Another on the way?

Jared and I are trying to get pregnant again, hoping to give Lillian a brother, sister, or both. Jared has been wanting to try again for some time but I have been dragging my feet a bit. The second baby part I am thrilled about and while overall I like the idea of being pregnant and there are some parts I enjoy the actual day to day pregnancy was not a bowl of cherries for me. There is about a 10% chance of twins coming into play and about a 40-50% chance of success of one.





We did in vitro fertilization the first time and we had 11 remaining frozen embryos. This time we did what is called a frozen embryo transfer which is where they follow a similar process to last time but then instead of retrieving the eggs, inseminating them, allowing them to become embryos and transfering those back they just transfer back two of the embryos that were frozen last time.





This time things went well and the emrbyo's looked very healty again, unfortunately they had to thaw 4 in order to get 2 to transfer back as the first two did not survive the thaw. We had frozen two or three that were not great quality so I would anticipate that the first thaw was two of those. Here is what everyone looks like when they are two days old, one is 4 cells and the other is 5, Jared is affectionately referring to them as 'the twins' not surprisingly he is a little more eager to for twins than I am. Although I would love to have twins I would be worried for their health and safety during the pregnancy.

We have been very open about how we have obtained our family. I think there is alot secrecy around these things often because you think you are the 'only one'. When we decided to be open about it we found out we know ALOT people who used some form of fertility treatments. I have many friends at work that used the same doctors as me, I find that because I am open about it others have sought me out when undergoing treatments. My hope was to be able to help someone else and I have been able to do that so its really wonderful. Jared works with a guy who has twins that used the same doctors we use, one of my good friends at work is using the same doctors and we actually both have been trying this month.

This time the 'protocol' was much less intense. In April I had to go for a test to make sure my tubes were open and that everything looked ok after giving birth. Then this time I just had to do a low dose of one injectable medication to help make a high quality egg. While that egg isnt used they want to make sure you have one. Fortunately I respond well to meds, unfortunately I respond really well to meds meaning I had two big/good eggs and about 16 others--yikes. The hormone flux that puts me in makes me really ill.

We transferred the two good quality embryos on May12th and then we waited to see if they implanted which is torture. For me being so impatient is really really torture. You never really know why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. I think its in Gods hands and it is not about my timetable its about his. Some people think that doing fertility treatments evades Gods planning and while I respect this and can see why they believe this I feel when it is used to overcome a medical obstacle it is just like treating say my cystic fibrosis and allowing me to overcome that and live. The treatments allow us to overcome the medical obstacle that makes it difficult to impossible to conceive whether or not it works is not up to medicine/science. I do believe fertility treatments are abused by many and there are some irresponsible doctors out there but that is a topic for another day.

Unfortunately for us this time it didnt work. The process is not really easy for me and I would like to enjoy my summer and focus on getting back in shape so we will try again in the fall with two of our 7 remaining frozen embryos.

Milestones

So I was curious as to the 'developmental milestones' for a 2.5 year old. When they are 0-18months there are references everywhere you look saying what they should be able to do and what to encourage. Once they get 2 it seems kids vary so widely and the information isnt everywhere you look anymore. I dont know if this source is very good but here is what one site had to say. In general I think she is off the charts verbally but physically not as advanced as some of the others, not surprisingly, especially the little boys that I see.


Play & Cognitive Skills
Pretends to write and talk on the phone - yes

Slaps hand in response to “Gimme 5” - yes

Sorts and matches colors and shapes - she does sort and she knows all her colors very well and some of her shapes. She always gets triangle and then sometimes circle and square depending. She can say the rest of them because of her little video but doesnt always get them right.

Shows an understanding of two location concepts such as ‘under’ or ‘in’ - yes she has a cute book that does these and she will do on/off, up/down, big/small, and a couple others.

Language & Speech Skills
Points to action words in pictures and books - yes

Understands concepts of big and little -yes

Uses the following sounds in words: t, n, k, g, p, m, h and begins to place the end sounds on words - definately

Names one color (perhaps favorite color) - knows them all

Refers to self by using pronouns (mine, my) - yes and will now switch/correct it if we say something referring to us that she copies she will switch the pronouns back and forth appropriatley

Uses some past tense words (jumped) - definately

Uses negation (ie. I no want) - yes but generally now she always says dont, doesnt etc

Fine & Gross Motor Skills
Jumps off the floor - yes for a long while only one leg came off the ground but she finally got it

Walks a line - yes and enjoys walking backward in a line which she finds hilarious

Stands on one foot alone - I have no idea, will have to try a game of this

Jumps off the first step - yes this is a favorite of hers though often it looks more like she is running down off of it since she is not an expert jumper yet

Stacks 8 blocks - yes

Snips with scissors - haven't tried it

Strings beads - haven't tried this either

Folds paper in half - hmm looks like I need to get some activities going to try this too

Other Skills
Understands early math concept of just “one” – will bring just one block versus all the blocks when asked - yes, she will also count objects up to 4-5 but sometimes continues right on counting higher and higher.

