The Beauty of Two Pink Lines
 

The following involves a good deal on the topic of menstruation, so guys, if you're grossed out you might want to talk amongst yourselves about lawnmowers for awhile. :)



I have an uncooperative body. I have a long history with various hormone regulation drugs, beginning at the age of 15. Thus it was no surprise that, when my husband and I started trying to have kids a year and a half ago, there were difficulties. Normally, you have to try for a year before a fertility doctor will even speak to you, but that's assuming that your body is at least functioning normally on a superficial level. Since mine wasn't even doing that (after going off my hormone regulation drugs--which share a lot of properties with birth control pills--we waited four months and I did not manage to have any kind of cycle on my own,) they kindly let me see the fertility specialist before the standard one-year requirement.

I started Clomid a little over a year ago, at varying dosages each month. I started having a cycle again on the medication, but this was not necessarily an indication that I was actually ovulating, as my monthly blood tests proved. A normal woman would have blood drawn on the 21st day of her cycle, to determine if she'd ovulated around Day 14 as is typical. Except then they figured out that my cycles were about 5 days longer than a "normal" cycle, so I had to have two blood tests each month--one on the normal day, and another 5 days later, in case my cycle was longer because I was ovulating later than normal. All of them were negative anyway.

This was in addition to the dozen or so other blood tests I had to go through to make sure, for example, that my progesterone and estrogen levels were normal at a variety of times throughout the month, and my sodium levels were good, and my testosterone levels were right, and my thyroid was okay... I am on a first-name basis with all of the medical assistants in my doctor's office. And here's the really funny part: I have terrible veins. Apparently they're tiny, and they like to "roll". A normal person's inner elbow has at least one distinct blue line running down it--not so on mine. Whenever I have my blood taken, they have to stick me with the needle at least twice. There's a little-known law (or maybe it's just policy, I don't know, but I've seen it at more places than just my gynecologist's office) that says that if a nurse fails to find a vein after the second try, she must pass the task off to a new person. I once had my blood taken by a doctor because they ran out of medical assistants to use on me.

Then there were all the other more invasive tests, to verify that my ovaries weren't covered in cysts, and my fallopian tubes weren't blocked... Even though the former test came back negative, my doctor said she still had a hunch that I might have cysts, they just might be so small as to not show up on the sonogram. So in addition to the Clomid, she put me on glucophage, which is a medicine for diabetics that makes you more sensitive to insulin. For some reason, and no one really knows why, glucophage also happens to cause ovarian cysts to shrink. Because of this I ended up on several diabetes mailing lists, and I get junk mail about it all the time.

After the first month on glucophage, still no ovulation. But the second month, I did! But the third month, negative again. They bumped my Clomid up to the maximum they felt comfortable given my body size, but I still was only ovulating every other month. And, of course, not getting pregnant on any of them.

Around June, I went back through all of my receipts and determined that, through office visit and prescription copays alone, we had already spent more than $1,000 trying to get me pregnant. Which was, of course, nothing compared to the money we'd spend on more intensive treatments like in vitro if it came to that. (If you want to know where the saddest and most pathetic people on the internet are, visit an infertility messageboard sometime. Some of these women have been trying for more than 10 years because they just can't afford the stronger treatments.) And of course that had a whole slew of other complications besides the money, not the least of which being multiple births.

Supposedly, Clomid only raises your chances of twins by 10%, and your chances of higher-order multiples are not increased at all. Which is all well and good from a statistics standpoint, but anecdotally, my doctor said she had actually had two patients in her office get pregnant with triplets on 50mg of Clomid, the lowest dosage. (At my peak, I was on 150mg.) The real nightmare was both of them had smallish frames like me, and it was recommended to both women that they "reduce," which is a polite way of saying abort the weakest triplet. One of them did, and had healthy twins. The other said she couldn't bear to--and lost all three of them. Not really a decision I wanted to have to make.

And now, fingers crossed, I won't have to.

I was expecting my period yesterday, and this morning I took a pregnancy test. Two pink lines have never been so exciting!

I am telling the whole internet this, ironically, because I can't tell my family and friends yet. I am still at a very high risk for miscarriage, and I simply couldn't bring myself to call everyone back in a few weeks and say "Nevermind." We're waiting at least until after the first trimester before we share the happy news.

Of course I did get to share the news with everyone at the doctor's office. When I called the nurse to let her know that she didn't need to call in another month's worth of Clomid for me, she literally yelled out into the lab, "Hey, y'all! 'Clodfobble' had a positive test!" And there was cheering in the background. :) I go in tomorrow to begin a whole new slew of blood tests, and at 8 weeks I will have another internal ultrasound, at which point they will in theory be able to tell me how many embryos there are. Hopefully it's no more than two. But I admit I've always wanted twins. :biggrin:

Way to go, Clodfobble. I wish you and your husband and your (reeeaaaallly) little ones the best. My prayers are with you all.

congrats!

Yay!!!!

How exciting for you!!!

excellent! my ex and i tried and tried and tried but never could. (yeah, those fertility drugs are expensive!)

Congratulations and good luck!

