Grow, Follicles, Grow!

Written Thursday, with a Friday and Sunday update at the bottom:
Wednesday's appointment was pretty uneventful. The usual blood work and sonogram showed a follicle in each ovary, measuring 10-11.5. Not bad. The NP said to come back on Friday and that they'd call if anything with the blood work was problematic.

I met E at home and we both took a nap. That night we went to a Chanukah party at some new friends' house with another couple we love. It was really, really nice. We felt like normal, grown up, human beings. I guess our social life has sort of been lacking lately... The only downside to the part-ay was that at some point I caved and split a donut with another girl there. I may have also had a couple of handfuls of kettle corn and a few chips. I don't know what happened. It was just there. That was actually after a couple of glasses of wine, so maybe my junk food inhibitions were down? Idk. I don't have a real excuse. Oh and my Metformin refill STILL hasn't shown up in the mail, so in 2 days I've managed to gain 2lbs. Awesome.

Welp, when we got home we hung out for awhile before bed but then I couldn't sleep. I played an obscene amount of Candy Crush and deleted emails on my phone before finally deciding to try to sleep (again) at about 7:15am. Yeah, I know. But that's when I accidentally clicked on my voicemails and saw that the RE's office had called the previous evening and left a message. Which said that the blood work showed that I might be responding more than they expected, and that I needed to come in Thursday morning, and there'd potentially be an IUI on Friday. Which is awesome!!!

EXCEPT that I only heard this at 7:15am and needed to be at the office by 8am. Holy crap. I almost literally dragged E out of bed, we got dressed super quickly, and ran downstairs to catch a cab. We actually managed to walk into the office at 7:57am. The actual RE did my sonogram and I think the follicles were 11.5, 13, an a bunch smaller than 10. So now we'll go back tomorrow (Friday) and see how it goes from there.... I think something's definitely going on in there bc I'm getting some pain in that general vicinity every so often.

I also got an awesome phone call tonight. I have a handful of people in my life who I'm praying for to get pregnant. The unexpected, random FB announcements always hurt a little bit (in a selfish way) but this handful of people mean the world to me and there's no jealousy or anything towards them when they get pregnant. One is a friend from college. She had a lot of trouble conceiving her first child, and her pregnancy was super difficult as well. He's a little miracle, and beautiful and adorable and so over-the-top loved. When she and her husband started trying for #2, she was told that she had the egg count of a 45 year old woman, wasn't eligible for IVF, and should consider surrogate eggs because the chances of it working with her own were like, not even worth it. Well, folks, they went for it, and she is PREGNANT. Take that, statistics. She called me to tell me personally because, although she's not telling people publicly yet, she wanted me to hear it from her in a gentle way. Love her. :)

K, I'm off to shower and get a little sleep before I have to head back to the doctor (and potentially get coffee with a friend). Keep you updated.

UPDATE #1 (Friday):
So I don't think anyone's reading this, but that kind of gives me the freedom to be a little more blunt, no? :) Just got back from my RE appointment. I was really nervous all night and couldn't fall asleep at all. I was reading blogs all night. I talked to another friend, who's also going through IF issues, in the morning before my appointment and that chilled me out a little. Then, in the waiting room, this guy walked in wearing a Red Sox cap. And I took that as a good sign and started smiling like a lunatic and he saw me and it was mad awkward. Oopsies. Once I got into the ultrasound room, I shot out an email to the Ohel (the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe). It's a custom that some Jewish people (or anyone who wants to) write letters to be placed on the grave of very righteous people, asking for blessings. I'm one of those crazy people who do that, and, like with most things, there's actually an app for that. So I used it to beg for a blessing that the iui would be ASAP and successful and that there'd be one or two healthy, normal babies who live long, full lives. Okay. Two minutes later, the nurse waltzed in, and as she's measuring my uterine lining, her jaw drops. I held my breath. After measuring it like 10x she moved on to my ovaries and her jaw re-dropped. It had gone from 11 to 15 overnight. BOOM.

UPDATE #2 (Sunday):
Hubbs and I fell asleep Friday afternoon before Shabbos and missed the phone call from the RE. We miraculously woke up literally 8 minutes before candle lighting, having slept through our alarms. Thankfully, the RE had left a message, and said to take a urine OPK on Saturday, and that if it was positive the iui would be Sunday morning at 7am. WHAT! By the time we heard the message, the office was closed AND it was time for us to turn off our phones for Shabbos...

It wasn't until a few moments after I lit Shabbos candles that I realized I had no idea when to take my ovodril shot! CRAP. We didn't really have a choice but to wait until Saturday night, after Shabbos, to call the "emergency" hotline ("Emergency" can be used loosely... right??) and they said not to take it.

Almost literally two seconds after Shabbos ended, E ran out to the store to buy some OPKs. I think we'd only used them once or twice before, and that was during our first year of marriage before we realized that I don't ovulate on my own. Cool. Anyway, the OPK was negative, and, a little heartbroken, I tried a second one in case the first was a fluke but the second one obviously one didn't work, because, c'mon... this is me we're talking about. ;)

K so flash forward to Sunday morning. I haven't slept all night because I'm a nervous wreck, again, about the appointment. I don't know what horrific news I'm expecting them to tell me, but apparently it has me feeling all kinds of crazy. The NP did my ultrasound today and she said my lining is great and I have a follicle on each side still, and they're both measuring at 19. Hellz yeah. I have to take the Ovodril shot tonight at 9pm, and the iui will, G-d willing, be Tuesday morning unless they call me this afternoon to tell me it's pushed up to tomorrow morning, based on the blood work. I'm really hoping for a Monday iui because Idk how much more my nerves can handle, but at least the end (of at least this cycle) is in sight! Pray for us, people.