Time Flies When You're Sleep-Deprived

Today I looked down at C while I was feeding him, and tears welled up so quickly that my eyes hurt.  It wasn't that long ago that we saw the little embryo we didn't think would be there:

Then he became Cletus the Fetus:

And entered this world as an almost stranger to us:

Now he's the love of our lives and totally looks like a big boy:

 I can't imagine how I'll feel when he's a toddler, or a tween, or a teenager.  I'm sure future-self will laugh at the naivete of present-self and how little perspective I have on the passage of time.

It's kind of like how Fatty went from this:

To this:

I guess some people dogs just get creepier with age...

Dealing with Infertility at the Ripe Old Age of 25

We tried for over a year and a half before getting pregnant. I never would have imagined that I'd have trouble getting pregnant. After all, sex ed teaches you that "it only takes one time." Plus infertility is reserved for older parents, right?  Clearly, I was wrong.

I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember.  I always thought the actual parenting would be difficult, not just getting pregnant.  I think it started getting frustrating at about 6 months of trying.  And by "frustrated," I mean that it was pretty much all I could think about, and I ended up getting really depressed.  About 9 months in, I went to see a doctor for an unrelated issue, and mentioned that we were trying to conceive unsuccessfully (okay, I'm already getting irritated with the terminology...).  Since my insurance coverage was about to change and a specialist visit would go from being free to having a 10% coinsurance, my doctor referred me asap to a reproductive endocrinologist who gave me a workup.  He even referred to a speculum as a crowbar.  Yessss.  Everything went well, but he mentioned offhandedly that I had a pretty sweet goiter.

Yet another misconception that I had - that goiters were issues related to developing countries.  You have first world issues?  That's cute.  I have third world issues.

I had a whole thyroid workup, and while my TSH was normal, my antibodies were super high.  Like off the charts.  But both my primary care doctor and the reproductive endocrinologist said that even though I have something called Hashimoto's thyroiditis, I should just sit and wait.  The reproductive endocrinologist explained it thusly: I should just sit and wait while my body attacks my thyroid, and when it degrades enough that it effects my TSH levels, then I could be treated.  Did I mention that my hair was falling out, I was gaining weight in spite of exercising more than I had been, I felt constantly worn down, and I HAD A GOITER?

Well guess who went directly to PubMed to find info about Hashimoto's?  The same person who has no patience for sitting and waiting, that's who.  And it turns out that Hashimoto's has a pretty decent link with not getting knocked up.  Some studies showed treating the symptoms rather than the TSH levels reversed the infertility.  But my doctor still refused to treat me.  So I went to a nurse practitioner who looked up the studies, called endocrinologists to make sure the Synthroid used to treat the symptoms wouldn't have adverse effects, and decided to prescribe me Synthroid.  I am so grateful to her, since I felt like I was slamming up against a brick wall - like I had found my answer, but no one was listening.

We luckily had a happy ending to our story, and I got knocked up about 3 months after starting the Synthroid.

And yes, please notice my creepy photobombing dog.

Underage Betting

Today is Derby Day!  We had C pick his bets:

He ended up picking Optimizer and Hansen.  I picked Daddy Long Legs, Prospective, and Gemologist.  I use the very scientific method of how much I like the name to pick horses, plus I throw in the horse with the longest odds at the time of our bets.  S made his much more educated bets, and we got my parents' bets to place for them.

We drove out to Keeneland to play the ponies.

The little miser wouldn't let anyone else hold/eat his tickets.  

One of the great things about Keeneland is that it's relatively small, and we were able to interact with some horses.

It seemed like all of the horses were more interested in the empty mint julep cup than they were in the baby.

We left Keeneland to go pick up a jogging stroller I found on Craigslist - an Instep Safari TT.  I've started to run a bit again, and I figured a jogging stroller would give me more flexibility in terms of scheduling a run,  plus S would be able to come with me if he wanted.  Coincidentally, my first race post-baby is on my birthday - at Keeneland.

Then we puttered around at home while waiting for the race to start.  The race always seems to go by so quickly!  Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of winnings.  Both S and my mom got the show bet.  I had considered betting on I'll Have Another, but the newspaper said that no horse has ever won from the 19th post.  Next year, I'll have to avoid reading the racing page.  And probably revert back to my original betting plan: whatever horse's name sounds the dirtiest.

Why I Cloth Diaper

I'm cheap.  I'll admit it.  I use coupons, I keep an eye out for deals, and I cloth diaper.  I decided I wanted to cloth diaper before I was even pregnant.  The overall cost savings were my biggest push.  But that wasn't the only reason.  I didn't want to be throwing out tons of diapers every day.  I also think that cloth diapers are more gentle on baby nether regions.

We actually started out with disposables, since we had to use vaseline on little man's business, and vaseline causes cloth diapers to repel.  Once we were done with that first week, we started to gradually move to cloth, and he was fully in cloth around 4 weeks.  There have been a few nights where I've been scrambling to get diapers gathered for daycare or where I have to dump a load in the laundry when I'd rather do nothing.  But  I persist, because I'm really sold on cloth.  I think he can better feel when he's wet, and I kept finding these gel crystals on him when he was in disposables - and they gave me the heeby jeebs.  I hear a few groans from S every once in a while, but I keep some disposables available for him.  But every time he changes C, the little guy comes down in cloth...

I know, I know.  All of my zero readers want to know more about cloth diapering.  Well never you fear, nonexistent ones!  I'll be posting more about my new obsession.

Blog Post 1.0

C is down for a nap, so what better time to start a blog? The little guy is tuckered out since he started rolling over today.  It seems like just over the course of the past 48 hours, he went from wobbly-headed to pretty stable.

On Saturday, S and I went to see The Hunger Games and left C with S's parents.  We ended up shopping for clothes for the little guy and talking about him over lunch.  I was pretty disappointed in the movie; I enjoyed the books much more.  I guess I just prefer teenagers being killed in my imagination instead of on a big screen...