Congratulations - How Exciting!!!!!!!! :)

I hope for the best, great luck and congratulations!!

Nice!

Thanks everyone. I couldn't be more excited. And it turns out, I get to find out as soon as next Thursday whether it's twins or not (we're not even mentioning the other "t" word right now...)

Congrats Clod. It's the most work you're ever going to love.

When they make you nuts you can recite that whole post to them then add the standard mother's guilt trip. Cool. :3way:

Oh! Far OUT! That is sooooo cool, Clod! I am just so happy for you and yours! Little ones are just----well, indescribable! You've got all my best wishes and good vibes! Thanks for sharing!! :)

Hey, congrats Clodfobble.............Best of luck to ya......:joint: :rasta: :jig:

Have you any news?

(hopfully it's good news...)

Congratz :juggle:

They've confirmed that it's "likely" just one in there, which is good. Other than that, not really. My hair is falling out in droves and my boobs hurt like hell, but on the other hand I haven't had a bit of morning sickness. :thumbsup:

It might be just sympathetic symptoms, but kids make me loose my hair too, mostly on the sides, above my ears. Boobs are ok, though.

I too am anxious to hear any news...?

How are you doing? Everything still going okay?

Another thread that I was late in seeing. Congrats to Ms. and Mr. Clodfobble, and little Clodfobble.

May I thoughtfully recommend boob massage? I'm sure Mr. Clodfobble won't mind helping you out.

Congratulations.

Yep, still doing fine. Definitely only one in there. It's turning out to be very hard to keep it a secret from my extended family until it's time for my stepkids to get to announce it at Thanksgiving.

Oh I'm sure he wouldn't, but absolutely not. Those things HURT just getting breathed on, I don't even want to think about actual squeezing.

Talk to SWMBO, after 22 months of nursing the inchinchinch, she does not allow me to look at them nor even mention them. Thankfully, the weaning has begun!

By the way, it seems I failed to congratulate you. You will be (are) a great mom.

Thanks. :blush:

way to go clod, how exciting it will be to tell your loved ones.

I sympathise with you a lot on all the tests you had to go through, im in the process of going through a lot of biopsies and ultrasounds myself.. (but not cuz i wanna have a baby). When my gyno told me that it was unlikely that i would be able to concieve easily.. i cant say that i really minded. i always thought of becoming pregnant as something that i would like to be a fate driven thing. You see TV shows about mums trying for years and years and it makes me feel so frusterated. i think there is a reason that some people cant have their own children.. like i think maybe when the time comes for me to be ready to raise another human being, that the child i adopt will be in need of my care.. and that fate will be evened out that way. Everything happens for a reason...

So how did you get on Clod? have you told your family yet?

My immediate family knows, but we're waiting until Thanksgiving (Nov. 24) to tell my stepkids and then we're going to let them tell my extended family. The only reason we're waiting to tell the extended family is so the kids won't think they were the last to know.

I'm new here, but I also went the Clomid route to have my son. After all that trying, I know how grand those two lines can be! :) Congratulations, and I hope the rest of the pregnancy is healthy and easy.

Oh, my hair fell out in droves, too - it did that for a couple of months after my son was born, but it stopped eventually.

~Lisa~

this will sounds extremely strange ( hell, it's me afterall) but for the whole "boob soreness" issue... try some oral stimulation. on you. not him. sounds stupid, but apparently that relieved the issue for my wife. yes, seriously.

and there's a little something extra in it for him...

Re: Clomid and hair falling out during pregnancy...is that a known side effect of the drug?

I wasn't on fertility treatments, but I noticed after rugrat was born I lost a ton of hair. I just figured I probably wasn't shedding as much as normal during the previous months due to hormones and my body was just readjusting back to normal. (My nails were the most beautiful they had ever been too)

Ahhh, the "beauty" of pregnancy. I kept my spirits up by telling myself that this was mother nature's way of getting me into practice for the next quarter century of making sacrifices for my brood...and boy can she be a mother :lol:

One thing I didn't do, but now REALLY wished I had was take pictures of my belly at regular intervals to see the change. I only have a picture of me at about 6mo, in a swimsuit on vacation, and a couple about 2 weeks before she was born. (and one 24hrs post partum showing my C-section staples that I can use for guilt inducement later as needed ;) ) For #2 I am going to take front and profile pics of me so I can see what other people saw. On second thought, that might not be your cup of tea, but I like to go back every once and awhile and look at the couple of pics when I am feeling the 'urge' for another one. I'll know I'm ready when I think I looked perfect. (I'm not there quite yet)

Had the standard 18-20 week ultrasound yesterday morning... All healthy and growing just right!

Also, we knew from the very beginning that we wanted to know the gender. As an impatient person, I have a hard time mentally replacing "being forced to wait" with a pleasant euphemism like "keeping it a surprise." :) So anyway, it's a boy. :male: I can't wait!

YEAH!!! I repeat my earlier congrats. The ultrasound makes it all the more 'real' that there is someone IN there...I'm all goosebumpy.

