WTO Monday 2.15

keikilove

**This is a thread that welcomes all regardless of where they are at in their TTC journeys. Please be mindful of topics that are discussed that could be hurtful to those going through tough times. Mention of children or pregnancies of others should have a TW (trigger warning) and be in a spoiler if possible, and only be mentioned if it is extremely pertinent to the conversation. Thanks for keeping this a safe place for us all to engage!**

Month/Cycle: 

CD: 

WAYDTGKU: 

R/R:

CS/Q:

Lisa3379

Month/Cycle: 13/no idea

CD: 2

WAYDTGKU: Waiting to start IVF transfer cycle

R/R: So yeah, since I just did my egg retrieval cycle, I was super excited to see my period start (which was a whole other thing: being happy to see a period. This TTC is a trip for sure, eh?). I contacted my RE and am waiting to hear back regarding an appointment for an ultrasound and to discuss our plan for transfer. I'm really hoping we can transfer in the next couple weeks? Three weeks? As soon as possible. But then we're evidently still waiting on genetic testing results to see if we need to test the embryos for anything. It's been 2 weeks! And then that will be another couple of weeks of waiting while the embryo results come back.   

CS/Q: nope 

acleverusername

@Lisa3379 the waiting is definitely the worst. But, remember what you've gone through to make it this far. At this point, it's just a matter of time and rushing now definitely won't help your chances! *breathe in, breathe out* (I wish I could take my own advice.)

Month/Cycle: 13/14

CD: 10

WAYDTGKU: taking a break from medicated/IUI cycles with a natural cycle (bbt, OPKs, HIO EOD), more testing for MH and I, lots of vitamins and supplements for both of us.

R/R: so happy to have another day off today, but definitely need to get some work done today. Only a couple of hours. I find it easy to focus when I don't have meetings / IM convos popping up left, right and center and thus find doing weekend work >2x more productive. Just gotta get it done. 

I had the most cliché VDay ever, including champagne and choco-covered strawberries. Lol. I learned that melting Godiva chocolates isn't the best thing: my strawberries looked like they've been dipped in 💩. But what they lacked in presentation, they made up in taste. 

CS/Q: we had some wine last night, so I didn't bother temping this morning; been getting solid negatives on my OPK tests too (both CBAD and regular strips). Before starting medicated cycles in Aug, the earlier I O'ed was CD16 so I don't expect anything to happen until later this week. 

jackie_dunny

@Lisa3379 I hope the waiting goes by quickly for you! Anything you can do to distract yourself? 

@acleverusername glad you had a day off and we’re able to focus on your work. Lol-ing at your strawberries 

Month/Cycle: 1/1

CD: 15

WAYDTGKU: PNV, SMEP, charting (FF, BBT, CM, CP), OPKs

R/R: I got to actually do stuff at work instead of just observing yay! It was just clerical stuff but it was nice to get my hands in. I won’t be doing any of the fun stuff (assisting with the cutting of the organs, preparing slides and specimens, etc.) for awhile yet but that’s okay because I’m still loving it. I told them I’m particularly fascinated in anything reproductive related so one of the scientists pulled me over when she was cutting up a uterus. It was the whole thing (uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, etc.) and it was a heck of a slot smaller than I imagined. The whole thing was about the size of my fist more or less. It was so cool to see the thing I’m constantly poking around and studying all cycle long 😂 oh and she cut it open and showed me the endometrium lining. I also pictured a uterus to be quite hollow like in the diagrams but the lining took up pretty much the whole thing. Not sure if anyone else is as interested in all of this as I am but I figured I’d share since were all discussing our ute’s everyday lol 

*TW*

I also saw a placenta if anyone else is interested in hearing about that! Will be seeing her do a twin placenta tomorrow! We received a triplet one as well but another scientist took it away 😒

CS/Q: I had originally discarded the first high temp because I’m fairly certain it’s just from the vaccine but when I had a second day of it I figured I’d keep it and see what FF says. May discard both of them later.

mrs_tacos

@Lisa3379 I’m sorry, waiting like that is the WORST

@acleverusername I am convinced that dipping chocolate stuff is just harder than anyone thinks it is. We tried to dip peanut butter ritz cracker sandwiches in white chocolate at Christmas time, and they looked like they were made by Edward Sissorhands.

@jackie_dunny That’s fascinating! I want to hear about all of it!

Month/Cycle: 1

CD: 118

WAYDTGKU: OPKs, PNVs, BBT/CM/etc.

