ETA – It feels completely weird to be writing a post like this after our first cycle of TTC#2. I have a few IF friends who got pregnant more easily with #2, and they were right – it totally throws you for a loop. It’s almost like I feel like I’m not allowed to claim my IF background as my reality anymore. I’m not quite sure how I feel about things right now. It’s a mind fuck.
- CD1 – I’m SO thankful to have gotten my period while still breastfeeding. When Stella was born, I had zero intention of going longer than one year, but now at 15mo pp, I’m glad we have gone as long as we have. Stella seems to be slowly dropping her morning and nighttime feedings on her own anyway, so I hope it’s a really smooth, gentle transition for both of us. I really didn’t want to wean her before we were both ready just to get TTC#2 on the road, because what if it was all for naught anyway? I’m going to miss breastfeeding.
- CD3 – My friend Mary gave me one of those “fertility tests” to pee on that supposedly check your FSH levels. Mine was all good.
- CD14 – I didn’t even start OPK testing until today. Historically, if I was going to ovulate in a cycle, it happened between CD19-30. Not expecting that to change now.
- CD23 – I apparently was still holding out hope that my cycles would have magically become more normal. From CD10-23 I tried to loosely keep us on a BD schedule (without cluing Charlie into the plan). Trying to keep this fun this time around. Scheduling sex sucks. Giving up the every other day thing for awhile.
- CD31 – Headed to STL on vacation for the next 5 days. No time/place for sex. Probably won’t ovulate anyway since I’m past CD30.
- CD36 – A positive OPK? Holy shit, I’m actually going to ovulate this cycle?? This morning I came down and told Charlie I was ovulating, and could we pretty please have a quickie before he left for work? Charlie said, “So we’re back to this are we?” We set Stella up on the couch with her sippy cup of milk, a bowl of cheerios, and an episode of Super Why. I even pulled out the big guns (pre-seed) to give us a fighting chance. My EWCM sucks…pretty much non-existant ever since cryo when I was in college. I jumped him again that night. Just gotta make sure you know? 🙂 He wasn’t in the mood at first, but then decided it was a good idea after all. LOL
- Proceed to test my LH surge 3x that day plus the next morning. All showing a positive surge. Later than I’ve ever ovulated (before if it was past CD30, they just turned into anovulatory cycles).
What it looks like when you have to test from CD14-CD36 to finally see a positive LH surge! Damn PCOS.
- CD42 – According to FF, I’m 5dpo and I’m frickin’ sick at the same time. It’s making my BBT temps spike weird too. Hoping this doesn’t screw with implantation if that actually is happening.
- CD46 – Stella’s daycare provider told me today that her mother-in-law (who she always says has a direct line to God) asked her around Easter if I was pregnant or trying to get pregnant again, because she sees me with two little girls. It literally made my heart catch in throat and tears come to my eyes.
- CD48 (11dpo) I was going to wait 2 more days to test, but couldn’t do it. I took my BBT at 5:45 as usual – still going up – so I crept into the bathroom to pee. I refused to let myself look at the test for the requisite 5 minutes, instead taking the time to lather lotion all over my sunburnt body from working on our new deck yesterday. I just looked at 5:55 (5 is a lucky number in my family), and HFS, I see a faint 2nd line. Could this seriously have worked first cycle?!?!?! Peed on a 2nd cheapie HPT, same result. Laying in bed shaking right now, trying to sleep again. I need to wait a few hours and test again before I tell Charlie. Holy shit.
- 7am – Charlie gets up to shower, and when he gets out, I’m standing there holding Stella and a pee stick with a faint second line on it. I say, “So this happened this morning.”
- Commence freak out / shock all day. I drink a couple of beers (hell, most people wouldn’t know they were pregnant yet anyway) and try to make normal conversation with friends. I tell my best friend Mary because I need to tell someone.
- CD49 (12dpo) I’m testing 2x/day, and the line is definitely getting darker. We decide to tell Charlie’s parents, because no matter what happens, we want their support. They are shocked and ecstatic.
