Bren’s dog impression…

Bren contemplating his world…

Bren riding a 4 wheeler with Dad…

Is it darker? I guess so. It ain’t anything dramatic though. Still a very faint positive. I really, really wanted a bright pink line to shout “your HCG is going up, girl!” at me. This is more like a “well, it could be a tad darker or it may just be from a different batch of tests…” UGH! I hate TTC!!!
Yesterday’s…

Today’s…

If I were superstitious more than I am I would have given up last night. My “hope” good luck charm cord came undone and as I was walking though the living room last night I hear this THUNK. The charm was on the ground. How’s that for foreshadowing?
So what could I possibly do to whittle down the time today?? Maybe I’ll force some Christmas spirit into myself and finish some of my presents. Then again, maybe Bren and I will just watch “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” three times. Like we did yesterday. Yes, that’s the movie length one.

Bren is almost 2 3/4! He loves to help me do things like pour the different soaps into the washing machine and water the plants. He is very into coloring (finally!) and painting. He loves to pretend. He’s often a puppy but today he was a butterfly with flapping wings. 😀 He now knows what a dinosaur is too. His favorite cartoons are Dora the Explorer/ Go Diego Go! and Pooh.
He surprised me the other day by coming into the room draped in gold garland and singing “Jingle Bells.” It was such a cute moment! Christmas is going to be a blast! His Uncle Tony one-upped us and already bought him the V-smile so we bought him the 2 games that were reviewed as the easiest- Elmo & Pooh. We also got him some extra tracks for his Geotrax set- elevated tracks- and 2 new vehicles for it. Oh, and a Crayola marker set where you draw on black papers and swirly neon colors appear.
DH put up an animated video of us putting up the Christmas decorations. It’s pretty neat.
*****
I was initially quite upset at my low HCG levels but I am hoping they’ll rise quickly and redeem themselves on Friday. My ovaries hurt quite often. I think I must have huge follicle cysts in ’em. Ugh. The only thing that relieves the pressure is laying down and taking a nap. I’ve done just that all week. I’ve been extra tired so it wasn’t a problem. The only problem is being tired makes me rather unproductive and I have lots to do before Christmas can happen. I’ll take my last hpt tomorrow morning. I sure hope for my sanity’s sake that the line comes out darker.
Erin? Any news?? 🙂

They like to see HCG levels at 14 dpo at around 100. My level was 46. I go back in 2 days (Friday 9 am) and hope it doubles. If it does, everything is fine. But this number is not the greatest.
My progesterone was 83, however.

You wouldn’t believe all that went wrong this morning:
Didn’t have my name on the schedule (apparently I called when the receptionist was at lunch and the person who answered didn’t do it right)
Couldn’t find my file… and then once it was found they couldn’t find the page with my phone number, address, etc. on it
Had to wait til an IVF retrieval was done so the nurse could fill out the necessary bloodwork forms- since she didn’t know I was coming
The tech missed my vein the first try, couldn’t find a vein on the second try on the other side and then went back to the first spot to try again. Barely got enough. She even had the gall to ask me what all I have drank and when and pronounced me dehydrated- cause she missed?! She was really snotty about it too.
Oh well… the important thing is that is done and our favorite nurse promised that’d she’d personally call me with the news by the end of the day.
On pins and needles…

This morning’s HPT was too faint to scan so I took another one. #2 came out a tad darker but the picture is still not very clear. Beta pregnancy test is at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

13 dpIUI. Second line is very, very faint. Bright natural light still necessary, but no angling required. That’s a step up, right? RIGHT?!
Beta test tomorrow if AF doesn’t rear her ugly face before then. Until then, I’ll be in the fetal position rocking back and forth ever so slowly.

We spent all weekend praparing and putting up our Christmas lights and decorations. It was exhausting but fun! While they are actually nicely spread out, we crammed the Pooh characters together to fit them in this photo-

Not 2 hours after the characters were lit up, we had a car stop and want to buy them from us! LOL. Cars honk as they go by and people shout things like “TERRIFIC” or “AMAZING!!” Heh. Makes me happy.
There is one neighborhood here in San Antonio called Windcrest that is rather ritzy and they go all out with the decorations and lights every year. It’s a big contest. My Dad would take us every year to see the lights at Windcrest when I was a kid. It’s one of my favorite holiday traditions. In this neighborhood, it is common to see cutouts of cartoon characters and other holiday items. Last year, an entire street with the Coca-Cola Christmas bear theme- including giant bears made of glittery, sculpted styrofoam!!! They were positioned in every yard doing every possible Christmas thing imaginable- sledding, opening presents, chugging coke bottles… the works. And every house had matching lights, every mailbox matching bows. You get the idea.
I live in a different part of San Antonio now- much further from Windcrest. We still go every year but it dawned on me last night that I bet my fellow neighbors never have. They have probably never heard of Windcrest. It makes me happy to see people drive by and suddenly slow way down and stare at my lawn. I like making people happy. 😀

But wait!
Do any of you recall my hpt story from conceiving Brendan? How I got a BFN at 10 dpIUI, 12 dpIUI and then went to my in-laws’ for several days. I only had 1 more HPT so I waited til the very last morning we were there to take it- I was 17 dpo. It was negative. I was so frustrated that I plunked it back into the pee cup for a second go and got a super faint line. The next day I got a real, but very faint, positive. That same day my blood test was close to 300 mIUs! I only use tests with a sensitivity of 20 or 25 mIUs.
Well… of course I made this morning’s test go through a second round and gave it four more drops (this test uses a dropper). Anyone would call me nuts but if the light and angle of the test is just right, I see a merest hint of a shadow of a pink line right where it is supposed to be.
I am 12 dpIUI and as long as AF stays away I am definitely in the game still.

I wasn’t going to… so I didn’t use first morning pee. Then I thought- why not? If I get a line on a OPK again, then I’ll take a hpt.
OPK #1 @ 8 dpIUI: faint
OPK #2 @ 9 dpIUI: blank (trigger shot out of system?)
OPK #3 @ 10 dpIUI: light (about twice as dark as #1)
So I took the HPT, but it was -. If I can find more cheapo HPTs today, I’ll take one again tomorrow.
I must admit, that light line has made me more hopeful! 😀