The latest

On Friday I had my 7 week ultrasound and all looked well....the new baby's little heart was fluttering away. Apparently the baby is now the size of a blueberry...how cute!

I got a call later in the day from Dr. H's office. They let me know that I needed to start taking progesterone. It seems my progesterone level had dropped from 35 to 19.5, and Dr. H likes the number to be greater than 20. She also noted that while my progesterone was just barely on the low side, it was a fairly sizable drop off, so it was a good idea to supplement.

When I asked her if I should worry, Dr. H told me this is something she sees all the time in her infertility patients. Huh?! Oh yeah! I AM an infertility patient! See, since I got prego on my own this time, I kind of forgot that I am fertility-challenged!

So I began on the progesterone on Friday night. To my surprise, the stuff made me dizzy and extremely tired....as if I'm not already worn out from Alia-wrangling and from being in my first trimester! On Saturday morning I took my second dose. Let's just say both Mommy and Alia really enjoyed a looooong morning nap that day. When I woke up to sounds of Alia squeaking in the monitor, I jumped up and was shocked to see that I had slept for 2 hours! How long had Alia been awake? OMG! This stuff is hard core! How come I don't remember this from my last pregnancy? Oh yeah!!! My last pregnancy? I didn't have Alia yet! I could nap for 3 hours at a time!

So now I take the stuff after Alia goes to bed, and then again in the middle of the night when I wake up to pee. No, it's not perfectly spread out, but I seriously cannot care for Alia and take the stuff during the day! Hopefully this is good enough!

Aunt Chris's visit

Last week my sister came for a visit...it was her spring break. While we didn't do a whole heck of a lot, we had a lot of fun playing with Little Miss. Alia loves when people come to visit her. It means that there is never a single moment that she has to be by herself! What could be better. And before you get the wrong idea, even when it's just me and Alia, she's never alone....the girl is with me when I shower, when I unload the dishwasher, and even when I pee!

Anyway, it was really nice to have my sister out here. Alia loves playing with Aunt Chris! And the best thing about Aunt Chris? She doesn't mind sacrificing a necklace for Alia's entertainment...in the last photograph you'll see the last time this necklace was in one piece!

Sleeeeeepy!

I am 7 weeks pregnant. I have an 8 month old that is cutting two more teeth as we speak. After many months of sleeping through the night for 12 hours a pop, Alia is waking up again. She cries like she's never cried before. She wails. Is it separation anxiety that I've read about? Are these two teeth that are coming in so much more painful than the other 6 that she already has? What's going on ?

Last night was a toughie. Especially since, as I said, I'm used to Alia sleeping through the night. She woke up at 11PM crying so loudly and sadly. I went in to investigate. I broke all my own rules. I rocked her. I offered her water. I offered her formula. Nothing seemed to calm her down. Ajay suggested she sleep in our bed with me and he would sleep in her room on the spare bed. Good in theory since I've slept with her on tough nights before (but that was several months ago before Alia was such a good roller and kicker). So needless to say, 5 minutes of Alia crashing into me, rolling back and forth, crying, kicking me.....it wasn't working.

So back to her room. Ajay switched back to our bed. I rocked her and rocked her until my arm was numb. Finally she drifted off and I put her back in the crib. And she cried and cried and cried. I repeated the rock/sleep/transfer/cry cycle until 2AM. 

Did I mention I'm 7 weeks pregnant and soooo tired anyway? Without having interrupted sleep? Without having 3 hours less sleep than I normally have?

Is this the perfect storm of teething pain/separation anxiety/random wake-up? What is it? Because with my very tired brain, I just can't figure out what I should do! 

Hang on...wait a minute....Oh yeah! I know exactly what I should be doing. Being thankful. Being thankful for my beautiful daughter that shows her love by how much she needs me. Being thankful for the reason I'm so tired...that I'm pregnant on my own without needing IVF or FET or IUI or some other fertility acronym that requires shots and tubes and probes. Thankful that I have a calm and wonderfully supportive husband. That's what I should be focusing on!

Six Weeks Prego: We have cardiac!

Friday I had my 6th week ultrasound...and as the title says, we have cardiac signs. Of course, this doesn't mean a true heartbeat like Rachel heard on Friends...that amazing moment that happens much later....but we have the squeezing motion that is the muscles that will soon be the heart....just contracting away.

Me so happy!

And why did I just say that? Me so happy? I'm not a person that says that. But what the hell, me is so happy!

The following was written a couple of weeks back before I was comfortable sharing my pregnancy news....

I'm so happy....I had my first ultrasound today and Dr. H. assured me that everything was where it should be, and there was in fact, only one little person growing in there.

At this point, we were able to identify the yolk sac and the amniotic sac. That's all. This takes me back a looooong way...Seeing a tiny dot on the screen instead of a huge baby looking back at me with the hiccups is....well, there's a big difference, that's all.

And wouldn't you know, just when I put away my size-up fat clothes, I'm digging them out again. Not that I need them yet, but me being me, I want to be prepared!

I suppose I'm one of them now

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may know that I suffered through a lot of time and needle pokes and emotional rollercoasters and operations and tubes and injections etc., etc., etc., to finally be blessed with Alia, my bouncing baby girl.

And all through the process, my fertile friends would remind me that all it takes is a bottle of wine, some soft music...you know...just relaaaaaax. If any of my infertile friends are reading this, I'm sure your nodding in agreement.

Anyway. Last month I was supposed to move forward with my frozen embryo transfer, except my fertility doc was going to be out of town for the day I was likely to ovulate (and since we're doing a natural course in order to avoid unnecessary injections following the transfer). So we postponed to this month.

