Monday, April 29, 2013

Thanks

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you so much for all of you who left comments or sent an email or text to me about our infertility journey.  I received messages from friends, family and people I've never met and every single one brought tears to my eyes.  We appreciate the support more than you'll ever know and are so lucky to have so many amazing people praying for us.  I'm working on replying to the emails and I promise I'll get back to each of you!

Thanks again for your kindness.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Our Story 2013


Read the first part of the story here.

2013

We got through the holidays and decided we were going to give this one more try. We were going to start over with the full IVF again. The injections, pills, patches, dr visits, acupuncture, egg retrieval, bed rest, everything.

Before we could get to that I started feeling some pain in January. My left ovary just HURT. I went to Dr H for my monitoring and found out I had an almost 5cm cyst on my ovary. It was huge, larger than a golf ball. I had to get on birth control to shrink it down for a month before we could continue with treatments. This was discouraging to me because it proved once again that my body just isn’t right. I have 18-25 cysts surrounding each ovary on any normal day, it’s ridiculous, my ovaries look like honeycombs in the ultrasounds. When we were trying to get pregnant in 2010 I had several issues with this and ended up having a cyst aspiration on several of them at one point. I have no idea why this one particular cyst got so large but it did. Once that was calmed down we started the treatments for attempt #3 at baby #2. I started ALL the medicines, which is a LOT, and went in for my regular by-weekly monitoring. Every visit took longer and longer to count the follicles (where the eggs are) because I reacted so quickly to the meds. Dr H minimized my dosages (this time one of the medications I was on was the minimal amount of Menopur, and in 2010 I was on quadruple doses of Menopur if that tells you anything) and he ended up cutting several days off the schedule because I reacted much more than expected. Each scan took forever and I timed the last one, it took 15 minutes to count the 33 mature follicles that I had, they were everywhere! The ultrasound tech said there were just layers of them everywhere she looked. THIRTY THREE. I was in PAIN. Every single bump in the road I felt. When I would sit down in a chair too quickly I could feel my ovaries. I could feel them when I was sitting.  It was miserable. But I knew the outcome and I knew it was all worth it. Three days before the embryo transfer I went in for the egg retrieval. For anyone who has ever had this, I feel for you. For those that only have a few eggs, I’ve heard it’s not that bad, just some cramping. Some people can even go back to work the next day. That is not my case.

Here we are bright and early waiting to go back to the pre-op room for the retrieval!


Almost time!  Still smiling at this point.


With 33 eggs retrieved I was in a ridiculous amount of pain afterwards and even more so since they also aspirated some of the other follicles because they weren’t mature enough. I woke up from the anesthesia and instantly had tears rolling down my face. They gave me some extra pain meds in the IV and then once we got home I took pain meds for about two days (I also got the cervical stitch in while I was on anesthesia so luckily I didn’t have to deal with that separately). I lay on the couch soon after we got home and tears just kept coming but I wasn’t crying, I was just in a LOT of pain and couldn’t stop the tears. I remember looking at Austin and saying “I can NEVER do this again. Ever.” In all of the times we’ve gone through these infertility struggles I’ve never said that, it was just that bad. I had finally reached my limit. So, we anxiously awaited the news of the fertilization. Dr H called the next day and said that 12 of the embryos had fertilized! We were so happy because we knew, this is it. We showed up on March 4th ready to go for the embryo transfer. We were doing something new with the transfer this time and using embryo glue (we were also planning on using it for the December transfer but that never happened). The embryo glue increases your odds of the embryos surviving because they stay put in your uterus. Dr H walked in after I was prepped for the transfer to talk about which embryos we would transfer. It didn’t look great. The quality of the embryos was good and there was 0% fragmentation around the embryos which was fantastic but they just weren’t growing quite as quickly as he would like. We transferred a 4 and 5 cell embryo, for a three day transfer they prefer the cells to be more like 8-9 cells. But we went ahead with the transfer and I went home for bed rest.

My bed rest dinner buddies. 

This girl is so silly and it was so hard to stay in bed while she ran around the house.

