18 months and another baby?

No, I'm not pregnant! But we have decided to go ahead and try for number 2. We have 7 frozen embryos in San Diego. I'll be doing my monitoring here in st Louis and then traveling to San Diego to do the transfer. Oh yea I forgot to mention we moved back to St. Louis, our home town, in December. We are thrilled to be back with family and friends. New York was not for us. Anyway, with my next cycle I will be doing another sonohystriogram. Then the cycle after that the transfer. So we are looking at mid to late April and possibly early May for the transfer. I'm very nervous about handling two little ones but I don't want them to be far apart in age. Emma will hopefully be a good big sister this time next year. :) I'll post more when we get started on the transfer cycle. Now back to my little angel. 

Emma is 18 months, a year and a half old! Hard to believe right? We have had a very eventful past few months. Moving was the huge change. Emma loves our new house as do mark and I. She has so much more room to run around and play. 

Here is a quick update. She has 12 teeth and working on one more right now. Loves to color, read books, go down her indoor little slide. She loves baby dolls right now too. At her 18 month appointment she weighed in at 24.6lbs and couldn't determine her length but guessed it was around 33 inch. She was screaming bloody murder for some reason. She is in 24-2t clothing. Size 5 diaper. Size 6 shoe. She is a pretty picky eater these days. Luckily she still likes the pouches and I can get some nutrients in that way. Her favorite thing to eat is bananas, granola bars, grilled cheese, turkey, cereal, peanuts and loves fruit snacks! 

We had a scary week a few weeks ago. Emma had a stomach bug that started off as vomiting and diarrhea along with a fever. As the week went by she had diarrhea multiple times a day.you could tell the kid was pretty miserable. So I took her to the doctor and they wanted me to bring her to the ER to check some blood work and to get a urine sample to make sure she doesn't have a urinary track infection or kidney infection. That was The worst thing I've ever had to experience as a mother. They gave her fluids through an IV and had to use a catheter to get urine. I hope I never have to witness that again. It was terrible to have to see her go through that. Turns out she was extremely dehydrated and that is was just a stomach bug. She just couldn't recover because of the dehydration. After she got the fluids she almost instantly got better. Very scary situation. 

Other than that Emma is a thriving little girl. There is a concern with her not talking still. She really doesn't say many words other than dada and what's that. So the pediatrician is having us see a speech therapist. I'm hoping that with a little help she starts blabbing all types of words. Don't get me wrong this kid talks all day long. She just doesn't say any words. I'll update after our first visit. 

Here are some pictures!!!

Christmas 

Our last nyc outing! The rockefeller Christmas tree. 

15 month update!

Where has the time gone? My last real update on Emma was her 1 year post. Things are so busy around here that I just don't have much time to sit and write a long updated post. 

Let's see, Emma is a thriving toddler that has an endless amount of energy! She wakes up running most days. She takes one afternoon nap that has been lasting close to 2 hours. Nights are touch and go usually. She sleeps through the night sometimes and ofher nights she wakes up once, I change her diaper and put her back down. Then she will sleep until 8am. I have lucked out a few days were she has slept until 9! I think she is making up for all those terrible nights in the beginning and the fact that she didn't start sleeping through the night until 14 months! She is fully weaned as of 2 weeks ago now. Only whole milk now. Her favorite foods are toast, bananas, strawberries, chicken nuggets, parm peas, yogurt, chicken chili and apple sauce. She's eating a lot more these days and is much more willing to try new things. Most of time she is a happy girl. I will say that she has a very strong personality! The girl knows what she wants. Her temper tantrums are quite a scene. All I can do is laugh because it is so loud and annoying. When it gets to bad I get the iPad out and let her watch curious George. It is her favorite show in the world. George is a life saver!!!

We have gone on a few trips since her birthday. Only to at Louis to visit family but it's still fun and I'm so glad she is able to be with family and know that they aren't just people that live in the iPad (FaceTime). We have done lots of zoo trips and went to grants farm and parks. She loves animals, just like her mommy! 

Halloween came and went in a hurry! She wanted nothing to do with pumpkin carving and when it came time to go out trick or treating she was not having it. Until..... She noticed people were giving her candy! Then she was a happy little girl. She loves chocolate and suckers. 

She was tinker bell this year. 

Next up is thanksgiving! Unfortunately we won't be traveling back to stl for this holiday. We will be here in New York. I'm ok with that. A nice quiet evening of turkey stuffing and potatoes topped with pie of course. 

Let's talk molars!!!!! Oh boy do I hate molars. She is getting all four right now the little cusps are popping through right now. But they are taking forever! Her little fingers are constantly hooked in her mouth. Chewing away! A few nights I have had to give her Benadryl to help her sleep. Right now I think they aren't bothering her that much but last month was hard. I just hope they pop through fast. Then I guess we are on to canines! I have heard they are tough too. 

Her 15 month check up is next Monday so I will post her stars then. 

Now here are some pictures!!!!

She found a bag of Doritos and wouldn't let me take them away! 

Chester the giraffe!

I just love this little girl! 

My little tinker bell

I know it's been a bit since I have posted an update so here is a small one. I'll be posting a 15 month update after her dr appointment. 

So for Halloween Emma was Tinker Bell! It was a rough day because she is getting her molars in and has been super cranky. But once she realized people were giving her candy she was having a great time! One lady offered her to pick her candy from the bowl and she was so excited she started shaking her hands out in front of her and said "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" in a growling voice. Then grabbed two fists full of candy. It was hilarious. We had fun!

Hershey's bar

Halloween!!

I have some awesome Halloween bows available on etsy!!! Here are some pictures and links!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/201410301/halloween-shabby-bow

https://www.etsy.com/listing/201236240/halloween-skull-head-bow

https://www.etsy.com/listing/201245031/halloween-bat-bow

https://www.etsy.com/listing/201245653/cat-in-pumpkin-bow

Weaning

Some people may think I'm crazy but I don't care I only wanted the best for my daughter. Some people have said when are you going to stop breastfeeding? When they get teeth that's when you should stop! She is getting to old for that. She will never stop on her own, you just have to do it. Well you know what, I am so tired of hearing people bash breastfeeding moms. Breastfeeding is such an amazing thing. Not to mention the best thing you could offer your child if you are able to. The bond that is created is unreal. I'm not going to lie I am a bit dad that it is coming to an end. Let me step back a little though and tell you more about my journey with breastfeeding or as I like to refer to it, nursing...

When Emma was born I had read if you want to successfully nurse you shouldn't offer a bottle until after your baby is nursing good. Well I had issues in the beginning. It was very hard. She didn't want to latch on right. Not to mention she had really bad reflux so we both were so frustrated. By the time she finally did get it is was constantly nursing her because of her reflux. (Milk helps the pain go away). So it was more of a hassle to get a bottle ready than it was to just whip out the boob. So that's what I did. After a while, say 2 months I decided to try the bottle. NOPE!!! She refused! She would gag on it and almost throw up. Then that would piss her off and the only thing to calm her was to nurse her. It would have been nice to be able to bottle feed considering how often we traveled and just the convienence of it. Not to mention being able to have the hubby do a feeding at night. That wasn't in the cards though. I tried a million different bottles and nipples and nothing worked. So I just let go of trying. After all most the time it was just easier nursing anyway. 

I introduced a sippy cup to her around 4 months because I knew it was going to be so hard to get her used to it. I went through so many brands and styles. She didn't take well to them but finally around 7-8 months she got it. Thank The Lord! I was able to start cutting some feedings out because she didn't need me for thirst anymore she just used the sippy. That made outings a lot easier too. 

By her first birthday I was down to a morning feeding and a night. When we got back from her birthday trip to stl I decided it was time to drop one more. I chose the night time one because I like feeding her when she wakes up at 6 because she will go back to sleep for a few more hours :) anyway, she did awesome!!! We gave her a sippy with milk in it to have during our nighttime routine and she sucked it down. Then we read a few books and put her to bed. She went right to sleep! I was astonished, I usually nurse her to sleep. So I thought for sure she was gonna be like "uh uh, no no lady, no dice! You better feed me" but no. To be honest I was a little upset. My little girl didn't need me anymore. For the next few weeks I experienced some major depression. I didn't put two and two together until reading some weaning tips online. Weaning can cause depression. As weird as it sounds it's sort of like a really late postpartum event. It made since though. I was getting so upset and even mad sometimes that I didn't get to bond with her like before. After a few weeks it did get easier but it was really hard in the beginning.  

So now at 13 months I am at one feeding a day. In the morning. The past few days she hasn't really even wanted to though. I know in just a short while she will just refuse all together. I will let her decide though. I'm not going to force it because I know she will when she is ready. And I can tell it's going to be very soon. A little depressing to think about it really. Nursing has been a part of my life for over a year. It's hard to let that go bits almost like losing a friend. I will no longer have those one on one quiet moments with her. :( 

Anyway I just wanted to share a little of my story. I hope that one day breastfeeding isn't looked at so differently as bottle feeding. I mean really people. Would you deny a baby food just because you don't want to offend someone. In my case I didn't have a choice in the matter. She refused a bottle. So I really hope that people stop judging. Every situation and every baby is different. Every baby deserves to eat. And that baby shouldn't have to nurse in a bathroom stall or a corner of a room. That mother shouldn't have to go to her car to feed her baby just because she is breastfeeding you don't see people going to the bathroom to bottle feed, do you? I'm sorry, I'm gunna stop ranting. This subject just makes me so mad when it comes to public breastfeeding. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. Here is a pic of my beautiful little girl at 13 months old!!

Emma turns one video

Here is the video I made for Emma's first birthday. 

http://youtu.be/YFyFf_upt58