Seth 20 Months

Dear Seth,

Yes, I know I have been seriously slacking in this department, especially taking pictures. In your photo albums it will be like months of your life never happened. I'll try to be better, I promise. Not that you care but I guess I do. Here's the classic monkey picture. You are a lot less cooperative these days and you had some SUPER cute poses cuddling with the monkey and smiling but by the time I got the camera up to take the picture you were on to something else - mainly trying to climb down from the chair.





Let's see if I can cover all my bases here. Sleep: not much has changed there - you still usually take 2 naps a day averaging an hour to an hour and a half each. You still sleep around 12 hours a night, 7pm - about 6:45am on the dot. We'd really love it if you'd learn to amuse yourself until 8am every morning but those days will come I'm sure. Most mornings you wake up frantic to eat breakfast, or at least that's what it seems like. Which leads me to...

You sign "milk", "eat", "water", and "more" now ALL the time. Sometimes when it's appropriate but other times when you just got done eating 5 minutes ago. However, basically anything that's not pancakes with peanut butter, graham crackers, Foster Farms corn dogs, or fruit, usually gets thrown on the floor immediately. If we try to feed it to you you make a face and turn away like we're feeding you poison or something. Meat - forget about it. Pizza - no way. Mac and Cheese - you've got to be kidding. Your uncle Michael can sometimes trick you by pretending to dip the fork or spoon into something you like but then actually feeding you something else. I imagine you'll be wise to that in no time flat. The last two days I've really been desperate to get you to eat meat and vegetables and also to get substantial food in your tummy to last you through the night. So I've pureed some soups and turned on your favorite On Demand nursery rhyme segments to watch, during which I could probably feed you anything you're so entranced you don't even care what's going in your mouth.



I know, I know, eating while watching TV is a big no no but I'd say it's better than letting you subsist on graham crackers and milk. Maybe we just need to build some trust so you start to realize what I'm giving you actually TASTES GOOD! You do love Mexican food though. Sometimes we go meet Daddy up at this place by his work and you usually chow down on an enormous chicken enchilada with rice and beans with no complaints whatsoever. You also love your milk and ask for it constantly. When you're done you fling your sippy cup down to the ground as hard as you can. We need to work on that.



Earlier today you were sitting right where you are in the picture above, with a bowl of Cheerios and I caught you dropping them down the vent. Tsk tsk. Just one of many mischievous things on your agenda I suppose. I think my main concern right now is the climbing. You are my little mountain goat and you climb on anything and everything. You're getting really good at jumping now too, but so far you just do that on the ground. Any day now you'll be launching yourself off the couch or the roof. Another thing I struggle with is the throwing. We really encouraged you to throw balls here and there from day 1 and so now you think it's okay to throw everything. Like wooden blocks for instance. At my head. I don't have much basis for comparison but most people seem to agree that you are more adept at throwing and catching than most kids your age. I definitely think you have a future in sports. The other day I was thinking that you had two speeds - turbo full sprint and asleep. You basically run everywhere you go and seem to have an endless supply of energy. These days when you run away from me I actually have to run myself to catch you. This was not amusing earlier today in Bed Bath and Beyond. Anyway, we're going to work on channeling that energy and next Thursday you start your first session of SoccerTots. I am SO excited, even though I won't even be there. I really hope you love it as much as I think you will.



Still not a ton of talking but you've added some words since I last wrote them down at 17 months:

Before -
Ball
Juice
Night night
Kitty
Doggy
Mama
Daddy
Uh oh
Whoa!
No

Now also -
Bubble (this is like the cutest thing ever)
Boat
Pool
Home
Eat (you say this while signing it, also pretty cute)
Yeah
Hi

You wave and say hi to everyone you see. I know there are a few more but I can't think of them right now. You will attempt to repeat almost anything I ask you to but there are definitely some sounds that are easier than others. Your comprehension never ceases to amaze me. Last weekend we were out at the river and I asked you if you wanted to go for a ride on the jet ski, and you immediately went into the house, into your room and picked up your life jacket. Speaking of the river, you've spent a ton of time out there this summer and never really got too excited about going in the water. Not that I blame you, it never did warm up much. You've been perfectly happy splashing around in your pool though after it sat in the sun all day.



Future photographer?



Well this blog is getting epic and it's after 10pm already. Now that Mama has her new laptop and this busy busy summer is coming to an end, there may be more regular documentation going on.

Night night!




Love, Mama

To the fair!

Right now the Spokane County Interstate Fair is going on, so we decided we needed to take Seth down to see all the action. It was extremely hot but we had a pretty good time.


We headed down after Seth woke up from his morning nap, so that put us at about lunch time. Of course we got Seth a corn dog, what else would a toddler eat at the fair? He seemed to like it alright, although I think he is partial to Foster Farms. The hand dipped one was super salty and didn't have the sweetness he is used to.


We went through all of the animal barns one by one. This little baby goat was really not happy about being in his cage.


After the animal barns came the BEST part of the day - PONY RIDE!! I gave Seth a $5 bill to pay for his ride, I think he did a great job.



