Hello, 2nd Trimester!

There are three methods of calcuating the trimesters. One is by development. By that method I hit the second trimester more than a week ago. The gestation method divides the 40 weeks into three equal time periods. By that method, today is my first day in the 2nd trimester. The pregnancy is 1/3 done, and actually since the c-section has been scheduled about 10 days before my EDD, I'm a little more than 1/3 done. The conception method considers pregnancy to be 38 weeks long - starting at conception rather than 2 weeks before that point. I haven't hit the 2nd trimester yet by that method, but most doctors use the gestation method; so I'm considering yesterday to have been my last day in the first trimester. Now if this "morning" sickness would subside, I would feel like I'm in the 2nd trimester. As far as cravings go, one of the most prominent ones lately is that I am constantly in the mood for an egg McMuffin. It's a good thing I don't pass a McD's more often than I do, lol! I've been eating a lot more toast (or English muffins) lately. The other thing I have been craving lately is a pineapple milk shake or sundae or something like that. I think it's in part because I've learned I can eat ice cream again, but I can't have the usual flavors that I like due to the fact that things like chocolate, peanut butter, nuts, etc. give me heartburn. We shall see if I can locate some pineapple ice cream treat, ha ha! The pecan bars are yummy, but I will be staying away from nuts the rest of the pregnancy as they definitely give me heartburn.

My clothes are getting more and more uncomfortable on me. I should say my bottoms (pants, skirts). My tops still fit perfectly fine. I took Nadia to another yard sale this morning (really close to our house). It was for a Christian school. What a difference compared to the one we went to yesterday (although both were held in churches). The prices at this one were SO reasonable. Unfortunately they didn't have any maternity clothing. They had quite a few car seats, and I was looking for an infant one. Well it turns out I didn't notice one that was there as an Amish woman who came in after us found it, and when she took it to the register, they said it was $5. Wow. I had seen one at a yard sale earlier this month for $50. I didn't buy that one because of the price. Hopefully I'll be able to find another reasonably priced one in the coming months. I bought a few things for the kids - a puzzle for Nadia, a couple of books, a pirate hat, and a Mickey Mouse raincoat for Ian. My grand total was $2.

Since I know exactly what style and size of maternity clothing I prefer (in terms of pants, shorts, and skirts), I decided to "splurge" and place some bids on eBay. I say "splurge" because the prices on eBay have gone up a LOT. So far I bought two pairs of shorts, and I'm bidding on two pairs of capris. I'm hoping to get some tops at the consignment sale I'm going to in Hershey in a couple of weeks. I also need to get some skirts and at least two more pairs of shorts. I'm so bummed that I sold my maternity skirts because I loved them, and now I'll have to pay 4 times as much as I paid to replace them. I'm also keeping my eye out for a maternity bathing suit. I'll need that in May for our vacation and then in June - August here at home.

I took Nadia to an egg hunt really close to our house at noon. The weather wasn't exactly ideal, but at least it had stopped raining. Nadia picked up 3 hardboiled eggs and several plastic eggs. Some of the plastic eggs were filled with candy, and two of the plastic eggs she put in her princess pail had numbers inside, which she was able to redeem for two prizes. One prize was a little ball, but the other prize was a basket that contained many goodies including Reese's eggs, a large chocolate bunny (her first), a stuffed animal, pencils, erasers, etc. I didn't bother taking Ian since he hated the egg hunt yesterday at the library. Sometime in the next week we need to color some eggs.

Big Girl Bike

Nadia had her first experience riding a two-wheeled bike (with training wheels) at my parents' house this week. My mom worked with her on Wednesday and Thursday, and she improved a LOT in her steering skills over those two days. My mom was setting up obstacles and such to help her work on her skills. Nadia was very proud of her ability to ride a "big girl bike." She rode that bike for quite a few hours!

Part of the reason I decided to leave a bit later yesterday was so the kids could have their naps before we left since Ian didn't nap in the car on the way down on Tuesday. They did nap at my mom's house (Ian slept about 45 minutes, and I woke Nadia up after she had slept for 2 hours). The irony was that Ian did nap on the way home in the car as well. Go figure. Today he slept for 90 minutes while Grandma and PopPop were babysitting. Amazing! So it seems it only took 27 months for him to learn to nap more than 20-30 minutes. We shall see what he does at the feeding clinic during the month of April.

This morning we went to a "Kid's Market" consignment sale. We showed up 30 minutes after it opened, and I could tell a lot of stuff had already been purchased. The place was swamped! Unfortunately almost all the maternity clothing was size medium OR was for fall/winter. I only bought one shirt. Although I wear medium or large when I'm not pregnant (I'm usually a size 10 or 12), the last two pregnancies I wore large or x-large when pregnant, even though supposedly you're supposed to wear your pre-pregnancy size. The prices at this sale were all over the map. Some stuff was WAY overpriced - as in I could buy that stuff in brand new condition for less! I did buy 3 little cars for Ian, 1 puzzle for Ian, and 1 book for Nadia (those 5 items were $1 total).

Then we went to our local library (not the one we usually go to). The librarian actually read three books! This was a big improvement as sometimes she only reads one book, and she was able to manage the group even though there were a lot more kids than usual - another improvement. Then the kids went outside for an egg hunt. Last year the eggs were filled with candy, stickers. etc. This year the eggs were empty, but when they came in they were able to redeem their eggs for one piece of candy and one book. Surprise, surprise, Nadia picked a princess book. I was hoping to take pictures of the egg hunt, but Ian started screaming. Evidently he wasn't in the mood for picking up plastic eggs! So I had to hold him and couldn't take pictures of Nadia. If the weather cooperates, we'll take the kids to another egg hunt (less than 1 mile from our house) at noon tomorrow. If that happens, hopefully I'll get some pictures. I forgot to take my camera to Maryland, which is why I don't have any pictures of Nadia riding the Dora bike.

I arrived home from work around 8:15pm this evening.  I met with 4 advisees from 2-3pm and then participated in a promotion committee meeting from 3:00-7:15pm. I don't plan on returning to campus until the first week of May due to Ian's stay at Hershey Medical. I didn't hear anything from the OB about my bloodwork. Hopefully I'll hear something next week. Considering I'm accustomed to getting my results the same day the blood is drawn, it feels ridiculous to need to wait 2 weeks.

Home Sweet Home

I had no idea that rush hour starts prior to 3pm in the Baltimore area. It does. Within about 10 minutes of leaving my parents' house (we left at 2:30), we hit major traffic. For the next about 70 minutes I was in stop and go traffic and rarely able to go more than 25 miles an hour (on an interstate highway). We also hit traffic in Harrisburg, but that was more expected as it was around 5pm. Without lots of stops or traffic, the trip usually takes about 3.5 hours. It took 4 hours on the way down on Tuesday because of extra stops to take Ian to the bathroom or to make a sippy cup of Elecare for Ian (with warm water). The trip back today was 10 minutes shy of 5 hours long. To make matters worse, I had really bad morning sickness ALL day today. That was a brutal combination. I was rather bummed when I felt sick to my stomach this morning because yesterday the only time I felt sick to my stomach was when I was riding the Metro to and from Virginia. I got my hopes up yesterday that maybe now that I'm 13 weeks along the morning sickness phase had ended. The good news is that Nadia didn't throw up, and Ian didn't have any accidents. If I didn't have a promotion committee meeting tomorrow, we would have stayed longer as the conference goes until Saturday. I'm grateful we were able to spend some time with my parents and my brother. It was exciting to learn more details about my brother's new job, which he will be starting the first week of August. He's going to be teaching science at Amazon Valley Academy in Brazil and also doing other things like ecotourism. My parents will be empty nesters in a few months.

It was nice to be nausea free at the conference yesterday. I attended sessions from 10:00-11:30, 12:45-2:15, and 3:00-4:00. I spoke from 2:30-3:00. About 50 people attended my session. Most of the sessions were on the same floor as the lobby, but my session was on the 15th floor. What a view! From the windows you could easily see the pentagon, Washington monument, Capitol, planes landing at the Ronald Reagan airport, etc. I had a decent walk from the Pentagon City metro stop to the hotel (in Crystal City, VA), but the weather was nice, and I got to see some cherry blossoms in bloom during my walk. I also had a pleasant surprise in the evening as the OB nurse left a message on my voicemail at 5pm saying that they had located my two vials of blood. So maybe I'll get the results tomorrow? It's probably wishful thinking although that will be 11 days after my blood was drawn. I was relieved to know that I didn't have to go back to the lab tomorrow.

