Still (slightly) Irked by the Fertiles

Another incident happened recently with my sister over Easter. We had pancakes, eggs and bacon for brunch, along with fruit smoothies, a fresh fruit platter and of course, Easter eggs – it was really yummy but I am getting sidetracked!! I was cooking the eggs on the barbie when my sister (who is pregnant) said to me ‘my acupuncturist said to me that you eat eggs to get eggs’. In my mind, I am having an indignant conversation with myself ‘firstly, my acupuncturist also said that to me but HELLO we gave up on my dried up, non-responding, bad quality, no quantity eggs years ago, that is why my son doesn’t look like me and why instead of just being able to spend an enjoyable Saturday night with my husband and *poof* 9 months later we have a sibling for our son, I will be heading off to Thailand for the 3rd time in 12 months in August to use our final frozen embryo’s to see if we can get this poor kid a brother or a sister or if we have to save up the equivalent of the GDP of a small nation to have another fresh cycle with a different donor and thus scarpering a dream of a full blood sibling for our son!!’ what I actually said out loud was ‘yes, and pomegranate is also good as it is a symbol for fertility in Feng Shui I believe’. I’m not mad at her, I just put it down to the fact that there are very few people that fully understand the situation (and also maybe a bit of preggo brain!!).

I find it a little bit amusing that family and friends still like to give me fertility tips. The fact that they do makes me think that they don’t know me at all. I mean, I am a serious researcher. There is not much that I haven’t researched in relation to my fertility. Honestly, you name it and I have done research on it and not only in the last few months, this has been going on for years and years. I still have access to the medical journal database that my old work has (because I still have friends there J) and continually are reviewing the latest findings (or looking at historical ones). Honestly, there is literally not a day that goes by that I haven’t looked up something to do with fertility – sad, but true.

Another small mildly related thing happened on the weekend. I was talking with two girlfriends (who both have boys who are 6 and 3 months older than JBB) about the racing car bed that we had bought for JBB. Both of them commented that they don’t want put their boys into a bed yet because they are both fairly rambunctious and they like having them contained at night!! Then I thought to myself – why did I decide to do it so early then!?!? It wasn’t actually that we decided to move JBB to the bed, it was just that we were readying the room for another child, so that we put out the ‘we are ready – bring forth the children’ vibes to the universe. Just mildly interesting in the fact that it is another thing my lovely fertile friends don’t need to worry about – lucky them.

A dream...

Two nights ago I had a dream that I was pregnant. Not only pregnant, 4 months pregnant (that would be pretty fast work considering JBB is 4 and a half months). It was a confusing dream because someone else was also pregnant - I think it was either my younger sister or my bestie and we were talking all things preggo.

There is a little yearning in me that wishes it could be that simple for us. The world of people having sex and **poof** after 9 months, there is a baby who joins the family. Sometimes I wonder if there are any of those people left in the world but I was at a one year old's birthday party yesterday that showed me that there definitely is. I suppose the dream is a prelude to JourneyMan's & my healthy eating plan that starts tomorrow. The theme of which is to 'eat only that which we would want JBB ] to eat'. We are both a bit of junk food addicts and generally whilst we try to eat healthily during the week, we go a bit crazy on the weekend. This healthy eating plan is our first effort in getting our bodies ready for Thailand trip take 2.

This small step throws me back into the IVF world of healthy eating, acupuncture, herbs, fertility tea, castor oil packs, not eating peas because they are not conducive to fertility (who knew?), handfuls of vitamins and supplements, caffeine free days, wearing orange pj pants because orange is the colour of fertility - in essence, this throws me back into my crazy 'do everything I can' mode. I don't know if I am ready for it yet. One thing that the holiday away showed me was that I still have some unresolved issues to discuss with the counsellor and certainly I would like to be in a better place mentally before we start trying for JBBS (JourneyBabyBoy'sSibling). I want to enjoy JBB's every little minute - he is precious and growing sooooo fast I just can't believe it!

