Pregnancy Itching

The wife has developed an itchy rash on her legs. We called the doctor a few times and he said it is not much to be worried about. He said to try Calamine lotion and if it gets really bad, then she can take a benadryl. I have been doing a lot of reading on the Internet and it sounds like it might be a condition called PUPPP. PUPPP is a rash developed during pregnancy that is really annoying, but of no harm to mommy or baby. There is another more serious condition that can have itching called Cholestasis. It apparently has to do with something about the bile in the body not being able to flow regularly through the gallbladder. This itching is more commonly on the hands and feet (which my wife doesn't have). It can also be accompanied by dark or unusual colored urine or jaundice in the skin tone. So luckily it doesn't sound like this is the culprit behind my wife's rash. The rash has started to calm down over the past few days so we are hoping it just kind of fades away.

Only 3 months to go before baby comes!!! We can't wait.

What?? Having a Baby Changes Your Life??

Why is it that every person who has children and finds out that my wife and I are expecting is compelled to tell me all about how my life will never be the same. Some even ask, "Are you sure you are ready for a baby?" I am always kind and listen to their stories about how their lives are so different with kids or I am kind in responding that yes, my wife and I are ready for a baby. What I really want to say is, "No way, my life is going to change?? I guess I shouldn't have been consistently having unprotected sex with my wife!"

If I wanted my life to remain exactly how it is than I wouldn't have kids. Why is it people don't get this?? And why is it so hard for people who don't want, or aren't quite ready for kids to wear a condom or be on birth control?

You see, I understand that I am going to be responsible for this child forever and there will be sleepless nights, dirty diapers, crying, stressful moments, spit-up...and that's just the beginning of the list. I also understand that my wife and I won't be able to just do whatever we want anymore and when we need to go somewhere we will have to take the baby or find a babysitter. I understand all this because this is the kind of stuff that comes with having a baby! Do people really not know this? Honestly it baffles me.

Pimping Out Your Baby

The past few weeks we have been doing lots of baby gear shopping. I knew that babies needed lots of stuff, I just had no idea how much of it was out there. I am starting to think that MTV should make a show called "Pimp My Baby." Of course there are the necessities, stroller, car seats, crib, etc. But there is a whole lot of, dare I say "crap," out there that isn't necessary at all, but we buy it anyway. For example, I recently saw "Bling Bling" Binkies that are studded with jewels. Luckily for me, we are having a boy and the jeweled Binky thing was a little feminine. But that is only one example of the multi-million dollar baby gear market. Even the necessary items are pretty crazy. Strollers are a lot like cars, you can get a basic $80-120 "pinto" model with no extras or you can pay $1000 or more for the "hummer" model that has drink cup holders, hydraulic brakes, off road tires, etc. I mean it is pretty sad that my infant will have a more expensive bedroom set than my wife and I. I guess this is whole "forking over the money" is just preparing me for what it will be like for the next 20 years.

Baby Lullabies

The wife and I went out baby shopping yesterday. We were looking for baby furniture, which I must say is hard to pick out and pretty freakin expensive. We have looked online a lot, but it is hard to get a good idea of what the items look like when all you can see is some 3 inch picture. After much searching, we found a line of furniture we both like a lot called Capretti. From what we saw and what I have been able to find online, it looks to be a pretty nice and reliable company.

Although the day was supposed to be about baby furniture, I found something that I thought was super cool and had to buy. It is a CD that has instrumental lullaby versions of Green Day songs. We listened to it in the car as we drove around and it is great!! After we got home I looked up the company online and found out that they have a whole collection of these CDs
(Nirvana, Tool, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys,Bob Marley, Coldplay, etc.). If you are interested in buying any of these, or just checking them out you can visit the Rockabye Baby Website . I know I will be buying more of them soon!!!

Trying for a Boy or Trying for a Girl

One of the questions that I get a lot of when I tell people that we are having a boy is, "is that what you wanted?" My typical response is "We wanted a baby!" You see we didn't really care one way or the other what sex the baby is just as long as it doesn't come out a monkey or roasted chicken.