- CD50 (13dpo) Darker and darker lines. Is this for freaking real?! I got my entire family (the 5 siblings + my parents) on Google Hangout at the same time tonight, so we tell them too. They are also shocked. Also ecstatic. 🙂 After that, we Facetime with Charlie’s brother & SIL in Minnesota to tell them. Same reaction. Shock and tears of joy. This is insane and surreal.
(I love that one sister was in the grocery store in Maryland, one sister was in the car with her boyfriend in Minneapolis, my brother was in his apartment in Fargo, and my other sister [the one we were stalling for because we knew she was almost there] was with my parents. My Mom was taking this video – she had NO idea what we were about to tell them!)
- CD51 (14dpo) I took belly pics this morning, because though I’m slightly afraid of jinxing something, I’d regret it later if I didn’t take my weekly picture. We told Charlie’s sister over lunch at our place – Stella carried our little scrabble picture over to her perfectly and Jaime burst into tears. 🙂
- CD52 (15dpo) I got an initial appointment scheduled with an awesome home birth midwife who has practiced in the area for 25+ years. May 14th… so a couple of weeks away. I am SO hoping that Charlie will get on board with this.
The FRER is from 13dpo. I started testing with internet cheapies on 11dpo (2 on 11dpo, 2 on 12dpo, then 1 a day after that. I need to start testing, b/c it’s starting to freak me out if the line isn’t always darker. Has anyone else had this happen with the cheapie HPTs? I’m tempted to go buy a FRER.
So there is the breakdown of my last couple of months! I started the cycle taking 4g of myo-inositol and a folic acid pill every day. FWIW, I started the myo-inositol with moderate regularity back around the 1st of the year. Around CD30 I gave up the supps while we went on vacation to STL – I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to ovulate anyway. On CD37 I miraculously ovulated, and on CD43 I decided I’d better pick back up with the supplements just in case. At that point I started taking 3g of myo-inositol + a folic acid pill every day. We used pre-seed for sex during O time, and that is it.
Also, Jay just wrote a really interesting post about myo-inositol in response to a question of mine. She included this final paragraph, and it really makes me wonder if this was the key for us:
Also, some information to note, if part of your issue is low progesterone, this may really be something to try out, since both published literature and my experience (with the 1000 g/day dose) suggest that this really can increase progesterone levels.
I have PCOS and borderline short LPs, possibly because of low progesterone. It seems like myo-inositol could have been helping me all around.
Overall though, this seems like it was too easy in comparison to our experience last time, and that definitely scares me a bit. With Stella, it took us nearly two years, $10,000, and a lot of help from doctors to get to this point. It doesn’t seem real that this could happen for us without that same process happening this time around. I’ve bought a $25 pack of internet OPKs/HPTs, bought 2 jars of myoinositol (one in powder form and one in pill form) for $25 total, and my best friend gave me a FRER that she had laying around (I’d given her my leftover FRERs after getting pregnant with Stella two years ago!). That’s it. I’m not trying to brag or sound ungrateful – I’m just in a bit of shock and disbelief that this could happen. For the first time ever, I spent more money on beer than fertility related stuff in a cycle and I’m pregnant!
Also, we’re going “low tech” with this pregnancy so far. No beta (can’t afford them – $100/ea and we’d need two of them – seems crazy to spend that on an elective blood test, even though I really really wanted to do them) and no ultrasounds (earliest they would do for a “regular” pregnancy is 12w, and usually not until 20w – losing my MIND about that). I really do want to try to stay in a positive, “fertile” mindset as much as possible. I’m looking forward to my meeting with the midwife on the 14th, and we’ll see how everything goes after that! Our insurance BLOWS, so that’s another benefit to midwife care and a home birth – it would cost us max $4,000 for all prenatal/delivery/postnatal care (and I’m hoping I can get my insurance to maybe cover something) instead of $8,000 for a hospital delivery. That’s a big difference.
So that’s the breakdown of my last 53 days. Insane, right?!
