Goal check-up

I think one reason it's easy to let goals for the year slip to the wayside is because we honestly just forget what they were. So I've decided for the rest of the year to do a check-up around the first of each month to try to hold myself accountable.
One goal (the 8th one) has partially been met in that Ian is daytime potty trained. Also, we have plans to spend the month of April at Hershey which should address the eating part of that goal. Hopefully by the end of 2012 he'll also be wearing underwear overnight. Ian made one significant step of progress in his potty training today in that he pooped on a public potty for the first time! Unless he's pooped at church for a nursery worker, this was her first time pooping in any potty other than his frog potty as he went at gymnastics today. Way to go, Ian!
It's been easier to keep up with my quiet time lately because I've been doing a Bible study in the book of James over the past seven weeks. The test will be when this study ends if I can stay consistent.

In January I did make a plan for the meals for the month, but I didn't do that in February. I'm going to work on that this week for the month of March. I probably won't attempt it for April since we won't be home very much that month. I have still been doing pretty well at trying new recipes. When I make the plan for March, I think I'm going to avoid crockpot recipes. I discovered yesterday that cooking with a crockpot in the first trimester is NOT a smart move. Oh the nausea from the smell of food cooking...
I haven't been consistent yet with Nadia' chores, but she is helping out more around the house. I'm definitely doing better with being more consistent with "homeschooling." Today for example I started working with her on learning the names of baby animals (foal, kid, calf, etc.), and we work on her letters and numbers almost every day. I haven't started teaching them sign language. I forgot! I'd like to start that THIS month.
I haven't worked on honing my photography skills lately. Hopefully I'll have time for that in the near future. I have done better with not making five million photo books. I am planning on making one towards the end of this month, which will be the first one I've made in 2012.

So, I have made progress in some areas, and in other areas I need to get back on the bandwagon so to speak! I didn't have any weight type goal on my goals for the year this time because I wasn't sure if I was going to conceive or not. I do have as a goal that I gain less than 30 pounds during the whole pregnancy. Speaking of the pregnancy, I am 9 weeks as of today! The ticker says that baby is over one inch long and has 10 fingers and 10 toes. Amazing. My first OB appointment is next week.

So long, nursery!

Ian was promoted to the preschool Sunday School class (for ages 2- pre-kindergarten) and Wee Worship (during the worship service) on Sunday. This means Nadia and Ian are together for both. I asked if he could be promoted, and they said he was eligible ever since he turned two. With Nadia, they had taken the initiative to promote her (before she turned two) so I thought it was their call. Anyhow, my little boy is growing up. He's not in the nursery any more. The Sunday School teacher told me that Nadia was frustrated with Ian because he wasn't completing a paper correctly. Nadia then said to the teacher, "But I love him anyhow." LOL! I hope so!
Ian's streak of not having any accidents was broken on Saturday night (which was day #7) as he pooped in the bathtub before bed. GROSS! On Sunday he peed in his car seat on the way home from Paul's parent's house, but he was asleep when that happened. Similarly, he peed in his crib during his nap yesterday. Hopefully today we can start a new, longer streak. At least the accidents on Sunday and Monday were when he was sleeping. He objects to me putting a diaper on him at night, and he begs to have his underwear on when I get him in the morning. Until he's eating more solid food, there is no way he'll be able to sleep through the night and stay dry. We still struggle with him leaking through his diapers at night. I'd rather him wear a diaper than take him the potty every couple of hours throughout the night. The other thing that I think will improve once he gets back to eating more food by spoon is how long he sleeps at night. He used to get up between 7:00-7:45am, and now he gets up between 5:30-6:30am. Last night it was a struggle to keep him up past 7:00pm. I had to keep waking him up, and on Sunday he took two naps in the car. It's been a LONG time since he took two naps in one day. This shows he's not getting enough sleep at night these days, and his nap is still only 30 minutes in his crib.
He's going to start at Hershey on either March 26 or April 2. He'll be there from 8:30am-5:00pm Monday through Friday. They said they give the parent one hour off for lunch, and they let the child nap during that time. They said Nadia can stay with me the whole time, and she can nap if she wants to nap. Ironically, she did take a nap in her bed for the first time in a month - since she isn't wearing her thumb guards any more. We'll come home on the weekends, as we'll all want to see Paul. I'm trying to decide whether we should stay at Ronald McDonald's House or Paul's parents' house the other four nights. A professor offered to teach my Tuesday night classes for the first three weeks of April. What a blessing! This means hopefully I'll only have to make three trips from Hershey to my university to teach (Thursday nights). I'm planning to attend a conference in DC the last week of March. We shall see how this all works out. I really hope and pray that Ian makes a LOT of progress through this intensive feeding program. Right now it is not going well At All. He really got spoiled by the 2.5 weeks of only drinking Elecare. He's screaming over just about every bite I try to get him to swallow. I'm so very tired of this battle, which has now gone on for 21 months.

Learning my lesson

Recently I made brownies for Paul since he hadn't been eating any of the oatmeal raisin cookies. Brownies are typically one of my most favorite foods, but I feel horrible (heartburn, etc.) after eating chocolate while pregnant. It takes awhile for me to learn to avoid chocolate. At first I find myself thinking, what if I had just a tiny piece of a brownie, that would be okay, right? Wrong. Yesterday we went from church to Paul's parents' house for our nephew Shawn's 16th birthday party. Millie had made a yellow cake (with white frosting) as well as chocolate cupcakes (some with white frosting, some with chocolate frosting, and some with peanut butter frosting). If I wasn't pregnant, I would definitely pick the chocolate/peanut butter combo. I sat there going back and forth in my mind. I finally picked the yellow cake. I decided the taste of chocolate/peanut butter wasn't worth hours of heartburn. I was glad I made the right decision. Of course eating cake and ice cream wasn't the best choice given my issues with my blood sugar, but at least I didn't have heartburn! As to the blood sugar issues, I am eating more protein, and that is definitely helping. I eat a hardboiled egg with my cereal or oatmeal each morning. Between the "morning sickness" (whoever coined that term didn't understand that for most women it's an all-day sickness), heartburn, and blood sugar issues, there are very few times in the day when I don't feel sick to my stomach. Eating often helps (especially if what I eat doesn't have much sugar), but I can't be eating all day long!

There have been a few times when my blood sugar got really low and eating something sweet actually helped. On Saturday morning I took the kids to Target for their Read Across America event (reading Dr. Seuss books). When we got home I felt extremely dizzy and lightheaded. I heated a bowl of soup thinking that I was just really hungry. Eating the soup didn't help at all. I looked in the mirror and saw I was very pale. Finally it hit me that I probably needed some sugar. Sure enough eating a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies made me feel a million times better. Paul said I need to keep some food in my purse at all times just in case. I plan on telling the OB next week that I think I have GD. I am not sure if they'll test me this early. I also want to try and find my glucometer before my appointment. I'm  not sure if I kept it or sold it. Last time I sold my unused ivf meds. This time I had a LOT more left over, but I decided to donate them to the RE clinic instead of selling them. They'll give them to a patient who doesn't have Rx coverage for fertility drugs. I handed over my unused syringes, Menopur, and Follistim when I had my ultrasound on Thursday.

Nadia has noticed on several occasions that I haven't been feeling well (tired, nauseous, dizzy, etc.). On Saturday she said, "It's not good to have a baby in your belly." I immediately told her that although sometimes it didn't feel good, I was sooooooooooooo very happy there is a baby in my womb. I told her it's a very wonderful thing to have a baby. Whenever we've read Bible stories about a woman longing for a baby (ex. Hannah), I have always told her that I prayed for years to have a baby, and that I was sooooooooo happy when I found out I was going to have her. Pregnancy is physically uncomfortable (at least for me, I know some say they felt wonderful during their pregnancies), but it's oh sooooooooo definitely worth it!!!