R/R: We had a great Valentine’s Day! Very low key, and our dinner plans got changed because the subway line closest to us had a madman stabbing people at random. Way to keep it weird, NYC. But we pivoted and ordered in the most amazing lobster rolls that I will be dreaming about until the next holiday comes around that I can convince my husband is worth spending $20 on a sandwich...and maybe order me two? But today...what a Monday. Woof. 

CS/Q: I was woken suddenly around 5am, so I went ahead and temped, but it was really high. On a normal cycle I’d probably throw it out, but since I figure everything is probably a wash right now, I’ll just keep it in.

fantasyflyte

@Lisa3379 fingers crossed for you!

@acleverusername nothing wrong with cliche if you enjoyed yourselves! Glad you had a good day.

@jackie_dunny what do you do, is it some kind of medical research?

@mrs_tacos that's...terrifying...but I'm glad you were able to end up having a good day!

Month/Cycle: 4/4

CD: 17

WAYDTGKU: bbt, opk, cm, cinnamon supplements

R/R: not looking like an early O for me this cycle, opks are still faint and no fertile cm yet. Bah. Also, did you know that you can have an allergic reaction to hydrocortisone in one area of your skin and not others? Spoiler in case eczema/skin issues are TMI for anyone, plus it's a wall of text. tldr: eyebrow eczema very itchy and unpleasant.

I had some mild eczema on my eyelid, so put hydrocortisone on it. It seemed to help, so I tried it on both my eyebrows the next day to see if it would help the dandruff issue I'm having.

Yeah no. Woke up yesterday with a very red and itchy eyebrow on one side and very mild red/itch on the other. Tried putting my prescription eczema ointment on it, but only once during the day in case I reacted to that too.

This morning when I woke up, it was swollen enough that I could feel it on my eyelid, and SO itchy. Ended up taking max dose of benadryl and an aleve, finally fell back to sleep an hour later. The drug combo is mostly helping, but it still keeps puffing up when the meds wear off and it's SO ITCHY. SO MUCH ITCH.

And to add insult to injury, the original eczema (or an extention of the new issue) is back on my eyelid so nothing was accomplished in the first place.

CS/Q: nothing too exciting yet really

pajamstagrams

@acleverusername ooh yeah, dipping things in chocolate never looks like it should. Always lumpy and clumpy when I do it. And I always run out of chocolate!

Month/Cycle: 2/2

CD: 11

WAYDTGKU: temping/CM

R/R: whine alert... it's cold, I'm tired, and we've been without power for 17 hours now. Blerrgghh.

Also, PSA, change your smoke detector batteries on the regular. Don't be like us, and have every single one die at 2 am and have to scramble for batteries and ladders in pitch black darkness. Future you will thank you.

CS/Q: This cycle is probably going to be a bust since I'm due to O any day now (usually day 13) and there's no dang way I'm taking off my winter coat and scarf and pants in the house anytime soon...so that ship has sailed, what's been done better be good enough 😂 With my crappy sleep last night (and probably tonight) and swapping to a new thermometer (old one is definitely busted, still favored that one temp this am), we'll see if FF can confirm an O date for me this week. 

quiltandknit

@lisa3379 FX'd for quick results and getting things moving!

@acleverusername your V-day sounds absolutely lovely! Yay for wine!

@jackie_dunny Your job sounds so cool!  I've always been super curious to see what real uterus, ovaries, and stuff look like!

@mrs_tacos Mmmm lobster rolls!  I'm a born and raised New England shore girl, nothing better than fresh seafood!

@fantasyflyte oh no!  It's surprisingly common to have allergic reactions to hydrocortisone depending on how it's made and what the ingredients are.  Similar thing with bacitracin too.

Month/Cycle:  13/13

CD:  17

WAYDTGKU:  prenatals, OPKs, CoQ10, DHEA, Clomid and IUI

R/R:  Finally got my positive OPK today so IUI will be tomorrow!  I thought it would be some time last week but it didn't happen on time and I was getting frustrated.  Also thankful that it's happening tomorrow since my work schedule later this week would be much harder to navigate.  Painted my toenails tonight and now just watching TV to distract myself.  Didn't sleep well yesterday so tonight I should crash early!

CS/Q: no questions

keikilove

@Lisa3379 The waiting is the hardest part of all the IVF stuff. It seems to take forever! Hope you get your test results soon.

