Nervous

Tomorrow I go back to the OBGYN for my regular check up. A lot has happened since then and I will have to rehash most of it since I doubt they have the paperwork. And they always want to hear it from you anyways. Not looking forward to it at all. We are still trying to figure out what we are going to do if we don't get pregnant in the next few months on our own. I want to pursue IUI but I don't know if I can handle the emotional aspect that comes with it. Plus the cost. I know the cost isn't horrible but still. We will see what happens I guess. Still a few months to decide and hope and pray that we don't have to.

I'm glad my work is closed tomorrow but I would be off anyways. Ben's birthday is on Friday so I'm going to take it off instead of getting Tuesday off for my make up day off work. I have no idea what he wants for his birthday dinner so I'm sure it will be last minute. I think instead of getting him a gift, I am going to book us a trip to Amish Country  in May to get away for the weekend. I'm sure he will enjoy that.

The baby is cute as ever! I'm planning on doing a full update after her 18 month well baby visit next week. She still isn't saying many words (which worries me) but we have taken the step of taking her binky away during the day. She still has it for her naps or if we are in public and she is super whiny. She is doing ok as long as she doesn't see it. Full update to come next week!

Christmas and New Years Review

So for Christmas Eve, we headed up to Ben's Aunt's house and give her and Ben's uncle their gift (a new computer!). They loved it :) Then spent a bit of time helpin them get their old one out and the new one set up. Then we rushed home and got ready for church quickly and got there just as service was starting. Baby got restless after about 40 mins so Ben went out in the hall with her for a bit - there was only about 10 more mins. So we finished and then headed home for a nap! That evening we headed to Ben's grandpa's house for about an hour and then went to the other grandpas for the rest of the night. Lots of gifts and fun!

Christmas Day we woke up and opened presents with the baby and us. Then my parents, sister and brother in law came over and we had breakfast then opened gifts. That baby got even more spoiled of course! We laid around for a while after that and then headed to PA around 3 to see my mom's family. We only stayed about 2 hours because the baby was kind of cranky. It was a good time though seeing the family and good food!

For New Years we headed to Ben's grandpa's for the night. We just sat around and ate and watched TV most of the night. Tried to get the baby to sleep but she wasn't having it! So she stayed up and rang in the new year with mom and dad :) She didn't go to sleep until we got home. Good way to ring in the new year...except the next day we did end up in the ER because she was sick and throwing up.. Turns out it was a virus and she is finally doing better and back to eating. We did have fun on new years day and go play bingo with my mom and sister while my brother in law watch Tricia! Ben even won $100 on an instant ticket!

Patricia's Christmas Gifts

Just wanted to get this list down somewhere....

Ball Pit w/ extra balls (mom or amy)
Cozy Coupe car (mom)
3 chairs - giraffee, puppy dog, princess chair (puppy dog/princess were from us, giraffee from gpa blankenship)
Mega blocks tub (mom or amy)
Play Tent (uncle don)
Socks (10 pairs)
At least 25 outfits/sleepwear
Dora mermaid for the tub
Learning kitchen (Uncle Don/Bev)
Walk and Learn Toy (Uncle Don/Bev)
Couple books (us/my mom)
Interactive book w/ dog (carmie jo)
Sand and Water table (us)
Cupcake kitchen (us)
Telephone (Aunt Shirley)
2 sippys (us)
Roller toy (Uncle Joe/Aunt Karen)
Minnie pursue/glasses (Diane/Shannon/kids)
Hokie Pokie Elmo (Sue)
Gift card to TRU (Don/Bev for plates/cups)
Pink Coat/Hat (mom/amy)


Can we say spoiled?!?!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope to be back this week since I'm off to do a few updates. Hope everyone has a safe and joyous holiday!

Not happening

Don't want to get into details but even though I'm at peak ovulation according to my monitor yesterday and  today we won't be trying...so frustrated...

Updates

Just a few updates...
- Ben went for follow up on his heart. They did fix the part he was having an issue with but now from the few minutes they saw in the office - his upper chamber, which is where you heartbeat should start, isn't beating. Thy had him wear a monitor for 24 hours but the doctor hasnt called him back yet with the results. We don't even know what the fix for this will be. Kind of nervous at this point.
- Working on ttc still. Should be ovulating over the next few days so we will know after Christmas if those is our month. I know its only been 2 months but i really do wonder if we will have to go through infertility treatments. If we aren't pregnant by march i will probably start goin to the doc and talk about our options and see what's happening.
-Work has been ok just kind of crazy.

