Oh you get up, you get down and you try it again

And we're off...

I had a whirlwind day of appointments today.  Since I really wasn't planning to get a lick of work done, I officially took PTO and slept in until 8 today.  That on its own made today a winner!

We then had our latest touchbase with our RE doc.  We're officially on board to do IVF#2 next cycle.  Changes this cycle:

• Endometrial biopsy:  he discussed this at our WTF appointment last spring.  Basically, he'll go in and rough up my uterus a bit.  Create a happy landing for our embies.
• T will freeze some swimmers.  That way he won't have to worry about "performing" on the big day.  This is MAJOR news for T, because it means he can ride his bike again!
• I will do the microdose lupron protocol.  I'll only take birth control pills for a couple weeks (versus the whole pack), then a diluted form of the suppression drug Lupron.  Then I'll stim my heart out for a week and ideally provide the doc a few more good eggs to work with.  We're hoping for two awesome embryos and ideally a few to spare as snobabies.  

The microdose lupron (MDL) protocol ends up being a little shorter than the other I did in the spring.  I should start my birth control pills mid-September, and then, if all goes well, my transfer will be done by October 15th.  We'll know by Halloween if we punched the lucky ticket this time.

I'm a little sad, because we're going to have to cancel a trip to Omaha to see Beach House in concert in mid-October.  But we decided to go to Minneapolis for a baseball game in September instead as a last little getaway before the whole process starts.

I then spent a nice hour with my therapist who has promised to keep me sane through this whole process.

Then...on to acupuncture!  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but ultimately it was pretty anti-climatic.  She stuck some needles in me and I laid back to listen to my newly created "acu" playlist.  Twenty-ish minutes later, we were done.  I did feel awfully relaxed on my drive home, but it could be because I got to take a nap in the late afternoon.  And no one would argue with that being a treat.  I do this through the retrieval.  On retrieval day, I go the night before, then I go the  morning of the transfer.  Another round right after transfer, then I'm on my merry way to get some embies sticking to me and don't come back for a couple weeks.

Ultimately, my goal is to feel no regrets if this round doesn't work.  No thinking I should have done acupuncture.  I should have limited my extracurricular activities/stressors (I quit my part-time job and backed off some volunteer work).  Nope - I'm just DOING it and will know that I gave this all I have.

My one major upset thus far is learning that I can't work out.  This wasn't an issue last time, because, well, I simply wasn't working out.  But I was motivated and raring to work up to a 3-4 mile standard by the time retrieval occurred.  I figured then I could keep up that pace if I did indeed get pregnant.

However, turns out that cardio and IVF do not get along.  Several studies have shown that someone who works out 3-4 times per week has a 50% less chance of success.  Somehow the activity changes your hormones or something like that.  This is even true if you've been working out regularly for up to 10 years!!  So my lazy ass gets to do light walking and eat full-fat ice cream (also recommended!) to prepare for this last cycle.  If you see me a couple months from now, and I look like I packed on a few, please don't assume that it is because I'm pregnant.  It very well could be Ben & Jerry's Phish Food finding a permanent home in my belly.