Had a lot of fun trick or treating. Darrell wrote a good post about it on his blog.

I did my progesterone bloodwork this afternoon. I also took the initiative to book an u/s 2 days before Thanksgiving. Since the fertility clinic is closed on Thanksgiving and we want to go to DH’s parents’ house for 4 days, I wanted to have a look at my eggs at that time. If they are mature I’ll take an ovulation trigger shot at that time and go in the next afternoon for the IUI. If they are not mature enough, I can be reasonably sure that I’d get at least 3 days of holiday time away before I ovulate on my own devices.
So the countdown is maybe 3-7 days til AF shows (and starting Clomid on CD 3), 22 days until U/S & Trigger, 23 days until IUI, and 37 days til hpt.
It’s all happening now! In 9 days I could be “1 day” pregnant. Hahahaha. 😉
*****
Happy Halloween! DH won 2nd place in “Most Creative” for his costume this year! I’ll post a pic soon. Just about to go trick or treating. WooHoo!

Bren’s Halloween costume (Thomas the Tank Engine):

Bren the nerd:

We’ve been working on Winnie the Pooh Christmas decorations for the past 3 weeks or so. How do you like them? 😀

Provera, the drug that the dr is going to prescribe me in a couple of days to bring on my period, is really birth control. Essentially, you take Provera for 10 days to control your level of hormones and then you stop it, causing your hormones to drop suddenly and bring on AF. Nifty, huh?
I don’t see why my RE wants me to take it though. Whether or not I ovulated (very doubtful- his words) my period would definitely make its appearance before a 10 day round of meds + several days for them to wear off. Why add 2 weeks to the waiting when I guess it’ll happen on its own in less than 7? Nope, I think I’ll let my cycle do its own thing. But I will go in for the progesterone test. Even if it’s just to get out of the house and get DH out of work free. Besides, in our house, getting stuck with a needle = getting to choose dinner out. 😉

Tidbits of Bren cuteness!
I was surfing the net while lounging on the couch the other night (via wireless mouse and projection tv on our wall) and there is a blog I read called “Manana Banana” with a giant banana as the logo. Bren saw that and yelled out “Ban-an-uh!” He leapt to his feet and ran to the life-sized banana on the wall and proceeded to lick it with great slurping noises. It was very cute! He must have a video of someone eating soup because he is fascinated by soup and loves making slurping noises. If you have soup, be prepared to share it! Even if it has veggies in it!
Since it is approaching Halloween, I have been working on some Halloweenish vocabulary with Bren. He know says “punkin” and bat. He also recognizes ghost and skeleton. 😀 We are going to a kiddie trick or treating activity at DH’s work tonight. Should be fun! Bren hasn’t seen his Thomas the Train costume yet. I know he’ll love it- I just hope he wears it! LOL.
Bren told me today “OK!… L M N O P!” I chuckled at that! He also colors pictures in his coloring book now! On his own! It’s about time!!!

This is a very good picture representing an IUI.

An IUI bypasses the potentially lethal trip up through the birth canal and uterus. The mucous there can be harmful to sperm (containing attacking antibodies or by being too acidic) or not present in enough quanities for sperm to have a good medium in which to travel (Clomid is known to dry it up). The sperm is deposited near the top of the uterus, right next to the openings into the fallopian tubes. The sperm must then travel up the tubes, meet (or wait for) the just released egg, fertilize the egg in time for the egg’s decent into the uterus where it has just hours to implant itself into the uterine wall.
Failure can result if the sperm die before an egg is released, the IUI takes place after the egg has already left the tube, the sperm and egg fail to merge or merge correctly or the embryo fails to implant well into the uterine wall. I have heard that a perfectly timed IUI with a good quality egg and good quality sperm has only a 40% chance of fertilizing correctly and implanting well enough to be a sustainable pregnancy.

