I realized that I haven't updated in the past week on what's going on in my infertility world. This past week has actually been pretty tough for me emotionally, so I think I just didn't want to write about it. But here's the quick and dirty low-down in everyone's favorite format (the ubiquitous bullet point).

• Last Saturday, my acupuncturist told me to wait until Thursday, which would be CD 58, and, if I hadn't ovulated by then, to start taking Provera. I was actually pretty hopeful that I would ovulate, because my ovulation symptoms had returned with a force.
• Pete was leaving Sunday for a week-long trip, so we enjoyed a bit of a (ahem) twos-y on Saturday before he left. I thought, how perfect would it be if I ovulated at the beginning of this week and got pregnant? Right in the nick of time! I think most of us have had those "right in the nick of time" hopes--that get subsequently dashed hard--because we hear so many stories of that happening. 
• I spent Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday agonizing over every possible symptom and being devastated over every negative OPK. And for some reason, my body picked this week to go on the fritz in other areas: I've been so bloated, gassy, and crampy that I haven't been able to sleep well at night, my skin, throat, and eyes have been really dry (to the point that one of my fingers cracked open--and we're in May here, folks, not January). I guess that could all be stress-related, but I've never had so many physical symptoms so quickly from stress. My theory is that I had been taking the most recent herb formula prescribed by Katy the Needle Lady for too long, and it was creating excess "dryness" in my "human garden."
• Part of what I was agonizing about was whether I should wait until after Pete got home to start on the Provera, giving my body one last chance to ovulate and get pregnant, or if I should just give up and start it. I do know of one other woman (a fellow hypothalamic amenorrhea sufferer) who ovulated on day 60 and got pregnant.
• After spending two hours crying on the phone with my parents and Pete yesterday, I felt more rational and decided I couldn't take the agonizing wait any more. And that I was just kidding myself to think my body might ovulate. So I called Katy and got the clear to start Provera. She also promised that my body would, eventually, get back in balance. I'm choosing to believe her because I don't have any other options at this point.
• I started Provera last night. Take that, day 57. Of course, my temp shot way up this morning as a result and Fertility Friend decided to give me a dotted-line ovulation. Thanks, dear Fertility Friend. I really needed that reminder. 

Of course, now I have this irrational fear in the back of my mind that I might not get a bleed from Provera, and then I might not respond to Clomid this time. It's just so hard to trust my body on anything anymore. But I've had so many symptoms of rising estrogen that I know I've got to have a lining thick enough to bleed. So by my calculations, I should be ovulating sometime in the next 40 days. Bring. It. On.

Off to a Weekend of...Distraction?

My little brother is graduating from college this weekend.

He's not quite finished with classes, but I guess he's close enough to walk in the graduation ceremony. He's gotten through college the same way he's gotten through most things life. In a very laid-back manner. I won't disclose how old he is at this point. He's pretty brilliant, but pretty much the opposite of me when it comes to drive and motivation. I could  learn a lot about relaxing and going with the flow from him. And yes, he could stand to learn a thing or two from me. But I spent 18 years of my life trying to be his mom, and it didn't go over too well. So now I just try to be his friend. And since I married a guy that my brother happens to get along with really well, I think he's also started to respect me a little more. I guess he figures I must be at least a little bit cool if I could catch a guy like Pete.

Pete my husband, that is. My brother's  name also happens to be Pete. Yes, it's confusing and annoying. But neither is willing to go back to being Peter. They armwrestled once for the honor of keeping the name "Pete," and my husband actually won, though barely. But the rest of us simply couldn't get used to calling my brother Peter after calling him Pete for so long.

My brother has actually turned into quite the handsome young man. If you happen to know any eligible young ladies in there early 20s who live in Ohio, well, he's on the market and quite eligible, in my opinion. I don't have a good recent picture of him, but here's a  picture of our family from back in the 80s sometime.

We were so cute! That was probably our family picture that we sent back to family in the States for Christmas or something. Notice how we're strategically posed in front of a very exotic, Filipino-looking vehicle. I have many memories of getting these kinds of pictures taken. Squinting into the 95-degree humidity and trying to keep a natural smile, which is a hard thing for a kid. We don't perfect the art of calling up the natural-looking smile on command until sometime in middle school or high school. Maybe it's posing for prom pictures that does it for us.

Anyway, it should be an interesting weekend, as we are staying in the house that my brother lives in with three other college guys. I'm preparing myself to suppress the mommy-voice inside me all weekend.

I was happy to hear that we actually get our own room. I was expecting that we'd be on a mattress on the floor in the room with my brother, which would make any attempts at catching my fertile window very interesting, if I happen to ovulate in the next few days. (No, it hasn't happened yet. Still waiting.) But I guess my brother wasn't really anxious to sleep in the room with the married couple, so he's sleeping on the couch. He just warned us to treat the mattress nicely. Hehe. We're getting pretty good at quickies these days, so I think we should be okay.

So yeah. I'm hoping the distraction of the weekend will be what my body needs to finally ovulate. But I'm actually feeling a bit more peaceful on that front. I'm just trying to trust that it just took a while for a follie to start growing, but once it started, it's been right on track and healthy. That's what I'm telling myself.

What are your plans this weekend?

Day 34 and Counting

I kept putting this post off because I keep hoping for a positive OPK, so I can jump on and give some good news. But still no positives, and still no temperature rise. However, my boobs have been pretty sore for the past few days, and I feel like I have a large follicle or two ready to burst. So, like I said, I keep expecting that dark second line every day. I will actually be pretty impressed with my body if I get it tomorrow day 35, as that's exactly when I got a positive on my last natural cycle.

I did have another lovely appointment with my darling acupuncturist Katy on Saturday--despite the fact that I was never able to really relax on the table for some reason. She was also a bit surprised that I hadn't ovulated yet, but she said that perhaps this could be my body's normal cycle. What will be more telling, in my opinion, is whether I get a normal-length luteal phase this round. My very first cycle after the pill (which was, like, a 150-day cycle or something insane like that), my LP was 9 days. I've been on progesterone suppositories every cycle since then, since my progesterone keeps measuring low. But Katy wants me to go all natural this time and see what my body will do with all Yang-warming herbs and needles. I'm a little nervous about that--I mean, what if an egg gets fertilized but then gets sloughed off too early because my period comes too soon? But I'm inclined to do what she says. Maybe, just maybe, my luteal phase will do what it's supposed to. Is that too much to ask?

I have to keep reminding myself that chinese medicine is not an instantaneous fix. It takes several months to really work for most people who get pregnant with it. My body has been off-kilter for a long time, so it only makes sense that it will take a while for it to get...um, on-kilter. I'm choosing this route because I'm young and really have no objective reason to be as anxious as I am to get pregnant. And besides the fact that an RE would be astronomically expensive for us, which would interfere with all that we have planned for ourselves in the coming years, I also don't mind the idea of being able to avoid the insanity of medical fertility treatments.

But I do mind the idea of waiting longer to join the pregnancy club. More on that is coming soon...

I Am Eeyore. Hear Me Whine.

I had several great ideas for posts today, but I think the best I can do is start one of them and save it in draft form. There's no way it's getting finished before I go to bed tonight.

Instead, this is what I have for you.

Take that adorable sheepish smile off his (or her? what's with the pink bow?) face, and that's where I am today. Ready to run away and quit this whole trying to conceive thing. If I could find a world in which pregnant women did not exist, I might be able to pull it off. But I'm afraid that world went extinct a while back and I'm left in this fertile breeding ground.

I have no good reason for wanting to quit. I haven't even been to an RE, for crying out loud. As far as I knew, there's very little that's actually wrong with me. And no reason that I shouldn't be able to get pregnant on my own within the next year.

But after the 16th negative OPK in a row (I don't even start until CD14), and after checking my cervix only to find lots of gloppy but little stretchy, I just feel like I can't take the unending suspense any longer.

And what does Ceejay like to do when the going gets tough? Quit. I've never claimed to be a tough person, so no, adversity does not just make me want to dig in and try harder. It makes me want to escape.

It's not just a matter of waiting to ovulate. It's also that I fear that until I get my cycles shorter, I have very little chance of conceiving. I know many women have conceived with long cycles. But since my mid-luteal phase progesterone levels have been below 5 each of the three times I've had them checked, I feel like there's something fundamentally wrong with my cycles. And that it won't be fixed until I start ovulating sooner.

