Must fill the "M".

CD1... month 29/cycle 21/iui #2 was a bust.
My inlaws gave me a metal "M" to hang I the kitchen - it holds wine corks. Time to start filling it.

I was a grump in my last post, so, I will keep this one a little more upbeat.
Christmas was great (even if the iui was a bust)... E had a blast and we were surrounded by family.  It was perfect. I was also able to show off a little something sparkly that I received around Thanksgiving.

Last year, Mr M bought me a cute little diamond ring... my original engagement ring went MIA while I was pregnant. (Sniff sniff) Anyways, the one he gave me last year had a loose stone so we went to the jeweler and I ended up picking out all of the stones for and designing a new ring. It's perfect and I still can't stop starting at it.  I'm a lucky lady.

On the E front... we find out Monday if she needs another hip surgery - so any extra prayers, please send them along!

I'm adding some pictures from Christmas, because... well, I love seeing my kid smile.
(I'm mobile, so if they are huge - sorry and I will fix them asap!)

NLB's

Nasty Little Bitches... The nickname my best friend and I have for my ovaries.

IUI was Christmas Day - all went smoothly.

I ended up in the office a few days later. I have two 7cm hemorrhagic cysts on my left ovary and that sweet little 2.5cm ovary is up to a whopping 8cm. Blah.

I'm a negative Nancy so, I will keep this short. 11dpiui and a BFN. If I don't get a BFP I will be benched for at least a cycle or two until these ugly little jerks hit the road. Damn you, NLB's. Damn you!

Ho Ho Ho!

A Christmas morning IUI? Don't mind if I do. I had 2 mature follicles at this mornings ultrasound... Which means I trigger tonight and head in for my IUI at 6:30am on Christmas.
My lining is the best it's ever been on a medicated cycle... 12mm with a triple stripe. She sure was a beauty. If nothing else, it makes for an extra exciting day!

Bloatzilla, raaawr.

Um, this is nuts. I look pregnant. I'm assuming it's the Femara but I have no clue. Anyone else legitimately feel/look like this on it...

Oh hey, here I am!

I've been MIA for a while... Things have been busy with Miss E.
Her right hip is fully healed from surgery but her left is still 100% broken where they cut the femur. It's producing tissue instead of new bone growth. She gets about 5 more weeks and if there is still no healing of the bone, she will have another surgery. Fingers crossed!

As for me - I'm finally back on a medicated cycle. I did 2.5mg of Femara and had a follicle check today on cd13.... Nada. Well, some itty bitty stuff. So I'm stair stepping for the first time ever and taking 5mg for 5 days starting today with another follicle check on Monday the 23rd. If I have a big, beautiful follicle or two... I will have an IUI on Wednesday. Yup, Christmas! 🎄 That would be a pretty great gift, but I'm not getting my hopes up. My last IUI was on Valentines day - we like holidays.

Come on, Monday!

Ahhhh...

That's a good "ahhh"... a relaxed, release. I finally have a few quiet minutes everyday, it's nice.

E is ok. She ended up spending some time in our local hospital last week. She was having these horrible screaming spells that could last up to 4 hours straight - nothing would console her. She doesn't cry unless she is in pretty severe pain... but she can't talk to let us know what's going on. The hospital checked her belly, lungs, head, hips and ran tests to check for seizure activity - everything was normal. We went home and the episodes got shorter and less frequent, so whatever it was, it seemed to resolved. Then Sunday morning... she stopped smiling. VERY strange for this kid. She had her physical on Tuesday and her doctor found a double ear infection, so that explains the lack of smiles. She has really had a hard 6 weeks and I can't wait for a bit of normalcy. She is still having a lot of hip pain with movement, which really sucks. I thought she would be further along at this point.

As for me... I'm on CD51. Not temping, so who knows if I've ovulated. We are planning on November or December IUI.

Here are some pictures of Em during her hospital stay - she had an EEG (a bunch of electrodes attached to her head to monitor brain activity) to check for seizures and one that shows 2 of her incisions from her hip surgery. They aren't gory or gross and actually look pretty amazing. She has 9 that are all similar in size.

Home Sweet Home.

Just wanted to give a quick update - We are home with a VERY sore, E. Surgery was long (10 hours) and hard... the surgeon had to work on one hip socket along with the femur. She was supposed to spend 24 hours in the ICU for monitoring, but it ended up being 5 days. She had a rough time and struggled with respiratory issues for the first few days. After 5 days, the epidural was removed and the real pain began. My heart broke a million times each day. For the first 24 hours after the epidural was pulled, we couldn't touch her anywhere without her screaming in pain. We spent 2 more days on the regular ortho until while the pain team worked to find the magic combo of meds that we could go home with.

We came home on Tuesday and have been trying to get settled. It's been a lot of work with little sleep - E is getting meds every 2 hours, around the clock. (I tried stretching it to every 3 hours last night and she woke up screaming.) I have been on med duty since Mr. M has to get up at 5am for work every morning... so I'm a little (understatement of the year) sleepy.

E just had a dose of valium and is napping away. I'm a little jealous.

Here are some pictures from her hospital stay ---

This one was taken yesterday, at home! Showing off her big, strong muscles :)