Superstition and The Frog

So I know I will probably induce the ridicule and skepticism of anyone reading this blog but I am going to let everyone in on a little secret.  My follicles are growing, in fact they are growing well and I give complete credit not to the vials of drugs I am injecting into my body on a daily basis but instead to a small painted ceramic frog and piece of rock. Our appointment last Saturday to check our stimulation progress was a little depressing, the doc on for the weekend (not MY doctor) left a little to be desired in his bedside manner (not to mention wardrobe choices, he wore socks with sandals, how can I trust a man who thinks this is ok?) and we left feeling like my follicles were never going to grow. That night I climbed into bed feeling down and frustrated and there, on my nightstand like a beacon in the night was the frog.

The frog came to us from my dads awesome girlfriend a couple of months ago.  She had recently traveled to Honduras and while there visited the Los Sapos (the frogs) ruins in Copan.  The ruins here have carvings on a small outcropping of rock of a large frog and one depicting a woman with her legs spread as though giving birth.  Studies suggest this area is where ancient copanecan women came to give birth to their offspring.  Apparently it's also a tourist spot because in addition to lovely views of the Copan valley they also have trinkets.  Small ceramic frogs to be more specific.  Knowing (as all our family does) about our stuggles to conceive she picked up one of these little guys in addition to a small stone from the ruin site itself.  I have no idea if this is bad mojo, the whole taking a piece of the ruin thing but it's a pretty small piece so I am going to go ahead and think it's ok.  She presented me with the frog and stone and assured me of it's potent fertility inducing powers and I'm not gonna lie here, I thought it a slightly crazy though tremendously kind gesture.  I put the frog on my nightstand with the stone in the little hole in its belly and kind of forgot about it.  Until Saturday night.  After the depressing doctors visit, I climbed into bed that night, took my litany of prescribed pills and laid down and looked over and saw the frog.  A light bulb went off.  I turned to my darling and very science and fact driven husband with the frog in hand and a come hither look.  I will let it be known that he thinks I am pretty crazy most of the time anyway, so he wasn't entirely shocked at the prospect of some frog time.  I put the frog on my puncture marked belly and looked up at him, I swear people I have the kindest and most tolerant husband ever.  He kind of moved the frog around on my belly and hopped it here and there along with the piece of stone to humor me and then we turned off the lights and went to sleep.  The next night I grabbed the frog after climbing in bed and he sighed and did the little belly hop routine again.  Fast forward to Monday's stimulation check, I was nervous and completely convinced that my little runt follicles hadn't grown and was preparing for the worst kind of news.  Low and behold, they were growing!  In fact, they had grown leaps and bounds and my hormone levels indicated that we might even get a couple more days worth of growth out of them before triggering ovulation.  I immediately called Brady and told him the good news, extolling the virtues of the frog.  Another appointment on Tuesday showed even better growth and we got the go ahead from the magic man to trigger last night for egg retrieval on Thursday.

Now I know there are probably a lot of reasons for my super fantastic follicle growth, the drugs, timing and all that stuff, but part of me really thinks it's the frog.  My ovaries are starting to look like big egg sacks and hopefully, come Thursday, that's the exactly the case.  In the meantime I am trying to figure out how to sneak the frog into the surgery room tomorrow because something tells me the magic man probably won't let him sit bed side, but he is part of the protocol now, bad paint job and all.