Similarities and Differences (6-9 months)

1. Ian still laughs and smiles more easily than Nadia did at this age. In particular he loves my kisses more than she did. My kisses almost always bring a smile to his face, and sometimes it only takes a kiss to get him to laugh!

2. Ian still needs more diaper changes, has more leaky diapers, and poops far more often than Nadia did. She pooped once a day at this age. Ian poops at least 3 times every day and many times it's far more often.

3. Ian has gotten better with spitting up (or projectile spewing as the case may be), but he still does it way more than Nadia did.

4. Nadia had progressed to mostly table food by 9 months old whereas the only solid foods Ian will eat thus far are carrots and sweet potatoes.

5. Nadia weaned herself off of nursing when she was 6 1/2 months old. Ian is still nursing albeit the amount of times he nurses a day drastically was reduced during these 3 months.

6. Ian is still a grabber whereas Nadia never grabbed so much. He is more "fanatical" as Paul refers to it when expressing his delight over a particular toy - such as a ball or balloon.

7. Ian now sleeps about 11 hours at night, which is a huge improvement. He's caught up to what Nadia was doing by 6 months old.

8. I forgot to mention it in my first comparison post, but Ian has be into making raspberries for several months. Nadia never went through that stage.

9. Nadia learned to go from lying down to sitting up on her own before she turned 8 months old. Ian hasn't done that yet.

10. At 9 months Nadia could say three words - hi, dada, and Daddy. At 9 months Ian can say mama.

11. At 8 months Nadia could pull herself up to a standing position. Ian hasn't attempted that yet.

12. By 8 months Nadia was very mobile through crawling, scooting, cruising, and rolling. The only way Ian moves around the room is when he's sitting. Nadia never did that.

13. Nadia got her first two teeth at 6 months. Ian doesn't have any teeth yet.

14. Ian has now surpassed Nadia in terms of weight. She weighed 18lbs 9oz at her 9 month doctor appointment. I believe Ian will weigh over 19 lbs at his appointment this coming Friday.

*The first picture is of Nadia at 6 months. The second picture is of Ian at 6 months. The third picture is of Nadia at 9 months.

9 Months Old

Here are nine ways Ian has changed over the past month:

1. Some days he only takes 2 naps. He still has days when he takes three 30 minute naps, but when he takes longer naps I don't put him down a third time. A nap that lasts 45-70 minutes is becoming more frequent although still not anywhere consistent enough to call the norm.

2. His favorite position for playing is sitting. He's still not a big fan of tummy time. He has learned to scoot around the floor (even on carpet!) while seated. He can travel quite a distance and rotate around as well.

3. His head smell has completely disappeared. Boo hoo!

4. He's had cereal and other solid foods in his bottles for a few weeks. He'll eat carrots by spoon, but he throws up if he's given cereal by spoon or any solid food (such as Gerber puffs or Cheerios). He's still not exactly thrilled with eating solid foods although yesterday he finally did enjoy a Biter Biscuit for the first time (see the pic). I'll be bringing this up at his doctor appointment next week.

5. He's nursing only once a day. He nurses 10-20 minutes each morning right after he gets up (the average is 15 minutes). It's still a cause for celebration if he can stay in the same outfit all day between his chucking and poop going up his back.

6. Which toys are his favorite constantly changes with one exception. He LOVES balls and balloons. We don't let him play with balloons without supervision due to the choking hazard.  He squeals with delight. I don't ever remember seeing Nadia be SOOO delighted to see a toy (at any age). He goes nuts at the sight of a balloon or large ball and buries his head in it (like he's going to eat it, lol). One toy he does NOT like is the See and Say. He is scared of it- particularly the mooing sound. HA HA! The swing and the gym have gone down to the basement. One of his favorite toys at the moment is the stethoscope. He will play that while in the stroller all the way to and from the park.

7. He gained a little less than a pound; he weighs 19lb 5oz. On Friday he wore size 12 month clothing for the first time, and it wasn't THAT big on him. He's growing up too fast!

8. He's continued to improve with sleeping at night. He goes down usually between 6-7pm and usually sleeps for 11 hours straight. He used to get up around 5:45am although this past 4 days he's been getting up between 5:00-5:30, which I haven't appreciated especially since Nadia slept until 7am a couple of those mornings. He's never slept 12 hours total no matter how early (6pm) or late (9pm) we've put him down. My goal over the next month is to get him to stay up until 7pm and sleep until 6am.

