Cole Update

So I’ve had a lot of posts about Caitlyn lately because she’s had a lot going on but wanted to update where Cole is right now too! 

He is my strong willed child.  I’m told that someday when he’s older this will be a good trait.  Right now he gives mommy and daddy a run for their money!  He has his ideas of how things should be, what he wants to do and when he wants to do it.  He can throw a fit that lasts for hours. 

On the other hand he can be super sweet.  He loves to cuddle.  He’ll snuggle up on the couch with you and just lay there sweet as can be.  His laugh is infectious.  He loves Caitlyn and follows her around like a lost puppy (and thankfully Caitlyn is a patient big sister and most of the time allows this without complaint).  He worries when someone else is upset and wants to make things better. 

 

He just started sleeping through the night around the end of last year at 2 years 3 months.  It was a long 2 years of broken sleep!  He is a picky eater and wants nothing to do with vegetables and very few fruits.  He’d be happy with chicken nuggets or mac & cheese with applesauce for every meal!  Carbs are his friend and everything else is yucky.  Meal times are a struggle and I try really hard to just let it go.  He eats what we make for dinner and if he doesn’t want it he doesn’t have to eat but he doesn’t get anything else. 

 

He recently moved from the toddler one room to toddler 2 at daycare.  He’s had a few successful potty attempts while at school but has yet to actually go on the potty at home.  He’ll sit on the potty (on his terms) and he’ll really try (it’s coming momma, it’s coming) but nothing has happened yet.  We’re going to have 4 days at home over 4^th of July weekend and I’m hoping to make some progress during that time.  He’ll be moving to the preschool room in September if we get him potty trained by his 3^rd birthday.  Fingers crossed it won’t be as hard and I’m anticipating. 

He is definitely all boy.  He likes to climb, get dirty, wrestle with daddy, fall down, get back up, give mischievous looks when getting into trouble, and he LOVES trains! 

 

He currently wants you to repeat everything he says so he knows you understand.  Most of the time this isn't a problem but there are still times that we can't understand him and it takes awhile for us to figure it out.  He is relentless! 

 

He is an awesome part of our family and we love him to the moon and back! 

Adventureland!!!

We decided to take a trip to Des Moines for Adventureland last week.  We went with Beth, Josh and Harrison and took our last roadtrip all in one car before the new babies come this fall!  We left Friday afternoon so we could have dinner at one of my (and Beth's) favorite restaurants, Ohana's.  It's a Japanese steakhouse.  It was amazing!  Cole was freaked out with them cooking in front of us.  It was loud and he didn't enjoy it, but the rest of us did!  They were also very accommodating to Caitlyn's dairy allergy.  So much fun! 

We stayed at Adventureland Inn.  The first night in the hotel room was rough.  Cole didn't want to sleep.  He started out on the floor and then ended p in bed with me and I kicked Jared out to sleep with Caitlyn.  We maybe got about 3 hours sleep (except Caitlyn who slept fine). 

We took the Trolley over to Adventureland and got to the park before it opened.  The weather was great although a little cold for the waterpark even later in the afternoon. 

 

 

They had so much fun on all the rides.  Caitlyn is my thrill seeker.  Every time I started getting tired or overwhelmed she'd run up to me excited stating a ride was awesome or she was having so much fun and it made it all totally worth it!  I may be big and pregnant but I want the kids to have a great summer and I don't want to stay around home doing nothing.  They deserve better than that. 

 

The second night in the hotel was better.  I had requested a crib which they put in the room but he didn't want anything to do with that.  His choice was the crib or sleep with Caitlyn.  He chose to sleep with Caitlyn.  He did get up at 5 asking to be covered up.  He was quiet until 6 and then got up for the day.  We watched Shrek Forever After because that's all that was on that early. 

 

Sunday morning we went to the hotel pools.  They had 3 pools, one infant pool with a frog slide, a pool with a swim up bar and then another with 2 bigger slides.  The kids had a blast.  It took Cole a little while to warm up to the water but once he was used to it he loved it!  And had no fear.  He was going down the big slide and Jared was catching him.  There were a couple of times that he went to fast and Jared didn't get him before he went under but he didn't seem to care, just kept going! 

