Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

is AMAZING! I had been there once before, but taking my husband to see it was a whole new experience. We prayed together, we were in awe together. I loved it.

The Basilica is a sight to be seen. It's an amazing place to be. We spent about 4 hours there on Friday, before our flight back home. The only bummer was, we got a parking ticket. HAHA! That's what happens when you do what everone else does. We definitely were not alone in our ticket peril, about 30-40 others were right there with us.

Here are a few of the pictures we took (the ones of us actually in the photo are posted on FB).








It truly is a miraculous place. Praying there gave me such a sense of peace. I wish it could be like that ALL the time!

Charting Question

Do you use a red sticker for even the smalles amount of brown fluid on the TP?

Do you put a "sensation" as well as the type of CM on your chart? I feel like I have to go through and pick one of each. Is that right?

I'm so confused! I feel like I'm doing this all wrong. I have a review in a week or so. Thank goodness!

Quick Takes

1. I started Creighton charting Tuesday. It's different than what I'm used to, but very similar. The only thing I'm tripping up on is not checking internally. After doing the Ferti.lity A.warenes M.ethod (Taking Charge of Your Fertility) its taking everything in me not too. I got to apply 3 green stickers stickers.

2. Now I'm moving on to the red stickers: today is CD1. BOOOO! AND I have some serious flippin' cramps!

3. I'm doing a 5K in May. God help me! Its at 5:00 in the afternoon on the BEACH, so hopefully it will good. I needed some kind of motivation to help get my butt off the couch!

4. I'm going to Bethesda, MD in about 3 weeks. I'm excited my hubby is coming to. I love to travel and don't even mind traveling for work, but going by yourself sucks!

5. Work is great. Had my yearly review and I'm getting a pretty kick ass raise! Whoo hoo!

6. Does anyone watch Gray's Anatomy?! I think the episode last night would've been much better WITHOUT the singing. What the heck was that even about?!

7. My name is Beth and I am a Face.book addict. I cannot help myself! I'm not much of an "updater" myself, but LOVE to read other people's updates and play the stupid FB games. And in true addict fashion, I plan on doing all of the above later tonight!

Come on 5:00, I'm soo ready to get out of the office. The weather is BEAUTIFUL!

Looky looky...

at what I got today!!!



I'm so excited to get started! My appointment with my NaPro doctor is in July!

Whoooo hooooo!!!

7 Quick Takes

1. I spoke to my Creighton instructor yesterday and LOVE her! She's about an hour and a half away, but more friendlier than the two I spoke to in my city. I'm excited to start working with her. She is sending everything by mail for "introductory" session. YAY!!!

2. My husband is still freaking out about me going to NYC by myself on Sunday. I'm trying to convince him I will be fine (which I WILL). Poor hubby!

3. I found a NaPro doctor about 3 hours from here (there are 2 in Jax, but one is only for Naval personnel and the other hasn't come highly recommended). I heard it takes a while to get into see her. Can I call and get on the schedule now for 2-3 months away, so I can have 2 months of charts, or do I have to wait? Any ideas?

4. I finally feel like we are making progress in everything. Life, TTC, work, everything feels like its going much better. At the IF Group, they threw out some stat that if you practice NFP or Creighton, the rate of divorce drops from the usual 50% to something like 10% or 20%. Pretty significant!

5. I have posted everyday for 3 days now. That could be a record!! WHOO HOO!!

6. I am going to be in Bethesda, MA in April for a conference. My hubby is coming with me. Can anyone recommend some fun stuff for him to do? (I know there are a lot of bloggers in the DC area.) Anyone want to have dinner?!

7. I'm out of ideas. 7 is just too many. OH wait I have one. My 7 year anniversary was March 6. It feels like forever and not in a bad way!

Support Group

After our crappy RE appointment yesterday morning, we went to a Catholic IF support group. It was amazing!! Women and even a few mew (the husbands even seemed to enjoy it!) sharing stories and giving each other hope.

I got contact information for a couple of Fertility Care Practitioners so I can start learning Creighton. I'm so excited and so is my husband. The first time I brought up NaPro and CrMS(?) he was less than impressed. He was even less enthused that Dr. H is in NE. But after the RE and his BC spill sent us running, he is completely on board.

There was a girl (a first timer to the group, like me) who was in complete tears. I've never met her, but she described herself as a devout Catholic. As we were going around the room introducing ourselves and explaining a little bit of our IF history, it came her turn and she shook her head...she wasn't ready. So I picked up next and explained about our doctor's appointment, etc. After everyone else had finished, they went back to her to ask her if she wanted to share. This time she did. She explained that we had the same RE and that because he was a doctor and he told her that IVF was the only way they would conceive, they did it. They've done at least 2-3 cycles of IVF. She did explain that her and her husband had prayed and had decided that God was a forgiving God and how bad could doing IVF be if this was the only way they could grow their family. She said she was so ashamed because my DH and I had the courage to walk out and she didn't. I felt so bad for her. You could tell the guilt was just eating her up. I think we all started crying.

Needless to say, I will be going back to this groups monthly meetings.

Birth Control for PCOS?!

DH and I went to the RE today for a follow-up on his MRI. They tested his Cortisol and some kind of progesterone, they were all normal. They tried to test his growth hormone level, but Ques.t Di.agnostics ran the wrong test. The doctor doesn’t think the tumor is anything to worry about. I don’t know that I agree. Is it normal to have a growth on a pituitary gland and it affect NOTHING?!?!

The good news with him is that the HCG and Femara are increasing his testosterone levels to where they should be, which is hopefully helping his fertility. We still haven’t done a semen analysis, so we don’t know for sure. He’s scared and embarrassed, I think.

Ok, now on to me. The doctor was asking how we wanted to proceed with treatment. I asked him how much more weight he thought I should lose before we started getting serious. We are actively trying right now, but with no meds for me (just the good ol’ fashion way…SEX).

He told me with no “treatment” I have a 50% chance of miscarrying if I got pregnancy right now!! WTF?! Does PCOS really screw up your system that bad? I asked him what the “treatment” was and his said “ovulation drugs and other things to get your hormones right where they need to be to achieve pregnancy”. I was devastated by that.

Then to add more salt to the wound, he wants to put me on Birth Control. Why you ask…well let me tell you. He wants me on birth control anytime we’re not active trying to conceive because it’s better for my health. He said PCOS wreaks havoc on your endocrine/metabolic systems and untreated PCOS can cause heart disease, high cholesterol, etc. He wants me on birth control until I go through menopause!!! I was like…uh NO! Then he tried to argue with me and my DH, even going so far as to put it for “off label use” or to rename it. I tired to explain it to him, but all he threw back was “I treat a lot of catholics and some are on birth control pills”. Oh. What. Ever.

DH and I are going to an infertility group here in Jacksonville tonight. It may be time to move on to NAPRO. For the first time my husband is on board with it.

God bless my husband and his hope. He said this in the car leaving the doctor, “Beth, we’ll get pregnant without him, by ourselves.” I wish I could believe that.