Surprise

I'm supposed to get AF today, so last night I took a preg.nancy test just to confirm it was negative before gearing up for this FET.
Um...It was positive. 
It was REALLY positive.  I didn't take a picture, but the control line is much darker than the hcg line.
I didn't even have to wait for the test.  By the time I finished going #1, I glanced down, and it was positive.
Does this mean I'm pregnant?  I had that chemical pregnancy last March/April, and I'm a little gunshy, but you bet your bottom dollar I'm calling the RE today.  Not only because I need to update them about the cycle, but because I think I want to be monitored by them.  I know it's an out of pocket expense, but when it comes to this pregnancy...I'm trying hard not to be too excited. 
I also know that last time I started spotting at 4w1d, and that would be tomorrow.  So I'm not calling the ob/gyn for a week or so.  But the RE?  I'll be calling him as soon as they open.
I'd covet your prayers here.  We're not telling anyone IRL, for as long as we can, so that's why I'm sharing so early here.  There has to be a place to talk about it, you know?!

Oh.My.Word.  A positive pregnancy test.  Hoping for good numbers and everything!  I'll keep you all updated as soon as I know what hte plan will be.

What we're up to

 We did two weeks of 'parent and me' swim lessons.  This equated to 30 minutes a day of holding Macie trying to get her to blow bubbles.  It was terrific.  I loved every moment of it.  She enjoyed the water more and more each day, and by the end, we even 'dropped' her off the diving board (into the hands of her instructor).  She signed that she wanted 'more'.  It was super cute. 

 

 Isn't this girl just adorable!  Below is us today.  The swim lessons have made me look super tan, but now I don't have foundation that matches my skin tone (I know, poor me!).  I'm just justifying the lack of makeup I have on.

 And lastly, my cousin got married on Friday and posed for a picture.  It was beautiful, and we had a nice time.  Macie missed her afternoon nap however, so by 7 o'clock she had had it. 

Dh only has 2 more weeks of summer school and then we'll get two weeks off together as a family before teacher meetings start.  Where does the time go?  I'm not worrying about it, but every once in a while I have to remind myself that summer won't last forever.

And in other infertility news, we have decided to persue a FET at the end of August.  I had an intake appointment with the same RE we used before.  We have two embryos left, one 6 cell, one 7 cell (at 3 days I think) and everything so far looks like a go.  Tomorrow I will have a mock transfer for the Dr. to make his notes, and once I start my period in a few weeks I'll begin the nuv.a ring and it'll be on!  We're trying to avoid telling anyone IRL, just two girlfriends that I meet with weekly know.  Not that we have anything to be ashamed of, mostly because we want to maybe have a chance to surprise people.  Maybe.

What have you been up to?

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All About Macie!

Macie is 13 1/2 months, and I just feel like time is going so quickly.  This is my documentation of all things Macie at this stage.
Macie has been taking steps since 9 months and walking well since 10 months. 
She currently calls almost everyone 'Dada' or 'hidada'.  It's cute, but I'm still trying to get a mama out of her directed towards me.  Ha.
Her first word was "agua" which is spanish for Water.  We're trying to teach her both english and spanish, but I know we need to be speaking more spanish at home than we do. 
Other words are 'touch' (it sounds like ta-ch), hi (usually hidada), ca for car, ka-ka for coffee (and in turn, all hot beverages).
Sign language words are more, please, all done, water, milk.

I admit, I wonder if because she's got 3 lanugages (including sign) that she's not speaking as much as she 'should'.  She has never even tried to speak please or more because the signing gets the point across so well.

She communicates well, if you ask her where something is, she'll usually point.  She knows who mom, dad, nana, and uncle Jim are.  And her dogs, Gipper and Nancy.
When she's really tired she'll start acting drunk and that's how we know to put her to bed.  She'll walk around in circles until she falls down, she'll get slap happy, and she starts to tickle EVERYONE.  It's really my favorite time of day.
At 13 1/2 months she is still taking two naps.  Generally one from 9-11 and then another one from 2-4 (or 3-4).  She goes to bed around 8 and gets up around 7.   well, those are the times she's in her crib.  She may actually wake up before 7, but she plays nicely and doesn't scream so I leave her in there until 7. 

Macie eats breakfast when she gets up, this week che.erios and bananas do the trick.  Lunch is when she wakes up from her morning nap, pb&j or girlled cheese are lunch time staples (with a healthy dose of cottage cheese since she doesn't drink a lot of milk these days).  Sometimes a snack when she wakes up from her afternoon nap, and then family dinner around 6.  She still takes a bottle of 8-10 oz of whole milk before going to bed, but she's less and less interested in that and it's just breaking my heart!  I love the cuddle time the bottles gave us, and I'm sad to see it go.  She weaned herself off the morning bottle just about a few weeks ago, and we stopped the lunch/dinner bottles after her birthday.
Macie drinks all liquids from a straw (beside the before bed bottle).  She never took to a sippy cup, and I'm so happy with the straw I just don't want to try the sippy cup again.

This little girl is a huge blessing and staying home with her for the summer is my own personal blessing.  I will say that it's not always easy.  Just this week we've had what i would consider her first full-blown tantrum (she wanted a cracker before her milk and that's not how we operate in this house!).  I know there are tough times a head, but she is so sweet and I'm so honored to be entrusted to take care of her that I can honestly say every moment is worth it.

That's all for now, just want to have some good documentation of how my little one was at 13 months.  Happy Thursday to you all.

