Blind Squirrels

It's been a while since I blogged! These last couple weeks have been crazy! Between Wild on Wheels (the zoo's traveling animal/zoo program), our kindergarten zoo field trip, getting ready for kindergarten graduation (and teaching the kids three songs and general behavior at this big event... I have over 100 guests/family members of my kids coming next Tuesday!!!), giving way too many tests to my poor kiddies, finishing our class' hour long memory video complete with individual interviews of each kid, working on my masters, working on my masters homework, and thinking about this upcoming 15 page paper, it's like I have put off blogging. Not to mention the fact that working out seems only to be happening on the weekends for the next couple more weeks. Oh well.... just this week and next week til school and the masters classes are done for a bit. I'll make it through and then we'll be on a big pretty ship with the ocean around us. I am so ready!

On Friday last week, I went to my new and wonderful ob/gyn, Dr. Penn Joe at MOGA. I wanted a consultation about the miscarriage (we didn't have one when we went in to confirm it in Feb. because my former dr. was busy checking her voicemail and missed calls while talking to us) and the likelihood of getting pregnant without meds again. To catch my readership (hehehe) up to speed, last month on the phone with a nurse, I was told that the lab tests from a year and half ago showed I was annovulatory; I did not know this until then and was a little confused as to how I got pregnant since I'm considered to be someone who does not ovulate. So anyway, here are the questions and answers from the visit, as best I can remember:

1. Am I still considered annovulatory even though I did get pregnant? "Yes, because in two and half years off birth control, you got pregnant once. Any blind squirrel can find a nut one time in two and a half years". I thought that was a very funny answer!

2. Since I didn't have a positive test until I was seven weeks and my cycles are abnormally long, could it be that I don't produce progesterone the way I should? "That's a possibility. It could be that you will both have the challenge of getting pregnant as well as staying pregnant. Once you're on Clomid and get pregnant, we will monitor your progesterone and have you supplement it twice a day for ten weeks if there is a need." (For those of you who don't study the female reproductive system the way I do: Progesterone is the hormone that, basically, goes up to a certain level when your estrogen does. This is during the time you ovulate. Then, progesterone goes back down, as does estrogen, when you near your period. However, if you are pregnant and have a normal pregnancy, then your progesterone continues to increase exponentially each day to sustain the new baby until the placenta kicks in to take over supplying what the pregnancy needs.)

3. How many cycles can I take Clomid? "We will let you take it at 50 mg for four cycles. If it doesn't work, we will look at everything and all factors and make a plan from there. Hopefully it will work. If it does work, you'll have a 90% chance of having one baby, a 9% chance of having twins, and a 1% chance of having three or more."

4. So what's the plan? "Take Clomid on days 5-9. Take care of business. Come back on day 21 to have progesterone levels checked."

Dr. Joe was great! I have always heard good things about him. His honesty and straightforward answers relieved me, even though the conditions and answers he gave and explained may not be the easiest. The experience made me so glad to have switched to him. Beginning right after the cruise in June, I am starting the process!


Other than all that, Sam booked our dolphin experience that we'll do while we're docked in Nassau. The dolphins we'll meet are the ones rescued out of Mississippi during Katrina a few years ago. I can't wait to get some good pictures! The vacation seems more real the closer it gets!

Oh, and Sam retired! From JC Penney, not Bartlett. :) He has worked there on and off for nine years. It was almost like an old habit, I guess. It's almost been kind of a part of life...Sam has just always worked during the week at Bartlett and then all weekend the Pen. So now that he's home and MUCH happier, it's a great change for us.

Lots of stuff is going on! Can't wait to see what the next few weeks and summer bring!