Yesterday by the Numbers

One - the number of shots Nadia had yesterday; she was scheduled to have the 2nd half of her flu shot earlier in the week, but they had called a while ago to cancel that due to running out of the vaccine. I found out at my appointment that they had it in stock again.

- the number of sweet drinks I had yesterday. If you've never had a gestational diabetes test, the best way I can describe the drink is that it tastes like orange soda minus the carbonation plus a lot of sugar. Ian was very active while I sat in the waiting room after

- the number of naps Nadia had yesterday. Even though she woke up at 5:20am, she wouldn't take a morning nap yesterday. Thankfully her afternoon nap (taken while her Grandma and PopPop were taking care of her) was 2.5 hours long. Today she is taking a nice long morning nap as I type.

- the number of fingers Nadia shows you when you ask her old she is. She learned this trick on Thursday and has demonstrated it for Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, and PopPop.

Two - the number of trips I made to the doctor's office yesterday since I went back to have Nadia have her flu shot.

- the number of inches that Paul's mom hemmed a pair of maternity jeans I bought on eBay.

Three - the number of shots I received yesterday. I received the Rhogam in my right arm as planned, but then I also ended up getting the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccines in my left arm (that arm is still rather sore). I was scheduled to get the seasonal flu vaccine at work in 2 weeks, but it was easier just to take care of it yesterday. I hadn't made up my mind about the H1N1 vaccine, but he said one of his pregnant patients had been in the ICU this week due to H1N1. I asked about H1N1 for Nadia (Paul wanted her vaccinated), but they said they didn't have anything for someone her age (flu mist for older children).

- the number of vials of blood they drew yesterday. I don't know the results yet. I'm hoping to avoid the 3 hour diabetes test!

- the number of cars we took to dinner last night. Paul came straight from school, and Paul's parents went straight from the restaurant to their home.

Four - number of bandaids Nadia & I were given yesterday. One for Nadia's leg, one for each of my arms from the 3 shots, and one from my bloodwork.

Five - the number of people in our dinner party last night. We had dinner with Paul's parents at the Country Cupboard. Yum!

Six - the number of weeks the doctor told me I should go without lifting Nadia if I have a c-section. When I told him this is another reason I'd like to try VBAC, he said the bare minimum to go without lifting her would be 2 weeks. This would mean I couldn't be left alone with the kids for at least 2 weeks. I guess between Paul, my mom, and Paul's parents we could make that work. If I go that route, my c-section will be scheduled for January 13. Whether I had it that day or if I went into labor sooner than that, they would give me a spinal (not general anesthesia) this time.

Seven - the number of pounds I gained since my last appointment. GASP!!! I about died when I found this out. At my last check-up I had been pleased that I had gained 3 lbs in 4 weeks. I didn't think I had changed my diet much since then, but I must have since I gained 7 lbs in 3 weeks. UGH!! I've gained 24 lbs total, and I'm only 1 lb away from where I was when I gave birth at 36 weeks with Nadia. I figured I'd probably exceed that high this time since I started out 8 lbs heavier this time around, but I didn't think I'd be so close to that high at this point! I thought about weighing myself at home, but seeing these high numbers really stresses me out. This is NOT my favorite part of being pregnant. Even though I've struggled with my weight in the past, the only time in my life I've weighed what I weigh now was at the end of my pregnancy with Nadia.

I am hoping I gain only 1 lb over the next 4 weeks, but as long as I don't gain more than 4, I guess that will be alright. My plan is to avoid desserts over the next 4 weeks. I'm not going to do any baking of cookies or brownies or banana bread, and I'm also going to give up ice cream. Hopefully that will do the trick. I do have lots of fruit in the frig (grapes, bananas, appleas, and pears at the moment). When I'm hungry, I'll eat fruit. I had hoped to gain at the most 30 lbs this whole pregnancy, but at this point, 35 lbs total seems like a more reasonable goal. Well I can say that in 2010 I hope I lose at least 40 lbs. I know the first 20 will come off easily, and I am determined to work hard at shedding the other 20. My goal is to be back to the weight I was before ivf #1 by our vacation in May.

Christmas Cards

Last year I ordered our Christmas cards through Snapfish through a really good deal that Erica mentioned on her blog. This year I ordered them through Kodak through a really good coupon that my sister Wendy sent me. If you're wanting to order something from Kodak, I would highly recommend you go to their website in the very near future as they are giving away coupon codes that give you $15 + an additional 25% off your order. I was thinking of ordering the photo cards through Sears until I saw how expensive they are ($2 each). With this coupon from Kodak, I will be getting 50 cards and envelopes for $16.57 (including tax and shipping), which means I'm paying 33 cents a card. That's more like it!

