fertility teapills

i got some new teapills from my acupuncturist. i started taking them yesterday. they consist of fruits and seeds that promote fertility. i'll stop taking the free & easy wanderer plus teapills next week. i need to stop taking them because they encourage a downward flow. that's why they are beneficial for blood stagnation/pms/period issues. definitely don't want a downward/out flow when trying to get pregnant.

i'm on cd6 now. still thinking that next weekend will be ovulation time. i've sent in our paperwork to the cryolab. i also sent in request for the adult photo of three of our top candidates. we have 4 that we are considering. we just discovered last night that donor #1 is now a "please call" for sperm. anna was disappointed because she really likes him. :) i'm leaning more towards #2 anyways, and he's still available.

our midwife center was supposed to have sent in their paperwork. i haven't checked with them yet. that's on the list for monday. they need to do the actual ordering of the sperm, and must have a registered account with cryolab to do so. after i check that all the paperwork is done on monday, anna and i are going to probably put an order in. i don't want to do it too early though. if it's delivered on thursday and it lasts for a week, we should be golden. come on egg-ey do your work! :)

are you trying to make me jealous?

just found out another friend is pregnant. let's count it up now.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... anyone else. :) i'm very excited to meet all these new babies. most of them are due mid-summer. i hope anna and i have a baby soon so it will have these "cousins" to hang out with.

fyi- we might be ttc in a week and a half!

CD1!!!!

cd1 started yesterday! that means we're gettin' close folks. i'm excited, can't you tell!! :)

this nifty little thing here is a tampon case you can buy on etsy from abbeychristine.

oh yeah, i forgot about that....

no, i didn't really forget about my blog. i could give a bunch of excuses (travel, work) but really i just didn't feel like writing:)

this might get a bit long, so i apologize early. i'll go back to when i last wrote- just before valentine's.

anna and i flew to boise to see my mom and sis on valentine's. we were there till wednesday morning. it was really nice to see everyone. i was a little concerned about seeing my brother-in-law and his family because our niece and nephew were sick. anna and i managed to avoid catching it though. we ate yummy food the whole time. stayed up way too late. played wii. basically, we lazed around:) it was great.

i didn't stay diligent about my fruits and veggies though. i tried, but we would go out and see people and i would forget to bring fruits along. on tuesday night i was actually craving broccoli so anna made baked broccoli for me. mmm :) i'm back on my fruit wagon now. i was happy that my body told me to give it good stuff. i do feel like i've successfully changed my eating habits. i want this to continue for the rest of my life. it's not just to prepare for pregnancy.

speaking of which, it's getting close:) i'm on cd26 right now and spotting. cd1 is right around the corner. anna and i are trying to diligently choose a donor. we've at least narrowed down our bank to cryolab.com. we've found the most potential donors through that site. what we've run up against is sperm availability. we'll really like a donors profile and photo, then realize they don't have ici/premium for us. (fyi- ici/premium is sperm that is good for intra-cervical insemination. it is unwashed- meaning the sperm isn't separated from the semen, like for iui.) the bank updates there info at the beginning of each month so maybe the ones we like will be available again.

we're waiting to hear back from our midwife's office. we can't order the sperm directly; we need a health care practitioner to order it for us. we can have it delivered to our home though, which is a bit of a relief. i can just see us ordering the sperm and then we can't get to the office at the right time to pick it up. ack! :)

acupuncture is going well. i've had a couple things arise recently completed unrelated to fertility. i have plantar fasciitis in my right foot. really hurt, especially because i have a job that requires me to stand most of the day. carleton, my acupuncturist, did some points in my left hand to help my right heel. they really really hurt each time. i don't like them, but it's helped. i also got some mint oil to rub on my foot before bed, and i ice my foot when i get home for work. the other things i'm dealing with now is the beginnings of carpal tunnel in both wrists. this is fairly common for a framer to get. ugh. my wrist are sore and don't feel very strong when i'm trying to do things (like type this blog). i'm going to try yoga wrist exercises to help them.

anna and i are going to try a free yoga class on sunday. it's at a center that i'm interest in joining since i'm stopping kickboxing this week. i need to keep doing something active or i'll go nuts. they also have prenatal yoga and baby yoga for later.

the picture at the beginning is from an awesome website called threadless.com. check it out. i think that's everything. wish us luck in finding that perfect donor :)

my current chart- what the heck?!

here's my chart currently:

here's my chart from last month:

so what the heck. i really believe that i ovulated on cd 12-13. why haven't i gotten the little crosshairs? :( i'm a little frustrated. i wanted this cycle to be nice and clear so we would know what to expect for next month -sigh- i guess i just can't get what i want.

on a positive note, anna and i are going to see my mom, sister and friends tomorrow! yeah!

donor search

right so since our potential insem is about a month away, anna and i going to be searching for a donor more seriously. i think we've narrowed it down to a couple different banks, cryolab.com and cryobank.com.

the cryolab has a lot more with the qualities we're looking for in a donor. basically we want a male anna:) we're going to see my mom and sister this weekend and i'm going to try to get their input.

any insight out there? i know a number of people are reading this cause you tell me:) i'd love to hear from you. you don't need to sign up on blogger to leave me a message.

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.