Medicine Batch #1

There are an overwhelming number of drugs that you take when getting ready for and going through IVF. Mini-batch number one for me includes Provera (bottle) to start a new cycle, antibiotics (six white pills) to kill something(??) and birth control (little pack) to suppress all my hormones. I'm pretty excited about the pills because my personal hormones are wacked out and I think they deserve to be suppressed and replaced by artificial ones.



Total cost: a very pleasant $22.28!

Yep, I'm a Planner!

Andrew and I spent the first half of the day in IVF class. I loved it. Lots of information and an official IVF calendar that's just for ME! Of course, the financial session was no fun, but I'm choosing to think of it as the best way in the world to spend the equivalent of the cost of a mediocre car...

When my next cycle starts, I'll go back on birth control. Everyone always points out the irony of starting bcps when most of us stopped them months (in our case--years) ago when we decided to start ttgp. I'm past irony; I'm ready for some action that involves a fairly decent chance of finally ending up with a baby or TWO! From there, it's shots and more shots.

My IVF nurse is wonderful and coincidentally has a music degree, so Andrew thought she was swell. She said it was a great time at their clinic and lots of people seemed to be having great cycles. I'll take all the good karma I can get and have decided to think of this as the "perfect time" for us to get pregnant.

As a side note, my husband (admitted needle-phobe) made it through the shot class portion of the morning with no major incident. According to him, the needles are much smaller in real life than he'd imagined. I still think I will be having a nurse friend give me the ones that I can't reach to do myself, but it's nice to know he might could do it if the need arises.

Things are looking up at the Mroch house! Any doctor's visit that ends with a calendar party is fun times in my book!

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

I am co-hosting a double baby shower for two coworkers next week and decided to make some freezer paper onesies with a school theme. I've made several of these and they seem to be popular so I thought I would do a quick tutorial. It's easy and a cheap way to give a personalized gift.


To begin, I downloaded a fun font from dafont.com. It's a free site and very easy to use. This is my personal favorite, "Badaboom." You can experiment with different sizes and fonts, but keep in mind that the simpler the shape, the easier it will be to work with. I usually look for block-y shapes with no swirly designs. Print and trim the paper down to a more manageable size.

Tape the sheet of paper of paper to a slightly larger piece of freezer paper, with the design side of the paper touching the waxy side of the freezer paper. I like to tape along all four sides of the paper to keep the sheets from sliding as I'm cutting out the letters.

Turn over the paer and sit it on top of an old magazine or something that will keep you from cutting through and damaging your table. I use an old Golf Digest that I don't think my husband ever read. Using an Exacto knife, carefully cut around the letters. This "CCHS" is simple, because it doesn't have any letters that have enclosed shapes. An "O," for example, requires you to keep up with the circle that gets cut out of the middle. When you're ironing on the template, you have to place the center of these letters onto the fabric and make sure that they're placed correctly so that the letters can be painted. I use tweezers for the placement if the letters are on the small side. Once you've cut out all the letters, untape the paper from the freezer paper. You have made your stencil.

I prep the onesie by sliding a piece of cardboard inside. This will prevent the paint from soaking through. Next, set your iron to the hottest non-steam setting and place your template on the fabric, making sure it's centered and/or lined up correctly. Lightly run your iron over the template, melting the wax and sealing the template to the shirt. Run your fingers over the letters to make sure none of the edges of your design are unsealed. The wax backing of the freezer paper will stick to most cotton fabrics nicely, but will come undone if you iron over it too many times.

Paint over the stencil using acrylic paint. I use a foam brush and apply the paint in dabbing motions. I try not to rub the paint in because the stencil could always unstick from the fabric. This has never actually happened to me, but I'm careful anyway.

Wait (patiently) until the paint has dried and peel off stencil. Voila! A cheap, personalized gift (and my first ever blog tutorial)!

May's Reading List

1. Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult (A)--at least this one had a totally different storyline. My last Jodi entry was a critique of how often her storylines seem to repeat themselves. This one's about infertility and I managed to make it through to the end with no tears. As always, there was an interesting legal twist in the end that was resolved to the mother's liking.