Adding my own here to mention some of the things she does that I just love

She says her abc's and generally it goes abcdefghiJJl..lala..Pqrstuvw..nox..yz

she counts to 14

she sings: twinkle twinkle, ring a round the rosie, 1-2 buckle shoe, hush little baby and then a number of others ones partially, to hear her sing bingo or old mcdonald is a hoot since she comingles them

she knows left and right fairly well though she does still sometimes get them wrong, this is from Jared dressing her by making a game out of it

She also knows her fruits and vegetables very very well it started with Jared killing time with her when we went grocery shopping by telling her what stuff is, now he quizzes her on the entire produce department and she loves playing that game and then going to see the lobsters

she can match pretty well as far as animals with babies and the front of an animal with the back, color matching and pattern matching etc

There is so much more she does every day that just amazes us but its always hard to think of and capture in writing, its all the small details that I just really want to capture and remember. She amazes us every day and being a parent is such an amazing opportunity.

Lillian @ 29 Months

Lillian's personality has really developed at this point. She has very obvious preferences and dislikes, is very opinionated and has a knack for entertaining and amusing---she has no problems being the center of attention and often demands it!

Some of her preferences include:

Food-chocolate, candy, pizza, any fruit, blueberry pancakes

Some of her favorite hobbies/pass times that she always request include visiting "grandma's"--Jean is just down the road so since that is within site I get that one ALOT--she is 99, grandma nina is another one (my mom Tanya is always with my sister Anita so somehow she became grandma nina), she also asks to visit grandma Becky Grandpa Jared and Uncle Jason now with the increased frequency she has seen them (I havent yet figured out how to described the Florida thing, she knows they live in Florida but still asks to go 'just for a bit' so we have been talking about airplanes lately), she also always asks to go visit grandma Sharon (ie daycare) and if that doesnt work she asks to go to Katie's house (her 3.5yo playmate).

She also loves to read books and she can read them for a looonggg time (longer than my attention span can be held by curious george and the like) she will sit through reading 10+ books in a setting and ask for more, during a weekend if we are just around the house we will do this 3-4 times if I am willing---dont get me wrong I am the one that tried very hard to instill the love for reading and well I guess it worked. She also loves to paint and draw, especially if she can draw overtop of whatever you just did.

She always wants to be on the go and her typical list of requests goes something like: shopping, library, gym, church, grandma Gene's, Sharon's, Katies, Grandma Nina's. She seems to have a hard time understanding that sometimes we just want to stay HOME.

Activities-being outside, going for walks, going SHOPPING (i.e meijer), going to the library, going to church, digging for worms in our new garden, going for walks, and just generally playing with the dogs--especially Nala who loves her and will take just about anything from her with glee including being jabbed in the eyes and having her mouth examined.

She is absolutely obsessed with school buses right now, and tractors. She will count how many school buses she gets to see on the drive in to daycare. She gets really excited when she sees one and will tell you "when I get bigger I get to go on a school bus".

We recently got her two videos from the library, they are preschool prep type videos for ages 1-3 and one goes over shapes and the other numbers. she LOVES these videos and with no TV otherwise who can blame her. Yesterday may have been the first day she didnt beg to watch them and that is because we were outside literally all evening. She still wanted to watch it before bed which of course I couldnt let her so she replied in her new fashion of "just a teeny one, just a little bit". Anything she wants and cant have she asks for 'just an itty bitty' or just a teeny little bit" it is comical.

Now with all those likes what doesnt she like? Short sleeves! Evidentially it was winter while she was developing a preference for what to wear and now she HATES short sleeves she will try to pull them down and go around with a coat or sweater over top of them if we do put them on her. We tried every which way but sunday to convince her that is what you wear once it gets warm as did her peers and daycare lady but she wants none of it. Occasionally you can get her to wear them but then she is back to hating them so for now we are going to let her figure it out on her own.

I also think that somehow great grandma Horvath was re-incarnated in Lillian for a period of a week or so as she suddenly declared she "doesnt like those blue jeans" so she was refusing to wear short sleeves and blue jeans, typical kid apparel 24/7 go figure. She doesnt have alot of jeans so that wasnt a problem and the dislike was short lived. She is also VERY particular about her socks and the little line and where it has to be (on top of her toes).

She also cant stand to have her pant legs rise up like when she is in her car seat and you can see her leg between the end of the pants and the socks. She throws a fit and wants me to pull them down because her 'legs are naked' and her 'pants got short' Geez. Jared said maybe we should encourage this habit of wanting to be completely covered in the hopes it will translate into her teen years given all the clothes we see the kids today wearing.

She also doesnt like any food that leaves a 'skin' in her mouth. She will eat beans when mixed in with stuff but these are the biggest thing I can think of. She is a really good eater overall and not picky however if you asked her what her favorite food is she would undoubtedly tell you either 'candy' or chocolate. She also gets pretty excited over pizza, this is a 'daddy thing' since he loves it and I cant stand it.

I dont have any good pictures to post right now, I need to get some new ones off of the camera and we plan to get her pictures taken soon as well.