A Comfortable Home

I went in for a Hysterosalpingography (HSG)/Saline Sonogram today to make sure my uterus will make a nice, comfortable home for a baby. I did this test last time, but I guess you have to repeat it if it's been over two years. Last time they found some polyps that they wanted to remove before the cycle, so we wanted to make sure there weren't any hanging out this time that should be taken care of. Basically, for the procedure they put a catheter up through your cervix and into your uterus. Then they fill your uterus with "dye" so they can see the inside of it and check on shape, size and look for any abnormalities.

Last time I went in for the sonogram in the middle of my work day. But that was a horrible mistake because I felt terrible during the procedure. They offered to give me some pain medication, but since I was driving myself, I couldn't take it. On my way back to work I remember thinking that there was no way I would be able to return to work and I wanted to go home. Then, all of a sudden, I felt better. It was odd, but not enjoyable. So this time, I made sure that Miles would be with me so he could drive me home. However, it was a totally different experience. I didn't hardly feel anything during the procedure and only felt some very mild cramping afterward. Also, the most important part, is that everything looked great and we are good to go when we want to move forward. While he was doing an initial sonogram of my ovaries, he noted that there were about 15 follicles. He said this was a good number. I hope that's about what I've got when we move forward in a couple of months.

Everything in the Mouth...

Lately we have been trying to only give Owen his pacifier during naps and at bedtime. We figure it will be good to help transition to not using one at all in the future. What I didn't realize, is that when he's not using his pacifier, it means everything goes in his mouth. I thought he was over this "oral phase" but boy was I wrong!

Chapstick:

Toilet paper bar:
I have no idea what this is...The top of bottle:
The blinds strings:A wallet:A medicine dropper:A roll of Smarties:
Bath finger toys:
And yes...a tampon (He got into them on his own...I take no part of the blame in this):

Girls Retreat

Earlier this year, some of the girls I met while living in Old Mill got in touch about doing a girls retreat sans children (if possible). I was super excited at the prospect of getting a couple days away to re-energize and have some much needed "me time" with the girls. My mother-in-law so amazingly agreed to drive up to Utah from Arizona, solely for the purpose of watching Owen, so I could go on my get away. She is incredible! Laura picked me up on Wednesday night and we drove up to Midway, where Desiree had so generously offered up her time share. That night we got settled in and chatted the night away.

Thursday morning we got up and went to the gym in the main office building for a work-out. We came back to our room to have breakfast and get ready for the day. We tried to use the water, but it wouldn't turn on. We called the main office, and apparently there were some problems with the water lines, so they had to turn them off. To make a long story short, we basically had to get water from the water container in the gym to use for making breakfast. Then we had to lug all our stuff over to another building to use their showers to get ready. It was really frustrating and annoying, but the good thing is, Desiree got two nights comped and free internet out of the whole ordeal.

After eating delicious turkey, spinach and tomato omelettes made by Desiree and Deveney, and getting ready for the day, we headed out to Park City for some shopping. We spent the rest of the day shopping those outlets to death. We hit up just about every store and did not leave empty handed. Mid-day we took a lunch break and decided to all cram on this one little bench. Perfect photo op.
After buying some rompers and Sunday clothes for Owen, I decided I should buy a little something for myself. I made my first handbag purchase...ever. I know. Crazy, right? Deveney spotted this little cutie, and I decided I had to have one of my own.

Here was the total damage:

Desiree left us part way through the day because she had Motab practice. Since we were pretty exhausted from a long day of shopping, we decided to just grab some Cafe Rio for dinner. The CA girls were excited about this since they don't get it on a regular basis.

That night we just relaxed and watched Morning Glory and chatted into the wee hours of the morning. The next day we got up, ate Ears (or Dutch Babies/German Pancakes) for breakfast. Then, Desiree, Deveney and I went over the Kaela's in-laws' place to go for a morning hike. Laura stayed behind to work on her Young Women's lesson. (And apparently she hit gold while we were away and came up with an awesome lesson. Yay!) We hiked the hills behind their home and came across a little stream. It was beautiful. When we got back to the house, Bennett was up from his morning nap.

Kaela strapped him on her back and we hiked up the top of this hill across from their home. It was a crazy steep, straight up hike. Pictures do not do the incline justice, so I am not including them. But it was worth it for the view when we got to the top. And of course we did some classic jumping shots (which I had never done by the way). They turned out pretty good. It was a great way to start our morning. Here are some pictures from our hikes:After our hike, we got ready and went into Heber for lunch. Desiree was really excited to go to Granny's Drive In for their awesome shakes. Sadly, the sign said they were closed until May. What??? Um...yeah...pretty sure it's May. There was a guy outside that told us it was closed until Memorial Day weekend. Lame. We were super disappointed. Later when we drove by, they had changed their sign to say "See you May 24th."So instead we hit up Dairy Keen. It was pretty yummy and I really enjoyed my sweet potato fries and fresh raspberry shake. Yum!After lunch, Kaela left with Bennett to put him down for a nap and the rest of us when to get pedicures. It was especially nice after a long morning of hiking.Then we walked the streets of Heber and Midway to explore the local boutiques.Here I am playing with Bennett. It was nice to have a baby around since I was missing Owen. This was my first time away from him over night and for more than a few hours. Luckily, Bennett gave me some smiles to keep my baby hunger pangs at bay.

Dev and I showing off our new twinner hand bags:

That night we went to dinner at Tarahumara in Midway. Desiree did an awesome job of parking...But after we left, we found someone had followed her lead. It was pretty funny.It was a fabulous Mexican restuarant with an incredible salsa bar. Here is a picture of the salsas we stocked up on, and that's not even all of them!
After dinner we came back to the condo to do some crafting. Kaela generously offered her talents and skills to help us create some adorable headbands. Sadly, Desiree's sewing machine hated the invisible thread and did not want to cooperate. After a lot of frustration (on Des's part...poor girl) a torn headband, and only one completed, we decided to bag it. Kaela was so sweet and finished making them and sent them to us after she got home. Her stuff is pretty awesome. You should check it out here. I am in love with her bibs and snack bags and I use them all the time for Owen.That night as we were looking through pictures, Desiree noticed that her new sunglasses looked funny in some of them. We told her to put them on so we could look. They seemed normal enough......then Kaela told her to smile. We were dying laughing at the result:That was our last night together. We watched Tangled, and again stayed up talking for a while. We said our goodbyes to Kaela that night, as she was leaving early the next day to head home to CA. The next morning, Des left early to go with a friend through the temple for their first time. Laura, Deveney and I packed up and left to go to some more boutiques. We went to Dear Lizzy in Highland first. I had never been, but I loved it. It was total eye candy.
We had lunch at the cafe in the store and then met up with Desiree at Oopsie Daisy in South Jordan. Here is our last picture together:
It was such a wonderful retreat with these amazing women. We had so many laughs and built fun memories. I am so grateful to my mother-in-law for watching Owen so I could get away and rejuvenate. Here's looking forward to Girls Retreat 2012! Hopefully this next time, we will be joined by Karly and Andrea too! :D

Like Father, Like Son

Owen is definitely his father's son. He LOVES electronics. He is obsessed with cell phones and will quickly cry if one is taken away. The other day, he kept trying to grab or touch Miles's laptop while he was working on it. Then, he started petting and caressing the back of the laptop. It was pretty funny. And as if that wasn't enough...I found this:When Miles comes home, he always takes off his socks and drops them on the floor wherever he is. I am always getting after him for this and asking him to pick them up and put them in the laundry. Apparently I now have two males to pick up after! I just hope he takes after his Dada in the good ways too. :D

Old Friends and New Wards

A little while ago, I made some plans to get together with some old friends from my Wymount days. It's been over six years since we lived in Wymount and so much has changed during that time...divorce, marriage, children, jobs, moves, etc. But it's funny because three of us live within two miles of each other. Jean Anderson just moved back to Utah last month, so she planned our little get-together. We all met up at the Scera park for some sun and to let the little ones play.

Carly Andelin with her twin girls, Kate and Lily (Not sure which is which):

Jean with her son, Weston, and one on the way:

Me and Bridget Reed:

Weston and Paige having fun on the playground:

Some shots of the babies:

It was a great morning and a lot of fun to catch up with these awesome women. It's funny, cause I didn't know Jean super well when we lived in Wymount, but through some blog stalking, I feel like I've gotten to know her really well. Gratefully, it wasn't weird or awkward seeing her and instead just felt like I was seeing an old friend. Yay for blogs that bring us together!

On an unrelated topic (kind of), while we were there, we discussed how the church recently changed all of the student, married wards. The previous Sunday, Miles and I attended a big, multi-stake meeting at the Marriott Center. They basically changed married, student wards to only being in Provo, and with boundaries close to BYU campus. So anyone who lives in Orem was told to attend their family ward of record. They said they were making these changes most importantly because they need more strong members in the family wards to help out.

Miles and I happen to live in Provo, in an area that was being absorbed into a different married, student ward. Although we haven't been students for a while, we have stayed in our same married, student ward we've been in for the past four years. We have enjoyed being with people of our same age (relatively) and similar life circumstances. However, with this change, it has caused us to consider making a change to the family ward. All the girls were pushing for us to move on to the family ward and be "grown ups." Ok...so they didn't say that, but that's pretty much how it is, right? Carly was especially pulling for it, since we would be in her ward. So, after some time and thought, we decided we will be attending the family ward. I'm kind of excited to have an actual Primary, Young Men and Young Women programs. It will be especially nice if I can find some cute, nice, responsible young women to babysit! Yay for changes that help us to grow and move forward!

Layin it all out there

I decided that I'm going to lay it all out there and blog about my upcoming IVF (in-vitro fertilization) process. That's right...round two is just around the corner. Miles and I would like Owen and our next child to be about two years apart, so we have to start preparing for the next round of IVF. They advised us to come in about two months before we anticipated we'd like to start a cycle for a follow-up consultation.

We went in to the Reproductive Care Center (RCC) today and met with Dr. Heiner (the doctor who did our last IVF cycle). Basically he just got an updated medical history from us and asked us when we'd like to start. We told him some time between July and September. He said, "Well, the sooner the better, so why not start in July?!" However, Miles and I have some testing we need to do beforehand. I need to get my prolactin levels checked, but I have to stop nursing for about a month before I do that. Also, Miles needs another Kruger test (sperm analysis) and he wanted to make a couple changes (not carry his cell phone in his pocket, avoid excessive heat from a laptop on his groin area, etc.) before testing. So I think we're going to wait for those tests to be done sometime in June and then proceed from there. That will likely put us starting our next cycle in August for an implantation in early September. My family is rooting for an October implantation and July baby since we don't have any family birthdays in July. However, if I have any say, I think I'd like to avoid being uber prego in the middle of the summer. Although, in all reality, I'll take a baby any time of the year!

Even though we've gone through this whole process before, it is still rather overwhelming. It's always daunting to think about how much money we're putting toward this. Of course, having Owen, I would say it is 100% worth it and of course, I am willing to do it all over again. Then there's the fact that we're playing the "numbers game." It feels like Russian Roulette sometimes. Dr. Heiner talked to us about our options. We can do a "guaranteed" cycle where you pay more, but have the option of four cycles and if you don't get pregnant after your fourth cycle, you get some portion reimbursed. However, if you get pregnant on your first try, you lose the money it cost beyond a typical single cycle fee, don't get to use your extra cycles, and don't get reimbursed. Also, if you get pregnant but have a miscarriage, there is no reimbursement. Then there's the regular, single, full medication stimulation, cycle (which we did last time). If it doesn't work, you just start from scratch. And lastly is the low-stimulation cycle where you spend less on medications and get less eggs. The hope with this one is that you get 2 or 3 higher quality eggs as opposed to 12-15 eggs of varying qualities. However, he said that there is a 20% rate of early cancellation during your cycle due to various reasons (poor follicle stimulation, eggs don't mature, etc.) where there is apparently only a 10% chance in a regular cycle. So once again...it just feels like you're playing the odds. I was hoping that with having one previously successful pregnancy that it would increase my chances for a second successful pregnancy. However, he said the odds are still the same (about a 55% chance). So here we go...taking a leap of faith and hoping it will work out.

At this point, we'll just be doing some preliminary testing (Infectious Disease testing *so annoying that we have to do this again*, Hysterosonogram to examine the inside of my uterus, Kruger, and other blood tests). After those are complete and we have a better idea of where we are at, we will move ahead. So there will be much more to come on this topic as I go through the details of the process, but not for a little bit. Stay tuned and wish us luck!

365 days * 52 weeks * 12 months * 1 YEAR!

That's right! Owen is ONE YEAR OLD! I cannot believe it. Part of me feels like he has been with me forever, and the other part feels like he was a newborn baby just yesterday. I've held it together pretty well and didn't shed any tears. I got a little choked up when I got my weekly email from babycenter that said, "Your Toddler. One year." I thought, "Seriously?! Toddler? No way! He's still my baby!"

Here are my baby's stats:
Head: 46 cm (45th percentile)
Length: 29 3/4 in (60th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 6 oz (15th percentile)

His percentiles are similar to his last check-up at nine months. So I guess he's growing at about the same rate in all areas and is my lean boy.

Owen is learning to get around even better now. He is cruising around furniture and can easily pull himself up and sit down. He can also bend over, pick something up and stand back up while holding onto something for support.

While Miles was gone to the Philippines, he loved to see him on Skype and would get so excited. He also loves to see him on FaceTime on our iPhones. He will frequently get upset or cry when we say goodbye and Daddy isn't on the screen anymore.Owen points all the time. At people or objects in the room.

He unfortunately learned to open the toilet lid and consequently splashed his hand in the water.
Owen finally learned to wave. Well...he's waved for a while, but now it is obviously directed at another person rather than just random movement. He waves by flopping his hand and arm up and down. It's really cute. He still doesn't have it perfected, and sometimes thinks about it for a while before doing it, but it's a work in progress.
He has started shaking his head "no," back and forth when he doesn't want any more food. He used to push my hand away, but now he just shake his head back and forth until I get the message.
Owen really doesn't like grass. The first time we put him on the grass he cried and reared his arms and legs up. It was kind of funny, but sad at the same time. One time I had him on a blanket on the grass. I put the pacifier on the grass to see if he would crawl out and get it. He just went to the edge of the blanket and cried. We're working on it and he's slowly warming up to it.He is currently working on standing and balancing unaided. One day he pulled himself up, let go of me, and balanced for as long as he could until he fell. He did this over and over for at least 10 minutes. His longest time standing alone was probably about 10 seconds.
He loves to stack his cups inside one another or along the edge of the tub when he is taking a bath. Sometimes this leads to large amounts of water being poured over the side and on me.

Owen does a lot of babbling. He said all kinds of adorable nonsense. He has said "ma ma ma ma" for a long time. Although I think he might actually know that I am "Mama" even though it's not obvious that he directs his stream of "ma ma's" at me. The other day we finally got him to say "da da." This is a consonant he hadn't used. We're still working on it.I really cannot believe I have spent a whole year with my sweet baby boy. He is so much fun and I am loving this stage he is in. He brings me joy on a daily basis and I am so glad that I get to spend everyday with him.