Weekly checkin - May 13

dolphin012

This check in is for anyone on this board to participate in and will occur every Wednesday. If you are new here and haven't made a separate intro on the main board please do so before checking in so we can "meet" you! It's easy to do just click the new discussion button in the top right and post away. 

1. Your Name or Screen Name (not full names) and State you are from.


2. How long have you been TTC? Are you TTC #1,#2,#3, etc.?


3. What are you doing this cycle? Are you seeking help with a fertility specialist (RE)? If so, what stage are you in? Charting/temping? Testing? Medicated cycles? IUI? IVF? DE? 

4. Where are you in your cycle? (Waiting to O, 2WW etc) If in the 2ww when will you test?

5. How do you feel about this cycle? (Are you hopeful, anxious... etc)

QOTW: I guess i woke up really hungry this morning b/c all the question ideas that were coming to my mind involved food! How about -- what is your favorite summer vegetable or fruit you look forward to? Bonus points if you share your favorite dish or way to eat it. 

Feel free to add any vents or shout outs.

rspalding001

1. Rita from CA

2. TTC #2 since Fall 2014

3. just doing OPKs

4. CD 17 - waiting to O

5. Feeling hopeful, we go on a mini vacation tomorrow to Hawaii (back on Sunday) so if I O while away it might be good timing since we will probably have plenty of time to do the deed

QOTW: Hmmmm, maybe summer squash? Usually we will just BBQ or saute it and eat it by itself or over rice.

emsmama15

1. Your Name or Screen Name (not full names) and State you are from.
Heather from MN

2. How long have you been TTC? Are you TTC #1,#2,#3, etc.?
TTC #2 for about 11 months. On my 7th medicated cycle.

3. What are you doing this cycle? Are you seeking help with a fertility specialist (RE)? If so, what stage are you in? Charting/temping? Testing? Medicated cycles? IUI? IVF? DE? 
IUI #5 with Gonal F, Trigger, Progesterone.  Still doing CoQ10, Vit E, Vit C, no alcohol, no diet coke, limited coffee, I've lost 16 pounds and I'm limiting carbs.

4. Where are you in your cycle? (Waiting to O, 2WW etc) If in the 2ww when will you test?

CD 6, WTO, ultrasound Friday.

5. How do you feel about this cycle? (Are you hopeful, anxious... etc)
Hopeful.  Our RE is still confident we could get pregnant, even on IUI #5 or 6., since we just figured out the right medication dosage and length.  Fingers crossed.

  
QOTW: I guess i woke up really hungry this morning b/c all the question ideas that were coming to my mind involved food! How about -- what is your favorite summer vegetable or fruit you look forward to? Bonus points if you share your favorite dish or way to eat it. 

I love sweet corn.  My diet doesn't allow it, but I may have a piece or two anyway.  

MissusMeagan

1. Meagan from Florida

2. Week 1 of cycle #1 of TTC #1

3. OPKs and some charting and temping - I've backed off a little, but am trying to get back into some good, consistent data recording.

4. AF ends today so the games begin tomorrow.

5. Hopeful, excited, anxious and impatient. I just got some positive feedback from my doctor, which was super encouraging, but we're so early on in the process that it's hard to know what to expect!

QOTW: Doesn't really count as seasonal because I could eat them for every meal every day of every week of every year, but I would say AVOCADOS. Here's a recipe from my cookbook for our staple house guac:

Roasted Garlic Guac

6 large cloves garlic, peeled

Dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt for roasting

4 large avocados

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

½ teaspoon ground white pepper

Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Wrap the whole garlic cloves sprinkled
with the oil and salt tightly in a foil packet and
roast for approximately 30 minutes, or until cloves are fragrant,
softened, and slightly browned. Place in the bowl of a food
processor fitted with a steel blade and process to a
paste. Set aside.

Meanwhile, carefully slice avocados in
half vertically, remove pits, and scrape flesh from
skin. Place the avocado flesh, garlic paste, lime juice, and white pepper in the bowl of a
molcajete and mash, working toward an even but chunky
finished product. Season with salt to taste and serve immediately.

YIELD: approximately 2 to 2½ cups

Good luck to everyone this cycle and this week!

emsmama15

^^YUM!!  Thanks for the recipe @MissusMeagan!!

suziq1978

1. suziq1978, central IL
2. #4, 9 cycles
3. charting cm, decided to not temp again as that seems to produce more sex
4. potentially 2dpo.  since I'm not temping I'm not sure, but historically I o around cd 16
5. meh - I've basically come to the conclusion that this is not going to happen.  H gave a deadline of my birthday which is only 2 months away now so I'm almost at the end.  Oh well.

QOTW: I guess i woke up really hungry this morning b/c all the question ideas that were coming to my mind involved food! How about -- what is your favorite summer vegetable or fruit you look forward to? Bonus points if you share your favorite dish or way to eat it. 

I love corn on the cob done on the grill.  I also love to put any vegetables in a foil pack with some butter or olive oil and grill them.

dolphin012

1. dolphin012 from CA

2. #1 for a while

3. charting/temping. Have drastically increased protein and reduced sugars

4. Either 5 or 7 dpo (temps a little funny around O). 

5. Neutral. Would be awesome, but seems unlikely trying naturally. We will be starting our second round of ivf next cycle. We still have our one remaining embryo that was inconclusive from the PGS testing. Ideally we would transfer the embryo first. but due to my work schedule we decided best to save him/her and do another round first. If we transferred and it didn't take, i wouldn't be able to do another cycle until Oct. It seems every month counts now...