I never had a great feeling about it just because the excitement that had been there for my other two transfers wasn’t there. I don’t know if Dr H was just tired because I was 7am on a Monday or if he just didn’t want to get my hopes up but I never had a good feeling about it, something was different. A few days later Dr H called to tell me the news that all but two of my embryos didn’t survive. Out of the 33 eggs that were retrieved and the 12 that were fertilized from that, we only had TWO frozen. This made the waiting time even more stressful. So, we waited the usual time and on March 15th I went in at 8am for the blood draw. At 2:30pm as I was walking out of my office building because I just couldn’t sit there anymore, Dr H called with the news I was dreading. I was not pregnant. Again. I could barely breathe, I remember having to gasp for air just to make it to my car. He talked so quickly, I could tell he was upset calling with this news and I just wanted to get off the phone so I wouldn’t completely lose it while listening to him try to explain the unexplainable. He wanted Austin and me to come and talk with him when we were ready about our next step and to explain the report. I was devastated. Since I never had a good feeling about this transfer so I should have been more prepared but there really is no way to prepare yourself for that kind of heartbreak. Even if you think bad news is coming you can never be fully prepared for the feelings that go along with it. Not only were we not pregnant but we barely had anything left and given our history of embryos not surviving I knew our odds were not good.

This is a good point to say what amazing family and friends I have. The ones who knew what was going on day to day are there right along with me when it comes to the disappointment and heartbreak. When I call or text the news to them I can tell how much they care. Whether they send flowers or just say how sorry they are in a text it all means a lot. It really is times like these that show you who your friends are and I have some great ones.

We took a few weeks off after the bad news and then revisited Dr H for the follow up. Basically it came down to the poor quality eggs from my severe PCOS. He talked about possibly using an egg donor if we moved forward with another full IVF cycle but I completely dismissed that talk at the time. I couldn’t even think that this wasn’t going to happen for us with our own DNA. We knew we have two frozen embryos left and we’re going to pray as much as we can that they survive the thaw because that will be our last chance.

The reason this is most likely our last chance is something I haven’t mentioned yet that is probably our biggest difference from 2010 when we went through this for Hannah and now is my insurance. It doesn’t exist this time around for fertility coverage. Every single dime spent on the treatments has come out of our pockets. I don’t have copays because insurance doesn’t matter; I pay the full price for every blood test, every follicle scan, and every procedure. Things you normally don’t think about, like the cost of the anesthesiologist I now think about because I know exactly what he charges for his services since I paid him. I now know how much it costs to get your blood drawn because I pay that every time. I won’t go into the exact cost but let me just say, it's probably more than you would guess and it’s worth every single penny if it works. Until you don’t have the money anymore, then it all changes. And we don’t have it anymore. Therefore this next chance is the big one and most likely the last one. Unless we win the lottery we probably will never do this again. I’ve looked tirelessly into fertility grants and clinical trials and nothing has worked out. This is one reason that infertility awareness is so important. In my case, I have a disease, it is painful and it doesn’t go away. It’s something that I think surfaced when I was about 16 and was masked with medication (which is the best way to treat it) until we were ready to have a baby. When we went back to Dr H for the first time after Hannah was born I was told I didn’t have insurance covered. Say what?!?! I said I have to because I still work for the same company, same insurance plan, nothing has changed, etc. Yeah….not the case. After going through this with my company’s benefits people and the insurance company over and over I finally got an answer. I was “cured”. Well, that's news to me but my insurance company said I was cured! Hallelujah, why didn’t anyone tell me this?! They said they covered the “initial diagnosis” and as soon as I gave birth to Hannah I was “cured”. If this is being cured then I definitely don’t want to know what isn’t. Believe me, I fought it and finally had to give up because it wasn’t going to change. So, that’s that and unfortunately now we pay for everything ourselves. We still hadn’t fully recovered from the financial strain getting pregnant with Hannah cost us and we were now starting over with a much larger price to pay. But it is what it is and you do what you have to do to make your dreams come true.

So, in the conversation with Dr H he mentioned a few things. He mentioned the egg donor possibility in the future would be our best bet if this didn’t work out and he also mentioned Hannah. He told me how once she is older I will need to watch out for the signs of her getting PCOS. I have it so badly that she easily could have inherited it. It broke my heart to think she may be facing the same struggles I have. But that’s in the future and there is nothing we can do about that now, I can’t deal with the guilt of it because it’s out of my control, I just never thought that I could pass this on to my daughter. I can only pray that she never has to go through any of this in her life.

