Youth Lock-In

On Friday night, August 23rd, we had our first youth lock-in at the church where David is the Youth/Children's Pastor. I thought I would share some of the images with you all. David and I stayed up the ENTIRE night (from 7pm to 9am). For those of you that know me well, that was a great feat for me!

Embarrassing, yes, but funny nonetheless!

The youth had to dress up the adults with toilet paper.

L to R: Pastor Tim Rogers, Angie Gomez, Gail Rogers

This is the winning team!

You can see the medals we made for the winners well in this picture!

"Human Vacuum" Race
(They had to eat 4 bowls of marshmallows along the way. Don't worry, there were only about 8 in each bowl.)

"Bobblehead Bowling"

You can see some of the youth in this picture protecting the partition behind them from the frozen milk jug in the foreground.

A Funny game of Twister!

The next 3 pictures are the winners of the eating game.

This is Jacob. He had to eat chocolate that had been melted in the bottom of the bowl.

This is Derek. He had to eat carrot baby food. Yuck!

This is T.J. He had to eat chocolate pudding with pieces of hot dogs mixed in! Double Yuck!!!!

David and I when it was almost time for them to all be picked up. We were so ready for bed!

Update

We had another appointment yesterday. For those of you that know things about TTC, they were checking to see if the clomid was working. I had one follicle that was maturing (that's what realeases the egg). It wasn't quite mature yet so they couldn't give me the shot they had talked about just yet. It's an HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin) shot. It is used to trigger ovulation once the follicle is mature enough. I had that shot this morning, so we know that in the next 36-38 hours, I will ovulate!

I think I have said this before, but I am just very excited with all the monitoring they are doing. I really feel like we are actually getting somewhere for a change!

Appointment Results

David and I went to our RE (see last post) this past Tuesday. I had an ultrasound to check to see if I had any cysts on my ovaries. The nurse (the doc's wife) did our consultation afterwards. She said she was really encouraged by the improvments in my labs and my weight loss (I've lost 20 pounds since I was last at that doctor). She said we were ready to go ahead and start the clomid. I will be going in next Tuesday (the 26th) for another ultrasound for them to see if the clomid is doing its job. We will see how this goes. I hope it goes well. ;) They will then give me some sort of shot to "help things along". :) I am not sure what the shot is or exactly what it does, but I am sure I will find out on Tuesday. I am really excited about all of this. I really feel like we are actually getting somewhere!!!! It's felt like such a slow process up until this point, but with all the monitoring that is going on now, I feel like it's going a bit faster.

In case you are wondering about the medicines I am on, they are called metformin and clomid. Some of you might have heard of metformin before as a drug for diabetics, but it also has great indications for women having trouble with fertility. Below is information on both drugs to give you an idea of why I am on them.

I should also mention that I have been diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). If you are interested, here is a link for informaiton on it.
http://women.webmd.com/tc/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos-topic-overview

METFORMIN

Metformin is an oral diabetes medicine that helps control blood sugar levels.

Benefits of Metformin
RESTORATION OF NORMAL MENSTRUAL CYCLE. A number of studies have shown that menstruation can be restored in many women with PCOS. For example, in a study at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, 43 women who were not having periods took Glucophage, and 39 of them resumed normal menses.(6) In another study at Jewish Hospital, 11 teenage girls with PCOS were put on metformin and a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. Ten of the 11 girls resumed regular periods.(7)
IMPROVED CHANCE OF PREGNANCY. A study of 48 women with PCOS and infertility was conducted at the Baylor College of Medicine. They were first given metformin and 19 of them resumed menstruating and showed indications of ovulation. But 10 required clomiphene (a fertility drug) in addition to metformin in order to show evidence of ovulation. Twenty women of the 48 (42%) became pregnant. However, 7 of the 20 miscarried.(8)
REDUCED RISK OF MISCARRIAGE. Another aspect of PCOS-related infertility is the tendency for repeated miscarriages. A study from the Hospital de Clinicas Caracas in Venezuela looked at 65 women who received Glucophage during their pregnancies vs. 31 who did not. The early pregnancy (first trimester) loss rate in the metformin group was 8.8% as compared to a 41.9% loss in the untreated group. Of those women who previously had miscarried, 11.1% of the metformin group miscarried again, while 58.3% of the untreated group again miscarried. (9)
REDUCED RISK OF GESTATIONAL DIABETES. In another study at Jewish Hospital in Cincinatti, gestational diabetes risk was evaluated in two groups of PCOS women. The first group was 33 non-diabletic women who had conceived while taking metformin or took it during their pregnancy. This group was compared to a group of 39 PCOS women who did not take it. Only 3% of the metformin group developed gestational diabetes as compared to 31% in the non-metformin group.(10)
WEIGHT LOSS AND OTHER BENEFITS. Metformin may contribute to weight loss in some diabetics.(11) However, weight loss does not appear to be one of its primary benefits. Glucophage may also be of some value improving success with in vitro fertilization, lowering cholesterol, and improving energy.

CLOMID
This medication is used to treat infertility in women. It works by stimulating an increase in the amount of hormones that support the growth and release of a mature egg (ovulation). This medication is not recommended for women whose ovaries no longer make eggs properly

Our TTC Story - warning...it's very detailed!

I started this blog a long time ago, but I never made a post in it. David and I have been on a TTC journey for a long time and I figured it's time to start keeping track. (TTC means Trying to Conceive for those that don't know). We have been trying to conceive for 1 year, 10 months, 4 weeks and 3 days (as my ticker on a message board I am a member of says). The date the ticker is based off of is in September 2006. It was then that David and I got our first postive pregnancy test. At this point, we weren't TRYING to have a baby, it just happened. I got several negative pregnancy tests in the days following and started bleeding which can indicate either that I was never pregnant and was starting my period or I was pregnant, but was now miscarrying. After much talk with my doctor, we all decided that it was probably a pregnancy and now my first miscarriage. It was really hard, but there were so many questions surrounding it, that I never really new what to think. We decided then that we wanted to start trying to have a baby. 9 months later, on Father's Day (June 17, 2007), we got our 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th positive pregnancy tests. This time, we KNEW we were pregnant. I went to the doctor that Thursday for my first appointment. I got blood test confirmation that we were pregnant that time and it was that same evening that I started bleeding. I miscarried that precious baby over the next couple of weeks. It was very, very, very hard. I don't want to relive that here, so we will leave it at that. I will say, though, that God is so FAITHFUL!!! He promises that He will not give us more than we can handle and even though, at the time, I thought there was no way I could handle this, I sit here now seeing how HE brought me through this and I can rejoice at His hand on my life! So, now it has been 14 months since then and no luck with conceiving a little one just yet. We are seeing a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) to see what he can do for us. We have been seeing him for about 4 months now and I am looking forward to what he can do. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday so he can start me on a drug called clomid that is supposed to help with all this. I was on it once before and it didn't help, but he started me on something else that I will take in conjunction with the clomid this time. I really hope it works this time! David and I both really want to start our family. ;) I hope that you will be praying for us in this pursuit. Thank you!