It's the day before testing and cramps have set in. They started in my lower back and radiated towards my sides, which is how my worst periods always start. There's been a bit of discharge that might have been pinky but so far, we're keeping up the positive vibes and hoping our visit to Ireland imbued this try with some Irish luck.
A's hard at work and I have the evening lock-down shift so I'm keeping myself occupied with a steady stream of trashy teen shows - interspersed with youtube videos by 'the Piano Guys' (I'm going through a cello phase)
See you on the other side
Sunday 24 November 2013
Thursday 21 November 2013
10 days down...
It's a little over halfway through the two weeks wait and we've succeeded in keeping ourselves occupied.
At the weekend, we visited A's sister (who is now officially two weeks overdue.) As is traditional for us whenever we fly abroad, it started with a near-tears moment of stress. We had made it as far as the check-in desk when I realised that my printed boarding pass was in fact paperwork for our Peruvian Christmas. Ryan air is really strict about having your boarding pass with you when you check in. It was either pay £70 (twice what the ticket cost) to have a new one printed or call the new lodger and ask him to drive across the city with less than an hour to spare. In the end, we appealed to the young assistant manning the customer service desk. We got our boarding pass printed on the sly and then after all that excitement, headed for Starbucks - where, I regret to say, I succumbed to the siren call of caffeine. It wasn't the last time that weekend that we broke our pact to reduce caffeine, either.
We were only there for a day and two nights but it was nice to be spending time with family. They even took us out to a nice bar on Saturday night (my virgin mojito was made with lemonade, which I hadn't tried before. It was pretty good)
I've been trying to reduce my stress levels recently, after a friend pointed out that I was having some pretty near-miss catastrophes at work from being too distracted by other stresses (To be fair, that's more to do with the fact that our store breeds stress. On Monday for example, a cage of frozen delivery didn't get put away within it's allocated time and we lost nearly £100 of ice-cream - guess who had to answer for that) I'll admit that I may be wound a little tightly at the moment. Maybe it's that I'm aware of this try being the last until after the new year and I know it wasn't much of a pitch. Maybe it's that we're getting closer to our Peru holiday and I'm getting nervous about meeting A's parents - given that I'm the first girlfriend they've met (that they know of) - whilst they're still wrapping their heads around the idea that their daughter is gay. I don't know. I just know that on Tuesday, I was so wound up that I messed up making macaroni, resorting to straining the roux where I hadn't had to in years. I had a good cry over that; then pulled myself together before A came home. I even managed a giggle, as thoughts came to me of how close we had come to re-creating the scene from the 'Little Women' sequel, 'Good Wives,' in which poor John arrives home with company, unaware that his loving and dutiful wife has made a real wreck of the kitchen trying to make jam and is ready to blast anyone who dares ask how her day went.
And last night, we had a room change around. The new carpets that we have been bugging the landlord about finally arrived whilst I was at work. When I arrived home, A and vecina had switched furniture between the living room and the lodgers' room. So now they have the bigger room but we have a private living room - which is better all round as I think all parties were starting to feel the strain of sharing that space.
A new wardrobe that we had arranged for the lodgers came a few hours afterwards but it had to be sent back, as it didn't so much resemble a wardrobe as a large box. The fixtures were all missing. There was a solution though(!) When the alternative arrived, I had taken refuge in our new living room (which at this point still resembles a rubbish tip) and I could hear the guys trying to manoeuvre the wardrobe up the stairs from halfway across the flat. A told me later that it was clearly too big for the narrow stairway that leads up to our flat. Did that stop four grown men from trying though? This falls under the category of 'you can't tell men nuthin.' After ten minutes of trying(!), they decided between them that the best course of action was to take it apart and re-assemble it in the room.
Today is, thankfully, a day off. I had all weekend off, Tuesday off and a (slightly) less stressful daytime shift yesterday but I am still ridiculously grateful for a whole day to unwind. Between the mild nausea, cramps and breast tenderness coming on we can either expect a positive test next week or a particularly unpleasant period.