While talking to Dr H we also decided to have another hysteroscopy because it had been six months since the last one and some of the scar tissue or polyps could be back and we really needed everything to be perfect for the two remaining embryos. Two days later on April 17th I was back in the operating room knocked out for the procedure. When I woke up Austin told me that Dr H said I had some thick tissue that was removed and would be biopsied but other than that, it went well. I was under longer than expected because of that but everything was looking good and I felt fine. About a week later I returned to Dr H’s office to get the results, and honestly I wasn’t expecting to hear anything new. Wrong again. Dr H was even surprised by the biopsy report this time. The pathologist wrote “Worrisome simple hyperplasia. Needs to be monitored closely”. Hyper what?? Worrisome? Well, I personally don’t like the word “worrisome” on a medical report! Dr H explained that it was from high levels of estrogen that made the endometrial wall of the uterine lining thick and there are two kinds, simple and complex. Simple hyperplasia is something that needs to be monitored and treated but if I show up with complex hyperplasia then I will have to stop all fertility treatments and fix that before continuing because complex hyperplasia can cause uterine cancer. ARE YOU SERIOUS!?! So many thoughts were running through my head while I was listening to Dr H in his office but one of the main ones was laughter. I really just wanted to laugh. Of course I have hyperplasia! I mean, why wouldn’t I?! It’s ridiculous. Dr H said that pregnancy will actually be the best thing to treat it temporarily but after I deliver my next baby I will need to come back to him for another biopsy and treat it. I made a decision right then and there what was going to happen once my next baby is born and after talking to Austin and him agreeing with me, we now have a plan. I am a BIG believer in “everything happens for a reason”. I think God gives you challenges for a specific reason and even when it seems impossible to see the reason at the time, there is one. When I told Tracy about the hyperplasia she said that maybe I got PCOS to save me from having cancer. Maybe that’s true or maybe not, we’ll never really know. But I’ve decided that this hyperplasia nonsense isn’t going to slow me down and I’m not going to live with it so God willing I get to have another baby, it will be my last.

So, that brings us to today. We are currently at attempt #4 for baby #2. With the FET we will be doing the embryo glue as well as assisted hatching this time which hopefully will increase the odds of the embryos surviving and growing. All we can do is pray that the embryos will survive the thaw and will continue to grow in my uterus and we will have a healthy baby in the next year.

This has most definitely gone in a different direction than we initially thought when we started this journey again last year. I never in a million years thought that this wouldn’t work. When we finally got pregnant with Hannah we knew that she was a miracle. Now with the information we have, it’s proof that she is truly even more of a miracle than we ever thought before. People will say to me “well thank God you have Hannah”. Yes, we do thank God we have Hannah but that doesn’t make this any easier. In some ways I think it makes it harder. Sometimes I look at her with her cousins or see how much she loves other people's babies and it breaks my heart to think she may not get that. She may be an only child which is something I never imagined. I can’t imagine my life without my sister and that’s all I want for her, I want her to have a little partner in crime and a best friend at all times. I want her to know the bond that siblings have with each other and I want her to have someone to complain about Mom and Dad to and they will totally understand. I just pray that happens.

So, that is our story. It’s not over and hopefully a new chapter is just beginning. There are parts that I left out just for privacy reasons but if anyone has any questions for me please send me an email Kelly.townsend@yahoo.com and I will answer anything.

Our Story 2012

This is a long story that is not easy to write, it took me several days to get through it. As I said in the previous post, I don’t normally share this personal stuff on the blog but just this morning I got an email from a sweet friend that I never get to see anymore but love with all my heart and she made me so glad that I can share this story with you. The only reason I’ve decided to share about my infertility is hoping that I can help just one person in any way get through this themselves and now I know I have which makes my heart happy.

Please remember this is OUR story and your opinion may be different than ours but please be respectful and know that we are doing what we think is best. The choices we make or the decisions my doctor makes are what is best for our outcome and may not be best for anyone else.


