ICLW Welcome & Other Random Updates

First off, I'd like to say hello to everyone stopping by for ICLW. For those of you unfamiliar with ICLW, it stands for International Commenting Leaving Week. Mel from Stirrup Queens hosts the event every month and it's a way to socialize with others in the ALI community. I encourage everyone to give it a try!

So I suppose introductions are in order. I'm Christa, author of Fearlessly Infertile. My husband and I are currently residing in CT, though we're a military family and we move alot so we're hoping to make it back to the West Coast in a couple years. Not that we hate CT (actually we do) but we really miss living in Washington. We've been married 3 1/2 years and have been trying to conceive since before then. 2 IVF's and a FET later we have one miscarriage and 5 frozen embryos to show for it, but alas no baby. So now we're in the "boring" part of FET #2...waiting for AF to show up. I'm on the last few days of Provera, just twiddling my thumbs for the moment. Transfer Day is scheduled for May 2nd. We're also researching domestic adoption and have an application on our desk ready to be filled out. But for now we're just going to prep our house for a homestudy and not really pursue anything adoption-wise until we're done with infertility treatments.

So as I wait to embark on FET #2 I decided to keep myself busy. I recently hit 200 followers (yay!) and I'm hosting an awesomely awesome raffle to benefit the Lost Stork Foundation. The LSF is a new non-profit organization that will be providing grants to infertile and adoptive couples. It's in its infancy so they're not accepting applications yet but they're trying to build their grant fund and could use your help! Because I'm a sucker for a good cause I put together an anti-stress gift set to raffle off this week.

Check out the detailed info here and please please please donate if you can. We all know how much infertility and adoption can cost and we have a great new organization that wants to help our community. But first they need our help, not just by spreading the word but by opening our pocketbooks. And considering a $1 ticket is less than the cost of a cup of coffee, it won't break anyone's bank. So please enter the raffle if you can! Entires are accepted through Saturday March 26th and the winner will be announced the next day.

In other news, I copped out on the 5K run this weekend, the one where I only had 8 measly days to prepare. I didn't see the point in paying $60 for me and Brandon to attend when I knew I'd be walking the whole time. I wanted more of a challenge than that. And I think I'm on the verge of giving up on my weight loss quest (for the record I weighed in at 198.6 this morning, but who's counting). With everything else that's going on right now I just don't have time to hit the gym or the track. Our gym membership expires in May and we're probably not going to renew it. That $55 a month can be utilized somewhere else in our budget (mainly for adoption). It will suck having to drive 30 minutes to the gym on base but at least we have a free resource (even if they have no air conditioning and it gets really hot in the summer). And I can diet on my own and save another $18 a month by dumping the Weight Watchers Online account. So I'm weighing my options on that (pardon the pun).

And raise your hand if you noticed that I now have less than 60 days till Ireland!!!!! For my ICLW visitors who don't know, my husband and I are going to Ireland in mid-May, right after our FET. I'll know before we leave whether I'm preggo but I won't get my first ultrasound till after we get back. I'm so so very excited to be going and I hope I get to meet some blog friends while I'm there!

Well that's it for the updates. I hope everyone enjoys their visit to my little corner of the blog world and feel free to stop by and say hello every now and then!

ICLW Welcome and IVF Update

Welcome ICLW readers! I'm Christa, author of Fearlessly Infertile. I've been TTC since 2007 and we're in the midst of our second IVF after having a miscarriage with our first IVF. Tomorrow is retrieval day for me, it's looking like I have about 18 follicles. I triggered last night and Nurse D called me this afternoon with my bloodwork results. My e2 is now 6,142 (up from 3,574 yesterday) and my HCG from my trigger shot was 96. They want to see that level around 100 or else you have to take the shot again. Thankfully it's close enough to 100 that I don't have to re-do the shot because my right ass cheek is still hurting from last night.

So since I'm retrieving tomorrow I figured it wouldn't hurt to take bets on how many eggs they'll get and how many will be mature. Here are the bets from me, Brandon, and a few of my friends.

Me: 20 retrieved, 18 mature
Brandon: 16 retrieved, 13 mature
Susanne: 14 retrieved, 12 mature
Gretchen: 16 retrieved, 12 mature

Notice who's more optimistic? Feel free to take your bets!

ICLW Welcome & Updates

Hello fellow ICLWer's and welcome to Fearlessly Infertile. I'm Christa, soon-to-be 29 on Monday!) and soon-to-be going through my second IVF (in September). Unfortunately we had a miscarriage after our first IVF cycle in January. Since then we've moved cross-country and had other things to worry about besides making babies (like my unemployment denial and appeal). We will also hopefully be soon-to-be foster parents. Brandon and I attended an Open House meeting last week where the coordinators were excited to have us at first. When I mentioned our upcoming IVF they told us that they usually don't allow people to become foster parents if they're going through a major "life change" (i.e. pregnancy). Still, we received a phone call a few days later saying they wanted to come visit our home and talk with us more about becoming foster parents. The appointment is scheduled for TODAY and hopefully they will make a decision today as well. If we're allowed to get licensed it will still be December/January before we're placed with a child. I'll post an update after the meeting.

