Taking Baby Steps

Get ready to be introduced to me in a way you may not have expected – we’re going to talk about my visit to the gynecologist! I will try not to get too invasive, but yea, with this topic it’s hard not to, right? I wanted to document our journey to having a baby – writing is my outlet, so here it is like it or not.

Let me give you the basics first…

-I’ve been on THE PILL since I was 17 – that’s 10 years. Insane, right?! Gosh, if I had known then what I know now, I don’t think I would have started taking it and looked to other forms of regulating my period and birth control. And also, it gives me a whole new perspective on my future teenage daughters! Granted you’re not thinking about fertility at 17, but maybe you should be, especially if you know you want kids

-Last January I switched to a new pill, Necon. A nasty side effect that my old Dr. didn’t explain to me is that it can cause your period to stop. Yup, it halted it. It was non-existent. I didn’t have a period for 5 months. And since July 2009, I’ve only had my period once, in November.

-So, after the wedding in September I stopped taking THE PILL. We knew we wanted to start baby making once we were married so we agreed to stop using birth control altogether. That means we have been having unprotected sex for 4 months now.

-And, no, we’re not pregnant and yes, I’m uber frustrated about it already.

Last week, I went to a new OBGYN for my annual visit. While having all that excitement happen, that I won’t get into, we also talked about getting pregnant in 2010 and the issue of not having my period. The Dr. said she was sure it was because I was on the pill for so long and because Necon caused my period to stop. But she wanted to run some tests just to be sure. So, now it’s a week later and I’m sitting in the waiting room.

They drew 3 tubes of my blood first. They’re testing my sugar levels, my thyroid, and all kinds of other hormone levels that I don’t know anything about. Why do I have the time to write while in the waiting room, you may ask? Well, they also wanted to test my glucose levels which means I got to enjoy a fruit punch drink this morning that was packed with sugar. Due to fasting for the blood work for the past 12 hours and now enjoying my ‘cocktail’ this morning, my head is spinning. Seriously, I’m feeling a bit faint and a little buzzed right now. Woo hoo! After I drank the fruit punch, which didn’t taste too bad – like an extra syrupy Kool Aid or something, I have to sit here for 2 hours. Once I’ve sat for 2 hours, they’ll test my levels to see how I processed the sugar. I’m not entirely sure about how that test will happen, so we’ll see. Hopefully, it’s just more taking of my blood.

This is first step for us in our Get Pregnant in 2010 mission. Making sure I’m healthy and facing no obstacles such as diabetes or thyroid problems.

I must note that I’m a wuss so when taking my blood this morning I couldn’t even watch. I had to laugh to myself that I’m trying to create a human being and all of the poking and prodding that comes along with that, but I can’t even watch a nurse stick a needle in my arm. We are definitely in a fun ride!

What Shall We Pray For?

I interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post for a quick announcement from a Communications Major at UofL - Argumentation and Everyday Critical Thinking really really sucks. It seems I signed up for a prelaw class with way too many technical terms and phrases. On the positive side of life, Interpersonal Communication really rocks! The final big grade in that class will be a paper on Fried Green Tomatoes! Now back to your regularly scheduled posting.

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RCW and I have been hunting. Hunting for what? A church. We are both born, raised and baptized Baptists, but we've both enjoy a bit less tradition in our church services so we've been trying out a few generic Christian churches with some friends, who are also looking for a church home. So far we've been to 2, but will be trying # 3 this Sunday. RCW and I have always felt a connection to God, yet never been moved to find a church home. However, as talks of expanding our family begin, we both know in our hearts we need to find a place to call our's.

That isn't the purpose of this post though, just the background.

This past Sunday we tried a new church that shall remain nameless. It was a small church started by 2 families. I will admit I was VERY hesitant about attending, but decided to go with the flow. The congregation was about 75 people or so, maybe less, I'm really bad a judging numbers of people in a room! The pastor started his service with a long rock climbing rope in hand, I joked to our friends, was he going to tie us up?! Um, yes, he did. He roped the entire congregation and started on his sermon about as a church community it was important to be there for each other - reminded me of a sermon Southeast Christian did last year that took over the internet and Facebook about Being a Follower and Not a Fan. Once the sermon was over, he told us he had another activity to bring the point home...we were to mix and mingle with each other and find 3 people we didn't know, get their name and ask them what could we pray for them about.

Now as a very introverted person when it comes to religion, meeting brand new people (ie: strangers) and talking about prayer was a bit uncomfortable for me in the first place.

Luckily, RCW and I stuck together. A nice man came up to us, Eric, and talked a bit about the church and then asked what could he pray for us about. The thoughts swimming through my head about what I pray for - patience, understanding, guidance, getting through a workweek or school week. RCW spoke up. And verbatim, this is what he said, "We are newlyweds. We just got married in September and are hoping to expand our family".

Um, did my hubby just tell a stranger we're trying to get pregnant?! We haven't even told family members or close friends that we are 100% trying! Some days, I don't even think RCW thinks we're actually trying! I was so taken aback by our prayer request, but RCW went with the flow and continued by saying, "And, Eric, what can we pray for for you?"

Once Eric walked away, I just stood there. Our friends came back, who know we are actively trying, and I relayed the story. Mid-story, the pastor comes up to us. *Yay for being visitors*

The exact same conversation takes place, except the young, hip pastor translates our prayer request as, "So, basically I should just pray for your sex life."

