What's Up Wednesday

It is time for another What's Up Wednesday since the month is almost over.  I can't believe we are more than halfway though the year.

What we're eating this week:  It has finally been cooling down here a bit so I am doing a bit more cooking. Last week we had gnocchi with summer squash and basil. I love squash so I love this.

We got an instant pot a few months ago and this month we have finally started to really use it.  My husband has been making chickpeas to make hummus with and last week he made some chicken shawarma for us to eat in pitas for lunches. 

What I'm reminiscing about: I have been fairly busy lately so I have really been wishing for a beach vacation to just sit and soak up the sun while reading a good book. It probably won't be happening anytime soon but I can dream.

What I'm loving: I am loving that this weekend I get to decorate for fall.  There is nothing fun to decorate for once 4th of July is over so my house has been lacking decorations for the last month or so.


What we've been up to: This past weekend I went down to my parents house to go to a gender reveal party for my cousin and his wife. They had a ceramic baseball with chalk dust inside of it but we only had a plastic bat so the proved more difficult to use than anticipated. They finally got the ball open but they also had a cake with blue icing inside. They are having a boy!

What I'm dreading: My husband and I have just started IVF and the shots started yesterday.  I only had two shots yesterday but I know that it is just the beginning so I while I am excited about starting a family I an definitely dreading all the shots and medication.

What I'm working on: I am working on eating healthy and continuing to go to the gym consistently.  I got some new workout leggings at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and they have been getting plenty of use.

What I'm excited about: While I am dreading the IVF process I am really excited about hopefully adding a new member to our family some time next year.  Fingers crossed.

What I'm watching/reading: I finished watching ER at the beginning of the month so because I knew the new season of Call  the Midwife was coming to Netflix in September I decided to re-watch all the seasons in preparation.

What I'm listening to: Mostly whatever comes on my Pandora which is usually a mix of country and a random mix of 90s-00s pop music.  Everyone needs some Britney in their life every once in a while.


What I'm wearing: I have been loving rompers this summer because they are so easy to just throw on.  This fun floral one from The Loft is my newest one but I am also loving my short sleeved jersey one too. Both of them are great because I can wear them without a sweater or with a cute cardigan too.

What I'm doing this weekend: We are staying home this holiday weekend since traveling while taking shots is a little more complicated. I am having lunch with a girlfriend on Saturday, putting up my fall decorations and on Monday I go to the doctor for my first checkup to see how I am responding to the medicine.

Happy Wednesday!

A Day in the Life

Last Wednesday I decided to take pictures of my day since it is always fun to see what a day in someone's life looks like.  I did a pretty good job of remembering to take pictures throughout the day but I got a little forgetful as the day went on.

Our alarm goes off at 6:10 AM but depending on if both of us has to shower and whether or not we packed our lunches the night before usually we snooze it at least once before my husband gets up. I get up after he gets out of the shower since he can shave in a steamy bathroom while I shower but I can't do my makeup while he is steaming up the mirror.

I try to have everything I need to take to work with my all packed up the night before so I don't have to too much remembering in the morning.

Once my husband was out out of the bathroom I took a quick shower and put on some makeup.  I have been using this foundation for the last few months and this week I have been trying a sample of this Benefit mascara. I almost never buy full sized mascaras because I always seem to have samples.

I tried to get a good picture of my jumpsuit but the lighting in my bathroom isn't great and the light this time of day isn't much better. I love that it has sleeves so I don't have to wear a cardigan over it if the weather is warm.

Since my jumpsuit is completely navy blue I decided to wear these super cute rainbow flats.  Fun fact: I got them from the kids department at Nordstrom during the Anniversary Sale for less than $40.  A kids size 5 is actually the same as an Woman's size 7 so I regularly shop in the kids department.

