Cough Cough

My mom arrived on Tuesday at about 4pm just after Nadia had gone down for her 3rd nap. I was at school. I got home about 8pm and visited with her before going to bed. It was good that she came on Tuesday as it snowed here on Wednesday. Paul had a longgggg trip home from school Wednesday night due to snow and sleet. Nadia, my mom, and I stayed home on Wednesday with the exception of a trip to the grocery store before it started snowing.

Wednesday she learned a new trick - fake coughing. She mostly did it for Grandma. It was their little way of communicating back and forth. :-) If someone didn't know her, they might think she was rather ill, LOL! Yesterday she really struggled with going down for her first and second naps which is sooooo unusual. Naps have been so easy for so long that it was hard for me to hear her cry. She was really good at taking naps for Grandma today. Her 2nd nap was 2 hours and 20 minutes long! I think that's a new record! I can't remember the last time she had a nap that was longer than 90 minutes. I assumed since that nap was SO long that she wouldn't have a third nap, but she started rubbing her eyes and yawning at 4:30 so I put her down and she slept for 40 minutes.

My meeting went well today. I still have some work to do on the grant, but I am hoping today was our last large group meeting as they usually take at least 7 hours including driving time. We started working on this in fall of 2007, so I'm ready for it to be done.

Nadia also has become more mobile. She can crawl a little, but mostly she uses rolling and scooting to get across the room. I said that a few days ago her ability to go from lying down to sitting seemed to be unintentional, but she definitely does it on purpose now!! Sometimes she still goes backwards when she wants to go forward, but she's making great strides in becoming more mobile! She also is getting close to being able to feed herself a puff (which is about the same size as a cheerio). She gets it in her hand and gets her hand to her mouth, but she doesn't release her fingers enough for the puff to go from her hand to her mouth. My mom was amazed at how much Nadia had changed since she saw her last (Christmas Eve). Her hair is longer & blonder, she's taller and heavier, and she can sit on her own, etc. Babies change so quickly! I am very glad Grandma could come up to visit us for about 48 hours. :-)

Grandma is Coming!

Grandma has been planning to babysit Nadia on Thursday as I have a grant meeting and will be gone from home for about 7 hours. She was planning to drive up from MD tomorrow, but we are supposed to be getting some snow and sleet then so I suggested yesterday that it might be better if she came up today. So Grandma will be arriving here this afternoon and leaving on Thursday after I get back from my meeting at King's College. I'll be at school when she arrives today, but I'll be home tomorrow. I want Nadia to get to know all four of her grandparents so I am glad Grandma can come up for about 48 hours. Nadia will get to see her other Grandma (and Pop Pop) on Friday as I have a faculty meeting that afternoon so they'll be watching her for about 2 hours while I attend that meeting. I am very grateful that both Grandmas (and Pop Pop) are willing to take care of Nadia when I have a meeting at work. :-)

As you can see, Nadia had fun playing with the lights on the dining room wall again this morning. She also is a BIG fan of peekaboo lately. For example, we play that during bath time by Mommy hiding behind the shower curtain and Nadia hiding her face under a washcloth. What fun! :-)

Sniffing and Sitting

Nadia's two newest skills are going from her belly to a sitting position on her own and sniffing. The sitting skill so far has been accidental I think. It has happened a few times when she's been experimenting with various crawling positions and ends up in a seated position. The sniffing is definitely not accidental. She has discovered her nose and loves to scrunch it up and sniff. It is quite hysterical to watch her. I think the fact I laughed and laughed the first time I saw her do it encouraged her to do it more. I have stopped laughing when she does it, but I still find it very funny! I hope I get a picture of it before she stops this little phase. She also has tried to pull herself up to a standing position but hasn't totally succeeded with that yet. Part of the problem is that she's tried to do it with her music cube, and it moves when she grabs on to it and tries to pull herself up. I think she'd be successful if she chose a more stationary object.

She's doing GREAT with eating. It really doesn't matter what I offer her - oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, green beans, applesauce, etc., she opens WIDE. I was concerned about reintroducing green veggies, but she's eaten them very willingly yesterday and today. YAY!

