Weight & Pregnancy, or The Curse of the Junk In the Trunk

So as we have discussed before weight is a factor in a successful pregnancy (duh).  So with me "passing inspection" this is the last hurdle.  Fertility clinics have strict rules about BMI (this was one of the 'rules' clinics have accepting you as a patient) and, despite the fact you can be in pretty great health- weight withstanding, they can decline to inseminate you if you are not at or under the BMI cap.  I have been a "big kid" as a child, a "fat girl" as a teen and "heavy woman" as an adult.  Losing weight hasn't been easy for me and, granted, until I was 20-ish I thought potatoes were considered a vegetable... ...

I have, approx, 40 days to lose 6 pounds to get to the weight my fertility doc said I  would need to be to be approved to do insemination according to the clinic rules.  And it's not just about weight loss.  I also need to maintain my vitamin levels (I've been dissing Vitamin D), keep an eye my thyroid, balance new natural vitamins to help with LH (I read an article that says a natural way of helping increase progesterone/Lutenizing Hormones/lengthening your Luteal Stage (the part where your woman parts prepare for the baby bean drops itself like it's hot).  I'm on a cocktail of vitamins and will start taking Clomid soon.  Sorry everyone for the things I do and say- it is not me speaking, it's a concoction of random chemically induced personalities from a range of Tammy Faye Baker to Chris Brown.

But I've also started working out more.  And by more I mean at all.
I've been doing 45+ minutes a day of cardio for 6 days a week.  I also restricted my diet to no gluten,

no unnatural sugars, no sweets, limited cheese, reduced carbs, and maybe 1 drink a week (if I do it's 1 gin and diet tonic).  Now I know what you're thinking and I already left a message for the good folks at Franzia  so it doesn't throw off their inventory.  Most of the time I feel ok, but I don't look forward to eating.  I see my 134,985th day of salads in a row and there's only so much you can do to make a salad appetizing before it crosses the line into taco salad (just because it has lettuce doesn't make it a salad).  Meg and I were on a walk last night and I legit spent a quarter of a mile talking about fried mozzarella sticks and loaded potato skins like I was performing a live reading of "50 Shades of Gray".

Me Trying to Learn ANY Choreography.

 People at work have been telling me to change things up and join a gym with classes.  Then you can transition into pregnancy workout classes then post-pregnancy workout classes.  I am not good at attending classes.  Group workouts stress me out and I am part of the rhythm-less nation and I inevitably will harm myself/classmate/aerobic equipment with what should have been a Burpee and ended up being a Fartee or a downward facing dog that spirals into sideways falling Kate.  Then there are the people telling me to do Zumba.... have you seen me dance at a wedding?  I come prepared with "I'm sorry I kicked you in the face.  I blame Wine and Cher."

How I Feel When I Leave the Gym.

So, I've got 6 pounds to get to the weight my doctor wants me to be at so the clinic will allow the insemination.  Of course I want to lose more, but eye on the prize kids.

The below has nothing to do with this post, other than further proof I was a butterball of a kid, but I found it while looking at childhood photos.

Foreshadowing?

The Internet: Cheaper Than Therapy

So.  My latest test (testing my testosterone levels for PCOS- Testosterone-y, the Real San Francisco Treat) came back normal- YAY, but now we are waiting for the next test.  When I had my HSG test my doctor saw something he wants to double check.  So I'm scheduled to have a hysteroscopy a week from Friday.  While we play the waiting game Meg found this great blog (Mommy Loves Martinis <brill name right?!?!) where the author covered "Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Infertility Journey".  Portions from her credited post above are in bold because I believe in giving props where props are due.We've added our two cents.

1. Fertility treatment is a huge undertaking, and you’ll stay focused if you have a long-term plan of what types of treatments you’re willing to do, how long you’re willing to invest, and what you’ll do if a particular type of treatment is unsuccessful.
I can't stress how much you think about it all day.  "Should I eat that piece of chocolate? No, you need to keep working on your best pregnancy weight."  "Should we book that vacation next summer? Umm, will we be pregnant around that time?" "God, nobody look at my suggested Amazon items!  I bought a palate of ovulation kits and I blew the algorithm."

2. Plan for the long-haul.
I almost auto-corrected "long-haul" to "U-haul" (lesbian joke ya'll).  I think what has been hard on both of us is how long this takes, and we haven't even started trying yet! Just getting to the trying has taken us almost a year.  It feels like everyone around us is getting pregnant faster than a
batch of teens on prom night.  And we're still staring at a stick trying to read the hieroglyphics of a test result.

3. Don’t take setbacks as a sign that it’s not meant to be for you.
Easier said than done.  I know.  It's a hard lesson to learn and I feel like I have to say it like a mantra, but there are gonna be bumps in the road.  Just don't hit them so hard it skips your cd and blows your shocks.  There's a metaphor in there somewhere.

