Fundraiser Winner

I know I was supposed to post this yesterday but honestly I was too busy watching the Harry Potter marathon on tv. Sorry about that! But the winner of the Parenthood for Me fundraiser is.....Doreen! Doreen, send me an email letting know what which gift certificate you would like: Kohl's, Lowe's, Sears, Wal-Mart, Olive Garden, Chili's, Best Buy or Motherhood Maternity. You can also split into two $50 gift certificates if you like.

I ended up raising $75 for PFM which I will match before closing the fundraising page. Thanks to all who donated!!

Starting Over

Well I think it's safe to say that my weight loss quest was an epic fail. So I've decided to start over again from square one. Today I weighed in at 199.7 lbs. I never made it to the gym this week, mostly because of the cramps from AF. It seems that I don't get premenstrual cramps, I get menstrual cramps. And these new periods are completely different from the old. I used to have very light periods, only lasting two or three days. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether it was an actual period or just spotting. These periods have been lasting twice as long, are much heavier and the cramps are quite annoying. In fact, it feels like a real period. The HPT I took this morning showed up negative so at least it's a period and not a miscarriage. I wonder if I should start taking OPK's or charting my temps again. I think I will.

So anyway, back to the weight loss thing. I hereby solemnly swear that I'll get my ass in gear and lose some weight. NO EXCUSES. There, I said it and you are all witnesses. Next week will definitely show some results! Now then....what to do with those chocolate chip cookies I baked last night.......

OH.MY.GOD

Guess who showed up again today? AF! Exactly 25 days after she showed up last time. Usually my periods are about a YEAR apart! What's up with this craziness?! When I woke up this morning I saw some spotting but didn't think much of it. I figured I would wait a few days and see what happened. Last month it took a two or three days for the spotting to turn into a real period. So I took a shower and hopped on the internet. While I was sitting at my chair I started getting cramps...THOSE kind of cramps. So I went to the bathroom and "it" had started. I wonder if that means I ovulated last month. You can't get a period without ovulating, right? I'll take a HPT tomorrow just out of curiousity, though I'm sure it will be negative. Still, maybe the D&C from March helped to regulate my cycle. At least SOMETHING good came out of that whole crappy situation.

On a completely unrelated note, my best friend is coming to visit me next month and we're taking a day trip to New York City to see West Side Story on Broadway! So we've got about 4 hours in the morning to kill, any suggestions? We want to see as much as possible so we thought about just taking a bus tour.

5 More Days!

The Parenthood for Me fundraiser ends on May 30th. Don't forget to make a donation and be entered to win a $100 gift certificate!

Trip Across America: Part Two

Man, what a week. On the way to Pennsylvania we called the apartment complex to confirm our move-in date (today) and our address so we could set up the time for the movers to come. The lady at the complex said everything was still the same so we scheduled the movers to arrive tomorrow. We made it to my dad's house on Thursday and received a call that night that our apartment will NOT be ready today due to new carpet being installed. Instead we can move in tomorrow at 4:30 pm. I was a bit pissed. We had to call the movers back to reschedule and stay in a hotel an extra day. Its pretty inconvenient for us. Not only that but I decided to research this apartment complex a little more. I tried finding some reviews of the complex but couldn't find any. After digging a little deeper I found that this apartment complex was under a different name 3 years ago. On the Apartment Ratings website there were 14 reviews under the old complex name. No one recommended this place. I started freaking out. Brandon said not to worry about it, that the most recent review was back in 2007 and alot can change between then and now. Still, I'm pretty nervous about moving into this place. I know I should have done all this before we planned to live here but we only had about 3 apartments to choose from that had 3 bedrooms. I can only hope its not as bad as I think it will be.

Other than that, the trip has been great so far. My grandmother showed us her paintings that are displayed in a local art gallery. My dad kicked our butts at bowling and Skip-Bo, and Brandon and I butchered a song during karaoke night. I would post the video but the lyrics are a bit explicit and I wouldn't want to offend anyone. The song was "I'm on a Boat" by The Lonely Island. It was sort of a joke because Brandon's in the Navy and he thinks of it as the submariner's theme song.

Yesterday we said goodbye to my family and went to Gettysburg. We had our picture taken in Civil War Era clothing and they even let Oso be in the picture. It turned out AWESOME! Except my elbow was sticking a little too far out but I always pick apart my pictures. The photos were taken by Victorian Photo Studio and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who visits Gettysburg. We may even go back for another picture to send out as our Christmas cards. We also took a self-driving tour of the battlefields of Gettysburg. To be honest, it was a bit boring. It's mostly grassy fields and memorials along the road. For me at least its hard to imagine a battle taking place where there is now farmland. I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if we had visited during a reenactment. Today we spent the day in Pennsylvania Dutch country and visited some Amish stores. We took a buggy ride to an Amish dairy farm and learned about how they live. I learned that the corn they grow is not sold but is used to feed the dairy cows and they sell the milk to Land o' Lakes. So if you ever eat Land o' Lakes products it comes from Amish country! All in all, it was a great day. I'm just not too sure about tomorrow. But don't forget to enter in my blogoversary giveaway, the drawing is Saturday!