You can read our original story here. I’m breaking this into two posts because it’s really long. I’ll start with 2012 and then have a 2013 post.

2012

Before Hannah turned one year old Austin and I started talking about when to try for baby number two. In June I went back to Dr H to discuss our plan and he wanted to start with a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to make sure I didn’t have any blockage in my fallopian tubes. The last time I had an HSG in 2010 it was not pleasant, I had blockage in one of my tubes and Dr H had me moving all around on the table until I felt a POP and the blockage cleared. This time luckily, it was much easier. Everything looked good on the HSG and we were told to return the month before we wanted to start our treatments. We really didn’t have much to discuss with Dr H, we had 17 remaining frozen embryos from our IVF in 2010 so we knew we were going straight for the frozen embryo transfer (FET). In September I started the hormones (pills, patches and injections) to prepare for the transfer. I also started back with my weekly acupuncture treatments to assist with the transfer that I still do today. My uterus and cervix are both sharply retrograded (tilted backwards) so Dr H has to go a few days before the FET and place a stitch in and pull my cervix forward. It feels as awesome as you can imagine getting a stitch done while you are wide awake and can feel everything (it is then removed immediately after the transfer is complete). It hurts and I dread it every single time. Anyways, October 11th was the big day and we were SO ready and sure it was going to happen. That date was significant with me because I’m a big believer in signs and Hannah’s embryo was transferred on November 11th and she was born on August 11th so I just knew it was going to work. The embryologist thaws the embryos two at a time and he had to thaw six to get the two that were transferred. The two embryos looked perfect! Dr H, Austin, and I were all really positive this was going to work. Dr H said everything in the transfer looked flawless and he was really optimistic about it. I just had to do my bed rest and then wait for several days to hear the results. I went in at 8am on October 19th for the blood draw and spent the rest of the afternoon staring at my phone waiting for “the call”. I had the negative call several times before with the IUIs but the last (and only other) time I had an embryo transfer and had to wait for the call it turned out positive and was a great day so I was very excited thinking this worked especially since the transfer looked so promising. Well, I didn’t get the call I hoped for. Dr H called after I got home from work and said that he was sorry but I wasn’t pregnant. I was shocked and very sad. I cried while Hannah stood there staring at me wondering what was wrong.

We went to follow up with Dr H the next week to discuss anything we could do differently the next time. He suggested I have a hysteroscopy in November to make sure everything looked good in my uterus. This is the only thing that I have ever had any regrets about through this whole infertility journey. I wish we had done the hysteroscopy before the October transfer especially since I had a C-section with Hannah (due to the chances of having scar tissue from the surgery). But what’s done is done and I can’t look back. So, in November we headed to the surgical center, got me hooked up to the IV and I was knocked out for a little nap. When I woke up I was told that there was significant scar tissue in my uterus as well as a large polyp. Everything was removed and cleared so I was good to go for a December transfer date. I returned to Dr H a few weeks before the transfer and geared up for FET #2. I had eleven (or so I thought at the time) frozen embryos left and was prepared for a December 13th transfer date. I had my cervical stitch already in place for a few days and on the afternoon of December 12th while I was still at work I got a call from Dr H. He said he was so sorry but none of my embryos made it past the thawing stage. It’s normal for a few to not make it but this was not normal. The embryologist did whatever testing he does and the report stated that the egg quality wasn’t great. The embryos were at blastocyst (the correct amount of growth for a FET) but they just didn’t make it. I was crushed. I immediately went into the conference room with the only person at work who knew what was going on and cried and cried, I could barely speak. I surely didn’t expect this to happen and I couldn’t believe it. We had nothing. We were out of embryos. When I went through the egg retrieval back in 2010 they got 25 eggs! That’s insane. Twenty of them fertilized and I thought we had 11 remaining. We didn’t have 11 like we thought, we had six. Some of the embryos from the October transfer didn’t make it through the thawing process as well we just didn’t realize it. But still, we had SIX left! A lot of people only get six total when they have an egg retrieval and now we had none. I was in a spot I never ever thought I’d be in again. I thought since the first egg retrieval and freezing were SO successful that I would never run out of embryos. So, on December 13th instead of going to get the FET we had to go back to Dr H’s office so I could get the stitch removed. It was terrible. I just lay on the exam table with tears going down my face while Dr H removed the stitch and Austin just held my hand silently. It was so sad. Thankfully no one else was in the office that morning since Dr H was scheduled to be with me at the fertility center. I could feel just by the hugs given to me that morning how sad they all were for us. I reached an all-time low for this whole infertility process during those few days. I was devastated and just felt hopeless.