At the weekend, we visited A's sister (who is now officially two weeks overdue.) As is traditional for us whenever we fly abroad, it started with a near-tears moment of stress. We had made it as far as the check-in desk when I realised that my printed boarding pass was in fact paperwork for our Peruvian Christmas. Ryan air is really strict about having your boarding pass with you when you check in. It was either pay £70 (twice what the ticket cost) to have a new one printed or call the new lodger and ask him to drive across the city with less than an hour to spare. In the end, we appealed to the young assistant manning the customer service desk. We got our boarding pass printed on the sly and then after all that excitement, headed for Starbucks - where, I regret to say, I succumbed to the siren call of caffeine. It wasn't the last time that weekend that we broke our pact to reduce caffeine, either.
We were only there for a day and two nights but it was nice to be spending time with family. They even took us out to a nice bar on Saturday night (my virgin mojito was made with lemonade, which I hadn't tried before. It was pretty good)
I've been trying to reduce my stress levels recently, after a friend pointed out that I was having some pretty near-miss catastrophes at work from being too distracted by other stresses (To be fair, that's more to do with the fact that our store breeds stress. On Monday for example, a cage of frozen delivery didn't get put away within it's allocated time and we lost nearly £100 of ice-cream - guess who had to answer for that) I'll admit that I may be wound a little tightly at the moment. Maybe it's that I'm aware of this try being the last until after the new year and I know it wasn't much of a pitch. Maybe it's that we're getting closer to our Peru holiday and I'm getting nervous about meeting A's parents - given that I'm the first girlfriend they've met (that they know of) - whilst they're still wrapping their heads around the idea that their daughter is gay. I don't know. I just know that on Tuesday, I was so wound up that I messed up making macaroni, resorting to straining the roux where I hadn't had to in years. I had a good cry over that; then pulled myself together before A came home. I even managed a giggle, as thoughts came to me of how close we had come to re-creating the scene from the 'Little Women' sequel, 'Good Wives,' in which poor John arrives home with company, unaware that his loving and dutiful wife has made a real wreck of the kitchen trying to make jam and is ready to blast anyone who dares ask how her day went.
And last night, we had a room change around. The new carpets that we have been bugging the landlord about finally arrived whilst I was at work. When I arrived home, A and vecina had switched furniture between the living room and the lodgers' room. So now they have the bigger room but we have a private living room - which is better all round as I think all parties were starting to feel the strain of sharing that space.
A new wardrobe that we had arranged for the lodgers came a few hours afterwards but it had to be sent back, as it didn't so much resemble a wardrobe as a large box. The fixtures were all missing. There was a solution though(!) When the alternative arrived, I had taken refuge in our new living room (which at this point still resembles a rubbish tip) and I could hear the guys trying to manoeuvre the wardrobe up the stairs from halfway across the flat. A told me later that it was clearly too big for the narrow stairway that leads up to our flat. Did that stop four grown men from trying though? This falls under the category of 'you can't tell men nuthin.' After ten minutes of trying(!), they decided between them that the best course of action was to take it apart and re-assemble it in the room.
Today is, thankfully, a day off. I had all weekend off, Tuesday off and a (slightly) less stressful daytime shift yesterday but I am still ridiculously grateful for a whole day to unwind. Between the mild nausea, cramps and breast tenderness coming on we can either expect a positive test next week or a particularly unpleasant period.
Tuesday 12 November 2013
In which there is a day, an insemination and absolutely no reference to Henry Fielding
8:30 am, 11 November
Signs it's going to be a good day
* The radio greets us with Bon Jovi and the playlist just gets better from there
* More ewcm than I've had on any given morning in the last six months.
* The new lodgers are on their way out for work
- Sorry, if this is graphic btw but it seems to be the case that whilst you're ttc, you're so focused on the many amazing things your body is doing to prepare for baby that you sometimes forget that not everybody has the same endless fascination for mucus and follicles and linings.
14:00
A flurry of cleaning, a warm shower and then a cup of tea whilst waiting for A to get home from work. Nothing left to do this evening but pop in a movie and pour out the (non-alcoholic) mojitos. R confirms he has finished class and is en-route.