Blogoversary and My First Giveaway

**If you don't want to read my ramblings about our Trip Across America and instead want the skinny on my blogoversary and giveaway, scroll to the bottom.**

Well here I am sitting in a hotel in Cleveland, Ohio and I can finally say that we're almost "home". It still feels a bit surreal to be moving across country, wondering what my new place will look like and how I'll get through the following months without a job. But we infertiles have been taught to adapt and overcome.

Tomorrow we get to Pennsylvania where we'll spend a couple days with my dad's side of the family. For now, though, I thought I'd share how our trip has gone so far. Our original schedule was to drive through Oregon and Idaho to Salt Lake City to visit Brandon's family and then drive across I-80 to Pennsylvania. At the last minute we decided to skip driving across I-80 (and thus miss the boring part of the journey) and go a little north to I-90 so we could see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial. It only added 4 hours to the trip, plus however much time we would spend at the stops. Much to my dismay it was extremely cloudy and rainy on the day we went to visit those places so we couldn't see a thing. Needless to say I was pissed.

So we decided to salvage the day by visiting other touristy things in the area. We first stopped by Bear Country, a drive-thru wildlife park. It was actually pretty neat. We saw all kinds of animals like reindeer, mountain goats, and wolves. Some of the animals came within a few feet of our car. Oso was freaking out the whole time and we couldn't walk around the baby area (due to the rain) but we still had fun. We were supposed to keep the windows rolled up but we rolled them down for a quick second to take pictures.


We also stopped by a place called Reptile Gardens. It was like an aquarium type thing for the creepy crawlies. When we walked in the door we noticed a sign that said "Leashed dogs welcome". Seriously?! Are they trying to get free food for their snakes? Who would be stupid enough to bring a dog in a place to see large reptiles? Ummmm...we would. Oso did quite well though, even during the live demonstration. The snakes kept checking him out though. I told Brandon to hold him just in case they haven't eaten in the past week. Our favorite part of Reptile Gardens was seeing the group of 100 year-old galapagos tortoises. Oso enjoyed seeing them too. I bought a cute little hedgehog puppet in the souvenir store and then it was back on the road for a few more hours.

Next we stopped by a place called Wall Drug in southern South Dakota. They have a ton of neat little souvenir shops. Retail therapy can cure any disappointment and helped make the day a little better. And seeing Brandon ride a huge jackalope was definitely worth the stop.

Minnesota and Wisconsin was fairly boring, though the drive was much more scenic than I expected. Today we traveled through Illinois, Indiana and most of Ohio. My biggest complaint about today was the TOLL ROADS. I absolutely don't understand toll roads. How can you travel on an interstate for free in one state and then have to pay in the adjacent state? Shouldn't the taxpayers pay for the maintenance of the road? And if I'm going to pay money for a toll, shouldn't they use that money to maintain the road? I drove across some seriously crappy roads in Illinois. I think our money went to pay the wages of the person SITTING in the toll booth. We must have paid about $30 for each car in toll fees today and we still have more to pay tomorrow.

But back to the cool stuff. We stopped by a quaint little town in Indiana called Shipshewana. It's in Amish country and they have all kinds of shops and an enormous flea market. We were only able to spend a few hours there because 1) we were on a mission to get to Pennsylvania and 2) Oso was in the car and 3) we planned on spending a whole day in Amish country in Pennsylvania. Still, I'm a very fast shopper and I was able to find some cool stuff.

**Which brings me to my giveaway! May 22nd is my one year blogoversary so to celebrate the first birthday of my blog I have decided to have TWO giveaways! These are also my first giveaways so I guess we've got a lot of firsts around here!


The first giveaway is a beautiful sterling silver pendant made with the wings of a butterfly. They are made by Nature's Jewels. They're a small crafting company with no website but you can email Linda at naturesjewels@live.com on how to order your own pendant or earrings. Please note that no butterflies were harmed in the making of these pendants. The butterflies were raised on a farm where they were allowed to die naturally (butterflies only live a few weeks).


Entering the giveaway is simple. Simply post a comment in response to the following question: If you could take a road trip anywhere in the United States, where would you go and why?

