Saturday, February 28

7w2d

Still feeling good.  I've been having bouts of queasiness, but I haven't gotten sick yet, so it's all good.  In reality, it's no worse than how I'd feel coming home from work after not having eaten all day or how I'd feel when I had stayed up way too late.  

Yesterday, my class went to the aquarium.  Then Johnny was bored in the evening, so we went to visit my parents for dinner.  All I can say is that yesterday gave a whole new definition to the word exhausted.  I was unbelievably tired.  SO TIRED.  And today isn't much better.  

Just heard from my friend... she just did an IVF cycle the beginning of this month and got a negative.  I feel so badly.  I just feel guilty because this worked for us.  I know she's happy for us, but she deserves it too.  

I guess that's about it for now.  3 days until the ultrasound... not that I'm counting down the minutes or anything.  :)

Thursday, February 26

7w0d

It's 7w0d if I'm calculating everything right!  I'm still feeling good.  I was surprised as I left school just how good I am feeling.  Tired?  Yes!  But I'm ALWAYS tired when I leave school... just maybe a little more so.  But when I get home I still have to get my work done for my classes and cook dinner and all that good stuff.  But I find that I'm exhausted from about noon to 8.  Then at 8 I seem to get a second wind... so just as I'm ready to wind up my work and relax (or sleep!) I'm not tired any more.  It's a bit annoying, really.

But otherwise, I'm doing fine.  So anxious for Tuesday!!!  

Tuesday, February 24

School Ramblings

Ah, school.  :)  It's nice to be back in the swing of things.  I have come home the past 2 days remarkably exhausted-- today more than yesterday though.  I had a class after school and with traffic, it ended up being a 12+ hour day.  Either way, it's nice to be back.  

One of the 1st grades in my school has selected me to be their All Star of the Week!  I know it sound silly, but I'm excited.  How cute is that?  That they selected me to be their Star out of all of the other adults in the building?  To be fair, more than 1/2 of the class is made up of my K's from last year... :P  The class might have been a little biased.  :)

Monday, February 23

Cuz I just can't wait...

I just couldn't wait to post, so here is our update. :)

Day 16 (2/9) I was at 658
Day 18 (2/11) I was at 1,362
Day 24 (2/17- 5w5d) I was at 8,747
Day 30 (2/23- 6w4d) I am at 41,870.

I'll take it!

My progesterone today is at 93... down a little from last week, but still respectable.

Remember last week how there was a big ordeal about taking/not taking the injections? They seemed to be telling me one thing when they meant another? Well, today, my voicemail said "Today your progesterone is at 93. Keep taking the progesterone if you are doing that."

WHAT? So, of course I called semi-panicked saying that I wasn't taking the progesterone and that I had been specifically told to stop taking it last Tuesday. They recanted their position and told me NOT to take it anymore. Very confusing.

Anyways, ultrasound is scheduled for March 3rd! It's at 10:30am and then we meet with the doctor at 11:45am. SO... apparently, you're not supposed to work when you're trying to get pregnant here. I already took time off for the transfer AND then I was sick all week before vacation... now what am I supposed to do? Leave at 10am and get back... at 1pm? And there's no guarantee that I'll be back in time... my doctor is in the OR on Tuesday morning, so that has the potential to push her back. Plus there's the fact that she's ALWAYS late. AT LEAST by 15-20 minutes, usually closer to 30-45 minutes. So... I haven't figured out what to do yet. But Johnny already has grand plans of yelling at Anania for all the mix ups and confusions with everything (times and dates and numbers and everything). BUT the best thing? This time next Tuesday we should be cleared to graduate!!! :) YAY!

Andddd no more butt injections! It's a good day!

On a side note- aside from sleepiness I have had no symptoms at all.  Nada.  It would make me nervous if my numbers weren't so good.  Instead I am just counting my lucky stars that I haven't been sick.  I'm holding my breath for the next week or so... if I can get past the next week-ish then hopefully I'll be in the clear.  Wouldn't that be fabulous?

Sunday, February 22

Sunday Night

Nothing new going on right now.  It's Sunday and I just woke up from my nap.  :)  My first nap in 3 days!  That's pretty good... for me... right now!  I'm excited to get back to school, but also a little nervous.  I am going to be exhausted beyond belief tomorrow, I am sure.  I'll finally be getting back into the swing of things after almost 2 weeks off.  

Tomorrow AM we have blood work, too.  I'm a little bit nervous about it.  I'm sure it will go okay, I'm just nervous that they're going to tell me that I need to go back on the PIO Injections.  I'm really, really, really hoping that I don't have to.  