Um, yea, I guess.

Our Trying To Conceive coming out party happened at a random little church, but now we have many people praying for our sex life. So bloggity blog friends, add us to your prayer list! And what can we pray for you about?

PS: Has your hubby ever caught you off guard like that?!

College Life...

I have a confession to make, one that I'm not very proud of. I am STILL in school. I was on the so called right track in high school, graduated in the top of my class in 2001 and then went on to Virginia Tech.

That's where I hit a curve ball. You see I was the student in high school who didn't need to study. Occasionally a hard class *cough, physics, cough* would come my way and I'd have to pay attention and put some time into it, but for the most part high school was a breeze. I think part of that were my parents were super involved in my life and I didn't have a real job in high school (my high school job is a post for another day!) so I had tons of free time to pay attention at school, hang out with my friends and boyfriend and still get lots of sleep. I really had it easy!

I went to Virginia Tech and fell in with the wrong crowd of people. Thinking back, I don't even know how I met them! I suppose at some party and friends of friends type thing. But there were A LOT of parties and not so much studying. I maintained a C at VT that first semester, but when I came back at Christmas I got re-involved with a high school boyfriend who was still at home. I was stupid, my parents didn't know what to do with me and they let me transfer from Virginia Tech to Virginia Commonwealth University and live at home. I try now not to think about regrets and mistakes, because if I hadn't moved back maybe I would have never met the love of my life, my adoring hubby, RCW, but seriously, leaving VT for VCU was an academic mistake.

I went to VCU for about a year and a half. My first semester I studied my butt off, went to class everyday and didn't have many close friends. Oh yea and that re-involved high school boyfriend, it didn't work out past January, surprise, surprise!

In Fall 2002, my second semester at VCU and sophomore year I did the sorority thing. Greek life wasn't huge at VCU, but I wanted to meet new people and thought that was a good way to do so as a commuter student. I rushed and was given a bid by ASA - Alpha Sigma Alpha. ASA was MY life that fall. All the rituals, new friends, hanging out and well as we all know with Greek life comes fraternities and parties. Again, my classes fell by the wayside. By the time spring semester started in January 2003, I was barely going to class. Yup, I still had no job and no responsibilities, my parents gave me free rein on the credit cards and car and just let me go. I was in sorority girl party heaven!

By May 2003, my parents wised up and told me they weren't going to pay for me to miss classes and fail out of VCU, where I was on academic suspension by this point. So, in May 2003, I stopped going to school and got a job. I worked hard, but played hard too. Who needed school?! It was also that spring my ASA Big Sister, Shawna, introduced me to Rick and all of her other non-Greek friends. I was the baby in the group. They were all older, most weren't in school, but worked full time. I thought they were so cool (yup, I was a dork!). I though I could get use to that lifestyle and I did fairly quickly.

I spent some time working in a hotel working my way up from front desk reception to working the back office as an administrative assistant. Then in October 2004, I quit. The job was going no where and I wasn't happy with the people I was working with. I didn't know what I was going to do, but my parents were as always, supportive. That November I fell into politics and thus started my career as a fundraiser. I worked on some state and local races in VA and then got the big opportunity to move to Southern Indiana to be Deputy Finance Director for a Congressman. It sounded so big and fabulous back in 2006! After a couple years working politics, I realized that lifestyle wasn't for me - moving around the country hunting for work, being unemployed 2 months each year wondering where the next paycheck would come from and not being willing to move to DC to make it work for real. I got into fundraising for non-profits next, after all that seemed like a logical next step.

During all of this I was still not in school. Finally, while at the American Heart Association I decided I needed my degree. In my mind, it's really just a piece of paper. My experience overshadows anything I can learn from a textbook, but my employers want to see that school listed on a resume and piece of paper hanging on a wall. So, I enrolled at the University of Louisville in the summer of 2008. So far I've taken 5 classes, but took off Summer 2009 and Fall 2009 for the wedding and honeymoon. I have finally achieved junior status and currently my cumulative GPA is 3.94. I know it'll take me a while to get my degree, which is in Communication because honestly its one of the few full majors you can attain from UofL online. *UofL is not the most adult student friendly school!*

But one day maybe in 2011 or 2012 I'll have my degree. I'll feel proud and accomplished and be able to show my future kids one day the right way do to things, as I would never wish the track I've taken on anyone. Working a full time, full of responsibility job while going to school and being a wife, while talking about starting a family is not fun! I honestly don't know how some people are parents, spouses, full time workers and taking a full course load do it - for me there aren't enough hours in a day to do everything and do it all reasonably well!

My life story was basically for me to say I will post when the urge and need strikes, but I won't be pushing myself to post daily or even weekly. For the next few weeks my life will be textbooks, quizzes, papers and discussion forums and also Phone A Thons, volunteers, writing solicitation letters and raising another $300,000 to meet my goals at work!

I hope you'll still hang around because who knows when the urge to share a great recipe, talk baby fever, share a funny newlywed moment or whatever may else happen will hit me! I have so many ideas in my head that I want to share with you already, I just need to take the pressure off of having a fabulous daily posting blog for a few weeks! Thanks for being fabulous!

Are any of you STILL in school too?! We can commiserate together!