I also have learned that I can eat sweets after lunch or after dinner. I still can't eat ANYthing that is remotely sweet for breakfast. I really wanted to have Golden Grahams for breakfast at my mom's, but I stuck with Crispix. Now I'm just trying to figure out what gives me heartburn. Pecans are definitely heartburn inducers. I was able to enjoy some vanilla cheesecake at lunch on Wednesday and a strawberry shake on the drive home this evening. Ice cream, how I had missed you!!! I also let Nadia have her first milkshake. She picked chocolate, which normally would be my first choice, but that definitely would give me serious heartburn! It's going to be a bit harder to control my weight now that I know I can eat some sweets again. Hopefully the weather will be nice while we're in Hershey, and hopefully I can find a way to get some exercise with the kids down there.

I'd like to ask for prayer for my friend, Donna. We played in the bell choir together for four years and have stayed in touch since then. Her husband, who is a doctor at the hospital where I've done all three rounds of ivf, had heart failure a few days ago. Yesterday he had triple bypass surgery. Please pray for his recovery and for the whole family during this difficult time. Thanks!!!

Two Missing Vials of Blood

We left the house at 9:45am and arrive at my parents' house at 2:45pm. Our first stop was at the hospital so I could see the OB. My conversation with her only lasted a couple of minutes. She said I was correct in my understanding that #1 if the Kell antibodies came from the transfusion that the baby was safe and #2 if the antibodies came from Paul then he is at most heterozygous (since Nadia couldn't have been Kell positive). I asked why hasn't Paul been tested. She said that if the titer level is really low, no further testing is necessary. If the titer level isn't really low, then they'll refer me to a specialist (MFM) who will do additional testing (of Paul, etc.). If the level is really low, they'll test again at 20 weeks to make sure it's still really low. So in my mind if another blood test is necessary, why not test Paul (as then we might immediately know the baby is at NO risk), and if Paul is Kell negative, I wouldn't need to be tested again at 20 weeks, but apparently that's not how they do it. I did learn that the other antibody is part of the Duffy antigen system (Fya). The bottom line is the same for both Kell antibodies and Fya antibodes - fetal anemia (which can kill the baby if the baby's blood isn't replaced or the baby isn't given intrauterine transfusions). I really think this came from the transfusion because less than 3.5% of Caucasians have Fya. The duffy antigen is FAR more common in other races. So it seems highly probable that the blood I received in January 2010 was from a non-white donor. I had no idea that blood type varied by race.

I had decided that if I had to go to the trouble of parking, hauling the kids in, sitting in the waiting room, etc. I wanted to have the baby's heartbeat checked, especially since my next OB appt isn't for 6 more weeks due to our stay in Hershey. She tried to find the heartbeat by doppler, but she couldn't so she did an external ultrasound, and we got to see the little one kicking around. I'll never get over that sight. Even though this is my third pregnancy (well third that I've been able to see something by u/s), it's still such an incredible moment. The kids were with me, which was pretty much a disaster, but the upside was that Nadia loved seeing the baby on the ultrasound. I did leave that appointment very resolved to stick with my plan to pay a babysitter to watch the kids for my future appointments. I took Nadia to my appointments when I was pregnant with Ian, but it's a whole different ballgame as they like to get on each other's nerves. In all reality this appointment was totally unnecessary. The information the OB gave me could have been delivered by phone in about two minutes, but I felt less irritated about spending 40 minutes in the office since I got to see my sweet baby.

As I was driving to MD the nurse called to say they found out that the Red Cross never received my blood vials. I made two trips last week to have this bloodwork drawn, and the second time (8:30am last Tuesday) they stuck me three times in order to draw two large vials of blood. I hope they didn't run someone else's bloodwork on my blood and give that person results from my blood! Oi vey! The nurse said I have to go back a third time to have it drawn again. She said to make sure the insurance doesn't pay for the last time since the lab lost my blood. So I'm going to try on Friday morning, and I hope we don't have to wait TOO long for the results since it will have already been more than 2 weeks at that point. I already invested 2 hours in having that bloodwork drawn, and that doesn't even include driving time. I'm going to ask Paul if he will watch the kids on Friday morning as they've already spent 2 hours in that lab waiting for me to have this bloodwork drawn. The nurse told me today that they're going to mail me a copy of the ultrasound picture from today. Maybe that was her way of saying "sorry" for this mess (although this wasn't really the OB's fault). Here's to hoping and praying that the titer levels will be low. The OB I met with today (who was really nice) is very optimistic that the levels will be low.

The trip here was not as easy as usual. Ian had to go to the bathroom every hour. Thankfully I brought his froggy potty along. It's also trickier to feed him since he requires his Elecare to be warm. I can't do drive thru for that. The good news is that Nadia didn't throw up and Ian didn't have any accidents. She slept for about 40 minutes. I am not sure if Ian ever napped in the car today. He cried and fussed quite a bit. He kept saying "I need Grandma's house" - in other words why aren't we there already? At one point he screamed for 20 minutes straight. Of course the biggest help was the DVD player. I am not sure how people survived 4 hour trips with toddlers before the invention of DVD players that can go in a car. The kids had fun playing with Uncle Maurice, Grandma, and Grandpa this afternoon and evening. Ian was pestering Patches (my mom's geriatric cat) so he got swipe on his cheek. Amazingly Ian didn't cry even though she scratched him across his cheek (enough to draw blood but no tears). Hopefully he learned his lesson and will leave Patches alone. My mom will be watching the kids for about 9 hours tomorrow as I head to northern VA (by way of the METRO) to a conference. I'm speaking in the afternoon. I'm really excited because a woman I met online about 9 years ago (on a trying to conceive website) sent me a message on Facebook yesterday to see if we could meet. Normally she'd be at work, but she had already asked for tomorrow off because she's taking her daughter and husband to the airport as they're going on a mission trip to Haiti. So she's going to meet me for lunch at the hotel in Arlington where I'll be! I'm excited to meet Lys in person for the first time!

The Red Sea and a Long Nap

This morning I called the OB's office once again and asked 3 questions when I left my message on the nurse's voicemail: #1 are my lab results from last Tuesday back yet, #2 shouldn't my husband be tested to see if he's Kell positive or negative, and #3 could someone tell me something about the F antigen because I haven't been able to learn much of anything about that antibody. When the nurse called back she said #1 they don't have the results yet (which blows me away - I wish I had gone to the other hospital for this bloodwork) and #2 I could come in for an appointment to discuss the antibodies with an OB tomorrow morning. I honestly can't believe I have to schedule an appointment to have a 5 minute (or less) conversation, but it seems that's the case with this clinic as I've been asking for more information from them for 10 days and haven't gotten one morsel of information from them. I'm hoping that the results will be in before my 10:15am appointment as it will have been a full seven days since my blood was drawn at that point. I also hope I don't have to wait too long in the waiting room as I'll have the kids with me because from there we'll drive to Maryland. I'm very seriously considering switching clinics. I need to see if I have another option with our current insurance (we go back on Blue Shield on July 1). I don't want to be hasty in my decision so I'm going to wait another couple of weeks before I decide, but I couldn't be more frustrated with how they've handled this situation the past 10 days. Maybe I'll feel better after I speak with an OB tomorrow (one I haven't met before).

This morning I went to the store and bought some pecans and corn syrup so I could make some pecan bars. They were pretty good! Pregnancy cravings can be ever so strong! I had a little heartburn from eating it, but other than that I didn't suffer any ill effects for indulging in that treat.

