Silly Kid

After emptying the Tupperware from the cupboard, Tyler got the wash cloth off his high chair, put it in his mouth and started carrying it around as if he were a puppy.









I FINALLY got the video uploaded from when we were visiting my parents. Here's Tyler the show off--dancing, laying down and romping around like a bear.

Stair Master

Tyler has been going up and down the 2 stairs from our family room to the dining room for quite a while now, so last month I decided to teach him how to go down our full flight of stairs so I wouldn't have to worry about him.

Heading up the stairs











Coming down

Pregnancy Update

The results from the pregnancy test on Tuesday showed that my hCG levels went from 123 to 372! I will go in next Saturday for an ultrasound so the doctor can check for a heart beat and to see the placement of the embryo.

Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend. We celebrated my birthday on Saturday. Here's my very colorful cake with colored coconut and those hard candy things.



Here's Tyler with his Easter things.



Tyler likes "dancing" and "talking" to himself in the stove (but only when it's cool.)



Tyler got some suckers for Easter. He took turns licking each end of the sucker.





Here Tyler is getting squeaky clean with new bath toys.

Little Messes are the "Bestest"

What's a kid to do with so many fun opportunities around?

Why, take full advantage of course!

Happy Easter!

Last Saturday and Sunday was our church's General Conference. Twice a year we get to listen to two days of inspiring talks from our church leaders. The conference is broadcast on TV, satellite, radio and over the internet. I listened to Saturday's talks on the radio as Tyler and I headed to my parents' house. We watched the conference on satellite on Sunday.

I always love listening to our church leaders, especially the apostles and our prophet, Pres. Monson. I always come away feeling like I heard just what I needed to to buoy me up, and just what I needed to to improve and be a better disciple of Christ. I was especially touched by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about Easter and Christ's atonement. I knew I wanted to post it on my blog for Easter if it was available. Well, I was thrilled to find that a portion of the talk is available on video.



Easter is definitely not about the Easter bunny--it is about the Savior of the World who died for all mankind, and then arose from the tomb to ensure eternal life for all mankind. How wonderful it is that HE LIVES! He suffered EVERYTHING so that He would know how to help each of us individually return to live with Him and God again. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and for this Easter Sunday to remember Him.

Pregnant*

*After getting the pregnancy results back this week, I feel like I need to add an asterisk to the word pregnant. I went in on Thursday for the blood test. They called me later in the afternoon to say that my hCG levels were 49, which means I'm pregnant, but that they would have liked to see the levels at least near the 100 level. They told me to be "guarded" and to come in on Saturday (today) to have them checked again. (The hCG levels are supposed to double every couple of days.) The good news is that today my levels were at 123, which means they doubled from the previous levels. They still want to monitor me again on Tuesday.

So, I guess I'm pregnant, but I still feel like it's kinda, sorta up in the air. Some websites that I found were a little more encouraging. They said the average levels for the first test are 48, so I felt good that mine were average. I guess you only have to have an hCG level of 5 to be pregnant, so I was definitely above that. Low hCG levels could mean an ectopic pregnancy or signify that there could be a miscarriage in the works. I'm not sure if the doctor wants to see higher levels on invitro babies because they need higher levels to survive or what.

What I do know for sure is that everything is in Heavenly Father's hands. We are praying and doing all we can on our side of things, but Life is in His hands. We pray that the pregnancy will progress as it should, but we're grateful for knowledge of a God who is wise and all-knowing. Everything will work out as it's supposed to, and I'm grateful that I KNOW THAT!

Spring Break

The schools in this area have spring break this week, and since I gave my piano students the week off too, Tyler and I headed to visit my parents for a few days.

Tyler enjoyed hanging out with his cousins,



playing with the kitty (they mutually liked each other),



discovering new toys,



trying new treats like suckers,



and showing off. I didn't catch all of his dancing or crawling while bobbing his head up and down, but he enjoyed having everyone's attention on him. He sometimes puts a little "hop" in his crawl and looks like a baby bear cub.

[I tried uploading a video of Tyler showing off, but after 6-7 tries I quit.]

We stopped in to visit my grandma on the way home. Tyler loved her walker.

Obsessive Compulsive

Is it possible for an 11-month old to be OCD?

Tyler LOVES playing the piano. He often throws a small tantrum when my piano students are having their lessons because he can't play "his" piano.

I take Tyler to the babysitters 3 days a week while I go to Curves. To his delight, they have an electric piano that has keys that light up. One day the babysitter held him while she practiced a duet part for 35 minutes. He "played" the whole time! Sometimes he cries when I go to pick him up because he doesn't want to leave their piano.

Tyler is getting better, but once he crawled into the living room, threw himself on the ground in front of the piano and cried and cried. Other times when I was holding him and we'd pass by the piano, he'd cry because we didn't stop for him to play.



So, he and I have been playing the piano a lot more lately. I'll hold him on my lap and play an octave or two above or below where his hands are. I also let him play on his own while I'm nearby. Lately, I've just left the piano lid open and he'll crawl in to the living room, pull himself up to stand and play on his own.



What a kid!

Drugs

Here is my daily stash of drugs, vitamins, etc. I start out each day with a shot of progesterone. I fill the syringe with the oily stuff, take off the grey needle and put the blue needle on. The grey needle is bigger and can draw the liquid in quicker, but the blue needle is thinner and can poke through my skin easier.

Then I take 3 estradiol pills, a baby aspirin, folic acid, and a prenatal pill. In the afternoon I take the yellow progesterone pill vaginally. I finish the day off with another 3 estradiol pills and another yellow progesterone pill.

These fertility doctors take fertility very seriously, which they should. The estradiol (estrogen) builds up the uterus. The progesterone helps prevent miscarriage. The baby aspirin promotes blood flow to the uterus. The folic acid is to minimize neural tube defects, and the pre-natal pill gives me all the other nutrients needed for a healthy pregnancy.

If I'm pregnant I'll continue with these drugs for another 8 weeks or so.
In the end, it's so worth it.

Baby Pictures

Last week we went in to have an FET--Frozen Embryo Transfer. The embryologist had been instructed to thaw our frozen embryos until he got 2 intact. This is a picture of them taken around 9:30 a.m. It's a magnified, 2-dimensional picture of a 3-dimensional object, but you get the idea.



The outside circle is the "shell." He said that the embryos needed to hatch out of the shell, just like chickens do. You can see that the embryo is concentrated in the center. The embryologist said that as the embryos thaw they will spread out, but before they had time to spread the embryologist used a laser to assist the hatching by poking or cutting (or whatever you call it) a hole in the shell.

This is a picture of the embryos around 3:45 p.m., right before the transfer. The embryologist was so excited that one of the embryos was hatching. He said he doesn't know if the one on the right will hatch or not. We'll know if either of the embryos took next week when I go back to the clinic for a blood pregnancy test. We're hoping and praying for the best. The miracle of modern science is amazing!