Getting Healthy

For the past few months I have been trying to get healthy.

Last year before our wedding I lost about 10kg. In the 7 months since our wedding I have put on about 12! Since we have been TTC I have been aiming to lose that weight and more and get my body back to its most healthy!

Due to the fact that I have PCOS, My hormone levels are very imbalanced and this makes me crave sugary foods and makes it very hard for me to lose weight. A few years ago i tried a detox diet my naturopath suggested. It went for 12 weeks! I made it to week 10 but it was way to hard to maintain! (I craved Toasted cheese sandwiches of all things!) I wasn't allowed to eat dairy, wheat, caffeine, alcohol, tomatoes, red capsicum and sugar! lets just say my cooking had to get very creative on this diet.

As you know I have been seeing a Chinese medical practitioner who specialises in fertility. She has banned me from coffee, chocolate and most dairy foods (Saying that I have just polished off a bowl of cookies and cream : ) and has me taking delicious herbs every day. I have also been eating huge amounts of veggies (I make a huge pot of soup every sunday to have for the weeks lunches) and cutting down on carbohydrates.

I have also started Pilates classes again which I LOVE! And I'm trying to get in a few walks after work, although this is hard in a melbourne winter!

After a week and a bit on this health kick, My skin has cleared up, I havent lost any weight but i have ained some muscles and i am sleeping really well.

Im off to boil up the last of the YUMMY herbs! Enjoy your weekends everyone!

Trying Something New

I just spent an hour boiling up an evil smelling pot of herbs and leaves and my whole house stinks! I have to drink half a cup of this twice a day for the next week. Why you ask? all in the name of baby making!

This month I am seeing a Chinese medical practitioner for accupuncture and other treatments in our quest to get pregnant. My friend reccomended her to me as my usual naturopath works with me and I dont want anyone from work knowing we are TTC.

I went fro my first appointment on tuesday night. After a very in depth discussion about my body and cycles I had an Accupuncture session (was so relaxing I fell asleep!) and was reccomended the aforementioned herbal concoction as an at home treatment.

The accupuncture was to stimulate and balance my ovaries and kidneys. The herbs are mainly to balance out hormone levels and get my whole body feeling great! The therapist also banned me from chocolate (dont know how thats going to go! I have caved twice already. Dont tell!) and most dairy foods (I have already stopped drinking coffee so thats not too hard)

Im due for my next session a couple of days before I think I will ovulate (two weeks from the last session. Hopefully it will result in a BFP!

Last night we had friends over and they have a gorgeous four month old son who I got to play with and cuddle for hours! Cluck, cluck, cluck! Cant wait to get one of my very own!

TTC Cycle 1: Done and Dusted

This cycle was our first of TTC in earnest. Today I got my period.

The past few weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster. I decided to buy an OV Watch to help me track my cycles. Basically you wear this watch to bed every night and it measures salts in your sweat and can tell when ovulation is approaching based on this. It tells you 4 days before you ovulate for maximum Baby Dancing potential!

I have always had cycles that are about 5-6 weeks long but last year i had a cycle that was 10 weeks long! I was diagnosed with PCOS (Poly cystic Ovary Syndrome). Before I bought the watch i did some research and some people with PCOS cant use the watch as it can effect the readings. I figured i would give it a try anyway. This seems to be true for me as this cycle the watch was wrong about the day i ovulated by about 8 or 9 days!

Anyway, because of this our first cycle was a bit of a waste! we didn't BD for long enough because i was relying on the watch to be correct (and we stopped 3 days after the watch said we Oed, mainly from exhaustion : )

So after many BFN's (Big Fat Negatives) and no sign of AF arriving either we were pregnant and were one of those people that HPT's don't work for (very rare!) or the watch was not right for us.

I never really expected to get UTD on our first cycle so I'm not to disappointed.

Onto Cycle 2: I'm seeing an Acupuncturist who specialises in fertility on Tuesday so hopefully with her help i can get my cycles under control!

The Day I Reslized I Was an Adult

So, Last week Mr. Bee and I were called into the bank to discuss insurance, Life Insurance. It was a rather depressing chat to a very over-enthusiastic bank manager about what we would do if one of us was injured, disabled or dead (Scary stuff!)

After we went through all of our options (and the not-so-cheap $$$$ to go along with them) we were left alone to fill out some paperwork.

All of a sudden we just looked at each other and went Whoa! When did we reach a point in out lives where we need life insurance? Surely this was only for middle age people who have the beginnings of grey hair and prefer expensive red wine over beer!

It slowy started dawning on me how much our lives have changed in the past year and a half. First we got engaged in January 08, then 6 months later we decided to start looking into building a house (in a good location for schools and parks for our future kids as opposed to close to great pubs and clubs!). Then the wedding took over our whole lives with invitation selection and making sure Aunty Sally isnt sitting with Uncle Bob.

Before we got married we talked about starting a family but it always seemed so far away and although I was exited, I felt kind of detatched from it because it was something I had no experience with, even though we have lots of family and friends with kids.

After the wedding we started planning TTC in earnest; making sure we had PHI, enough savings to cover me not working (and the insane amount of things babies seem to need). We paid off all of our credit cards, got a mortgage, a new (baby friendly) car and started making sure all of our affairs are in order.

