It showed Monday afternoon

I finally started my cycle on Monday afternoon.  I finally got a call for my cycle review from PPVI this evening and they are supposed to call me back in the morning.  I'm hoping that the significant reduction in K's nursing will helping and that we won't have to wean completely anytime soon.  I'm definitely disappointed and I hope that we can at least have decent timing this cycle.  Last cycle cut it close only using P-2.

My progesterone and estrogen continue to look good and I'm wondering what Dr. H will suggest this time around.

Frustration

I feel terrible saying this when I have already received the blessing of one wonderful, smart (although very intense) daughter, and others are still waiting for even one.  I'm jealous of pregnant women.  A friend of mine recently announced her pregnancy with their 3rd child.  My body does not seem to be cooperating this cycle and I'm on day 24 or so and haven't ovulated yet, and the scheduled marital act is getting old, although we did have a talk about it last night after some frustration on both sides.  I'm not really yet secondary infertility and I am still breastfeeding relatively frequently.  We are on the 21 day antibiotic this cycle, so I have 3 weeks of nausea without the benefit of even being pregnant yet (I had it with the cyclical before conceiving K as well).  Well, I'd better get to bed since I'm done working for the night and K will be up in about 6 hours or so.  I need to balance out by posting about K soon.

New Cycle (#4 TTC #2), What to do?

We are onto our 4th cycle TTC #2.  I'm trying to figure out what I need to try this coming cycle, since I'd like to try a few more things this cycle to feel like we are making a strong effort.  I need to figure out what else to ask Dr. H.ilgers about during my cycle review.  I'm still breastfeeding K (16 months tomorrow) fairly frequently and want to continue to feed her on demand until 18 months at which point I will try to wean to about 4 feedings a day (early morning, after wakeup, before nap, before bedtime).  I do try to offer her other options like water or a snack and she has to ask with signs for more milk.

I didn't need any ovulation medication to get pregnant with K although I did take either Vitex or a fertility blend herb that cycle.  I wasn't on progesterone until after the post pregnancy test.  We did take the cyclical antibiotics that cycle.  I am already back on Hydrocort and T3.   I did do the Benadryl P+5-P+9 when I got pregnant and this past cycle, and I will probably do that for future cycles.  Four months before getting pregnant with K, I had a laparotomy for endometrosis.  Dr. H also found inflammation and yeast during my surgeries.  I took Diflucan a few cycles before getting pregnant with K.  My progesterone and estrogen are both around 20 P+7 for the previous 2 cycles that I have had tested.  Is there anything else that I should try or ask Dr. H about?

15 months and TTC #2

K turned 15 months yesterday.  She has been walking full time for about a month or so now.  She is still a pretty good eater, although she is eating a little less at every meal.  She is still nursing all the time.  She started taking 1 nap a day about 2 or 3 weeks ago even though her nap is usually only between 1 and 1 1/2 hours long.  She has been pretty good about waking up for a brief nursing between 6 and 7 am and then going back to sleep for another hour or so, especially since we got some new curtains for her room.

K is saying quite a few words.  She says momma, dadda, yeah, no, hi, bye, na-na (for thank you), night-night, more (and she signs more), book, wow and "itsy" when she wants us to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider (which she is obsessed with...she also does the motions for it).  She signs all done (in many contexts).  She is getting to be very talkative around familiar people even though it's not really English yet.

I'll know her weight and height when she has her well-child visit tomorrow afternoon.  She's wearing mostly 12 month outfits with some 18 month outfits thrown in.  She is still quite petite, but she is perfectly plump for her age.  She has 5 teeth (3 top, 2 bottom) and 1 coming in on top.

She loves to swim.  She's been swimming at my SIL and BIL's house in a big pool as well as going to the splash park and playing in the baby pool at our house and friend's, and she always loves it and doesn't want to be done.

I'm feeling a little anxious about what I should be doing for TTC#2.  I feel like I need to go a bit harder core if we aren't pregnant this month.  Yes, I realize that this is only our 3rd cycle TTC #2, but I want to get as many things in order as possible and it took 3 years for K.  I'm currently on T3 15 mg and hydrocort as well as a relatively standard prenatal.  When we conceived K, I was also on Pain and Brain (a curucumin supplement), sustained release B6, Mucinex, the cyclic antibiotics CD 6-15 for both my husband and I, Benadryl P+5 through P+9 and did acupuncture.  My progesterone and estradiol have been ok but not as good as when we conceived K.

Onto cycle #3, round 2 and K is almost 15 months

K will be 15 months on Sunday and I just had cycle day 1.  We only used 1 fertile day this time and it obviously didn't work.  I'm back on T3 and hydrocort and I've called for my cycle review and we'll see what  Dr. H has to say.  I'm still breastfeeding K pretty often at least 6-8 times a day and that doesn't seem to be changing very quickly.  I definitely plan to breastfeed on demand until at least 18 months and if I'm not pregnant by then maybe try to get down to 3-4 times a day.  This upcoming cycle is odd since I'll probably ovulate around our 5th anniversary and if we actually conceived, the new baby would be due around my husband's birthday and K's birthday (they are 5 days apart).  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  We aren't going to avoid, but I'd almost rather a new baby got a separate time.

