Baby Shower and Progress

My sister's baby shower is over and I'm so glad! I pretty much said good-bye to my weekend as it was entirely centered around the shower. It was a stressful weekend that I'm glad to have behind me. 

On Friday night my friend H surprised me with a text saying she made me a banner for the shower. I had ordered one off of Et.sy, but the seller backed out at the last minute saying it wouldn't be ready in time to ship. I didn't read the listing all that well, so it was partially my fault as well. So, Saturday morning we swung by my friend's house and picked up the banner. She did a really awesome job with it and I got to play with her French bulldog puppy. I wish I took a better picture of the banner but it was hard with the window behind it. 

W and I headed out to Al.bany on Saturday morning in separate cars. Since my mom was not feeling very well psychologically and emotionally, she hitched a ride with me. I got to listen to her talk my ear off for the three hour drive out, lucky me! Saturday was spent driving, chopping and cooking food, decorating the house, and shopping for the things my mom failed to get. It was super stressful and I felt like I didn't stop all day.

Sunday morning we had to run back over to the house to drop off drinks and do some last minute preparing. The shower started at 1:00 and people showed up early! I guess I always show up at least ten minutes late to parties, but not these ladies. We rushed to get everything finished and the party was underway.

Punch bunch and mimosa bowl

My sister's mother in law loves her jell-o molds!

Cocoa cone favors. K's friend made the favors and my friend H helped me make the tags. 

The quilt I made her to match the nursery

My mom wasn't helpful at all during the shower and with preparation, and it almost just made things more difficult. She was supposed to be in charge of the drinks but did nothing other that give us money for them. Mid-way through the party everyone starting freaking out about coffee so I had to leave and go buy some.

My Mom has been diagnosed as bi-polar. She gets into "moods" where she is really bad and it just happened that this weekend she was in one of her moods. She, my step-father, and brother are all going to Costa Rica in a week to stay for a sabbatical semester for my step-dad's work. My mom is totally freaked out about it. Originally, she was going to come home for the birth of her grandson, but now she is thinking she won't be able to travel by herself. It looks like I am going to have to help more when K has the baby. I'm pretty sure I convinced her this weekend to let me be in the room for the birth. I want to be there to help and support her, but also to witness the birth of my little nephew. 

My sister K got a ton of really great presents and survived the shower. Her in-law's family and friends are super intense. It was really nice to spend time with her this weekend and on Sunday night, as just the two of us sat on the couch talking, I got to feel little kicks from my nephew. K doesn't really like anyone touching her belly so it was nice that she was inviting me to do it. I hadn't seen her since Thanksgiving and it was really nice to spend some time together. I really wish we lived closer. 

My sister was very grateful for everything W and I did for the shower and repeatedly thanked us. She hung the banner in the baby's room and loves the quilt so much. I'm really glad I didn't give her any sneak peaks while I was making it. 

I stayed Sunday night at my sister's while W drove home with my Mom. Her got to listen to her talk for three hours on the way home, lucky him! 

On Monday morning I woke up early and picked my Dad up for the drive to Lo.ng Is.land. I had an appointment at 12:00 at Dr. B's office and didn't feel comfortable driving through the Br.onx to get there by myself, so my Dad offered to drive. He stayed in the car and took a little nap during my appointment. 

The appointment was so much more thorough than I am used to at my local clinic. I first was called in to get my blood drawn. The nurse was super nice but a little too over the top in that she instructed me to take deep breaths when she put the needle in and took it out. I really don't feel like I need any instructions for a blood draw at this point. Her intentions were all good though, just a little annoying.

I then sat back in the waiting room for a bit. Eventually I was called into the ultrasound room. The tech didn't want to answer any questions as she quickly responded to my first one with "the doctor will come in after and explain everything." From there I just watched her measure. She made sure to get each follicle in the best view before measuring it. I'm sure her measurements were much more precise than I am used to. It seemed like she measured quite a few follicles and that things had certainly picked up in size.

I waited in the room for Dr. B to come in to talk after. He answered all of my questions, reviewed the ultrasound, and told me to expect retrieval probably Sunday or Monday. It was a crazy thing to actually see my doctor during an appointment.

I then headed back to the waiting room to see the nurse Sandra. She called me in and gave me a new calendar. She was very familiar with my case and answered all of my questions thoroughly. She then gave me two boxes of Menopur and two boxes of Ganirelix. The office has been amazing in donating meds to me this cycle. Last week the nurse mailed two more boxes of Menopur. Donated meds are amazing!

So on Monday my Dad drove the six hours round trip to Long Island and I later hopped in the car to drive three hours home. Too much time in the car! I'm also not used to driving on the highway by myself at night.

This morning I had another monitoring appointment locally. Everything is continuing to progress and my hormone levels are rising. It looks like I have about 18 follicles in the running right now. I'm definitely ready to trigger and get them out since things are starting to get really uncomfortable.

I'm not blogging as much about IVF this time around because who really wants to hear it for the fifth time? I'm trying to update without giving too many details, because it just can't be interesting or exciting to read about anymore. 

Today I'm waiting to hear whether I will finish my monitoring locally or at Dr. B's office. A weekend retrieval would be a first for me, so I will keep hoping it falls on the weekend and I get a bonus day off from work.