Of course, it could be that my luteal phase issues are actually somewhat separate from my slow ovulation issues, right? I'm sure they're both connecting to my hypothalamic amenorrhea. But maybe my ovulations have been fine in their reluctant slowness, but I just don't produce enough progesterone? And we can attribute the thus-far lack of success to the low progesterone?

The thing is, I just can't shake the feeling that the low progesterone is tied to my long cycles and thus indicative of a fundamental ovulation problem. Therefore, this cycle is already doomed since I'm on day 30 with no ovulation in sight. And since my body is showing no signs of speeding up (this is my fourth natural cycle where ovulation has been past day 30), I'm doomed forever.

This is right about where I start thinking more seriously about adoption because I'm so certain a pregnancy isn't going to happen.

The really stuffy/sneezy/runny/itchy nose I have right now isn't helping. I don't have seasonal allergies, and I'm not sick. But every few weeks, my nose randomly goes into mucus-producing overdrive. It lasts a miserable day or two and then subsides. And I simply cannot figure out what the cause is. Any ideas? A good dose of sudafed will usually kick it. But I care too much about my cervical mucus right now to risk drying it up with decongestants. So suffer I will.

That's it. Finished with my eeyoric whining. And yes, I did just coin that word: eeyoric. I kind of like it. Feel free to spread it and popularize it wherever you live. Until next time!

Update: Since Josey & Kelly just asked really good questions, I guess I should clarify where I am for my new followers, so you understand what my whining's all about at least a little better. I am fairly certain that I will ovulate at some point this cycle, so it's too early to give up and try to force a new cycle with provera. I have taken provera before when I hadn't had a period in months, and it actually didn't work for me--no period. I think it would work now, since I have gained weight and am actually cycling, but, like I said, I still probably am on my way toward ovulation, slow as it's going. As for the RE--no, I haven't seen one yet. Our insurance covers zero percent of all things infertility-related--not even the visit with the RE. My OB has worked with me some--at least through the basic bloodwork and ultrasound. But for right now, I'm going the traditional chinese medicine route with acupuncture and herbs, hoping it will get my cycles back on track eventually.

Coaxing the Shy Egg

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post! It feels nice to have my writing affirmed. Writing is such a personal thing, at least for me. To have someone read something I've often feels more intimate than having a conversation with that person. So it's nice to be complimented.

That said, this will be a much less...um...thought-provoking post. I did want to give a brief update on where I am in my cycle, and, more importantly, what I'm waiting for.

Today is day 27 of my cycle, and my egg(s?) is still resting in her little follicle. I've decided my eggs are just shy homebodies. And slow on the uptake. Which is ironic, because I generally move rather quickly in life and am not super shy, though I may have some homebody tendencies.

Fertility friend's algorithm has decided that I did ovulate about a week ago, which is really annoying since I know I didn't. My temperatures did even out and then rise by about a half a degree. However, the reason for said rise was not ovulation but rather that I have apparently been successful at warming my formerly cold uterus, at least according to Katy, my acupuncturist. So my formerly very erratic temps are now much more even and a tad warmer on average. I guess those nightly heating pads, daily herbal teas, and biweekly acupuncture appointments are doing something, even if they haven't convinced the egg to come out of her shell yet.

My temps have been going down a bit again, accompanied by random patches of fertile cervical mucus. And lots of baby dancing with my ever-happy-to-oblige husband.

But this has not occurred yet:

In case you can't tell, this is a picture of a human being released--ovulation. Found at New Science. I know my husband is going to gag when he sees this, but I think it's pretty cool.

I've found during the past few cycles that right about now seems to be one of the hardest times for me. Waiting for that elusive egg release. Wondering why it could possibly be taking this long. Analyzing every little sign and symptom, wondering if it's a sign of impending ovulation. Staring at my cervical mucus and trying to stretch it between my two fingers repeatedly. And the long series of negative OPKs with second lines of various shades, but not quite dark enough. To be honest, I think I over-interpret more during this part than during the two-week wait, as I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that any symptom I have post-ovulation could as easily be PMS as it could be pregnancy.

Go, eggy, go. My fallopian tube really isn't that scary, I promise. And there are lots of friendly little spermies waiting to make your acquaintance, if you'll just get your guts up and get out there.

Even Dodgier than Expected

After the unexpected positive OPK last Sunday, my ovulation played out even more unexpectedly. I woke up Monday morning with a 97.8 temp, and after the 96.9 on Sunday, I simply assumed that I had ovulated. P and I debated about whether to have sex again that night but decided it was probably too late to make a difference, so we decided not to worry about it. Then, I woke up Tuesday with my temp back down to 96.9! I was so confused--and kicking myself for not OPKing on Monday. I spent a couple of days really concerned that my body had tried to ovulate and failed. But my temp was up to 97.7 on Wednesday and has gone up since. So I did ovulate at some point. I just really have no idea when between CD 21 and 23.

I am now officially 3-5 dpo. How the hell am I supposed to know when to POAS? I guess I don't need to decide that now. What I do need to figure out is when to go in to get me progesterone test. I had all these great plans of going in first thing in the morning at exactly 7 dpo to catch it at the highest possible level. But now I have no idea when 7 dpo will be. My best plan is to go in on Monday, which will be probably either 6 or 8 dpo--right in the middle of the suspected 7 dpo range. I'm sure it won't make a huge difference in any case. If my progesterone is low, it's going to be low no matter when I go in.

I did start on the progesterone suppositories today. I hear they don't affect your bloodwork too much, so I'm hoping they don't skew the results of the test. I've started to have cramps today that feel very similar to the past couple of two-week waits, which is a little discouraging. But I guess nothing would have implanted at this point anyway, so I should expect things to be the same.

I'm just reminding myself to be thankful. I am ovulating on my own, and I only had to get to a BMI of 19.5 for that to start happening. Even if my ovulations haven't been great, at least they're happening. And the clomid didn't shorten things up. These are really good signs.

And Pete and I were talking last night about how these extra months of me working full-time have definitely been a financial boost. We ended up with quite a few more big expenses at the end of last year than we expected when we first decided we were ready to have a baby. So I know God has been working through the timing. But God, really, this cycle would be the perfect timing! I would have the baby at the beginning of December, which means I could keep working through the middle of November. Then I could just go ahead and quit, and we could be ready to head over to Beijing for 3 months P's exchange program at the end of January. I wouldn't have to worry about finding a job while there to give me something to do. I could just take care of the wee one and take full-time language classes. If this cycle doesn't work, we will probably have to adjust the whole time-line for the exchange program, as I would be very hesitant to go that far within a few weeks of having a baby, and definitely hesitant to have the baby in Beijing. Not because I don't trust Beijing hospitals but because I really don't want to be in labor under the care of doctors and nurses who don't speak English! So really, God. This has to be the one.

The Dodgy Ov

My husband likes to make up his own abbreviations and nicknames for pretty much everything. I told him about the world of internet infertility lingo, and how it gives us our own club of insiders with whom we can virtually connect. He decided he felt left out of that club and felt compelled to create his own insider lingo for his own club of one. Hence, ovulating, frequently called "o-ing" in our web world, is called "ov-ing" at home (pronounced ah-ving, not owe-ving). So he's been asking me the past few days if I'm ov-ing any time soon. Of course I haven't been able to give any definitive answer. The past couple of cycles, I've spent at least a week thinking I was going to ovulate any time, and have even had my body gear up to release an egg and then fail.

Until yesterday. I had an internet friend who ovulated and got pregnant on day 21 of a clomid cycle, so I've had day 21 in my mind as the ideal day I would like to ovulate this cycle. But as day 21 approached, I didn't think it was going to happen. My temperatures have been all over the place, little ewcm, no sore boobs. I woke up yesterday morning to a slightly lower temp, but without the sore boobs, I still thought that I was at best a few days away.

I have been faithfully OPK-ing, and I have learned that it works best if I pee in the cup shortly before lunch time. I tend to consume less in the way of liquids in the mornings, so that's when my pee is most concentrated. This works fine on weekdays and Saturdays but is tough on Sundays, since I spend all morning at church and usually go out to lunch with friends right after church. So then I usually have to come home and reduce liquids for a while in the afternoon, but that's just annoying. I'm addicted to having a glass of water with me wherever I go, so I feel dehydrated without it. I know I'm far from being really dehydrated, but I've had enough UTIs (only two in my life, but still) to be very attached to drinking water.

Yesterday I was determined not to have to deal with a liquid-less afternoon. So I brought my OPK with me to church and thought I'd try to steal a minute between the service and leaving for lunch to pee in a cup and test in the bathroom. Of course, none of our friends were available for lunch yesterday, so we walked to the car planning to come home and I skipped the bathroom stop. But in the car, P and I decided we would rather eat out than at home. I figured I'd just find a disposable cup in the restaurant, no problem.

Turns out that disposable cups are not as readily available in restaurants as I envisioned in my mind! I should have known this; I did, after all, spend three summers waiting tables in college. I know that dine-in customers get real cups, not plastic ones. We sat down at our table and I asked for a diet coke, which I saw from other tables that they would serve in a can, and an extra glass. The waitress asked if I wanted ice in the glass; no, thank you, I don't need my pee to be cold. P pointed out that I could just dump the ice out, but I thought the waitress would find it odd to return to the table and find the glass she had brought filled with ice completely empty.

She forgot to bring the glass, which I decided was just as well, as it would also look very weird for me to take one of the huge red glasses they used into the bathroom with me. But then I was stuck. I was determined not to waste my morning of reduced liquid intake, but what could I pee in? I have the cheap-o OPKs, so I can't do a midstream test very well. When we got our food, though, I spied a small disposable cup on my husband's plate that contained his burrito sauce. "You can just dump that sauce on the burrito and let me use the cup, right?" "But I don't want to open up my whole burrito now and spread it out, I want to dip it!"

So I came up with the most ingenious plan yet. We had a basket of tortilla chips on our table, inside of which was a small non-disposable cup of salsa. I preferred to pee in something disposable so I could just throw it out rather than bringing it back to the table where we were eating. So, we dumped the salsa on the chips, dumped P's burrito sauce in the salsa cup, and I took his empty, disposable sauce cup into the bathroom and filled it up. It was the perfect size, really.

I finally returned to the table to eat my food with the OPK stuck inside its plastic wrapper in my coat pocket (all very sanitary, of course). I would wait the obligatory 10 minutes and then check it to see exactly how faint the second line was. Of course, I forgot to check for a while, but when I did (discreetly holding it in my coat pocket while pulling the stick out just enough to see the lines), I was shocked. Two definite lines! I couldn't examine it very carefully to see how dark the second one was. But it looked dark. (And when I examined later in the car, it was definitely as dark as the control.) I looked back at P with my mouth open in shock. A day 21 ovulation! Who knew such things were possible for me, even with clomid!

We enjoyed a quickie last night (right after the Oscar's) and I did the whole laying-on-my-back-with-elevated-hips thing afterwards while watching a rerun of House. I was actually pretty sore last night in the boobs and ovaries, and my temp was up this morning, so I'm pretty sure last night was the night.

I feel like I've been fast-tracked into the two-week wait this time, since it's taken so much longer each time before. I can't imagine what it would be like to ov on day 14 every cycle! Whatever the outcome this time, my most immediate hope is that my progesterone is higher at 7dpo. At least over 10 would be nice. That would help confirm that my problem before was just that it was taking my body way too long to ovulate, and the clomid-induced shorter cycle solved it. We shall see in a week.

The Obligatory Update

I've been super busy these past couple of days, which is the reason for the lack of blog communication. But, I promised myself I would at very least keep a basic record of my progress here, so I'm popping on for that update.

I'm on CD 17 today after my first crack at 50mg of clomid (to correct the lpd). I'm hoping, hoping, hoping for an earlier ovulation than the past two cycles. I have been warned that it could actually take longer, which seems weird. But I'll try not to freak out if it does. As long as it's a good ovulation this time and I have higher progesterone at 7dpo. We shall see. Starting to see a few signs of ewcm, but little else in the way of O yet. Really, my body just has no clue that most people get things going by CD 14.

I did convince DH that we should get him a semen analysis if this cycle doesn't work. He realized how important it was for my peace of mind and, like the dear he his, agreed he could go in to a clinic and wack off. Although he would like it if I came along to help ;). Something to look forward to if this cycle fails.

A Short Break

Just a quick update here. I just finished my last 50mg clomid pill two days ago, so now I'm back on the waiting-for-ovulation train. But, I at least get to enjoy a break from any physical reminders of IF for a few days--no daily pill-taking and too early for daily OPKs. They will come soon enough. Of course, my body won't let me forget about it, even if my mind were capable of it. I'm having all the same cramps and pain in my ovaries/abdomen area that I seem to have more often than not these days. I'm trying not to be concerned about it, though it does seem unusual to feel my ovaries so often. I don't think it's just hypersensitivity. Anyway, I'm interested to see how early I ovulate this cycle. Someone on my HA board warned that it could actually take longer than my normal cycle, which was a bit surprising. But at least I know to try not to freak out if I haven't ovulated by day 33.