9. He said his first word - mama!!! So far it seems like Nadia is a Daddy's girl and Ian is a Mommy's boy.

Summer 2010

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Nadiaisms

1. "I okay" - She says this quite often throughout the day. If she says it after she sneezes it means "I don't need a tissue." For months she's said it without the "m" sound, but recently she's started saying "I'm okay." She also often asks "you okay?" at random moments throughout the day.

2. "It's okay. Mommy will clean it." I always get nervous when I hear "It's okay" as usually it means there's a new mess of some sort.

3. "I carry you" - meaning will you carry me?

4. "I hold you"- meaning will you hold me?

5. "I need a big hug. I need a kiss." She used to say "Hug you," but this is the first one she started saying correctly. Pronouns have been hardest for her. She hasn't had trouble with past tense verbs. For example, she says "went;" she never went through the stage of saying "goed."

6."Just one more. That'll be it." She emphasizes the word "it." The funny thing is that she says this MANY times in a row. She asks for one (cracker, sticker, pretzel, etc.) and then a few moments later she asks for another even though the last one was supposedly enough. LOL!

7. "Watch TD" - She still says "D" instead of "V." In general her pronounciation is pretty good with the exception of the "L" sound and "th" at the start of a word (she prounounces thank you as "bank you").

8. "You welcome" - meaning you're welcome

9. "That's funny" - for quite awhile this was one of her favorite things to say. She used it in reference to both fun and funny things.

10. "I not scared" - she says this at really random moments when I have no idea what might be scary to her.

First Nightmare

Nadia woke up a little before 2AM screaming her head off early this morning. It's the first time she's been terrorized by a nightmare. I've never seen her so scared. It took us one hour to get her back to sleep. She kept screaming buggy (she's in this phase of adding "y" to almost every word so what she meant was bug). This morning I noticed a little red mark under her left eye that wasn't there when I left for work, and Paul doesn't think it was there when he put her to bed. It doesn't look like a scratch. Maybe a spider bit her or something like that? I don't usually have trouble falling asleep quickly when I go to  bed, but I still suffer from insomnia if I am awakened during the night. It took me a long time to fall back asleep, and then Ian got up at 5:15. The last two mornings he's gotten up between 5:00-5:15, and both days Nadia has gotten up after 7:00. I wish he'd at least sleep until 6am. The good news is that he's sleeping around 11 hours straight at night. Nadia usually sleeps about 10 hours, but Wednesday night she slept a little over 12 hours. I assumed her nap on Thursday would be shorter, but it actually was longer than usual (3 hours long). I couldn't believe she slept 15 hours in a 24 hour period! Ian's record for total amount of sleep in a 24 hour period is 13.5 hours. I am very, very tired and have had a splitting headache and fever today from the hectic schedule the past couple of days plus lack of sleep. I plan to go to bed super early this evening. I have faculty meeting at 3pm so I'll be back home by 5pm tonight compared to getting home at 8:45pm on Wednesday and 8:15pm yesterday.

On top of the sleep deprivation, I accidently washed Paul's wallet in the washing machine and dryer this morning. He left them in his jeans - something he NEVER does. He usually takes his wallet out and his wedding ring off as soon as he comes in the door. He puts his ring inside his wallet and sets his wallet on the kitchen table. I removed the belt from the jeans, but didn't check the pockets as it's not usually necessary. I had just bought him this wallet last week. The pictures of the kids were ruined. The money will dry out. We shall see if the credit cards still work or not. So because this morning started off in a rough manner, I am going to make a list of things that have brought a smile to my face recently:

1. I've enjoyed having a vase of cut flowers on the kitchen table for the past week. Caryn gave them to me on Saturday. They are super pretty, and it's the first time I've received cut flowers in over two years so they are especially appreciated. I think I should buy myself some now and then as I do really enjoy them.

2. Ian has started saying MAMA!!! Daddy and Nadia heard it on Wednesday. Nadia said to Daddy (before he said anything), "Ian is saying mama." I heard it yesterday. It was music to my ears especially since Nadia said dada for months before she said mama. It only seems fair that I get to hear mama first this time around.

