Belly Button

Now you must realize this blog is not necessarily only for the enjoyment of my readers.. it is to document as much about our TTC journey as possible. Even though sometimes the information and images may not be what you wanted to see, hear or read. But I have to say that my stitches came out of my belly button today!! My little scar is healing up very nicely.

I'm not sure what the weird dark area is inside my button, I think it's just shadows, but the scar is on the very edge of the lower part of my button.

I had a stupid belly button ring (no offense to those that have them) put in when I graduated HS and I took it out probably 6 months after it was put in. Will I always have that little hole in my skin?? It's completely closed up.. just still has a small hole on the outside.

7 pills

7 pills to go!!

AF should be here on January 25th. On my last natural cycles, I O'd (ovulated) around day 18 of my cycle. I will be using my handy dandy ovulation kits to make sure we don't miss my fertile time. It has been forever since I was able to use those ovulation kits.. but they are fun to pee on because I do get to see a 2nd line. Almost as exciting as a pregnancy test, but not quite. Not too much longer and the pee-on-a-stick-fest will begin.

Change Up

After much thought, I have decided to start another blog. Jared brought up the idea of having a blog that we can share with all of our family and I can combine that with a photography blog for my photo clients to see as well. I've seen a few professional photographers combine a personal and photo blog for family friends and clients, and I like the idea. I just won't be able to get as personal on there.

The Kuntz Conception Chronicles will now be stricly used for only TTC and pregnancy related business. All other posts will be on my new blog. At some point, I will stop using this conception blog, but for the meantime it means you will have to check 2 blogs if you want to see all of my posts.

I've tried to make this a tad easier on you all by adding a "subscribe to me" option. Over on the right hand side of this page, you will see an area where you can enter your email address to subscribe to my blogs. That way, you will be notified whenever I post a new blog so you don't have to be checking 2 blogs if I haven't posted anything new.

If you need help being subscribed to my blogs, leave a comment with your email address and I will subscribe for you.

Here is my New Blog.. (it's not all dolled up yet)

Geek Squad

Yes, here are me and Jenny (and Coco)..

Quite lovely sisters, I must say.

Jen and Chris moved into their new place today and we took these pictures in their bathroom. Yes, they left the farm. Not because it was a bad experience (although it isn't as fun as some would think it is), but because they had an empty rental house that needed to be occupied. They have fixed it up so nice.. maybe Jen will blog about it some time.

I can't wait

I can't wait until I have a baby to take pictures of. But for now, you will have to suffer through pictures of my pugs. Here is Princess again..

Good appointment!

We just got back from the post-op appt. It went very well!!

My appt. was scheduled for 3:00 and the Dr. didn't see us until 4. uggh. Oh well, here are the details:

First and foremost, the polyp was benign!!! I got kinda scared because when my Dr. entered the room, he was followed by another Dr. and she introduced herself and told me she was a general practice Dr. or something. I wasn't really paying attention because I immediately started thinking that the polyp was cancerous and that's why she was there too. But he told me the polyp was benign and then proceeded to show me all sorts of neat pictures that were taken of my insides during the surgery. It was so neat to see all of them.

Ok, so the good news is my ovaries and tubes looked great. They even pushed dye through my tubes again (like I had done in January last year) and the dye flowed through just fine, so my tubed are nice and open.

He then showed me photos of the polyp and of the endo. He said that my endo was in the beginning stages but that I've had it for probably around 5 years. He said it was very easy to remove and I am all cleaned up now.

I asked him if we can start trying again on my next cycle and he said, "Absolutely!" I told him how my AF may be starting at a bad time this next cycle because we are planning a trip to Colorado with the fam and it may get in the way of doing the shots and making it to my appointments, so he suggested we try on our own for a month. He said that our chances have increased by about 30% after having this surgery, so we should give it a go on our own and if it doesn't work, we can start with the shots on my next cycle after that. YAY!!!!

He did mention that we will be pregnant soon, he thought at least in 1-2 medicated cycles we will be there. But, hopefully it happens on our own!

Also, he said that after a pregnancy and after I have finished breast feeding when I start having periods again, I really should go back on the pill and be on a pill that only lets me have around 4 periods a year. He said for people with endo, it is not good to have periods so frequently as it allows the endo to come back alot quicker with each period.

So, that is all I have for now. I am very happy with the news that we got today and I hope we are on our way to a BFP!!!

Post-Op appointment

My appointment has now been rescheduled for Monday at 3pm. As always, there was some confusion at my Dr's office and instead of being scheduled for a post-op appt tomorrow, I was only down for a sono/lab. But, my nurse said that I am not ready to do another medicated cycle yet (uterus needs to heal some before it's ready for a pregnancy), so they cancelled my sono/lab appt. and didn't have a spot for a post-op appt until Monday.