My wife and I plan on having more than one child. So now that we are having a boy, I can say that for the next one we will "try for a girl" if that is possible. I have read up on all the voodoo ideas on how to try for a boy or try for a girl. I can't say that I believe it is true, but what the heck, might as well try it anyways. Since it took us a while to conceive this first one, we didn't really "try" for one sex or the other. To be honest, we had given up on tracking ovulation and all of that because we were just so sick of it consuming our lives, so we don't really even know when we conceived. So how does a couple "try" for a particular sex?? Well, here is some of the info I have found:

Trying for a girl
1. Have intercourse 3-4 days before ovulation
2. Use the missionary position
3. The woman shouldn't have an orgasm
4. Use an acidic douche (make sure you read up on this because there are very specific instructions on what to use)

Trying for a boy
1. Have intercourse 2 days or less from ovulation
2. Use rear entry (doggy style) position
3. The woman should reach orgasm
4. Use alkaline douche (make sure to read up on this because there are very specific instructions on what to use)
5. Man should drink coffee right before sex

Well that is just a few of the most popular things I found about trying for a boy/girl. You can find a whole lot more if you research the topic. If you happen to want to try for a monkey, I recommend eating a lot of bananas right before sex, but don't take my word for it.

P.S. If any of you that read this have tried any of these things or have your own ideas, please comment!!

Boy Oh Boy!

So it is official, it is a boy! We ended up going back into to Fetal Foto and they checked again for us for free. He was a little stubborn at first but when he finally uncrossed his legs we could see "the bulge." So, now we can start buying bedding and decorating the nursery.

It has now been 20 weeks so we are half way there!! The wife is still puking every now and then, but it definitely isn't as often as before. She is starting to feel him move around a lot and I can't wait until I can feel him too!

Ohhhhh Great??????

So the wife and I went in for our 18 week appointment and we had something interesting happen. The doc was out of the office so the nurse did the appointment for us. We were looking at the ultrasound and she said, "Do you want to know what you are having?" We told her we had gone to Fetal Fotos a few weeks back and found out it was a boy. "Really?" she replied, "I am not seeing any "boy parts" here." She went on to say that she is not an ultrasonographer, so she said she wasn't sure about it and we would just have to wait until our 20 week appointment for our in depth ultrasound with the ultrasonographer. So now we are just left hanging for a few more weeks to find out for sure what we are having. The good thing is that we didn't order the boy baby bedding or paint the baby room yet. We are still thinking that it is a boy, but can't help to wonder if maybe the first ultrasound prediction was wrong??? Either way, the baby is looking healthy and that is all we really care about!!! I will let you know in a few weeks.

Nymbler.com

So I had a comment on my blog that told me about a great site to help find a name for your baby. Nymbler is a very cool site that allows you to pick names that you like and then it searches for new names based on the ones that you like. What a great idea! We put in four of our top name ideas and it was funny to see how many of the names it found that we also really liked and also how many great new names we hadn't thought of. I highly suggest you check it out.

Its a Boy!!!!

We had an ultrasound on Monday and we found out that we are having a little boy. We are both so excited! We have two little nephews, so we have had a little practice with boys. My sister just had a little girl a few weeks ago, so that is our first niece.

Now the naming game begins. We had a girl name picked out, but we have always struggled with boy names. If any of you have suggestions on good boy names, please let us know!! Below is a pic of the baby's profile. My wife thinks he looks like me!!

I smell, the mirror smells, everything smells!!!

So the latest in the pregnancy craziness is my wife's hound dog sense of smell. Everything smells to her and it all stinks. Sometimes I will go to give her a hug and as I lean in she stops me and says, "Ewwww you smell!!" I ask her what it is I smell like and she doesn't know, but I just smell. The other day she asked me to smell the bathroom mirror, so I smelled it and thought that it smelled like a mirror should smell (whatever that smell may be). The wife, however, thinks that the mirror smells horrible and she now covers her nose every time she has to go into the bathroom. Oh, and I tried cleaning it multiple times, but I guess it just isn't going away.

We had our second doctor appointment today and things are all on the right track! We listened to the heartbeat (which still amazes me!). We are going to try and find out what we are having sometime in the next week or so. I will let you know as soon as I do!

Maternity Shopping

My wife went shopping for maternity clothes the other day. She got stocked up with clothes. Some are not too big for the next few months and others are huge knowing that eventually the big belly will be here. My wife was most excited to get a new bra since she has been "busting out" of her regular bras. I have figured out that this is one of god's funny tricks he plays on men...you see the breasts get bigger so the husband gets eager to "check them out" but they also get very very sensitive, so the wife doesn't allow it. I quickly learned that it is a good thing that there is a lot of sex when trying for a baby because after the conception occurs things slow down in that department. I,however, am just thrilled that we are finally pregnant so that is what matters most!!

