Two Crowns

Nadia was very fussy and clingy with Paul from when I left for the dentist (2:45) until he put her to bed (6:40). I hope it goes better for them this afternoon. I assume she's just adjusting to giving up the 3rd nap. It was easier when we gave up the 4th nap because that was HER doing not ours. I still think it was the right thing to do though because she used to sleep 11-12 hours at night and that had shortened to 10-11 hours. In fact some nights as little as 9.5 hours. The last three mornings she's awakened between 6:10-6:30am which is much better than 5:00am. Last night she was only 15 minutes shy of sleeping 12 hours straight!

One difference I notice when I'm at work these days is that I am so busy! Although when we're full-time we technically can be on campus as few as 17 hours (if we don't have any meetings to attend that week), I used to be on campus far more than that. So now I must use every minute as wisely as possible. Even though I wish at times my hours at work weren't quite so hectic, it will have to stay that way as long as it's a priority to me to be there as little as possible in light of Nadia. The good news is that I have definitely spent less time at school this semester. Most weeks I only go in 2 days a week, and once a month I also go in on a Friday.

So Far So Good

Well so far skipping the 3rd nap is proving to be a great help with her wakeup time. Friday she had 3 naps and woke up at 5am on Saturday. Saturday was the first day of trying to go without a 3rd nap, and she woke up at 6:10am on Sunday. This morning she didn't wake up until 6:30am!

As you can see, she still likes to suck her thumb. She alternates back and forth between both thumbs. Can you believe the outfit she's wearing today is size 12 months? I look back at the preemie clothes she wore last summer and can't believe she was ever that small. She's grown SO much! The pink dress she wore yesterday (with her new white sandals of course!) and this blue outfit today were recent gifts. I think she looks great in both colors. Thanks, Grandma! :-)

She can now stand for several seconds without holding onto anything. The proof would be I had enough time to get my camera, turn it on, and snap this photo while she was standing with "no hands". I need to shoot a little video of her climbing up "her" step. She's very good at it, but she hasn't figured out that it's not safe to sit right on the edge. If she climbs up and then proceeds to cruise along her toybox, I don't intervene, but if she plops down on the edge, I move her to a safer spot. Thankfully bathtime has returned to being a happy event. Although I still have to remind her a few times that we sit in the bathtub, lately she hasn't cried over the fact that Mommy won't let her stand in the tub.

Third Nap

I decided to try to eliminate the 3rd nap in the hopes that it would mean Nadia would sleep in later in the morning. Yesterday she woke up at 5am. That's just too early, especially on a Saturday! Yesterday she did still sort of have 3 naps as she slept in the car part of our trip to the party, but that nap was earlier than when her 3rd nap usually was so she was awake from 3-7pm and then slept some on the way home and then was awake for a little about 40 minutes and then went down at 8:30pm. She didn't wake up until 6:07am. YAY! Today I planned to only put her down for 2 naps. Her first nap was from 8:15-9:45. Actually she was still asleep at 9:45 (which is unusual), but I had to wake her up for church. She went right to bed when we got home from church about 12:10pm. She woke up about 12:55 and stayed up until 7:30pm. I figured today would be a good day for the transition away from the 3rd nap because there was an ordination service at church, and the choir was signing one song in it. This morning I had asked if there would be a nursery provided, and they said no because it would only last one hour. Boy was that an inaccurate estimate. The choir rehearsed 30 minutes prior to the start of the service so including that time Nadia and I were there THREE hours and the service wasn't even over yet (although it was very close to being done). The service started at 4pm, and the choir didn't even sing until 6pm. I was planning to stay for the dinner after the service, but by 6:30pm Nadia was getting fussy so we just went straight home. She had sat with me in the service for the first hour, then went to the nursery with another lady for one hour, and then was back with me in the service for 30 more minutes.

Some churches I have gone to have kept the service to one hour total. The church I went to from 2004-2008 had services that were usually 75-90 minutes long. The last several months that I've attended this "new" church, there was one time when the service was 75 minutes long, a few times when it was 90 minutes long, but most of the time the morning service has been between 1 hr 45 minutes and 2 hours long. The service this morning was about 100 minutes long and the one this afternoon was over 2.5 hours. That length of service isn't easy for a little munchkin! Considering how long they were, I thought she did really well. Hopefully eliminating the third nap will help her sleep in a little more in the mornings.

I had brought a banana to the dinner last night. I assumed she'd eat a lot of the mashed potatoes. She didn't like them. Now I don't feel so offended that she didn't like mine. I think she really likes garlic, LOL! She did however really like their macaroni and cheese and the roll. I have to admit I haven't been careful lately about waiting a few days before introducing a new food since she hasn't had any reactions to anything she's eaten thus far..

Exploring!

Gone are the days where Nadia would just play in one little area for an extended period of time. Now if I turn my back for just a few seconds, I am never quite sure where she'll end up. I turned my back to her yesterday while I was washing my hands in the bathroom, and when I turned back around she was standing up looking into the toilet. Yuck! Today at one point she crawled under her music table (the one she's pictured standing by). I would have taken a picture, but she wasn't very happy as she couldn't figure out how to get back out of there. She no longer needs a ledge to be able to pull herself up. She can get to a standing position just using the wall. I moved the glider that was in front of her window (after this photo was taken) so now she has more exciting things to see like birds walking on our deck.

Yesterday we went to the library and the mall. At the mall I used a 40% off coupon at Borders. I got her one bath book, 2 large board books, and four small Sandra Boynton board books. Paul loves her Going to Bed Book that Wendy gave us for Christmas; so I thought he might like to have more books by that author. I like the Blue Hat, Green Hat one best. At Baby Depot I got her a pair of size 3 white sandals. I also purchased an anniversary card at Hallmark as we are going to Paul's mom's cousin's anniversary party at a country club tomorrow afternoon (they've been married over 40 years). I'm going to have Nadia wear the red dress she wore for her last Sears photos, and her size 1 shoes don't fit any more! I had bought a pair of size 4 black patent shoes at the thrift store in Chicago, but those are a little too big for her at this point. She'll grow into them!

Plenty of Eggs!

