Tomorrow's a BIG day!

Well, tomorrow is exciting for two reasons. We are closing on our house at 9am! We are so thrilled. We moved all of our stuff out last weekend into storage and moved in with my parents. It was really tough, not to mention I caught some kind of 48 hour cold that wasn't welcomed. Nonetheless, we got it done and now tomorrow we get to hand the keys over to the new owners. They are such sweet people and we are so blessed that the Lord allowed us to sell our house while it was not on the market and have the opportunity of a lifetime--building a dream house on the perfect side of town. I am so pumped:) Not to mention we are making a good profit, which is few and far between in this market.

Tomorrow is a big day for another reason too! My husband and I will be going in to do our first IUI at 1:30. My appointment time is 2:30, but my husband has to be there early to give the sample, allowing time to get it ready for insemination. The process started 9 days ago when I started taking another fertility drug called Femara. I took it just like I did Clomid, once a day on cycle days 5-9. Then yesterday (day 13) I went in for an ultrasound. They looked at my ovaries, the endometrium, the follicles produced, etc. After that was over, the nurse told me I had one large follicle. After looking online for information about IUIs, I think the success rate is higher with more mature follicles, but I was reminded by someone on a message board that said "Normal people that get pregnant only have one follicle." So, we'll have to see what happens. I'm optimistic, but will not be too terribly upset if the results aren't positive.

To say the least, tomorrow is a busy day and a quite important day. Say a little prayer if you remember! One at 9am and another around 2:30pm!

Something new...

This week finally was over yesterday at 3:30pm and when I say over, I mean the students left and my weekend began. Whoever thought it was a good idea to start school on a Monday is seriously mistaken.

I finally got a call back from the Fertility Clinic yesterday afternoon. Just FYI, I called them on Thursday, which was day 1 of my cycle to tell them I started my period, I had taken a pregnancy test just to be sure I was not pregnant, and that I needed them to call in the prescription for Femara (Letrozole). This is the new drug I'll be trying for 5 or so months to see if it will work better than Clomid.

I was a little nervous to go get the meds yesterday because the doctor originally told me it was very expensive in comparison to Clomid (I was paying $2.99 for it). I called to see if it was ready and it was. I dared to ask the cost. When she said, "It will be $9." I was like SERIOUSLY?? I was thrilled. When I went to pick it up, it said "You insurance has saved you $243.95 on this medication." Thank you BlueCrossBlueShield!!

So, here's the plan for this month--not to mention we have to be out of our house by next weekend. The nurse who called me back yesterday told me to go get blood work done Monday after work that the doctor requested. She also told me to go buy the ovulation predictor kit and start testing on day 11. If I did not see an LH surge by day 13, I've got an appt. scheduled to go in for an ultrasound to see if my ovaries are doing their job or if they're being "lazy" as she said. If I did see a surge before day 13, she said I should just call and not worry about the appt.

Now, the doctor originally told me he wanted to do an IUI this month, but she said nothing about this, and I completely forgot to ask because I was bogged down with so much information that I was trying to  remember. So, I suppose I'll call back (get their voicemail) Monday and check on that to see if Dr. Miller still wants to do that. If so, as soon as I see the surge, I'm supposed to call and they will make an appt. for then next day to do the insemination.

After I got off the phone with the nurse yesterday, I got to thinking...what is all this going to cost me? I know my insurance covers up to $15,000 for my lifetime concerning infertility, but still, what will the copay or my 30% cost?? With us starting the building process, we are trying to save as much money as possible, so if this first insemination doesn't work, I think I'm going to just pause this process until after we're done with the house. It will probably be easier to get to all these appts. in the summertime anyway while I'm not working. I guess only time will tell. Until then....

New Plan...

Today was day 1 of my cycle. I was not upset or frustrated or emotional, just encouraged and excited about the next step in this process. But I'm also a little nervous. Remember, not only are we trying to have a baby, but we are about to close on our house in 2 weeks and start the building process. So, I'm at a crossroads where I am wondering how much all of this new stuff is going to cost along with the cost of building this house. What if I get pregnant soon and my due date is around the move in date...etc?

All these thoughts have gone through my head, but I just keep thinking...take one day at a time. I continue to ask the Lord to open and/or close doors for us so we'll know what we need to do. Since today is day 1 of my cycle, I was told to call the Fertility Clinic, tell the nurse I started my period, and also tell her I took a pregnancy test so she can call in the new drug I'm trying this month, Femara. What I'm really nervous about is how much this 5-pill prescription is going to cost. While Clomid was only $2.99 every time I got a refill, the doctor told me Femara is like $75-$125. That's A LOT--in comparison.

Not to mention, the doctor recommended that we do an IUI this month also. I don't exactly know how much the cost is for this. We've heard $200-$300 but I'm not exactly sure. While it's nothing like Invitro, it's still a lot of money when we are trying to save everything we have to go toward the new house.

In saying all this, I think I've made a tough decision. I want to give this month a go, but if it doesn't work, I think I'm just going to chill out for a while, at least while we build the house, and just enjoy the building process without the added stress of fertility stuff. I just feel that God has this great plan and I know He has had His hand on us through the selling of our home so quickly. I know what we are doing right now is what we should be doing. And I also know God is faithful and will provide a baby for us, naturally or adoptive, when the time is right. So, I'll wait until His timing is right. Thanks for all your prayers and support as we go through this month of fertility treatments and start building our house!! It's so much appreciated!

Another year begins...

School year, that is! I can't believe the summer is already over and the kiddos come back Monday. I've been to school quite a bit this summer because I had to move rooms and wanted everything to be perfect in my new room. My new room is not "new" at all. It's quite old and in need of much TLC. And that's just what I gave it! Here's a few pics of my new room!

