On the Mend

For the first time in 5 days, I've had a few moments today when I haven't had a fever. YAY! I am not feeling back to normal yet, but I am very appreciative that I feel better than I have the last few days. To be honest, Wed-Fri I was wishing I could take Nadia to daycare or something like that as #1 I didn't feel up to taking care of her and #2 I didn't want her to catch my bug, but we survived and somehow she seems to have escaped catching what I had. PTL! What added insult to injury was that on Wednesday and Thursday she was REALLY fussy and barely slept. Naps that are on average 80 minutes long were only 15 minutes long. Of all the days for that to happen - two days when I really wanted a nap!!! She napped a little bit better yesterday, but ironically today is the first day since Tuesday that she's taken long naps. I say ironically since Paul is home today and I could have napped if I needed to whether or not she napped. Paul only spent a couple of minutes with her on Thursday and Friday.

Today I am finally getting back in the groove and doing things like the laundry and dishes. Wednesday and Thursday I never even got dressed. Yesterday afternoon I did go to the library and also got pizza which forced me to wear something other than pjs, LOL. Aside from taking care of Nadia, the only things I accomplished Wed-Fri were grading some papers and reviewing some job applications (we have to pick whom to interview). The last time I exercised was Tuesday morning, but I still don't have the energy for that. The weird thing is I got REALLY hungry there for a couple of days and veered off my diet somewhat because well I just didn't care - if I was hungry, I was going to eat. Today my appetite has totally vanished. That seems backwards doesn't it? I usually get really hungry during PMS so maybe that's what was going on. We shall see. I still haven't started the bcp. I plan to start them soon. I was hoping AF would show first.

One of the reasons naps have been challenging as of late is that Nadia has been sitting in her crib. It's hard to fall asleep in the sitting position! I thought I heard her waking up earlier, and lately when I go to get her she's sitting in her crib. I thought I'd get a picture of that. When I went up she was still asleep. So I decided to take a pic of her sleeping instead, but the flash woke her up as you can see. OOPS! She had already slept 90 minutes so I am sure she would have been waking up soon anyhow. She travels all around the room these days although she's still not technically crawling much yet. One of these days she'll figure it out I'm sure!

Reflections on ttc

Since I'm contemplating ttc again these days (let me tell you it was nice not to think about it for 14 months!), I thought I'd make a list of the things that seem normal to those of us who have dealt with infertility that are probably unfamiliar to those who haven't. This post is for female eyes. :-) I wrote this several days ago and decided to post it today as I doubt you want to hear me talk again about how utterly lousy I feel. The one bright spot of my day so far though was that this morning I purchased the tickets for the 5 of us to go to Antigua in May as the price dropped big time on the flight I wanted to take. :-)

You know you've ttc a long time when.... (all of these are true statements for me anyhow)

1. You purchased a box of Dixie cups and didn't drink out of any of them but rather used ALL of them to pee into for opks and hpts.

2. You took your temperature more than 1,000 times over the span of 4 years (so glad to be done with that!!!)

3. You purchased opks in bulk (as many as 100 at a time). I have used over 200 of them and am also glad to be done with that.

4. You purchased hpts in bulk. I have used over 50 of those and am not done using those yet although there aren't any in our house right now. Hoping to see 2 lines again in May!!!

5. You have given yourself over 100 shots in your stomach and are very willing do it again to have another baby.

6. Your husband has given you over 100 shots in your butt and again you would gladly go through it again.

7. You referred to a really faint line that could hardly be seen as a BFP (big fat positive)

8. A certain type of cervical mucus (ewcm) brought a smile to your face and you shared that news with your female friends online, and they were happy to hear it (did you ever think you'd celebrate mucus much less tell others about it?)

9. You've referred to "that time of the month" as AF and used prounouns like "she" and "her" when talking about it (which is really quite funny when you think about it).

10. You've frequently had doctors and nurses tell you when you could and couldn't engage in an activity that is usually 100% at the discretion of a husband and wife. It seemed SO strange to me the first time this happened in 2003, and now it seems 100% normal, LOL.

11. You know what are good and bad levels for several hormones at various points in a cycle or pregnancy (E2, P4, LH, hCG, and FSH)

12. The only way you can possibly imagine becoming pregnant involves doctors, nurses, embryologists, andrologists, etc. It's unfathomable to consider it might happen "accidently" or with only two people involved in the process.

13. You have taken the birth control pill in an effort to become pregnant not prevent pregnancy.

14. Doctors have put your body into what is called a temporary menopause - again with the goal of becoming pregnant (and menopause and pregnancy don't usually go together!).

15. You can be 100% certain what day conception occured.

16. You know what the ideal thickness of your uterine lining is as well as the ideal size of follicles at various points in a cycle (all in centimeters).

17. Your baby grew in a lab for a few days before growing in your body. Somehow petri dishes aren't usually a part of the "birds and bees" conversation, LOL.

18. You've tried a myriad of things that others have said helped them achieve pregnancy such as eating fresh pineapple after an embryo transfer, getting a professional massage before a transfer, bedrest for several days after a transfer, etc.

19. You've paid for your baby to be frozen, thawed, and hatched. I never thought those verbs would be said in reference to my baby!


20. You have a favorite brand of hpt. Mine is FRER since it showed a 2nd line when my hCG was only 11.8 in 2005 with my 1st pregnancy. Speaking of that pregnancy, I am STILL getting junk mail that is based on the assumption I have a 3 year old at home. Oh how I regret that I signed up for free stuff online during that pregnancy! I really don't like to be reminded through junk mail of the child we lost in 2005. Of course I don't mind the free stuff and coupons that I get for Nadia. :-)


I was talking once with a friend of mine who used to teach at the school where I was principal. She and her hubby pursued all sorts of fertility stuff including ivf with their own embies as well as adopting frozen embies from another family. He kept wanting to switch gears to adoption, but she kept wanting to pursue fertility treatments. Eventually they did switch to adoption. Her first son was in her arms in the hospital before their home study was even done!! Her gyn gave the referral for the closed adoption so it was a super quick and super cheap adoption. A few years later her gyn gave her another referral so she never worked with any adoption agencies or facilitators or anything like that - never made a profile or a dossier or anything for the adoption of their two sons (both times she was in the hospital at the time of the baby's birth). On the other hand, my hubby kept pushing for ivf (since 2004) and I was pushing for adoption until finally I agreed in 2007 to pursue ivf since adoption wasn't working out for us. If I could go back in time, I wish I had agreed to ivf in 2004. The conclusion we both made (Tammy & I) was that it's a good idea to follow your hubby's advice. Her dh wanted to pursue adoption and that's what led them to Isaac and Samuel, and my dh wanted to pursue ivf and that's what led us to Nadia.


This time I didn't need to be convinced to pursue ivf. If however this next round of ivf doesn't lead to a sticky bfp, then that will be a tougher decision especially since we must resume our contract with Adoption Consultants by the middle of December or we're out the about $5K we paid her in June 2007. I am not sure whether we'd decide to pursue ivf a third time or switch back to adoption. Hopefully we won't need to make that decision because ivf #2 will work!