I had a really hard time deciding which background to use. I started out with ones that used more traditional Christmas colors (such as green) or items (such as Christmas lights), but they just didn't seem to go with the photos. I also had a hard time deciding how many (1-9) and which photos to use. I was tempted to just use one picture of Nadia, but I know some people (like my friend, Jo) think Christmas cards should have photos of the whole family. It was very easy to pick which picture of the 3 of us to include. It's the only one that has been taken in 2009 (Wendy took it in August). It was MUCH harder to pick just one of Nadia. My first instinct was to use the one in her denim overalls from 9-24, but I thought the one I ended up picking (that I took earlier this month) was the better choice since it was less "cluttered." Well hopefully people will like our Christmas card this year. Next year there will be FOUR of us in the family photo. PTL!!!

Our Little Penguin

Isn't our little penguin adorable?

I thought I would go 5 months in between trips to the photo studio this time, but they sent me a coupon for a free 8x10" portrait collage, which expires on 10/31. So I actually ended up only going 4 months in between trips to the photo studio. I had an appointment for Friday afternoon, but after I picked up her costume at JCP this afternoon, I stopped by Sears to see if they happened to be able to take us then, and they did. The print above is my 3rd favorite of the 8 they took. This is one of the 3 poses included in the collage.

This one is my 2nd favorite and is one of the 3 poses included in the collage.

This was my favorite one and is one of the 3 poses included in the collage. Although I could have left without spending a penny, I didn't think that seemed right considering the time the photographer gave us. So I bought two 5x7's of this pose. I only spent $10.59 total, which was the least I ever spent after a portrait session.

It was harder to pick after the last 3 photo sessions; there were more poses with great expressions than there were this time. She actually did smile a lot, but it seemed the photographer's timing was out of synch with Nadia's smiles. Also, it was hard to get Nadia to stay in the position that they wanted her to be in. However, since I wasn't planning on buying many prints, I am satisfied with what we got. Next month I want to do a photo session with Nadia, Paul, and myself. I plan to buy more prints then so hopefully we'll have several good ones to pick from of just Nadia and also some of the three of us.

Daddy's Shirt

For many months Nadia has enjoyed taking things out of containers and also putting things into containers. There is one cabinet in the kitchen (filled with plastic containers and lids) that I call "Nadia's cabinet." She's allowed to play with the things in that cabinet, whereas the other kitchen cabinets are "Mommy's cabinets" and are off limits to Nadia. I find random items in Nadia's cabinet, such as one of her books. We got a new garbage can for the kitchen that she hasn't figured out how to open yet, so I haven't needed to retrieve anything from the garbage lately. Only one time did she put something in a toilet, and since it was a water book, it wasn't ruined. I find many random items in the clothes hampers when I am putting the laundry in the washing machine. Recent finds included a container of dental floss, a sealed tube of chapstick, a plastic hotdog, and a box which contained a tube of toothpaste. One of Daddy's shirts that she had taken out of the hamper *almost* ended up in the toilet this morning, but I intervened in the nick of time.

For whatever reason, she was very attached to that shirt this morning. She wanted to have it with her in her crib for her morning nap. At first I wasn't going to allow her to sleep with it, but then I thought, what's the harm? Pick your battles as they say! Well I doubt having the shirt with her had anything to do with it, but she took the longest nap she's EVER taken this morning - a little over 3 hours!!! She woke up at 5:30 this morning, which meant she only slept 10 hours last night, and her afternoon nap yesterday was only 35 minutes long. She's taking her afternoon nap right now. She obviously needed the sleep this morning! Her nose is still running, but thankfully she doesn't have any other symptoms (aside from being fussier and clingier than usual).

The Ultimate Baby Wrap that Joy recommended to me has been on sale at BRU lately. I had searched the web, and the cheapest I could find it anywhere was $40 including s/h. It was more expensive on many sites. If I spent $100 on certain items, I could have gotten the wrap for $26.98 at BRU, but even with paying shipping, it came to a little less than $32. So I bought it today. We have an Infantino sling and a Snugli baby carrier. The sling only was useful when Nadia was really small, and I don't find the Snugli particularly comfortable, except for short periods of time. Joy said this one is her favorite in terms of not bothering her back. I figure that with two little ones I'm going to be "wearing" Ian more than I did with Nadia. For example, I picture Ian in the wrap and Nadia in the front of the cart when we're grocery shopping. I might use the sling at first since it's easier to put on, but once he outgrows the sling, I'm definitely planning to make good use of the Ultimate Baby Wrap.

