The Warden

A warden:

"An official charged with special supervisory duties or with the enforcement of specified laws or regulations."

Ben has officially deemed me the "vitamin warden."

I'm really not sure I deserve the title. A gentle reminder every now and again when he forgets to take his vitamins doesn't really warrant a designated identity. And while I admit that every now and again the prompting has come when I am softly nudging him out of sleep with,"Hey, did you take your vitamins today? You can't forget to take them." I really don't know why he gets annoyed by this. After all, he might forget to take them if I'm not in his ear reminding him all the time, and I KNOW he wouldn't want that....

Besides, who wouldn't be happy swallowing all that liquid gold every evening. I'm sure his boys are jumping for joy with every added bit of magnesium they get. And they might even be jumping in the right direction for once. Not entirely likely as they have a mind of their own, but you never know.

To be quite honest, our vitamin intake is the one and only thing that I can actually control in the whole IVF process. If my eggs grow stronger with vitamin E and zinc, damn strait I'm going to do everything I can to pump them full of vitamin E and zinc.

Unfortunately for Ben, I took the approach of compiling a list of every vitamin with any study improving fertility and went out and bought them all. An overkill? Not if it helps us conceive Ellyette Jr. in three weeks.

In the big scheme of things, it really hasn't been too bad on Ben. Because of all his extra vitamin intake, I have made a few dinners with zero nutritional value just for him.

So Ben, when you read this. Go take your vitamins. After all, I did make you tater tot casserole, twice. And I didn't even try to hide spinach in it.

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The countdown

Less than two weeks until we are baby bound for Prague.  I have been asked by numerous people if I am as nervous this go-around as I was the last one.  My reply? Of course not!
 

Unless you include the nail biting that has suddenly occurred again in the last three weeks.  And the upset stomach I get whenever I think about the potential negative outcome of the procedure. Or the anxiety I feel whenever I think of traveling for a month with Ellyette.  Or the panic I feel about spending that kind of money when there are no guarantees. 
 

At least I can blame my sleepless nights on Ellyette reverting back to waking up during the night….Most of them anyway.  My awake nightmare of Ellyette falling into a canal kept me restless for hours last night until I googled “how many people drown in Venice canal’s every year.”  The good news?  Only seven since 1992.  And most of them were from being drunk.  The bad news?  I guess I have to worry more about Ben then Ellyette now.
 

But at least this time I have the ultimate confidence in our clinic.
 

Not to say that I was worried the first time around.....I had complete,  total a good amount of trust  with our research of clinics. However, there was still that little question in the back of my mind of what we were getting ourselves into.  After all, the internet can make anything look good.

Exhibit A


 

What you think you are
getting

                        What you are
                       actually getting
       





Exhibit B

 

The date you thought you had

 

                                     The date you actually had

At least we know going over there this time, that while the clinic is in a back ally, it is not the type of back ally that comes with a side effect of infection or death.

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Here we go again

Well, we are officially taking the plunge and going back to Prague. Tickets have been bought. Reservations at Gennet are made, and now it’s time to get my mind focused and the rest of my baby weight off ….eye roll.

I’m actually pretty close to getting those last pounds off. In part because after Ellyette got the stomach flu last week, I got it too. And magically 3 pounds disappeared. I call it the “stomach acid diet.” It’s not for the faint of heart, but might be worth a book at some point.

One of my other motivations is this d-bag personal trainer at Gold’s Gym who upon doing my “short term” and “long term” goals, informed me he thought my short term goals should be to lose 2 pounds a week. For a year. Yes my friends, that amounts to 96 pounds, which means I would weigh less than 30 pounds at the end of the year if he got his way.

My long term goal was to lose 10 pounds.

Where the discrepancy lies between his goals and mine, I do not know. However, I can tell you that the whole “you are your own harshest critic” was completely debunked with that assessment.

So now whenever I see him at the gym, I put my snarkiest “you are terrible at math, you idiot” face on, and run an extra 15 minutes.

Maybe that was his plan to begin with….Whatever, still totally insulting.

The other piece to getting ready for this adventure is mentally preparing for IVF. So naturally, rather than do anything ultra productive after Ellyette goes to bed, I will lurk Fertilityfriendsuk.com. and get the highs and lows of my community out there. And this time I will do it with no shame. Take that Ben Hummel. Did you here me? I WILL LURK INFERTILITY BOARDS WITH NO SHAME!!!

Oh infertility, and all the smilies that go with it, I have missed you so. 

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