Better to be Outside!

Ian and I enjoyed the nicer weather while we were at a playground during Nadia's ballet class. Well it's even prettier out today. Normally one of the neighbor girls come over on Tuesday afternoons to watch the kids for 60-90 minutes while I grade, but I called their mom this morning and said I don't want to grade this afternoon. I wanted to walk to our polling place and vote and then head to the playground from there. Yesterday it was still chilly in the morning, but today it was even nice out this morning! We played in the backyard this morning, and a grandmother walking a dog while pushing her granddaughter in a stroller even came and joined us in the backyard for awhile. Her granddaughter is 3 weeks younger than Ian (although Ian should have been younger as she came after her December 28 due date and Ian came before his January 20 due date).

Another reason it was better to be outside today was because our basement flooded - again! Our pump stopped working at some point, and we didn't know it. It hasn't rained in several days so we weren't expecting any water in the basement. Paul discovered over 8 inches of water this morning, and he had recently put some boxes on the floor so we'll be throwing away some things, and I'll be washing a lot of clothes that were floating around the basement. The backup pump makes a horrible sound when it's running, so that was another reason it was better to be outside today.

Nadia woke up at 6:20 on Sunday, 7:00 yesterday, and 5:30 today. Yesterday I had hoped that both kids had transitioned to the time change, but today that hope was dashed. The good news is that Ian slept until 7:00 all three days. Way to go, Ian!

Ian has started breaking the pretzels when he chomps down on them while licking them. However, he's not swallowing any of it. So Karen said today that I should start giving him crushed puffs on a spoon so that he gets used to swallowing crumbs. I had no idea how complicated it can be to teach a child to eat. No idea.

Today was cd1. The past two cycles were each 38 days long. I called the ivf nurse this morning, and she said to start the bcp today. I asked her if it would be possible to stay on the bcp until a couple of days before Christmas so that the egg retrieval could be around January 9th (when the embryology portion of the clinic will reopen). The plan she had mapped out on October 27th entailed the retrieval taking place in the middle of December. The primary advantage to waiting would be that we could use a FSA to pay for $3,500 of the cost, which would save us at least $700 in monies that otherwise would be paid to the government. She said either option was possible. If we go the earlier route I'd only stay on the bcp for about 2 weeks, and if we go with the January option I'd be on the active pills for about 6 weeks. I'm really hoping to hear the President's decision by the end of this week as Friday is the deadline for setting up a FSA for 2012. I told the ivf nurse I'd call her by the end of the week to let her know when we'd be starting the cycle. I'll have to have one appointment while on the pill (for the mock transfer and sonohysterogram. Part of me wants to go with the sooner option because I'm not feeling very patient lately, but $700 is a lot of money!