Back to getting school work done... I finally started my paper, wrote my lessons plans for math, and edited the rest of my plans.  I've been semi-productive the past few days.  :)

Friday, February 20

Oh, vacation!

Ohh... winter break.  Every break I always have a list of jobs I want to accomplish.  Usually, they seem very practical and sometimes I get them done.  

This break I started with the following list...
1. Edit lesson plans until April
2. Type up math lesson plans until the end of the year
3. Read "We Can't Teach What We Don't Know"
4. Read "Portfolio Portraits"
5. Start my review of Portfolio Portraits
6. Start my lesson plans for my Reading class
7. Start my unit for my Reading class

So, Friday of vacation... the question is what have I done?  HA!.  Only 3 and 4.  Yes, I read 2 full books... but nothing really got done otherwise!  I know I'll regret it when I have 6 projects due for my classes and I also have to get stuff done for school... but, oh, well.

My excuse is... I've been tired!

Otherwise, I've been doing well.  My stomach is fine... I guess I was officially just sick last week.  Just tired and anxious for Monday!  :)

Tuesday, February 17

Here's the update... 

Day 16 (2/9) I was at 658
Day 18 (2/11) I was at 1,362
Day 24 (2/17- 5w5d) I am at 8,747

Honestly, I was a little disappointed by the numbers... I was really hoping for over 10,000, but the nurse assured me that this is a great number.  It's not quite a perfect doubling every 2 days, but it is around where the typical twins pregnancy should but, so I'm slowly becoming okay with it.

The good news?  On last Wednesday I was at 60ish for progesterone.  Today, I was at 112 for progesterone!!  Guess what this means?!?  NO MORE PIO INJECTIONS!!!!  Soooooooo excited!!  This does mean that I have to go in for an extra blood work on Monday of next week just to make sure my progesterone hasn't dropped unexpectedly (though I was assured it CANNOT drop below 20 in one week), BUT this is GOOD!  I'm very excited!

Actually, to be honest, the nurse on the phone told me not to do the PIO injections anymore, but I was in the midst of freaking out about the numbers and everything so I was really nervous about listening.  So Johnny called the nurse back to get the clarification about the injections and really calmed me down.  I'm so happy that he decided to be my advocate!  But, in the end it's good because there are no injections for now!!!!


Monday, February 16

My butt muscles HATE me

I've been taking the PIO injections every day since Jan. 24th.  Expect for the first day where I didn't heat or massage or something enough and things ended up really painful, I've been good.  Been good for something like 20 injections.  Fine, really.  But, OH.MY.WORD.  Something has been happening.  The past 3 days have been torture!!  Maybe my butt muscles are just rebelling.  Maybe Johnny is losing his touch.  But I can hardly move my legs!!!  I have done everything exactly the same as I had been doing it... massage, heat, walking.  It worked for 20 days, why did it stop!?  

Craziness!  

Anyways, doctors in the AM and I am a tad nervous, but come what may!  

I think I forgot to mention a few days ago... on Saturday morning my mom called me up and asked if she could come over on Sunday and bring us dinner!  She brought me roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing, gravy, rolls, etc. etc.  It was so sweet!!  My mom and dad live over an hour away, so it's no easy feat making all that food and hauling it up here, so it was really nice to have them do it!  She also brought strawberries, cookies, and muffins.  She's worried about me eating, apparently.  :)  And it's been wonderful not to have to worry about food for the past day or so!

Nerves are settling in

Tomorrow is the 3rd blood test to make sure the numbers are still up.  I'm getting a little nervous now.  I've been very calm, cool, and collected (:P) until now, but the nerves are starting.  I haven't gotten sick since Saturday, so that's freaking me out a little bit.  Is that normal?  I've still been exhausted beyond belief and haven't been feeling quite right... headaches and nauseous beyond belief.  Maybe my stomach has just gotten better at being stronger?  Either way, I'm still optimistic and hopeful about tomorrow's blood results.  :)

Sunday, February 15

Just an ole Update

Although it's Winter Break, I'm getting a little stressed from all the work I have to do for my classes.   Don't these people know that I'm pregnant and exhausted? *

In the next week I have to read 2 full books and then write a couple of papers.   All while barely wanting to keep my eyes open.  (How many naps did I take yesterday?  The answer would be 3-- one of which was well over 3 hours long!)  Basically, being awake and eating were the things I did to fill time before I fell asleep again.  Pathetic.

