7 Ducklings

We had quite the surprise yesterday afternoon. Sitting on our deck (which is currently under major construction, so we were crowded with the grill into one 4x4 area, not important to the story, but true nonetheless). We heard commotion in our landscaping neighbor's (LN) yard. Max, the old golden retriever was barking, and there was incessant duck quacking. E and I decided that LN had disturbed a duck nest while repairing his siding.

A few moments later, LN yelled "Max, no! Leave that duck alone!" and the duck flew into the yard adjacent ours, where Family Without Social Graces (FWSG) lives. They may be a topic of a future post... Anyways, we were keeping our eye on her while Gladys went to the other side of the yard in search of some water. E went to help her (i.e. turn on the hose) and then was shocked as 7 little chirping ducklings were about 4 feet from her. She grabbed Gladys just before she saw them. Perhaps I hsould mention that we have a 6' privacy fence on top of a 5' chain link fence surrounding our yard. No idea how they got in! (Although, plenty of bunnies find their way in as well, so....)

Those poor babies were separated from their mother who was quacking up a storm calling to her ducklings. They were trying to follow her sound, but were perplexed by how to get back out of the yard. They found a hole in the fence in another corner, but only two of the seven went through. The other five stayed in our yard. So, as E held Gladys, I corralled them back to the corner and basically scared the crap out of them, while they clamored to escape through the fence.

Since the five ducklings landed in their window well, the neighbors in the yellow house came outside as well. Good thing too! They found the other two ducklings in the street. 30+ minutes after it all began, the quacking died down as the mama led her ducklings back to the lake. (We live about 4 blocks from it.) AND we had an impromptu neighborhood block party.

I love happy endings.

11 DPO

Negative test this morning. No surprise there. We're really not expecting success this month - which has made for a very easy TWW.

Today, we are headed out of town to take Gladys hiking with us. E ships out tomorrow for a week, so we have to get in some quality time today.

I was a lush in my former life

It's true... E and I enjoy the adult beverage more than "on occasion"... especially in the summertime. As such, TTC - and the TWW in particular, would feel even more torturous if I wasn't able to, at least, feel like I was joining in the fun around me.

For those of you interested, here is our no-fail recipe:

3 limes (we use the biggest we can find, so if you have small ones, you may want to double)
1/2 c. sugar
1 package fresh mint (~.75 oz)
3/4 bottle soda water (~24 oz)

Put the mint at the bottom of the pitcher and crush w/ wooden spoon. Juice limes into pitcher. Add sugar & stir. Add soda just before serving. Pour over ice. Enjoy. (For those of you who need your booze, use 1/2 bottle soda & one cup of clear rum. For those of you looking to cut calories, use S.plenda instead of sugar.) Makes 4-6 servings.

I can't think of a title for today's post

We're surviving the TWW just fine... Strangely, it's kind of been pretty easy b/c I don't think we have too much hope this time around (we're not hopeless or anything... it's just that expectations aren't running super-high.)

My temp has risen again and is seemingly staying elevated, although, it's not as high as it has been in recent months. Not sure why that is. Not sure why any of it is, really. So, we're sticking with believing that I ovulated on CD 13, which would be a first in my lifetime. BFD (Before Fertility Drugs), I ovulated around CD19, if at all, so.... anyways, we'll test at the end of this upcoming weekend unless AF makes an appearance before then.

We've been enjoying our TWW, actually. Not so much because it's the TWW, but because we've been quite busy this week. E's preparing for her annual conference and I've been trying to get all my ducks in a row before starting my new job next week. We also had a social-packed weekend: E's softball game (I'm the newly appointed O-fficial scorekeeper!) on Friday night, and then a small Cinco de Mayo dinner party. Yesterday we dragged a bit, but we did manage to send gifts to those whose weddings we cannot attend as well as fit in a long game of tennis. We finished off the weekend w/ a large pitcher of non-alcoholic mojitos ( YUMMY!!) and a good game of dominoes. Ahhh, the weekend.

The shady adventures of the reproductive system

Are we 3dop today? Who knows. We definitely are CD15 and 2dphmdiyi (that is 2 days past hail mary do it yourself insem).

Here is the low-down dirty on the dirty. Yesterday the E2 dropped to 74. Today the BBT had a severe drop to 97.06. What does this mean. Nobody knows. The NP is perplexed. Are we in a TWW...in some sense yes but in most forms of logic...not a chance.

THIS PROCESS IS SO SHADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pass the non-alcoholic wine, please

I had a blood draw this morning. It seems my E2 is dropping. NP thinks it's dropping a bit fast but says if I ovulated, I did so a couple of days ago- as we suspected. We feel like this round is a bonus round, so it's ok that there is more uncertainty this time. (Of course I say that now, but in 10 days, we're going to be dying for a +hpt, regardless of the last minute entry into the race.)

In the meantime, we've found a decent non alcoholic red "wine", that isn't terribly sweet and sticky. Retailing for $3.99 a bottle, Inglenook's "cabernet" isn't too pricey either. Hon, pour me another?

Surprise DIY

We were supposed to be taking a month off due to aforementioned cyst... but yesterday, I just couldn't deny what I was feeling. It was a little sensation on my left side. It didn't last long, but as I sat there I thought, "did I just ovulate?" We hadn't been using OPKs, so we didn't really know what was going on, but still... hmmm...

I thought very little of it. Then, this morning, E took my temp. Sure enough: it spiked. Of course, we had also had a few drinks and E overslept so my temp was taken late... easy enough to explain away... I called the Dr.

I went in this afternoon, and my E2 is quite high... high enough that I'm either about to ovulate or that I just did (184)... seemingly not very helpful.. but on a month w/o drugs, and in a situation where I haven't ovulated without drugs in a long, LONG time... this is a very positive sign. With all of the IF, I've felt -as so many have - betrayed by my very own body. My body that is supposed to be able to make babies, hasn't worked yet. Not once. Now, though, it's showing some promise.

So, we promptly checked our last ICI out and did the deed at home. Tomorrow, I get another E2. If it's higher, we'll do an IUI. If it drops, we threw some swimmers at it, and we've officially begun the unplanned TWW.

We're not hanging a ton of hope on this month, and we're not looking to give up the drugs. I am happy, though, that my body might just work on its own. Maybe it's all the exercise. Maybe it's all the weight I've lost since grad school ended (35+). I don't know, but it's motivating to keep going, to feel like I might not be as defective as I feel. If my body works on it's own, then it will REALLY work with the help of modern medicine- and maybe it just needed some time to dry out.

Bring on the TWW.