Frozen Transfers are Boring

This frozen transfer is boring.  I only take Delestrogen every 3 days.  I do know this weekend its about to get a little more interesting when I start taking the Progesterone in Oil.  That is an every day injection.  Still this isn’t as interesting as a fresh cycle.  I am still scheduled for my frozen transfer on the 11th.  I getting very excited.  I started looking a baby furniture again.  I have been saving all the target gift cards we received from our wedding so we can use those on baby furniture.  Hubby and I had been living together for 3 years, we didn’t really need any new gadgets.  I still vow not to buy anything till we are definitely pregnant.

 

I took the cutest picture of my cat Buffy the other day.

 

Lime Thumbprint Cookies

I just made Lemon Thumbprint cookies from the Heal Balance Live SCD cooking website.  I made a few changes to the recipe and I used lime instead of lemon.  They came out absolutely delicious!

Instead of coconut flour I made the extra 1/3 cup almond flour.  The cookies would be even more delicious with some coconut flour in them though. I used 1/4 tsp of lemon juice and 1/4 almond extract. I didn’t follow the frosting recipe.  I used a different recipe that called for 1 1/2 c of dripped yogurt, 6 T. of butter 3 T. of Honey and 1 tsp. of vanilla.  I added lime zest to the frosting as well.  The cookies came out delicious!  Who knew SCD cooking could taste so good.

Infertility Update & Food

For the past four weeks I have been on birth control pills.  I really hate taking the darn things.  They give me awful headaches.  This weekend I have my premed appt.  I am guessing they will do an ultrasound and take blood to make sure all levels are where they need to be.  I will probably start taking the Del Estrogen on Sunday as well.  This frozen cycle is much easier than a regular cycle. To think after this cycle I will still have four more embryos.  Again I will transfer one.  Hubby and I were thinking two but after reading all the complications with twins and multiple births we have decided to go with one embryo.  I think I could handle twins but I don’t want to have twins if I can avoid it.

Tonight for dinner I made a new recipe that I just made up as I went along. I baked two chicken breast in a Pyrex dish for 45 min.  When the 45 min were up I added yellow squash and carrots.  On top of the chicken and veggies I added slivers of butter so the veggies would have a buttery taste.  I then covered both the chicken and veggies with grated parmesan cheese.  I never knew I liked yellow squash until tonight.  I always turned my nose up at it. 

Moroccan Chicken

8 chicken drumsticks (about 1.5 lbs), skin removed (I use small thighs also)
1 can (8 oz) pineapple chunks in own juice, undrained
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried marjoram
3/4 tsp crushed red pepper (DH doesn't like spicy so I just use a little regular pepper)
1/4 tsp turmeric

Place chicken in crock pot. Mix pineapple, onion, garlic, lemon juice, salt, marjoram, red pepper and turmeric. Pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours.

~from devorahscd @ BTVC Yahoo Group

Can’t wait to add more foods to the diet so I can try this recipe out!

SCD Day 3

After not having any symptoms for 3 days on the diet and being in remission for a couple of months I went ahead and tried some new dishes yesterday.  Low and behold I started getting UC symptoms.  Its rather disgusting so I won’t go into it.  So attractive.  Its a wonder my husband loves me.  I am just so confused.  I hadn’t any UC symptoms for a couple of months.  I start the diet,  3 days in and I start to get symptoms of UC again. 

Last night for dinner I had yummy honey garlic chicken, from the ‘Breaking the Vicious Cycle’ book along with salad with dressing that I made from the book as well.  I really didn’t think I would start to get symptoms.  I did read in the book last night though that it can take at least 2 years on the diet to be fixed.  I will keep trying I guess.

I am expecting my yogurt maker in the mail any day now so that I can start making yogurt and get the good bacteria in my stomach.  I hope that helps the gut.

My hubby has eczema and he is following the diet with me.  I really hope that the diet somehow helps him.

SCD Diet Day 2

I have just completed day 2 of the intro diet.  Its been tough.  I don’t have any symptoms of UC or die off so I am not sure if I should go another day.  I think I will try a new food tomorrow.  Hubby and I tried to make banana pancake recipe from Pecan Bread and it was a huge failure.  We basically got banana scrambled eggs.  We will try again tomorrow.

