Progress! and POM Juice

I know I'm a few days late with my WW Update but this week I weighed back in at 201.2. Yay! I'm sure it was all bloating from the birth control pills because last Monday I stopped the pills and magically lost .6 pounds even though I didn't exercise and my dieting was inconsistent. But this week I'm doing very well with both so I'm expecting a 1+ pound loss on Sunday.

Yesterday I had my first "real" scan for my FET. The last two were meaningless because I hadn't been stimming on the Estrace. Last Thursday (the day I started the little blue pill) my lining was 2.5mm. Yesterday my lining was already up to 8mm! And that was only taking the Estrace once a day. So maybe the vaginal application is the way to go. I asked Dori what was the minimum lining I needed and she said I'm already there so everything else is just icing on the cake. However, during my first IVF I triggered with a 13mm lining so I'm hoping to get up to that by next Wednesday (my scheduled trigger date). Yes, I still have to take the trigger shot to simulate a regular cycle. That blows but oh well. Tonight I start my Pom Juice and Sprite spritzer to beef up the lining a bit. Now that I'm up to Estrace twice a day I've been having some, um, runoff so now it's starting to get a bit gross. But it's not nearly as bad as Endometrin so I'm dealing with it.

On a different note, I've been waiting with baited breath for the HP Gryffindor scarf to get back in stock. I wanted it for Christmas but they ran out before I could order one. Well they finally stocked them again and mine just arrived today!! It's a beautiful maroon and gold color, made of chenille and is quite long for a scarf (88 inches!). I.absolutely.love.it. The picture on the website makes it look horrendous so I've attached one of my own (like my banister model?). The WB Shop has the other Hogwarts house scarves but they're a bit shorter and made of itchy wool. Not nearly as nice as this one. Even Brandon likes my scarf. And I bet anyone who hasn't seen Harry Potter wouldn't even know it was from the movie. Oh, and I bought another mug. You know, just in case my first one breaks. Or wears out. Or in case I want two mugs of hot chocolate at the same time. You can never be too prepared.


***UPDATE*** So a few of you ladies have been asking about the POM Juice thing. My old cycle buddy Susanne told me it helps improve the lining but you can't take it after embryo transfer (because it can stimulate uterine contractions, like red raspberry tea). I think the reason it helps with the lining is because it helps increase the blood flow. Its also rumored to help with male infertility. However some sites like this one state that pomegranate juice actually decreases infertility. I'm not recommending it or saying that everyone should jump out there and try it. Everyone has their own thing they do to help increase their fertility, whether its acupuncture, yoga, teas, vitamins, or whatever. I'm taking the pomegranate juice. I took it last cycle after my lining only went from 8mm to 8.5mm in two days. After drinking the POM juice it finally jumped up to 12mm two days later. Was it the meds or the juice? Who knows. Susanne took it too and now she's pregnant so maybe there's something in it after all. Right now there's no study to prove or disprove it's effect. Oh, and I take about 8 oz of POM Juice with about 2 oz of Sprite, just to relieve the bitter taste. It's not too bad.

It's Time to Start "The Ritual"

I usually don't have rituals, not even around the holidays. Brandon and I try to start our own family rituals but we don't seem to be very consistent with them. But there is one ritual that I started for myself during my first IVF cycle.

I read Harry Potter.

Many of you know I'm a huge Harry Potter fan (don't believe me? Just check out my incredibly awesome Christmas present). It actually wasn't until recently that I became such a fan. I think I saw my first Harry Potter movie when the 3rd or 4th movies were already out on video. I thought to myself "Man, these must be popular" so I rented all of them and had a Harry Potter movie marathon. From then on I was hooked, but only on the movies. I never bothered picking up a book until I saw the Half Blood Prince in the movie theatre. There was no way I was going to wait to find out what happened. I borrowed a friend's book of The Deathly Hallows, skimmed the back to find out what happens at the end (spoiler, I know), then went back and read the book. But there were a lot of things that didn't make sense. I didn't remember everyone's name, I only recognized their faces in the movie. Who was Tonks again? And Lavender, was she in any of the movies I saw? So I knew I would have to start from the beginning.

I bought the whole set of Harry Potter books and right before my first IVF cycle I started reading them. I brought a few with me to Womack and read while I was sitting in my room at the Fisher House. The books were even better than the movie! It took a few months to finish all the books and by then I had gotten pregnant and had my miscarriage.

