For the last 3 months, every time that I get my period I feel really ill – like I have a bad cold, headache and generally exhausted. This month is no different, in fact I think that it is getting worse each month. I have spoken to my Naturopath about it who believes that it is my realated to my Immune system and the effects of the Clomid and Gonal F Injections. This would make sense as it started whilst I was on the Clomid. I really do believe that the fertility drugs that I were on have played havoc with my body and left me not in the same state that I was in before I started taking them. This is the reason that Inez, my Naturopath has increased the dosage on Thuja which is a homeopathic remedy that she has put me on to get rid of all the after effects of the drugs.

I am hoping that this will work soon because at the moment I am feeling ill, one week in every four and it’s horrid. Is anyone else reading this having these symptoms ?

The first month of Natural Fertility Treatment was unsuccessful for us, I got my period last night. This means that this month I had a 32 day cycle. To be fair, we didn’t start to take the Vitamins, Supplements and Hompeopathic Remedies until well into the cycle last month so I would have been shocked if we would have conceived. Onwards and upwards, hey ? I have my second telephone consultaion with my Naturopath next week. I have taken notes on how my cycle has gone this month, the cervical mucus, stomach cramps etc, which is what she wanted me to do. The only thing that may go against us this month is if Buster is working away – a bit hard to get pregnant without your man there ! Some months timing will work and some it won’t, but because I am in it for the long haul that’s fine. I am quietly confident that the Natural Fertility Treatment will work for us. More about the vitamins, supplements and homeopathic remedies that we are taking can be found on a squidoo lens I have created on Natural Fertility Treatment

We absolutely love indian food in our house. Saturday night has always been curry night. We sit down with a glass of wine and a nice curry infront of The Bill (I know, I know people are always giving us grief for the last bit – look we are proud to say we like The Bill).

I love my Onion Bhajis so much that I made a Squidoo lens on them, Onion Bhaji Recipe Lens

Enjoy

My Mom is coming to visit from the UK in the next couple of days. The last time we all saw her was Xmas so we are really excited. The boys have been counting how many sleeps there are until she arrives. We are picking her up from the airport on Thursday evening at 8.50pm and I have told the boys that they can come with me. I know it will be a late night for them, but they love going to the airport, especially because McDonalds is on the way.

I am letting Harry have the Friday off school because I know that he will be tired but also he will be wanting to spend time with Mom. I have so much planned to do with Mom, I want to take her to the Eumundi Markets, Australia Zoo and I want to go away for a night to Brisbane and stay next to Brisbane River. This is my favourite view, the skyscrapers lit up over the river is breathtaking.

Come on Mom, hurry up and arrive we can’t wait !

Well, what do you know the Natural Fertility Treatment that we are on looks like its working – I am ovulating. My Naturopath told me to get some of those ovulation test sticks, the ones that you pee on, lovely I know. I started to test from Day 9 and the second line (test line) was not even visible at first and then it has got a little bit darker every day and today it was the same colour as the Control line which means that the LH surge has been detected and that I should ovulate within the next 24 to 36 hours. It says that you should have intercourse today and tomorrow. Well Buster is away until tomorrow night working, so I am not sure whether or not this will be too late, but we will try anyway.

I have previously tried to test for ovulation with the cheap ovulation test sticks that you can buy 100 for $10 or something equally crazy and they didn’t work. This time my Naturopath reccommended a brand and they work. The brand is Ovunow, they are more expensive but the big plus – THEY WORK ! I have included an image of my double line that confirms the LH surge. I have created a Squidoo lens on Ovulation because I know how hard it is to confirm when you are ovulating, this will help,

This video shows Harry using his Leapfrog Globe and shows all the cool features that it has :

I know I have done a few posts on Squidoo, can’t help talking about something that I am honestly addicted to. Well recently I made a new lens there called ‘Promote your Squidoo Lenses for Traffic’ and it gives you a list of sites where you can post your lenses to to gain more traffic. We all know the importance of backlinks, right ? The more the merrier.

This lens includes the places where I post to, not only lenses, it includes a couple on there where I put some of my blog posts. Promote Squioo Lenses

If you haven’t heard of squidoo and are yet to start making squidoo lenses then it is something that you don’t want to miss out on. It’s free, easy and they have a great community over at Squidoo, come and join us.

Natural Fertility Treatment is the road we are taking now. I googled natural fertility treatment and a site came up of a Homeopathy Centre in Brisbane which is tailored towards fertility. They claim to have a success rate of 87% within 4 cycles. I telephoned them, the lady is called Inez, she was lovely and really easy to talk to. We decided with her appointments and me only getting a few hours between school drop offs that it wouldn’t be practical for me to go to Brisbane (it’s an hour and half away), instead we have a telephone consultation booked in the next couple of days. The treatment is $200 per month which includes all the hompeopathic things that me and Buster will need to take.

