Friday, June 22, 2012

Things are Looking Up

Gav's congestion is starting to breakup, thank god.  The poor guy is one nasally mess but at least he is starting to get some of this gunk out of his body.  I was looking forward to taking him to a local amusement and water park this weekend, but I can't imagine him making that quick of a recovery so we are going to stay home and take it easy this weekend.  I was a little disappointed at first but on the other hand I'm glad because I won't have to squeeze into a swimming suit.  I have a suit I bought last year and it cost me a small fortune.  While in general I am back to my pre-baby weight, my belly is more squishy and I could really use loosing another 50 lbs.  Needless to say, the swimsuit doesn't fit me that well anymore so I was dreading to have to wear the thing.  I'm sure with me in it, it would just look like a sausage casing with me spilling over the top.

Babycatalog.com is going out of business and is liquidating a lot of merchandise so I ordered an ergobaby carrier.  It sad that this is the most exciting thing happening right now but I have to say I am so psyched to get this thing and try it out. I have a moby that I used a lot when Gavin was smaller but now that he weighs 17lbs and wants to wiggle around, I just don't feel it's safe anymore.   The carrier purchase was such an impulse buy but I doubt I would be able to find one for $80 again.  Plus I've heard so many great reviews for it, I had to give it a shot.

I don't think I mentioned it in any of my post, but for the last week everytime I got home my air conditioner would not be working.  The blower would be on but nothing but hot air would be coming out.  The temp in the house would be around 85 making life miserable for my dog and cat.  I called the apartment complex maintenance guy everyday about it, he would come out, tell me I blew a fuse, reset it and head out.  Last night it happened again but this time I just went outside to monkey with it myself.  While I was out there the usual group of neighborhood kids were playing at the adjacent park.  I noticed they were watching me intently which I thought was a little odd. I got the AC working and went back inside. I have a little side window that looks out over the AC unit.  As I was passing by it to sit in my living room I notice this herd of kids heading over to the AC unit.  I decided to hide behind a curtain so I could watch what they were going to do.  I watched them pull off the panel on the AC unit and turn the AC off again.  I couldn't believe it.  I went out there and asked them to please stop playing with the unit.  They told me it was their spaceship and that they had to turn it off to keep it from blasting off.  I was kind of mad about the whole thing but I have to say their response was kind of cute.  Let's hope they didn't decide to play with their "spaceship" today because I really don't want to come home to hot house.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Sick Babies are Scary

I knew my little man was a little congested but I didn't expected it to get so bad so quickly.  Around 3 on Tuesday, I got a phone call from daycare that Gavin was getting more sick.  Daycare said he was struggling to breathe and had developed a hacking cough.  I left work to pick him up and called the doctors office on the way to see what else I could give him to help him get over this bug.  The nurse told me to bring him in immediately, and told me they have had a significant number of babies coming in with RSV.  I wasn't panicked before, but this news freaked me out.

Shortly after arriving at his doctors appointment his voice completely disappeared.  Surprisingly, he hadn't developed a fever and was still his usual happy-go-lucky self, flirting with the nurse and smiling his gummy smile.  The doctor check Gavin out and then sent us home with a nebulizer and instructions to give him a breathing treatment 3x's a day for a week.  He also told me to call him on Thursday if it didn't seem to help. 

We went home after the appointment and got Gavin situated for bed time but every time he would start drifting off to sleep he would start coughing violently and would wake up.  This continued on until 2 am, when he finally slept until 5:30.  He would periodically take little cat naps here and there for the rest of the day but his coughing almost always woke him up within minutes of falling asleep.  What really scared me was his lack of interest in food and the inability to keep his food down.  I only got him to take 3 1/2 bottles all day, and I am guessing that at least a bottles worth was spit up yesterday. By the end of Wednesday night, I could tell he was just exhausted.   More than once, I began to call the late night pediatrics clinic but decided to see if I waited a little bit longer, he would get  better.

Last night was the second night of very little sleep for the little guy.  He would cry and no sounds would come out, just the sound of labor breathing.  At one point his congestion sounded so bad it sounded like he was drowning. In the early morning hours, my only option was to take him to the Children's Hospital or wait until morning to see our regular doctor.  I know some people reading this are probably wondering why I didn't just take him to the hospital, but I seem to have this fear that I am just an overreacting FTM. After all the doctor would have never sent us home with a nebulizer in the first place if he was just sick with something more worse than a common cold.  I chose to sit by his side all night until I could call the doctors office at 8am to make another appointment.

Once again they told me to bring him in immediately.  Thoughts kept running through my head that I shouldn't have waited until the morning to get medical treatment for him. I felt so guilty every time I hear him cough. 

The doctor told me he didn't think there had been much that had changed in the last two days and that Gavin probably had bronchiolitis (sp?). He then upped the number of breathing treatments I should give him a day (every 3-4 hours).  I think the doctor sensed that I was kind of terrified and told me that no matter if I came in yesterday or today, there wouldn't be much more that I could have done to make him better because this was most likely caused by a virus.  He also told me this virus normally peaks on day three (which this is day 3) and that I should see improvements in the next day or two.  I hope he is right so Gavin (and I) can get a good night of sleep.

Gavin's file must state somewhere that he was conceived through IF treatments and donor sperm because every time I walk into the office someone (nurses and doctors) bring it up.  The doctor just had some general questions for me about the process ( I should state that this doctor isn't my normal ped).  In the conversation I mentioned that I was thinking about going for number 2 next summer and he told me that I had an increased risk of having twins since my first pregnancy was a singleton.  The comment makes me want to talk to my RE sooner about T42. I guess it somewhat makes sense.  You have a 15% chance of getting pregnant naturally each month which equates to 85% of women getting pregnant by the end of one year of trying.  If I remember correctly, my RE told me that 30% of pregnancies using injectables at age 33(although I will be 36 when I start trying again) will result in a twin pregnancy.  Is it logical to think since one out of three pregnancies would result in a twin pregnancy, and that this would be my second pregnancy thus I would be more likely to have multiples? Does that make sense?  If so I might want to hold off another year when Gavin is closer to three before I start trying again.  Ahh its too much to think about right now but the comment is bothering me.  I know I should just call the RE and talk to him about it to see if this is true.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Great Deals!

I am not a wealthy person, but I am a smart  self-professed super shopper.  Today I visited my local Target to do a price adjustment on some baby food, which I essentially got for a little less than half price due to some awesome coupons (Gerber Organic Pouches) and stumbled upon a great deal that I thought some of my fellow bloggers may benefit from.  They had the large boxes of Huggies Pure and Natural that normally sell for $25-$30 on clearance for $9.74.  That in itself was a great deal but what even made it better was the "$2.50 off 1  pack" coupons I had printed out a couple of weeks ago (I can't find them online anymore). I bought 6 boxes and Gavin should be good on diapers for the next year (I already have a stash of diapers at home) unless he jumps into size 6.   I can't guarantee your local target will have this deal but it is worth a drive over to find out. 

This weekend with the family went really well.  Gavin was surprisingly mellow all day saturday while we hungout in Nashville.  He loved the sound of the music floating out of all the bars on Broadway.  He kept bouncing his little pudgy legs to the music. I thought he would be miserable because of the 95 degree weather but it didn't seem to phase him at all. 

So I finally gave my chicco stroller a workout.  The Chicco Liteway is great quick on the go stroller but I don't think I would ever use it for an all day outing again.  It just doesn't have the storage capacity as my Bumbleride.  I also have to slightly bend over to push the stroller and I am not that tall of girl (5'6").  I also struggled to open and close it and can't imagine trying to get the thing open while holding Gavin.   I'm still glad I have the chicco as a backup stroller but I don't think I would recommend it for a primary stroller.

Since coming back from our weekend trip, Gavin has been really congested and has been coughing a lot.  I don't know if it's allergies or something else.  He's definitely teething right now which is probably making things worse.  He hasn't been fussy, but he has been sleeping some crazy hours.  On Sunday, after my parents left, he slept from 1pm to 6pm, 7pm to 5:30am and 6:30am to 8 am only to proceed to take three more hour long naps the rest of monday and still fell asleep by 6pm on monday night and then slept through the night until 6am.  I love that I'm getting the extra rest but I'm getting a little worried that he is sleeping too much. 

Thursday, June 14, 2012

I'm So Ready For This Weekend

Is it Friday yet?  My parents are coming into town this weekend and I can't wait to see them.  I also can't wait to see their reaction when they see Gavin.  The last time my parents saw him, he was only 5 weeks old.  So much has changed since then. At 5 weeks he was just starting to coo and smile.  He could barely lift his head then.  Now he smiles all the time, babbles on and on, insists on standing up (with assistance), and will grabbed at anything within reaching distance. 

We are planning a day trip to Nashville on Saturday and I'm just hoping Gavin will stay in good spirits on our trip.  For the most part he's a happy-go-lucky guy but it is going to be seering hot out this weekend and little man doesn't fair well in the heat.  

I've been solely using my bumbleride stroller (which I love) for the last three months but might break out my Chicco Liteway this weekend.  I don't know why I haven't done it sooner, it's more compact than the bumbleride, but I just can't imagine it being as easy to navigate with as the bumbleride.  Seriously, I can move the bumbleride around with one hand and little effort.  It's awesome.  I guess I will find out how the Chicco handles in the next few days because, knowing my parents, we will be on the go from the minute they arrive in town.

There has been a couple new BFP's out there in the blogoshpere.  It's so exciting to hear them but it is not helping my baby fever out at all.  I....Must.....Restrain...My....Urge ...To...Have...Another....Baby.  I swear I have baby on the brain 24-7.  I think this is worse than when I was trying to have Gavin.  Probably because I don't have as much fear as I did before I got pregnant with him.   Seriously, how the heck am I going to hold out on trying again for another year or two???  It's crazy but I feel like a baby-addict.  Everytime I see one I just melt into a gooey mess.  Ahhh, I seriously just need to get a grip. 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Moving at the Speed of Light

Work and life has been so fast paced, I'm still amazed I'm keeping up.  I can't remember the last time where I could just sit still and enjoy everything.  Normally, this pace would make me cranky and exhausted but instead I don't think I've ever been happier.  In the past I couldn't function with less than 9 hours asleep a night but now I feel like a rockstar on just 6 hours. 

We are coming up on the anniversary of the successful back to back IUI's that allowed me to have Gavin.  As the date approaches, I've become more and more nostalgic.  I know this sounds weird, but I am so ready to start trying for number two.  I know it is WAY too early so I'm restraining myself.  Gavin might be easy to handle now but I am a little fearful of how he's going to be once he's mobile.  I'm just not sure that I could handle two under two. And then there is the cost of daycare.  My in-home daycare is super cheap ($95 a week which is the average here in my area) which would easily allow me to afford two children in daycare at one time.  However, I still keep hoping I can move closer to my family but that would be much more difficult with two babies. The average cost of daycare there tends to run around $200 a week, which at my current salary, would make it really difficult to afford.

I keep mulling over when would be a good time to start trying for number two.  I really want Gavin to be a little more independent by the time the next baby comes along.  Maybe when he's closer to three.  But I'm really scared that it will take multiple IUI attempts since I will be 37 at that time.  When considering the age factor, it makes me want to start trying sooner than later. I've already budgeted for two attempts for next year but things are going to cost me so much more this time around because my insurance wont cover injectables anymore.  I don't know if I should risk the last six vials of our donor by going on clomid or sucking it up and forking out the $2000+ for injectables since we have now established a protocol that works for me.  I know I have plenty of time to think about all of this, but I'm a planner and hate operating without some sort of plan.

In other news, My co-worker W was let go on Friday.  From what I heard, she was still in her probation period at work and her work performance was pretty bad.  I hate to see anyone lose their job, but as you have read any many of my other posts, its next to impossible to get fired here so whatever she was doing must have been horrible.   

Every year our company takes it's employees and their families to an amusement park.  It's coming up in two weeks but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to take Gavin or not.  There's a water park within the amusement park and I could hangout there all day but other than that we will be limited to just walking around.  Has anyone else taken their 4 month old to an amusement park and had a good experience?