I did cheat today and had some lettuce.  I went to lunch with some friends at Red Hot & Blue and I ordered the pulled chicken salad.  I ate just the chicken, hard boiled eggs and some lettuce.  I didn’t receive any bad symptoms from that I guess I am OK.

At least I cheated with lettuce and not M&M’s

Intro Diet Day 1.5

Today has been tough.  For breakfast I had a hard boiled egg.  Mid morning I had some cider jello.  Very interesting.  I don’t think I will use apple cider to make jello again.  For lunch I had chicken broth with some chicken left over from last night and some cooked carrots.  For dinner tonight I am making hamburger patties and some more cooked carrots. 

The bad thing is I hate cooked carrots but I just wanted another flavor. 

Since I am symptom free at the moment I am so happy that I will not have to stay on the intro diet to long.  I cam going to try my two days and test the waters.

I have ordered my Yogourmet yogurt maker.  I can’t wait for it to arrive.  I really want to start making my own yogurt.  After reading online it seems that I may have to start the yogurt slowly.  I am ok with that.  I just want to make sure I get the good bacteria in my system. 

Surprisingly I haven’t been as hungry as I thought I would be.  I didn’t cheat at all but my husband on the other hand bought some M&M’s today!  Naughty boy!

And So Begins the SCD Diet

Tonight is the beginning of my SCD diet. Why am I starting the diet? About six years ago I started having really bad diarrhea and bloody stools.  Doctors tried to fix it with Prednisone and it worked for a little bit but would always come back.  It wasn’t until about 2006 when I went to see a gastro doctor and had a colonoscopy done were they able to tell me that I had ulcerative colitis.  Finally an answer but unfortunately no ‘cure’.  I have been on all kinds of steroids, immunosuppressant’s and even medication used in fighting leukemia only to have it go into remission for a couple of months and then return.  

This past fall my Aunt who is celiac found ‘Breaking the Vicious Cycle’ and mailed me a copy.  I have read it cover to cover, although some of it is hard for me to understand. I have waited until after the holidays to start the diet as I was pretty much in remission. 

Here I am beginning the diet.  I am scared because of all the dying off side effects I have read about. I plan to start the yogurt by Thursday or Friday.  Hopefully that will help with any concern I may have. 

I have a whole chicken roasting in the oven, some left over broth from the holidays thawing out in the refrigerator and some apple cider jello cooking in the fridge.  I really hope I only need the starter diet for a couple of days.

I plan to have chicken soup for lunch tomorrow and probably left over roast chicken for dinner.  For breakfast I plan on just hard boiling an egg and taking some jello for a snack. 

I know it is going to be a tough battle but hopefully I will get through it because ultimately I want to be healthy and eat good food!

IVF #1 Epic Fail

IVF #1 did not work out as planned.  Our transfer was set for 12/18.  The transfer went smoothly.  When we left we we were positive this was going to work.  I did my 2 days of bed rest and took things easy.  We followed the doctors instructions perfectly.  The day after Christmas I started spotting and it was all over from there.  My period arrived and it seemed that I just kept bleeding and bleeding.  My beta was moved up 1 day to 12/30.  My test turned out to be negative.  I knew it was.  Unfortunately it didn’t really hit me until 1/6 when I had our follow appt.  That night while driving to meet friends for dinner I called hubby and cried over the phone all the way to dinner.  I needed the cry because ever since I have felt much better about what had happened.  The two worse parts about it were 1. all the time and effort put into a fresh cycle and then to have it fail is devastating and 2. the two week wait is awful.  The constant wondering is difficult to handle.  I was lucky enough to have the holidays distract me a little bit.

We have already scheduled a frozen transfer.  I have started birth control pills and I have my premed appt scheduled for 1/24.  I have a lining check scheduled for 2/5 and then the frozen transfer is set for 2/11. 

I am finding it hard to remain positive about this cycle.  I don’t want to be completely devastated again if it doesn’t work.

Second Fertility Report

Today we still have 9 of the 10 that were retrieved on Sunday.  They are all at 4 cells and I am scheduled for a transfer on Friday!  I am so excited and nervous.  It is what I have been waiting for but still so scared to actually have it take place.