-the new lodgers (vecino & vecina) return from work
22:30
After talking all evening and enjoying a fabulous dinner cooked by my very talented partner, R does his manly duty and heads home, leaving us to get down to business with the goods. I should mention at this point that the bed we're currently using (whilst waiting for a new one to arrive) is a large bunk with a 'study' underneath. Every movement makes the bed sway and creak. The lodgers are in the next room. There were rounds of creaking, shushing and intermittent giggles but we got the job done. We even discovered that the bed is the perfect distance from the ceiling for me to prop my legs up and check out the pretty colours A had painted my nails for the occasion (she'd made me put my socks on as soon as they were dry and made me swear not to look)
So that's it. Our only insem attempt for this cycle. The Hail Mary Pass.
Signs it's going to be a good day
* The radio greets us with Bon Jovi and the playlist just gets better from there
* More ewcm than I've had on any given morning in the last six months.
* The new lodgers are on their way out for work
- Sorry, if this is graphic btw but it seems to be the case that whilst you're ttc, you're so focused on the many amazing things your body is doing to prepare for baby that you sometimes forget that not everybody has the same endless fascination for mucus and follicles and linings.
14:00
A flurry of cleaning, a warm shower and then a cup of tea whilst waiting for A to get home from work. Nothing left to do this evening but pop in a movie and pour out the (non-alcoholic) mojitos. R confirms he has finished class and is en-route.
-the new lodgers (vecino & vecina) return from work
22:30
After talking all evening and enjoying a fabulous dinner cooked by my very talented partner, R does his manly duty and heads home, leaving us to get down to business with the goods. I should mention at this point that the bed we're currently using (whilst waiting for a new one to arrive) is a large bunk with a 'study' underneath. Every movement makes the bed sway and creak. The lodgers are in the next room. There were rounds of creaking, shushing and intermittent giggles but we got the job done. We even discovered that the bed is the perfect distance from the ceiling for me to prop my legs up and check out the pretty colours A had painted my nails for the occasion (she'd made me put my socks on as soon as they were dry and made me swear not to look)
So that's it. Our only insem attempt for this cycle. The Hail Mary Pass.
Sunday 10 November 2013
Wishing and hoping and praying
Due to Scheduling conflicts, we missed this cycle's O date.
Along with monitoring basal body temperature (bbt) and cervical mucus (cm) we've been using ovulation test sticks from around day ten of my cycle. This cycle, there was no faint build up to the results line; one day the window was blank, the next it was a strong line. R, the donor, and I have some pretty tight schedules this week but he's going to try to meet us at the flat tomorrow. It seems a little like locking the barn door and all that...but at least it's a try. For me, at least, the cycles we don't get to try hurt that little bit more than the negatives. Now we just have to figure out how to distract the new lodgers from the length of time R is spending in the bathroom. We've also been in contact with the group who cast our fertility spell at the start of summer to arrange a re-casting and hopefully a boost for our last try of the year (We'll be abroad for a month over Christmas and New Year, so we'll be skipping the December cycle and possibly January, depending on timing)
Things are a little sensitive at home with the impending birth of our nephew (A's sister's due date is this week) Either way, we will be visiting next weekend. A couple days in Ireland will be a pleasant change of scenery and maybe a nice distraction during the TWW - if we pull it off tomorrow.
Along with monitoring basal body temperature (bbt) and cervical mucus (cm) we've been using ovulation test sticks from around day ten of my cycle. This cycle, there was no faint build up to the results line; one day the window was blank, the next it was a strong line. R, the donor, and I have some pretty tight schedules this week but he's going to try to meet us at the flat tomorrow. It seems a little like locking the barn door and all that...but at least it's a try. For me, at least, the cycles we don't get to try hurt that little bit more than the negatives. Now we just have to figure out how to distract the new lodgers from the length of time R is spending in the bathroom. We've also been in contact with the group who cast our fertility spell at the start of summer to arrange a re-casting and hopefully a boost for our last try of the year (We'll be abroad for a month over Christmas and New Year, so we'll be skipping the December cycle and possibly January, depending on timing)
Things are a little sensitive at home with the impending birth of our nephew (A's sister's due date is this week) Either way, we will be visiting next weekend. A couple days in Ireland will be a pleasant change of scenery and maybe a nice distraction during the TWW - if we pull it off tomorrow.
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