Discharged

We are officially discharged from our RE. We expected to go back next week and I was hoping to go as my sis will be in town so can watch N. But insurance only allows 4 ultrasounds and we've reached that number. On Tuesday the baby's heartbeat was 158bpm and it measured 7w6d.
Being discharged also means no more PIO shots. I'm not sure which one of us is more excited. J as she doesn't have to get them or me because I don't have to give them!!!
We meet with our OB in two weeks after finally deciding where to deliver and who to use. Our first choice hospital is an hour away and I was worried about driving backwards and forwards between the hospital and home to be with N. So we are going with another one that's 25 mins away. We are still undecided about when or if we want N at the hospital but luckily we don't have to decide that now.

Yikes!

Bedtime has gotten so out of control in our house and my attempts to rein it back in aren't working. It's been creeping later and later for a while, probably since he was sick and his schedule was totally off. Thankfully he's started sleeping through the night again and generally sleeps 11-12 hrs straight. So if he goes to bed at 10 he gets up around 10, which as I'm not a morning person has some advantages :-) But getting up at 10 means that he's not napping until 2 and then doesn't want to go to bed until 10 again. J is so tired with the pregnancy and working that she's often in bed before N!

On Saturday it worked to our advantage. We headed to a St Paddy's day party at J's cousins house. N had a blast running wild with his cousin and we didn't leave their place until 10. He was so wired that it was nearly 11 before he finally dropped off and then slept until 10.30 on Sunday. This is where my first attempt to get him back on track happened.

After lunch we headed out to run errands before going to J's parents for dinner. I decided that we'd try to get away with a quick car seat nap instead of putting him down at home. He stayed awake through all the errands and played happily with his grandparents while J and I ran out alone for an hr. 5pm rolls around and he's acting a little tired, but seems like he'll hold on until we go home. J and her mom are about to leave to pick up dinner and N says that he wants to go. So he heads off with them and they come back 20 mins later and he's out cold :-( We let him sleep for 30 mins and wake him up - big mistake!!! He has a major meltdown and nothing would bring him out of it. So we get in the car and start the hr ride home. Of course he falls asleep again and woke up when we got home at 7. So last night he was up until 10.30.

This morning I decided to go for another plan. I woke him up at 8.30 and we worked out in the garden all morning. Had an early lunch and I put him down for a nap at 12.30. By 1.45 he was up again and not happy. It took at good 20 mins to bring him around, but after that we headed back outside and he was fine. J even surprised us by coming home from work early. We went out to dinner and talked about stopping at the playground on the way home. I nixed that plan as he was already rubbing his eyes and didn't want him falling asleep in the car.

We got home, played outside for a while and then I gave him a bath and got him into his jammies. Around 7 he started showing signs he was ready for bed, but quickly got a second wind. At around 8.15 J took him up to bed and 10 mins later they came back down again. He told her he was hungry, so they got a snack and then went back up to bed. J tried to put him down again and this time he cried and kept crying. We have done CIO, but have a 20 minute limit on leaving him to cry. I brought him back down and he hung out until 9.30 when I took him up and he finally fell asleep around 10. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm going to wake him in the morning again or just leave him. We have a friend of mine coming for lunch, so I'd rather he wasn't a complete crank while she's here, but I also have errands that I need to get done before she gets here and I have to make lunch...after I figure out what I'm making.

J's headed to the RE's early in the morning for blood work and ultrasound. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she gets to see and hear the baby's heartbeat. We don't have anyone to watch N at 5am, so I'm not able to go this time. I'm really sad that I won't get to see our little one and probably won't until the 12 week ultrasound. It's totally different from when we were expecting N when I went to almost every appointment. We are also trying to figure out which OB we want to use and where to deliver. J will probably have a repeat c-section so we aren't going to use our midwives again, especially as they now deliver at a hospital thats an hr away. Which wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't have to factor in N and how I'm going to split my time between him and being at the hospital with J and the baby....but that's a whole other story.

I just ordered the invites for N's second birthday. It's going to be here before we know it! Here is the pic that I ended up using :-) I can't wait to see the final product.