7 DPO

I got my progesterone tested on Friday, which was 5 dpo. A little early. But the result came back yesterday at 4.8--really low, barely enough to confirm ovulation. I was rather surprised at how bummed I was. I of course started on the yucky progesterone suppositories right away, so I'm pretty confident that I should be able "save" this cycle in terms of the length of the luteal phase. But I think I had really started hoping that my progesterone would be in the normal range. The first time I had it tested (and ended up with only a 9 day LP), it was a bit low, but that was my first cycle after the pill, and I had ovulated on, like, CD 140 or something crazy like that. Last cycle, I went on the suppositories, but I had terrible pms the whole time and my period didn't start until 18dpo, so I thought I was perhaps overdosing on the progesterone and my body was fine on its own. I guess not.

I guess I keep hoping that something will come along to make me "normal." I was actually a bit encouraged that both of the past two cycles have been about the same length. I mean, some regularity should be better than complete randomness, right? I thought maybe this was just normal for my body and everything else would fall into place. Now I feel like there's still something clearly wrong, and that my chances of conception are still low. And I especially feel like this cycle is out.

I came across a really interesting article on pubmed that helps to explain long follicular phases. It says that sometimes, we have one follicle that starts to dominate that then falls away for some reason, and then another follicle grows and ovulates. This could explain why I had about 5 days of ewcm earlier in my cycle this last time. It could be that I had another follicle that was trying to ovulate but failed. So that gives me some hope that my cycles could shorten up in the future. Also of interest: women with long follicular phases are at reduced risk of breast cancer (yay!) but greater risk of bone loss, which I'm already at risk for as an HAer.

I made the mistake last night of trying to do a ton of research on why I might be have luteal phase defect. No good answers--or at least nothing that I didn't already know. But then I went to bed depressed and had trouble sleeping and feel a bit depressed today. I've been trying to just focus on God whenever I start to feel anxious. This whole thing is completely in his hands. If I ever get pregnant, it will be a miracle that he made happen. If now isn't the time, I have to trust that he has something better for us.

Just in Time

After all my freaking out on Saturday, I woke up Sunday morning feeling somewhat resigned to the loss of this cycle. My temp was 97, which was lower, but no sore boobs. I figured I still had a few days to go, if not more.

Then. I got home from church and decided to OPK, but I hadn't done great on reducing my liquids. So I peed and then tried to wait a bit. But I was hungry and planned to eat lunch soon, and lunch necessarily includes more liquids, so I decided I needed to eek out a little more. I did--just barely enough to dip the test stick in up to the line when my pee cup was tilted to the side. The purple started moving up the test window. What? What is that? A second line materializing already? With negative OPKs, the second line doesn't usually start to materialize until the purple background starts fading. But there it was. And it just kept getting darker and darker! It was the most positive result I've ever gotten--the test line way darker than the control.

That was followed by really sore boobs last night. I didn't think I was going to be able to sleep, they were so sore. Thankfully, the soreness faded a little before I went to bed.

My temp was back up to 97.4 this morning, so I'm hoping that means I ovulated last night. My boobs are still a bit sore today, but the OPK was just barely negative. If I did in fact ovulate last night, it was 3.5 days after our last BMS. Not too bad. I would have preferred not quite as long of a gap there. But I'm very thankful that we have a fighting chance this time.

I'll be in Hong Kong when I can test. Boo. I would much rather be somewhere near my hubby so he can rejoice with or comfort me as needed. I might either test right before I leave, which will be 11 dpo, or just wait until I get back (at 18 dpo) and test if my period hasn't come. If I'm not pregnant, AF should come while I'm in Hong Kong.

Another crazy thing--if I am pregnant, my due date will be October 24. Which is my birthday. Our family is plagued with children being born on their parents' birthdays, so I guess I would just be falling into a pattern. At least it's not January--the month when DH and basically half of his extended family--and my dad--all have their birthdays. That month is saturated.