Bust

Well I think this cycle was a bust. Started spotting yesterday. This stinks. Oh well, I guess it's just the first cycle. I was just hoping with the investment in the fertility monitor and the BBT that it might happen. Part of me doesn't think it will happen naturally anyways because of my issues. We will see...on to next month though!

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving next week. I am only working Tues/Weds since I'm always off on Monday's. And then we are closed Thurs/Fri. I am going Black Friday shopping with my mom also so I'm super excited for that! I do have to go to Best Buy at midnight but then nothing else opens until 5 so I'm not sure if I will head back home and sleep a few hours or if I will just wait around for the others stores to open. Still trying to decide. We are doing Thanksgiving at Ben's mom's new house. This year the day Ben's dad passed falls on Thanksgiving so it's going to be a rough one :( The year he passed away it was actually on Thanksgiving too so we always have a rough time around now. I think the last two years it has made me even more upset because he isn't here to see our precious little girl who he would have just ADORED. I just know it. But I know he's watching over us and he sees her and how wonderful she is.

Work is kind of crazy right now, lots to get done with our year end stuff. I'm still hoping for my raise/promotion to go through come Feb. I REALLY hope it does. There is a staff accountant position open right now that I had been considering applying for but it would mean losing my 4-10 hr days which I don't think I'm ready to do just yet. And I wouldn't get overtime. It would be considered a promotion and I might get a slight pay increase form where I am at now but I think what I might be getting in Feb for my current position would be more. So I think I am going to stick out my current role for now. Plus I get to travel a bit during the year which is nice and I just would miss everyone I work with.

His ticker keeps on tickin'

So Ben had his heart surgery on Thursday. We got to our children's hospital at around 7:30 am and registered. Then we headed to the pre-surgery waiting area. Ben changed and we were only there around 15 mins and they took him back to start getting his stats. We saw the doc and the anesthesiologist then before I knew it they were sending me to the waiting room. Very different process from an adult hospital. I didn't know until Thurs morning that the surgery could be up to 8 hours. I was really surprised by that because no one had mentioned that sooner and his last one was about 3 hours and they said they said ti would only take 3-4 hours. To hear this one was going to be 8 hours was a shock. But good thing they prepared us because it ended up lasting 6 hours. There was about 2 hours that were kind of nerve wracking because they weren't sure that they were going to be able to get to the area that was causing the issue in his heart. Luckily they did finally get to it. We found out that he does have a hole in his heart which was one of the ways that they tried to get to the area but were unsuccessful. The hole is not a big deal and 10% of adults have them. We did find out though they had to change his EKG in order to get this SVT to stop. Not sure what that means - I'm assuming that means his heart beat pattern? Anyways they let us back in to recovery and he was really out of it from the anesthesia. He was really anxious and irritated though when I saw him even though he was really in and out. Then by the time we got upstairs he was pretty much out of it but he was still getting nauseous from the meds. So we did end up getting him so food around 7 pm and he did eat some of it. But then he started feeling nauseous again and also some tightness in his chest. His oxygen levels also were getting low (only around 86%) so they put him back on oxygen for the night. After that I did come home to the baby for the night. Then i went back the next morning and they took him for his final testing. We got to leave around 1 pm. Got home and got settled in and he has just been resting since! The tightness in his chest is back and I did call the doc and he thinks it's related to being in the anesthesia so long. So we are just keeping an eye on him!

As far as a update on our trying for #2 - we will see what happens. I did end up getting a peak reading 2 days in a row on the monitor and then high the next day. So shortly after Thanksgiving we should know something.... : ). I'm not counting on it this time around because it's only my second real cycle in 2 years and things may still be out of whack. More to come though!

Unexpected

So I have been doing my monitor every morning (well except for yesterday morning) but when I did mine this morning it came up as peak fertility? That was unexpected! Not sure what's going on with my cycles because my last two have been pretty long (42 days) and so I was planning on getting a positive until mid next week. So it's like 10 days early...so I will test again in the morning and make sure. I did see a slight increase in my temp but not crazy. And didn't really see much of a drop but I'm new to the whole temping thing so I don't know what's within range for me and whats not. We will see what happens! Time to jump my husband though I guess...;-)

Charting, Temping and Testing Oh My!

