A Whole New World

Who would have thought...

6 years ago I never thought I was going to be lucky enough to have a baby. We were going through our first IVF this very month... days from now was the retrieval and transfer. There was nothing but stress and anger leading up to the procedure. We only ended up with one egg. How could that ever work? How could just ONE work? I was sure it didn't. But it did... and that little egg is 5 years old now (And happily watching Star Wars in the loft!).

In a 4 year period, I went from having no babies to having 3. Holy Shit!

Life is crazy. Life is busy. Life is WONDERFUL!

This blog has evolved so much since I started it and I hope it continues to do so. I'm obviously not going to be chatting about infertility and pregnancy anymore. Although, I would LOVE to have another! Seriously I would. Ya, I'm crazy I know. But I honestly love being pregnant and love having babies. If it weren't so damn expensive I'd have at least one more (Assuming we'd be lucky enough to get pregnant again without IVF) Anyway, to continue, I think this blog will turn into life and family and vacations, and all the fun stuff that goes along with it. I'm going to commit to posting at least once a week... and I'm excited about it!

Ok, so here's a couple of recent photo's of the monsters to start off!

 

Christmas 2012

 

 The Boy is the star soccer player now. So hard to get a good photo of this kid!

The Girl on her 2nd Birthday in September!

 

The Baby on his 1st birthday just a couple of weeks ago!

Maternity leave came and went in the blink of an eye. Seriously, this past year just flew by. I had to go back to work on January 3rd.  That was extremely hard. The baby is having serious separation anxiety. I am a bit too. He cries like a stuck pig every morning when I drop him off. When I pick him up he starts crying for me as soon as he hears my voice. It's heart breaking. He's such a Mama's boy and I'm OK with that. I hope it gets better... for both our sakes.

For those of you that know me, you know we like to travel and we like Disney. Well, after listening to a friends suggestions, I've combined the two and have become a travel agent! As of May 2011 I am a certified Disney Travel Agent! Cool eh? For years now I've been planning and booking trips for family and friends (not necessarily just Disney) and a friend of mine said why don't you just become a travel agent? I thought about it and said why not. I love doing it, I might as well get paid for it right? So I did all my training and courses and here I am. My website is http://www.aboutamouse.ca/ Its pretty much all Disney stuff on there, but I can certainly book ANY vacation for you if you want. Hotel or car rental... or even just attraction tickets. Let me know if you want to go somewhere ok!?

Well I guess that'll do it for now. I've got 3 kids yelling at me right now and no husband home to do anything about it!

Till next week... or sooner if I can :)

Hello? Testing... 1... 2... 3

So is there anyone still actually out there? If so, please comment and let me know! I plan to start posting again (yes, seriously, I am going to post. I PROMISE!) But please let me know you're here. If no one is reading, I'm not sure that I'll post.

Waiting... Waiting :)

I'm Alive!!

And new posts will follow... VERY soon!!

Where did October go?

Ahhhh October, where oh where did you go? It seems like just yesterday it was September and fall was around the corner. And now here we are just days away from Halloween. Which, I am so not ready for!  Now I LOVE Halloween. It’s a toss up between which is my favourite holiday… Christmas or Halloween?  I really don't know which one I decorate more for. So it really is shocking that I'm not ready. We usually do big Halloween parties, however the last couple of years we've slacked off. Kids will do that to you I guess! We had one 2 years ago and it was fun.  Last year I was due just a couple of weeks before Halloween so I had no interest in planning. Little did I know that she'd come in September! And this year, well, I'm just exhausted and don't feel like it. Maybe a Christmas party?

This past weekend we were supposed to take The Boy and The Girl to a pumpkin patch to get them some nice pumpkins to carve. Of course, we didn't make it. Saturday was a write off with swimming lessons and shopping for the new puppy (more on that!). And Sunday was a rainy crappy kind of day. Plus Mama is big as a house and was just exhausted on Sunday. No pumpkin patches for me. Now my dilemma is do we go some evening or go Saturday morning maybe? I HAVE to get The Boy a pumpkin to carve or he'll lose it on me.

So ya, we've now got a puppy!  A 9+ week old Golden Retriever named Jessie (The Boy is in LOVE with Toy Story hence the name!).  She's pretty darn cute I must say. Looks are deceiving though. She was soooo quiet when we brought her home. She never said a word. Never barked, never whined. Now? Well she's a barking, whining, peeing machine.  Almost 2 weeks and she's completely settled into her new home. She bosses us all around with her barks. We're working on the housebreaking and its not going so well as of yet. If you've got any tips and tricks, that'd be GREAT if you could pass them along! The kids are both loving her and she's getting mauled by them. I guess she'll learn to like kids whether she wants to or not! I pray that by the time this baby comes that she'll be house training. I'm crossing everything I can in hopes of that.

31 weeks preggo today. The time sure is flying by. In some ways that is. My days aren't necessarily flying by at work. Things are slow most days and it really drags the day on. I'd rather be busy.

So I've gained about 18lbs so far. Not too shabby overall. High for me considering the last 2 pregnancies, but overall good. I can work with it. Although I know I'll gain more in the next 6 weeks or so. All is good so far health wise. I was at the OB last week. Weight and blood pressure were good. Blood pressure is always a little on the low side. But I figure low is better than sky high. My belly was measuring exactly 30 weeks, which was perfect. Baby is VERY active and has a general heart rate in the high 150's low 160's.  I'm down to 2 week appointments now. My next appointment is November 5th. We'll also have an ultrasound that day. They want to check the fluid levels and my cervix to make sure things are OK. I was having a tonne of Braxton Hicks last week and they want to make sure things are good. And of course check on the fluid levels seeing as that was a problem I had with The Girl.

4 more "must work" weeks of work. November 19th will be here before I know it. I don't figure I'll be working too much beyond that. December 4th is looking like a good day to be finished of work don't you think?

So what's new with all of you? Anything exciting happening?

Today's post brought to you by the letters C R A Z and Y

Time for some updates. I am slacking yet again. What else is new these days? My brain just does not work on a good day, let alone these days.

Back to work for week 5 now… only 8 to go until I can safely have this baby. And by safely I mean have the baby and actually get my Maternity Leave again! November 19th is my "must get to date" to get all my required hours. After that its fair game. Now keeping in mind that date is almost 6 weeks before my due date so I should be ok. I plan to work until probably December 4th. That'll give me 3 weeks sick leave and my official date to start Mat Leave will be December 27th… my due date.  Of course should baby decide to make an appearance before then my Mat Leave will obviously start earlier.

A few days before Christmas would really be OK with me. I'd have the baby and then be home in time for all the Christmas festivities. My biggest fear is going into labour Christmas Eve and not being there when the kids get up Christmas Day. I think that would just be horrible. I know they'll be excited. Well The Boy will be for sure since he's almost 4. But I just don't want to miss it. My parents will be arriving in the big city on December 23rd for our first ever Christmas away from PEI. That will be so weird, but I'm looking forward to it. Christmas usually means lots of running around between friends and family. By boxing day we are completely exhausted. I'm looking forward to getting up Christmas Day and hopefully staying in my jammies ALL DAY!!

How am I feeling  you ask?

Well overall I'm pretty good. 26 weeks yesterday and I swear I'm as big as I was with The Girl when I delivered her. At 6.5 months I'm still nauseated and taking Diclectin every night before bed. With The Boy I only had to take it for 2.5 months. With The Girl it was about 6 months. So I figure this one must be another girl because of all the grief it has given me up until this point!!

I'm having some huge issues with my back and right hip. That happens with each pregnancy for me and apparently gets worse with each one. I'm having difficulty sleeping cause I can't get comfortable or the pain is so great when I roll over. I went to have a massage yesterday and it was wonderful. I have to say it helped because I slept pretty well last night. On a daily basis though its hard for me to walk too terribly far. Which makes work a little difficult. Not my work day per se, but more of getting to and from work. The Mister doesn't work downtown anymore and driving me to work is just a pain so I have to drive. Parking around my office is just ridiculous cost wise… between $15 and $18 a day. I can get cheaper if I walk a few blocks, which I obviously can't.  I am however VERY LUCKY that I have a WONDERFUL OB that signed papers to give me a temporary disabled parking pass. I can now park right out front of my building for FREE! Low cost and I don’t have to walk very far. How awesome is that?!?!

Dream, I think its way too funny that Doc is using me as an example now!!  Now you can all say you actually know someone that it has happened to. Congrats on baby boy!! How did everything go? Drop me an email sometime… its up in the right hand corner!

We are getting use to the idea of baby #3. I guess we kind of have to at this point!  Baby is very active. Kicking and squirming all the time. It sleeps during the night so at least it doesn't keep me awake then. Who am I kidding, its not like I’m sleeping anyway. The Boy likes to listen with the doppler. He still seems to think that once this baby comes that we have to take The Girl back to the hospital. Its pretty cute but I just can't seem to get it into his head that we'll be keeping BOTH. He's going to learn pretty darn quick I guess LOL

So the crazy comment?

Yep I'm all about crazy these days. Not only are we having another baby… we are getting a PUPPY!!!  C.R.A.Z.Y!!!  I figure hey what the hell. We are going to be up in the night with the baby, why not be up letting a puppy out to pee. We'll be home all the time so its perfect for training puppy. And the kids will grow up together. Can you tell I'm trying to talk myself into this?

The story is this… we were planning on getting a puppy then I found out I was pregnant. The breeder that we really want the puppy from is in PEI and so when we were there this summer we had let her know that we would hold off until the next litter because of the baby. She turns around and tell us this is her LAST LITTER!  Great, so now we have to decide on what the hell to do. We really want a puppy from her because well, we know her and know the history of the dogs and know they are all healthy and live very long lives. Plus a purebred golden retriever is going to cost me about 1/2 of what it would if I went to another breeder!  Decisions decisions. Of course we talked about it to death and just last night decided that yes, we'll bring home the puppy. The first few months will be stressful I'm sure, but hopefully things will go ok.  Baby girl puppy (insert name here) will be arriving in Ottawa around Thanksgiving Weekend.

