What's Up Wednesday- July 2015

Hi everyone! Happy July! I haven't blogged much this month, as I haven't had any fertility treatment news to share, but overall it has been a great month! I decided instead of writing a few paragraphs about our month, it would be more fun to link up with Mix and Match Mama and answer the What's Up Wednesday questions.

What we're eating this week:

Over the weekend we got together with family and I made my Pizza Dip!! YUM! This dip is so good! Check back tomorrow for my recipe :) 

mmm... so yummy! 

What I'm reminiscing about:

This month I have been reminiscing about my study abroad adventures in Spain, back in 2011. This was by far my favorite collegiate experience... so amazing. Facebook gives me a daily notification about what I posted on each day in the past, so all of my Spain pictures and statuses have been showing up this month. It is hard to believe I was in Spain this time 4 years ago... I remember like it was yesterday! 

Love these people! 

What I'm loving:

Not having any homework this half of the summer! I am currently in graduate school seeking my Master's in Business Administration. I finished my first summer class, and was signed up for another class for the 2nd half of the summer, but decided I was school-ed out for the time being, and didn't have the focus to cram in another class, so... I dropped the course. I'll start back up in the fall, but for now, it is oh-so-nice to have a break from homework and studying!

What we've been up to:

VACATION!! woo hoo! We just got back last week from our Florida vacation. We went for a friend's wedding, and also got to spend a few days at Disney World. This trip was a busy one, but was so much fun!

Family vacation at Disney World

What I'm dreading:

Starting classes again at the end of August...some days its just hard to work all day and then come home and find the motivation to study. The bright side is that I only have 3 more semesters to go, and then I'll be finished with school forever! (BTW, I know that going to graduate school is a great opportunity, so this is definitely one of those #firstworldproblems situations.)

What I'm working on:

New decor for our dining room! We have lived in our house for a little over 2 years, but I never really hung anything on our dining room walls, so now I'm finally getting around to doing that.

What I'm excited about:

Since our last fertility treatment, I had a semi-normal cycle of 31 days! This is really really great, especially because this was all on my own with no fertility drugs! God is so good! I'm hoping my cycles will stay that way, and not get super long like they did prior to starting fertility treatments. That's my current prayer request.

What I'm watching/reading:

I just caught up on the season finale of The Bachelorette last night (so happy that Kaitlyn picked Shawn), and I'm currently reading Nobody's Cuter Than You. Mix and Match Mama also suggested this book on her blog, and I ordered this copy for me and one of my bff's! Its book about friendship, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's an easy read, and totally relate-able. 

What I'm listening to:

Currently listening to Lee laugh his booty off watching the Jimmy Fallon show. I have to agree with him... the Jimmy Fallon/Tom Cruise lip sync was hilarious! 

What I'm wearing:

I recently bought these purple Under Armour shorts, and I've been living in them when I come home from work! They are so comfy! I also have two similar pairs in blue and black, and they are equally as comfortable. Definitely my fav comfy shorts! 

What I'm doing this weekend:

Catching a concert with my hubby, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law! 

Kenny Chesney, here we come! 

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Going boating! The river here has risen so high, we haven't gotten to take our boat out in July at all. So we are hoping the rain will finally slow down, and we will be able to use our boat a few weekends in August.

What else is new:

Not a whole lot! As I mentioned in my last blog post, we are taking a break from fertility treatments this summer. We did 6 IUIs earlier this year, and none of them resulted in pregnancy. Our doctor has recommended that our next step be IVF. We are definitely interested in going that route, but have decided to give ourselves a break for the summer. Once we get back from our trip to Mexico this fall, we will call our doctor and get the ball rolling. 

In the meantime, I did have some blood work done at my last doctor's appointment, which showed I had very low levels of Vitamin D. So now I am taking Vitamin D supplements daily, and will go back for more blood work at the end of August to check my vitamin levels again. Other than that, we are just enjoying our summer with no fertility drugs and no doctors appointments. So far it has been nice and relaxing, and I am so thankful for that!

What will I miss most about summer?

