our little Paula Deen

update

Cody's scan looked good today. Still no changes from previous ones.

Given Cody's diagnosis, and being that it's been 6 years, he feels that Cody is doing so great! He said they don't typically see people doing as well as he is.

I truly believe he is a miracle!!

Next appointment is scheduled for 6 months (the day after my due date) so we'll see how that goes :)

P.S.

Ooops....

I forgot to mention that Cody has his MRI tomorrow. I pretty much dropped the ball on this one, huh?

Thanks in advance for any prayers. His scan is at 9:00am and Dr. appointment is at 3:00.

14 weeks

Baby's now the size of a lemon!

Welcome to the second trimester! This week's big developments: Baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, grasp and possibly suck his thumb. Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him -- a process he'll keep up until birth.

I had an ultrsound last week at 13 weeks and we also had our first appointment with our OB. It was fun to see how much baby had grown since last ultrasound. Cody is actually looking forward to these ultrasounds as compared to the twins, because "they are soo much shorter!" It was fun to see our OB again and she was soo excited for us. She was also excited (and relieved I think) to find out it was only one baby this time. We spent a lot of time talking about the labor and delivery experience with the twins and my apprehensions this time around. I told her, even at this early stage in the game, that this is my biggest fear. She gave me a lot of good information and discussed why things happened the way they did the first time around. Most of which all lead back to the fact that I was carrying and was delivering twins. She firmly believes that this time around, both the pregnancy and delivery, will be night and day for me.

Which, it has been so far.  I cannot even tell you how amazing I've been feeling!!  In the beginning, I was soo unbearably tired, but I think that had a lot to do with being anemic on top of everything. But now, holy cow....things are going great!  I haven't even felt pregnant. If it weren't for the ultrasounds, and maybe my pants getting a little tight, I don't feel one bit pregnant. It's been quite a difference when compared to the twins!!  I can't believe I'm already at 14 weeks :)

I go back to see the doctor again in a month, but no ultrasound at that time. The next month I will get an ultrasound (and to find out the sex!!) and see the dr. again.  After that appointment we will get an ultrasound at every visit. Even though it's just one baby this time and we did a frozen embryo transfer, the Perinatologists are still considering this an "IVF pregnancy", so they are treating it the same as last time. Because there are more risks for complications during an IVF pregnancy, they like to keep closer tabs on baby throughout the pregnancy. Which I'm totally fine with. I was thinking it was going to be harder this time around not having as many ultrasounds. I think we were a little spoiled the first time getting to watch the babies grow every month. But I'm excited to know this one will be the same :)

13 weeks

Baby's now the size of a peach!

Baby is forming teeth and vocal cords, as well as approaching normal proportions. The head is now only one third the size of his body. And intestines are in the process of moving from the umbilical cord to baby's tummy -- much more convenient. Fingerprints have formed and veins and organs are clearly visible through thin skin. As starting the second trimester, most of baby's critical development will be completed and odds of miscarriage drop considerably.

what fun!

Just like her mom, she loves the sound of popping those packing bubbles :)

we love our new winter gear

how do we get rid of this?

We have an issue. Our little Kenley girl is quite hooked on her pacifier. Here's the problem. We had already taken it away from her once, and it went without a hitch. Here's the rest of the problem. When she got sick about a month ago, her momma thought she needed a comfort item and gave her back her paci :(  And now she is more attached than EVER!!

Yes, I take 100% of the blame. What was I thinking!?!

But now we have a serious issue on our hands and I'm not sure Kenley OR myself is ready to tackle what needs to be done.

Any great ideas?

12 weeks

Baby's now the size of a plum!

 

As I move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage. After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of baby's systems are fully formed.

15 months

Today the kids had their 15 month well baby check. Here are their stats:

Kaden:

Weight: 23lbs. 5oz. (30th percentile)

Height:  30 1/2 inches

Kenley:

Weight:  28lbs. 11oz (95th percentile)

Height: 30 1/2 inches

Their developmental milestones are right on track. They look at their communication, gross motor, fine motor, social, and cognitive/problem solving. Their lowest scores were in the area of communication...can you imagine how maddening that is for me given my profession??  I personally am not concerned with anything at this point, but neither one of the kids have much for intelligible words that they use consistently. But they babble to beat the band!  The doctor also said he is not concerned at this point and he is even less concerned because of the fact that they are twins. He said it is very typical for twins to be behind in their speech because most often they have a language all their own, between the two of them. And boy do they ever. These two certainly have their own language.