So now that I have gotten somewhat of an idea of my cycles I have decided to jump in full force and start temping and charting for our journey to TTC #2. I also purchased a digital fertility monitor to use off of a friend. Got a good deal compared to everything else I can find online. I didn't get it until after I started my cycle so it's a few days off but that's ok because I am running on 6 week cycles anyways. So today is actually CD14 but the monitor says cycle day 6 so this morning was my first day of POAS (according to the directions it will have me start testing at day 6). After using another one because I thought the first didn't work (turns out it was user error! :/) I got a low fertility reading. Figured as much.With a 6 week cycle I'm not due to ovulate for another 2 weeks so that's a lot of tests I will have to use this round but I should be able to time things better next cycle and hopefully not use as many tests. I am hoping that maybe it becomes smarter and doesn't have me test until later since my cycles are longer??? If not, I will just wait longer to restart the monitor - maybe not until CD 21. I am a bit overwhelmed by all of it but after 9 months of not being able to do anything about TTC I am all in to get it going as quick as possible. I hope we don't have a long road ahead. I think given our history the doc would be willing to jump strait to IUI but I want to avoid any expense associated with that if possible. So we will try a bit on our own and I probably won't consider that until Tricia turns 2. So here's to being very hopeful that things work out!

Still pretty nervous about Ben's surgery next week even though we have kind of been through it once already. He will have to stay overnight so that is a bit of a change. I may see if my sister and mom can take the baby next Friday night and keep her so we can get some rest. I'm sure Ben won't get much sleep while he is in the hospital so I know he will need it when he gets home.

So this is what it feels like

So this is what it feels like to get a period. Yes, I finally got my period for the first time in almost 2 years. On my own. No help from any doctor. It's been 6 weeks since my last one which was induced by my doctor pretty much. To say I was shocked yesterday when it happened is an understatement. I'm very happy to say the least. The only thing is that I don't think I can use tampons. Everytime I do my flow pretty much stops so I am just using pads to be safe but that would seriously suck if that is the case. I think I am going to call my doc on Monday to let her know.

Now I have mixed feelings on where we go from here. Do we start trying for #2 now? Do we wait? Ideally I would like to start trying now so we may just do that because it may be a bit more difficult than before. So just things to consider at this point. I know that we for sure want at least 1 more!

As far as Ben, they scheduled his second surgery. It will be Nov 10th and this one he will have to stay in the hospital overnight for. They want to monitor him for 12 hours after the surgery so he will probably go home the next morning if everything goes ok. I'm just hoping they fix it this time and he doesn't have to worry about anything anymore!

Tricia had her 15 month check up on Monday. She is weighing in at 22.5 lbs and she is 30 in long. I believe she is 67% for her weight and 30% for her length. I was surprised at the weight because she has always been on the low side for her weight. He said everything looks good with her. Although he did say that she looks like she has very sensitive skin (she has a rash around her mouth right now, not sure what it is or from) and so we need to just watch that especially going into winter.

So an update....

So a few things have been happening. Ben had his surgery for his heart. Unfortunately, nothing was accomplished. They got in and they do see the problem. He has two "wires". Most people only have one. The second one is not too big of a deal because they can usually treat it with heat while they are in there and kill the tissue. The problem is Ben's extra "wire" is so close to his first that they would risk giving him permanent damage in his first one and he would need a pacemaker for the rest of his life if they did do any damage. So they are referring us to a doctor at Children's Hospital. This doctor will use a freezing method to kill the tissue instead of heat. There is much less risk of permanent damage-if they start to freeze the first one, then they can just heat it back up and it will not have damage. So he has his first appointment next week with the doctor and from there they should just schedule the surgery since he has been through all the testing already.

As far as my health issues...Nothing yet. No period. No signs of anything. I think I may have ovulated on Monday night because I was feeling a pain that I'm pretty sure was it. So we will see what happens over the next week or so. Hopefully it starts up and everything is ok. I'm not so optimistic anymore. But time will tell so for now it's wait and see.

Work is still just ok. I won't know until Feb now if I am getting a raise though. Although everyday (including yesterday) more promotions are being posted at work and I am really struggling with how every other department can get theirs to go through but mine won't. It's making me very disheartened and giving me honestly no motivation to continue doing what I am. We will see what happens in Feb. They have "committed" to making sure I get something then. But if not, I will be in search of other opportunities.

