Decisions, Decisions

I wake up this morning and Zack is determined to figure out if we should purchase a OV-Watch or the Clear Blue Easy fertility monitor. He's comparing prices and reading postings by users to see which one is best.

The OV-Watch seems

interesting, and Zack found out that you actually wear it at night. It costs a little more than the pee sticks and might be slightly uncomfortable to sleep in, but it might be more effective in helping us get pregnant because it tells you four days before you ovulate that its time to make a deposit into the baby bank.

The Clear Blue Easy (CBE) is your slightly above standard urine test... I've tried two types already and have had no success. The lack of success is probably due to the fact that I don't know exactly

when to pee on the stick because my cycles are irregular. Also, I don't want to use up all the sticks because I don't want to have to keep buying them.

Well, the CBE is on sale on Costco.com for 134.00 until the 10th of January, so we're going to make a decision on the 5th or 6th as to which monitor we're going to buy. After watching the video below, I think I'm leaning towards the watch (thx Samira!)

Playing with Tickers

So... in efforts to be better at blogging, I've tried to create one of those nifty tickers. This is a ticker showing how many days that have passed since my last period.

Zack and I have concluded that I have a nonexistent "period" at the end of the month. I get these weird cramps but nothing happens. I wait.... and wait... and in another month I'll get my period at the time I'm supposed to get it that month. We're predicting that my pseudomenstration is happening right now, and I'll ovulate again on the 3-6 of January.

Walgreens: Good for more than just prescriptions

On December 17th I woke up with the WORST scratchy throat! By the end of that day, I thought I some hybrid sickness of the Swine Flu, the Bubonic Plague, and Strep Throat.

Zack was sure to run to the store that evening and buy me like 80 cans of chicken noodle soup, and 35 gallons of orange juice. I didn't get better, and every night I would go to bed and wake up feeling like the Old Testament's Revelations.

A week later on Christmas eve, I decided to wake up and drive to the Walgreens Health Clinic. I got back to the nurse who asked me questions like "What types of meds are you on?", "What are you allergic to?", "and.......... "Oh, so are you trying to get pregnant?"

I told her I was and she asked another series of questions like how long we'd been trying, if I was having sex with a pillow, and if I was taking Robutussin.

I answered her: Since May, yes, and I was taking it for what I thought was a cold.

She informed me that I should have sex every other day and lay on the pillow for at least 20 minutes, Zack and I should take a tsp of Tussin every day, I should call her friend (the nurse practictioner) to arrange an appointment at the OB/GYN's office for a prescription for Clomid, and I should fill the prescription at Kroger because they only charge 9 bucks.

She went on with her testimony by saying that she'd tried all that was was able to conceive her two daughters who are 12 and 7.

She looked up the number to the OB/GYN and wrote it on a post-it note, confirmed that I had a sinus infection and wrote two prescriptions for that, and sent me on my way.

I told Zack about the visit, and he said I should call to set up the appointment. I'll think about it and might call this week. The only downfall is that the doctor's office is in Lawrenceville.... Maybe I'll try a doctor a little closer.

Snuggles

I had a ladies brunch at my house on the 19th and a friend of mine brought her 6 week old baby. I'm usually not the one to hold babies who are less than 4 months in age but I'd been waiting so long to see him. I remember talking to his mom a year ago about pregnancy and babies and such, and I wondered when we'd all get pregnant. It was a goal that we all got pregnant together, but oh well...

Baby Jones came through the front door with a ton of personality. He looked around and was calm as all the googley-eyed women waited to hold him. Finally, after I finished cooking and prepared to sit down, I picked him up and sat on the sofa.

Oh my!

He snuggled his cutsy, wootsy little face into my neck being sure to move my cotton shirt away with his little baby fingers. His mom said he didn't like the feeling of clothing and preferred skin against his face. I didn't mind at all. He snuggled and snuggled and SNUGGLE-WUGGLED until he was into a little, warm ball in my neck. It felt nice... almost like those little class hamsters we had in Mrs. Harris' 1st grade class. They furrow into your hand until they're comfortable, and then they sit there and nap like little angels.

After so long, I felt like maybe he couldn't breathe with his little nose in my neck, so I moved him to my arm. He did the same thing there... pushed my sleeve out the way and snuggled his head into the crease of my arm. He looked up at me with bright, blue, sweet little angel-wangel baby eyes (please excuse the baby language).

I talked to him and told him auntie Steph loved him. He simply looked at me. And it was at THAT moment that I realized I needed one of my own because I was literally about to snuggle his little face off!

Miraculous Conception

Soooooooooooo........

I just watched Robin Thicke's "Sex Therapy" video, and I think he has done it.

I think I have just conceived my first child by simply watching the artist I affectionately call "Thicke" on a music video.

Sure... Z was upstairs doing whatever he was doing in our room, and I was downstairs watching VH1 soul in the living room.

Of course... I understand that there traditionally has to have been some sort of sex act to conceive.

Absolutely... I know that drooling on the television and suppressing the urge to scream like a little school girl at Thicke's every movement does not constitute a conceivable situation.

But I feel it in my soul! Thicke was able to create something of a miraculous conception. I knew just as the video ended that something special had happened. I totally wanted to run upstairs and take a pregnancy test, but I didn't.

I figured I'd wait to see what happens... If this miraculous conceptions is simply a figment of my imagination, I'll definitely buy the "Sex Therapy" single and put it on heavy rotation in the house... especially at 6am and 6pm.

User Error

My and Z's bathroom looks somewhat like a lab. I have designated one lucky styrofoam cup to be our sample collection cup, and it sits neatly (and cleanly) on my side of the sink. The cup also multi-tasks as a holder for testing sticks... about seven to be exact.

The routine stands... I wake up, pee in the cup, insert the stick, count to 20, wait for the lines, ask Z what he thinks of the "results," write the date on the stick, wash cup, place sticks back in cup, take shower, get dressed, and go to work. We'll spend at least 15 minutes trying to guess if the light blue line is actually the blue indicating ovulation... then we conclude that we simply don't know.

The other day, I looked at previous sticks and noticed that the test from 12/5 had two solid blue lines which indicates ovulation... Great! but........ today is the 10th!!!

We've now decided to buy and use the electronic kit which will provide us with a simple smiley face when the time is right... no smiley face yet.

To make myself feel better, I go online to do research (because all things are answered through Google, of course)...

I found...

1. Some women ovulate 10 or so days after having their period (and not the 14 I originally thought) and...

2. Some eggs only live 12-24 hours after ovulation (not necessarily 24-48hours)

So, Z and I have come up with a game plan... starting 4 days after my next period, we're going into overdrive... I'm talking about every 12 hours... once before breakfast and once before (or after) dinner... for about 14 days.

Why??? Because we're freakin determined... thats why!

Will it work??? Will we stick to it???

Of course not! But where would we be without some kind of outrageous plan?!