Morning, Day, and Night Sickness

When we were on the Clomid I made some comments about how my wife's gagging was pretty funny. Well, in being pregnant, that gagging leads to vomiting (which really takes the fun out of it!). My wife is experiencing the type of so-called "morning sickness" that really lasts all day and night. I am also starting to wonder how someone can sleep so much. We go to bed at night and sleep, I wake up, she sleeps, I go to work, she sleeps, I get home, she sleeps...you get the idea. When she is not sleeping, she is eating! It is almost like clockwork, every hour and a half she gets hungry and it isn't just kind of hungry, it's "GET ME FOOD NOW!" hungry. This isn't good for me because I am the type of person that can eat whenever food is around. I think we are both starting to get a belly, but mine is just fat!

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know it has been forever since I posted last, but we just wanted to make sure it wasn't too good to be true. WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!!

As fate would have it, we luckily got pregnant on our last month before going back in to see the specialist and starting up all the crazy procedures. We also did it all on our own without any Clomid!!!!

I haven't posted for so long because we really wanted to wait until our first doctor's appt, which was this morning. We are officially 10 weeks along and we saw the little heart beat (it was amazing!!!)

Thanks so much to all of you that have been so supportive. Definitely stay tuned for many updates on the day to day progress of the pregnancy.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

One more month

So we are finally down to one more month of waiting before we get to try Clomid and Artificial Insemination again. I can't say that the break has been nice because it really sucks waiting!! We have tried our best to keep our minds off the baby trying as much as possible, but it is so hard to do when you want something so bad.

I got the front yard looking great in time for my wife to host her friends baby shower. The shower was nice, but also bittersweet since everyone their was either pregnant or expecting.

We can't wait until this month is over so we can get back on track with things. I know I have slacked off in posting because the baby trying news is so little right now. Next month will be better...so don't give up on us!

Preemies

Some good friends of ours just had their baby 8 weeks early. Everything is going good so far for both mom and baby! Their little girl came in at 3 lbs 7 ozs. She will have to stay in the hospital for a month or so. I am amazed at how wonderful medical staffs are these days and how amazing it is that they can help these preemie babies get strong and healthy!

Just back from Vegas

So the vacation to California was so nice we decided to take another one. We just got back from Las Vegas late last night. The trip was a blast!! My wife, sister, and mom went to see Celine Dion and they absolutely loved the show. They also did some shopping and lucky for us guys, we got out of it!! The manly side of the trip was filled with gambling and golfing, it couldn't have been better!

The other great thing about the vacation was it helped us once again forget that we have to wait 2 more months before we flip back into baby trying mode. Sorry for the lack of posts, I just haven't had much going on lately.

Just life as usual

Well I really wish I had something of great importance to tell you all, but things are pretty much life as usual. The wife is not on Clomid so there is no fun drama to talk about. I could go into a lot of detail on the sprinkling system I am putting in, but that would just bore everyone. My wife is planning some baby showers, since everyone we know and their dog is pregnant. My only worry about this is that in shopping for gifts for other people's babies, she is bound to find something she will want to buy for the child we don't yet have. The other problem is now that there is a baby shower to be hosted at our house, I have been given a list of things that must be accomplished (rooms painted, front yard finished, new fireplace, possibly new furniture...you get the idea). So that is what I will be spending the next few weeks doing. Aren't you excited for me!!

More Waiting AHHHHHHHHHHH

Well, we went back to the specialist and everything looks good except for the fact that she wants us to wait 3 months before trying Clomid and Artificial Insemination again. Since my wife used Clomid for 7 months the doc said that her uterus lining is probably thin and needs some time to get back on track. Now of course we want to do whatever is going to be the healthiest, but waiting 3 months is going to seem like forever!!! However, since there is nothing more we can do about it, this will force us to take a break and stop dwelling on it all the time. Nothing would be better than getting pregnant on our own in the next three months and not have to go back into the fertility clinic again.

Back from Vacation

So we are back form vacation and it was great! We had so much fun in California and it was really nice to get out of town for a while.

My wife is going in to have some blood work done today to check her thyroid. After that we will meet up with the reproduction specialist again and see where we go from there. We also got the results from my semen analysis back and the numbers were so good that I hung it on the fridge! hahaha

Hysterosalpingogram

So the HSG is over, thank goodness!! The tubes looked fine with no clogs, according to the Radiologist. He is going to send the x-ray pics off to our reproduction specialist for further observation. As many of you commented, the procedure was not fun and my wife did have some pretty bad cramping afterword. My wife was really nervous about going in and I was doing my best to keep her calm. It didn't make things any better that when we were waiting for the procedure another patient in the waiting room looked over at us and said, "Welcome to Hell." Maybe this is the new waiting room greeting and I am just not up to date on things.

