My Cycle List

First, I got my appointment scheduled for Monday at 9:30. The lady making my appointment told me that the ultrasound tech is completely packed on Monday morning, so I can just come in at 9:30 and she'll squeeze me in when she can. Great.

Anyways, I started keeping a detailed list of all of my cycles over a year ago so I had something to show the fertility specialist when we met him the first time. I keep track of when they start, when I O, when they end and any other details about the cycle that would be good to know. I keep it on a Word doc on my computer at work.. helps me keep everything straight..

The cycles in gray are my break cycles..

Hello, AF!!

AF is here, so today is day 1 of cycle #20. I imagine my appt. will be on Monday, but I need to call at 9 AM when the office opens and get my appt. scheduled. Hopefully I will be back on the meds by Monday night.

Follistim, here I come!!

Dooms Day

Today AF is due, but there is no sign of starting yet. I went ahead and took a test this morning, but it's negative. Today (12 DPO) was when I got a BFP with Abby, so I am fairly certain I am not pg.

I will update later if anything changes.

Yup, I O'd

YAY!! My CP has definately closed up, so I am saying my O date was Saturday February 16th (CD 22). I can test on or around March 1st, if AF hasn't come.

If I am pg, my due date will be on or around November 8, 2008.

If I am not pg, I will start the meds on day 3 of my new cycle.

This blog is kinda boring with no pictures now.. hopefully I can post pics of my BFP shortly!

Just an update

Well, I stopped taking the OPK's. I ran out of them before they ever got even remotely close to being positive and I didn't feel like buying any more. I had some fertile signs late last week and over the weekend, but nothing that made me think, "Yes.. this is my O day" but all of those fertile signs have now dissappeared and my cervix has closed up, which is a classic sign that I ovulated. It's not as closed up as it has been in the past, but it definately isn't fertile anymore.



So, I'm not really sure if I ovulated, or when I ovulated, but if I had to take a stab, I'd say it was probably on Saturday on CD 22. I'm going to see how these next few days play out, if I start having fertile signs again, but I think I am in the 2WW at this point. We had good timing, so I think this nice relaxing cycle was just the ticket. This is the first cycle where I am not really sure of an O date, and I just kinda ignored it for the most part.. Stay tuned and we'll see how it plays out.

More OPK's

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of change in my OPK's, but maybe just a tad. I don't know if you can really tell in the pictures, but I can tell that today's is a little darker by looking at them in person. Slowly but surely, we will be there. I don't think I'll be Oing on CD 18 though.. probably be into the CD 20's at this point.

CD12 OPK

And so it starts..

Can anyone see the faint pink line directly to the right of the dark pink line?

I will probably skip a couple days after today's OPK. I'm not really having any fertile signs yet, but I have stopped spotting! YAY!

Cycle #19 update

I called my nurses this morning because I am on CD 11 and I am still spotting.. just a tiny bit, but still.. enough already!! I am pretty sure that it's just because of coming off the pill. I've been on them for 3 months straight now. My nurse agreed that it's probably just my body adjusting to being off the pill and shouldn't be anything to worry about. She said to call back if it's still going on in another week.

I took my first OPK (ovulation predictor kit) yesterday afternoon and it had a very very faint line. These tests normally will always have a faint line, but it's not considered positive until the test line is as dark as or darker than the control line. I wanted to take a picture of it, but it was so faint I don't even think it would show up. So, we still have a little while to go until ovulation time. I have ovulated on day 18 on my last 3 natural cycles .. I'm not sure if I will follow the course of those cycles or my body may try and do something different. Who the heck knows. haha


Abigail's 2nd birthday is on Saturday. For some reason, it seems like it was much longer since I was pregnant. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since we started trying again though.

All Natural

Well, I've started bleeding this evening so tomorrow will be considered cycle day 1. Got about 2-3 weeks until O (ovulation) time. Stay tuned to see my OPKs (ovulation predictor kits) turn positive!!

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.