Shehecheyanu

My goal for this week has been rest. I took out my birth control ring on Sunday in preparation for my baseline appointment and starting the stimulating injections on Wednesday, and went to the office on Monday and Tuesday to finish up my grading and meet with any students who had last minute things to turn in. At the appointment on Wednesday, my period still hadn't really started, so they did an ultrasound but advised me not to start the injections until after I had a flow.

So Thursday, I took advantage of no work and no appointments and napped for almost the entire day. It was glorious and perfect and beyond necessary - i've been so stressed about a million things, it was nice to take a day and just be a complete vegetable. I napped until my noon medication alarm went off, took the meds, and went right back to sleep until the alarm to pick up my son from school. And I felt so, so good after, and didn't even have any trouble falling asleep that night which tells you, I had been pretty much running on fumes. I needed that rest so desperately.

At the ultrasound on Wednesday, the nurse pointed out my uterus looked like it was ready for my period to begin within a day if not hours, and she was right - not even 12 hours after the appointment, I felt a cramp and voilà, there it was.

I messaged them in the morning and they told me to start the shots today, Friday. I was a little nervous, even with an explanation of how to mix the medicines and demonstration of how to combine them so I'd only have to do one shot. But I was brave and got it done, focusing on the outcome and keeping in mind what we want most in the end. It helped also that my son was right next to me and my husband was on a video call, and as I did the shot, they said a special Hebrew blessing for the first time of doing something - the Shehecheyanu.

My husband will be home on Wednesday, and on Thursday he has an appointment at the embryology lab in San Francisco so we will have a frozen sperm sample as back up for the day of the egg retrieval. I'm very ready to have him home, for some more rest and someone else to handle some of the stress. But also, because it means we're at such an exciting point in this process, and as scary and nerve-racking as it is, there's no one in the world who makes me feel safer and more comfortable and more cared for.