Pesach preparations

I am so glad that Pesach (Passover) is here. I tend to obsess over my pregnancies, especially in the beginning before I know for sure that everything is there and in the right place. So this weekend I will continue to clean the house. I'm doing the ovens today. I got all the food and paper/plastic plates yesterday. Sunday I will move all of the regular dishes and pans out of the kitchen and all of the Pesach stuff into the kitchen. I need to be ready because I am having relatives over here on Tuesday night for the second Seder. Yes, there are actually *2* seders. First night, Monday, we are going to my BIL's house. We love it there as he is an orthodox rabbi and he does the seder so PERFECTLY. You *know* you didn't miss anything important. And this is the official children's seder, and the kids love it. Last year he tossed marshmellows and candies when the kids asked or answered questions. It is traditional to ask questions at the Pesach Seder.

I'm feeling a little nauseated by the smells around my house the past 2 days. I hope that is a good sign of a healthy pregnancy.

Today's pregnancy test

I guess there was still room for the test to get darker. This one looks good. My symptoms are strong. Still feeling good about this.

I had to test on my birthday!

Here are the tests I intended to do tomorrow. I decided on today, since everybody is asleep and tomorrow will be busy busy. I think maybe they are maxed out on darkness. I will probably test next Monday with only the internet cheapie test, just to make sure things are not getting lighter. I'm starting to trust that this is a healthy pregnancy so far.

Hedy and Yumi, Relationship Builders

Last weekend's trip. It worked out much better than I had hoped it could. These folks teach communication on a deep level, in a way that anybody can do it. It is very energizing to a relationship. My husband and I plan to go again. It turns out that this couple, Hedy and Yumi travel the world giving workshops. They teach the marriage counselors how to counsel couples. They teach occasionally on the west coast of the US, some in Florida, in Europe, Austria, Israel, Denmark, and South Africa. And their techniques are simple enough that most couples can continue with the work afterwards. Here is their website:
http://www.hedyyumi.org/index.php

I think most couples can benefit from this. I mean, in my many years of watching married couples, and after 3 marriages myself, I feel that in addition to a 50% divorce rate in the United States, that very few of the marriages that stay together are TRULY happy. He he. I remembered a cartoon that they showed at the seminar. There was a couple going down the aisle at their wedding. The husband had turned and was saying to a bridesmaid, "My wife doesn't understand me". It doesn't have to be like that.

pregnancy tests are darkening

Here are the 3 internet cheapie tests that I have taken side by side. I know, I was only going to test on Mondays. . But you know me .

Spring is Here

Here are some pics from the flowers in my front yard. There are snapdragons, azaleas and roses. Looks like springtime.

How about another pic?

Here is another pic of a test I ran yesterday. I need it because this is the test that I will be using for comparison for next Monday's test.

My plan is to call the doc when I reach 7 weeks as long as my hpts are still dark and not getting lighter again. I have several reasons for not calling the doctor's office right now. First off, I'm still FURIOUS about what happened to my pregnancy in October. The reproductive endocrinologist told me to stop abruptly taking prednisone, Lovenox and estradiol at 4.5 weeks, which I did. Then two days later he said to go ahead and start taking the Lovenox again. By that time it was too late. I had bad night sweats starting immediately after I stopped the Lovenox. I feel that my body, specifically the anti phospholipid antibodies, attacked the placenta/baby those two days and halted the growth. After that, all the Lovenox in the world could not save the baby. Second, once you get in the doctor's field of view, you are forced to acquiesce to all of their requirements. Submit to three blood tests per week, one ultrasound per week, etc, even though the ultrasounds are not diagnostic until the 7th to 9th week. So why do I need blood tests to tell me about doubling when babies have survived all extremes of numbers? And why do I need 6 useless ultrasounds before I get the diagnostic one? And why would I want to expose delicate growing tissues to 6 useless ultrasounds? One gal suggested that if I didn't want to go through the "beta hell" stage of all this, I could at least get the doc to run my progesterone and estradiol. That is impossible. No doctor would treat me under those circumstances. If I refused betas and ultrasounds, they would boot me out as an uncooperative patient. The only way I could get those tests run would be to sign up for the full 9 yards, which I refuse to do. Also, the RE would be upset to hear that I am taking the estradiol. He is against that. He also feels the pio shots are useless, but harmless so whatever. He also feels that the Lovenox, even though his OWN blood tests showed I have elevated APAs in the IgM category, is useless. I think it would have to be IgG to get his attention. I asked why IgG is so much better at attacking babies than IgM, and he couldn't answer me. He said I was on the border about that and he would prescribe Lovenox if I "wanted it". Ugh!

So for these reasons and for the fact that I felt he was pretty damned cold about my losses, I want to delay my phone call significantly. I will get the ultrasound that I want when I want it. And I will not allow him or his bitchy staff to upset me at so delicate a stage in my pregnancy.

Praying this baby grows strong

Famous last words

I'm blushing. I couldn't resist testing today, since my husband is off doing a last-minute surgery and I'm getting stuff together for our trip. Imagine my shock to see this on 9dpo.

scrambling like crazy today

Yikes, lots of loose ends to tie up before leaving town. I have been running around all day preparing for the trip. And I updated the little league parents on upcoming stuff. Here is a sample of today's mass email that I sent out.
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Dear families,

Reminding you that we have practice tonight, Monday March 12 at 4:45 at Bernardo Yorba Jr. High, and a game on Wednesday night March 14 at 5pm and another game on Saturday the 17th at 12:30pm.

Our trash day is finally here! We get to do trash duty on Wednesday night, March 14th. We need to grab 7 trash bags from the snack shack and when the game is over, each family take a bag and empty any cans that are full all through the park. The full bags are taken to the dumpster. I guess these bags are heavy, so it may be more of a grown-up task than something the boys can do.

Thank you to Cathy Greenberg for purchasing our silent auction gift. She got a gift bag from GlenIvy Spa with a gift certificate and sample lotions. This gift needs to be given to Kathy Connor at the field on Sat. March 24th, and the last day to turn it in is the 29th.

The money for tickets to EYLLL night at Cal State Fullerton (Fri May 4 at 7pm) is due to me on April 16th at practice. 5 dollars per ticket.

The golf tournament is March 30th. Please turn in your registrations, if you wish to go. I have extra forms, and they can also be obtained on the eylll.com website.

You may have noticed that the League is barbecuing every Saturday now
through the end of the season in addition to running the Snack Shack. They are in
need of people to help barbecue.

I have made a team party reservation for Saturday April 21. We will show up at 2:15 following our 12:30 game that day. They want the boys in uniform so that we will get free 2 large one-topping pizzas. Drinks are $1.50 with free refills.

Call me if you have any questions. I will be out of town this weekend so Ryan F. and I will miss the Saturday game.
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Old blog re-post, "Ode to DD"

Here is a post from my prior blog, August 2006. There are some posts from the old blog that I want to save in my blog archives, so I will be posting some of them before I delete my old blog in a few weeks.

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I am thinking about my DD today. One of my favorite topics. She is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and not just because she is my daughter.

She has many wonderful qualities. When I went to work yesterday almost everybody on the crew came up to me and said how much they enjoyed working with her and how much they will miss her. They were amazed that someone as young as her could be so responsible and professional. I told them that she was born responsible. Even in first and second grade, I have never had to ask her about her homework. She always did it and always got good grades. The agreement over the years was that if she keeps getting good grades, we would continue not to hassle her. She got ambitious in high school and took so many AP courses and passed them with high scores that now at UCLA she is already a sophomore without even having started yet. As a toddler she amazed me one morning when she sat on my lap and asked me about my feelings. I always thought that kids her age were too immature to think of others in that way, and I realized that her sensitivity extended to being sensitive to the feelings of others. She has always been thoughtful and sensitive of others. Physically she is beautiful, and has a figure that J Lo would be glad to walk with down the red carpet with. She has been blessed with brains and beauty, but she has not sat back and relied on those, but she is willing to work hard and apply herself. Right now she is going into engineering, which I think will be great. But I also told her that going to UCLA is wonderful because the school is so diverse, she can switch majors and go in any direction she wants if she decides that engineering is not for her.

She has done all of these things despite having had a difficult life. I split up from her dad when she was age 4. I don't think her dad was a bonded with her emotionally as I was, as he was almost never home for the first 4 years of her life. She told me recently that she realized that when I tell stories about when she was young, I tell her good things about herself. When her dad tells her stories, he always tells her how bad she was and what a selfish person she is. What kind of person does that to their own child? I don't get it! Even if he doesn't like her as much as DS, does he have to try to destroy her emotionally? WHO DOES THAT!!!!!! I have been stewing about this for years. I think DD lately has finally been able to sort through some of the emotional garbage she has had to deal with over the years. Like the stepmom who slashes the clothes in her closet. I recently took a beautiful black dress that I had bought her to the tailor to get the obvious scissors cuts sewn back together. We worked really hard this year not to leave her prom dress over there for even one night.

So I give DD all the credit. She has risen above. She doesn't dwell on the negative. She moves on with her life in a positive direction. She says that to get down about things would be to let the negative people win, and she will not give them that power over her. BRAVO! WHAT A GIRL!

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Update: She is doing fine at UCLA, but will probably change her major. I'm just sitting back and enjoying watching her in her young adulthood.

No early testing for me, for SURE!

I now have my coverline, so I am 3 days past ovulation. That puts me 14dpo on March 20. I'm out of town in Sonoma County, CA that entire prior weekend at a relationship seminar with my husband. So with the kids running around and MIL there to watch the babies, I doubt I will have the luxury to use hpts in the morning and obsess over them day after day, posting pictures for everybody. Maybe that's a good thing.

Maybe the morning of the 19th after I get back. 13dpo is a nice day to test. And I'll just have to sneak around with my pio and Lovenox injections/sharps container in my luggage. Not that I have any real hope. It was hard this month to even justify the pio shots. I really don't know why I bother. :-(

On a lighter note, have you checked out the Harry Potter video links on the left? Those are fun and your kids might enjoy them too. I can't believe the last book is coming out in July too. I sure hope she (the author, J.K. Rowling) doesn't kill Harry. That would hurt too many kids world wide, I think.

Wedding shower and pos opk

More fun pics. I went to a wedding shower yesterday. It was nice. A distant relative of my husband. I have a pic of myself with my MIL. She is a *very* sweet lady. I aspire to be as positive and loving as she is. The other pic is of my opks from last night and this morning. Obviously, the last night one was a little dried out by the time this pic was taken, but it looked about the same as the one from this morning.

Slim MA pic and baseball

I have 3 pics to post today. 2 are from yesterday's Little League game. It was the first game of the season. I think he had a blast. I had fun too. One pic is waiting at home plate after scoring, and in the other he is rounding 3rd base.

The other pic is taken of myself this morning. I am slimming down with my diet and exercise program and I want to document when I'm feeling fit. I started doing Yoga too, and the kids are having fun doing that with me. They were so cute the other night. The yoga episode was about the headstand. The kids were flopping all over the room. :lol: