Words

I haven't written about the boys in awhile because I stopped writing monthly/well visit updates. A lot has changed around here-- H is talking up a storm acquiring more words daily, communicating more and more. His language has completely blown up in the last probably two months. He had some words at 2, but only a TINY fraction of the words he has now. A on the other hand is a boy of few words-- literally. At 28 months he has about 20 words that he occasionally uses. Some we hear daily others we hear rarely. Our pediatrician wasn't overly worried, but referred him for an early intervention eval anyway at his 24 month appointment, we finally just had the appointment last week.

He scored low in several areas and easily qualified for services. We'll start by having 45 minute sessions twice a month. I'm unsure what else will come of it, but I hope more communication from my blonde boy! He was incredibly uncompliant at his evaluation. He wanted very little to do with the two evaluators and was mostly concerned with collecting all the of the non-toys throughout the room. Pens, pencils, coins ect-- all of the thing she generally doesn't get at home.

It will be interesting to see how he responds at his appointment this week since we'll be at our own house and there will be less to explore. We're looking forward to learning new ways to draw communication out of our boy and are hopeful he is just a little behind his brother and a significant vocabulary growth spurt is on its way.

Until then, I'd love to hear from you- have you been here? Do you have suggestions? Books? Specific toys or games? Books I should read? Programs we should try? Leave a comment or send me an email-- waitingnwishing at yahoo dot com

And we're off...

We are generally pretty quiet about any and all baby making. We've shared in the past with our families, and it ended up being more stressful for me than supportive. Not to say our families weren't supportive, but the stress just didn't feel worth it. So, with that said I've told one person that we're starting again. She wasn't able to watch the boys yesterday for our discussion meeting, so we had to have hubs parents come. We called it a Christmas shopping date, and we were set. Our appointment was scheduled for 4pm. Then, of course, my phone rang yesterday morning and we were told our Dr would have to leave early and our appointment could either be canceled or moved to a phone discussion at noon. Wanting to get the ball rolling, we took the phone appointment and hoped we could keep the boys quiet enough (Fro.zen and a pile of snacks!) and hopeful hubs parents didn't show up right in the middle of our call. 

Sure enough, not two minutes into our call someone is knocking on our door- luckily I was set up in our bedroom on the call and Hubs hadn't showered yet for our "shopping date" so we were able to dis guise his need to leave the room as needing to hop in the shower and he told his parent I was finishing getting ready and on the phone. 

The call went great- our doctor, who we've always loved, was excited we were coming back and through our conversation was thrilled to hear how uneventful my twin pregnancy was and how long I was able to carry the boys. We've made a tentitive plan--

Continue on birth control.

Call with January period- start uterine testing (mock transfer and sonohystogeam)

Continue on birth control, call with February period - ultrasound & blood work and begin injectables.

Late February/early March transfer. 

I'll get more details next week when I talk to my nurse, but we are thrilled that everything sounds like it's on track! So thrilled in fact, we went out and finally pulled the trigger and bought a mini van last night. So much extra room!!!!

Three years.

Three years.

That's how long it's been (almost) since the boys were conceived. Sunday will mark 3 years since retrieval, Thursday will be three years since transfer and Friday will be the anniversary of the freezing of the remaining embryo from our second cycle- the boys' triplet as my OB calls it. Friday will also mark the beginning of the next chapter of this story- in one week we start again. It's just a consult with our doctor. The info gathering appointment- finding out what the plan will be, what is ahead of us and potentially getting a timeline for treatment. We're hoping to start marking things off the pre-treatment list slowly in the next several weeks. I'm anticipating a March transfer, but we're really not in a huge rush- my priority is making this process as low stress as possible!

The timing was in no way planned. Of course I knew these dates were approaching, but when I took the appointment, it was just the one that worked best for Hubs and I. We figured if we needed a sitter, we might as well have a date night too! I LOVE the idea of these dates all matching up. Somehow it makes it all feel even more right.

It's exciting that another sweet baby may be joining our family soon. The fear of 'what if' hasn't really set in yet- I'm hoping I can just hold on to hope! 

Back in the saddle...

I suck at blogging these days. Seriously. Everyday at naptime I think of the list of things I should/could be doing instead of laying on the couch watching some useless tv. But, everyday I determine that sitting or laying doing nothing is really what I need! Life is wonderful and busy and full of teaching two little boys lessons. So, for a couple of hours (if I'm lucky) each afternoon I just sit and check out-- fill up my tank, because so much of motherhood is about giving. Which, is not a complaint, just a reality!

I had my yearly OB appointment last week.  We talked about the prospect of another baby. About my health, about my family, about how another baby could impact all of it. Because this doctor, he really is the best of the best. He's been practicing medicine since I was  four years old.  He's seen  a lot and he knows a lot. His knowledge  of women and families and babies goes far beyond obstetrics .  He checked me over and said everything looked and felt good, shook my hand, crossed his fingers and said he hoped he'd see me before next November. Because y'all, HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Our RE consult is scheduled for a few weeks from now-- holy crap, this is getting really real. We're pretty sure we won't jump in for a couple more months, but holy cow. I'm excited, and anxious (mostly about the logistics of a clinic who doesn't allow children) and beyond thrilled that my OB didn't say something like " you can't get pregnant again, your uterus will explode" because that's the dream I had the night before my appointment.