I marked my calendar. I'm used to longer cycles since having Alia. As the days passed, and the cycle grew extra long, friends started asking when I was going to begin peeing on sticks again. I laughed. Until the day I found myself eating spicy bean dip with organic corn chips for breakfast. Followed by a chicken burrito for ummm, brunch at 10:30.

I peed on the stick.

And it was postive.

Alia is 8 months old

I can't believe how big my little baby is getting. A few weeks ago, I took Alia to the Pediatrician for a non-routine visit....I thought she had an ear ache but it turned out to be teething pain that had trailed along her jaw line and mimicked ear pain....anyway, at this visit to the pediatrician, Alia weighed 22.6 pounds. Yep...off the charts. My girl is big!

So if we had to pick a name for this month, it would be called Reachy-Grabby-Slappy. Alia wants everything. In her hands. In her mouth. She wants to hold things. She wants to slap things. Constantly.

At Alia's 6 month checkup, my pediatrician told me that Alia should transition to 3 meals per day by 9 months of age, and that the transition could be very gradual given that I had time to get there. Only...I was still feeding Alia about 5.5 oz. every 3 hours. I didn't know that she could hold more than that and go longer in between meals. Oh, and also, I'd give her solids in between the bottles...so it was pretty much constant grazing all day long.

So while she is now still getting about 32 ounces of formula per day (that hasn't changed), she's getting four 8 ounce bottles instead of countless tiny bottles. She seems happy with the change. The first day she got her new big bottle filled all the way up, she was euphoric...it was as if she couldn't believe her luck that this whole bottle was all for her! You woulda' thought we'd been starving her except for the chubby rolls on her legs!

Daylight savings time was great for Alia this month. Now rather than packing it in a 6:00 PM, she can stay up to 7 or 7:30. For months we tried to keep her up later, but to no avail. And you know what they say....early to bed, early to rise? Well, old Alia was ready to go at 6AM as a result of going to bed so early. Now, new Daylight Savings Time Alia sleeps til 7 or 7:30. Mommy loves this. Of course, she does wake up at 6AM for a bottle, but goes immediately back to sleep for another hour or so.

A few days ago, I had to go shopping for new spring/summer clothes for Alia. She is outgrowing all of her day-to-day outfits, and I couldn't believe that I was already buying 12 months sized clothes. It seems like yesterday that we brought our little bundle of feathers home with us, and now she's as big as a 1 year old. Crazy.

This month, Alia discovered that it's cool to have your own pool. She loves to splash in the shallow part on warm days with Daddy.

This month, Alia's personality has really begun to show itself, or rather, I should say, her personality continues to be reinforced. Alia is not a patient girl. From the day she was born and was furious about being forced to learn to breast feed, to today when she tries and tries to crawl and gets angry and shouts out at us as if to say, "HEY! A littlle @!ing help over here for the baby?"

Ohhhhh, but when she's sweet? She's sweet!

And when she's charming? She's charming!!!

New cool hotel

Since Alia enjoys walking around town in the evening, Ajay and I do this nearly every night. We head out around 5:30 or 6 PM and walk around the village in Laguna or maybe take her to her park at the top of the hill. Lately, we have been exploring other areas of Laguna: walking areas in South Laguna, the beach, and various other parks.

A few nights ago, we decided to walk along the beach heading south, and then returning to our car, we walked along PCH. Ajay spied this really cool, modern door and peaked in. It's appeared to be a new and very stylish hotel. We decided to investigate.

We opened the door and were warmly greeted by the concierge. He told us they opened in August, have 12 rooms, and were Laguna Beach's very first eco-hotel. He showed us around. He took us to standard guest rooms. He showed us the two suites the hotel offered. He showed us the common area which was open-air, but surrounded by the four external walls of the hotel. One of these walls, by the way, was the "screen" and the opposite wall contained the projector, and they played cool clips directly on the wall...very artsy feeling.

This place, called Seven4One hotel, was lovely. With so few options for hotels in town, this one really stood out. Many of the hotels in Laguna are either run-down throw-backs to the 1960s. Yes, there are really nice ones, too, like the St. Regis and the Ritz Carlton, but in the event you don't want to pay $500 per night for a room, the market here was a little lacking. So after touring this very cool, very hip, very inspired little hotel, I thought it was worth mention. You know, in the event that one of my 15 readers is planning a trip to Laguna...and is not planning to stay at our house. :)

Another Sunday morning

This morning, we brought Alia into our bed in an attempt to persuade her that it's okay to sleep in on Sunday...she won't miss a thing.

However, as usual, Alia didn't believe us. She rolled back and forth in between us, and after awhile of this, had rotated 90 degrees. Now the top of her head was at my chest, and her feet at Ajay's. 

That's when Alia realized she could kick Daddy square in the ribs, which she did repeatedly. When Ajay had had enough, he sat her up, which is when she made the face. You know, the face of total concentration...the face of "I think there's a poo-poo coming".

I told Ajay if it were anybody other than Alia, we'd probably be pretty upset if someone came into our room and kicked Ajay in the ribs, and then took a dump on the bed. Ajay replied, "upset? I'd have them arrested!"

Today's the day!

Today is the day Laguna Beach Magazine shoots in our back yard. After an early morning Dr's appointment, I came back and began wreaking havoc on all those spider webs that have been adding up over the winter.

I swept...I scrubbed. I managed to get the winter grime off our outdoor cushions and made them bright and not scary. I wiped down the outdoor table and all 10 chairs. I turned on all the water features. All set.

Now....where are they? I even managed for Alia to be asleep when they were slotted to arrive...arrgh! Even the most carefully laid plans....