Fun and Dysfunction

Well, it’s “Trying to Conceive Tuesday” again…I’m just kidding. That’s not a thing. At least not that I’m aware of. Nonetheless I have ttc updates and it is Tuesday, so let’s just roll with it shall we…

Cool Daddy and I have actually been trying to conceive ever since I started blogging, but it just wasn’t anything I wrote about on the blog. But during my series of infertility posts that I wrote for National Infertility Awareness Week I kinda let the cat out of the bag so to speak. Now I feel obligated to let you know what’s going on. I mean, it’s totally cool, I don’t mind sharing.

On May 3 I had another appointment with the OBGYN to check our test results. Cool Daddy had to take in a *ahem* sample, and I had blood work done to check my thyroid and see if I’d be ovulating. So the doc said that according to the results hubby’s count is normal and I don’t have a thyroid problem and dun, dun, dun…I am NOT ovulating. Say what now? Yeah. Despite all of our struggles conceiving in the past I was still surprised to hear her say it. Prior to my first two pregnancies they weren’t able to find anything “wrong”…so we had unexplained infertility. Now we are struggling again, I assumed that there still wasn’t anything “wrong”. But there is.

I started taking 50mg of Clomid that day and finished up on Saturday. I can take Clomid for 6 months, which means until October, unless I get pregnant which would be, ya know, the point of taking it to begin with. This week hubby and I have some “business” to take care of. This weekend I start taking the Crinone again. Next week I must have more blood work done to see if the Clomid helped me to ovulate and the following week I have an exam to check and make sure I’m not forming a lot of cysts. So there will be a lot of poking and prodding the Jenn for the remainder of the month (pun intended, feel free to insert a creeped-out shiver here__).

When we left the doctor’s office, I cried. Not a lot, really. I’m not sure why I cried. We weren’t getting pregnant when I thought that I was ovulating…and even if I was she was going to put me on Clomid anyway. Still it was just a different thing to have to deal with going from, “We don’t know what’s wrong.” to “Yes, there’s a problem.”. I’m not really sure which one is worse. I’m fine. We’re going to try the Clomid and if it doesn’t work we’re going to close our ttc door and move on.

I’ve spent nearly 6 years of my life trying to get pregnant. We’ve always been serious about it but not overly “aggressive”. People always like to tell you to “relax” and that “you’re trying too hard”, but unless you’ve told them every little detail they really have no idea how “hard” you’re trying. Well, in the spirit of doing the exact opposite of what people like to say to me I’m actually going to “try harder”. In that I mean that I’m going to be trying to track my ovulation in ways that I’ve really never bothered to use before. Now that I know I’m not ovulating and because I know that if the Clomid works I may ovulate earlier or later than expected, I don’t want to miss the window. So I have a few ovulation calculating tricks up my sleeve. Tada…

1. Ovulation Predictor Kit:
I started taking an opt every day at 2pm to detect my LH surge. I have used an OPK before…about 4 or 5 times during the 6 years of ttc. Now I plan on using them every month while we’re on the Clomid.
2. Basal Digital Thermometer:
I have never charted my temps before. Now I’m going to take my temperature the same time every morning before I get out of bed.
3. Ovulation Microscope:
This is pretty cool. Apparently your saliva changes during your cycle. Every morning before I get out of bed I put a drop of spit (yum) on the lens of the microscope and let it dry for 5 minutes. Then I look into the lens to see if I can detect a “ferning pattern”. When my spit sample looks like a fern…I’m fertile 😉
4. Ovulation Calendar:
I’ve been using this online calendar for years to keep track of my cycle and get an idea of when to expect my period. I always use this to see when my estimated fertile days are according to my LMP. You can make notes on this calendar and that’s a feature that I’ve always liked.
5. Clomid Ovulation Calculator:
You enter the date that you started taking Clomid and it will calculate for you the expected date of ovulation.

I made a calendar on the computer and plugged in all of the dates when I should be fertile, the dates to start using the OPK, when to start using Crinone, my OBGYN appointments, etc. and I printed it out and put it next to the bed with a pen and my thermometer and microscope.

So now you are all caught up and you probably know way more about my personal reproductive system than you ever cared to know.
You can thank me later.

*** Update…the Clomid worked after one cycle! Jonathan Paul was born on February 08, 2012 🙂 ***

*Disclosure: This post contains amazon.com affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I may get a small amount of money for it. I’ve only been using these products for one day and can not yet comment on how well they work. I paid for these products using my own money. All opinions expressed are my own.*

+Our Infertility Story: The short version
But if you want the whole story read…
+Part 1: The first 4 ½ years of our infertility struggle
+Part 2: My first Pregnancy
+Part 3: My Miscarriage
+Part 4: Conceiving after miscarriage
+Part 5: Secondary infertility after the birth of our daughter
Other Related Posts:
*National Infertility Awareness Week
*Infertility Myth Busted: Just Relax
*Childless Mother: Infertility Poem
*Spring Ahead: Reflections on Miscarriage
*Celebrate Your Name Week: Jordan: Why we named the baby we miscarried