when everything was going so well, and then the baby was born, and I got kind of busy, to say the least, and now it's been kind of overwhelming to try to get back in after so long an absence. So I'm just going to jump in like I was never gone, and I will try to fill in the gap as time allows.

Here's a quick update - or summary rather, so you're not completely clueless. Weeks 35 - 40 of my pregnancy were long, hot and boring. Nothing happened that was really worth writing about. I think around week 37 they did an ultrasound that showed the baby's head as being the size of a 40 weeker. Nothing unusual there, as massive noggins run in my family. At 40 weeks and 2 days, I had the baby. Here's a pic of me as we were leaving for the hospital - the last picture of a pregnant Stacy.



Travis James Woodruff was born on August 13, 2009 at 7:00pm.



He weighed 8 lbs and .25 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.



I will post the birth story later. He was a beautiful healthy baby, and still is. He's now about 4.5 months old, and is getting to be more fun every day.

Exactly four weeks after Travis was was born, Brad had a heart attack. He's fine now, and in fact was back to work the next Monday, but that was certainly stressful. I'll post the story about that later.

In other news, I quit my job to be a full time stay at home mom. I'm enjoying it. I'm currently looking for an extra kid to watch during the day to make a little extra cash, but it's not a huge deal right now. I also paid off my truck finally, and rolled over the odometer to 100K miles shortly after that.



I'll be coming back to the blog, especially since I now have a laptop that I can move around the house. My mom was nice enough to give me her old laptop for Christmas, since she got a new one. Now I can actually get on the computer more than once every 3-4 days. I think most of the posts to fill in the 6 month gap will be picture-centric as the pics on my iPhone are the easiest reminder for me of what has happened during that time. It's all kind of a blur in my mind, but with the help of all the pics I've taken, and maybe going back to old facebook updates (I FB from my phone a lot), I think I can fill in the gap.

I'm excited about coming back to the blog, and looking forward to updating everybody with my adventures.

Wow, I Am SO Lazy

Wow, I Am SO Lazy! I haven't bothered posting in a long time. I just haven't felt the blogging urge. There's been plenty going on, just no real inclination to write about it. So what's new? Let me think back... I'm going to do this bullet point style to try to keep it brief.

• At about 28 weeks I did the glucose test for gestational diabetes, and passed that with flying colors. 
• During Memorial Day weekend, I got to go to Labor & Delivery, not because of any problem with the baby, but because I had a breast infection / mastitis. Yeah, explain that one to me - I'm not even nursing yet! So they gave me a 7 day course of 4 times per day antibiotics. Blech! We also went to a barbecue, and swimming / fishing at the lake.
  
• The next weekend, we went to Port Aransas for a deep sea fishing trip. The time on the boat sucked, but the trip overall was fun. More about that later.
• This past weekend, we went to Houston for a cat show, and then to let Brad regain a portion of his manliness, we went to a gun and knife show. After that was done, we went to Huntsville and visited my little sister. (More about the reason for the cat show later.)

Last week was my last week of working. I am now off for the summer, and with no plans to return to work after the baby is born. I am currently 31 weeks pregnant. Everything seems to be progressing just fine. My feet have started to swell some, but my blood pressure is staying exactly where it should be, and everything is about par for the course. This weekend is the child birth class, and I'm a little nervous about that. But a friend of my Mom's is teaching it, and she is doing it for us for free, so I will take advantage of it. Especially since I have started to formulate a birth plan that does not include an epidural. I'm not going to be psycho about it, but I have decided that I do not want to be induced unless it is absolutely medically necessary, because inductions can fail, and then you wind up with a C-section. Better to just wait for it to happen when it happens. I am going to try to do it without an epidural or pain drugs, for many reasons. Hopefully I can do it as naturally as possible. We'll see. I know a lot of first time moms say that, and it doesn't happen, but I will give it a try anyway.

I'm getting excited about the babyshower that is coming up on June 27. I want to get to see everybody, and I'll be honest, I want goodies. I haven't bought anything for the baby yet, and I want to start getting the baby's room ready. But I don't want to buy anything until after the shower, and it's getting harder and harder to wait. This is the first shower of any sort I have ever had, and it's exciting. I didn't have a wedding shower or a big wedding, so I got 2 or 3 little wedding gifts and checks from my parents and in-laws and that's it. So I'm excited. But anyway. That's enough for now. I will write separate posts about Port Aransas and the reason for going to the cat show later.