K is down to 1 nap a day.  She usually wakes up between 7:30 and 8 (with a quick feed at between 5-7 and back to bed), then naps around 1 for about 1 1/2 hours and then she goes to bed about 8.  She is still a pretty good eater most of the time.  She is also now a full-time walker and says quite a few words and does a couple signs.

I've been super busy with traveling quite a bit, taking care of K, watching a friend's baby twice a week and getting ready to work from home doing medical transcription.  I'm going to try to do a 15 month post for K.

Cycle #2 of Round 2

I'm on CD 3 of my second cycle.  We had had good timing and I felt really hungry and then nauseous, but it turned out the nausea was just a horrible stomach virus so I felt terrible most of Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had tested Tuesday morning and it was BFN obviously.

I had my annual with my new OBGYN (my old one who delivered K retired and this doctor took over the practice).  I really like her.  She seems to have the same philosophy on birth as I do (minimal intervention).  The only thing that I didn't agree with was that she didn't want me to get pregnant while I'm breastfeeding.  I don't have any plans to wean K soon, and I don't think that it's something I'm going to worry about.  If I can get pregnant while breastfeeding, so be it and we'll continue as long as we both want to.

I did my cycle review with the PPVI nurse on Friday afternoon and they are going to talk to Dr. H and call me on Monday if there is anything in addition to doing the P+7 bloodwork that they want me to do.  By the way, my P+7 levels this past cycle with K still nursing 6+ times a day were progesterone 21 and estrogen 16.4, which is pretty decent.

K will be 14 months on Friday and she is walking indepently part-time.  She still crawls a lot and insists on holding onto my hand, etc.  I'm still hoping she'll be walking full-time by my SIL's wedding, but it's only 2 weeks away now, so I don't know.  She has been having a cranky couple days; we're pretty sure it's the teeth that are trying to come in.  It's really trying dealing with the whining all day long.
 

2 weeks wait

It looks like I ovulated last Thursday, so I'm in my first 2WW for TTC#2.  I had a pretty good period this time.  TMI ahead.  It was so much better than before my surgery with no clots or brown bleeding, plus only 2 days of spotting after a 5 day full flow.  I had a pretty good mucus cycle without B6, Mucinex or hydrocort.  PPVI went ahead and sent me an order for a peak+7, suggested by my practioner, TCIE.  If I'm not pregnant this cycle, I'll have a cycle review on CD 1 and we'll see what they suggest for the future.  Of course I have my annual with my new OBGYN (the one who delivered K retired and the new doc is the one who took over her practice) next Tuesday which will be peak+12, so probably too early to test or anything (although I am tempted).

K has been walking a lot more, although she still not walking full time yet.  We think that she'll probably walk full time around mid-June.

I have had it pointed out to me lately that I am quite controlling, so I am trying to work on that.  Any suggestion would be helpful.  Because I'm controlling, I also feel like any problems in my life (or that of our family) are related directly to my failings, such as when K has napping issues.

K woke up after napping only about 40 minutes or so and she definitely needs nap at least an hour.  I know she is still tired, but she is in her crib screaming bloody murder, and going in does not calm her down.  Yesterday she finally ended up going back to sleep for another 1.5 hours.  I just don't know what is best for her sometimes.

Is there anything that I can do to encourage someone to exercise and eat better other than offering to exercise with them that wouldn't be rude or controlling?

How do you do with times were there are household projects that need to get done but aren't (if you aren't the one who needs to do them) without nagging and being pushy and annoying.

K is starting to have more frustrated tantrum times.  I'm not sure what to do about it.

I'm sure that I' m still waiting for ovulation, and I'm on CD 21.   I'm pretty sure this will go on for a while since K is still breastfeeding quite a bit.

Part II Round I

So my cycle started back on Sunday.  It's a bit weird to start again after having a 22 month break.  My cycle doesn't seem really horrible like some people have described their first cycle after pregnancy.  I'm still nursing but my cycle seems to have started about 6 weeks after nightweaning.  We'll see how a few cycles go (I had taken a break from charting, but I'm going back now) and we'll be TTC, but won't be doing any meds, bloodwork or anything until at least July or August. I'm not going to push weaning.   I'll continue just to offer her other options for something to drink or take her outside so she's not bored.

I finished my class and passed the final, so now I'm looking for a job.  The nice thing is that I'll be able to work from home, although I'll probably be working like 10 pm-2 am and not getting a lot of sleep.  Thankfully K does usually sleep until 8 am or so, so hopefully I'll be able to get a few hours and then nap some during her naps.