i love apples and peanut butter

i think i'm addicted. oh well:) i only eat adam's natural peanut butter and organic apples, so it can't be too bad for me right?

i started seriously drinking my fertility tea this morning. i drank 32 oz. in 2 hours. should i have spaced that out more?? it's not too bad tasting. i had been warned that it isn't the most pleasant. i added some ginger honey again. the smell and tasted reminds me of mari-j. i think it's just because it smells herby/earthy. mmm:) that's a picture of chasteberries, by the way.

it took me forever to figure out how to brew the stuff. i wasn't sure if if mattered how much i used, how much water, and how long. so i'm going to log that here just in case someone else is doing a google search for "how to brew loose leaf fertility tea". i don't think you can really screw up brewing the tea

i used 3 tablespoons to 4 cups (32 oz.) of water. i brewed the tea in a french press, since i didn't have an infusing teapot large enough. worked great. i let the tea steep while i was in the shower, about 10-15 mins. i poured it into a couple thermoses (one to drink out of, one to store). i drank it on my way to work, like i used to do with coffee, and finished off the other thermos at work. then i peed like a racehorse. :)

cd1 today

funny but i'm excited about cycle day 1. i think it's because it means we're one more step closer to getting pregnant. this is my second to last cycle before we try. -fingers crossed- this could be one of my last periods for awhile.

when i got home from work, i made a pot of fertility tea. it wasn't too bad. i heard it wouldn't be the best tasting. it was kind of earthy/grassy. i added some ginger honey which helped. yum. i'll need to make a lot of it so i can drink it throughout the day.

oh, and olive officially killed my thermometer on tuesday morning. i walked into the bedroom and found the main body with the battery parts lying nearby. the little booger. so now i'm using a regular thermometer. i need to get a new basal one asap.

oh those crazy hormones

damn that pms. it's making me wacky! yesterday afternoon, after a very very lazy morning, i was in a good mood. goofing around with anna, dancing around, basically doing stuff that involves "around" :) then, dum dum dummmm, i try to get dressed to go hiking. bring on the pouting and whining. "i'm fat", "nothing fits", "no, i can't wear your clothes, cause you're skinny dammit", "why can't i loose weight" and so on. i'm sure alot of you know what i'm sayin'. i know all the things i said aren't true, but it feels that way.

we went for a nice hike with olive (who hasn't really done anything bad since the last blog). it was at a local trail on cougar mt. it was just an hour hike in and back. what made it so great was that it was lightly snowing, flurries really, and it was cool to go from barely anything in the parking lot to a light covering on the ferns at our turn around point. so pretty. i was wishing i had my camera with me.

after the hike, anna had to go to a gaelic football meeting and i stayed home watching "american dad" on hulu. i made the mistake of starting to read another blog for a couple that got pregnant. these things suck me in. i went back to the very beginning when they first started trying. they had some troubles, took a long time, but ended up working. anna is home by this time and looking up data we had discussed before "what percentage of iui result in preg. vs. "regular" intercourse". the sad news is 4-10% vs 20%. 4%!!!! bring on the waterworks.

i start bawling. i want a baby sooo bad, and i don't handle failure well. i know that i'm not a failure if we don't get pregnant right off the bat, but i'm afraid that's how i'm going to feel. that's my nature. people keep assuring me that i'll be fine. i'm young and healthy. -sigh- i guess i can just keep doing what i'm doing and hope that march goes well.

here is what i'm doing now: i'm taking a few different vitamins/supplement. i have a triple omega-3 that i take 3 times a day, a calcium pill plus vitamin D i take 2 times, vitamin D liquid (very yummy with berry juices), alpha lipoic acid with green tea, multivitamin/mineral with lutein, chromium, selenium, folic acid (200%), and vitamin c. i'm going to start drinking a fertility tea on cd1*. it has chaste tree (vitex), red clover, red raspberry, and nettle. this will help in a lot of different ways. i'll discuss it later.

