Getting Fit Before Baby

[BronteForever]

Dr Jo - it's looking pretty good. Retrieval was originally set for tomorrow but it will likely get pushed back to Friday. I'll find out tomorrow at my ultrasound. I have between 20-25 follicles but alot of them are small and won't catch up. There are about 11 that should be in range on Friday. We'll see.

 

[Mrs. Tigger]

Hi Ladies

Just checking in.

My eating was pretty "meh" for the last week. Not terrible, but not good. However, today I've started up the Nupo diet again (which is a Danish meal replacement VLCD) which I had really good success with in the past and I think will fit better with my super busy lifestyle (since I'm busy and tired I usually end up eating badly; with this I don't have to think too hard about food; just make sure to throw drinks / bars into my bag).

I finally got a positive OPK yesterday on CD21. 4 days later than normal (usually positive OPK on CD17), but anyway we covered it BD-wise, so on now I just wait. But I'm focusing on food in the meantime; I'm determined to get to my needed weight before my November appointment. I can't stand having to wait longer for fertility treatments because my BMI is too high.

In other news, DH scheduled his SA for the week of July 25th. I'll be traveling that week for work so it seemed like the most convenient time.

I'll check in again later and try to catch up! Hope you are all well!

 

[ireadyermind]

Good to hear from so many people!

And welcome back, MissDoc! We're still doing Monday weigh-ins and keeping charts. You can see links to all current members' charts on the very first page. If you want to make a new chart, go right ahead and I'll add you to the list! Some of us are also using MyFitnessPal to track food, see each others' progress and so on.

I was doing weekly challenges, but then we got a big uptick in BFPs and it was only me and Ursaula doing the weight loss thing for a bit, so I stopped! Haha


Mrs. Tigger - I hope the Nupo diet works for you! I've done Medifast in the past, and while it does get the weight off, as soon as I went back to eating my own food, all the weight just piled back on! Even when I gradually switched off the food, and was eating at what should have been maintenance calorie levels. Bah! But I think a lot of that had to do with my hormones being out of whack with PCOS? Who knows...

Anyway I look forward to seeing your results with that!


Becca - Good job not overdoing it with beer or sweets. I think we all have trouble with sugary stuff, eh? I know I sure do, and Bronte said she does as well...

Sugar has been proven to be addictive, so I can see why we all have trouble kicking the habit!



AFM - I go in for my blood tests tomorrow. Here's hoping we get to the bottom of my problems!

Meanwhile, I had a dream the night before last that DH and I found the home of our dreams and bought it. I woke up feeling determined to make that happen! We've been buying "stepping stone homes", which are basically older, run down homes that we could live in a while, fix up and sell at a higher value than we paid so that we can afford a better home later.

And lately we've been kinda stalling out on getting this house fixed up. I've mentioned before that there are some tasks that I can't do due to allergies (I'm severely allergic to grass), or physical limitations that I need DH to help with, and he has just been dragging his heels so badly... We wanted our back yard to be finished LAST MONTH and we haven't even started on it yet!

So last night we sat down and had a discussion. We worked out how much funds we could put into savings every month, how we could cut back on some expenses, how much to put toward credit card bills to pay them off so that when it comes time to apply for a new mortgage, we're in a prime position to get it done...

Our Realtor says that spring is the best time to put a house on the market, so we're going to do as much as we possibly can to this house by February and on the 28th, take stock of all our improvements and see if we're ready to put this place on the market.

So I guess wish us luck! We have several big things that need fixing here, most of which we can do ourselves without needing permits or anything. It's going to be a chaotic 8mos ahead of us!

 

[beccabonny]

Tigger - I guess meh is better than bad, right? I hope things go well with the Nupo diet. The less thinking about food there is, the better, IMHO. Congrats on the posi OPK! I'm still waiting on mine. Hope this will be your month! Sounds like you are on the right track. Hopefully the SA will turn out all good.

IRYM - sugar is definitely a problem! It is hard not to get carried away when this area takes ice cream so seriously! You can't go a mile without passing an ice cream place. At least when I do fall to temptation I eat slowly and give the part I don't eat to SO. He eats everything I do (and more) and maintains the same weight. Sometimes I'm a bit jealous!