My new door! Isn't it cute!!

 View of my lovely new contact papered air conditioner that was disgusting before

 View from the front of the classroom!

 View of the front-minus my mounted projector and Promethean board that will hopefully arrive soon!

 Yes, I teach Algebra and Geometry! And yes, I'm WILD for both!

My cute desk area with my lovely curtains on my window!

I also have a separate room within my room that is my own personal office space. For some reason I couldn't find my pics of that. But it's great for storage and to just get away when I need to! Bring on the year. I have a feeling it's going to be great!!

Self-Storage/Canceling utilities...CHECK!

Today was a good day--after I got off work. I didn't mention earlier, but I'm back at work this week getting ready for all the students next week. Needless to say, since our school underwent (and is still undergoing) A LOT of renovation, there are tons of problems and things I don't have in my room I need. TECHNOLOGY being one. I teach with technology everyday and being told I'm not going to have it until after Labor Day is really annoying! Anyway, off that soap box!

After Jason got off work we went to the ONLY climate controlled storage facility in Spartanburg. We were hoping to get a certain unit, but they were all leased; however, we managed to snag a 15x25 unit where you can pull right up to the unit and unload. It was about $75 more dollars, but well worth it because of the convenience and large space. It was the only one, so we were really happy to go ahead and secure that! We hope to start moving stuff in this weekend, and just gradually get the rest out before closing.

We also called several of our utility companies to make sure they knew we were moving and to stop our service before closing. Things are coming along wonderfully. We've got the date and time nailed down with the lawyers for closing, and now we're just waiting...patiently! It's hard when you're THIS EXCITED!!

I think we have a builder!!!!

I'm so excited to report that we met a builder, Billy Robinson, today and we REALLY like him a lot. He was so down to earth and honest about everything. We showed him the plan we had, and he offered some great tips and advice about how we could change this or alter that to make it better. We went to his home and met him and his wife. They are just the sweetest people and I can't wait to work with them. He even said he'd be willing to drive over and meet us at the lot tomorrow to check it out. If you're interested in his work you can go to www.robinsoncustomhomebuilders.com to see his work! More later:)

1st visit to Fertility Specialist...

The day finally came yesterday where I was able to meet Dr. Miller, my fertility specialist. We decided it was time to move on with the process since we have had no success in 15 months of trying to conceive. My mom went with me yesterday morning and we had a great initial meeting with Dr. Miller. I felt like I was the only person he was concerned with, and he was so great at listening to my everything thought or concern.

When we first met, he asked a few questions about my history like how long I took BC and when that was, how long have I been off BC, were my periods regular, how long had I taken Clomid, was there any history of illness or infertility in my family's history, had my husband had a semen analysis and what was the result, etc. The list went on. Really, he concluded that I was pretty healthy, never had anything in the past that would suggest infertility, and wanted to suggest the next step.

He told me about the drug Famera. It is actually not an infertility drug, but it's a drug that breast cancer survivors take. In the last 6-8 years, it has been used to treat infertility and has sometimes worked when Clomid has not. I actually talked to a friend yesterday who told me 2 of her friends had gotten pregnant while on this drug. So, he suggested we start that next month. He wanted me to have one more piece of blood work done that had not been done previously in February, and also wanted to schedule the HSG test soon.

After talking about options, he did a short exam in which everything appeared to be fine. I got dressed, paid my portion of the visit, and headed home. It was later in the day yesterday when I got a call from Dr. Miller. He was finally able to look at both of Jason's semen analyses and was concerned about one thing. MORPHOLOGY. There are several things they look at in a semen analysis like concentration of sample, mobility, and morphology. Morphology is the shape of the sperm. The first semen analysis showed 2% morphology and the second analysis showed 3%. This means that 3% of his sperm in the sample were what they consider normally shaped. They like to see 6-10%. Basically, when the sperm have a "weird" shape, they can't swim correctly and get to the right destination. It's hard for them to fertilize the egg. So, after all this time being on Clomid thinking Jason was "fine," there may be some issue with the sperm and not necessarily my ovulating.

So, Dr. Miller suggested that instead of doing the 5 or so rounds of Famera alone, he thought we should go ahead and do an insemination this coming month. So, he would still want me to get the Famera, but thinks we will need to do an IUI to help the sperm have a shorter travel distance to find the egg and fertilize it. He told me if after 2-3 IUI's we would need to think of other things, maybe IVF.

We are just going to take one step at a time. I'm not upset. I'm not stressed out. I'm glad there's a plausible reason why it hasn't been working, but I'm sad the people who analyzed the semen back in Nov-Dec didn't alert us this was a red flag. I'm thankful God has led me to Dr. Miller. I think he's going to be a wonderful resource, and I'm excited to work with him. I'll keep you guys updated on things as they happen. Say a little prayer:)

30 days:)

Well, I'm back from vacation! As soon as I woke up and the boat was docked in Charleston, I turned on my cell phone to get the BEST news from my dad! Our house appraised $2000 more than the contract price!!!!! I jumped up and down so many times just squealing with excitement.

So what's next? Well, our buyers want to close September 1st, which gives us about a month to get out. We are praying that everything goes as planned with the FHA loan our buyers are applying for. As long as all that goes smoothly, we should be good to go!

We have been perfecting our house plan and thinking about builders. We drove around the other day looking at exteriors of houses and think we have an idea of what we want. Hopefully in the next week or so we can meet with the 2 builders we are thinking about to see what kind of work they do and to hopefully get a cost estimate.

We are really excited! I'll keep you guys posted as we find out more!