21 months (a little late), and 17 weeks with #2

I know it's been a really long time, but I am still somewhat around.

K is 21 months old now.  She still is an intense child, either very happy or very upset, and always moving.  She talks quite a bit and loves to copy us saying words.  She still signs sometimes too.  She can identify quite a few animals.  She was wearing an owl shirt yesterday and was able to tell us what was on her shirt without us telling her.  She has started climbing more but thankfully has not decided that climbing out of her crib is an attractive idea.  She loves books and will sit on the potty for long periods after going to read.  She has been doing reasonably well on going potty but still definitely is not fully potty trained.  We are still using cloth diapers and loving it.  She loves bread and cheerios.  She got a Cozy Coupe from us for Christmas and loves to ride around in it.  She loves cars and other vehicles especially school buses.  We have a school across the street from us and she loves to watch the school bus driving up in the morning when she wakes up and after her nap.

She is sleep reasonably well.  She goes to bed around 8 and gets up about 7.  She'll occasionally wake up between 5-6 to nurse.  She takes a nap around 1 that is usually around 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.  She'll occasionally take a 2 hour nap.

We found out in mid-October (a couple days after my 32nd birthday) that we are having another baby in late June.  We didn't really tell people until Christmas and surprised our parents and families by having K open a big sister shirt as one of her presents.  We aren't planning to find out the sex of the baby since we had the drama of being told incorrectly with K and thinking she was a boy for a good deal of my pregnancy.  I had quite a bit of nausea this time just like with K, but I was able to keep it under control with Zofran which I got much earlier this time around.  I did have some spotting when I would get dehydrated.  We have another appointment tomorrow afternoon.

18 months, a little late

K turned 18 months on October 8.
She is says quite a few words including please and thank you.   She copies a lot of what we say.  She loves watching the school buses outside her window (her window faces the driveway of the school that is next to our house.  She asks for buses when she wakes up.
She is still a pretty voracious eater, although the toddler pickiness seems to be manifesting by eating only 1 or  2 foods at a meal (though eating large amounts of them).  Yogurt is almost always something she'll eat as are cheese, blueberries, raspberries and sweet potato.  She does like to throw me for a loop on what her food of the meal will be.  Many of her words are food related like blueberries, more, strawberries, raspberries, avocado, cheese and meat.
She's doing pretty well with going on the potty most of the time for BMs.  I know pretty much when she generally needs to go (timing and gas) and she is 50/50 on telling me if she needs to use the potty.
She loves to read books.  Sometimes I think she is just asking to sit on the potty because she likes to read there.  She is starting to point out different things in her books when ask about them like animals.
K loves to dance and will dance to my phone alarm or other things like that.  She loves to do the songs at the library story time especially If You're Happy and You Know It and 5 Little Monkeys.

It showed Monday afternoon

I finally started my cycle on Monday afternoon.  I finally got a call for my cycle review from PPVI this evening and they are supposed to call me back in the morning.  I'm hoping that the significant reduction in K's nursing will helping and that we won't have to wean completely anytime soon.  I'm definitely disappointed and I hope that we can at least have decent timing this cycle.  Last cycle cut it close only using P-2.

My progesterone and estrogen continue to look good and I'm wondering what Dr. H will suggest this time around.

Negative test, still waiting

I had a negative test this morning at P+14, but I'm still waiting for CD1 to show.  I tend to only go to P+13, so I had some hope that I might actually get a positive test.  After a long cycle (didn't ovulate until CD 25), I'm still waiting and I'm frustrated.  I don't want to deal with another cycle of TTC right now.  I'm tired and our schedules are not meshing well on that front.  If I do have to deal with another cycle, I just want to hurry up and get it started and do my cycle review and everything.

The last couple days we have been able to go to where K only nurses when she wakes up, at naptime, when she wakes from nap, at bedtime and then once in the morning between 4 and 6.  This is a vast improvement since she still sometimes nurse an hour apart even a month ago.  I do have to tell her no when she asks to nurse outside of those times (she signs milk please), but she seems to handle it pretty well until just before sleeping.  I have no problem continuing to nurse for at least 3 more months, especially if I can manage to get pregnant.

K had been doing really well with having BMs on the toilet, but she has started going in her diaper again the last couple days.  Yes, she is only 17 months, but it's frustrating when she had been having maybe 1 a week in her diaper for months and now she's gone 5 times in 3 days and isn't telling me.

