Primetime, Month 9

Wow.

Three quarters of a year. Done and dusted. Insane.

My Lil' Miss is a little one. Just 15lbs 5oz (6th percentile), but 27.5" (45th percentile) and a head circumference of 42.3cm (13th percentile). So her weight and HC switched percentiles and she hasn't gained any additional weight since her sick baby visit last month. This will make sense after reading what she's been up to these last few weeks!

So what is new from last monthly update?

- Honest to goodness crawling. The Commando-crawl has upgraded to full-on hands and knees action, 95% of the time at least. Boy, is she getting fast!

- "Dancing"  Baby girl has some groove. Unfortunately, her moves are more akin to her daddy's at the moment. Leg giggles and bouncing. Swaying. And the funniest is this new head wiggle and roll thing she does, a la Stevie Wonder.

- Standing for a few seconds on her own. Plus, she's trying to get to standing from crawling and sitting, all by herself, in the middle of the floor. 

- Big girl foods. We've been doing Baby Led Solids for months, but she's been eating the "school food" at daycare for breakfast, lunch and snack; impressing all the ladies with how she packs it away. She impresses me and others as well. Girl can eat!

- New sounds and noises. Em likes to hoot and holler to hear her own voice a lot. Common sounds include "Dadada," "Bababa," "Tata," "Hhaa!" "Aaah!" "Huuhn," "Uhh" and clucking her tongue.

- Super pincer action! Puffs and Cheer.ios don't stand a chance! Neither does Daddy's nipples or chest hair.

- Waving Hi. Her's is a bit of Miss America/parade style. Dainty and all in turning the wrist.

- Copy-catting.  She tries to copy some things we do like facial expressions, sounds, and toy play. Some times, it just takes 1 or 2 times before she has it down.

And one of the most exciting and saddening things: her 1st tooth! My baby is no longer a gummy-smile little thing. Her bottom, left broke through on the 2nd after I noticed it red and swollen that morning. I was checking it that afternoon, after feeding her at daycare, and BAM! I felt it on my finger! Now, she has the right, bottom tooth and both top teeth looking either swollen or showing a white line at the tip/edge. I'm waiting for her to start biting things rather than just gnawing on them...

I'm thinking I may be adding walking on next month's update as she loves edging and walking around holding our hands or fingers. She's getting so good that sometimes it just 1 hand.

She also attended the 1st bday of our good friends' little girl. She was quite the hit, smiling and flirting with all the people, and the older women there couldn't get enough of her. I also got a sneak-peek at her cake reaction. We were going to share a slice of the Dr. Seuss cake, but before I got a bite in, she had sunk her hands into all and was shoving pieces in as fast as she could chew it. She was a blue, happy, mess.

Awesome shot of her during the 5min she kept the hat on!

We'll be visiting the in-laws this coming weekend and hanging with Boy's brother that lives in Cali but is visiting for several days. It will be the 1st he's met Em, as well as for other relative's that will be attending  the surprise 40th anniversary party for the in-laws that's being thrown.

Until next time, here is some more Em-love, in case you, like me, can't get enough!

Greek yogurt is fun AND tasty. Goes great with peaches.

Daddy love to tease her with small tastes of candy

It's exhausting being this cute!

A common infertile path

It's been a while since I mentioned my friend, and infertile mentoree, E. Quick refresher: She saw my FB posts for NIAW last year and asked if we were trying. I told her yes but we encountered some issues, and she confided that so were they! We scheduled to meet up for dinner and talk all things IF. She was going to be turning 35 in a few months, has a thyroid issue and was very eager to hear about what we've tried and planned. The day before our dinner, I got the positive pee stick that would evolve into Emma.

Unfortunately for her, they are still at the grindstone. After several clomid cycles, she was referred to the same fertility clinic we did, but had a different doctor. They went through the usual IF barrage of tests. Blood work, semen analysis, (attempted) HSG, etc. Come to find out she had scar tissue on ther cervix from a prior biopsy that restricted it's opening. A surgical dilation later and they revisited the HSG with success, but very painful.

Turns out she also had some good sized fibroids. Surgery was done to remove most of the bigger ones, some of which were located in "prime implantation" regions. She continued with ov stims going between clomid and letrozole. Her RE pressured them to move onto injections as she was of advanced maternal age and her AMH levels were "worryingly" low. The 2 cycles they did with the injectibles were busts and way too expensive to continue. They've continued TTC without aids from this past May and on.

We were over last night for a fall cookout, and I was checking in on their "progress" as it were. She had stopped seeing the RE, was just going through her GYN and started seeing a new homeopathic type doc. She also had a change up in her thyroid meds. All in all, a bit along the "same stuff, different day" line. Except the next part. It broke my heart.

She was pregnant and didn't know it. She had all but given up. Wasn't tracking anything but her periods and started having late-cycle bleeding last month. She chalked it up to the new thyroid meds. Even though it continued on for almost 3 weeks. It turned into very heavy bleeding with strong cramping. Of to her doc she went. They informed her was was pregnant, and rather very much so, but weren't sure which way it was heading. Her beta was in the 600's. While waiting for the next draw, she started to physically feel better, so knew the answer before they confirmed it had gone down. That follow up, they did an u/s which showed things were "handling" themselves.

Over 2 years of trying and she finds out she was pregnant just as she was losing it... I hate how cruel IF is!!

If anyone has some good mojo and positive, pregnancy promoting thoughts, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could direct some her way so she can get that forever BFP in the next few cycles.