Info for Next Month

To remind myself next month:

Yesterday semi worked, I spotted all day, but I don't think I can call it CD 1, so I'm labeling today, the 23rd, as Day 1. 

That means that October 21st I'll be due for my next period so hopefully I'll be finished by October 27th, and then I'll ovulate around November 4th.

If all goes along those lines, November 18th I'll either be getting my period again or I'll be looking at a BFP! <3

Two Days Late

My cycles were like clockwork for months now. So of course, it would throw me a curveball the very month before I need it to be exactly on time!

Today is two days after I was supposed to get my period. I've been dying of severe cramps the whole time, but nothing to show for it. Now I'm off my perfect schedule! I absolutely refused to go another day off my schedule, so I figured the way you go into labor would be similar to how to go about getting a period since it deals with all the same parts.

Luckily, it looks like I succeeded. Still keeping my fingers crossed. Today should be Day One of my cycle, which means I'd now be due for my next cycle on the 20th. If I'm on time next month, I'll ovulate for our first TTC cycle on November 3rd - which is when we'll be on the cruise. Still good, still means no period for our vacation (like last time!) and we'll be in a position to bring home our extra Disney souvenir.

Just still praying that today is truly day #1!

Luckily we didn't slip up at all last month to make me paranoid or I'd be a mess right now. 8 weeks pregnant on the cruise would equal nonstop puking time for me!

Getting Closer

It's now mid-September, and on the cusp of cycle #9. That means that there's just ONE more cycle left to go until we're officially TTC!

I spent half of the year wondering if I'd be ready, because Will was such a handful as a baby that it left me a bit traumatized! However, I'm so ready now. I'm very eager to have another.

We had to make a tough and important decision the other day, balancing what's best for our current family and our future family. We were given the opportunity to move down South in November. To do that though, we had a chance of me being without insurance (unless I wanted to go on medicaid and find a good OBGYN that would accept it, and probably never see a midwife) which meant it would be really stressful and we'd have to hold off getting pregnant for another year. That would result in a 3.5 year age gap between Will and the new baby, and a 6 year age gap for Katie. I never wanted my kids to be spaced so far, and that would mean we'd have to have fewer kids in the long run too, as I don't want to go past 34 years old being pregnant.

So we had to decide if we wanted to move to our dream destination, or stay stuck in the same place, wasting money, for at least another year and have a baby while we still have good insurance and a more stable place. We chose to have a baby. Family comes first, before changing jobs, before moving to better locations, before changing homes just because we'd rather a bigger, nicer place.

The move will still happen, but it's put on hold for a year while we have our baby and gather more money into savings. It'll be a more stable move, so it's wise all around, but it's also disappointing as we were hoping to be out before Christmas. However, this means that Katie gets to finish her year out in ballet, which she's absolutely crazy over, we get to have one more Christmas in our starter home, and we can gradually sell and pack and have things less stressful.

In the meanwhile, I'm focusing on all the fun we're about to have. We are going to Will's first Day out with Thomas on Sunday. Two weeks later we'll be heading out of state so Katie and Bill can be in a wedding (Katie's second time being a flower girl). A week after that is Bill's birthday, after that is Trick or Treating,  our cruise and when we get to start TTC. Once we come back from the cruise, we'll be fully thrown into the holiday season and hopefully we'll be lucky enough to start the new year with a new little bundle on the way to make 2016 off to a bright, exciting new start!

Cycle 7 already!

Cycle 7 started a few days ago, on Saturday July 25th. It wasn't due until today, the 27th. So far the cycles have always been at least 29-30 days long, so it's interesting that this one cut so short.

When we were planning on trying in June, I knew that I'd get pregnant in July. For over a year, I just knew it would happen. Then my July cycle comes, and I know I would have gotten pregnant if we had been trying. My body hyper-ovulated like crazy, which is why I think I got my period a bit early too. I actually got really sick right before AF happened, I laid in bed super nauseous and feeling like I was going to throw up any second. I felt exhausted and sick...usually my first signs. I was definitely nervous that my body had gone ahead and gotten pregnant even when we were being as careful as usual. So even though it was inconvenient to get AF early, it was a big relief!

If my cycles stay on this track, we should be set to start trying to the first week of November. Hoping it stays it's course!