So, as I dip my toe back into getting back into shape (probably a long road, I put on a lot of weight during the pregnancy), I am going to focus on the fact of being healthy for myself, JourneyMan and JBB, both of whom need me to be at my best and healthiest. I will separate these efforts from the next Thailand trip - I will get back to being fit, yeah - this will be fun (and scary!).

Wouldn't it be great though? You have sex with your beloved, you get pregnant and have a baby - simplicity itself and nary an orange fertility pj in sight!

Castor oil packs, to do lists and projects - oh my!

Well people, it is hectic here in Chez JourneyWorld. The project that I am working on has now officially been delayed another two weeks – eek, getting very close to the Thailand trip I tell you!! In answer to Lifeslurper’s question about whether this is my job job or my own business. It is my job job that is supposed to be maximum 3 days per week but for the past 3 months has been pretty much 4 days and sometime (the horror!) 5 days!! The project is a massive one, upgrading 12 interlocking websites (some that are hosted in Aus, some in the US) – I am going website crazy. My own business project has hit a bit of a slump but I am having a working party on Sunday with my business partner (also my bestie) to pull a few things into line and to keep things running on their own over the Perth trip, Thailand trip, Christmas and New Year period. 2010 is when we are going to take the world by storm!!

Jill has asked about the castor oil pack and since I am going through my whole regime in detail, this is the next logical place. I can’t really remember where I came across this natural therapy first but there is some good information at the following site: http://natural-fertility-info.com/castor-oil-therapy. I didn’t buy the pack, I just got all of the ingredients from the chemist and made up my own pack. Edgar Cayce, who is also known as ‘the father of the holistic health movement’ was a huge proponent of the castor oil pack and in his readings contain more than 570 uses for the packs. Apparently it has uses in many different conditions as diverse as arthritis, liver and intestinal conditions and even skin tumors and breast cancer. Now – I know are you going to ask if I found a medical study that linked improved fertility with the use of the castor oil pack. In answer, no – I did not.

I did, however, find some studies that confirmed what the active agents in castor oil are. Basically the modern medical studies stated that the castor oil was able to be absorbed easily to the lower parts of the skin and that it’s main properties were as an anti-inflammatory. The heat used in the packs also aids in the increase of blood flow to the affected area. Years ago, I also read a book called ‘Clear Body, Clear Mind’ by Leon Chaitow that had a trunk pack in it similar to the castor oil pack that was used for support for detoxification of the liver and kidneys. This pack seemed quite similar so I thought I would give it a go. The following link is probably the best one that I found for directions and information about it uses with fertility: http://www.natural-health-for-fertility.com/castor-oil-therapy.html

In other news, I have pretty much completed our packing checklist for Thailand (even though he is still at work right now, I can hear JourneyMan groaning from here) and yes, it is in a spreadsheet. When we got married, every part of the wedding was spreadsheeted – I loves me a spreadsheet!! I have even cross referenced the list against 4 travel websites that had checklists on them to make sure that I had thought of everything (why 4? Well by the time I got to the 4th one, there was nothing more to add to my list!!).

What else is happening? Well, the stinking fridge people have not called so I am despairing about receiving the fridge this week – damn it all to hell. I also cut myself a fringe (that’s ‘bangs’ to our US friends) during the week, people have been raving about how good it looks. JourneyMan said I looked adorable, which wasn’t the look that I was going for. Truth be told, I read an article in a magazine (I dearly love trashy magazines) that celebrities were wearing a fringe instead of getting botox. I thought that sounded good (get thee behind thee gullible one!!) and plus I had seem a pic of myself when I had a fringe and thought I looked good, so that’s why I did it. I do need another colour though to cover up those greys!!

Tomorrow, my Mum and I are off to IKEA to buy a few things that will help to organize JourneyBaby’s room (no pics yet, I’m afraid, Lifeslurper – definitely once it’s finished though!!). I have got a very hectic day planned tomorrow – clean house, gym, IKEA, optometrist appointment, acupuncture appointment, more organizing of Journey Baby’s room and go and see my Dad in the rehab hospital. No rest for the wicked, my friends!!