Our Days off together are now spent shopping for new furniture, selecting the exact shade of white for the walls and planning dinners for the week. 2 years ago we would have been spending all day in bed eating icecream and meeting friends for a few lunchtime beers.

I have always been an ambitious person but terrible with finances but now I actually find myself avoiding shoe shopping in favour of more savings and love the feeling of being financially secure and knowing how things are going to work out!

3 years ago I remember sitting around with some of my besties over a bottle of champagne talking about all of the things we wanted to achieve before we turned 30. At that piont 30 seemed like a long way away! now that we are 26-29 years old, almost all of those aims we had have been achieved with time to spare!

So I guess the moral of this story is, one day you will wake up and although you still feel like sixteen year old most of the time, you can handle the tough stuff!

UTD, DTD, CM and other accromyms

Mr Bee and I have been planning our kids for years and cant wait to create our own little mini-Me's! So we got our insurance and finances planned and decided to start trying for one.

Last year when I was planning my wedding extravaganza I joined an Internet forum for brides-to-be. After our wedding was done and dusted and i was officially Mrs. Bee, I came across a previously ignored section of said forum about pregnancy and babies.

I thought this would be a great place to get some info from other ladies who are in the same situation but as I delved deeper into the site i discovered they were all talking in code!

After many hours and weeks of late night reading I have figured out how to make a baby:

1: Temping: you must check your temperature every morning with special thermometer

2: Check your CM (Cervical Mucous; Don't even ask how this is done!)

3: Keep track of your menstrual cycles

4: Make complex fertility charts using above information on FF (Fertility friend website)

5: Stop eating and drinking all the things you love most! Coffee, Alcahol, Chocolate.

6: Take Additional supplements such as EPO, Folate Robitussen (yes, the cough syrup!)

Then, and only then can you even thing about the fun parts!

7: BD: Baby Dancing : ) This can only occur during your most fertile period as often as humanly possible. Do try not to make your beloved feel like an on-call sperm bank! Its not conducive to your relationship outside the bedroom (or kitchen etc...if you like to mix it up!)

8: After your have DTD (Done the deed), you must lay down with your legs in the air to give his swimmers the best chance of finding your eggies

9: When you are happy you have DTD enough to need a chiropractic appointment you have the TWW (2 week wait) to see if AF (Aunty Flow: very retro!) arrives or you can POAS (Pee on a stick) with a HPT (Home Pregnancy Test) to see you were successful in you endevours!


So apparently getting pregnant is not as easy as they tell you in year 10 health class where they say even touching boys can get you with child! If you have managed to read all of this i bet you are wondering how the world got populated!

Saying that, I have a few friends who have fallen without even trying, some who have been unlucky enought to experience misscarriges and some who needed medical help to get their litle bundles of joy.

As someone who is just starting on this journey, I say take it easy and let the good times roll! (This will be the first time in your life your parents will be encouraging you to have sex hehehe!)

Mr.Bee and other furry creatures

Im going to introduce you to my little family.

My Husband (lets call him Mr Bee) and I have been married for 8 months and together for 6 and a half years! He is a lovely shy country boy with a big crazy family (who i love!). He Loves AFL (but what self respecting victorian male doesn't! ) running and was in the army for a year after high school.

We met at a party and had a disco pash in a Bobcat. 5 years later he proposed on a Post-it note and the rest is history!

We have been living together for 4 of those and have 2 cats we treat like children (my mum calls then our 'Babies -in-training' )

Isabelle: we adopted her from an animal hospital. She is a long haired brown tabby with an attitude and a preference for sleeping on 1000 thread count sheets (or in the bathroom sink when its hot)

Molly: Is a beautiful grey and white domestic was adopted from a family member. She thinks she is a puppy and will fetch things and loves sitting on your lap. She also talks very loudly and will answer questions!

They pretend they hate eachothers guts and have massive fights but would be lost if the other wasn't there!

So thats my little family! Hopefully in the next few years we can add a couple of kids and a dog into the mix!

15 Things about ME!

1: I hate Marshmallows and anything with that kind of texture! But I love Brussel Sprouts
2: I always get bored of my hair colour but it always goes back to blonde within 6 months
3: Im quite a homebody. I much prefer being at home or dinner with a few close friends than going out for a big night
4: I have a massive addiction to Pods
5: I said my whole life i would not follow my mum's footsteps as a teacher. But guess what im doing now! you guessed it...Teaching!
6: I love really gross things about the human body (like diseases and cutting brains open)
7: I have a very close family. I cant imagine I would be where I am in my life now without their support
8: I have been married for 8 months and dont think life has changed at all since before mariage
9: Im a virgo and comulsively organised. Im also on the cusp of a libra so this organising compulsion comes and goes!
10: I have one eye that does not focus properly so I see double when things get too close. I wear glasses for reading (well...i should anyway)
11: I have a great memory for lots of random crap. For instance; the dress I wore when i was 2 and what my 3rd Birthday cake looked like, but cant remember what im doing on saturday
12: My Husband and I have named out not yet concieved kids years ago and refer to them by their names already!
13: Reading is a huge passion of mine. I clear at least 2 books a week
14: I hate hot weather and love the snow. (this may have something to do with my very pale skin and northern european grandparents
15: I love Vintage advertising with 1950's pin up girls in them and have a few to hang up in my new house. I also love 1950's style waisted dresses