Paul's parents hadn't seen Ian and Nadia for two weeks so they came up after church Sunday afternoon and played with the kids for a few hours. During two hours of that time span Paul and I went on a date and had dinner at Red Lobster. I like the biscuits and maple glazed chicken. Paul likes various kinds of seafood so he gets different things. This time he had tilapia. We both took home doggie bags and finished our meals at home yesterday. I had put 40 dates as my goal, but maybe we'll have 80 if we start going out once a month. I think that would be great! We use gift cards for our meals; so even if we need to pay a babysitter, it won't be
that expensive to go out. Plus our neighbors are sooo generous that it feels good to give them more "business." On Sunday the girls brought over a doll for Nadia and picture frames for Ian's room, and on Monday Gabby brought over 4 small sample cans of formula that they got at their pediatrician's office. How sweet!! Maybe we won't have to start buying any formula until Ian turns 6 months old. :-) I plan to start him on solid foods soon since he's about to turn 6 months old (and is over 4 months now even by his adjusted age). Today I started putting Ian in the highchair (see photos below) and "promoted" Nadia to the chair that hooks on to the table.
On Saturday I called Beth and asked if Gabby could babysit the kids next Saturday as I am going to a party about 90 minutes away from our home, and Paul will be busy preparing for his practice talk that he's giving on June 1 for his June 7 comps. I have only seen this friend a couple of times in the past six years, but she just graduated from college with her bachelor's in Social Work (from the university where I taught from 2003-04). She's about 31 years old, and it has been a long journey for her to complete this degree. She rode all the way out to IUP for my doctoral graduation in 2002 so I feel obligated to go to her graduation party.
I also asked Beth if Gabby could come over after school a couple of days this week so that I could get some schoolwork done. I've had one thing on my to do list since November and the deadline for completing it is now only 6 weeks away. I need a quiet room since I am adding audio recordings to the PowerPoints for the online course. Having a quiet room is a challenge with two under two. Paul never tries to get schoolwork done while watching the kids, but in the past I've never paid a babysitter so I could get schoolwork done. Gabby came over yesterday for 90 minutes, and I got far more accomplished than I thought I could have in that time span. I thought it would take weeks to accomplish this task (even with Gabby coming over), but I think I'll be able to cross this off my list by the end of the week. YAHOO! I want to keep this in mind in the future. It's definitely worth a few dollars so I can have a break from multitasking and just focus on schoolwork. I don't need to try to be superwoman, right? Gabby loves watching the kids so it is a win-win scenario. Today Beth will be coming over as the first summer class starts tonight. I'll have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays for six weeks.
The urologist's office called twice while we were on vacation to reschedule Ian's appointment. I called back yesterday morning and found out that the first available appointment is three months from now. We've had the June appointment for over 5 months. They cancel it one month before it's supposed to happen and postpone it by two months. I am trying to have a good attitude about it, but I was really looking forward to the suspense being over regarding whether or not Ian needs surgery. Well I've waited 5.5 months, I guess I can wait 3 more.
I've gotten 3 letters recently from the hospital letting me know of doctors who are leaving whom I have been a patient of previously. One of the ones I got yesterday was about Dr. A. I actually got two letters about his departure (I assume retirement) as one was from him and the other from the hospital. I felt sad when I read the letter even though we don't plan to see an RE again. The ironic thing is that at first I wasn't keen on him. I liked the partner he had a few years ago better. Dr. A was quick to cancel cycles (or threaten to cancel them) and was in my opinion too conservative in picking doses of meds when I was doing inj/iui. Plus when he did my first iui it was extremely painful whereas it didn't hurt much at all when his partner Dr. W did it. Dr. A was the one who supervised my two ivf cycles. He did the first and third transfers (he didn't do Nadia's transfer). Obviously my feelings changed along the way! I was his patient from 2004-2009. I was a patient of seven RE's from 2003-2009 (just two clinics), and I have to say in the end he was my favorite. We went from hand shakes to hugs, and he was always doting on Nadia during my second ivf cycle. I feel sad knowing that if I'm at the hospital for some other reason I can't drop by and say hi to him and show him Ian and Nadia any more. He's worked very hard and is well deserving of retirement. I am grateful for the part he played in the Lord bringing us our children.
Prior to his 4 month doctor appt Ian was regularly sleeping 6-9 hours the first stretch. For some reason after we started supplementing he started waking up more often. For awhile he was getting up twice - once around midnight and once around 4am. I wasn't thrilled with that especially since he was often up for 90 minutes the first time he got up. On our vacation he started getting up even more often. He'd usually sleep 3 hours the first stretch and then have two 2 hour stretches and then one less than 1 hour. He was getting at the most 8 hours of sleep. I thought maybe it was because he was napping too much in the day since he enjoyed sleeping in my mom's arms more than in the Nap Nanny. On Saturday and Sunday none of his naps were really long. In fact all of them were less than 45 minutes with the exception of the one he took while I was mowing on Saturday. I was very disappointed that his sleep pattern remained the same on Saturday and Sunday night. In fact on Sunday night I did let him cry for about 30 minutes one time as I thought maybe I needed to let him CIO to get him to stop waking up so frequently. I realize that getting him after 30 minutes of crying is not a good move. Either I need to get him right away or let him cry himself to sleep. For whatever reason I am having a really hard time doing CIO with Ian.