Both kids also had ear infection today. So another round of antibiotics and we were told to wait on their shots until things cleared up. Not sure which would have been worse today...the shots or ear infection. But it's nice to know that there probably has been a reason as to why they've been so crabby lately and waking so many times during the night :(

Oh yeah, he also said tantrums are very common at this age. Whew, that makes me feel better.

just a little mess

Cody and I were doing the dishes the other night and it was just a little too quiet in the other room.  Something's going on when things are too quiet.  So I walked into the living room and this is what I found:

I am blaming this one on Cody though.  He tried changing Kaden's diaper in the living room rather than in the bedroom on the changing table. We've been going through a bit of a stage right now where tantrums are the "in thing" in a couple one year old's minds. We thought we would change it up a bit and throw him on the ottoman to change his diaper instead.  It didn't work, but Cody also forgot to put the wipes and diaper cream away. Kenley thought it was pretty fun though :)

Happy Halloween

Last Halloween the kids were 3 months old and enjoyed sleeping the night away. This year they are 15 months old and enjoyed throwing tantrums the entire night. Boy, what a difference :)

We always go to Brandon for Halloween because I enjoy seeing kids we know. But this year was a nightmare!  Hopefully next year brings a night full of fun rather than tears.

There was no way she was keeping those ears on!

He was much happier once he got outside.

Candy corn makes everything better :)

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!!

11 weeks

Baby is now the size of a lime!

Baby currently has a 1:1 ratio between body and head, and has skin so transparent that blood vessels show right through it. But fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds, and nail beds are forming.

check out our new ride!

We are the proud new owners of a 2008 Expedition EL and we are very excited!! With a third one coming on the way, we simply needed more room. Our Edge will not accommodate a third car seat so we needed something bigger. If you know Cody, you know he is a FORD guy and I was not allowed to look at anything but. So I had two options...an Explorer or an Expedition. We started looking at the regular Expeditions with the third row seating, did some measuring, and there just wasn't enough room behind the seats to allow for strollers and luggage. We tried folding seats down in the middle to see if we could strollers in that way and still, not enough room. We really felt our only option at this point was to go with the extended length. We went car shopping yesterday with the intentions of just trying to figure out what we were looking for. When we narrowed it down to the EL, we had found one on the internet in Sioux Falls and made it our last stop of the day. We had absolutely no intentions to buy yesterday, but before we knew it we were signing our life away :)  We don't have it in our possession quite yet. We got them to agree to fix a couple of things and it should be done in a couple of days. We already have a buyer for our Edge so everything worked our perfectly.  Now I've just got to get used to driving this big bus!!

doing it the hard way

I'm not really sure the purpose of this post...maybe more for my future reference than your enjoyment. Maybe because the bills are starting to come in and we're feeling the stress. But, I just wanted to lay out the cost of just trying to become pregnant.

Initial IVF Cycle:
*Follicular Monitoring (office visits, ultrasounds, lab work)
     $2,300.00
*Retrieval of eggs
     $2,100.00
*Fertilization Process
     $2,400.00
*Embryo Transfer
     $1,300.00
*Freezing and Storage of Embryos at Sanford
     $780.00
*ICSI Procedure (isolating single sperm and injecting into egg)
     $1,100.00
*Anesthesia Physicians
     $200.00
*Medications
     $4,000.00

Total ESTIMATED Cost:  $14,180
     *This did not include any of our initial infertility testing and any costs for Cody (including semen collections and lab work)

Frozen Embryo Transfer
*Follicular Monitoring (Office visits, ultrasounds, lab work)
     $1,200.00
*Thawing of Embryos
     $600.00
*Embryo Transfer
     $1,400.00
*Medications
     $600.00

Total ESTIMATED Cost: $3,800.00


We can't even begin to tell you how blessed we feel that both of these processes worked for us the FIRST time. But geez, it sure would have been easier to just hop into bed :)