Timing and TMI

In 2011 shortly after Dustin and I were married, we decided to get a puppy. Well that's not quite right. Our friend's parents had a dog expecting puppies, and we were asked if we'd be interested in taking one of them. We already had our lab/wolfhound Duke, and thought because we were away from home so much that it might be good to have a second dog at home. Plus puppies are so gosh darn cute. This one would be a border collie and lab mix.

Duke, aka Dukenstein, aka Dukedy-doo

Luna, aka Lunatic, aka Looneytunes

We brought Luna home in December of 2011. When I told my mom we'd picked Luna up, she said to me, "You're a newlywed with a puppy. You'll be pregnant soon." I laughed, asking her what kind of old wive's tale that was. And who had time for a baby? I had a puppy! And a part time job on top of my full time position. What was she thinking?

Well, I got pregnant that month.

Funny how that works, huh? So busy I forgot to refill my prescription for birth control.

Our daughter Caitlin is something else. She came as a welcome surprise. How did we get through that first year of marriage? Puppy, pregnancy, newborn - it was pretty busy.

This time we're trying to get pregnant, like on purpose. I figured it would be so easy, seeing as all I had to do was stop taking the pill by accident like last time. Yeah, well it's a little more complicated than that. We used the "let's see what happens" approach for a few months. When nothing happened, I started charting my temperature. That didn't work well for various reasons. I used an ovulation calculator and plugged in all my LMP dates for the last 5 months to figure out when I should be ovulating.

In mid November, I found out I was pregnant. At the end of January I miscarried. Just one of those things, I guess.

As shocking as that was, I wanted to start trying again as soon as possible.

So, this part may be TMI. My cycle is pretty long (35 days on average) and after a few months of trying to count on a calendar, temping and all that....I realized that I had figured out when I was ovulating specifically because of my mucous production. A woman's body will produce cervical mucous when she's ovulating to help sperm along their way to the egg, basically. It's like a friendly welcoming way to invite them in. (Like a slip 'n slide! hah!) I could finally spot and recognize the appropriate signs.

Anyway, life can sometimes get in the way of baby making. In theory it's easy. Just have sex. Right? Well, there can be a lot of pressure after a few months. I may spend every day thinking about the calendar, counting down the days and peeing on ovulation predictor strips and watching my underwear for signs of changing mucous (ugh, sorry). But Dustin isn't. He's got his own stress with work and trying to fix our cars and keeping up with other things that need attention, not to mention that we have a kid too. I hurt my back and didn't feel up to things for a while. After the miscarriage I battled with iron deficiency, which I'm still trying to fix. Did you know severe iron deficiency can cause a bunch of fucked up shit to happen? Like, I wanted to chew on my toothbrush all the time. I chewed my tongue constantly. I was so, so tired all the time (that's pretty normal) but also I was annoyed with everything and everyone. There was not one thing that didn't seem irritating to me.

Anyway, things are better. Maybe it's the nicer weather? Maybe it's the iron pills? Either way I'm more focused this month. Hopefully...hopefully I'll get pregnant. And with planning to get braces and have jaw surgery in the future...I hope the timing is right and everything will work out.