Okay I know it has been a while… but I have been busy.

We had a busy week last week.

On Sunday I washed the Minivan… I know this doesn’t sound earth shattering but honestly it was the first time I hand washed either car since we could actually do it (in other words since we purchased the house). I would normally go to a car wash to have it done. Once that was over with I put some decals on the van.





As you can see there is Tony (scientist with glasses), Me, Max (toddling with train on jumper), then Emily (angel with bow on her head), finally the boys Christopher and Alexander (identical images so either one could be either one).

I really like it and we can add to it as we need to. This is where I ordered it from if you would like some.

Monday we had people come to the house to clean our air vents. When we moved into the house we knew this needed to be done. I was just hesitant on doing it while we had so much other stuff going on and needing to be done in the house. Well all the messy stuff is done for now (there is more to do but it isn’t happening soon) so we decided to have them cleaned for the winter. I was able to do some research into it and found out that there is a certification process for people that do this and if you go through them, you don’t have to have this done but every 4-5 years (assuming you don’t have any pets… which we don’t right now). So that is what we did.

While the people were here doing that I happened to look down at Max’s arm and he had a bite with what looked like a ring around it on his arm! We were outside doing yard work on Saturday so I was a bit scared that he may have been bitten by a tick. So I called the doctor right away and had him brought in. The doctor said he was fine and that unless it got bigger I shouldn’t worry. It went away but it was scary at the time and I am glad I brought him in!

Tuesday Max and I went to music class and I was able to talk to the teacher about a question I asked last week. I was asking about what research they have seen about premature infants and music. I should point out that Max and I go to the “lab school” for this music program so they would know about this. Anyway the teacher told me, that they have seen studies that say that babies that are sung to while nursing/getting a bottle and have the singing stop when they stop sucking will continue to suck to hear the music more. I thought this was fascinating and she said that she would try to get me a copy of the study. This could be helpful to me in case the next child ends up in the NICU again.

After class we had to come back home and wait for the bug man. We had a few ants come into our house and it was time for a seasonal check on the house.

Wednesday I had my three hour glucose tolerance test. This is 5 blood draws over 3 hours. Needless to say my arm is still bruised. Max did well at the lab as I had all this done. That afternoon we had a Sears person come out and do a 1 year maintenance check on our washer, dryer and deep freezer. All were okay!

Thursday was our biggest day of the week! We went to playgroup in the morning (quite normal for us). Then we went down to the nutritionist. Max did well as I talked to her about how I knew I was loosing weight (actually that was obvious as I lost between a 1-2 lbs in 10 days). So she said that I need to drink a glass of milk everyday (to boost my calcium) and have a snack of 2 parts nuts to 1 part fruit (1/4 cup total) everyday. That would help boost my calorie intake so hopefully I wouldn’t loose weight anymore. I also need to weigh myself once a week to make sure of that.

After that we met up with one of the nurses from the hospital that helped take care of Max and Emily. She hadn’t seen Max since he was in the hospital so it was nice to see her again.

Friday I nearly collapsed in a heap… but I thought that wouldn’t be a good idea. Ha ha! So I made 2 trays of Salted Peanut Chews (I know it says on the calendar that I am to make 4 trays but I ran out of peanut butter chips). You can find the recipe on the calendar. One tray I made normal. The other tray I made substituting almond meal (flour) for the wheat flour. Honestly I think I prefer the almond flour to the wheat though Tony prefers the wheat. This did 2 things for me. One it raised the calories by almost 20. Secondly it raised the protein (albeit by one gram) and lowered the carbs in the “cookie” making it better for me. So now it is a good thing to have as a treat for me on my diet.

Yesterday we didn’t do a ton. Tony has a conference this week and Max and I will barely see him all week (he had this conference last year too and I did alright with a 2 week old) so I thought it would be nice to do little and let Max and Tony have some good time together. We did go to a church potluck last night however and that was fun! Today it has been more or less the same as yesterday only with a bit of sadness as the Red Sox lost in the playoffs.

As you can see we have a much calmer week this week (if you look at our calendar). I will be going to the doctor on Tuesday but that is just routine so I don’t see any problems there.

I did talk to the IVF (FET) coordinator at the clinic and she said that she wants me to come in on October 27 if I haven’t started a cycle before then. So I will be doing that. If I get a cycle before then I am to call her and set up my monitoring cycle and all the appointments that go with that (which are many!).

Lastly this is a video of Max and the orange. He LOVES oranges. So much as a matter of fact that he can’t wait for you to peal them and he grabs them before you can!

Talk to you soon!

Jennifer