Prince Needed

Yesterday I overheard Nadia playing with her princess figurines, and she had two of them marrying each other. I quickly interjected that girls don't marry girls. Yes, I know that's legal in a few states, but I don't plan to bring that topic up for several more years. I explained that a girl marries a boy. Then it hit me that I should get her a prince figurine. The five Disney princesses I got her were 60 cents each at the dollar store. First I looked on eBay, and then I looked on the Disney website. This was an instance when eBay was definitely NOT the cheaper way to go. It was much cheaper to order them from Disney. I found several figure play sets (ex. the Cinderella one includes Drizella, Anastasia, Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother, etc.). I believe her favorite toy lately has been those 5 figurines. She plays with them for hours every day. Ian likes them also. I ordered a few different play sets last night - Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, etc. I am going to give the figures out very gradually. I'll use some as rewards for small accomplishments, and I'll save some of them to give her in June for her fourth birthday. Yesterday she was combining one of her favorite books (Chrysthanamum) and the princesses. I could hear her having one princess tell the other things like "I'm named after my Grandmother; you're named after a flower." These figures plus her stuffed animals provide for a lot of imaginitive play, which I want to encourage! The first figure I'm going to give her is one of the princes so the princesses will have a man to marry.  The figure play sets were not much more expensive than the ones at the dollar store. Each set was $7.20 and included 6-8 figures. I thought that was pretty reasonable.
Her love of fairy tales has brought about the need to explain the difference between true stories and fantasy. She understands those stories didn't really happen, but now she's made statements which made me realize she has begun to think the Bible stories didn't really happen either. I'm working on making it clear the Bible is non-fiction (although I haven't used that exact term with her). She went from thinking everything was a true story to now thinking everything is a fairy tale. I'm sure it's confusing at times when you're 3 years old!

Today Nadia did a 63 piece puzzle (one she had never done before) all by herself! Way to go, Nadia! She's also doing very well with not sucking her thumb. The thumb guards have been off the past three days. I did catch her sucking her thumb a couple of times, but I reminded her the thumb guards would go back on, and that was all it took to keep her thumbs out of her mouth. I don't know if she's sucking her thumb at night, but during the day the thumbs are staying out of her mouth!

I'm praying for Paul this week because he's working on a conference proposal that is due on Thursday (he's planning to speak in Philadelphia in May right before our trip to Grand Cayman), and he's also planning on asking his advisor this week if she thinks he can graduate by August (so that he can apply for the job in the Lancaster area). I am hoping she says yes! It costs a small fortune for him to drive to school as his trip is 70 miles one-way, and gas prices are on the rise. It would be so awesome if he could complete his PhD in the next 6 months!

I'm also praying for a friend of mine who is doing ivf for #2. Her donor's egg retrieval is on Tuesday, which means my friend should have her embryo transfer on Friday. Praying this will result in a sticky bfp for her!!! Just like Nadia, her son (who will be 5 in July) is praying for a baby sister. :-)

Cloth Diapers

I toyed with using cloth diapers with Nadia and again with Ian, and I decided awhile back that if we were blessed with a third child, I would definitely use cloth diapers this time around. I know this is a little backwards because cost wise it makes more sense to make this choice with an earlier child as the cost drops if you get more use out of the initial investment, but one of the reasons I am more inclined to go that route this time is because I don't plan to go back to work after having this little one, which means I'll have more time do some extra laundry each week. Plus, since we have one frozen blastocyst I know there is a possibility we'll have a fourth child, and in that case two babies will make use of the cloth diapers. I need some input as to which kind to buy. I know some of you have used/are using cloth diapers. What kind do you recommend? I know the woman who started The Little Bee company, and I think it's nice that they are using the company to help orphans, but I'll be influenced more by opinion of those who have used the various brands of cloth diapers.

While I'm asking for cloth diaper advice, could I also ask for input regarding slings? With Nadia and Ian I used a sling when they were really small and then switched to the Snugli when they got to big for the sling. The Infantino sling I used with them was recalled due to safety concerns. Although I got much better at using the Snugli, I still find a sling easier to put on and off. I am thinking I'll be using a sling a lot more this time around, for example if Nadia and Ian are in the stroller, baby #3 can be in the sling (and then later the Snugli). Do any of you have a safe brand of sling that you recommend? Thanks!

It was oh so reassuring to see the baby on Thursday. I think it was a combination of the ectopic in 2005, the bleeding I had at 4w0d, and the my tendency toward preterm delivery that had me stressed out. Although I love to see a bfp, I find a good ultrasound to be far more reassuring. Literally every time I picked Ian up the past few weeks I would worry that I might be doing something which would cause a miscarriage. I tried to reassure myself that I was picking Nadia up when I was pregnant with Ian, but knowing that me picking her up at 34w led to my water breaking with Ian was really hard for me to forget. Similarly, it was carrying the kids up the stairs that triggered my labor for the placenta in January 2010. It's three times now that exercise has brought on labor (both kids and then the placenta 5 weeks after Ian's birth). I will definitely try to take it as easy as possible once I'm in the third trimester, but it's so nice to know I don't need to worry right now. The last two days when I've had that thought when I've carried Ian, I've reminded myself that I saw our baby on Thursday, and he/she is doing just fine. It's okay to carry Ian, walk to the park, etc. I'm hoping eventually I'll convince myself to the point that I won't have this mental debate so many times a day.

3.66 years old

1. I forgot to mention last month that Nadia has often been speaking of herself in the third person. It cracks me up. For example when working on her alphabet flash cards she'll say "C she shouted" after she says the letter "C" with enthusiasm.

2. I also forgot to mention last month that she has been assigning roles to all her stuffed animals - this teddy bear is a grandma, this other one is the Mommy, this one is the Daddy, etc. It's confusing for me because she asks me to go get "Grandpa," and as I look at the stuffed animals I have NO idea which one she's referring to.
3. This past month was the month of the thumb guard. They came off this morning, and thus far I haven't seen her sucking her thumbs at all. If she starts sucking her thumb again, I'll be putting the guards back on.

4. She now knows all her capital letters and also numbers 1-5! Way to go, Nadia!

5. Shampooing hair became easier over the past month as I learned that if she is in charge of dumping the water over her head to get her hair wet and then rinse out the shampoo, she doesn't cry! What an easy solution!

6. Over this past month she has continued to include Uncle Maurice in all her prayers, but she has also added Susie and Aunt Wendy to the list. Those names (in addition to Mommy and Daddy) are included in every prayer, and it varies whom else she includes (ex. Grandma, Grandpa, Ian, the baby, etc.).

7. She feeds herself everything but vegetables. Vegetables don't require too much of a fight as long as someone else feeds her and there are some raisins included in each bite.

8. I put a stool in the bathroom over the past month, and she has loved being able to wash her hands and face herself.

9. She's not very particular about what clothing I pick out for her each day, but she is picky about her socks. She wants to wear pink socks Every Single Day. If she can't wear pink, her second choice would be her Curious George socks.

10. She gave up her nap over the past month. Nap time has become room time. It's funny to listen to her on the monitor. She has quite an imagination! The nap went away because of the thumb guards.

11. We recently went back to having her go to sleep in a dark room because leaving Paul's office light on resulted in her staying up way too late many nights, especially considering she recently gave up her nap.

12. Ironically, she is the one who objects about me going to work on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and some Fridays (whereas Ian used to be the one with the separation issues).

13. She's now doing 100 piece puzzles every day. She can't do that size by herself yet, but I imagine that might change over the next month. She can do up to 48 piece puzzles by herself.

14. I started reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle to her, but it didn't capture her attention like Charlotte's Web. I'll have to try to find another chapter book to read to her.

15. Some of her favorite picture books lately have included Winnie the Pooh, Bread and Jam for Frances (and other titles in that series), and many of Kevin Henkes' books.

16. She loves to be my helper. She enjoys doing things like setting the table for dinner and helping put books back on the bookshelf after Ian takes them all off.

17. She loves everything that relates to princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty in particular).

Very Thankful Thursday

1. I had my long awaited ultrasound today. What a glorious sight to see our sweet little baby and what a glorious sound to hear his/her heartbeat!! PTL!!!!!! I almost started crying right there on the table (tears of joy). We also could see the yolk sack and placenta, which means I don't need to refill my Prometrium (I'll keep taking it for 2 more weeks until my current bottle is all used up). Thank you, Lord!!!!!!!! What a miracle!!!!!!!

2. I was really, really struggling to stay awake yesterday. What a blessing that the temps were warm enough to warrant a walk to the playground. The fresh air woke me up. My headache didn't go away, but at least I felt alert.

3. We didn't have choir rehearsal last night because our choir director is in Texas visiting her daughter. I always enjoy choir rehearsals, but not having rehearsal last night was most helpful because while Nadia was at Cubbies Paul played with Ian, and this enabled me to spend about one hour reviewing promotion applications.

4. I went to bed at 8:30pm (after Nadia fell asleep). I was worried that the battle over not having Paul's office light on would be a big deal, but it took less than 15 minutes for her to calm down. Whew. I feel a million times better today than I did yesterday. I don't have a headache! Getting 9.5 hours of sleep last night was very helpful.

