ICLW fail

I totally sucked at ICLW this month.

I didn't not do my daily comments every day.

I could give some excuses, but when it comes down to it, I just didn't do it.

(I've been terrible about responding to texts on my phone and returning friends' calls too, lately...)

So anyway- if you found me from ICLW or are reading after the fact- sorry!

ICLW

ICLW is here! I'm not a regular participator, but this is my third or fourth time, and I enjoy reading new blogs and "meeting" new readers to mine.

I am tentatively pregnant after my fourth IVF. You can read a much more detailed history about my treatments, losses, and surgeries on my TTC history page.

Looking forward to the week- hearing from other commenters and reading your blogs. :)

ICLW

This week is "one year since..." for a number of things for me, starting tomorrow.

So I thought I'd post my ICLW welcome early, as there probably will be other things I want to say in the next few days.

We were initially diagnosed with unexplained infertility. After 4 IUIs, 2 IVFs and a miscarriage, we had further testing and found out my husband, III, has a chromosomal inversion. (You can read more about that by clicking the link to the right.) 1 FET, 1 more IVF, and another miscarriage later, I had a laparoscopic myomectomy to remove a fibroid. (More info also to the right.)

So here we are... I'm over a month past my surgery and tomorrow is finally my post op appointment. I'm looking forward to getting the all clear from my surgeon and be told when I can go back to me RE and start our next cycle.

Happy ICLW! I look forward to reading some new blogs and 'meeting' some new bloggers. :)

ICLW

This month marks two years since our first visit with the RE. So I figured it was a good one to participate in ICLW.

So if you are new, welcome! To catch you up...

We were initially diagnosed with unexplained infertility. After 4 IUIs, 2 IVFs and a miscarriage, we had further testing and found out my husband, III, has a chromosomal inversion. (You can read more about that by clicking the link to the right.) 1 FET, 1 more IVF, and another miscarriage later, I had a laparoscopic myomectomy to remove a fibroid. (More info also to the right.)

So here we are... I'm currently two weeks past my surgery and recovering well. Aside from ART stuff, we've been dealing with the poor health of my FIL. We packed up our two boxer dogs and drove 16 hours to spend the summer with him and the rest of III's family. Two days before we were to head back home, we got a late night call that my FIL had a match, and he underwent a heart transplant. So we're staying for another month. I've taken a leave of absence from my job as a math teacher for the year, and am feeling a bit untethered...

So now you're caught up! Happy ICLW! I look forward to reading some new blogs and 'meeting' some new bloggers. :)

Another ICLW

I decided, since I'm home this week on a school vacation, I should participate in ICLW again. I should have plenty of time for commenting and exploring new blogs. :)

For new readers, a link to my whole history is in my side bar. The short version?

After 2 and a half years ttc, one and a half years of working with a fertility specialist, 4 IUIs, 3 IFVs, 1 FET, 1 8w m/c, with some ICSI, PGD and a fairly recent chromosomal dx thrown in for good measure, I'm currently (and cautiously) 5w3d pregnant.

With very high betas this time, I'm sitting around, twiddling my thumbs until my May third 7w1d ultrasound.

In the meantime, I'm playing with my two boxers who are the loves of my life... (oh, and of course my husband, III, too. :) ) and trying to increase my knitting expertise, all while teaching eighth grade and dealing with the day-to-day living.

a cranky ICLW- good idea?

I signed up for ICLW again... I think this is my third one. But, if the rest of the week is anything like today, it's going to be a cranky one. Sorry to any new people reading from ICLW. Maybe bad timing on my part...

If you want to get my whole history, you can find it here. Here's the breakdown in numerical (but not chronological) order*:

28 months ttc
18 months working with Dr. Z (RE)
7 medicated cycles
5 negative betas
4 IUIs
2 IVFs
2 chemical pregnancies
1 rescue ICSI
1 ICSI IVF
1 positive beta
1 missed miscarriage (8w)
1 inverted chromosome (DH's #2)
1 FET (with PGD on thawed embryos)

Finishing up our failed FET (one of the two chem pregs) and waiting for the next step... Hopefully a fresh ICSI/PGD/IVF is going to be the silver bullet for us....

*those numbers are inclusive, so my 4 IUIs are part of my 7 medicated cycles, and my ICSI IVF was included in my 2 IVFs count...

