Updates

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Oh, yes! On November 20th Jer and I went in to the fertility clinic for our egg retrieval. I was glad to be done with all the medications I had to take leading up to it, involving three needles a day towards the end and a very emotional me as a side effect from the very elevated estrogen level, but it was not a pleasant experience. I'm hoping we never have to do that one again! The staff at the clinic was great and tried to make us feel super comfortable, but like I said, I'm hoping we never have to do it again. Our fertility specialist was able to retrieve 18 eggs and of those 18, 16 were mature and 11 were fertilized using a process called ICSI. 10 of our embryos made it to our transfer day five days later. We transfered just one at the blastocyst stage, five were ready for freezing, and of the four left we were able to freeze one more. Six little embryos on ice! I go in to find out if it worked on December 10th, which seems like an unfairly long wait. I begged for a picture of our embryo, which is not something our clinic usually offers, but they were super sweet and made sure we got one. I even got a phone call from the IVF coordinator the day afterwards asking if we had gotten it. It really makes things so much easier to have a clinic where the staff goes out of their way to make sure we have the best experience possible. We had a not so great experience with our first specialist, so we're both very glad that we love our current one. Enough gushing, here is our little embryo..

Jer has nicknamed it bubbles. Several friends have made jokes about it having our eyes because if you look closely you can see two darker dots that look like a pair of eyes. Let's hope that bubbles sticks around!

A couple days after retrieval, Lucy came to visit me for a Pyrex trading/crafting/puppy playdate day, which was a nice distraction!

She taught me how to make adorable hair bows..

and I taught her to knit..

Lola and Bertram (Lucy's adorable pup) adored each other. They spent a while romping around the backyard and then chasing each other through the house. Lola loves a dog that will actually play chase with her! They were actually perfect playmates so we're going to have to get them together again soon.

Lucy and I have another thrifting adventure planned for this coming Monday! There are a couple of pieces I'm hoping to find now that we are re-arranging a couple rooms in the house. A mid-century tall boy for Jer is high on the list, and maybe that library card catalogue I've been lusting after. I need some better storage for my craft supplies.

I've also been slowly decorating this house for Christmas.

Garland making and star knitting have been first on the list. Feeling a little ambitious, I wanted to make some of these stars for gifts, but I'm not sure that is going to happen. I am a very slow knitter and I haven't managed to get them quite perfect yet.

We put up our tree last weekend, and are slowly pulling everything else out. Our shopping is almost done, and I am happy to say that more than half of our gifts this year are either handmade or vintage. There are still a few more to be made, but some of those will have to be shared after Christmas in case the recipiants are reading.

A couple Christmas projects I am loving this year:
Snow globes
Needle felted ball wreath
Adorable stocking