I’ve been researching Clomid today and found this:
“With a half-life of 5-7 days, it is possible that clomid, after inducing a successfully fertilized ovulation, remains in the mother’s system well into the initial weeks of pregnancy…The estrogen receptors necessary for interaction with clomid are not present until the fetal stage of pregnancy (56 days post-conception).”
So your body has 56 days to clean out the residual Clomid before it can begin to effect the baby. Clomid has a half-life of 5-7 days so every 5-7 days the amount in your system is reduced by 50%. Using 6 days as an average, I figured the following:
Day Clomid taken: 100%
6 days later (approx ovulation time): 50%
12 days later (baby approx 6 days): 25%
18 days later (baby 12 days): 12.5%
24 days later (baby 18 days): 6.25%
30 days later (baby 24 days): 3.125%
36 days later (baby 30 days): 1.562%
42 days later (baby 36 days): 0.781%
48 days later (baby 42 days): 0.390%
54 days later (baby 48 days): 0.195%
60 days later (baby 54 days): 0.097%
So less than 1/10th of a percent is still in your body when the baby reaches 56 days post-conception. That’s not a whole lot- less than 1/20th of a mg per 50 mg taken- but more than I thought before I calculated it up. I take 150 mg for 5 days and that comes out to 1/3 of a mg still in my body (with the error of me assuming it’s all taken at once; it’s actually a smidge less) when the baby reaches fetal status.
Interesting. I guess that solves the riddle of why some non-ovulatory women go on to ovulate the month after stopping Clomid.

In a nutshell- it went perfectly!
I did some paperwork. The doctor himself came out and greeted us and brought us back to his office. Even the nurse remembered us. They oohed and ahhed over pictures of Brendan before we got down to business. He even noticed it was my birthday! 😀
We basically reviewed the infertile details and we really didn’t have an update- I still have PCOS and don’t ovulate and DH is still azoospermic. He was glad I remembered what dose of Clomid I took since his file of me was a copy out of microfiche records (it *has* been four years…) and apparently that page either didn’t get copied to fiche or just didn’t get copied into the new paper file. We joked about us being his easiest appt all week because it was agreed to just to do what worked last time. 150 mg Clomid days 3-7, monitor for pending ovulation with OPKs, come in the day after a + for IUI.
He called in to verify the vials of semen were there in the lab and in good condition- yes. He also did a quick ultrasound to check my uterine lining and ovaries. That was really cool. I actually got to see the “clusters of grapes” in my ovaries that were my unreleased eggs. Definitely polycystic.
He wants me to go back on the 31st to give some blood for a progesterone test. If the result is under 3 we can be certain I did not ovulate this month and he’ll prescribe Provera to bring on my period. If it happens to be over 3, we’ll wait for my period to come on its own. Then on day 3 I’ll enter Clomid Hell once more. And I’ll welcome it with open arms.
And very, very cool to boot- the doctor entered this appointment as “polycystic ovaries” not as “infertility”. The result- a common, run of the mill $20 co-pay! Yay!
Have I mentioned that I am very very excited to be ttc once more? 😀

Darrell made me a tart and very tasty triple lemon cake- lemonade cake with lemon meringue filling and lemon buttercream frosting. Mmmmm! Whadda guy! Thanks honey!
Wish me luck- later today is the much anticipated RE appointment!!!

Yesterday, Bren told me “Good job, Mama! High five!” And he held up his hand. 😀 He also told me to “hurry up”. LOL. He can also sing his ABCs all the way through pretty darn clearly. He knows an amazing number of the letter sounds as well.
Send me some patience, we have begun potty training in earnest. He is now sporting the very fashionable Gerber vinyl pants over cloth trainers. Ugh- I hate plastic pants. But I think pee running down the leg is particularly effective with Brendan. He hates messes.
He does not ask to sit on the potty but very occassionally and he has not yet produced anything (with the exception of that one time many moons ago…). He does not dress himself yet but he understands the mechanics of peeing and that it goes in the potty. It might be too early still but I am tired of diapers. The question is do I hate sitting with him in the bathroom for eternal lengths of time 6-8 times a day even more? Tell me it gets better…
ONLY TWO MORE DAYS TIL MY RE APPOINTMENT!!! 😀 😀 😀