Back from the new OB/GYN...

..and I feel much better about what's going on. She seems very friendly, and very knowledgeable (I know, the latter should be a given but unfortunately I felt like I knew more than my last doc!). She was able to ease my mind on a few concerns, and draw up a sort of TTC plan/time line. DH and I have a pre-TTC med issue we are resolving, and my fears about what (if any) effects it may have on our pg chances were pretty much abated. --Thank Goodness--

One concern was my waking temps being pretty low.. and she wants to just keep an eye on them cycle to cycle for consistency. If I am within the same range each cycle, and have a temp shift to indicate O, then there is no need for concern. If I don't have a high enough spike to say I Oed, or if my temps are all over the place from one cycle to the next, then we should do further testing. This being our first charting cycle, we need to chart at least 1-2 more months (if we don't get pg in that time) before we should worry about low temps.
We also discussed prenatals, and she wants me to continue with OTC for now and suggested taking them about a half hour after a meal and keeping the bottles in the fridge to help with nausea and the yucky taste. She said you won't find that suggestion in any medical journals or scientific study, but she's heard it works for some people. I think its one of those things that's 'all in your head' - just like placebo pills being effective pain relievers for some. But I'll try it.. can't hurt anything.

We set up an appt for next month for an annual, and she told me that if we get pg before then we'll keep the appt and just change it to our first OB visit. So, that'd be exciting to be able to get in before the usual 8 wks they like wait! :) Also, if we were to get pg this cycle, we'd be due on our anniversary. That'd be one sweet little anniversary gift!
So much for the glass being half-empty this go-round, my hope has been restored and I'm just as anxious/excited now as I have been in the previous cycles. Hooray!
Now if only DH would come home from work right.this.second, we'd be good to go - I do believe its O day! ;)

Wish me luck...

I have a 'preconception appointment' tomorrow morning with a new obgyn. I switched dr's because my previous one was in (and delivered at) Round Rock and I would much rather deliver our future babies (plural) at the new hospital around the corner.
I'm glad I decided to make this appointment because I have quite a few questions and concerns I'd like to address before getting too much deeper into this TTC journey... but at the same time, I am far more nervous about it than I thought I would be.
I guess being on the boards and educating myself has this one drawback - I am painfully aware of how many couples have to face the terrible truths of infertility, and how getting pregnant is definitely not as easy as I once thought it to be. At this point, I do not have any reason to believe that Andy and I will be faced with such unfortunate circumstances, but I would still like to get an "all clear" from a medical professional to ease my wondering mind.. and perhaps to advise me on things we could/should be doing to help this process along. I think we've got all our bases covered - prenatals, waking temps, CF changes, OPK's and lots of sexy time (the hub's only contribution, and of course his favorite part!) - surely, there can't be much more to it than that, can there? Guess I'll find out tomorrow...

Glass Half-Empty...

....and for now, I like it that way.

Like I said in the first post, this cycle is our first full-fledged charting cycle. I have been diligently recording every twitch, temp change, CF change, headache, etc I can detect.. and I feel good having done so well with it so far. I worried about "getting into a routine" with this charting business, but its been a piece of cake. Hooray.
However, raining on my own parade, I am trying not to get my hopes up this cycle because outside influences may very well hurt our chances this go-round.
For one, we will be traveling and staying with friends the very day(s) I am projected to ovulate. Damn it! I have been so looking forward to this trip, and although I did consider postponing it when I saw that little egg pop on my FF calendar, I decided it would be best to stick to our original plans. I always enjoy our time with the J family, and this weekend will be no different. I need this time with my very best friend, and I won't let Fertility Friend talk me out of traveling!
But on top of that, I have been more stressed the last week or two than I ever remember being. I can usually snap myself out of a funk fairly quickly, but this particular rut has been hard to dig myself out of. Here's the evil catch-22: I know stress can delay ovulation, which stresses me out even more. I don't want to knock my cycle all out of whack - so I am trying to find new ways of dealing with my anxieties, let's hope one (or some) will work. Soon.

So.. knowing that travel and stress can wreak havoc on the whole TTC process, I am not getting my heart set on a BFP this month. Of course, we will still try 110% and always have that bit of hope on our minds and in our heart.. but no early testing this time, no waking up everyday analyzing every feeling as a potential pg symptom - we'll just wait and see what happens.

Despite these potential setbacks, please happen.

New Blog...

I was going to wait until we were actually pregnant to start a family blog. However, our naivety led us to believe it would happen fairly quickly and at this point, I'm ready to have a place (other than the nest) I can go to talk/vent/whine/brag about our adventures in trying to get pregnant. We are still early in the game (Cycle 4) but after educating ourselves on the nitty-gritty fertility details that we were never taught, we now realize it may be a much longer road than we expected. Of course we hope beyond hope it won't be too much longer.. but we are being realistic about our odds. 

We had originally planned to start TTC about 6 months post-wedding. However, the month of the wedding we decided to "not not try" but also not to prevent anything. Silly us, we both got our hopes up as AF was (potentially) approaching, and we were both disappointed when she arrived. Our upset shocked us both, as we had agreed we weren't necessarily trying to get pregnant.  After that, we went back and forth about whether or not we should throw our 6 month timeline out the window. We agreed on a few important things that needed to happen before we were officially TTC, and miraculously (I say "miraculously" because these were tasks/events we'd been waiting/striving for for quite some time at that point!) everything fell into place within weeks of making that agreement. So it was on! We were officially trying. Per the advice of the nesties, I ran out and bought a copy of "Taking Charge of Your Fertility", but I'll admit I hardly skimmed it at that point (taking note of certain signs to look for!). My husband worried about what effect full-fledged charting may have on my sanity/anxiety, so we agreed to "just have fun" the first couple months and see what happened. In the meantime, I used my phone calendar (and sometimes the TCOYF software..shhhhh!) to mark changes in CF to help me pin-point ovulation.. thinking that would do the trick. Well, nothing happened. After the second unsuccessful cycle (yes, I know thats still VERY early!), I felt like I needed to take a more active role in the process, so we decided to try OPK's for Cycle 3. I'm not sure they did much to put me at ease, though. I started using them 2 days before I was suggested to (ya know, just in case), and only got one very faint positive that cycle. When that cycle ended with the (LATE!) arrival of AF, we both agreed it would be a good idea to start completely charting (ie, temping, noting CF and CP). This is our first cycle observing/noting all the fertility signs, and I like feeling like I am in a little bit more control of such an uncontrollable situation. After a week of very low waking temps, I've decided to get in to see my doctor for that "preconception appointment" I've heard so much about. That appointment is next Friday, and I am just hoping to hear the doctor say "All looks well.. you have nothing to worry about... just keep at it and you'll be pregnant before ya know it." I have a few (somewhat valid) fears going into this appointment, and anytime I think about discussing them with someone other than my husband or BFF I get knots in my stomach and my heart starts racing. Its important that I verbalize my concerns to the doctor, so I really hope when the time comes that I have the courage to do so! 

I plan to use this blog primarily as my own way of maintaining some degree of sanity on this emotional roller coaster ride that is TTC. I will update it with any TTC revelations, and when we are so blessed - it will become our pregnancy journal for family and friends. For the time being, this blog will not be shared with our family or non-nestie friends. A select few know that we are TTC and we'd like to keep it that way. Once we get that BFP, all TTC posts may very well be deleted... we'll see. At that point, I don't think I would mind if our loved ones knew what we had gone through trying to get pregnant. But for now, I'd rather not give so many details and be bombarded with TTC questions around every bend. I hope that makes sense....

And I hope to have good news very soon.

CD6 of Cycle 4.