Overheard..

N and I took the big boy to his gymnastics class on Thursday and while we were hanging out eating a snack I heard a conversation the big boy was having with one of his buddies. His buddy was talking about the snack N was eating and the big boy said 'That's MY baby eating popcorn!' (It was actually goldfish).

One of the other mother's asked if I'd heard it and commented on how sweet it was. It definitely warmed my heart to hear. Of course only an hour later they were fighting over the same toy, but it was cute while it lasted!!!

Potty regression...?

N has been potty trained for well over a month now. What started with him refusing to put a diaper on, turned into him running around naked and using the potty successfully. Then we introduced underwear and braved leaving the house in them. He has been so great and had very few accidents. But the cold that he got last week and the messed up sleep schedule seem to have caused a regression with using the potty. When I saw his pediatrician the other day, she was first totally amazed that he's using the potty and then said it was totally normal to regress when sick and that he'd get back on track when he started to feel better. But as I picked poop up off the carpet this morning I had my doubts and even wondered if he needs to go back into diapers. He's stopped telling me that he needs to go and if I ask him or take him to the potty he says no! Today I asked him if he wanted to wear a diaper or his 'big boy underwear' and he picked the underwear so we stuck with that and he was clean and dry for the rest of the day.

I'm just not sure what to do. I don't want to confuse him or take away from what he's done but also don't want to be cleaning up accidents all the time, or feel like I'm watching him like a hawk for signs he needs to go. I'm not sure if it's because he's been sick, or because the novelty has worn off. Or if he's just too busy with other things.... His language has really taken off and he now uses 2 or 3 word sentences and is constantly adding new words.

Because he led the way with the whole potty thing I never used any kind of rewards - stickers, candy, prizes etc. And never have with any of the kids I've potty trained over the years. I also don't use pull-ups as I think they are the same as diapers and too confusing. At this point he only wears a diaper at night, he stays dry during naps, and is sometimes dry in the morning too.

He's only 20 months old and his pediatrician said that most kids aren't potty trained until they are 3. Most kids that I've taken care of have been potty trained between 18 months and 2.5yrs so I guess I'm going to give him a bit longer and see what happens.

Snow

We had our first snowfall of 2012 yesterday. I headed off for a 24hr stint at work leaving J and N at home to enjoy the snow.

As much as I love the beauty of the snow I hate driving in it. My usual 25 min commute took close to 45 mins and some of the roads were pretty slick. I certainly didn't grow up dealing with a lot of snow in England and am very thankful that my little car is 4 wheel drive as my boss' didn't plough their steep driveway this time. Guess they aren't banking on the snow hanging around too long.

It was a long day for me, my boss' took their oldest to a 60th birthday party leaving me home with their 3 yr old. I had heard from their other babysitter that the big girl would be brought home to me with her cousin, but as it got closer to 10 I thought it wasn't going to happen. Thinking that they were all going to come home together I decided to go to bed. Then at 11.15 I got a text saying that 3 girls were on their way back to me. I got out of bed and made up the beds for the girls and waited for them to get in. At 11.40 they finally made it home. I had all 3 of them into bed within 10 mins. They were so tired!!!

I think my boss' made it home sometime around 1am and by 3am the big boy was brought into my room by his mom. It's been so long since I've done an overnight there. I forgot that it often ends with me sharing a bed with one or both of the kids! It wasn't the most restful night for me and I was happy to head home this morning! I actually said to my boss that I'd been hoping for a good nights sleep there as N has a cold and has been up a lot during the night the last few nights. Of course the night I'm gone he sleeps through from 8.30 - 8.30!

While I was at work J hung out with N and played around the house. They finally decided to venture out once the snow had stopped falling. I'd been saying that I didn't think he'd really be into playing in the snow this year, but I guess it's not really the snow he hates. It's the clothing that he has to wear that he really hates. He can hardly move in his snowsuit and hasn't mastered using his hands in his mittens.

Not happy with the getup necessary for playing in the snow!

Heading out to check out all the white stuff!

After I got home today I was skyping with my sister when N brought me his coat and hat and said he wanted to go outside. So I bundled him up and out we went. I think it took me the same amount of time to get us ready to go out as we actually spent out there. It was a lot of work for 15 mins!!! But he sure looked cute in his monkey hat :-)

Little monkey!!

IVF

It's been a pretty emotional week for us. We heard on Monday afternoon that our 4 embryos were 'growing slowly and a little disorganised.' So the decision was made to try and freeze them and schedule a frozen embryo transfer instead, as J's lining would not be at the right stage for where the embryos were even if the transfer was pushed back to the afternoon.

On Tuesday morning we heard that one embryo survived the freezing process. That was a shock, going from 7 to 1 was not really what we expected. I don't think either of us thought all 7 of them would survive but we hoped to end up with more than 1. Now J has changed her meds to get ready for the FET in early Feb. All our fingers and toes are crossed that this little embryo will be N's brother or sister.

I feel like J and I have been on some kind of roller coaster with all of our emotions related to this stuff and I hate roller coasters! We do a pretty good job of taking it in turns to be the positive and negative one. But it has definitely been a week of ups and downs. Now we are regrouping and putting all our energy and thoughts into our next attempt.

Seven!

Seven....that's the number of eggs that are growing of the 10 that were fertilized using ICSI on Wednesday, 13 were retrieved total and we are thrilled with the numbers.

I'm in awe of my wonderful, amazing wife. She has handled the IVF process better than I could. She had been giving herself shots every day and enduring my bumbling attempts at giving one every day without any complaints. She has bruises in almost every shade possible!

Now we have to wait. Our RE just implemented a new policy where they do all transfers on day 6, so we have to wait until Monday afternoon for the call letting us know how many embryos we have and how many they plan to transfer on Tuesday. Waiting is so tough, especially as I'm not working this week, but N is keeping me busy with his obsession with play dough! We got him some for Christmas and he can spend hours playing with it - I definitely get bored of it before he does :-)