Argh.....

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I'll come back and chat once I'm in a better mood... it has been a rough weekend with the moving and all that. But we survived it. I have some pics of the wedding too, will post later...

The beginning of McKenna

I thought I would introduce you to our beautiful daughter McKenna. This is the short version, otherwise I would have to open up a dedicated blog just to her.....

DH and myself decided that we would start a family as soon as we were married. So I threw away my BCP on our wedding day. Ten months later I was sitting at work staring at the calendar. When it hit me, I’m 4 days late………… I phoned DH and instructed him to get to a chemist as fast as he could and buy a test for me. I couldn’t get away from work, so DH brought the test to me. I had to wait for a client to finish their order, then I ran up the stairs to the bathroom. DH couldn’t stick around, so he went home.

I sat for 2 minutes first and 100 things went running through my mind. Then I did the test, put it down next to me….. while pulling up my jeans I glanced down. To my disbelief there it was. Two lines. Two lines. OMG Two lines. Now I had to stuff the test into my pocket so no one at work could see, run back down the stairs and pick the phone up… DH are you sitting down……

We of course told everyone straight away. Blood tests confirmed I was 3 weeks PG. And from the minute I saw the test I just knew we were going to have a boy.

I had a relatively easy pregnancy. The only major complaint being heartburn. When we were 18 weeks PG, the Ob/Gyn announced.. “It looks like a girl”… Which I responded “No ways it is a boy”. I wasn’t going to be fooled. We had started picking out names already. I can’t go changing it now to girl stuff. LOL. Funny enough the day before that u/s I had a dream where we had a lil boy and I was so worried because we only had pink clothes to dress him in.

At 28 weeks we had our 3D u/s. Which confirmed again - it’s a girl. By now I had made peace with the fact that we had been blessed with a girl. We decided to name her McKenzie. While sitting on the internet looking at the meaning of McKenzie, something caught my eye at the very bottom of the page.. McKenna .. I fell in love with the name straight away.

3 May 2004 12:24pm - weighing in at 3.3kg, our angel was born via c-section.

Everything I thought I knew about love and life changed that day.

McKenna has been the best baby ever. She never got sick, never cried through the night. She was and still is only a pleasure. Well when she isn’t throwing a tantrum. LOL

7 more days to go....

Until we know this cycle's fate. I hate the 1ww, it is filled with so many mixed emotions. You are trying to stay grounded and not let your imagination get the better of you. Every twinge or niggle becomes a potential possible pregnancy symptom. No matter how hard you try, you just can’t deny those feelings. Then you also don’t want to get excited about it, just to be brought back down to earth by AF’s arrival.

It is such an unfair time in ones cycle really. So many ifs and maybes. Do you set your self up, or do you try to stay calm. Do you dare even think maybe you did succeed this cycle? Do you let your mind wonder over onto pregnancy websites, go calculate your possible due date… (Oh mine is 9 December 2008 BTW)

Of course the most important decision of all needs to be made. POAS……

Well since I’ve made the conscious decision not to pay attention to this 2ww/1ww and concentrate on getting my house packed and moved… I’m not sure when I’ll be POAS. I have one OPK left from this cycle. Might just use it on Saturday to get the urge out of my system then wait till Tuesday to test with a HPT.

I’ll probably start temping from tomorrow or Thursday again. I like to get that end of cycle temps going. So that I can better prepare myself for what is coming… AF… or hopefully a BFP….

Do you notice the double standard I have going here…. One paragraph I say I’m not going to worry about this 1ww or any symptoms ect. ect.. then the next paragraph I’m talking about testing and temping again… You see no matter how hard I try to ignore TTC, I always some how sneak it in again……

Here we go into the 2ww

I can safely say that we have entered the 2ww. Even though fertility friend wont confirm it. But I dont need a software program telling me otherwise.

I cant believe this is the 24th 2ww I'm going through. That is 48 weeks, 4 weeks short of a year. Wow. I dont know whether to laugh or cry. I'm kind of lost for words right now.

A friend on one of my TTC Forums, just posted a message for me saying: "I hope you are going to be a Fertility Specialist in your next life". I must say I feel really honoured to be in the position that I am, helping others understand this whole process. I of course responded by saying: "It comes from 2 years obsession". Which it does.

I think if anyone had to put so much effort into something be it TTC, building model aeroplanes or learning French. At the end of 2 years you would be quite knowledgeable. If only I could put that much effort into other things in my life, I could probably end up taking over the world.

Getting close now.....

Just another positive OPK to brag about. And confirm my addiction to POAS. This one is also from yesterday, about 2 hours after the first + OPK.



