Nothin' in the Oven

You may have noticed that in the “About Me” section, it now says “…Hopeful-Soon-To-Be-Mama…”  Surprise!  Yes, we have been trying to expand our family for about 10 months now.  We have kept it pretty quiet until now.  There have been a few times I have wanted to tell some of you, but I'm not the greatest at communicating the serious stuff in person.  Or over the phone (I hate talking on the phone!).  But I'm telling you now!

Anyway... You never think that it is going to take awhile for yourself to get pregnant; just like they teach in high school: if you have unprotected sex, you will get pregnant.  I sometimes wish it was that easy for everyone, but in some cases, I’m glad it’s not.  Life rarely turns out exactly how you have pictured it.  Like I said in my first post, I want to be able to share my experiences so that maybe it can help someone else who reads it, going through the same thing.

Before I tell the beginning of our story, I just want to say that I know there are many, many couples who have struggled with infertility for a lot longer than we have and have gone through much, much more.  We haven’t even officially been diagnosed with infertility, but we definitely know that there is something not right.  And I want to be open about it from the start because, why not?  There is such a stigma about trying to get pregnant and infertility that it should be kept hush-hush.  But how is that helpful to anyone?  That being said, I will be getting into some girly details, so if that bothers you, stop reading now. J

Around December of 2014, Travis and I started talking about having a baby.  We weren’t quite ready.  We still had some traveling we wanted to do and I always have to let big decisions sink in for awhile.  So we decided that we would start trying in the spring.  So at the end of March 2015, I got off the pill and we started trying in May.  I had done a lot of research on tracking ovulation and I also read that it could take a few months for my cycle to regulate after getting off birth control.  My first cycle off of the pill was 24 days.  The next one was 33 days and the next one was 36.  During this time, I would take ovulation tests around when I thought I should be ovulating, but they all always came back negative.  I just figured that I was either doing it wrong or testing at the wrong time.  My next cycle was 42 days and I thought for sure that I was pregnant that time.  But I wasn’t.  After a negative pregnancy test and a period soon after, I knew I wasn’t.  Finally, I knew that something definitely wasn’t right when my next cycle lasted 140 days!  That’s about 4 ½ months!  Time after time I would take pregnancy tests and each time they came back negative.  I can’t describe how heart-breaking it is to repeatedly only see one little line instead of two.  I have cried countless times on Travis’s shoulder, wondering why I have to wait to be a mother.  Why he has to wait to be a father.  I guess I haven’t quite mastered the art of patience yet…

So after I hadn’t gotten my period for 3 months, I called my doctor.  They wanted me to go in to have some blood work done, but right about that time (November), I switched jobs and wouldn’t have health insurance until the beginning of the year.  So I had to wait…  As soon as January hit, I went and had my blood drawn.  They ran some tests and didn’t find anything abnormal.  So I went in for a check-up and everything seemed to be fine.  So my doctor prescribed me with Medroxyprogesterone (progesterone) to induce a period.  He also prescribed me with clomiphene citrate (Clomid) to then induce ovulation.  On cycle day 35, I was to take the progesterone for 10 days.  After stopping the progesterone, my period should come within 10 days and then on cycle day 5, I would take Clomid for 5 days.  That process started on January 31, 2016…

Nothin' in the Oven Cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 tsp vanilla

Handful Heath Toffee bits (optional)

Directions:

In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa.  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla.  Stir in toffee bits.  Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool until hardened.