The lack of sleep was soon explained by the fever that arrived thursday morning. The poor guy has been so miserable and is proving to be a terrible patient. He wants to be held all the time and that usually means walking around with him in your arms. Think I need to start lifting weights as I'm definitely feeling it in my arms and shoulders.

The kids tested negative for strep, so we didn't take him to get tested. It's a nasty cold type bug that needs to pass. Hopefully he'll start to feel better soon and we can all catch up on some sleep!

Instagram

I finally down loaded instagram and have been having lots of fun playing around with it. The weather yesterday was so beautiful that we spent lots of time outside without having to bundle up....although it did take me a long time to convince N that he didn't need to wear his hat!

Here is my favourite pic from yesterday.
We should be heading to work today, but both of the kids are sick so we are staying home. Probably a good thing as N was up at 4.30 this morning and just went back to bed at 7.30. He's feeling a little warm, so he probably already has what the kids have, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not strep. The kids are getting tested today, so I'm waiting to hear if we need to do the same with N. Spring break starts for the kids tomorrow and they are supposed to be traveling so it's bad timing for them too and looks like we could be starting are 2 weeks off early.

Sleep is a bit a an issue here right now. N is up at least once a night and has been for a while. He's never been the best sleeper, but we haven't managed to get back on track since he first got sick. Whenever that was! We are not sure what the deal is - if it's become a habit, if he's dreaming or if he's trying to potty train at night. He's been dry a few mornings here and there but not consistently and is not awake enough to say that he needs to pee - except for this morning. I'm reluctant to ask as I don't want to wake him up more. Usually he'll go back to sleep if I rock him a little. My mum suggested taking him to the potty before I go to bed, but I'm not sure he'll go back to sleep after being woken up. He's totally dry and accident free during the day, but I thought it would be a while before he'd be ready at night and that he'd be in his big boy bed before that happened.

J's second Beta on Friday was great - her numbers more than doubled. The first ultrasound is tmrw so we are looking forward to that. It was so hard not to tell my parents yesterday when I spoke to them. We are keeping it quiet for now and I had this plan of waiting until they come and visit in May to tell them, but we'll have to see if I can wait that long. J is feeling pretty good, she's extra tired and occasionally has nausea. She's still getting her PIO shots every night and they seem to be more painful since the BFP, so it's not the most fun time of day. Hopefully she'll only need them for a few more weeks.

BFP!

I asked N this morning if he wants to be a big brother and he said 'NO!' Luckily he has 9 months to get used to the idea :-)

In the back of both of our minds is the fact that our angel baby would have been arriving this week, so although we are both beyond delighted I don't think we'll stop holding our breath until the first ultrasound when we see a heartbeat.

J goes back on Friday for her second beta, but our nurse said the first one looked good.

Transfer

Monday (my mum's birthday) was transfer day and the day started with a very long wait for the call from the recovery room nurse about the time we would have to go in and the status of the embryo. We tried to keep busy and of course the call came at 11, just after I had put N down for a nap. We had to be there at 1, it's 45 mins away and I had to figure out dropping N off with a friend first.

N has only ever been cared for by J's parents or my sister. Although we talk about needing to find a regular sitter we haven't done it, but a good friend offered to watch him for us so I nervously headed over there to drop him off. Having to wake him up after only 45 mins made me feel even more nervous and had J so worked up that we decided she wouldn't go for the drop off part and I'd take him and either meet her at the RE's or not if he wasn't ok with being left. Luckily he was a star. He slept a little more on the car ride and woke up when we got there. He was clingy and wanted to make sure I was with him. So we hung out until he started to feel better and started playing. Then I gave him a kiss and headed out. He didn't cry and only asked for me once. Our friend sent us some texts letting us know he was ok. So that helped us both feel better and concentrate on baby making.

Once we got the RE's we still didn't know anything about the embryo. They have changed procedures and defrost the embryo as close the transfer time as they can, cutting down the time it is hanging around. So we were sitting in the office still not 100% sure that there would be a transfer. We headed back to the recovery room and got ready. I put my scrubs on and felt strangely as nervous as I did when we were getting ready for N's c-section! The nurse told us that there was something to transfer, although she didn't know any details and J had a course of acupuncture. The Dr came in and said that the embryo looked the same as it had before it was frozen and that we were ready to go.