Biting

K (15 1/2 months) has started biting, but thankfully she is only biting me and not her friends.  It seems to happen when she is frustrated.  I tell her no biting, and put her down and walk away for a minute, during which time she usually cries.  She's been teething, so I'm also giving her a toy that she can bite on afterwards and telling her that if she needs to bite, to bite the toy instead of Momma.

Any additional suggestions?

15 months and TTC #2

K turned 15 months yesterday.  She has been walking full time for about a month or so now.  She is still a pretty good eater, although she is eating a little less at every meal.  She is still nursing all the time.  She started taking 1 nap a day about 2 or 3 weeks ago even though her nap is usually only between 1 and 1 1/2 hours long.  She has been pretty good about waking up for a brief nursing between 6 and 7 am and then going back to sleep for another hour or so, especially since we got some new curtains for her room.

K is saying quite a few words.  She says momma, dadda, yeah, no, hi, bye, na-na (for thank you), night-night, more (and she signs more), book, wow and "itsy" when she wants us to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider (which she is obsessed with...she also does the motions for it).  She signs all done (in many contexts).  She is getting to be very talkative around familiar people even though it's not really English yet.

I'll know her weight and height when she has her well-child visit tomorrow afternoon.  She's wearing mostly 12 month outfits with some 18 month outfits thrown in.  She is still quite petite, but she is perfectly plump for her age.  She has 5 teeth (3 top, 2 bottom) and 1 coming in on top.

She loves to swim.  She's been swimming at my SIL and BIL's house in a big pool as well as going to the splash park and playing in the baby pool at our house and friend's, and she always loves it and doesn't want to be done.

I'm feeling a little anxious about what I should be doing for TTC#2.  I feel like I need to go a bit harder core if we aren't pregnant this month.  Yes, I realize that this is only our 3rd cycle TTC #2, but I want to get as many things in order as possible and it took 3 years for K.  I'm currently on T3 15 mg and hydrocort as well as a relatively standard prenatal.  When we conceived K, I was also on Pain and Brain (a curucumin supplement), sustained release B6, Mucinex, the cyclic antibiotics CD 6-15 for both my husband and I, Benadryl P+5 through P+9 and did acupuncture.  My progesterone and estradiol have been ok but not as good as when we conceived K.

Onto cycle #3, round 2 and K is almost 15 months

K will be 15 months on Sunday and I just had cycle day 1.  We only used 1 fertile day this time and it obviously didn't work.  I'm back on T3 and hydrocort and I've called for my cycle review and we'll see what  Dr. H has to say.  I'm still breastfeeding K pretty often at least 6-8 times a day and that doesn't seem to be changing very quickly.  I definitely plan to breastfeed on demand until at least 18 months and if I'm not pregnant by then maybe try to get down to 3-4 times a day.  This upcoming cycle is odd since I'll probably ovulate around our 5th anniversary and if we actually conceived, the new baby would be due around my husband's birthday and K's birthday (they are 5 days apart).  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  We aren't going to avoid, but I'd almost rather a new baby got a separate time.

K is down to 1 nap a day.  She usually wakes up between 7:30 and 8 (with a quick feed at between 5-7 and back to bed), then naps around 1 for about 1 1/2 hours and then she goes to bed about 8.  She is still a pretty good eater most of the time.  She is also now a full-time walker and says quite a few words and does a couple signs.

I've been super busy with traveling quite a bit, taking care of K, watching a friend's baby twice a week and getting ready to work from home doing medical transcription.  I'm going to try to do a 15 month post for K.

Cycle #2 of Round 2

I'm on CD 3 of my second cycle.  We had had good timing and I felt really hungry and then nauseous, but it turned out the nausea was just a horrible stomach virus so I felt terrible most of Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had tested Tuesday morning and it was BFN obviously.

I had my annual with my new OBGYN (my old one who delivered K retired and this doctor took over the practice).  I really like her.  She seems to have the same philosophy on birth as I do (minimal intervention).  The only thing that I didn't agree with was that she didn't want me to get pregnant while I'm breastfeeding.  I don't have any plans to wean K soon, and I don't think that it's something I'm going to worry about.  If I can get pregnant while breastfeeding, so be it and we'll continue as long as we both want to.

I did my cycle review with the PPVI nurse on Friday afternoon and they are going to talk to Dr. H and call me on Monday if there is anything in addition to doing the P+7 bloodwork that they want me to do.  By the way, my P+7 levels this past cycle with K still nursing 6+ times a day were progesterone 21 and estrogen 16.4, which is pretty decent.

K will be 14 months on Friday and she is walking indepently part-time.  She still crawls a lot and insists on holding onto my hand, etc.  I'm still hoping she'll be walking full-time by my SIL's wedding, but it's only 2 weeks away now, so I don't know.  She has been having a cranky couple days; we're pretty sure it's the teeth that are trying to come in.  It's really trying dealing with the whining all day long.
 

2 weeks wait

It looks like I ovulated last Thursday, so I'm in my first 2WW for TTC#2.  I had a pretty good period this time.  TMI ahead.  It was so much better than before my surgery with no clots or brown bleeding, plus only 2 days of spotting after a 5 day full flow.  I had a pretty good mucus cycle without B6, Mucinex or hydrocort.  PPVI went ahead and sent me an order for a peak+7, suggested by my practioner, TCIE.  If I'm not pregnant this cycle, I'll have a cycle review on CD 1 and we'll see what they suggest for the future.  Of course I have my annual with my new OBGYN (the one who delivered K retired and the new doc is the one who took over her practice) next Tuesday which will be peak+12, so probably too early to test or anything (although I am tempted).

K has been walking a lot more, although she still not walking full time yet.  We think that she'll probably walk full time around mid-June.

I have had it pointed out to me lately that I am quite controlling, so I am trying to work on that.  Any suggestion would be helpful.  Because I'm controlling, I also feel like any problems in my life (or that of our family) are related directly to my failings, such as when K has napping issues.

K woke up after napping only about 40 minutes or so and she definitely needs nap at least an hour.  I know she is still tired, but she is in her crib screaming bloody murder, and going in does not calm her down.  Yesterday she finally ended up going back to sleep for another 1.5 hours.  I just don't know what is best for her sometimes.

Is there anything that I can do to encourage someone to exercise and eat better other than offering to exercise with them that wouldn't be rude or controlling?

How do you do with times were there are household projects that need to get done but aren't (if you aren't the one who needs to do them) without nagging and being pushy and annoying.

K is starting to have more frustrated tantrum times.  I'm not sure what to do about it.

I'm sure that I' m still waiting for ovulation, and I'm on CD 21.   I'm pretty sure this will go on for a while since K is still breastfeeding quite a bit.

Steps

1.  I had a 6-day period quite possibly.  This is quite exciting for me since I used to have 7+ day period before my surgery and pregnancy.
2. K has been starting to stand without holding on to anything for longer periods of time, has started taking a couple of steps and stood today from a squat.  She is obsessed with having us hold her hands and help her walked.  She also loves her stoller push walker.  We may finally be getting close to independent walking pretty soon.  She'll be 13 months on Tuesday.

To (partially) wean or not to wean?

K is still nursing probably 10 or more times in a day, even though she eats solid food great generally and is pretty much night weaned. I'm not planning to completely wean anytime soon, but I still haven't had a period and we want to start trying for baby #2 and have wanted to for a while.  I'm not sure how to gently reduce her nursing.  She is pretty persistent and know where the milk comes from.

 She nurses right before bed between 8:30-9 pm, and then usually wakes briefly between 6-7 am to nurse and generally goes back to sleep for another hour or so.  She nurses again when she wakes for the day between 7-8 am.  Once she up, I make our breakfast and she generally eats some fruit, an egg yolk and some yogurt.  Then about 9 we go to take our shower and she nurses again.  She then nurses before nap about 11, but sometimes she will even nurse before that.  She nurses again after her nap (between 12-12:30 pm).  Then we have lunch (meat, veggies, maybe rice, etc.).  She usually nurses again after lunch.  I do try to offer water when I remember, but a lot of the time she just wants to nurse.  She nurses again before her second nap usually between 3:30-4 pm.  She nurses again when she wakes up between 4:15-5 pm.  We usually eat dinner around 6-6:30 pm and she usually has a slice of cheese as a snack before that.  She usually nurses once or twice between finishing dinner and getting ready for bed.  She has a cup of kefir (cultured milk, kind

She seems to tend to nurse more when she's teething (she's getting 3 top teeth right now) or when she's bored.  She also wants to nurse when she is sitting on the potty.  I've started to take her on more walks to keep her from getting bored.  I definitely want to continue nursing before bedtime and naps and first thing in the morning.  Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Not walking yet

So we are a little surprised that K isn't walking yet.  She rolled over back to tummy at about 11 weeks, started scooting on her tummy at 5 months, was crawling and pulling up at 7 months and cruising at 8 months, but she seems to have stalled out on progress toward walking.  She's 10 months old and I really thought that she'd be walking by now.  I mean I know that most babies aren't walking at 10 months, but she really seemed like she was going to be an early walker.

Double digits

K is 10 months old today.  She is between 15 and 16 pounds.  She's still crusing like crazy but not really trying to walk independently yet.  She waves hi and bye and even says hi.  She can clap her hands.  She says mama and dada but don't know that they only refer to us yet.  She's mainly wearing 6-9 or 9 month clothes, but she does have some 12 month clothes that she wears.  She still nurses a lot and has figure out that she can nurse from both sides when I'm lying down.  She pulls on my shirt and crawls down me when she wants to nurse.  She is happy a lot, but when she is angry, she's really angry and even throws herself around.

She is doing pretty well going to sleep at night in her crib but she still wakes up a few times in the night to nurse.  Naps have been kind of hit and miss the last few days.  She was taking a good 1-1/2 hour morning nap, but she had some problems for about a week there.  She is doing better letting other people hold her and was pretty good for my ILs this weekend when they held her.  She is a great eater and eats all sorts of food and quite a bit of it.  She eats whatever foods I eat.

Only 2 more months until her first birthday.  We already have her Easter dress.

Food :) Sleep :(

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a month.  I'm super busy trying to finish my class and taking care of K.  K didn't gain much (4 oz) between 7 and 9 months, but she is eating solids well now so we aren't overly worried.  We now just feed her whatever we are having for dinner.  She really likes meat, and ate the mild curry that I made really well.

She is still nursing a lot, although I'm not sure how my supply is.  She's often just nurse for a minute or switching back and forth.

Although food is going really well, sleep is not.  K now naps in her crib, which is good.  When we traveled at Christmastime, she was only sleeping in the carseat driving or on walks, so once we got back I started putting her in the crib.  For a few weeks, she was napping in the morning for about 1 1/2 hours, but the last week or so  it's been only 30-45 minutes.  Wednesday night she was up from about 4 am to after 5:30.  She is nowhere near sleeping through the night.  Often she's waking every 2-3 hours to nurse.  She is still in our room, and we are doing a mix of her sleeping in her crib and cosleeping.  She goes down for the night in her crib, and I try to put her back in after feedings or if she is tossing around a lot.  However, she seems to have a hard time settling without us getting her if we are in the room (I'm pretty sure it's that she sees us and wants us to get her).  We may need to either move her to her own room or put up a curtain to block her view of us.  We need to discuss it.

K will be 10 months on Wednesday, so I'll try to post again then.

8 months on the 8th

K turned 8 months today.  She started crawling on her hands and knees a few weeks ago and that same week started getting into the sitting position on her own and pulling up.  She started babbling yesterday and makes the "dada" sound.  She seems to do things very suddenly without too much buildup most of the time.  She is doing better about eating and generally eats a bit at each meal or at least 2 out of the 3 a day.  She loves avocado, and she won't eat the other things if she see that I have avocado.  She's averaging about 3 ounces of formula a day, and she is willing to take a bottle now when she's away from me.  She's in a pretty clingy phase right now and wants me to be near as she crawls around.  She hits herself into my desk if I'm trying to work while she's awake.  She loves going to the baby storytime group at the library.  She's very good at church and out in public in general.  She really loves playing with her daddy.

I'm in a really busy mode right now and probably won't be posting much other than the monthly updates until at least her birthday (Easter) in April.  I'm still reading; I just don't have time to comment.  I'm pray for you all.

Football Game and More

We are continuing to do baby-led solids, and they are going relatively well. K definitely has an independent streak and won't let us put food into her mouth. If she want the food, whe will either pick it up herself or she will let you put it in her hand. She really likes avocado, apples, carrots and green beans. I think she likes peaches but is having issues with the slipperiness since I have gotten frozen and canned. I am continuing to steam her food until it is just tender. I peel carrots but leave the skin on apples. She doesn't eat a whole lot, but she does like to stuck on the carrot, apple and green bean. It's nice to be able to sit her in her chair and she can feed herself while I eat my own food.

K had an appointment on Tuesday for her shots. She had gained about a pound and weighs 15 lb, 1 oz now. She is pulling up like crazy. She also started hands and knees crawling, which is really funny because she is so deliberate when she does it. She really likes the times when we are around other kids. She likes to see adults, but she doesn't want to be held even by her grandparents, aunts and uncles. She gives us about 10 seconds, and then she gets this look on her face and starts to scream, even we are right next to her.

K went to her first A&M game this weekend as an outside baby (she went to 3 last year while I was pregnant with her).

She did really well. We got little pink ear protection ear muffs for her, and she wore them the whole game. She spent some time in the Beco Gemini carrier, some just sitting on our laps and nurse and napped under the blanket. She's also getting better about car rides and pretty much slept the whole trip to my ILs', most of the way to A&M ady tnd back, and most of the way home.

We are ready to start trying for #2, but I'm not even cycling yet. I'm not going to wean her until she is at least a year because I'd rather not mess with more bottles and formula than necessary. I'd like to wait until she doesn't want to do it anymore. Hopefully as she starts to actually eat more solids I'll start cycling, but right now I'm just back to waiting again. It's definitely easier than before I got pregnant with K, but waiting seems to be something that God thinks I need to do a lot.

Pictures of K

I hadn't loaded pictures onto my computer in a while, and I finally got around to it.  Here are some pictures of K from the past couple months.

K's first solids, avocado.  She likes it.

"Reading" a book by now Pope Benedict XVI.

K in her Tigger outfit with Tigger, Pooh, and Piglet.

In her crocheted outfit getting ready to come home from the hospital.

Same outfit at 6 months.

Baby led solids.  She doesn't always take a bite, but she definitely likes the bread when she's in the mood.

Halloween. My parents got her a drindl in Germany.  My brother said she's St. Edith Stein as a baby since we couldn't come up with any other German saints.

Baby Led Solids

K has been fighting me a lot on eating solids.  Most days I'm lucky to get her to even take one bite (which is my goal).  She does like to hold the spoon and put it in her own mouth when she eats.  I have been making her food, steamed and then fork mashed.  So far she has had:
-avocado (likes)
-banana (doesn't like)
-sweet potato (ok)
-chicken pureed with sweet potato (likes)
-yogurt (likes)
-apples (likes)
-peas (ok)
-oatmeal/oat bread (likes the bread)

I'm starting to doing baby-led solids (also known as baby-led weaning) like I had originally had plan instead since she is able to decide if she wants to eat.  Spoon-feeding does not seem to be working for us.  It's not that she doesn't like the flavors because she will eat occasionally.  Today I put her different purees that I had already made on a piece of toast and she fed herself and loved it.  I'm going to steam up some more apple and sweet potato, but I'm going to cut them into stick/wedges (long and somewhat) that she can hold and gum.  I'm going to continue to do the chicken pureed and spread it on bread since she won't be able to chew chicken for a while.  Next up food-wise: carrots, green beans and peaches.  I'm going to steam her fruits and vegetables and occasionally mash them to spread on bread.  I'm trying to figure out about freezing things after I steam them since I'm not going to be pureeing/mashing them.

Prayers for a friend, and some other things

Most importantly, a friend of mine just had her third miscarriage.  Please keep her and her husband in your prayers.

K had her 6 month appointment on Tuesday and she weighed 14 lbs, 2 oz, which is a gain of almost a pound in a month.  She's 24 1/2 inches tall.  Her percentiles are staying consistent so the doctor is fine.  He was very impressed with her physical abilities (scooting, sitting).  K is taking about 5-8 ounces of formula a day and I am continuing to support her in slowly weaning herself from the formula.  I hope

We decided to wait a little while to move K to her own room, but we are moving her to her pack and play as soon as she falls asleep instead of letting her stay in the bed since it was preventing all of us from getting good sleep.

Tuesday was also my 31st birthday.  We went out to dinner and had sushi.  My sisters-in-law were in town this past weekend, and we went out on a date after K went to bed on Saturday night.  It was great to just have some couple time.