The procedure itself was amazing to watch on the X-ray machine. We actually watched the dye work its way through the fallopian tubes. I was in awe and thought it was way cool. My wife, however, was spread eagle on the table with a catheter shooting dye up her tubes. So needless to say, she didn't find it quite as amazing as I did, although after it was all over with she did say it was cool to watch. The doctor told us that the process is kind of like an oil change and everything has been flushed out. He feels that chances of conceiving are a little higher for the next couple months even though there is no real sound evidence of that. I must say, I liked his optimism!

Well, we are heading out of town tomorrow. We will be back on Thursday and I will post then. Thanks for all the comments!!! It is so encouraging to have others out there who know what this is like. It is also great to have the advice...my wife took some pain pills before the HSG and that helped out a ton!!!

Hey, here is an idea

So you know how I get with my great ideas...well here is the latest one. After meeting with the reproduction specialist and going over all the options and the prices that they cost, it is pretty easy to see that all this fertility junk can add up quick and can cost a small fortune. So, I was thinking that it may just be easier for me to go to medical school to become a reproduction specialist. You see this way I can just do all the procedures myself, and as an added bonus I can also do the procedures for other people and make some great cash too!!!

A Real Specialist

So we finally decided to bite the bullet and go see a real specialist. The last one we went to wasn't really a reproductive specialist, he was just an OBGYN that offered limited fertility procedures. The visit was informative, but a lot of what the doc told us we already knew about thanks to the internet. The doc is taking my wife off Clomid for a little while, so we are both happy about that. I had read a lot of info that you shouldn't use Clomid for more than six months and we just finished our seventh!! So this month we really just get to relax, plus we leave on vacation in about a week so we are both excited for the break!!

As far as the next step in the trying to conceive area, I am going in for another semen analysis (just to verify that my numbers are as awesome as they were before, hahaha). My wife will be going in for a Hysterosalpingogram or HSG (thank goodness they have an abbreviation because I never want to try and type that word again, I can't even pronounce it!) This is the process of injecting a dye into the fallopian tubes to make sure there is no blockage. My wife is also going to have her thyroid checked to make sure that isn't the issue. After these procedures we will have another get together with the specialist to determine where we go from there. Our options are pretty much Clomid and Artificial Insemination, Injectables and Artificial Insemination, and then worst case scenario In-Vitro Fertilization.

So needless to say, we would love to be one of those stories where we finally stop the Clomid and get pregnant this month and then never have to worry about going through all of that other crap!!! At least that is what I am shooting for.

It better be soon or else...

So I am getting a little bit worried that if we don't have a baby soon we could be in trouble. You see what I am talking about is the fact that if it comes to the point of adoption it might be to late because Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will have already adopted all the babies in the whole world. Not only are they "adoption happy" right now, but it is also setting a trend for other celebs to adopt. We all know that once Paris Hilton finds out that the cool new thing is adoption, she is going to run out and adopt every baby possible because, "adoption is SO HOT right now!"

We might get insurance

We have had some good things happen and some bad things happen this past week. The bad is that I got laid off of my part-time job. It was the job that I was able to use the computer a lot so it is going to be a bit harder for me to post for the next couple weeks. The good news is that my wife got a part-time job and they are going to give her benefits!!! This means when we do get pregnant we might not have to come up with all the money like we thought we would!!! Yeah!!! The new job has been good for my wife because it keeps her busy and keeps her mind off the baby stuff all the time. Well, gotta run. I will keep you posted on how this month goes for us.