We moved into the procedure room. J got comfortable and the embryologist came in and introduced herself. She told us that we would see the embryo on the screen and off she went to get to work. On the screen I could see a drop of liquid with a tiny little dot in it. Turns out the dot was Emy. We watched her suck it up in the catheter, check the catheter to make sure it was well positioned and then it was brought into the procedure room. Then the pic changed to an ultrasound of J's uterus. I'm not sure that either of us thought we'd see much after that, but to our surprise we actually saw the embryo shoot out of the catheter, aimed at just the right spot at 2.33pm. It looked kind of like a firework against the grey of the ultrasound. Then J was moved back to her bed, where she had another course of acupuncture and 25 mins of bed rest.

After the transfer J headed home to rest and I went to pick up N. Who started crying the minute I walked in the house! I had said to J that he probably would cry after holding himself together for the 3 hrs that I'd been gone and that's what he did. He was quickly distracted by showing off his new skill of peeling a clementine without help and we played for a while longer before heading for home.

Now we wait! Our test is scheduled for Wed and J has declared that there will be no cheating with testing at home before then. Let's hope testing on a leap year brings us luck!

Valentines

I started preparing for Valentine's day over a week before the big day by 'helping' N make 28 Valentines for a MOMS club party. I've been in the States for almost 12 years now but I still find the whole Valentine thing strange. Unless things have changed since I last lived in England, Valentines were only exchanged between couples, or sent by horny teenagers to the people they fancied. Here it's so commercial that you can buy Valentines for anyone, from anyone, even the family pet!

We headed to the party on Wednesday and N had a great time. As soon as we got there he wandered off to play, obviously remembering the place from the last party. That is so not like him, usually he stays close to me until he's checked everything out. We played, ate and decorated bags to collect all his Valentines in.

Sadly lots of Valentines were not the only prize N brought home from the party. He also picked up a nasty stomach bug and spent Thursday night throwing up. He or maybe I have gotten so much better at hitting the bowl while it's all coming out. I hate for him to be alone when he's sick - goes back to my own childhood I think. So I slept (or tried to) with him in our guest room, with it's newly installed bed rail for just such an occasion. The last time we shared a bed he fell out, so I was glad to have the bed rail. The next day he was sad and off his food but otherwise OK.

Over the weekend J was not feeling great, so we assumed she had some form of the bug. Just as I was patting myself on the back for escaping it, I got it on Tuesday. Yep, Valentine's Day! As our babysitters have flown south for the winter I'd planned to cook a nice family meal, which I made, but J ended up eating alone when N turned his nose up at it and I couldn't stomach it. It was a rough night and long day on Wednesday at home with N. He was so good and really patient with my desire to stay close to the couch.

Then yesterday we had plans to go to a friend's for dinner. I called her on Wednesday to say that I was recovering from the bug and did she still want us to come. She said she didn't care, so we were still on. Just as I was putting brownies in the oven J called to say she was on her way home from work. The bug got her too! I called our friend and told her we weren't coming and took N shopping instead! Poor J is still feeling rough tonight.

In other news our FET is scheduled for MONDAY! Our precious little Emy, as we nicknamed our embryo is going to be put exactly where it belongs to grow into N's little brother or sister! J started PIO shots on Wednesday, wow I don't think I've ever seen a bigger needle! And I'm the one that is giving them to her. Thanks to the wonderful Internet I read up lots on the correct positioning and lots of tips on how to make it less painful. Again I am amazed and in awe of what my wonderful wife is prepared to put herself through for our family.

After a temporary break N is back to being a potty pro. He made the choice to go back into diapers and we put the potty training on the back burner. Then he started complaining every time his diaper was wet and crying if he pooped. So I asked if he wanted to go back to undies and he said yes. So that's where we've been since last Friday and he's been dry. I think he was only back in diapers for just over a week. He just likes to do everything in his own time and way!

N's language has come on so much. He does a great job of getting across what he wants/needs. Even my parents could figure it out when we were skyping with them. But he has one sentence that is our favourite right now. He says "here go Mommy/Mama" when he's giving you something. It's so cute and much better than his other favourite "I don't want it!"

I love our little guy so much!