So, I will go back on the pill, go talk with the Dr. on Monday and then hopefully be able to TTC again when my next cycle begins (in about 3 weeks), but the Dr. will let me know more on Monday.

Sheesh.. I am ready to be done with these Dr. appt's for a while. Even though when I get pg, it will be a whole new realm of Dr. appt's again. Fun.

Just because

I have nothing else to blog about.. here is Jared getting the truck ready to take me for surgery.

Here is me and Princess snuggling in bed after surgery.

And here is my latest purchase on ebay.. 20 PG tests!! hehe FUN!


Tomorrow is my first day back to work after a long, nice vacation. I have recovered well from the surgery, but I am still having some bad pains in my shoulder area that is being caused by the gas that they used during the surgery. It usually only bothers me when I am up moving around alot, so hopefully just sitting at my desk at work will be fine. Today was much better than the past few days though. I was up moving around almost all day and the pain didn't start until around 1 or 2 this afternoon.

I will update after my appointment on Thursday. Oh, and I think AF is starting today.

Surgery

I'm gonna make this quick, but my surgery went well today and I am home resting. The Dr. removed the polyp and also found that I had stage 2 endometriosis during the laparoscopy. He also removed the endo and we should be in good shape for making a baby. I didn't talk with the Dr. after the surgery, but he did talk with Jared. We won't find out how soon we can TTC again until I go in for my followup appt. next Thursday. Thanks for all the prayers!

The Lee Family

My cousin's family photos are now edited and online. Go take a look!

Our Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Jared and I spent Christmas in the Northwest. We flew to Seattle on Sunday, after church and spent that evening and the next morning with Gary and Judy and Jared's Grandma, Zelma.

On Monday, we drove down to Portland and had Christmas Eve dinner with my Grandpa and all the fam. We spent monday night in my old hometown of Corbett. Shannon was my best friend growing up and her parents still live in her childhood home in Corbett, so we stayed at their place. They were out of town for the holiday and we took care of their 2 dogs and pony while we were staying there. One of the dogs was very shy and timid and when we let her out, she gave us a hard time when we tried to bring her in for the night. We finally got her in (after an hour) and we went to bed.

Christmas morning we woke up and put the dogs back in their kennel. When we went out the back door, the door was locked, but it's one of those handles where you can still open it from the inside, but when it shuts, it's locked on the outside. So, we locked ourselves out. I was in my PJ's but Jared was dressed. Luckily, my Grandma lives just 2 doors up so we walked up to her place. Keep in mind, we're in the small town of Corbett so 2 doors up really means about a quarter mile and half of that was the driveways. haha We called the family who was taking care of the animals before we got there, so they drove down to get us back in. Phew!

After we got showered and ready, we went over to my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Kathy's place for breakfast. After breakfast, I went to my cousin Megan's house to do a very short and quick photo shoot. I will post their photos on my AJK Photos site, so check in soon for those.

After that, we drove over to my Aunt Lesley's house for dinner. After dinner, Brian and Lisa announced that they are expecting again!!! Their 3rd child is due in August this year. Hopefully I will be right behind them!

Grandma O'Neil had Jared and I over for breakfast on Wednesday morning then we met my mom in town and shopped a little with her, went to one of my fave restaurants (Sunny Hans) for lunch and then left for the airport.

Our flight back home was kinda crazy also. We left Portland at 3:00 and about 30 minutes into our flight they announced that one of the doors at the front of the plane was not sealed correctly so they had to fly us at a lower altitude and diverted us from Las Vegas to Oakland, CA instead. They had all the passengers get off the plane and were trying to figure out how everyone would get to where they needed to be. About 30 minutes after we got off the plane, they sent all the KC folks on another flight that went from Oakland to LA and then from LA to KC. So, we finally landed in KC around 1:30AM and were home and in bed around 2:30.

We had a great time, even though some parts were crazy, but we are glad to be back home.

See all the pictures from our trip here.

My neighborhood

Our subdivision was built on a very old farm that was once famous in Kansas City and owned by a very wealthy family. Alot of the old farm structures are still standing and in fact are being preserved and restored. The old show horse barn has been turned into an elementary school and the dairy barns will one day hold offices and retail space. Tonight, we had a beautiful sunset and I couldn't help but go out and try to capture some of it on my camera.

This is the old show horse barn, which is now a school

Funny

Nothin much is new around our household.. just getting ready for Christmas. I have just a little over a week to go until my surgery.

I got this in an email today and had a good laugh from it, so I thought I would post it on here since I have nothing else to blog about.