Weeks 17 & 18

Let me just start by saying that pregnancy sucks. It has its moments, but for the most part it sucks. I really miss my good migraine medicine, and wish I could take it. But, since it causes birth defects, I'll refrain from taking it for now. I'm still having to visit the chiropractor twice a week, to keep the pinched nerves in check. The morning sickness is pretty much gone, although it did actually make me puke last week, which was a first. Other crappy things aboug pregnancy: I have to pee like every half hour and it's getting worse. Also, my bras have shrunk. Or my boobage has expanded. Whichever it is, it sucks. I had a breast reduction for a reason, dammit. I don't like having gargantuan titties. Most women like this side effect of the hormones, but not me. I hate having to buy expensive bras, but this increase in size may make it so I don't have a choice. Ughh! I thought I had tamed the twins, but apparently Eddie & Earl are back in action.

On to the good news: I am looking forward to next Wednesday, when we will (hopefully) find out the sex of the baby. It will also be our one year anniversary that day. I've felt the little bugger wiggle around in there a couple times (I think), but I have to be laying very still to notice. We got the results back on the Nuchal Translucency / Sequential screening tests. We are all clear for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and spina bifida. So that's a relief. Also, I only only have 3 more work days until spring break. Then I will have 9 whole days off. Yay! We got our trees last week, and 7 of them are already planted. Brad has been working his ass off, and the front yard is done. Now for the back yard. But, most of the trees that are going in the back yard are much smaller, so they should be easier. That's about all for now.

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.

Get In, Get Out, Quit F*&%ing About

I had my IUI this morning. It was probably the quickest appointment ever. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am indeed. Hopefully it will produce the desired results (a baybee, in case you hadn't been listening).

I also called my insurance company and found out that they will cover injectable fertility drugs (if the current cycle doesn't pan out). It just requires prior authorization, and that I not be using them in preparation for or in conjunction with an IUI or IVF. Basically, the dumbass insurance company wants to pay for these drugs that will make you ovulate eight eggs, and then they want you to go home and make nookie with your husband so you wind up with a litter. God forbid that they cough up the money to do an IUI to increase the probability of the expensive-ass drugs working on the first round. Or even better, that they ante up the money to do IVF so that you can have a healthy singleton or twin pregnancy, rather than a God-awful expensive set of sickly sextuplets. It's all about the profit NOW, not what's best in the long run. But, if they will pay for the meds, then I will have the doctor fail to mention that I will be having an IUI, since I pay for those out of pocket anyway, and I will go ahead and get them. I'm not saying this cycle won't work; I'm just planning ahead. 

Tomorrow I have a conference to go to at the Texas School for the Blind for work. At least I don't have to do any real work tomorrow. And it will be Friday. And I just realized that even though when I get out of the conference it will be five o'clock somewhere, for the next two weeks, and maybe longer, I will be pregnant until proven otherwise. Arrrrgggghhhh.

The Black Hole

I went to the RE today. I had 53mm black hole in my right ovary. It could be one of two things: either a very large follicle or a very large cyst. I have been having mild pain on my right side for about a week, so I wasn't surprised about it's presence, just it's size. The doctor feels fairly confident that it is a large follicle, rather than a cyst, as my uterine lining was at 14mm, which she seemed happy with. So she wrote me a prescription for Ovidrel, and as soon as I am done typing this, I will go pinch a roll of my plentiful abdominal fat and inject myself. I had to go to People's Pharmacy near 38th & Lamar to get it, as they are the only place in the Austin area that keeps it in stock. It is a little bitty place, but they were fast and friendly, and holy shit! my insurance covered the shot! I paid a $25 copay. I was astonished. I wonder if I can get them to cover other injectables. I'm scheduled for an IUI on Thursday morning at 9:30.

I also had a job interview today, out at a vet clinic on Bee Cave Rd., and I think it went well, but even if they call me back, I don't think I will take it. It's just too damn far to drive, the traffic is terrible, and the schedule they are wanting is a little crazy. I'm going to keep looking for something slightly closer to home. So, I missed most of work today, I will be miss all day Thursday, and then I am supposed to go to a conference for work in Austin on Friday. Easy work week, but hell on gas. Oh well. Nice change of pace, I guess. I'm just hoping everything goes right and this 2ww is a successful one.

And The Forecast Called For Galoshes

 

Well, I didn't need an ark for the flood after all. After the cats poked holes in the inflatable life raft, I had to go with the galoshes, and it turned out okay. It wasn't a miserable period like I expected, and my husband survived it as well. I also finished up my new, higher dose of Clomid, and I am trying to maintain my composure in this state of hormonal flux. I am scheduled for an appointment next Tuesday 10/21, to check on Lucy and Ethel, to see if they are behaving like good little ovaries. Knowing my luck, the ultrasound screen will look more like a re-run of the Candy Factory episode. But we can hope that they will behave.

