Sesame Street, Aquarium, Zoo & Swing Set!

The month of May was a busy one! It started out with our Sesame Street Live show. Shaun had a blast. He was such a good boy; sitting and watching intently the whole time. He wasn’t one of the little ones running up and down the aisle because he didn’t want to miss any of the show! At intermission we told him it was break time and then Elmo and the gang would be back, so that satisfied him during the break. However at the end, he said, “Break time!” and was bummed when we told him it was all over and time to go home. We bought him a few souvenirs of course: a t-shirt, the program which is like a big picture book, and an Elmo twirly toy.

We also took Shaun to the Seattle Aquarium for the first time. He wasn’t into it as much as I thought he would be, but he still had a lot of fun.

We also went to the Woodland Park Zoo on Memorial Day weekend. We went last year at the same time, so we thought it would be good to go again. We learned last year that the Navy sells discounted tickets at the base, so Bill went and bought 2 tickets ahead of time (Shaun is still free). Full price this time of year is $16.50 for adults, and the base sells them for $10 with no specific day required to go. We also saw you can buy $2 off tickets at Iver’s around the Sound. We had a good time even though the weather wasn’t that great. We were originally planning to go on Monday, but the weather forecast for Sunday was a little better, so we played hooky from church and went that day. We still got sprinkled on, but we didn’t even bring out the umbrellas we brought. Shaun had a good time and got a stuffed penguin as a souvenir. We are thinking of checking out the Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium on my day off for the 4th of July because it sounds like they have different animals to see.

Shaun got his very own swing set/play house in the backyard! Grandma & Grandpa said they would get him one for his birthday back in February. We finally found one that we like. We knew we wanted one that had some climbing parts to it since Shaun is a boy and loves the climbing things at the parks. It is amazing how extravagant, big and expensive they can get! You can spend thousands of dollars! We were not looking for one anywhere near that expensive though. Luckily Lowe’s has one where you buy the parts separately and make it as extravagant or not as you wish for a reasonable price even if you were to buy the most extravagant setup. We have not had a lot of good weather, so putting it together has taken awhile and it is not totally done yet. Dad & Bill have spent several hours on 3 different days so far putting it together. There still will be a rock wall on the right hand side (with more siding), a few more handles and a steering wheel up in the play house when it is totally done. Shaun loves it already! Thank you Grandma & Grandpa!

We also started swim for the spring/summer and went with Antonio and Jess to Renae’s for a visit and day at the park since it was so nice that day.

Later this month we are looking forward to a trip to Montana to visit family. Shaun will get to meet his 3 cousins and 2 of his uncles for the first time and see Grandma and another uncle again (who he has only “seen” when he was 1 month old).

We are hoping for some better weather soon since this spring has been awfully rainy!

Easter, Ocean, Big Boy Bed & Weekend to Remember!

Easter
We went to the Easter Eggstravaganza at church on the Saturday before Easter. We had a pancake breakfast first, then there was a bunch of activities for the little ones. First was the egg hunt, then was craft and story time, and finally a puppet show. Shaun had a good time. Sunday, Easter, we went to church and then over to Grandma & Grandpa’s to have an Easter brunch with the family. Shaun & Antonio got to have another egg hunt in the basement and open a couple of gifts.

Ocean
We took our annual weekend trip to the ocean. The weather was okay, but could have been better because it rained much of the day on Saturday. However, we didn’t let that stop us from walking on the beach! Some of us took a pretty long walk in the rain on Saturday. It was still fun. Next year we are going to try out a new place just down the road at Pacific Beach that I heard about from a coworker. It is the Navy “resort” complex with “cottages” on the bluff above the beach. We stopped by on our way there and got to tour a cottage. They are really 4-5 bedroom rambler houses that are nicely updated! Plus, one of these “cottages” is much cheaper to rent than the 2 bedroom condo we currently rent in Moclips. Plus there is room for my Aunt & Uncle that rent a 1 bedroom condo also, so it makes it even cheaper! Nice Navy perk! Two bedrooms are just getting too small for 6 people!