Yesterday, on a bit of an excursion (we are so exciting!), Johnny and I went to lunch (even my parents were giving me a hard time about it being V Day and the fact that I wanted to do NOTHING... so I felt forced to get out of the house) and then to Babies R Us.  Mind you, we went to a new Babies R Us we had never been to.  We are trying our hardest not to do anything even remotely related back to October.  (Small example, we wrote on the HPTs with silver sharpie, because we used black in October...)  But it was fun to go and look at all the cute stuff. 

On the sickness front... I only got sick 1 time yesterday.   Very excited about that.  But I hadn't gotten sick at all on Friday, so it was a little comforting yesterday.  My injection from yesterday hurts worse than ever.  It is so ridiculously painful and I'm missing my full range of motion in that leg right now!  Happy thoughts, though?  As long as everything proceeds A-okay from here on out?  I only have 5-7 more weeks of injections.  That's right... only 35-49 more injections!  Wooohoooo!   

And by my calculations, I want my HCG to be about 10,000 on Tuesday.  I'm a little anxious about that.  Not nervous so much, just anxious to know.


* Technically the answer would be no.... unless they're psychic.  But I haven't told them.   They should just be nice to me for the heck of it.

Friday, February 13

Advice needed...

I'm in need of advice as to how to be a human despite the desperate exhaustion, desire to do nothing, and the feeling of queasiness every time I turn my head.  My poor hubby has had to deal with me all week, and let me tell you... I've been no fun.  How do you motivate yourself to get up and eat like a normal person when all you want to do is run from food and crawl into bed for a good long time?  :)

Thursday, February 12

No longer dying...

I went to school yesterday (Wednesday)-- what a mistake that was!!  Fortunately I only got sick in the AM before leaving for school and then again a few times after I got back.  I was fine at school.  But my fever came back, my headache came back, the cough... you name it.  It was a bad day.  So, I came home and immediately fell asleep.  It felt so good to get some sleep finally!  Then, I decided to stay home again today!  I'm more rested... my head still hurts, though.  But I think that I've found late morning/afternoon is the best time for me stomach-wise.  I'm actually eating right now!  Nothing fancy... just a banana and a nutra-grain waffle, but at least it's SOMETHING in my stomach!

But on to other news, the beta results came back yesterday at 1,362!  Just over doubling.  According to BetaBase, a Day 18 Beta for a singleton is on average 401.  And for multiples it's around 1,100.  I hope these little guys keep it up!!  I go back on Tuesday for one last check and then it's time to schedule the first ultrasound!

Tuesday, February 10

It's 2:30... I should be sleeping!

What's that?  It's 2:35am?  And Stacey's up?  

Yup... that perfectly describes my sleeping lately.  I am exhausted, which is making it harder to get better I know.  But I cannot sleep.   I'm feeling a little bit better already today than yesterday.  I still have no voice and a cough that really hurts, but the fever is slowly going down and the headache is a lot less noticeable.  The new thing now is that I can't keep anything down.  Not that I've been eating much... maybe a handful of saltines, a bottle of water, and a little pasta.  But it's all gone.  Please tell me that this is a stomach bug.  33 days in is too early for morning sickness (or in my case, constant sickness since yesterday afternoon), right?

Not that I'm complaining... if it is morning sickness, bring it on!  If it's not, go away stomach bug!  I want to go back to school!!

Monday, February 9

The results are in!

According to BetaBase, the average Beta for a successful single pregnancy is 198 at 16dpo.  The average Beta for a successful multiple pregnancy is 537 at 16dpo.  My current Beta?  You ready?

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.
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658!!!!!!!!!!!


I go back Wednesday for a check, but WOOOHOOOO!!!!  The possibility of twins was mentioned, but I'm not even thinking about that right now.  I'd love twins... but I'll take what I can get and I'll be happy!  I just want this baby (these babies?) to come home happy and healthy and perfect in October!!!!!!

Sunday, February 8

Unofficially it's official

So... I'm still feeling gross.  I sound like a frog and I vary between being ridiculously hot and freezing.

That being said... Saturday marked 11dp3dt... 14dpo.  So, of course I had to take a HPT... and then another this AM and another this afternoon.

The results, my friend? 












And we release a collective sigh of relief.  Against conventional wisdom we have told Johnny's brother and parents and my parents.   We felt like they were just as involved in this process as we were-- they deserve to know even if things don't go as planned.  

We get the official results tomorrow AM, but I am enjoying my night with my three little tests.  :)

Saturday, February 7

Ugh!

So, I am coming down with something.  Strept, the flu, and a stomach bug are all going around school right now.  I'm thinking I have the flu... or at least the makings of it because my stomach is fine and I don't have a sore throat yet, but I have a fever and feel just horrible!