I passed the ovarian reserve test with flying colors. Yay! Most clinics say anything under 10 is good, and most clinics won't consider doing ivf if it's 20 or higher. The grey area is between 10-20 in terms of where the cut off is. Some for example won't do ivf if you are above 13. When you hit menopause your level is usually 20-30. When I was tested 5 years ago my level was 5.2. Yesterday it was 6.5. It makes sense that it's gone up a little as I have fewer eggs now than I did when I was 31. The lowest possible level is a 3. However anything under 10 means you should be easy to stimulate, and that has certainly always been true for me in the past whether I was on Clomid or injections. I have leaned strongly towards overstimulation rather than being a "poor responder." Some clinics go so far as to break down the ideal levels. I saw one that said <6 was excellent (which I was in 2004), 6-8 is good (that's where I'm at now), 9 is fair, and 10-13 is diminished reserve. I'll take "good" considering I turn 37 next month. :-) I wasn't really worried. I wanted to skip this fsh testing as I was certain my number would be acceptable, but they insisted I be tested before going on to ivf. It's not a big deal except I could have just had one AF prior to starting stimming whereas now I have to have another AF prior to starting stimming on April 17.

The other level they tested yesterday was Estradiol (E2). The range at this stage in the cycle is 25-75. The lower you are the more easily you will be to stimulate. I came in at 31.4 which is definitely at the lower end of that spectrum. The next time my E2 is tested (April 16), I predict it will be under 25. The whole point of the bcp + Lupron shots is to supress your body (put it in sort of a temporary menopause). Mine was 8.8 at the start of the FET and 22.9 at the start of the fresh ivf cycle in 2007.

I've been more sensitive to age comments lately in light of ttc now. A couple of weeks ago at choir someone said I didn't look like I was 40 years old. They said that because my number in choir (for music) is 40, and I said "I'm 40." I was glad to hear I don't look 40 although I doubt I'll look vastly different in 3 years than I do now, LOL. Then on the other hand on a recent trip to the grocery store a woman was talking to me about her grandbabies (in light of seeing Nadia), and she said to me that her son was SO old to have children so young. She said he was 40 years old and had a 1 year old and 3 year old as he didn't get married until he was 37. She joked that he's going to be in the nursing home before his kids graduate from high school. I didn't know what to say because if this ivf works then on my 40th bday I'll have a 2 year old and almost 4 year old. Last night at choir rehearsal there was a 7 week old baby boy (his parents both sing in the choir). I wanted to hold that sweet little baby so badly! Seeing that little one again made me realize how badly I want another baby. Of course you don't pay $8,200 for ivf unless you really want another baby, LOL. Even though I am very glad to be getting more sleep than his parents are getting right now, I do miss the wonderful feeling of holding such a tiny baby in my arms. I hope and pray I am very sleep deprived in 2010. :-)

The amazing power of chocolate

I know there are people who are not big chocolate fans like my sister, Yvonne, and Paul (although he loves certain kinds of chocolate candy like PB cups). I love chocolate. I wouldn't consider myself to be a true "chocoholic" in that I don't like just plain chocolate, but I do really enjoy things like chocolate chip cookies, brownies, chocolate peanut butter ice cream, and candy that has chocolate with other things like peanut butter or caramel. I usually go months without eating a piece of candy. Yesterday as I was going through the mail on my desk at work, I discovered a card which said I had been "caught in the act" (doing something good). Someone had nominated me to receive this little award, and a Snickers bar was included with the note. Well it was perfect timing. I wasn't feeling well due to the vicious AF I am having. It reminds me of one I had in 1993. That one was so bad that I fainted while teaching my 6th graders. Ironically I had called my Gyn that morning as I was concerned and was told not to worry about it. I think passing out proved it was pretty bad! Anyhow even though I was determined to get back into diet mode this week, I didn't even think twice about consuming that candy bar last night. It tasted oh so very good and helped me get through teaching my class last night.

I weighed Nadia on our scale this morning, and with a dry diaper plus her clothes she now weighs 19 lbs. I assume next week at the doctor's office she'll weigh maybe 18 1/2 or something like that. She seems to be right on target as the last 3 months she's been gaining about 1 lb a month. I think she's tripled her birth weight (6lb 2 oz). She's certainly a lot bigger than when we brought her home from the hospital at 5 1/2 lbs!

This morning I had my b/w to check my ovarian reserve. It's actually been 5 years since my FSH has been checked. They didn't check it faithfully since I always was so easily stimulated. My E2 has been checked more times than I want to count over the last 6 years. That was also done again this morning. Low numbers are what we want to see for both of those on cd2. Although there are treatments for male problems (like ICSI) - they haven't come up with any way to treat egg quality problems except to suggest you use donor eggs. I keep thinking there are women who have babies in their 40's so surely I can't be "too old" yet at the age of 37 (which I'll turn prior to egg retrieval). I certainly stimulated very easily less than 2 years ago. Hopefully I'll pass this test with flying colors.

Nine Months Old!

Can you believe Nadia is 9 months old already??? In terms of sleeping, she's still taking 3 naps a day which usually total 3-3.75 hours. Her bedtime is usually between 7:00-7:30pm. The time she first wakes up varies between about 5:15-6:00am, but usually she doesn't start fussing until sometime between 6:00-6:30am. Her body didn't switch when we were in Chicago. According to CST she was waking up between 4:15-4:45am, which wasn't fun for Mommy! There was one morning there though that she went back to sleep and didn't wake up again again until 5:50 (which was almost 7am EST which was great!). She generally sleeps 10-11 hours straight at night but is usually in her crib for 11 to 11 1/2 hours. Nadia usually wakes up in a happy mood, and usually there is very little or no crying involved when she goes to sleep although sometimes she cries for a few minutes before falling asleep. The routine is that I read her several books (seated in the glider in her room) and then sing her a few songs. She often rests her head on my shoulder and sucks her thumb during some of the song time which I love.

In terms of eating, her most favorite food right now is a banana. She gets sooo excited when she sees one. Her arms start flapping, her mouth opens wide, and she even will squeal with delight. It's easy to feed her cottage cheese, yogurt, carrots, corn, and applesauce. She also loves mashed potatoes if they are flavored in some way. She loved Aunt Wendy's which were made with red potatoes and had some skin in them and were flavored with garlic. It takes more effort to get her to eat peas, green beans, and oatmeal (the non babyfood kind anyhow - the baby oatmeal cereal goes down easily). Puffs still are useful in getting her to eat something she's not as crazy about. She now feeds herself an entire piece of zwieback toast with her breakfast. She really enjoys that also. I'd like to transition her from Puffs to Cheerios in the next couple of weeks as they're a lot cheaper although they were worth their weight in gold on the airplane!!! After she finishes this box of zwieback toast I also plan to transition her to regular toast. We haven't had much success yet with the sippy cups. I hope we make progress with that this month. One last food related item would be that I really missed the Bjorn bib when we were in Chicago. It's the best bib when eating solids! I'll be bringing it along on future trips. Thanks again, Lucia!!

Recently I started having her play in her pack & play for 30 minutes a day while I'm in another room (such as the kitchen) getting some work done. It took some time to work her up to 30 minutes, but now she'll usually play happily by herself with some toys with some music on in the background. At all other times she prefers to be STANDING. She loves to stand in front of the toybox, at her little "step," or by her window. We have the music cube and music table near that window so she often walks between the three things and takes turns playing with each. Her attention span for books has also greatly improved. Reading about 6-8 books at a time is the norm these days. Now that she is traveling greater distances at a greater speed (no more going backward - she definitely knows how to go forward), I need to do some babyproofing as for example yesterday she discovered a stack of textbooks I was reviewing to select one for a new course I'm teaching in the fall. I need to do some babyproofing!

Here are two clips showing her mobility this morning - crawling and standing. Enjoy! :-)

I am thankful for...

1. The pleasure of having Nadia take two short naps in my arms on our flights. What a wonderful feeling it is to have a sweet baby sleep on your chest. Ah....

2. How good Nadia was when she was in the Snugli while I was at the airports. She never fussed At All and once I had checked in my luggage she grabbed on to one of my fingers with each of her hands. That's another great feeling - to have a sweet tiny hand holding on to one of your fingers.

3. The time we got to spend with Wendy and her family. I wish I got to see my siblings and their children more often, but I am very grateful for the time we do get together especially when the university pays for my trip. :-)

4. The fact that AF came today. Yay! Normally I don't celebrate getting AF. Usually there is almost a feeling of depression associated with that, but in this case I only felt a huge sense of relief. I am having my FSH b/w tomorrow morning at my primary care doctor's office (which is closer than the RE), and Thursday I go back on the bcp. I have an appt with the RE nurse for April 6 to be given my Lupron which I'll start on April 7 and another appt with the RE on April 16 for my baseline b/w and u/s which means I should start the Follistim and Menopur on April 17. PTL that my body cooperated, and hopefully it will continue to cooperate each step of the way!!!

5. The fact that one of Paul's professors is at a conference this week so his MWF classes were cancelled. He stayed home yesterday as he can get more work done w/o spending 3 hours on the road. It was nice to be home with him yesterday until I left for school at 2:45pm.

6. Nadia's good health. I think she inherited Daddy's genes rather than mine in terms of propensity towards illness. PTL! Before I had turned 1 year old I had already been hospitalized for pnumonia, had a few ear infections, etc. To our knowledge she hasn't yet had a fever, cold, infection, etc. What a blessing! She goes to the doctor next week for her 9 month check-up. I don't think she gets any shots this time. Whew...

Home Sweet Home

Here are some pics that I took at the science museum on Saturday.

Yesterday we left Wendy's house about 9am (CST) to drive to O'Hare. I had a little more luggage to juggle as Wendy and Drayton gave us a car seat they aren't using any more as they needed to get a narrower one so they could fit 3 in the back seat of their Corolla. I haven't tried it out yet to see whether we'll put this one in my car or Paul's. It will be very helpful to have each in one of our cars since the plan with the babysitter for the summer and fall is for me to drop her off around 3pm on my way to school and Paul to pick her up around 6pm on his way home. Nadia slept during our drive to the aiport, and then she was awake during our time in the terminal and for the first part of our flight. It was pretty much the same experience as last time in that she cried about 5 minutes total and slept about 35 minutes on the airplane in my arms. I didn't try to warm her bottle or to drink anything myself this time though. Again the banana and puffs were the most successful at entertaining her on the plane. The toy that helped the most was the "See & Say" that I bought her at the Thift store we shopped at in Chicago on Thursday. I might be the first professor to attend a conference and go shopping at a thrift store while at the conference. :-)

It was fun to spend time with Adam & Susie last week. They would usually join in Nadia's naptime/bedtime ritual of reading and singing. Susie often read a few of the books to Nadia, and they helped pick which songs we sang each time. I enjoyed listening to Susie practice her violin and read. I also enjoyed listening to Adam pretend to read. Every book he "reads" starts out the same way. There is one word that changes. If the book is about trucks then he while he looks at the first page he says "One day a truck was born." If the book is about dinosaurs then it's, "One day a dinosaur was born." It's so cute!! He's 25 months old. He also says who the book is by. One of the books Wendy frequently reads them is by Iza Trapani. Well Adam says that every book is "by Pani Iza Trapani." LOL! It's also so sweet to hear how they imitate me and say "Nadia, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet Nadia" to their cousin.

Paul was amazed last night at how quickly Nadia is crawling these days. I will definitely take a video of her crawling this week. She's been crawling a lot today. She crawls so she can get to something to that she can use to pull herself to a standing position and cruise. She can stand for longer and longer periods of time without holding on to anything. In addition to her "step" she now has a favorite window which is just the right height for her to enjoy. The downside of her crawling and standing is she doesn't enjoy the jump up any more, and I can't leave her in our bathroom/bedroom (with the door closed) with some toys while I get a shower like I have in the past. There was one time when she tried to stand in Chicago but was unsuccesful. She tried to use the letters on their refrigerator to pull herself up, and for some strange reason the magnetic letters just kept falling off! :-)

Since we got home I've done a load of laundry, gone grocery shopping, paid some bills, and returned a few library books that were due tomorrow. I'm teaching tonight so life is really back in the normal swing of things. This past Friday was my last bcp for now. I would appreciate prayers that I will get AF tomorrow or Wednesday. Then I'll have b/w a couple of days later to check my FSH level and then start right back on the pill and then add Lupron to the mix several days after that. The first very important step though is for me to get my first PPAF - as soon as possible!

Hello from Chicago

Wednesday morning Nadia stayed awake most of our drive to the airport (which took about 1hr and 40 min). She did cry some of the time, but it wasn't too bad. She was very alert while the bus took us from long term parking to the terminal and while we were in the terminal. What proved the most helpful in keeping her happy in the terminal and on the plane was food rather than books or toys. She wanted to either stand in my lap or eat a banana (she ate an entire one) or Puffs. She started crying a little on the plane so I walked her up and down the aisle a little which was a challenge as it was a small plane (each row had 2 seats on either side of the aisle). She then cried a little more later, but then fell asleep in my arms and didn't wake up until they lowered the wheels to prepare for landing. She cried about 5 minutes total on the plane so that wasn't bad. The flight was full so there was someone sitting next to me. Thankfully the man has a 5 year old son and was very accepting of having a baby sitting nearby. I learned the hard way not to order a drink. It's impossible to manage a drink with a baby in your lap on an airplane. :-) She probably wouldn't have cried at all except they didn't have a microwave to warm her bottle. They gave me a little cup of hot water when they brought me my cup of ice water (so you can picture me trying to hold a baby as well as two cups of water at the same time while trying to pour hot water into the bottle without spilling any of it). She still didn't want it, but eventually she fell asleep anyhow. Of course I loved having her sleep on me as I haven't experienced that in a few months. :-)

Wendy, Adam,and Susie met us at O'Hare. We stopped for lunch and then Wendy dropped me off at the Westin on the "Magnificent Mile" for my conference. She took Nadia home with her. I took a cab to their home after attending a session that interested me because the speaker is the author of the textbook I use in my class that is meeting Monday nights this semester.

My session went well yesterday. It was a tough day for Nadia as she's just not used to Aunt Wendy and she was really missing her Mommy. I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory for the first time, which was a treat yesterday. Last night we picked up some deep dish pizza that Chicago is famous for. It wasn't exactly a good day for my diet, LOL. I haven't actually been very diligent in that regard lately - with either diet or exercise. I need to get back in gear as I still haven't hit my pre-pg weight yet.

All the pictures in today's post were taken by Wendy. The 2nd one was taken yesterday during "nursery rhyme time" that my sister does with her kids prior to their afternoon nap each day. Nadia's 1st two naps were very short yesterday, so Nadia got really tired long before it was a reasonable time for her 3rd nap to start. So my sister bundled them up and took them for a walk to try to keep Nadia awake (3rd picture). Today we went to the science museum. Nadia especially enjoyed seeing the chicks; 3 hatched while we were watching (4th picture). The last picture was taken on Wednesday night. Susie had dressed Nadia up in a ballerina tutu and shoes.

I am sure Daddy is glad we are flying home tomorrow! He actually almost cried on Wednesday morning when we left, and I think it's been more than 9 years since I've seen him cry. He was very worried that Nadia would forget him. I'm sure she hasn't forgotten her Dada!!!

My Papoose

Yesterday I did a trial run with the Snugli since I hadn't used in a long time. I know she's big enough to have her on my back but I didn't think I'd be able to put her in it by myself which I'll need to be able to do at the airport tomorrow. Plus she likes to be able to look out and see other people which I think will be easier if she's on my front. I asked Paul to take a couple of pics since Tamera had asked for a pic of my new hairdo. Probably there will be more pics with me in them later this week that my sister will have taken in Chicago. The hairstyle is still something I'm getting used to, but I got a LOT of positive feedback on it at work yesterday and today so that's helping me adjust to it. :-)

I think we're ready to go. Nadia keeps waking up earlier and earlier (today it was 5:25am), but tomorrow it will be okay if she wakes up early as we need to be on the road by 6:45am. I am hoping maybe we can get her body on CST and then not adjust her body when we come back to PA? Who knows but it's worth a shot. I think her schedule tomorrow will be totally out of whack though as I imagine she'll sleep en route to the aiport as it's a 90

minute drive to the Harrisburg airport. In 2007 when I flew to Chicago (shortly after my FET), I flew from Baltimore so I could have a nonstop flight to Midway which is the airport closer to my sister's house. This time thought I didn't want to drive as far so the only nonstop option was to O'Hare. Since we're not arriving or leaving at rush hour it should add only 20 minutes to our trip to my sister's house. I am planning to attend one session of the conference tomorrow (at 1pm). I'm looking forward to lunch with my sister and her kids prior to the conference. The speaker I am planning to hear tomorrow is the author of the textbook I am using in my Monday night class this semester. I've never heard her in person; so I'm looking forward to that.

Today is my nephew Joshua's 2nd birthday! Happy bday, Josh!!! It's easy to remember his bday since it's on St. Patrick's Day, and his older brother's bday is on Flag Day. We're looking forward to seeing them in July as it's already been 10 months since we saw them. Josh and Adam are the 2 closest cousins in age to Nadia in terms of those who are older than her, and Nathan and the girl due to be born next month are the two closest in age of those who are younger than her.

Packing and Puffs

Nadia had her first experience in a swing yesterday. She wasn't too sure what to make of it. I think in time she'll love it, but the slide is definitely more popular with her right now than the swing.

I forgot to mention a few days ago that Nadia finally succeeded in feeding herself a puff! She has been feeding herself zwieback toast and such for quite awhile. She eats one piece of toast along with her oatmeal for breakfast (plus 6-8 ounces of milk so that's a BIG meal but of course she's gone 12 hours without eating so she's hungry!). She has been successful at picking up puffs for quite awhile, but she hadn't gotten the idea of letting go once her hand is in her mouth. I was surprised last week when I came back to her highchair to feed her oatmeal as there was a puff in her mouth. Good job, Nadia! I am not saying she's mastered feeding herself small finger foods yet, but at least she's had some success. :-)

Packing proved to be more of a challenge than usual. I wanted to fit everything in one suitcase. Diapers take up a lot of room plus I am bringing gifts for Wendy & Drayton (their bdays are in July) as well as for their girl due to be born next month. I was wondering if there was going to be room for MY clothes, LOL! Thankfully I think I have managed to get it all in. Next I need to pack up her diaper bag which I'll take as my carry on.

Paul is going to spend Wednesday night at a friend's house in State College so he'll save himself one RT commute. I still need to cook up some tuna noodle casserole so he has something to eat the other days he's here and we're not. He doesn't have to go to school tomorrow which is a rare treat. His Tuesday class was cancelled although he'll be busy as he has a big project due in that class by 5pm tomorrow night. It works out well though as I have a meeting at work at 1pm tomorrow so I can actually make it on time for that which normally I can't get to campus that early.

Out with the Old

Over the last few weeks we've said goodbye to a few things such as her gym (she enjoyed it for 8 1/2 months), mobile (she enjoyed looking at it for 7 1/2 months), and her black patent shoes which don't fit any more (size 1). I looked at shoes yesterday, but I didn't know what size to get her. I was going to get her white patent shoes or white sandals since spring is ALMOST here. So she only wore her tights (no shoes) to church this morning.

I also said goodbye to a lot of my hair yesterday. It felt so weird when I shampooed this morning. It felt like there wasn't any hair back there, LOL! It's still a shock to me every time I look in a mirror. I am not sure yet what I think of it yet. I did get a lot of positive feedback at church though which helped. One lady in choir took one look at me and said, "I love it!" which really encouraged me.

 

Next on my to do list is to start packing for our trip Wednesday morning! I am looking forward to spending time with Wendy as well as her dh (Drayton), Adam (2) and Susie (almost 5). I'm sure I'll be painting Susie's fingernails, and we will probably go to the science museum where they have a family membership. I also look forward to hearing Susie read. She can read at the 4th grade reading level! If you want to see a recent clip of her sight reading a book at that level, click here; or if you want to see a clip of her reading an easier book with great expression (Bear Snores On), click here. I think Nadia will enjoy having her cousin read to her!

THE Step

The last couple of weeks one of Nadia's favorite things to do is play by the step in between our kitchen and family room. Sometimes she climbs up the step to get to her toybox, but most of the time she just likes to hang out on the family room side of the step.

Another favorite activity is to ride on my shoulders. If she's really upset and nothing else will calm her down, that will do the trick and turn her tears to smiles. I learned a lesson though on Friday that after she's been fed is NOT the time to do that as she spit up quite a bit and most of it landed in my hair. Gross!

Today I was at Walmart for over 2 hours as it took 2 hours for them to change my oil and rotate my tires. While they were working on the car I got a haircut. Boy did I get a haircut. She cut it WAY shorter than I wanted her to. Well maybe I'll like it, but if not hair does grow back, it will take less time to blowdry, and Nadia won't have as much to grab ahold of. So I guess there will be some perks to the shorter hairdo. I guess a 4th benefit is I should be able to go longer until I get it cut again!

Nadia keeps waking up earlier and earlier, and it's not usually at the same time as a train so I am not going by that theory any more. Any suggestions? I don't get her as soon as she wakes up, but even the time I go get her keeps inching up earlier and earlier. I've tried putting her to bed later, but it seems no matter what time I put her to bed - she wakes up prior to 6am. I was hoping to push her wake up time to 7:30am, but right now I'd settle for 6:30 instead of 5:40!

We leave for Chicago on Wednesday morning. I want to start packing tomorrow as I teach on Mondays and Tuesdays. Any tips for traveling with an almost 9 month old? Thankfully the flight is only about 2 1/2 hours, and since we're headed to my sister who has 2 children (and is due to give birth to her 3rd in about one month) she already has strollers, a high chair, car seats, etc. So I should be able to pack pretty light which will be good since I'll be going to the airport myself. I am planning to carry Nadia in the Snugli, and I'm just going to take one suitcase to check-in plus one carry on. Do they let you take a bottle on the airplane or do I need to bring formula powder and an empty bottle to fill up with water and mix on the plane? The trip to Antigua in May will be longer (thankfully also a non-stop flight), but there will be 4 adults traveling with her that time rather than just me.

Yesterday I made some corn for Nadia so now I have four different veggies frozen in cubes in bags in our freezer - peas, carrots, green beans, and corn. She liked the corn. Every week I buy one large tub of either plain yogurt or cottage cheese for her. She eats quite a bit these days! She also loves bananas. Paul and I share some of ours with her when we're eating one. She also eats a lot of puffs, zwieback toast, rice cereal, oatmeal, and unsweetened appleasauce.

Crawling!

Well although she's been mobile for several weeks, it wasn't until yesterday that I felt I could say she is crawling - the "typical" crawl with arms fully extended. Yesterday was the first time I saw her travel forward many times throughout the day. She figured out she needed to lift her hands. :-) Paul hasn't seen it yet, but hopefully he will soon. I've already seen her crawling again today. I'll try to get a video of her crawling in the near future. She still LOVES to stand. I have decided until she gets out of this phase where it seems ALL she wants to do is stand, we are only going to have a couple of baths a week. Bathtime just isn't fun right now since she wants to stand up, and I won't let her stand in the tub.  Today I have a faculty meeting and also an appt with an advisee. Donna will be watching Nadia.

Four Rules

So far there are four things that Nadia hears the word "no" in reference to. Three of them we've been working on for several weeks - not touching Daddy's glasses, not putting her fingers in her mouth when Mommy is feeding her, and not grabbing on to the bars of her gym (she can grab the toys, but if she grabs the bars they collapse and she falls backwards). The new rule is no standing in the tub. I am not sure if she comprehends the word "no" or not yet. Either she doesn't get it yet, or she's pretty stubborn as last night I had to say seemingly 50 million times no standing in the tub. I had to keep putting her back into a sitting or lying down position. This new rule is certainly the one I have said with the sternest voice and face. It's one thing to fall in the living room, but I don't want her falling in the bathtub!

I have decided upon a new rule for Mommy. No taking Nadia shopping until after her 3rd nap (or 2nd nap when she gets down to 2 a day). This doesn't include going to the grocery store since it's only 5 minutes away. As long as I take her there right after she's been fed (she's fed right after she gets up from bed), I can make it there and back without her falling asleep in the car. However any other shopping destination it seems she falls asleep in the car, and even if she sleeps for 5 minutes, her nap schedule is completely messed up. I've tried just taking her straight to her crib, giving her some milk and then taking her to bed, etc. and nothing works. Many tears become involved in nap time which is not normal these days at all. Today she slept about 7 minutes on the way home from the mall. When we got home she was OUT. I closed the garage door, opened her car door, and still she was sleeping. However getting her out of the car seat woke her up, and it took forever to get her back down. I tried letting her play, but she just cried then too. She was really, really tired but was fighting the nap. So I have decided until she is down to one afternoon nap a day, my shopping trips will only be after her last nap. It's just not worth it to goof up her schedule.

Progression

The first 5+ months every time I went to get Nadia from her crib she was lying on her back. Then she switched to sleeping on her belly, and that's the position I'd find her in at the end of a nap. Then she liked to get up on her hands and knees, and I'd find her in the crawling position in bed. Next she learned how to go from her belly to a sitting position. Sometimes I still find her in a sitting position, the sitting picture was taken when I went in to get her after her first nap today. The latest trick is to pull herself up to a standing position. When I went in to her room at 6:40 this am, she was standing fully erect at the end of her crib (the side closest to her red piano).

Standing is by far her favorite activity these days! The downside to all of the standing and cruising is that she's fallen down more than before. It's very hard for Paul to see her fall. Of course I don't like seeing her fall either, but I know it's part of the learning process. Thankfully she hasn't bruised herself yet. She can stand for longer and longer periods of time without holding onto anything. The last photo was taken yesterday. She always seems so excited when she sees all her toys in her toybox!

Yesterday I asked if this time I could be on Menopur instead of Repronex. I had asked 2 years ago, and I can't recall why they gave me an Rx for Repronex, but after experiencing the burning sensation that is common with Repronex, I planned to ask again for Menopur, and she said now they recommend that even though it's a little more expensive due to not as many side effects (which is why I wanted it in 2007). I wish I had Menopur the first time, but I am glad I can have it the 2nd time. My copay is the same either way so it doesn't cost me more.

I have always used hCG to trigger (I've had 9 trigger shots total), and that's still what they prefer to use. However it seems that some doctors are giving women a dose of hCG 6 times higher than what is used in fertility treatments as a weight loss treatment. So there has been a shortage of hCG which means sometimes they use Ovidrel instead. Ovidrel isn't new either, and a "perk" of that one is that it's a subq injection whereas hCG is an intramuscular injection. So that be another change in terms of meds this time around although if the pharmacy has hCG in stock I'll still be given a Rx for that. We didn't discuss dosages with the RE yet, but I am assuming they'll have me do the same as last time which was 150iu of Follistim and 75iu of Menopur each day during the stimming phase.

The last two days were rather hectic between dentist and doctor appointments and teaching. I am glad that today I'm staying home with the exception of choir rehearsal this evening which means I can get caught up on grading today during her naps. I was so tired last night that I went to bed at 8:30pm. Staying home today is also good for Nadia as she only had one nap in her crib yesterday which meant she was very fussy for Paul last night. I think I figured out why her body went forward an hour. She often first wakes up about 5:50am which happens to be when a loud train comes through in the morning. I think the train wakes her up. Thankfully she went back to sleep for a little and then chattered for awhile and didn't get fussy until 6:40, which is when I went to get her. People told me that eventually we'd not even be aware of the sounds from the train. Well we've lived here almost 6 months, and I am still very aware of it, and I think Nadia is also since I have noticed that sometimes when she wakes up in the morning or at naptime is exactly at the same time a noisy train is going by.

Two months from today we'll be in Antigua. I can't wait!!! Also, two months from now I should be in the pupo (pregnant until proven otherwise) stage as the embryo transfer will hopefully be completed one of the first few days of May.

Plan of Action

I can't wait until Nadia can talk in a way that I will actually have a clue what she is saying (aside from "hi." "dada," and "daddy" which is the extent of her expressive vocabulary at 8 months old). My sister posted on Facebook yesterday that when their babysitter offered Adam (who turned 2 years old in February) soup for lunch, he told the babysitter, "Mommy told me I can have a quesadilla." No, she had not mentioned quesadillas yesterday, LOL. I would love to know what is going on in Nadia's mind when she's jabbering on and on and on although I am certain she's not talking about quesadillas. She might be talking about the pizza we let her have a little of on Sunday night though which she loved. :-)

Nadia was a trouper this morning. We arrived at the hospital about 8:40 and left about 11:10, and she was a happy little girl even though she only slept 10 minutes of our 30 minute trip there. Everyone was soooo happy to see her. Several (including Dr. A) held her for extended periods of time. We found out that the nurse had scheduled a "class" just for us today. That was very kind of her. Thankfully it lasted less than 30 minutes. Then we had our HIV and Hepatitis b/w, and then I had my appt with Dr. A. He did a pap smear, cultures, and SHG. It was a million times better than 2 years ago. It's funny but last night (before I read the comments from Tamera and Amie) I said to Paul that maybe my cervix isn't so tight any more now that it was 10 cm dilated for several hours. They had me drink 20 ounces of water so I could do the mock transfer, but then after I drank the water they said the fellow (as in a doctor doing a fellowship -both of their "fellows" are female) wasn't actually available. So I'll be doing that at a future appointment, but I'm not nervous about it any more. :-) Then Paul had his appt, and then after we met with the nurse to map out the schedule, we were done.

I was hoping to leave with the Lupron, but they want me to do a day 3 FSH test. I am not concerned about it even though I'm almost 37 since less than 2 years ago they retrieved 28 eggs. I've always had the problem of leaning toward stimulating TOO easily, and the the FSH test is to make sure you can be stimulated. Also, my lining is REALLY thick. Dr. A said I haven't had AF since I gave birth so this next one will be really heavy. So they want me to have 2 AF's before I start stimming. I had thought that might be the case, and you might recall from a previous post I toyed with starting the bcp sooner so that I'd have one before this appt, but I ended up not doing that. So anyhow I am to continue the bcp through 3/20. Then I am to call when AF comes and have b/w (E2 and FSH) by day 3 and then resume the bcp after I have the b/w. We're hoping that happens March 24-25. I looked on my chart, and the past few years I've been on bcp 5 times in prep for a fertility cycle. The last two times that was with Lupron. Of those 5 times, two times AF showed 4 days after my last bcp and 3 times five days after the last bcp. March 24 would be 4 days. Of course we're not 100% sure what will happen since it will be my first PPAF, but hopefully my body will cooperate. I'd appreciate prayers regarding that. I really want AF by March 25!!!! If that happens then I'll probably

• start the Lupron on April 6,
• take the last bcp on April 9,
• have my baseline u/s and b/w April 16,
• start the Follistim and Menopur on April 17,
• have the hCG shot on April 27,
• have the retrieval on April 29 (my last final exam is April 28 so that's perfect for me),
• and May 2 or 4th have the embryo transfer.

We fly to Antigua on May 9 so as you can see this plan won't work if AF is really late (although we do have a little wiggle room).

Nadia fell asleep before we even left the parking lot and slept the whole way home (including a stop at Dunkin Donuts where Paul and I got breakfast bagels for lunch as we used to have them every Sunday but haven't had them in months). Unfortunately that was enough to goof her 2nd nap up. So it's now 1:23pm and she's slept 40 minutes total whereas by now she's usually slept 2-3 hours. Hopefully her next nap (the only one that will be taken in her crib) will be a long one. One of the nurses said to me - does she every cry? Well yes she does, but I have to say she's come a long way. She was an angel the 2+ hours we were at the doctor's office today - even without a morning nap! Good job, Nadia! Hopefully at this time next year she'll have a sister or brother. :-)

When Nadia goes down for a nap, I need to grade the midterm exams that my students took last night (mostly essay questions so it takes awhile to grade). I only graded a few last night before heading to bed. I am one of those profs who tries to get grades posted ASAP. I know I appreciated that when I was a student, so I try to grade things as quickly as possible. I am not giving a midterm in the other course (the one I teach tonight). Paul didn't go to PSU yesterday or today, but he'll be there all day the next 3 days. As for her internal clock, she definitely jumped forward an hour. I think I just need to throw in the towel and accept that she'll go to bed around 7pm and get up around 6:30am. Last night she slept from 7:15pm to 6:30am. Compared to all those months of not getting much sleep, it's not such a big deal to start our day a little earlier than I'd choose.

CLEP Test?

This is a really expensive day for us medically as I paid $528 at the dentist and also paid $8,200 for the ivf. Well if I want to look at the bright side, at least some of these expenses will be tax deductible since we'll exceed the percent that isn't tax deductible this year. The reason I paid the ivf bill today is because our appts were moved from Thursday to tomorrow. Paul found out last week that he needs to attend a meeting this Thursday. So I had called and asked if Paul's appts could be moved to some other morning this week. I figured my appts couldn't be moved as when I called in January to set these appts up she said they only do them on Thursdays. Well they must have changed that policy as the nurse called this morning and said all our appts could be switched to Tuesday. The good news is that means Paul won't miss his research group meeting on Thursday. His advisor has been out of the country for a couple of months so he didn't think it would be good to miss this meeting.

The bad news is that I found out we have to sit through the class again. Ugh. We sat through this in June 2007, and I learned only one thing then - the fact that they cancel a cycle if there are less than 4 follicles, and they won't do a fresh transfer (FET only) if you have 30 or more. I am not expecting to learn anything tomorrow. She said if it's been more than a year since you had the lecture, you have to do it again (husband AND wife). I wanted to say - ask me any question, and if I can't answer then we need the class. Isn't there a CLEP test, LOL? I am trying to work on my attitude. I keep telling myself it's just one hour, but for some reason it's REALLY annoying me. Well Nadia will be with us so that will make it much more pleasant. :-)

I'd appreciate prayers for tomorrow morning. I found the SHG (saline ultrasound) to be more painful than the HSG (dye test of the fallopian tubes) even though it's supposed to be the other way around, but the really excruciating part was when they measured out the uterus (mock transfer). I could hardly bear the pain even though the actual transfers didn't hurt. It was more intense pain than the pain during labor, but of course it only lasted a few minutes compared to 19 hours of labor. :-) The doctor said mine was more painful than usual because #1 my cervix is tighter than "normal" (I was told that with my first IUI in 2004) and #2 my uterus is titled a little to the left so he said having to put the catheter at a sharp angle made it more painful. I am going to take an Advil prior to the appt to see if that helps. At least I am expecting it to be painful this time. It was a shock to me last time. I started the bcp a few days ago so I guess we are officially back in ivf mode. It will all be worth it if we see two lines on the hpt in 2 months! Last time we were there for 4 hours and 15 minutes. I'm hoping we're not there that long tomorrow as that will be a long time for Miss Nadia!!!

Yesterday Paul's parents and our niece, Brandi came up to visit for a couple of hours. Of course the reason they came to visit was not Paul or I. :-) Today's photo was taken right before we left for church yesterday morning. She was sleeping, but the flash woke her up, which was fine as I was about to wake her up anyhow. Yesterday was a two nap day, and both naps were about an hour long. Due to not sleeping as much during the day, I was unable to keep her up until 7:30-8:00pm as planned. She went to bed about 6:45pm which was her usual bedtime prior to the time change, and she woke up at 6:35. So even though I didn't want her to - she switched to the new time, LOL!!! I can't believe it. My plan for a couple of months had been to keep her body on the same schedule and shift the time she went to bed and got up by one hour when the clocks went forward. Well for some bizarre reason, on the same day the clocks went forward, so did her internal clock. Go figure! The good news is she slept almost 12 hours last night whereas she usually only sleeps 11. I'm still going to try to shift her bedtime and wakeup time, but pretty soon I'll probably give up and accept the fact that she's a morning person and likes to get up between 6:00-6:30am. :-)

Spring Forward!

Normally I am NOT a fan of switching our clocks. I have always had a strong internal clock, and I don't like having it messed with! Paul is always a BIG fan of the time change in the fall, but he's never liked springing forward an hour. Well this time I have been REALLY excited about the time change, and I've actually been glad it's happening earlier than it used to in the past. I am not planning on adjusting Nadia's body clock at all so I thought it should be a cinch for her. Her routine lately is to go to bed about 7pm and get up at 6:30am. She usually first wakes up between 5:50-6:10am and usually she will coo (and maybe fuss a little) until 6:20-6:30 when I go get her. It seems 11 hours of sleep is all she needs at night although other babies seem to sleep 12 hours at night. So the new plan will be for her to go down at 8pm and get up around 7:30am. YAY!!! The only downside of this plan is that it means that she'll be awake an extra hour during the times Paul watches her on Monday and Tuesday nights when I'm at class, and it also means he'll need to watch her for one hour on Wednesday nights when I'm at choir. An upside will be that it means she'll still be awake when Paul gets home on Thursday nights. In the past she's often been in bed before he got home. The biggest positive though is that she won't be waking up at 5:50am. I am still more of a morning person than a night owl, but I admit I don't like getting up AS early as I did in the past. I think 7am sounds like a lovely time for me to get up each morning. Of course while we're in Chicago I am sure she'll be functioning back on the earlier schedule due to the time zone difference, but that will just be for a few days.

Well I wrote most of this post a couple of days ago. Now I have to add that my plan didn't work this morning! I put her to bed only a few minutes early last night (6:30pm which is 7:30 the new time) and yet she woke up at 6:15 (5:15 the old time). I was frustrated!! I didn't go get her until 7am which was still 30 minutes earlier than normal according to the old time. Obviously she doesn't know the clocks changed. I guess it's just a bizarre circumstance that she woke up earlier than normal today when I wasn't trying to change her body clock at all. She didn't nap well yesterday (her three naps totalled 2 hours which is at least 1 hour less than usual) so she must be one tired little girl! I am tired also as I didn't sleep well last night. Paul forgot that our RE appts are on Thursday, and he scheduled a meeting at PSU for 10:30 on Thursday. I am going to try to move his appt up as early as possible that morning so he can still make part of the meeting, but it means I'll probably be alone for my appt. I found the test to be excruciating back in June 2007 and am really dreading it even more now that I know I won't be able to squeeze Paul's hand.

Lately her first nap has been starting at 8:30am so that will shift to 9:30am. The time of her 2nd nap has been more variable because the length of her first nap is sometimes as short as 45 minutes to as long as 2 hours. So the 2nd nap starts sometime between 11:30-12:30 which would become 12:30-1:30. She hasn't completely given up the 3rd nap yet. If her first or second nap is 2 hours long then she doesn't have a third nap. If she has a third nap then it usually starts sometime between 3:00-4:00. I have wondered about the 3rd nap. Weissbluth says to stop that by 9 months old, but he always takes due date into consideration so that would mean she could still have it until almost 10 months old. I have been wrestling with whether to just keep going with the flow and deciding whether or not she has a 3rd nap on a daily basis based on the length of her first two naps OR if I should just have her go cold turkey and say only two naps from now on. When it was time to give up the 4th nap, she really did that 100% on her own. She just started refusing to take the 4th nap as she does now with the 3rd nap if her other naps have been long. So I thought the same might happen with the 3rd nap at some point. Any thoughts?

Nadia had fun going down the slide again yesterday (another gorgeous day!). Here's a really short (5 second) video of her going down the slide.

Cruising!

I made mashed potatoes with Nadia in mind, but it turns out she likes TGI Friday's mashed potatoes WAY more than Mommy's. Mine were spit out of her mouth - she'd rather have green beans, LOL! Eventually I got her to eat mine, especially when I mixed some other foods in, but I was surprised as she loved them at the restaurant and also loved them one time when I gave her some instant ones. I guess mine were too bland. She definitely wants to eat whatever Mommy is eating. Too bad I don't like brussel sprouts and broccoli.

This week I've started giving her a few bites here and there of my food - grilled cheese sandwich, pasta, etc. I'm amazed how well she does with eating "big people food" even with only 2 teeth. For several weeks I've given her a few tastes now and then of my ice cream sandwich when I'm eating one (only give her the vanilla ice cream part of it). She now recognizes it from the outside and makes sure she's right close to Mommy when Mommy is eating one. She flaps her arms and looks at me eagerly. I feel like a mother bird, LOL. I know she shouldn't be eating foods with sugar yet, but trust me I give just a few tiny dabs of it. I eat 99% of the sandwich myself. She seems to be a girl after my own heart though as she LOVES ice cream! Of course 99.9% of the time she eats healthy foods like cottage cheese, yogurt (plain), unsweetened applesauce, oatmeal, rice cereal, carrots, green beans, and peas. The veggies are ones I made and froze. It works out so nicely to just microwave a cube or two at a time. The next baby food I plan to make is corn. I think she's old enough now to have some corn. I don't think it will be too long until I start cutting up some table foods for her now that I know she likes pasta, rye bread, and biscuits.

Three of Nadia's favorite activities are riding on my shoulders, exploring her toy box, and going down the slide in our backyard. Yesterday was a beautiful day with temps in the 60's - YAHOO! Nadia can now cruise along the toy box. Sometimes she holds on with both hands, sometimes with just one hand, and for brief seconds here and there she stands without holding onto anything. She also has figured out how to crawl up the one step from the family room to the kitchen. :-) We had lowered the mattress in her crib a few weeks ago, but now it's time to lower the one in the pack & play also as this morning I watched her pull herself up to a standing position and walk (cruise) around all the sides of her pack n' play. The second or third time I took a short video although she pulled herself up before I hit the record button. It's not the most exciting video, but I know at least Grandma will want to see her new ability - cruising!

The flow on the Nuby is too fast. The Nuk is the winner for the time being; hopefully eventually she'll be able to use the Nuby and the other 2 sippy cups we own, but for now we'll stick with the Nuk. We have some medium flow nipples for her bottles although we've still been using the slow flow ones. I think we'll also switch to medium flow on the nipples to get her used to a faster flow.

She was THE one

Yesterday I was looking at my RE clinic's stats for 2007 as reported on the SART website (that group releases stats more quickly than the CDC does). In 2007 for women age 35-37, they did 14 fresh cycles. Three of those didn't make it to retrieval, and a fourth made it to retrieval but not transfer. There were 10 fresh transfers for that age group. I was one of those 10 as on August 4, 2007 I had 3 embies transferred back to me. Of those 10 transfers (25 total embryos), 6 resulted in a live birth (8 babies total). I was obviously one of the 4 that did not. For that same age group they did 6 FETs (which included a total of 10 embryos). Here's the amazing stat. Nadia was the only one that made it. Wow. I already knew she was a living, breathing miracle, but this just reminded me again. She was the only frozen embryo transfer for women my age that was a success for that clinic that year (1/10). Thank you, Lord for creating and sustaining her little life!!! Altogether (including all age groups as well as donated embyros) they did 27 FETs in 2007 and Nadia was one of the 9 live births. So altogether 1/3 of the FETs worked which is a pretty good stat, but the non-donor success rate for ages 35-37 was only 1/6. The encouraging thing though when I look at these stats is that I am still in the 35-37 age group, and the fresh transfer success rate was 60% which is pretty amazing. I hope and pray when I look at the 2009 success rates for this clinic that I'll be holding one of the fresh transfer successes in my arms!!!


Yesterday Nadia had success with 2 new sippy cups I got her! The first was a Nuk "learner cup" by Gerber, and the second was a "No-Spill cup" by Nuby. The spouts are the same shape as a traditional sippy cup, but they are much softer - more like a bottle nipple. Nadia drank 4 ounces of formula in the Nuk one (with my assistance). She picked it up while I was feeding her dinner which pleased me, but so far she still needs me to help her. I put some apple juice (watered down) in the Nuby, and I know she had success as she didn't like the apple juice, LOL! I was surprised as she loves applesauce. Hopefully in time she'll like the juice also. I was thinking maybe I should try it warmed up. Maybe it was the temperature (cold) she was objecting to rather than the taste. I also got her a new toy that attaches to the highchair. I had seen it at Donna's house, and Nadia seemed to like it. I don't let her play with other toys while eating because otherwise it's too tempting for her to put them in her mouth (which is a no-no). This toy is perfect because she can play with it but doesn't try to put it in her mouth.

She wore a size 4 diaper last night, and you all were right. It worked! It was HUGE on her (reminded me of how Steve Urkel used to wear his pants on that tv show years ago), but her clothes stayed dry last night. So that will be our plan for awhile - use size 3 during the day and size 4 at night.