Can't wait to see how your tests turn out tomorrow.

Sounds like you have a big task ahead of you with the house, but you guys will get it done. Just one thing at a time as you can. It can be frustrating when DH doesn't get to stuff - I hope he is able to stop dragging his feet so much! At least you're able to prepare for your next move and have a time table in front of you. My SO and I are in the early stages of looking for a home to buy. The market is not great for selling here, so we would have to find something we want to keep permanently, or possibly rent out one day if we decide to move somewhere else. The upside is that homes are pretty cheap. The idea of fixing a place up is so appealing - you must feel so accomplished when you finish one! I wish you all the luck in the world

 

[BronteForever]

Mrs. Tigger - good luck as you start a new diet. Hope it really helps with your cravings and helps you get in nutritional food without too much work. When I get really busy I find it hard to eat healthier as well.

November isn't too far away so best wishes getting your BMI down for the appointment.

IRYM - good luck with blood tests tomorrow. Really hope they can give you some answers and solutions to help. Your house jobs sound like a lot of fun but I do know they can definetly get overwhelming at times. Good luck on all your projects and hope they dream hope is out there waiting for you.

Becca - how fun you might be house shopping soon as well. Good luck!

 

[MissDoc]

Thanks, all!

Bronte, I hope you have some great ones ready for retrieval later this week!

Tigger, it's great you guys had the BD situation covered despite the odd delay in O'ing. I o'd later than ever too this month and was thrown off by it.


IRYM, I hope your bloodwork goes well and is very informative. I commend you guys on the house flipping. That seems really rewarding when it all comes together. We bought our home about 2 years ago and plan to stay in it for 10+ years. There's so much we want to do, but are hellbent on being debt free first (my student loans will be paid off in November, then need to work on an emergency fund, then will aggressively pay toward the mortgage for awhile) before we take on any projects.

Today is a better day healthwise so far. I've had about 50 oz water, and healthy and balanced breakfast and lunch. Did have some vanilla cookies as a snack, but didn't go overboard. Dinner will be salmon burgers and broccoli. Today is a no-exercise day, but will work getting 10k steps on my fitbit. Oh, I plan on buying new batteries for the scale in the next day or two so I can weigh and get a sense for where I'm at number wise and what I'm working with.

 

[ireadyermind]

MissDoc - Thanks! I just got back from the lab, and let me say -- I've been "needled" tons of times before today, but today's jab really hurt! Ugh. I think there'll be a bruise there. Ah well. It's all for a good cause, eh?


Good job doing better on your eating and water yesterday! I know that can be really hard. Especially if you get cravings or PMS symptoms as soon as you ovulate. Do you plan your day's food ahead of time, or do you just have a general idea, or do you just wing it based on what's in your pantry? (I almost typed "panty." What an unfortunate typo that would have been!)



As for the house flipping... We never really intended to be house flippers, and I guess technically we aren't since we live in each home for a few years before moving on, but so far it's just been sheer luck that homes we've purchased and fixed up have turned out to be worth way more than we paid! Our first home was a short sale, and the price was so greatly reduced that it cost less than the price of a used luxury car. lol!

This is the second home we've purchased and will be selling. Now that we're a little more "in the know", when we go to buy my supposed dream home (lol), I'll deliberately look for homes which are short sales, foreclosures or fixers so that we have almost instant equity when we buy one. That's a nice safety net, I think. To be able to borrow against the house in cases of emergency.

 

[MissDoc]

IRYM, it IS for a good cause. All worth it in the end and those memories will melt away when you have your bfp.

Haha, I sort of plan my meals. We plan dinners for the week over the weekend because that's when we do our grocery shopping. Lunch is often leftovers or something simple to throw together if there aren't any decent leftovers. Breakfast is always half caff coffee with whole milk and either high protein yogurt or a kind protein bar and banana. So meals are becoming pretty settled, but it's the snacking and the sweet junk that gets me. I lose my willpower in the afternoons and want chocolatey or cheesy things, lol.

Yesterday went very closely to my plan. Ended with 80+ oz water, ate about 1900 calories and burned about 2400 (per my fitbit charge HR monitor), got my 10k steps.

Today hasn't been the best so far... way too high calorie only half way through the day. Breakfast was half caff coffee with whole milk, a high protein yogurt with a tbs of plum jam added for sweetness, and 3 brazil nuts. Then late morning I had like 8 pieces of candy without realizing until afterwards that added up to a whopping 680 cals. They were little chocolate/caramel squares. Lunch was a little chicken salad and an ounce of white cheddar cheese on the side. I'm going to try to just eat carrots and pineapple if I'm hungry before dinner. Dinner will be martha stewart's one-pan pasta with a side salad and likely a small glass of white wine. Will aim for 10k steps and I have a 35-40 min workout video to do these eve. I'll aim for 80 oz water again. The crappy part is I've had a ton of calories but feel hungry because so many of them were empty candy calories. Grrr.

 

[ireadyermind]

I hate that!

Yesterday I tried so hard to eat well, had egg whites with a little cheese for breakfast, my snacks were low fat yogurts, fruit, string cheese, etc. even though I was eating well, I was absolutely starving by lunch time... Decided to add a large helping of sugar free jello to the menu to try and fill the bottomless pit my stomach seemed to be, and that didn't help either... Finally caved and had peanut butter and crackers, and THAT seemed to stop the urge to devour everything in sight.

Why are our bodies convinced that "enough" food isn't actually enough!? lol

 

[swimmyj1]

I think im going to try the shakes with the almond milk. Hopefully I didn't like them because I was using water and they just tasted like poo haha.
Started back on metformin yesterday, only 500mg daily for now but it is messing with my GI something horrible. I don't remember it being like this when I was on the 1,000 but maybe I just don't remember it.

IRYM - can't wait for you lab results! Very envious that you have the energy and patience to fix up homes. We have lived in our house for 2 years and I hate the kitchen and bathroom but the idea of redoing them makes me freaked so I just live with it.

Bronte - 11 eggs! that would be great!! I can't wait to hear how it went today, rest up!

Tigger - fingers are crossed on the SA! Hopefully using this diet will get you down before your appointment

 

[ireadyermind]

Swimmy - Some days I definitely do not have the energy! And the majority of the work we're doing is small: patching up cracks, dents and dings; beautifying the front lawn, including removing a tree stump; painting.... There are a few things that are too big for us to handle alone. We are hiring that out! I certainly don't have the strength, energy or motivation to handle the back yard myself! Who wants to get up at the crack of dawn and slave all day long to get work done for FREE? Not me! I will gladly pay someone whose job it is, and who had all the right tools AND the proper insurance!


As for the test results, we got some of them back which were repeats of the ones I had done last month. Still waiting on Testosterone to come back, which is what they missed last time and wanted me to do this time around. I am so impatient to see what that comes back as!

 

[MissDoc]

Hi ladies! Hope you're all doing well. I'm in a bit of stressful patch. Worked 15 hours yesterday and have been working 11 hours today so far with only about 30 minutes break for lunch because I'm just so busy. So eating and activity haven't been the best last night and today. But I'm doing a whole body weights workout with a friend tonight when I get home from work, so hopefully that'll help out.

TTC wise, I'm 6dpo, but CD 23 of a typically 27-28 day cycle, and I'm feeling minor cramps as I usually do, so I'm not feeling optimistic. But too busy to obsess over it either.

 

[BronteForever]

IRYM - hope you get more results soon. I had high testosterone and frankly I'm not sure what it even means. I'd wager with PCOS yours might be a tad high as well so I'm curious to see what they tell you and paths they put you on to help. How are the results that have come back so far?

I agree with you on hiring out jobs. I'd much rather do that. We live in a house built in 1929 so we always have projects come up. The sink in our downstairs bathroom started leaking about a year ago. But the hubby didn't want to pay to have anyone do it. He started working on it. But couldn't fix it. Then he had to chisel out plaster to access more of the pipe. It's been sitting like that for months now. He's moved on and started other projects and we continue to have a sink less bathroom. Plus we have to maneuver around it to get to the toilet. Would have been fixed a year ago if we'd just called someone. Grrr.

MissDoc - wow you sound super busy with work. I'm very impressed if you found time to workout in there. Great job. Good luck this cycle.

AFM - retrieval went well. They got 14 eggs and 9 have fertilized now (we had a straggler that waited till this morning but managed to fertilize ) so now we wait. We are doing genetic testing on just the chromosomes to help find the embryos most likely to implant and least likely to miscarry due to my age. So transfer should happen in September.

 

[ireadyermind]

Bronte - Woo! How exciting! FXd for you!

That bathroom sink sounds like how my DH handles things. He took on the job of fixing our leaky sink himself, but took for EVER to complete it and left a bucket under the leaky pipe so that the water wouldn't get everywhere.. It's still in need of a few final touches, but we finally got the last piece he needed yesterday, after the sink has been leaking for several months.


MissDoc - Cramps can go either way! You're still in and your temps look good. FXd!



AFM - Super excited about this home repair stuff. I've been looking at sale listings in the area we want to buy a house, but I know I shouldn't. We're about 8mos away from putting THIS house on the market, and we're in no position to buy one right now (still saving up a little bit more cash for a down payment) - but I can't help it! There are some beautiful homes and amazing properties and I'm just so excited. Haha

I even went out to help DH with yardwork today. Did as much as I could before my skin started itching and the sneezes set in. Even after a double dose of allergy meds, I can't hack it out there. Haha.

When we're all settled into our new house, I'm definitely looking into allergy treatment from my physician, 'cause this is nuts! I've put it off long enough! lol

 

[Mrs. Tigger]

Hello Ladies

Just checking in.

I'm doing well on my diet; the VLCD with meal replacements does well with me; then I don't have to think about food and I'm getting a balanced mixed of protein, fats, and carbs. In the evenings I'm having a small snack if I'm hungry, of either canned tuna with lemon pepper or hard-boiled egg with some salt. The hardest part has been not having my coffee w/ milk throughout the day. My only real side effect has been tiredness; I've started taking extra Vitamin C and that seems to help. I've made a new ticker to track what I need to lose before my appointment (and gave myself a 2 kg buffer in case I'm bloated on appointment day ).

Today I'm 3 DPO (I am pretty sure -- this cycle was a weird cycle; I think maybe having gained a few kg of fat may have messed a bit with my hormones -- good thing I'm fixing that ), but I'm not worrying about TTC this month (though DH and I did have good timing BD-wise, so we'll see). For now I'm focused on weight loss. I've got upcoming work travel and I'm prepping how I'm gonna deal with my diet on that trip; I think I'll mostly plan on packing a lot of my meal replacements and taking them with me. There might be some business lunches or dinners I can't politely get out of, but if I can just manage something healthy there, I think I'll probably be OK.

All this talk about houses makes me want to start looking, lol. We bought our apartment back in 2012 and have been fixing different things on it, but luckily it was mostly renovated before we moved in. We had the kitchen floor replaced (it was an original soft-wood floor and this building is from 1918, so it was splitting, sagging, etc). We had tile put in and it's much better.

iredyermind - Please let us know what the testosterone results are! With PCOS, mine was a little elevated.

bronte -- So exciting that they got so many eggies! If transfer will be in September, then what will they do with them now? Freeze them? (Sorry, I don't know much about IVF)

 

[swimmyj1]

Bronte - can't wait to find out the genetic work up of your eggies that is an amazing # that took!! A friend that is due next week only got 1 from hers. So excited for you!

IRYM - haha that's exactly what I would do, pay someone else to do it hehe. There is no harm in looking at what is on the market right now. Heck its even pretty smart then you get a good idea of what you budget will get you and what area's have the most open. I think i was looking online for about 3-4 months before we actually started looking looking haha. Its so much fun to look and dream!

Doc - I hear ya! try not to work too hard, great job getting to the gym anyway though, very impressed. I work 12 hours shifts and after work I just go home and crash. For a while I was doing really good and going for a quick 1-2 mile hike but then it got too hot, hopefully this fall/winter I can pick it back up.

Tigger - love the tracker idea! will the business dinners be at restaurants that you could look up the menu's ahead of time? Sometimes it has helped me before to do that then I know what the healthy options are. I know you can do it!