I have to say though, I have an AMAZING doctor.  I've never dealt with a medical professional who is so caring and has such a great bedside manner.  I know he's the only doctor who's ever given me his cell phone number to call him anytime I have questions or feel that something isn't right.  And believe me, we've called him.  He also never makes me feel rushed, he's always so patient and I can tell he really cares about us and makes it known how much he wants this to happen for us.  Having a doctor like this makes going through infertility just a tad bit easier.

Continue to 2013 to read the rest of our story.   

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

National Infertility Awareness Week



This week is National Infertility Awareness Week. It’s a week I honestly wish I knew nothing personally about. But that’s not the case, I know all about infertility first hand. I’ve written our story about how we were blessed with Hannah and the journey it took us to get her here. At the time I felt grateful for our journey and maybe one day I will feel that way again but so far I’m just not there. This is why awareness is so important about this heartbreaking issue.


Infertility comes from many different causes. It is usually defined as a couple being unable to have a child after more than a year of trying naturally. Some people just need a little assistance and others need more. I fall under the second group.

I’m going to do another post later in the week about our struggles to conceive since the year after Hannah was born. The journey to have a second child is going VERY differently than it did with Hannah. It is 100 times harder than it was the first time and we’ve had many more unexpected struggles.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m very guarded on this blog. This is my family journal where I love documenting what we do but it’s also the internet. Even if my blog was private I wouldn’t include a lot of things that happen, but if our names and pictures weren’t on the blog that would be a different story. It’s just not the right decision for us. I don’t think I’m being fake, I’m just being private. I’ve suffered a lot of pain this year and instead of sugar coating things I usually just fall silent which is why some of you may have noticed the lack of blogging compared to the past years. There are very few people who know what we are going through right now and even less that know the day to day but now more than ever I’ve realized how important infertility awareness is because I wish more than anything that my journey to having children wasn’t this hard. But until that changes, raising awareness is the best thing we can do.

Having a child is the best blessing in life (in my opinion). Being able to get pregnant is one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever experienced. When you struggle like I have, you understand the true meaning of the word “grateful” in a way you never knew before. Infertility can strip you of that privilege and that’s one of the reasons that awareness is so important. I believe a child, no matter how they come to you whether it is from your DNA or someone else’s, is truly a miracle. I also think that all parents are grateful for their children and love them in a way they never thought possible but when you have to fight so hard like families who experience infertility it’s just a different kind of grateful. I don’t want to seem like some parents don’t love their children as much as others, I just want to express the challenges I guess. I feel very strongly that every woman should have the opportunity to have a child if that is what they wish. It’s what we are made for. It’s our right. When you are told that may not happen, it’s heartbreaking and it’s unfair. But life isn’t always fair, and sometimes it’s heartbreaking. I just hope and pray that one day women won’t have to experience this kind of heartbreak and unfairness anymore. I hope that maybe because of something I’ve experienced others won’t have to. Maybe all insurance companies will start paying to help more. Maybe something that happened to me my doctor will learn from and share with other doctors. Maybe one day the odds will be in our favor and not against us. You never know. That’s what awareness is all about.

Later this week I’ll share our story about this past year and hopefully someone will find something useful out of it. We haven’t reached our happy ending yet and it’s not wrapped up in a pretty bow but one of my favorite things about blogging is the information and relationships I’ve found by reading other peoples stories. Real life stories. Those are helpful to me so I can only hope our story will be helpful to someone else.  I’m sharing because I hope that my story will help others and raise awareness and hopefully bringing positive changes to infertility.



Monday, April 22, 2013

Hannah's Week

Have I ever mentioned here how much I love Hannah's school??  It's SO nice!  I really give them a lot of credit for how advanced she is because she is always learning new things.  I know not all the kids learn the same and some of them you can tell are naturally ahead/behind the others just by being around them for a few minutes but the teachers do such a good job of getting Hannah at least to learn new things!

