Typical Weekend

Last Friday, we spent the evening playing with playdoh. We get wild and crazy on the weekends.

Kyler has been loving his new "ice cream shop". 

I like it too...but I don't love the resulting mess.

On Saturday we did some cleaning, ran some errands, went out to dinner, and took Kyler to Discovery Place. Please excuse the horrible iPhone picture. My phone is broken.

I'm not exactly sure how my phone broke, but my best guess is that it was laying face down on a damp surface. The major problem was that it wasn't responding whenever I touched the screen...but a few days in a bag of rice cured that. Here are the remaining problems I still have:

-The camera on front of the screen works (with bad quality), but the camera on the back won't even turn on.
-The screen looks like it has water damage (looks blurry in places)
- The flashlight won't turn off. I thought the light would have burned out by now, but it's been on for almost two weeks now, and oddly it hasn't had an affect on my battery life.
-I can't make any phone calls unless it's on speaker.
-No other sound or music works

Yep, it's time for a new phone! Anyways, back to our weekend. On Sunday we went to church, and spent some time together as a family at home. Kyler has been obsessed with this flying saucer toy lately (of course it's broken now, but he still plays with it).

 Jared's iPhone takes MUCH better pictures.

On Monday Jared had work, and his 3 week summer break from school ended, so he had to go to class as well that day. Kyler and I got some pool time in.

 Kyler seems to be a lot more brave in the water compared to last summer; he actually allows water to splash on his face this year!

We've been going to the pool almost everyday since it opened. Ah, summer is finally here!

A Journey (part 9) --- PCOS

I'm going to copy and paste another piece of our journey towards expanding our family below. If you haven't read the previous parts, you can do so HERE.

*****
Today is February 5, 2014. The results from my blood work came back. My genetics look great (I'm not a carrier for any genetic abnormalities) and I don't have any thyroid problems...but I do have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) The name sounds scary, but basically all it means is that I have a hormone imbalance, a lot of cysts on my ovaries, and irregular cycles (I only average 3-6 cycles a year).  There are many causes for infertility, but two of the most common are PCOS and  Endometriosis- and I happen to have both.  Obviously I wasn't too happy to receive this news, but I am glad that we are finally starting to get some answers, and I'm counting my blessings that we were able to get pregnant with Kyler when we did!

This ultrasound room is starting to feel a lot like home, because I see it so much. I hope someday we will be able to see a sweet babe growing on that ultrasound screen again!

The good news is that my doctor gave me the go ahead to do an IUI within a few weeks!

 I've finished my Femara medication... I feel like the side effects were just as severe as they were with Clomid, but in a different way. Instead of dizziness and hot flashes...I just feel hot at night (I have to turn the heat wayyy down and sleep with no covers and the fan on...Jared has to sleep with 3 blankets haha). Also, Femara has been making me way more emotional than Clomid.

*****

Today is February 13, 2014. I want to cry. Okay, that was a lie, I just DID cry. I'm supposed to have an injection today (to trigger ovulation) and an IUI this weekend, but it snowed and now my doctor's office is closed until Monday! I'm so sad :(

*****

February 17, 2014

I woke up this morning feeling hopeful. I hadn't gotten a positive OPK yet, so I thought that maybe I could get the trigger shot today, and we could do the IUI tomorrow. Wrong. After my ultrasound and blood work from today, I learned that my body hasn't been responding to the fertility drugs.  She said I probably hadn't been responding the last few months either on Clomid. :/  So starting today doc told me to take 7.5mg of Femara for 5 days (which is the highest dosage).  If I still don't respond, I suppose we will be moving on to injectables- gulp. We have been fighting secondary infertility for nearly 2 years now...I hope the end is in sight!

*****
Today is February 24, 2014.  I'm not sure if today's ultrasound was good or not. A few weeks ago, she measured one follicle (follicle's are what grow and release an egg) on my right ovary at 12mm, and then a few days later it "absorbed into my body instead of growing bigger and releasing an egg"- big fail. So THIS time (after I took the highest dosage of Femara) she measured one follicle at 13mm on my left ovary and one follicle at 10mm on my right ovary.  So that would be TWO follicles. Now normally if your body grows two follicles and they both release eggs and get fertilized you would have a twin pregnancy. But for whatever reason, that is not the case when you have an IUI. My doctor told me that even when multiple follicles are involved, you are most likely only going to get one baby (less than 4% end up with multiples).

Anyways, I'm trying not to get my hopes up about this actually working, because last time, my follicle disappeared- so isn't there a chance that these follicles could just disappear on me too? I don't know what to think, but I'm praying for good results on my next ultrasound on Thursday!!

A journey (part 8). Femera and Ovidrel Injection.

I'm going to copy and paste another piece of our journey towards expanding our family below. If you haven't read the previous parts, you can do so HERE.

***
Today is February 1, 2014. I didn't get any positive OPK's in January either....So today I started my first round of Femera! It is a fertility drug similar to Clomid, but is supposed to work better with women that have PCOS/Endometriosis. Also, Femera supposedly has less side effects, which I'm excited about. The biggest reason my doctor prefers Femara over Clomid is because the risk of twins is extremely low (which is the only reason I would prefer Clomid over Femara haha I'm crazy). I'm kinda nervous about the injection (called Ovidrel) that I will have to give myself in my stomach next week to induce ovulation-I hate shots!  I had an ultrasound and 5 blood tests done last week to check for PCOS, to see if I'm a carrier for any genetic disorders, and any hormonal or potential thyroid problems, and I still haven't gotten my results back.

This is how my arms look (almost) on a weekly basis now from blood work... I wonder what my coworkers think haha.

Please work Femara!

3 1/2 years old!

At 3 1/2 this little boy is so friendly! Every time he sees a kid anywhere, he says "Look a friend!" He also loves making friends with the elderly. He calls almost every gray haired person he meets "grandma/grandpa" and loves to give them hugs and hold their hands. Not a stranger walks by on the sidewalk without Kyler cheerfully yelling "Hi!!" and waving his arms.

His preschool picture. website here: http://heathergaydeski.shootproof.com

A few more random things about Kyler:

He loves: blowing bubbles, riding his bike, and playing with balloons (still)

He doesn't like: shopping at Walmart, eating veggies, or getting the hiccups (he thinks they make him feel like he is going to throw up).

He's really good at: memorizing books that we read him, letter recognition, using his fine motor skills, and he's also really good at making messes :p

He is scared of: smoke detectors and anything else that makes loud beeping sounds

Words I love hearing him say are:

busgetti  (spagetti)

carfet (carpet)

popcart (poptart)

pilloff (pillow)

bunnit (button)

He likes going to: the library, the beach, Ikea, preschool, and church- but is not a big fan of primary yet- he'd rather be playing in nursery!

His favorite songs are: songs he makes up about random objects "The door song" or "The light song" but his favorite real song is "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock."

Ohhh, Kyler -we love this friendly and happy little boy!

Mother's Day 2014

My mother's day was very lazy day- just what I needed! I had ANOTHER stomach bug on Saturday and was still catching up on rest on Sunday. This was the second stomach bug I've had in two months! When I got to work on Monday, I found out that all of my students except 4 had thrown up over the weekend. Crazy that we all got it at the same time.

Jared and Kyler made me breakfast in bed on Mother's day. They also made me a "Happy Mother's Day" banner (like I used to make my own mom growing up) and of course they smothered me with candy, service (and presents!).

...and because lately I've seen too many over edited pictures with eyes brightened so much they look fake and teeth whitened to the extreme, and don't get me started on over airbrushing. Not that those tare terrible occasionally and in moderation... I just hate looking at pictures that have been edited so much they don't even look like the actual person anymore! blahhh I miss good old fashioned red eye pictures! So I'm going to post one :D

Okay weird! On my phone and on my desktop, Kyler's eyes are RED but as soon as I uploaded it to blogger...the red is gone.... that's a little bit freaky and slightly disturbing. Blogger automatically edits my pictures for me now?! What is going on?!

Anyways, I'm getting off topic- back to my Mother's Day. At church, all of the children (ages 3-11) sang a few Mother's Day songs us. This was Kyler's first year singing to me, but he was so nervous he ran to a teacher to hold him and just stared out at the audience like a deer in headlights. hahaha I still loved it though, and heard him practicing the song many times in the comfort of our own home beforhand  :)

Mail for Kyler

I was just looking through my recent photos to see what I could put up here, but I realized I already shared most of them on instagram or Facebook, and I don't know why, but I don't like re-posting them on the blog. BUT I'm going to post this next picture again anyways, because it was a big deal to Kyler.

He received a letter from Schramma and Schrammpa (my parents) who are serving a church mission in Chile! They also sent him a latex glove and told him he could blow it up like a balloon (they know him well haha).

He LOVED it! I don't know if it was because it was from my parents, or because it came in the mail for him, but he was really excited about it. He carried the letter around the house with him for a few days. He would pull it out of his pocket every once in a while and pretend to read it, and then tuck it safely away again.

As for the balloon, it popped 20 minutes after he received it on a thorn from the rose bush. He was devastated and talked about how Schramma was going to be so sad that his balloon popped :( 

Poor little balloon deprived boy! Looking at that pouty face makes me want to go buy him a new balloon!