Definitely going to miss not having to do homework the absolute most! But also I'm going to miss the warm, sunny days spent boating. There's just something so relaxing about being out on the water, hanging with my fav person, enjoying the sunshine, and forgetting about life's problems for a few hours. 

Thanks for reading, friends! I appreciate all of your love, prayers, and support so far this year. Please let me know if there is anything that I can be praying about for you!!

Post-IUI #6 Update

As you all know, during the month of June we had our 6th IUI. We did not get pregnant this month, so Lee and I decided now would be a good time to take a break. So far, this break has been nice. I really think it is just what Lee and I have needed. We are planning to pursue other options after a few months off.

We met with our doctor last week to discuss what those options might be. He said at this point, if IUI hasn't worked yet, there's a slim chance (10ish %) that it will in the future. We agreed that we really aren't interested in having anymore IUIs. We feel like we gave that process a fair shot, and tried a good amount of different medication combinations. We are ready to move on. Dr. Griffin thinks our next step for continuing fertility treatments should be In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

IVF is a process in which I will take medication to encourage my ovaries to produce several follicles (eggs) that are large enough for fertilization. I will take the medication and have several ultrasounds to track the activity of my ovaries. Once I have several mature follicles, the doctor will do an egg retrieval. This is where I will go under anesthesia (still breathe on my own and all that, just basically be asleep), and he will go in and retrieve the mature eggs. Next, my eggs and Lee's sperm will be joined in a lab. Once they join, they will hopefully grow for about 5 days or so and become embryos. The embryos will then be placed back into my uterus, and I will take a pregnancy test several days later to see if they implanted. For those of you who are not familiar with the process of fertility treatments, you are probably thinking Octo-mom or Jon and Kate + 8. No worries- we are NOT going to have 6 or even 8 babies at once! Dr. Griffin said he would not feel comfortable placing more than two embryos in my uterus at once. That way, even if they both split and become twins (which is not super common), we would have 4 babies, MAX. Given our track record, we will be lucky if just one implants and we have one baby....but let's be real, we are not opposed to multiples at this point, and we will be happy with what God gives us!! Dr. Griffin has only had one set of triplets in his time as a doctor, and all other successes have been single babies or twins. He did say that we can choose to only place one embryo back into my uterus if we want, but Lee and I both agree that we would prefer two so our chances of success are higher. If more than 2 embryos survive the 5 day growth process, they would be frozen and we would use them later for future children, or additional tries if the first round does not work.

Wow... That is  LOT of information! Lee and I were both on information overload after our appointment, and you might be too after reading all of that. Once the time comes, I will try to do a separate blog post for each step of the process to make it seem less complicated.

So, when will that time come? We are thinking later this year. Lee and I have never been to a destination wedding, but as it turns out, we are going to two this year!! One in Florida this summer, and one in Mexico this fall. We have decided that we want to enjoy these trips with our families, enjoy the summer months without the added stress of appointments and medications, and that's what we're going to do, and have been doing!

Once our two trips are over, we will plan to start the IVF process, and hope to have it complete before the holidays come around....we all know how crazy that time of year is. To us, this seems like perfect timing, and we are happy to have a game plan again, but also are enjoying our time off.

I will write another blog post later this month about how July has been going without medication, what we've been up to, how my cycle has been, etc., but for now, I just wanted to make note of how our doctor's appointment went, and what our plan is. I like to use this blog not only as a way to update friends and family on how we are doing, but also kind of as a diary for me, to remember what we've done so far... a super public, not-private-at-all diary. :)

We are still praying that God allow us to grow in our faith during this time, and that he bless us with a child. Some of my goals over the next few months are to focus on enjoying time with friends and family, allow myself to fully trust God and his plan, and to not be anxious about the future. Those are our prayer requests for the time being. If there is anything I can pray for you about, please let me know!

IUI #6 Results

Well friends, as you know, we gave the IUI process one last try in June. If you missed my last blog post, you can catch up here. We were really hoping this was going to be the month we finally could say we are expecting, but unfortunately, we are not.

I have gone back and forth for days about what to say in this blog post. This past week or so has been full of ups and downs, and I've really struggled to put my feelings into words this time around.

