Little Moments

I feel more comfortable coming back to this blog & writing more. Maybe it's cuz we are considering our second IVF or I've been stalking my IF buddies blogs or I've encountered so many other women going through IF. Anyway, it's good to be back. I'll be more active, I promise.

It’s amazing seeing all the ways Elias is developing! He’s definitely starting the imitation stuff. Last week, he used my phone in the “right” way. He grabbed it & held it up to his ear & even chatted! He also used a MegaBlock as a phone, too! Today, he found a small comb in the bathroom cabinet. He handed it to me, so I combed his hair a bit. When he got it back, he immediately used it to try to comb the back of his head! He copies us anytime we laugh or cough or sing or dance. It is so fun!

He has been pretty much on a nursing marathon kick now. When Nick has him while I work, he barely takes 6 or 7 ounces of breastmilk from a bottle… yet he nurses many MANY times during the day still. I read recently that over 8-10 months, the baby may refuse the bottle & only nurse straight from the source. He does a bit of both. Nick said he gets super playful with the bottle & offers it to Nick, then takes it back, then offers it again.

I’ve been using a washcloth to clean his teeth. He loves it & loves to bite down. He thinks it’s funny, too, if Nick or I hold it in our mouth & shake it around. He grabs it away, then shoves it back towards our mouth.

Elias does so many funny things with such personality. He’s been walking over a month now & it didn’t take long for him to STOP crawling! I miss his crawling. He kept one leg bent & the other straight. Made it super easy to sit up from crawling! And he was so quick! I don’t think he’s quite as quick walking now, but he’s getting there. He fights being in the cart @ Target & just wants to walk & be free the whole time. This can be a bit frustrating to Momma.

Little Man loves climbing up into cabinets (since we may be switching houses soon, we haven’t installed all the cabinet baby-proofing door pieces). He loves doors & swinging them back & forth. He loves looking at himself in the mirror. He loves dancing with his arms & twirling in a circle. He loves his sippy cup, but never actually drinks much from it. He still adores water. We have been to the water park several times this summer & he is unstoppable! He wears me out!

Guess that’s about it for now! Will journal more of E’s great little characteristics!! :)

{DUCK: Will miss seeing your updates, but loved seeing all the posts about little Monkey & Giraffe! Good to know you'll still be "out there".}

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from the last couple of months...

Nick's Dad has many tractors & here's E's first perch on one of them!

We went on vacation the week of Memorial Day & looped around Florida visiting family. We stopped in St. Augustine on the way back & we all ate. Elias must be moving his leg at all times. Napping, sitting, nursing. He kept putting his foot on the table, even though I moved it MANY times. I thought it would be cute to have Nick snap a shot. He just turned 9mths old.

The oil leak is definitely affecting parts of our coast, but thankfully it hasn't the beaches that are closest to me. This is @ St. George Island right about the time E turned 10mths old. He loved the beach & crawled ALL OVER the place in the sand! :) {This is also one of the cloth diapers we use as a swim diaper; a GroBaby... LOVE them!}

Nearing 12mths

Not sure if this will work, but I wanted to share some photos of our little guy...

Family Pictures

If that doesn't work, here's a couple of my favorites...



Planning a tractor-themed birthday party for the end of August & I'm still blessed to be staying @ home with my little guy. I recently started working as a shift supervisor @ a local nursing home; it's every other weekend, 16hrs/wkd. It's still very hard leaving E, but I am happy to be able to contribute some money to the family budget. We are in the middle of trying to sell our house & purchase another home through a short sale. It's been a bit crazy, but we're hoping it'll work out. If not, that's okay!

I still check all my buddy blogs, but don't comment as much. I'm sorry. I will be better about this...

We are already talking IVF#2. Possibly starting in the Spring. We have to be weaned for at least 3mths due to my prolactin levels being too high to give us the best chance of pregnancy.

I realized yesterday it's been over 3 months since I've posted here. Sorry for that!

Since my last post, I passed my state board exam & am officially a Registered Nurse. I'm perusing the job postings, but still planning to stay home w/ Elias for as long as possible. If something comes up that's truly exciting & @ night, I may consider applying for it! :)

Elias is a little wiggle worm that's gone mobile. He's not what I would call crawling yet, but he definitely gets around the floor. He's pulling up on everything & trying to stand on his own sometimes. He has so many expressions & sounds... he is so entertaining!

I have gotten better w/ this whole motherhood thing. We understand him better. We can anticipate what he needs before he needs it, so if he begins getting slightly fussy... we are prepared.

We are still bre.astfeeding. Almost exclusively. Sometimes E gets a bit of pureed babyfood or a taste of our soup, but I'm really interested in pursuing baby led weaning. Also, E just sprouted his first baby tooth a couple of weeks ago, so I'm hoping we can progress in solids as his set of toofies come in!

We had to file an amendment to our tax return & are planning to use it to buy E's bigger boy carseat. It's a convertible, but I'm not sure what the official term is. Soon we will no longer be using the infant carseat/restraint. I've prepared myself to get used to this & leave the carseat in the car. We carry him in & out of the car since we'll have to do that with the new convertible seat.

E is officially 8mths old today. Estimating his weight, I would say he's about 20lbs or 9kgs. Maybe a bit less or more. I am not sure of his height; I'm hoping to measure him today or tomorrow to mark the info for his babybook. Yes, I'm trying to keep up w/ his babybook! I keep it stored in the living room, so I can add info when I think of it!