 

We had lunch at Great China before heading out of town.  They have the BEST crab Rangoon.  We did the buffet and I had 5 of them!  They are triangles instead of folded up.  So creamy and yummy!  I should have taken some food pictures this weekend! 

We were all exhausted after such a fun weekend but this little guy is the only one that actually slept on the way home! 

 

Summer Fun!

Summer has just started but we're already having lots of fun and have lots of things planned!  Hoping keeping busy makes the time go fast until this baby girl comes in September!

Mothers Day Family Picture at Church! 

 

Park Fun!  This picture of Caitlyn and Cole is one of my favorites!  I think I'm going to put it on a canvas! 

 

 

Picnic and Fireworks in Grandma and Papa's backyard Memorial Day weekend!

 

 

Breakfast in the park with the Sheehan family!  Caitlyn loved holding baby Embry (can't say she felt the same way)!  Wish I had taken more pictures this morning, we have so much fun at these family get togethers!  Looking forward to more of them over the summer!

 

 

LaVista Daze! 

 

 

 

Coming up the rest of June is my birthday, a trip to Des Moines for Adventureland and the zoo and our camping (in a cabin) trip with grandma and papa Darling to Ponca State Park! 

 

2012 Catch Up

Some more catch up.  Here is a picture a month from my last post in 2012 through December 2012.  I'll have another one for 2013 soon.   

June

Camping with Grandma and Papa Darling at Ponca State Park!

 

July

Summertime Fun!

 

August



A mommy daddy trip to Atlanta for the Big 10 Pub Crawl!

 

September

 



2 Pictures from the kids birthday! 


October

 Halloween!

November

Helping Daddy with the finishing touches on the remodel!

December

Christmas 2012!


 

Infertility Awareness Week

Since this week is Infertility Awareness Week I thought I might share our story.  Most of you know bits and pieces of this story but if it helps even one person to not feel alone during their journey then it’s worth putting it out there. 

Jared and I were married in June 2005.  We basically started trying right away to get pregnant.  A year went by and nothing.  I asked questions at my annual OB appointment and he did some blood tests and prescribed Clomid (an oral infertility medication).   After my blood tests came back I was diagnosed with PCOS and prescribed Metformin (also used for Diabetes patients).  This medication did a number on my stomach.  But I got used to it after a while. 

After 5 months of Clomid and numerous other tests, acupuncture and no pregnancy my OB referred me to an RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist).    We tried  Clomid with an IUI our first round with the RE and got pregnant!   We got to see the heartbeat at 5 weeks with the RE and were released back to my OB.  At 9  weeks we found the baby’s heart had stopped beating.  I had miscarried.  I had no symptoms of a miscarriage.  It’s what they called a missed-miscarriage.  I was at the appointment by myself and had to drive myself home.  I was a wreck.  I had a D&C the next day. 

We waited 1 month before we tried again.  This time we did injectable infertility meds with IUI.  We did this twice with no success.  In August 2007 I had to have a surgical procedure done to remove polyps.  We started IUI with injectable medications again in October.  Neither October or November worked.  Our RE stated that she’d do one more IUI then we needed to think about IVF.  Jared refused to talk about it.  His opinion was that you didn’t talk about the next “game” until the current game was over.  I on the other had wanted to know what we were going to do next.  I had little faith that this last IUI would work.  I didn’t want to try IVF, if we were going to spend that kind of money I wanted to move towards adoption.  But Jared’s heart wasn’t open to that at the time.  I let it go. 

We did the last IUI in December and on December 30th I got a positive pregnancy test.  I was excited but cautious.  In January (on a Friday night) I started bleeding.  I freaked out.  My RE’s office said that some bleeding could be normal and they scheduled me for an appointment on Monday.  Jared was helping my sister move to Des Moines that weekend so I was alone…again.   At Monday’s appointment we couldn’t see the heartbeat yet (too soon) but my RE could see blood clots in there and what was happening as the baby and my uterus was growing it was pushing the blood clots out.  I was so thankful that it didn’t look like another miscarriage.  I ended up having a very non-eventful pregnancy with Caitlyn and delivered her in September 2008.

