And it starts! (Kind of...)

This is my little treat for tonight...

The green glass of goodness is a spinach smoothie from iowagirleats.com (which is insanely good and healthy - HIGHLY RECOMMEND). 

The three pills below the glass are a prenatal vitamin, a baby aspirin, and a birth control pill.

I know, birth control pills?  So weird and counterintuitive.  But I'm starting the suppression stage of IVF and this kicks it off.  The birth control pills really are a timing mechanism which will help the doctor know exactly when to start certain drugs that should be injected before my next period begins.  They aren't ideal for everyone - the use of them could lead to oversuppression which limits the number of eggs to be produced.  But since I had so many eggs in my preliminary testing, the birth control pill should not be an issue here. 

I am now waiting for the doctor to provide my calendar for the remainder of the cycle.   They gave us a sample calendar in our class and the structure of a calendar totally calms my analytical personality.  I was hoping that my first day would align with the sample calendar (a Wednesday) and I'd be good to go, but stupid period did not want to come right on time.  Therefore, we started up on Friday and my nurse is out of the office until Tuesday.  She has no idea how stressed this makes me.  I am in for a long road if I get stressed for not having a calendar in front of me!  But I should get it sometime next week and will start the injectable portion of the suppression stage soon after.

I do find it strange that I was pretty haphazard taking the pill back in the day, but now that I want to get pregnant, I actually set the alarm on my phone to take it at the EXACT SAME time every day.  Come hell or high water, I'm doing this exactly right.

The best part was getting the BC pills at the pharmacy.  I got another bottle of prenatal vitamins too, so I'm sure she was just thinking I didn't know how this whole birds and bees business worked.

I'm generally an optimistic person, but the pessimistic part of my brain is taking over.  I'm constantly worrying about everything that can go wrong, including (somewhat in order of realism, but these have seriously all been considered):

• It doesn't work (duh)
• It works, but I have a first trimester miscarriage.
• My cycle gets cancelled midway through due to me getting over stimulated.
• Even though my eggs are suppressed, I actually still ovulate before they can retrieve them.
• My husband accidentally drops his "deposit" on the floor the day of the retrieval.
• The doctor accidentally switches my husband's sperm with someone else's.  
• The doctor accidentally switches the sperm and the other family has some legal claim to our baby.
• The doctor accidentally switches the sperm, and our baby comes out loving Nascar and Ke$ha, and we DO have legal claim to it.
• The two embryos both implant and split into identical twins, for four babies total.  (It happens!!!  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ivf-success-story-turns-quadruplet-surprise/story?id=13350702)
• I'll go to the bathroom after the embryo transfer and somehow pee my babies out.
• I'll fall down the stairs while on my bed rest and knock the embryos off my uterine wall.  (I think that's why they put you on bed rest - I'm sure the clinic is concerned about that possibility too!)
• My dog will jump on me after the transfer and the same thing will happen.
• Right after embryo transfer, the doctor says there is only one more step to make it work that he forgot to tell us about - and it costs $10,000.  If we don't pay, the babies have no chance to survive, like a bad ransom/blackmail movie. 

And with all these concerns to consider, I'm supposed to relax???????  And that hasn't even started the worry that occurs once I am pregnant.  And have a baby.  And a toddler.  And a teen.  I guess the worrying never stops.  This yoga thing  (thanks FB friends!) better keep me calm for life!