During this trip I realized that I've visited almost every state in the United States, plus Canada and Mexico. I added it up and found that I've driven through or visited 36 of the 50 states. That doesn't count layovers in an airport because that's technically not visiting. But that's alot of traveling. I'd have to say the best state was probably Washington. Not because I just left there but because it has something for everyone to enjoy: shopping, big cities, wildlife, skiing, and just about anything to do with nature. This thought brings me to my next giveaway. To enter, simple post a response to the following question: How many states have you visited and which one was your favorite?

The second giveaway prize is a cute metal note pad that I found in a souvenir shop.You can also earn additional entries by becoming a follower. Post an additional comment with your follower status, whether you're a new or veteran follower. This additional entry will count for each giveaway so you only need to do it once. Entries will be accepted until midnight PST on May 21st. Entries will be listed in an Excel table for each giveaway and the winners will be selected through a Random Number Generator on May 22nd. Anyone is welcome to enter, I am willing to ship worldwide. Once I get to 100 followers I will have my next giveaway.

I can't wait to read everybody's comments!

I don't get it

I finally got a call from the doctor today. After spending hours without cell phone service while driving through BFE in Wyoming and South Dakota I was able to call him back. The tests they took two weeks ago all came back normal. The doc had no explanation for our miscarriage. I don't get it. I thought for sure I had a clotting disorder. With all the blood clots I had during my pregnancy, the fact that my feet always fall asleep due to my poor circulation, I thought the symptoms all matched up. But now I've got no more answers than I did two months ago. The doctor did suggest karotype testing, is that the same as the chromosome analysis? I hope to get the chromosome analysis and MTHFR test done in Groton but it will be about a month before I can get settled and organize that. Until then I suppose I'll just have to take the information for what it is and hope that our next IVF won't result in another miscarriage. Easier said than done.

Weight Gain Update Week Three: Moving

Yea, notice I put weight gain instead of weight loss. Cause I have yet another one this week. But it's pretty much my fault. After last week's frustrations I rebelled a bit and didn't follow my diet at all. After Tuesday we were living off snack foods and Subway. The only exercise I've done this week is cleaning the house. My weigh-in? 198.9 pounds. That sucks monkey balls. But I'm not too worried about it. After all I think it's been 2 or 3 days since I last pooped and I was weighing about 194.9 earlier this week. So maybe my weigh-in was just on a bad day.

On other notes I got my period this week. That's pretty significant considering I can't remember the last time I got a natural period. I believe its been over a year. I was told I should get it 6-8 weeks after the D&C but didn't really pay attention because I thought it only applied to women who actually got periods. But I was proven wrong and now its here. I wonder if I'll ever see it again.

I questioned the doctor about the lack of the MTHFR test on my panel. I emailed Nurse D at Womack and then left a message at Madigan. Madigan responded first, saying they didn't think my history warranted the test. But when Nurse D emailed me back she attached a letter saying to get all the tests done in my previous post along with the MTHFR test and a chromosome analysis for both Brandon and I. The problem with that is it will have to wait until we get to Connecticut. But I hope to at least get the results from the other tests next week.

Well I better get going. We have to check out of the hotel room and run a few more errands before leaving Washington for good. I'll definitely miss this place.

Blood Tests and Fundraiser Update

Well I finally got some action on the fertility front and I actually have something interesting to talk about! I went in Wednesday for my blood tests to see what else could be wrong with me. I asked for a print out, which they provided, and I had to go home and do some research about the tests because I had no clue what their abbreviations meant. I'll list the print-out abbreviations as well as the Google name I found. Here they are:
Protime- Prothrombin Time
Cardiolipin ABS- Cardiolipin Antibodies
APC-R(V)- Factor V Leiden Mutation
Lupus Anticoagulant
G20210A Prothrobim- Factor II (Prothrombin) G20210A Mutation
Prot C+S- Protein C and S deficiencies

While I only did minimal research on each test, I think they are all for clotting disorders. I had a hard time figuring out what immune disorders are and what tests are for immune disorders. Perhaps they're all the same. Who knows. If anyone has any information about the tests I just took let me know. I had hope to get more tests done but this is a start. I should get the results in a couple weeks.

For those that are new to my blog, I have been fundraising for Parenthood for Me for a couple months now. I have decided to make a few changes to hopefully get more donations. I am upping the ante on my giveaway so for every $10 donated you will be entered to win a $100 gift card. The gift card can also be split into two $50 gift cards if you choose. The drawing was to be held July 20th but I have decided to change it to May 30th. So there's only one month left to enter. Please take the time to make a donation. I will also be matching all donations dollar for dollar!

Well that's about it on my "interesting" post. We lose internet access on Tuesday but I will be bringing my laptop (and scale) with me on our trip to the East Coast so hopefully I'll be able to update my weight loss (and test results) along the way. Yay!