Happy Halloween

Sawyer was an elephant for Halloween this year. Elephants ("fuddants") are his favorite animal right now. He loves to pretend his arm is a trunk and raise it in the air and make a trumpeting noise.




At first he didn't want to put the costume on, but when I showed him how he looked in the mirror he didn't want to take it off. He had a great time wearing it at our ward's Trunk or Treat activity; so much so that I had a hard time getting a picture that wasn't blurry because he wouldn't sit still for a second.




I think next year he might be old enough to pick out his own costume. If he'd been able to choose one this year, I'm fairly certain he would have picked Dora the Explorer, who is his favorite person in the entire world - he loves her only slightly less than mom and dad. Too bad the church frowns on cross dressing.



Happy Halloween!

Back in the Stirrups

Well, it's official - after three years of frolicking around happily in the land of the Fertile, we are patients of a reproductive endocrinologist once more. We had an appointment with our RE yesterday to discuss our options for Baby #2 (as he or she will known on the records of the Church - just kidding.) We are very (VERY) lucky to have three embryos which were frozen after the IVF that got us Sawyer. That means we don't have to go through the whole (horrible, expensive, painful, and did I mention horrible?) process of a full IVF again, we just have to transfer the embryos into me and hope they take. Our RE gives us about a 30% chance that it will work. With a fresh cycle it's about 40-50% - the thawing process can damage the embryos, so a frozen cycle is always riskier than fresh. As with last time, our chances are better than most people's because we are young and because our diagnosis is male factor (as far as we know, all my stuff is working.)

Here's the protocol, for those who are interested in the gory technical details.*

Beginning with my next cycle:

Diagnostic Tests

Day 3 - Sonohysterogram. This is where they fill your uterus with saline and do an ultrasound (the "fun" kind.) This allows the doctor to do some measurements and check the general shape of things.
I'll also have some blood work done to check my hormone levels.

A few days later - Hysteroscopy. Another diagnostic test where they feed a thin telescopic camera through the cervix to have a look around. Here they're looking for fibroids and polyps and anything that's not supposed to be in there. As you can imagine, this one isn't very pleasant to go through, but thankfully it's pretty quick, and it's actually kind of cool to be able to see inside your own uterus up on the screen during the procedure. While they're in there they'll do a trial transfer - measuring to find the best place to deposit the embryos on the big day.

The best part of my diagnostic protocol is ... NO HSG! And no laparoscopy! Those were the most painful procedures for me last time (apart from the ovary stimulation and egg retrieval) so I am thrilled not to have to go through those again this time.


Medications

The normal protocol is to go on birth control pills for the first 14 days, but since I have the Factor V Leiden gene, our Dr. wants to avoid this. What I'll do instead is use another form of birth control (oh, the irony) and use ovulation predictor kits. When I get a positive (meaning I'm about to ovulate) I'll call the office so they can schedule me for the next step - medications.

I'll have some more blood tests, then I'll start taking:

Lupron (20 units) - subcutaneous injections, once a day. This suppresses the ovaries.

Estrace - Estrogen, taken vaginally or orally (woohoo, no needles!)

Progesterone - the Big Ones. Eric will once again have the joyful experience of stabbing a 1.5" needle into my hiney. The RE did say that if the injections are painful for me I could switch to vaginal capsules instead, for which I will forever bless his name.

Somewhere around 6 weeks after my cycle begins (end of December or start of January), we'll do the actual transfer. We're transferring all three embryos (two blastocysts and one morula). This sounds scary, but with a frozen cycle the chances of ending up with triplets are almost zero. And they're only slightly higher for twins. So we're hoping and praying for one healthy, adorable baby.



*If you're wondering what Eric has to do for this cycle, here it is: he has to get bloodwork done to screen for infectious diseases. Which he did yesterday. So yeah, he better be nice to me for a long, long time.

Star Wars Fans, Hide Your Eyes (and Ears)

Oh, the horror.

My Husband

Tiburon did a great post about her husband, and since we just had the gospel doctrine lesson on marriage today, I thought it would be fun to do one too. I'm so blessed to have a truly fabulous husband. And since he doesn't read my blog, I'm not just saying that to kiss up!

What is his name? Robert Eric Watts - he goes by Eric.

How long have you been married? 5 years last May. I can't believe it's already been that long!

How long did you date? This is unclear. We met when we were 15 and dated some in high school. We stayed friends as we went to college, went on missions, and started dating again in 2001. We got engaged after dating for 2 months, and got married 5 months later.

How old is he? 29. He's 6 weeks younger than me, and loves to remind me.

Who eats more? He eats MUCH more than I do. He's a big guy, and I still don't know where he puts it all.

Who said I love you first? He did - when we were 17.

Who is taller? He is. It's not even close. He's 6'4" and I'm 5'5".

Who sings better? I do - but I think he has a really nice voice. He just lacks confidence.

Who is smarter? I think we're pretty equally yoked in the brain department, but we're each smart about different things. He has an engineer's brain and I have a poet's brain. I like to think we strike a good balance.

Whose temper is worse? His. I stay pretty calm and collected most of the time. He flies off the handle at the slightest provocation while he's driving. He is very patient with me though, thankfully.

Who does the laundry? I do, in theory. What usually ends up happening is that he does a whole bunch when he runs out of underwear because I've let it pile up too high.

Who does the dishes? I do, except on rare occasions when he's feeling particularly charitable. I don't mind doing them and he hates it more than anything.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.

Who pays the bills? I do. I like doing the bills and it's one less thing for him to worry about, so it works out well.

Who mows the lawn? Our neighborhood landscaping crew does. When we had to do our own lawn Eric mowed and I did the rest of the gardening. We both like working in the yard.

Who cooks dinner? I do most of the time. I love when Eric cooks though, he is great at it.

Who drives when you are together? This is a sore point - he hates to let me drive. He feels like people who see me driving him around will think he is less than a man.

Who is more stubborn? We challenge each other on this one every time we have a fight. I think I usually win (a very questionable victory).

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? It varies...Eric probably does more frequently though.

Whose parents do you see the most? Mine - which is funny because his live much closer to us. But my dad works in DC so we see him at least a few times a month.

Who proposed? He did, in a hot tub on New Year's Eve. We were both shocked.

Who is more sensitive? Definitely me. I'm working on that.

Who has more friends? I do. I really need friends and social interaction and he just doesn't have the same drive.

Who has more siblings? He's one of 7 kids (blended family) and I'm one of 6.

Who wears the pants in the family? We each take the lead in different areas - I like to think we're pretty evenly matched and we make a great team. And we have fun no matter what we're doing. I'm so glad he's the one I get to share my life with.

Another Update

It looks like the deal is off. The sellers aren't willing to go as low as we want. We actually feel really good about this, surprisingly. Both of us have had impressions this weekend that it's not the right time for us to buy a house. I don't know why, but when we both have those types of feelings independent of each other, I tend to trust them. So we are backing out. I feel really bad for the sellers (they've already had two deals fall through previous to this one) and even more, for my sister, who has put a lot of work into making this happen. But I guess that's the name of the game. We're staying put for now!

Update

Well, it turns out that the owners of the house we love still really want to sell and are apparently willing to sell for the price we wanted. We're making a written offer tonight and if all goes well we'll be closing at the end of the month. Wish us luck!