For many months Ian's nap was almost always 30 minutes long. The last few weeks it had started to average 45 minutes. There were still days it was only 30 minutes, but it was becoming more common for it to be 45 or even 60 minutes long. Today he slept for 80 minutes! I couldn't believe it! I was sure that when I'd get him he would have had an accident in his crib, but he didn't! Over the past 10 days or so he had not been doing well with potty training, but aside from accidents while he slept, all of them had been when other people had been watching him. I had planned to give him a shower the next time he had an accident (while he was awake), but he had only been having accidents with Beth, Paul, and Paul's parents. Saturday he had an accident (ironically his FIRST ever that was on the carpet) while I was with him, so he got a shower. That seems to have done the trick as he didn't have any accidents yesterday or today. He'll be napping in the car tomorrow. We shall see how long he naps at my mom's house on Wednesday or how long he'll nap at Hershey Medical starting next Monday. It would be awesome if his nap started to be an average of 60 minutes long rather than 30. What made it even more amazing was that Nadia also took a nap (hers was more like 2 hours long). During their naptime I worked on preparing my presentation that I'll be giving on Wednesday afternoon as well as booking some tours for our trip to Grand Cayman.

On the way to ballet this afternoon as we drove over a bridge, Nadia pointed to the Susquehanna River and said, "There's the Red Sea!". That cracked me up. At least she's learning names of some bodies of water! I told her today about how we'll be spending 4 weeks at the hospital in Hershey. She didn't take the news very well. One of the mom's at ballet suggested taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese (in Harrisburg, which isn't too far from Hershey) while we're down there. I'll try to come up with more things to look forward to, which hopefully will help balance out the fact that we'll be inside a hospital 8.5 hours a day/5 days a week for 4 weeks. I found a large kids/maternity consignment sale that will be held on a Friday that we'll be down there, and we do have tickets to see Disney on Ice in Hershey next month.

You know you're pregnant when...

1. You have to go to the bathroom five zillion times a day (and this includes many times all throughout the night).

2. Climbing a flight of stairs is enough to get you out of breath (especially when carrying stuff). Thankfully a nursing prof helped me out on Friday night as I was struggling to carrying a heavy box of promotion documents up a couple of flights of steps.

3. It seems perfectly reasonable to go to bed at 7:50pm. Yes, that's when I went to bed last night. I was in bed for about 11 hours (not counting all the trips to the bathroom). I had been out every night Tuesday-Friday (three of those at work and the other at church), I didn't sleep well on Friday night due to stewing over some things that happened at the promotion committee meeting, and then I had gone back on campus yesterday to speak at an Open House for 90 minutes. I was completely drained of all energy and needed a long night's sleep to bounce back. When I'm not pregnant, I can never be in bed that many hours in a row unless I'm sick.

4. You are sick to your stomach most of the time. I'm still praying for this "morning" sickness to go away in the near future as I'll be in the 2nd trimester later this week!

5. You eat a lot more frequently throughout the day and yet don't gain weight. Well as of Friday I have gained 1 pound thus far.

6. You eat foods that normally don't appeal to you and stay far away from the foods you normally love. I can't remember the last time I had any chocolate, and I'm normally someone who LOVES chocolate (as in chocolate chip cookies, brownies, etc.). Actually I'm eagerly anticipating the day I can eat the cereals I love again such as Raisin Bran, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats, etc. I'm really tired of Total and plain Cheerios! I can also honestly say I've never eaten so many eggs in my life. It's a good thing I have very low cholesterol!

7. You have really strong cravings for foods that you usually rarely eat. I made lemon bars a few days ago for the first time in my life because I couldn't get them off my mind. Thankfully Nadia also likes them. The other thing I've been dying to have lately (but haven't had yet) is a slice of pecan pie (of course it would remain to be seen if that actually would sit well in my stomach as I had been craving ham and that turned out to be a bad idea).

8. You can cry ever so easily. A case in point would be that I actually had tears coming down my cheek several weeks ago during the song "Be our Guest" when Nadia and I went to see Beauty and the Beast. I felt ridiculous! Why in the world did I get emotional?!?!? I chalked it up to the crazy hormones.

9. You don't mind that your belly is growing bigger. Unfortunately today I discovered that I couldn't find ANY of my maternity clothes. I remember selling some about a year ago, but I know I hadn't sold all of them as I remember washing them multiple times in the spring and summer due to our basement flooding. I had totally forgotten that the last time this happened I had Paul take a bunch of stuff to the thrift store because at that point I didn't think we'd ever be trying again (it was before Paul had changed his mind), and I was tired of washing and drying maternity clothes I'd never wear again due to our basement flooding. Thankfully I still have quite a bit of baby clothing (although not all of it - I wish I hadn't sold/given away any of their clothing). So I need to start buying myself some maternity clothing. I will definitely hang on to the stuff this time around in case the FET proves to be a success. On Friday morning I'm planning on going to a consignment sale that's just for baby, children, and maternity clothing. Hopefully I'll find some nice things there at a reasonable price, and I'll be checking eBay as that's where I got most of my maternity clothes for the last two pregnancies.

10. Just about any food on the planet can give you heartburn. I added a few raisins to my Total the other day, and I got heartburn from the raisins! Oi vey!

This baby is soooooooooooo worth any discomfort I am experiencing right now!!!! It's less than 8 weeks until we find out if baby is a girl or a boy. I'm dying to know!

3.75 Years Old

I'm including a few "Nadiaisms" this month so I don't forget them:

1. When she wants me to push her on the swing she says "swing me"

2. When I pour water over her hair in the bathtub (to rinse out the shampoo) and she's objecting, she'll say "please don't spill me."
3. She pronounces most words correctly, but one of the words she still mispronounces (unless I correct her) is "yard." She calls a yard sale a "ard sale."

4. Similarly, her first instinct is to pronounce McDonalds "atdonalds"

5. For many months she's pronounced the word surprise as "raprise"
6. When her foot is "waking up" she screams "my foot is breathing!"
7. When we work on her alphabet and number flashcards, she now gets them all right the first time with the exception of the numbers 6 and 9 and the letter T (both uppercase and lowercase can trip her up sometimes and she'll call them "I" instead of "T").
8. Her favorite cereal over the past month was definitely Crunchy Nut.

9. She has no concept of associating gender with a name. I've asked her a few times if she has an idea for a boy's name if she's going to have another brother. She suggests girl's names like Lisa or Karen.
10. Her prayers always include thanking God for the following people: Mommy, Daddy, Ian (sometimes), Uncle Maurice, Aunt Wendy, Susie, Grandma and Grandpa. Others might be included from time to time, but those names are included every single time.

11. She ate a LOT of grapes this past month (in part because they were on sale two different weeks). She likes both red and green grapes just as much as I do!
12. Her favorite shoes this past month were a pair of brown leather shoes because they are the easiest for her to put on. She still hasn't mastered knowing which shoe goes on which foot.

13. She seems to throw up about once every two weeks on average. Sometimes car sickness is the culprit (a 20 minute ride is enough to do her in), and other times it's because I've insisted she eat a few bites of carrots, green beans, or some other offending vegetable.
14. We've started working on associating a sound with each letter. Thus far she's learned A-J.

15. She's really into asking strangers "What's your name?," and then of course they ask her what her name is. She often tells the person something like "That's a pretty name" which puts a smile on their face, particularly when it's an elderly person. She isn't shy that's for sure!

16. A few days ago when she was praying she thanked God for "my best friend, Shawn" (her 16 year old cousin). Other times she refers to the neighbor girls as her best friends (and they're in 8th and 9th grade).

17. She's trying to be more independent with getting dressed and undressed. Her underwear often ends up being put on inside out for some reason, and sometimes her shorts are on backwards.

18. She recently learned how to ride a tricycle! She takes after me, and her length is in her torso. Her little feet just couldn't reach to push the pedals until recently, and she's had this tricycle since June 2010.

19. I just stated to teach her how to buckle her carseat. I would like her to be independent with this before the baby comes so that I'm only buckling in two munchkins. She almost has it figured out!

20. She very rarely takes a nap, but a few days ago she surprised me and slept for 2.5 hours. Ian was very vexed because her nap delayed our departure to the playground.
21. She goes many days without sucking her thumb during the day. Every once in awhile I have to remind her. It's another story when she's in bed. She definitely sucks her thumb at night. We'll have to use the thumb guards again (just at night) sometime in the future.
22. She can now do a 100 piece puzzle (that she's done before with help) all by herself! Way to go, Nadia!
23. Yesterday she shampooed her hair by herself for the first time. She told me she was a big girl and didn't need me to help her.

24. She has an amazing memory. Today she was asking (before we went to the annual Children's Day a the Little League Museum) if she would get to eat a cookie and cupcake (which she ate there last year). I wish I had a better picture. I learned a lesson today that my 50mm lens (which I use almost exclusively these days) is the wrong one to bring to a "meet and greet" character event. I'll be sure to bring my other lens when they go to meet Clifford next month.

Busy, Busy

Today I had appointments with advisees from 2:00-2:45 (although I don't usually have office hours on Fridays), and then I participated in a committee meeting from 3:00-8:30pm. The good news is that I had been told the meeting would probably last 8-9 hours; so I was relieved that I was home by 9:15pm. Tomorrow morning we're heading to a children's event at the Little League Museum. Nadia is looking forward to seeing Curious George again. Then I'll be heading back to campus as I'm speaking at an Open House event for our department (my audience will probably be about 100 prospective students and parents). Between search and screen interviews (we selected two of our candidates for tenure track positions - hopefully they'll accept the offers!), promotion committee work, and the Open House, it's been a busier than usual week for me at work.

I haven't heard anything from the OB office yet. I called on Tuesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon. To say I am frustrated would be an understatement. I know I was spoiled at the other hosptial when I routinely would get a call about the bloodwork before I was even home, but I never had to wait even one day let alone more than 3 days for results. It also annoys me that I have repeatedely asked for a doctor or nurse to explain to me what having the antibodies might mean for the pregnancy, and they have given me ZERO information. Thankfully some others have given me helpful info, and the internet has proven helpful in terms of Kell antibodies. No one has known anything about F antibodies, and I haven't found things on the internet about it either. If they don't call me on Monday morning, I am planning on stopping by in person on Monday afternoon. I'm also contemplating switching to a different OB/GYN office. I also don't understand why they haven't scheduled Paul for a test. If he's Kell negative (like I am), then the baby I'm carrying has to be Kell negative, and that would mean the antibodies can't hurt the baby. Hopefully they'll call me with the results on Monday morning.

3 Months Along!

Today I am 12 weeks (or 3 months) pregnant! If I make it all the way until 9-24, it means I have at the most 6 months and 3 days left to go! I'm really hoping the morning sickness will let up soon. I'm really tired of feeling sick to my stomach All Day Long. It's also annoying that most of the foods I normally love, now seem revolting to me. Ham is typically my favorite type of meat. I don't have it very often. I cook a ham probably about once every two years, in part because Paul is not a ham fan (he greatly prefers turkey). Since protein has been a bigger part of my diet the past two months, I thought it would be good to have some ham in the refrigerator. I bought some ham on Saturday and cooked it on Monday. I don't like it! I don't ever remember not liking ham before. This little one has totally corrupted my taste buds!! Thank goodness it's temporary! :-) I did enjoy the Egg McMuffin I treated myself to yesterday morning after the bloodwork was done.

I made a ham and swiss impossible pie this evening in the hope that it would be more palatable, and it was! I'll probably be making more impossible pies/quiches over the coming months. I saw on the ticker today that baby is 3 inches long! This little one is growing like a weed! Can you imagine growing one inch in about a week? I found out from Jann that the titer test only takes about two hours. So, you'd think it would be done by now. I'm going to call the OB office again tomorrow. I hate to be a nag, but it will have been 48+ hours at that point. I was spoiled by the other hospital that almost always called me with results that same day. Hopefully they will be able to give me the results tomorrow.

Waiting is Hard

I called the OB office around 4pm to see if they had the bloodwork results. They have a voicemail box set up just for asking about lab results. When I left my message I asked #1 if they had the results, #2 if they didn't when they thought they might be available, and #3 if someone could explain more about these antibodies because I've been rather worried. A nurse called back a few minutes later and said my file is on an OB's desk because the lab needed more information. I told her that the lab said that yesterday, but they figured it out this morning. I told her I had the blood drawn this morning. She said they'd call me as soon as they got the results. So I have no idea when that will be.
This afternoon when I was talking with my mom I said from what I had read I was figuring that the best case scenario was that the transfusion I received in January 2010 was of Kell positive blood. If that's where I got the antigens from, then most likely it means Paul is also Kell negative, which would mean our children would have to be Kell negative. If the baby I am carrying is Kell negative, the Anti-Kell antibodies in my bloodstream aren't going to hurt the baby. I wasn't 100% sure my analysis is correct (since I figured it out just by what I read online), but Jann (a friend who works in a Blood Bank) emailed me this evening and said the same thing. What a relief! The other scenario is that Paul is Kell positive, and then in that case I would have developed the antigen if Ian is Kell positive. Since I didn't have any Kell antigens in my pregnancy with Ian, I am assuming Nadia must be Kell negative, which means that Paul couldn't be homozygous. He'd have to be heterozygous in that scenario, which would mean there would be a 50% chance that the baby I'm carrying is Kell positive. So I'm praying that Paul is Kell negative and that I developed the antibodies from a Kell positive blood transfusion. That's definitely the best scenario at this point.

Jann also told me that the Rhogam shot doesn't have anything to do with the F or K antigens (which are the ones I have). That is a relief. She said if I had developed antibodies from the bleeding in January it would have showed up by now (and it didn't). So there was no harm done by my not having the Rhogam shot. What a relief! She also talked about the fact they can do an intrauterine transfusion or exchange the baby's blood with Kell negative blood. She didn't know as much about the F antigen. So now we wait for the titer results for both antibodies, and then most likely Paul will need to be tested in the near future so we'll have a better idea as to whether the baby I'm carrying is Kell positive or negative. I know there are still alot of unknowns, but I'm feeling more hopeful that I can deliver a healthy baby in September. I'll keep praying to that end, and hopefully by the end of the week the OB's office will call me with the titer results.

3 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back

I had my bloodwork done this morning. The lab called at 7:30am and said that they did more research and found out that this type of bloodwork has to be done before 9:00am on Tuesday or Friday. So much for trying to avoid a special trip. It turns out the Red Cross processes this type of bloodwork. Paul said I should go today rather than waiting until Friday so the kids and I were out the door at 8:00am. It took two people and three sticks for them to fill the two large blood bank vials. They gave the kids each two big stickers. It seems the baby is probably safe for at least 8 more weeks from what I've read. I'm going to call the OB office this afternoon just in case the results are available although I realize it might be too early.  I definitely have a different attitude toward the NICU at the moment. As much as I've said I want to avoid the NICU this time around, the NICU would be 100 million times better than a stillborn baby.

After going fourteen days without any accidents, Ian had four accidents in the past seven days. The first two (last Tuesday and Thursday) were while he was napping in his crib. I think that happened because last week he started sleeping for 45 minutes most days. To most that would be a very short nap, but for Ian that represented a 50% increase! The shock was on Sunday that he had an accident during children's church. He told someone he had to go, but he went in his pants before they actually got him on the toilet. The reason this was a shock was because since he started potty training almost 3 months ago, he only had one accident in public (at ladies Bible study), and that was a couple of months ago. The regression continued yesterday. He was playing outside in the backyard (fenced in) by himself, and he pooped in his pants. Today is a new day, and hopefully he won't have any accidents today.
He's also been going backwards with eating. Coconut milk yogurt is no longer a breeze to feed him. I fet him a pureed banana for lunch yesterday instead. Karen thinks maybe the strawberry flavor is too acidic for him because he was wincing when he swallowed the yogurt. I can't wait until feeding him doesn't involve screaming. Just 12 more days until he starts at Hershey Medical.
I'm going into work earlier than usual today because we're conducting interviews for two tenure track searches for our department this week. I'll be going in three days this week (Tu/Th/Fri), one day next week (Fri), and then not again until the first week of May due to living in Hershey for 4 weeks. Other professors are teaching 6 of my classes, and I'll be teaching two nights via Wimba (online). Last night I finished a project the department chair asked me to do (19 pages typed). It felt good to cross that off my to do list.

Anti-K and Anti-F

The hospital where I'm going for this pregnancy is in the same town as where Nadia has ballet. At the other hospital the bloodwork would take on average 5 minutes (10 if you count walking to and from the parking lot). Since things tend to go much slower at this hospital, I decided to allow 45 minutes for the bloodwork. When we first arrived, they said that the doctor had faxed down an empty request on Friday (in other words it had my name on it but didn't indicate what test). She called up to the OB office (in the same building), and asked me to wait. After waiting 30 minutes I asked her if the fax had come in yet. Nope. I decided to call the nurse on my cell phone. After having me on hold a few minutes she said it had been sent. After going through registration, I took my paper to the lab. When we first arrived, no one was in line for lab work, but while we waited for the fax, several had come in and they were now ahead of me in line. After waiting another 20 minutes, I was told that they didn't understand what blood tests the doctor wanted done, and he had already gone home for the day (it was 3:55 at that point). So after spending 55 minutes in a waiting room with a 2 year old and 3 year old, we left for Nadia's ballet class without any blood being drawn from my arm. We were 10 minutes late for her class since I only allowed 45 minutes for the bloodwork.

When we got home I looked up the tests. It doesn't seem they have anything to do with me being Rh negative liked I hoped. It was easier to find out about the "Anti-K titer." K stands for Kell. It was much harder to find anything about "Anti-F4a titer." I finally found things when I only searched for "Anti F". Although neither automatically means bad news, either one involves a lot of risk for some pretty awful conditions. I had to stop reading, or I was going to bawl my eyes out. I keep going over in my mind things like, should I have had a Rhogam shot when I was bleeding from the placenta in January 2010, should I have had a Rhogam shot in January (at 4w0d when I had some bleeding), or is it from the transfusion in January 2010? And maybe it has nothing to do with any of the above, but I don't understand why I didn't have these antibodies in 2008 or 2009, but I have them now.  Wikipedia said that it could come from giving birth to a Kell positive baby or a blood transfusion. The standard reason for Anti-K is from the husband. 91% of the population is Kell negative. If Paul is heterozygous it means there's a 50% chance my body will attack the baby. If Paul is homozygous it means there's a 100% chance my body will attack the baby. If the bloodwork shows the level is "critical", then I think it means I'll be having my first amniocentesis test because if the baby is kell positive the baby will need multiple transfusions during the pregnancy, and they usually take the baby earlier than usual so another NICU stay would be likely. I couldn't find as much out about Anti-F. I am trying to remind myself that God is in control, and He can keep this baby safe. And if the worse case scenario happens and I never hold this baby in my arms, it won't be as hard as when I lost that baby in 2005. I'm going back for the bloodwork on Wednesday morning after gymnastics and the library. Hopefully I'll get good news when the results come in. I am not sure how long it will take to get the results.

Roku

We switched to DIRECTV in September 2010 because Paul wanted to be able to see all his NY football games (via the NFL Sunday Ticket). The price went drastically up (compared to what we had been quoted before we signed up) after we had been with them for 6 months. Recently it went up even more. I did the math and when Paul heard how many hundreds of dollars a year it was costing us compared to cable, he said to cancel. When I made the call, DIRECTV of course tried several different offers to get me to stay. Their offers did come closer to what we used to pay for cable, but Paul still wasn't interested because we've decided to go without cable or sattelite for the next 5 months. We're planning to reactivate the cable in early September (in time for the NFL week one). During the next 5 months we're going to spend about $40 (total) for Paul to watch a news show (GBTV) and another $40 (total) for Netflix streaming (which we haven't had lately). It costs a lot more than $16/month for cable or sattelite, so this should save us a lot of money. We had done Netflix through the Wii, but that isn't possible for GBTV. So we bought a Roku today (for about $50) as that will work for Netflix and GBTV. We shall see how this 5 month experiment goes.

Ian in the wagon I bought for $10 on Thursday. He is OBSESSED with this thing!

Paul's parents, Shawn, and Brandi came up this afternoon. We had a great time together!

A Moody Eater

Most of the time I rarely have cravings for something in particular. If I were to ask Paul today what I should plan on making for dinner tomorrow, he'd tell me he doesn't know what he'll be in the mood for yet. That was an adjustment for me when we first got married because 99% of the time as long as it's a food I like to eat, I don't care what we're eating on a particular day. Well it's very different when I'm pregnant. I can relate to his "moods" when it comes to eating. What amazes me is how TOTALLY different my cravings are from when I am not pregnant. No, I'm not saying I want to eat pickles (a food I've never liked), but rather it amazes me how revolting some of the foods that are typically my favorite sound to me now. Yesterday at the mall Nadia kept begging for ice cream (from Friendly's or Dairy Queen) or a pretzel (from Auntie Anne's). When I'm not pregnant, those are two of my most favorite things to eat. Yesterday just hearing the words made me feel like I was going to throw up. A meatball sub from Subway sounded far more appealing to me.

Last night I made some oatmeal butterscotch cookies. I knew to steer clear of chocolate or peanut butter (both induce heartburn). I am very happy to report I was able to eat two cookies after dinner without any ill effects! Unfortunately that gave me the courage to mix in a little Apple Jacks with my plain Cheerios for breakfast this morning. Big Mistake. I definitely need to steer clear of sugar at breakfast. I felt AWFUL. I need to buy myself something like Total for my breakfasts because I'm really not a fan of plain Cheerios or Rice Krispies. Eating a hardboiled egg every morning definitely helps. I weighed myself today, and I still haven't gained an ounce. Yay! I need to take a belly pic as I'm getting close to 12 weeks now. In less than 2 weeks I'll be in the 2nd trimester!! The one sweet I've really been craving is a lemon bar or a slice of lemon meringue pie. I haven't had either in years, but I can't seem to get them off my brain, lol! Speaking of eating, yesterday I was doing a lot of research for our trip to Grand Cayman - picking out what restaurants we should go to (trying to find affordable ones as it seems eating on Grand Cayman is not cheap!), sights we should see, etc. It's only 2 months away! YAY!

I talked to a PA today who told me that the only antibody they test for in the first trimester bloodwork is Rh. That made me feel MUCH better because I know they know how to treat that problem (either transfusions or Rhogam shots). I'm kicking myself for not remembering at 4w0d to ask for a Rhogam shot when I had the spotting. I hope that's not what is causing the problem.

Dolls and Antibodies

As a child I had three curio cabinets in my bedroom that housed my doll collection. Eight years ago I squeezed almost all of the dolls into two cabinets. I only had two dolls in the third cabinet as I decided to use that one primarily for glass bowls, vases, candlestick holders, etc. Since we are planning to move Paul's office to the dining room so the baby can have that bedroom, I decided to try to sell one of the curio cabinets when I sell the dining room table. Beth was having a yard sale yesterday so I worked on that project yesterday. I gave Nadia the dolls that weren't valuable or fragile. Some had been from missionaries (ex. a doll made in Haiti) and others were from vacations I have taken or other relatives had taken. Some definitely had sentimental value to me, such as the little doll I bought at a gift shop in Williamsburg on a field trip when I was in the 4th grade. The dolls are on average about 30 years old. The dolls that are fragile, too sentimental to part with, and/or I think might be of some $$ value I squeezed into two curio cabinets. I also parted with some of my glass bowls, vases, etc. in order to leave one cabinet empty.

Beth had planned to continue the yardsale today and tomorrow, but the weather didn't cooperate this morning. If she does continue tomorrow, I am planning to bring a few of the glass items over to her sale. There were three other people (including myself) who brought thing to her yardsale. One woman was selling maternity clothes, but they were all size medium. Nope. I did buy a pair of snow boots for Ian for next winter for $1, 5 books for the kids for $2.50 (including Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See which Ian loves), and a Little Tikes wagon that both kids LOVE. I got a lot of exercise yesterday between pulling them around the neighborhood in the morning and then walking to the park in the afternoon.  My legs were so sore last night! Nadia did some of the pulling, and Ian got a big kick out of that, especially as Nadia was more prone to run than I was. Yesterday morning I took over a few random items to sell such as a few stuffed animals, books, and VHS tapes (since we just use DVD's these days). I really don't care about the money. I just like getting rid of excess stuff.

Since it was raining this morning, I took the kids to the mall in Paul's car so I could get his annual inspection done at Sears. Thankfully it passed inspection. I was worried they'd say we needed new tires, as we didn't want to put on tires since we are planning to trade it in for a minivan this summer. His car will be reaching 200K miles soon; we've gotten our money's worth out of that Civic! While we were at the mall, a nurse from the OB called to say the OB was concerned about my antibodies from my bloodwork on Monday. I asked if it was urgent or if it would be a problem if I waited until Monday to have it done since I wasn't planning on going that direction until Monday. The nurse said it was fine to wait until Monday. Needless to say I've been a bit worried though ever since that call. I know with some antibody problems there is nothing they can do. I know I'm Rh negative, but I had the Rhogam shot 5 times thus far. They didn't mention any antibody problems with the last two pregnancies. One thing that has crossed my mind was the spotting I had at 4w0d. I should have had a Rhogam shot that day. Another thing that has crossed my mind was the fact I had a transfusion in January 2010. I hope that blood I got then didn't cause any problems. Hopefully I'm worried about nothing. The fact they didn't encourage me to rush over for the bloodwork is somewhat encouraging, but I wish I didn't have to wait a few days to find out what's up. I wish they had been more informative about what exactly was meant by antibodies. I tried getting more information from the nurse, but she didn't really give me any. I'd appreciate prayers for our little one.

24-27 Months Old: A Comparison

Nadia at 24 months old (June 2010)

1. At 27 months old Nadia pronounced thank you "bank you." Ian has been pronouncing it correctly ever since he started saying it.
2. Nadia was far more social at this age. She would gladly interact with strangers at the playground. Ian never makes any attempt to play with other kids at the playground, but he must be somewhat aware of other kids in the nursery as sometimes he points to a toddler and tells me the child's name.

3. Nadia had switched to saying "me" instead of "you" in instances like "carry you." Ian still says "you." He says things like "Mommy will help you" when he wants some help.

4. Nadia's afternoon nap was 3 hours long. Ian's is 30 minutes long.

5. Ian has one favorite food (coconut milk yogurt). Nadia had many, many favorite foods.

6. Both talked a lot about emotions during these months, but Ian definitely said the word "scared" far, far more than Nadia ever did.

7. Nadia was drinking cold milk from a glass during these months. Ian is still drinking warm "milk" in a sippy cup.

8. Nadia was more into coloring at this age than Ian. Ian is far more interested in vehicles than Nadia has ever been.

9. Nadia was promoted to the preschool Sunday School class and children's church a couple of months before she turned 2. Ian was promoted at 26 months.

10. Ian was daytime potty trained during this time span. Nadia was wearing underwear 24 hours a day.

11. Ian said "I love you" a lot more than Nadia did. She asked for hugs. He never asks for hugs, but he does climb up and snuggle many times a day! They both love giving and receiving hugs and kisses!
12. Nadia loved swings. Ian is scared of them. Nadia was also braver in terms of coming down slides and the stairs by herself whereas Ian wants me to hold his hand in both instances.

13. Ian made a LOT more messes. He is like a cyclone going through the house!

14.  Nadia comforted herself by sucking her thumb. Ian plays with his belly button.

15. Although both children enjoyed singing at this age, Ian broke into song more often than Nadia ever did.

16. Ian knows more shapes and letters than Nadia did at this age.

I Passed!

This afternoon I called the OB office to inquire about my bloodwork results from Monday. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that I passed! A friend of mine had GD in her 2nd pregnancy and was tested in the first trimester in her 3rd pregnancy and passed, and then she was retested in her 2nd trimester and failed. I really am going to protest BIG time if the OB suggests doing this test again, especially as I am pretty much following a GD diet anyhow. I eat a cereal with very little sugar (ex. plain Cheerios) and a hardboiled egg for breakfast. When I go on a diet to lose weight, I don't change what I eat very much. What I mostly change is the quantity I eat. So this is much harder for me. Years ago when I was on a 1,200 calorie diet, I still ate a little ice cream every day. Now that I've been avoiding sweets my craving of them has increased. I keep telling myself that it won't be worth it. Maybe since I don't have GD this won't last the whole pregnancy. It should help me keep my weight in check if nothing else!

Ian is obsessed with this jacket. It was about 72 degrees out when this photo was taken. Nadia and I weren't wearing any jackets. It's going to be traumatic for Ian whenever I tell him it's too warm for this heavy jacket! As for yesterday's pictures with the ducklings, those are our neighbor's ducklings. The kids love them! I couldn't have asked for nicer weather for my spring break this week!                                      The ticker says that our baby is 2 inches long and is beginning to develop teeth buds! Only two more weeks until I'm in the 2nd trimester!! Woohoo!!!

What a Horrible Test

I passed the one hour glucose test with Nadia. I failed it with Ian, and thus had to have the 3 hour test, which I also failed. I remember after having that test I said to Paul that if I was ever pregnant again and I failed the 1 hour test, I'd ask them to just assume I had GD and skip the 3 hour test as I never wanted to go through that again. My new OB said there was no reason to do the 1 hour test since I had GD last time, but that I should just skip right to the 3 hour test. It wasn't fun in 2009, but it was so much worse yesterday in part because I'm still in the first trimester (and my tummy is generally unhappy as it is). It also was worse because although I arrived at 7am, they didn't actually give me the yucky orange drink until 8:05am. I was at the hospital for more than 4 hours, which meant by the time it was done I hadn't consumed anything for 18 hours except that horrible glucose drink. I was *famished*. I always eat breakfast. I do mean always. And when I am pregnant I eat MORE in the morning than I do when I'm not pregnant, and since I haven't gained any weight, I take it I'm not overeating. I brought a book to read, but I could only read for the first about 20 minutes and then it was all I could do not to throw up. Tears were streaming down my face as I desperately tried to keep the contents of my stomach inside my body. I ended up lying down for most of the time. At one point I had to go to the bathroom, and I almost passed out. Someone had to help me get to and from the bathroom. The last hour I started to feel better and was able to sit up and read for a little bit.  I felt icky the entire rest of the day and because of that went to bed at 8:30pm.

Thankfully when I went back to the waiting room during that last hour, there was a woman there with a young baby. Hearing that tiny baby cry was just what I needed. It helped remind me that this is all worth it. I still hope and pray to never have this test again. If the future FET results in a bfp, I hope we can avoid this 3 hour test. Frankly it doesn't matter if I am labeled with GD or not in the sense that I'm going to keep eating protein at every meal and avoiding sugar as much as possible. I feel horrible if I don't. This morning we had lunch at ladies Bible study since it was our last session. I tried not to eat too much in the way of sweets. I steered clear of the cakes and such. I ate a deviled egg and some stew along with a piece of bread and some fruit and fruit salad. It's not that I just had fruits and carbs, but still it was too much. My tummy felt awful at the end. I just can't eat sweets. The momentary pleasure while I eat the food doesn't compensate for feeling yucky for a long time afterward. I'll look forward to eating chocolate chip cookies and such again after September 24 (or earlier if baby decides he/she can't wait that long to be born). I am curious to hear whether I failed or passed the test yesterday, but the only change a label of GD will make is that I'll be checking my blood sugar via a glucometer. I don't think my diet will be much different either way.

Yesterday we found out that Ian won't be admitted to Hershey until April 2. I was bummed because if it had started on March 26, all my classes would have been covered. The good news is I shouldn't have to make too many trips from Hershey to my university. It also means I can start wearing maternity clothes in the near future as I won't be on campus much for 5 weeks between a conference in DC the last week of March and then being in Hershey for 4 weeks in April. A couple of days ago I bought the kids and I tickets to see Disney on Ice in Hershey on April 12. I think it's helpful to have something fun to look forward to during our 4 weeks there. Most of my non-maternity clothes still fit, but many of them hurt my belly (such as the capri pants I'm wearing at the moment). I am SO grateful for the warmer weather because nylons are the WORST. Even wearing a bigger size hasn't helped that much. I need sandal weather to come ASAP for my pg belly's sake!

Last week we found out that the local visiting professor chemistry position was also a closed door. The job had been posted in early February, and they were already wrapping that search up. So Paul will still be commuting to PSU for another year. After he gradutes (probably either August or December) he'll switch to being a post-doc (which includes a pay increase of some unknown amount). I'm praying for a tenure track job for him in the state of PA in physical chemistry for August 2013. We shall see if that is posssible. We might end up having to leave the state of PA in order for him to get a job in his field. The good news is that at least I know now we aren't moving for at least another year, which helps with making various decisions such as when to put our house on the market.

The time change seems to be helping Ian shift his wake up time as he woke up at 7am on Sunday (which really didn't represent any extra sleep as we only put the kids to bed 10 minutes earlier than usual on Saturday night), 6:40am yesterday, and 7:00am yesterday. I'll be thrilled if he gets back in the groove of not waking up before 7am.

27 Months Old!

1. He says "I love you" many times a day. What a sweetheart! Last Thursday he said it to Gabby which absolutely made her day.

2. This isn't something new, but I have to mention that it's a habit he's kept almost his whole life. When he's in my arms, he puts his head on one shoulder (usually my left) and wraps one arm (usually his left) around my neck. It's so sweet!
3. For a long time he was a mommy's boy. Now he's definitely a daddy's boy. He gets so excited when Paul comes home from school. He wants Daddy to take him to the bathroom rather than Mommy. This meant Ian was in a men's restroom for the first time Saturday. It was Paul's first time taking Ian to the bathroom in a public restroom (at Applebee's).
4. Although he can climb down the steps safely by himself (he keeps his right hand on the wall), he usually lacks the courage to do so. He stands at the top saying "Mommy will help you" over and over until I reach out and hold his left hand as he comes down the steps.

5. Over the past week he learned how to climb up into his booster seat by himself. He was oh so proud of himself!

6. His favorite tv show is "Word World" (PBS).
7. Randomly throughout the day he attemps to spell words. It's so funny to listen to him. He says a word and then says several letters (generally none of which are actually used in that word).

8. He's really into Winnie the Pooh. The lego set the kids got at Christmas (featuring Winnie the Pooh) is one of his most favorite toys right now. Yesterday he told me "Rabbit is my favorite."

9. Over the past month I've been rocking him in the glider for 15-45 minutes each morning because he's been waking up too early. In light of "springing forward" I am planning on letting him cry until he gets back in the habit of not waking up before 7am (his average has been 6:15am lately).

10. He adores coconut milk yogurt. If he starts to fuss, I just remind him that he can't have yogurt if he's crying. It works like a charm.

11. His favorite finger food right now is chips (more than pretzels or crackers). He licks them.

12. He hasn't had any accidents over the past 13 days! If you don't count the ones he had when he was asleep, he's gone more than 3 weeks without an accident.

13. He now weighs a little over 28 lbs thanks to the EleCare.

14. He's really into baths these days. He'd love to have one every day.

15. Over the past month he was promoted to Sunday School and Wee Worship (Children's Church). So long, nursery!

16. When he's playing with Play-doh or coloring, he always tells me what he's making/drawing. He's very imaginative!

17. He used to only have a strong opinion about what underwear and shirt he wore. Now he also has strong opinions about which socks and pants he wears. I usually let him wear whatever socks he wants as long as the two socks match each other.

18. His favorite song to sing lately is "We are the pirates who don't do anything."

19. Lately he's been crying for about 15 minutes and then sleeping for about 30 minutes. Saturday he fell asleep at 1pm in a shopping cart at Walmart with his head on the handle of the cart. Why is it easier for him to sleep in places like that than his own crib? Go figure! At night he goes down without crying.

20. The two words he says the most often are "not scary." He is still obsessed with the word "scary."

21. He wants to go to the playground every day no matter what the temperature is like outside. Thankfully it's supposed to be in the upper 60's this week so he should be getting his wish granted a lot more often than he has lately!

22. He will climb up to the top of the slide, but he says "Mommy will help you" until I reach out and hold one of his hands. He's not brave enough to slide down on his own yet, even if the slide is very small.

23. He's getting pretty good at throwing a football. He has a long way to go in learning how to catch.

24. He absolutely loves building towers for the joy of knocking them down. He often chants "we build a tower" very loudly while he's making the tower.

25. His molars have come in all the way. He has 12 teeth (8 incisors and 4 molars).

26. He's been obsessed with cards lately (flashcards, UNO game, etc.). He calls them puzzles for some reason.

27. Once at CVS he saw a man with a bandana on his head. He pointed to the man and called him a pirate. Thankfully the man thought it was cute. He often points to other men he sees and calls them "Jonah." Do all kids have such an obsession with Jonah, or is it just mine? LOL!

3 Hour GTT Tomorrow

As you can probably guess from my lack of blogging this week, I've been busy! I went to bed at 8pm the last two nights. Exhaustion is part of the reason I haven't had time to blog. Sleep has been more important to me. Also, I have been trying to cross a variety of things off my to do list. On Friday and Saturday I got all caught up with my grading and wrote my lesson plans for my substitutes to follow in April. I also finished my promotion rankings yesterday morning. Yesterday I also finished our local and federal taxes. Today I plan to finish our state taxes. Plus there are those constants like laundry, cooking, etc. Proof that I've been busy is that I checked out a novel from a church library 3 weeks ago (by an author I really like), and I haven't finished it yet. I have to return it on Tuesday morning because I got it from the church where I've been having ladies Bible study, and our final session is this Tuesday. I believe I'll have time to finish it tomorrow morning because I'll be sitting in a lab for three hours. I am to report at 7am tomorrow for my 3 hour glucose test. The OB said on Friday that since I had GD last time there was no reason to do the 1 hour screening this time. This means I can't eat anything tomorrow morning, and I'll have my blood drawn four times over that three hour time span. I find the drink to be very nasty. I'm dreading doing the test while I'm still in the morning sickness phase of pregnancy. The other times I had the tests in the 2nd trimester when I was well past the nausea stage. I'm praying I'll pass the test (I'm not keen on the idea of using a glucometer several times a day for 6 months), but I have a feeling I'm going to fail it.

I wasn't expecting to have the OB fill out the paperwork to reserve the OR for the c-section at my first appointment. It makes it feel like it's not that far away. Based on her u/s she at first said my EDD was 10-5 (because baby was measuring 10w0d), but she quickly adjusted to the EDD based on the egg retrieval (10-3). I was pleased when they weighed me as I weighed exactly the same as I did the day of the egg retrieval (so in 8w2d I hadn't gained any weight). On Thursday Karen (OT) told me I am looking pregnant. She asked if anyone who didn't already know I was pregnant had figured it out by looking at me. It would be wild if it happened this early this time as with Nadia it wasn't until I was around 32w that people started figuring it out on their own. Thankfully no one has said anything yet. Unfortunately I gained a few pounds over the past 12 months so I'm not starting out quite as low as I wanted to, but not gaining any weight in the first trimester should help me achieve my goal of gaining no more than 30 pounds altogether (which would mean my weight at the end would be lower than it was with Nadia or Ian).

THE ultrasound has been scheduled for May 17. It's hard to wait until then to know if baby is a girl or a boy. Feel free to vote on the poll I put on my blog. It's fun to guess! I figure baby is probably a boy just because we have a girl's name picked out (Deborah Marie) but not a boy's name. Deborah is after Paul's mom's sister, and Marie is my mom's middle name. Nadia is convinced we're going to call her sister "Aunt Debbie." She doesn't understand two people can have the same name. We are nowhere near picking a boy's names because Paul keeps bringing up names I rejected years ago (ex. Newton and Gordon are his two favorites).

Even though I had a few left, I stopped taking the Prometrium on Thursday as the RE had said it wasn't necessary after 10w. This meant Friday was my first day in months that I didn't take any medication as I had been on bcps for several weeks before the fertility shots and then the Prometrium. It was a one day reprieve because I started taking acid reducers again yesterday. I decided I couldn't take the heartburn/ acid reflux any more. Being pregnant isn't fun physically, but I am still oh so very grateful for the little one kicking around inside me!! Oh and if any of you were praying for my friend, Jo, she found out today (12dpo) that she's pregnant! PTL! I'm so thrilled that we get to share this journey together the next 6 months.

The OB asked me on Friday if I had any spotting. I told her I had some at 4w0d but not since then. It hit me afterwards that she asked that right after I told her I needed the Rhogam shot. The RE nurse goofed that up, and I totally forgot. I should have had a Rhogam shot back at 4w as you're supposed to have one anytime you have spotting (since I'm O negative and Paul has positive blood). I've had the Rhogam shot 5 times thus far. Once for the ectopic and around 20 weeks with Ian and Nadia and after delivery with both of them as well.

One of my cousins from Indiana made last minute plans to come and visit my parents last week. They were originally planning to go to Branson. We toyed with driving down on Friday night to spend some time with them on Saturday (he came with his wife and two kids). We haven't seen ANY relatives from my mom's side of the family in 8.5 years as they live in Ohio and Indiana. We used to go out for weddings, but they're all married (my mom's sister had 8 kids). Unfortunately we were too busy this weekend to make the 8 hour (RT) drive. Paul is busy working on his program as he's presenting on these results in Philadelphia in May and also still trying to graduate in August. Hopefully the next time one of my cousins visits my parents (while doing sightseeing in DC), we'll be able to go down and see them. None of my cousins on either side of my family have met Nadia or Ian although my dad's sister has met both of them.

C-section has been scheduled!

I had my first OB appointment today. I requested the OB who removed the placenta in January 2010 as I really liked her. She did an ultrasound (we shall see if the insurance pays for that since it was my second one in the first trimester), and baby is doing just fine. It was fun to watch him/her kick a leg, etc. She didn't give me any of the pictures. Boo. She already filled out the paperwork to reserve the OR for 9-24 for my c-section. That would be exactly three months after Nadia's birthday (6-24). Now to pray that baby stays in that long! I'd be 38w5d at that point. In order to help prevent another premature delivery, I'm going to have weekly progesterone shots starting in about 10 weeks. She said most patients come to their office for the shots, but I can do it at home if I feel comfortable. I said I have lots of experience with giving myself hormone shots at home. I declined the nuchal ultrasound (Down's syndrome screening). I didn't have it with Nadia, but I did have it with Ian and decided never to have it again. They normally would have wanted me to come back in 4 weeks (if I was skipping the nuchal screen because that's done between 11-13 weeks), but we'll be in Hershey with Ian. So my next appointment will be in 7 weeks (at 17w2d). Because I had GD with Ian she wants to skip the 1 hour screening test and have me do the 3 hour test sometime in the next two weeks. Fun, Fun, Fun. (Hopefully you are picking up on the sarcasm) They are also scheduling my MFM appointment for 10 weeks from now. It will be done at their office by someone from Harrisburg. At that time we should hopefully learn if Nadia is getting her wish for a sister. As expected, the entire visit lasted one hour. I was grateful I had asked Beth to watch the kids as it was much more pleasant without having them with me. The only thing I forgot to ask her was which acid reducers are okay to take. I guess I'll give the nurse a call when I get to the point I feel I must start popping pills to deal with the acid reflux.

Thankful Thursday

1. Ian is such an affectionate boy. He says "I love you" many times a day. I'm trying to teach Nadia how to respond politely when he says "I love you, Nadia." On Monday after Nadia changed into her leotard for ballet class, Ian said to her "you are beautiful." What a sweetheart!

2. Ian has gone 9 consecutive days without an accident. WOOHOO! He still struggles with going in public restrooms, but he's doing much better at holding it until we get home. I can't blame him for not wanting to use the portapotty at the playground!

3. The temps got up into the 60's yesterday!!! We had a blast at the playground. In fact, I woke Nadia up from her nap (and she rarely naps these days) so that we could go because I knew we wouldn't be able to go today (because of my work schedule), even though the weather is gorgeous again today.

4. As of yesterday, Nadia has learned all the uppercase and lowercase letters and the numbers 1-9. She hasn't totally mastered all of them. A few of them we have to review each day, but she's come a LONG way in the last couple of months.

5. I started reading A Bear Called Paddington yesterday to Nadia. I loved that series when I was a child, and Nadia seemed to enjoy it yesterday when I read her the first two chapters while she colored.

6. The ballet teacher surprised me last week by emailing me and saying we didn't need to pay for April's tuition. I thanked her. The gym also gave us a $49 credit for the 4 gymanstics classes she'll be missing.

7. I am so grateful that Ian likes coconut milk yogurt. He actually says things like, "I want yogurt." We shall see what Karen says today about whether it's okay if that's all I feed him until he starts at Hershey Medical.

8. I haven't gained any weight as of 10 weeks into the pregnancy! With Nadia and Ian I gained a little in the first trimester. It looks like I won't this time!

9. Paul's advisor thinks he could possibly graduate in August, and it seems very likely he'll graduate with his PhD in 2012!

10. For years I have thought of going to a Women of Faith conference. I haven't gone for a myriad of reasons - one of which is that I'm a penny pincher. I paid for my ticket to attend in DC in August. My mom will watch Nadia and Ian. I'll sit with ladies from my church, but I won't be riding the bus down with them or staying at the hotel with them. Now I just have to make sure not to go into labor at 33w (which is how far along I'll be then). I was in labor at 33w with Ian so it's not crazy for me to be a little worried about that. I wouldn't have paid for my ticket if it would have been any later in the pregnancy since Ian came at 34w and Nadia came at 36w. I'm looking forward to it!

11. The Dean told me I can't use the 37.5 hours of annual sick family leave toward my unpaid leave this semester. I was able to do that in one payperiod last semester because I was on FMLA. She said I can use it so other professors can teach a few of my classes. Today I asked for volunteers (they will be paid), and five of my classes will be covered in April. My department chair said I could do one by Wimba. What a relief!

12. I finished reviewing the 33 promotion applications today! Maybe I can conclude my review of their supporting documentation in the library this afternoon! WOOHOO!

End is in Sight!

Paul spoke with his advisor earlier this week about whether she thought he could graduate in August. The bad news is that it's not definite enough that he can apply for the tenure track physical chemistry position at Millersville because the deadline is March 24, and he won't know at that point if he can graduate in August. That is disappointing because it's rare to find an opening in physical chemistry in PA, and Millersville is the type of school Paul would like to teach at (one which values good teaching higher than research). Millersville would have put us about the same distance we are now from Paul's family, but it would have meant we'd be living quite a bit closer to my parents. There is no guarantee he would have gotten the job, but the door is being closed a little sooner since he can't apply. The good news is that it has now been very clearly defined what he needs to accomplish in order to graduate. She said that if he gets results from the simulation he just started running a few days ago and publishes an article from those results, that will be enough to conclude his PhD. So that is encouraging! He's still aiming to graduate in August, but knowing his difficulties with meeting deadlines, I'm assuming he'll graduate in December although I'd love to be pleasantly surprised by an August graduation! It costs a fortune for him to drive to PSU five days a week. Either way it seems very likely that my husband will have his PhD by the end of 2012! That's wonderful news! He started in August 2008. Now I need to start praying for a tenure track position in physical chemistry for August 2013. He'd really like to live within a reasonable distance of his parents. Hopefully that will be possible. He's probably going to apply for a one year general chemistry position at a university that is only 20 minutes from our house which starts this August. That would seem to be ideal since it would mean we wouldn't have to move in both 2012 and 2013. I'm praying about that possibility as well. I think one year of teaching experience as a "visiting professor" would really strengthen his resume and hopefully help him get a tenure track job next August.

Knowing that we probably aren't going to be moving in the next few months is helpful for me. I had been wondering if we should put our house on the market because sometimes it takes awhile to sell a house. Now I know we can wait about a year before we put our house on the market. I had just recently started doing some purging (ex. if I haven't worn those dresses in umm at least 8 years why am I still hanging on to them?). Now I know I can wait a bit on those efforts. My main priority right now is the promotion committee. Thankfully that job will be DONE by the end of the month. I spent two hours in the library yesterday before my office hours and class and plan to do the same tomorrow. The end is in sight in terms of that project as well. There are other decisions that will be easier to make (ex. should we stay with Directv?) now that we know we're not moving in the next 5 months.

One thing I am not taking off my to do list is to sell our dining room table/chairs and curio cabinets. The dining room will become Paul's office, and the room that is now Paul's office will become the baby's bedroom. At some point we'll replace our kitchen table (which is 16 years old) with one that has more leaves so that we can expand it a few times a year when we have a family gathering for a holiday or birthday. Our dining room table gets used about 3-4 times a year on average. It doesn't seem necessary to have a whole room for that purpose. We bought the dining room table in 2004 because our second house had a dining room. We didn't have kids then so I hadn't thought of using that space as a playroom or schoolroom. I'm thrilled that in 6 months we can make use of all four bedrooms as bedrooms! Today I am 10 weeks along! The ticker says that baby's hair and fingernails are developing!