ICLW and peanut

I decided to participate in ICLW again this month- so if you are here from ICLW, Welcome! If you are one of my regular readers... welcome anyway! And if you're here from somewhere else... well... welcome! LOL

My husband (III) and I just celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. We have been TTC for 2 years and working with ART for just over a year. After 4 IUI cycles and 2 IVF cycles, we finally were successful. Briefly. Last month, I miscarried at 8w. Sadly, that same week we had to put our beloved B-dog to sleep after a battle with lymphoma. So it's been rough for us lately...

For a more detailed description of our TTC journey you can check out my history post.

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Peanut is really settling in. Thank goodness! I thought III was going to give up on her. She still has plenty of energy, but she has restful spells between her spurts of energy and is sooooo cuddly. At the end of the day, she'll climb up on the couch next to me and curl up against me. She cuddles in as close as she can get. What a sweet girl.

The biggest problem is poop. (Warning... this is going to get detailed.) She has had diarrhea since day 1. The previous owners claimed she'd had "soft" poops since they got her. Well, that's understating what we've seen, plus some blood. :( Poor baby. I took her to the vet yesterday and she's down four pounds! That's only 10% of her body weight. :( :( :( Turns out she has roundworm. Ick. I'm glad we found what could be causing all of this, because it can be fixed, but... ick. I'm nervous about M-dog getting it. We have to pick up all of her poop as soon as she goes... but the consistency of it makes that tough. Not only that... but there may be WORMS in her poop. iiiiiiiicccccckkkkkkk.

The previous owners did have her stool tested, and supposedly it came back "clean". My vet said that can happen on any particular day. But wouldn't you think if she continued to have problems and stay so small they would check it again? Or deworm her anyway just in case? I don't blame the owners, but it just shows me that not all vets are created equal. The place I go is a little more expensive than the place I used to take my dogs, but if they can catch things like this and are more thorough, I'm willing to pay.

We start puppy school tomorrow and I'm excited. I'm looking forward to solidifying some of her training and bonding with her.

For today, I stayed home from school (shhhhhh), because I just needed to sleep and decompress alone. But I do have stuff I have to do since I'm here. I'm giving myself two hours to just sit on the couch and knit before I start on my list.

My thoughts on ICLW.

So my first foray into ICLW has ended.

I tried to be diligent about my commenting, though sometimes I lost count. There may be some days I only made 4 or 5 comments, but there were definitely others where I made 7-10. I'm not sure if I met the "respond to one" each day either... I tried, but I'm not sure how successful I was.

I joined ICLW, in part, in hopes that I would discover new blogs I was interested in reading regularly, as well as hoping some new readers would discover mine.

I think I met my first goal... maybe two or three new blogs to follow. I'm not sure about the second. The comments I got tended to be a one time thing... there were not many repeaters.

The hardest thing about ICLW for me was that it seemed, at least for the blogs I tended to check more often, that people didn't update their blogs. It's hard to comment if there isn't anything new. I wonder if that should be part of the requirements of joining ICLW. 5 new comments, 1 reply, and at least... say 3 posts during the week.

So there's my two cents on the experience. I don't think I'll be a monthly participant, but I'm sure I'll be back. :) It was nice to "meet" all the bloggers who visited from ICLW. Thanks for all of your supportive comments, and I hope you enjoyed reading. :)

Welcome to ICLW

This is my first time participating in International Comment Leaving Week. I have considered doing it before, but never make the deadline and then forget the next month. LOL

My blog is mainly about our infertility struggles, but I also blog a fair amount about other stuff going on in my life.

I've been married for almost three years. We've been ttc for almost two. We've been seeing an RE for ART for almost a year.

Five medicated cycles, four of them with IUI, and then one IVF so far. We are technically, "unexplained infertility", although our first IVF cycle revealed there is some sort of problem with fertilization. We are currently in the middle of an IVF cycle, in which they will be using IC.SI. A more detailed list of our ttc history is here.

When I'm not talking about ttc, I'm usually talking about my dogs. I have two rescue dogs who I adore. My first dog, B-dog, I got when I was single. She and I are BFFs. Sadly, she has lymphoma and we will likely have to have her put to sleep by the fall. When that happens, I don't know how I will bear it. M-dog is my cuddler, and I'm counting on him to help me get through it!

So that's the important stuff in a nutshell. Welcome to new readers! Hi to regulars!