Well, here we are and I love it! This is the second week I've been out of school and I'm just lapping it up. Last week was fun because dh had 3 days off before summer school started, so we really enjoyed ourselves. We had debated about renewing our dis.neyland passes because we knew she was just too little to appriciate all things di.sney. HOWEVER, we realized that most of our friends have them and WE miss them, so we took dh's coaching stipend and purchased them.
Family picture outside the petting zoo.
Waiting for the Mark T.wain boat to go!
We went on a few rides - I think Dum.bo was the current favorite, and have since been there 3 times (only for a few hours at a time...girl's got to nap).

Here's Macie girl with her dad on the teacups.

Then we were able to take a short family vacation to Huntin.gton Beach and stay at the Hy.att (which I HIGHLY reccommend, especially for families).

Okay, and this picture is just one of my favorites. my mom bought this outfit for Macie and I realized I needed to put her in it before she outgrew it. Shirley Temple Black lookout!

And this last picture just goes to show the bigger you are, the harder you cry. (this is my nephew with Macie by the way)
Happy summer everyone!

Back in it ...again

I just called the RE.
Oh my. What an interesting set of feelings I'm having.
No, I'm not PG, just trying to get that way. After last month's trial of se.x for 7 days in a row, I was really hoping that would do the trick. And then it didn't.

So I'm feeling like I have two more embryo's in storage, and I don't want to hem and haw about them. I don't want to ttc for another year and then have to make the decision about what to do. So we're just going to do it.
What spurred this is that we received the storage bill of 600 dollars that is due by June 4th. So it really made me think, am I going to store these two embryo's for the next two years and just try on our own? But then there is a small part of me that thinks since we did get pg, even if only briefly, maybe we don't need this FET? But both DH and I feel an obligation to these embryos to find out if they will take or not. I'd be so conflicted if I got PG without our dr. and then suddenly I'm 38 with 3 kids and have to decide what to do with these embryo's.
If they don't take, then at least we'll KNOW. And if we aren't pg again we'll cross over the bridge of another fresh cycle if/when we come to it.

All I know is, I'm back on the bandwaggon. I just called the RE and made our first appointment for July 5th. I'm a bit surprised that it is a fresh appointment, like starting over again. Meet with a nurse for a history, meet with the dr; go for an ultrasound. I suppose that's what's right, but I even have to get a referral from my primary care physician again, in hopes that my HMO will cover half the cost of the intake appointment. So that appointment is next Tuesday, June 7th.
Can you believe it? Back in it. Trying to win it. I am completely filled with different emotions. Adding number two feels much, much different than number 1 did.

I pray for God's direction in my life, and ask that the Lord would lead my family in the way He sees best.

Wouldn't be great to have another blessing like this one?

6 out of 7

I realized I never did a follow up to my post on the attempt to have 'marital relations' with dh for 7 days in a row.
We made is 6 out of 7.
I'd like to say that it made a huge change in our marriage. And it certainly was good. But I don't feel like our marriage is in trouble, and there hasn't been a huge shift in the universe since, but it was a good challenge, and I reccomend it.
The first day was probably the hardest (which is weird, right?) because we had gotten into a snit about something and I really had to work hard to deal with that situation instead of letting it simmer because we both knew we wanted to start this 'project' that night.
So that was really good. Both of us giving a little for the greater good of each other.
The sixth night was actually a date night, but we got home at 11:00, and that just wasn't going to happen. Plus my mom stayed the night to watch the baby and while that hasn't stopped us before (she doesn't read this blog), it did that night.
I learned that even if there isn't time for an afternoon delight than 8:30 isn't the worst time in the world like I used to think it was. I don't know if I could be up for the 365 days in a row that I've heard of. That just sounds hard. (excuse the pun).
Okay, enough humor, back to work grading papers at lunch. Only a few more weeks of work till I am a Stay at Home Mom all summer long!

Macie is One!

So on the 7th we had a rip-roaring, good ole' western birthday for our little one. It was so much fun, really made possible by me relinquishing control and letting people help me. I did so much pre-planning that when it came to that day I thought everything would go smoothly. And it did. But really because DH's family was there to help out and it seemed to be fun for everyone.

We were at a local park where we go frequently for walks in our neighboorhood. Very nice.

We had hamburgers, chips, dip, watermelon, ice tea and coca cola in bottles. Nothing says 'western' to me like drinking coke from a bottle (which I didn't do because of course I'm still dieting and while I have been hugely successful, I still am ...well, slightly huge. Ha!) My dad's parents were able to be there as well as my mothers' mom. We surprised my mom by flying her mom and sister in for the day (and because the next day was mothers day).

There was a pinata filled with candy.

We had stick horse races, but the dad's ended up helping out. There weren't a TON of kids, so we got the dad's involved. Notice Macie in the corner. All she wanted to do was collect the cones.

She's on her way. Don't know where, but she's got a balloon. What more does a 1 year old need?
Then there was the cake. I couldn't decide what to do, but with about 40 people, I knew I needed a lot of it. So I just stuck with a half-sheet and a 9x13 on top. I'm not gonna lie, I was really proud of how it turned out. My Grandmother taught me how to do cakes a few years ago (I think learning to sew would've been better for my waistline though). Here is me at home working on it the night before.

Dh took care of Macie most of the night because it took me a while. As in 3 hours just to decorate. I'm hoping in the future to get faster at it (that doesn't include cooking time. I baked it and put it in the freezer a few days earlier.) It was a success! Thank you GG!I was just gonna have a piece of cake for macie and not a separate 'smash' cake, but I had made an extra square of cake to perhaps make a 3rd layer, but I didn't, so I just decided to make a little one. I didn't apparently get a great picture of it. It says "Macie Smash!"
She was completely into the cake.
She cried when my mom took it away. She probably would've eating the whole thing if I'd let her (where did she get that from? ha!)

Macie, you are a doll and I love you more than I ever thought possible. I can't wait for lots more birthdays together!