Today's The Day!!

Okay, well yesterday was the day but I was not able to blog about it in time!

After what seems like DAAAAAYYYS of taking medications, charting temperatures, taking ovulation predictor tests and timing when to have sex.... I finally got a POSITIVE ovulation test!! Which means after getting a positive result, I should ovulate within 12-36 hours! Yaaahhooooooo!

Here are my first 2 tests... the one on the top was the first one I took on Monday night, as you can see the left line is not darker than the right one, which means I am not ovulating. The bottom test was taken Tuesday morning and as you can see the left line is a little darker than the right line. I accidentally threw out the instructions for these tests so to be sure that I know how to read these results right I went out and bought a new (expensive!) box of tests! Lol.

So I waited a few hours and took another test in the afternoon....

And Viola! The left line is DEFINATELY darker than the right line, which means I will be ovulating in the next 12-36 hours! Yay! But of course this is giving me anxiety, I only have this small window to make sure all our hard work pays off! Nothing like haaaaving to have sex at a certain time, that puts a lot of strain on a relationship! Luckily for us though, we are not making this our first and only priority. I mean, sure, we want this to work. We want our baby. But only worrying about that puts a strain on everything else going on in our life, so if it happens this month, then GREAT! But if not, there is always next month, and the next month, and the next. We will have our baby when the time is right. I have no doubt that God (with the help of Jimmy's grandparents) will pick out the perfect child for us! So I'm okay with waiting for that!;)

So like I said today yesterday is the day. I ovulated!! I could feel it and everything. It's almost weird to be so intuned to your body. I could feel the cramping of my ovary releasing an egg. I'm pretty sure I was about 5 lbs. heavier from the bloating (not my favorite symptom! lol) and I was having back pain. I looked all that up along with the fact that I had gotten a positive OV test the day before and TaDa!=Ovulation. 1 in 5 of women experience ovulation pain, I'm so glad that I was able to experience that. Well, not really, but I liked being able to personally know that my hard work is paying off. My medications are working. This is looking really good for us. So I had the cramps all day and by bedtime, it was all over. Our work is done. Now we just wait.....and wait.......and wait..... Errrrrg. It's going to be a loooong 2 weeks! But even after getting a positive pregnancy test, I still have to make sure this baby sticks this time! And he/she better!!!! So it may be a little while before I start announcing that we're pregnant, just to be safe, so don't take it personal.

According to this Chinese Gender Chart, if I conceive this month, we will have a bouncy baby BOY!

And if I conceive next month, we will have a precious baby GIRL!

I could go either way, I'm just so ready to have my own little me or little Jimmy! hehe.

Have you used this gender chart?? Did it work for you?? It's a 50/50 shot.

So, in the meantime, in between all this family planning, my youngest sisters are here for a week again! We had them last summer and have decided it's a nice little vacation and change of pace, so we flew them out here last Friday and took them camping at Shaver Lake for the weekend. It was my first time camping! We came home on Monday and have gone to the lake and BBQ'd and today we're going to set up the slip and slide. And tomorrow is our last day with them, so we are taking them to the water slides in Fresno! My dad is taking them for the rest of the weekend before flying them back to their mom in Vegas. It has been a very fun vacation, they're growing up so fast that I feel like I miss out on everything. The little one, Delanee, is 6....going on 18! Man, does she have an attitude! Lol. She gives us a run for our money. She has probably scared Jimmy out of wanting a daughter lol. Madison, she's 14, and so beautiful. It's nice to be able to relate to her now, she was always so much younger than me that I never paid her much attention, but now, I love having her around. And I'm glad that I'm a better role model now that she's older. Give her someone better to look up to. I'm going to be sad to see them go. But at the end of the week, Delanee is really missin' her mama and she has worn us out! So it's actually a little bittersweet. Lol, sad to say!!

They are getting their swimsuits on now, so I need to go get ready. I posted pictures on my facebook last night from our vacation! Go check them out!

I'll be back soon, with more updates! Thank you friends and family for your support and advice!
XoXoXo

Another day, another year older....

Well, today I turned 23. Nothing exciting about turning 23, especially when you have a nonchalant attitude towards the whole thing, I think this is the beginning of not anticipating my next birthday, not planning a big party or girl's night out for my birthday. Is that normal? Is it just part of growing up? Or having more important things to worry about in your every day life? I feel like this week is already over for me LOL, I'm so busy with getting my house cleaned (yes, it's like my weekly ritual now to deep clean my house, don't ask!), go to the DMV to apply for my new driver's license, pick up my sister's from the airport on Friday, get everything ready to go camping this weekend, and lots of little things in between.....so my birthday just seems to have dropped off my list of things to worry about right now. Booo!

As for my baby-makin' update, today I took my last fertility pill!!! Yahoooooo! That's a nice feeling. It all went really smoothly, minus the hot flashes and KiiiiiiLLLER mood swings!! I took the Provera for 4 days (I was supposed to take it for 10) and got my period, so that part was quick and easy. Then, on day 3 of my period I started the Clomid (the crazy maker pill!! lol) and finished it today. So on Thursday I will start using ovulation prediction tests and by next Wednesday there should be a little Cotter in the works! Seems easy enough, right?! It sure hasn't seemed like it! It shouldn't be this difficult! But I will appreciate my munchkin SO much more!:) Have you realized that my "ovulation time" is during my vacation, while my sisters are here?! Hahaha. Yeah, awkward! I don't know how to feel about this whole process though. Maybe you can help me decipher what I'm going through. Okay, so before I started taking these medications I was really excited to get pregnant again and kept trying to make it happen on my own. Now that I've gone through what I went through and have realized that this is not an easy process, I am beginning to realize that I am not as optimistic anymore. Not that I don't want this, because trust me, I DO! But I feel like if I get too excited and start stressing over making it happen, it won't happen. So I've noticed I have a nonchalant attitude. Which is good, because I'm not stressing, but at the same time I wonder if my attitude can also affect my body's attitude towards the situation and I won't get pregnant?! Am I just over analyzing this? I feel like I'm almost setting myself up to fail, but that's not how I feel at all. What's up with that?!

Anyways, the doctor makes it seem that this pill will work for me, because I obviously can get pregnant, but I do not have a period, therefor I do not ovulate regularly which is hard when trying to get pregnant, so he thinks this is the push I need. I hope he is right. Also, my best friend started her period on the same day as me, so she will most likely ovulate on the same day as me, which means if all goes well, we will have our babies on the same day!!! That is so crazy, huh?! lol So I hope you're still praying for us, so far so good! But we can use all the help and advice we can get! I appreciate all my regular readers out there that give advice and support. Thank you all so much. I'll update more in a week or two and let you know how things are going!!:)

XoXoXo