13dp5/6dt - Woah Beta!

This mornings beta looked just fabulous! I was hoping for at least 800 with an optimistic 1200 but my HCG is officially 1642! Go little over achiever, go! My hormone levels looked good too, estrogen is 247 and progesterone is 24, and that's with just Endometrin, no progesterone in oil. Not bad for a natural transfer with no PIO!

I will never tire of peeing on these sticks #newhobby

The next check in is Saturday when they'll do another set of labs. The only bummer is that we've now officially completed our FET cycle so everything is charged by appointment again. Today's labs ran me $450 for HCG, progesterone and estrogen from today, and the Estrogen and Progesterone they added on to my last beta and forgot to charge me for. Going forward, that makes a regular appointment with labs and an ultrasound about $610 EACH time. Ouch. Still though, it's a really good problem to have. I'm going to see if I can have my labs run at Kaiser instead of the clinic since they'll cover 100% of them as part of my prenatal care.

As far as our ultrasound, it looks like we're going to have to wait a bit longer to take a peak at our embie baby. I had originally been told by a tech that we'd have one ultrasound at 5 weeks to confirm an intrauterine pregnancy and another between 6-7 weeks to measure the fetal pole, check out the yolk sac and maybe even see a heartbeat. Today the nurse said I'd have just the labs at the end of this week and then an ultrasound at around 6 weeks so it looks like we're skipping the 5 week one. I know it saves us a little money but it's a whooooole week longer I have to wait to lay eyes on this bub. It's crazy how we've been waiting so long for this and now 2 weeks seems like a lifetime away!

Keeping Busy and New Hair

Today was super busy and delicious. I prepped one of my favorite crock pot recipes before heading off to work, and the house was full of the delicious aroma of pot roast when I got home. I use a modified version of this recipe and I can't recommend it highly enough. I've made it with all sorts of different meat cuts and it comes out consistently delicious every time. I usually serve it with garlic mashed potatoes, hot buttered noodles, or I add in quartered red potatoes an hour or so before it's done. It's yummy no matter how you do it and basically impossible to screw up. 

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Ingredients: 

• 1 (5 pound) bone-in beef pot roast - I used two boneless round roasts, one 2lbs and one 2.65lbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, or as
• needed
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 ounces sliced mushrooms - I used 16oz, I love mushrooms
• 1 medium onion, chopped - I used a large onion, yum
• 2 cloves garlic, minced - I used about 6 cloves, are you seeing a trend here?
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth - one can of beef broth, one can of chicken broth
• 3 medium carrots, cut into chunks - I used little carrots, so maybe 3-4 big ones?
• 2 stalks celery, cut into chunks - I used 4 stalks
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary - I used 5 sprigs
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• Red wine, I eyeball it and use it to deglaze the mushrooms and onions 

Directions:

1.	Generously season both sides of roast with salt and pepper. Sprinkle flour over the top until well coated, and pat it into the meat. Shake off any excess. One of the roasts floured, right before I shook it off
2.	Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Sear the roast on both sides for 5-6 minutes each, until well browned. Remove from the skillet and set aside . I brown it until it's almost black, the darker it is the deeper the flavor
3.	Reduce the heat to medium and stir in mushrooms and butter; cook for 3-4 minutes.
4.	Stir in onion; cook for 5 minutes, until onions are translucent and begin to brown. Add garlic, stir for about a minute.
5.	Stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons flour; cook and stir for about 1 minute. Add tomato paste, and cook for another minute.
6.	Deglaze the pan with red wine. Slowly add chicken stock and beef stock, stir to combine, and return to a simmer. Remove skillet from the heat.
7.	Place carrots and celery in the slow cooker. Place roast over the vegetables and pour in any accumulated juices. Add rosemary and thyme. One of the roasts in the pan. I cut the other so half fit into the open space, and I put the fattier half on top so the fat would drip down.
8.	Pour onion and mushroom mixture over the top of the roast. Cover slow cooker, turn to high and cook the roast for 5-6 hours (I did about 5 hours high, 2-3 hours low), until the meat is fork tender. All in here!
9.	Skim off any fat from the surface and remove the bones. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I forgot to take a photo of it after it was done because we promptly began shoveling it into our faces. I'll have to put in a stock photo, but we ate ours over hot buttered egg noodles.

Pretty stock photo!

After I switched the crock pot to low, I headed off to the salon to get a hair cut. I haven't had a hair cut in ages, basically since I cut it all off after my wedding. My hair is pretty slow growing but I should probably get it cut more often than every three years.  I pointed out my salon's new, cool wall mounted blow dryers and my stylist politely informed me that they were installed over two years ago. Whoops.

I'm not particular about the length of my hair but E tends to prefer it shorter rather than longer. I usually leave it up to my stylist and end up with it cut pretty short, somewhere around my shoulders. It gets curlier and curlier the older I get so no two cuts look the same. 

Apologies for the crummy photos, I should have E take some but these selfies will have to do for now. As I was sitting in the salon chair I also noticed some definite cramps and it looks like my period is finally on the way! I'm only spotting a tiny bit and the clinic says I can't come in until it's a legit flow, but I'll take any progress I can get. If it turns into a real period over night, I'll be able to go in on Saturday for my baseline and possibly get this next cycle kicked off.

Best ice cream evvvvver!

We decided to celebrate with a banana split made with Tillamook Udderly Chocolate ice cream, possibly the best ice cream ever, and the perfect conclusion to what has turned out to be a supremely delicious day. If you haven't had it yet you need to get your hands on some straight away, all of their flavors are worth going out of your way for!