Making Baby Provence: Vacations and Doctors and Babies…Oh, My!

Last week, Todd and I went on a trip to St. John, United States Virgin Islands. It was one of the most beautiful vacations we have ever taken. We went to Kauai last year, and they are equally my two favorite places on earth…along with Jamaica. Maybe I’m just easy to please?! Anyway, we really needed the vacation to unwind, and that’s just what we did. I won’t take the time to go into all of the details here about the trip. However, I will talk about our first three nights. On a recommendation from a friend, we stayed at Concordia Eco-Resort. For three days, we had no air conditioning, television, phone service, or WIFI. Now, with that being said, there was actually AC in the little shop where we stopped regularly to buy a snack or water and allow our sweat beads to turn to salt stains, but there was zero in our cabin. There was also WIFI in the area around this shop, but we didn’t spend enough time there to use it (except for the only 2 posts of pictures I made to Facebook on the entire trip.) Basically, we woke-up early with the sun. We spent our days hiking or snorkeling. We spent our evenings playing Yahtzee in our room in front of a box fan with the windows open. It was splendid. I really could have appreciated a little AC. However, we have not been this disconnected in what seems like years (which in all reality has only been since our cruise in March 2013). We loved every minute…again, except for the lack of AC. There were hermit crabs along the 20 minute hiking trail to the beach. There were donkeys on the secluded beach that never had any more people than 30 at one time. There was a hummingbird that visited a tree outside our French doors every single morning. There were the most beautiful views and interesting snorkeling of my life. It was pure, sweaty bliss. I would go back in a heartbeat…but next time, we are staying in a cabin that receives better trade winds. J Overall, it was a great week. Here are the picture collages I made for Instagram/Facebook.

Our first day at Concordia...Todd playing with the crabs & hiking to Ram Head

Snorkeling in Salt Pond Bay

Hiking to Drunk Bay

Yahtzee!

Dinner during sunset at ZoZo's at Caneel Bay

Boat cruise to the British Virgin Islands...the baths at Virgin Gorda, snorkeling at Treasure Island, & playtime on Willy T's floating pirate ship & bar

Snorkeling at Maho Bay before we headed to Trunk Bay

Our last day, we shared a Coke.

As for IVF, it’s starting, and I have felt every bit of the emotional rollercoaster. I have been having anxiety attacks once or twice a week for a few months, now. They are bad, too, and they seem to be getting worse. I’m pretty sure Todd doesn’t know what to do with my anymore. He’s the only person that has had to experience them, and I’m pretty sure he’s scared of me. K I haven’t had this much stress and anxiety in nearly 15 years, so it’s been worrying me, too. Today, I went to my first acupuncture appointment. I was already having a pretty chill morning, so I don’t think I felt any more relaxed when I left than when I got there. However, I did feel like he understood my issue and gave me good recommendations for what we need to do to fix my problems. I felt confident in his treatment today and will be seeing him again on Wednesday. Monday, I have an appointment for hypnosis or Reiki. I’m not sure which treatment I will get, but I’m excited to try it, too. I’m going to possibly incorporate both of these into this entire next cycle. I should be as chill as a ski lift operator in Colorado, except without the munchies. J

Tuesday, we have my baseline ultrasound and blood draws. They will be checking to see that my lining looks thin and my ovaries are “quiet,” meaning that they have been resting well and are ready for the big stimulation. The blood draws will tell them what the starting number for estradiol is, which means something along the lines of how many mature follicles you have. (Honestly, you’d have to Google it to find out. In the past, I used to put all of that information on my blog, but this cycle, I’m a little lazier. We’ll blame it on the excessive relaxation therapy I am starting. J) On that day, I’ll get final information about how my cycle will start to look with the stim shots and follow-up ultrasounds. Basically, I’ll know a lot more that day.

On an even more awesome note, my cousin and dear friend from college gave birth to two healthy little girls this week. They were almost exactly two days apart. I’m in love. Tomorrow morning, Todd and I are driving to Kansas City to meet our niece, Eleanor. Of course, I still plan to call her Baby Laura…or Leanora, which is just a really funny inside joke in my family right now thanks to our sweet Mimi. Le sigh. I hope Bradette still has some of her baby dust to sprinkle on me when I get there. Maybe sweet Eleanor will be the lucky charm I have needed for all these years!