i've cut back on caffeine to doing half decaf/caf. my plan is to start having a cup just every other day. i've cut back on alcohol to just 3 glass/bottles a week. i plan to stop entirely in february except for special occasions (like our 5 yr anniversary!).

i upped the amount of fruits i'm eating to at least 3 a day. we've always eaten alot of veggies but i've started bring carrots, celery, and/or salad along to work also.

i'm trying to remain consistent with kickboxing. i need to start doing some exercises at home to strengthen my abs.

yeah, so i am doing a lot. i just hope it helps. so i end with a happy note, here is a picture of olive on a lovely hike we did to get to a mountain-top wedding for some friends.

olive has been bad

the little shit. reminder for those that don't know me in real life, olive is our 1 1/2 year old puppy.

first bad thing, she gave our cat, malo, an aural hematoma, ie- she injured his left ear and it got infected. it swelled up. they had to put a hole in his ear and drain it. the poor baby has stitches and has to take medicine twice a day. guess how much it cost.... $430 dollars! well $150 was for dental stuff (cleaning etc.), which should be done while under anesthetic.

second bad thing, she chewed up my basal thermometer this morning. it still works but makes the saddest sounding beep when i turn it on. the tip i put in my mouth is crooked and the other end has teeth marks. grrr.... i'll need a new one. thank god it's cheap.

there better not be a bad thing number 3! bad girl! hmph

my first chart

here we go! i did predict my ovulation correctly, according to fertility friend. yippee! the crosshairs means ovulation.

i'm a slacker:)

so what's been going on with me? currently i'm in what's called the luteal stage. i call it waitin' around. it's the second half of my cycle. i'm just patiently (haha) waiting for cycle day 1.

i had one odd thing happen yesterday. i took a couple days off of doing the ovulens, thinking nothing would really show up at this stage. well i did it yesterday morning and much to my surprise i had a full strong lens of ferns. i'm not sure what it was exactly that caused this, but anna and i have a couple theories. tuesday night i had alot of trouble falling asleep so i got up to have a snack. i had an apple with peanut butter and a mug of soy milk. when i went back to bed, i didn't brush my teeth again. theory one is that the salt from the p.b. affected the results, or perhaps, less likely, the estrogen that is in the soy milk (naturally occurring) affected it. the second theory is that i'm having enough of a late cycle spike of estrogen to show up.

i'm leaning more to the second theory because this morning had the same results. the fern weren't as large. i made sure to brush my teeth thoroughly after my snack. hmmm...

we got a new book "taking charge of your fertility". it seems to have a lot of the same things i've already discovered, but i'm still liking it so far. it had some color pictures in the back of nifty things (not for the squeamish). it showed the cervix before ovulation, at ovulation, and after. way cool. it also showed different types of cervical mucus. yes, this is kind of an icky concept, but seriously who hasn't wondered "is this normal?". pictures are a good thing.

speaking of icky concepts and how this makes us feel uncomfortable. i'm finding out so much about my body that no one ever talked to me about. it shouldn't be this way. the more we know about the natural workings of our body, the more we are able to help ourselves. we can have control over our reproduction, our health, our ailments. it also isn't complicated! i still trust doctors and those in the medical profession (my RNP is totally supportive), but by being more personally aware we can have a better relationship with these people. doctors don't need to be scary. we don't need to have unnecessary tests. we don't need unnecessary prescriptions.

i was surprised recently when i was talking to wonderful friend who i adore. she admitted that she was weirded out reading some of my blogs because i talk about things like mucus. this concerns me because if she's weirded out reading this maybe she won't feel comfortable talking with a doctor about what's going on with her body.

just a bit of rambling:) i just care about all my lady friends and think they should know their lady bits.

example chart showing ovulation

here's a handy diagram showing estrogen, progesterone, temperature, and fertile mucus to pinpoint ovulation. this is not my chart. it's from http://www.fertilityfriend.com/HelpCenter/FFBook/ff_hormones_and_signs.html#7

ovulation usually occurs on the last day of lower temperatures.