We are pretty much using cloth diapers exclusively. I have not ventured into using them during the night, but have recently purchased some that should work through the night for us. It's almost become addictive. So many cute options & they are so versatile. I actually love cloth diapering! :) {Following are a couple of pictures of E in some of his cloth diapers.}



What else? I'm not sure what I'm leaving out, but I will share some photos with you all!

Hope you all are having a wonderful week! We are enjoying the incredible weather! I love the sunny days & evenings!! I even just bought a bathing suit to help hide those ugly spots from post-baby body. I've gotten down to my prepregnancy weight, but hoping to get down to my pre-IF treatment weight by the end of the summer. About 10lbs left to lose. Maybe more if I'm lucky.

Already getting the bug to be pregnant again. My cycle has started back. Twice I've gotten my p.eriod, but @ 5wks apart. Not sure if it'll stay that way or not, but I'm going to count on it now... so I don't get my hopes up. We are thinking if we're not pregnant when E turns ONE, then we'll be visiting the clinic again & hopefully cycle by the end of the year. Has anyone else checked out their clinic for pricing lately? I'm shocked @ the discounted cycle prices now! Even ICSI is cheaper, the monitoring, etc. I can't believe it's gone down in price that much in just over a year; I've been stalking our clinic's website since the beginning of the year. Either way, we are blessed to now have insurance that covers IUI &/or IVF completely once the deductible is met. I'm sure we'll still have to pay the meds, but that puts our cost @ a fraction of what we paid for E's cycle. I feel like we hit the lottery w/ IVF#1 & am scared to tempt by doing another cycle that will fail. We'll see. Plenty of time to figure out our plans!!

Been A While

Sorry I've been such a slacker about posting. I guess now that I've had my baby, I don't want to post much about how each milestone is bittersweet... never knowing if I'll experience this with another child, but so absolutely grateful that I can experience it once.

Elias is just developing by leaps & bounds. He's so freaking hilarious & cute! Even when I'm @ my wit's end & just wanna cry, he somehow manages to melt me all over again with a HUGE-GOOFY-HALF-OF-HIS-FACE grin! It's awesome.

He's almost 4.5 months old now. Umm, seriously!?

He's been rolling over from his back to his belly for about a month now, but has just begun rolling from his belly to his back. And apparently this is out of the norm. They usually do this the other way around. He doesn't care for tummy time, so unless we hang out with him & cheer him on & smile @ him with lots of encouragement... he fusses on his tummy! Like tonight, he fell asleep on his side (his preferred position of sleep), flipped in his sleep, then woke up & cried because he was on his tummy.

We are still exclusively breastfeeding. In the beginning, I would say the first 6wks or so, I didn't enjoy it at all. I think I was half angry at the baby because b'feeding hurt so much. And I felt like he ALWAYS needed to eat. I was so sleep deprived & upset about having to wake up every 2-3 hours, take the baby into the living room, pump or latch him, deal with the screaming, etc etc. I kept pushing myself to do it just one more week... one more day... try another day...

Then, around 6-7wks of age, it started clicking. This was a collision of several factors that I attribute to this becoming easier: Elias began sleeping through the night; we began side-lying b'feeding; the lecture portion of nursing school was over; & b'feeding stopped hurting. Even when he latched.

Since then, b'feeding has become exponentially more enjoyable. I appreciate that I am the only one able to provide for his nutritional needs. I am marvelled at the fact that my body has been empowered to nourish & support another human being from conception to 4.5mths old. I mean, it's pretty freaking amazing, right?! I adore the giggles & coos & "talking" as Elias stops his feeding long enough to connect with me. I love being able to soothe him to sleep or calm his anxiety. I get it now... the overwhelming emotional, physical, & hormonal connection that accompanies b'feeding.

At his 4mth appointment, the doctor cleared him to start solids whenever we want to. I don't feel as though he's ready yet. He's not showing signs of interest & I've attempted giving him little bits here & there. I'm planning to wait until 6mths to start him on solids. We'll see how he leads.

"In the meantime", I completed nursing school! I am officially a graduate nurse & am studying to take the NCLEX to become a registered nurse!!

I have also recently found some mommy groups in the area that I'm excited about meeting up with. I've been thinking about creating my own group as many friends have had babies in the past year or so. I'll letcha know how it all comes out after the next couple of meetings... I plan to attend at least two in the next week and a half.

Oh, one more thing, I'm a MINIVAN MOM! :)


So, without further adou, here's some pictures of the little munchkin...

{He looks thrilled doesn't he? But, really, he loves his Bumbo!}

This was from today...

{He is definitely his Momma's baby; he has so many crazy expressions! He's even got a bit of a Blue Steele streak in him! LOL}

And just a picture that I thought was cute from last weekend of his diapers drying on the line. We do cloth diapers during the day, then disposables during the night & when we're out & about.


And guess what?! N's new insurance (kicking in around March-ish) has IF coverage! That means we may have another chance at a kid or two more! What a blessing, huh!? I'm hoping he'll agree to cycling this summer, but then we'll probably still be b'feeding, so maybe early 2011! How exciting! And, yes, I definitely still want more kids!