We are giving it a go, what have we got to lose ? The treatment will balance my hormones (must be good stuff, they are all over the place ) and get me ovulating. Busters treatment will optimize his sperm count. I have a good feeling about it all – will keep you informed

I apologise in advance because this is going to be a little bit of a rant, sorry, but the other day at Harry’s soccer game one of the parents really did something that ticked me off. It was the soccer photo morning, which can be a bit long as we had to go for the photos before the game and get all the boys there for 7.30am. All went well, the boys were all relatively behaved, just running around a bit – as you expect kids to do. Then we all went the short way to the soccer field where they were due to play at. It was nearly an hour before they were due to play so one of the Dads and myself took the boys over to a part of the field that was not being used where there was a goal and we lined the boys up and they were having practise shots. They were all behaving and just joking around every now and again, but all was going well.

Then another Mom came over with her son, who can at times be a bit unruly. He didn’t want to join in, she said something to him and he kicked and thumped her. Eventually she persuaded him to get in the line. They my son Harry said to this boy ‘we are shooting into the goal and letting it roll down the hill, it’s cool’. The boy turned on Harry, pointing at him and saying ‘you’re mean, I’m telling’ – ok, he was obviously having a bad day. Harry, just got on with the soccer watching the next one shooting. What happened next, astounded me.

The boys Mom marched past me and stood infront of the line of boys saying in a loud voice ‘Will you all just leave **** (her sons name) alone, he has been away from soccer for 3 weeks and he is just back and you are all just picking on him’ – WHAT ????? I thought, this woman has lost the plot, I had been stood right next to them and nothing had been said or done to him. I let it go and she went back to where she was standing which was further away from the kids than me. Nothing changed, no bullying, nothing, but she then came back and said ‘I mean it, just leave him alone’ (this was in a louder voice). OK, enough. I questioned just what she was talking about and she mentioned 2 names, one being Harry and another boy were always picking on him – WHAT !!!!! Harry had just tried to be nice to him and encourage him and he had been mean back. She obviously didn’t conveniently see the spell earlier where her son had ran at Harry, tried to kick him and Harry had just walked off and not fought back which I am not shy to say made me proud. Don’t get me wrong Harry and Sam (his younger brother) can fight – Harry is no angel, but on this occasion he acted well. She then stood infront of me and pointed at me that she would tell Harry every time, to which I replied if you have a problem with my son, talk to me, approach him again and I will report you. I then told her to get away from me, basically the words used were ‘get out of my face, leave it’. I just needed her to go away. The Dad and another Mom who had come over had taken the boys away while this was going on. I WAS SO ANGRY WITH HER – HOW DARE SHE. She then frog marched up to the other boys Mom who she had mentioned and told her that he had been picking on her son. I waited until she had gone and told this Mom just before she was about to have words with her child that he was not guilty of anything. The whole thing left me stunned. A couple of the Moms there talked to me and said they were glad that I had responded, I did the right thing. I then got myself together because I didn’t want Harry and Sam to see me upset.

During the game she came up and said a very forced and false sorry, which I accepted. I did say again though if you have a problem with Harry come and talk to me and I will sort it. It’s not that I mind a parent putting Harry straight as my friends don’t mind me putting their kids straight if they are not around and their kids are misbehaving, but judging by her outburst and the fact that Harry had honestly, hand on heart not done a thing wrong – I dont want her approaching him again. If she does I am taking it further. Needless to say when I now see her outside the class in the morning the ‘Hello’ that we give each other goes with one of those false smiles.

We had some fun the other day planting some seeds out of the apples and pears we had ate that day. The boys are waiting for an apple and pear tree to grow now. The trouble is that they want it to grow by next week Does anyone know of any super fast miracle grow fertiliser ?

Found out last night that we didn’t get pregnant again this month. As you know I took the Gonal F Injections this month to stimulate ovulation and our chances were slimmer because we had to use my husband, Busters frozen sperm as he was working away. Freezing it did have some affect on the quality, the motility was only 20% and it is normally 60%. To be honest I didn’t feel like I was pregnant, I just knew that I wasn’t, if that makes sense. I don’t think that I am coping very well with all the drugs and intevention anymore, as they say here in Australia ‘I am over it’.

I took the whole disappointment thing better this month too. It’s funny how it seems to be getting easier now each month, instead of harder. I think I have accepted that it’s not going to happen overnight and although I am not generally a patient person I seem to have found some patience from somewhere. Buster comes home in a couple of days and then I have my appointment with Paul Stokes the fertility guy, so me and Buster are going to have a chat when he comes home about what we do from here.

I have created a lens on our long journey with Clomid and Intrauterine Insemination which can be found here, Intrauterine Insemination, our journey

This month I have had a month away from Clomid because my fertility guy suggested that we try the gonal f injections to stimulate ovulation. This was definitely different, injecting yourself every night. At first I hesitated for a good couple of minutes just looking at my belly and then the needle and back and forth between the 2, but once I had done it a couple of times it was just like the normal routine. 8.30pm would come and would go off and stick the needle in my belly I had to inject myself for 12 nights berfore an 18mm follicle was ready for the HSG shot. I created a video on myself using the gonal f injections:

I have also created a lens which provides more information on gonal f injections:
http://www.squidoo.com/gonal-f-injections