A little background info ...

I thought I’d start this, mostly for me, but also in case any of you want to keep up to date with what is going on. I thought I’d do it this way for a few reasons.

- No one has to ask me about it. I can share what I want to share, and when I want to.
- I won’t email out updates, so if you’d rather not know this stuff you don’t have to. You can check here whenever you want.

Hopefully this won't have to be around for long! (Oh, and just so you know POAS = pee on a stick = taking a pregnancy test = my try at a little humor.)

So I guess a little background. I went off birth control back in March, and even though we weren’t really going to, we started trying then. I started charting on day 1, to get to know my cycle. If you’ve never heard of it, check out the book “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Weschler. It’s a fantastic book even if you aren’t trying to have a baby. There were just so many things about my cycle that I didn’t know about.

Based on my charting, I could tell that I was in fact ovulating, and that we were timing things correctly. Most of the time offices won’t see you until you’ve been trying a year, but that’s also based on most people trying around day 14 and that’s it. Due to charting the entire time, I was able to get in sooner. I'm also very lucky in that we have a good family friend who is the nurse practioner for the Reproductive Endocrinologist's office downtown at IU Womens. We've been talking the past few months and then after 6 months or so they wanted me to come in. It also helps that I've been charting and using OPKs (ovulation predictor kits) and pretty much know my cycle frontwards and backwards. Anyways, they did bloodwork last cycle to check my progesterone levels, thyroid, and prolactin. Thyroid and prolactin came back fine. The progesterone levels were a different story. They do that test 7 days past ovulation (which for me wasn't until about chart day 31 or 32, as I typically don't ovulate until about chart day 22-24.) Anyways, anything over a 5 means that some sort of ovulation occurred, but it needs to be at least 10 for it to be a strong enough ovulation to conceive and sustain a pregnancy. They like to see a 15, but over 10 they consider "ok." My b/w was done at 8 days past ovulation (so should even have been a little higher) and it was only at 8.7.

Anyways, basically it all boils down to my hormones not doing what they were supposed to, which is also why I've been ovulating so late. So this cycle they started me on Clomid. I took it for 5 days (from chart day 3-7) and it tricks my body into thinking there isn't enough estrogen so that it will make more, which will then in turn (hopefully) create a better ovulation. It wasn't pretty while I was taking it - super emotional and lots of hot flashes. It has at least worked in the sense that it moved my ovulation up from CD23 to CD14. I actually go back for more bloodwork on Friday to check my progesterone and see if there are higher numbers. (Keep your fingers crossed that they are because I don't know that I can handle a higher dosage of the Clomid.)

The other thing is that on the OPKs I never get a dark line like you're supposed to - they are not catching my LH surge. If I’m not PG this cycle, then next one I'll be on the Clomid again, and start using the OPKs at CD11. If I don't have a clear, dark positive by CD13 then I go down for them to actually look at the ovaries and see what the eggs look like. The two other things that are tentatively on schedule for December if I'm not PG by then are a sperm analysis for Jason and the HSG for me - where they'll run dye through my tubes to see if they are cleared out. They were going to wait until after the first of the year probably for those 2, but as we're about to hit our deductible for this year, they'll do them in December. All of this is dependent on how the next few cycles go and the bloodwork we do this week.

It was rough the day that I found out about my progesterone levels last cycle and that I was ovulating but not good enough. It just sucks to know that something in my body isn't quite doing what it's supposed to but on the other hand it's nice knowing that we're working to correct it. It was also a little hard making the decision about the Clomid. The major side effect with it is that our chances of twins goes from 3% to about 12%. That's still 88% of people who DON'T end up with twins, but it's a little scary thinking that our chances are quadrupling.

For the most part I'm doing ok with it. People have learned to quit asking me if I'm pregnant yet (and this isn't even people who I'm friend with who knew that we were trying - just other nosey people.) The other fun part is when people tell me to relax and I'll get pregnant. Actually, that has nothing to do with it and for awhile there I was tempted to make a tshirt that said, "Guess what? I relaxed and it still didn't happen." The other hard part is that just about everyone I know (and I don't say this to make anyone feel bad, it's just the truth) has gotten pregnant within a month or so. That's not the norm, and I know that, but being around so many PG women and newborn babies is a little hard sometimes. Most of the time I’m just fine – there are just those few moments that I let myself have a good “feel sorry for myself” cry.