Bye-bye black jeans

While zipping up my stiff-denim black jeans this morning, I thought I could probably wear them one more time after today before the bloating made them uncomfortable.

I just had to change my pants. I'd unbuttoned them almost as soon as I settled in at my desk, and I'd had them unzipped — all the way — for at least 2 hours. Good thing I work from home.

Updates from yesterday's Day 5 happenings:

10 of the 11 resting follicles are still showing up; 4 are measuring 9–10 mm, and the rest are right behind at 6–8mm.

My E2 was 166, which is right where it should be at this stage.

I am generally stimming at a slower pace than I have in the past, so I may stim longer. I started stims earlier (CD 2 — one could even argue it was CD 1.5), so I like to imagine that I caught some of the follies before they had a chance to start the normal dying-off process they'd go through in an unmedicated cycle . . . and so maybe we'll get a few that are truly helped along by the hormones I'm aiming at them . . . instead of just a bunch of artificially mature-looking eggs that took the hormone bait and grew, but are missing the components needed to create an embryo that properly divides ALL THE WAY through the stages of cell division and turns into the poor bean that will have to take care of its older-than-dirt parents while still young.

I had acupuncture yesterday, too. During this phase of the cycle, I get electro-stimmed twice a week. On Monday, I had trouble feeling the fluttering sensation from the needles, and acupuncturist J had to keep turning up the "volume." I never really did feel anything. But yesterday the buzzing feeling was strong. Instead of acclimating to it, I sensed it all the way through the treatment and ended up a little nauseated at the end. Maybe those 6 smaller follicles will now wake up, shape up, and join the party by the Day 8 scan.

Have I mentioned that I've been talking to my follicles since the suppression check? I'm thinking of every last one of 'em as a potential keeper.