Welcome back my friend!

A very good friend of mine just shared her blog with me. I can’t tell you how special that made me feel. I just spent the last hour reading it (at work- shhh). I’m close to tears after reading it because it has made me feel even closer to her.

She is the wife of an orthopedic surgery resident. I have always thought she was an amazing person. She is essentially a single parent while her husband spends his life at the hospital at the mercy of his attending and patients. She is a strong woman, an intelligent woman, an incredibly caring woman, and she makes me laugh.

I met her at work a couple years ago, and then she moved to Nashville last year for her husband to do his first year of his fellowship. She is getting ready to move back here for him to finish his second year. I can’t wait to have her back in the area. I wasn’t very good keeping in touch with her last year; I was so wrapped up with the IVF’s, with The Boy, and then the pregnancy. I’ve never been good at keeping up with people who are out of town. It’s a big flaw of mine.

I saw her in person for the first time in a year today. It felt like it always had. So very comfortable.

Welcome back Nancy. I plan on making the most of this year with you before you and Dr. Arm head back down south.

Check out her Blog everyone. It is THAT good!

http://searchingformrswelby.typepad.com/searching_for_mrs_welby/

Your things

Amazing Daddy looked at my breasts the other day and said "wow, your things are getting bigger." "My things?" I said, looking down. "Yeah, your things, your areola, I didn't want to get too technical with you."

Hmmmm....

Yes, a one way ticket

Yes, it was a one way trip for Mell.

It was not an easy decision to make. The vet was wonderful with us and with Mell. It seemed peaceful for him, although I know he was scared just purely from being there.

They took a plaster paw print of him which I thought was a very nice gesture.


This morning Amazing Daddy went outside and said there was a dead mouse on our front steps. Almost makes you think Mell is up in mouser heaven and left us a little gift to show us he's ok. Strange.


The Boy is understandably confused. He asked if Mell was coming home today and SH told him that Mell was in heaven. TB wanted to know what heaven was. How do you explain heaven when you don't believe in it yourself? So I told my son a story that I don't believe, but I think made him feel better. Is that bad?

It may be a one way trip...

Mell (white collar) and Ambien (in basket)

Tonight at 7:30pm we are taking our cat Mell to the vet. I don't think we will be bringing him home. He has cancer. Although we aren't sure exactly where it started, it has metastasized to his anus and is basically blocking him up. We had the lump removed once before Christmas last year.

Saturday he was throwing up bloody vomit and there was blood on his rear. He's losing weight and seems to be sleeping and hiding more. He stinks. The other cats want nothing to do with him. He's only 11 years old. I've had him and his brother since they were eight weeks old.

Saturday afternoon we decided it was time, but knew we had to wait until today when the vet was open. So all weekend I cried. Then last night he appeared with a clean butt and wanted to be in my lap all lovey like. Like he knows...and is asking for clemency.

I don't know what to do. I'm tired of vomit and poop all over the house. I don't want him to be in pain, and I know he was Saturday. I know that this is a decision we will have to make soon, if not today.

How do you know when it is really time? And how do you explain it to a 4 1/2 year old?

This was my morning

5:15am, The Boy banging on his bedroom door and yelling for help. He wanted milk and a granola bar.

6:30am, Woke up to husband telling me that our refrigerator wasn't working...again.

7am, Rolled out of bed to realize one of the cats had left a hairy turd on my pillow, nestled against my head. (I'm assuming it was a cling-on and not an intentional gift.)

7:20am, call from TSS that she is sick

8am, realized while driving The Boy to school that they weren't going to let him go to swim lessons without his TSS

9:15am, reminded once again that I'm married to the best guy ever

My husband is the absolute best Daddy!

The Boy's TSS (one-on-one helper) is sick today. Today is swim lessons at school, which TB loves, and has been super with. But the school won’t let him go without his TSS. I completely understand why, as you just never know with him when he’s going to lose his shit. But man, I almost cried when I found out they weren’t going to let him go this morning. So I called Amazing Daddy to tell him, and he was bummed out too.

Next thing I know AD is calling me from the school to say he’s there and he’s going to go with TB to swim lessons (including riding the school bus to and from) so he won’t miss out.

He really is the best! I think my man is getting lucky tonight!

* This is just one of many awesome things he’s done for TB and for me recently.

Now this looks like a great idea!

http://www.5minutesformom.com/1936/scanalizer-contest/

I'm constantly tearing out magazine pages from my parenting type magazines, with recipes, great ideas, good deals etc. Then they end up on my desk and I either lose them or throw them away because all the mess is driving me crazy. I think this would really help!

http://www.neatreceipts.com/index.asp


And here's another contest I'm hoping will chose me. I've been looking for a new baby carrier and this one looks promising.

http://adventuresinbabywearing.blogspot.com/2007/07/babywearing-tip-of-week-podonbutai.html

http://www.all-natural-mommies.com/

Let's play...Guess the Gender!