Congratulations, Kelli & Kyle!!!!

Some of you might know Kelli. She posted as KDS on MK's discussion boards. She and I have rather similar stories in that we both started ttc in 2002 and then both signed a contract with Lifetime (we did that a few months before they did). They also never got "the call" of a possible situation. They only did one contract extension (2.5 years total) whereas we did two extensions (3 years total). The one difference would be they went from that straight back to ttc whereas Paul and I took an int'l adoption detour first. Anyhow I sent her my leftover ivf meds which she used for her first round of ivf. She had severe OHSS (was hospitalized for several days) so she wasn't able to have a fresh transfer. Thankfully quite a few of her embies made it to the freeze. A few months later they thawed 2 for a FET. Unfortunately those 2 didn't make it. So they thawed 2 more and transferred those, and this led to her holding her 10 lb 5.4 oz red headed son (Kody) in her arms after a c/s on Tuesday! When she had an u/s on Monday her doctor decided on a c/s based on his size. She's not allowed to do any more fresh cycles given the severe OHSS she had, but thankfully they still have several frozen embies. They plan to do their next FET in a year or so. Anyhow I am sooooooooooooo happy for them as they started ttc 6 1/2 years ago and their wait to become parents is finally over. PTL!!!!!!!!!

I still don't feel well. So far Nadia and Paul don't seem to be catching it though for which I am very grateful. My friend Cheri emailed and she has the same bug. It seems we must have caught it on Sunday night. I hadn't gone out with a friend to dinner or a concert or anything in eight months and the first time I do - I get sick. Maybe having a social life isn't so great after all, LOL. I am thankful that I've been so healthy the past 8 months. Cheri's fever only lasted 24 hours. She still has a headache, sore throat, and cough. I still have the fever plus the other 3 symptoms and a runny nose. Thankfully the fever hasn't been AS bad as it was Tuesday night. It's been years since I remember having the chills that bad. My face was burning, but I couldn't seem to get the rest of my body warm no matter how many layers were piled on top of me.

It's hard for me to function and care for Nadia when all I want to do is be in bed myself. I have been really careful about not letting her watch tv the past 8 months, but I might see if Veggie Tales will entertain her at all today. Paul came straight home from school yesterday so I was only home alone for about 4 hours. Today I'll be on my own ALL day as he doesn't get home until 7pm, and the day started earlier than it needed to as we heard a sound and Paul thought she was standing in her crib. So he raced to her crib at 6:30 and turned on her light and found her lying on her belly asleep. Of course the light turning on woke her up so after letting her chatter awhile, I went and got her at 6:45.

Elderly?!?

Yesterday I went online to my medical record so I could cancel my next appointment with the orthopedic doctor since my wrist is already almost back to normal. Well on the "health summary" page I noticed a few new things added. I guess I hadn't been on that page in a year as the one that caught my eye was added on 3/4/08. I now have the label "elderly multigravida." I clicked on it and it said "later childbearing." I did a search online, and it's the official way of saying you are 35 or older when you give birth. I had heard it referred to as "advanced maternal age" before which sounded bad enough but give me a break - elderly??? I am 36 years old, and that's just NOT elderly!! They need to use a different word in my opinion! I remember the term elderly came up when we were pursuing adopting from Ukraine, but even in that case they weren't using the term to refer to someone in their 30's (although those who fit Ukraine's definition of "elderly" also felt they were too young to be given that label). I looked up the definition of "elderly," and it said things like "being past middle age" and "the final stage of the normal life span." I am certainly not "past middle age" at the age of 36!

Even with Tylenol or Advil every 4 hours, my temp stayed above 100 degrees yesterday. When I went to bed at 8pm last night it was 101. It took me over an hour to fall asleep as I couldn't get warm. I was wearing two shirts and had four blankets on top of me before I finally stopped shivering. I emailed my dept chair and Dean this morning and said I wouldn't be going to the meeting in Harrisburg tonight. I am feeling a little better today than I did last night, but I am not up for a 2 hour meeting plus over 2 hours of driving. Anyhow I don't think those people really want my germs. Nadia doesn't seem herself today either. She doesn't have a fever, but a lot of stuff is coming out of her nose. She slept in until 7:30 which hasn't happened in a LONG time (and was greatly appreciated!!!), but then she refused to take a morning nap. She usually goes down around 8:45 or 9:00 so I figured since she got up later that her nap shouldn't start until 9:30, but that didn't work. Maybe I should have still put her down at 9:00? I just put her down again; it's a tad bit earlier than when she usually goes down for her 2nd nap, but she's been awake for 4+ hours so I figure she needs a nap! She and I are staying in our pjs today. The pics here are from yesterday - more of her "eight month old" photos.

Eight Months Old!

I can't believe Nadia is already eight months old. She's growing up TOO fast! Here are some photos to show how much she's grown.

10 days old (7/2/08)

1 month old (7/24/08)

2 months old (8/24/08)

3 months old (9/25/08)

4 months old (10/25/08)

5 months old (11/24/08)

6 months old (12/25/08)

7 months old (1/25/09)

8 months old (2/24/09)

At 8 months old Nadia likes standing, playing in the bathtub, sticking out her tongue, playing peekaboo, sleeping on her belly, being tickled, and playing with Mommy or Daddy,

A few things Nadia dislikes include: Mommy only letting her have 4 ounces of milk before she's burped (she wants to keep drinking!), having a bib put on or taken off when she's in her highchair, having her face cleaned during or after eating solids, and putting her arms through sleeves when she's getting dressed (although she does help now which makes it go a little faster).

Nadia's skills include sitting independently, going from lying down to sitting up, feeding herself larger finger foods, babbling all the time, saying "dada" when she sees Daddy (sometimes), pulling herself up to a standing position, turning off a light switch, sleeping an average of 11 hours straight at night, and moving around the room through a combination of crawling, scooting (mostly backwards), and a lot of rolling. I think that during this month she is really going to take off in terms of her mobility. Baby proofing here we come! :-)

I woke up with a fever and sore throat. I'm praying I'll feel better soon and that I won't pass this on to Nadia or Paul. I teach tonight and then have a meeting for work tomorrow night in Harrisburg, but then I'll have 11 days off. Yay!

Turn off the lights

It's so hard to know with a 7 month old baby just HOW big their receptive vocabulary is. For several months there have been certain words I've been positive she understands such as milk, bottle, diaper, and nap for example. Lately it's been a little easier to tell by her actions what she understands. For example if she's sitting on my lap on the couch in the family room and I hear the garage door open and say "Daddy's home" she immediately turns her head in the direction of the door he comes in through from the garage. She also has seemed to comprehend "just a minute" for a month or two. I don't mean she understands the duration of a minute, but if she for example wants me to pick her up and I need to go do something quickly (like use the bathroom), if I say "just a minute" she stops fussing and waits for me to come back as long as I truly only take about a minute.

