Pumpkin bread

So I promised that if this recipe turned out I would post it and some pics. Well, it was delicious and easy, so you here you are!!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 can (16 ounces) pumpkin purée
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Preparation:
Grease and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin and oil.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; add pumpkin mixture. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
Makes 2 loaves of pumpkin bread.

Updates!!

Went in today for our last monitoring appt. Things are still looking great!! Looks like about 10 follies on the right side, 5 on the left side. All between 16-19. We did stims for the last time this morning. Trigger is tomorrow, sometime between 7pm and 2am and ER will be Thursday between 7am and 2pm, depending obviously on the exact trigger time which I will find out tomorrow.

I am excited. ER was pretty easy last time, hopefully it will be the same this time.

The hard part will be the time between ER and ET. I know that I will be anxious waiting to hear about our embryos and how they are growing and if they will make it.

I just hope that they do and that God looks out for them and helps nurture and grow them strong.

So, tomorrow is Lupr.on, Omnitr.ope, and trigger. Then no more shots.....until I start Heparin again. But it's all for a good outcome, I will do all I need to get a healthy baby.
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Tired blogger

Sorry I haven't been posting much.

Here's the rundown since last week's great appt:

Friday, started stims, Omnitr.ope, E.strace, and Dex.amethasone. Felt kinda nauseated that day for some reason. Figured it must be a lot of medicine hitting my system at once.

Saturday, same, went shopping at Ta.rget and Ko.hls and got some lunch at Pan.era Bread (YUM!!), but then started feeling icky while shopping. It passed, but the bed was my friend the rest of the day.

Sunday, more of the same. Didn't really get out of bed much, didn't feel good after eating lunch, getting kinda sick of feeling sick.

Monday, got smart, decided to take my Est.race with my breakfast instead of with my morning OJ. Lo and behold the nausea lets up. Smart me! Finally.

Tues, feeling good again.

Well, other than the complete exhaustion I am feeling from the insomnia from the Dex.amethasone. It's really doing a number on me still. I slept alright last night, but not good by any means. It's okay though, whatever I need to do, I will do it.

As for our appt yesterday....can you say nervous?? I am not feeling as bloated or sore as I did last time so I was wondering what, if anything, was going on. Again with the upset stomach before the appt and thoughts running through my head; What will we do if........(can't even say it), I can't start over again, OMG, I just...............and on and on.

So we go, I undress, as per normal, from the waist down, and get in position for the lovely dildo cam.

Dr. S puts in in and instantly turns the screen to me and asks me if I see what he sees......a bunch of black circles surrounding my ovary. Righty has about 7 (all 8-10) and lefty has about 5 (all 8-10). Dr said he "is happy" with this. I am too!! Last time we had 8-9 follies and got 7 eggs, five which fertilized, so the potential of more to work with is amazing!! Grow my little follies, grow!!!

We are staying on the same dosage (which for reference.....began at 6 vials of Men.opur, 25 units of Omn.itrope, and 10 units of Lupron with 2 Es.trace/day and 2 De.xamethasone/night for 3 days and then we dropped the Meno.pur to 4 vials/day and the rest stayed the same) and we go back in on Friday morning to see how things are looking.

My boss knows that I may miss a day or two of work and he does not want me to miss Tuesday, but for some reason I have a feeling that might be our ER day. We will see though.

C'mon body, you can do this!! I am trying to have faith and trust in a higher power and believe that this will work this time. It's one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but I am doing all I can. The rest is up to God.

Today is a Good Day

We went in for our baseline u/s today. I was beyond nervous. Totally TMI, but I always get an upset stomach before I go to the doc.......ya know........

Today was no different, I tried to ignore it, but that didn't work so well for me.

ANYWAY!! I left work at 9, picked up A, and we headed in. We walked right into the room, the doc did his thing with the dildo cam, and I waited patiently. Okay, maybe not so patiently. And I might have cried on the way to the office.

An interminable wait later (okay, maybe two minutes or so), I hear, perfect left ovary (yes!! fist pump!), nice, thin lining (yes!!!), and.......hmmm, where's your right ovary, are you hiding it on me (cute......?). Oh there it is! Perfect, you are good to go. Start your stims tomorrow. We will see you next Wednesday.

OMG!! Perfect? That is SO what I needed to hear. So here we go! The race to grow the biggest, best follies is on. This cycle is going to be (has to be!) our winner.

I listened to "Don't Stop Believin' about 20 times this morning....on the way to work, on the way to pick up A, and on the way to the RE. It's my anthem right now.........just hold on to that feelin'!

Almost time for din. So hungry! And if this pumpkin bread that I am baking turns out good, I am totally posting the recipe to share. :)

Oh the smells you can smell!

First off, I have to make mention of my friend Tarahville, she owns Heaven Scent Boutique. My H got me a gift for my birthday - 2 of her wonderful lotions and one of her sugar scrubs. They showed up in the mail today - handmade with my chosen scents - and they smell DIVINE. I cannot wait for my morning shower to use my sugar scrub. The hardest part is going to be figuring out which lotion to use afterwards!!

Tomorrow is my baseline appt. I am so nervous. Last cycle I went in for my baseline to find that I had a cyst and my RE almost cancelled my cycle. Luckily he sent me to have some b/w and we found that the cyst was not producing hormones so we were able to continue moving forward. I just don't want any of that this time. I just want everything to be quiet - no cysts, nice, thin lining. Just the perfect start.

I also have to ask my RE a question - he prescribed me Dex.amethasone, as he did last time, but it's not on my calendar, so I need to find out if he wants to me to start taking it w/stims as I did last time.

So cross your fingers, send good thoughts, lift up your prayers, whatever you do, that everything is good to go tomorrow and we can get moving. Here's to adding two more injections, Es.trace, and possibly dexamet.hasone to my concoction that already include, L.upron, baby aspirin, and folic acid. :) I am a walking pharmacy!

Anyway you want it.....

That's the way you need it............

We went to see Journey in concert last night. What a great show!! I wasn't sure how I would feel with their "new" lead singer, but he was really great and they put on a good show.

As for our cycle, we are moving along. I started my Lupr.on on Tuesday. Right side, three injects so far, so good. Left side, two injects so far, two bruises. Sigh, I thought I was good at shots, but my left side is not liking me all that much currently.

Tonight is my last night on BCP's (YES!!, hate them!!).

I am currently on my two lovely vaginal gels - the antifungal and the antibiotic. I hate them also. Suffice to say they are irritating and messy. Blech!

So we are moving right along. My first appt w/the RE is on Thursday. Please say some prayers that all is "quiet on the home front" and we can start our stims that day. I am hoping that once we get to that point I will start to get a little bit excited about this cycle because I am not quite there yet.

That's about all for now. We have a get together with friends tonight that I am looking forward too, and I am going to curl up with a good book for this afternoon and just relax. :)