To Maintain a Healthy Level of Sanity During the Holidays :

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a
Hair Dryer At Passing Cars See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds".

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. Don t use any punctuation.

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10 . Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat...use a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme.

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling,"Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go"

Berry Family

Had a shoot yesterday with some good friends of ours, Russ and Kim Berry. Their little girl is Sariah and their dog is Regan.



See the rest here.

Answer to Prayer

I wrote the post below shortly after I came home from my appointment. Now, a couple hours later, I've been able to digest everything and I felt like I had to come back on here to add to it.

I wasn't sure what to feel after I learned about our new diagnosis. I was scared and annoyed that I had one more thing to contend with. I felt that I've been through enough already, now I have to have SURGERY???

After discussing everything with my family and friends, (I must have been on the phone for over an hour with everyone) I realize that this is really an answer to our prayers. An answer to something that I have been so puzzled about for a long time. I feel that this polyp has been around for a little while and it has been preventing us from getting pregnant.

Through this whole infertility journey, the Lord has let me know that he was right there beside me, even though there have been times that my faith has wavered. Today was a big milestone for me and Jared and I can now say that I am not scared.. but I am happy, thankful and so excited to resolve this problem so we can move on.

I have faith that the Lord's blessing will soon be added to me and Jared and we will receive good news from here on out.

I can't say this enough, but I appreciate everyone's prayers so much. They work and God is listening!

Surgery

Yep.. that's right.. I need surgery.

So, I went to my u/s this morning and my lining still looked kinda thick in one area. So, the technician showed it to my nurse and she said she wanted the Dr. to look at it. My Dr. then suggested a sonohysterogram, which is when they carefully push sterile solution into my uterus and then perform an u/s at the same time. When the solution went into my uterus, my uterus expanded, allowing us to see what all was going on in there, and that's when they saw a "growth" that was attached to the wall of my uterus. The Dr. called it a "Polyp" . Of course, when anyone mentions the word "growth," you automatically think cancer, but the Dr. assured me that in very rare cases, these can be pre-malignant, but that I should not be concerned.

So, this could explain why we haven't been getting pregnant. But, it seems to me that we should have seen this before on some of my prior u/s's, if it has been there for a while.

Well, anyways, my surgery is scheduled for Dec. 28th. I have the whole week of Christmas scheduled off anyways, so it works out well. I just didn't realize I would be spending my Christmas break recovering from surgery :( In addition to removing the polyp, the Dr. also suggested performing a diagnostic laparoscopy to check on the outsides of my uterus and check for any growths or endo on the outskirts of my innards (if that makes sense). The Dr. and nurse were very happy that I came in again today, and I am too.

I am hopeful that we can get it all cleared up and we will be pregnant very soon after all this. Thanks so much for all the prayers. I know God is in control of all this, it's amazing to see him at work.

Happy 30th, Mom and Dad

Today is my parent's 30th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with cupcakes and punch. Mmmm...

My dad giving us all the details of their wedding day



If you enlarge this picture, take a look at all of my dad's hair!!!

Mom still looks the same :) hehe

Appointment update

Well according to my nurse, I am only on CD 2 today. AF started later on Saturday (around 7PM) and she said I needed to start by 5PM in order to consider that day 1. I had the ultrasound and my lining is too thick to start the meds, so I will not be doing shots tonight. She said if I start bleeding more heavily to call and let them know and I can come in again for another u/s to see if the lining has gotten thinner. If I really don't start bleeding heavily, then I will just take another month off and call them when my next cycle starts. So, we'll see what happens. I'll update when I know more.

UPDATE:
I have bled more throughout the morning and afternoon, so I called to make another appt. for tomorrow. It will be at 10:15. I pray that my lining thins enough for me to start the shots tomorrow night. Since I am now only on day 2, my normal day to start the shots would have been tomorrow anyways. We are supposed to get some more ice tonight, so I just hope the roads are clear enough to make it out to my appt.

Dashing (walking) through the snow (ice)

We took a little morning stroll through our subdivision and picked up a paper. Princess was too much of a Princess and decided she was too good for the ice and snow, so she stayed inside. Obi had a blast though.

Our cozy cottage


Go Obi!

Auntie Flo

AF is here. We are onto our 3rd and last cycle of the Follistim/IUI treatment. I pray this is the one!

Calendar:
Monday, Dec. 10- u/s and bloodwork, start shots
Friday, Dec. 14- u/s bloodwork
Saturday, Dec 15- Trigger/HCG shot
Monday, Dec 17- IUI
Monday, Dec 31- BFP!!!!!!!!!! What a way to ring in the new year!