Yesterday night was my third round of follistim injections, and it seems as if my body is a little more sensitive to the drug this time around. This would also be the reason why I haven't shared any vlogs or daily updates like I thought I would. Hopefully in the days to come I feel a little better than I do now. Honestly, the worst of it is probably the sting after the injection and the fatigue that follows. I'm not one to normally need a bucket load of sleep to function, but these past few days I have felt like I am running on E. We have been running around a lot so I'm sure that also has something to do with it. Washington has given us the last three days filled with sunshine and relatively warm weather so we have taken full advantage of that. Justin busted out the grill last night and made us the most delicious meal. Even Ava bug (who is notoriously picky) chowed down on daddy's good grilled chicken. Last night was also pretty rough because Ava bug got her first real goose egg.

I was filling up Cooper's water bowl with a cereal bowl and she ran past me as I was turning.. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, you guessed it, she ran right into the bowl. I heard the clinking noise but I hadn't realized the bowl hit her head until a few seconds later. She cried for less than a minute, but this mama cried for so much longer. I hate when my girl gets hurt because of me. I was feeling absolutely terrible and the lump on her head is just so big. I comforted, monitored, and prayed on my sweet bug this evening. I'm hoping the swelling goes down a lot over night, so I don't end up dragging her into her pediatric doctor.

I will say through all of this my husband has been a real trooper with everything. He's been making me feel as comfortable as possible through the injections, fatigue, and even our little incident last night with Ava bug's goose bump. He sterilizes and injects the injections, makes sure that I'm all cleaned up after, and he's even been making midnight runs whenever I need something that I forgot to pick up during the day. It makes me feel so incredibly good knowing that Justin does well with his girls being needy. I'm not sure what I'm going to be like in another pregnancy, so I know he's getting prepped early. The other night I started busting out into tears because he refused to take a drink of my water... not really sure why or how that came about, but nonetheless it was so irrational on my part.

Monday morning I go in for my first blood draw and ultrasound to see where my eggs are measuring. Five days will have passed since I took my first injection of follistim. I'm hoping that these low doses are making them grow! I had this thought while I was bathing Ava bug that I totally wouldn't mind having twins the next go round. I came to this conclusion for more than a few reasons, so if that were to occur, I would be ecstatic! Other than ALL of this, I have my second family photo session coming up today! I'm super excited because I definitely decided to take the leap and build up a portfolio of the work I've done. Although I know I don't want to do photography professionally, growth is equally as important. Well, I'm off for now! Ava is down for the count and this mama needs some quality snuggles with her main man!

Happy Valentine's day all!

♥- Leilani

Injections

My baseline appointment went excellent yesterday! My uterus is in good shape and my ovaries are free of cysts! I haven't been in a situation that left me otherwise, so I wasn't really surprised. My reproductive doctor gave me the okay to start the follistim injections (ovary stimulator), and the RN on staff gave me all the information I needed in order to start today. I will be taking small doses over a 10-14 day period, and then (God willing) we will get one or two big follicles that we can then release with the HCG trigger shot. I was a little stressed yesterday because working with infertility specialists means you will be dealing with finance and your insurance company quite a bit. The medication I needed is coming from Oregon and before the pharmacy could even send it out, they needed a preauthorization from my nurse...Something about codes needed in order to verify that my insurance company would be paying for a majority of the drugs I'm using. I was so frustrated with the entire situation that I seriously called to pay out of pocket util the preauthorization was dealt with, just so we wouldn't have a delay in treatment. Turns out all I needed was a little patience! It did take 2.5 hours, but luckily the company that picks up ground shipping was late yesterday, so my medicine will definitely be here at some point this afternoon.

This is the part of conceiving Ava bug that I remember most vividly. The shots aren't actually as bad as some people think, and after the first couple days it just becomes the routine. The one thing I've noticed off the bat that's different about this experience is the amount of times I'll be going into the office for my follicle growth to be checked. With this clinic, I will go six days without having my growth measured. In Georgia, I was going in every two days to measure the growth of my follicles. I'm not too worried about the change, and on the upside our clinic is literally ten minutes away from our home. I plan on vlogging pretty regularly as I take these injections and I go in for my growth measurements. I vlogged during my appointment today, and I'm debating on whether or not to share it with you guys. How many people are actually interested in seeing this journey every step of the way? Definitely shoot me an email and let me know. I'm going to try and post little images here and there on instagram, so if you don't follow me, click the link on the right side of my profile. I'm sketchy about who I add, but if I know you personally, feel free to shoot me a follow request!

We picked up two new trying to conceive outfits yesterday like I mentioned. Justin said we needed a new baby boy outfit since the last one "didn't work" for us. I seriously laughed so hard when he said that. Ava bug helped daddy pick out the little brother outfit, and we even got Bug a couple shirts that say, "I"M GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER" so she can be apart of this journey every step of the way. I wanted to wrap this up with giving a huge thanks to all of those that gave such positive messages and emails yesterday! Having support from my family, readers, and friends is what has made this process a little easier.

Happy Wednesday all!

♥- Leilani