5. Periodically I've been looking to see what job possibilities are out there for Paul. I was soooooo excited yesterday to see two listings that weren't there the last time I checked. The first is for a tenure track position in Physical Chemistry (his area) at a college in the Lancaster area!!! I would love to live in that area! It would be ideal in terms of how far we'd be from Paul's family and my family, and there are so many nice things in that area in terms of restaurants, shopping, churches, entertainment (ex. Dutch Wonderland, Hershey Park, and Sight and Sound), etc. The application deadline is in 4 weeks. The first step is that Paul needs to talk to his advisor to make sure she thinks he can graduate by August. I'd appreciate prayers about that! The second one that excited me was for a "visiting professor" position. It's just a one year position, but the reason I am excited is because they will hire someone who is ABD, and the school is about 20 minutes from our house. If he isn't going to graduate until December OR if he doesn't get a tenure track job offer for August, it would be wonderful if he could teach there for one year as we wouldn't need to move. He could finish his PhD and apply for jobs (that would start in August 2013) if he was able to teach there for one year. Please pray that Paul will talk to his advisor in the very near future. I realize there's zero guarantee he'll get this job even if she says he can graduate in August, but it's exciting to have a possibility that seems so very appealing! Paul wants to teach at a teaching centered university (some care more about research than their students), and this university is the kind he'd like to end up at. It's also the kind that it's not really difficult to earn tenure (some schools advertise a position as being tenure track but rarely actually grant tenure to anyone). Paul hasn't had a job since December 2005 as he's been a full-time student since January 2006. It's exciting to me that maybe he'll have a job in August!

6. Ian's last accident was on Saturday. Yay for five days in a row without any accidents!

7. Ian is eating some solid food again! He threw up twice yesterday, but neither was a case of projectile vomiting. Once was when he was crying (because he didn't want to leave the playground) and the other was when he was laughing. He's had pears the last three days so tomorrow he's going to have some bananas.

Eight Weeks

According to my ticker, our little one is about one inch long and his/her earlobes are now visible. My ultrasound was originally scheduled for today. Part of me wishes I had kept my original appointment, but it's really not worth the extra hour on the road. Plus if I went today I'd have the kids with me. Tomorrow I'm going en route to school, and Beth will be watching the kids. I only wish Paul could be there. It will be soooooooooooo wonderful to see that baby is doing just fine and to have confirmation that yes indeed I'm only carrying one baby (since we transferred two there's still a chance I'm carrying twins). It's amazing how someone who is only one inch long can create such havoc in someone else who is 67 inches long.
I tried to go to bed early last night, but I actually was up later than usual because Miss Nadia had a royal fit (which lasted more than an hour) after Paul turned off the light in his office at 9:15. At one point she was standing up on her piano bench. I have no idea why, but for now we're going to leave that out of her room as I don't want her to injure herself. I removed quite a few of the stuffed animals from her room this morning, as she's taken to putting them ALL on her bed, which literally hardly leaves any room for her body. I let her pick about ten of them to keep in her room so that if she choose to put them ALL in her bed it won't be a ridiculous amount. Also, we've decided not to leave Paul's office light on any more when she goes to bed. We will probably have a battle over that tonight, but we decided in the long run it will create fewer bedtime battles and help her go to sleep more quickly if we go back to putting her to bed in the dark, which was the case for most of her life to this point. Since she just recently gave up her 2-3 hour nap, she really can't afford to get only 8 hours of sleep at night. If these two strategies don't do the trick, we're going to also move her bedtime up earlier. One way or the other we want her to get more sleep at night.

Because Ian only had 8 ounces of EleCare from 1pm until he went to bed at 8pm, he woke up at 6am. I was expecting it (in contrast I gave him 56 ounces from 7am to 1pm yesterday), but it still was unpleasant because it meant I only got 7 hours of sleep last night, and I've been getting at least 9 hours of sleep on the nights that I teach (and I taught yesterday). I'm exhausted at the moment. I'm evidently not the only one who is tired because Ian fell asleep in the car at 10:40 on the way home from gymnastics and the library. Thankfully his 5 minute nap in the car didn't make it impossible for him to have a nap in his crib this afternoon. Neither child had a nap or quiet time yesterday because Beth came early. On a day like today, I would give my right arm if Ian would take a nap longer than 30 minutes. I. Am. So. Tired. I would pay someone to watch the kids just so I could take a nap! The bright side is that the weather is really nice (in the low 50's) so after I deem Nadia's quiet time to be over, we're headed to the park. Hopefully the fresh air will wake me up.

Chaos

We were almost home from Bible study when Nadia started to tell me she wasn't feeling well. I knew that meant she was going to throw up. I contemplated pulling over and having her throw up on a sidewalk, but that seemed sort of rude. I just hoped that she'd make it another two minutes until we were home. Nope. The last time she threw up (5 weeks ago) I thought that I should put a small wastebasket in the car to use the next time that happened. I forgot about that plan. Well tomorrow I am putting a trashcan in the car. I am not going to forget this time! So when we arrived in the garage we had a bit of chaos because Ian was starving. He was crying and begging for milk. Nadia was covered in vomit, and I also was very hungry as we eat lunch earlier most days. When I am hungry and pregnant, it means I am nauseous, and of course cleaning Nadia up was only intensifying that. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I eat my "dinner" at lunch becasue I just have something like a sandwich or yogurt for dinner in my office. I had made meatballs last night, but I still needed to boil the spaghetti noodles today. Well I decided to make a sippy cup for Ian and then take both kids up to the bathtub so I could wash Nadia's hair, etc. Ian drank his lunch in the bathtub. During this time I was also calling Paul trying to figure out if he should come home early. After taking her temp, we came to the conclusion it was car sickness not the stomach flu. This was confirmed as she kept asking for more food at lunch a few minutes later.

To add to the chaos, Beth called me at 12:45 and said she wanted to pick the kids up at 1:00 (two hours earlier than normal) because her daughter had a 2:00 dentist appointment in another town. So I had 15 minutes to finish feeding the kids, take them both to the bathroom, get their shoes and coats on, etc. This meant that I didn't eat my lunch until 1:30pm (two hours later than usual). The good news is that it was in fact car sickness. She didn't throw up any more and ate a big dinner for Paul. One perk of Beth taking the kids two hours early is that I spent about 90 minutes in the library reviewing promotion documentation.

In the midst of the chaos, I forgot two things. When I arrived on campus I realized I had forgotten to take my afternoon dose of Prometrium. I try to take it every 7-9 hours because I'm supposed to take it three times a day. I take one when I go to bed at night, one sometime between 5:30-6:30am, and one at 1pm when I put Ian down for his nap. I'm supposed to not be active for 15 minutes after taking it. Once before I forgot to take my afternoon dose, but it was a day I was on campus for a faculty meeting and was home by 5pm. This definitely was the longest I went in between doses (14 hours). I'm planning on taking my next one in the middle of the night rather than when I go to bed to spread them out a little. The other thing I forgot was to leave a door unlocked. I had made a sippy cup for the neighbors to give Ian when they got home. My poor boy had nothing to eat until Paul came home at 5:30pm. I felt awful when I learned this (at 8pm). Because of this problem and the the chaos at lunchtime, Ian was only fed solid food once today. I fed him a few bites of pureed pears for breakfast. The good news is that he didn't throw up at all today! I am planning to feed him pureed pears four times tomorrow. I'm still going to keep the quantity per meal small for now, but this was a big step forward as it was the first time he ate solid foods without throwing up in almost 3 weeks.

A to Z!

A - Yesterday Nadia got all the letters of the alphabet correct when we worked on her flashcards. Way to go, Nadia!! I know that there are two year olds that know all the letters of the alphabet, but just a few months ago she didn't know ANY letters. She picked them up fairly quickly I think! There are still a few letters that she hasn't totally mastered. I do have some lowercase flashcards included in her pile, but they are the ones that don't really look different (ex. "c", "o," "y," "z," "p", etc.). I haven't decided whether I'm going to start working on the lowercase letters next week or associating sounds with the letters. Right now I am just focused on getting her to the point where she gets all the uppercase letters correct on the first try.

B - I asked the ballet teacher today if I could pay $60 for the next three months instead of the usual $90 since Nadia will be missing 5 weeks of classes due to Ian's hospital stay (plus our one week vacation). She said we could attend classes on another night to make the classes up. Umm we can't attend ANY classes while living in Hershey for a month. I know it's only $30, but I have to admit I felt annoyed that there was no consideration for our unique circumstances.
C - Nadia has often said that oatmeal raisin cookies are her favorite. I made some last week because I thought they were her favorite. Paul doesn't like that kind of cookie. They're really tasty, but I've been eating almost all of them myself. I won't be making oatmeal raisin cookies again for quite awhile!