Despite his serious expression in the pictures, I think he really did have a good time.


After the pony ride it was time for ice cream. I got a chocolate cone and while we were waiting in line for a milk shake Seth got a lick. Then another lick. Then he started biting and I had to run away. He and Eric shared a chocolate shake and it was a huge hit.

Here he is trying to get it back after Eric set it down for a minute.


BRAIN FREEZE!!!


The hot tub displays were next, very fun to stick his hands in the water squirting everywhere.


Mama was getting cranky and I think so was Seth so we headed home for a break. Seth took a little nap and then we headed back down for a bit. Eric had really wanted to catch a little bit of the kids' tractor pull and it wasn't until 5:30pm. Even after his nap I think Seth was a little exhausted from the day.


I didn't get any pictures of the tractor pull, you'll probably just have to wait until Seth is old enough to do it. The youngest kids I saw were age 4 so it might be awhile. It is pretty cute though and I think Seth will do awesome once he gets to try it out.


We wrapped up the day with a chocolate dipped frozen banana while we walked around the commercial exhibits and I accomplished my goal - Culligan water cooler for the house. Woot! Eric will not allow me to keep my Brita pitcher in the refrigerator so it will be nice to have cold water finally. It's only $2 a month + water and the fair special was buy one bottle get 2 free. It is $5.50 for the 5 gallon bottles and every 10th one is free or something like that. I've been wanting one ever since we lived in Canada so I'm pretty excited. The water dispenser valves are supposedly "child proof" but I'm taking bets on how long it takes Seth to figure them out.

Next up - Seth 20 months!

Zoo fun!

Just got back from a weekend on the West Syyyde! We took Seth to the Woodland Park Zoo yesterday to celebrate our 7th anniversary. That's right, we are super romantic like that. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to get married on a holiday weekend? There's always something going on and it seems like it's hard to plan anything for ourselves. Oh well. Anyway, the zoo was cool but SUPER CROWDED. And it was a little hot so we got tuckered out pretty fast. I kid you not, at one point we saw a really hairy guy just wandering around with his shirt off. Classy. I forgot to even bring my camera, so I'll have to try to get some of the pictures my mom took and post those later.

Some friends of ours from Spokane just recently moved to the Renton highlands so we spent some time with them last night at their new house. It was so weird driving around on the roads I must have driven hundreds of times when I was in high school, to and from Club Highlands or whatnot. Talk about a trip down memory lane. We tried to go to Chuck's donuts this morning but sadly they were CLOSED for Labor Day. Boo. I will have to remember that for next time. They have the best maple bars, mmm.

On the way home we stopped off in North Bend to have lunch at check out the Coach Outlet. They were having a huge clearance sale and also handing out 30% off coupons at the door. It was complete and utter mayhem in that place. I looked and looked and amazingly could not find anything that I couldn't live without. So Eric escaped a little richer than he thought he would (although that would have been a nice anniversary present to myself). The west bound traffic was backed up from the top of the pass all the way east of Cle Elum. I was so glad we were going the other way. If you live in Seattle I do not recommend going east on 3 day weekends. We stopped at Starbucks in Ellensburg and the girl working the drive through told me it took her 8 hours one year to get to Seattle on Easter weekend. She said there was a lot of traffic but also an entire onion truck had tipped over so they had to clean that up as well. Which reminds me on our way over there was a giant trailer full of corn capsized between Vantage and Ellensburg, so that was pretty crazy.

Back to work tomorrow, I'm looking forward to the short week. I'm feeling guilty for not having any pictures of Seth on here recently. So here's one from a year ago today ;) He was just starting to crawl, and now he sprints everywhere he goes.

My birthday resolution

I decided that for my 32nd year I am going to commit to exercising for 30 minutes a day...  EVERY DAY.  That's right, 365 days in a row with no days off. I thought about giving myself some wiggle room, i. e. a finite number of cheat days or something, but I really think 30 minutes is pretty reasonable and there is no reason why I can't at least make it a goal. I read an article talking about how you should try to exercise every day, just as much a part of your routine as showering and brushing your teeth. Although it is possible that I've never gone an entire year without missing a shower either...
Anyway so I am just putting it out there for accountability purposes and documentation.  They say when you write your goals down you are more likely to succeed. My birthday is on the 15th so I have a few more days to rest up!

Hysteroscopy

Glad we got that out of the way.  It took all of like 5 minutes and was a little uncomfortable but not too bad.  The nurse said I handled it really well which makes me wonder what other patients do.  Do they moan and whimper and cry or what?  Anyway he basically poked a little camera up in there and looked around.  There was a little bit of scar tissue which he just sort of scraped away with the scope, but everything else looked good.  My tubes aren't blocked, so that's not the issue (he said you are twice as likely to miscarry if one of your tubes is blocked).  I asked him about my endometrium being thin and he said that it is what it is.  He would have expected it to be thicker by now but it's not and there's not really anything we can do about it.  Is it causing me to have miscarriages?  Maybe, Maybe Not.  Hehe, so we are back to square one.  At least when I get pregnant again someone will be jumping to attention and not just saying "Good luck!  See you in 6 weeks if you make it that far!"