4. Don’t be a victim. It sucks to have to go to so much effort to have a child, when it comes so easily to others.
This is a common statement among lesbians. It's hard to believe that so many heterosexual people get accidentally pregnant, when we'll have to pay thousands of dollars and spend many months of our lives to achieve the same end. But, I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason.  Now you will never hear me say that at a time when something shitty is happening to me as I'm either a hot mess of emotion or busy stringing together a line of expletives.  We will have a family when everything is meant to happen...or when we see three wise men who followed a star to find us.  Come to think of it.  That sounds a good sequel to "Xanadu".

5. Come up with your own mantra that you go back to again and again.
I haven't found one yet, but when I do it'll be like this.

6. Be stubborn. Allow yourself to grieve and feel that it’s “not fair”. Practice patience. If you mess up and break down, gather your shit together, and practice patience again.

I agree with everything she just said.





7. Allow yourself to have bad days. I may sound all chipper now, but I had many days where I sat outside, just staring out into the yard, wondering how all this would end.
We haven't even begun the insemination attempts yet so I'm just going to let her speak to this one.

8. Give and receive support. I found mine online at BabyCenter.com. Sharing your journey with others is validating. It makes your story real and makes you feel not alone. It also helps with feelings of jealousy, which is a messy, embarrassing thing to feel when you have friends and family who are pregnant, and you can’t feel happy for them.
Preach.  This is a big reason of why we're doing this blog.  It's therapeutic, it's a great way to get info to our family and friends (particularly when the news isn't great- who wants to repeat bad news over and over?), it's a resource for others and judging by the fact that we have readers from 26 countries I think we're doing something right.

9. Take a break when you need to. Fertility treatment is grueling. It’s all exhausting on your mind, body, and soul. If you push pause, it doesn’t mean you’re giving up. It means you’re gathering your strength. You’ll know when the time is right again. Remember, you’re in it for the long-haul.

I can already say that the basic meds I've been on- really just mild hormones- are causing me to have apocalyptic nightmares.  I also noticed that the horse pill sized progesterone pills they put me on instructed me to take them at night as they cause dizziness and make you foggy headed.

We're not so good at taking breaks (we're lesbians, we commit), but it's still early on.  We'll keep turning to great women like the ladies at Mommy Loves Martinis who went through this before us for advice. We have a plan and we'll keep trying until we build our family and if I get an SNL writing gig out of this blog that would be baller as well (hint hint, wink wink).

Testosterone-y, the Real San Francisco Treat

Let's all learn this dance.

First, some good news.  I got a call today informing me about my Free Testosterone Level (a major symptom of PCOS) and it was normal.  If you need to catch up please refer to My Damn Ovaries, Not a 19th Century French Novel.

Normally, with PCOS, one would have issues with cycles, depression, thinning hair, diabetes, high cholesterol, acne and issues

with weight/losing weight.  PCOS is kind of like, your womanly hormones say, "I want babies!" and your testosterone hormones say, "I kind of like a little facial hair on a woman" and then your reproductive area goes into a 'government shutdown'.  I have 2 of those symptoms and now with normal "testy" levels they confirmed that I have a very mild case of PCOS and should not be overly concerned. But they still want to put me on Clomid to increase the likelihood of ovulating/conception.

So for this post I'm gonna go through some meds they put you on/will put me on.  Don't worry.  I did thorough research (for the accompanying gifs).

We've gone through the different types of tests that I've had- I mean mostly blood work, but I've been stuck more times than the Male Olympic Figure Skating Team.

Pre-Natal vitamins with DHA - Complete prenatal multivitamin supplement with algae-sourced DHA. For use before, during, and after pregnancy.   DHA is important for healthy visual and mental development throughout infancy.  Also DHA sounds like a baller rap name.

We got these because you can use coupons.

Vitamin D - Everybody needs it and I don't want to look like "Tan Mom".  Don't google it if you're about to eat anything.

Levothyroxine - tTis is because I have a mild hypothyroid, basically meaning that my thyroid doesn't pull its weight.  Come on, Thy.

Progesterone- they gave me this after one of the first tests to help "jump start my system"- which it did.  They have recently put me on triple the average dosage.  But no one told me that the side effects of this mean heightened emotional state,

incredibly sexy bloating <sarcasm>,

weird ass dreams

leading to lack of sleep

thus feeding the first symptom.

Clomid - This is for stimulating an increase in the amount of hormones that support the growth and release of a mature egg.  Side effect?  Chance of multiples.

Other side effects of the process of Artificial Insemination: Dry mouth, gif overload, dizziness, One Direction song stuck in your head, cramps, bad credit, joint pain, ill fitting shoes, leakage, finishing every sentence with a hashtag.