I think i have to go with tomatoes. Love them in gazpacho or just sliced on the side with my egg in the morning. Zucs are in a close second! 

@MissusMeagan -- thanks for the recipe -- sounds super yummy. Will definitely be making roasted garlic guac!

FemShep

1. Your Name or Screen Name (not full names) and State you are from.
FemShep, MA

2. How long have you been TTC? Are you TTC #1,#2,#3, etc.?
#3, off and on for more than a year, 2nd cycle post mc

3. What are you doing this cycle? Are you seeking help with a fertility specialist (RE)? If so, what stage are you in? Charting/temping? Testing? Medicated cycles? IUI? IVF? DE? 
I feel like I'm a chemistry experiment.  PNVs, CoQ-10, baby aspirin, charting, temping, OPKs.  

4. Where are you in your cycle? (Waiting to O, 2WW etc) If in the 2ww when will you test?
CD5, WTO

5. How do you feel about this cycle? (Are you hopeful, anxious... etc)
It's too early to feel much of anything right now.  It looks like I may O while we're on vacation, sharing a room with our two DDs, in Disney World.  Bring on the romance.  

QOTW: I guess i woke up really hungry this morning b/c all the question ideas that were coming to my mind involved food! How about -- what is your favorite summer vegetable or fruit you look forward to? Bonus points if you share your favorite dish or way to eat it. 

Summer is so great for food!  Bring on the peaches, strawberries, tomatoes.....  YUM!

DH makes an amazing peach souffle cake, and we love a basic caprese salad.

GK2009

1. Your Name or Screen Name (not full names) and State you are from.
GK2009 from NJ

2. How long have you been TTC? Are you TTC #1,#2,#3, etc.?
TTC #2 since November 2013

3.
What are you doing this cycle? Are you seeking help with a fertility
specialist (RE)? If so, what stage are you in? Charting/temping?
Testing? Medicated cycles? IUI? IVF? DE?
Still waiting for AF since my MC 2 weeks ago.  I went to the RE this morning to check my hormone levels to see if they have gone back down to zero.

4. Where are you in your cycle? (Waiting to O, 2WW etc) If in the 2ww when will you test?
Please see above

5. How do you feel about this cycle? (Are you hopeful, anxious... etc)
I am not technically in a cycle-- but I will always stay hopeful about this process.

QOTW:
I guess i woke up really hungry this morning b/c all the question ideas
that were coming to my mind involved food! How about -- what is your
favorite summer vegetable or fruit you look forward to? Bonus points if
you share your favorite dish or way to eat it.
I LOVE summer fruits-- watermelon, cherries, peaches, plums... all of it!  I love to make huge fruit salads every week.  I also like a summer pasta salad-- tri-color pasta with red, orange and green peppers, red onion, chickpeas, feta cheese and italian dressing... just throw it all together!  I also love ice pops and anything that the ice cream truck delivers because everything tastes better when it comes off an ice cream truck!

jilligan14

1. Jill from NC

2. TTC #1 for 2 years

3. Lots of vitamins, cutting back on sugars/carbs, OPKs, temping, etc.

4. I've had a tough time pinpointing O-day this cycle as my signs were contradictory. However, I'm pretty sure I'm either 5dpo or 3dpo. There's also the chance I didn't O at all since my body likes to play tricks on me.

5. Part of me is feeling really hopeful because we did it a lot leading up to both suspected O-days. But part of me is trying not to get hopes up as I've had all the signs of O before, only to find out I didn't O (the sad story of PCOS, I guess...). Will have progesterone test on Monday, which will confirm if I did in fact O. Counting the days until then...

WATERMELON!! It's my fav. I ate about half a watermelon yesterday. Yum!

Stairbear

1. Stairbear, 38, from CT

2. TTC #2 since January

3. In the interest of getting my cycles back, I finally stopped nursing my DD on her second birthday. We talked a lot about it, did a countdown, etc., but two weeks later, she is still asking daily for "mama milk." I feel really bad when she asks, but then I remind myself that she got two years of my milk, and if she's going to have a sibling, this had to happen. And it worked, because...

4. On Tuesday I got my period! First time since August 2, 2012 (but who's counting, haha). I was more excited than when I finally got my first period as a 15-and-a-half-year-old (I was a very late bloomer). So I finally dusted off the old fertility monitor.

5. Excited that now I can join the ranks of you guys, trying with purpose, tracking cycles, and even being part of the dreaded two-week wait.

Sorry this is so late! Wishing you all well.

jilligan14

@Stairbear - yay! That's super exciting news! Good luck!!

dolphin012

Great news @Stairbear! 

KLake42

Hey y'all

I'm Kathleen from GA.

TTC #1, and this is my second cycle.

Medicated IUI (femara, trigger shot, progesterone).  I'm going high tech because I'm gay, and relying on medication because I tested for low reserve.  

Today is CD 7.  My last day of femara (thankfully-- it really makes my joints ache!) and I have an appointment Monday for ultrasound.

I'm hopeful, but honestly, kind of discouraged. I know this can be a long process. I know I showed indications of low reserve. The medication is just kind of rough on me. My hands, fingers, wrists, knees, feet, and hips all ache from the femara.  Nothing extreme, but it's tiring.  I want to be hopeful that everything will work this time, but I want to be prepared for the long haul.  

I am deeply in love with all kinds of produce-- picking a favorite is hard! But if I had to pick just one, it would be tomatoes fresh from the garden, NEVER REFRIGERATED.  If you've tasted them fresh, you can never go back to pale, mealy grocery store versions.  Oh, and peaches from South Carolina!  Yeah, I'm a GA girl, and I know that SC grows better peaches than we do!