Fertility consult

At long last we had our appointment with the fertility specialist.  To make a long story short, he agreed with what Dr. H has been telling us... which is essentially that the success rates for any "treatment" of unexplained recurrent miscarriages are all very similar and all very high (around 80%).  In other words, no one knows for sure if the "treatment" really worked or if the patient was just destined to have a successful pregnancy that time around anyway.  So no matter what any doctor does, they look like a hero.

So now for the long story.  We still have options and there's a very very good chance that we can have another baby no matter what we do (as long as we try).  They all vary in terms of complexity and cost (cha-ching!) and how patient we are willing to be.  First of all, the clotting stuff was worthless.  He said the test results were basically all normal but even the one that came back borderline indeterminate was something that only really causes problems if it is off the charts high.  Ultimately he seemed pretty certain that was not part of the issue and rarely is in early miscarriages like I've had because the vascular structure hasn't even developed enough at that point for it to matter.  He gave us a really long explanation of chromosomes and the different potential abnormalities which was really confusing but what I got out of it was that although the results of the chromosome testing we've done so far were "normal" there's still a chance that they weren't completely normal.  He said sometimes some people are predisposed to make eggs that are more likely to develop these abnormalities, and I could be one of them.  Or, more unlikely, but sometimes sperm are more susceptible to "DNA fragmentation" and cause the same sort of problems.  The treatment for that is IVF which would involve getting some of my eggs out, fertilizing them to create embryos, testing the embryos to find one without any abnormalities, and then implanting just that one.  That process would probably cost about twenty THOUSAND dollars but our chances of success are extremely high.

There are still a few things he wants to look at before we go down that road.  He did an ultrasound today and said that my endometrium was a little thin for how far along I am in my cycle.  He also said my ovaries are kind of small.  I don't know yet exactly what that means, if anything, but I'll try to find out.  Later today he's also going to do a hysteroscope inside my uterus to check for anything in there that might be discouraging mini me from hanging out.  He's also going to check for I think fluid pockets in the fallopian tubes which can cause build up of stuff that can be toxic to the little guys.  Then assuming I don't just get pregnant right away this month we're going to do some "day 3" labs to check my hormone levels and also make sure my TSH is good for the amount of Synthroid I am taking.  Then when I do get pregnant they are going to keep track of me in the early days, monitor my HCG and do ultrasounds to make sure everything is going well and if it isn't they want to be proactive and get in there so they can take a good look at those chromosomes.  If and when it does look like the pregnancy is a keeper then I'll just go to Dr. H like I normally would.

So the bottom line is, in the end we still probably won't find anything and I'll end up taking prenatal vitamins and baby aspirin as usual and hoping for the best.  And doing just that the chances are good that eventually one will take.  But it is a huge relief to know that Dr. H hasn't been completely missing the boat here.  He's done everything I've asked him to do and probably would have done more if I had pushed for it but I'm glad to have the second opinion anyway.  Plus now I also know that if we get really desperate and I start getting old, we could liquidate all of our assets and plunk down the cash for IVF and probably be all but guaranteed another baby.  Chances are we won't need to, it's all just a matter of how patient I can be and how long I'm willing to ride the miscarriage roller coaster.  I think I can hang on a little bit longer at that price.

The good news is that all this early diagnostic stuff we can probably get insurance to pay for.  Which is nice because by the end of the day we will have already racked up about $2500 worth of poking and prodding.

I'll have an update later after the scope.

Vegas, baby!!

I got my HCG drawn yesterday (among other things) and it came back less than 2, so I am officially NOT pregnant anymore.  Holy cow, I did not have a D&C and I can't hardly believe it.  And I swear, it was nothing more than a long period, I never had really any sort of cramps.  So I guess that's lucky....

The phlebotomist yesterday was really struggling.  First he could not figure out what labs had been ordered.  From what I gathered it was the Factor V Leiden, Prothrombin time, and Lupus anticoagulant, in addition to the beta HCG.  Anyway, he had to get like 10 tubes ready.  Then he stabbed me and I started bleeding ALL OVER the place, it was crazy.  That has never happened before.  He had to stop and start over again on the other arm because otherwise I probably would have just bled to death right there in the chair.  It was really gross.  I am not usually squeamish about getting my blood drawn anymore but normally I don't see my blood pouring out and running down my arm like that.  *shudder*  So I was a little queasy by the time it was all over.  I filled out a form to have the results mailed to me so that I can take them with me to my appointment with the specialist.  Unfortunately I know that I have already had all those tests done before and nothing was amiss.  So on the one hand, that probably means we're still back to square one.  On the other hand, if I came back positive for a clotting disorder I probably would not be able to donate blood anymore, which I would be a little sad about.  I am type O negative and they are always calling me begging me to come in.

Eric's friend from college called him on Saturday and announced that he was getting married in Vegas on Friday and would we like to come.  So we are jetting off bright and early tomorrow morning for a 48 hour whirlwind trip.  Full of mischief I am sure.  I did get pregnant with Seth like right after we went to Vegas the last time so maybe this is a good omen.