@acleverusername Sounds like it’s a great time for you to have some time off to just try naturally. I only lurked last week’s IF thread—will respond to everyone this week—but wow, it sounds like you went through a lot recently. Hope the time off from all of it helps.☺️

@jackie_dunny That all sounds fascinating! I’ve seen tons of placentas growing up🤢 (grew up around midwives/been to lots of home births) but I’ve never seen the process of slicing it or inspecting under a microscope. I’d love to see what they can discern from those studies. What are they studying them for in your lab? 

@mrs_tacos WTH to the subway stabber?! Glad y’all could make other plans. Mmm, lobster rolls!

@fantasyflyte Wow, sorry about that reaction! That sounds miserable. Hope it got better throughout the day. 

@pajamstagrams My brain interpreted your “whine alert” as “WINE alert”—maybe a nice glass of red will warm you up. Hope the heat comes back on soon! 

Month/Cycle: 33/lost track 

CD: 2

WAYDTGKU: So many vitamins and meds. But this month we are trying again to do the frozen embryo transfer that was cancelled last cycle, so I don’t have to do much of anything by way of HIO... 

R/R: Rave: We made a restaurant-quality meal together for V-Day. We want to make this a new tradition every Sunday where we pick something new & delicious to try to cook together. Rant: DH cooked in his usual “style” of leaving every drawer & cabinet open, all ingredients strewn across the counters, and piles of dirty dish towels everywhere. I tried not to nag but I am a firm believer in “clean as you go”. The new Sunday night tradition may bring us closer together or drive us madly apart.😆

CS/Q: Two bloody dots 

acleverusername

@jackie_dunny your jobs sounds really cool. I love how excited you're about it!

@mrs_tacos I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggled with dipping stuff in chocolate. Also, yikes re: stabby man in the subway! Glad you were able to pivot and save the holiday!

@fantasyflyte yowza! I hope the meds help take care of the itch STAT!

@pajamstagrams Woah - did I miss your losing power? I hope it comes back on soon! Your situation doesn't sound comfortable at all! MH and I had a similar issue with both our smoke detectors and CO2 detectors back in the fall. I bought a giant pack of batteries from Costco (cause of course you don't have 9Vs just lying around) and rage-replaced all the batteries. It's been peaceful ever since. 

@quiltandknit hooray for IUI! Woot. Good luck! 

@keikilove I'm totally with you re: clean up as you go! Hopefully you can keep the new tradition alive without any casualties! It sounds like a wonderful idea. 

pajamstagrams

@acleverusername yeah, we're caught in one of the winter weather patterns right now and the grid can't keep up with demand. Lol at the batteries, we only had 2 9v, so some of our detectors didn't get replaced. Thankfully we had a ton of AA and AAA so we were able to replace all our fake candle batteries for some light 😂

Lisa3379

@acleverusername laughing at the mental picture of your strawberries, haha. Over the past few days I've seen some funny pics of people attempting to do the same... I'd still eat the hell out of them though. 

@jackie_dunny I've got plenty going on for sure to distract...or stuff that SHOULD distract. I might open up a new puzzle and work on that in the next few weeks.  

@mrs_tacos ohhhh, lobster rolls... There was a lobster roll truck out here recently and DH ran out to grab a couple, plus some lobster bisque. SO GOOD. Lobster rolls might be my favorite food. That and lasagna. 

@fantasyflyte bummer about the eczema! That sounds so annoying. Hopefully that clears up for you soon.

@pajamstagrams I am absolutely convinced that smoke detectors are designed to flake out in the middle of the night. It JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN during the day when it's convenient!

@quiltandknit yay for IUI day tomorrow! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

@keikilove YES to clean as you go. It's bad enough to have to do dishes after a meal, you might as well make it a little more manageable when the time comes! Plus, I always need counter space as I cook, and having crap stacked all over the place just irritates me. 

keikilove

@quiltandknit I guess we were posting at the same time so I missed tagging you. Best of luck with the IUI tomorrow!!

quiltandknit

@keikilove yes we totally were writing at the same time! I hope this cycle goes smoothly for your transfer!

I think I missed @pajamstagrams too! Omg sounds so cold! Don’t blame you for staying bundled and hope you get warm soon!

jlbaker08

@acleverusername I've always had really good luck adding a little bit of coconut oil to chocolate when I melt it for dipping, gives it a nice shine and keeps it smooth
@jackie_dunny your job sounds so cool!  I work for a science education supplier and we have a slides department that does all kinds of cool things like that!
@mrs_tacos oh, now I want lobster... or any kind of seafood