Baby Tricia is doing great. She is babbling SOOO much now. She is constantly talking gibberish and makes us laugh all the time. She does say "dog", "woof", "dad", "mom" and a few other things. It's really cute and she just makes my heart melt. She is a running fool! She just takes off all the time. She is into EVERYTHING though and my house is constantly a disaster but I'm ok with it because it's her :)

Well I guess so...

Well I guess the doc thinks I got my period after all this. I had some bleeding on Thurs/Fri/Sat but I wouldn't say it was a lot by any means. And then Monday night through today even I've been having some dark brown bleeding so I guess that's it. Just after I tried to call them (they were closed for lunch) one of the nurses called me and after explaining everything to her and letting the doc know, they think that it was my period. She said I could go on birth control or just see what happens. I was kind of irritated because the nurse isn't the one I normally talk to and she kept going back and forth between me and the doc. I almost feel like I should have gone in again so she could check that there wasn't a ton of bleeding left and make sure it was ok. But I guess we are just going to wait and see what happens for now. No birth control yet. I know my cycles are longer now - I didn't ovulate this time until about 4 weeks. So we will just wait and see I guess. No word on if I am going to need help getting pregnant still or what - kind of why I wanted to go in adn see her. I want to see what happens with my next cycle and see if I get a period - if not I will be going back again to figure this out.

Ben is leaving this weekend so I am on my own. Kind of sad about it - I hate when he leaves. SO trying to figure out things to keep me and baby busy. Not sure if I will do anything tonight - maybe run to Kohls - need to find some pants for the baby since it has gotten frigid these last few days! Grab some dinner. Tomorrow I'm going to go shopping at the mall with some of my giftcards from my birthday. I think my mom is going to come over tomorrow night - and we have to go shopping for my goddaughters birthday party Sunday. And then Sunday is the birthday party. So hopefully it will be enough to keep me busy and my mind off of things!

Doc Appt Yesterday

So I started experiencing a fair amount of pain on Weds and I decided to make an appointment with the fertility doc because she said watch for lots of pain or severe bloating - both of which I was having. So I got an appointment yesterday morning. This may be TMI - so stop reading if you don't want to know. She did an ultrasound and she could see that I am actively bleeding right now but nothing is coming out. She decided to try to put a catheter up in my uterus to be sure that she could get in. With relatively little trouble, she was able to get in (compared to previous times she has had to). So that is the question, why can she get in and nothing is coming out. I have had some bleeding since, which I would say is more heavy than I would think would be related to the procedure she did yesterday but I'm going to watch it. She said within a week I need to call her and let her know what has happened. If I don't think I have had a full on period, then she is going to check me and she if she still sees bleeding, and if so, she will need to do a procedure to remove the blood because it will keep distending my uterus each month which as I'm sure you can guess is bad. If this does happen, then she will need to put me on constant birth control until if/when we are ready for more kids so that i don't continue to have period with it having no where to go. If/when we are ready for more kids, it will mostly likely have to be through artificial insemination and I will have to have a c-section when I'm due. This was a lot to take in yesterday and I just had a huge breakdown last night about it.

I'm not sure where to even start. I never thought this is the way things would end up. I thought it would get better, and I guess for all purposes I'm "ok" because I'm ovulating and my lining is getting thick and thin, but it's not ok for me to have a period because I can't get it out. TO know we will have to rely on medicine to get pregnant just sucks because it was so easy for us the first time. Plus we will have to PAY to even get pregnant. Are we even financially ready to do that - because I'm pretty sure it's not covered by insurance.

Then to find out that I will have to have a c-section doesn't make me happy either. I had such a complicated birth with Tricia and I didn't really get to hold her at first which devastated me and still does to this day. And it will be the same when I have another one? Is it bad that I want to tell everyone that no one gets to hold her until I get to when I get out of recovery - even if it means that it's a couple of hours? Then my husband told me last night that he doesn't want another one right now. I would gladly get pregnant this minute if it was up to me. He said maybe some time next year. I'm just so tired of all the problems. All the unexpected money that we have spent on trying to fix this. And most of it is because of the D&C I had to have back in August of last year from the retained product - they messed up during my surgery and created a "false path" that is creating this issue  they believe. It's just so much to take in right now. My husband has been great - but last night he gave me some hard truths that I was not ready for. But now we need to move on from here and figure out where we go.