PorterHouse

Dear Emilee,

2012-01-25T08:28:00.002-06:00

Dear Miss Emilee,

Today we have your make up 3d/4d ultrasound. I would really appreciate if you could show us your face so we can get some really cute pictures. But more importantly, I would prefer that you just be head down. It's getting so close to my due date that I worry more and more that you won't be head down before you get too big and can't move anymore. Being head down and in position would make Mommy and Daddy so much happier, so if you could just do that for us today, we would be very very appreciative. Even if you still don't want to give us any pictures of us, just be head down. Thanks!!

29w5d - Dr's appointment

2012-01-24T08:37:00.002-06:00

I had my doctor's appointment with the "brother" doctor yesterday. First, I passed my glucose test (YAHOO). There's one stressor off my back. The office was CRAZY busy. I think they have some office training this week so their appointments were limited and they had all 3 doctors in yesterday. There was a point when all the seats were taken and some people had to sit on the floor. It was cute though cuz all the husbands were offering their seats to the pregnant ladies.

So then we met the doctor. The appointment itself went great. Good weight gain - I think I only gained a pound or two. My belly measured right on. Heartbeat sounded good. Then we showed him our birth plan. Basically he said that my OB, Dr. S will approve it and then he will go along with it. He did look over it and didn't really have any objections. David thought he seemed kind of put off by the fact that I was going natural, but he didn't say anything about it. I also expressed my concern about her being breech. He did attempt to feel where she was and said he couldn't tell, which is weird since Dr. S always seems to be able to tell. But he said about 15% of babies are breech at 30 weeks and only 1-3% go on to be breech at birth. So my chances are good.

I also talked to my neighbor Julie and she made me feel better because I'm pretty sure she is flipping back and forth which makes me think she has the potential for being head down, she just needs to get there and stay there (and quit making Mommy a nervous wreck). I'm going to keep up with my pelvic rocks and hopefully things will work out.

29w5d Elective Ultrasound

2012-01-23T07:28:00.002-06:00

We had our elective 3d/4d ultrasound on Sunday. It did not go as well as we thought it would. I was so excited to see her again and to see her "chunkier" than before. I was excited that Noah would be there too.

So we get there and right away, the ultrasound tech is like "oh looks like she is breech". WHAT?!?!?!?! She isn't supposed to be breech, she is supposed to be head down just like she was at my last doctor's appointment.

Ok, so she moves on and it turns out she is what they call "Frank Breech" which means her legs are up by her face in a pike position. That means that when she would switch to the 4d view, all you could see was her feet and hands, no face. She did give it a good try, even had me stand up and walk for a minute to get her to move, but she wasn't budging.

In the end, we got a DVD of our 30 minute session and a CD of pictures (which I couldn't even tell you what's on there since I haven't looked at it). Not only is it disappointing that we didn't get ANY face shots, but then like David was saying, she should have just stayed in "2d" and gotten movement there. Instead she kept switching back and forth to see what she could get, which was nothing. So I feel like we just paid $175 for nothing.

Luckily, she did say we could come back on Wednesday to see if we could get some better shots. She made it sound like even if we could, it wouldn't be a full 30 minute session. So we'll have to even see if she is going to cooperate on Wednesday.

At this point, I don't think I would ever do an elective ultrasound again. It just wasn't worth it.

Noah was being really cute though. He would come sit on the bed with me and poke my belly and say "Move" to get her to try and move. I don't know if he really understood what he was trying to do, but he thought it was fun. Then we went to Babies R Us and bought the stroller frame that we will use with her carseat. Noah loved pushing it around and he kept saying "sister" and "emmy". I hope he stays this excited about her even after she arrives.

The rest of the weekend was somewhat depressing. I was most upset by the fact that she is breech. I kept using the fetal doppler to detect her heartbeat and use that as a way to determine where she is. It seemed like later last night, the heartbeat was a lot lower and I couldn't feel her head jabbing into my ribs like before, so I think maybe she had moved back down, but it's so hard to tell.

We also watched a little more than half of the "More Business of Being Born" videos. So awesome and so glad I bought them. I would highly recommend them to anyone who is ever considering having a baby and even those that are completely done, it will just open your eyes to all kinds of things I'm sure you didn't know.

The most interesting things I've learned is that the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate have both increased substantially in the last 30 years, right along with the C-section rate. The C-section rate has gone up from about 7% in the 1970s to 32.7% in 2009. The increase is due to several reasons (too many interventions, convenience, doctors who are just knife happy). I think most people would think that maternal mortality rates are linked to that in the sense that they die when they are being cut open, but it's actually the future of the mother that is more in danger. They can die from infection, scar tissue problems, etc, but one of the biggest causes of death in the future was something called "amniotic embolism", where basically the amniotic fluid goes back in the mother's system and she has an allergic attack and her heart and lungs just shut down, with no warning. Ina May Gaskin made a quilt as a "tribute" to all these mothers who have died through childbirth or related to childbirth and I was shocked how many of them were linked back to C-section. It's just sad and to think how many of those could have been prevented.

The other issue was infant mortality rate. I forgot the statistic but it was astounding how much more likely an infant was to die in the first month of life after a C-section birth than a vaginal birth. The MD talking about it suggested that it was linked to the amniotic fluid in the lungs. When the baby is in the womb, they are practicing breathing with the lungs with the amniotic fluid, so when they are being born, they have fluid in their lungs, they are supposed to. The difference is that when they are born by vaginal birth, the "squeeze" through the pelvis and cervix pushes out all the fluid from the lungs. Also called the "fetal heimlech maneuver". David got to see it on Noah. Even then, he still had some fluid left in his sinuses that had to removed, but otherwise, he didn't have to be suctioned or anything. However, in a C-section, that never happens and it's up to the doctors/nurses to get it all out. Sometimes they do, or sometimes they think they do. This doctor explained that if some is still left in there, that they can develop infections or essentially drown from it. Again, very scary.

My end comment. Sometimes C-sections are needed. I don't doubt that there are certainly infants and mothers out there that 200 years ago would have died without a C-section, but I think they are way overused today and the result is actually more death in both mothers and infants. If you ask me how you should avoid a C-section, it's to avoid interventions. Your body knows how to have a baby. If you start adding drugs, pitocin, artificial hormones, and restricting how it can move/labor, then you are messing with the process and many times the baby and the mother's body doesn't like it and will react with erratic heartbeats, high blood pressure, etc and then at that point, a C-section is needed.

Above all else, go watch the movie and do your research.

Last doctor's appointment and Doula

2012-01-16T09:28:00.003-06:00

So my last doctor's appointment went well. I did tell him about my chiropractor appointments and he didn't necessarily say anything about them. He didn't sound like he personally "believes" that he can help but he said if it seemed to be helping me, then I should keep going.

I had a 7 pound weight gain, which is definitely more than 1 pound a week, but seeing that I'm way less than I was with Noah even at birth and that I wasn't gaining (actually losing) weight in the beginning, it's no big deal. I also attribute that to the last 4 weeks including the Holidays, where I may have indulged a bit.

The biggest news was that as I was scheduling out all the rest of my appointments, I found out that my regular OB is going to be on vacation the week she is due!! I couldn't believe it.

I had done all this work to prepare for Noah's birth and my dr seemed so supportive of our natural birth plans and when it came down to it, he was supportive. So while I was still nervous about this birth because every birth can be different, I was feeling a little less anxious than the first time. But then I find out that there's a good chance he won't be there and I feel like I'm back to square one again.

So the plan is to see his "associates" for my next 2 appointments, which I think is routine anyway just in case he wouldn't be "on-call" when I go into labor, but now even more important. I have met with the female doctor before, but never really "quizzed" her on her supportiveness of natural childbirth. This time, I plan to take our birth plan and really get a good idea of how these doctors feel. Hopefully they don't feel that much different than my regular OB and all will be well. Not to mention, we still have the chance that she can come early or late and my regular OB will be there. They say due dates are actually week 38-42, so that's 4 whole weeks she is due and my OB will be gone only one of those weeks, giving me a 75% chance of delivering with my regular OB (although I would think the greatest chance she will come would be that one week...but who knows except baby, right)?

This also leads me to our other birthing decision David and I have made - to hire a doula. We didn't really think about this much the first time around. I think we were on a "birthing" high from our Bradley classes and thought we could handle everything ourselves. Did we? Pretty much. I would say Noah's birth went pretty well. However, there were a few things I wished we had done differently and at the time, we were always unsure of what we were doing. This time, I think hiring a doula is a good decision so we have that second opinion, that second person to bounce ideas off of it, that second person to help David out when he has to use the restroom, update family, etc. And then when we found out our regular OB may not even be there, it just solidified our decision more.

So then the task of finding one... It turned out to be more difficult than I thought. It really irritates me that when you offer your services and someone contacts you, that you don't contact that person back within 24 hours. We have a rule at my work that we need to have an away message up explaining when you will get back to that person or you respond within 24 hours. With my Scentsy business, I have a personal rule that I always get back within 24 hours, but generally I respond within 15 minutes. I think I emailed about 10 doulas. One or two responded that they couldn't take me for that time frame, but one was like 6 days later. In the end, I only had 2 that responded at all, one within a reasonable time frame. I met with her first and she was fantastic. It really pushed us over the edge to hire a doula at all. The second one was good and we liked that she was actually a midwife in her main business, but I just think we didn't "click" with her as well. I'm sure she does great work though and I would recommend her to others. So now we are in the process of hiring the first one. I am really excited and can't wait for my prenatal appointments.

For those that aren't really sure what a doula does or includes, basically she is a support person during labor and birth. That's her main role. Our specific one will also do 2 prenatal appts where we will discuss our birth plan, my nutrition, what relaxation techniques we will use, etc. Then she will show up whenever we want her to once I'm in labor, most likely while I'm still at home. And will stay through the birth and make sure we have breastfeeding established. She will then visit us two times post birth to check up on us.

So that's what's been going on in our lives lately. I now start seeing the doctor (not necessarily my own...grrrr) every 2 weeks, so my next appointment is on Jan 23 (next Mon).

Tidbits

2012-01-09T09:18:00.002-06:00

This post isn't really about any one thing, just lots of little things I want to share about our lives right now.

* Today is my glucose test. Not really looking forward to it. Technically, I'm predisposed to it because of the PCOS but I still take the Metformin, which I would think would help, but we'll see. I also have a regular doctor's appointment today and after today's appointment, I'll start going every 2 weeks. Just another reminder at how close to the end we are getting.

* Emilee may turn out to one crazy baby!! When Noah was born, I thought this was easy. Almost 2 years later, I still think he's a pretty easy kid (hence why we decided to go for another...hehe). I thought my pregnancy with him was "normal", but it turns out he was easy and laid back even in utero. I hardly ever felt him kick or move compared to Miss Emilee. She is all over the place, jabbing me with what I can guess is her elbows and knees. Not to mention all the over fun symptoms she has caused (longer morning sickness, pains in my back...see the last post). So I can imagine that once she is born, she is going to continue her reign of fun, which will make for 2 very tired parents. Wish us luck!! (But don't get me wrong, I'm so excited for her to arrive!!)

* Noah is almost 2...what!?!?! Seriously, how did that happen. Just yesterday, I was giving birth to him, and even more recently, having his first birthday party. How did another year pass us by? Noah is having a birthday party but this year, it's just going to be for his little friends and their parents. And of course, it will be train themed. Lots more posts and pictures to come regarding that.

* Other things Noah is doing is talking in 2+ word phrases. I never thought we would get here, but we are...finally. Most of the time, he still talks in 1 word phrases, but every so often, there is a "please" or a "mommy" or "daddy" in there too. Or he'll say "I got it" or "read it". The most amazing thing to me is his use of the correct tenses of words. It's not perfect, but seriously, when I can ask him what he's doing and he responds "reading" or "running", that is amazing to me. Not only is his language skills blooming, but his overall comprehension is good too. Of course, he still has his days when he just refuses to listen. And we are definitely doing more time-outs these days. But he really is a good kid and I can't wait to see what the next stage brings.

* One last Noah update is on his potty situation. We've always taken the approach that we will just wait and let him take the lead. And we certainly weren't pushing it before Emilee arrived. But we have always had a little potty chair out for him. And he started becoming much more interested in it. He tells us when he has gone "poo poo" and he also says "pee pee" or "potty" but I think more times than not, that just means he just went in his diaper. But we still take him to the potty. So far, if we put him on his little potty, he will most of the time go, but just a little, which makes me think he is forcing it. On the big potty, he likes to sit on it, but doesn't ever go. We also bought a little seat for the big potty, but again, still nothing there yet. I think it's really hard since we are both working and it's winter, so he's got a shirt, undershirt, pants, and diaper on and by the time you get all that off, it's exhausting! I think we'll just keep encouraging him and doing what we can and then maybe once she is born and we take a few weeks off when the weather is warmer, we will try a full-on potty training time with undies and everything. Are we crazy for attempting potty learning and having a newborn? Probably, but if Noah gets potty trained out of it, I'm willing to try!

* The only other interesting thing in our lives right now is we are trying to re-do an old rocking chair. We got this chair for $10 at a garage sale and it has an ottomon and everything. The only problems were that it was missing a few nuts, bolts, etc and it's ugly. We did use it in our living room until Noah came and needed more room. Now I'd like to put it back since we no longer have a "rocking" chair in there (we got new living room furniture). So we took it all apart and David is going to paint it black. My job is to take the cushions and make new covers. I think I can do most of it myself. I'll make sure and post pictures when we are done.

And 3rd trimester is here....

2012-01-08T20:54:00.002-06:00

The whole time I was trying to conceive Noah, I just wanted to be pregnant. I would have done anything just to be pregnant, it didn't matter. And it happened. And I was so happy. Sure, I had a little morning sickness and some pains, but I was happy to be pregnant and having a child. I had Noah and moved on. Right around 12 months old, I started getting baby fever again. Slowly at first, but then I had it bad. We started fertility treatment and it just made it worse, but I had more hope this time. Luckily, we got pregnant pretty quickly and again I was thrilled that we were pregnant AGAIN.

But this time, way more morning sickness. It lasted until at least 12 or 13 weeks. It was all day sickness. And just when I thought I couldn't take anymore, my back and hip started hurting. I have since found out that that's due to a prior injury and the stresses of raising a toddler and being pregnant are just making it worse. I am still very happy to be pregnant, but man, this pregnancy is rough. I hate to complain, because I know SO many friends that are trying to conceive and haven't yet and would die to be in my position, but seriously, I'm having way more trouble this time around.

I am very thankful to be pregnant, really I am. But at this point, I'm just ready for the baby to be here. I've gone from having occasional hip pain (hopefully getting better with the chiropractor visits) to now having pains in my lower belly and upper back from just my ever growing belly/baby. I would sort of expect to feel this "immobile" about 2-3 weeks from delivering, but 13 more weeks!!! Guess I'll just hang on and hope it goes by quickly....

Chiropractor Fun

2011-12-22T14:12:00.002-06:00

So I have been having this lower back pain for several months now and I decided that I just can't take it anymore. David, being the sweet husband he is, found me a chiropractor not too far from my work that specializes in pregnancy. I thought "How perfect!" Too bad they don't take insurance, but their appointments are only $40, which is cheaper than my co-pay would be anyway!

I had my first appointment on Monday and when I walked in, everyone was so friendly. They don't really have any secretaries or receptionists, it's pretty much just the doctors and a massage therapist. I also thought it was kind of cool that the doctor greeted me with her 6 month (I'm guessing) daughter in tow. Wouldn't it be awesome to take your baby to your job with you??

So after some in depth history and then an exam, she determined that my pain was not due to my sciatic nerve or the baby laying in a wrong position. Mainly there's a joint on my left side that is all locked up and I guess the extra pressures of pregnancy and trying to lift and play with my 25 pound toddler is causing my right joint to "overwork" and become inflammed and irritated. So the treatment? She made a few adjustments to work out the left joint and gave me an exercise I can do at home. So off I went.

That night I was still pretty sore from her just poking around, but I did sleep better and Tuesday was pretty good as well. Tuesday night I thought it would be fun to make cookies. Not sure if it was just me standing too long, but something irritated it and I was rendered immobile for the rest of the evening. The next morning (Wed) was better and gradually through the rest of the day I was just feeling a little "sore" again, not piercing pain. Today I haven't really felt anything at all.

I have a follow up appointment with her again today, so I guess we'll see what she says. I don't mind having to go back several times, even once a week until the end of the pregnancy, but only if she is actually helping. I know chiropractors are supposed to be known to keep recommending appointments when you don't really need them, but I trust this one and at this point, I've only seen her once so I can't honestly think she will have "fixed" me in 1 appointment.

Levi and holiday events

2011-12-19T08:17:00.002-06:00

Last weekend, Danielle and Travis (and their adorable son, Levi) were in town to visit family and friends which was awesome since they haven't been in town since they had Levi. Here are some pics of me and my dad with the cutie. Hopefully they come back soon and visit!!

We decided that we should start incorporating some fun Holiday traditions since Noah is getting older. It has been so much fun involving him this year. He helped decorate our Christmas tree (with some assistance). He also loved helping place where our Christmas decorations went. We also, for the first time ever, bought a gingerbread house to decorate. I briefly thought about making my own and then realized I was crazy and bought one to assemble instead. Here's our finished product:

Noah did a good job decorating but it was so very tempting to just eat the candy rather than put it on this house. But it is now displayed beautifully on our serving buffet in the kitchen and Noah admires he every chance he gets (I'm sure he's thinking "How can I climb up there and eat the candy off of it without Mommy and Daddy noticing?")

Noah received a gift from a secret santa from one of my online forums. He loves race cars.

Another new tradition was going to see Christmas lights. This year, we chose the Santa's Magical Kingdom in Eureka. We decided to reserve a seat on the wagon rather than view from our car since it didn't dawn on me that we could take Noah out of his carseat and I figured he'd have a hard time seeing the lights from his carseat. Regardless, I think it was a good decision. It was a little chilly that night, but Noah didn't seem to mind one bit! He LOVED all the lights, particularly the ones that went over his head or had pictures of dogs or other animals.

Before we went out on the lights, we paid Santa a visit. Of course, a story accompanies this. We waited in line and when it was our turn, Noah jumped on his lap, no fear. We got him to look at the camera and smile and then moved on to get our pictures. I was even thinking, yeah he smiled. So we look at our 2 pictures she snapped. One was Santa closing his eyes and the other Noah was looking in the other direction. Seriously, the photographer couldn't even snap the picture while he was smiling????? So David asked if we could go again really quick. The lady was really hesistant but she let us. So we get him back on there and now he won't smile. Finally, David peeks his head around the corner to see how it was going and Noah gives me the biggest smile EVER. And thank goodness, the photographer actually took the picture. So we got a great picture and I was so excited to see the result on paper.

So then we get the picture and there is a line in the picture. David complains and they refunded his money, which means we got free Santa pictures, but still. David was able to take them home and photoshop the line. This is a picture before the photoshop and you can see the line is barely visible (it's on the right side, over Santa's left shoulder). Really I think it turned out fine, but we will probably seek out a new Santa next year.

Nursery pictures

2011-12-19T08:07:00.002-06:00

Here are pictures of Miss Emilee's new nursery. I want to add a disclaimer about the color. We chose yellow because it works great with the bedding. Her room is our prior guest room and much smaller than Noah's room, so we wanted something bright and yellow works the best, especially considering the small window. BUT, the color that is displayed in these pictures are simply a lack of my photography talent and lighting. It really is not that dark. I would classify it more as a bright pastel yellow, not sun burnt yellow. Ok, continue looking at pictures...

Noah helping Daddy (excuse my husband's pants).

Changing Table and window. There is a changing pad cover that matches the set, I'll try and remember to take new pictures of it when we start using it. Also we hung up her quilt the same way we did Noah's, but hers is a lot thinner, so it creates a droop at the top that we are hoping to fix at some point.

Noah testing out the mobile.

This wall will have her name on it whenever we get around to purchasing the letters and painting them. More pictures to come later.

And to answer the inevitable question, no our daughter will not have her own flat screen TV at birth. That is for Mommy purposes only. We realized on night 2 or 3 of having to nurse Noah in his room at night alone that Mommy was quite lonely. So in came the TV. Once Emilee is sleeping through the night, we'll relocate the TV back to our computer room again.