NY Clinic Uses Wrong Sperm

So, my fear of having the wrong sperm used in artificial insemination doesn't seem so silly anymore. A couple recently filed a malpractice lawsuit against a fertility clinic they went to because the baby they had, by way of IUI or in-vitro, is physically darker in color than both parents. The case is in court and the parents claim that they have done an at-home DNA test and two professional laboratory DNA tests and all three confirmed that the baby's DNA does not match the father's. It will be interesting to see what the judge rules on the case. So far the damages the couple are seeking have not been stated. If you would like to read the news article about this case CLICK HERE

Remodel and a Vacation

It has been a little while since I posted last. The wife and I are working on a little remodel for our living room. It is nice to have something to take your mind off the baby stuff for a while. My wife has been dying to paint an accent wall in our living room. I on the other hand have been trying to talk her into just leaving it the way it is...mostly because I don't want to do the work. Needless to say, the hormones kicked in and my wife won. So we bought some paint and painted the wall. Now this is where we should have stopped, but because we were in work mode we thought, "hey, while we're at it, why don't we strip the white paint off the brick fireplace." BIG MISTAKE! I don't understand why people paint brick in the first place, but here is a little advice: once it is painted, leave it that way. So now our quick little paint job and remodel has turned into a big long process and we are thinking about tearing the brick fireplace down and having a stone-work fireplace done. We have also decided that since we aren't "with child" yet, we might as well take a vacation. We booked a trip to Los Angeles and San Diego next month. It is great to have that to look forward to.

Sorry again that I didn't post for so long. I will be better about it, I promise!

Damn!

Sorry for the long wait, but we were tricked...and what a dirty trick it was. You see, normally my wife is able to tell a few days before her period that she is probably going to start. She usually has some early cramps and whatnot, but this month there was none of that. Everything was going great and we were thinking this was the real thing, but the damn period came. So now we are preparing for yet another long month and another try at the artificial insemination. We are also going to try the OV Watch. Some good friends let us borrow the watch because it worked for them on the first month!!! Basically, it is a watch that has sensors that touch the skin and determine ovulation based on ions in the skin's perspiration...at least that is what I understood of the instruction booklet. My wife will wear it every night when she sleeps and it will tell us 4 days in advance when she will ovulate. We think she is ovulating around day 17 or 18 and not on day 14. Hopefully this will be able to help us pinpoint ovulation.

And how could I possibly end this blog without mentioning how excited I am for another month of Clomid...whoopdeee freakin doo!

Waiting sucks

I decided waiting sucks...for everything in life, waiting sucks! This long period of time in which we just have to wait and see if we are pregnant is not fun at all, and by not fun at all, I mean it sucks. Think about it...waiting for a table at a restaurant, waiting for the bus, waiting for work to end, waiting for recess, waiting for your ship to come in, waiting for your slow internet connection to load, waiting on hold, waiting for the first sign of summer, waiting for the first snow, waiting for the paint to dry, waiting for your food to digest before you swim, waiting for the next episode of Grey's Anatomy, waiting to open Christmas presents, waiting for a stall to be available in the bathroom when you really have to go, any place that has a "waiting room", they are all crap. So as you can see we are still waiting to see if this is our lucky month.

Artificial Insemination

Well, I discovered that there are some benefits and disadvantages to having artificial insemination on a Sunday. The big benefit was that the clinic was technically closed and so it was only us and the doc, so my worries of having my semen sample mixed up with someone else's was solved. When the doc called us to tell us to meet him, it was kind of like a drug deal conversation...He said, "Meet me in the east parking lot at 5:45." He showed up a little late and apologized, he had been out skiing all day and didn't know exactly how long it would take him to get to the office. I could just picture him up on the slopes saying to his friends, "Well, this is going to be my last run for the day. I have to head to the office and inseminate a client really quick before heading home for dinner." We entered the clinic and that is when we discovered the big disadvantage. They don't keep the heat on during the weekends and it was freezing inside. So my poor wife had to lay on a cold bed in a cold room with no pants on. The actual insemination process was super quick and easy...I really think it could be done at home! So, now it is just a waiting game again. I will keep you all updated!

And then there was one

My wife has three good friends that she ran around with in high school. All of the girls are married now and we often get together with these couples for dinners, game nights, etc. Last month we found out that one of the girls was pregnant and this week we just found out that the other two girls are too. So now it is down to just my wife. In a perfect world it would only make sense that we would be the next to get pregnant...so lets just cross our fingers and hope that it is a perfect world, or at least a perfect month!

Going along with our "great" luck so far it just so happens that my wife ovulates over the weekend. So this means that the clinic is closed and we have to page the doctor and inconvenience him during his time off to come in and artificially inseminate my wife. This leads me to my next great idea, an at home artificial insemination kit. The doc said that it was a fairly easy and quick process, so if that is true why can't we just do it at home and save everyone the time and money?? The semen "washing process" sounds like they spin it to concentrate it...well everyone has access to a washing machine so we could put the sample in a sealed container and spin away. As far as the insemination goes, I have seen some pretty long turkey basters in my day! Problem solved!