Thankfully last night was a better night. His first stretch was 5 hours long. WOOHOO! His second was 2.5 hours long. I honestly was happy that it was 30 minutes longer than usual. I'm hoping he keeps going in the right direction because I haven't been going to bed right after putting him down. Last night for example he went down at 7:40 and I went to bed at 8:40. So if he had only gotten his usual 8 hours last night, I would have gotten less than 7. Sunday night I went to bed almost 2 hours after I put him down so I never got an even 2 hour stretch of being in bed. I hope he'll quickly get back to getting up only once during the night like he was a couple of months ago. I know he's not really hungry during the night as he's not even wanting any bottle after I nurse him until after 4am. The feedings earlier than that are just of Mommy milk. The one good thing is that at least lately he hasn't been staying up longer than 30 minutes each time he gets up. I think the fact that he nurses better during the night than he does during the day is part of the reason I've had a hard time moving to CIO. I think I'm afraid that doing so might bring an end to nursing, and my (revised) goal has been to make it at least until he turns 6 months old. I do think we will achieve that goal!
Last night I was up with Ian from 12:45-1:15am and 3:45-4:45am. Ian went down at 7:40pm and got up at 6:25am. That was definitely the best night he's had in quite awhile as for a few weeks he's only been getting a total of 8 hours of sleep and last night he got a little over 9 hours. I could have gotten 8 hours of sleep if Nadia hadn't gotten up at 5:15. This means from 3:45 onward I got less than 30 minutes of sleep as I didn't fall asleep immediately after putting him back down at 4:45. Mommy can't seem to catch a break!!
I've gotten 3 letters recently from the hospital letting me know of doctors who are leaving whom I have been a patient of previously. One of the ones I got yesterday was about Dr. A. I actually got two letters about his departure (I assume retirement) as one was from him and the other from the hospital. I felt sad when I read the letter even though we don't plan to see an RE again. The ironic thing is that at first I wasn't keen on him. I liked the partner he had a few years ago better. Dr. A was quick to cancel cycles (or threaten to cancel them) and was in my opinion too conservative in picking doses of meds when I was doing inj/iui. Plus when he did my first iui it was extremely painful whereas it didn't hurt much at all when his partner Dr. W did it. Dr. A was the one who supervised my two ivf cycles. He did the first and third transfers (he didn't do Nadia's transfer). Obviously my feelings changed along the way! I was his patient from 2004-2009. I was a patient of seven RE's from 2003-2009 (just two clinics), and I have to say in the end he was my favorite. We went from hand shakes to hugs, and he was always doting on Nadia during my second ivf cycle. I feel sad knowing that if I'm at the hospital for some other reason I can't drop by and say hi to him and show him Ian and Nadia any more. He's worked very hard and is well deserving of retirement. I am grateful for the part he played in the Lord bringing us our children.
Prior to his 4 month doctor appt Ian was regularly sleeping 6-9 hours the first stretch. For some reason after we started supplementing he started waking up more often. For awhile he was getting up twice - once around midnight and once around 4am. I wasn't thrilled with that especially since he was often up for 90 minutes the first time he got up. On our vacation he started getting up even more often. He'd usually sleep 3 hours the first stretch and then have two 2 hour stretches and then one less than 1 hour. He was getting at the most 8 hours of sleep. I thought maybe it was because he was napping too much in the day since he enjoyed sleeping in my mom's arms more than in the Nap Nanny. On Saturday and Sunday none of his naps were really long. In fact all of them were less than 45 minutes with the exception of the one he took while I was mowing on Saturday. I was very disappointed that his sleep pattern remained the same on Saturday and Sunday night. In fact on Sunday night I did let him cry for about 30 minutes one time as I thought maybe I needed to let him CIO to get him to stop waking up so frequently. I realize that getting him after 30 minutes of crying is not a good move. Either I need to get him right away or let him cry himself to sleep. For whatever reason I am having a really hard time doing CIO with Ian. 
Thankfully last night was a better night. His first stretch was 5 hours long. WOOHOO! His second was 2.5 hours long. I honestly was happy that it was 30 minutes longer than usual. I'm hoping he keeps going in the right direction because I haven't been going to bed right after putting him down. Last night for example he went down at 7:40 and I went to bed at 8:40. So if he had only gotten his usual 8 hours last night, I would have gotten less than 7. Sunday night I went to bed almost 2 hours after I put him down so I never got an even 2 hour stretch of being in bed. I hope he'll quickly get back to getting up only once during the night like he was a couple of months ago. I know he's not really hungry during the night as he's not even wanting any bottle after I nurse him until after 4am. The feedings earlier than that are just of Mommy milk. The one good thing is that at least lately he hasn't been staying up longer than 30 minutes each time he gets up. I think the fact that he nurses better during the night than he does during the day is part of the reason I've had a hard time moving to CIO. I think I'm afraid that doing so might bring an end to nursing, and my (revised) goal has been to make it at least until he turns 6 months old. I do think we will achieve that goal! 
Last night I was up with Ian from 12:45-1:15am and 3:45-4:45am. Ian went down at 7:40pm and got up at 6:25am. That was definitely the best night he's had in quite awhile as for a few weeks he's only been getting a total of 8 hours of sleep and last night he got a little over 9 hours. I could have gotten 8 hours of sleep if Nadia hadn't gotten up at 5:15. This means from 3:45 onward I got less than 30 minutes of sleep as I didn't fall asleep immediately after putting him back down at 4:45. Mommy can't seem to catch a break!!
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