IUI progress

Today is day 13 of our IUI cycle and I have two follicles on my right side ready to pop! The bigger of the two is 20mm and the second one is at 17mm. I just got my blood test results and my estrogen is steady at 1600 and LH is still at 6, so I am going to trigger this afternoon (thank goodness I have a spare trigger injection!) and have my insemination tomorrow afternoon at 4.30pm!

My estrogen has risen nicely, from 780 on day 10, 1200 day 11, and 1600 on day 12, and 1600 again today, which is a relief as the levels fluctuated heavily during our IVF which I believe is part of the reason the embryos didn’t continue to grow after fertilisation.

I am very excited that we are actually going to have a shot at this. As in, we may actually get pregnant. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but I'm excited!

Tomorrow is also the Melbourne Cup - I've back ed Mourayan to win, let's hope that I'm a winner in at least one race!

Donor Insemination

Today is day 2 of my cycle, and my first day taking Clomid - oh the joys! We are trying a couple of rounds of donor IUI before the calendar year is up and making use of the Medicare Safety Net. Basically it means that the IUI's will only cost around $200 each - much more affordable than normal.

I took Primolut while I was on holiday, and after a 50 day cycle (GRR!), I finally have my period, and can get started with this round. So 5 days of 100mg Clomid starting today, then a blood test on Day 10 (Next Friday - Queens Birthday public holiday). As I haven't taken Clomid before, we don't know how my body will respond, but I am praying that, for once, my body does what it should do and ovulates, allowing us to do donor insemination. The odds of success are low, but at least I will feel like we have had a shot at something, and that this year hasn't been a complete waste.

I have come to terms that we will be taking a year off treatment next year. I'm actually a little excited about all the stuff I can plan - I want to do another triathlon in February, so trying to build up my fitness over the coming months to prepare for it. We also have a mini holiday booked in March which also is very exciting.

So much to look forward to.
I'm in a good place.

gallivanting

Gallivanting: Go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.

I had written up my blog post for today when I checked to make sure I had spelt gallivanting correctly, and I came across this definition, which I love. We have definitely been off gallivanting!

We are finally back from our two week adventure in Europe, and we had an amazing time. We worked our way from London across the ocean to Holland, spending time in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and then caught the train down to Paris for a week. Oh Paris! And then back to London for a short while before starting the trip back home (all 24 hours of it - yay!)

It was just amazing, something special that we will remember for a lifetime. I'm so glad we did it, and got to spend some quality time together, just the two of us. So without further adieu, some photos of our trip!

We saw the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre at the West End!

Outside the Lyceum Theatre

Watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We saw the queen twice on our visit!

A river cruise down the Thames

Picadilly Circus. Everything in London is gearing up for the Olympics next year

We visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. It was cold and rainy so I bought myself a very warm souvenir to use!

Rotterdam was fabulous! Probably my favourite place of the trip.

Breakfast at our Rotterdam hotel - a feast!

Waiting for our water taxi to take us to dinner. I was freezing cold here but insistent that I wanted to wear my dress without tights or a jumper - oh silly me!

We attended a Euro 2012 qualifier football match at de Kuip. I'm not a football fan (prefer Aussie Rules anyday!), but Murray wanted to see a soccer match while we were in Europe, and it was great fun. The Dutch fans were incredible - everyone wore orange including us, and they sang songs and cheered all the way through.

One of the highlights of my trip was finding my Oma's house from when they lived in Rotterdam. My Oma, Opa and uncles moved to Australia in the 1950's, but lived all their lives before that in this house, and I feel very blessed to have been able to find it. The current owners of the house (who bought the house off of my Oma!) came out and once they heard our story, invited us to come in and take photos of the inside of the house. They were very excited to see us, and gave us some contact details of people who knew my Oma to take back to her. 

Onto Paris! (continued in next post)

gallivanting part ii

There must be a limit on how many photos I can post - so onto some more photos of our trip!

The Louvre was stunning - but huge! We only got through about a third of it!

They Louvre pyramid

The only lowlight of the trip - somebody tried to pickpocket me while I was taking a photo of the Mona Lisa. I caught her in the act without realising, it was only after she made a beeline for the exit that I realised my bag was open and the zips all open which I had been fastidious about keeping closed. Luckily nothing was missing as I must have interrupted her!

Oh the crepes in Paris - how I love thee!

Notre Dame, such a beautiful church.

Lots of self-portrait shots! This one in front of Notre Dame, probably our favourite place in Paris.

Love the creativity

My heart

Montmartre

Scare Coeur Basillica

Montmartre was lovely, we even tasted Macaroons!