I looked in the clearance section of the BRU website, and I found that they had many Halloween costumes that were originally $20-25 for $4-6. I had a hard time choosing which one to get for Ian to wear next year, but I ended up getting him a giraffe costume (size 12 months) for $4.52. I think he'll look cute in it! For Nadia, I got a Disney Princess Aurora (Sleeing Beauty) costume in size 4T. Maybe she'll wear it some year for Halloween, but so far I just have one princess dress-up outfit for her (Snow White). I hope she'll enjoy playing with this in the future. I should go to Walmart and such next week to see if I can get some other costumes on clearance to expand our collection of dress-up clothing.

Runny Nose

Usually if you've been exposed to germs and are going to get sick, doesn't that happen within the first 48 hours? If that's correct, then I think Paul and I didn't catch any of the bugs we were exposed to in Maryland. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Nadia. The first clue was that last night she woke up a couple of times crying during the night. I gave her some Motrin around 2am. Today she has a runny nose. It's not really bad; so far I just need to wipe her nose after she sneezes. What cracked me up was that one time she sneezed and immediately pointed to the box of tissues. Yes, Mommy will wipe your nose! She's been rather "fragile" today. If I put her in her highchair for breakfast she cried. I was able to feed her breakfast if I let her sit in my lap. So far she doesn't have a fever or cough. Hopefully this is the worst of what she'll experience this time.

As far as the nap schedule, on Friday Sarah opted not to attempt a morning nap since it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. She knows our girl loves to play outside! That afternoon nap was 2 1/4 hours long. Saturday she took 2 naps at my parent's house. Sunday she just had one afternoon nap (90 minutes) because we were at church in the morning. Yesterday her morning nap was at home (at least 90 minutes - might have been as long as 2 hours), and she took an 80 minute afternoon nap at Sarah's. This morning her morning nap was 80 minutes long, and I am trying to decide whether to put her down shortly or have her take her afternoon nap at Sarah's. So it seems that we've gotten back into a two nap schedule with the exception of Sundays.

Now that we have decided upon a name for our son, last night I bought a personalized clock for Ian's room on eBay like Nadia has in her room. His clock features a fire engine to go along with the transportation theme. This morning I ordered hanging wall letters from Company Kids. Since his name is so short, it was only $24 including shipping. The letters each have a construction vehicle on them. I can't wait to decorate his room the week of Thanksgiving!!!

16 Facts about Nadia

In light of Nadia recently turning 16 months old, here are 16 facts about our sweet little girl.

1. She loves to give hugs and usually says "awwww" while giving them - whether she's hugging a person or a stuffed animal. I love getting many hugs a day from my cutie pie!!!

2. Her attention span for reading books has drastically increased. This wasn't the case at Grandma's house this weekend since there were so many "new" toys and people around (and a cat), but when she's at home she loves to read books. Generally we identify various objects, shapes, and colors rather than reading the text. There are some books she likes to have read over and over, but thankfully she doesn't mind if we ask to switch to a different one after reading that one 2-3 times.

3. She loves to play outside. She'd spend many hours outside every day if the weather and her Mommy permitted that to happen.

4. She's constantly saying new words. She talks the most when she's with me. The words she uses the most often are "mama," "up," "yes,""no," and "out."

5. Her newest animal sound is "baa." She also makes the sounds for a dog, cat, and cow. She also makes an attempt to "roar" when she sees a picture of a tiger.

6. She doesn't mind walking over anything with bare feet. She walked on Legos several times at Grandma's house for example. She doesn't seem to find it uncomfortable although Paul and I wince at times.

7. She turns just about anything into a chair. Several times a day she'll sit on a basketball or a toy such as her shape sorter that looks like a cookie jar.

8. If she had to eat only one food all day long, she would definitely pick Cheese Nips (or Goldfish or some other cheese cracker).

9. Her taste buds seem to resemble mine more than Paul's. For example, she loves ice cream, grapes, and ketchup on her fries, whereas Paul doesn't like any of those.

10. Her attention span for watching something other than VeggieTales on tv has also increased lately. I am relieved as I was getting weary of watching 30 minutes of VeggieTale silly songs each day. Some days we watch something on PBS instead (such as Curious George or Sesame Street). Although my original goal was to not let her watch ANY tv at this age, I have changed my goal to no more than 30 minutes a day.