3. I've been enjoying the cooler temps although I should have brought jackets for each of us when we went to the park yesterday morning. I also noticed this morning that I don't need to mow this weekend. YAY!

4. I figured out a way to shop at the grocery store without carrying Ian in the Snugli this morning. I used the new double stroller and attached two baskets to the 3 handles. It won't work for a big shopping trip, but it worked for filling two baskets. Nadia helped by carrying the gallon of milk from the register to the car, and I hung the grocery bags over the 3 handles. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Too Busy

Tuesday I called the OB/GYN office to see if I could get an appointment with the doctor who did the D&C in January. They told me she was booked until January, and the soonest I could see a nurse/midwife would be November. I was asking for an appointment for my pap smear as it's been 18 months since I had one. I didn't want to wait that long as I wanted an Rx for birth control pills. We decided that part of our decision making process for whether to do IVF again would be to do the ovarian reserve test again which means having blood drawn on day 2 or 3 to check E2 and FSH levels. I haven't gotten my cycle back yet. I stopped nursing Nadia around January 11, 2009 and still hadn't gotten my cycle back two months after that. I have no idea when it would have come back. I am still nursing once a day, but I think most women would get their cycle back when nursing that infrequently. Not that I'm complaining! If it weren't for ttc, I would be very happy never to have it again. I then called the RE's office to see if they would do a pap smear, as they had done mine the past few years. It turns out they don't do them any more. So, they gave me an appointment with the OB who delivered Nadia for yesterday. Isn't it crazy that one office expects you to wait 2 months to see a midwife and another can get you an appointment with a doctor for the very next day? Not that I ever, ever, ever want to deliver in this hospital again.

Yesterday morning my friend, Donna, graciously watched the kids while I was at the hospital. Seeing lots of pregnant women definitely intensified my yearning for another baby. If we decide not to do ivf again I will be skipping my pap smear for several years as it will be too hard to go to the ob/gyn and see all those pregnant bellies. I first asked her about the stress incontinence. I never mentioned it to a doctor or nurse while pregnant as I just assumed it would be the same as other side effects (like heartburn) and go away after I gave birth. She said it usually goes away within 6 months of delivering, and if it doesn't then I need to see a uro-gynecologist. I had it in mind for months to mention it the next time I saw a gyn, but after she mentioned that, it dawned on me that actually it hasn't been as bad lately. I am going to hold off on seeing a doctor about it in the hopes that maybe it will resolve on its own.

My second question for her was regarding what could be done to prevent me from giving birth to another preemie if we have a third child. She said if I were her OB patient, she would have me take one progesterone shot per week (in the arm) from week 16 to 37, and she would measure the length of my cervix every 2 weeks (by ultrasound) beginning at the end of the first trimester, and if the cervix started shortening, she would give me the steroid shot immediately. It made me feel better to know there's something that could be done to try to prevent having another child end up in the NICU. Hopefully if I am pregnant again one of the OB's at the other clinic would be willing to do something similar. I really, really want to experience holding a really newborn baby, which doesn't happen when your baby is whisked to the NICU.

I then asked her for an Rx for the pill as well as an Rx for my E2 and FSH levels to be checked. She was amazed when I said I wanted to check my ovarian reserve. Probably not something she is asked very often, lol. She gave me both. This will help us decide whether or not to do ivf again, and it also will be a test as to whether Blue Shield really will pay for bloodwork or not. I hope they do! I then called the RE office to find out when their up/down cycles would be in 2011 so that I would know when I should start taking the bcp. It turns out they're "up" all year now except for around Christmas time. That's a big change! I had to wait awhile for Nadia's FET because of their up/down cycles. I expressed my sadness that Dr. A has retired, and the ivf nurse told me he was 70 years old when he retired. Wow! He definitely was old enough to retire. :-) She said if we wanted to start in January that we'd need to have our first appt in November. So I'm thinking in a few weeks I'll start the bcp's so I can have the day 3 bloodwork sometime in October.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have made my appointment for a Wednesday morning. Wednesday nights I go from class to choir. Last night I found myself questioning whether I should stay in the choir this semester. I am just soooooooo tired that I can't enjoy choir rehearsal, and when I get home I just want to go straight to bed which means I don't get to chat with Paul, and he left for school about 6am yesterday. We don't have choir rehearsal next Wednesday. I'm going to give it one more try in 2 weeks before deciding whether I'll continue this semester or not. I missed out on participating in the Christmas cantata last year because I was in the hospital with Ian when it took place. I really wanted to participate this year, but I might need to take a break from the choir until January. Hopefully my department chair won't schedule me to teach on Wednesday nights next semester. On the way home from Donna's we did a few errands in town - including picking up the Rx at CVS and returning a DVD to the Blockbuster Express kiosk. I used the new double stroller. I love it!

Many blessings...

1. Paul had a three day weekend. I love it when he's home for 3 days in a row! Since I don't teach on campus on Tuesdays or Fridays, having Monday off gave me 5 days off in a row.

2. Yesterday I enjoyed taking the kids to the park in the morning. It was a gorgeous day!

3. On Sunday and Monday Ian's two naps were each one hour long both days! His first nap on Sunday was taken in my arms at church. The other three naps were taken in his crib. Way to go, Ian! He's also been going to bed a little earlier at night, and he still gets up about 5:45am so this means he's getting more sleep altogether.

4. I'm still nursing Ian every morning. He started to resist a several days ago, but the last few days he's done just fine. Sometimes I feel bummed that I'm not nursing him more, but then I just remind myself that at least he's still nursing once a day. So far he's made it 2 months farther than Nadia did.

5. Yesterday we went as a family (including Paul's parents) to Hooplas. Nadia is too young. We'll wait several months before trying either again. She wanted to run down the alley towards the pins instead of using the ball to knock them down. She wanted to throw her golf ball into the water, rocks, etc. It's a neat place though as they have arcade games and rides (sort of like a Chuck E Cheese), mini-bowling, an indoor playground, and mini-golf (outside).

6. I love watching Nadia and Ian interact. Ian adores Nadia. She can get him to laugh very easily. Sometimes she can be very sweet toward him such as when she reaches down and holds his hand while they're in the double stroller (see photo below).

7. Ian is finally making a little progress with eating baby food. He still gags if I put a Gerber puff in his mouth, but at least he's back to eating some orange veggies by spoon.

A little boy = a lot of laundry

Our laundry didn't increase that much with the addition of Nadia to our family. Her clothes were small, and she usually only wore one outfit plus a pair of pjs each day. Between Ian's reflux, sometimes leaking through the diaper at night, and poop going up his back, Ian creates about as much laundry as the other three of us combined. Putting cereal and other baby food in his bottles has definitely helped. We had a regression lately with leaking at night, but last night using a size 4 diaper overnight did the trick.  Friday and Saturday Ian was back to projectile spitting up. Paul and I both got doused several times along with the furniture, floors, etc. He's had a runny nose; I think that's the cause. We have gone back to giving him only 2 ounces at a time, and that has solved the problem. Between Ian's various bodily fluid issues and Nadia throwing up a few times last week plus her once a week accident, I have been doing laundry far more often than usual.

A date and a stroller

This morning Paul and I had a breakfast date. We haven't done that in more than 2 years. We both enjoy hot breakfast foods. Paul loves cheese omlettes, and I like pancakes, eggs, french toast, breakfast potatoes, etc. We had an appointment at the lawyer at 8:30am to sign our wills, power of attorney documents, and living will forms. I was pleasantly surprised at the cost. I have never done any business with a lawyer before, but I was expecting the bill to be high even though we spent less than 1 hour with him (both visits combined). The invoice was for less than $200! That seemed very reasonable in our opinion. Thanks for the recommendation, Donna!! Beth came over at 7:15 so we could have breakfast at Perkins prior to our appointment. I definitely veered off the diet. I ate a 100 calorie yogurt at 6am to tide me over and only had grapes for lunch at noon so hopefully that will help compensate for eating 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, and breakfast potatoes at 8am. I gave Paul my bacon. The pancakes were delicious as they had pineapples, mandarin oranges, marachino cherries, and coconut on them. Yum! I walked the kids to the park about an hour after we got home so hopefully that helped burn some of the calories off. I was planning to mow at noon, but it's just too hot. I was sweating just from pushing the stroller to the park. I didn't feel I was up to carrying a 19lb baby in the Snugli while mowing in this heat and humidity. I'll mow tomorrow when it will be 20 degrees cooler.