Well Daddy was very impressed twice while he was watching her last night when I was at dinner and the concert with Cheri. The first was that he said "turn off the light" when exiting her bedroom and she actually did hit the lightswitch and turn it off. Now her physical skills are not up to the level that she can always turn it off. She tries, but many times she misses or doesn't push hard enough to turn it off. So it was a bit of a fluke that she actually succeeded on her first try last night. The second was when he was feeding her. He has attempted feeding her solid foods three times (the third being last night). The second time he gave up without actually getting anything from the spoon into her mouth. Well last night when she was in the highchair he said "open your mouth for Daddy" and she did. He was amazed how big she opened her mouth and that she did it several other times when he asked her to.

She's doing really well with eating. Her diet right now mostly consists of apples, rice cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, bananas, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, and green beans. Her finger foods include Puffs, Cheerios, zwieback toast, and biter biscuits. She feeds herself the last two. She tries to feed herself puffs. She can pick one up and put her hand in her mouth, but she doesn't release her fingers so the puff doesn't make it into her mouth. She gets frustrated as she knows the puff is in her hand so why can't she taste it, LOL. And of course she still drinks formula although the total number of ounces consumed in a day has decreased now that she's eating more solid foods. I weighed her this weekend and with her clothes on (and a dry diaper) she weighs 18 lbs. I know that past 6 months they're supposed to gain about 1 lb a month and that's exactly what she seems to be doing as 1 month ago she weighed 17 lbs with her clothes on.

Babysitters

Well I now have a babysitter lined up to watch Nadia one afternoon (3 hours) a week during the first 6 week summer session. First I asked a former student of mine who goes to my new church and is graduating in May, and she recommended her younger sister who is a sophomore at another university. Mary is already booked with other babysitting jobs in July. So I still need to find someone to watch Nadia 3 afternoons a week during the second 6 week summer session.

I also now have a babysitter lined up to watch Nadia 2 afternoons a week during the fall semester. Sarah has a son in 2nd grade and a daughter (Abbey) who will turn 3 in April. She currently watches two other girls, one of whom is the daughter of one of our neighbors. Our neighbor picks her daughter up at 3:30 since she's an elementary school teacher. I met Sarah at church as she often works in the nursery, and yesterday at the ladies breakfast I found out she does some babysitting 4 days a week. Today in the nursery Abbey said "I love Nadia." Nadia has shown her fondness for Abbey by crying when Abbey leaves to go to Wee Worship. Today I asked Sarah if she would be interested in watching Nadia 2 afternoons a week in the fall semester (about 3-6pm). She said that would be fine. Sarah lives in a town that is right where Paul and I get on and off of I-80 so it will be very convenient for me to take Nadia there on my way to work and for Paul to pick her up on his way home. Considering I will be working 75% of my usual FT load that semester, I think it's pretty good that Nadia will only be with a babysitter 6 hours a week. :-) Paul will be with her the third afternoon, and I'll be with her the other four. I also like the fact that Nadia will get to interact with a girl who is 2 years older than her for a few hours a week. Sarah's son made the comment that he didn't want a pack n' play to end up in his bedroom again. I assured him that I will have Nadia take her afternoon nap before I bring her to their house. I am sure she won't be taking 3 naps at that point. Probably in the next month that nap will be dropped from her routine. Weissbluth says to drop the 3rd nap by 9 months old.

After church this morning, I invited another woman (Maggie) and her son AJ over to our house. I usually sit near them in church. I am trying to make a new friend! AJ is 2 months and 2 days younger than Nadia. Maggie is a single mother who works part-time in the evenings and lives in the same town we do. Of course I don't know her precise age, but I am guessing she's a little older than me. I am hoping maybe Maggie and I might become friends and that AJ and Nadia might enjoy playing together as well. We exchanged phone numbers so we can make specific plans later. I had run into her at the dentist a few weeks ago which is how I found out she lives in the same town. Inviting people I don't know over doesn't come naturally to me. I am really trying to do my part to make a new friend or two! I am hoping that maybe Sarah and I might become friends also.

Many Blessings

1. My mom came up for a visit this week

2. Paul's parents babysat Nadia on Friday

3. My mom babysat Nadia on Thursday

4. I was able to attend a ladies breakfast yesterday morning (my church does this once a month)
5. The grant meeting on Thursday was probably the last one (we started in September 2007)

6. I am going to a concert tonight with my friend, Cheri. I haven't seen her in 5 months, and I haven't been to a concert is well over a year. We are going for free. I finally get to use some of the free tickets from the radio station prize I won last April!

7. Last night we had dinner guests (two profs from my university plus one brought her spouse). I love playing games, and I usually only get to play any a couple of times a year. I enjoyed playing Taboo with them.

8. As a housewarming gift, one of the guests brought us 2 birdfeeders as well as seed and suet for the feeders. I am looking forward to using them and watching the birds while we're at our kitchen table. She also brought Nadia a cookbook for children as well as kid sized kitchen utensils (spatula, etc).

9. I love Nadia's Valentine's pictures from Sears that I picked up on Friday. :-)

10. My left wrist is 100% back to normal during the day, and the pain during the night (and when I first get up in the morning) has decreased significantly. PTL for the steroid shot!!!

11. Even though the bone "splinter" in my gum hasn't fallen out yet, it's not bothering me any more.

12. I was able to wear my jeans this week for the first time in over a year; they finally fit again!

13. I have one more week of class, and then it's spring break!

14. The Steelers won their 6th Superbowl. I know I need to stop including that in my list, but I am still very happy about it! :-)

15. I love to hear my sweet daughter's voice as she babbles away. I look forward to the day when "mama" is in her vocabulary like "dada" already is. :-)

A conversation with Nadia (almost 8 months old)

Nadia was talking away after eating her cereal for breakfast this morning. Sorry about the spit up at one point. I'd love to know what she's trying to say! :-)

Fall 2009

For the last couple of months we've been discussing how much childrearing leave to ask for. Up until this week we were not discussing the % (planning on 50%), but rather how much to ask for. The CBA says you can ask for up to two years, and then you can ask for an extension after that for up to 2 more years. What makes the decision complicated is not knowing when/if we will have/adopt another child. If we knew I was going to be giving birth in January, we'd just ask for one semester of leave because parental leave is much better than childrearing leave. First of all, if I give birth I can use some paid sick leave based on a full-time workload (I have 675 hours accrued at this time which is 18 weeks' worth not that I could use all of that for having a baby, but I could use at least 8 weeks). Secondly, health insurance is covered during paid sick leave plus six months of parental leave. Our contribution is normally $1,382 a year, but if I am working all year at 50% on childrearing leave, our contribution will be $7,602. However, if the ivf doesn't work and we don't adopt during the spring 2010 semester, then I would still want to be on childrearing leave. The director of HR was very vague about whether I could still have up to 4 years of leave if I only request one semester with my first request. She just said it's up to the discretion of the President.

This week I found out I am scheduled to teach 3 classes this summer. I thought I was scheduled to teach 2 classes. This means I'll be away from home 2 nights a week for six weeks and then 4 nights a week for another six weeks. Ideally Paul would only like to come home early once a week, but he definitely can't come home early more than 2 nights a week. So I need to find a babysitter. I would probably leave about 3:30pm so we'd only need a babysitter for 2 or 2.5 hours those days as Paul could get home at 5:30 or 6:00. I'd get home by 8:30pm. Realizing this might be possible, I checked the fall schedule to see if I could add another night class to my schedule. I found one that would work although I haven't taught it before. My department chair approved that schedule change so the plan now is that I will be teaching 75% of my usual load. I will teach Mon, Tues, and Thurs nights. I have choir rehearsal on Wednesday nights so I'll be out 4 nights in a row, but on Wednesdays I won't leave until 6:45pm (whereas I'll leave at 3pm on M, Tu, and Th). So I need to find a babysitter for the fall also to watch her 1-2 days a week from 3:00-6:00. I emailed a former student of mine who is student teaching this semester and goes to my new church to see if she was interested/available or if she could give me suggestions of other people to contact.

So the answer to prayer is that my schedule has been changed from three morning classes (MWF) and one evening class to three night classes. The new prayer request is to find babysitters who live nearby who could watch her in our house this summer and fall. I still am not sure how much leave to ask for. My benefits don't change whether I teach 50% or 75%. Either way I have to pay the extra $6,219 a year towards our health insurance, but my salary of course goes up if I teach 3 classes instead of 2 in the fall semester. I go back and forth in my mind whether to ask for 1 year of a 25% workload reduction or just the fall semester. I wish I knew if the ivf was going to work or not! Well I need to make my request fairly soon so I had better make up my mind! Any input is appreciated.

Today I went to Sears and picked up her pictures. I still love them!!! It was tempting to buy the additional prints they offer you when you pick up the ones you paid for, but I didn't as I think I purchased enough in my initial order. Paul's parents watched Nadia for 3 hours this afternoon so I could drive to work and attend faculty meeting. I gave them some pictures of course. While we were at the mall, I bought Nadia one 12 month outfit (shirt, jeans, jacket) from the clearance rack at Sears, and I bought her a puzzle (had a 40% off coupon) and three books at Borders. One book that is for later on is 128 pages long with many color illustrations for only $2.99 (by Beatrix Potter). It seems that most of my shopping lately is for our sweet little girl. :-)

Cough Cough

My mom arrived on Tuesday at about 4pm just after Nadia had gone down for her 3rd nap. I was at school. I got home about 8pm and visited with her before going to bed. It was good that she came on Tuesday as it snowed here on Wednesday. Paul had a longgggg trip home from school Wednesday night due to snow and sleet. Nadia, my mom, and I stayed home on Wednesday with the exception of a trip to the grocery store before it started snowing.

Wednesday she learned a new trick - fake coughing. She mostly did it for Grandma. It was their little way of communicating back and forth. :-) If someone didn't know her, they might think she was rather ill, LOL! Yesterday she really struggled with going down for her first and second naps which is sooooo unusual. Naps have been so easy for so long that it was hard for me to hear her cry. She was really good at taking naps for Grandma today. Her 2nd nap was 2 hours and 20 minutes long! I think that's a new record! I can't remember the last time she had a nap that was longer than 90 minutes. I assumed since that nap was SO long that she wouldn't have a third nap, but she started rubbing her eyes and yawning at 4:30 so I put her down and she slept for 40 minutes.

My meeting went well today. I still have some work to do on the grant, but I am hoping today was our last large group meeting as they usually take at least 7 hours including driving time. We started working on this in fall of 2007, so I'm ready for it to be done.

Nadia also has become more mobile. She can crawl a little, but mostly she uses rolling and scooting to get across the room. I said that a few days ago her ability to go from lying down to sitting seemed to be unintentional, but she definitely does it on purpose now!! Sometimes she still goes backwards when she wants to go forward, but she's making great strides in becoming more mobile! She also is getting close to being able to feed herself a puff (which is about the same size as a cheerio). She gets it in her hand and gets her hand to her mouth, but she doesn't release her fingers enough for the puff to go from her hand to her mouth. My mom was amazed at how much Nadia had changed since she saw her last (Christmas Eve). Her hair is longer & blonder, she's taller and heavier, and she can sit on her own, etc. Babies change so quickly! I am very glad Grandma could come up to visit us for about 48 hours. :-)

Grandma is Coming!

Grandma has been planning to babysit Nadia on Thursday as I have a grant meeting and will be gone from home for about 7 hours. She was planning to drive up from MD tomorrow, but we are supposed to be getting some snow and sleet then so I suggested yesterday that it might be better if she came up today. So Grandma will be arriving here this afternoon and leaving on Thursday after I get back from my meeting at King's College. I'll be at school when she arrives today, but I'll be home tomorrow. I want Nadia to get to know all four of her grandparents so I am glad Grandma can come up for about 48 hours. Nadia will get to see her other Grandma (and Pop Pop) on Friday as I have a faculty meeting that afternoon so they'll be watching her for about 2 hours while I attend that meeting. I am very grateful that both Grandmas (and Pop Pop) are willing to take care of Nadia when I have a meeting at work. :-)

As you can see, Nadia had fun playing with the lights on the dining room wall again this morning. She also is a BIG fan of peekaboo lately. For example, we play that during bath time by Mommy hiding behind the shower curtain and Nadia hiding her face under a washcloth. What fun! :-)

Sniffing and Sitting

Nadia's two newest skills are going from her belly to a sitting position on her own and sniffing. The sitting skill so far has been accidental I think. It has happened a few times when she's been experimenting with various crawling positions and ends up in a seated position. The sniffing is definitely not accidental. She has discovered her nose and loves to scrunch it up and sniff. It is quite hysterical to watch her. I think the fact I laughed and laughed the first time I saw her do it encouraged her to do it more. I have stopped laughing when she does it, but I still find it very funny! I hope I get a picture of it before she stops this little phase. She also has tried to pull herself up to a standing position but hasn't totally succeeded with that yet. Part of the problem is that she's tried to do it with her music cube, and it moves when she grabs on to it and tries to pull herself up. I think she'd be successful if she chose a more stationary object.

She's doing GREAT with eating. It really doesn't matter what I offer her - oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, green beans, applesauce, etc., she opens WIDE. I was concerned about reintroducing green veggies, but she's eaten them very willingly yesterday and today. YAY!

She's also doing GREAT with sleeping. For example, last night she went down at 7pm and woke up at 6:35am. She's really getting flexible with her naps. If something causes one of her first two naps to be shorter than usual, then she takes a really long 3rd nap whereas usually that's a short nap. Altogether her 3 naps usually total between 3 and 3.75 hours long. Three cheers for Nadia!

Our Little Valentine

Can you tell that she likes mashed potatoes? Actually she's opening wide for most foods I offer her with a spoon these days. She even did well with her cottage cheese today!

She took a nap in a pack n' play in the church nursery during Sunday School. She slept a little less than an hour. That's shorter than usual, but given she was in a different bed in a different place, I thought that was pretty good. I was retrieved during church to come to the nursery as they couldn't console her. She's generally in a good mood when she's with me, but she's definitely more fragile emotionally when she's with others. I am sure over time she'll get better at handling "strangers."

Nadia received two Valentine's Day cards - one from her Grandma & Pop Pop and the other from her parents (Paul purchased it). Paul ordered a Valentine's gift for "his girls" that hasn't come yet. It's a ceramic piggy bank that says "Born to be a Steelers Fan." :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We went out for lunch today. Since I'm dieting (lost 8 lbs as of this morning!), I wanted a salad. We had gift cards for Applebee's and TGI Fridays. Since we usually go to Applebee's, we decided to go to TGIF. I haven't been to one of those in years. It's about 10 minutes farther away than Applebee's, but it made it seem more special since we don't often go there.
I had a salad and then splurged and got chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert. That was a splurge both in terms of $$ (I don't usually buy a drink or dessert - just my entree) and also the calories. Since we paid for the meal with gift cards it really wasn't much of a splurge especially when you consider my hubby always gets a soda and often gets a steak (like he did today). The pie was scrumdilicous!

Nadia was really good at TGIF. She sat in her high chair for about an hour. At first she was eating puffs and playing with toys I had brought, and then at the end we fed her some of Daddy's mashed potatoes which she loved! The only downside of our excursion is she fell asleep on the way home (as it was already past her usual nap time), and then she couldn't go back to sleep once we got home so it was a very short nap (about 20 minutes). I just put her down for her 3rd nap, and hopefully this will be a nice long nap to compensate.

It seems whether we put her down at 6:45 or 7:30pm, she still wakes up at 6:15am. Daylight savings time isn't that far away so I think at that point then she'll be waking up at 7:15. I don't get her until 6:30 at the earliest so that will translate to 7:30 which is exactly what I am hoping for as a get up time for her.

She's doing awesome with eating solids. The quantity she can eat keeps increasing and now she's drinking a little less milk each day (4-6 ounces at a feeding instead of 6-8 ounces). She can eat the oatmeal served pretty thick now, and she loves yogurt. She's still not totally sure about cottage cheese, but we'll keep working on that. She loves mashed potatoes!!! I plan to try green veggies again in the next few days. Her favorite fruits so far are mangos and apples.

The doctor on Tuesday told me that from my wrist up to the tip of my thumb would be numb for about 24 hours and that although the numbness would go away, I wouldn't probably see a decrease in pain until about 2 more days after that. Well no part of my thumb was ever numb, and the numbness around the injection site lasted less than one hour. I was still in a lot of pain that day. Tuesday night it took me over an hour to fall asleep it hurt so badly, and I'm the type of person who typcially (not so much the last few months but the rest of my life) falls asleep very quickly almost every night. I was concerned that the shot wasn't going to work since I wasn't experiencing what they said I would, but I have noticed significant improvement the last few days. Yay! I slept better last night than I had in a very long time. I still had numbness and pain this morning, but in general I am having far less discomfort. Hopefully it will keep improving, and I can cancel my appointment with him next month. I'm glad I got the shot.

Daddy was a Blonde Too

These photos are from when Paul was about 18 months old. He had blonde hair like I did, but unlike me, his was CURLY! Nadia's is too short yet to tell if hers will be straight or curly.

The funny thing is that his older brother, Al (seated in the pool) now has curly, brown hair, but his was straight when he was little whereas Paul's is now straight. I don't think Paul cares whether his hair is blonde or brown or curly or straight; he just wishes he had more of it (like his brother does).

Giving Thanks

I didn't order any of these, but I think they turned out pretty well also. It was very nice to have the problem of having a hard time deciding which poses to buy! :-)

Unlike the last 5 days where we were out and about at some point every day, I think we'll just stay home all day today. I need to grade some papers for one thing, and I'm cooking a new recipe for dinner tonight. We shall see what we think of it. Last month's new recipe didn't thrill either of us. This one involved marinading the chicken for 24 hours so I actually started making it yesterday. Tomorrow I think we'll go out to eat for lunch for Valentine's Day. I figure restaurants might be crowded at dinner time. At some point I would like to have a date with my hubby, but it will also be special to celebrate Valentine's Day as a family of 3 for the first time. I got Paul a card yesterday that was from a daughter to her Daddy. He's never gotten one like that before! :-)



I'm thankful for....

1. The good health we continue to experience (my sister's four kids have all been sick recently, even the 2 month old had a 103 fever and this again reminded me how grateful I am that thus far Nadia's never had a fever, etc.)

2. The Steelers winning their 6th Superbowl (still very happy about that, LOL)

3. The pretty weather we had this week, especially on Wednesday and the knowledge that spring is coming!

4. The fact Nadia smiled during professional photos for the first time (when I first set her down on the little white pillow she started crying so we got off to a rough start but we got some good pics - YAY)

5. Some improvement in my wrist since I had the steroid shot on Tuesday

 

6. The CD that matured this month that can be used to pay for IVF next month

7. All the special moments with Nadia - we love her sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!! I'm still in awe that I am finally a Mommy!! :-)

She SMILED!!!

When we were first married we used to buy each other Valentine's Day gifts. I remember getting good jewelry the first couple of years. So in comparison these photos are cheap. The one thing is I wish I had asked the photographer to put a black cloth over the cube that Nadia held on to when she was standing. When she put the red one on I thought that wasn't the best choice since Nadia's dress was red, but I didn't speak up (silly me!), and I liked her smile the best in that one.

It was so wonderful though to have the problem of not knowing which pose(s) to get!! I was soooo thankful that she smiled. Way to go, Nadia! I'll post some of the other photos tomorrow. She took 11 poses of which I thought 5 were decent and 5 were very good.

Nadia is shifting towards 1pm as the starting time for her 2nd nap (still 9am for the first one). Because her appt was for 5pm, she had to skip her 3rd nap in light of the 2nd nap ending later than it used to. She did really well until we were driving home (6pm), but then she was fine once we got home. We had been gone for over 2 hours so I was proud of her as I picked up a few things at Target before going to Sears.

Well I hope you enjoy these photos. I love them! I am looking forward to picking them up in a little more than a week. Some will be for us, and of course some are for our family and friends. I hope they enjoy them also! :-)

IVF Schedule

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day! Since it was in the high 50's, I put Nadia in the stroller and took her for a walk through the neighborhood. I also had her go down the slide a few times (see yesterday's photos). She liked it! I need to buy an infant seat for the swing set so she can enjoy swinging in the spring. I know this warm weather won't stick around (yet) since it's only February, but it is a nice taste of what is to come!

Tonight I am taking Nadia to Sears for photos. The last time we went was in November so it's been about 2 1/2 months. These photos will be different as she'll be sitting which she couldn't in the previous ones, and of course she's bigger, hair is longer, etc. I hope she SMILES!!! If there's only one pose I like, then I'll get the $4.99 package that includes two 10x13s, one 8x10, one 5x7, etc. If there are 3 poses I like, I'll get two of the Valentine's day trios for $9.99 (I have coupons). I think the next time we get her picture taken she'll be standing. Babies change so much in the first year of life!

Paul's mom had another stent put in yesterday so they kept her in the hospital overnight. Thankfully it seems everything went well, and she should be coming home today. Thanks to those of you who prayed for her.

Last night Nadia went down at 7:10pm. We are doing better in terms of a later bedtime! She first woke up a little before 6am, but I've been making 6:30am the earliest I let her get up lately. So I let her "yell" (not crying but rather talking very loudly), and she fell asleep around 6:15 and slept until 7am. YAY!

If there are any men reading this post, I'd appreciate it if you didn't read the rest of it. Thanks! I called the RE's office a few days ago to find out what their up/down schedule is for April/May/June. They go through a cycle of being "up" for 8 weeks and then "down" for 3 weeks. They don't do any retreivals or transfers during the "down" weeks. They have an "up" cycle from March 23-May 18. If you had asked me 6 months ago, I would have said we wouldn't start ivf #2 until July at the earliest as I thought I'd be nursing through June. Actually if it weren't for wanting to have another baby, I would have liked to nurse her longer than a year. If we do have another child, I hope to nurse him/her for a year at the minimum. Since Nadia weaned herself off me last month, that sped up when we could do ivf again. The other advantage I had seen to waiting until July was I figured it would give us a few months to ttc on our own just in case we were one of those cases of a couple who gets pg easily after an ivf pgcy. I highly doubted it would happen, but I figured there would be a few months where that would be possible before we started ivf again.

I thought I got AF on January 11. I am not totally sure if I did or not. It lasted several days but was super light. I don't think I've ovulated since then. I took an opk today just to verify that assumption, and it was totally negative. I used to always get a second line (light until ovulation), but there was only one so I don't think I've ovulated or am anywhere near ovulating. I had planned to start bcp after the next time I got AF in preparation for starting ivf - either the end of February or early March. Now I have no idea when I'll get AF. Even though I've stopped nursing I don't think my body has gotten back to "normal." I have 1 1/2 packs of bcps left over from before. I could take part of a pack which should bring on AF and then I'd start up the new pack and stay on it until early April or I could just wait and start the bcp in early March and not have AF until I end the bcp the 4th day after I've started the Lupron shots (in April). Any thoughts???

So as far as the schedule goes, we're going on vacation on May 9th so obviously I want the transfer done before then. Last time from the first Lupron shot to the 3 day transfer was 30 days. We might have a 5 day transfer this time (I think I'd like to go that route if we still have more than 4 embies on day 3), and of course the follicles might take a little longer to mature so to be safe I'd like to aim towards April 29 for the ER so that if it took place a little later it would be okay. If that were the case, I think I'd start the Lupron on April 2 and the stimming on April 16. My final exams are April 27 & 28 and then I'm off until May 19 (aside from grading those exams). Those days I don't have to be at school until 6:30pm so that wouldn't interfere if the ER ended up happening a little sooner than April 29. My last day of teaching this semester is April 21, but I don't go in until the afternoons and the u/s and b/w appointments are always in the morning so that's not a problem. Those appointments are very short so it won't be a problem to bring Nadia along.

The only negatives to scheduling everything during this time frame are #1 Paul has classes until May 1. His schedule is very flexible starting May 2nd, but my concern is that if we aim for a May 2nd ER that it only gives us one day of wiggle room if I have a 5 day transfer (3 days of wiggle room with a 3 day transfer). The transfer shouldn't be a problem for him, and I scheduled the testing during his spring break so I think the only day he might have to miss any classes due to ivf would be the day of the retrieval. The second negative is I am scheduled to speak in DC on April 24 which would be during the stimming. It shouldn't be too hard to avoid needing u/s and b/w on that particular day, but it likely means my trip to DC will be shorter than I was expecting and it means I can't plan exactly when I'll go down and come back until the very last minute as I won't know which days my u/s and b/w checks will be. I am speaking in Chicago next month so it's not the end of the world if I have to back out of this DC speaking engagement, but I would like to still be able to do it if possible.

Another advantage to doing ivf during April is that if the fresh transfer resulted in a sticky bfp - my due date would be in January which means I could actually use my sick days for 8 weeks after giving birth. Paid leave would be great! Plus I think that if the fresh transfer didn't work and we had frozen embies, we could do the FET sometime in June as their next "up" cycle would begin June 8. Then the EDD would still be during the spring semester (in March). A final advantage is that it's helping me somewhat to deal with the fact the nursing ended much sooner than I wanted it to. I am not sure if it's just always hard to stop and always something you miss for awhile or if I'm missing it even more since we stopped 5 months before I wanted to stop. One good thing about the fact I did nurse Nadia is that if we adopt our next child (if ivf #2 doesn't result in a sticky bfp) I should have an easier time with adoptive b/feeding since I've nursed before. At least that's what I've read - that it's easier to induce lactation to nurse an adopted baby if you have nursed before.

Library Time

The first 8 years I lived in PA I made use of the local public library. The last 4 years the borough we lived in didn't have a library, but my church had a great library so I used that 90% of the time and otherwise used my university's library. I don't think my new church has a library. On Sunday I found out one of the nursery workers lives in my town (not the same town as where the church is); so I asked her where is the public library. It turns out there is one that is for three boroughs and 2 townships. It's a little less than 5 miles from our house. I went on the website and was rather impressed with all the activities they have for all ages - preschool story hour on Fridays from 11-12, book clubs for adults, a walking club, teen night, a program for grades K-3 one afternoon a week, etc. So I decided we'd go check it out this morning after stopping at the bank.

The library is located in what obviously used to be a home, but I was amazed how much they had inside given the size of the building. They had fairly recent releases in the DVD section for example. They also had a fair amount of Christian fiction in the adult section; they had a cross sticker on the Christian books (not that I needed that as I am fairly familiar with the names of Christian authors but I thought it was nice anyhow). They also had a used book store inside that I plan to check out in the future especially as I received a coupon for a free book when I got my new library card today. The children's section looked nice, and they even had these bookbags you could check out. Each bag contained a book or two as well as other things such as puzzles, stuffed animals, and other activities that were all on a particular theme such as Curious George or telling time, etc. Some were for preschool age so I am sure at some point we'll start checking out those bags. I got 2 John Grisham books for myself. I plan to make use of interlibrary loan for the other books I have on my list of books I want to read (books by Grisham, Jamie Langston Turner, and Nicholas Sparks). I asked what age the preschool story time is geared for (they read stories, sing songs, and do crafts) and she said some babies come up to the age of 4. I guess the next time I go to the library I'll go on a Friday morning and then see if I think Nadia is ready to enjoy any part of it yet or not. I'm guessing she's still too young but who knows, she does like books and songs! It will be fun when that will become part of our weekly routine. Maybe I can make a friend that way too as I meet some other moms in the area, who knows? I am looking forward to getting back in the habit of reading. I didn't read any books for about 5 months, but recently I read a good book that my friend had loaned me many months ago. I used to read at least one book a week.

I have done more searching for a ladies Bible study for myself to no avail. The closest MOPS groups are at my old church and in another city about the same distance away as my old church. MOPS just meets once a month so even though I think they meet on Mondays which isn't the best for me since I teach Monday nights, I think I'll do that starting in the fall as Nadia will probably be able to skip her morning nap more easily then, and she'll also be at the age where she'll get more out of the Moppets program. I also searched for a BSF group as I've had friends who have really enjoyed BSF (although I know the homework is more intense for that than the Beth Moore studies I've done the last several years). The closest one is about 20 minutes away on Wednesday mornings which would be great except they don't have a nursery. They have preschool for ages 2-5. I don't have any babysitters, but even if I did I don't know if I could justify the expense. I will keep that in mind for the future though although if we have another baby (which I hope we do!) it's going to be awhile until my youngest is 2 years old. Something else I plan for Nadia to get involved in is AWANA. At my new church they only start with Sparks (age 5), but at the church I visited that's 1 mile from my house they start with Cubbies (age 3) so I plan to have her do that on Wednesday nights starting in the fall of 2011. Even though we plan to keep her at home if I am able to keep working part-time, she will still have various opportunities to develop her socialization skills. :-)

Mommy Wrist

I don't recommend taking care of a baby OR teaching a class a few hours after a wisdom tooth has been pulled out. OUCH! I was bleeding for hours and in pain the whole day. I think after a procedure like that it would have been nice to spend a few hours in bed or on the couch. I wish I hadn't agreed to let him extract that tooth but too late now! At least I don't have any more wisdom teeth, so hopefully that was my last tooth extraction. It does reinforce my decision not to do some of the other things on the list he gave me a couple of months ago! No thank you! It was a good diet for dieting though. I ate less than I had been lately, and really had to force myself to eat anything. Eating was really painful even if it was oatmeal (which is what I had for lunch). Thankfully I feel better today, and eating is also not as painful.

This morning I saw an orthopedic doctor (hand specialist). I was 30 minutes late due to getting lost. Mapquest directions are not always accurate! I wouldn't have any trouble getting there again if need be as it's right by a mall I have shopped at before. I didn't have the doctor's name or phone number with me (only the address). I called the insurance company, but they weren't able to help much. I found another orthopedic doctor's office in the same town and thankfully they were able to give me directions to where I was trying to get. Nadia was a champ! She was awake the entire 60 minutes we were in the car but didn't cry at all!! I took her in the doctor's office in the umbrella stroller and that worked out well. They did 3 x-rays of my left wrist. The physician assistant saw me and diagnosed me as having mild carpal tunnel plus some other diagnosis that had the word nerve in it which is also called tendonitis. She said it's very common for new mothers to have both together. She said the brace I tried was great for carpal tunnel but made the nerve situation worse. She said they could either give me an Rx for anti-imflammatory pills OR a steroid shot. I have tried Advil so I opted for the shot. I have a follow-up appt scheduled for 5 weeks from now, but she said that if I am feeling better I can cancel it. I made the next appt with the same doctor but at a different clinic (near my RE). The Doctor said he used to scoff at the term "Mommy wrist" until his wife had a baby and he experienced some discomfort in the same area as a new Daddy.

If the Lord allows us to have another baby through ivf or adoption, I am going to try to switch back and forth more when I carry the baby as I carried Nadia 99% of the time with my left arm so my right hand would be free OR I will use the sling and snugli more inside the house. I have lost a lot of sleep the past 5 months over the pain in my wrist. It's so bad when I first get up that I cannot even change Nadia's diaper. My fingers just won't move. Thankfully within about 10 minutes I regain use of that hand. Hopefully this shot will do the trick, and I'm also going to really try to give that wrist a break as much as possible.

Usually Nadia's morning nap starts 2 hours after she gets up in the morning. This morning she was up for over 3 hours before she fell asleep. Last night Paul put her down at 6:45pm. Last night she woke up once at 3 something which hasn't happened in a long time so I went in her room to see if I could smell a poopy diaper. I didn't smell anything, and she fell back asleep in less than 5 minutes. She was awake at 5 something for another 5 minutes or less but then didn't wake up again until 7:03am. WOOHOO! I went and got her immediately since I planned to leave a little before 8am for the doctor. She has still been taking 3 naps for the most part. She didn't on Sunday since her 2nd nap was later (and longer) than usual due to church.

Eight is Too Many

When I first heard that a woman had given birth to octuplets, I assumed she had gotten pg from inj/iui as some doctors are willing to do an iui when you have 10 or more mature follicles. I did it myself a few times. Many RE's won't do that, and in other countries it's illegal. I was stunned to learn that she got pg from IVF. The general rule is that if a woman is under 35 years old then only 1-2 embies are transferred. The number "allowed" rises with age. My clinic allows you to transfer 3 if you are 35 for example (which is what I did in August 2007 when I was 35). She was 33 years old. They also take into account whether you've had previous success with IVF. I had a friend who had many failed ivf cycles so they did continually increase how many embies were transferred back. That doesn't apply to this woman either as her other 6 children were from ivf, and she had already had one set of twins. So what possessed this woman to want to have 6 embies transferred back and what possessed her RE to agree to it, is beyond me. I agree with her decision not to use "selective reduction," but I think she should have done three transfers of two embies each or two transfers of three embies. Even if she still ended up having 14 children, at least she wouldn't have 8 at once. Those eight are going to have health issues that they wouldn't have had if she gave birth to 2-3 at a time rather than 8 at once.

Of course the other issue that comes up with this story is why an umarried, unemployed woman who already has 6 young children (one of whom is autistic and therefore requires more attention than an "average" child would) would be doing ivf again. I don't think she would have been allowed to adopt even one more child in her situation. It just doesn't seem fair that a woman who wants to adopt has to jump through SOOO many hoops to prove she will be a suitable parent, but a woman (or girl) who gets pregnant on her own doesn't have to jump through any hoops, and a woman who pursues IVF only has to prove she doesn't have HIV. Other than that there are no requirements. I am not saying I want women who want to do IVF to have to jump through a million hoops, but it just seems unfair that if that same person wants to adopt in the US or abroad that she has to prove she's "good enough" - financially, emotionally, physically, etc. Well even though I am married, have a job, and only have one other child, I wouldn't agree to transferring back 6 embryos at once (not that my RE would allow it anyhow). I don't want to do something that is going to lead to serious health issues for my children if all the embryos make it.

Yesterday Nadia slept in the car on the way home (6:25-7:40pm), and then I fed her and changed her so she was up for about 45 minutes before she went back to sleep. I thought that meant she would sleep in this morning. Nope. She woke up at 5:45am and started to get fussy around 6:15 so I went and got her a little before 6:30. She got really fussy around 8:15am so I decided to skip Sunday School so that she could have a nap. I let her sleep one hour and then had to wake her up in order to get to church on time. After the choir sang, I went to check on her in the nursery, and she was screaming. They said they had tried everything including giving her a bottle to calm her down to no avail. I warmed her bottle in a microwave in the kitchen and then took her in with me to church for awhile. After she finished the bottle and started to get "chatty," I took her back to the nursery. When I went to pick her up she was crying again, but they said she had been happy until they changed her diaper. They asked if she was teething. She might be, but I think she's just very sensitive to "strangers" these days and the nursery workers today were ones she hadn't met before.

She did really well eating today! She had oatmeal for breakfast and ate a large portion of yogurt plus one serving of homemade baby food (apples). She also really likes the zwieback toast from Grandma. I made the mistake of having her pose for a picture after she ate which is the reason her dress looks so wet in the first picture (I had just cleaned her up). Daddy is reading to her in the 2nd pic. Her favorite book these days is definitely Miss Mary Mack. Her face lights up when you start reading the first page of that book. The 3rd pic shows the evidence of her feeding herself toast today. The 4th pic shows her first time eating toast with Grandma at Shawn's 13th birthday party, and the last pic shows Grandpa letting her sit and watch everyone roller skating. She loves to watch people! I had her decked out in her Steeler stuff. We are the Champions! :-)

The dress she wore today was a Christmas gift from her other Grandma. It's size 9 months and doesn't quite reach her knees. I guess she needs to move into 12 month sized dresses. Paul objected to his daughter wearing a miniskirt. I think she could wear black leggings under it and it would be like an oversized shirt instead of a dress. This way we can get more use out of some of her 9 month size dresses. She's growing so fast!

I am getting much better at doing her car seat. It didn't bother me today. Of course it's a lot easier when she's not wearing her snowsuit. It was really warm today! The snow that has covered our grass for many weeks actually melted today (most of it anyhow). I can't wait for spring! Spring and fall are my two favorite seasons.

12 Years Ago

Paul and I met 12 years ago at a ballroom dancing lesson at a Boscov's department store. The first photo is of me with Barbara Snitzer who was teaching the class. She attended our wedding reception in 2001. I just wanted to learn how to do the waltz. I had no idea I'd meet my hubby there! The class cost $12 for six weeks ($2 per class). That was a very well spent $12. Barbara taught the foxtrot, swing, waltz, tango, rhumba, and cha cha. We went to another of her classes after that one finished. Ironically in 2001 I bought a house within walking distance of where she taught her other class, and although we went very faithfully that first year we were dating, we went less than 5 times total during the 3 years we lived within walking distance. Go figure!


All of these photos are from 1997. The 2nd and 3rd are from a trip to MD. The one in the restaurant is at the Macaroni Grill in Annapolis with Kim and Joanne who were former roommates of mine. The fourth was taken at Hawk Mountain (in PA). That was a very memorable day as we encountered a LARGE bear during our hike. It was rather scary even if they don't typically attack humans.


Last night Nadia went down at 6:45pm. She woke up at 5:45am and periodically cooed until I went and got her at 6:45. It's nice knowing I don't have to get up as soon as she wakes up and she won't cry. Today she did really well with eating solids. She had oatmeal for breakfast (no puffs needed) and ate 1/2 a container of fruit at each of the next two feedings plus some yogurt.


We left around 2:30pm for Shawn's birthday party at the roller skating rink. Nadia slept on the way there and the way back (75 minutes one way). Our nephew turns 13 later this month! We saw our niece Holly (who is due in September). It's still strange for me to think that Paul's brother is going to be a Grandpa in a few months. Paul's mom brought Nadia some zweiback toast. Nadia loved it! She did really well at getting it

into her mouth and holding it there. I did better with Nadia's car seat this evening. I am getting used to the buckle, and it was easier without her wearing the snowsuit. Paul tried it and couldn't get it. I'm not the only one who finds it challenging!

I'm adding a couple of photos to yesterday's post at Donna's house. It seems she was grabbing Olivia's cheek. Sorry about that, Olivia! Tomorrow I'll post some from our trip to the roller rink today.

Lunch with a Friend

Last night Nadia went down at 7:15pm, and she first started talking at 6:15. She was fairly quiet though (chattering very sporadically) until 6:55am when I went to get her. I put her down earlier than usual for her first nap (8:30) because I planned to leave the house at 9:45am. Lately her morning nap has been one hour long. I thought she'd wake up at 9:30 which would have given me time to change her diaper, feed her, and get her in her snowsuit. She decided to have a long nap this morning. She woke up at 9:55 which was the latest I figured I could let her sleep and still have a chance to get to my 11:00 meeting on time at work. My friend, Donna, had agreed to watch Nadia during my meeting. As expected, she got tired around noon and fell asleep in Donna's arms, but she wasn't able to fall asleep in Donna's pack 'n play. While I was in the meeting, Donna's daughter and granddaughter (who turned 8 months old today) came over. Nadia had her first experience "playing" with a baby her age (they are 18 days apart). Donna's daughter was a student of mine in two classes at the university so it was good to see her and her daughter. Nadia was very happy to see me when I got back about 2 hours later. Of course I want her to be happy while she's being cared for by other people, but it's hard to express how wonderful it feels to have a little girl so happy to see me. :-)

Donna had made some vegetable soup, and so we ate lunch together and visited some before I needed to get Nadia home for her nap. It was so great to have time to chat with her (and the soup was delicous!). The last time I had lunch with a friend was in September. It's not that I had a booming social life before we moved, but I had two friends I did things with from time to time - a colleague at work (she's the one I had lunch with in September when Nadia was still going to work with me) and Cheri, whom I met in a Bible study (whom I haven't seen since we moved). Cheri and I are planning to go to a concert later this month, and I am looking forward to that. I always enjoy lunch with a friend, but I really enjoyed it today since it's a very rare treat these days. I appreciate Donna's willingness to watch Nadia from time to time. I know she's very well cared for when she's with Donna! Donna will be watching her on March 12 while we have our tests at the RE. She lives a stone's throw away from the hospital so that will work out very nicely. Hopefully Nadia can take her morning nap at Donna's that day. I brought my camera with me, but forgot to take any pics. Thankfully Liesl took some pics with Donna's camera. :-)

After I got Nadia in her snowsuit, she fell asleep in my arms before I even left Donna's house. She slept most of the way home, but her nap was only 30 minutes long. So I fed her and put her back down and thankfully she fell back asleep for 45 minutes in her crib. Nadia gets an A+ for flexibility today!!! She also took a few bites of food without puffs. She ate 1/2 a container of baby food today. Many babies her age could polish that off (or more) in one meal, but I am happy that she finished that amount over the course of three feedings today. Progress!