Normally my husband and I both have to be at work at 8 AM and we drive together since we work on different floors of the same building.  On this day I had a training that started at 9 so I just dropped him off at work and then ran to Costco to get gas before my training.  Getting gas didn't take very long so I took the extra time to stop by Starbucks and grab a latte.  Despite saying Cathy with a C when they asked my name this is what I got.

I got to my training in plenty of time and got myself all set up to spend the morning learning about how to make meetings less frequent and more productive.  See the rest of my day for the need for this class.

After the class ended I hurried back to my office to eat a really fast lunch before I had to be at a meeting.  My husband made some chicken shawarma in our instant pot the night before so I had stuffed pitas for lunch.

After inhaling my lunch I grabbed my laptop (and mouse) and headed to a meeting.  This meeting actually ended a few minutes early so I had time to go back to my desk for a few minutes before heading to yet another meeting.  See the need for the morning class!

The corner of my cube is guarded by by vicious guard dragon (also known as a stuffed Maleficent) along with some other fun little signs and things.  The outside of my cube usually has a holiday/seasonal banner on it but I don't really have a late summer themed banner so my red white and blue one is still up from July.  Next week once we get passed Labor Day I will put up my fall banner.

I have a letter board in my cube that I change most mornings but since I was at a training all morning it stayed blank all day.

I brought my gym bag to work with good intentions of going to the gym but I got busy at work and didn't leave in time so that plan went out the window.  I headed home and made steak bahn mi sandwiches with pickled veggies for dinner. It was a new recipe and I think I needed to slice the steak thinner because there was a lot of meat in the sandwhiches

After dinner I watched a little TV, did some laundry and headed to bed about 10:30. Not a super exciting evening but nice to have an evening at home.

Next Steps on Our Journey to Have a Baby

I haven't explicitly talked about trying to have a baby and thought about keeping it that way but at this point I figured I can use all the positive thoughts I can get. The process hasn't been easy so far and I don't think it is going to be easy in the near future either.

My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for almost the last 2 years without any success.  I was 32 when we started trying so not young but also not old by any stretch of the imagination. What has thrown a wrench in that not being old theory is the fact that my mom, aunt and my grandmother were all in menopause by their early to mid 40's.  None of them went into menopause early enough for it to be classified as "early menopause" but they are definitely on the earlier side of normal.

After trying for a year with no pregnancy we went to the doctor where they ran about a million tests.  They took so much blood I felt like I was feeding a vampire.  Most of my tests came back fine but a couple of the tests indicated that despite being 33 at that time my ovaries were closer to menopause that they would like.

Since my body was acting a little older than I actually I am they recommended that we try to do an IUI.  I am going to write a whole separate post on my IUI experience but after doing 6 IUIs I am still not pregnant.  If you are not pregnant after 6 there isn't a very good chance of you getting pregnant with an IUI so that brings us to where we are today.

After more tests (so much blood) and doctor appointments and training videos and a whole host of other prep work we started our first IVF cycle this past week.

Now the start of my IVF cycle is actually anti-climatic in terms of actually doing much because the first week or so of the cycle is taking birth control pills to suppress and level out my natural hormones.

The real stuff begins this week with two doctors appointments and another training.  I am a little over a week away from beginning daily shots which I am not looking forward to but am trying to tell myself will be no big deal.  With my IUI I had to give myself shots but only one a day.  With IVF I am giving myself anywhere between 2 and 4 shots a day.

At the end of the cycle they will go in and harvest all the eggs they have been trying to grow inside of me, fertilized them and then hope they into healthy embryos to be frozen.  Since I am not getting any younger and we would both like to have more than one child my husband and I have decided our plan is to do three harvest cycles before we implant any of the embryos in me. It is looking like it will be near the end of the year at the absolute earliest that I could be pregnant so we still have while to go before we see that positive pregnancy test we have been hoping for.

As we go through all of this I am going to try and write down my thoughts here not only for myself to look back on but hopefully someone else reading this can see that they are not the only one who has to go to great measures to have a baby.

In the meantime happy thoughts, prayers and any advice are welcome.