So, an FET is on the horizon. Making the call to my RE's office was weird. Surreal kind of.  So much different than before, but so the same.  I had all the same butterflies in my stomach, but so much less fear.  Exciting days ahead!!

If you know me in real life, or follow me elsewhere please keep this quiet-- we haven't yet decided if we'll share this with our families.

Too Fast!

Well hello there! Holy cow the weeks of this summer are sliiiiippppping away from me! I feel like summer got off to kind of a slow start and now we're just two weeks away from my itty bitty tiny (not really anymore) babies turning TWO!

This birthday snuck up on me, BIG TIME! We've had a theme in mind for months, and the pinterest planning is done, but the actual execution-- L.A.T.E! I had been thinking about invitations and knowing it needed to happen soon, but soon kinda passed me by and NOW arrived! We ended up using evite (not my favorite, I REALLY like paper invitations) and they turned out really cute. Since I couldn't find a free invitation that met our theme I ended up choosing one of their premium options and paid the $4 for it. Still incredibly cheap when the alterative  would have  run us several times that price and would have taken a few more days to arrive at our guests doorsteps-- time was running out!

I'm planning to get lots of shots of the details of the party and in a couple of weeks you'll be able to get a glimpse of our little pilots' birthday bash! So far, the door wreath is complete, the  plans for  the shirts  I'm making are underway, the menu is generally planned, now we just need to finish up a bunch of crafty projects and then we'll be on our way. Did I mention their party  is two week from tomorrow? Yeah. I may be dreaming with  that pinterest inspiration board... but, I work well under pressure so we'll see how much I manage to get done!

Aside from birthday party planning I'm registration planning for our local MOP.S group. I'm in charge of registration and let me just tell you-- I have Be You Brave.ly stuff and feathers ALL over the play room. Poor little boys have had their play room commandeered until registration and birthday party crafting is complete! Both events are in the same week, so  hopefully both go off without a hitch!

Find Your People

This morning as I was doing my  morning scroll through face.book I saw a link to an article about motherhood. It is always a valid topic for me, and generally I'll click a link if it has to do with something that is current in my life. Especially if it has been shared or reposted by someone who is in a similar season of life.




Motherhood, while always at the forefront of my mind, has been more so in that last several weeks. You see, I'm in  the depths of planning for the upcoming year with my local MO.PS steering team and I've been challenging myself  to really think about how we as moms can uplift one another. How we can help carry burdens and how we can rejoice with other moms when success is reached-- in life, but especially as moms.




This time of my life is rich. I'm blessed beyond measure- I find myself on a daily basis appreciated, well loved, challenged and above all else needed.  Sure, I may not shower for days on end,  and I  might think that brushing my teeth before noon is a big victory, but wow, I can truly say, nothing is  better.




Nothing could be better, unless it were this. Please, please take the five minutes to click on over and read an article about what it might be like to raise your children in a village. Though I think this sounds pretty incredible, I think we have ways in the world we live in now to  find a place that looks a little more like this. Moms don't have to feel alone in motherhood. Sure,  in most cases  it isn't going to work to live a life like the one depicted in the article, but what about working toward it?


What about finding moms who are where you are? Not just moms you connect with online in forums/through blogs and the like (though they are helpful too!)- but instead finding a group.


For me it has been MO.PS. My group has cried together, has talked through rough spots in parenting and in life, we've prayed for each other, we taken care of kids who don't belong to us and  we rallied around one of our own when she went  into pre-term labor at 28 weeks. I didn't know a single person when I walked  in  a little less  than a year ago, and now, I feel supported by a group of moms who know a lot about where I am right now in this pretty incredible season of life.




The moral of this story is- find your people. Create your village.  Its important- its worth putting in the work. And one last little bit- don't make your village only family members. It wasn't a choice for me to lean heavily on my family because they are a few hours down the road, and in all honesty it feels really good to know I have family to depend on AND friends.

Pinterest does it again!

I use Pinterest all the time. I use it to find recipes, art projects for the boys, decorating ideas for our home, planting ideas for our yard/garden, simple remedies for most any situation, advice on lots of things and most recently I've used it a TON to help plan for our local MO.Ps 2014-15 year. In that planning, I ran across a quote, that although very simple, I can't get out of my head. It's been several days now, and it is still there, begging to be pondered, to be implemented.

Be a fountain, not a drain.

It's so simple, and easy to remember, but one of those things I think we could all learn from. For me, during this season if life, it means encouraging my family, it means taking time to see the good in situations and celebrating that instead of focusing on the hard parts or the less than glamorous pieces of mothering small children.  I also think it means being a place (person) where people come to recharge to be revived- an oasis, instead of being the place people come to flush their stuff down or the downer of the party always unloading your hardships onto someone else. Inspire and renew instead of the alternative.

For me, this week I'm just focusing on the fountain part. Be that- if I'm succeeding at it, I don't need to worry about the other. Be a fountain. It works for me. Even just thinking it is inspiring.


-- Also, this makes two posts in two weeks, I'm practically Old Faith.ful :)