Another Day, Another Workout

I started circuit training awhile back when my little was about 6 months old.  That was part of the reason I lost the baby weight.  It was with an amazing group of mamas that really encouraged each other.  It was one of those types of workouts that made you smile and the time just flew by.  Then due to some really crappy circumstances, our fearless leader had to move and put her family first and switch her priorities.  Luckily we had a wonderful mama step up and take over.  However she was pregnant and when she had her baby, we stopped working out.  Well she is back and so are we.  We had our first workout in the park.  It felt so great.  Lots of hugs and lots of catching up.  And all between squats and keeping an eye on our kiddos!

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

Labs, labs and More Labs

In my life, I have fainted more times than I can even count, no exaggeration at least 20 times, if not more.  I faint at the sight of blood, so giving blood has always proven difficult.  So of course, because life has a funny sense of humor sometimes, when you live with infertility you give a lot of blood and you do it often.  So as we gear up for round 2, that means more blood work.

Here are my tips for giving blood to make it as easy as possible:
1 - Drink lots of water before you go. This makes your veins bigger and easier to find.
2 - If you are a fainter like me, insist on laying down.  Not all facilities have a place to lay down so call ahead if you need that.  I give blood at a LabCorp and I drive to one further away, but that has a bed for me to lay down on.
3 - Tell the phlebotomist up front that you are a fainter, or that you don't want to watch, or whatever your concerns are and be stern and strict with them.  A lot of them just shine me one and I have to tell them how serious I am.
4 - Bring water or something to drink immediately afterwards.

 Once I learned these tricks it made my life so much easier and its been about 2 years now since I last fainted, and that was only because my IV came out and it was a seriously gross situation.

Now on to the latest round of test.  Below is my initial set of labs to just get a starting off point of where my hormone levels are and iron and a few other key vitamins.  I also did my latest STD testing to bring it all current.  All these tests meant 7 vials of blood.  And I survived just fine.  Just waiting to get the results back.


Tests Ordered
004259 TSH      
010389 Free T3      
001974 Free T4      
006684 Thyroid antibodies      
070104 Reverse T3      
004465 Prolactin      
322744 Hepatitis Panel (4)      
083935 Panel 083935      
012005 RPR, Rfx Qn RPR/Confirm TP      
001321 Iron/TIBC      
004598 Ferritin      
005009 CBC w/diff & PLT      
081950 Vitamin D25-OH      
005215 Sed rate      
001503 Vitamin B12

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

Restorative Yoga

Taken after class with the instructor.

Look at these blissed out faces.

When I was trying to conceive the first time around, I did a lot of working out and yoga.  I felt good physically, but I was super stressed out to the max.  That's when I discovered restorative yoga.  It was far harder for me to do that class than any other class.  Meditation is not my strong suit.  When the stress is piled on, relaxing and even just taking a mindful breath is difficult for me, my mind continues to race.  I started taking a Yinki class and a Balance and Restore class and they both worked wonders to help quiet the mind.  I did some Yinki during my pregnancy when I was allowed to and it was great too. Then life happens and you get busy and in the blink of an eye, it has been 2 years since my last restorative class.
   Now that we are trying for a sibling, I went back to my first Yinki class on Monday.  My gosh how I missed it!!!!! And needed it!!!!  Yinki is a combination Yin and Reiki class (full description is below along with a link for any SD peeps that may be interested) .  The class is taught by an amazing instructor who I am fortunate to also call a friend.
   Just walking in that room, I could feel the calm spread over me.  This is going to be really good for me. During class, she walks around and lets you select an Angel Card.  Its just something to help guide your practice for the night.  The cards always speak to me.  My card that night was exactly what I needed to hear.  Combine that with her amazing touch and my favorite pose (swan pose), I couldn't have asked for more.  And then when I came home, both husband and son we doing well so it feels even better knowing that I can leave and come back and that both are happy.  I can't wait for the next class!

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

YINKI

This restorative class focuses on healing the body and mind through deep relaxation and release of mental, emotional, and physical stress. Yinki® is a unique class combining Yin Yoga (a more restorative from of yoga) and Reiki (a form of energy healing). Yin Yoga postures gently stretch and rehabilitate connective tissues, while Reiki helps remove blockages or stagnant energy.

This class is spent mostly on the ground, with only stretching poses, each pose held for 3 to 5 minutes. It can be more of a mental challenge rather than physical as it forces you to slow down and be still. Something that the majority of us find very difficult! It is a very meditative class and is the perfect end to a long day. It is relaxing and incredibly healing.

Each Yinki® class includes breath-work, mantra, healing crystal bowls, and meditation as you move through your practice with certified Reiki practitioners. This class is held in our infrared heated Moon Room with a temperature between 80 and 85 degrees.

LEVEL: All levels. https://www.trilogysanctuary.com

Finding Ways to Workout

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Just a quick update for tonight.  I thought I was going to have a D&C this month, but the timing of it all isn't right.  So that will be postponed until next month.  So for now I'm just on birth control pills and waiting for an updated protocol tomorrow.

On the to do list is: update labs, update STD tests (every clinic in the US and overseas requires both parties to take STDs tests before treatment and update these teats every year) and price match meds.