My Mom had NO CLUE what the arrow was pointing too.

She may still be working on the pink blanket.

Foot prints!

All hale skelator

I swear he has TB's nose.

So yes, we are having a boy. My fathers check book is safe from my mother. I guess every one will have to wait for my nephews to get married and procreate (hopefully in that order). Which shouldn't be for at least another ten or fifteen years.

It took me a while to post this for two reasons. One, I had to deal with this little one not being a girl as I had really started to believe it was (wishful thinking). I'm not really supposed to admit that I had a preference am I? I'm supposed to say that "Oh, all we wanted was a healthy baby" blah, blah, blah.

But honestly, I was disappointed. Although perhaps not the most rational of reasons, part of hoping for a girl was because raising TB has been such a challenge, and, he is in fact, a boy! And then there's the desire to be able to buy all the cute girly clothes and accessories. And the fact we wouldn't have to repaint the guest room. And, the hope that perhaps I could stop the terrible cycle of poor mother-daughter relationships in our family. And, I really want to share all the girly things I love to do, with another girl!

Ah well, as the money shot shows, we are having a boy. And I am adjusting to it. We'll be getting a quote to have the room painted this week. And since most of my coworkers have boys, I'll be getting some nice hand me downs. And, we definitely know what to do with boys.

The other reason I was slow to post this was we did have a bit of a surprise during the level II ultrasound. Apparently there is excess fluid in baby boys kidneys, which is a marker for Downs Syndrome. It is a very small amount of excess fluid, and we will have it rechecked in four weeks (2 1/2 weeks from now). I had a little discussion with Dr. Google and it told me that this is what many consider a soft marker, and some perinatologists don't even consider it a marker for Downs at all.

Our Dr. said that 95% of the time it ends up being nothing, and if it is something it most likely has nothing to do with Downs. Basically, our chances of having a baby with Downs is now 1 in 200, or 0.5%. Amazing Daddy doesn't think that is worth getting concerned over. But then last weekend I found he did some consulting with Dr. Google as well. We were offered an amnio, because now the chance of miscarriage from an amnio is 0.5% which is equal to the chance of the baby having Downs. We said no and the Dr. seemed to think that was a good decision, considering the hell we went through just to get pregnant.

Basically, I have mixed feelings. Mostly I put the worry out of my mind, and hope that in a little over two weeks I'll be reassured. At this point, I guess there isn't anything I can do about it since even if we did confirm it was an issue, we would not terminate the pregnancy. So, I try not to obsess.

______________________________________________

In general, I am feeling pretty good. I'm finally showing, and when I wear the right clothes its fairly obvious I'm pregnant, and not just getting fatter. I have more energy, although I find that climbing more than two flights of stairs has me pretty out of breath these days. I can tell I haven't been exercising. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I have been throwing up most mornings for the last month or so. I'm not so much nauseous as I have this gunk in my throat early in the morning that starts to gag me, and then results in me heaving. Sometimes it's just once, sometimes its several times. I have to be careful when I cough because that too has set of my gag reflex.

My sense of smell has become hyper acute as well. AD grilled salmon for dinner the other night and as soon as he brought it in the house and I got a good whiff I ended up in the bathroom. I couldn't even eat dinner with him and TB. Poor TB was very concerned. He kept telling AD to get the fish out of the house so mommy couldn't smell it. So sweet.

I've started to be a bit hungrier than I was before, and I think I may have finally gained a couple pounds. Still no major cravings. In fact, kind of the opposite. Not much really excites me. It has been a struggle some days to get enough protein in me.

I'm starting to think about how I want to decorate the nursery. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the thought of getting everything out of the room, but once I do that and decide on a theme/color, I will have fun.

Starting to think of boys names too. We have one that we both like, but I would like to keep thinking. TB still wants to name a baby brother Hero. He and I both like the name Fin too, but AD wants nothing to do with that.

Another story about The Boy

I'm waiting to get the ultrasound pics scanned before I post. Hopefully by tonight.

While you are waiting, a cute story about The Boy.


While taking his bath, he and daddy are talking about birthdays.

Amazing Daddy: TB, do you remember how old I am?

TB: You are fifty.

Daddy: that's great, can you count to fifty for me?

TB: No Daddy, that would take too long, that would take hours!

Should I think this is funny?

Last night Amazing Daddy dragged out a giant bean bag chair and small trampoline from the basement and left them outside for the trash gods.

They were gone this morning before we woke up. And before the trash gods were awake.

Did I mention that they were soaked in cat urine?

Wonder how long it will take the new owners to figure that out.

Oh god, I hope they don't remember what house they took them from.


New post soon on last weeks level II ultrasound.