169.6

I feel like I'm making progress losing weight. I started noticing a few days ago that my body felt less jiggly and more toned. I also noticed the other day that it was easier for me to walk up the three flights of steps to my office. I work on the 4th floor(and one of those floors has an auditorium so it is extra tall) and try to use the stairs to get a few more steps in. Usually by the time I get to the top I'm huffing and puffing, but it hasn't been so bad the past few days. And this evening according to Wii Fit (the closest thing I have to a scale in my house), I came in at 169.6! This is the first time I've been under 170 since our wedding. So this definitely feels like a victory.

To make it even better, this was after I had a couple desserts at a dinner picnic this evening. So it wasn't just an empty stomach. Since I've been using the WiiFit often and weighing myself more, I've been noticing swings in weight. For example I could tell that our dinner out at the Melting Pot made me gain 1.5 pounds! Luckily that was only a temporary upswing and now things are back down and down even farther. So I'm hoping this is not just a downswing but part of the real trend.

It has been hard to wake myself up early to attend these morning exercise classes I started going to before work. But I think they really work for me and it's a way to get some exercise without losing motivation after a long day at work.

Fail

Oh dear. If only it was this easy.

And to think, we've been avoiding hot tubs this whole time.

Support IRL

I don't mean to minimize the amount of support you guys provide, but I was wondering what type or amount of support you get from people in real life? I feel rather lucky. First, my hubby is wonderful. As soon as we got the first low SA, he made the changes he needed to do. I no way feel he is going along with this just for my sake.

I also have a friend who just recently gave birth to a cute little boy conceived via IVF. We haven't actually talked about IF that much together b/c she's been a little busy with the last months of pregnancy and a newborn the past several months as I've gotten our diagnoses. But just knowing she is there to talk when I'm ready makes me feel better.

This week I received an email with an invitation to this support workshop. I've been debating about whether we should go. I want to go, but the cost is high for where we are now and it is not a very good weekend for my husband. It would be the third weekend in a row that was taken up with many activities and his master's class is quickly coming to a close so he needs to focus on it. But when I went back to the site just now I notice the next workshop is not until February. I might want to wait a little bit, but not 6 months. So I might be going alone.

There is a possibility that my insurance would pay for this workshop as a mental health claim, so I'm going to look into that tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary

I've always been someone who likes to be in control. So that's why I started charting my cycles 18 months ago, even before we starting trying to have a baby. And that's why when my primary care doctor offered to give me a referral to an RE when we had only been trying for 6 months, I jumped at it. Yes, I know you can't really have an IF diagnosis until you've been trying for one year. Sometimes couples are just really unlucky and it could take up to a year.

But the offer was given and I took it. Several weeks later the RE confirmed what I had noticed in my charting: that my cycles are not very regular. We also got hubby's semen analysis back and that left much to be desired. So the treatments started.

But somewhere in the back of my head I thought we couldn't really be infertile if we haven't tried for a year. Maybe it was just really bad luck. Yes, I have irregular cycles, but I still ovulate on my own and since the RE called it "unexplained" then maybe it's just bad luck or bad timing. Yes, the hubster had a poor semen analysis, but his second one was much better, so maybe that was just a fluke.

While we did start some medications, I have been hesitant to go all in because I wanted to wait. This one year timeline seemed like a big bright line that we hadn't crossed yet. As I joined the blogging community, I was hesitant to join in some conversations thinking that those going through IF for an extended period of time wouldn't want to hear from me. Less than one year? That's not even infertile.

Last year we had big plans to start trying for a baby in August. This date was carefully planned because we thought of course it would happen right away and were trying to plan when when the baby was born. I had gone off the pill l months earlier so I could chart my cycles and have more control over it. Our plan was to use other forms of BC until August. But then our vacation started on July 4th and continued on through our anniversary. And apparently we didn't communicate about who would pack the birth control. And there we found ourselves on our vacation--on our anniversary--with no birth control and my knowledge that I was fertile. So we thought, screw it. What difference does one month make?

The result of all of this is that now our wedding anniversary corresponds with our TTC anniversary. So, umm, happy anniversary?

MJ and Transit

We had a great time at the July 4th celebration yesterday. Because my last post was lamenting our city's inconvenient transit system, I have to share this follow-up story.

We ended up driving to the park where the concert and fireworks were. The main acts started at 6pm, but they had small local acts perform earlier in the day. The first band was called Transit and was composed of employees of the public transit system. First they did a decent rendition of "Respect."

But they are not only a cover band. Oh no. They also write their own songs. Including what will surely be a classic: "Take a ride on the MTA." And I have to mention "Afterparty," which is about using public transit to get home when you partied too much that night.

But the best part came when they returned to covers. The added a new singer for the next few songs and started a tribute to Michael Jackson. The new singer did a decent version of "Man in the Mirror." Then the band started playing "Wanna be starting something."

The singer urged the crowd to sing the words if they knew them. Apparently because, as it soon became clear, no one on the stage knew the words. So we had an instrumental version of that song. Followed by an instrumental version of "Rock with me." At least the first half of that song was instrumental. About halfway through that song, they realized "hey, the drummer knows the words!"

Except his mic was not on. Oh well, nice try.

They decided to try their luck at some Jackson 5. The first verse of "I want you back" was great. And the crowd was getting warmed up as it moved into the second verse. At which point the lead singer said to take it from the top. I guess they only knew the first verse?

Well, I hope they do better at driving the buses. Overall it was a fun day and a memorable attempt at a Michael Jackson tribute.

No transit

First I want to wish all the Americans a happy Independence Day! This is one of my favorite holidays b/c it forces us to remember our history and how lucky we are to live in this country.

This year hubby and I are going to watch our city's downtown concert and fireworks show. We've lived in this city for 2 years and last year went out of town for the 4th and so missed their celebration. But our city was rated recently as having one of the country's best fireworks displays, so I guess we better not miss it again.

But one thing this city does not have the best of is public transit. We are urban dwellers and love the city life and the ability to get around easily. Except this city makes it impossible to use public transit to get around and so anything not in walking distance requires a car. And we both hate to drive and hate to park.

The thing is, our bus system is designed as a bunch of spokes that go into and out of downtown. It seems like it would be convenient for those who work downtown and want to use the bus for commuting. But if you want to go anywhere other than downtown, the bus will do you no good. Unless you want to take the bus all the way downtown and transfer to another bus that goes out on another spoke. Not convenient at all. For example, I walk 20 minutes to to work everyday, but looked into how long it would take to use the bus on days when it rained. We live south of downtown, but almost due west of my job. It would take an hour and 40 minutes to get to work by bus. So I have to drive on rainy days.

But today we thought, "hey, the fireworks are downtown, let's take the bus." Parking would be crowded and expensive anyway. There is actually a bus stop right at our corner. So I looked up the schedule to see what time we should walk out to the corner.

The last bus leaves downtown at 7:15pm. Doh! I guess we will drive after all.