Big Boy Bed
My baby is growing up! We had to break down Shaun’s crib and transfer him to a twin bed because he is falling out of the crib! It happened over a few weeks. We were hoping to make it past the time when Shaun was spending the weekend at Grandma & Grandpa’s, but that didn’t happen. First he started hiking his knee close to the top of the rail. It still really hadn’t totally crossed his mind that he could climb out. Then one day he did climb out onto the changer and then down. Then the next week or so it was directly to the floor with a loud “THUD”. We knew that was the end of the crib. He did that a week ago Sunday a few minutes after we put him in bed. So, we did an emergency fix by taking off the side of his crib (it is a convertible crib) and kind of rigging the bed rail we had bought for a twin bed on it for the night. Technically it isn’t supposed to go on a toddler bed and didn’t quite fit under, but it worked for one night. Then the next evening we broke apart the crib and brought in the twin bed from the guest room. It was a sad day. Hopefully we will get to put it back together sometime in the future. We will be getting him a new mattress and bed in the next month or two so we can still have this one as the guest bed and also because the mattress is really old; it was my first bed! We had been debating about whether to do a toddler bed, keep his crib in the converted position or just go to a twin bed. We decided against the toddler bed to avoid the intermediate cost of buying a bed and the bedding, and against the crib in the toddler bed position because it didn’t seem right and would just be another transition down the road to a twin. We didn’t buy the crib because it could convert; just most of the cribs out there do unless you buy the really flimsy ones. The weekend before we had actually bought all the bedding with Shaun’s help because we knew it was coming soon. He helped pick out the Cars theme!

Shaun has done great sleeping at night in his new bed. We tuck him in and he pretty much goes straight to sleep. The first night we heard a few minutes of jabbering, but that was it. The rest of the nights have been even less than that, even at Grandma & Grandpa’s for 2 nights! Naps, on the other hand, are another story. The first day he didn’t sleep at all. Instead he played in his room for 3 hours. The 2nd day he fell asleep for the last half hour that we would let him (so he would sleep at night). That meant he played for about 2-2 ½ hours. The third and fourth days he played for an hour and then got a 2 hour nap in. We have used the baby monitor more in the last week then we ever did when he was a baby. At Grandma & Grandpa’s he only napped for half an hour, but I’m just glad he slept well at night! Hopefully the napping gets better over time because he still needs one. He is a major grump in the afternoon/evenings if he doesn’t get a nap or gets a very short one. If he gets between 1-3 hours of sleep he is pretty good, depending on the day.

Weekend to Remember!
This past weekend we went to a “Weekend to Remember” marriage conference put on by Familylife. They do these all over the country and usually come to the Seattle area twice a year. There were some couples there from all over the country too. We met one couple from Ohio in the elevator. It was an amazing time! When we checked into our room, there were flowers waiting for me from Bill! He had sneakily ordered them to be waiting in the room when we arrived. I recommend the conference to every married couple out there no matter how long you have been married. They took a poll at the beginning to see who had been married the least amount of time and the longest. The shortest was 3 months, the longest 40+ years! There were also some engaged couples too. They said it started out as premarital counseling, but then so many married couples were interested in it because they hadn’t gotten the info or had forgotten it. At the very end on Sunday, we even had a mass renewal of our vows ceremony; it was very moving and tearful.

The conference is Jesus centered and shows how marriage is designed by God. The conference started Friday evening at 7 and was over at 12:30pm on Sunday. Each session was on a different aspect of marriage from what pushes a couple towards isolation, to what brings a couple together towards oneness, and everything in between. One session was even broken out and had the men and women in different rooms. There were application projects to do along the way to apply some of the things talked about. All Saturday evening, starting at 5pm was date night, open to do whatever each couple so desired. We had eaten a fairly big lunch at Red Robin with the other couples that came from our church, so we weren’t all that hungry at dinner time. So, instead we went on a nice romantic walk on the “River Walk” just a couple blocks away. The conference was in Redmond at the Town Center, which is a nice little shopping area I never had been to before. Then we decided we wanted ice cream instead of dinner so we got some Coldstone Creamery and went back to our room and watched Fireproof and then the soccer game.

It was so nice to have some couple time. We haven’t had time like this since before Shaun was born, over 2 years. We knew we needed to reconnect with each other, that is one of the reasons we decided to go to the conference. It doesn’t take much, and having a child is a lot, to push a couple towards isolation. We have been on the isolation road since Shaun was born. We both feel so much better and connected and on the road to oneness since this weekend. You don’t even realize that you are on the path towards isolation until you are brought back together in an intentional way or worse. Marriage requires work, hard work, but is so rewarding when you are on the road to oneness! We have also decided that we need to have some couple time like this more often, so we are going to try and go on a little weekend getaway twice a year or so; and maybe go back to the conference every 5 years or so. At a future conference, the material will probably be mainly the same (we may have forgotten some though), but the speakers will probably be different since there are so many of them, and each speaker brings their own experiences to the material and presents in their own style. The speakers were great! Two of them were a husband and wife and took turns speaking on the subject at hand. The husband was an ex Wall Street broker currently living in Pennsylvania. The third speaker was a pastor from the Portland, OR area. If you are reading this and are interested in going to a conference in the very near future; the next one around here is just around the corner the weekend of May 15th in Bellevue, or in Yakima in June. Otherwise; around here it will be another year probably before the next conference.

March!

I think it has been a couple months since I did a general family update. Well, Shaun has been learning a lot! He knows most letters and can count to 10 consistently! He got a couple sets of letters and numbers for his birthday and has been learning them ever since. He also loves to play with his foam letters in the bathtub. Last bath time he even requested to spell his name! So I said let’s find the “S”, then, “H” and so on. He was so happy to have spelled it at the end and said “Shaun!”

We are doing well considering that things didn’t go well with the IVF. We are content with our family and will give it one last shot in a few months with the 2 frozen ones we got. Since we can plan when I could potentially get pregnant, we are going to do it in late June or early July so to get a potential due date of March or so. That gets it past Christmas and Shaun’s birthday. God knows and has a plan for what the future will bring to our family.

Bill worked twice this month, in Everett & Boise, so he will be skipping May so we can go to the Family Life “Weekend to Remember” marriage conference. Our church has encouraged couples to go because it is so good, so we decided to sign up! We are so excited to go. We will get a weekend away in a hotel in Redmond. Shaun will be spending the whole weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s! He has only spent one night there once last September when we went to a concert, so this will be big! Grandma and Grandpa are willing (and happy I think) to have Shaun and also take Abby (dog) too. Sometimes Abby can be more work than Shaun because she likes to get into things. We will get a whole date weekend! I’m going to miss Shaun so much though.

We also got tickets for May to go to Shaun’s first live show; Sesame Street Live! It sounds like there is going to be a bunch of singing and he loves the characters so hopefully he will have a good time.

Happy Easter in a few days! Jesus is alive!

Final Result

The result is negative. The HCG level went up to 18, but that is not enough of an increase to indicate a pregnancy. The gal said that sometimes HCG levels can stick around for a little while. She consulted with the doctor to get this information. She said they might have me come back in after my cycle has started again (or if it doesn't after a week or so) to make sure the level is down. I am doing fine, as best as can be expected. Sad, but I know God has a plan for us. We just don't know yet if it is to be a one child family or more. I know being a one child family wouldn't be all bad, at least we have Shaun, and I will be forever eternally grateful for God giving us the amazing responsibility of being parents to Shaun. He is such a miracle! I tear up the most when my mind starts wondering and I think of Shaun not having any siblings. Ok, I have to stop writing about that.

The good news, that I don't think I have posted here on the blog yet, is that of the 7 embryos that were still growing at the time of the transfer, 2 of them made it to the blastocyst stage on day 5 where they could be frozen. So, we will have one more chance! This frozen transfer will not happen for at least a few months because there has to be at least one cycle in between, and then the suppression cycle, and then the transfer cycle. We also have experience with doing the frozen cycle (last August with the 2 embryos from Shaun's cycle), so we know what to expect with that too. It is much simpler. No stimulation just the progesterone shots starting around the time of transfer. The embryologist said that the process of freezing the embryos has improved since 2007 when the last set were frozen, so the odds of getting pregnant are basically the same as a fresh cycle now. So, my best guess is that may be done in June sometime. We do know that this will be the last fertility treatment that we do. We made that decision at the time we decided to go ahead and do a full round again with Grandma & Grandpa's money. We'll keep you posted.

1st Results

Just got the call regarding the first blood test. Good & bad. The good is that my HCG score is 13, the bad is that my HCG score is 13.

Anything over 5 is considered positive, so I get to go back on Sunday, but it is a really low positive so she wasn't too hopeful.

Let's hope for at least 26 on Sunday. I will post an update then. Bill flew out to Boise this morning for Navy duty. I just got off the phone with him and teared up when I was telling him. He reminded me that this is all in God's hands and we have prepared ourselves as much as possible for a negative result. Shaun is waking up from his nap now, so I think I will go give him a big hug!

Successful Transfer!!

The transfer went very well!!! There were 2 embryos that are at 8 cells, which is what they like to see at day 3, so those are the ones that were transferred!

3 others stopped growing, and 7 others are still growing, but at a slower pace.

The first blood test is on March 12! I'll post an update then on what the result is. I am resting the rest of today and keeping it low key for the coming weeks!

Here is the picture of the 2 embryos under a microscope just before they were transferred:

Here is an ultrasound picture of them inside me! Look where the arrow is pointing and you will see a white dot; that's them

Shaun's 2 Year Pictures!