Noah's new bedroom

2011-12-19T08:00:00.004-06:00

Here are pictures of Noah's new bedroom furniture. Here is Noah enjoying his new bed. We had the pillows in there the first night and it threw him off, so we took them out and he slept much better. Then he developed a cough, probably from the dry weather, so we added them back in to try and elevate his head and help his cough. Turns out, he loved the pillows, so now he has one everynight. Although I will say many mornings, he is not sleeping on them. Baby steps.

Here is Noah's new desk. Although this is a picture of the original one, we had to have it replaced because of some damage it incurred during shipping.

Noah update!

2011-12-14T08:02:00.010-06:00

First of all, I just have to say thank you to the comments I have been getting. Please keep commenting. Tell me what you like and what you hate!!!

To answer Amanda's question, we have sort of decided on a name. We are about 99% sure that her name will be Emilee. As for a middle name, a little more undecided. We both really like Teresa (after my mom) or Anne (my middle name). I'll also most some more updates with her nursery pics soon.

But this post is about Mr. Noah!!! What a little boy he has become in the last few months. I was just looking at pictures from his 18-month birthday and he seemed so young even then. Now he will repeat just about every word you say, most with pretty good articulation. I always assumed that little kids talked in their own language that only their parents could understand, but Noah does a really good job of saying every word slowly and precisely so that you can understand it all. He will say some very short 2 word phrases. The most common that I've heard are "Hold me" and "All Gone". Not exactly the 2 word phrases I'm hoping he can put together, but he's getting there. All in his own time.

Noah will also conceptually understand what you are telling him to do most of the time. He knows that when it's time to say good-bye, we give hugs and kisses and say "bye bye" or "see ya". He knows that Buddy has to go in his crate when we leave or when Buddy is being annoying, he should be on his pillow (Noah actually told him to go to his pillow the other night while pointing at it). He knows how to help with the laundry (both putting it into the washer and dryer and putting his clothes in the hamper) and dishwasher. He can feed himself just about anything with a fork and spoon. Occasionally he needs help cutting something, but he tells you "cut". He can peel his own banana and eat it all on his own.

Speaking of food, this kid eats like none other!!! Just a few short months ago, we were in that ackward phase of him wanting more than we were willing to share from our plates at a restaurant but he didn't eat enough to warrant his own kid's meal (especially when some places charge upwards of $5-6 for a kid's meal). Now, Noah can easily polish off a kid's meal and usually wants more. How am I suppose to satisfy him with a kid's meal until he's 12!?!?!?! Not only does he eat really well, but he's generally not too picky. He will have his moments, but generally if we tell him that he can't have a second roll until he has a few bites of this or that, he eats it relunctantly and relishes in the fact that he got a second roll, like he got a prize or something. I don't mind doing this sort of "trade off" since I don't think kids understand moderating at their age. By no means will I ever "force" him to eat any food. If he's done, then he's done, but that also means, he doesn't get a cookie or dessert or anything else.

Noah's other favorite activity is water. Not just bath time, but shower time, too. And I'm sure if it were summer, it would be pool time as well. He loves pouring the water over his face or just standing in the shower letting the water run over his head. He's recently learned that it's a lot of fun to lay on his stomach or back in the tub. A little scary for Mommy, especially when he gulps in a mouthful of water, but he's learning.

Lastly, Noah's big change has come in the form of his bedroom. Since we are expecting Emilee in just a few short months, we decided to start transitioning Noah to a new furniture set. He is staying in his room since I want him to keep his turtles for a little while longer and it prevented us from having to re-paint and decorate 2 rooms, since we would have to repaint Emilee's room regardless. Noah's new furniture includes a full size bed. And he has transitioned to it amazingly well. At first, we didn't use a pillow but he was having some coughing fits (probably from the dry air) and we brought it back and it helped plus I think he likes having it now. He does still have to use a little stool to get in bed, even though it's much lower than a traditional full size bed. But it's a cute little wooden stool with his name on it, so we should be able to keep using it in the future.

I feel like I have a ton more things to talk about (I guess that's what I get for not writing any posts in a while), but they will have to wait for another day.

P.S. I promise some pictures will be coming.

24 weeks

2011-12-13T08:12:00.007-06:00

I'm 24 weeks now!!! I know that I haven't posted anything in several weeks and I apologize. First, I've been extremely busy with holidays, work, baby stuff, etc. Second, I've had several people come up and ask why I haven't been posting on my blog, so I know there are some people that do read my blog. But yet, no one posts any comments or anything!!!!! So this is my warning: If you like my blog and like reading it and you would like to see it continue in the future, please post a comment of love, please. All I need to know is that someone is listening. And if you absolutely hate everything I write about and would rather I write about something else, let me know that too. End Rant

Now for the actual post:

Weeks: 24

Weight Gain: I can finally report that I believe I've gained about 10 pounds so far. I know the last appointment at 20 weeks, he said I had a 5 pound gain and this time I'm up another 5 pounds. I still think I'm well within normal.

Symptoms: No more nausea for the most part. Just if I don't eat something first thing in the mornings. That also means I can go back to eating my spicy food (yum). However, it has all been replaced with terrible back pain. I'm pretty sure she is laying right on my nerve that goes down my back and into my legs which causes me excruciating pain by the end of the day. The best help is to lie down on my side. That's another thing - I can only sleep on my sides and not just on my side. I have to have my pregnancy pillow on one side and between my legs and a long king size pillow on the other. I get up several times at night to use the restroom, drink water and change positions. Not to mention all the times she wakes me up with her kicking. I don't recall anytime with Noah being woken up with kicking, but she is a fiesty one for sure.

Belly Size: Getting bigger by the day!! I guess I could do the TP test, but the doctor measured me yesterday and the fundal height (the height from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus) was 24 inches, so I'm measuring right on.

Baby Size: 8.5 inches and 1.5 pounds (size of an ear of corn)

Next Appointment: Jan 9. I'll be 28 weeks and after that appointment, I will start going every other week. Also, I have my glucose test that week.

I also want to update that I had my last appointment yesterday and everything went well. Heartbeat sounded really strong, he said especially for a 24 weeker. Nothing else exciting to report about the appointment.

It seems like this pregnancy is just flying by and before we know it, she'll be here!!!

17 weeks

2011-10-26T09:40:00.002-05:00

Weeks: 17

Weight Gain: I think I still weight about the same, maybe gain a few pounds. I thought the doctor said at my last appointment that I had gained a few, but I should really ask next time. I would have thought by now I would be gaining more (especially considering how big my belly is!).

Symptoms: The nausea is pretty much gone except for an occasional morning. I still have headaches but it seems like as long as I drink lots of water, keep eating regularly and take breaks from the computer, it is ok. I do have pains in my lower back/butt which I think are a sciatic nerve but from my google research, it sounds like I don't have it that bad. If I just sleep or lay on my side, it seems to help.

Belly Size: No official measurements, but I measured with TP and I was 11 squares. It seems HUGE.

Baby Size: 5 inches long and 5 oz in weight (size of a Turnip)

Next Appointment: Nov 7 for our big ultrasound and then Nov 16 for my next doctor appointment.

I have started to feel like baby kicks now, but it's not hard at all. Maybe that means it really is a dainty little girl.

I also apologize for not updating as much anymore. I've been busy with lots of things in my life right now which includes becoming a Scentsy consultant. I love it so far and definitely contact me if you are interested!!! I am enjoying being busy and the blog just hasn't really inspired me lately, so if you want to know what's going on with me, well pick up a phone and call me!

13 weeks

2011-09-28T15:40:00.003-05:00

Weeks: 13

Weight Gain: Still nothing really.

Symptoms: Seems like the nausea has come back here and there more. Just trying to eat on a regular schedule. Also the headaches are getting out of control. I think it's my body telling me I'm not drinking enough water because when I notice one coming on, if I drink lots of water, it gets better. So I just have to remember to drink, drink, drink.

Belly Size: Doesn't seem like a significant change from the prior week, in fact, I think some of my bloating may have gone down.

Baby Size: 2.9 inches (peach size) and .81 ounces - slowly getting bigger.

Next Appointment: Oct 17

Lately I've been feeling like maybe I can feel flutters here and there. I'm pretty sure I was 18 weeks with Noah before I was "for sure" feeling him, but they say you can feel the second one earlier. Then again, it could just be my stomach making noises, who knows? I really can't wait to feel the hard kicks and jabs though.

Going to go bedroom shopping for Noah this weekend and hopefully decide and order something. Then we just need to get our guest bedroom furniture out, find out the sex, paint the room, move the nursery furniture over and move in Noah's new furniture. I also need to decide what I'm doing for Noah's bedding. He's keeping his turtle theme, but since they don't make a twin or full set, I'm just going to have to buy basic colors, I think.

2nd Prenatal Appointment - 12 weeks

2011-09-22T09:07:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I had my 2nd prenatal appointment. The doctor took FOREVER to see me, which was annoying. First off, though, the office manager pulled me in to discuss my benefits. What? I'd never had this before, but whatever. So she goes through everything and at the end she says "so you owe us $700" and I'm like, what??? She re-explains and basically the office estimates what my insurance will cover for the delivery and everything and then they charge you that upfront and want you to be on a payment plan to be fully paid by the 28th week. We decided that I would pay in January right before 28 weeks so that I could use my 2012 FSA. It's kind of weird, but after thinking about it some more, I like that I already have an estimate so I can figure out our FSA planning better and I'll already have one bill taken care of leaving just the hospital fees.

Ok, so now the actual doctor part. He had an extremely hard time finding the heartbeat. He even had to switch out his doppler machine and FINALLY, he found it. Right in the middle, very faint, but strong. Thank God!!! Other than that, we discussed my sore throat and he determined I most likely have strep throat, so he gave me a rx for an antiobiotic. Kind of funny because I asked if this was ok for the baby and his response was "No, it will destroy the pregnancy but your throat will feel better".

Everything else was fine and I set up my next appt for Oct 17, I'll be almost 16 weeks then. Then the next appointment, around mid-Nov will be 20 weeks and I'll set up my big ultrasound then as well.

12 weeks

2011-09-22T09:01:00.003-05:00

Weeks: 12 (back to my weekly schedule)

Weight Gain: According to my appointment, I was exactly +3 pounds, but it's still been fluctuating at home, so I'd still say no real weight gain.

Symptoms: The nausea is pretty much gone. Occasionally I'll feel a little ill in the mornings if I don't eat right away. Otherwise, I'm feeling pretty good. I have noticed that I can't carry Noah up and down the stairs as much or my belly starts to hurt.

Belly Size: I did take a picture and posted it on facebook. Maybe I'll get an updated one for here. I've bought more pregnancy clothes which is good since I need them and apparently I'm a size less than what I was with Noah, so now I actually have maternity clothes that fit.

Baby Size: 2.1 inches (size of a plum) and .49 ounces.

Next Appointment: Oct 17. I'll write a separate post about my appointment yesterday.

11 weeks

2011-09-14T07:47:00.003-05:00

Weeks: 11 weeks (sorry, I missed 10 weeks)

Weight Gain: Nothing yet - I'm still flucuating between 0 and 5 pounds.

Symptoms: My nausea is almost gone. I just get a little quesy in the mornings when I don't eat right away. Definitely have a ton of round ligament pains, especially when I sneeze. I usually sneeze, then scream in pain. Or when I roll around in bed at night.

Belly Size: I'll try and remember and take a picture tonight. Definitely obvious belly. I even got my first pregnancy comment this past weekend.

Baby Size: 2 inches and .3 ounces (size of a lime).

Next appointment: 1 week from today!

Ok, so first I apologize for not posting ANYTHING for 2 weeks. This pregnancy hasn't been that exciting. Yes, I'm super excited for another baby and can't wait to find out the sex, to go to my next appointment, to think about the birth, etc. But generally, I am just not as excited about this pregnancy as I was with Noah's. Maybe it's cuz I know I still have a long ways to wait until the baby actually gets here or if the "newness" of being pregnant as worn off. I'm still going to really try hard to post a weekly update and take some more pictures though.

Secondly, I'm just not feeling the blog as much as I used to. I love reading other people's blogs, but as far as mine...meh? I don't feel that that many people ACTUALLY read it and those that do, never comment, so I feel like I'm talking to a blank wall most of the time (what? that's what a blog is supposed to be?) Anyway, I've found that too many times I will go to tell a story to someone and they'll respond with "oh I read that on your blog". Since I would rather tell the story myself in person and hear their reactions, I just don't feel like posting as much here. Maybe this will change, but for now, I'm taking a small hiatus from regular posting.

9 weeks

2011-08-31T15:01:00.002-05:00

Weeks: 9 (Can you believe how fast the weeks are coming now?)

Weight Gain: +4 pounds (which is -1 from last week). I'm basically fluctuating between +2 and +5 so until I get over +5 pounds, I'm not going to consider anything really weight gain yet. Hopefully that won't start happening until around 20 weeks.

Symptoms: After last week's appt, the doctor gave me some meds for the nausea and I have only taken it 1 day so far. It did help but then I got a headache and thought that was a side effect, but then I kept getting them the next couple of days. So I have switched to glasses and no contacts and drinking water like it's going out of style to stay hydrated. That seems to keep the headaches away. The nausea still comes and goes, most days not too bad though. Otherwise, I have to pee quite often, especially in the middle of the night.

Belly Size: It's definitely getting bigger, but I haven't taken a picture yet this week. Maybe I should start measuring with TP????

Baby Size: Baby is 1 inch long and weighs .07 ounces. In other words, a green olive (not a black olive, a green olive).

Next Appointment: Still September 21!

We leave for Chicago tomorrow. Probably won't post anything while I'm gone, but I should have some goods pics when we get back.

Noah's new daycare class

2011-08-26T09:15:00.002-05:00

So this week was Noah's first week in his new classroom. It's technically the "1 Year Old" room but they don't move the kids up until August every year, so it's really more like the "18 Month Old" room. There are 4 or 5 kids in his class and I'm pretty sure they are all within a few months of each other. I was very nervous and scared as to what to expect in this new room, how Noah would take it, if I would like his new teacher, etc.

Noah's teacher, Miss Amanda, was actually working in the nursery when she first started so I did meet her then and my opinion of her was that she was very quiet and never communicated anything to me, so I was a little worried about the communication now.

Well I can honestly say I am thrilled he is in this new room. I think he likes it and is adjusting well. It sounds like we will get newsletters from his teacher every other week updating us on what he's doing. They are on a schedule in this new room and they have a lesson time everyday where they will learn shapes, colors, and the alphabet. They also sleep on cots during a scheduled nap time and eat at little tables for breakfast, lunch and snacktime, all of which he is doing great with.

When I drop him off in the morning in the gym for breakfast, he never whimpers or cries anymore when I leave. He's just happy to be there with the other kids. And when I pick him up in the evening, he doesn't want to leave. This makes Mommy a little sad, but I'm so glad to see how excited about school he is.

I love that he mostly only has 1 teacher, so if I have any questions or concerns, I can just go directly to Amanda, not 4 different nursery teachers who may or may not have been there the whole day. Amanda has done great with his cloth diapers. Finally someone who understands that you do not have to change the cover each change. She also must put bibs on the kids because Noah has come home with a clean shirt everyday! I just think this was a much needed change and can't wait for him to start learning all these new things.

18 month pictures

2011-08-25T19:25:00.001-05:00

This post replaces the linked post I created earlier. That link will eventually expire, so I posted the pictures here so that you can always see them!

First Doctor's Appointment

2011-08-25T08:36:00.004-05:00

So yesterday was the long awaited doctor's appointment. I was so nervous, excited, and scared at the same time. I wanted so badly to see the heartbeat and confirm that the baby was growing as it should be but also scared that maybe just maybe there was 2 babies in there. And then the half hour wait just sitting there in front of the ultrasound machine didn't help!!! Luckily, he came in and we got started.

Found the baby right away and started doing his measurements. I measured 8 weeks, 1 day, which was perfect since I thought I was about 8 weeks. Here's a few pictures. The crosshairs are measuring the embryo and then the little white piece to the left is the yolk sac. On the far left, is my awesome polycystic ovary (haha).

The doctor also turned the heartbeat part on and got an awesome beat at around 177. I'm so relieved to hear everything looks perfect so far. He did get my labs back from the work I had done a few weeks ago and everything looked fine there.

We went back to his office and discussed a few things, mostly standard background health, what to do/not do, etc. We've been through this before, so nothing new. Then we set up our next appointment in 4 weeks. I would say the appointment couldn't have gone any smoother, oh well it could have been faster.

8 weeks

2011-08-24T07:30:00.003-05:00

Weeks: 8

Weight Gain: +5 pounds (+3 from last week). I'm thinking this is still just my fluctuating weight, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's down 1 or 2 pounds next week.

Symptoms: Oh wow, this nausea/morning sickness is killing me. I still haven't actually vomited at all and I hope it stays that way, but there have definitely been boughts of dry heaving and points where I feel like all I want to do is die. The fatigue seems better, though.

Belly Size: I haven't taken my weekly picture yet, but I'm in all maternity clothes now. I was trying to make a few non-maternity shirts work and they literally ride up and don't cover everything anymore, so all maternity shirts from now on. Which means I need to do some serious shopping!

Baby Size: Baby is .63 inches long and weighs about .04 oz. Think Raspberry size.

Next Appointment: TODAY!!!! Hooray! I've been waiting for so long, yet the weeks seemed to go by pretty fast. Even though I'm 8 weeks today, I've only really known for 4 weeks and that seems like a long time already. I hope the rest of the pregnancy goes by just as fast. Oh and hopefully only 4 more weeks of possible morning sickness, unless I become one of the unlucky ones who have it the whole pregnancy. I will post a separate post either tonight or tomorrow on how my appointment goes.

Going out.

2011-08-21T20:38:00.002-05:00

I saw something on another blog that sparked this post. She was writing about how it bugged her that other people didn't take their kids out. I have to agree with her.

Before Noah was born, I was pretty insistent that while obviously our lives would be changing (for the better), it wouldn't change so drastically that we couldn't continue doing the same things we were already doing. And I would say 18 months later, that was pretty much true. If we wanted to go out to eat, having a hungry newborn didn't stop us. A few times, we would rely on friends or family to watch Noah so David and I could have a night out uninterrupted. But most of the times, we just brought Noah along. This was part of the beauty of breastfeeding and baby wearing. I could strap him to me and he would sleep most of the time and nothing would be any different. Or Noah would get hungry and I would just feed him quietly while I ate my own dinner (did you know that it would take 2 hands to feed a baby a bottle, yet I could breastfeed with only one, sometimes no hands???).

As Noah got older, this didn't change. We took Noah out to friends houses or errands or restaurants often and I'm pretty sure this is why he is such a good and flexible kid. He has no problems napping on the go or napping in 15 min increments here or there and having no reliable times for food or nap. Of course, when Noah is hungry, yes we do need to stop and eat, but it's not like we have to go pick up a special meal just for him.

Now that we are pregnant with #2, we are thinking about these same decisions all over again and just like with Noah, I feel why do things have to change. In fact, I enjoy having the opportunity to share these experiences with Noah. I'm blessed to know that we make enough money to take Noah to Chicago in a few weeks and to afford to take him to the Zoo and out to eat. Noah's done more in his 18 months than I've probably done in the first 18 years. No offense to my parents, they did a great job, but I'm really fortunate to be able to give Noah all these experiences already.

In my final comments, I just don't get others who when we see them out, they are yelling at their kids and seem so stressed out. I realize that we may all have a "moment" but if it's that bad, why did you decide to have children. I can honestly say I never feel that way around Noah. Sure, I get frustrated sometimes, but I never take it out on my poor innocent toddler who doesn't know better. I also don't understand the parents who on the other side don't take their kids out at all with the excuse that they just can't. I honestly think sometimes it's harder to entertain Noah at home than when we go out and do something. Yeah it's a bit more work to get everything together and maybe you have to walk and stuff but isn't it worth it to see the happiness on your child's face. So while I would say things haven't changed too much since Noah, the biggest thing is the reason and right now it's all for our kids, both Noah and our future kids. Both David and I would do anything for them. If that means we have to get up off our lazy butts and take them out, then I would do it with a smile, just for my kids. End Rant.

7 weeks

2011-08-17T07:42:00.002-05:00

Weeks: 7

Weight Gain: +2 pounds. I actually went down 1 pound from last week which I'm sure is due to my morning, no wait, all day sickness.

Symptoms: Definitely nausea most of the day. Still not to the point of vomiting, and I hope it stays that way. Still tired, although I'm either learning to deal with it or it may be getting slightly better. Still have crazy dreams. I also have random cramps/round ligament pains on occasional days from everything growing inside.

Belly Size: I'm going to start taking my belly pics the night before so I can report on them in my weekly posts. I definitely think I've grown since my last picture at 5 weeks. I'm wearing all maternity pants now and mostly tops (just cuz my regular tops don't look right). I still can't believe how big and hard my belly has gotten this fast.

Baby Size: This is a new one. I'm going to use one of my pregnancy apps to report on this but it gives you a good idea of exactly how big our little bean is. Right now our baby is .51 inches (size of a blueberry) and weighs less than .04 oz...so VERY small.

Next Appointment: Only 1 more week!!!!

Noah's 18 month Pictures

2011-08-15T20:03:00.002-05:00

This time around, we hired a professional photographer instead of going to a studio. I was just getting sick of the cookie cutter pictures with the fake smiles and with a mobile toddler, it was getting harder and harder to get him to cooperate. Not to mention, in the end I ended up with $200 of pictures that I never used.

So we found her on the internet and we liked that she wasn't super expensive. She doesn't do this as her primary job, which was why her prices were cheap but yet we liked her work. So we met up at Tower Grove Park. My honest review of her was that she did take wonderful great pictures but I think she could have given us a little direction as to what she wanted us to do or what would make a good picture.

So here is the link to the pictures. ENJOY!!

http://www.rdwarrenphotography.com/porter_18_months.html

6 weeks

2011-08-10T08:32:00.004-05:00

Weeks: 6

Weight Gain: +3 pounds. No change from last week which is good since I've been eating everything in sight!

Symptoms: Still some nausea, lots of tiredness, although I do have periods where I get a ton of energy and want to get something done, but still not that often. I thought the crazy dreams were over, but I just had one last night, so I guess not.

Belly Size: I haven't taken my belly pic for the day, but I did start wearing a few maternity pants here and there. Just depends on what I'm wearing. Doesn't seem like I've grown much since last week.

Next Appointment: 2 weeks from now - Aug 24!!!

P.S. Noah was super sick last night and I'm still tired from that. He had a fever of over 103. Poor guy! He's doing better today, though!

Noah's 18 month Dr Visit

2011-08-08T20:19:00.004-05:00

Today we went to the doctor for Noah's 18 month well baby visit. His stats are:

22lb7oz (9.12%)
30.25" (4.66%)

So he did go up in weight a little since his 15 month, but he's still short. I'd say his weight for his height is almost right on though, so I guess that is good.

His pediatrician was also pleased with how he is doing developmentally and Noah happened to be in a super good mood for the doctor so he was giving him hugs and showing him his belly and everything! So cute!!! He also told all the ladies in the office "Buh, bye" as he crazily waved his hand at them.

Oh and another milestone. Noah now eats at a big boy table at daycare. He starts his new classroom on August 22, so another 2 weeks and he will officially be in the 1 year old room. I just look at him doing all these big boy things (eating with a spoon and fork, sleeping in a toddler bed, eating at a table) and wonder where my little 8lb 13oz baby went. At least I've got another one cooking to satisfy my baby urges...

UPDATED POSTS

2011-08-06T21:08:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I haven't been a slacker, I've just been keeping my posts private until everyone knows and we make the news public. Now it's official and everyone knows so I have updated all my posts. A downside to Blogger is that my posts are in the order that I created them, not the order I published them. So in order to see these "secret" posts now, you will need to go back a few days and make sure you catch up. From now on, no more secrets and you'll be seeing all the posts.

5 weeks

2011-08-05T21:56:00.004-05:00

Quick update on my bloodtest results. The second beta number was 740 which gives me a doubling time of 30ish hours, which is almost exactly like it was with Noah, so I'm happy!

Weeks: 5

Weight Gain: +3 pounds. I'm going to call this my normal fluctuation in weight throughout the day since I've weighed myself and it goes back and forth.

Symptoms: No acid reflux at all anymore...WOO HOO! Definitely some boughts of nausea. The greatest symptom now is my extreme fatigue. I've also been having some really crazy dreams again and that's making my "tired" problem even worse.

Belly Size: I started taking belly pics this week and no, I will not be posting those here!!! But I can tell you that I compared it to my belly pics with Noah and I'm definitely at about 13 weeks when I was pregnant with Noah which is crazy! I'm going maternity shopping this weekend!

Next appointment: My official first appointment is August 24. I was a little bummed that it wasn't sooner, but I will just sit patiently and eagerly wait for those cute pictures.

Grant's Farm

2011-08-04T19:44:00.001-05:00

Ok - so I'm so very behind. I apologize, I'm super busy at work/home, etc. But I'm going to try to catch up in the next couple of weeks...I promise!

So a few weeks ago, Nick's sister and her kids were in town and we decided to go to Grant's Farm, although I apologize cuz I have zero pictures of Nick, his sister, or the kids...Oops! Anyway, we had a good time despite how terribly hot it was that day!

Here's Noah sitting back waiting for the train.

Noah and Daddy.

Noah and Mommy

Feeding the goats was probably the best part of the whole trip. Sadly I think the goats were a little full, but we got a few nibbles.

Noah really wanted to feed the bottle to the goat, but they wanted no part of it.

And of course, we had to do the carousel ride once.

Noah is 18 months old!

2011-08-03T08:48:00.006-05:00

That's right, my little baby was born just 18 short months ago! I can't believe how quickly a year and a half goes by. It seems like just yesterday when I was still in the hospital giving birth. We don't have his "official" 18 month doctor appointment until next Monday. I'll give you the updated stats on his weight, height, etc. then.

Things Noah is doing is talking A LOT. I don't even think I can write down the whole list of words he can say. At this point, they are all one word at a time. I've tried getting him to say 2 words together but he usually just says the last word. I would say he probably has a vocabulary of about 25 words, if not more. But, there is a consistent 5 or so words that he uses ALL THE TIME. Those include Mommy, Daddy, Doggie, Ball, and Down. Although Cookie is close.

Noah loves climbing up, down and all over. It's funny cuz he'll say "down" when he wants down but then he also says it when he wants "up". He doesn't quite know the difference yet. He loves playing with the dog. Buddy is amazingly good with Noah. The worst is that he'll lick him all over. Noah will grab at his ears and point to his teeth and try to rip off his cheek and Buddy just sits there. Although sometimes we think that's pretty stupid, since he should just walk away!

Noah has mastered going up and down the stairs several months ago by using his knees and then going down on his tummy. But lately, it's all about being a big boy and he wants to hold your hand and go up and down the big boy way. This scares Mommy a lot since I'm afraid you are going to fall, but I suppose it's how we learn.

I'm sure before I know it, Noah will be 2 years old already!

UPDATED - Now for the pictures. All from my iphone since that's where I take most of his pictures these days.

Noah's 2nd haircut. Still cute!!

Went to Monkey Joe's for the first time and had a great time.

Playing with friends.

Noah in his big boy bed. This was taken one morning and I guess he wanted his legs over the edge.

Noah has taken to showers lately, especially with Daddy. And no, our son is not a drug addict. He just likes stacking the empty bottles.

Enjoying some popcorn with daddy.

This was actually a picture sent from his daycare. Apparently he jumped into the swing, shut the latch and said "Baby". Too cute!

4 weeks

2011-07-28T09:30:00.004-05:00

Ok, so my goal is to do at least 1 post a week detailing my entire pregnancy. I want to do a better job of journaling it. So here we go (first week is already one day late...oops).

Weeks: 4

Weight Gain: 0 (I did weight myself and I will tell you that I weigh a whole 30 pounds less than when I started with Noah and if Noah's pregnancy is any indication, I will lose weight before I gain).

Symptoms: I had horrible acid refux on Fri, Sat, and Sun but after avoiding trigger foods and taking Tums, that symptom has pretty much gone away. Some morning sickness/nausea.

Belly Size: Eventually I will start measuring this, but for now I will say my pants are getting tighter and my abdomen seems to be hardening already. At this rate, I'll be in maternity pants by 6 weeks!

Next appointment: I haven't officially set up my first appointment yet (I want to make sure my bloodwork on Monday is ok). I am getting bloodwork done on Saturday, though.

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!

2011-07-28T09:12:00.010-05:00

That's right, I am officially 100% pregnant. The lines on the pregnancy test just kept getting darker and darker along with some very strong side effects like acid reflux (from the excess progesterone in my body), dreams, and morning sickness. I told the fertility specialist that I thought I might be pregnant and I was worried she would yell at me for testing so early, but absolutely not. She sent me for bloodwork on Monday, when I was 12 DPO and the result came back at 59. She said that anything over 5 means your pregnant and they like to see the number over 50 which it is.

I'm slightly worried because on the same day with Noah's pregnancy, I was at 114, but it could have mattered depending on what time of day I went or whether I was actually off a day or so, since the number doubles every 48 hours or so. The bigger test will be when I go again on Saturday and get the result back on Monday. They need to see those numbers increasing every 48 hours or less for it to be a good pregnancy so far.

After that point, I will have to wait another 2-4 weeks before I can go for my first doctor's appointment where they'll do an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy and hopefully see a heart beating. After that, I'll feel pretty confident going forward. Until then, I'm SUPER scared. I don't remember being this scared or nervous with Noah.

I remember being super pregnant with Noah and feeling him kick and move all the time and so it's hard to remember this part of pregnancy, which makes me feel NOT pregnant and makes my fears worse. On top of that, the acid reflux and a lot of the morning sickness went away. David said it's just my body adjusting to everything and it's a good sign that I'll have an easy pregnancy again, but I'm not convinced.

That's the other thing. I feel like I had a pretty good pregnancy and birth with Noah and he's such a good baby/toddler and then it was almost TOO easy to get pregnant this time around (ok - well we had to do fertility treatment, but considering). I think we got too lucky and something bad is bound to happen. Sigh - I just need to push all these bad thoughts out of my head and start enjoying the pregnancy and relaxing. There's no reason to worry until I'm given a reason to worry!

So I'm due April 4, 2012, according to my calculations, but that could, of course, change at my first appointment. I'm excited to have more of a spring baby than right in the middle of winter. I'm a little bummed that it couldn't have been a few days later to not mess with the end of busy season, but it is what it is.

Ok finally some pictures of my tests. I went maybe a tad overboard in how many tests I've taken. Don't judge.

This is my progression picture. If you look closely, you can see the line going negative and then slightly positive.

Here you can see the line getting MUCH darker.

I took this on 14DPO when I expected AF to show. Obviously pregnant!

And you really can't get any clearer than that!

Cycle #4 - CD 24 (9 DPO)

2011-07-22T10:15:00.006-05:00

Ok - so I think before I said that I had ovulated Tuesday, July 12. Well after doing some more research, it seems like you can ovulate anywhere between 24-48 hours after the trigger. I gave myself the trigger on Monday, July 11, at 7pm, so really I should have ovulated between Tuesday 7pm - Wednesday 7pm. Since I had all those abdomen pains on Wednesday, I'm going with that day as my O date.

So that puts me at 9DPO (days past ovulation) today. Still pretty early to see anything. But I was almost positive that the pregnancy test yesterday was negative and today there is a faint faint line. But I could just be seeing things or maybe I didn't see yesterday's line. By now, I would think the trigger med would be completely out of my system, so any line is hopeful. I'm just going to have to wait and keep testing to see, but I'm very excited to think of the possibilities.

I have been having some symptoms. Mostly abdomen pains/cramps and sort of those round ligament pains I got when I was pregnant with Noah (which means my uterus is growing). I have these crazy intense cravings where only 1 certain thing satisfies me, lately, it's been milk. And the most prominent symptom is my crazy vivid dreams. For 2 nights now, I've had these really vivid, realistic dreams. I end up waking up in a light sweat. I've heard this can be an early pregnancy symptom.

As I said before, I'm not going to post pictures until I know I'm pregnant. If I'm not, why bother? Until next time..

Cycle #4 - CD 21 (7 DPO)

2011-07-19T08:25:00.007-05:00

So I have been testing, and I'll post my pictures if this all turns out in a pregnancy (otherwise, who really cares, right?) Yesterday's was a faint positive and today's was either negative or a very very faint positive, so I'm pretty sure the trigger med is all out of my system. So anything after this that is positive, I will take to mean it's a real pregnancy. I'm sure I will test on Wed and Thurs, but I don't really expect any darkening until at least Friday.

I was feeling really confident in this cycle and then something happened yesterday and I just started thinking that it wasn't going to be this time. Not sure what happened, but I just had a feeling. Again, I won't be completely heartbroken if it doesn't happen this cycle. Next cycle we will be completely out of busy season for the due date and we already know what works (150mg Clomid) so I'm confident that next cycle we'll get some good eggs again. I'm just worried that if it doesn't happen the next cycle, when will it happen?

I keep seeing all these pregnant women and it makes me so jealous. They aren't even just pregnant, they are pregnant with a little one. I want to be pregnant with Noah. Sigh.

On an unrelated note, I'm going to the NKOTBSB concert tonight and I'm excited about something to take my mind off of all this.

Cycle #4 - CD 16 (2 DPO)

2011-07-14T13:48:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I forget that not everyone who reads this is into the "lingo", so I will interpret. Cycle #4 is the number of cycles we have been trying since we had Noah. CD 16 is the "cycle day" we are currently on. A normal cycle is 28 days, and for this month, it's pretty close to that average. 2 DPO means it's been 2 days since ovulation. That's because I'm pretty sure I ovulated CD 14 (Tuesday).

I took the trigger Monday night which went fantastic. I even did it myself, which I was impressed with how much it really didn't hurt. It hurt worse the next day when it was a little bruised, but now it's fine. Yesterday, Wednesday, was the worst day yet. I had so many pains and cramps in my abdomen. It was mostly on my right side, where the bigger follie was, but I had some on my left side as well, so very possible that both eggs were released. At this point all we do is wait, wait, wait. I'm pretty sure I will start testing next Monday or Tuesday, even though the trigger will still be in my body and it will be a false positive, but I really want to see the lines get lighter and then hopefully darker.

The HCG meds (Pregnyl, if you care to know the name) has a half life of about 24 hours, meaning the 10,000 units should be out of my body in about 10 days, or July 21 (CD 23). That's when I should really know if I'm pregnant or not. Although the fertility people say I shouldn't test until July 28. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much since this really is the first REAL cycle that anything could possibly happen. Not to mention, if we aren't pregnant, then I don't have to worry about a baby being due in busy season.

Cycle #4 - CD 13 Ultrasound

2011-07-11T10:14:00.002-05:00

The most amazing ultrasound EVER! Ok, well maybe not better than Noah's ultrasound, but still. I went with the expectation that we would see a few follies between 10-15mm and then we would do an injection to make them grow bigger/faster and then trigger later this week. Well, all my expectations were blown completely out of the water!!! I had one on my right side at 21mm and one on my left side at 16mm. Not only do I not need any injectable meds this cycle, but I'm ready to go. I will trigger tonight. This will be the first time I do the trigger myself (well David will do it). We did the injectable meds before on our own, so I think we can handle it. We are waiting until tonight to wait and see if we can give a little more time to recruit that 16mm. They really want them between 18-20 to be able to fertilize properly.

So I did the math. If we get pregnant this cycle, I would be due April 3, 2012. It's still a good 2 weeks from the tax deadline. But, the end of busy season is usually slower, so I don't think it would be horrible. At least, if it doesn't work this cycle, I can be happy about the fact that I will definitely be out of busy season the next cycle. Oh also, it looks like Easter falls on April 8 next year, so I could potentially still be in the hospital, or even miss the family Easter/church because we'll have a newborn. But who knows, maybe I'd still be pregnant by then. Ok, enough dreaming/wishing. I may do a few more posts on symptoms, testing out the trigger, etc, but I won't be posting them until later. I will not post again until at least August regarding TTC so that if I am pregnant, I can tell the appropriate people first before I announce to everyone.

Fourth of July

2011-07-05T14:15:00.003-05:00

I wish I could come here with all the great pictures from my weekend, but there was very little picture taking, mostly because there was nothing much to take pictures of.

Friday night, we went to Incredible Pizza Company. Noah didn't really care for the toddler rides, but he liked watching us play games and of course, he loved the ball we won for him.

Saturday we worked in the garden and then grocery shopped and went to David's co-worker for fireworks. This guy must have spent a small fortune for the amount of fireworks he shot off. It was very entertaining and Noah really enjoyed himself, even if it was several hours past bedtime.

Sunday we did some shopping and then the plan was to go downtown and see Maroon 5 and the fireworks, but it was all cancelled due to that stupid storm (more on that later). We ended up just putting up chairs on our driveway and watching everyone around us shoot off fireworks. It's kind of fun since we live in an unincorporated area and it's legal to shoot fireworks.

Monday we had my brother and sister to be along with my dad over for a BBQ. Delicious food and some homemade ice cream to top it off. And then the grand finale of our neighborhood show.

Overall, a good weekend, but nothing to share pictures of (sorry - again). That stupid storm also did something to our TV. BUT, it's covered under warranty and there is a guy coming out to fix it on Friday who thinks he knows exactly what is wrong and how to fix it (all my fingers are crossed). In the meantime, we are using Noah's little TV has a poor substitute. We aren't TV addicts or anything, but we are really used to having the TV on all the time. Usually it's the news or the baseball game.

I think Noah did like the fireworks. He would point and say "Boom" and then clap. He was super tired though, so he was content just sitting in our laps enjoying the show. It was really cute and I'm so glad he liked them (vs screaming like a crazy toddler).

Not too much on the agenda this week. Just working and living our life, I guess.

Cycle #4

2011-06-30T10:47:00.002-05:00

Back to TTC. While on vacation, I took the prometrium to induce the next cycle. That started yesterday, June 29. So today is actually CD 2. I called and talked with Becky at PARINTS and discussed our plan of action for this cycle. I am going to take 150mg of Clomid days 3-9 and then I go back for an ultrasound on July 11 (CD 13) to see how I'm responding. Hopefully it looks like I'm responding well and I won't need any injections and we just wait until they are big enough to trigger. But if they aren't even close, we will need to start with the injections which I dread because 1. They are needles and they will hurt and 2. They are expensive. But I will do what I need to do.

Based on a "normal" cycle (ha, what do I know about a normal cycle?), if I got pregnant this cycle, I would be due April 4, which is MUCH closer to the tax deadline than before. I really don't want to miss busy season again. Of course, since I will probably not ovulate (aka trigger) until later than CD 14, that pushes my due date back farther. I'm not sure if it would get pushed back 11 days, but still. And honestly, the last week before the deadline isn't very busy, so it wouldn't be a big deal to be due right before busy season ends.

A few more island pictures

2011-06-30T10:33:00.001-05:00

Ok, so I didn't know David had a few pictures on his iPhone. So these won't be the greatest quality, but memories nonetheless. Here we are on the flight to Cancun. I don't know if I mentioned it before but he did really well on all the flights. He fell asleep for most of it and other than it being uncomfortable for mommy, he was good.

Noah's favorite things was to press the light buttons and open/close the window.

Here is a discription of the floating island for those that are interested.

Noah loved chasing the birds. I love his little hat.

We kept Noah entertained waiting for meals with his little people animals. He loved playing with them.

I'm rocking the horse to sleep. He would then take the horse from me and try to rock him to sleep as well. The kid just imitates everything we do.

David had his first mojito while we were there. Gotta love the sippy cup in the background!

Noah is getting into his island spirit.

This is what Noah looked like after everyday. We had NO issues getting him to sleep at all. Most nights, we put him in his jammies and right into bed and he just fell asleep. The other nights, it was that he fell asleep while we were still putting his clothes on.

Bad Parent Warning: This is Noah feeding himself a biscuit from McDonalds. Honestly, I hate McDonalds. Their food is unhealthy and gross, but we were hungry and it was the only thing open at 5am at the airport. David messed up ordering and ended up getting Noah his own meal and he ate like EVERYTHING. The kid loves eggs and biscuits.

Isla Mujeres - Day 8

2011-06-29T12:11:00.002-05:00

Ok, almost there. Thanks for bearing with me. Here's another beautiful sunrise. Again, not by me.

In the mornings, they rake the beach.

This is David and Noah waiting for the ferry.

More waiting...decided an ice cream cone at 10am was needed. Bad idea since the chocolate ended up on his shirt.

On the ferry on the way home. I don't know why I'm smiling...Noah has the right expression.

GOODBYE MEXICO.

I wish I could say that we flew home, no problems, end of story. But that wasn't the case. When we got to the Cancun airport, the line to check in at Continental was crazy long. It ended up taking us about an hour and a half to get through it. Thank goodness we got there early enough. The next problem was that the flight was delayed over an hour. That combined with having to go through customs and baggage in Houston meant that we would miss our connection to St. Louis. When we got to the front of the line, she said there was no other flights that night to St. Louis, so we would have to get a hotel. Great. Thankfully Continental provided the hotel and meal vouchers, but still. Then they booked us on the first flight in the morning. So we get to Houston ok, go through all the chaos of customs, which was complicated by the fact that David left something on the plane. We get our bags and go to get our vouchers and then head to the hotel.

The hotel was fine, but it wasn't home. Noah slept with Papa that night to give Mommy and Daddy a little break to go to the pool that night. The next morning, we were up bright and early at 4am to get on the shuttle to the airport. That flight was painless, it was only maybe 1/2 full. We arrived safely back in St. Louis at 9:30. Home at last. We were pretty exhausted the rest of the day and even today, I'm still feeling the effects.

We took a few videos while we were there, so I'll work on getting those up later this week. Thanks for sharing in our vacation!

Isla Mujeres - Day 7

2011-06-29T12:09:00.002-05:00

Last full day in Mexico...sadness!!! Here's a couple pics of our resort. This is the pool we used. The top left side is shallow, only about 6 inches. This was great for Noah. He even fell over a few times, but he was smart and just picked himself right back up. The other side was deeper, maybe 4 feet.

This is the view from outside our hotel room (on the other side).

Noah loved the crabs in this tank. We had to stop each time we passed it (which was like 4 or 5 times a day).

So this last day we went and ate breakfast at a place called Cazuela M&J. An M&J is a cross between an omelet and a souffle. David got one and it looked good, if you like eggs. I got pancakes, super good.

For dinner, we went back to Rolandi's for some more pizza. Just can't get enough of that place.

Isla Mujeres - Day 6

2011-06-29T12:08:00.001-05:00

Whew...are you guys still hanging with me? Day 6 was one of those days where we were so tired and so sunburned, none of us felt like doing anything. But we did get out and go to the grocery store and grab a few essentials. Really fancy, right?

Here we are just goofing around in the room. That ball was the best $5 spent. Thanks, Papa.

For lunch, we went to a place called Barito's which only serves breakfast and lunch. It was kind of an americanized sandwich shop. I was shocked when our waitress came out and she looked very American and spoke perfect english. We came to find out that she owned the shop with her also American husband. They moved here a couple years ago since they love it so much here. Wow, I don't think I could do that, but cool that they did. The food was good, but it was really hot that I don't think any of us felt like eating much.

The rest of the day we just bummed around. David, Noah and my dad went to the beach a bit more, but I just stayed in the room and read (which was fine with me).

Isla Mujeres - Day 5

2011-06-29T12:06:00.002-05:00

This picture was taken of the sunrise. Not from me, though. I was still in bed. Haha!

Today was another beach day!

I don't have a ton of photos from the day. We just ate a quick lunch of our pork and turkey sandwiches. We probably stayed out in the sun, just a little too long, though and we all got a little sunburned. Except Noah, he was never burned the whole week.

For dinner, we went to a place called Fayne's. It was supposed to be a steak place, but our steaks were just so-so. I don't remember what my dad got, but I think it was just ok, too. Definitely a forgettable place.

For dessert, we started going to this place called Cool. They had delicious ice cream and homemade waffle cones. YUM!

Isla Mujeres - Day 4

2011-06-29T11:58:00.003-05:00

This is us coming down Ave. Hildalgo, which is the main drag in Isla Mujeres. It's supposed to be pedestrian only, but I saw many mopeds flying past us and even a golf cart once. Don't we look like tourists with our map.

We ate breakfast at a place that I can't even remember the name. I had some pretty good french toast. David and my dad both has some variation of eggs. Noah, of course, gobbled up all the eggs!

This is what we referred to as the Isla Mujeres version of Lowe's.

So after breakfast, we decided to rent a golf cart and see the island (not just downtown). We got an awesome cart. It had 2 rows of seats, both forward facing which made it nice for Noah, plus it had a little luggage area where we stored the stroller. Here we are at a lookout point with some awesome views of the ocean.

Did you notice Noah? He could barely go a few miles down the road and I guess all that food in his belly caught up to him. He slept like this for a long time.

Pretty church on the island.

A school.

Water Treatment Facility

A house shaped like a shell.

A house with grass on the roof. How would you like to mow your roof???

Punta Sur - The most southern point and the most eastern point in all of Mexico.

Noah had a ball with all his lizard friends. They didn't care for Noah so much.

So the story behind this picture is that I touched this temple (yes, even though it says not to touch) in November 2008 and in May 2009, I was pregnant. Of course, I touched it again. Hopefully it works again!

They had a walk way that you could walk up near the ocean and see the crashing waves. So beautiful!

Noah being silly.

In the background of that picture, you can see the place we stopped for lunch. It was a place formerly known as Playa Lancheros, but now is known as Casa de Tixncix (pronounced Teek-n-Cheek). My dad and David both ordered the house speciality (Tixncix) which is basically a red snapper fish, sliced in half, covered with anchiote paste and grilled. It tasted very good and they both almost finished their servings. I needed a break from fish, so I got the chicken tacos, which were just ok.

Next up was the Turtle Farm. This place is a cute little turtle farm where they raise baby turtles and help injured ones. We've both been here before, but this is the first time, a "farmer" came over and gave us a private tour. The only problem was this guy didn't speak a lick of English. Luckily David and I both know enough Spanish to figure out what he was saying and ask a few questions.

Normally, you can't hold the turtles, but this guy let us.

I wasn't so sure about this animal...so weird.

That's the farmer guy in the picture.

Noah, look overe here.

This is literally some guy's house that is floating on its own. He used recycled bottles and wooden pallets. I guess you can pay $5 to have the guy give you a personal tour, but we decided to just view from a distance and move on.

For dinner, we followed the map and its recommendations and ended up at this place called Mochis.

It was so funny cuz when we pulled up, it was literally in the middle of a residential area. The menu was all in spanish. Clearly this was a place for locals, so we were very skeptical. We were the only ones to eat there the entire time. David got a hamburger. My dad got a steak sandwhich. I got something called Media Luna, which was a pork taco in the shape of a 1/2 moon with some cream on top. Mine was delicious, but I could barely finish half of it. We also got this strawberry smoothie, which Noah could have had 3 of those.

That's a picture of the pork they used in my sandwich. So good. The guy who ran the place said "If we don't like our meal, we don't have to pay. If we like it, we pay double". Hehe. After the meal was over, David had to shoot a dart to see how much % off our meal would be. He got 7%.

Then we returned home and found another one of those pesky animals in our room. LOL!

Isla Mujeres - Day 3

2011-06-29T11:51:00.002-05:00

Day 3 was only cloudy - no rain, so we decided we needed to get down to the beach. We had eggs and bacon from our supermarket trip for breakfast. Then we got in our swim gear.

Noah wasn't too sure what to think of all that sand!

He really got into it after a while.

Sadly, Noah wasn't too fond of the ocean. I wouldn't say he cried, but he just got really calm and not himself. We realized later in the week that if we would bring a bucket a sand with us, he was better. He liked playing in the sand and he definitely enjoyed the pool. Although after a few warmer days, the pool was like bath water.

Here's a view from our room:

For lunch, we just snacked on our pork tacos some more. Then for dinner we got cleaned up and decided Noah needed a faux hawk:

We went to a place called Brisas Grill. It was in an area known as Seafood Row. We sat on the beach with our toes in the sand. I had the most amazing lobster pasta. David and my dad's were both just ok. For being one of the more expensive meals, I expected more for them.

The sun was setting while we ate, so we got some pretty amazing pictures.

Isla Mujeres - Day 2

2011-06-29T11:42:00.002-05:00

I apologize for taking so long to continue our vacation. The second day we woke up and it was RAINING!!!! What!?!?! It can't rain on our vacation! We started the day by making some delicious pancakes and bacon that we had purchased the day before from the super market. They were pretty good. Something I had heard a lot about after researching our trip was something called Cochinita Pubil. Basically, it's pork marinated and cooked overnight and it's the most amazing thing I've ever tasted. You can only get it on Sundays, so David and my dad ventured out and got us some, enough to last most of the week (which was fantastic). They also got some really good fruits from the market. Of course, they had to make some guacamole.

Around noon, we decided to make something out of a rainy day. We purchased tickets on the ferry and headed over to Cancun. We had quite the journey getting into and out of Cancun. Apparently, you cannot take a regular bus from the ferry into the hotel zone, so we had to take a taxi which cost a little more than expected. Then to get back, you end up having to take a micro bus which went through downtown and was a bit sketchy, but we made it back. Here Noah is on the ferry over, raining outside.

The dads on Father's Day.

Once in Cancun, we went to a mall (La Isla) and walked around for a bit. Here is Noah watching the jumping fountain.

Then we went to an interactive aquarium. I saw "interactive" lightly, because most of it was just observing, but it was still a lot of fun. Here is Noah and me through the jellyfish window.

Do you see the fish in this picture?? He's camouflaged to blend in with the sand.

I honestly don't know what is behind us. I think maybe a shark? But it's a good picture of us anyway. Look how wet we look from the rain!

Back in the mall area. Noah didn't care for those fountains. I think he was getting tired at this point.

We bought Noah a mexican rattle. He loved it until he threw it on the ground and it slightly broke.

I didn't get any pics of dinner, but we went to Bubba Gump's. I don't usually like to go to chain restaurants on vacation (I would rather try the local cuisine), but Cancun is filled with chain restaurants and really, we don't have a Bubba Gump's in St. Louis, so I allowed it. It ended up being a fabulous meal. And to top it off, David and my dad got their meals for free since it was Father's day -- SCORE!

We came back to the room to see this:

Awwww. Ready for another day...hopefully one where it isn't raining!

Isla Mujeres - Day 1 Pictures

2011-06-19T11:15:00.002-05:00

Finally, we are in Cancun. We were all smiling.

Noah wasn't too sure of this crazy infant seat. It's not even a 5 point harness, but at least it was a car seat.

Grandpa and Noah waiting for the ferry.

Noah is enjoying his first ferry ride.

Ooohh, look at all that water.

So tired from the first day, Noah couldn't even stay awake for dinner.

What a beautiful sunset!

Double rainbow.

Isla Mujeres Trip - Day 1

2011-06-18T20:20:00.004-05:00

Wow, what a day! I can honestly say I'm happy that we are finally here, for the most part safe and we are relaxing in our hotel room. But the journey to this point was not an easy one.

Our flight this morning, the first leg to Houston was scheduled at 6:15am. We got up and were at the airport at 5am, plenty of time to check in and go through security. No one was at the check in counter so no waiting. We had problems with the check in kiosk, so the attendant took over. She had to call someone to get something verified. Something about Noah needing a paper ticket. She FINALLY got that worked out and then something else was wrong with our tickets. She did eventually get that all worked out, however it was now 5:30, a little too close for comfort, but I still had faith.

So we get down to security, a fair line. As we are waiting, they announce that our flight is leaving EARLY!!! And that we are to get to the gate ASAP. Well, crap! So we ask a few people to skip ahead and get to the front. Then the next problem. The stupid lady at the ticket counter gave me two boarding passes for my connecting flight and none for my current flight. I was the only one that had this problem, so I told them to all go ahead and I would catch up. So here I am FULL ON SPRINTING in the airport (with flip flops might I add). I run all the way up there, tell her the problem (in probably not so much of a nice tone) and she blamed it on something and then I had my right ticket. I did another leg of sprinting back down and some pleading to let me in front and I saw David, my dad and Noah turning the corner. I wasn't even sure what time it was anymore. As I'm going through the security, I hear "Will passenger Porter please come to your gate immediately". OMG!!! So then the security lady stops me. Apparently the wipes set off the security thing and she had to look in my bag. Then I told her I was in a hurry, so she quickly zipped up my diaper bag and she ripped the zipper off. She said a quick apology but at this point, I didn't care. I was sprinting again.

I made it all the down to my gate and the attendants were in the process of telling David and my dad that they would have to re-book, they were closing the gate. I think they didn't want to go without me, but since I was there, they hurriedly got us all on the plane.

You'd think the story would be fine from there, but oh no, just getting started!!! So we taxi all the way to the runway and now I'm starting to freak out about the weather (a storm was coming which is why they wanted to leave early). So finally the pilot comes on and says "nope, can't make it, we are going back to the gate". Great, but I'm also thinking ok, this might be a good thing, we can get breakfast. So we sit and wait and sit and wait. All the while, Noah is getting super restless. So then the pilot says, oh just kidding, we are going to wait it out on the runway. GREAT! So we waited through the storm and then we left. In all, we got on the plane around 5:50am, sat there until around 7:10am and then flew for the next 2 hours. We were SO ready to get off that plane. Not to mention the added craziness of riding on a super small plane and turbulence from the storm. At least, as soon as we took off, Noah fell asleep and did great the rest of the flight.

When we got to Houston, we originally had a 2 hour layover. This was now cut to about an hour or so, and we had to ride a train over to the right terminal. So we do all that and we all breath a sigh of relief that it looks like we are in plenty of time. We laugh at the silly people in line thinking they are there from prior late flights trying to make our flight, but it was already full to begin with. Then David and I go get food (we were starving). We come back and they are boarding so we get in line and we are subsequently rejected because we don't have a blue mark on our boarding pass....what!?!?! So now we have to wait in this silly line with everyone else...watching the minutes ticking by again. This time, there is only 1 agent working the line and I'm sure she is being bogged down by requests to fly stand by, etc. So FINALLY, the lady says she will accept those without a blue mark...great, so we stood in that line for no reason. So we go over and try to get on and are rejected by the computer. Something was wrong with our original check in lady (I think at this point, I'm realizing that original lady wasn't so bright and had no idea what she was doing). So she finally gets it all worked out, but it was like 15 minutes and everyone behind us was getting antsy (and I don't blame them). So we get on our flight and Noah again falls asleep soon after take off, sleeping a majority of the time.

The only hiccup at this point is we ran into some bad weather at the end and none of us really had time to fill out our immigration and customs forms. Oh well. We are in Cancun, finally!!! So we get off the plane and go through immigration and customs and get our bags (a small scare since our bags were like next to last). Then we find our transfer service and get on our way to the ferry. Nothing too interesting happened after this point. We rode the ferry over with no issues and took a taxi (only $3) to our hotel. Our first hotel room had a bunch of stuff wrong and the air was messed up, so we complained and we got a new room. This new room still had some stuff not up to par, but they seemed to fix it pretty quickly. We went to dinner at Rolandi's, yummy pizza. And then to the super market for a few essentials.

Overall, a good day and we are all glad to be here, relaxing. The people on the island are all really nice and love talking to Noah. Noah has done really well, especially considering everything.

UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention that our diaper bag was broken for good. There was no way to fix the zipper that the security people messed up. I ended up getting some thread and a needle and sewing the opening shut. Luckily, there is another opening for that pocket, but still, an annoyance. I will be taking the bag back when we get home. I'm not having any luck posting pictures here, so you'll have to refer to my facebook until I get home. SORRY!!!

Noah's First Haircut

2011-06-13T12:31:00.001-05:00

Noah had his first official haircut on Saturday, June 11. We went to a place called The Hairy Elephant. This place was designed entirely for kids. They had all these fun toys in the waiting area, he barely wanted to leave and get his hair cut. Then for the cut itself, he got to sit in a car with a steering wheel and everything. He even got to watch Elmo, although honestly he could have cared less what was on that TV as long as he got to sit in the car. I don't think he even noticed that his hair was getting cut. At the end, they used the clippers to get the back and around his ears and he really didn't care at all. He was so good and I was so proud of him. Sadly, there was another little boy Noah's age that was not being so good. Poor kid!

Here's pictures of the day. This first one is the "Before". Of course he wouldn't look at me (too many other fun things to look at), but you can see this haircut was badly needed!

Getting started...not really sure what to think yet.

This look is priceless. It's the "Really, mom, are you going to take pictures of everything" look.

"Oooh, look at all these buttons on the car"

"Ok, now I just have to suck my thumb"

More buttons...

ALL DONE!!! He looks so handsome!

And grown up (tear).

And to have a little fun, we had to do a faux hawk for the day. We got a lot of compliments on Saturday.

We are going to be going on vacation on Saturday to Mexico and then obviously I"ll have a big post about that. Not sure if I'll post anything until then.

Trip to the Park

2011-06-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

Since I've been getting home much earlier these days (loving the new job still), I am able to get dinner done and eaten by 6pm (a pipe dream in earlier days). So we've been going out and doing things in the evenings. One night we went to the pool (no good pictures from that). And another night, we went to Suson Park. This was our first time at this park and I have to say, I can't believe we haven't been before. It was so close to our house and it has a lake and a farm. We will definitely be going back in the future. Noah, of course, had a great time. I'm still working on my photography skills, but I tried using my nicer camera (still not an SLR, but better than a standard point and shoot). It helps that the lighting was pretty much near perfect. ENJOY!!

Noah's School Picture

2011-06-03T09:33:00.001-05:00

Noah had pictures taken at school (daycare). He has had them before, but they were SO bad that I never shared. Most of the time, the photographer can't get him to smile at all or he has a huge bruise on his face. But this time, he had a cute outfit and no injuries, so it was set up to be a perfect picture. And oh my, the photographer even got him to smile! BUT, of course something had to go wrong. Not sure who, but someone decided to "fix" his hair by doing the wierd side part thing. It doesn't look good at all. I thought I'd share the smily photo anyway, just ignore his hair. Guess we'll stick to our photographers.

Digital Scrapbooking

2011-05-31T22:06:00.004-05:00

So I have decided to take up the hobby of digital scrapbooking. My plan is to creatively journal all of our memories. I like the idea of doing it digitally because I can print as many albums as I want, say one for Grandpa and one for Noah to have when he grows up. I also enjoy doing it on my computer versus doing it all on paper. Plus, the added bonus that I get to share it with all you wonderful people!!!

So I did a tutorial yesterday to learn the basics. I used that to create my own page tonight. This is my first official digital scrapbook page.

Kit Credit - Shabby Princess

I think I did a good job, although I'd like to work on my journaling skills and to adjust the photo to tone down the flash in the one picture. I suppose if I could improve my photography skills, I could fix that as well! I plan to continue sharing my work here and there. Please feel free to give me any feedback. Thanks!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-31T08:39:00.011-05:00

We had a very full and packed weekend of activities. On Saturday, David went fishing with my dad and his neighbor. They went out to my dad's bosses lake (private) and caught lots of fish. Including this beauty:

Sadly, they did put him back since the bigger ones don't taste as good and he can go off and make more babies.

The rest of Saturday, we took it easy and relaxed. We did go out to eat at Steak N Shake, which I have to say I haven't been there since they took the Turkey Melt off the menu over a year ago. It was actually really good. The best part was we ordered Noah his own meal, since kids eat free on the weekends. We got him Jr. Corn Dog Bites and a cup of oranges and he LOVED it. He ate every last bite. Then some fries and shake on top of that. Sometimes that boy really knows how to eat!!

Sunday was my cousin Nick's high school graduation party. Here are a few photos to enjoy:

Then on Monday, we went to the Magic House in the morning. Facebook was giving away free passes for all of Memorial Day weekend and we definitely wanted to take advantage. I have to say that they got me, because we will definitely be going back. I can even see us getting a membership in the next year or two. Here are a few cute pics from there:

Finally, we finished off our weekend with a fish fry with some friends and family for David's birthday. It was pretty warm that day (I think it hit 95 degrees), but we were able to put up the screenhouse and umbrella for shelter. All the food was so good and delicious and I think everyone had a great time, Noah included. Although he was a little skeptical about Jen and Tom singing Glee.

Guess we are back to reality today. I am supposed to be starting our adjusted summer schedule this week with 1/2 days on Friday. I do have to work a full Friday every couple of weeks, so I'm still waiting to find out if this week is going to be a half or full Friday. I'm kind of hoping for a 1/2 day so I can go to the pool, but we'll see!! Also trying to keep my mind of TTC related things as much as possible, but sometimes it's hard.

SAHM

2011-05-24T09:06:00.002-05:00

I contemplated posting this or not, because I'll probably go back in a few days. But maybe I can look back at this post and remember my thinking. Since the day I had Noah, I always wondered if I should be a stay at home mom (SAHM). I test drove it while I was on maternity leave and after those 3 months, I decided that even though I loved Noah with every fiber of my being, I was not meant to be a stay at home mom and I went back to work.

At first, it was really hard. I blame the daycare. We had picked a bad one and it wasn't making the transition back to work very easy when I was concerned about someone else taking care of Noah the wrong way. We switched daycares after a month or so, and that helped. Once they got the routine down, I felt comfortable again. But that didn't last long.

I was soon feeling like I was "missing" everything he did during the day. Work was too long and too stressful and I felt like by the time I got home, I was exhausted. Even though I got a few hours to spend with Noah, I was too tired to do anything with him. After looking through our finances and deciding that it was really just too difficult to quit my job completely, we decided we could do part-time. So I asked my work and long story short, they said no. I felt completely defeated. So I did the only thing I could do at that point: change jobs.

I started working at my new firm in November 2010. At first, it was great. I was really enjoying the flexible hours. Busy season started and it was rough, working 55 hours a week. But I made it through (with the help of a wonderful husband). Now I'm back to working my flexible hours and while I love it, I still miss Noah a lot. We are getting ready to start our summer schedule where I will get Friday afternoons off, which will help too. But will it be enough?

I think I got my answer yesterday. St. Louis has been having some pretty rough storms lately. Yesterday's storms knocked out power to our building and we were sent home early. YAY!!!! So I went and got Noah and was so excited about our afternoon together.

When we got home, I did a few chores and started some laundry, all made more difficult by a 1 one year old running around getting into everything he shouldn't be. Then we went downstairs to play for a while. I was so tired and lazy that all I wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch TV. What a great mommy, right? Luckily, Noah was fine playing on his own and I would hold the toys he would bring to me or help him get something out of the toybox. Then he got tired and I rocked him a little and this is what happened:

Overall, the day went ok, but I came to some realizations. When I'm sitting here at work thinking that these days when I stay home with Noah would be perfection, I'm so very wrong. In fact, when I'm actually at home with Noah, all I feel is tired, exhausted, unmotivated, and restless. When I'm thinking clearly, I know the right move is for him to be in daycare. He is learning so much there and I know he loves being social with the teachers and other kids. We really have found a great daycare and I would hate to pull him out. Especially since the actual preschool part starts when he turns 2, well not until that following August, but still. I also like that by me working, we can afford vacations and cleaning people. I still think there may be a better life balance by cutting back my hours and going to part time like I wanted to do at my previous job, but I don't feel comfortable asking for that just yet. My plan is to wait until #2 comes. Then I don't think it would be a big deal to go part time at work and still have Noah go to school part time, so he's still learning, etc.

Ok, this post is long enough. Sorry about all my rantings...

Cycle is over.

2011-05-16T09:27:00.002-05:00

Again, I wish I could come here and say that the ultrasound went great and there were big eggs and then we triggered. But, it's even worse than before. My eggs actually got smaller. So really there is nothing we can do for this cycle anymore. It's over. I would have started Prometrium tonight to bring on my period and start a new cycle, but because of our vacation planned mid-June, it wouldn't work out for the next cycle. So, instead I'm going to wait and take Prometrium while we are on vacation and my new cycle will start when we get back. This works out better because I won't be pregnant on vacation which means I can drink without worry. It also means I won't have my period on vacation, good for many reasons that I don't think I have to explain (unless you are a guy and then maybe ask your girlfriend and/or wife!).

This also means that it's pushing my potential due date further to the end of busy season and while having me due say on April 15 is not ideal, it means I won't be missing all of busy season and I'll have a spring baby which I would prefer a lot more! So if I do some math, if my new cycle starts on June 26 and I ovulate 14 days later on July 9, I would be due March 31. Not the greatest time, but the reality is that I probably won't ovulate until closer to day 18 or later, which pushes that due date back a little farther. And then, if this cycle doesn't get me pregnant, then the next cycle for sure will be past April 15 and I will be fine.

The specialist also indicated that we would be more aggressive this next cycle. We will go up to 150 mg of Clomid and start some injectable meds if needed. I'm excited about the next cycle, but also anxious since I have to wait so long for that to happen. But in the end, it's all for the better (see reasons above). In the meantime, I need to focus on Noah (who is beyond cute right now) and getting ready for our vacation. So don't expect too many TTC posts between now and then.

Oh and one other note, Congrats to my brother who graduated college last night. We are so very proud of him and all that he has accomplished so far. I know he will do big things with his life. I have pictures, but they are on my camera which I don't have with me.

More thinking...

2011-05-13T14:03:00.004-05:00

So I've thought a lot about this and I've decided that yesterday was probably for the best. First of all, because of this delay, I will most likely have to sit next cycle out due to our vacation planned for mid-June. This is sort of a good thing because I can drink while on vacation and not worry about being pregnant. Don't get me wrong...I would much rather be pregnant and not drink. But if I'm not going to be pregnant, I would at least like to drink worry-free. Also, don't worry that I will be drinking and partying crazy with a 1 year old toddler with me. I just plan on having a few drinks by the pool/beach.

Because of the delay and sitting out next cycle, it's looking like the following cycle wouldn't start up until late June, possibly even early July, depending on what we do. I have calculated that if I want my baby to be due post April 15, it has to be conceived later than July 30. I am really hoping for after that date, so that I don't have to miss busy season again (I did with Noah). You probably think I'm crazy, but I enjoy busy season. I don't like not seeing my family and working long hours, but I like being busy, the days go by quickly, and I just get a lot of satisfaction out of it. Not to mention that I haven't been at my new job for that long, so I don't really want to explain to them that I'm pregnant already and have to miss busy season. The other reason is because I hated being home on maternity leave when it was so cold out. I felt like I couldn't take him out because it was cold/flu season and it was too cold outside. I would much rather have maternity leave in the later spring or summer. Now of course, these are all my "wants". God obviously has the master plan. Maybe He thinks I shouldn't be stressing myself at work and will make me due during busy season. Maybe He thinks I should have a baby closer to winter and I won't get pregnant for several months. Maybe He thinks I'm done having kids. I don't know.

One tiny regret, though. I miss breastfeeding. I feel like because of all this and with the vacation planned, that I may have gotten a little too eager to want another baby. Now with all this waiting, I could have continued breastfeeding Noah until he was ready to be completely done. Or maybe he was completely done anyway??? My plan is to breastfeed the next one longer, especially since I'm ok waiting a few years for a third. Yes, I want a third. Really, I want several more, but that's up to the husband, who I think would be happiest with just the 3. Again, it's really all up to God.

On a side note - this weekend is my brother's college graduation. He has been in college a little longer than your average person, but that makes it nonetheless wonderful. He has really grown into an adult these last few years. He's engaged to be married in October and has just become extremely mature. My mom would have been really proud and of course, my whole family is very happy and proud.

Oh ok, I'll post some pictures, since it's been a while. This is a great picture of Noah (well, his head). It was sent from our daycare, he fell asleep while playing:

And another one of him enjoying his new slide:

I will get better at taking pictures.

Mid-Cycle U/S

2011-05-13T14:00:00.001-05:00

Ok - I posted this yesterday, but it got lost in cyber space. Here it is again:

I wish I could come on here and say that I had some wonderful eggs growing and we did the trigger today. Sadly, I cannot. Basically, all my eggs are about the same size as they were on day 2. That means that they have not started growing at all! Apparently, this is common with PCOS and Clomid. It messes up your system and you ovulate late. So that's why they haven't really geared up yet. I have 2 options. Option 1 is wait and see if they just grow on their own, but a little late. Option 2 is to do a Follistim injection which would really encourage the eggs to grow faster. However, that little injection costs $200 and may or may not even work. I decided to just wait and see. I have another ultrasound set up on Monday.

The part I worry about is that I think your eggs can only grow 2 mm a day, so that's only a total growth of about 8 mm by Monday. Even if my biggest egg at 8mm today grows by another 8mm Monday, it will only be at 16mm which isn't big enough for a trigger still. So there could be yet another ultrasound after Monday for the trigger.

There is some good news. My lining was at about 14mm which is really good and better than I've ever had before. This means that my body did respond somewhat. Now if I could just get some eggs to grow, they have a nice cushy place to go!

I talked a little with the specialist about why this is happening. Basically she thinks that the first cycle is always the slowest. My body is not used to growing eggs and ovulating, so it takes a little while for them to remember what they are supposed to do. If you remember, I got pregnant on the 2nd cycle last time around. The first cycle was slow just like this one. Granted, I did take the Follistim shot last time and I didn't this time, so we'll see! I'll keep everyone updated!!

Noah's 15 month Well Baby Visit

2011-05-10T10:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Noah had his 15 month well baby visit. Nothing too exciting. A couple of shots, which Noah did very well. The first one, he was like "What was that?" following by the crying. The second was like "Why did you do it AGAIN?" and more crying. And then came the Snoopy band-aid and he was happy again..haha!

His weight was 21 pounds even and length of 29 inches. Compare this with 3 months ago at his 12 month visit, he has gained almost 3 pounds....3 pounds!!! That's 1 pound a month and really good growth considering how little he was gaining before. I contribute this to his really good eating habits. For length, he has gained .75 inches. Not a ton, but it's some. He's always going to be short.

Otherwise, everything else looks good. Noah is a little behind in his teeth (he only has 6) but doctor thinks a bunch will pop out VERY soon. Yay for teething!

I also want to mention that Noah is doing really well in daycare right now. I don't remember if I mentioned that I thought he was ready to move up into the 1 year old but because there isn't enough room in there until August when all the kids move up, he had to stay put in the nursery. Well they hired a new nursery worker and she has opened up the 3rd room in the nursery which now consists of 4 of the "older" babies, which includes Noah. They tried doing this a few months ago but it fell apart. Partly because they tried doing too many kids and also for Noah, I think it was too early. Now he's ready. And he's showing it, too! He lays down and takes a good 2 to 2 and a half hour nap with the other kids. I think he enjoys playing with the older kids and eating with them. His teacher says he is a lot less "whiny" over there and actually dislikes going back over to the main nursery side when they close (his teacher is only there from 8am-4:30pm so if I haven't gotten there by 4:30, they move him over to the nursery again). I do wish they did more crafts or projects, but maybe in time, they will.

Nothing TTC related going on, I have an ultrasound on Thursday morning and will update when I get back. Hoping for lots of big eggs!

Labwork back

2011-05-02T14:58:00.002-05:00

So here are the results (the ideal or preferred # is in parenthesis):

FSH = 6.1 (<10)
LH = 8.1
LH/FSH ratio = 1.33 (<2)
Estradiol = 48 (<75)
Testosterone = 48 (2-45) (my previous level was 103)
DHEA Sulfate = 304 (40-325)
Insulin = 7 (<17)
Glucose = 68 (normal)

Basically, everything except the testosterone are in the normal range. This is really good news. I am happiest about the insulin levels. This means that I am no longer technically insulin resistant, although I do need to stay on my meds (for who knows how long) to maintain this. Or at least to get me to loose a lot more weight to get to a point where maybe I don't need meds.

What this means for fertility? NOTHING! I really thought that if I could get some of these levels down, my body would start ovulating like normal. But apparently no. My ultrasound clearly showed polycystic ovaries, and my specialist just says that even though my levels are decreased, I will still have problems ovulating and getting pregnant. Sigh.

Cycle # 3 - Prescan

2011-04-28T10:00:00.003-05:00

Went in for my pre-scan today and not really that exciting. Everything looks good, no cysts or anything that would prevent us from moving forward. So I start 100 mg of clomid tomorrow for 7 days. Then we go back for another ultrasound on 5/12. Hopefully that will show lots of big follies and then we'll trigger. I'm very excited and so far, so good. I really know what to expect this time around and it all seems so easy with no problems, which is why I'm worried.

Also, a small Noah update (we can't forget about Noah). We were able to put him to sleep just fine last night. We did his bath, then a book, then kisses and into bed. He didn't make one peep. Here's to hoping he's back to normal.

I also decided I don't take/share enough pictures. Most of the time, I try to get them with my phone, which isn't that great of quality plus it's super slow. By the time I have the app open and ready, whatever Noah did is long done. I need to start carrying my point and shoot with me more. We have an ultrazoom camera too that I should use more. I think I take a lot of Noah's growing up for granted and forget to take pictures. I will try and be better.

Day 1

2011-04-27T09:55:00.002-05:00

Back to TTC #2 - Day 1 is here again. Officially this is my 3rd cycle postpartum. To summarize, Cycle #1 was what I thought was my first PP cycle brought on without meds. I did soy instead of clomid this cycle and while I think it helped my eggs get bigger, I never ovulated. Cycle #2 was brought on by progesterone and then I did 50 mg of Clomid. Again, no ovulation. That is the story of my life.

So now we are with the specialist at PARINTS. She had me do progesterone again to bring on a new cycle, which it has done. Now I'm going in tomorrow for a prescan ultrasound just to make sure there are no cysts or anything that would prevent me from ovulating. Once she can confirm that everything looks good, we will start 100 mg of clomid on day 3 through 9. I should go back around day 14 for another ultrasound to see how things are doing and then trigger then or in a few days. Then the waiting begins.

I hate to almost admit this, but as much as I really want to be pregnant (trust me, I do), I almost don't want it to happen just yet. If I got pregnant this cycle, my due date would be scary close to Noah's birthday and I just don't want them to have the same birthday or even that close to each other. Not to mention, I don't really want to miss all of busy season again. At this point, we'll just have to see what happens. Even those things aren't stopping me from continuing this cycle, I still want to be pregnant. What's that saying, beggers can't be choosy.

One other thing - from my calculating on the calendar, it looks like we might just be ok for the next cycle. I originally thought that we would have to sit the next one out because of our trip to Cancun. But it looks like we may be able to get the next cycle in before we leave. The only downside being that if I'm waiting to either take a pregnancy test or get my period, then I really shouldn't be drinking in case I am pregnant. While I don't mind not drinking because I'm pregnant, I don't want to not drink just because I MIGHT be pregnant. We'll just have to see as it gets closer.

Baby's Best Interest?

2011-04-26T13:04:00.003-05:00

I saw an article the other day on a website I frequent. Basically, it was about a new mom who CHOSE to not breastfeed. Her reasons were because she wanted to return to a "normal" life as soon as possible. Her article went on saying that she shouldn't feel peer pressure to breastfed or feel guilty for making this choice.

I thought about this and thought that every woman has a choice to breastfeed or not. I know several women who are good close friends who have tried to breastfeed and just couldn't for one reason or another. A lot of times I think those situations could have been fixed so that she could continue to breastfeed, but they just switched to formula. While I don't agree with this, it is every woman's right to make that choice. The biggest problem I have with this article is that her reason for not breastfeeding is to return to a normal life.

First, I don't know what she considers a normal life, but now that she has a child, that is her life. It will NOT be the same as before. Guaranteed. I wouldn't trade my life now for the life I had before Noah, not for anything. I love my life now. But it's definitely different.

Second, and more importantly, why would she not be thinking of her child and what is best for him/her?

I've decided this second issue is the base for a lot of why I don't understand why other parents do what they do or don't do. Everything single thing since the second I got pregnant (probably even before then), I did with the intention of doing the best thing I could for my child. Of course, some things I had to weigh out the pros and cons of doing something, but in the end, my thought is "how will this affect my child". He is #1 in my world and everything I do revolves around him.

I'm not saying you should just let yourself go and never think of yourself. I think every mom needs some alone time and some time to refresh. I also think that every mom and dad needs their own time together to reconnect and keep the marriage alive.

Also, just because me and another mom are both thinking of our children equally as much when making decisions doesn't mean we will come to the same result. For example, I chose daycare for Noah while another mom who is trying to make the best decision for their child may choose an in home daycare or may choose to stay at home. All of these are good decisions as long as you are thinking of the child's best interests.

Back to the article, I don't think she considered breast milk or what that can do for her child at all when making her decision, which is why I think she is making a bad decision. So I will end this post with this: If you are making a decision about parenting your child and your child is not the center of your decision making process, then you are probably making the wrong decision.

Trip to Dallas

2011-04-25T21:44:00.002-05:00

So we are back in St. Louis. Evidently we missed a lot with the tornadoes that struck Friday. Thankfully, no one was killed and our house was still in tact with no damages.

Noah did pretty good. The drive down was rough especially at the end when he was really tired and refused to sleep in the car seat anymore. He didn't want to be entertained or anything, all he did was cry and scream. We made it and of course, then he still had no desire to go to sleep. We ended up having to lay in the bed next to him and even then, he woke up several times during the night crying.

The other nights were a little better. We still had to rock him to sleep but at least he stayed asleep for the most part. He did toss and turn a lot which I think was either due to temperature (it was hotter at the house we were staying in than what he was used to) or he does that every night and we just don't know it since we don't sleep right next to him.

For the drive home, we left earlier and did all our driving during his normal awake hours except for a few naps. He slept quite a bit and was entertainable for the rest of the time. We hooked up David's iPad to the car and played Noah's signing videos for him. He really seemed to like that.

Sadly, the whole trip has screwed up his sleep schedule. Last night, when we got home, we were able to just set him down in his crib and he put himself to sleep (same as before the trip). However, today for his naps, he wouldn't go down unless we rocked him and normally he takes 1 longer nap but he woke up screaming after only an hour, so we had to put him down for a second later afternoon nap. Then when we put him down for the night, he just screamed. David tried but he wasn't going to sleep at all. So then I stepped in. He kept tossing and turning in my arms, which is what Noah usually does to put himself to sleep. So I went ahead and layed him down and of course, right away, he sat up. So I layed him back down and tried "shushing" him while standing next to him. It was enough to get him to lay his head down but I could still see his eyes open. So we did that for maybe 10 minutes and then I started backing slowly out of his room and made it. He wasn't fully asleep though, but he was able to go to sleep on his own without crying.

I don't like to let him cry it out, but I also don't want him to get too used to us just rocking him to sleep every night. Hopefully he goes back to normal Noah soon. This really worries me for when we take our trip in June. Maybe because we are taking a much shorter flight rather than a long drive, it won't mess with him as much.

Fertility Update

2011-04-15T10:51:00.002-05:00

So I've decided to keep everyone up to date on our fertility journey (aka struggles) despite still having not changed the name of my blog. It should happen soon.

I am officially on Cycle #3 postpartum. First cycle was what I thought was a period, but I think now that it wasn't. I tried soy (a natural alternative to Clomid) and got the same results that I do with clomid (nothing). So I called the doc and he got me on prometrium to bring on the period, then 50 mg clomid for Cycle #2. That went well except my temps were showing I didn't ovulate (again) and some horrible miscommunication resulted in no bloodwork this cycle. So I contacted Becky at Parints and she recommended we wait another week just to be sure and then go for bloodwork. I did that and sure enough, no pregnancy and no ovulation. My body seems to be back to its old tricks, again. So I'm on prometrium again. I guess I shouldn't have said I'm officially on cycle #3 yet, since that won't happen until I get my period, oh well!

Cycle #3 will be 100mg of Clomid with a trigger, from what I understand. I'm so glad to be working with Parints again. I love my doctor but he really just can't give infertility patients the attention they need and deserve when going through all this. And Parints are just so awesome.

I can honestly say I'm so excited about all this and can't wait to get the real fun going. The first time around I was scared and nervous at this point. I didn't know when or if ever I would have a child. I didn't know what all the steps were and I was confused by the lingo. Now I know exactly how it all works and what to expect. I also have some hope knowing it worked the 2nd try. Not that I'm expecting it to happen that soon again, but it certainly gives me hope.

Part of me is afraid though because this all seems to be going so smoothly. Parints just took me right in, no wait. And we aren't going to mess around, just go right back to what worked. I tried to conceive Noah for a year. 6 months off meds, 6 months on meds, but only 2 cycles on what needed to happen. So all that waiting and messing around and really I just needed to do 2 cycles!

In other news, we are getting ready to go to Dallas, which I'm also very excited about. I will take lots of pictures and post them when we return.

Busy season is wrapping up and I will be able to post on my blog a lot more. Maybe attract some new visitors and get some comments rolling? Anyone? Anyone?

Ok well until next time...

Mini update

2011-04-07T07:36:00.003-05:00

Ok, lots of changes and new things going on here. I will try to be quick and list them all, but expect a much bigger and detailed update coming soon (hopefully before April 18, but it may not be until after crazy season ends).

- Noah is doing great. He is full on walking, rather running, all over. Now that he has mastered this motor skill, he is slowly switching to mastering more social skills. He points at everything and wants to know what it is. His best friend is Buddy and they go everywhere together. He also a few signs, such as all done.

- We bought a new car. Specifically a new 2010 Prius. We love it so far and it will be great on fuel (aka our checkbook) but still fits Noah and all his things great.

- We are going to Dallas in 2 weeks. Noah's daycare is closed on April 22 and 25 for Easter, so we thought we'd take advantage and go visit Danielle in Texas since she had her new baby. I'm so excited to see all of them, especially little Levi.

- We booked a summer vacation at Isla Mujeres (near Cancun). We'll be going in June and Noah will be going with us. We're hoping to get his passport this weekend, assuming the government doesn't shut down.

- I debated whether to post this or not, but I think I will. I'm officially back on fertility meds. I just finished our first cycle with clomid only and of course, nothing happened. But since I went to the fertility specialist the first time to conceive, I get to go right back without a referral or anything. I am currently waiting to see if I ovulated late, which I doubt I did. Then next Wed (4/13), I will start prometrium to start a new cycle. Then I will be doing 100mg of Clomid with a trigger. Wish us luck!!

I think that about sums up our lives right now. I will be changing the name of my blog soon to better represent what I'm talking about. Any suggestions? Hopefully I will be full on blogging again soon.

Dieting

2011-03-08T08:15:00.002-06:00

This post begins a new chapter in the blog. I am slowly making the shift from being all about Noah to more all about our lives as a family. That means that I will try and talk more about everything that's going on in our lives and hopefully for our future children. However, since most of our lives revolve around Noah, the blog will still be mostly Noah centered. I am still trying to think of a better name for the blog and any ideas/suggestions are welcome!

So I have contemplated posting about this, but I think that if I can get all my thoughts out and post about this, that I will be able to hold myself to it more. There are a zillion GOOD reasons why I need to be on a diet. They are:
1. I need to lose weight.
2. I want to look and feel better.
3. I want to be a good role model for Noah.
4. I think that by losing weight, it will help my infertility issues.
5. I want to like more foods, particularly healthy foods (i.e. vegetables).

The only reasons against it is that it will be hard and my body is programmed to think all the unhealthy stuff is what is good and yummy. I need to reprogram it to like more new foods that are good for me. From what I understand, once I start this, my body will crave the healthy stuff.

So David and I are both doing this together and we are trying the South Beach diet. Why this diet? Because with my PCOS and insulin resistance, I need to be on a low carb/low GI diet. I hate that this is what it has to be and I can't just watch my caloric intake, but it is what it is and I don't want to be diabetic someday.

So the diet works that the first 2 weeks is Phase 1 and basically all you eat is protein and certain non-starchy vegetables. No fruit. No carbs. Well I shouldn't say no carbs, but VERY limited amounts. I will be the first to admit that this it not healthy for a permanent amount of time, but I do think this will be a good "restart" for me. If I can do this for 2 weeks, I can do limited amounts of carbs for the rest of the time.

In addition to dieting, we will also be working out at least 5/7 days for the first two weeks and then trying to stick with at least 3 days a week after that.

The hardest part will be learning to like new vegetables. But I will try and share my achievements and pitfalls here. Wish us luck!

Update on our life

2011-03-04T09:01:00.003-06:00

Ok, I know I have been extremely delinquent on my posting. I do have a good excuse. It's call busy season and sickness. I have zero free time to do anything else. I promise that in 46 days, I will have a renewed promise to make this blog awesome. You just wait and see. Until then, you will have to be patient, I apologize!

1 Year Appointment

2011-02-15T07:30:00.004-06:00

I apologize for not posting lately. Noah had his 12 month well baby visit over a week ago and I'm just now posting about it. You can blame sickness and busy season for that.

So his stats are this:
Height: 28.25 inches (2.84% based on age)
Weight: 18lb, 9 oz (8.24% based on age)

Here's some visuals:

Those 2 charts show you the percentages I mentioned above, but this chart shows weight based on length and while I don't know the specific number, it looks to be around 40%.

That tells me that Noah is short. No surprise there considering I'm 5'3" and David is maybe 5'8". Noah will never be tall. But when you compare his weight based on the fact that he is short, he's ok. I'm not sure the doctor looked at it that way, but he definitely wasn't concerned. The doctor said that he is eating well and output is good as well as his grip and strength look strong, so no worries. At this age, he is just a calorie burner and everything that comes in gets expended quickly, which I can attest to seeing as he is always on the move.

Speaking of "on the move", Noah is sooooo close to walking. He will now stand on his own for a good while and can even take several unassisted steps between toys or to a person. If he gets too excited, he will try and run and then fall. Soon enough he will get the hang of it and walk everywhere.

I'll post his 1 year pictures from the professional photographer soon. In the meantime, will you click on the "Top Baby Blogs" link and vote for my blog (it has been reset recently). One final item: You should click on the link for the "Change 3 Things" campaign. It's for Cotton Babies and if you change 3 of your baby's diapers in cloth per day, you could save a lot of money ($260 a year) and slowly change the landfill waste problem. I'm, of course, a huge fan of cloth diapers, so feel free to ask me any questions.

Noah's Birthday Party

2011-02-08T22:16:00.005-06:00

Noah had a great birthday party with only a small amount of drama and freaking out. I tried to get as much done before Saturday, but apparently not enough. Friday night, the weather forecaster said we might get a dusting or 1 inch by morning. No big deal, right?

Woke up Saturday morning to 6 inches of snow!!! That's not a dusting! I got up and started getting things together. Then I got the phone call. The cleaning people canceled. This was supposed to be the make up cleaning from Tuesday when we had the Blizzard of 2011. Not that I can't clean my own house, but I certainly wasn't prepared to do it right before the party. So I did what I could and I think it looked ok in the end, but of course, now I'm behind on everything else I was supposed to be doing to get ready. Then I started freaking out thinking the cake and food wouldn't be delivered, so I called and checked. Both were fine. Now why can't the cleaning people be professional and not cancel? I mean they are a business and it honestly wasn't THAT bad.

So I did have a little bit of freaking out making sure everything was together before everyone got there. In the end, everything was fine and the party went great except my aunt wasn't able to come. Here's some pictures for you to enjoy:

Top Baby Blogs

2011-02-07T07:49:00.003-06:00

I'd like to get listed on this website, so if you would do me a HUGE favor and please use the link on the banner to the right to vote for my blog. THANKS!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH!

2011-02-03T22:00:00.005-06:00

Today Noah turns 1. I can't believe a whole year has gone by. I never imagined how much my life would change since Noah has come into this world. Not just in the normal "now I have a baby" kind of way, but he has completely changed my whole way of thinking. I always knew I wanted children, but I always imagined myself feeding him or her a bottle, changing their disposable diaper, feeding them jars of baby food, etc.

When I found out that I was expecting, I did lots and lots of research. I decided that I hated pain medicines (I generally don't like any kinds of medications). So because of that, I decided to do a natural birth. That's when I chose the Bradley Method. I was very insistent that I wasn't into any of that crunchy all natural stuff though, although I did want to breastfeed, if I could. Through the Bradley classes, I learned more about breastfeeding and realized that anyone can breastfeed and so at that point, I was determined.

My birth went completely as planned and breastfeeding got off to a rocky start, but going ok. I started going to monthly La Leche League meetings and weekly nursing groups at Kangaroo Kids. Through those meetings, I realized how many other mamas use cloth diapers and started exploring that territory and now I love using the cloth. We also decided to make our own baby food and babywear. While co-sleeping never really worked for us, everything else was all attachment parenting.

I was so adamently against attachment parenting, even at day 1 of being a mom. But the more I was a mom, the more the true "mama" came out. The one that is all about attachment parenting. Ok, enough reminising, time for pictures.

Noah in his birthday outfit.

This was taken the morning after his birth. Look how peaceful he looks.

He's grown a lot in just a year and I can't wait to see what this second year has in store.

Snow Days!

2011-01-31T08:01:00.002-06:00

I think most people who read my blog are in the St. Louis area so they know that there is significant winter weather predicted for Mon, Tue, and Wed. They are saying that this will be the worst winter weather since the Blizzard of 1982. In 1982, I wasn't even born, or even a thought, yet. Well maybe a thought, but definitely not in existence yet. David, however, was still in his Mommy's belly, cooking away. Maybe in another 30 years, when we get another bad storm, we can look back and say "Noah, you were about to turn 1 last time we had bad winter weather". I'm working today for as long as I safely can. I will probably be leaving around 3 or 4pm so I can drive before it's dark. For tomorrow, I might be working from home depending on what it looks like in the morning. David is basically setting up camp at home for the next 3 days. I'm glad he can work from home so easily. My new job is very flexible about working from home, but sometimes it's not super easy to bring things home to work on.

Noah was sick on Saturday, but after he had some meds, his fever went down and he looked better, so we decided to chance it and take him to the auto show with us. It went great and we saw lots of good cars. Two to note were the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and the Toyota Prius. We'll wait until the Sonata Hybrid comes out and go test drive them both and hopefully make a decision and get a new car!!!

On Sunday, he broke his fever (finally). We decided to not go to church so that we didn't have to put him in the nursery after being sick so recently. We did go to Victoria's birthday party. I sadly only took a few quick shots with my phone so nothing worthy to post. While I don't necessarily have a desire to become a photography genius, I would like to get better about taking more pictures.

Updated Blog

2011-01-28T21:25:00.002-06:00

As you can see, I have revamped the blog design. I hope you like it. Look for more changes in the future. Also, I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog to something more clever and something that better describes my posts better. Right now, I still post mostly on Noah, but in the future I will be posting on TTC and adding #2 to our family. So please give me your suggestions on creative blog titles. THANKS!!!!

Still Sick

2011-01-28T07:35:00.002-06:00

Yup, Noah's still down and out. The doctor did an RSV test and it came back negative (big relief). He did notice some fluid buildup in his ear, so he's thinking an ear infection. So David stayed home with him on Wednesday and worked from home, which he said wasn't too bad since Noah either slept or played happily by himself. However, Wednesday night his fever was up to 102. He did sleep well that night though. Thursday, my dad came and helped take care of him while David worked at home. This fever that morning was 103 so it was definitely getting worse. He also didn't really seem himself, very tired and not too playful. Luckily he was still taking little bits of food and milk and keeping it down, so I wasn't concerned about dehydration. As of now, he's still getting 103 fevers and we are alternating between tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours with an antibiotic for the infection once a day. He didn't sleep so well last night so David had to get up with him, but he did take 4 oz of formula (more about that in a minute). When I left, Noah (and Daddy) were fast asleep. David is taking today off to help take care of him 100% and hopefully get him well for this weekend.

This weekend we are suppose to go to the auto show on Saturday to help us find a new car. Sunday, we have an appt in the morning to get his pictures taken, then a birthday party in the afternoon. I really don't want him to be sick for all of this because that would kind of ruin the plans not to mention, it's no fun being sick for that many days in a row.

I also want to point out an interesting generation gap. Me and David's opinion on treatment of illnesses are to treat the child, not the sickness. Which means that if Noah has a 102 fever but is eating well and shows no symptoms of feeling bad, there is no reason to chalk him full of meds. We give him medicine when he doesn't feel well. In fact, according to Dr. Sear's, a low grade fever can actually help him feel better on his own without meds. I believe this. However, our parents are not of the same beliefs. It seems like people in my parent's generation think that you just give meds until you reach the max dosage regardless of how they feel or their symptoms. More of a preventative measure, I suppose?

Now the formula I spoke of....we got free samples for this Toddler based formula in the mail. So we figured there was probably more vitamins and good stuff in that than in cow's milk, so we thought we would try it. Apparently he likes it. Should we keep buying it for a little while? Jury is still out. What's your opinion????

Sicknesses

2011-01-26T08:13:00.002-06:00

Noah started having symptoms of a cold starting last Saturday (1/15) but it was just a mild cough and runny nose. We were diligent and cleaned out his nose regularly. Monday morning, both David and I woke up with colds and fought them all last week and we are both thankful that we are 100% healthy now, except Noah still has his cold. I'm worried because 2 kids were diagnosed with RSV at his daycare. I did my research and it appears that RSV is basically a bad cold that affects all kids differently but could turn into worse things like pnemonia or an infection. We've kept an eye on everything and it's never been worse than the cough and runny nose. However, this morning, he had a slight fever of about 100 degrees. So we decided that David would stay home with him today and take him to the doctor. He hasn't gone yet, so I can't tell you what the doctor said, but I hope everything goes well. Noah is still eating just fine (if not more than usual) and I think he might be teething the top two teeth, so that could be the reason for the fever, too. One good sign is I didn't hear as much raspy wheezy sound from his chest this morning, so maybe he really is on the upswing and it's just taking a little longer.

I suppose this is the fun of winter with babies. I just hope being in daycare catching all these colds now will prevent more in the future. Not to mention, isn't breastfeeding suppose to prevent colds??? I could only imagine how sick we would be if I didn't breastfeed, I guess.

Speaking of breastfeeding, we are still officially nursing but I definitely think it's ending. In the morning and evening, our once typical longest nursing sessions, are now becoming very short and distracted. He's always more interested in his toys, my shirt, the remote, cell phone, David, the dog, anything else but what's right in front of his face. I think it's a combination of my low supply and his wanting other foods and drinks besides breastmilk.

We are still working on getting him to drink his milk out of a sippy cup while in the highchair. The daycare claims that they can get him to drink the milk (breast or whole) out of the sippy cup while rocking in the chair, but in the high chair. But at home, we can get him to take a few drinks from the high chair. I think the daycare gets too busy at meal times to sit there and offer him a drink every few minutes, but hopefully we can get him used to it enough at home that he will start doing it on his own at school.

Noah is walking...

2011-01-21T08:06:00.002-06:00

Well, maybe not walking, but taking a few steps here and there. On Monday night, we were able (with the help of the dog) to get him to stand him and take a few steps on his own before he came tumbling down. We even got it on video (see Youtube). Every night we have been trying to get him to do it more and he pretty much does the same thing. Yesterday, though, he was starting to fall and stood back up and corrected himself before taking another step and then falling, so I think he's getting better. All in time, I'm sure!

So the pumping situation is not nonexistent. I said before that I would wean myself this week by doing it 1x a day. Monday I was super busy at work (as I've been all week), so I pretty much forgot. Since I wasn't in pain or engorged or anything, I decided my body didn't really need to be weaned, so I'm done pumping!!!! And honestly, that was the best thing I could do. I even have a renewed passion to maybe breastfeed for longer. Although I'm still torn on this issue.

Yesterday was a snow day and while I still had to work (from home), I did get to spend more time with him than usual. He wasn't feeling too great (we've all been sick this last week or so) and I think he's teething his top 2 teeth, so he nursed more than usual, especially to go down for a nap. David tried to feed him a sippy cup of milk on Wednesday night when I went to Zumba and he wouldn't do it, although Grandpa has gotten him to do it when we go out for a date or something, so I know he can if he has to. I think sometimes he just needs his mommy and the comfort of breastfeeding and I don't really blame him. So as much as I really want to keep trying for another baby, I really want to keep breastfeeding, too. The biggest "issue" is with me starting busy season (like next week), David will be responsible for getting him up in the mornings and I'll be gone by the time he gets up, so I won't be feeding him in the morning anymore. So for basically one feeding at night, we won't be able to try and conceive another baby.

I suppose it's possible that going that long without nursing could cause my cycle to return on its own, but I really doubt it since it wasn't here when I wasn't breastfeeding at all. I really think I will just have to stop nursing 100% and go to fertility meds which makes me sad because I wish I could be fertile without stopping nursing. I think for now, we will just take it one day at a time.

Weaning

2011-01-17T07:45:00.002-06:00

Well I think it's really official that the weaning process has begun. Technically, the second I gave him solid food back at 6 months old, he was beginning the process of weaning, but I don't really count that. Now he's really weaning. This weekend we started giving him some whole milk just to see how he would do with it and he did great. So this week at daycare, he will take 6 oz of breastmilk (BM) and 3 oz of cow's milk (CM). I told the daycare to do his 3 oz of BM at 9am and the other 3 oz of BM at 3pm. Then we would try the 3 oz of CM at lunchtime with his meal while in the high chair. If he takes it, great. If not, then we'll go back to rocking in the chair with him. This weekend, we tried offering him milk with his meal and he did take it a few times, so I think he's starting to get used to it a little more. Persistence, right?

As far as pumping, I've determined I need about 45 ounces to finish these last 2 weeks (6 oz of BM a day this week and 3 oz of BM a day next week). I have around 45 ounces of BM in the freezer, so I'm actually ok to stop pumping now except I want to wean myself gradually just in case. So this week I'm going to stop pumping first thing in the morning, which is what I do on the weekends anyway. I'm also going down to pumping 1 time during the day. Next week I'll stop pumping altogether and I just can't wait!!!!

All of this is definitely bittersweet. I'm excited about the prospect of trying to conceive another little one (and also dreading all the fertility junk at the same time). I am 100% excited to rid myself of the pump, but it will also be nice to wear normal bras and not have to worry about wearing something I can nurse Noah in. I will certainly miss him, but I think he will do good without the BM, too. I do feel somewhat guilty and I know I shouldn't. I went a whole year and that was my goal all along. Some parts of me wishes I could go into the second year, but really it would be more to prove I can do it and it wouldn't be for the benefit of me or Noah. I have just been questioning my "parenting" a lot lately and wondering whether I'm doing a good job. I guess that never ends, right?

Noah is almost walking...

2011-01-12T08:12:00.002-06:00

I updated the blog design to something for Valentine's Day. I'm not 100% happy with it, but at least it's not Christmas themed anymore. I am hoping to find something more "permanent" in the near future.

So Noah is really getting closer to walking everyday. Right now, he pushes his little truck around the house and when he gets to a wall, no big deal, he'll just walk around to the front and push it backwards. He also has a basketball hoop that he will hold on to while he puts the balls through and yesterday I would hand him two balls, he would take one with his free hand and then he took his other hand off the hoop and grabbed the second ball and then put it in the hole. So for like 5 good seconds, he was standing alone.

Noah is still doing good with his sippy cup. We bought a different brand (Pampers, Stage 4) that has a cap and ounce markings and we like it a lot better. Noah is getting pretty close to just eating everything that we are eating. Last night for dinner, we had roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes and beer bread. He ate the beef, beans and bread all from his tray and then we fed him the potatoes and he liked it all. At school, he eats probably 40% of his food from there with that % increasing everyday. I'm thinking next month we will just rely on the school food mostly and have some of our food as back-up.

We are working on Noah's first birthday party. His invitations went out and the party is planned for Feb 5. I'll try and post a picture of his invitation, because I thought it was super cute. At first, I was going to try and make his cake, but after further thought, I think I am going to order it. I just don't have much time with Noah and working extra and I want it to be perfect. I may, however, make a small cake for his pictures. We'll see how time goes.

Adventures of the Sippy Cup

2011-01-06T13:49:00.003-06:00

Oh my, I don't think I knew what I was getting myself into with this sippy cup business. I also want to state, unless I mentioned it before, that the whole reason we wanted to switch to the sippy cup now was because our plan is to switch Noah to cow's milk at 1 years old (which is only a month away, can you believe it?). I have this thing against Noah drinking cow's milk in a bottle. I feel like it's the first step to having a 3-year old drinking his water, juice, and everything else from a bottle and that image disturbs me (I'm sorry if you have a child that fits into this category). So I have made the decision to switch him to a sippy cup 1 month earlier than the cow's milk to get him adjusted to 1 thing at a time. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal, or at least it shouldn't be. I know he can drink from a sippy cup, although it's not his preferred choice. He has the motor skills to tip the sippy cup back, I see him do it with a cup all the time. So it's just a matter of enforcing that this is what we are going to use instead of a bottle. Not to mention I've heard a lot about the benefits of a sippy cup vs. a bottle such as dental problems, etc.

We are using the munchkin mighty grip sippy cup to start with. It has a soft spout and you just have to bite down a little to get the liquid to come out, yet it's still pretty spill proof. We have a few others like this, but for now, we are sticking to 1 specific kind. I think we will be getting rid of our valved cups due to problems this can cause later on.

So I mentioned that Monday with my aunt went fairly well. He just had to have the bottle in the afternoon, so I was expecting similar results from daycare on Tuesday. Oh My!!! So my first problem was that David was dropping him off and explaining the sippy cup to his teachers. I love my husband, but he just wasn't equipped with the best communication skills. Then I called to go over some of the big points and made sure to tell them to call me if they had questions. The main instruction was keep trying the sippy cup for his first feeding and if absolutely wouldn't take it, then switch to the bottle by his second feeding at 12. Well they couldn't get him to take the sippy, so what do they do? They don't give him any milk until 3pm!!!! Not only that, but when he finally did get a bottle, he gulped it so fast, that he threw up! Poor Noah!

I got to the root of the problem when I dropped him off on Wednesday. Apparently, they were just giving him the sippy cup in the high chair and expecting him to feed himself. Sadly, we are still in the transition phase and we still need to rock him and hold it for him. Eventually, yes, we do expect for him to do most of this himself, but not yet! So with more instruction from Mommy on TWednesday morning plus a nice written up page for the teachers, we had much better luck on Wednesday. He took all 3 feedings in a sippy cup. The only "complaint" was that it took him almost 45 minutes to down 3 ounces. I can understand why the daycare people might be a little upset about this as they probably don't have the time to sit there and feed my 11-month old for 45 minutes while they are supposed to be caring for 3 other ones, but hopefully this is just a short time of transitioning. I think soon enough, maybe a week or two, he will figure this sippy out and start drinking faster. Then we can experiment with giving him the cup on his own and trying other sippy cups.

So hopefully today went just as well.

P.S. I went to go see a friend's newborn baby on Tuesday night. She was so cute and adorable and now baby fever is back in full swing.

Pumping

2011-01-04T10:57:00.002-06:00

I know my blog still looks like it's for Christmas, I'm working on finding a new one.

Also I want to update that yesterday he took the sippy cup great for his 9am and 12pm feedings, but the 3pm feeding did not go well. Apparently, he must have been super tired and so I think he wanted the bottle for more comfort than anything and he would not be calm until he had it. So he did have 1 bottle yesterday. We took an emergency bottle to daycare today. Let's hope they didn't have to use it.

Now for the main part of this post - Pumping. I didn't do so well with pumping last week while I was off work. So now that I'm back to working, I'm pumping in the morning (about 2-3oz) and twice at work (1 oz each time) for a total of about 4-5 oz per day. He is still getting about 9 oz at daycare, so we are losing approximately 4-5 oz a day. With the weekend pumping, that means I'm losing about 15-20 oz a week. With my freezer supply, that is enough to get us by for SEVERAL weeks, so I'm making the executive decision to stop pumping on the weekends. In 2 weeks or so, I may need to start working more hours, so I may cut out my morning pump as well.

I figure at this point, even if I didn't have any freezer stash and stopped pumping, he would be fine on cow's milk at daycare, or at least extra solid foods (assuming he doesn't need a bottle for comfort).

I have mixed feelings about this. Mainly, I'm super excited that my relationship with the pump is ending. I have said it before, but I hate pumping. I hate cleaning it, I hate setting it up, I hate sitting there, listening to the "whoosh whoosh". It's just not fun. But this also symbolizes that my breastfeeding relationship is also beginning to come to an end, as well. Sometimes, I think, it's ok. David will be able to feed him more and no more screaming hungry baby in the carseat (we'll just give him a sippy cup in the car). No more nursing bras. No more worrying about the clothes I'm wearing and if they are breastfeeding friendly. No stopping everything to sit and feed. But I'm also sad because I just can't get over Noah looking me in the eye while gulping away and the way he plays with my shirt and snaps my bra (yeah, that part isn't as fun). I think mainly I'm sad because it means Mr. Noah is growing up and moving on.

I still think that right now this is the best decision (to stop breastfeeding at one year). It was the original goal I had for myself and we just really want to start trying for that second one soon (which according to my doctor, I can't do until I stop nursing). Ok, somehow this went from pumping to breastfeeding, but anyway. I am glad for soon to be no more pumping!!!!!!

11 months - Back to work

2011-01-03T08:53:00.007-06:00

I've been so busy while I've been off work, that I haven't had time to update this blog. So we worked with the sippy cup some even though I said we weren't "officially" transitioning to the sippy cup until today.

He did pretty good. He had some trouble at first because he could still see Mommy and knew where the "real" source is. Once I left the room and figured out that the milk from the sippy cup is just as good, all was well. It did take him longer than usual, but as it gets used to it, he'll master it. Today starts the official transition.

I didn't realize, but apparently our daycare is closed today. Thankfully I realized this before this morning, but it did require a last minute phone call to my Aunt Mary who was able to come over and watch Mr. Noah. I'm sure he's getting a lot of spoilage today!!!

Noah had a lot of fun over Christmas. Here he is opening a gift on Dec 23 from Mommy and Daddy (a little early).

He did really well at my family member's houses. Some of the time, he slept on me in the wrap and we were able to lay him on the ground for one of his naps.

On December 31 (New Year's Eve), some random tornadoes hit the area which damaged some of the building our daycare is in. From what I know, daycare should resume as normal tomorrow. No damage was done to our house or anywhere in our neighborhood. It was nice to have almost 70 degree weather that day, though!

Here are a few more photos to enjoy:

Noah taking a nap in his car seat with his fave friend (aka his thumb)

Our friends Kyle and Erin got a new puppy named Penny. Here I am holding her.

And here is Noah playing with her. She was so sweet and Noah just loved her.

We went to eat at a place called Cheeburger Cheeburger (sooo good) and Noah wanted a bite.

Noah likes to suck on the head of the turtle toy in his bath. This picture is cute because you can tell he is smiling behind the turtle.

Noah is playing hide and seek behind the stairs.

Noah is taking a little nap on Mommy while doing some grocery shopping.

Sickness strikes again!

2010-12-21T15:03:00.002-06:00

So Noah had his first Christmas celebration on Sunday (I'll post pics later). He has a little runny nose but overall seemed fine. Then Monday morning, same runny nose, so we sent him to daycare, half expecting a phone call during the day. There was no phone call. I went and picked him up and they said he wasn't acting like himself, so I took him home and fed him, then took his temp. 100 degrees. He seemed tired so I put him down and he slept a good 2 hours. Then we woke him up to get him ready for bed. He had a 101.6 degree fever then. So we gave him some Tylenol and a bath and already he was feeling better and his temp was down. So then we fed him some applesauce. Then he wanted to play. So we played with him for a little while and finally around 9pm he was ready to go to bed. He did wake up around 3am because he vomited but still no fever and he basically went right back to sleep. We kept him home from daycare today just to be safe. My wonderful aunt came over and helped take care of him while David worked from home. So far, he's been great all day so hopefully we can send him back to daycare tomorrow and then I'll be home Thursday and Friday.

Here's a little video in the meantime. This is when we were feeding him the applesauce last night and he kept making this funny face. Too cute!

Updated Weaning Post

2010-12-17T07:28:00.001-06:00

Ok, I just want to update that we will not be attempting to wean Noah from the bottle next week as originally planned. After more thought, I realized next week will be a short week in daycare. Both David and I are taking off work Thursday and Friday and the whole week following, so we will wait until the week of January 3 when he returns to daycare to start the weaning process. Although I fully intend to really work with the sippy cups while we are at home.

Snow Day (almost)

2010-12-16T17:03:00.002-06:00

Can I just say that I now LOVE my new job. I definitely went through a period where I was very skeptical and unsure whether this new job was going to be better or not. Even when I first started, I was still nervous. I think I just hated the fact that I was moving from a place that was familiar and I knew all the clients and people to a brand new experience. Well I'm finally starting to get comfortable and as that gets better, I'm loving my new job more and more.

Last night, it iced pretty bad and our short experience on the way home last night showed me that. So this morning Noah's daycare emailed me (I love that) and school wasn't starting until 10am. Yeah for going back to sleep. So then I took him up there at 10 and was at work by 10:30am. Did they care? Not at all. So now I worked through lunch which is easy since I have my own office and I will be leaving at 5:30pm. Tomorrow I'll work through lunch to make up the additional hour I lost today. Again, they don't care at all. I'm still working through the guilt thing. At BKD, I always felt guilty working 7:30-4:30. Even though I was getting my hours in, everyone else always looked at me like I was cutting out early or something. Here, it seems like the normal time to leave is 3 or 4pm. Although when I'm leaving at 4, I still feel somewhat guilty but I think that will improve gradually.

Noah was in a Christmas play last night for his daycare. I absolutely love Noah's daycare. His teachers are so nice and they just love Noah. Did they have to put on a Christmas play? No, but they just go above and beyond and I just love that he gets the opportunity to go there and the fact that they are Christian. In fact, the more he goes to daycare here and is involved in a Christian school, the more I wonder if we should be seriously considering a Lutheran elementary school rather than public school.

Noah started walking with our hands the other day. He wants to go more sideways than forward (probably because he's so used to cruising along the furniture), but he's figuring it out. When I pull him up, he just gets this big grin on his face and giggles and takes off. I can barely keep up.

I have also made the decision that we are going to start weaning him off bottles next week. We are going to choose one of his sippy cups and start by taking away his morning bottle and putting the breastmilk in a sippy cup. Hopefully it goes well but I'm putting a lot of faith into the daycare to do this with me and I hope they don't end up hating me or something. I think he'll take a few days to get used to it and then he'll be ok, but I'll post again next week to update.

10 months - Another tooth and my new journey

2010-12-14T09:12:00.003-06:00

That's right, Mr. Noah has his 2nd tooth. It's the bottom one in front on his left side. He's definitely a little snaggletooth now!!! We are still working with him on bye-bye and clapping but he mostly just stares at us. I did get him to stand up on his own for about 10 seconds, but then plop, down he went. We've been having some daycare sleep issues which I may have mentioned before. Basically, he can't sleep very well there. At home, he will take 2-3 hour naps. At daycare, only about 1 hour. Hopefully when he gets transitioned to the walker room, there will be more "quiet" naptimes and he will be able to get more sleep there. Oh and on Wednesday night, he will be in the Christmas play at school. Not sure how big of a part he will have, but I'm excited for him nonetheless.

Now onto a little bit of news about me. I've decided that I want another baby. I actually decided this quite a while ago but I've realized that I want this 2nd baby sooner than later. Sadly there are many obstacles to this goal. First, I'm still nursing Noah. I've done a lot of research on this and really now that he on solid foods and goes all night without nursing, I should have my cycles back by now, but I'm pretty sure it's the PCOS again. So, I do want to go back to my doctor for help, but before that, I'm going to try to do some things on my own. First, I'm going to try and lose some weight and be healthier. Since I'm insulin resistant, that makes it very difficult for me. Basically I will need to follow a low GI diet, similar to diabetics. I also need to start working out more often. If this works and I can actually lose weight, it may help several of my PCOS symptoms, mainly the fertility, though. If I can get my cycles back all on my own, I may not even need the doctor. BUT, our plan is to wean Noah at 12 months to a sippy cup of cow's milk during the day and just nurse nights and weekends, if he's still ok with that. Then either in Feb or I may wait until after busy season or even closer to my 1 year appointment in June, I will start talking to my doctor about my possibilities and whether I can start fertility treatments again. Hopefully my cycles will just return on their own with the weight loss and I can get pregnant all on my own (wouldn't that just be amazing).

Ok, well that's enough for now. I'll try and get some pictures at the play on Wed night.

10 months old!

2010-12-09T07:52:00.003-06:00

Noah is 10 months old as of Nov 3. Such a big boy now. He has such a personality. He's getting better at cruising. Our new favorite game is to put our cell phones or the TV remote at one end of the couch and place him at the other end and watch him go crazy cruising along the couch to get it and then when he gets there, we move the item to the other end he started out and he goes off towards it again. I'd say it's really mean, except he just laughs and giggles when we move it back and forth. I'll try and get a video of it soon.

Noah has also started exploring a lot more big boy food now. We started giving him peach pieces which he absolutely loves. He's getting better at picking up the banana pieces and he also loves to feed himself peas. We also give him pieces of pasta as well. We started telling the daycare that they could feed him certain types of their school food which I think he loves being a part of the group now. We did break down and buy some jarred foods, just because it's so much easier to buy macaroni and beef than to make that up myself. I figure this period of time where he's still eating baby food is short and soon he'll just be eating with us, so no big deal. I do have the moral dilemma that I want to feed him the best food possible, but David and I don't really eat the greatest food all the time (i.e. We had Chick-fil-a for dinner last night). I need to start being a better example to him, not to mention I could afford to eat better (and maybe lose some weight). It's just hard with being busy taking care of him and working. If anyone knows some good simple, healthy, and fresh recipes, I'm all ears!!!

Lastly, I want to comment about our little boo-boo last night. Noah was playing on his table and he turned around at me and fell backwards. I went to grab him and instead, poked him in the eye! He screamed and screamed and I just picked him up and held him so tight. I felt so bad that he was in pain and that I caused the pain! I'm sure if he just went ahead and fell on the carpet, he would have probably been just fine. I finally got him to open his eye and there was a little red mark, but by this point, he was laughing at me, so I think he's ok, but I was so worried about him. I guess I need to get used to this. With him being so mobile and being a boy, this will not be the last boo-boo.

Oh and here's some 9 month photos for you to enjoy:

My new job

2010-12-01T13:15:00.003-06:00

I know, I have been so bad at posting. I keep telling myself I will get better and it just doesn't happen.

So I started at my new job at Abeles and Hoffman, P.C. last Monday and so far, so good. There are definitely aspects that I like better than others, but overall I think it has been a good change. What I like is having my own office. Having the ability to just close my door and pump while I work is fantastic. I also like that I can take a personal call or eat lunch at my desk in a little more privacy. If needed, I can close my door and get more work done. On the other hand, I find myself not as motivated because I don't feel big brother is on my back as much. This might also be because I don't have much work yet so I find myself wandering out on the internet too much. This will get better with busy season and as my work load increases.

I also like how my new job has more flexibility. This is probably my #1 LOVE. I thought that I would probably work 8-5 for a while and then eventually ask to do something else, but no. I don't have to ask or anything, I just come in when I want and leave when I want. They want you to have 8 hours a day and work at least 10-3, but otherwise, it's up to me. I've fallen into a nice schedule of working 7-4 which allows me to avoid a big chunk of traffic and David takes care of Noah in the morning and I go get him in the evening. Of course, this will change when busy season starts, but for now, it's awesome.

Some aspects I don't care for is the dress code. I do like that we can wear casual clothes on Mondays with a logo shirt, but I don't have a logo shirt yet, so I have to wear professional. It'll also be nice to wear jeans and casual clothes on Thursdays (yes, EVERY Thursday). Friday is business casual which is what I'm used to. BUT Tuesday and Wednesdays (and right now, Mondays) I have to wear professional which is basically I suit. The biggest problem with this is mostly that I just don't have much to choose from in my closet right now. I plan on going shopping this weekend and this will change gradually. Then, I don't think it will be that big of a deal. I'm already kind of getting used to it.

Another "bummer" is I had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving. They only have 6 holidays here. In the future, I will use PTO for this, but I don't have any yet, so I had to work. Luckily, David came and visited me and I got to show Noah off a little bit.

A tiny Noah update - he's doing good. He's so mobile now, just crawls everywhere and cruises along us and the furniture. We are having a small problem with daycare in the fact that he won't put himself to sleep for naps there. At home, we put him in his crib and he cries for a second until we leave the room and then he is fine and puts himself to sleep. At daycare, the cribs are out and so it's impossible for them to walk out of the room, so he wants them to pick him up. I don't think leaving him in the crib to scream and get all upset until he finally goes to sleep is the answer, but I know it's difficult to rock him to sleep when he's super cranky too. I might talk to them and see if they can try harder to put him down for a nap earlier, say right after his 3pm bottle, so that he doesn't get overtired and nothing works. The last two nights he has fallen asleep on the way home and slept another hour, which is fine (he clearly needs a 3rd nap), but that also cuts into our time with Noah which is limited.

Oh and Noah had a great Thanksgiving, minus some vomiting episodes. For now, I'm saying he's getting another tooth, but who knows. He isn't upset afterwards and he doesn't have a fever, so I don't know. Times like this, I wish he could talk to me.

Noah's 9 month Appt

2010-11-15T21:18:00.002-06:00

Noah had his 9 month doctor's appointment today. Here are his stats:

Weight: 17lb, 14 oz (8.63%)
Height: 27.5" (19.66%)
Head Circumference: 45.7cm (58.23%)

I can't believe his weight is so low, but the doctor doesn't seem concerned. He showed up Noah's chart on the WHO chart. Basically, he's still on the chart, but he's leveled off a lot. The doctor will be concerned if he doesn't grow at all before his 12-month appointment. So hopefully Noah will grow, grow, grow before then.

What Noah lacks in physical growing, he is making up for in his milestones. He crawls like a champ now. No commando crawling, all on his hands and knees. He's getting pretty quick at it, too. He can pull up on everything now, including mom and dad, like when he wants to be picked up. Then he will cruise along the furniture. My favorite new thing that Noah does now is he will pull himself up on his music table and hit the keys to play a song and then dance. Like literally, dance by bouncing his legs up and down and smile from ear to ear. It's so cute and makes my heart melt every time.

In other news...I quit my job. My last day at BKD was last Thursday. I start at a new firm called Abeles and Hoffmann next Monday. In the meantime, I get a whole week with my Noah. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of stuff to do this week. My reasons for leaving BKD and joining Abeles and Hoffmann are to gain more flexibility and a better work culture in order for me to be the best CPA and the best mom that I can be creating a balance between the two. I'll let you know how my new job goes.

Breastfeeding

2010-11-13T23:00:00.002-06:00

I know it's been so long since I have posted here. I will post again in the next few days about updates on Noah along with pictures and videos. But first, I wanted to post an update about our breastfeeding triumphs and challenges.

Basically, Noah does really well as far as latching on. We don't use a Boppy pillow anymore. He doesn't really need my assistance latching on. We nurse on the bed, couch, in the mall, wherever, it doesn't matter. I love the bonding time that nursing brings us. He always looks up at me with those big ole' eyes. I've even caught him smiling while nursing while looking at me. It doesn't matter what else just happened or how upset he was 2 minutes prior, nursing makes everything all better. And there's just nothing better, than Noah falling asleep in my arms while nursing. Those are the triumps and joys of breastfeeding.

The challenges come in with pumping mostly. I am so thankful to have worked for a company who found value in a mom's room, which is basically just a lockable room with a comfy chair, sink, and refrigerator. I was lucky, really lucky. Sadly, I'm about to start a new job that doesn't have a pumping situation quite as good. I'll post on that when I start my new job on November 22. The problem with pumping is that I'm slowly not pumping as much as I used to. I think a lot of this is due to my PCOS which the symptoms are slowly coming back. This affects my prolactin hormone which affects the lactation. When I first went back to work, I could pump approximately 12-15 ounces over 3 pumpings during the day. Around the 6 months mark when Noah started solids, it was down to around 8 ounces a day. That was when I started pumping first thing in the morning before I nursed Noah. That first pumping, I would get 6-7 ounces at first. Currently, I'm down to 3-4 ounces over the 3 pumpings during the day and about 3-4 ounces at that first pumping in the morning.