She's also doing GREAT with sleeping. For example, last night she went down at 7pm and woke up at 6:35am. She's really getting flexible with her naps. If something causes one of her first two naps to be shorter than usual, then she takes a really long 3rd nap whereas usually that's a short nap. Altogether her 3 naps usually total between 3 and 3.75 hours long. Three cheers for Nadia!

Our Little Valentine

Can you tell that she likes mashed potatoes? Actually she's opening wide for most foods I offer her with a spoon these days. She even did well with her cottage cheese today!

She took a nap in a pack n' play in the church nursery during Sunday School. She slept a little less than an hour. That's shorter than usual, but given she was in a different bed in a different place, I thought that was pretty good. I was retrieved during church to come to the nursery as they couldn't console her. She's generally in a good mood when she's with me, but she's definitely more fragile emotionally when she's with others. I am sure over time she'll get better at handling "strangers."

Nadia received two Valentine's Day cards - one from her Grandma & Pop Pop and the other from her parents (Paul purchased it). Paul ordered a Valentine's gift for "his girls" that hasn't come yet. It's a ceramic piggy bank that says "Born to be a Steelers Fan." :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We went out for lunch today. Since I'm dieting (lost 8 lbs as of this morning!), I wanted a salad. We had gift cards for Applebee's and TGI Fridays. Since we usually go to Applebee's, we decided to go to TGIF. I haven't been to one of those in years. It's about 10 minutes farther away than Applebee's, but it made it seem more special since we don't often go there.
I had a salad and then splurged and got chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert. That was a splurge both in terms of $$ (I don't usually buy a drink or dessert - just my entree) and also the calories. Since we paid for the meal with gift cards it really wasn't much of a splurge especially when you consider my hubby always gets a soda and often gets a steak (like he did today). The pie was scrumdilicous!

Nadia was really good at TGIF. She sat in her high chair for about an hour. At first she was eating puffs and playing with toys I had brought, and then at the end we fed her some of Daddy's mashed potatoes which she loved! The only downside of our excursion is she fell asleep on the way home (as it was already past her usual nap time), and then she couldn't go back to sleep once we got home so it was a very short nap (about 20 minutes). I just put her down for her 3rd nap, and hopefully this will be a nice long nap to compensate.

It seems whether we put her down at 6:45 or 7:30pm, she still wakes up at 6:15am. Daylight savings time isn't that far away so I think at that point then she'll be waking up at 7:15. I don't get her until 6:30 at the earliest so that will translate to 7:30 which is exactly what I am hoping for as a get up time for her.

She's doing awesome with eating solids. The quantity she can eat keeps increasing and now she's drinking a little less milk each day (4-6 ounces at a feeding instead of 6-8 ounces). She can eat the oatmeal served pretty thick now, and she loves yogurt. She's still not totally sure about cottage cheese, but we'll keep working on that. She loves mashed potatoes!!! I plan to try green veggies again in the next few days. Her favorite fruits so far are mangos and apples.

The doctor on Tuesday told me that from my wrist up to the tip of my thumb would be numb for about 24 hours and that although the numbness would go away, I wouldn't probably see a decrease in pain until about 2 more days after that. Well no part of my thumb was ever numb, and the numbness around the injection site lasted less than one hour. I was still in a lot of pain that day. Tuesday night it took me over an hour to fall asleep it hurt so badly, and I'm the type of person who typcially (not so much the last few months but the rest of my life) falls asleep very quickly almost every night. I was concerned that the shot wasn't going to work since I wasn't experiencing what they said I would, but I have noticed significant improvement the last few days. Yay! I slept better last night than I had in a very long time. I still had numbness and pain this morning, but in general I am having far less discomfort. Hopefully it will keep improving, and I can cancel my appointment with him next month. I'm glad I got the shot.

Daddy was a Blonde Too

These photos are from when Paul was about 18 months old. He had blonde hair like I did, but unlike me, his was CURLY! Nadia's is too short yet to tell if hers will be straight or curly.

The funny thing is that his older brother, Al (seated in the pool) now has curly, brown hair, but his was straight when he was little whereas Paul's is now straight. I don't think Paul cares whether his hair is blonde or brown or curly or straight; he just wishes he had more of it (like his brother does).

Giving Thanks

I didn't order any of these, but I think they turned out pretty well also. It was very nice to have the problem of having a hard time deciding which poses to buy! :-)

Unlike the last 5 days where we were out and about at some point every day, I think we'll just stay home all day today. I need to grade some papers for one thing, and I'm cooking a new recipe for dinner tonight. We shall see what we think of it. Last month's new recipe didn't thrill either of us. This one involved marinading the chicken for 24 hours so I actually started making it yesterday. Tomorrow I think we'll go out to eat for lunch for Valentine's Day. I figure restaurants might be crowded at dinner time. At some point I would like to have a date with my hubby, but it will also be special to celebrate Valentine's Day as a family of 3 for the first time. I got Paul a card yesterday that was from a daughter to her Daddy. He's never gotten one like that before! :-)



I'm thankful for....

1. The good health we continue to experience (my sister's four kids have all been sick recently, even the 2 month old had a 103 fever and this again reminded me how grateful I am that thus far Nadia's never had a fever, etc.)

2. The Steelers winning their 6th Superbowl (still very happy about that, LOL)

3. The pretty weather we had this week, especially on Wednesday and the knowledge that spring is coming!

4. The fact Nadia smiled during professional photos for the first time (when I first set her down on the little white pillow she started crying so we got off to a rough start but we got some good pics - YAY)

5. Some improvement in my wrist since I had the steroid shot on Tuesday

 

6. The CD that matured this month that can be used to pay for IVF next month

7. All the special moments with Nadia - we love her sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!! I'm still in awe that I am finally a Mommy!! :-)

She SMILED!!!

When we were first married we used to buy each other Valentine's Day gifts. I remember getting good jewelry the first couple of years. So in comparison these photos are cheap. The one thing is I wish I had asked the photographer to put a black cloth over the cube that Nadia held on to when she was standing. When she put the red one on I thought that wasn't the best choice since Nadia's dress was red, but I didn't speak up (silly me!), and I liked her smile the best in that one.

It was so wonderful though to have the problem of not knowing which pose(s) to get!! I was soooo thankful that she smiled. Way to go, Nadia! I'll post some of the other photos tomorrow. She took 11 poses of which I thought 5 were decent and 5 were very good.

Nadia is shifting towards 1pm as the starting time for her 2nd nap (still 9am for the first one). Because her appt was for 5pm, she had to skip her 3rd nap in light of the 2nd nap ending later than it used to. She did really well until we were driving home (6pm), but then she was fine once we got home. We had been gone for over 2 hours so I was proud of her as I picked up a few things at Target before going to Sears.

Well I hope you enjoy these photos. I love them! I am looking forward to picking them up in a little more than a week. Some will be for us, and of course some are for our family and friends. I hope they enjoy them also! :-)

IVF Schedule

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day! Since it was in the high 50's, I put Nadia in the stroller and took her for a walk through the neighborhood. I also had her go down the slide a few times (see yesterday's photos). She liked it! I need to buy an infant seat for the swing set so she can enjoy swinging in the spring. I know this warm weather won't stick around (yet) since it's only February, but it is a nice taste of what is to come!

Tonight I am taking Nadia to Sears for photos. The last time we went was in November so it's been about 2 1/2 months. These photos will be different as she'll be sitting which she couldn't in the previous ones, and of course she's bigger, hair is longer, etc. I hope she SMILES!!! If there's only one pose I like, then I'll get the $4.99 package that includes two 10x13s, one 8x10, one 5x7, etc. If there are 3 poses I like, I'll get two of the Valentine's day trios for $9.99 (I have coupons). I think the next time we get her picture taken she'll be standing. Babies change so much in the first year of life!

Paul's mom had another stent put in yesterday so they kept her in the hospital overnight. Thankfully it seems everything went well, and she should be coming home today. Thanks to those of you who prayed for her.

Last night Nadia went down at 7:10pm. We are doing better in terms of a later bedtime! She first woke up a little before 6am, but I've been making 6:30am the earliest I let her get up lately. So I let her "yell" (not crying but rather talking very loudly), and she fell asleep around 6:15 and slept until 7am. YAY!

If there are any men reading this post, I'd appreciate it if you didn't read the rest of it. Thanks! I called the RE's office a few days ago to find out what their up/down schedule is for April/May/June. They go through a cycle of being "up" for 8 weeks and then "down" for 3 weeks. They don't do any retreivals or transfers during the "down" weeks. They have an "up" cycle from March 23-May 18. If you had asked me 6 months ago, I would have said we wouldn't start ivf #2 until July at the earliest as I thought I'd be nursing through June. Actually if it weren't for wanting to have another baby, I would have liked to nurse her longer than a year. If we do have another child, I hope to nurse him/her for a year at the minimum. Since Nadia weaned herself off me last month, that sped up when we could do ivf again. The other advantage I had seen to waiting until July was I figured it would give us a few months to ttc on our own just in case we were one of those cases of a couple who gets pg easily after an ivf pgcy. I highly doubted it would happen, but I figured there would be a few months where that would be possible before we started ivf again.

I thought I got AF on January 11. I am not totally sure if I did or not. It lasted several days but was super light. I don't think I've ovulated since then. I took an opk today just to verify that assumption, and it was totally negative. I used to always get a second line (light until ovulation), but there was only one so I don't think I've ovulated or am anywhere near ovulating. I had planned to start bcp after the next time I got AF in preparation for starting ivf - either the end of February or early March. Now I have no idea when I'll get AF. Even though I've stopped nursing I don't think my body has gotten back to "normal." I have 1 1/2 packs of bcps left over from before. I could take part of a pack which should bring on AF and then I'd start up the new pack and stay on it until early April or I could just wait and start the bcp in early March and not have AF until I end the bcp the 4th day after I've started the Lupron shots (in April). Any thoughts???

So as far as the schedule goes, we're going on vacation on May 9th so obviously I want the transfer done before then. Last time from the first Lupron shot to the 3 day transfer was 30 days. We might have a 5 day transfer this time (I think I'd like to go that route if we still have more than 4 embies on day 3), and of course the follicles might take a little longer to mature so to be safe I'd like to aim towards April 29 for the ER so that if it took place a little later it would be okay. If that were the case, I think I'd start the Lupron on April 2 and the stimming on April 16. My final exams are April 27 & 28 and then I'm off until May 19 (aside from grading those exams). Those days I don't have to be at school until 6:30pm so that wouldn't interfere if the ER ended up happening a little sooner than April 29. My last day of teaching this semester is April 21, but I don't go in until the afternoons and the u/s and b/w appointments are always in the morning so that's not a problem. Those appointments are very short so it won't be a problem to bring Nadia along.

The only negatives to scheduling everything during this time frame are #1 Paul has classes until May 1. His schedule is very flexible starting May 2nd, but my concern is that if we aim for a May 2nd ER that it only gives us one day of wiggle room if I have a 5 day transfer (3 days of wiggle room with a 3 day transfer). The transfer shouldn't be a problem for him, and I scheduled the testing during his spring break so I think the only day he might have to miss any classes due to ivf would be the day of the retrieval. The second negative is I am scheduled to speak in DC on April 24 which would be during the stimming. It shouldn't be too hard to avoid needing u/s and b/w on that particular day, but it likely means my trip to DC will be shorter than I was expecting and it means I can't plan exactly when I'll go down and come back until the very last minute as I won't know which days my u/s and b/w checks will be. I am speaking in Chicago next month so it's not the end of the world if I have to back out of this DC speaking engagement, but I would like to still be able to do it if possible.

Another advantage to doing ivf during April is that if the fresh transfer resulted in a sticky bfp - my due date would be in January which means I could actually use my sick days for 8 weeks after giving birth. Paid leave would be great! Plus I think that if the fresh transfer didn't work and we had frozen embies, we could do the FET sometime in June as their next "up" cycle would begin June 8. Then the EDD would still be during the spring semester (in March). A final advantage is that it's helping me somewhat to deal with the fact the nursing ended much sooner than I wanted it to. I am not sure if it's just always hard to stop and always something you miss for awhile or if I'm missing it even more since we stopped 5 months before I wanted to stop. One good thing about the fact I did nurse Nadia is that if we adopt our next child (if ivf #2 doesn't result in a sticky bfp) I should have an easier time with adoptive b/feeding since I've nursed before. At least that's what I've read - that it's easier to induce lactation to nurse an adopted baby if you have nursed before.

Library Time

The first 8 years I lived in PA I made use of the local public library. The last 4 years the borough we lived in didn't have a library, but my church had a great library so I used that 90% of the time and otherwise used my university's library. I don't think my new church has a library. On Sunday I found out one of the nursery workers lives in my town (not the same town as where the church is); so I asked her where is the public library. It turns out there is one that is for three boroughs and 2 townships. It's a little less than 5 miles from our house. I went on the website and was rather impressed with all the activities they have for all ages - preschool story hour on Fridays from 11-12, book clubs for adults, a walking club, teen night, a program for grades K-3 one afternoon a week, etc. So I decided we'd go check it out this morning after stopping at the bank.

The library is located in what obviously used to be a home, but I was amazed how much they had inside given the size of the building. They had fairly recent releases in the DVD section for example. They also had a fair amount of Christian fiction in the adult section; they had a cross sticker on the Christian books (not that I needed that as I am fairly familiar with the names of Christian authors but I thought it was nice anyhow). They also had a used book store inside that I plan to check out in the future especially as I received a coupon for a free book when I got my new library card today. The children's section looked nice, and they even had these bookbags you could check out. Each bag contained a book or two as well as other things such as puzzles, stuffed animals, and other activities that were all on a particular theme such as Curious George or telling time, etc. Some were for preschool age so I am sure at some point we'll start checking out those bags. I got 2 John Grisham books for myself. I plan to make use of interlibrary loan for the other books I have on my list of books I want to read (books by Grisham, Jamie Langston Turner, and Nicholas Sparks). I asked what age the preschool story time is geared for (they read stories, sing songs, and do crafts) and she said some babies come up to the age of 4. I guess the next time I go to the library I'll go on a Friday morning and then see if I think Nadia is ready to enjoy any part of it yet or not. I'm guessing she's still too young but who knows, she does like books and songs! It will be fun when that will become part of our weekly routine. Maybe I can make a friend that way too as I meet some other moms in the area, who knows? I am looking forward to getting back in the habit of reading. I didn't read any books for about 5 months, but recently I read a good book that my friend had loaned me many months ago. I used to read at least one book a week.

I have done more searching for a ladies Bible study for myself to no avail. The closest MOPS groups are at my old church and in another city about the same distance away as my old church. MOPS just meets once a month so even though I think they meet on Mondays which isn't the best for me since I teach Monday nights, I think I'll do that starting in the fall as Nadia will probably be able to skip her morning nap more easily then, and she'll also be at the age where she'll get more out of the Moppets program. I also searched for a BSF group as I've had friends who have really enjoyed BSF (although I know the homework is more intense for that than the Beth Moore studies I've done the last several years). The closest one is about 20 minutes away on Wednesday mornings which would be great except they don't have a nursery. They have preschool for ages 2-5. I don't have any babysitters, but even if I did I don't know if I could justify the expense. I will keep that in mind for the future though although if we have another baby (which I hope we do!) it's going to be awhile until my youngest is 2 years old. Something else I plan for Nadia to get involved in is AWANA. At my new church they only start with Sparks (age 5), but at the church I visited that's 1 mile from my house they start with Cubbies (age 3) so I plan to have her do that on Wednesday nights starting in the fall of 2011. Even though we plan to keep her at home if I am able to keep working part-time, she will still have various opportunities to develop her socialization skills. :-)