Hello hello everyone!
euro the brownies sounded amazing and I'm so glad you're pilatesing. I LOVE pilates, it's my favourite thing ever. You feel all graceful and poised afterwards. Speaking of which, when I want to shift a few pounds after Christmas, I go low carb (not no carb - just reduce the amount of mashed potatoes etc that I usually eat). I have a book somewhere by a guy called Charles Clarke which is Atkins-lite - he's all for full fat things but you can have a piece of fruit every day and toast in the the morning.
princess forgot to say that I absolutely loved hearing about the gay chihuahuas, especially when you described them as looking like lions 
. You are hilarious. Good luck for your blood test tomorrow, and how lovely that you could share the news with your parents. I have everything crossed for you.
nelly a huge hug and sorry that you're on to IVF. We'll be here to hold your hand.
pout hello! Lovely to see you.
rabbit Oh my poor love. So sorry that you're feeling so sad. It's ok to feel terrible and grieve, you've been such a trooper lately. 
buzzy this long cycle of yours sounds infuriating. Your IVF open day is next week though - that will give you more information. Hang in there and keep cuddling little Kayla.
doll love the story about little doll. I hope that when/if I have a little one he or she will be half as entertaining. What a poppet. The bedbugs on the face story is awful! 
One of my colleagues in our NY office had a bedbug infestation - apparently it's quite common in NY. It sounded absolutely horrific. Annoying that your doctor won't answer emails. Hmpf. 
sar the soup sounds yummers. It's funny, I've been doing a lot of cooking lately too and am wondering whether this is something to do with trying to take my mind off TTC. It's creative, it's meditative, it's comforting - win-win.
gin ooh chocolate souffle. Your DH is a lucky man. And well done for having a nice time with your friend - it sounds as though you handled that brilliantly. And I'm glad you had some wine! Well-deserved I reckon. Besides, princess conceived on a month where some booze was imbibed!
lemon 
at you being a cheap date.
mrsm hope you are ok.
artemis Nice that they make sure you've paid up first 
. Not fun at all. Good luck with the tests tomorrow - if this works, it will all be worth it. And there's every reason to be hopeful that it will. Open heart, as sar would say.
mrsden well done for doing a job application. It's great that you're doing stuff like that - takes the focus off TTC as the only all-consuming thing. I always feel better when I've done stuff that reminds me that I am more than just a baby maker in waiting.
eleuth hope all is well with your little bean.
rum hope the rearguard shag week is going well 
So my appointment this morning went well. I asked him about the bleeding and said that Dr Google had told me it was due to a drop in oestrogen and he said "Oh yeah, I went to med school with that guy." and then he said that Dr Google was correct. MrC came along too, and it was the first time that they had met (they spoke on the phone once). The doc went through all my notes, which was awesome. He told me that I had three options - move on to IVF, do a 'blended' Clomid and injectibles cycle, or try to do another injectibles cycle at a really long, low dose. The second two options would be more of the same and my body might react unpredictably. He showed me my notes from my last injectibles cycle, where I was on 75 iu of gonal for about 10 days, and it showed that my oestrogen levels had actually dropped after a few days on the hormones, but then when we made a tiny adjustment and increased the dose to 112.5 iu, my oestrogen shot up and continued to rise very fast. He said this is common in women like me, who ovulate irregularly - nothing happens, the hormones flat-line, and then a tweak in the meds cause a big step change. In women who do ovulate regularly, apparently it's usually a steady rise. He said that as my insurance covers two rounds of IVF, 'it's a no-brainer'. I told him that my mum thought that my periods might come back naturally and he said that was unlikely, but he understood the influence that mothers had and so perhaps I could think about starting in November. He does long protocol, and said he'd want to watch out for OHSS in my case, as it is most common on younger IVF patients with irregular periods. Anyway.... me and MrC went for an early lunch afterwards and discussed it all. MrC wants to wait until the New Year, on the very very slim chance that my periods come back, so we would have no regrets, and so we know that every other option is exhausted. He said if I wanted to go ahead now, that would be fine with him too, but his preference would be to wait three months. If it was just me - if I were an amoeba that reproduced on my own - I would want to go for it now, but rationally I know that it's only a difference of a few months. So I think we're going to start the process in the New Year. I think will just suck it up and tough it out through the autumn and Christmas.
Whew, sorry for the mammoth post. Basically - I reckon it will definitely be IVF for us, but not for a few months. Oh, and the doc wants to send me for an HSG too, which is fine by me.
Waves and tail feather shakes to all.