The Wife is Sick

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. My wife has been sick. I wish it was morning sickness, but it isn't, it is just the flu. I have been pretty busy trying to get her better.

Today we will be calling in to make our appointment for artificial insemination. I think we will be scheduling it for this upcoming Sunday. We are praying that this will be the answer to our conception problems. If it doesn't work than we will probably have to take a break from the Clomid for at least a month. I think it will be nice for my wife to have a break from the crazy Clomid, it has really whacked her out. I have also heard that taking Clomid sometimes kick starts your ovaries so even when you don't take it you can still ovulate. It would be our luck that the month she doesn't take it we get pregnant.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Last night my wife and I went out for a nice romantic Valentine's Dinner. We ate things that I couldn't pronounce and often felt bad for eating because they looked so pretty on the plate. It was a wonderful five course meal and we enjoyed every bite!

Now, earlier that day my wife took her first Clomid pill for the month, so I was a little worried about the side effects kicking in during dinner. There was one close call when my wife saw another couple sitting near us and the woman was pregnant. My wife said she desperately wished she was pregnant and I could see that her tear ducts were just about ready to burst. I quietly told her, "Please don't cry. If people look over here and you are crying and aren't holding some small box full of expensive jewelry or something like that, than they are going to think I made you upset on Valentine's day and I am a real ass." I realize that wasn't the most sympathetic thing to say, but it seemed to work!

During dinner we talked about how not having a baby made it easy to go out and have such a nice long romantic evening. The funny thing is that we are really hoping that next Valentine's Day will be spent at home changing dirty diapers and eating a heart-shaped pizza!!

To Artificial Insemination and Beyond.....

So it sucks that my wife started her period. I had to do a late night run to the supermarket to get some tampons. The punk-ass teenager at the check stand looked at the tampons and then looked up at me and laughed while he said, "I hope these aren't for you." So, I looked him straight in the eye and replied, "Yeah, they are." I don't think he was expecting that reply because he got quiet and hurried and rang me up.

So now it looks like I will be chaperoning my semen through a nice cleansing process in a about 14 days. Artificial Insemination actually sounds a lot worse than what it is. The doctor told us that it is a quick process that is not really painful, just uncomfortable. Now, I don't have a vagina, but the thought of someone sticking a catheter up my imaginary vagina and squirting some semen in sounds pretty awkward, doesn't it. So I guess what I am saying is that I feel bad for my wife because she has to go through this, but if it could give us a child than she is up for it.

When we finally get pregnant, we'll appreciate it

It is pretty tough when you are having a hard time getting pregnant and you hear people who are pregnant and all they do is complain. Often my wife and I will talk to a couple we know who is pregnant and they just whine! She complains about morning sickness and about how tired she always is. He bitches about how ornery she is and what a pain it is to put up with her all the time. Now obviously I can't predict the future, so I can't say exactly how my wife and I will act when we finally get pregnant. My guess is, however, that because we have had a hard time trying to conceive, we will be pretty damn appreciative when it finally happens. We have already agreed that we definitely won't complain around other people. Now I am sure my wife will tell me how it sucks to be sick and I will probably tell her when she is being a pain in the ass...yeah right, who am I kidding, I will never tell her that because I have heard there is nothing worse than pissing off a pregnant woman, and I believe it!

Family Man Online

I just wanted to post a quick thanks to Gregory Keer at Family Man Online. Gregory was kind enough to feature a little article about my blog on his website. For those of you who haven't visited the Family Man Online I really suggest you do so. It is a wonderful site for the modern dad or wanna be dad, but also has a lot of great stuff for moms too!!

You can find my article here: "Laughing on a Rocky Conception Road"

Back when I was just a sperm

Superbowl weekend allowed me to kick back and do some testosterone filled activities, you know, sitting around yelling at the TV every time the Bears fumbled the damn ball. It also allowed my wife to go out for an estrogen filled day with my mom and sister, you know, shopping and going to a chick flick. All of this male and female hormone stuff got me thinking about a persons perception of themselves before conception (say that three times fast). I asked my wife last night if she ever thought about her existence prior to being a baby. What I mean is did she ever think back when she was just a little sperm? "No, she said, I was a little egg!" This was exactly the the answer I thought I would get. She argued that the egg houses the child and therefore, is the root of existence. I argued that the sperm determined the sex of a child and therefore, is what makes us who we are today. So we argued back and forth for a while about who was right, of course neither of us could be right because it takes both a sperm and egg equally, but it was fun anyway!