My job hunting continues in earnest. I am so tired of all the nonsense at my current job. Hopefully I will find something soon. Oh well. At least tomorrow is Friday.

Waiting for the Flood

I finished the 10 day course of Provera last night. Now I am just waiting for the flood, and wondering if I should build an ark. Seems like it might be a prudent course of action. Or at least invest in an inflatable life raft. I think we will see how this round of Clomid w/ IUI goes, and if it doesn't go well, I'm going to ask my RE how much it would increase our chances to try injectibles. If it would be a substantial increase in probability, then I will start investigating costs. I don't wan't to do Clomid over and over again if I can help it. I'm supposed to call on CD1, and go in for a scan on CD12. We'll see how things look then.

In other news, I am job hunting. I am still currently employed by the school, but I am also seeking employment elsewhere. I like the *job* but the pay sucks, and the level of BS is amazing. I need one of these. It might get used on people too frequently though.

I have an interview coming up on Thursday. I'm excited.

Hurricanes and Bowling Balls

Today we took our class to the bowling alley for Special Olympics bowling practice. What normally turns out to be a logistical nightmare turned out to be a relatively pleasant trip. My one-on-one student was exceptionally well behaved all day long. She bowled and got a score of 90, which was one of the highest of the day, and about as good as I would have been able to do. It made the morning go by very fast. It was tiring, though.

This afternoon, we had a pep rally because they moved the varsity football game to tonight in preparation for Hurricane Ike. Tomorrow, they are going to release school early. Our campus will release at 12:30, so that the buses can get the students back home safely, as Bastrop is on one of the main evacuation routes for Houston. While I don't like hurricanes, getting out of school early is cool, and we could use at least a little rain. And I should have an easy day of it anyway, because I think Shelley's mom is just going to keep her home tomorrow, rather than send her for half the day. I think a lot of parents will be doing that, instead of having their kids stuck on a long, miserable bus ride in traffic. We'll see.

Blah weekend

This weekend has been a blah weekend. Brad and I have been trying to get caught up on the laundry and dishes that have been neglected for so long. Yesterday, I went to the thrift store and got a few shirts that I can wear to work, as my one-on-one student is hard on my clothes. In the afternoon, it rained like crazy, and it is still cloudy and ominous looking out there now. Not that I am complaining - we have been needing the rain badly. Today we are going to continue to try to clean house, because I start back to work tomorrow. Summer vacation is over, and it is back to the grindstone. I would like to start the school year with a reasonably clean house.

I didn't really get much of a summer this year, as I have been keeping my one-on-one student, Shelley, during the day for the whole summer, while her mom works. It hasn't been great money, but it is better than none. Also, for the past three weeks, I have been keeping my two nephews during the day, as they lost their babysitter.

This past week, I have pretty much refused to do any chores, and it shows. Instead, I have been engrossed in a series of books by Charlaine Harris. The series is the Sookie Stackhouse series, #1-8. They are Southern vampire mysteries, and they are pretty darn good. They're funny as hell. I just found out that HBO is making a TV series based on the books. It is called True Blood, and it premieres on September 7, 2008. The lead character, Sookie, is played by Anna Paquin. Anna is most noted for her role as Rogue in the X-Men movies. I managed to get a copy of the pilot episode a little early, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure if I like the casting, but maybe it will grow on me. It's hard to enjoy a show if you've already got preconceived ideas or mental images about how it should be. We'll see.

In fertility news, there isn't any. We are just waiting around for a positive OPK, so we can do the IUI. I'll post when it happens. I hate waiting. Oh well. Any day now.

Rainy Day Sock No. 1

Well, I finished my first sock ever. It fits perfectly. I'm shocked. It looked like it would be too small, and I didn't quite make gauge, but the lace is really stretchy. And I have big ankles (but not cankles, thank God!), even. It was really pretty darn easy. The only difficult part was the picot edge hem, but it really makes the sock complete. The lace pattern was simple and easy to memorize. It took way longer than expected, but I did get married during the time it was on the needles. Hopefully the second sock will go faster, but I know it probably won't, mostly because the quilting bug has bitten me for now. I will work on it when I take the kids to choir class though. For those who don't know, I work in a special education classroom at the public high school here. The group I work with are the medically fragile and severely disabled children. One of the classes that I take the kids to is choir, where I am able to knit a little bit while the kids listen to the choir. It is the most enjoyable part of the day, as the regular ed. students are all good kids, and the choir director is great. He is a wonderful, funny man, who does his best to include our kids in the lessons. Anyway, here is a pic of the sock.