Let the fun begin!!

Here's a little peek at my last belly shot... 21 or 22 weeks I believe. I'm much bigger now but I just don't have a picture yet!

And we're back... Knocked up again!

Have I driven you crazy yet by making you wait? I actually didn't intend on making you wait this long, life just kind of got in the way!

So ya, it appears that I'm pregnant! How did that happen you ask? Well let me tell you all about it!

No medical magic this time folks... Just the plain old fashioned way. Who would have thought!!??!!

Remember back early May when I told you I was really sick and had the whole inner ear infection going? Well that's when we found out.  I had gone to the doctor the first time and they diagnosed me with the ear infection. They asked if I could be pregnant and I said no. That was the end of that.  A few days later I ended up back at the doctor because the headache started. Again, they asked if I could be pregnant. Of course my answer was nope, not a chance. Again who knew.

The doctor wanted to do a pregnancy test anyway despite me telling her she was wasting her time. She had me go to the washroom and pee in the good 'ol cup and then place it on the counter.  I went back to the room and waited for her to come back.

She walks into the room about 5 minutes later waving the stick in her hand and says "Well, what do ya know!"

She smiled and was happy.

I cried.

I told her she must have made a mistake because I paid for my two other children. She said no she hadn't and this was truly a miracle with a huge smile on her face.

Again, I cried.

She gave me a form to go have a beta done because I had NO IDEA of how pregnant I was or could be. I had just stopped breastfeeding in January and had 2 irregular periods.

I go out to the truck where The Mister was waiting with The Girl (I couldn't drive myself). He was wondering why I was all teared up when I got in the truck. I told him we had to go  have bloodwork done and showed him the form that in big letters said HCG. He said "and what does that mean". I couldn't believe  he couldn't remember! In tears I told him I had to have a pregnancy test done...

He looked at me... twisted his head... had this stupid smile on his face and said "Are you fucking kidding me? After all these years!?!" And kind of laughed. He didn't know what else to do!

We were both in total and complete SHOCK as I'm sure you all can imagine.

Off we went to the blood lab right away. She did the test and then I immediately went to shoppers to buy a pregnancy test. I was still sure there was a mistake. There HAD to be right? Took the test home and used it right away. The results?

That second line couldn't have come up faster if I had drawn it on myself...

FUCK

Yep, I'm pregnant!

The next morning (Saturday) I end up in the ER because the headache had gotten so bad. They did bloodwork and of course did the HCG.  Would you like to know what my levels were?

75,300

That's right, 75,300!

I was either REALLY pregnant or there were TWINS. I in no way felt pregnant so we were terrified there were twins. On the Monday I called my OB and made an appointment. 1 week later I get to see him. Of course he laughs and says "So, I guess you didn't listen to me in November when I wanted to put you on the BCP eh!?" Everyone thought it was hilarious!

Ultrasound was scheduled for a week later to get dates. On May 21st we finally made it to the ultrasound and there was only one wiggly baby (Thank God!). Baby was however measuring almost 10 weeks! Crazy I know...

I in no way felt pregnant. With the other two I had killer sore boobs. Was nauseated right from the get go. This time? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Well... that is until this whole inner ear infection kicked in. After I found out I was knocked up I started vomiting every day. I had thrown up a few times the week before but assumed that's cause the ear infection was making me dizzy and therefore puking. Which it really could have been. But then again it could have been the pregnancy. Thank goodness for diclectin I tell ya.

Ya, so here we are. Knocked up again. No medical magic. An urban legend.

We are extremely happy of course. I always said I wanted 3 kids. I just NEVER, EVER thought it would happen. It took us some time to get use to the idea of it all and of course the financial implications of it all. Daycare. All that fun stuff. The Mister took a little longer to adjust to the idea. He dealt with it by shopping for a new vehicle. Men. What more do I have to say?

So baby #3 is due on or about December 27th, 2010. I'm just over 16 weeks right now and am big as a house already!

I'm back to work 2 months early so that I can go on Mat leave again. The Girl and new baby are going to be 15 months apart. Yikes. Life is going to be busy!!

So the moral of this story boys and girls...

After you have an IVF baby and your doctor wants to put you on birth control, you listen unless you want to get pregnant again when your baby is 5 months old!!

And Now For The Exciting News!

Short and Sweet as I'm relaxing in Prince Edward Island and internet access sessions are few and far between for the time being.  I'll have full access starting on July 9th and will continue more posting then!

So did ya want to hear my news? I'm assuming since you're here you probably do eh?

Here we go...

Are you ready...

Its VERY exciting...

Have I wasted enough space so that you couldn't see what's below on your screen yet?

Probably not eh?

Ok, well I'll stop gabbing now and let you look!

You may now discuss...

Story and the details available July 9th :)

Happy Weekend!!