11. She's getting better about not putting everything in her mouth although I still have to say "no eat" from time to time in reference to a rock she's found outside or a piece of junk mail she's ripped up. Now when it comes to food, she definitely thinks food found on the floor is edible. I try to sweep the kitchen floor every day, but she still manages to eat a piece of cereal or a cracker she found on the floor from time to time.

12. She can identify many body parts - toes, nose, ears, eyes, etc. Her favorite body part by far is the belly button. She loves finding hers, mine, and Paul's.

13. She's a good eater. I have been negligent in feeding her veggies the past few months. Hopefully it won't be a problem when I start reintroducing those into her daily diet. Paul feeds her dinner on Thursday nights and breakfast on Saturday mornings. For some reason, she usually gives him a hard time. Is it common for toddlers to eat better for Mommy than Daddy?

14. She still loves climbing - whether it's up the slide or climbing up into a chair.

15. She still loves music and is much happier when I play one of her CD's rather than when I listen to the radio. She has the sweetest singing voice. :-)

16. She's been doing better lately in terms of obeying me. Of course she doesn't always listen when I tell her "no," but I have to say most of the time she does follow my instructions.

Four Blessings

Jenna and Susie had fun writing words (even "subtraction!") as they were making up a game. Can you see that Jenna (who will be 7 next month) recently lost her two first teeth? Nadia wanted to see what her cousins were doing.

1. It was great to be able to spend time this weekend with my parents, brother, sister (Wendy), and 6 of our 7 nieces and nephews. Unfortunately 8 of those 10 people were sick (most were coughing). We're praying that Paul, Nadia, and I don't come down with what any of them had. Nadia enjoyed having lots of people around, playing with "new" toys (some are 35+ years old), and eating Fruit Loops (something Mommy never buys).

 

2. It was fun to watch the Steeler's game with my Dad yesterday afternoon. He's the reason I'm such a die hard Steeler's fan. It was an added bonus that we got to watch them beat an undefeated team (Vikings).

Nadia sitting on the rocking chair that was mine when I was little.

3. It's such a delight to be Nadia's mother! Can you believe she turned 16 months old on Saturday?

Nadia "reading" a book this morning; for once the book isn't upside down, lol!

4. Our son has a name!!! A relative called us yesterday to let us know it was fine to name our son Ian Alexander. Paul had come up with that name 4 1/2 years ago, but something happened this summer that made him think we shouldn't use that name after all. We had not made any progress towards a new name (since I didn't approve of Newton, Gordon, or Sebastian); it's a great relief that we have a name, and it's one we both really like. The name meets my qualifications because it sounds nice with our last name, is easy to spell and pronounce, isn't "too" popular (in 2008 it was the 80th most popular name for boys), and it has a wonderful meaning - "gracious gift of God." I certainly do view him as a gift from God!! Alexander is very popular (in 2008 it was the 6th most popular name for boys), but I don't care how popular the middle name is. Alexander means "helper and defender of mankind." I really hope that will be an accurate description of him some day!

Grandpa reading Nadia's favorite book, God Made Me, to Susie (5) and Nadia

Number 12!

Well I am very relieved because I did a tooth check today, and the tooth that we thought might be missing, has broken through the gums (5 months later than the others). Yay! Not much of it is showing yet, but she now has 12 teeth. I am just relieved she's not missing a tooth. When I was pregnant I kept praying she'd have Paul's teeth. He never needed braces or any orthodontic work and has had only ever had one cavity. In contrast, I saw an orthodontist regularly for seven years, and yet dentists still always say I need more work done (my bite is still way off). Time will tell whether our kids' teeth are more like their Mommy's or Daddy's, but I'm still hoping they take after Daddy when it comes to their teeth!

Yesterday Nadia's morning nap was almost 2 hours long. Today she wouldn't take one at all. Go figure! Yesterday she had a messy diaper at about 9:30am. I was planning to put her down at 10am since she had gotten up at 7am. After I changed her diaper, she was playing with the stuffed animals in her room, and about 5 minutes later started fussing and pointing to her crib. I asked her if she wanted to take a nap, and she said "yes" while nodding her head. So I put her in her bed and after playing for maybe 25 minutes, she took a long nap. It's been a couple of weeks since she had a morning nap that was even 1 hour long, let alone almost 2 hours long! In light of the fact she didn't wake up until almost noon, she took her afternoon nap (1 hour) at Sarah's. This morning she woke up at 6:30; so I put her down around 9am for her morning nap. She played in her crib for a little over an hour before I went and got her. She wasn't fussing, but I was certain she wasn't going to sleep. I hope she takes a nice long afternoon nap as although I'd love a nap myself (I slept for one hour of her morning nap yesterday), what I really need to do is grade midterm exams.

