Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Today I turn 40.  I updated my age from 39 to 40 in the "About Me" section of this blog.  It hurt a little to do so!

Today my sister visited our hometown that I spent the first 8 years of my life.  My sister took a picture of our old house and said she remembered the day my mom and dad brought me home from the hospital after I was born.  Pretty sweet.

Since it's my birthday, I decided to google some images related to 40th birthdays.  Thought I'd share some of my favorite ones.

Image from deathandtaxesmag.com

Image from birthdaydirect.com

Image from cafepress.com

Image from cafepress.com

Image from cafepress.com

Image from qoutepaty.com

Image from crudecardcompany.co.uk

And my absolute FAVORITE!!...................

Image from thisnext.com

If you haven't signed up for my 40th birthday giveaway, please do so soon.  It ends on Sunday.

Protocol and Meds Are Here

This morning, I received my FET protocol from Katie, our nurse at NEDC.  This was a nice surprise as Katie had told me earlier that I wouldn't be getting my protocol until after the 15th.  Looks like I will start Lu.pron on 8/23 and will continue on BCPs until 8/27.   I'll be putting together a calender together to make sure I get all the medications and shots all in one place.  Maybe I'll share it later.

A couple of hours later, the UPS guy dropped off my medication.  I'm quite familiar with most of the medication, except for the progesterone in oil (PIO).  They include PIO, Lu.pron kit, Es.trace, Va.lium, a whole bunch of syringes and needles, and a sharps container.

Here's the progesterone in cottonseed oil.  There are actually 4 bottles of this.  This is a new one for me.  I'm a little nervous about the PIO, to be honest.  Heard it's a real pain in the butt.  Literally.

This is the first time I have used a Lu.pron KIT.  I was surprised to open the box to see the Lu.pron bottle, syringes and alcohol pads all included.  I love this kit.  Though I can't really say that I love "Loopy Lu.pron".  I'm pretty sure I will have side effects again from this.  We'll see.

Looks like I'm ready to go.  Just need to make the appointments at the local fertility clinic for when I need to get my ultrasounds and blood draws.

Also, if you haven't already, sign up for my 40th birthday giveaway.  Make sure to leave a positive comment about turning 40.

Meds, Acupunture & Photos!

Wow, this week started off busy!

This morning I put in my order for my meds.  Lu.pron, Es.trace, Progesterone in oil, and Va.lium.  A total of about $355.

Found out Lu.pron is not covered by my insurance, so I am paying $129 for it.  Es.trace, even with insurance comes up to $195 for 60 pills.  Kinda crazy!  That's more than $3 per pill.  Without insurance it would have come up to $243.  Unlike my previous IVF cycles, we have crappy insurance this time.  Still, I am grateful I do not need stimulation drugs like Follis.tim or Meno.pur which would cost thousands.  I should get my meds on Wednesday.  Won't get my FET protocol until 8/15.

I went for my acupuncture session today.  It was kind of weird going back after so long, but also nice.  The last time I was there was for my last IVF cycle almost exactly 3 years ago.  Back then she was pregnant with her second child.  Now, he is almost 3 years old.  Also, she bought out her partner, so she is running the business all by herself which is great because she really didn't need her partner.  She specializes in infertility and has had many success stories.  After my session, I asked her for some recommendations.  She said:

1. Avoid dairy as it can cause congestion in the body.  Especially if you drink coffee (which I currently still do), avoid using creamer (which I also love!), as it is especially bad.  Ok, ok, time to give them all up totally.
2. Eat more raspberries as they are great for building up the endometrial lining.
3. Use a warm/hot pad on the lower abdomen/pelvic area 2 - 3 times a week to stimulate blood flow to the uterus.

Fortunately, I do no need to take any Chinese herbs this time.  I did it for my last IVF cycle to help increase the quality of my eggs but since we are doing a FET (frozen embryo transfer) this time, no need for that.

When I got home, I received an email from Debbie, our fertility counselor for NEDC.  I had a discussion with her earlier today because we are considering switching around our order of donors.  Because the second donor family had be so upfront about sharing information and photos about their family, we felt we had more information about them than the first family.  After discussing this with Debbie, she suggested seeing if the first donor family would be willing to share some family photos.  The email from Debbie included 3 photos of our first donor family.  Oh my, they are a gorgeous family.  And the twin boys are so stinking cute.

