How did it get to be almost December?

There have been so many times over the last month that I have thought, "I really need to blog that." But alas, I have been lazy. Actually, I have been the opposite of lazy. SO INCREDIBLY BUSY I CANNOT EVEN BREATHE. And of course right now I can remember only three really big things about November. (Here I will be utilizing my Dear Hubby's patented TQAD and TROTS writing formula, giving you The Quick and Dirty up front, and the The Rest Of The Story further down):

TQAD

1) I went on a 36-hour whirlwind trip to New Jersey for work that should have been 48 hours but I had to get back home sooner because ovulation was imminent. (Sane people around me, i.e. my boss, are beginning to think that maybe this baby obsession is, oh, A BIT OBSESSIVE! Of course, I have nothing on some of the women whose forum postings I read: "infertility drugs: $750; IUI: $6400 ; IVF: $25,000 ; 1 pound of baby: priceless")

2) The baking-soda solution was not a solution after all. All the sperm died. Doctor-assisted reproduction, here we come!

3) We carefully planned a trip to see the family for Thanksgiving that changed to the completely unplanned Plan B when the call came that "Grandfather is in the hospital with a broken hip!" Then the plan became: GET THERE AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE! Oh and by the way, we are still planning to do Thanksgiving dinner so we can keep things as normal as possible.

TROTS

I work for a department of one of Oklahoma's public universities that helps bring graduate education to military members around the world. In an effort to spread ourselves around, I was sent to New Jersey to do a site survey of McGuire AFB/Fort Dix to see if opening an office there might be feasible. As the date to leave drew increasingly near, I realized that I would be gone smack dab in the middle of my cycle: days 13, 14, and 15. Since we had a standing appointment with my RE for a post-coital test the morning after my OPK color change, and since properly timed sex was CRUCIAL, it looked like we might be out of luck for this cycle.

The week before I was scheduled to leave, our travel department sent me my itinerary for approval. I would be leaving on the morning of day 13 and getting back the afternoon of day 15. A quick calculation told me that we could meet our appointment if my color change happened on day 12 or day 15. Not good. So I went to my boss. "I could ovulate at any point during this trip," I told her. "So what if I came back on Wednesday afternoon right after my meetings instead of Thursday?" I asked. "That way I'm not gone so long during my window." The look on my bosses' face clearly said, "Give the crazy TTC lady whatever she wants." So my travel plans were changed. And lucky for us, too. I had a color change on day 14. Due to my bosses' tolerance and thanks to the airline for getting me home only 3 hours late (2 a.m. instead of 11 p.m.) on Wednesday night, I was able to have groggy morning sex the next morning and meet our RE for our post-coital test.

During which we were informed...

The TVOD (Toxic Vagina Of Doom) is too powerful for mere mortal attempts to alkalinize it. Frodo and Sam are out of luck. Our options are thus: let nature take its course and see if another pregnancy ever happens, (rewind to last year and my first pregnancy that ended at 12 weeks) OR go on a toxic infertility drug and have Dear Hubby's sperm injected directly into my uterus, thereby bypassing the aforementioned TVOD. At first, we vehemently declined any sort of invasive, non-natural methods. We conferred with friends and our chiropractor. The decision was made. But...

At odd moments, regret would sneak up on me, like just after waking up, or in the shower. Was this the right decision? I wondered if I could live with it if we didn't get pregnant naturally like we hadn't in the last, oh, 3 YEARS. So we did more research. It turns out, as nasty as Clomid is, it does dramatically increase the odds of a pregnancy when paired with IUI, and there is a low incidence of multiples with Clomid. And since we have no other indicators for infertility, this seemed to be our best route. Our midwife agreed that 4 cycles of Clomid with IUI was acceptable. So, doctor-assisted reproduction, here we come!

Our Thanksgiving trip home to see my family was well planned out. We were going to take a detour to take my sister-in-law a washer and dryer, and then travel as a group to the grandparents. However, the best laid plans...

I got a call from my grandmother the morning we were planning on leaving. "Your grandfather's broken his hip and I can't get ahold of your mother." Ok. So I called my mother who was at work. I asked her if she was sitting down and then I told her. She promptly told her receptionist to cancel all of her appointments. "So," I asked, "should we still plan on coming for Thanksgiving?" She told me she'd call me back.

I thought and I thought, "What to do?" I decided that no good would come of my grandmother sitting around in her house fretting about my grandfather. She needed family surrounding her, darn it! So, I called my sister-in -law and gave her the scoop. "I know this isn't what we planned," I said, "but how long will it take to you get ready and leave?" A pause and then, "Well give me an hour to pack and get the girls out of school, and I'll be on the road." God bless military people. They do know how to move when the situation calls for it.

And indeed, the word finally came from my grandmother that we would have Thanksgiving like normal, because, by God, she'd already bought the Turkey and we just didn't need to sit around fretting. Grandfather would be fine. And that was that.

My sister-in-law didn't get her washer and dryer, but we were all together for Thanksgiving.

And that's definitely something to be thankful for.