Ben had a blast at the carnival…
July 4, 2009
June 24, 2009
A couple of months ago, I saw 3 or 4 deer down at the end of our driveway, so I picked Ben up and we watched them out the window until our dogs chased them away. For at least 2 weeks after that, Ben would say, “dee! dee!” and beg to be picked up, or drag us to the window. He wanted to look out the window for deer. We also saw several deer in the next weeks by the side of the road or crossing in front of us. For a while there, Ben was seriously obsessed with deer.
Then that obsession faded and he hasn’t mentioned deer for a while (nor have we seen any lately).
This morning, I was sitting at the bar, checking my email, with Ben on my lap. He said, “dee! dee!” I absentmindedly said, “yes, Ben, we can look for deer.” Then he said it again: “DEE!” I glanced up, and there was a deer standing RIGHT THERE in our kitchen window! We watched it for a while until it walked out of sight.
Smart little guy!
PS- that is a picture of a deer I ripped from the internet. ;)
June 22, 2009
My brother is spending 8 weeks in Tanzania this summer, studying Swahili and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. He arrived there this morning! Follow his blog at http://summerintanzania.blogspot.com.
June 21, 2009
Disclaimer: Anyone who finds information about gynecological and/or reproductive health offensive should not be reading this blog. Thank you.
Last Wednesday (June 10), we finally had our appointment at the IVF Center! It was familiar and new all at the same time. Almost all of the people who work there are the same, but I had forgotten about all the preliminary work that goes into an IVF cycle. You can’t just call up the doctor and schedule an embryo transfer!
We went into Dr. McGinnis’ office and sat down. Tim had brought a couple pictures of Ben to show off. A few minutes later, the doctor came in, followed by a woman I recognized right away, but not from the IVF Center. He shook our hands and started to introduce her. I said, “Actually, we’ve met. You helped deliver Ben!” and I showed her his picture. As if she would remember, much less recognize him! She was one of the doctors who performed my c-section, and she actually signed his birth certificate. I guess she is a resident. She said, wow, it must have been a couple years ago!
They went over all the risks and benefits of IVF. (Risks: ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, triplets, infection, etc, etc. Benefits: baby). They had to go over all the possible negatives that could happen, however small the chances. Basically, in all scenarios, you have about a 0.0001% chance of dying and they have to tell you about it.
Then we went over the timing of everything, and I was more than a little disappointed. The lab is closed in July (apparently, they close every other month for sterilization purposes. Imagine that- wanting a clean lab to create embryos in!). There are still a few tests we have to get done beforehand anyway (they have to test my ovarian reserve and estradiol via a blood test, and I have to have another sonohistogram and a pap smear. Tim has to have another SA). So we won’t get into the injections until August. More waiting! I had been thinking all along that we would be doing the process in July, but it was not meant to be.
June 18, 2009
Today’s update:
Ben has a name for me!!!
For about a week now, I’ve noticed Ben saying “ma-ee” to me and when pointing to my truck. I thought he was saying “my” at first, but I’m 95% sure he’s saying mommy. He says “da-ee” for daddy and “pa-ee” for potty, so it makes sense that “ma-ee” would be mommy.
I’m serious, he says something new every day now!
Go Ben!
June 17, 2009
Ben peed in the potty for the first time this morning!
I was changing his diaper and he said, “pa-ee” (potty). So we went into the bathroom and I encouraged him to stand in front of his little potty. He got distracted quickly and started walking around the bathroom. I got up to go get a clean diaper and he started to pee on the floor. I moved him to his potty and…success! Then, of course, I emptied it into the big toilet and let him flush it down.
Immediately afterwards, he said, “more, more.” He tried to go again but didn’t have anything left.
Yay, Ben!
May 31, 2009
Warning: Slightly graphic post ahead…
Well, Wednesday was supposed to be the big day. I had been waiting all spring for my appointment with Dr. McGinnis. It was our first consult to prepare for a summer IVF cycle. I was so excited. I took off the entire day to make sure I wasn’t rushed, and Tim and I were planning on going to lunch afterward. I dropped Ben off at daycare and headed to Morgantown. I was about 30 minutes early, so I thought I would go to Michael’s (they were closed). I got gas at Kroger. I had forgotten my hair clip, so I went into Walgreen’s to buy a new one. I got to my truck, realized that I needed scissors or a blowtorch to get the clip out of the packaging, so I went back in to ask the clerk to help me out. I put my hair up in the parking lot. A glance at the clock revealed I had 10 minutes until my appointment. Perfect. Tim was meeting me there.
I got in my truck and waited to turn left out of the Walgreen’s parking lot onto Pineview Drive (the clinic is only a couple of blocks down the road on the left). Traffic was fairly heavy. A guy in a car waved me through since he was just waiting for the light. I looked left, and didn’t see anyone in the turning lane; looked right, and no one was coming. I proceeded with my turn.
I was wrong about no one coming from the left. Suddenly, a big white truck grille was about 2 feet from my door and coming fast. Next thing I knew, I could taste blood in my mouth and people were yelling and running at me. BRAKE! People were saying. All I could do was cry. My car was still in gear and drifting. I stepped on the brake and cried harder. Blood was everywhere (it turns out, it was all from my nose). Someone reached in my window and put my car in park. Someone ran and got me a rag. I felt something trickling down my back. I thought it was blood. I felt it- I had auto glass in my shirt and in my pants.