Noah has gone down from 4-oz bottles to 3-oz bottles as well. So basically he takes 9-oz and I get anywhere from 6-8 oz a day, so I'm always losing. The only thing that really saves me is that I pump first thing in the morning on the weekends. This next week I'll be off so I plan to do some good pumping. I'm taking a week off at the end of December to do some good pumping. Otherwise, I only have 2 more months or so, and then it's not a big deal to stop pumping and give cow's milk during the day.

Once I started breastfeeding, I was determined that this was something I was going to do all the way through the second year. Now here we are at 9 months wondering if I can even make it to the 12 month mark. At this point, I don't have to worry about formula. If there was never enough milk, I can always supplement with solid foods, but I know there is so much benefit in the breastmilk.

I've talked to several breastfeeding experts and they assure me I don't have anything to worry about because Noah is growing (maybe not weight, but definitely height) and that he has good output and he is meeting his milestones. Ok, well that's enough on this topic for now. I will try and be a better blogger in the future.

7 months old

2010-09-07T21:36:00.002-05:00

Noah is 7 months old! Can you believe it's been that long already??? I never thought I could fall in love with someone so precious and sweet. You can really see his personality coming out now. He's grown so much now. He scoots along the floor, almost figuring out that he has to move his knees and arms together. He can pull himself up on you and then stand, wobbly, but still standing. We put up his baby gate yesterday, which looks really nice thanks to the fantastic custom banister holders. I will post a picture later.

Noah has also been crazy about his solid foods. He is now eating peaches, pears, avocado, green beans, squash, and carrots. He eats 3 meals a day and for now, that seems about right. Sadly his least interested meal is the evening one since I think he gets really tired and cranky in the evening. Probably from all that playing during the day. Speaking of daycare, we have been really happy with them lately. They have been working with him with the sippy cup and doing all the solid foods.

That's all for now. I'll have to get around and post some pictures.

Birthing Choices

2010-09-03T16:27:00.001-05:00

I have been looking back on prior posts and I realized that I wrote briefly about our Bradley classes and then I wrote again about our specific birth, but I never really touched on my opinions on certain aspects of birthing, specifically in a hospital. I want to get this all out there and honestly I don't care what people think anymore. Somehow through the whole pregnancy, birth, and raising a child process, I've become this "natural", attachment parenting, crunchy mama and I love it. Not saying that everyone else should be exactly the way I am, but I was not this way before and after doing all my research and thinking and praying, I knew I was making the right decision for our family. I just want everyone else to research and make the right decisions for their family. Please don't just let the hospital make the decisions for you. Birth is a huge event in your life and yes, it may only be 1 day but I guarantee you that it affects both you and your baby for the rest of your lives.

What bothers me the most about birthing in America is the lack of education and knowledge. Birth is portrayed on television and in movies as this horrific event where a woman is screaming her head off and the doctors and nurses are running around like crazy people. Sadly birth is none of those things. Birth should be a quiet and calm event where the medical personnel is assisting you and giving you encouragement. I'm not saying it doesn't hurt, but there are definitely ways to deal with the pain. Looking back on Noah's birth, I honestly didn't even feel pain until we got to the hospital, it was more of just discomfort. Even at the hospital, I was able to move around, I was given water, David and the nurses were saying happy things. With all of this, it was hard to even realize I was in pain. And when I did, the contraction was over and I was on a break. In the end, any pain I did feel was 100% worth the fact that the birth was calm and everything I wanted.

Also, I can't stand when women say they don't want a difficult or painful birth so they are going to do an epidural or a C-section. The only way to have a painfree birth is to not give birth at all! If you are in this to never have any pain, then you should not have gotten yourself pregnant. This is just one of the first sacrifices we need to make for our children. Sure, no one actually likes pain, but it's something that you can deal with, if you have the right information. Now I'm going to go through a few (or maybe more than a few) birth interventions and what my opinion is on them. I'm a huge believer in the fact that one birth intervention generally leads to more. It's hard to say "Oh, I'm just going to have a little pitocin but I don't want an epidural". Usually with pitocin, you will almost always need an epidural. This is how a birth can get out of control. Also a good reason to make sure you have a birth plan that goes into all possible situations even if you aren't necessarily planning on it.

I love love love the book "A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth" by Henci Goer. She does a better job of presenting the pros and cons.

Continuous Fetal Monitoring - Most hospitals will require this when you are first admitted to be sure you are truly in labor. However, after the first 10 minutes, not necessary. The thing is uncomfortable, you have to lay in bed and can't move, and it can detect slight changes in heartrate that are actually nothing to worry about. Also it is an ultrasound and produces ultrasound waves which some say can hurt the baby. Alternative - Use a doppler monitor once every hour or whenever they feel necessary. For me, they wanted me to have continuous once I started pushing and I was ok with that.

IV - Generally hospital mandated, but of course, your doctor can override anything. They want this in case you need fluids for dehydration or they have to rush to the emergency room. Both can be done in a matter of seconds if needed, so I opt for no on this one. I told them that I was ok with a Hep Block where they could hook up an IV quickly if needed, but I never needed it and next time, I will specifically say no. The bad thing with this is it straps you down. Which leads me to...

Drinking and Eating During Labor - The reason they don't want you to do this is because with some meds you can get nausea and vomit and in the case of anesthesia, you could aspirate. First of all, hopefully you won't end up in a C-section anyway and even if you do, it's unlikely you will need general anesthesia (where this is the issue). Even then, the risk of aspiration is so slim and it won't really matter if you just ate or ate 12 hours ago (the food will still be in your stomach). Birth is like a marathon, you NEED to eat and drink or you will get dehydrated and not have the energy to go the distance. I personally wasn't hungry but David made me eat something at the beginning. Then I had water by the gallon (it seemed like). I only got potentially dehydrated at one point, but was quickly fixed with more water. By doing this, you don't need an IV.

Epidural - Needle in your back. Do I need to say that is going to hurt? So if you are against pain... Not to mention I've heard so many stories of "they did it wrong and had to do it again", "my back still hurts months/years later", "spinal fluid was leaking out", etc. Also when you get an epidural, you are strapped to the bed, can't feel your legs, have to have an IV, no more drinking/eating, have to have a catheter, continuous monitoring, and I'm sure there is more. Not to mention that epidurals SLOW your labor down (your body can't progress naturally anymore). When I think back to labor, I just kept thinking "when will this be over?" If someone had said "here take this, it'll make the pain go away (for a little while) but it will drag your labor out longer", I would have said "heck no"! And yes, even with an epidural plenty of people say they feel all sorts of pain since it doesn't always work perfectly. This can also lead to the baby being in distress and then a C-section. I know there are plenty of women who have given birth just fine with an epidural, but the risk of getting a C-section with an epidural is so much greater, that I was not willing to take that risk. I won't even go into the potential risks to the baby (if it does all that to your body, what does it do to a tiny little infant).

Pitocin - This is a drug used to induce labor so first I have to explain my feelings on being induced. Basically, you shouldn't be. There are a few medical reasons to why a woman should be induced to protect either herself or the baby, but a majority of the time, women are being induced for the wrong reasons. Most likely anything seen on an ultrasound (amniotic fluid low, baby is too big, placenta is old) is probably wrong. Not 100% of the time, but ultrasounds are so inaccurate that you really need to be sure what they tell you is true and sometimes even then you don't have to induce (if amniotic fluid is low, there are ways to increase). Other reasons to avoid being induced include the usual iv, strapped to the bed, etc. but also pitocin will increase your contractions (duh, that's it's job) and make them feel twice as bad which means most women will then need an epidural (and now you are traveling down that ugly path to C-section again). Remember a baby is due anywhere between 38 and 42 weeks. That baby will tell you when its time (not the doctor). Let him/her make their decision and it will make the birth that much easier (instead of evicting the baby out). There are also some natural induction methods although most will NOT work unless baby is ready. For me, I took a warm bath and did the accupressure points and bam, I was in labor.

Scheduled C-section - So we've just been discussing all the choices you have so that you can avoid the C-section and here we are with women who are actually choosing the C-section. There's the "hollywood" way where you get your C-section and tummy tuck done all together conviently scheduled in your datebook. But more likely you have the women who don't necessarily WANT the c-section, but because they had a previous C-section or because their doctor is going to be out of town or whatever the reason they were convinced they had to have one. So there's the breech baby who in St. Louis no doctor will deliver you with a breech baby so yes, that is an automatic C-section although there are lots of methods to turn the baby and those should definitely be tried. The next is the previous C-section. VBACs (Vaginal birth after ceseasaren) are so popular now. Most doctors will do them (if yours doesn't, maybe you should consider a new doctor). There is one previous C-section type that I think is too dangerous to do a VBAC and I think it's where they cut you vertically, but don't quote me on that one. Most others do not need to be a C-section. Please don't let your doctor bully you into this. Of course they like C-sections (they are quick, easy, and no recovery time for the doctor), but they shouldn't be the way babies are being born.

Cutting the cord - You should let the cord stop pulsing. This allows baby to get all that remaining blood and oxygen until he/she is breathing good on their own. You can (we did) have the blood donated if you decide this option as well.

Ok, I think I'm done for now. I might remember more in the future and revise this. Please don't think I'm critizing anyone or making anyone feel bad, but these are my opinions and I don't really want to hide them. Thanks for listening if you made it all the way through. Oh and feel free to ask me anything.

6 months - Working Situation

2010-08-26T08:18:00.001-05:00

This post has been a long time coming. So some of you may know that I was going to start working part-time and be a stay at home mom part-time. Well, that didn't work out exactly as planned. I don't care to go into a bunch of details about what happened on here, but feel free to ask me in person and I will share. The end result was me figuring out what I want and what I don't want. I think in the end, I am happy that Noah is still in daycare. I think he loves being with the other babies and that he will learn a lot, especially when he turns 2 and starts their preschool program. I really like the daycare we are sending him to now and the ladies are so good with him. I won't say they are perfect and they definitely don't care for him exactly the way I would, but I think that's just something every parent has to deal with no matter what daycare you take your child to. No one will take care of your child as well as you will, that's just a fact. I also like the fact that instead of me being exhausted at the end of the day and ready for Daddy to take over, I'm excited to see him and play with him. The weekends are so exciting and I love snuggling with him in bed on Sat mornings and then we all fall back asleep. I don't think I would feel the same if I was home with him all the time. I'm going back to my original thinking that I'm just not cut out to be a stay at home mom and that doesn't necessarily make me a bad mom either.

Now everything is not just peaches either. I'm sad I can't go to day nursing group at Kangaroo Kids. They have a night group and it's good, but in the evenings, Noah is crankier and I feel so much more rushed than when I could go to day group. We also had some difficulty figuring out how I'm going to do busy season. For now, the plan is to work approximately 7-6 at the office then come home and have family time and then work another 2 hours at home. Saturdays I'll go into the office for a few hours in the morning. David has also offered to do as much as he can around the house to make the burden on me easier. Not sure if we'll continue this arrangement for many years in the future, but for now, it'll work. The other change we are making is to hire a cleaning service. I had a lot of internal debate on this because I feel like by doing this, I fail as a homeowner. Why should I own a home if I can't even take care of it? But my reasoning is that we did all this work to determine we could financially make it if I worked part-time on approximately half my salary, so clearly we have the money to splurge on this. It also frees up more of our time to spend with Noah and do family things when we aren't working, rather than having to clean the house.

Overall, I'm happy with my life for now. I'm happy that we do have that extra money and I don't have to stress over that part of my life. We have even started discussing taking a vacation to Hawaii next summer for our 5 year wedding anniversary (I know, I can't believe it'll be 5 years) or going to the beach with Noah as a family vacation.

Other bits of information:

* Noah had his 6 month checkup and weighed 17 pounds, 4 ounces (approximately 35%). His length was only in the 18% and he technically lost a 1/4 inch, but I think they goofed up the measurements the last time. I don't really expect him to be tall since David and I are short.

* Solid foods are still going well. He now eats Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Apples, Bananas, Squash, and Peas. Next up is Pears. I love making his food and I am thinking of doing more with fresh fruits and veggies in our own diet.

* Solid foods are creating new fun in cloth diapering. We definitely need to go to Cotton Babies and get a diaper sprayer, but in the meantime, the daycare is making it easier on us by getting rid of the "bulk" in his diapers. We didn't even ask them to do it, they just did it.

* We are getting ready to get a new patio. We are super excited and I can't wait to see the end result. I will definitely post pictures.

6 months - More solid foods (apples and peas)

2010-08-08T21:23:00.003-05:00

So we decided after 4 days of sweet potatoes that he either wasn't ready for solid food or just not a big fan of sweet potatoes so we decided to move on to a fruit and see if we get better results. This time we tried apples. Again, super easy to make. We peeled, sliced, and cored 5 gala apples and then put them in a bowl and microwaved them. Then we threw them and the juices they made into the food processor and voila! baby food!!! I even tasted it and they were delicious. The only thing annoying about the apples was peeling them, but eventually we can throw the peels in with the food.

So then we gave them to Noah. He absolutely loved them!!!! So I'm totally convinced he just isn't a big fan of sweet potatoes. So we did apples for a few days. Then we decided to mix 1 apple and 1 sweet potato and he still liked it. I haven't tried a plain sweet potato cube by itself (too scared of rejection).

Today was a new day to introduce food and we decided on peas since we eat these all the time. These were EASY to prepare (unlike the apples). We just bought 2 steam bags ($1 each) and microwaved them. We did have to add what I thought was a ton of water to get them to puree down to an acceptable consistency, but easy enough. Again, another winner. He didn't eat them as much GUSTO as the apples but that could also be that we fed him pretty late tonight and he was just tired.

Nothing else too exciting is going on. We are trying to do sign language with him, but mostly just "milk". He sits up like a good boy. He hardly ever uses the swing or bouncy seat but loves his exersaucer. We just went shopping and got several 9-12 month outfits for the fall/winter. I can't believe we are getting so close to that 1 year mark. Sorry no pictures today.

6 Months - First Food

2010-08-01T21:31:00.005-05:00

Noah's first food is officially sweet potatoes. We wanted to do a vegetable first because I've heard that it's better to stick with a blander food so they don't develop a sweet tooth. I'm pretty sure that's out anyway since we feed him breastmilk, which is naturally sweet. But whatever! So we are also making our own baby food. Reasons - It's cheaper, I know what's in it, and it tastes more like the real thing. After our first experience, I honestly don't know why EVERYONE doesn't just make their own baby food. I even feel like I'm cheating since I have a baby food recipe book and trays specifically designed for baby food (honestly, they just look like ice cube trays with lids, but whatever). So we bought two sweet potatoes at the market, even bringing Noah along with us (he slept the whole way so I'm sure he really understood the whole "where my food is coming from" concept). The total cost was $1.80. We cooked them in the microwave for 8 minutes (I'm not going to go into microwave vs. oven right now). Then we just scooped out the "meat" and added some water and processed it up. Here's the result:

I took that and put them into our trays (it filled all 20 slots) and then froze it. The next day I put the cubes into a plastic bag to be stored in the freezer until use. So I made approximately 20 servings/ounces for $1.80. For comparison, the store sells jars of 2.5 servings/ounces for $0.80. That same amount is about $0.22. Only like a 50 cent difference, but multiplied out by all the baby food we will make - that's a big savings! Not to mention the priceless difference that feeding Noah healthy food with no preservatives or junk. I will say Noah will probably end up eating some jar baby food if we forget something or we travel far distances, but we will try to avoid this as much as possible.

On to the fun part - feeding. So the first try was actually yesterday and I don't have any pictures from that. We recorded it though and as soon as I have some time, I will post that video. In the meantime I will share photos from today's meal. He was a lot more receptive to the food today. I hope it gets better the more we do this. Not that the first times went badly but he definitely didn't seem like he wanted to gobble it up or anything. I think he was just confused about it. It really helped when David and I started making a huge production each time he took a little bite. So here are the photos from today:

Noah's 6 month Pictures

2010-08-01T21:04:00.005-05:00

We went to a different place this time - Portrait Innovations. In the end, we liked the quality better than Olan Mills although we did end up spending more money. Here are some of the shots we got:

We got a ton of prints, especially wallets. If you like any of these, please let me know and you can have one (or honestly, you can have a few, since we have a TON). ENJOY!!!

Lactation Cookies

2010-07-11T10:39:00.001-05:00

Here's the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip lactation cookie recipe. Let me tell you, they are delicious!

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
2-4 tablespoons brewer's yeast

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Mix the flax seed meal and water and let sit 3-5 minutes.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
3. Add eggs and mix well.
4. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla; beat well.
5. Sift together flour, brewer's yeast, baking soda, and salt.
6. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
7. Stir in oats and chips.
8. Scoop onto baking sheet.
9. Bake for 12 minutes.

I baked mine longer, for about 14 minutes. It made 4 dozen cookies for me. I found the flax seed meal at Dierbergs in the organic aisle. They didn't have brewers yeast at my Dierbergs, but apparently they do have them at certain ones. We ended up finding it at GNC. Enjoy, they are really good!!!

5 months old!

2010-07-07T21:26:00.003-05:00

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for my late post. I can't believe I haven't posted in a whole month!!! So Noah is 5 months old now. He can sit up by himself for limited amounts of time, he rolls from his back to his tummy in like 2 seconds, he laughs all the time especially when tickled, he is wearing his 6-9 month clothes, and he is definitely teething. He's grown so much in the last month, I can't even remember having a little newborn anymore. ***looking at old pictures*** Tear....

So we've been frequenting the pool a lot. Noah loves riding around in his floaty and he is just so tuckered out afterwards. We also went to O'Fallon for their 4th of July celebration and Noah saw his first fireworks. Honestly, he was more interested in the glo sticks, but I would say a success overall. I just hope he doesn't get scared next year. We also went on our first road trip - to Kansas City. He did pretty good, but there was some crying in the car. Hopefully we'll go on more and he can get used to the car riding.

Everything else has been going good. Daycare is comfortable now and I think they are doing a great job. I can't wait for him to start preschool there (when he is 2) and really get to attend all the fun activities.

Here's a video of Noah laughing at "the baby" in the mirror. He can be screaming his head off and you show him this baby and he will just start laughing...it's so funny!

4 months - Doctor Visit

2010-06-07T20:59:00.002-05:00

Noah had his 4 month doctor's visit today. His stats are 15 pounds, 15 ounces (69%), 26 inches long (83%), and head circumference of 16 3/4 inches (55%). Don't ask me where the length came from. The doctor was pleased with everything he saw, especially that he sounds better. So glad that Mr. Noah is feeling and sounding better.

Then, we had a discussion about solid foods which I really want to post here because I feel like this question is going to come up a lot in the next few months. The doctor suggested starting rice cereal by spoon. We told him that we would rather wait on solid foods because we don't think Noah is ready. The main reason for this is because he still uses his tongue to push food out of his mouth. He also hasn't shown any interest in our food and he still seems satisfied with just breastmilk. Our second issue is with the cereal itself. We asked what the reason behind the cereal was and our doctor (as many other doctors will say) said it's to give him texture and teach him how to eat off a spoon. But, as I have researched, cereal has NO nutritional value. I guess I shouldn't say it has no value, because it does have extra iron which if needed would be good for formula fed babies but breastfed babies already have an increase in iron. That's the neat thing about breastmilk. It actually "reads" Noah's saliva and interprets it to what he needs and then the milk responds by making that extra vitamin or mineral. That's why my milk increases in caloric value as he gets older and that's why you don't need to increase the amount of milk he is taking in (as you would with formula fed babies). Anyway, getting back to cereal having no value...the doctor agreed with us. We told him we wanted to start him on fruits and veggies and skip the cereal which he was fine with but he wants us to wait until 6 months to make sure his body is able to handle that. This is totally fine with us seeing as though we want to wait until 6 months (or more) for any solid foods regardless. We basically see no reason to force solid foods on him before he is ready and he will definitely let us know when he is ready.

Ok - step down off of soapbox. I'm sure I'm going to have to re-explain that about 400 times, but oh well. I'm still sick, so I think I'm headed off to bed. Night.