D - This was one letter that was hard for Nadia at first as she confused it with "B," but it's not hard for her any more.
E - Ian almost went through an entire can of EleCare in one day today. I lost track of how many ounces he drank.
F  - Nadia has really been enjoying the Frances books lately (ex. Bread and Jam for Frances).

G - This letter was very easy for Nadia to learn.

H-  This is one of the letters she still has some trouble with.

I  - Nadia and I enjoyed two free cones at Friendly's on Saturday. Well actually the coupons we used cost me 20 cents each. A very inexpensive and delicious treat. I had Nuts over Caramel, and Nadia had Cookies and Cream.

J - Ian still refers to Nadia's Cinderella figurine as "Jonah". Go figure.

K - Ian is really starting to be aware of other kids. When I picked him up from the nursery recently, he pointed to another boy and said "That's Ryan." And he was right!

L - I ordered Nadia a game for her Leapster today as her reward for learning all the uppercase letters.

M - Ian is still obsessed with his Mater underwear. Sometimes he wants to change his underwear part way through the day because he just can't make up his mind whether he wants to wear Mater or Ramone underwear that day. What really cracks me up about this is that he's never seen the movie CARS!
N - Today I started working on teaching Nadia #1-5. My goal is that by the end of the week she will learn to identify the numbers 1-9 and the uppercase letters without any errors.
O - So many times a day Ian says "Are you okay, Ian?". It cracks me up!

P  - I'm going to attempt to feed Ian some pears tomorrow morning. I'm hoping it will go better than the last two attempts.

Q - Today at Walmart I bought some new nylons as mine (size B) were really tight on my belly. Why do nylons go from size A to B to Q? I think "C" would be much better. Q makes it sound like they are HUGE since the letter is so removed from B in the alphabet. I know it stands for "queen" but I think of queen size as referring to a size of bed.
R  - Ian's other favorite character from CARS is definitely Ramone. If he sees any purple car, he calls it Ramone.

S - Another one of Ian's most favorite words to say is "scary." At ballet today he told another mom that penguins are scary. I don't think so!

T - She called this "I" at first, but it didn't take her too long to learn.

U  - Only three more days until the ultrasound...I can't wait but at other times I get very nervous about it. Paul was there when we had the first ultrasound for Nadia and Ian. I'll be on my own this time. That will be fine unless I happen to get bad news.

V  - Nadia had her first taste of red velvet (cupcakes) on Friday night as our neighbors brought over 3 cupcakes for us for Valentine's. Of course Nadia's favorite part was the frosting (as always).
W - Nadia has really been into Winnie the Pooh lately. Today I read her a 334 page Winnie the Pooh storybook collection from cover to cover.

X -  When Nadia was first learning the letter "x" she used to say "x-ray." Thankfully she now just says "x." She definitely associates the word x-ray with x!

Y - My sister Yvonne (and her family) are planning to come to the US in the fall! I'm excited becuase at that point it will have been about 2.25 years since we've seen them. We haven't met Joel, and he'll be turning 1 in 3 months. This also means they should be able to meet our newest arrival while he or she is still rather young.
Z  - This was one of the easiest letters for Nadia to learn.

Early to Bed

Paul was shocked when I told him last night I was going to bed after I put the kids to bed. I told him I could easily have gone to bed at 6:30pm. I climbed into bed at 8:03pm. It was actually a struggle to stay up that "late." I thought I'd get up earlier than usual (maybe 5 or 6am) and get some work done before the kids got up, but I didn't get up until 6:45, which meant I just went straight to the shower. I've definitely reached the "exhausted" stage of the first trimester. I'm grateful this stage doesn't last the whole pregnancy as I usually get work done every night (ex. grading, reviewing promotion applications, doing my Bible study lessons, etc.).

Today I noticed that the hospital gave us a credit ten days ago for $1,277. We had originally paid them $8,200. Our refund would have been bigger, but we didn't prepay for ICSI or freezing an embryo so those costs were deducted from our refund. I am not sure if they did assisted hatching, but we also didn't prepay for that, and they might have done that (which is also an additional cost). Including what we paid for medication, we paid $7,016.64 total. Considering I should be seeing our little one on the ultrasound in four days, it was money very well spent! The FET cycle will cost $2,250 plus meds.

Ian threw up once on Friday. What was the culprit? Laughing. For many months laughing caused him to throw up, but that hadn't happened for 9 months. The allergist said to wait until Tuesday to try reintroducing a little pureed fruit. He didn't throw up yesterday or today. When he was eating solid food, he used to go through a can of EleCare in 2.5 days. Since that's all he's consuming now, he's gone through 3 cans in the past 5 days. I'm hoping my attempt to feed him on Tuesday won't cause him to throw up. I was very happy that he pooped in the potty today, as he hadn't done that since Monday. On Thursday and Saturday I had two VERY disgusting messes to clean up (which required me giving him showers to clean his legs off).

Over the past 16 days he's only had a few bites of food. Yesterday afternoon Nadia took a nap (in the car) for the first time in 19 days. I guess her days of napping aren't totally over yet. Only four more days of wearing the thumb guards.

A lot less sleep

Nadia has been wearing her thumb guards for three weeks now. The instructions say to have the child wear it 24 hours a day for 4 weeks. Next Friday morning I'm planning on taking it off and leaving it off. We shall see if this worked in breaking her of the thumb sucking habit. The thumb guards have definitely broke her of her habit of taking a nap. Over the last three weeks she's only taken 2 naps. Both of those were in the car, and they were within the first four days of wearing the thumb guard. It's been 2.5 weeks since she took any kind of nap. She used to sleep for 1.5-3 hours most days. Now she has room time for 1-2 hours instead. I thought that if she gave up the nap it would mean she'd sleep more at night (either sleep in later or fall asleep more quickly at night). It's hard to say if she would have slept in later in the morning, because I think Ian wakes her up most days. He's been waking up earlier than usual the last two weeks since he hasn't been eating any solid food. Thankfully today he slept until 7:00am, but he has been waking up between 5:30-6:30am most days lately.

Last night I was exhausted and had a splitting headache when I came home from class. I didn't go straight to bed, but I did head up for bed at 9:10pm. Lately Nadia has wanted Paul's office light on when she goes to bed. His office is right across from her bedroom so if her door is open, it does shed a little light into her room. I turned off his light when I came upstairs, and I was shocked when this prompted Nadia to start crying. She had been in bed for over an hour at that point, as we put her to bed at 8pm (except on Wednesdays when she goes to bed later because of Cubbbies). We had a major battle over the fact that Mommy was not going to turn Daddy's light back on because it was time for her to go to SLEEP. At one point I assumed she was asleep (because she had been quiet for awhile), and I fell asleep. However a few minutes later I was awakened by light. She had turned on Paul's office light! It was now 10pm, and she was still awake! Oi vey! I shut my door and let Paul handle the situation at that point. After a few more minutes of screaming, she finally went to sleep. Needless to say, she has been very tired today (yawning, fussy). My three year old needs more than 8.5 hours of sleep a day! Just one month ago she was averaging about 12 hours of sleep a day (10 at night and a 2 hour nap). I have a feeling that the nap isn't going to return even when we ditch the thumb guards, so I'm hoping she'll go back to sleep 10-11 hours at night. For the first time, Ian is averaging more sleep per day than Nadia. He takes a 30 minute nap and sleeps for an average of 11 hours at night. Of course when Nadia was Ian's age, she slept on average 13 hours a day (10 at night and a 3 hour nap). I'm hoping that child #3 will be like Nadia (not like Ian) in terms of sleeping habits. We shall see!

P.S. I snapped these pictures of Ian this morning when I discovered he had taken all the books out of this particular bin and plopped himself down inside of it.

7 weeks!

