counseling

so one of the requirements that we have to meet before starting to try to conceive is a counseling session. in some ways it's kind of ridiculous that this is a requirement, in other ways this should be a requirement for anyone who wants to have children, but we all know that would never happen. we went to see the psychologist today, and what an interesting experience it was. she informed us when we got there that she would make an assessment of us to send back to the doctor on whether or not she felt that we were ready to have children. the psychologist's office was located on the ground level of an apartment building, which was odd to begin with... and then when we walked into her "office" it pretty much looked like the inside of an apartment. at this point i wouldn't be surprised if she actually lived there lol. so today was a very very hot day, and while there was an air conditioning unit in the room that we had our session in, she for whatever reason refused to turn it on. the whole thing was bizarre.. and very warm. she asked us a lot of questions about our relationship and our family history as well as how we were going to handle various situations that could arise. there were several times where we felt like she was trying to stump us with questions- which we keep joking about like, "what would you do if you knew you were pregnant with triplets and one had 4 arms and the other had 2 heads and they were both cannibalizing the third triplet... what would you do?" she didn't actually ask that, but that's how ridiculous some of the "trick questions" seemed to be lol. anyway, great news... we passed the test with flying colors!!!

update!

So i went for the saline sonogram on may 31 due to the results of the hsg test and luckily, everything looks good!  tomorrow morning, i'm going to get a few other blood tests done, just to test genetic things.  after that, we're pretty close to actually trying to conceive for the first time!!!  yaaay!

we have three things left on our "to do" list... first, on june 20th, we are going to the counselor which is a weird requirement but whatever.  then my thyroid levels will need to be checked again at the end of the month.  and then we need to pick some sperm!  ha!

in other news, i'm pretty sure that my favorite names are Eden Quinn for a girl and Augusten Lee for a boy!   =P

for today, my favorite names are...

For a Girl... (Andrea hates "Delainey Monroe", so i've had to choose others.  boo for her!  =P )

     -1- Eden Quinn

     -2- Violet Belle

     -3- Cordelia Quinn

     -4- Scarlet Monroe (love the name, but initials are SM...hmm)

For a Boy... 

     -1- Julian Alexander 

     -2- Graham Douglas

     -3- Augusten Lee

Disclaimer:  These will most likely change in a few days  :)

what's your favorite name today?

So ever since M wrote the post below she's been asking me every day what my favorite name is. EVERY DAY :) I've stayed pretty consistent so far, but in case you were wondering, my favorites today are:

GIRLS
Violet Anastasia
Violet Belle
Eden Quinn
Scarlet Monroe

BOYS
Augusten Lee
Grayson Cole
Julian Thomas


So yeah, there you have it! Also... it looks like we may start trying in July instead of August! How exciting!!!

possible names

so we haven't even tried to get pregnant at this point.  BUT because of all of these tests, we now have baby names on the brain!

For a girl...
Right now we really like the name "Violet"!  SO this is what I like to call the "Violet Collection"  haha
-Violet Elise
-Violet Rayne
-Violet Jane
-Violet Annabel
-Violet Anastasia
-Violet Janelle
-Violet Belle
-Violet Noelle

However, we do like other names besides Violet.  Here they are...
-Harper Annabel
-Delainey Monroe - Lanie for short (My Favorite!!)
-Eden Valencia
-Eden Quinn
-Tori Brielle
-Imogen Clover
-Scarlet Monroe
-Cordelia Quinn
-Ivy Brielle


For a boy...
There are not as many.  Here they are in no particular order... but at the moment, I like Julian and Graham the best for a first name.  That could always change tomorrow!!  ha!
-Elliot Garrison
-Augusten Drake
-Augusten Lewis
-Augusten Lee
-Grayson Parker
-Grayson Cole
-Grayson Edward
-Graham Douglas
-Graham Owen
-Graham Alexander
-Julian Mitchell
-Julian Thomas
-Julian Graham

new chapter

It's hard for me to believe that in a few short months we will be starting to try to conceive! It seemed so far away, but time has flown and here we are. Like M, I am beyond excited to start this new chapter of our lives together! I started reading some key pregnancy books a few months ago just to see what we were in for and I like to think that we are pretty prepared, but I still feel as though there are so many unknowns. I'm glad that we decided to use a fertility doctor instead of giving things a go on our own because we are learning about so many things that we never would have thought of.
M had her HSG test yesterday and handled the whole thing like a trooper. She's definitely the stronger of the two of us as far as tolerance for pain goes. I admire her so much for everything that she has to go through in order for us to have children. I know she will be an amazing mother and I cannot wait to share the experience of parenthood with her.

the dye test

so the dye test was not too bad.  i definitely wouldn't say that it was pleasant, but it was bearable.  first i had to put my knees on these pads which was weird, but whatev.  then they did a bunch of stuff down there, they told me what they were doing, but to me it just sounded like gibberish!  At one point, they put something in that started the cramping.... then, it was awful.  really bad cramps, but i figured it wouldn't last that long, so i just dealt with it.  at one point, i had to turn from side to side so that they could get a different view.  once they pulled everything out, the cramping started to subside.  and now, 4 hours later, i only have mild cramping.  

so the results... everything looked great except for one part of my uterus.  they showed me the mark on the picture that they took.  they said it could either be an air bubble, or something that needs to be removed.  either way, they said it wasn't that big of a deal.  so now i have to go in for a saline sonography somewhere between day 6-10 of my next cycle.  this will give them more info.  the procedure is less harsh that the dye test and is done in their office, so yay for that!  hopefully i won't have to take the entire day off, maybe just a half day.  i'm glad we're doing all this now so that we are ready to go in august!! (or even possibly july, we'll see!)