And then it was time for IVF #2. Again I brought Harry Potter with me and enjoyed reading the stories. For me it was more relaxing than acupuncture or meditation. It sucked that my second IVF was a BFN but I still plowed through my HP books until I finished the last one.

Now tonight I'm starting on HP book #1, gearing up for my FET. This cycle will be short compared to my fresh cycles. I'll only be in NC for two nights, not two weeks so most of my HP reading will be done before and after the cycle. But because Harry Potter has become my IVF ritual I'm going to keep the habit going by reading all 7 books, no matter what the outcome of my FET is.

What about you? Do you have any rituals or good luck charms for your fertility treatments?

Christmas Came Early!

Since Brandon and I don't have any kids and our Christmas shopping was done, we decided to wrap our presents, put them under the tree and then promptly unwrap them. Hey, I've never pretended to be blessed with patience. So I thought I'd share what Santa brought me this year!

I got the usual: bath stuff, fuzzy socks, warm slippers (because I didn't realize how cold it really gets in CT), some jewelry (pearls and a pretty sapphire necklace), some flavored coffee and truffles, and a digital photo frame.

But everyone knows that when you're opening Christmas or birthday presents, there's a "favorite" present. My favorite present this year was my Harry Potter coffee mug.



It's a black mug with the words "I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I AM UP TO NO GOOD". When you pour a hot liquid into the mug, it changes...to this.



It's quite possibly the bestest Christmas present I've ever gotten. When I first saw the mug on www.wbshop.com, I just thought it was a mug with a really cool saying from Harry Potter. I didn't realize that it changed colors too!! Not till Brandon (I mean Santa) had ordered it and told me what it really does. So for the past two weeks I've been dancing around with anticipation. My only wish is that the original letters would disappear as is shown in the pictures on the WB Shop website. Unfortunately the mug only changes to a dull gray and doesn't hide the original words very well. But it's still my favorite present. I really really wanted Santa to get me the chenille Gryffindor scarf but he was out of stock so it might have to wait till after Christmas.

Brandon's Christmas presents included some new XBOX games, tickets to go see his favorite comedian Bo Burnham (video is an explicit satire of hip hop music. Do not view at work!), an external hard drive, and other manly gifts. I also got him a whistle key finder because he's always losing stuff. It was a funny yet practical gift. Too bad we tossed it in the trash! Apparently this whistle key finder goes off when you whistle, yell, talk in a high pitched voice to the dog, sneeze, cough, watch tv or do anything else that makes noise. The damn thing went off every 5 minutes. It's not a gift I would recommend.

Oso got a bunch of crap from Santa too, though he took off with his first toy and didn't stick around to see what other presents he got. Perhaps over the next few days he'll realize he got more than one toy.

So all in all we had a great Christmas!!

**I forgot to mention in my last post that my upcoming FET is scheduled for January 31st. I have my baseline ultrasound on January 5th and start Lupron on the 7th.

A Harry Potter Debate

To say that I'm a big Harry Potter fan would be an understatement. But because I love it so much Brandon has had to endure multiple viewings of the various HP movies and other fun things. As some of you may know, ABC Family channel had a HP movie marathon this weekend, with extra scenes and all. Since I was down in NC I couldn't watch the movies so I recorded them and played them this past week. And I got to thinking....

If you've got two Muggle parents, you could possibly turn out to be a witch or wizard, like Hermione. And if you've got one Muggle parent and another magic parent (like Seamus), you will likely turn out to be a witch or wizard just like your magic parent. And if you have TWO magic parents, you're almost certain to turn out magic as well, just like Harry did. There's only been a few rare cases where you turn out to be a Squib (like Argus Filtch). Based on that information, wouldn't it be safe to assume that eventually the wizarding world would wipe out the Muggle world?

Brandon says no (he never read the books though). He argued that you're not born a witch or wizard, you learn it. He apparently thinks Hermione learned how to be a witch which is why she was accepted. But you're definitely born that way, otherwise Harry would have never been accepted into Hogwarts. He never knew he was a wizard till someone told him.

So...what do you think? Isn't it possible that with the rapid rise in witches and wizards that they will eventually outnumber the Muggles?