Now that I have seen pictures from both donor families, I feel pretty good about both of them.  I feel like I am already in love with both families.  I still have not decided if we will switch the order or keep it the same, but for now, I love being able to put faces to names.  We have up to 2 weeks before our transfer to decide.

Finally, if you have not heard, I am having a giveaway in honor of my 40th birthday on Thursday!  Go leave me a comment here for a chance to win one of two $20 Amazon gift cards.

40th Birthday Giveaway!!

**GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**

Yup, I'm turning 40 this week!  I'll be 40 on Thursday, August 8th!

Image from thepartyworks.com

Really.  It's actually here.  The dreaded big 4-0.

I used to love birthdays, but if you live or have lived in the infertility world, you know what it's like to dread another birthday.  I looked at my past birthday related posts from last year and 2010 (I didn't blog in 2011), they were all pretty depressing and mostly about how I am getting so close to 40.  Well, 40 is finally here.  I was really hoping that I would be a mommy by 40.  At the very least, I would be pregnant by now.  But as we all know, I am neither.

But, I'm hoping that this year, the year I turn 40, will be different!  This is the year things will turn around.  This will be the year I get pregnant and be a mommy.

I will look at turning 40 as entering a new era, of the best decade of my life!

So, in honor of me turning 40, I'm having a Birthday Giveaway!

I'm giving away $40 in Amazon gift cards.  Two lucky winners will win a $20 Amazon gift card each.

To enter this giveaway, you just have to leave me a POSITIVE comment here about what's great about turning 40 or being in my 40's.  I would love to hear about pregnancy (first time or subsequent) in your 40s, parenting in your 40s, beauty tips, healthy living, eating right, love/sex tips (keep it clean!), etc.  Pretty much anything positive and great about turning 40!   I'd love to hear all your comments!  Please keep it positive though, I need your support in looking forward to turning 40!

One entry per person please.  Only comments in this post will count as an entry.  The giveaway will end on at 11:59 pm CDT on Sunday, August 11th.  If you are commenting anonymously, please leave me an email where you can be contacted.  Two winners will be randomly chosen by Babe (i.e. DH, my dear hubby).

Come help me celebrate my 40th birthday!

Trip Booked

Last night, I booked our trip to Knoxville for our 9/22 transfer!

Image from theculturetrip.com

I ended up booking a vacation package through Travel.ocity.  For our direct flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul, 4 nights of hotel and car rental for the entire trip, it cost me a little less that $1,100.  This is actually pretty good.  For our last trip, we booked through Orb.itz (best deal then) and paid around $1,000 for airfare with one-stop, 2 nights hotel and car rental.  The really nice difference about this trip is now there is a direct flight to Knoxville which not only is cheaper, but will save us about 3 hours of transit time each way.

Depending on how my body responds to the medication, there is a chance that our transfer may be delayed a day or 2, or cancelled all together.  Because of this, we are staying an extra day, leaving 2 days after our transfer (NEDC requires us to stay at least one day before traveling).  We also chose a different hotel that allowed free cancellation/change without a significant increase in price.  If we had to change our dates, we would still have to pay a cancellation fee of $200 for our airline tickets, but at least we won't have to worry about paying a fee for the hotel or car rental.

Thanks to Shannon from Room For More for introducing me to Ebates.com where you can get coupons, promo code and cash back for just about anything you purchase online.  Just for my Travel.ocity booking and going through Ebates, I will receive a $23 cash back.

So glad this booking is done!  Now I can concentrate on other things.  Like ordering medication and trying to remember how to shoot myself (with meds, of course!)

On another note, thanks to those that commented on my last post about adding adopted kids to our family tree.  I agree that it is important to show both adoptive and donor families, although at this point, I am not sure how the donor families will feel about that.  Also, I looked into adding adopted families on the family tree, and currently, Geni.com does not have the feature to do so.  Looks like people have been requesting this feature on the website since 2009.  I guess I may have to wait a little longer, or may have to find another genealogy website that has that feature.  I'll cross that road when I get there.

Finally, I am so happy to share the news that Malia, another embryo adoption mama from NEDC has given birth to a beautiful baby girl.  Go congratulate her!