Cycle 6

Cycle six is now here, came on June 29th - which is great news because that means my cycles are further regulating. I was always 28 days, and slowly through the months I went from 32 day cycles to now 29. If this continues and it stays 28-29 days long each month, it means I won't have my period for our big cruise vacation AND I'll be ovulating while on it - so we can start our TTC'ing while we're on our amazing vacation and perhaps bring back a little souvenier with us. Plus, you know, I'll be able to also enjoy the beach, the pools, the hot tubs, the water rides and participate in the DisneyRun on Castaway Cay Island as well! So far, so good.

Yesterday I felt like it was coming, I was cramping badly but it wasn't happening. I wanted to make sure it wouldn't hold off for a few more days, so we went on a three mile fast paced walk. Working out usually helps to get it going, and I think it helped here too. I woke up at 8:30 and by 9, I had it. Unfortunately it meant we couldn't go on another three mile walk this morning (I LOVE that backwoods trail, I would love to walk it every day!) but I'm happy as is.

And thanks to having an amazing husband, yesterday he made sure I was well stocked with two kinds of my favorite ice cream, a 2 liter of Coke (my drink of choice for periods) and a giant Hershey's dark chocolate bar. It definitely makes dealing with cramps, bloating and uncomfortableness when I have that to fall back on!

Plans in Motion

All of our plans are going great. We've now found the exact apartments we're planning to move to that fit all of our needs (a main one and a back up, both close to each other and very similar), have budgeted it all out, and have an idea of when we'd like to move. We have a date that we absolutely want to be gone by (June 2017 is the latest). I've signed Katie up for Ballet, and if it goes well, I'll add acro classes too (which would be two fun classes each week to attend). Everything is going quite well...the only thing I can't plan, and what's preventing me from doing actual dates for moving, is the next pregnancy.

I absolutely do not want to move mid-pregnancy. I don't want to change doctors half way through, I don't want to be sick driving the 12 hours back and forth until we're settled, and I don't want to be packing and unpacking while sick or huge.I also don't want to move with a brand new baby, I'd like to at least wait until they're 3 months old ideally. So the date we move greatly depends on how long it'll take us to get pregnant and when the baby is due.

However, all of those dates means that 2016 would totally be out of the question to move, unless it took us more than 6 months to get pregnant (because of Katie's ballet classes, we want to stay here until June 2016 so she gets to go her recital). I'm not quite ready to say we won't move in 2016, because we've been discussing it at length as a major possibility. I'd love to have this coming winter be our last full PA winter either way. I think I'd consider moving while pregnant if I got pregnant with a winter baby, as I hate having a newborn and worrying about giving birth in the winter.

So while everything seems pretty set, the timing is so much in the air. I'm eager to see how to plays out. So far we're doing what we can daily - Bill works overtime every day so we can put money away in our emergency/moving fund and finish up paying off the few thousand we have left in student loans. I've been slowly going through everything in the attic and decluttering, selling or chucking what we don't plan to move with. We're prepping the finished two room attic to become my Father-in-Law's apartment, which will bring $500 more a month to us and help with moving all of us down South. I've been making strides to keep the grocery bill lower and make everything by hand. We eat out less to save more. I'm even keeping a close eye on lights being on to lessen the eletricity bill. Every penny counts right now, and the more frugal we can be, the faster we can make it down south - and in better shape.

We still haven't decided if we plan to get our big house right away down there (there's a few that I'd jump on RIGHT NOW if I could) or if we want to stay in something smaller for a while so we can live a few years with zero mortgage and use that time to save up to pay for a big house outright. I'm eager to get the kids into a home where we can stretch out, but the idea of having no mortgage is so enticing that I may be willing to be a bit cramped for a bit longer so we can have more money and no fear. Most likely that decision will come when we're down in North Carolina already and we're house hunting.

Just keeping track of cycles...

I've been forgetting to write down and track my cycles, so it's getting more complicated to see how things are playing out. I'm now on cycle 5, and I believe I'm pretty close to normal. I have NO idea when it happened in April, but I remember it was a little late. In May, it started on the 2nd. I started today, on June first, which means I'm on a 30 day cycle now. I was on a 35-38 day cycle for the first few months, so that means I'm continuing to regulate. The crappy part is it looks like I'll have it for mine and Katie's birthday celebrations plus Independance Day. =/ If it stays 30 days or goes back to 28, I'll be due between the 29th and 1st of July. I'm hoping the cycles shorten and stop being at the end/beginning of each month as I'd hate to have AF on our cruise, which is October 31st and the whole first week of November!