Today I got a new stroller at Toys R Us. They're having this event over the next 2 weeks where you can trade in any stroller, high chair, crib, car seat, etc. for a 25% off coupon. I had been planning to do this, but I changed my mind a thousand times as to what I would trade. I considered trading a car seat or our double stoller. In the end I decided to trade in our larger single stroller (came with the infant car seat - aka a travel system). I used the coupon toward a Jeep Wrangler Twin Sport stroller. The double stroller we received as a hand me down is a Graco front/back one. I use it when we walk to the park, but it's way too heavy and too large for me to put in my car and use elsewhere. Ian is getting really heavy to carry in the Snugli so I was wanting a stroller that would accomodate both of them that I could easily take places. When we were at Knoebels on Tuesday, I brought our two single strollers (one umbrella stroller plus the one I traded in today). While we were there I studied all the various double strollers others were using. I was torn between this one (which I saw someone using) and a double jogging type stroller as the small wheels don't seem to like going over gravel en route to the park. In the end I decided to go with the lightweight one. I was thinking about instances like our cruise in January. The kind salesperson at Toys R Us assembled the stroller for me so I could use it at the mall right after I bought it. It is soooo much lighter and soooo much easier to fold up. The downsides to this type of stroller are that it's wider (which made it trickier to get through some doorways and some aisles in some stores) and that they can annoy each other more easily. Nadia kept yelling at Ian "behave!" even though he wasn't doing anything wrong. I think in the end I'm going to be very glad we have this stroller. I have to admit I got emotional when I was trading in the other one. If we decide not to do ivf again, parting with all the baby stuff is going to be really, really hard. We shall see if I trade anything else in over the next 2 weeks.

What a difference!

The transition back to work has gone fairly smoothly thus far. Of course I haven't started grading papers yet, but in terms of teaching, it's going well. Nadia was happy to go to Sarah's house on Monday. She asked to go back there yesterday. It's easier for Paul and I for Beth to come over to our house, but it's nice to know that once Beth moves, Nadia and Ian will be in good hands with Sarah. Yesterday was exhausting for me, but that was because Ian woke up at 3:15 and 4:15am. The good news was that he then slept from 4:30-7:15am. I had let him cry at 3:15 and fed him at 4:15. I then tried to fix my laptop.I went back to bed at 5am, but I didn't fall back asleep until shortly before Nadia woke up. I didn't really enjoy choir rehearsal last night, which is very unusual, but I had a splitting headache. As soon as I came home from choir, I headed straight to bed, and thankfully Ian didn't get up until 6:05am. What a difference! I am sure I'll enjoy choir rehearsal if I don't get up so early other Wednesday mornings. Paul put Ian to bed earlier than usual last night. He did feed him once (as Ian awakened twice before I got home), but still he got more sleep last night than usual.

Yesterday morning the cleaning service came and cleaned all the first floor windows and the venetian blinds in every window of the house. I can't believe what a difference it made! The house is so much brighter!! Three people worked very diligently for 3 hours to accomplish this task. It cost me about $95. I view it as VERY well spent money as it would take me much longer than 9 hours considering #1 I don't have as much experience and #2 I have many interruptions due to my two precious munchkins. Instead, I played with the kids the whole 3 hours. I wish they were able to start the bi-weekly cleaning service this week as we're having 8 people (5 adults and 3 kids) over for dinner on Saturday night. Oh well. I'll just ask Paul to watch the kids for me for awhile on Saturday so I can dust, clean the bathrooms, etc. in addition to preparing the meal. The regular cleaning service will start in 2 weeks, and I have a feeling I'm going to be very happy about that as well.

Another change which has been greatly appreciated is that Ian is finally taking longer naps. Yesterday his first nap was his usual 30 minutes, but his second nap was almost 90 minutes long (with a slight interruption for a short feeding in the middle). He had been taking 3 naps a day again, but yesterday was a 2 nap day, and today will be as well. It's sooooooooo nice to have more than 10-30 minutes of time during the day when both kids are asleep. Today his first nap was 55 minutes long. WOOHOO! He's taking his 2nd nap right now (it's 1:25pm), and I'm hoping it will also exceed his traditional 30 minutes.