Visit with the Specialist

So we just got done with our visit with the fertility specialist and things are looking positive for now. The visit was very informative. He basically said that both of us seem healthy (based on previous tests) and we probably just have really bad luck. There is a possibility that something else is wrong with my wife, but he didn't think that was the case and he said that determining that would require more invasive testing. So for now, he recommended that if we don't get pregnant this month than we try artificial insemination next month. Now of course we are hoping it will happen this month and we won't have to ever go back, but if not it is reassuring that we have an option to better our chances.

My only fear with the artificial insemination is that somehow during the transfer of my semen, the doctors accidentally grab the wrong semen and my wife gets pregnant with some other dudes baby. It would be like one of those classic TV moments when the baby is born and is a completely different race than the father. I don't want to be a pain in the ass, but I will probably try to see if I can accompany my semen at all times until it reaches my wife. I know...I am crazy!

An Ovulation Test that Works

Finally, an ovulation test that works! I wish I could say it was a pregnancy test, but it's not, so don't get too excited. Earlier on I posted that we could never get a positive reading out of the other testers we had. I guess it just goes to show that you shouldn't take the cheap route and buy the 50 pack online for $15.99, instead you should fork out a little more cash for the good ones. That is, of course, if there is such thing as a good predictor. For all I know it could be like a placebo kind of a deal. Maybe they just give you instructions on when to start using the tests and in every box there are like two that give a positive reading no matter when you use it...hell, maybe I could even pee on one and it would read positive. Maybe I will set up a 1-800 number and I will predict when women will ovulate for a small fee of .99 cents a minute. I will simply ask what day of their cycle they are on and if it falls between days 13-18 I will tell them that they should try on that day because they are ovulating, and if they are on any other cycle day I will simply add up the days until it will be day 14 or so and shoot for that date. I think I am on to something here!! Anyways, we were excited to finally get a positive result, but the only real downside is that a positive result means that my wife should ovulate in the next 24-48 hours. It is like the weather man saying, "I predict there will be snow sometime in the next two to three days, so for those of you watching, it is up to you from this point. Good Luck!" The one thing we did discover is that if the test is true, then my wife ovulates later than we thought and so we probably have been trying to soon every month. So now we will wait and see.

Ovulation Predictor

So we are going back to the pee-strip tests to try and pinpoint ovulation. The Clomid is supposed to make it so that ovulation occurs 5-8 days after taking the last pill. That is the info that we have been going off of and obviously it hasn't been working yet. My sister and her husband bought the ovulation watch, so far they said it seems to work well. I have decided that I should probably invent an ovulation predictor. What I am thinking is that I will just add it on to the features of cell phones. Most cell phones these days are not only phones, but radios, internet tools, cameras, MP3 players, video cameras, personal schedulers, etc. So why not just add ovulation predictor to the list. I think it will work...just as long as you don't have to pee on it.

The anticipation building up to go see the specialist is killing us...it can't come soon enough. We are both curious to find out more about our situation.

To see reviews and feedback on different types of ovulation predictors at epinions.com...Click Here

Computer Rage

I don't know if computer rage is a term yet, but if not I am going to start it up. It is kind of like Road Rage, but instead of being mad at another driver, you are really pissed and cussing at the computer. My wife started this because her Sims game wasn't working. My wife is addicted to the Sims. For those of you who don't know about the Sims, it is basically a game where you create people and then lead them throughout life, building them houses, getting them married, having kids, etc. My wife is really into getting all of her sims pregnant right now. I guess she figures it is the next best thing to having one of her own. Anyways, the game kept freezing up on her and I knew each time it happened because of her computer rage (I am surprised the computer survived, because clomid and computer rage don't mix well). So we decided to take our computer in to be looked at by a tech pro. Of course when he hooked it up it worked fine and never froze. So we took it home and fired it up and within minutes it froze on us again...once again my wife's computer rage came out. To top it off, our internet wouldn't work...now my rage was starting to happen. So we both sat in front of the stupid thing cussing. I finally got the internet up today so I apologize about the length between posts.

Comments

So I just realized that I had the comment setting on registered users only. So if you are a reader and you haven't been able to comment because I am an idiot, I apologize. The setting has now been changed so that anyone can comment. I would love to hear from any and all of you!!

Round Five...Ding!

