Six Months and 3 years

I can't believe how much my babies are growing up.

Goose turned 6 months old 10 days ago.

Bug will be 3 years old in 7 days.

I love watching everything new that they do each day, but each milestone is bittersweet, as I know I'm watching some of these things happen for the last time in my life as there will be no more babies.

I don't tend to do these types of posts, but I want to put it out there, to remind myself of what these guys were doing at these ages.

Goose has been sitting up unsupported for almost 2 months now.  He started rolling over a few weeks before that.  Now he rolls this way and that and just wants to move move move.  I suspect he'll be crawling before we know it.  We started him on solids about 2 weeks ago.  We are going the route of Baby Led Weaning (I wanted to do this with Bug, but it didn't work for her).  So far it seems to be working for Goose.  he's had Avocado, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans.  He's getting better and better at grabbing the food off his tray and getting it to his mouth.  And he's actually eating food, he's not just making a big old mess (but yes, he is doing that too :-))

He was my good sleeper, but about 6 weeks ago he caught a cold and hasn't slept worth crap since then.  He suddenly can't fall asleep on his own, and wakes up anywhere between 2 and 4 times a night.  It's brutal, which is funny considering Bug was SO MUCH WORSE.  We're working on it, but I am doing my best to recognize that it may also be a mix of that cold as well as all the new stuff that's going on (see paragraph above).

He's a happy little boy, smiling and giggling on a regular basis.  He loves his big sister, especially grabbing her hair ha ha.

As of yesterday he weighed 17 pounds 4 ounces and was 28 inches long.  He is still medicated for his reflux twice a day, and absolutely still spits up massive amounts.  I'm hoping another few weeks or so of solids will help that out more.

Bug, oh bug.  She's awesome, but very much a 3 year old.  So a month or so ago she suddenly decided that she was interested in potty training. She's been doing pretty good, but still has lots of accidents, especially if she's in a pull up.  So I try to keep her mostly in underwear, but that's not always feasible.  She hasn't really pooped in the potty, and public toilets seem to scare the living daylights out of her, and even if she has to pee it ends up turning into meltdown screaming central.  But she's working on it, and we are trying to make a big deal out of it when she does go in the potty, but not make her feel bad when she doesn't (while still trying to explain why it's better to go in the potty).  It's a strange line to walk, that's for sure.

She's been doing good in speech therapy and has a LOT more words.  There's still many that people would never understand that we (usually) do.  But she's getting there.  We continue to teach her some sign language as well, just to help her skills.  Every sign we teach her the word with too, so many of them she will do both (cookie anyone?).  Some she just struggles with the word so much so it's nice to have the sign so that we can figure out what she is trying to talk about.

She's in the terrible 3's for sure, she throws some pretty major fits at times.  But they are actually more tolerable (most times) than the tantrums she threw at 2.  I think that a lot of that is because of her ability to communicate now that wasn't there before.

She loves Octonots on TV, and it's not beyond me to let her watch it just so that I can manage to get both kids ready for bed.  Especially when K is working.  This is something that I swore I'd never do.  But then I got pregnant.  And exhausted pregnant.  And then new baby and new baby pregnant.  Yeah, she gets about an hour of TV a day total.  1 episode in the morning, 1 in the evening.  Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

She has this crazy head of hair that adults would kill for.  It's long, thick, shiny, healthy and has these great natural highlights.  But she HATES to get it brushed.  Above mentioned TV show helps that problem too :-)

She doesn't have her 3 year check up until closer to the end of the month, but we had her in the other week and she weighted just shy of 31 pounds.  She's my peanut.  I swear Goose is going to catch up with her by the time he's 1 1/2!!

That's it for now.  It's getting late (ok, not really, but it sure feels like it).  I'm ready to head to bed, before the first waking of the night!

My Friend H

Some of you may remember H.  She was the friend of mine that had a little baby boy 2 days after my Bug was born.  And had to say goodbye to that precious little boy at a very young 31 days of age.

She then welcomed her first daughter in November 2012.

She then unexpectedly found herself pregnant again.

Well, just a few weeks ago she welcomed her third baby, her second daughter, into this world.  We had lunch just about 2 weeks before she was induced, just days before her due date.  She was ready to have that baby, and her daughter is just adorable.

I continue to pray for her as she comes close to that 31 day mark that I know is the hardest time for her to get through with her babies.

And as Bug nears her birthday (that's another post, later!), I remember H's sweet little boy that will be celebrating his 3rd birthday up in heaven with all the other angels.

And I know that as time goes by H spends her days crazy with 2 little girls under 2, and I know she remembers with both happiness and sadness the little boy that is missing.  She memorializes him in so many ways.  And reaches out and allows God to be her comfort.  I can only hope that I can learn from the strength she has exhibited in the last 3 years.  She really is an amazing woman, and her husband is an amazing man, and together they really do make an amazing couple.

Lots of love being sent their way.

11 years

So I missed the day in terms of blogging, but K and I just celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary on June 22.

11 years.

I think about all we've been through in that time, and it amazes me.  So I thought I'd do a brief timeline, because unfortunately I've been sick, and my head has been hurting to migraine level.  But I have 5 minutes and want to take advantage of it, so here goes.

January 2000 - We started a 4 hour class on Microsoft Office at our local community college.  A few weeks in was when K got caught by a train and stuck sitting next to me.  The teachers name was Ms. Love.  K and I never looked back.

December 2000 - We moved in together.

March 2001 - Got Engaged.

June 2002 - Got Married.

2003 - We agreed to finish college before we started a family.  So we decided to look for a house.  We purchased a house, closing on my Birthday in April of 2003.

2004 - We continued to work full time and trudge our way through school.  We had fun, drank too much, did some travelling.  It was a pretty uneventful year.

2005 - K graduated from college.  We got cable for him as I had one more year (yep, it's one of those oddities I remember).  We bought a sailboat, learned to sail, had lots of fun and partied a lot.  Got our dog.

2006 - I graduated from college.  Took a 3 week trip to Europe.  Did so much that we wanted to, explored, enjoyed long meals and walks, lots of good wine and tons of culture.  Threw out the birth control and started trying to get pregnant.

2007 - Started seeing doctors for our now diagnosed infertility.  Continued to enjoy making new friends and identifying new hobbies.  Worked on our house a lot.  Did a lot of gardening and canning.

2008 - Did our first 3 rounds of IVF, with our final attempt coming down to a BFN on July 25, 2008.  This is where we had some marital issues.

2009 - Tried to sell our house in T Town.  I moved to Indianapolis, K stayed in T Town.  We worked things out and we spent weekends together.  K went back to school to get his pilots license.  Got pregnant through unconventional methods.

2010 - Welcomed our awesome daughter, Bug, into our lives on July 25. Cleared out the house in T Town and decided to think about renting it instead of selling it.  At the end of the year K got a job with the company he was a 727 Mechanic for as a Flight engineer on a 727 (cargo).

2011 - Got renters into our house.  Started discussing the possibility of having a second child.  Made the decision to give IVF ONE more fresh cycle chance (cancelled cycles not counting) and any frozen transfers if we had any frozen embryos.  Met with a couple of RE's in Indianapolis.  K got furloughed after the company his employer contracted with went under.  Made the move to Cleveland.

2012 - Met with 2 more RE's in Cleveland, picked a doc.  Weaned Bug, started IVF.  CONGRATS!  Success, we were going to get to see what OUR baby looks like!  K started flight instructing.

2013 - Welcomed our son Goose into the world.   Excited that when I do this summary in another 10 years, there won't be years where my summaries mainly center around infertility and treatment.  We are Done building our family, and content!  K got a job as a co-captain flying a mining companies West Wind.  He continues to flight instruct to get to his 1500 hours so he can get his ATP.

It's been an amazing 11 years married, 13 years together.  We've been through heaven and hell, we loved and hated each other.  But we always found our way back to our love, and in the process we really realized what it meant to love another adult (and what it meant to love children more than yourselves!).  We learned how to work through our difficult times.  We learned that we really can weather any storm.  I love K, with all my heart.  I wouldn't trade our lives, our troubles, our happy times, for anything in the world.  We are who we are individually and as a couple because of each and every moment we have lived through together.

Thank you K, for choosing me to spend your life with.  I love you more than you'll ever know.