I've had a lot of ups and downs coming to terms with the fact that after 12 months of trying on our own, 6 IUI cycles, 5 different medications, and a whole lot of prayer, we still aren't pregnant. I am still faithful. I have no doubt that our time will come to be parents; I just can't imagine our future without a family of our own. The thing is, even though I know it will happen some day, some how, I just really want someday to be NOW.

Lee and I are at that age where a lot of our friends are having children. There is a flood of pregnancy announcements and baby pictures on my Facebook and Instagram news feeds. It seems like everyone's lives are moving forward in exciting ways... wedding, marriage, new home, new baby, new job, or some combination of those things. Everyone has something that they are working towards or currently celebrating, and I can't help but feel like Lee and I are "stuck" in this stage of life, where we've had the excitement of starting our marriage and making our home our own together. We are so ready to move forward to that next stage, but its just not happening for us.

My friend Elisha, from Waiting for Baby Bird reminded me last week that even though I feel "stuck", I am not. God is just setting the stage for what is to come. He can change our circumstances so quickly, and when he does, I will be able to look back on all of this and know that this experience has made me a better friend, wife, Christian, and maybe this experience will even make me a better mom someday.

Lee reminds me DAILY how lucky we are to be healthy, have jobs, have our home, friends and family nearby, more friends and family just a car ride away... I know how blessed we are, but I tend to forget those things so quickly when I'm thinking about what I don't have. I'm thankful for where we are and what we've overcome to get here. I need to continue to remind myself of all of this when I'm feeling down about not having a child.

For now, we are trying to stay positive and enjoy all of our blessings. We know that we have a lot to be thankful for, and a God who loves us and forgives us everyday. We know that he hears our prayers, our cries, and hears us rejoice. We yearn for the opportunity to become parents, and we will continue to seek that in the future.

We assume that our next step with fertility treatments will likely be In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), but we will find out for sure when we meet with our doctor for a follow up appointment at the end of this month. We have decided that regardless of what our doctor suggests, we are going to wait until at least the end of the summer or maybe later to do more fertility treatments. For now, we are going to take a break. Our hearts, minds, and bodies could use some time to heal, and we're going to do just that!

We are looking forward to spending our summer with friends and family, enjoying time with each other, and taking a trip or two! It will be nice to do all of this without worrying about traveling with medication, what time I need injections, or when I have to be at a doctor appointment. I think this will be a nice stress relief, and a great way for Lee and I both to embrace and enjoy all that we currently have to be thankful for. In fact, we just got home on Sunday evening after a weekend away and were talking about how awesome it was to spend our weekend outside enjoying the sunshine, and getting to see two of our three families. If there's anything that can cheer me up, its family, grilling, and sunshine!

I will keep blogging about our plans and progress, and hope that someday soon we will have good news to share with you all. In the meantime, we will keep praying that God allow us to become parents at the perfect time, and that he help us to find peace and patience in the meantime. We would love for you to pray for the same.

Lee & Sara's European Adventure Part 4: Berlin, Germany

We woke up early on our last day in Munich, & flew to Berlin. Our first day in Berlin we were exhausted due to our 6:30am flight departure from Munich. We spent our first couple of hours doing laundry, had some "Mexican food". It was good, but no comparison to Mexican food we eat here in the states: think your fav local Meixan joint minus the queso. 

Me with my Mexican food in Germany... too funny! 

That night we got on the bus planning to do a little sight seeing, but the next place the bus stopped at looked really fun so we got off the bus to check it out! It was a Christmas festival! They called it the Wintergarten. It had all kinds of booths set up w food, drinks, crafts, etc. Berlin is known for its Currywurst, which is like a sausage cut up & covered in tomatoey-curry sauce. Lee tried that & I had this bread pocket filled w chicken & garlic sauce. My favorite thing we ate there was this chocolate covered strawberry kabob. The milk chocolate here is the best I've ever had! It's so milky & smooth & amazing. We spent the whole night walking around & looking at all of the Christmas lights & booths. It was probably my favorite thing in Berlin! 