I haven't had any bleeding or contractions for almost 3 weeks now. The one troubling symptom which has returned though is the REALLY low kicks. They actually are rather painful, but more than that they scare me. It feels like he's about to come out of my body. The whole debate on whether to attempt VBAC might be a moot point if he stays in a breech position. Sometimes he is transverse, but most of the time he's in a breech position. Nadia was always head down so she kicked me much higher. He never has kicked me where Nadia kicked me. I didn't like it when Nadia kicked my ribs, but I'd pick that over feeling like he's about to exit the womb. He hadn't kicked down there for 3 weeks, but since Sunday he's been kicking super low. On Monday he was doing it during class, and I was scared that my water would break while teaching. Sunday I tried everything to get him to move, I even was practically standing on my head for awhile in the hopes he'd move farther up. Maybe my fears are unfounded? The perinatologist said that many women get kicked that low, but that if it was persistent and strong, I should go in to be checked. That made me think there was cause for concern.

Speaking of going into labor early, please pray for Regina's babies. She did IVF right around the same time I did (her transfer was a couple of days after mine). They transferred two blastocysts, and that resulted in a boy/girl twin pregnancy. She gave birth last week (at 26 weeks). Wyatt weighed 2 lbs, and Bailey weighed 1 lb 7 oz. Because Wyatt needed to have surgery, he was taken to a different hospital. Please pray for these two sweet little babies and also for their parents (the two hospitals are 85 miles apart from each other) as well as their siblings (Tyler, who is in 1st grade and Brianne, who is 3 years old). I remember how stressful it was to have Nadia in the NICU for one week. I imagine these two little ones are probably looking at 3 months in the NICU. Please pray that their stay will be as smooth and short as possible as I am sure Regina can't wait to be home with all four of her children!

Noses and Naps

Nadia's nose has cleared up. Even when she sneezes, I don't need to wipe her nose. I can't say the same for mine, but it's probably just allergies at this point. We've had a hard frost; hopefully, that will help with reducing the allergens. Thankfully, the weather is much prettier this week than it was last week. Thursday through Saturday we had constant rain or snow. It was so wonderful to see the sun again on Sunday! It might even hit 70 degrees tomorrow. That's my kind of weather!

The nap schedule didn't go as planned yesterday. She just played in her crib during the time I thought would be her morning nap. So, I put her down at 12:30 for her afternoon nap, and she slept about 80 minutes. In the past 8 days, she only took two naps twice (Friday and Saturday). We shall see what happens today. Thankfully she slept 11.5 hours last night, which meant she didn't get up until 6:45am.

Third Trimester!

Today I officially entered the 3rd trimester!! Every pregnancy is a miracle, but when you try unsuccessfully for 5 1/2 years, it makes having a little one grow within you seem like an utterly amazing miracle. There are many times I am reduced to tears (the happy kind) when I think about Nadia and the little boy kicking within me. Thank you, Lord!!

Saturday night Nadia had a hard time going to sleep, which is very unusual. Since she didn't fall asleep until about 8:15pm, I was very glad that she slept in until 7:10am. She had woken up at 5:40am the previous two mornings. We didn't attempt a morning nap yesterday due to Sunday School and church, and her afternoon nap was 90 minutes long (1:35-3:05). I am planning on putting her down for her morning nap at 10am today; this means her afternoon nap will be at Sarah's today. Hopefully this plan will work. She woke up this morning in a great mood; lately she's been waking up crying because she hasn't been getting enough sleep. Last night she slept almost 12 hours. What a difference!

Lately I've done a lot more baking than I usually do. Wednesday morning I made pumpkin bread for the MOPS meeting, Friday I made brownies for Paul & I since we had finished the chocolate chip cookies the day before, and yesterday morning I made apple crisp for the dinner we ate at church following the morning service. Hopefully I won't be upset the next time the doctor weighs me!

Nadia's newest words include "hi," "rip," "mess," and "night." She now sometimes says the word "hi" while she's waving. Mommy lets her rip the junk mail. I want her to know what to do at Christmas time with the wrapping paper! She hears me say "no make mess" all the time when she's in her highchair, and the other day she held a piece of Crispix in her hand and said the word "mess" while shaking her head "no." That's right, my girl. Put that food in your mouth; don't crush it with your hand! My mom heard her say "nighty night" last month when she was taking her to bed. Yesterday Paul and I heard her say it when she was looking at a page in a book where the characters were all in bed.