I forgot to post yesterday, and then earlier today I was going to do it and then forgot.  OOPS.

What’s new with us?  Um, well…I’ll start with this morning.  After my two shots (last two morning ones!) I opened up my present and discovered…

…Frosty the Snowman and Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer boxing pens!

I KNOW, right?  It’s so awesome.

Joey and I had a huge boxing match with our pens, it lasted about 2 minutes and I’m pretty sure I won.  Mine’s Rudolph and, even cooler?  His nose lights up whenever you make him punch.  It’s pretty much the best thing ever.

I tried to give Joey the Frosty pen, but he was all NO!  I can’t take it!  It’s YOURS!

So I reminded him how I’m not ambidextrous and I can’t write with two pens at the same time.  After he remembered this, he agreed to accept the Frosty pen as a gesture of my goodwill.

Then we boxed each other’s faces off.

After the excitement with the pens, we bundled up (it’s cold down here, even if you people in Iowa would disagree) and carted ourselves back to Dr. Babyplease’s office.  They did the usual: bloodwork and scan.

We got the good nurse for the blood work today.  She took a look at my left arm and said, “Um, that doesn’t look too good; it’s getting really bruised.  Can I see your right arm?”

I pulled up my sleeve and got a secret chuckle when I saw the nurse’s face.  I don’t have a vein on my right arm that goes through my elbow, not that you can see anyway.  The nurse’s eyes got very wide and she twisted my arm around a little bit, then she said, “OK, then. We’re going to have to use the left arm…I’ll be gentle.”

She was gentle, but for the next four hours my arm hurt so bad I couldn’t fully extend it.  OH GOODY, because I have more bloodwork to come!

After Dr. Babyplease scanned me, she told me that I was ready to go and that I was super full of eggs.  I realize that’s disgusting, but I have somewhere around 15 and that’s about 14 more than usual and definitely feel….full.  (And achy all over, which is kind of strange.)  So the big day is going to be Thursday.

THURSDAY!

Oh my gosh.  It came so fast.

The nurse called me this afternoon and gave me some instructions.  My retrieval will be Thursday at 10:45 am.  I am to arrive at the hospital at 9:45, which should give the nurses plenty of time to try to figure out how in the world they’ll get a line on me since I will be not only dehydrated by that point, but my one easily accessible vein is nearly blown out.  I can hardly wait.

She reminded me that we are allowed to take showers that morning, but we can use no lotions, scented soaps, perfumes, after shaves, or deodorants.  Any kind of fragrance can potentially kill the little egglets, so on the way home Joey and I stopped at Tom Thumb and purchased some unscented Dove soap.  We’re not doing anything to harm our maybe-babies if we can help it!

And then: the bad news.  Since my retrieval is at 10:45 am on Thursday, I have to do my injections of Ganirelix and Ovidrel tonight at 10:45 pm.  Not earlier or later than 10:45, but 10:45 exactly.  (I’m going to be so cranky tomorrow after staying up so far past my bedtime…)  The Ovidrel will force me to ovulate, and they have to retrieve the egglets right before my body would naturally pop them off, or whatever you call it.

I still have no idea what the Ganirelix does.  Menopur either.  I decided I don’t really care since they hurt so bad.  (But I’m done with them!  For this round anyway…)

I’ll be down for the count following the retrieval what with the anesthesia and all.  And then sometime on Saturday, Sunday or Tuesday, depending on how they’re doing, they’ll transfer the viable embryos.

YIKES!  I CAN’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!  YIKES!

Am I excited?  Not really.  Not yet.  I can’t go there yet.  Those of you who have lost babies know what I mean, I think.  I feel like I have to save my emotional energy, just in case.  And I’m really not sure when I will allow myself to start being excited…probably not until I see a heartbeat.

Or maybe even two little heartbeats.