Two Down, One to Go!

And by that I'm referring to the number of months I've been off my RA meds!

Except for the NSAID, of course--I'll go off of that February 12th and stop drinking on Valentine's Day.

Tomorrow would have been my January infusion--

which means that one month from tomorrow my system will be well and truly clean of RA meds.

And that means we can stop trying not to have a kiddo!

Didja follow that? lol

I've been trying to get as ready as I can for a pregnancy.

That's part of the reason I joined Weight Watchers--I'd like to lose some weight before

I get pregnant.

That way I hopefully won't get to be too much heavier than I am now.

I've also been taking prenatal vitamins since November.

If you haven't been down that particular road yet, DEFINITELY take them with food the first several times.

And I don't mean with a piece of toast--I mean a meal.

Even doing this, the first few times I took the vitamins I still experienced about 10 minutes of nausea.

That might sound like a long time but, as I told my pharmacist, after the two-day nausea from methotrexate the prenatal vitamin nausea was a piece of cake!

Boy do I hope morning sickness is as easy to deal with, comparatively.

Now, however, I take the vitamins before bed and don't experience any nausea.

At my OBGyn's advice, I've also started taking short walks regularly, joint pain permitting.

I definitely don't want to aggravate the RA too much since I only have the NSAID trying to control it.

However, walking also helps improve bone density and mine has been steadily decreasing since this whole mess started.

So, I'm trying to build it back up--or at least stop it from falling any further.

I'm also still going to water aerobics.

I want to try to maintain physical activity throughout the pregnancy, 

and right now it seems as though walking and water aerobics are my two best options.

I'm also keeping up my ab exercises but the stationary recumbent bike started aggravating my knees, 

so I've laid off of that for now.

Bryan and I are also working together to get some home projects done.

We've finally picked out a paint--Behr--and a color, so tomorrow I'm going to tape

the upstairs and spot-prime while he's at work.

That way when the hubby gets home, he can apply the first coat!

I'm hoping to have the upstairs done by the end of this week, and at least a good chunk of the downstairs

done before I get pregnant.

Ideally the stairwell would be done by then as well, but I'm not getting my hopes up lol.

Finding a church was also a goal of ours for before the baby actually comes.

If things continue with our current church as well as they began yesterday,

then that goal is well on it's way to being met!

I'm also doing the silly girl thing and browsing through baby furniture

and nursery themes.

Even my mom's laughing at me over this--we're not even trying yet, after all!

But that said, it sure is fun doing all the research and seeing some of our options!

I can't believe there's only another month to go!

I hope we conceive quickly on our own.

That hope is due in part to sheer excitement, but also is due to the fact that 

we only have a limited time before my doctors decide that I need to get pregnant immediately.

Since it will already have been 3 months without meds when we start trying, and I'm alreay

experiencing low-level flare days, we can't allow my RA to continue doing it's thing without

some sort of inhibitor.

The great thing about pregnancy is that, for 75% of women, it throw RA into some form of remission.

So, if I get pregnant quickly, no worries!

I've even already gone off of my birth control pill to help get my body back in sync on its own, 

with the hope that that will facilitate getting pregnant quicker.

And PS to anyone else getting of the good ole BCP--BEWARE the mood swings!!!
I swear, they're almost worse than going through prednisone withdrawal--at least with that
I know I'm only going to have to fight off being a bitch for about a week.
These post-BCP mood swings have been all over the map!
At least now, a month later, it's finally starting to get better.

If not, well, I asked Dr. C (rheumatologist) how long was "too long" in regards to me conceiving--he said it "depended on how I was doing" but that he was "sure they could give us at least a couple of months."

A couple.

As in two.

 That's a big wow--especially seeing as it can take a normal, healthy couple up to a year.

I talked with Dr. F (OBGyn) and she said that when Dr. C made that call, she would 

"walk us downstairs to the wonderful fertility clinic" to see the doctor she "just loves" and we'd be having

"at least twins".

Oy.

Twins.

Don't get me wrong--we will be ecstatic whatever (and however many) we have.

But seeing as kids are expensive little critters and I'm going to have to chase him/her/them around 

and still deal with my RA and we still want to be able to travel and have a library and a guest room--

yeah, one sounds plenty good to us!

Anyway, no, this blog is not going to suddenly turn exclusively into a "conception journey blog"

or a "mommy blog"--but I guarantee there will be posts concerning both topics in the coming months.

After all, the title is "Just Thinking" and I have a feeling I'll be thinking about both quite a bit!

As always, thanks for reading!