Chocolate desserts at the Wintergarden

Lee's currywurst

Booths at the Wintergarden

Beautiful tree in Berlin

The next two days we spent sightseeing both by walking & from our Hop on-Hop off bus. We didn't get to see as much as we would've liked because many things were closed for New Years, but we did get to see a part that is left of the BerlinWall, the Jewish Museum, the German History Museum, & the German president's house! 

A little chunk of what's left of the Berlin wall

On New Year's Eve, we went to the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate. For the Germans, this is similar to going to Times Square in New York City. There were TONS of people there. They had djs, food and drink booths, bands, etc. Thy had a huge section if the street closed off & it was just a huge party. At midnight they had a fireworks show. This was a great time, & our sight seeing yesterday definitely suffered because of it! Haha. We made friends with two girls from the UK & spent most of the night hanging w them! It was such a memorable time for us

Look at all of those people celebrating at the Brandenburg Gate for NYE! The light in the very back is the main stage. 

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Our last night in Germany, we had one last German meal, & the next day we headed to Paris. My poor Leeroy started coming down w a cold at this point in our trip. We brought some medicine w us, but it was one of those colds where you need a few days in bed to sleep it off & he didn't want to sleep off our last 2 days of vacation, so he took medicine and pushed through. To end our time in Berlin we got up at 3:30am to get ready & get to the airport, and arrived in Paris around 9:00 a.m. 

Lee was excited for one last German meal! This statue was outside our restaurant. 

Berlin was the city we did the least amount of planning for, but we enjoyed it none-the-less. It was so fun to experience New Years Eve in another country! 

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) #6

This month, we had our 6th IUI.  On day 3 of my cycle, I started with daily injections of a medication called Gonal-F. After 5 days of injections (day 8 of my cycle) I had an ultrasound and blood work to see how I was responding to the medication. The doctor recommended that I do two more nights of injections and come back two days later (day 10 of my cycle). On day 10 I had an ultrasound and blood work, which showed that I still wasn't quite ready to ovulate, so I did another 2 nights of injections, and came back for....you guessed it... another ultrasound and blood work on day 12. The ultrasound and blood work that day showed I was ready to ovulate, so that night Lee gave me the trigger shot (injection which forces ovulation), and 36 hours later, on cycle day 14, we had our 6th IUI. We are now in our two week wait, and because our IUI fell over a weekend, we won't actually have a pregnancy test until day 29 of my cycle.

This month was a little different than last month because not only did I have 9 nights of Gonal-F injections (last month I only did 6 nights), I also took a larger dose each day. So 9 nights of the Gonal-F plus the trigger shot (Ovidrel) means I had 10 days in a row of shots. This really didn't bother me too much hormonally, but I did end up with a pretty big bruise on the left side of my stomach. We alternated sides each night for the shots, but I guess that many days in a row just irritated my skin. Other than the bruise, no major issues this month, which is great!! 

As you know from my last blog post about infertility, we have decided that if IUI number 6 isn't successful, we are going to take a break from fertility drugs and treatments. We have learned a lot about ourselves and the process of getting pregnant during these past 6 cycles, and we're thankful for the knowledge we now have. However, we have decided if  cycle #6 is not a success, we are going to take a break from fertility drugs and treatments for a while. Emotionally, it has been tough getting 5 negatives in a row, on top of the 12 months of trying we did on our own before starting the IUIs. Physically it has also been tough, so if we get another negative, we'll be ready give our minds, hearts, and my body a break.

This month overall has gone really smooth. We are hoping that the extra medication helped us out, and that this is the month God intends for me to get pregnant. I had 5 follicles (eggs to be released) and my last ultrasound, so we are praying that at least one of them will take (Let's be real, I've been hoping for two all along haha). All jokes aside, we will take what God gives us, and at this point, we're simply praying that IUI number 6 is a success. We are now in the two week waiting period, and are hoping to have good news to share next time I post. In the meantime, we'd appreciate if you could pray that IUI number 6 results in a healthy pregnancy!

I came across these bible verses this week, and thought I'd share, ans they are both so appropriate

Romans 12:12
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit.