Saturday, July 31, 2010

Perfect Timing?

No doubt that you have heard people ask the $64,000 question "when is the right time to have a baby" and the answer is always, "you'll know when your ready". Unfortunately for couples who are challenged in the fertility department, there are few more factors than just being "ready" that have to be considered. Somewhere out there, some brilliant infertile mathmatician is probably working to developed a fancy IVF readiness formula (Good Will Hunting style). Until then, this is my own personal theory.

(Your timing / Dr timing) + (money to take care of child when born  / money to create child) = 

Perfect timing!

 First you have to figure out when is your perfect timing. For me this is usually done by looking through my calendar and finding a random block of 4 weeks just laying around. 4 weeks where I want nothing more then to stab myself with needles, be violated by ultrasound machines, and wake up at crack of dawn to see the dr because it seems that they only do IVF monitoring appointments at like 6 am (as if we haven't already paid enough). For others, it is whenever you can manage to take a few weeks off of work. And for the Army wives, its during the few weeks that your husband is not either in the field, away at a school, or gearing up/ gone for deployment. It is basically just whenever you can find the time to push the pause button on your life,  so you can focus all of your time, effort, emotions, and energy on having a baby.

Your Doctor's timing is almost always different than your own. Either your perfect cycle is already full. Or they want you to put it off for a few months to have more testing, surgeries, longer suppression, or any one of a million other reasons. Getting your timing and your Doctor's timing to line up perfectly is almost impossible. So a compromise is almost always necessary, however it gets even more complicated when you add two more elements into the equation. Two VERY BIG elements.

Money!

Not only do you have to be a point where you feel like you can afford to financially support a child, you also have to be able to financially CREATE a child. IVF is expensive. Usually around $20,000 for most people.  Even when your lucky enough to have insurance coverage or military discounts you still have to pay out thousands in deductibles, co pays, and lab fees. It is so intimidating when they give you that nice neat little price list, with a five figure number circled at the bottom estimating your total costs. So along with coordinating your time and your Doctor's time. You also have to make sure you're ready with the money when those two dates magically match up. 

Now, after going through this very long explanation, I have plugged all of our information into the formula listed above and have come up with ....

JANUARY 2011!

I really really really wanted to do IVF #2 in the October/November time frame, but  after talking to my RE and Mike we decided to wait until after Christmas. It is what is best for us, even though I don't like it. I really wanted to get the show on the road and take the plunge into IVF number two soon. UGH!! Patience has never been my strong suit.

Now we wait!

P.S. I loved my new RE. She was awesome and I can't wait to cycle with her. I think it will be great! Oh and I am totally adding an IVF countdown ticker now that I have some actual dates. I'm such a dork!!

Friday, July 30, 2010

New Blog Friday- Erin

This week we will be visiting Erin over at 

A little message from Erin:

Hi!! My name is Erin and I'm so excited to be a part of Aly's New Blog Friday!! I'm fairly new to the blog world. I actually never thought I'd ever have a blog because I hate writing. But I finally decided to just go for it and I'm glad I did. I've already met some great girls on Twitter and through other blogs who have been very encouraging and supportive. I'm excited to meet even more people now.

Even though I look like I'm in my teens, I'm actually 27. Thanks mom for giving me my height and young face. I've been married to my husband for 5 years. We met when I was in college and I spent a summer in Florida. Our entire dating relationship was long distance. We have a cat named Samson and hope to grow our family soon.  I love cooking and baking. I could literally spend the entire day in the kitchen and be quite happy. My husband and I also love to travel. A couple of years ago, we went to Africa. You may hear me talk about it at times. It was such a wonderful experience and we met some of the nicest and most caring people. I can't wait until the day we're able to go back!


My husband and I started trying to get pregnant in November 2008. After a year of trying, we decided to take December 2009 off, enjoy the holidays, and go to an RE in January. To our surprise, we found out at our first appointment that I was actually pregnant. I didn't even know you could have a surprise pregnancy while you're actually trying to get pregnant. When I went in for my 13 week appointment we found out the baby had died.

The last 4 months have been a roller coaster. I've had some really good days and some really bad days. Just a week ago, my RE finally gave us the go ahead to start ttc. It's weird being back in this boat. I'm really excited and yet nervous all at the same time. I hoping that this time around it won't take us as long to get pregnant and that soon we'll be holding our sweet baby!

I'm really excited to get to meet new people. I'd love for you to  stop by  and say hi!!

Go Check out Erin's blog "Our Heart's Desire."
 Give her a big Welcome into the blog world by leaving a comment and/or becoming a follower.  

Would you like to have your blog featured on New Blog Friday? 
Find out how by clicking here.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

If having a baby was only this easy...


 I'm pretty sure we could put UPS out of business pretty quickly.
Every Infertile Girls Dream: Having a baby delivered by the FedEx guy!
Well it's THIS infertile girls dream at least.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

RE Appointment and Date Night

Well as some of you more serious blog stalkers (in a good way of course) may have noticed my first appointment with the new RE was supposed to be last Thursday. Unfortunately I had to reschedule because I couldn't find a baby sitter.  I knew finding someone we actually trusted in a new town was going to be hard, but I really underestimated how hard. Well finally after asking every single person I came into contact with...I FOUND A BABYSITTER!

She is an early childhood education senior at a near by college. I really like her, and she reminds me alot of myself a when I was her age, you know...all round awesome!

Our first order of business now that we have a baby sitter is.

DATE NIGHT!!

This Friday we will be doing a little bit of this...

And this...


And a whole lot of this...

Mike has been dying to go see this movie since the moment it opened. Now that we have a sitter, we are finally going!

My RE appointment has been rescheduled for this Friday at 9am. You can probably expect an update on Saturday all about that. I really hope I get some actual dates on the books for IVF #2!

Wish me luck. Not only with the new RE but also convincing Mike to go eat sushi on date night. He is not exactly a huge fan of sushi but occasionally he gives into my begging. Especially when I go to all the trouble to post it on my blog first ;)
I have a sneaking suspicion he will give in and agree. I am pretty persuasive especially when I put on the pout face. After all, who do you think taught three month old London how to do this.



Monday, July 26, 2010

Wanted- Motivation. Apply Within!


I am lacking motivation these days.
 Especially in the unpacking/decorating department. Right now the house is functional but not pleasant to look at.
Exhibit A:

There are so many things wrong with this picture I don't even know where to start. 
First off, do you see the placement of the couch? We can't even decided how we want to arrange the furniture. We have moved everything a couple of times and really don't like any of it. 
We hate this one but don't even have the motivation to move the couch back to the position that we hate the least.
Secondly, do you see all of the boxes stacked in the stairwell? I'm pretty sure most of them are almost empty, yet they still sit there.
Third, look at the bare walls. Not a single picture is up yet. 

Exhibit B:

Again, no curtains or any sort of wall hanging. No that would take way to much work, and I just don't have the energy. While we are here allow me to point out the beautiful flowers my husband bought me the other day for no reason. LOVE HIM!!! 
We finally got blinds hung in all the windows last week. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who is stoked about that. My neighbors have probably seen enough of this family for a life time. You never realize how often you walk around your house half naked until you don't have any blinds.

Oh I have plenty of other things that need to be done around here that I don't have pictures of.
The TV has yet to be mounted on the wall. So we are watching it while it sits on the floor. 
If this tells you how completely unmotivated I have been My Tivo is not hooked up yet. We do have a DVR on our cable box so it has been filling in the gaps, but you can't even compare the two of them. Tivo is far superior to a DVR. 

I NEED MOTIVATION!!!! 
Why am I not getting all of this stuff done? I'm temped to just put all of the boxes that have not been unpacked yet in the attic and forget about them until we move again. Less clutter, right? Of course I won't do that, I am sure I need some of the stuff in those boxes, I just don't feel like unpacking it. Any volunteers? 

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Bridal Shower Help!

I think I may have mentioned this here before, but just in case I haven't...My BFF (aka: Crystal) is getting MARRIED!!! I am super stoked for her and kinda super stoked for myself too. I have been a bridesmaid 6 times over the last 10 years.  This time is different though. This time I am the Matron of Honor. I'm kinda sorta responsible for Crystal's shower. I'm am an "out of towner" though, so her family has really picked up my slack. This is the theme we picked for her shower. Crystal is the epitome of a "girlie girl", so nothing would suite her better.
Courtesy of Hostess Blog

Here are her invitations that were sent out weeks ago.


These were created by the very awesome and amazing Ashley Baumann. If you contact her she can make anything your heart desires. I LOVE HER!!!

 Her Mom found a baker in her super small southern town to make her cake. 
We are aiming for it to look a lot like this...

I got these plates today...
Cake Plates


Food Plates



I also bought black and white table clothes and hot pink runners.
 (no pictures of them as they are still wrapped up) 

Our center pieces are super simple vases with black rocks and one or two (or five) long stem calla lilies.
A little something like this...

But those are just the basic details. 
I need help!!!

Do any of you have a great ideas for a game to play at a Bridal Shower??? Crystal would love to play games at her shower but I am totally drawing a blank. Baby shower games...I'M YOUR GAL!! But I am pretty sure I've never played a single game at a bridal shower. That doesn't make it wrong. That just makes this shower unique. Thus making it PERFECT for Crystal!!

Also, do any of you have a shower favor that you have actually liked/used? I don't want to waste money on crap that you will throw away as soon as you walk out the door. I want to do something that will be fun and possibly even useful. Although fun is definitely better than useful. 

P.S.: I may have lied/left out a few details during this post. My BFF does occasionally read my blog (we talk everyday, so right behind my Mom she is usually always the second to know). I wouldn't want to give EVERYTHING away. It's very rare that she does read though, so please feel free to comment away. 

Thanks for your help!!

Friday, July 23, 2010

New Blog Friday- Erin


This week I am featuring Erin over at 


Here is a message from Erin


Hi!  My name is Erin and I am so happy that I could take part in New Blog Friday here at  Infertility Overachievers .  I am a mother, army-wife, Soldier, OIF Veteran, blogger, daughter, sister, writer and friend.  I am originally from  New England , but spent part of my childhood moving around.  I attended a small college in Vermont and participated in ROTC, where I met my husband.  After graduation, I spent six years on active duty , of which 39 months of that was spent overseas.  My husband and I have been married four years and he is currently stationed at  Fort Campbell, Kentucky .  
I started this blog back in April 2009 so I could keep my  friends and family  informed on our growing family.  We welcomed our daughter, Reagan, into the world in September 2009.  She is a bubbly, blue-eyed, deliciously chubby, beautifully bald, wonderful little girl.  We also have two dogs that are a part of our family.  Kaia is a four year old black lab, and Maggie is a who-knows-how-old mix.  I adopted Maggie from the Army  Veterinary Clinic  while I was stationed in  Seoul, Korea .  We think that she is 10ish and possibly a Chihuahua-Rat Terrier mix.  

I have spent the last ten months being a SAHM, but in August, I am heading back to school as a graduate student (YIKES!!).  I am attending  Vanderbilt University  as as student in their  Nurse Practitioner Program .  I can't wait to get started on this new and busy chapter of my life.   I hope you swing by  Baby Love  and enjoy reading about our little, but busy, family!  -Erin-



Go check out Erin Blog "Baby Love"
 Give her a big Welcome into the blog world by leaving a comment and/or becoming a follower.  




Would you like to have your blog featured on New Blog Friday? 
Find out how by clicking here.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Potty Training.

No I am not really potty training my 17 month old. I'm actually trying to train him to stay OUT of the toilet. The other day, I told him to go get his toothbrush. (He loves to brush his teeth.) He had just gotten out of the bath tub so he toddled his naked little butt into my bathroom to get it. When he didn't come right back, I peaked my head around the corner to see what he was doing.

THIS IS WHAT HE WAS DOING!




And yes, I took a min to run get the camera before taking him out. 
Go ahead judge me, but I was looking at the bigger picture.
One day when they are asking for pictures for his senior yearbook. 
These pictures will be GREAT for blackmail. 
Especially one that I decided not to post here (due to nudity) where he is trying to get OUT of the toilet.

Don't worry he got right back into the bath tub after I snapped a few pictures.

Needless to say today will be spent at Babies-R-Us trying to find a latch to baby proof the toilets. 

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Welcome ICLW and a Blog Award!

Welcome ICLW.  If you don't know what that is. Click the little box below to read all about it.



IComLeavWe

IComLeavWe: Join the Conversation

Usually for IComLeavWe I do a whole post reviewing who I am. This time I am going to do things a little differently. You can click on the "About Me" or "Our IF Journey" links above if you want more details.  

Jeanette over at A Hippo with a Headband  gave me my very first blog award.
 So a big THANK YOU to Jeanette!



The Rules:
1: Share Seven Facts about yourself.
2: Give the award to 5 other Lovely Blogs.

So I decided that listing 7 facts about myself would be a perfect way to introduce myself to ICLW.  

1) My favorite movie is Vanilla Sky and my husband and I watch it every year on our anniversary. 
The runners up are Notting Hill and Grease 2 (yes I like 2 way better than the original). 

2)My husband and I have made of list of Sex-ceptions. You know people who you are allowed to have sex with if the situation arises. We each get two. Mine are Gerard Butler and Ryan Reynolds. 

3) I have a total obsession with socks. Not like fun or fancy ones, but basically just your run of the mill white gym socks. Hanes is my brand of choice. There is just something magical about the way it feels when you put on a pair of new socks. 

4) My favorite book in the entire world is A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius By Dave Eggers. You have to read it. Go get it now. Go ahead run to the book store, I'll wait. :)

5) I will be doing IVF #2 in the Oct-Nov time frame. I picked the date based around some things that we had going on in Aug and Sept. But I am so super excited, that I  kind of wish I could do it sooner.

6) I love white wine and HATE red! White Zin is my favorite "go-to" drink.

7) I have an unatural obsession with olives. So much so, that London now has the same obsession.

Now... I am a bit of a cheater so the original rules for this awards said I needed to give it to 9 people, but that seemed like a lot. So I changed it to only 5. I hope they don't revoke my award. 

So on to the people I want to give The Lovely Blog Award.
Blogs that you NEED to check out:

Lora at My Camo Kids
Sierra at Life's Little Moments.
Erin at The Unexpected Army Life
Char at Pills & Pushups
Heather at McGriff Adventure

Go check them out.




Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Top 2 Tuesday- Things you want to purchase.


So this week I decided to participate (for the first time) in The Undomestic Momma Top 2 Tuesday. 

This weeks topic is 
Things you want to purchase. 

I could list WAY more than two on this, but I guess its called Top 2 Tuesday for a reason.

Number 1: As most of you probably remember, a few months ago Mike bought me a new DSLR Camera. I love it and use it pretty much every day. So the first thing that I would like to buy is this. 



I downloaded the free trial online and have been using it alot, but it's time that I  actually fork over the money and buy the whole program. I know it will be worth it. 

Number 2: The ultimate kitchen decoration appliance. 
You may be wondering  how I have gone (almost) 5 years of marriage with out this wonderful machine. I'm actually pretty shocked myself. I can't believe someone hasn't taken away my "Wife Card" yet for not having one. I really really want one through. That has to count for something right? 

Ok so I decided to take this one step further and show you the two things that I got this week, hence why I can't afford to buy the above mentioned items for a little while longer. 

I got this beauty.


I love this phone! Seriously L.O.V.E it!! Mike got one too. Its his very first smart phone, so he was like a kid in a candy shop last night. He just kept saying "I love technology" every time he found an app that he liked. It was too cute!

I also got these.


I am really excited about these. Especially since the movers lost a box with almost all of my pots in it. There is only so much you can cook in 2 small frying pans. Mike hated my choice in getting the ones with the orange handles. I like them through and that is all that matters, right? Sadly when I opened up my package from Amazon, a pot was bent. It looked like they had been dropped during shipping. So I should be getting another set in the next few days. I will update when I get the replacements to let you know how I like them. 

As you can see from this week purchases, I won't be splurging on anything else for a little while. I have got to build back up the 'ole piggy bank before doing anymore online shopping. 

Sunday, July 18, 2010

A letter to my 20 Year Old Self!

I recently noticed that a few of my bloggy friends have done a post where they write a letter addressed to themselves at age twenty ( most recently MTM, over at My Front Porch Looking In). It really inspired me to do one of my own. Now all I need is for one of  you to create a time machine so I can actually mail this thing. Anyway here is is...

Dear Aly,

First off, YOUR HOTT! Quit obsessing about that tiny half inch of extra skin on your stomach that you think is a fat roll. It's just skin, NOT FAT! You look good and one day you will look back and wish you were that size again...but this is neither here nor there. Let get serious.

 By now you have met him. You know that short Puerto Rican man that you are dating? Well I hate to be the one to break it to you, but he is THE ONE. He may not be the tall dark and handsome guy that you dreamed of marrying, but trust me, you will NEVER regret it. Ok, so maybe you will...but we will get to that in a minute. He is young now. But trust me, he will grow up and into an amazing man, father, and husband. It is all going to work out. That first year of marriage is going to be HARD...ludicrously and sometimes even comically HARD. People always say that "the first year is the hardest", and you will have it harder than some others, but stick with it. You are going to want to leave at some point, but I promise things will get easier. He will change and so will you...eventually. You will never regret staying.

Stay close with your family. Your Mom is not NEARLY as dumb as you think she is. You will actually one day strive to be just like her. Tell her you love her more often.

Wear sunscreen.

Stay close to Crystal and Jonnie, they are good people, some of the best. They will eventually know you better than anyone else. But trust me, they keep a secret! :)

 Hang on to Biz, Argh, James, and Joci. Those relationships will be strained at some points, but they knew you before you were famous (Sorry if I got your hopes up there. You're definitely not going to be famous, unless there is something that I don't know yet.) They knew you way back when, and have been there from the beginning. Those are the people you want to keep in your life.

ENJOY SAVANNAH!! One day you will have to move away and you will miss everything about HOME. I know you think there is nothing to do in the S-A-V, but when you move you will be able to think of a thousand things that wish you could do if you were only back home. Go to the beach more (while wearing sunscreen of course.)

Take your nieces and nephews to the park. They will grow up way to fast. Next thing you know they will have cell phones and be talking about dating. Enjoy them while you can still put them in time out.

This last one is pretty important so please listen when I tell you this, trying to have a baby is not going to be easy . It's not at all like they told you in health class, sometimes it does take more than "just one time". Sometimes it actually takes more than, 24 times. In your case it will take a ton of infertility meds, a cold table, a set of stirrups, and a man who is not your husband (don't worry, he is a Dr.). IT WILL HAPPEN THOUGH. You will have a baby and he or she (gotta keep you guessing) will be amazing. You won't ever look back at infertility fondly, but you will eventually look back and be grateful because of the unbelievable miracle you were given.

The next 10 years all work out for the best in the end. So sit back, relax ,and enjoy the ride.

Love,
Yourself at almost 30 years old!

P.s. Your 21st birthday party is coming up soon. Don't take the tequila shots! They will only make you sick, and haunt your dreams for years to come!

Friday, July 16, 2010

New Blog Friday- Amber


This week I am featuring Amber over at 



Amber is a infertile blogger who is now pursuing adoption. After two heart wrenching failed, or  "disrupted" adoptions (as she calls them), she continues on her journey to motherhood. I highly recommend checking out her blog, it is definitely worth the click (and follow too). 



Here is a message from Amber...

Hi folks! My name is Amber, I'm in my early 30's and I'm a fellow infertile! I'm also a new blogger. Well, new to public blogging, anyway. I've maintained a private blog for friends and family for quite some time, but a few weeks back I decided to go public in an attempt to meet some new friends that I can relate to. The people I have met so far are wonderful, and I look forward to meeting more!

I was born and raised in Alaska and have never lived anywhere else. I love it here and although I wouldn't mind trying the Seattle area on for size, Alaska will always be my home. As proof of how much I love this place, I offer you a picture of me standing outside in a tee shirt at -22°F! (Sorry for the picture quality, it's an old shot!)

I have been married to my wonderful husband for over six years, but we've been together for between eight and thirteen, depending on who you ask! We were friends for many years before we ever got together, but I'm glad we did. I feel very fortunate to have found my soulmate.


Unfortunately, when it was time to try for kids, we found out that I have PCOS. We did almost three years of fertility treatments, but never got pregnant. We never did try IVF, as no one in our state does it. In April 2008, we decided to pursue adoption. Since then, we have had two matches, however both birth mothers changed their minds. The first one (March 2009) changed her mind before leaving the hospital. The second one (March 2010) changed her mind after we had the baby for 14 days and we had to drive her 360 miles back to her birth mom and give her back.

Despite two 'disrupted' adoptions (a term I picked up from another blogger and much prefer to 'failed' adoption!), we remain hopeful that our baby will come home to us when the time is right. Waiting is not always easy, but we know that our time will come, so we just try to be as patient and as hopeful and positive as we can! Thankfully, we have two sweet little four-legged children that love us to pieces no matter what my ovaries do or don't do! Minnie and Tori are 6 year old female Chihuahua littermates.



In our spare time, hubby and I enjoy typical Alaskan things like camping, fishing and road trips. We're both computer geeks, avid readers and pretty big dorks! We are fortunate to be involved in the lives of several young kids, including friends' kids and our nieces, B and H, who were both born here but now live several thousand miles away. B is going to be 12 this year and H just turned 7! We love and miss them very much!


I'd love it if you would swing by my blog and say hello! I love meeting new people!
-Amber

Go check out Ambers Blog "Life in the Last Frontier."
 Give her a big Welcome into the blog world by leaving a comment and/or becoming a follower.  




Would you like to have your blog featured on New Blog Friday? 
Find out how by clicking here.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Stupid People Make Me Laugh!

So today while I was stumbling around the internet (during my numerous hours of free time), I found this article written by Carolyn Hax for her column Tell Me About It over at The Washington Post. Normally I would write a whole long post about something like this but there is no need. Carolyn says it all.  You can read it here or this is the link to her column...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201554.html

Carolyn: 
Best friend has child. Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .
Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions. -Tacoma, Wash.

Relax and enjoy. You're funny.
Or you're lying about having friends with kids.
Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.

Internet searches?
I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.
So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.
It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.
It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.
It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.
It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.
It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself.
Credit: (Nick Galifianakis for The Washington Post)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Baby Name Regret!

A bloggy friend of mine wrote this post "Your Baby's Name Is What?!?" (Go read it, it is seriously worth the click, make sure to read the comments too.). It really got me thinking about London's name. I am relatively sure I have never shared how we actually came up with the name "London" before, so after reading her post this seemed like the perfect time.

I am going to be 100% honest on this one and pray that one day London doesn't one day hate me for giving him this name.

As most of you may know my little boys name is London. He was actually named about 4 years before he was even conceived. Mike and I started picking our baby names 6 months after we started dating. This may seem a little quick for some people but it was fun and exciting to us. Since we were in a long distance relationship pretty much from the get go, we had to be creative to keep our relationship current. I would get random one word texts, emails, and instant messages from Mike a few times a month. They would simply consist of a name..."Alexander" or "Tristan" (both of which I vetoed as first names). I would also send him those same messages, and trust me he ruled out quite a few also.  Some of my favorites that Mike vetoed were Eli,  Jude, and Hunter (boys) and Savannah, Melina, and Danica (girls).  As the years went by we developed a list of names that we both liked. Some were names we both REALLY liked, and others were names that one LOVED but the feeling was not mutual. Those were moved to the lesser "middle name list". When it was all said and done we had a boys name and a girls name picked out by 2004. Ok, ok, we actually had 3 girls names and 3  baby boys names picked out by then, but we want 3 kids so we wanted to make sure to cover all of them.

Flash forward through marriage and a whole lot of infertility stuff to September of 2008 when we found out we were having a boy. Like a good list keeping couple, we consulted our list and defaulted to baby boy name #1 (seriously, I'm reading this and making fun of myself right now). Baby boy name #1- London Michael.
Sadly over the 4 years since we decided on that name, London had kind of become a girls name. No thanks to the super cute girl on the popular Disney series The Suit.e Life of Z.ach and Co.dy. However even after the social security administration website revealed that London was ranked #121 for girls and #517 for boys, Mike was not willing to compromise. We picked the name and we were going to stick to it. I agreed with this name all the way up until it became REAL. I called my belly London on numerous occasions and never once doubted my name choice until the ultrasound tech exclaimed "It's a Boy!". About 2 weeks after that ultrasound, my sister called me on her way to have a baby gift monogrammed and said "how sure are you about the name London?" I quickly lied and said, " 100% POSITIVE".

All I could think of was that my son was going to be named my generations equivalent to a boy named Ashley. It's a pretty name, yet extremely popular for the opposite sex. It's a lot like naming a girl, Ryan or Randy. Please don't get me wrong, I loved the name London, but I worried about him getting picked on or later hating his name. However in Feb of 2009 we threw caution to the wind, and named our first born son London.When I saw him for the very first time I immediately had doubts, yet I never uttered a word.

Like most pregnant women, I had certain preconcieved notions about what my child would look like. I have dark hair and green eyes and my husband is Puerto Rican with dark brown hair and eyes. I just figured that my children would have brown hair and brown eyes. Puerto Rican trumps Caucasian, right?. WRONG!!! London came out with red hair and green eyes. I was shocked Everyone was shocked. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, but he looked NOTHING like I expected. There was a brief moment where I thought of asking for a DNA test to make sure the embryos hadn't been switched in the lab. My mind flashed to some ginger couple who at that very moment sat confused while staring at their perfect Puerto Rican child. However upon further review he looked just like Mike, but nothing like a "London'. I don't know why but just didn't fit him.

Our second boys name is (will be) Holden. Oh how I love the name Holden. When I think of Holden I think of a little red haired freckle faced boy. I think of well...London. I never said anything about my baby name regret. I did indeed write L-O-N-D-O-N on his birth certificate. So as far as I was concerned it was  a done deal! I never once thought of actually changing his name once he was here. I did call him Holden once or twice when no one was looking just to see how it felt.

It didn't help that London's not a very easy name to make a nickname for.

Lonnie? NO THANK YOU!
Don? Not close enough to his actual name.
Lundie? Really people? REALLY?!?!

His nickname would later become Lun-ing. Which is equally as bad as any of the others listed above, but I LOVE it now that he is here. (Thanks Calli!)

It wasn't until he was about 5 weeks old that he really became LONDON to me. The first few times he smiled at me it started feeling right. The first time that he almost rolled off the couch and I yelled "LONDON!" from across the room, it became permanent. I don't for one second regret naming him London now. That is his name and it fits now. I can't imagine if he was named Holden, Eli or even Jude.

This is, and will forever be, what the name LONDON looks like to me. 

Friday, July 9, 2010

New Blog Friday- Moe



This week I am featuring Maureen from A Million Margaritas.

When I first found Maureen's blog, I was totally drawn to the title. Who wouldn't want A Million Margaritas right? Once I got past that, I realized that I really enjoyed reading her posts. Her blog is a lot different than mine. It's not about infertility, army life, marriage, or parenting. Although she does blog about a very cute little boy a lot, so we do have that in common. ;) I think all of those differences are why I enjoy reading A Million Margaritas so much. It's a nice change of pace for me. 

Meet Moe!

"Aloha! My name is Maureen – but pretty much everyone calls me Moe. I’m so excited to be part of Aly’s New Blog Friday. Here’s a little bit about me - I am 25 years old and just graduated with my Masters in Communication. I’m currently looking for my first “career” job. I have been dating my boyfriend, Dan (also 25), for about a year and half – but we have known each other for almost 11 years. I have a one and a half year old nephew named Alister who I simply adore. 
I feel so blessed that I get to spend so much time with him and be a major part of his life. I started blogging as a way to keep up with long distance friends. But gradually I found blogs that I loved…and in turn some of them found me too. It still blows my mind how amazing and supportive the blog community can be! I typically blog about things going on in my life – Dan and Alister are typically major players in the “story” of my blog. I love to travel, take pictures, and work on crafty projects – so things like that show up a lot in my posts too. I am hoping that this blog follows me through all of life’s transitions – like getting married, (hopefully) having babies some day, and whatever else life throws my way."

Go Check our Moe's blog.
 Give her a big Welcome into the blog world by leaving a comment or becoming a follower.  


Would you like to have your blog featured on New Blog Friday? 
Find out how by clicking here.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

A Little Infertility Update!

I desperately need a break from all things related to unpacking, organizing, and decorating. So I decided to sit down and write a little post about the other aspect of my life that I hate right now...Infertility. I called and made my first appointment with my new RE. Its scheduled for July 22 at 12:45pm. I'm pretty sure it is just going to be a meet and greet type of appointment, but at least things are finally starting to move in the right direction...forward. I really hope that at the appointment I will be able to get a formal IVF schedule for the Oct-Nov time frame. They should have that schedule open by now right? For the life of me, I can not figure out how often this Dr does IVF. My old Dr did a cycle group every month, but I have heard through the grape vine that this one only does it once every 3 months. If that's the case, I'm afraid that the fall cycle will already be full.

I have two BIG things that need to happen before I can move forward with this though.

I need to find someone to babysit London for me so I can actually go to the one million appointments required to do an IVF cycle. I'll either have to find a daycare that he can go to part time (and probably pay out a pretty penny) or someone that can babysit randomly for me. We live in a new place so we really don't know many people, and we know even less who I would feel comfortable asking to keep London.  It looks like part time daycare might just be the way to go, but I am still pretty nervous about having to finding one. I'm still not really sure how this is all going to work out. I am sure it will though.

The other big thing is that I need is to get my medical records from my last IVF cycle. I have a copy of my medical records from the Army, but there is zero documentation of me ever even doing IVF in them. So unless my Dr was doing something besides just a vaginal ultrasound down there, I am pretty sure there should be some records. Although this theory might explain why London looks more Irish than he does Puerto Rican HAHAHA. I called my old nurse today to see if she still has a copy of my protocol, E2, and u/s's. If these records don't show up soon, I might just have to take my laptop in and let my new Dr piece together the details based on my old blog posts and facebook statuses. I've heard of Dr Google, but never Dr Blogger.

T-minus: 14 days until my appointment. This is a whole different kind of 2WW. 

On a side note..."The Infertility Overachievers" is now on Facebook. Check it out, and maybe "Like" it while you're there too :)! 

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

It's a small world after all...

I'm not sure I announced this on here, but about a months ago I won a giveaway from A Yummy Mummy On A Pink Park Bench . I was so excited when I found out what I won. I have won a few things from blog giveaways in the past, but this was one of my personal favorites. 
This is what I won. 

The giveaway was sponsored by Patty, a professional photographer and owner of Artistic Images Photography.  

Patty was awesome. As soon as she contacted me, she asked if I wanted the Friendship picture or if I wanted our last name made out of her alphabet photos. I choose our last name, but because of privacy issues I can't share that one with you. Let me just tell you how AMAZING it is though. WOW!! I love it. Talk about perfect timing. We have this big brand new house and have been looking for some new decorations. This is perfect, and I can not express to you how much I love it.

OK so here is where it gets interesting. I am the owner of a yahoo group for Army Officer Wives. We have about 100 members, but compared to the Army Officer Community we are miniscule. I have met a lot of great women there, way to many to even list or link. One awesome lady that I met over there is  Heather at The Mcgriff Adventure. Her little girl Grace is only 2 months older than London, so needless to say I stalk her alot. :)  I know Heather pretty well, way more so that just blog friends. I have never personally met her, yet there is just something about the Army Officer Wives site that makes everything feel  so "personal". 

