And now, the beginning of Jake.

*Warning, this article may contain content that could be deemed inappropriate, but since I'm a nurse, not much in the world of health is off limits or inappropriate to me... so read on, but know you were warned if you are grossed out by anything I say. (really, it's not that bad, but some people think mentioning the words "cycle" or "birth control" or "ovulate" or "OBGYN" are just inappropriate.)

So, we decided it was time to start trying for some little Pickles!!

In August of 2009, we were visiting Derick's sister in Dallas (she probably has no idea) when, together, Derick and I decided that come spring of the next year, we would start trying for a baby. That would put me being pregnant during his final year of college and I'd have enough time to take 12 full weeks of maternity leave, and then he would graduate. That was the plan. You know, the "life plan". Now, I had been told, previously, that it's wise to discontinue birth control long before you start trying for a baby. Turns out, that is completely false. But I didn't know that then, so I quit birth control on August 10th, 2009. I had been taking it for several years. Mind you, prior to OCP's (oral contraceptive pills), I had a completely normal cycle. Well, I know that following month that I did ovulate. FYI-The month after you quit birth control is a very fertile month... and for someone like me, it would have been my most fertile month, had I known. But I did not. I was thinking I didn't want any of those crazy birth control hormones messing up my baby!! And we were waiting until spring. For the next 4 months, I tried to figure out my cycles. That was dumb-they were practically non-existent. Well, they were anovulatory cycles. Which meant, plainly, I was not ovulating. The way I found out that was what it was called was in talking with a resident about it. In around February, I was telling him how screwed up my body was and he began asking me questions about it. For those of you who are not in the health field, or related to someone in the health field, it is totally normal to be extremely open about details related to body functions, bodies, medicine, health in general, when talking with another healthcare provider. I'll spare the details of our convo. But what it boiled down to was that something was causing my body to not ovulate. So, the next time my actual OBGYN was on the unit, I discussed these things with him. He said to come in to the office and we'd check it out. So, we made an appointment (March 2nd, 2009, to be exact).

The appointment basically went like this. Oh, and Derick was present too. I had to don the oh-so-lovely and incredibly revealing gown. The doctor came in and said he was going to do an ultrasound of my ovaries. Okay, fine. Well, to get to those... you gotta get invasive. Dang. Ok, so an L&D nurse shouldn't be so freaked out about invasive things involving the area she worked with on a daily basis... But come on, man! I worked with this dude on our unit from time to time. It was weird. So, gown on, sheet over my lap. Out comes those God-awful stirrups that he asked me to put my feet in. Then I hear, "and slide your bottom to the end of the table". If that wasn't awful enough, I didn't scoot my rear far enough, so he had to ask me to keep scooting. Oy vey. If this picture has not been painted clearly enough, and you have been blessed enough to not have an ultrasound probe before, let's just say I was completely humiliated. Once I got past the humiliation and could focus on what he was talking about, that probe was already showing on the screen what it was pointed toward. The screen was lit up like a christmas tree. Actually, it lit up like a cluster of grapes. There they were... the problem-causer of the whole ordeal. My uncooperative ovaries.

I leave you with a couple pictures of my what a normal day in my life might look like. Multiple times a day I put everything in its place in the living room. It seems he gets his entertainment from undoing everything. And I mean that literally, everything!

this basically encompasses his favorite pastimes:

making messes, getting into places/things he should not, and being naked

Happy Thursday!!

Love, The Pickles