 

[MissDoc]

Thanks, ladies. I think working/stressing too much led to me getting sick. Saturday night I was both chilled and sweating all night and then all day yesterday (Sunday) and still today. Just hot flushes and sweating easily but no actual fever. A tiny part of me is hoping it has to do with implantation and not just a regular old cold/virus. I was reading that some women experience hot flushes around that time. Before my period I always have one night of nightsweats and restless sleep, but this has been multiple nights and day times too, so who knows. Today is 8dpo, and I'm wishing for this week to zoom by so I can start testing. My eating has not been ideal (plenty of nutritious foods, but still oversnacking). Hopefully today it'll be back evened out.

Bronte-- that seems like a great number of eggs! Like Tigger, I don't know much about IVF... why do you have to wait until September for the next step?

IRYM-- Oh I so know that house fever feeling. It's hard not to look when you're in that stage! Congrats on making progress on the repairs.

Tigger-- I hope your trip goes well and it doesn't feel too hard to stay on track. It seems that you're planning as much as you can, so that should help with success! Nice work on the well timed BD despite not really focusing on TTC right now. Never hurts to try a little anyway. ;-)

Swimmy-- I don't blame you for not wanting to go out in the heat after a long shift + pregnant. That does not sound appealing! Hopefully in a few months it'll start feeling nice again.

 

[ireadyermind]

Morning, gals! It sounds like we were all pretty busy over the weekend, hey?

DH and I got the back yard cleaned up, some tree stumps removed and weeds cleared out. We went along the fences and looked at what needs repairing there. We also bought weed killer for the side yards and the stuff that's sprouting up between the cracks in the patio and did some quick work on the front yard.

It doesn't look like much, but it's progress and that makes me happy!


But we had 2 nights of takeout dinner after being just plain exhausted and too tired to cook, so this morning I was unsurprised to see I'm bloated and retaining water like mad. 4 extra pounds of it since Thursday! So I'm going with Thursday's weight on my chart this week, since I know for a fact I didn't gain 4lbs of fat in three days. lol


Swimmy & MissDoc - Thanks! We are still about 8mos out on house buying. I wanted to give us time to save up money AND we want to put the house on the market during peak buying season, so that's end of February here. It feels like it's forever from now!

MrsTigger - My testosterone was a little lower this month than when it was tested in August of last year. However, there's still more of it in my system than there is Estrogen, which is causing the same symptoms of elevated testosterone even if it's technically low. I still haven't officially talked to my physician yet though, it's still early and she has to send my results to the endocrinologist first. I'm so impatient!

 

[ireadyermind]

Man, I'm still waiting to hear back on the test results from the endocrinologists. My physician has seen them and says that Estrogen is still low, but that she herself is waiting to hear back from Endocrinology with their thoughts on the subject. Sheesh!

 

[BronteForever]

Mrs Tigger - so glad your diet is going well. Yay! Traveling does really through off my eating habits and diet as well. It just gets hard when you get out of your normal schedule and food you spot when traveling is so tempting! Hope the packing works and you can find some nice, healthy alternatives when eating out.

Miss Doc - hope you feel better! Really hope that's a good sign of implantation instead of an illness. That would be wonderful!

Swimmy - thanks! How is your diet going? Have you been having to monitor your sugars daily then?

IRYM - hope you hear soon. It does seem to take forever to get an answer from the doctors sometimes. Sorry about the bloating. Hope it comes off soon. I'm still pretty bloated from all my meds as well and it's not fun.

AFM - to answer the questions: they will freeze the embryos as soon as they reach the blastocyst stage (which usually happens day 5 or 6 - should be tomorrow), since that's proven to be the most ideal stage for transferring the embryos back to the uterus and they hold up much better for freezing. The embryos also have to be a certain quality before they will freeze them as well.

I could have done a "fresh" transfer as they call it, but chose to have genetic testing done on any that reach the blastocyst stage, because it will increase my odds of implantation by about 40 percent given my age and significantly decrease the chances of a miscarriage, since it basically weeds out the genetically abnormal embryos which cannot be viable. Sadly, since I'm 35, apparently half of all my eggs are supposed to be bad (which just seems sad). Anyway, we find out tomorrow how many made it, so we are expecting to lose quite a bit that didn't develop or continue to grow.