After a few minutes of me crying and people standing around staring, the ambulance came. I kept telling them, through my tears, that I was fine, just upset, and that I just wanted to get out. They asked me what day it is (I had to think about it but came up with Wednesday). They asked me how old I was. I said 31 or 32- I couldn’t remember. They put a neck brace on me. They wouldn’t let me move. More sirens… another ambulance, police and a fire truck. The other driver was fine, it’s just protocol in bad accidents. They couldn’t get me out of my truck without cutting the door off. More crying.
Then came the worst part… They had to put a white sheet over my head to protect me from debris as they cut the door off. I knew that Tim would be coming along at any minute for the appointment and of course I hadn’t been able to call him. I got hysterical when they put the sheet over me and kept trying to pull it off. The rescue workers were not very happy with me, I’m afraid. They gave me oxygen. At one point when I lifted the sheet I saw Tim in front of the truck crying. I put my hand up to tell him I was OK. I must have started crying more because the rescue workers said, “tell that guy to move back, he’s upsetting her.” I said, “tell him I’m OK!”
They pulled me out of the truck and onto the backboard. They loaded me into the ambulance and took me to Ruby (strange, since we were closer to Mon. General, but I guess they have some sort of rotation worked out). While in the ambulance, they cut off my clothes. I felt completely not in control of my life.
When I got to the hospital, there were about 20 people standing around me working on this or that. I got an xray and a cat scan. I was still crying. Finally, the tests were done and we just had to wait on the results. Tim was allowed to come see me. Then the trooper from the accident came for a visit. He cited me for failure to yield right-of-way. More crying.
After what seemed like an eternity, they brought my discharge papers and told me I had a non-dislocated broken nose. They gave me the number of the facial surgeon but said there is nothing they can do for it anyway. Thankfully, it looks fine! They let me wear 2 hospital gowns home.
I was going to have Tim just take me straight home and come back later to get a rental car, but when we passed Enterprise, I felt well enough to drive. We went in (me still in my hospital gowns) and rented a car. I drove home. I tried to sleep but couldn’t.
Four days later, I am still sore, but feel incredibly lucky it wasn’t worse. I still don’t remember the impact. If one thing can be learned from this experience, it is to put your seatbelt on before you put the car in gear. I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt, but I have a bad habit of “saving time” by buckling it after I have started moving. So, embarrassingly enough, I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt at the time of the accident. I probably wouldn’t have broken my nose if I had been wearing it.
And, no, I don’t believe in omens, so I rescheduled the doctor’s appointment!
May 23, 2009
Ben’s 18-Month Checkup (at 19 Months!)
Posted by Mountain Mama under Doctor Visits, Pictures, Talking[4] Comments
Yesterday, it was finally time for Ben’s 18-month checkup. I made the mistake of canceling the original appointment because I didn’t want to miss this class or that class (you can see how “important” it was- I don’t even remember why I canceled). It was a mistake because his regular doctor is booked until late July! So Tim took him in to another doctor in the practice. He has seen her a couple of times when he was sick.
His height is still tracking in the 75th percentile at 33.5″- he takes after his dad in that area. His weight (26 lbs) and head circumference (18.5″) are in the 50th percentile, so he is right on track! And yes, they plotted him at 19 months on the chart (I was worried they would plot 18 months and not get an accurate picture but Tim made sure they did it right).
They talked about the blocked tear duct, again. You see, after his 1-year appointment, we made the appointment to see an optometrist (that’s the surgeon, right?). That appointment was scheduled for January. In December, the tear duct problem seemed to go away. So we canceled that appointment. Soon after, we realized that, although the drainage wasn’t yellow or green anymore (hooray for that), the left eye was definitely more watery than the other. So we will be making another appointment with the optometrist, hopefully this summer.
The doctor wanted to know if he could say 14 words or so. Definitely (although I am sure that most of them are intelligible only to us…). So I thought I would make a list of his words (and their translation when necessary):
da-da
no
more
bink (binky)
bink (bank)
dee (deer)
ball
bah (bottle)
ba (bath)
juice
tash (trash)
gass (grass)
tuck (truck)
book
eye
bee
Bee (Ben)
bay (baby)
uh-oh
pop-pop
shh
uh (up)
dah (down)
ha (hat)
hi
hey
bye-bye
jaff (giraffe)
soos (shoes)
sots (socks)
rock
boo (blue)
fag (flag)
(I still can’t pay him to say “mama,” and although he has said it once or twice, it was likely just a coincidence).
This is all in addition to the many animal noises he can make. :)
He is also in the VERY beginning stages of putting words together. Like yesterday, when he saw Tim’s notebook, he pointed and said “da da book.” I’m so proud!
We are indeed, very blessed.
May 1, 2009
Dear Mrs. Richerd
I’m sorry I did a cartwheel write when we started It wont happin again. Next time I’ll get up follow directions and get up properly. I no I shold not have slid in to the side of the wall. It wont happen again. Next time I will walk and sit down properly.
from Jimmy