Only 8 more days until the ultrasound! I can't wait to see our little one. I know he/she has grown SO much since we saw him/her as a blastocyst. This morning I decided to try a more "diabetic friendly" breakfast. Lately I've been having a large bowl of cereal, and I'm sure that has more sugar than would be advisable (lately I've had things like Raisin Bran, Cinnamon Life, and Corn Pops). I had two slices of whole wheat toast with peanut butter. I'm not a big fan of peanut butter for breakfast, but I know there is protein in that, and I didn't want to have an egg for breakfast today. I felt better than I had been feeling after cereal, but I was still really hungry. So I had a light yogurt and a 90 calorie peanut butter granola bar a little bit later. That took away the hunger and morning sickness nausea. I did have some hot chocolate at lunch with a egg/cheese/bagel sandwich. Lately if I've had any chocolate, I've felt horrible shortly after eating it. I really think protein is the key. If I have some protein, my body can handle some sugar much better than if I don't have any protein. That's good to know that I don't have to give up all sweets if I combine it with protein. Now I need to track down my glucometer. Hopefully I still have it. The other thing I've learned is I must go to bed very early on Tuesday and Thursday if I want to have any energy on Wednesday and Friday. It seems that chasing after the kids from 7am-3pm and then working from 3pm-8pm is the most I can handle in the first trimester. I need extra sleep those nights. Last Wednesday I was too tired to go to choir rehearsal because I didn't go to bed early on Tuesday night. Tonight I was able to go because I went to bed early last night.

I spoke with Ian's allergist at 8:30am, and she suggested reintroducing one food today and then waiting 3 more days before reintroducing another food. She said to start very slowly in terms of the quantity. She told me this as we were headed out the door for gymanstics, the library, Dunkin Donuts, recycling center, and  bank, so I didn't try to feed him until lunch. I did stop at the health food store after gymnastics to buy him some coconut or almond milk yogurt, but they only had goat milk yogurt. I decided to try pureed pears instead. It was a disaster. After only a few bites he was spewing all over the place. I called the allergist back, and she said not to feed him anything more until I talk to her again on Friday. If he's still throwing up just on Elecare, she'll put him back on Pulmicort. If not, we'll try to reintroduce food again on Friday. I am really puzzled why he is having so much trouble this time around. Last summer once we got him on Elecare and eliminated milk, soy, eggs, and nuts, he stopped throwing up. In October when we first tried reintroducing milk, the very day we took milk out of his diet he stopped throwing up. At that point he wasn't on Elecare and wasn't on any medications. I just have NO idea why this time he's still throwing up even though he hasn't had any milk for almost 2 weeks and has been on Elecare for 11 days. I gave him far more milk in October than I did this time around. This morning when I talked to her she said that although EE is a difficult disease (especially due to the lack of accurate testing), she said that Ian is a particular difficult case - much more difficult than the average child with EE. I already figured that out because the previous allergist said that almost all children go back to a normal diet without any medications after the all clear biopsy (which Ian had the end of August). Obviously, Ian is in the small minority who still has allergies even after the initial treatment has ended. I have a feeling we're going to be postponing his admission to Hershey Medical. He threw up once more this afternoon. I'm hoping he won't throw up tomorrow.
For those of you who might be ttc, may I pass on a word of advice - don't buy the CVS brand of hpts. Someone recently told me of an experience she had recently where she got a +++ with one of these tests on a Friday and had a Beta that day. Because the line wasn't really dark and because the lab wasn't calling back with the results until Monday, she tested again on Saturday and it was BFN. She thought maybe she had an early miscarriage, but then on Monday found out that her hCG on Friday (by the bloodwork) was zero. The line showed up right away on Friday and could still be seen days later. I think a false positive is an awful thing to go through. I am mentioning it here in case any of you might be buying a hpt in the near future. As most of you know, I'm a big fan of CVS, but I don't recommend their hpts! I haven't used anything but First Response the past few years so I can't speak from personal experience about any other brand.

Thankful Tuesday

1. I've definitely had more consistent pregnancy symptoms lately. Although these are annoying at times (physically), they are oh so reassuring emotionally. Therefore, I am very grateful for heartburn, tenderness, light headedness, etc. Only 9 more days until the ultrasound...

2. A few weeks ago I did an application for Paul to have the same credit card I applied for around Christmas. We found out yesterday he was approved. PTL! This will mean another $500+ in savings for us.

3. I was going to redeem my $500 as a credit to my statement, but then I discovered yesterday that if I purchased two of our airline tickets through our points, they would give us more points. I feel silly that I haven't done this in the past, but it turns out you get more bang for your buck if you use your points to do things like buy airline tickets. Typically I get things like gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and TGIFridays. Because of using points, I got two free roundtrip tickets to Grand Cayman. I can't believe they didn't cost me a penny. It's so helpful since this is the first time we need 4 tickets. The last time Ian flew he was still able to sit on my lap for free. I'm grateful that we still only needed to buy 2 tickets because of being able to use these points.

4. I'm so glad we are going to Grand Cayman in May! We booked the resort last month, and it seems even more real now that we've also booked our airfare.

5. Nadia is making great progress with her puzzle skills. She did a 48 piece puzzle ALL by herself yesterday. That was a first! Prior to that the biggest one she'd done on her own had 27 pieces. She also attempted a 100 piece puzzle for the first time, but she definitely needed some help on that one.

6. I'm also pleased with her progress at learning her capital letters. She knows the following letters at this point: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, N, O, Q, U, W, and X. Of those, her weakest one is "E." She always wants to call it "F" and sometimes she confuses D and B.

7. My department chair called me today, and he was oh so very happy because the accreditation report I wrote last summer passed with flying colors. We've never had this particular form of "national recognition" before (NAEYC). I'm glad I could help, and it's nice to feel like I earned some "brownie points" so to speak since they have been less than thrilled with my unpaid leave. I learned later that my report was the only one from our department that passed.

8. On this Valentine's Day, I am so grateful for my family. I love my husband and three kids SO much. Yes, I already am in love with the one I haven't even seen on an ultrasound yet let alone held in my arms. I am so grateful for the Lord's blessings. My hubby got me a box of turtles and a card. I haven't had a turtle in years. It's my most favorite kind of candy. I'm pretty certain my days of being able to eat candy are numbered (due to gestational diabetes), but I'll enjoy them until I have to start checking my blood sugar on a regular basis.

9. I decided to skip the pancakes today, but I haven't gotten on the GD diet yet. One plus of the GD diet is that it will be really easy to keep my weight in check. I actually lost weight at the end of my pregnancy with Ian due to the GD diet.

10. Ian's Elecare arrived today! PTL! I had been adding a little vanilla to the unflavored Elecare I bought on eBay. Today we received 14 cans of vanilla Elecare. PTL!

11. I am thankful for sheet protectors. I learned recently that if you put a piece of paper in it and use a dry erase marker on it, you can wipe it right off! Wow! This will save me a lot of ink as I have Nadia working on fine motor skills with tracing differnt lines and shapes and such.

So long, tourniquets!

A certain undergarment has felt like a tourniquet lately. Tenderness had become pain. Yesterday afternoon Alexis came over to watch the kids so that Paul and I could have our Valentine's date. I had a hankering to eat at Olive Garden, as I haven't been to one in a couple of years. Paul is not a fan of that restaurant, so he suggested I go there when I'm in Maryland with my family next month. On our way to Friday's, we stopped at the mall. My sweet husband allowed me to shop in the lingerie department at Sears and JCPenney. Sadly neither one had anything in my pregnant/nursing size aside from the sleep style kind. After we had dinner, we stopped at Target on the way home. We should have started there! I even had choices in my size and was also able to pick up a belly band. I never used a belly band before, but since I'm trying to stay in my non-maternity clothes as long as possible, I thought it was a good idea to get one. They had them in natural, white, and black. I toyed between white and black, and then I picked white. Hopefully I made the right choice. I am wearing my jeans today, and thanks to the belly band, I don't feel like I have a tourniquet around my belly, which is what it felt like when I first zipped and buttoned them this morning. I felt badly for dragging Paul through three lingerie departments, but it's pretty much impossible to try on something in a dressing room at a store with a 3 year old and 2 year old in tow.

At Target we also picked up a box of Hot Wheels cars for Ian (I think he needs to again receive a prize each time he poops in the potty as he's regressing in that area) and a box that contained 3 Disney princess puzzles for Nadia (ranging from 48 to 100 pieces). That will be Nadia's Valentine's Day gift. This morning I was questionning the wisdom of the cars for Ian because he cried quite a bit this morning over them. He wanted ALL 10 cars right away. I changed the plan and allowed him to have one every time he pooped or peed. I had assumed this box of cars would last 5-10 days, but considering how much he's drinking today, he'll probably have earned them all by the end of the day. I guess they turned into his Valentine's Day present (one day early). The upside is that he did poop in the potty twice this morning, and he hadn't done that for several days. Hopefully this will be enough to get him back on track. It's much cheaper to potty train a child who enjoys candy.

Thankfully he's napping in his crib right now. I say thankfully because he's slept in my arms the last few days due to his illness and the fact that we didn't get home until 2pm yesterday as there was a puppet show at church after the worship service was over. His lack of sustenance didn't interfere with his sleeping at night until last night. He woke up at 5:45am. I was hoping he'd fall back asleep, but I went in to his room at 6:00am as my heart couldn't take listening to him scream "I want mommy" any more. He slept in my arms in the glider for an hour. I woke him up at 7am because I had been dying to go to the bathroom for almost an hour and couldn't wait any longer. I love having a baby sleep in my arms, but I'm hoping he'll sleep in his crib until 7am tomorrow morning. I want to enjoy the ability to sleep through the night for several more months before the new little one arrives.

We had a bit of a scare on Saturday as Paul's mom was admitted to the ICU with pneumonia in one lung. Thankfully she was moved to a regular room last night, and they're planning on discharging her tomorrow. Ian also made a lot of progress over the past two days. On Saturday he only drank 12 ounces total (1.5 sippy cups). I think the least he's ever consumed in the past was 32 ounces, and that was on a day he ate a lot of solid food. He still didn't drink much yesterday morning, but yesterday afternoon he started guzzling it again. Whew. Today he's been making up for lost time. He also hasn't thrown up since Saturday morning although the carpet still looks horrible from that last episode. We thought it was just a case of it not being totally dry yet, but I think it probably is still dirty as it's been more than 48 hours.

I brought a granola bar with me to church and ate it in between Sunday School and church. That did seem to help as I was able to stand for all of the singing during the worship service (although I still sat during a lengthy prayer time). Today I ate my dessert from our trip to Perkins on Saturday. I didn't feel well At All after I ate it. I have a strong feeling I'll be diagnosed with gestational diabetes again. In fact, I'm trying to talk myself into putting myself on that diet this week. I'm a bit bummed about that because a GD diet means I pretty much have to completely change what I eat as I typically eat very little protein, but the baby is SO SO SO SO SO SO SO worth it. I would MUCH rather have GD and be pregnant than be able to eat what I want to eat and not be pregnant. I was planning to make heart shaped pancakes for Nadia and I to have for lunch tomorrow. I'll stick with that plan in light of the holiday, but then I'll probably need to take a break from that delicacy.

26 Months Old

1. I had mentioned a few months ago how he was obsessed with wearing his shoes All The Time. Well that changed awhile back, and now he never wants to wear them, even when we're out in public. The only shoes he enjoys wearing around the house these days are my shoes or Paul's shoes.
2. Ian's attention span for books has increased greatly over the past few months. It's so nice to be able to read him books that have more text. Two of his favorites over the past month have been Bad Dog, Marley (same author as the movie) and The Tooth Book (Dr. Seuss). Of course some of his favorite books are briefer. Sandra Boynton is one of his favorite authors (ex. But not the hippopotamus) although I had to throw one of those books away a few days ago because he accidently dropped it in the toilet. Even though there was only water in the toilet at the time, I just couldn't picture myself touching that book again.

3. He's still obsessed with shapes. He's also starting to point out colors more (of his own initiative). Out of the blue he'll say things like "Mater is brown" or "Ramone is purple." Yes, he's obsessed with the vehicles in the Cars movies even though he's never seen the movies.

4. He talks about emotions quite a bit these days - ex. "Larry is sad." He also says "xyz is scary" quite a  bit. It started with "Jonah is scary." I wonder where he heard that from? His sister said that for months and months until we went to Sea World in August.
5. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but it deserves noting that Ian has gotten oh so much better at sitting in a high chair at a restaurant when we go out to eat as a family (ex. at Friendly's). Considering he doesn't eat anything while the rest of us are eating, I think he's doing well for a 2 year old. It's a big improvement compared to say six months ago when someone had to be walking him around as he wouldn't sit still for more than a couple of minutes.

6. Getting him dressed goes more smoothly when I allow him to pick out what shirt he wants to wear (so I almost always let him pick). For whatever reason, he often finds it traumatic to have his pjs taken off in the morning even though I try to make a smooth transition by rocking him in the glider for several minutes in between getting him out of the crib and getting him undressed. His favorite two pairs of underwear are his Mater and Ramone briefs.

7. He's not particular about what we watch. At some point his tastes will likely diverge from Nadia's (although some shows/movies appeal to both genders). I can't imagine him enjoying "Gigi" when he's older for example. Paul at least can't stomach those dvd's, lol. They watched Cinderella for the first time a few days ago, and Ian was laughing his head off at some of the antics between the cat and mice. I'm grateful he hasn't reached the age yet where it wouldn't be "cool" as a boy to watch a princess story.

8. He's back on Elecare as his esophagitis returned due to feeding him yogurt. He won't be having any dairy products for the next 6-12 months. He gained quite a bit of weight after being on the Elecare for a week. He has loved having more than a week off from eating solid food. He is back on Prevacid (15mg twice a day).

9. He's doing pretty well with the potty training. He still has an accident every now and then, but most weeks they're pretty infrequent. The next thing I'd like to see him master is his ability to go #2 in public. He doesn't have any problems peeing in a public restroom, but the only toilet he's pooped in is his froggy potty. He also needs to learn to aim downward. Even in his froggy potty (which has a very high splash guard), the urine sometimes goes out of the potty when he's peeing. Overall, I'm very pleased with his progress, and I have zero desire to work on staying dry overnight any time soon.

10. His nap is almost always 30 minutes long. Most days he doesn't cry when I put him down, but every once in a while he cries for an extended period of time before falling asleep. He almost always stays dry during his nap. He's slept in my arms the last few days, but typically he goes weeks without that happening. He usually goes to bed around 7:45pm and wakes up between 6:30-7:30am.

11. He has an amazing memory. Recently he pointed out a toy and said Gabby gave Nadia. I racked my brain, and then remembered that yes, Gabby had given it to Nadia in October. Amazing. In the flurry of gift giving at Christmas, I honestly wasn't sure of who gave the children each of their gifts. Ian remembers who gave him most of his gifts. He'll point out the Cars pjs and say that Grandma gave them to him. Wow.

12.  He speaks in complete sentences most of the time.

13. He absolutely loves to play hide and seek. If you want to see him scream with delight, then look at his face when he's been found. His favorite hiding place is under the dining room table. He hasn't learned to be quiet when hiding. It's easy to find him no matter where he's hiding if you just use your ears.

14. He loves to be chased. This also causes him to laugh hysterically.

15. He still makes big messes All The Time, but he's starting to get a tiny bit better at cleaning up afterward. Just a few days ago he started helping to put books back on the bookshelf, for example.

16. He shocked me last week by voluntarily going over to the storytime area and sitting down and listening to the librarian! I think I'm going to start having him join for a few minutes each week now that I see he can sit and listen in that group setting. The program is geared for ages 3-5. He did join in when the librarian had the kids singing "Row, Row, Row your boat" last week.
17. He loves to sing!! He has an excellent sense of pitch, in my opinion. How well he enunciates the words varies greatly from song to song. He knows MANY songs.
18. He loves to build towers for the sheer pleasure of knocking them down.
19. A couple of times recently he has joined me for 30 minutes of my 3rd-5th grade Sunday School class. I've been impressed that he sat still on my lap for that amount of time before I took him to the nursery.

20. One bad habit he has acquired lately is to hit his sister (with his hand or with some object he's holding). Thankfully it's done very gently so she's never been hurt at all, but it's definitely something he needs to stop doing!
21. He still plays with his belly button many times throughout the day. I wonder how long that habit will continue? It's a soothing technique (similar to sucking one's thumb). You can see proof in the pictures above that he touches his belly button a lot!
22. The easiest way for him to melt our hearts is for him to say those three magical words (unprompted) - "I love you." What could be sweeter? I know Paul has been touched as much as I have when he's said it to Paul.
23. He's still a cuddler. He often says "I hold you" or "Mommy hold you." In both instances he's asking me to hold him. He often phrases things in the same way he hears me say them such as "I will carry you" when he wants me to carry him.
24. Ian refers to Nadia's Sleeping Beauty figurine as "Angel." I understand that because she's dressed in a white dress and white veil. I have no idea however why he calls her Cinderella figurine "Jonah." She has blonde hair and is wearing the traditional light blue gown. I'd love to know why he thinks she looks like Jonah! I guess he's giving all of the Disney princesses biblical names.
25. He mastered going down the stairs safely (without assistance) in the last week or so!

26. He's doing oh so much better with separating from me. I can now run upstairs or go to the bathroom without him crying. Yay!

Prevacid Again

Ian was on Prevacid for 8 months last year. He went off of it at the very end of August. This morning I fed him some pureed banana for breakfast; he also drank 16 ounces of Elecare. About 30 minutes later (while watching a Green Eggs and Ham dvd from the library), he had a horrible vomiting episode. Thank goodness Paul was home because my pregnant self couldn't handle the stench. A couple of books were tossed in the garbage - one of Nadia's favorites (Beauty and the Beast) as well as one of Ian's favorites (How to be a pig). I called the Allergist on call, and she called in a prescription of Prevacid for Ian (15mg twice a day). She was surprised that her colleague (the other Pediatric Allergist) suggested reintroducing milk. She said that should always be the last one. I asked if we should resume the Pulmicort slurry, and she said let's see if he improves just on the Elecare and Prevacid. She said not to feed him anything but Elecare until at least Tuesday. I am to call back on Tuesday morning. If he's still throwing up, they'll prescribe the Pulmicort at that time. They'll also let me know when they think I should try to feed him solid food again. My biggest concern is that since he threw up (about 5 hours ago) he hasn't consumed anything. Over the past 6 hours he hasn't peed at all. He's begging for milk, but then when he puts the spout in his mouth, he won't drink it. If he doesn't start drinking after he wakes up from his nap (he's sleeping in my arms as I type this), I'm going to try squirting it in his mouth by syringe again. Please pray he'll start drinking his Elecare again and also stop throwing up. We might have to postpone his admission to Hershey if his esophagus isn't healed in the near future.

Nadia is excited because we're going to Perkins tonight. My parents gave us a gift card in December 2010 that we've been using every now and then over the last year. Nadia loves the pancakes at Perkins and the fact that a large cookie comes with the kid's meals. I told her about our plans yesterday evening, and she's been talking about it ever since! Her excitement has spilled over to Ian. He even told Pop Pop on the phone today that he's going to Perkins. The most he does at a restaurant is lick a cracker or french fry. I guess her excitement is contagious! We're making two stops en route to Perkins. First, I'm getting my driver's license photo taken. We shall see how long this one is valid in terms of the address being correct. In April 2004 I renewed my license, and then we moved in July 2004. In April 2008 I renewed my license, and then we moved in September 2008. I've been carrying around a change of address card in my wallet most of the past 8 years, and I'm expecting that to be true for probably at least 3 more years because we'll probably move in the next year (after Paul graduates). We're also going to stop at the library because they called me on Thursday to say a book (Crazy Love by Francis Chan) had come in through interlibrary loan. They said I had to pick it up within 3 days, and normally we're only in that town on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I made the first purchase for baby #3 today. I know that's a bit risky considering we haven't even had the first ultrasound yet, but I was placing an order for Valentine's Day and Father's Day for Paul (a 4 time Super Bowl champ t-shirt for him for Valentine's Day and some t-shirts for the three kids for him for Father's Day). They only sell the Super Bowl champ gear for a limited time (I speak from experience having waited too long once before), and I got free shipping if I ordered everything at once. It's the most I've ever paid for a onesie by a LONG shot, but I think Paul will love to see his kids' wear matching Super Bowl champ shirts in the fall. If I viewed it as coming from the clothing part of the budget, I wouldn't have bought them, but I viewed them as coming from the "gift" part of the budget. I can mention it here because he doesn't read my blog. Please don't tell him (those of you who read the blog and see him in person). It's a surprise!

I'll end with a movie recommendation. Paul and I watched "Seven Days in Utopia" last night. It's rare that a sports drama (made in 2011) is rated G, but that's the case for this golf movie. You could tell it wasn't a true story in that the problems were resolved a little too quickly at the end, but still it was an interesting movie - well done and wholesome. "Courageous" still has a long wait in our Netflix queue, but one of thoes days we'll get around to seeing that one!

20 Years

Last night in class I told about a time in the fall of 1992 that my sixth graders wrote letters to the editor regarding a political issue. It hit me later that was almost 20 years ago! I've now spent just about the same nuber of years as an educator (4 years as a teacher, 7 years as a principal, and 9 years as a professor) as I spent as a student (Kindergarten through Bachelor's degree = 15 years, master's degree completed in 1994, and after taking a break from higher education for a few years I earned my doctorate in 2002). I'd like to spend the next 20 years as a stay-at-home mom (beginning in October). I say 20 years in case the Lord allows us to have our fourth in a couple of years (FET). It would be incredible to have at least one child under our roof for 24 years (2008-2032), and at that point we could hopefully start looking forward to becoming grandparents in the not so distant future! On a day like today (one in which I could be with the kids all day), I have to admit part of me wishes I was already a SAHM. I'm still busy even on days I don't go to school - today I baked 4 dozen Heath bar cookies, went to the library, picked up a gallon of milk, did a load of laundry, did a load of dishes, etc. If the only thing my job required of me was teaching, that would be one thing. That's the best part of the job. However, we have other duties. Yesterday I conducted a peer observation of an adjunct and reviewed two applications for promotion. I have 30 more applications to review. Last Friday my department chair gave me a curricular project to complete. The list could go on, but you get the idea. If I didn't have kids, my heart would be more into those projects, but I'll admit if I had the choice, I'd prefer to be with my munchkins. It doesn't help me emotionally that Nadia has been struggling emotionally every time I have been leaving for school the past three weeks. She got used to Mommy being home all the time.
Although I'm looking forward to becoming a stay-at-home-mom, I wouldn't actually enjoy being in our house every day, all day long. I'd get cabin fever! Nadia gets it before I do. She wanted to go somewhere yesterday, but we stayed at home in the morning as I knew I was leaving for work at 1:20 (earlier than usual). Today I decided to give our local library's storytime a whirl, as we hadn't gone there in several months. The good news is that the librarian read two books (she only read one the last time), and she had a Valentine's Day craft ready for the kids to do (she hadn't been doing crafts). The bad news is that there always used to be quite a few kids in attendance, but if we hadn't shown up today, there would have only been one child there. Obviously we aren't the only ones who stopped going. I don't plan on going every Friday like we used to do, but I will probably take the kids there every now and then. The previous librarian did a much better job. She read more stories and interspersed them with songs and other things that got the kids moving.

Tomorrow will be the big day when I reintroduce solid food to Ian. Please pray it goes as smoothly as possible. He gained quite a bit of weight over the past week as he weighed 27 lbs on Wednesday at the WIC office (with his clothes on). He's  been drinking TONS of Elecare/ almond milk every day (as much as 80 ounces in a day). Today he really cut back on how much he drank, which was good timing since I won't be letting him have anywhere near that much tomorrow. He threw up at the WIC office on Wednesday afternoon and in his booster seat on Thursday morning. I was going to call the Allergist to see if we should get him back on Pulmicort if he threw up one more time, but he didn't throw up again since that time.

Seriation and Stone Soup

In addition to patterning, another skill I've been working on with Nadia the past several days has been seriation. She hasn't totally mastered the skill. Usually one of the items in the middle is out of order, but when I tell her one is in the wrong spot, she can usually figure out on her own which one is wrong and correct it. We've been doing this in connection with Jan Brett's The Mitten and The Gingerbread Baby. I let her choose whether she'll order them from biggest to smallest or smallest to biggest.

This morning as I was making some baked potato soup for dinner tonight (I found the recipe on Pinterest a couple of months ago and we loved it so this is my second time making it), Nadia asked if I was making stone soup. LOL! That's another one of her favorite books. Even though I slept for 9 hours last night, I had a really hard time functioning this morning. All morning I kept thinking all I want to do is SLEEP. I had a granola bar as a snack, and that seemed to do the trick. This morning I was laughing at myself that I had any doubts I was pregnant. I wouldn't normally be this exhausted after sleeping for 9 hours! The first skirt I tried on this morning did not fit. Oh my goodness. Thankfully the second skirt did fit. I can't believe I'm popping out this early this time around. I am NOT saying I look pregnant yet, but I am outgrowing some of my clothes already. I don't think I'll need to move to maternity clothes in the near future, but I can see that my wardrobe is going to become more and more limited over the next several weeks. I'm trying to stay in non-maternity clothes as long as possible!

6 Weeks!

I really, really, really wish I was having an ultrasound this week. I had to exercise every bit of self-control I could muster not to call the RE and ask for an ultrasound this week. I told myself I was willing to pay for it, but then I talked myself out of it. It's one thing to use a few extra hpts (that might cost about $10 total). It's FAR more expensive to pay cash for an ultrasound. If my symptoms were more consistent, I probably wouldn't care as much. Physically, it's nice not to have too much heartburn or nausea. The "tenderness" is the strongest symptom along with exhaustion. I love seeing what they say on the ticker each week as to what is happening with the baby right now. One "symptom" I wasn't expecting this soon happened on Monday. My jeans were a bit tight in the belly area! Everything else is still fitting fine. They weren't so tight I couldn't wear them, but I definitely could feel a difference. I know people say that they pop out sooner with each addditional pregnancy, but 6 weeks seems early doesn't it? Maybe I munched on too many chips on Superbowl Sunday. This photo was taken this evening. It was "crazy clubber" night at AWANA. I think this qualified as a crazy outfit - two different color socks, two different shoes, striped pants, heart shirt, and a clown wig. We had some snow this evening, but it wasn't enough to interfere with Cubbies.

Thankful Tuesday

1. Yesterday's warm temps (low 50's) were such an unexpected treat. Ian and I had fun at the playground while Nadia was in her ballet class.

2. Our new insurance cards came in the mail yesterday. This was a relief as I needed Paul to refill my Prometrium this week at PSU, which would have been hard to do without an insurance card. Also, the OB/GYN office questioned whether they really worked with our new insurance, but I called the insurance today and YES they do work with that office. Whew...
3. Nadia threw up ALL over herself, sheets, blanket, comforter, pillows, etc. last night around 8:30pm. No, I'm not thankful for that. What I am thankful is that although I helped some (such as washing the vomit out of her hair), Paul did the bulk of the work. Vomit always makes me feel a bit queasy, but it's ten times worse when I'm in my first trimester. What a blessing it was that he did the bulk of the cleanup. I washed her hair in the sink again this morning, but it still smelled. After lunch I gave the kids baths and finally her hair smells nice again.
4. It's a relief to not be feeding Ian solid foods for seven days. I'm also grateful that the hospital gave us one can of Elecare on Friday and that the 4 cans I ordered on eBay arrived yesterday. I'm also very thankful that I have an appointment tomorrow at WIC which should start the process of receiving it free in the mail for the next 6 months. What a blessing!

5. I'm grateful the Giants won the Superbowl because it makes shopping for Paul for Valentine's Day and Father's Day very easy!! One other thing made their victory exciting around here was that Hynoski (a rookie starter) is from our area. He grew up in the town where Knoebels is located, which means he was in the same school district that we lived in from 2004-2008. That high school football team has won many state championships in recent years despite its small size (the district has about 1,500 students from grades K-12).
6. On this day 15 years ago, I met Paul at a ballroom dancing class at Boscov's (a department store). He's been a wonderful hubby these past 10.5 years and a wonderful father for 3.75 years. I look forward to spending many more years together as a family of 5 (and possibly 6 if the FET results in a pregnancy).

Salt and Milk

Yesterday I filled a shallow wooden box with salt so that Nadia could practice writing her letters in the salt. She really enjoyed doing that yesterday and today. The letters she could do well without my assistance were "C" and "O." This activity would fit in well in a Montessori school. Yesterday I also started reading Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary to the kids. She also begged me yesterday to give her schoolwork for Gingerbread Baby (also by Jan Brett). Thankfully I was quickly able to find a few things and print them off for her. Another book she also loves (by the same author) is The Three Snow Bears. We might be doing a Jan Brett unit before moving on to another title. This is one of the perks of homeschooling. I can easily follow an emergent curriculum!



The Elecare I purchased on eBay on Thursday night arrived this morning. I was thrilled because the seller lives in California. When Ian is eating some solid food, he usually goes through a can of Elecare every 2.5 days. I haven't given him any solid food since lunch on Saturday. I also started him back on Singulair yesterday. I really, really want his esophagitis to be in remission before he's admitted to Hershey. I called Karen (OT), and she suggested reintroducing solid foods this Saturday. He drank seemingly a million sippy cups of Elecare mixed with some Vanilla almond milk. I think he's making up for lost time since he didn't consume much over the previous week. All day long he kept saying "more milk."

SUPERBOWL!!!

Well the trend is continuing! The Giants won the Superbowl in 2008 (the year Nadia was born), the Steelers won in 2009 (the year Ian was born), and the Giants won in 2012 (the year we're expecting our third to be born). I wanted to take a pic of Paul and the kids wearing their matching NY Giants baseball caps, but I couldn't find the kids' caps! Maybe I left them in Florida in August? I hope not! I did find two Giants' tablecloths I bought on clearance awhile ago (for $1.64 each although the original price was $10.99 each). My team lost the Superbowl last year. That was a HUGE bummer. I was so relieved that Paul didn't have to experience that today.

On Friday one of our adjuncts made a joke by making an announcement that she is pregnant (she's not really). She has been a FT temp for us for a couple of years, and she just defended her dissertation in November. She recently applied for a tenure track position in our department, and I'd be stunned if she didn't get the job as everyone has been pleased with her the last couple of years, and now she has her doctorate. Another professor laughingly said well the rumors are going to go around campus that xyz is pregnant. She said it with a smile on her face.

The reason I'm sharing this story is because the response of my department chair floored me. He said in a very serious (horrified) tone of voice that it would NOT be good if that rumor went around campus. In other words, it would hurt her chances of being hired for the tenure track position if she was pregnant (she has a few school age children). What discrimination that would be! The ironic part of it is that my department chair is gay. You'd think he'd be sensitive to that type of discrimination. There are currently four women in our department who are tenured or tenure track. One of them had her first baby about 18 months ago. She took one semester off and then came back FT. Another has a son in high school (he was in middle school when she came to our department). The other is in her early forties, and she and her husband never had the desire to become parents (they treat their dogs like they are their kids). If the fact that a woman might become pregnant is viewed as a reason not to hire her, then I guess they're going to favor hiring either men or women who are at least in their 40's. I thought that being a professor would be a "family friendly" type job (more so than being a principal), but maybe I was wrong, especially as I also consider my Dean's statement to me a week ago that "no matter how sick my child is, my department's needs should come first." I think not. I care deeply for my students, but if push comes to shove, I will always choose my children as my higher priority.

Patterns!

Because Nadia has been making so much progress with learning her letters, I printed out a pack of activities yesterday for the book The Mitten by Jan Brett. We did quite a few of the activities today, which included tracing some lines (from a mitten to Nicki) to work on fine motor skills, playing a game of Memory with pictures of the animals in the story, putting a variety of mittens in order from smallest to largest, tracing the letter N (for Nicki), putting the animals in the same sequence as they are introduced in the story, singing a song about a missing mitten, etc. The activity which excited me the most was the patterning activity. I have tried to introduce patterns to Nadia before, but prior to today she didn't understand. She got it today! I started some patterns (using either 2 or 3 different characters), and she could finish the pattern (the pattern could be repeated 5 times total). She also started some patterns herself and finished those as well. She loved it, and I am so excited that she has begun to master the important skill of patterning.

Speaking of letters, we have been working on A, B, C, D, E, F, I, N, O, W, and X. She has mastered 7 of those (always gets B, C, I, N, O, W, and X right). She almost always gets A right. She still needs to work on D (which she sometimes calls B), E, and F. I don't want to add any new ones until she's mastered all eleven of those letters. What has been exciting is she is now pointing out those letters of her own inititiave and with great excitement when she spots them in a book or on a sign. I think we'll do Curdoroy next week as both kids have been enjoying that book lately.

Nadia also has eally rbeen enjoying playing "I spy with my little eye" lately. We use either a shape or color as the clue. I would like to try rhyming words, but she hasn't grasped the concept of rhyming yet. She also can do a 25 piece jigsaw puzzle by herself, even if it's a puzzle she's never seen before. Daddy has been the one working with her on puzzles.

Ian's eosinophilic esophagitis has definitely flared up again. At lunch after only ONE bite of applesauce he repeatedly vomited over and over again (projectile). I decided right then and there not to attempt to feed him solid foods for a few days. He was throwing up Elecare. He needs to keep that down! So the rest of the day I just gave him sippy cups that contained a mixture of vanilla almond milk and Elecare. The Elecare sample the Allergist gave me yesterday is unflavored. He definitely prefers the vanilla kind. I feel like a load is off my shoulders knowing I don't need to try to feed Ian solid food for a few days. I want to give his esophagus time to heal.

The good news is that he didn't  have ANY accidents today. I took him to the potty rather frequently in light of being on a completely liquid diet. Every time I took him he either peed or pooped. His diaper this morning was in fact only wet so I haven't had to clean any poop off him today. Whew.

The first two pictures were taken this evening (of Ian). The last picture was taken of Nadia on 11-1-09. I think my two little penguins are so cute!