As I said earlier, Monday the 26th is my birthday and I'm holding a giveaway to celebrate. Check it out here if you'd like to enter. Deadline is midnight EST on Sunday the 25th. I also plan on having another giveaway at the beginning of August so check back. Hopefully my giveaways will become a more regular thing on my blog!

Welcome again and I look forward to seeing a lot of new faces (and hopefully a few new followers) around here!

**UPDATE** The foster meeting went pretty well. The lady (G) explained that we can only do foster care or adoption, we can't get licensed to do both. So before we get licensed we would have to make a choice. Doing foster care would mean no chance of adoption, either through an agency or through the state, unless we decide to stop doing foster care. Furthermore, we won't find out whether they'll even allow us to proceed with foster care until Friday or Monday. Bummer, I had hoped on finding out today. So I guess we wait some more. In the meantime Brandon and I have decided to ditch our plans to go to Six Flags New England and instead plan a trip to Maine for my birthday. We'll be leaving on Monday (don't worry, I'll announce the winner of the giveaway before we go) and we'll come back Wednesday. We plan to do some wildlife watching (mainly looking for moose) and some bass fishing and just some general relaxing. I'm really looking forward to it!

PS- I also want to thank whoever put me in for LFCA due to the foster parenting issue. That was very thoughtful!

ICLW Welcome

Well, it's been a few months since I've participated in International Comment Leaving Week so I hope I'm not too rusty with my introductions! Welcome everybody to my little corner of the blogging world. I'm Christa and my husband's name is Brandon. We're a Navy family, currently living in CT. I'm afraid you'll find my blogging to be a little boring at the moment since I'm in limbo with my fertility treatments. But here's a little background about me and what's going on in my current life.

Brandon and I have been married for almost three years. I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2002. After our marriage we immediately began fertility treatments, first with Clomid and timed intercourse, then moving on to IUI's. Throw in a couple deployments and it wasn't a pleasant experience. After a few cycles of failed IUI's we decided to pull out all the stops and go to IVF. We traveled all the way across the country, from Washington to North Carolina, for our IVF treatment in January. We were successful but unfortunately miscarried in March at 7 weeks.

Since then I've been tested for clotting disorders (currently waiting to get tested for MTHFR) and moved cross-country where I'm looking for a new job and battling with the unemployment agency who denied my claims. I'm also trying to lose weight, most unsuccessfully. We're gearing up for a second IVF cycle in September, which will also be our last fresh cycle. After that it's FET's and then possibly domestic infant adoption.

So that's me in a nutshell, feel free to stop by every now and then or even become a follower! I love seeing new faces!

ICLW Welcome

Hello to all those from ICLW. Sorry it's late in the afternoon and I'm just now writing this. I figured I should enjoy the sun because it's not that often that we get sun in Seattle! Anyway, just want to give a little background about myself. My name is Christa and I've been married to the hubs for 2 1/2 years now. I've had infertility problems for the past 8 years. My husband is in the Navy so we deal with Tricare issues when trying for a kid. We just completed our first IVF in January after traveling to North Carolina. We transferred 2 embryos and froze 2. Unfortunately after seeing a heartbeat at 6 weeks they couldn't find it at 7 weeks. I just had a D&C about 10 days ago. Our next step is waiting to hear from the pathology report and hopefully try a FET in July/August. We're waiting that long because the military is making us move in May. We're making the trip from WA to Groton, CT. Yipee. We're not really looking forward to it but such is life. But if anyone is from that area I'd love to hear from you! I won't know a soul and I'll be needing some new friends.

So if our FET fails we're not sure what we're going to do after that. We're considering another IVF, embryo adoption or domestic adoption but with the adoption credit expiring we might not try that route. So for now we're taking it one step at a time.

Let's see, what else....Oh yea, I'm doing a fundraiser for Parenthood for Me. They're giving out their first infertility/adoption grants in June so it's going to a good cause. I have a giveaway along with the fundraiser. For every $10 donated you will be entered to win a $50 gift of your choice: Kohl's, Lowe's, Sears, Wal-mart, Olive Garden, Chili's, Best Buy or Motherhood Maternity. AND I will be matching dollar for dollar any donations received. Drawing for the gift card is July 20th. So far only one person has donated so if no one else donates then she will be the automatic winner! If you'd like to make a donation you can visit the widget on my sidebar. Anyway, welcome to my blog and I look forward to seeing some new faces!

ICLWer's Welcome!

Welcome to my first IComLeavWe. I'm sure there will be a learning curve in this process while I experience a few hiccups as I try to figure this out. My name is Christa, I currently reside in Washington State with my husband. I'm originally from NC, he's from UT. He's a submariner in the Navy so we will not be living here long. We hope to move to sunny Georgia this summer.

I'm currently in Fayetteville, NC going through my first IVF cycle. There are only 6 Military Treatment Facilities in the US that coordinate IVF and the closest one to use (Madigan) has a wait list until April 2011. So I flew out here to Womack because 1) There is no wait list and 2) because I have family living close by who can visit me. Although it turns out that none of them are visiting me so I'm hoping for a visit from a friend or two during the next two weeks. At least I've made a few new friends when I met some of the other girls who are cycling with me this month.

I've only had one ultrasound so far in this cycle but the next week should be a flurry of activity, which I will constantly blog about because I have nothing better to do. So please make yourself at home and feel free to feed Winston, he's always hungry!