In the meantime, it's Sunday and that means its Zumba time!  My son has never been in daycare, both of us for several reasons have found it hard to be apart.  That being said, finding time to work out is tough.  But I found an amazing
Zumba teacher about a year or so ago (you may recognize her from a previous post) and I strap him in and off we go.  We usually dance outside at a part and between the music, the fresh air and all the dancing, he has never lasted an entire Zumba class awake.  It always puts him to sleep and I get an extra workout carrying around an extra 30lbs!  I of course don't do much of the jump but I laugh the whole time and laughing sometimes truly is all you need.  So do something that makes you smile today!


Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

Working on Woking Out

The goal of this cycle is to try and do our best to duplicate our last cycle protocols because our son was the only time I was pregnant in all of the attempts over 6 years.  We aren't sure what exactly worked but trying to do as much as we can.  Some things are easier and more practical than others. Taking vitamins again, super easy.  Going back to working out 6 days a week will be more of a challenge.  However, my husband and I were able to work out a plan where I should be able to get some time in 4 days a week which is pretty close.  Mondays I plan on taking a yoga class after the little one goes to bed.  Wednesdays, hubby will be in charge of dinner and I will have time to work out.  We have a small gym in our complex and I hired a friend who I had recently learned is a personal trainer to come whip me into shape.  We will have another session again Saturday mornings and then on Sundays, I bring my kiddo to Zumba and we rock out together.  I also have a few friends who have offered to join me for exercising during the week.  You would think chasing a toddler around would be enough, but it isn't.  Towards the end of our breastfeeding journey, I had to eat so much to keep up with him and myself that I was eating 5 meals a day, plus snacks.  Well the weight piled on and now I just want to lose it before heading into this next cycle.  The goal is 20 lbs in 3 months which is totally doable.  We had our first workout on Wednesday and I felt great!

Trying Again for a Sibling

So here we are, back at it again.  We have two embryos left from our previous cycle so we are moving forward to try for a sibling.  To catch you up, or for those that didn't follow our other blog that continued on from here once we became pregnant, on Dec 29th 2016 we welcomed our son into the world.  However, our pregnancy, wasn't the happy wonderful time in our lives that we had hoped for.  We found out we were pregnant with twins early on.  Then we were told we were about the miscarry one and possibly both and were put on immediate and strict bedrest.  Then we pulled through and held on to both babies.  Then at 12 weeks and 5 days, we found out that baby B had serious issues, his organs were all formed outside of his ribs. (I refer to him as a he, but we were never able to confirm gender)  This meant he wouldn't survive outside of my belly for much more than a few hours at best and they started talking to us about palliative care. We were then told that he was 'breathing' toxins into the amniotic fluid and that with each breath, he was causing harm to baby A.  We were faced with the horrible task of having to say goodbye too early.  But of course this also faced issues.  The procedure done had a high chance of effecting baby A as well, but by doing nothing, there posed an even higher risk of losing both babies.  So on June 25th, at 13 weeks and 1 day, we said good bye to Baby B and hoped and prayed that Baby A would survive.  Baby A did survive, but part of me didn't.  I will never ever forget that day, that procedure, that doctor, it is my forever nightmare. My entire 39 weeks of pregnancy, I was on bedrest or restricted activity for all but 5 weeks.  So to say the least, it was awful.  I will always have a hole in my heart and a little bit of my soul that feels incomplete.  I mourn my baby often.  There aren't a lot of words to explain the pain I feel.  I should have two babies,  my son should have his brother, but we don't and I've had to figure out a way to continue on for him.  It took a lot of therapy and a lot of tears and I still feel like it happened yesterday.
The last thing I want to do is live through another pregnancy, it was by far the worst time of my life.  And I thought trying to get pregnant was awful, but losing our baby was about as low as I have ever felt.  So why are we doing this again?????  Because I feel like I owe it to my son to at least try for a sibling.  I have a brother and I had so much fun growing up with him, and while only children are fine, I just would love my son to have a sibling.  Reason number 2 is that we already created these embryos.  They are just waiting for us and the opportunity at life.  They deserve a chance.

So like I started out this blog, here we are again.  Our last cycle was the only time I became pregnant in 6 1/2 years of treatments so we are going to duplicate that cycle.  That means that step 1 is a d&c in order to create a new and fresh uterine lining.  I will be put under anesthesia, but it will be a simple procedure. We will be doing that in January.  In the meantime I am going to put some focus on getting my body baby ready.  That means a trip to the naturopath and lots of trips to the gym as well on some mental health steps to wrap my head around gearing up for this.  Even though we will be a nervous wreck if it does work, we would love more than anything for it to work.  However, this is our one and only shot at it.  We will be transferring both embryos and so its a one and done situation, either it works or it doesn't.  So we are hoping and praying for it to work and to be able to give our son a sibling.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey because we will need all the support we can get.
Welcome to our journey of round 2!

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

BFP

It is with great excitement and a lot of trepidation that we announce that our beta test came in and it was positive, I'm pregnant. (maybe it was the good luck egg!)  It is still very early so its really soon to start actually celebrating, but when I started this blog, the goal was to be open and honest about my journey so that others wouldn't feel alone and those not directly involved could get a glimpse into the life of a couple on this journey.

Out of respect for my friends that are still on their journeys, I will end my blog here and continue on a new blog to keep everything separate.  It is extremely painful to read anything about anyone being pregnant when you aren't and every aching fiber in your being wants to be.  I wish all my fellow fertility challenged friends the very best of luck and hope to see you soon on the other side of it.

If you would like to follow the next part of this journey, my new blog is called The Pregnant Infertile and you can find it here: thepregnantinfertile.blogspot.com

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER