10 months old!

Yesterday my E2 was 1,267, and thankfully my P4 was very low (less than 1) which is what they want to see at this stage. Dr. A measured 7 follies (6 on the right and 1 on the left) that were 11-13mm and said there were lots of small ones on both sides (he considers small less than 10mm). I go back tomorrow morning for b/w and another u/s. I am guessing I'll trigger on Sunday or Monday and have the ER on Tuesday or Wednesday. The phlebotomist tried to use my right arm, but only one little squirt of blood came out. So she had to use my already very bruise up left arm. It's now green, yellow, purple, etc. Dr. A wanted me to stay at the same dosage (75iu of Follistim and 75iu of Menopur). Although Menopur is a little easier on the belly than Repronex, it still burns the most of the 3 different meds going into my belly. Dr. A said he expects to see many more follicles over 10mm tomorrow. He seemed pleased which was reassuring to me. Tomorrow Paul can watch Nadia at home during my appt. Let me say it's a challenge to hold a baby in your arms while your legs are in stirrups. She'll sit in the stroller while my blood is drawn, but the u/s takes too long so I didn't put her in the stroller yesterday during my u/s.

We arrived at my parents' house at about 2:45pm. She slept the first 45 minutes of the trip and then stayed awake and was happy for another 90 minutes as long as I periodically reached back and fed her a few Cheerios and kept singing songs along with her CDs which I had brought for the trip. Around 1:15 she started screaming. I thought maybe she'd fall back asleep, but once I was certain she wasn't, I pulled off at the next exit and we spent some time in Wendy's where I changed her diaper, fed her a banana, and let her get some wiggles out. She cried a little once we got back in the car, but then she slept about 40 more minutes. She woke up just a little before we got to my parents' house. She enjoyed playing with Grandma's toys (some of which were mine as a child and others were purchased when my brother was a baby) and of course enjoyed chasing their cat, Patches. Patches got her exercise running away from Nadia.

Then we celebrated my bday at a Mexican restaurant. The food was delicious although I ate too much! We shared an order of sopapillas for dessert; I hadn't had sopapillas in years. We used to eat them when we lived in Texas (1978-1980). Then when the waiter found out we were celebrating my bday, he came back with a sombrero for me to wear while they sang to me and presented me with fried ice cream (complete with a candle!). So then we shared that dessert. Nadia liked the vanilla ice cream. :-) When we got back home I opened my presents. Maurice got me a book for Nadia about Beluga whales, and my parents got me Steeler stuff (a polo shirt, socks, plastic sign for my office, and a Hines Ward jersey). I am very glad to have the polo shirt as it's something I could wear to school if the Steelers win a playoff game or something like that. I really wanted something to wear to work after the last 2 Superbowl victories and didn't feel a t-shirt was appropriate attire.

This morning I left about 7:30am to take the Metro into DC to the Convention Center. The first session I attended was excellent. The second one I could have done without. I spoke at 12:30 and about 60 people attended my session. I think probably more would have come, but they didn't give a lunch break, and I think many were going to lunch at that time. I am not saying I think over 1,200 would have come to my session as was the case for the 1st one I attended, but I do think I would have had over 100 if mine had been in the morning. After my session I went back home. I missed my girl!! She turned 10 months old today!! She did really well for my mom except she cried a lot before her 2nd nap (only made one whimper when my mom put her down for her 1st nap). A couple of pastors and their wives from the church where my Dad is pastor are coming over for dinner. I plan to leave about 7pm so that Nadia will hopefully sleep all the way home. I'd stay longer if I didn't have a b/w and u/s appt tomorrow morning at 9am.

Meow!

The first animal sound Nadia learned to say is "meow." Let me tell you I am definitely jealous that not only has she said dada for months before saying mama, but meow came before mama, and we don't even have a cat! If we had a pet, I'd understand this more. Oh well. Some day (hopefully soon!), she'll say mama. I know I'm her favorite person on the planet even if she doesn't say my name yet. :-) I noticed she was making a sound similar to meow after hearing it on the "See & Say" toy. So I pulled the lever to have the dog, bird, etc make their sounds and sure enough she only made her little meow sound after the cat. Later in the day if I said "meow" she'd say it back to me. It's soooo cute!!!

This morning we're headed to the RE for an u/s and b/w. I can tell there are a lot of follicles growing as my ovaries are getting very tender. My left arm is very bruised. I am definitely offering the phlebotomist my right arm today. Hopefully she won't have trouble getting blood out of it. That arm is not nearly as "cooperative." My belly is fairly bruised up also. I've had 29 shots in my belly so far this cycle. Tonight's shots will be #30-31. I should be getting near the end of belly shots though. I would think the latest I'll be stimming is Sunday. Presuming the RE says I don't have to come back tomorrow (I'm assuming Saturday will be my next appt), I'll be driving to MD from the RE and hopefully arriving by 2pm. My parents are taking me out to eat tonight to celebrate my bday. At first I was leaning towards Olive Garden as that would be better for Nadia (I'm sure she'd love the breadsticks and I know she likes pasta), but I think I'll pick a Mexican restaurant as Paul doesn't like Mexican food so I can easily go a year or more without going to one. I may not have been to an Olive Garden in a long time, but I have had pasta more recently.

Tomorrow morning I'll be headed to the Convention Center in DC for the NCTM annual conference. Another prof told me on Tuesday that this one pays you $2 per person who attends your session. I've never been paid to speak at a conference before. I hope lots of people come to my session. Sometimes I have less than 10 people, but the last time I spoke at this venue (a different conference however) I had well over 100 people attend my session. Maybe that will happen tomorrow! :-)

The weather didn't cooperate yesterday as far as taking a walk, and I didn't finish the grading like I hoped to, but I did accomplish my other goals. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous starting tomorrow, and in fact they are forecasting a high of 87 on Saturday for our area in PA. Unbelievable! I am not really wanting the 80's yet, but considering how cold it was on Monday this week, I won't complain. :-)

Thirty Seven

Well I can't say if I had my choice I'd pick to spend 90 minutes at the hospital and 6 hours at work on my bday, but it's still a very special bday since it's the first one to spend with my daughter!!! I became a mom in June 2005 so April 2006 was really my first bday as a mom, but last year was the first that I really felt like a mom as I could feel my little girl kicking inside me. Oh how I used to dread bdays for awhile there. I just couldn't believe I still wasn't a mom yet. It's so nice not to feel depressed about my bday this year! It still bothers me a little in the sense that I know that "clock" is really ticking in terms of having any more children, but that is NOTHING compared to wondering when I will finally hold my first little one in my arms. She's the best bday gift possible!!! This morning she was nice enough to wait until 6am to wake up. The only other day she slept in that "late" in the past more than a week was on Saturday. She was nice to Daddy and slept in until 6:30am (he gets up with her that day and I get up with her the other 6 days of the week). I opened 4 presents this morning - 2 from my sister who lives in Turkey (a picture frame and a purse) and 2 from my hubby (a curling iron as mine is broken and a camera mask to take pictures while snorkeling in a few weeks). Nadia still hasn't quite figured out the whole tearing wrapping paper off gifts thing yet. I'm sure sometime in the next year she'll figure it out. :-) Last night when I got home from class I mentioned that my Aunt Tina had called to wish me a happy bday. Paul said, "But your bday isn't until Wed." I said my bday is tomorrow! I am glad we had that conversation last night! He hadn't forgotten that my bday was on the 21st, he just though the 21st was on Wed. OOPS!

As I reflect a little on my bday I was thinking about the fact that 5 years ago I was supervising 20 student teachers at another university and we had recently done our first round of inj (Bravelle). Ten years ago I was the principal of a Christian school, working on my doctorate, and had been dating Paul for 2 years (we got engaged in 2000). Fifteen years ago I was teaching middle school in Maryland and working on my master's degree (which I completed that summer in South Carolina). Twenty years ago I had one month left of high school and was doing a lot of babysitting. Back then I probably thought a 40 year old was "middle aged." I don't think that any more! Actually I haven't thought that for at least 10 years now. Frankly 50 is starting to sound pretty young these days. :-) Isn't it funny how your perception of what age is "old" keeps moving as you grow older? Of course 37 is 1/2 of 74 so it's possible I am not too far from the middle of my life, but I refuse to consider myself middle aged much less "elderly" even if that's the label on my medical record.

The doctor appt went well this morning. The only hassle was at the pharmacy. Calling in my refill did me no good as even though there was no one in front of me and they went to check to see if they had 2 vials of Follistim right when I checked in at 8:30, they still didn't give me my 2 vials until 9:22. I wasn't a very happy camper trying to keep Nadia entertained without toys after the Cheerios ran out. I need to find a new pharmacy. The hospital's is just plain annoying. They gave me 1/2 of the Rx for the Menopur the first time (10 out of 20 vials), but they are only giving me 2 vials at a time of the Follistim even though my Rx was for 12 vials total. If they had given me at least 4 vials last week (1/3) then I wouldn't have had to come back today. Well hopefully 4 will be enough ,and I won't need to go back. The u/s showed lots of small follicles (the biggest were 9-11mm). The RE said what he wants to see now is quantity and not any that are really big. He was pleased with the number and the fact that none were big yet. YAY!

Yesterday my E2 was 511.8 (compared to 8.7 before I started the stimming). Lowering my dosage of Follistim helped as my E2 was 693.9 today (after 4 days of stimming). As a point of comparison, in 2007 my E2 was 166.6 after 3 days of stimming so you can see for it to be 511.8 after 3 days was a big difference. Last time I stayed at 150iu of Follistim and 75 of Repronex the whole time. I am not sure if the difference is Menopur is stronger than Repronex or if it's because I'm on a smaller dosage of Lupron or some other reason. Last time after 5 days of stimming I was at 444.3 and after 7 days at 1,043. I go back Thursday morning for b/w and u/s which will be after 6 days of stimming. I need to have them use my right arm that time as my left arm is REALLY hurting me today as I've only been using that one for the b/w. After the appt on Thursday, Nadia & I will be driving to MD to spend some time with my parents and brother as I'm speaking at a conference for math teachers (NCTM) in DC on Friday.

Shopping for Daddy

Saturday afternoon the 3 of us headed to the mall to buy some clothes for Paul for our vacation while his car was being inspected at Sears. The last time he bought swimming trunks was 2001 in preparation for our honeymoon. He needed a larger size; so Saturday we bought Paul 2 pairs of swimming trunks, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 t-shirts, and 2 short sleeved polo shirts all for about $100. I was tempted to get myself a new swimsuit also as I haven't had a new one in several years either, but we had already shopped for about one hour and Nadia was getting fussy. Since #1 I haven't reached my goal weight (although I have lost 30 lbs total and am currently 8 lbs from my goal) #2 I am hoping my belly starts expanding in the not too distant future due to being pg, and #3 shopping is a lot harder with a little one, I haven't been buying clothes for myself the last 10 months.

I had blood drawn at my primary care doctor at 10am. I guess I should have taken the 7:45 appt they first offered me, but I was trying not to interfere with Nadia's nap, and 10am is soon enough after her first nap is over that I knew it wouldn't interfere with her 2nd nap. In hindsight I could have gone at 7:45 by myself as Paul didn't leave until much later. The nurse called at 1:30 to say they didn't have my results yet so they were just going to assume that #1 I should stay at the same dosages and #2 that I should go in for my first u/s tomorrow. They had told me last week my first u/s would be either this Tues or Wed depending on the b/w results from Monday. Around 4pm as I was calling the pharmacy to refill my Follistim, they called back and said they did get my results and they were higher than anticipated. I usually ask for a precise number, but I figured I could just check online later. Wrong. My results aren't posted yet online! Ugh. They said to keep my Menopur the same (75iu) but cut back my Follistim from 150iu to 75iu. Wow, how high was my E2 for them to cut my Follistim in half? The last ivf cycle they kept it at 150 the whole time, but other inj/iui cycles it was cut back to say 125 or something like that. The last time my E2 was 166 after 3 days of meds. I wish I knew what it was today, but I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out. So please pray that my E2 doesn't go up too high. I don't want my cycle cancelled due to overstimulation. I wonder if it's because they cut my Lupron back from 20 units to 10 units a day?

My u/s and b/w is scheduled for 8:00 tomorrow morning. I am hoping that Nadia will sleep on the way to the doctor and also the way home. That still won't equal her normal morning nap (which has been 90 minutes lately), but hopefully her afternoon nap will be longer than usual tomorrow as it's only been 30 minutes lately. Not Good. Today it was only 25 minutes long!!! Tomorrow will be a long day as I'll be participating in interviews from 1:15-4:30 and then teach from 5:00-7:15pm. I am praying for good news tomorrow from the u/s and b/w.

Spring is Here!

Spring has technically been here for about one month, but it has really felt like spring the last few days. Yesterday I took great delight in wearing my new sandals to work (along with pants and a short sleeve blouse). I love it when the temps are in the 70's. I wouldn't mind living in a place where this was what the weather was like most of the year. I love wearing sandals as long as they don't have anything that's supposed to go in between my toes. I wear them as much as possible. I also like it when it's warm enough that I can wear them without nylons. This means it's time to start painting my toenails again. That task will be much easier to accomplish than it was at this time last year.

Nadia and I went for a walk again yesterday morning, and Paul's parents took her for another walk in the afternoon. She got to enjoy the outside for quite awhile with them on her swing, in her stroller, etc. I had meetings at work at 1, 2, and 3. I left the 3rd meeting at 4pm even though it wasn't over yet. I stopped and got pizza on the way home. I was home about one hour before I left again to go to the Jamie Slocum concert. I felt badly about leaving Nadia again as she was very clingy since I had been gone for 4 1/2 hours, but I really wanted to go to the concert. I was supposed to meet Cheri for dinner at Subway before the concert, but I was running late in part because Paul had trouble getting the Menopur shot ready. I gave myself the Follistim shot easily as I've been on Follistim 7 other cycles. The concert was nice, and we had a little time to chat before it started.

Estrogen Rise Here We Come

During IVF they really mess with your hormone levels. First, they use Lupron to make your estrogen lower than normal during the supression stage (which I've been in for 10 days). My E2 was 8.7 on Wednesday and normally (pre-menopause) it would never be that low. As a comparison, mine was 22.9 at the start of my fresh cycle in 2007 and 8.8 at the start of my frozen cycle a few months later that year. After 10 days of stimming my E2 was 3,224 with the first ivf. So in the next 10 days or so my E2 is going to sky rocket. As a point of reference, in an unmedicated cycle when a woman ovulates one egg her estrogen usually reaches about 200 around ovulation time. So that helps you understand that 3,000 is REALLY high. The fsh shots I am starting tonight cause the follicles to grow (with eggs inside), and as they grow they produce more and more E2. So the 2 ways of knowing what's going on in terms of follicle development are ultrasounds (to measure their size) and bloodwork (to see how much E2 is rising).

Yesterday Nadia and I enjoyed a walk around our neighborhood. In the past she'd start fussing before I got very far from the house, but yesterday she lasted 25 minutes before she started fussing. I'd like to take a walk every day whenever the weather permits. I think the fact that we could hear birds and such made the walk more interesting for her. It was in the high 60's yesterday, and it's supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow. YAY! That is just perfect weather in my opinion! We also spent some time on the back porch enjoying the sunshine.

I share most of my food with her these days. Yesterday I tore her grilled cheese sandwich into little pieces and put them on her tray. She fed herself the sandwich. :-) She also enjoyed sharing the quiche with me the last couple of days that I made on Wednesday. She also has enjoyed eating the ziti I made on Tuesday. She's not crazy about yogurt lately, but she still loves cottage cheese. I usually mix her daily serving of veggies in cottage cheese.

Unfortunately she's waking up before 6am again. This week she has been waking up sometime between 5:15-5:40am. I've tried putting her to bed earlier (6:45) and later (7:45), but still she's waking up very early. Last night she got less than 10 hours of sleep. That means including her 2 naps she's getting about 12 hours of sleep total. I wish she could go back to sleeping 11 hours at night and not wake up before 6am. Hmmmmm

Hurry Up and Wait

This morning Nadia had her very first eye doctor appointment. Given everyone in my family and Paul's family wears either contacts or glasses, I am quite certain she will be seeing the eye doctor many more times in her life. Paul didn't get his first pair of glasses until he was in his mid twenties, and I got them in elementary school. I didn't really think Nadia needed to be seen at this stage, but since I already declined to fill the Rx for flouride for Nadia I thought I had better not decline the opthamology referral from her pediatrician as well. I figured she'd either think I wasn't a very good patient or a very good mom. Well if I had to do it over again, I wish I had just skipped this appointment as we had QUITE the day. The good news is that she passed the eye exams with flying colors. He doesn't predict she'll need glasses at an early age. Although I don't want her to have keratoconus like Paul does, it would be nice if she could wait until her 20's to need contacts or glasses like her Daddy.

A friend of mine was going to come over for lunch so she could meet Nadia. She used to teach 1st grade at the school where I was principal, and we've stayed in touch although we only see each other about once a year. The last time I saw her was at Cracker Barrel when a few ladies gathered to give me baby gifts last year. This morning she called to say she wasn't feeling well and would need to reschedule. In light of that, I decided to call the RE to see if my appt scheduled for tomorrow could be moved to today since we were already going to be at that hospital today for Nadia's eye 10:40 eye appt. They said they had an 11:00 opening with a different RE so my appt was moved to today. It turned out to be a long ordeal....

1. We left the house at 9:50am as I wanted to get to the eye dr a little early to have a better chance of making the 11:00 appt on time as Dr. A is always very prompt so I figured it would be the same with Dr. O.

2. We arrived at the eye doctor at about 10:25 (after a long walk that involved 2 different elevators, etc.).

3. At 10:50 I could tell that we probably weren't going to be seen any time soon as there were MANY children in the waiting room that were there when we arrived who hadn't been seen by Dr. W yet. I mentioned to the nurse that I had another appt at 11:00, and she suggested I go to that appt and come back because they were really running behind.

4. I arrive at the fertility clinic 5 minutes before my scheduled appt only to find out Dr. O tends to always run really late (I've never been seen by him before). I have my b/w done. At 11:10 the receptionist suggests I go back to the eye doctor.

5. We arrive back at the eye doctor (keep in mind there is a very LONG walk involved between these two offices). After waiting a few more minutes, Nadia has her very brief (less than 5 minute) exam. Then after she has drops put in to dilate her eyes they suggest come back after I've had my u/s.

6. We arrive back at the RE at 11:40 and after waiting 10 minutes the receptionist says I should come back at 1pm. I have had a full bladder for the past 2 hours because that's needed for the trial transfer.

7. We arrive back at the eye doctor at about noon. I am hoping that we won't have to wait long for the 2nd half of Nadia's eye exam, and then I plan to take her to Donna's house so Nadia can take a nap and stay with Donna while I have my RE exam. Unfortunately we have to wait a LONG time for the eye doctor to give her another less than 5 minute exam. We didn't leave the eye doctor until about 12:50. I brought puffs for Nadia, and we had shared a banana earlier, but I am getting really hungry and have a bad headache from my blood sugar dropping.

8. When we left the RE at 11:50 I asked that they call in my Rx to the pharmacy so I can at least accomplish that while waiting for my 1pm appt. After we leave the eye doctor I stop at the pharmacy only to find out that they haven't filled it yet (one hour later). They said they have everything in stock except they only can give me 600iu of Follistim (the RE made first Rx for that for 1,200iu). I thought it would just take a few minutes since they had gathered all the meds to see if they had them in stock. So I went next door to the snack shop and bought myself some chocolate pudding to see if that would help my headache go away.

9. After eating my pudding, I check back at the pharmacy only to find out it's still not ready. It's now 1pm, and I'm supposed to be at the RE. So we never made it to Donna's house. Nadia sleeps in my arms while we walk back to the RE (and I'm pushing her empty stroller). We arrive at the RE, and Nadia stays asleep until the nurse asks me to disrobe for the exam. So I put Nadia back in the stroller and get myself up on the exam table. And we wait. We waited more than 20 minutes. My girl could have slept longer in my arms!!! I'm trying to entertain her while holding a sheet around my waist.

10. Finally the doctor arrives; so Nadia goes back in the stroller. She was happy during the first part of the exam while I made faces at her, but then she starts crying. Thankfully the receptionist comes and gets her and keeps her the rest of the exam. Dr. O did the trial transfer and baseline u/s. He tells me the thickness of my lining which I am used to, but this was my 13th baseline u/s and it was the first time follicles were mentioned (one as big as 12mm) and he even referred to one as a possible endometrioma. He's the 7th RE to do an u/s on me and the first to mention this. I've had one HSG (2004), two SHG's (2007 & 2009), and I don't even want to count how many u/s since we started fertility treatments in 2003. I admit I was getting a little stressed out that I wasn't going to get the "green light," but then they told me to start the stimming on Friday. Whew...

11. So we head back to the pharmacy (let me tell you I got LOTS of exercise today) and pick up the meds. I had asked for Menopur instead of Repronex this time. Wow is it WAY more expensive!! If I was paying for these myself, I would definitely opt for Repronex. I'd endure a few extra side effects to save over $1,000, but since the insurance is paying, I'll try the Menopur. The bill for what I picked up today was $4,008.42, and I was responsible for $80.27 of that. I am very grateful the insurance pays for most of it.

12. We were at the hospital for a total of 4 hours and including driving time were gone from home for 5 hours. During that 4 hours we were seen by doctors for about 20 minutes total. Nadia slept about 15 minutes in the car on the way home, and that messed her up enough that she wouldn't take a 2nd nap once we got home. I am glad tomorrow we don't have to go back to the hospital! My next appt is just for b/w on Monday morning at an office only 15 minutes away from home. I think on my way to work on Monday afternoon I'll need to stop at the pharmacy and get the other 600iu of the Follistim as I'm starting at 150iu of Follistim and 75iu of Menopur a day (plus continuing the Lupron).

Sorry the post was so lengthy. The bottom line is that Nadia's eyes are fine, and I got the green light to start stimming on Friday. Praying this leads to a BFP!

HPTs arrived

Recently I bought a pack of my favorite (FRER) hpts on eBay. It was a little less than $30 for 10 of them, and that's much cheaper than if I bought them at Walmart. Assuming things go "as planned," I will likely be about 17dpo the day we fly back from Antigua. I ususally cave around 12dpo, and I know there is NO way I could wait until 17dpo to find out even though my Beta will likely be scheduled for about 18dpo. When I look at hpts I have such a mixture of emotions. It's sort of a "love/hate" relationship. There's a strong emotional response to the result whether I see one line or two. For years I only had the negative response, but in 2005 and especially in 2007 I loved staring at those two beautiful lines. I still have some of those bfps in fact. Not too many people save something that has come in contact with urine, LOL! Looking at the hpts that came in the mail today caused my heart to race a bit. I am glad we'll be on vacation during the 2ww. It will really be a very wonderful distraction especially if I only see 1 line as I have most of the times I've used a hpt.

Yesterday I hit quite a traffic jam on the interstate on the way to work. I was late, but thankfully no students were waiting to seem me during my office hours. It was one of those times when I wished I had a GPS as if I had gotten off an exit sooner I wouldn't have been late (as it was I still got off one exit sooner than usual after taking 20 minutes to go 2 miles). Although I was annoyed at the time, afterward I thought that really it's amazing that this was the first time this happened to Paul or I since we moved to our new house considering how long our commutes are (especially Paul's). At least neither of us have been late for class or a meeting.

Nadia's runny nose started to clear up on Saturday (day 11), and it's almost 100% clear today. YAY! She's getting really good at standing without holding on to anything. She can bend down and pick up something without losing her balance. She often stands for a minute or longer without holding on to anything. A few times a day she takes a couple of steps without holding on to anything. She was really fussy yesterday for Paul while I was at work. Hopefully she'll be better for him today.

Ribbon and Crumbs

I have been sweeping the kitchen floor more frequently because a certain someone tends to drop things on the floor like Cheerios. Today I decided I need to be even more diligent in my floor cleaning efforts as Nadia is the human vacuum cleaner and proceeds to put in her mouth any little morsel she finds on the floor. Yuck!

She's still enjoying the goodies from her Easter basket. The one bag of yogurt melts is already almost gone! I am going to save the other bag of yogurt melts and the canister of puffs for the airplane. You know how kids sometimes enjoy the box as much or more than the toy that was in the box at Christmas or their birthday? Well Nadia really likes the ribbon from her Easter basket. :-)

Today is her first time of wearing a t-shirt. Unfortunately she wasn't able to wear the one Paul & I bought her in St. Thomas, and it's too small now. Carol (my former handbell choir director) gave me 3 shirts from Hawaii last year (before we knew the gender and I was really hoping baby was a girl as I wouldn't put these shirts on a boy). Nadia's wearing one of them today.

Today I put some jelly on her piece of rye bread for the first time. She approved!! I was thinking how our children's tastes are influenced by what their parents like and don't like. Strawberry jelly happens to be my favorite so that's what she got whereas other parents probably like grape (I don't) so their kids probably get that more often. We shall see what ends up being her favorite. I hope she does like pb&j sandwiches though (I won't give her peanut butter yet) as I love them and Paul never eats them.

I was pleasantly surprised when AF showed up this morning. Yes, I was happy even though the last one only stopped about 10 days ago. I was surprised as in the past 5 years the soonest it's come was 4 days after my last bcp (and sometimes 5 days later). My last bcp was Friday; so this was just 3 days later. I was praying it would start tomorrow or Wednesday. If it didn't come by Wed I would have had to postpone my RE appt scheduled for Thursday. Now I'm praying not to have AF again for many months. As long as I get the "all clear" on Thursday (which I have the last 12 medicated cycles), I'll be up to 3 belly shots a day on Friday. Even though in the grand scheme of things Nadia is still very young, she doesn't seem like a baby any more. I am looking forward to cradling a little tiny baby in my arms once more, Lord willing.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention is that a couple of weeks ago Nadia started to REALLY enjoy touch and feel books. They didn't amuse her in the past, but now the furry parts (like ducks, kittens, and dogs) cause her to laugh when she strokes them. What fun... :-)

Happy Easter!

He is Risen! What a glorious event we celebrate on Easter each year! This morning Paul and I got up at 4:50am. That is just TOO early. Those days of nursing Nadia throughout the night are already faded from my memory as it just felt cruel and unusual to step in the shower before 5am. I woke the little girl up at 5:30. I turned on the light in her room; that didn't wake her up. I said her name; she still kept sleeping. I had to start rubbing her back before she woke up, and she was none too happy that I woke her up. I don't ever recall waking her up in the morning since she usually wakes up pretty early on her own. Last night's plan to put her down early was a VERY bad plan. I will not put her down to bed early in the future. She went down easily at 6:20, but then she woke up at 7pm and acted like she had just awakened from a nap. There was a LOT of crying involved, and I wasn't able to take her back up and put her to bed until 8:15pm; so she actually ended up going to bed later than usual not earlier. OOPS! I'm not trying to pick on my hubby, but Nadia and I were waiting for him for 10 minutes. I find it amazing that I got myself and Nadia ready quicker than Paul got himself ready. :-)

We went to the 6:30am sunrise service at my previous church. It was a very nice service, and it was great to see people I hadn't seen in 4 months. We had breakfast there at 8am. Nadia was very good during the service, and she enjoyed eating breakfast potatoes during the meal. I realized when we were there that in the haste of leaving so early in the morning, we had forgotten my Lupron shot. I contemplated driving back after breakfast, but doing so would have added about 1 hour of driving to our driving today. So I decided it shouldn't be a problem to have the Lupron shot a few hours later than usual just one day. If I was in the stimming phase I would have driven back, but I figured in the "waiting for AF" stage it wasn't the end of the world to have that shot late. I hope I won't regret that decision.

Nadia fell asleep as soon as we got in the car (9am). They were having Sunday School and another service at 10:45, but we felt one service was enough for Miss Nadia as she'd already been awake 3 1/2 hours. She slept all the way to Paul's parents house, and we just sat in the car and chatted until she woke up. She slept almost one hour in her carseat. Paul's parents were at church, but they left their house unlocked so we could go inside. We saw Nadia's Easter basket right away! Grandparents are good at spoiling grandchildren! ;-) She got a book, a frog stuffed animal, shoes, sippy cup, links, and several snacks (yogurt melts, puffs, etc.). She had fun playing with their dog, Fergie. Paul's parents got home about noon and then later Paul's grandmother, brother, sil, and nephew came. We had a huge, very delicous meal - ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, shrimp, baked beans, corn, etc. as well as many desserts later on - cookies, cake, brownies, cheesecake, etc. I ate too much, but at least the meal served as both lunch and dinner so hopefully I didn't overdo it too much. If you know me well, you'd know I only ate one of the meats (ham) as I'm not big on turkey or shrimp, but I love ham and don't have it often so it's always a treat when I have some!

We brought a chair that attaches to a table and our pack n' play today. Nadia sat nicely in her chair and enjoyed eating corn, mashed potatoes, and especially the new yogurt melts. She also took a nap (almost an hour) in the pack n' play we set up in Paul's parents bedroom. Everyone had fun playing with her. She was in a very happy mood. We left around 4pm, and she slept the whole way home. So I guess that is the one instance when she'll still take a 3rd nap - when one of them is in the car. She was very excited to travel all around our house once she got home since she hadn't played at home all day. She went to bed easily a few minutes before 7pm, and I don't plan to stay up much later myself as getting up at 4:50am has made me rather tired! It was a good day though. I got a LOT of positive feedback on the song I did in sign language (Watch the Lamb by Ray Boltz). The song is very powerful; many (even men) were in tears. It was wonderful to celebrate the Resurrection, see friends from church I hadn't seen in awhile, and spend several hours visiting with Paul's family. :-)