I know I said my wife swore off the clomid, and as much as I would like that to be true, our options are limited and she doesn't really have a choice...so let round five begin. The only benefit to my wife being on round five of clomid, is that she now knows the side effects all too well and can somewhat control them. She can feel the inner Godzilla and tame the beast. She can sense the hot flashes and adjust accordingly. The random gagging is about the only thing she can't seem to control, but we have really gotten used to it. It would be like having hiccups for months, at first you are like, "what the hell?", but then you get used to it and it just becomes a part of everyday life.

We have decided to schedule an appointment with a fertility specialist to further investigate our options. It is exciting and yet sucks at the same time. Naturally, we don't want to have to get into artificial insemination or fertility shots, etc. We would like to just get pregnant already and avoid all of that crap, but we also want to know what it will take to get pregnant if we keep having problems. So I will keep you updated on what we find out!

Surrounded by Pregnant Women

My wife had this dream that she was at work and she was surrounded by pregnant women, they were all around her...wait a sec, that isn't a dream, it's reality. My wife works at a hair salon and right now there are 7 pregnant girls that work there. Obviously she is thrilled for each and every one of them, but it also sucks to be surrounded by pregnant women all day. I try to look at the bright side of the matter, that maybe this contagious "pregnancy bug" will rub off on my wife. Maybe it is like the flu and one day she will come home and say that she thinks she is coming down with "the pregnancy", it just so happens that she forgot to wash her hands and she caught "a baby" from one of the girls at work. You never know???

Online Communities

Throughout this entire process of trying to conceive, I have come across many helpful websites. Some of the sites offer information and others are online communities. I have found that the best way to find other people in the same situation is to join these online communities. The people involved are very supportive, but also very informative. Many of the members are in different stages of fertility medications or procedures and are more than willing to discuss how things are going for them and what they have tried in the past. Whenever my wife and I are experiencing something specific in our trying process, I always ask the friends in the community to see what their experiences have been and I have been amazed at the things I have learned. Now of course, if it is a medical problem we always consult our physician...we aren't idiots. So I would like to provide you with a few of these online communities.

My favorites are:
Trying To Conceive
Babies Online

Some others to check out:
Just Mommies
I Dream of Baby
The Fertility Shop
The Baby Corner

Enjoy it while you can...hah, yeah right.

This scenario happens to me more than once every day. I am chatting with someone that has kids and I am telling them that my wife and I are trying for a baby. After hearing this they say to me, "Are you sure you are ready for a baby? It is such a life changing thing, you guys should really enjoy the time without kids while you can!" Then after that statement comes the good ol', "Don't get me wrong, kids are great and all, I am just saying enjoy it while you can." What the hell is up with that? First off, if I tell you that we are trying for a baby then obviously we have thought about what having a baby will do to our lives, and after thinking about this we have made the decision to actively try for one. Second, do these people really think kids are great and all, or are they just saying it to avoid me from going around and telling people that they hate their kids. I guess what I am trying to say is, it is not very easy to "enjoy it" when all you can think about is getting pregnant, your wife is on fertility pills that make her crazy, and everyone in the world is pregnant but you. There you have it, that's my gripe.

67 Year Old Woman Gives Birth to Twins

So I was reading up about the 67-year old woman that just had twins and I told my wife that she really needs to not be so concerned about getting pregnant because we still have about 42 years for it to happen...needless to say my wife wasn't amused! To read the story about this crazy 67-year old new mother Click Here

Well, We Relaxed...Now We Will Wait

So our little get-a-way was very nice and relaxing. To know just how relaxing it was, well, we spent more time in our pajamas than in regular clothes and we barely made it to midnight on New Years Eve. Now we will see if we get pregnant this month and then I will really believe that relaxation is the key to conceiving.

This is now our fourth month of Clomid and it is starting to take a toll on us. My wife swears that this is the last time she will take it and if it doesn't work than we will just have to try something else. We have started to do the whole "try not to think or talk about getting pregnant, so we don't dwell on it" thing. So far it isn't working out to well. This is mostly due to the fact that everyone in the world is pregnant but us. Earlier I posted that everyone we know is pregnant...well now, everyone we know who wasn't pregnant when I posted that has gotten pregnant, so it is official that everyone in the world will be getting pregnant before we get a turn. So I guess if this month is not a success than we will be going to see Dr. Ding for a little acupuncture, but hopefully this is our lucky month and we won't need to. I'll let you all know!