today's the day!

the stars have aligned! no, actually the fertile signs have aligned. my temperature dipped this morning, my opk was positive, i have good fertile mucus, i have crazy ferns in my ovulens. psychologically i'm ready. my right lymph node is swollen (remember how i kept picturing my right side was developing the egg, i was right!). we have the sperm and we know how to use it:)

oh my gosh i'm so excited. i'm not regularly a morning person, but i was all set to get up today. anna is out getting a smaller syringe because the ones my NP gave me are too big (12 cc). we just need a tiny one because the sperm might be at most 2 cc. i am going to take pictures of the tank and such. i'll try to post more later. my mom is coming into town though so we'll probably be busy.

wish us luck!!

zzzzz....

i'm really not feeling motivated at work today. i'm sleepy... it was hard to get up for acupuncture.

acupuncture is going well though. today was my fourth visit in two weeks. i've been getting needles in pretty much the same spots each time. he'll add some if i have a complaint (back issues, etc.). today he went to put one in the side of my left hand and it hurt like hell! immediately it was on fire and felt bruised. he took the needle out right away and rubbed at it with a cotton ball. even that hurt. i knew it wasn't hurt by the needle (like a regular pin prick). it was totally different. he told me this meant that the qi was flowing well there. this is what i found out about the spot online, called hou xi (si3):

SI3: HOU XI
Location: At the end of the transverse crease proximal to the 5th metacarpo-phalangeal joint when hand is half-clenched.
Indications: Stiffness or rigidity of neck, tinnitus, deafness, occipital headache, lumbago, paralysis of upper extremities, night sweating, epilepsy, malaria

the purple writing are things i have. i'm going to ask him more about this next time. i really want to know how this works exactly. i haven't had night sweats for a few days now (since last acu. visit). could i have been helped by the acu., the supplement i'm taking, or is my body just doing it's own thing right now? the spot didn't hurt anymore by the time my session was done. there's no indication at all that i had pain there. crazy.

i started taking a chinese herbal supplement on monday, prescribed by my acupuncturist. it's called jia wei xiao yao wan, or free and easy wanderer plus :) here is what the website for the company that makes the supplement said:

Jia Wei Xiao Yao Wan has helped countless women relieve anger, irritability, stress and excess heat associated with premenstrual syndrome and monthly menstrual cycles. This special herbal formula regulates qui, nourishes the blood, clears heat/excess yang and generally harmonizes the body. ...help alleviate excessive heat/yin deficiency and sweating.

i have to take 24 of these little ball shaped pills a day (12/am, 12/pm). the are maybe 3/16" in diameter. pretty small. they are black and remind me of onyx. the reason why he prescribed these is due to my trouble with controlling my emotions sometimes, mostly with pms. i have night sweats, like i mentioned. also, he believes i have stagnant blood. i knew i "ran hot" compared to other people. i'm usually warmer than anna, and she calls me "furnace" when we cuddle. i also get annoyed very easily around my period. i've learned how to deal with it mostly but it boils over sometimes. anyways, i'm curious how these little pills with help when i'm pmsing.

i'm pretty positive i ovulated on the 10th. i'm waiting to see how high my temperature rises before i'm totally sure. i had a positive opk (ovulation predictor kit), ferns on my ovulens, low temp (with a spike the next day), fertile mucus, along with secondary conditions. this means we are less than a month from trying to get pregnant. eeeee! :)

i was looking at the calendar to see when this could be happening. if i have a luteal phase of 12-13 days again, and my follicular is about 13-14 again. i could be trying to get pregnant the weekend of my birthday!! holy crap. that would be a great birthday present.

could be, perhaps, maybe....?

this morning i decided to try a different technique with the ovulens. i had read on a forum that someone else was having trouble getting ferns. what ended up working was putting the saliva on the edge of the lens and tipping the ovulens so the saliva spread out.

i did this and waited patiently for it to dry completely. when i looked in, it was different than other times. it wasn't exactly ferning but it wasn't blobby either. it looked like a very frosty window. i tried magnifying it as much as possible and i thing it might be a bunch of very tiny ferns. anna agrees. yippee! i'll try the same thing tomorrow and see what happens.

hmm...

well, the ovulens isn't working out as well as i hoped. since that first day that i saw ferns i haven't seen anymore. major disappointment.

i actually turned into quite a poop on saturday because i was all frustrated about this whole business. i really need to work on relinquishing control or else i'm going to be a major roller coaster of emotions. anna was a doll, as usual, and pretty much let me be a snarky bitch. then when we went to bed i broke down crying and spilled it all out. man that felt good. i just needed a good cry.

it's still annoying not seeing results on the ovulens in the morning, but there are other "symptoms" i can track. i'm still recording my BBT and also my fertile mucus. according to my mucus (bleh), i'm close to ovulation.

we went to the midwife/birth center today. it was great. the woman we saw was very nice and knowledgeable. she gave us some good tips on supplements and other pre-conception ideas. the center was nice. i could see me giving birth there:) i met the other midwives too; they were all friendly. i think that is the location i would like to go to for prenatal care and birth. wow:) ok now we just need the baby! haha.

we are thinking that we will start trying in march for sure now since the ovulation tracking isn't going as easily as (i) hoped. i'm going to start drinking a fertility tea to help regulate ovulation and give me more nutrients to prepare my body. i'm also considering acupuncture. it's been mentioned on a number of blogs i've read and different pregnancy websites. i've enjoyed the acupuncture i've had done before, and it can be beneficial for conception. it goes with the philosophy of whole body health to prepare for the baby.

i think that's everything for now. i'm sure i'll have more tomorrow because i picked up a book at the birth center called "the twelve month pregnancy". we'll see what else i can stuff into my brain:)

i saw a fern!!!

i did the ovulens this morning and when i checked it I SAW A FERN!! i think it's really cool :) so what this fern means is that my body is transitioning to ovulation. when i see a whole lens full of ferns, that means i'm ovulating.

this picture is what a transitioning lens looks like. the things that look like antennas are the ferns. when not transitioning or ovulating the lens just has a bunch of blobbies.

i'll do a quick ovulens recap, too, to explain how it works. you take the nifty contraption (see photo in the previous blog), open it up, flip down the glass lens, put some fresh morning spit on it:), wait 10 mins till dry, flip the lens back up, turn on the green light, and view. this thing will help me pinpoint when i ovulate and can also work as a pregnancy test. it's basically a small microscope.

yea for simple easy technology!