I just cant help myself. LOL

I'm hoping to be distracted this coming 2ww. I really cant afford to be obsessing and focusing all my energy on what is or is not happening. Whether baby(ies) are implanting or when to start testing. I have a house to pack up and hope and pray that we find a new place before 1 April. Yes I know its exactly two weeks. But hey I thrive on pressure.

So I say baby(ies) only because Clomid happens to increase your chances of having multiples by 10 percent. Which really isn't that much. If it was something like 40% upwards, I might be slightly stressed. I'm not really sure what we would do if we happened to fall PG with twins or triplets. We have been hoping and trying for one baby for so long now, I guess it would only be more of a blessing to have two at the same time.

Another thing that I just thought about. My mom is a twin, and she was once PG with twins but sadly lost them early on in her pregnancy. So does that automatically make my chances of having twins higher, and now the 10% Clomid factor gets added to that.... Oh crap, maybe that makes my chances closer to 40% then......

I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Shhhhh, I'm trying to Ovulate

As promised here they are. My OPKs for this cycle. You can see yesterdays was negative and today......



Now if that isn't a postive OPK then I don't know.

I will however test again tomorrow, just to make sure.

I just love OPKs, not only because they actually give me two lines. But they just restore some hope and faith that your body is working like it should.

So where are we now....

24 cycles down, 76 negative tests later, and still managing to stay somewhat sane. We are back on the Clomid train, and its full speed ahead.

I love sharing my knowledge about TTC with others. I feed on that, I jump at any chance to explain cervical mucus, pee sticks, ovulation ect. ect. Don’t get me wrong I’m not proclaiming myself a TTC know it all or a qualified gynecologist. Just a woman trying to understand the miraculous event of conception.

So I put my TTC knowledge to work and came up with a website that can hopefully enlighten couples who are TTC. I know there are a hundred different websites regarding TTC. Why would you want to create another one? Well I decided a few weeks ago that there are just so many woman out there, that don’t know the very basics of TTC or how the female body works. So I began Making Babies I like to say it’s “clearing up the misconception in conception.” What makes Making Babies unique from any other website?… well I like to think I’ve taken a more relaxed friendly approach to the subject and not over loaded it with too many medical terms that just confuse you. Just the basics.

Being a member of two USA based support forums, I became very envious of the cheap affordable Home Pregnancy Tests (HPT) and Ovulation Predictor Kits (OPK) that the ladies (my friends) were using. Why couldn’t I have access to these tests? After all I’m a POAS-a-holic, and the only thing stopping me from testing almost every day (from 9dpo onwards) would be the fact that tests are just so expensive in South Africa. Here comes part two of why I started Making Babies.

I wanted to make certain fertility products available to South African women. Yes you can buy these products in Pharmacies across the country. But how many women are a little shy to buy 10 tests at a time?? After all you only need one right? LOL Wouldn’t it be easier and more convenient to order on line and have the tests or fertility products delivered to you? Of course it would be. I know I hate walking into our Chemist down the road. The lady there doesn't even ask if I need help any more, she knows why I'm there. Two aisles down to the right, that is where they keep their HPTs. I even pay with exact change, because I don't want to stand there with 3 tests in my hands.

Anyway, so where are we in our 24th cycle of TTC….. to be specific we are on CD9, just finished the 50mg Clomid CD4-8 course. Now we wait for O day, of course I’ll be entertaining you with photos of my OPKs leading up to this exciting event. And don’t be shy with Baby dust donations.

Welcome to Making Babies

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.



Trying to conceive(TTC).......

Who would have thought that 3 simple words could take over your life to a certain extent.

I for one should know, I live eat breath TTC.

It all started when we decided that we would like to have a second child. Our daughter McKenna was turning 2 years old and we thought it would be a lovely age gap. We were financially ok to have another child and most of all we as a married couple were happy. Everything was ideal. On the 25th of April 2006 I threw out my birth control pills, we were going on holiday and naive as it was, I thought it would happen straight away. Sadly to say, we are now looking at a 4 or more year age gap.

After cycle 2 TTC, I started to surf the net, absorb any and all information I could find on how to increase chances of conception. I stumbled across a few support forums and slowly but surely got sucked into the TTC web. Not that I’m complaining. I’ve met the most amazing ladies on my journey.

From cycle 3 I was hooked, obsessed, call it what you like. You could say I gave myself over to the dark side LOL Where the only way you get out is by getting pregnant. I started charting my basal body temperature (BBT) and paying more attention to the signs of approaching ovulation (O). I can’t believe that for almost two years,(exclude 2 or 3 cycles that I didn’t temp) that I’ve woken up at 5:05 every day to take my BBT. I mean who does that?????

You know they say an alcoholic is someone who admits they have a problem…. Well you know what my name is Marcelle and I’m addicted to TTC.