That's just swell, Clodfobble, if you'll pardon the pun. We, on the other hand, did wish to remain in suspense about the gender. We figured it was going to be the last time we would be surprised by that aspect--why rush through it? :)

Way To Go, Clodfobble and Family! :celebrat:

:female: :thumb:

Hooray Clodfobble!

OK now that you can rule out choosing girl names, your work is 50% easier.

So what have you guys been thinking about for names so we at the cellar can, ahh, help you.

You realize we're going to need to vet your selections?
:)

Max was the main boy-name frontrunner for a long time, but once it actually became a reality, I started waffling again. Kyle is another one that pops up frequently. When making suggestions, you should know that my last name has a whole lot of n's in it, so most names with n in them are completely out...

Any ethnic consideration?

Oscar is nice. I'd like to knock up Pete by accident so we could have a Finbar, Barry for short.

Please do not choose any names that will guarantee that FobbleJr will be beat up on the playground.

You owe this precious being you are bringing into the world that much.

(and for any pending girl-parents that read this ... no weird spellings of normal names, and whatever you do, no Heathers, Crystals, or Tiffanys (Tiffanis are even worse.)

Thank you.

I have a friend named Karyl (pronounced as carol). She has never forgiven her parents.

Max Fobble. It's a strong name, no nonsense.

A great baby–naming scene is in "The sure thing" and here is an old SNL skit that is pretty funny about baby naming.

The two schools of thought on talking about potential names are 1) tell people and risk being chilled by their feedback or 2) don't tell anyone until you introduce the baby because very few people will be crass enough to say
"Ronald? what kind of fucked up name is that"? They'll just think it instead and say something like "what beautiful eyes he has"

Of course if you choose that latter we will badger you until you need to make up a new user name if you want to visit the cellar
:)

A large consideration on my part is that I absolutely refuse to choose a really common name. I hated the fact that there was always at least one other girl with my name in every class in school. In fact, I went to high school with another girl with the same first and last name. So no Aidan, or Jacob, or Ethan, etc... But that has to be balanced with the fact that my husband doesn't want any "weird" names. Apparently a lot of older names (common in the 1900s-1930s) fall into this category, much to my dismay.

Don't worry, footfootfoot, Ronald has an n in it, so it's outoutout. :)

Whooooo!! I'm so excited to hear that everything is going good!!!

Names are so hard. There is a mountain here in town (actually it's technically considered a hill) call Gavin. I've always liked that name, but I know you don't want a name with an N.

My ex was on some kind of western thing when I was pregnant with our son. He wanted to name him Wyatt, Trace, Levi.... I don't remember the rest. We decided on Garrett, and it fits him perfectly.

It's so hard to find a name that isn't common, yet isn't unusual.... Good luck!! ;)

I have NEVER had to name a kid ,
But I have named a few dogs ( not makeing ANY compartisons here ) ,
What i alwas do is call the dog pup and baby , and spend LOTS of time sitting on the floor with them ( gots to get down on their level , Don't ya know !!!) untill their personality dictates their name , I Know this is uncommen to most civilized folks .
But this is what i do for pups .

The weirder the name the weirder the person. That's empirical.

Weird is easy. Unique is hard. It'll come to you if you let it.

Anton I say !!!

argh

I like Max. I also like Ace. Darragh is a nice Irish name.

I have a friend (ex-coworker, really) who named his kid Axle. The first syllable of his last name is "Weld." Apparently I am the only person who thinks this is awesome.

Unfortunately, zip, you can't use the puppy naming algorithm for babies. They insist you have a name for the beast before mom and baby are discharged from the hospital, which is well before baby has established a personality. If it doesn't have a social security card, it doesn't exist these days ...

There were a couple of books, now out of print IINM, by John Train titled: Remarkable names, more remarkable names and even more remarkable names. (OK that's a few and not a couple) the names were gleaned from phone books, hospital records, etc.

A number of 'infant male' and 'infant females' kept their names into adulthood. This is apparently the name you get when you can't decide, yet it is time to vacate your room at the hospital.

Oh, I could tell you stories of some names that I see in my line of work.

Take medical terminology that 'sounds purty', add someone without a complete grasp of the English Language, and you end up with a child named some weeeeeird stuff.

You can leave off the last names to protect the innocent, but do share with the rest of the class...

Yes, do. I could use a laugh.

We have a common surname/last name. Our children have unusual but not never-before-used names: Hebe, Hector and Thor. Hebe is more common in the UK than US, Hector and Thor are more common in the US. We have only ever met one child with the same name as one of our children, and that was another Hebe. Just in case they grew up to hate their names, we gave them each two middle names -one almost guaranteed unique and one pretty ordinary. But we wouldn't be offended if later down the line they chose something completely different. A rose by any other name and all that....

Oh and congratulations!

"Hebe" is generally considered an insult on our side of the pond.

Originally a racial one, no less (though not so much anymore). In the Hispanic population, Hector is downright common over here, but I've never met a Thor.

But thanks for the congratulations, monster!

I be,
we be,
she be,
he be,
it be,
them be.

What's the problem?

Not if pronounced correctly ;)