With Cole we tried naturally for a year again and when nothing came of that visited the RE again.  It took 3 IUI’s with injectable medications to get pregnant the third time.   I had some morning/all day sickness with Cole’s pregnancy throughout the first trimester and the rest of the pregnancy was uneventful. 

This fourth pregnancy was a complete surprise.  Jared and I were on completely different pages.  He really wanted to try for a 3^rd and I felt like we were complete with 2.  I knew I didn’t want to do any type of treatment again so I told him that we could try naturally for a year and if nothing happened we’d stop trying.  A year and a half after that conversation I was trying to convince him we were done trying.  He wanted one more month.  We both prayed.  He prayed for a 3^rd child.  I prayed that God would give Jared peace with our decision to stop trying.  Three weeks later we had a positive pregnancy test.  Jared was so excited.  I was in complete shock.   I was more sick with this pregnancy and it lasted further into the 2^nd trimester.  I’m feeling much better now most days. 

If anyone reading this is going through infertility, please know that you are not alone.  It may feel that way because it seems to be a taboo topic but there are so many going through the same things.  I may have gotten through my hurdles but the pain and frustration is still there at times. 

God's plans were different than mine but they are better than we could ever imagine! 

It's Been Awhile...

Last week I was reading through my old blog posts and I realized I missed this space.  It’s a great place for me to document the happenings going on with us.  It’s also like my baby / child book for the kids!  So here I am with an update of the last almost 2 years…

 Caitlyn turned 5 last September.  She is a great big sister!  She loves Cole and is great with him.  Most times when he’s in a mood or tantrum throwing, she’s the one that gets through to him and calms him down.  She’s in her third year of preschool / pre-k and is so ready for Kindergarten this August.  She is way more ready than Jared or I are for this big transition.  She’ll ask me periodically if it’s time for Kindergarten yet.  Mostly I think it’s because she hates nap time at daycare.  Thankfully after pre-k graduation in May they will transition her in with the school age kids and nap time will be a thing of the past!  She hasn’t napped since I brought Cole home from the hospital (she had just turned 3).  This girl is a cuddle bug and I love it!  And I think because she requests cuddle time Cole usually follows and loves it too.  His time is just much shorter at the moment.  She is finally dressing herself in the mornings and definitely has a style of her own!  She’s great at matching colors but hasn’t learned to match patterns as well.  I love her spirit, kindness and understanding.  She's turning into such a sweet loving girl! 

 

 

 Cole turned 2 last September.  He’s in the toddler room at daycare and has been doing great.  The transition from Beth’s to daycare was a little rough last summer but he’s doing great now!  We’re starting to get into potty training mode.  He’ll need to be fully potty trained to move to the preschool room and will be able to move once he turns 3.  So we have this summer to get in gear!   He is my strong willed child.  I’m told this will be good in his adult life but right now he tries me on a daily basis.   He loves his big sister and is constantly following her around and wanting to do what she does.  He loves all things trains…especially Thomas the train.  We got him a train table for Christmas…it was the best money spent.  He has his cuddle moments but they are usually short.  He also has little patience for tv so far….unless Thomas is on.  For some reason he can sit and watch that all afternoon.  I don’t get it. 

 

Baby number three will arrive in September.  Yes, all 3 of my babies are going to be September babies.  It’s insane.  This one was a little bit of a surprise but we are excited and getting ready.  We’ll find out the gender in 2 weeks, which I’m super excited about!  Caitlyn is super excited and hoping for a sister because she already has a brother and doesn’t need another one.  Cole has just started coming around to the fact that mommy has a baby in her belly.  He was insistent that there wasn’t up until about a month ago.  It’s going to be a huge transition for him but I know he’ll come around and be a great big brother too! 

Zeus is still battling his allergies.  He’s also going to be having a fatty tumor removed in the next couple of weeks.  He’s starting to show his age a little bit.  He turns 13 this month.  Still as loud and obnoxious as ever though! 

 

 

We finished the kitchen remodel.  I’ll post before/during/after photo’s at some point.   

We are still active at church.  We’ve joined a young marrieds group that meets once a month and really enjoy that!  Plus it really helps us grow in our relationship as well. 

 We took a couple of trips.  Last summer we went to Ponca State Park with Grandma Kendy and Papa Rich.  In September we went to Branson with Grandma Barb and Papa Fred.  Then in February of this year Jared and I went to St Lucia for Tony and Darci’s wedding!  It was amazing…even though I was sick as a dog with morning (all day) sickness. 

This has gotten really long!  Looking forward to keeping this updated! 

Florida Trip Part 3

We took one day and went to Orlando to Disney.  We went to the Magic Kingdom and I will say that I went more for me because I had never been than for Caitlyn or Cole.  And I kind of wished I would have waited a few more years before going.  Caitlyn had a good time for the most part.  The worst part was the automatic flushing toilets (which a girlfriend of mine mentioned putting a sticker or post-it note over the sensor…wish I would have thought of that before the trip!).  Caitlyn was so afraid of them and all of them were automatic except for the bathroom in the castle.  Thankfully she went to the bathroom at lunch without a fuss.  We did lunch with the princesses.  That was a lot of fun!  It took her a little while to warm up to them and be comfortable around them to get her picture taken with them but she did and they turned out great!  

Snow White and Cole flirted - this is one of my favorite pictures of him from the trip!  

Caitlyn loved all the rides!  Even the teacups which she did with uncle Josh because they make Jared and I sick to our stomachs!  

Cole was even great and was so content in his stroller most of the day.  

While waiting for the light parade to start that night we were in a store and Jared and I were discussing which doll to get for Caitlyn.  All of a sudden I hear "mommy I'm peeing".  I look down and there she is with her legs spread and her dress pulled up in a puddle of pee.  I was mortified!  The store employee wasn't phased at all.  They had extra underwear still in the packaging just for this type of thing.  I was expecting to have to pay for a package of underwear but they just gave me a pair.  I was so thankful.  We watched the parade and headed back home.  It's unfortunate that I keep focusing on the negative of this day because now remembering back and writing it out it was actually a really fun day!  Sure she had her terrible 3 moments and the bathroom fiasco's but overall we all had a great time!

Cole: 9 Months

I can't believe we're so close to Cole turning One.  It's craziness!!!  Last week I took him to Dr. W for his 9 month appointment.  I thought we were going to get to skip shots for that appointment but somehow we had missed one of his Hep B shots so he got one anyway.  Poor guy.  He currently weighs 19lbs 6oz.  He's 27 1/4 in long and his head circumference is 17 3/4.  His head didn't grow any since his 6 month appt but she thought the measurements just weren't taken correctly at his last appt.  We'll see how the number goes at his one year appt.  I am still calling him my lazy baby.  He has started to hold his bottle if we put his hands on it but he won't do it unassisted.  He's rolling around to get places.  I talked to Dr. W about my concerns with him not crawling but she said as long as he can get from point A to point B there isn't anything to worry about.  He may not crawl at all and just go straight to walking.  Although even that seems so far away.  He has no desire to even stand on his own or put weight on his legs for more than a minute at a time.  I've said it before but he is so different from Caitlyn.  And it's hard for me to not compare them!  He doesn't have any teeth yet although she said they were close.  He doesn't want to eat actual food yet.  We just got him eating his baby food on a consistent basis.  He does love the yogurt bites though and will pick those up and put them in his mouth and eat them.  Any other solids that we give him he just spits back out.  He doesn't even try to chew and eat it.  I'm going to try to use the mesh feeder with him more to see if that helps to teach him to actually chew his food.  We'll see how that goes.   Caitlyn can make him laugh like no one else can and it's music to my ears!  I could listen to the 2 of them go back and forth all day long!  He also loves to cuddle and I could kiss on him forever and a day!  Seriously love this little boy!!!