Time Consuming

Our home renovation continues, and the intensity has picked up, becoming about a 20 hour a week job for me, which is why I don't post often. My computer crashed and the data on the hard drive was irretrievable, so I lost a lot of photos. As soon as I can get some house photos from Daryl's computer I will post them.

Anniversary

Yesterday my dear husband and I celebrated 20 years of wedded bliss. I am so happy! It really doesn't seem like it's been that long.

Mother's Day Funny

I received this as a forwarded email, but I thought it was hilarious so I'm sharing:


So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.
Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and
nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this
mat in our bathroom.

Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3
years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick.

LOVES IT. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally
one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he
could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the
drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around
and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on.
My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am
trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up.
Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a
wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood. We
finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking
for Eli.

I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the
bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to
Jack's . . . rear end.

Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped."

Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right--their little butts
do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind.
And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the
FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth?

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever
because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these
glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize
they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.

Good News

I saw the dr. again yesterday. She found the baby's heartbeat easily, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I also passed the 1 hour glucose tolerance test! For now, at least. They want me to take it again at 18 weeks, but I may argue that.

Update

I had another ultrasound one week later, and I saw the baby again. He/she had grown appropriately and the heartrate was excellent. Three days later I had a tiny bit of spotting, so I went in again, and again saw a healthy baby and heartbeat.

Since then I have had my first prenatal appointment at 9.5 weeks. My dr. wasn't able to hear the heartbeat but said that she is unconcerned because the earliest she ever hears it is usually 10 weeks, sometimes later. I am now almost 11 weeks. I have another appointment next Tuesday, when I will be 11.5 weeks, and we should definitely be able to hear it then. Surprisingly, this has not worried me much. I wish we'd heard it, but I FEEL really pregnant (nausea, fatigue) and I can tell that my uterus is growing.

If you are praying for me, please keep praying! I will update after my appointment next week.

Sorry I haven't updated much, but every time I tried to login to Blogger, I got an error message. Finally I figured out (I think) that there is some sort of incompatibility problem with the Safari browser and Blogger, so I switched to Firefox.

Miracles Do Happen!

I have some catching up to do. The bleeding I mentioned in my previous post was only spotting, and didn't last long. I went for another u/s the following Monday. We saw the sac, which had grown to about 19mm, but it was still empty. There was a blurry spot that looked like it might have been a yolk sac, but the ultrasound technician didn't think it was. She showed the films to the dr. who said that I should come back in a week for another ultrasound. He still didn't feel confident saying that the pregnancy wasn't viable. I was told to prepare for the worst, but not entirely give up hope. Later that day I spoke to the nurse practicioner who told me that the doctor said that there definitely was a yolk sac.

On Friday of that week, I called the dr.'s office, attempting to schedule a "procedure" for when my husband would be at home, since he had some upcoming business travel planned. I requested that they see me for a repeat ultrasound that day, instead of waiting until Monday, so that the doctor could explain my various options to me and I could make a decision. They agreed. I cried all the way there, expecting the worst, and feeling really slapped in the face by my loss.

When the dr., who I hadn't met before, but had agreed to see me instead of eating lunch, began the ultrasound, she said, "So you didn't see anything on Monday?" I said no, and began craning my neck to see the screen. As she turned it toward me, she said, "well, I see something now." I saw it, too--a baby with a heartbeat. I began to sob. Once I calmed down, we looked again, and she turned up the volume so I could hear the heartbeat. The heartrate was 128-134 and the baby's size was right for dates. Afterwards, she hugged me, as did the nurse I'd had so many phone conversations with over the past 2 weeks. I go this Friday Apr. 6 for one more ultrasound to confirm that the baby is growing, and then I will go to my regular doctor.

Not Pregnant Anymore

It's been a roller coaster ride of emotions. Last week I had another beta--1464 which was excellent. This week on Tuesday I saw OB endocrine specialists since my regular dr. discovered I had high blood sugar and was hypothyroid. The OB ordered an early u/s. I was so excited! I literally ran down the hall to the room. All we saw was an empty sac. I was informed that the pregnancy was not viable and I could wait to miscarry or schedule a d&c. I was devastated.

The next day I spoke with the reproductive endocrinologist I had been seeing, who said that they had my dates wrong on the ultrasound and that it was too early to see anything. She told me to come to their office next week for another ultrasound. She was shocked that they would recommend terminating to someone who was not even 6 weeks pregnant and without offering a followup ultrasound. Somewhat reassured, I calmed myself as much as possible.

However, last night when getting ready for bed, I discovered that I was bleeding. So I'm not pregnant any more. It was REALLY fun being pregnant for those 2 short weeks.

And why does today's headline have to read, "Baby Found Dead Was Alive at Birth." While I am longing for a baby, other people are throwing theirs away!

Grow, Baby, Grow!

Beta #2 was 144, up from 39. It needed to double in 48 hours, but that's a 3-4x increase!

Pregnant

hpt, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

I am so over the moon! Last time I got pregnant these tests weren't invented yet (or I hadn't heard of them). It's so much fun to see it in writing! Had a beta hcg blood test on Tuesday, it was 39, which is good. Having a repeat today, and we want to see that number at least double, so if you are a cyber friend who prays, pray for me that this pregnancy is successful and ends with a healthy baby in my arms!