Back to the giveaway...

After winning the awesome Alphabet Art Photo, Patty informed me that she was familiar with my blog because her daughter reads it. Really?!? People read my blog?!?! There is no way that the military blog world, which I straddle anyway as my main blog topic is infertility, is that small.  She then tells me that her daughter is Heather at The Mcgriff Adventure. I stand corrected, it is possible that the blog world is that small. What are the odds that I win a blog giveaway from the mother of one of the 100 women who joined my little corner of the yahoo groups Army Officer Wives section?And one of the few women who I not only know from that site, but also from facebook and the blog world? And to top it off, someone I stalk on a daily basis?!? What are the odds? 

Regardless of the odds, those are the facts. Another fact: Patty is awesome, amazing, and basically just ridiculously kind. I received my package from her yesterday and not only did I find my giveaway prize but I also found this. 

How awesome is that?
 She made me a "London" print too! I love it and can not wait until I can hang it in his room. This was such a great surprise!

 Thank you so so so so much! I seriously almost broke into tears when I opened the package and saw this. Both of them are amazing, but when you send a hormonal infertile woman a portrait of her little miracles name, your are going to get tears EVERYTIME. I love surprises and this one was very special. You are the best! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

New House FAILURE!

We finally closed on our house on Thursday so it is officially ours! Which probably explains why everything started to fall apart only a few hours later.

After about an hour, the never ending papers to sign were done and we were finally handed the keys. Like most new homeowners, we immediately drove to the house to scrutinize every thing-roll around on the new carpet- fight about where to put furniture look around. Our movers were scheduled to come the following day along with the delivery of our new furniture that we bought, so we didn't stay at the house that first night. We did however turn on the air conditioner pretty low so that it would stay cool while we were all going in and out the next day.

The movers were supposed to show up between 8 and 9 am on Friday, but no such luck. The house was warm when I showed up that morning, but I had too much on my mind to even worry about it. When the movers finally showed up around 11:30 (better late than never, right?), the first thing they did was remove all the doors from the hinges. It got pretty hot in the house as the day went on, but I figured it was just because the house was wide open. I still wasn't worried about the lack of cool air. I mean, it's a new house, I just assumed everything would work perfectly. Oh boy was I wrong. I will get back to that in a minute though.

The day went on and box after box was slowly introduced into the new house.  We had my in-laws coming in town for the long weekend, so I was frantically trying to unpack the kitchen. I have no idea why, but I felt like as long as the kitchen is neat and all put away that it wouldn't matter if that rest of the house was a total wreck. In the end, I was able to get everything unpacked. My Mother in-law showed up and took care of London so I was able to unpack and organize in peace. It worked out really well. While I was unpacking, the movers were finishing up. It was then that I realized we were missing two pretty important things. Our washer and dryer were MIA.

How do you lose a washer and dryer? Well our movers did it. They also lost our big leather storage ottoman, the tray for London's highchair, and the second box of our pots and pans (and that is just from the kitchen). They have since found the washer, dryer, and ottoman, but no signs of anything else. I haven't unpacked everything yet, so I am really hoping some to that stuff shows up, but it's not looking too promising. They will be coming back tomorrow to deliver the rest of our stuff. Let's just hope they "found" a few more boxes of stuff too.

Ok so back to the A/C. Well Friday night was hot...and COLD! Our house is two stories and each floor has its own a/c unit. Well the one of the bottom floor wasn't cooling so it was about 85 degrees, however the top floor wouldn't stop cooling so it was about 64 degrees. It was too hot to sleep downstairs and too cold to sleep upstairs. First thing the next morning, in true Aly fashion, I called and complained. On Saturday, they came out and "fixed it" but in actuality they managed to messed it up worse. At about 7pm that night, it stopped working all together. Thankfully it was not a hot weekend so it stayed a miserable manageable 85 degrees in the house. The next morning (the 4th of July), I called again. They sent a tech out 3 different times that day. All of them equaled FAILURE!! Around 7pm on Sunday night, they finally got it KINDA right. The bottom floor cooled to a nice 76 degrees and the top only cooled to 70 degrees. It was HEAVEN!

Finally today, they came out and really FIXED it. Or did they?? Today, my house wouldn't cool beyond 78 degrees during the heat of the day. The A/c guy will be back out first thing in the morning. UGH!! This is getting a bit ridiculous. This is a NEW house. This is a NEW A/C unit. This is NOT cool (pun intended).

To leave you, here are a few pictures from this weekend. 
London and Juanito heading to the sprinkler.
The sprinkler got him.
So he RAN!
Kisses from Mommy
Loving on Daddy
The cuteness!