Hoping that I feel better for the week!  Only one more week until vacation!!!

Friday, February 6

I'm a movie fan

Scream 2 aired tonight.  It was just as bloody- if not more so- than it's predecessor.  

Thursday, February 5

Thursday ramblings and other insignificant thoughts

Happy Thursday everybody!  :)

Things are going well... today was parent-conferences.  Ugh.  I hate them.  And really, half my kids don't need them.  And the ones that do... well, their parents don't read the notes and I can't get in contact with them.  But I guess that's how it is in all schools. 

There's all sorts of drama going on at school right now.  Our school is tiny and there are 2 K's, 2 1sts, 1 2nd, 1 3rd, 2 4ths, and 1 5th.  The K's are tiny and the 1st is tiny so next year there will only be 1 1st, 1 2nd... and 1 4th and then 2 5ths.  What all this means is that teachers are going to be involuntarily bumped.. and all is based on seniority.  I'm low- very low- on the totem poll, so I should technically be bumped.  However, I'm the only one (besides my K teaching partner) with K credentials (ECE degree versus elementary degree).  What this means is that someone with more seniority will be bumped before me... and they're none too happy about it.  

On a positive note, however, it looks like our numbers for K next year will be pretty substantial.  So, it looks like there will be 2 K's (at least as of now), so it looks like I WILL have a job at my school in my grade.  :)  

This weekend we're celebrating my dad's birthday Saturday and Sunday we're having dinner or lunch or some sort of food-related meal with Johnny's family.  A really really late Christmas.  :)  
I got my first paper back for my class!  A 5/5.  I'm very excited.  It's nice to be back in the swing of things and it's nice to know that I can still write!  

Tuesday, February 3

Ramblings

No new scenes from horror movies being practiced around here. Tonight's injection was much less bloody.

Remember me claiming to be calm, cautiously optimistic, and all that bologna? So, today the anxious, very optimistic person came out to play. The person who can't wait to test. The person who fluctuates between SURE it worked and panicked about what she'll do if it didn't. So, I'm trying to come up with a test day. Right now I am 7dp3dt. So only 10dpo. Too early to test I suppose. The official test isn't until Monday... maybe I'll test sooner than my typical Sunday though? (On Monday I'll be 13dp3dt) 

Either way, I really have no idea how I will react to bad news. I'm a little scared about that.  Or a lot scared about that.  If this is a negative, I don't know what they'll have me do.  I'm not sure I'd be able to go back to IUIs with any confidence. 

In other news, I am incredibly tired. One of the most significant signs I remember from October was that I was exhausted the week or so before.  So, of course, I'm trying not to attribute my tiredness to a symptoms... but maybe... It could also have to do with the fact that I've been staying up a lot later than usual to get school work done.  Or maybe...   Other than that, just a few cramps.  Nothing crazy... but enough to make me a little nervous.

Tomorrow I have my dermatologist appointment- or "Funny Freckle" appointment as I tend to call it.  I have about 3 or 4 weird freckles I am finally getting around to getting checked out.  I hope the doctor declares that they are nothing serious.  I don't need more stress right now!  :)


Tonight we're up to 120 total injections and needles thus far.  Ugh.  That's a lot for someone who hates needles!

Monday, February 2

Halloween and other musings

Tonight's injection was a scene from Scream. (That's a bloody movie, right?)

When he was finished injecting, Johnny said, "Oh no. Don't move! There's blood." So, of course I moved to look and it was like a mini waterfall down my back. Blood every where. It was crazy. So, of course, I called my mom to make sure I wouldn't die. She said I would be okay. :)

I'm getting a little anxious. Trying to remain calm, optimistic, but not too overly eager. I've had a little cramping on my right side. Not that that means anything... it was present for most of the failed cycles (one or two were preceded by no symptoms whatsoever) and it was present in our cycle back in October. So... yeah... I'll just file it under annoying. It comes and goes very quickly and very rarely.

It has been a crazy busy time... we went to the wake of my friend's dad yesterday. My grad classes are in full swing- with my first paper due this AM. I have a math coach coming in tomorrow to teach a lesson. I have a SPED meeting tomorrow. I have an observation coming up this week. Next week is crazy busy with the 100th day, Valentines, a PJ party (maybe?) and a historical perspectives show we have coming to school. Then, thankfully, it's vacation. THe past few weeks have gone VERY quickly and I don't feel like I especially need vacation, but it will be nice just the same. I'll try to get ahead in my grad classes so I can devote less time to them over the coming weeks and months