Then I went out for reinforcements and got this (around noon):

I'm so excited I can barely stand it! I'll go in for Beta #1 on Wednesday morning when I get back in town.

And this:

 

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy Birthday to me! ;-)

I know sometimes I may seem like a debbie-downer, especially here recently, but it is days like these where I remember how fortunate I really am. I so lucky to have found and married an amazing man. I have a wonderful family, who love and support me unconditionally. I have been so fortunate to make some great friends through out my 28 years. Other than a baby, I can honestly say I don't think there is one thing I "want". I am truly blessed.

Getting ready before the unified commencement.

 

Me with friends from school after the unified commencement.

The weekend was so much fun! My older sister surprised me and came in town from NYC. One of my younger sisters and her BF came in town from ATL, and my stepmom drove it with my youngest sister. It was so great to have everyone together. Saturday I went to my monitoring appointment early and was able to make it down to the unified commencement in time to participate! I'm so happy I made it because it was a really great ceremony. Anderson Cooper gave a great commencement address which was \funny and touching. After the unified commencement ceremony, we went to a friend's house for brunch to celebrate before going to the second ceremony where I actually got my diploma. Saturday night we celebrated with dinner at my moms house and on Sunday my father hosted a great crawfish boil in my honor. It was such a great weekend.

This morning I went in for IUI#3. I had an important meeting at 9am, so I went in for my IUI at 11:30. I decided to take the rest of the day off work to rest. Let's hope lucky #3 does the trick!

DH and I have been talking a lot about what we're going to do if these IUIs don't work. We've always planned to only do 3 IUIs post-lap so if this one doesn't work, we've only got 1 more left before we move on to IVF. There is only 1 clinic in New Orleans and it doesn't have the best success rates for IVF. We are thinking about going out of state if we end up having to do IVF. We're looking at CCRM and CRMI. We are totally out of pocket for IF procedures, so we figure if we're going to spend the money to do IVF we might as well do it with the best. CCRM publishes their prices on the internet so we know its only about $2,000 more for the procedure itself than going to our local clinic which makes me even more inclined to go out of state. While the travel would add some costs, we have a family friend who lives in Denver so it would really only be airline costs. On the other hand, the nice thing about going with CRMI is that I have two sisters who live in new york so it would be a great excuse to spend time with them. I'd also have a free place to stay in NYC as well so it would just add airline cost to the equation. I need to email them to find out about their pricing. I've heard less about their program but do know its a well respected practice. I'd love to hear from anyone who has expereinces with either clinic.

Before.

Between the deck and the fence we planted Jasmine (left) which we will train to climb up the poles and around the trestle. In between the poles we planted bamboo (right) which should grown nicely and provide a pretty backdrop.