What Do I Sound Like?

Since none of you have ever heard my voice, according to this quiz, my "accent" can be described as:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North   You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Our newest reader

Our newest reader, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

I love when that lightbulb turns on and they learn to read!

Expecting

Expecting, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Our cat, Cazadora, is expecting her first (and only) litter of kittens the 3rd week of March. At least someone in the house is pregnant!

Valentine

Valentine, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Our Valentine's Day dessert--a simple butter cake frosted with whipped cream and decorated with strawberries (heart shaped, of course!)

Roses for the Ladies

Roses for the Ladies, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Daryl brought each of his daughters a rose for Valentine's day (and some for me too!)

Family Photo

Family Photo, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

This was our Christmas card photo, taken in October at a metropark near our house. What a glorious day!

Rose Bowl

Rose Bowl, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

The boys at the big game. Wolverine fans through and through.

Christmas Past

Since we were flying to Phoenix on Christmas day, we had Christmas with our families on the 23rd and 24th. Having Christmas on those dates is traditional, it didn't really change anything, except that Christmas Eve was a rush. We bought a catered pre-made meal, which was fabulous, that we ate with my parents around 2pm. Then we exchanged gifts, and then a few of us rushed over to the church to save seats an hour before the service was to begin, and got the last seats available in the back row of the choir loft. A few more of us joined them at mass, but Daryl stayed home with the young children who can't tolerate 2+hours in church. Santa came while we were at church. He came while Daryl was showering, but the 2 year old saw him, and told us all about it. We opened the gifts from Santa on Christmas Eve so that in the morning all we needed to do was get dressed and out the door.

I'd been warned ahead of time that we would all have to take our shoes off. Daryl parked the car and dropped the rest of us curbside, where I checked the luggage. I had been able to check in and print boarding passes online, so I was prepared. All we had to do was get to the gate and wait for boarding to begin. When we reached the security checkpoint, there was a man distributing ziploc bags and telling us to put any liquids, gels, lotions, etc. in them. I had some hand lotion, hand sanitizer, Desitin and blistex that I put in a bag. I forgot about the bottle of liquid Benadryl in the diaper bag. Once the items were in the ziploc bag, I put it back in the diaper bag, since we were given no further instructions. Later I learned that we were supposed to show the ziploc bag to the security person. Although the ziploc bag and the bottle of Benadryl must have been visible when the diaper bag went through the xray machine, no one mentioned it. We all took off our jackets and shoes, putting them on conveyor belt along with our backpacks, stuffed animals and blankies. Between us we had 3 laptops and 2 cell phones, all of which had to be taken out of their bags. A. became very upset about having to remove her shoes and coat, and when I laid her blankie on the conveyor belt she began to shriek. Meanwhile, having shown my ID and boarding pass 4 times already, I stowed them in my purse and laid it on conveyor belt. When we finallly approached the metal detector, I was asked for the boarding passes AGAIN. When I told them that they were in my purse which had already emerged on the other side of the xray, the security agent was visibly annoyed. He sent me to retrieve them, and after I showed them AGAIN we were all allowed to walk through the metal detector. After we reassembled and repacked all of our gear, we headed to the gate. The rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived in Phoenix, picked up the 12 passenger van we had rented, and headed to our friends' home. We had a relaxing Christmas evening with them.

The next week was filled with wine, friends and laughter--good for the soul. My cell phone rang constantly with old friends wanting to get together, and it warmed my heart. We attended a great New Year's Eve party. The next morning Daryl flew to Pasadena with D. and L. to attend the Rose Bowl. I drove up to Sedona, and checked into a resort where we spent the next 3 days. It was so beautiful and restful. While there we hiked, biked, took jeep rides, etc.

False Positive

Turns out, after a 3rd blood test, where my hcg level was 6, that I have something called heterophilic antibodies, which react with the pregnancy test to cause a false positive. They don't harm me in any way, but I just need to know this for the future. A positive for me will have to be higher than 7, and I will need to ask that they perform the test in a certain way to avoid the false positive.

So I wasn't pregnant, even for a minute, despite having a 17 day luteal phase with high temps followed by a visit from AF that resembled a miscarriage.

Almost Pregnant

"I thought there was no such thing as almost pregnant," said my husband, when I told him the news yesterday that the pregnancy blood test (known as a quantitative beta hcg) I'd taken the day before came back positive, but so low that it probably wasn't viable. It was a 7. My dr. said that she has seen a number that low become a viable pregnancy, but it isn't likely. I repeated the blood test today, and the number, which needed to double to even be a possible pregnancy, stayed exactly the same--7.

So I guess now I'm almost not pregnant. Something is going on in my body. I have some minor symptoms, including high basal temps and an absence of "Aunt Flo."

I have grown to hate menstruation fiercely during this past year, (not that I ever really liked it). The fact that it is a reminder that I am NOT pregnant that slaps me in the face over and over again for a few days each month, combined with the sheer annoyance and inconvenience and general unpleasantness of the the experience, makes me feel punished, victimized even.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Get pregnant.
2. Lose 10 pounds
3. Exercise more frequently.
4. Eat less.
5. Eat more healthful choices.
6. Resume doing yoga.
7. Finish books that I begin reading.