Last week was "the week of the young child" at Hannah's school.  So basically, it was just a week full of themes for each day and they all talked about each particular theme of the day.  Here was her schedule for the week:
Monday - wear your favorite color day, she had a cute pink shirt so that's her current favorite color  ;)
Tuesday - wear your jammies day, they were so cute in their PJs!
Wednesday - bring your favorite stuffed animal
Thursday - wear silly socks
Friday - parade day and parents come to lunch

I tried to get some pics of the themes but I didn't do a very good job.  Monday morning trying to get a pic of Hannah in her pink shirt was near impossible unless I was physically running after her with my phone.  She was very busy!

Tuesday she looked super cute in her frog jammies.  :)
This was the best pic I could get of the wild girl


Wednesday was a different day.... I had made her a dr appt for Wednesday morning because her eye was red and yucky so we went there in the morning and her dr said she had an eye infection but it was already gone.  I took her up to daycare so I could go to work and they rejected her.  :(  They said she had to be gone for a day since she had discharge out of her eye the day before.  So, we had an impromptu girls day!  She was NOT happy about me dragging her out of her classroom when everyone was so excited about showing off their stuffed animals!  Literally kicking and screaming....that was fun.  We ended up going to the mall for the morning instead and she was happy again!

She got a new pair of shoes and the sales lady gave her a sticker.  Hannah put it on her forehead and it stayed that way until I took it off when we got back in the car which was quite a while later.  She's so silly.  People probably wondered why I was walking around with a sticker on my child's forehead but I didn't care, she liked it there.  

Thursday I didn't get any pics of her silly socks but they were hot pink with frogs on them.  :)

Friday was the fun day!  Before lunch they had a parade and a lot of parents walked over from their offices to see their little ones.  Most of them work here but a few of the other parents came as well to join their kids for lunch after the parade.  Austin was going to meet us for lunch until I called him a few minutes before and told him it probably wasn't a good idea.  The kids were SO excited to have their parents there but it was MELT DOWN CITY when they were leaving.  Every single kid was crying whether they had a reason to or not.  Domino effect!  Ha!  So, when I saw the first few kids crying when their parents left before lunch I took that as a sign that 1. he didn't need to come because she would for sure lose it when he left and 2. I was going to have to sneak out of there and cover my ears from the crying.  I called Austin and left the decision up to him and he was busy and agreed we didn't need a major melt down so he stayed at work.  It ended up being ok with me leaving though because I made sure she was still finishing her lunch so she was distracted. 

They all came outside in their classes according to age with the infants leading the way.  It was so cute!  All the little babies were just laying in the decorated cribs together being wheeled around.  Some were so excited about the parade that they took a nap. 

The bigger infants were really curious about what was going on.  I'm sure they loved those streamers on the crib!


Hannah's class was next!  Here she is leading the toddler class.  She was so funny, she just kept staring around at everyone, probably wondering why all these parents were there taking pics on their morning walk.


The two year old class was behind the toddler class.  A lot of them were dressed in their dress up clothes, they were so cute.  Hannah will be joining them in August!  Crazy.


Hi sissy!


This is what a baby/toddler parade looks like.  I'm actually surprised they could keep them all in a line like that!


Each class had a themed sign.  Hannah's was "embracing diversity", her little hand print is the green one on the bottom.


Parade over!


We went to her class for some reading time before lunch.  Notice how all the kids are sitting down and Hannah was standing up dancing?  Yeah....she listens well when Mommy is around.  ;)


Cutie


I have no idea what she was plugging her ears for.  She was probably hoping she couldn't hear me saying "Hannah, listen to Ms Dorothy" for the 28th time.


Me and my girl


She had a great week and I'm so grateful for a school that is so good to her!


Friday, April 19, 2013

Art Festival

We had a busy weekend around here!  Austin was gone all weekend at a cookoff so Hannah and I were on our own.  When I picked up the munchkin from school they were playing on the playground and her teacher said she had just gotten a splinter in her hand from throwing mulch.  No surprise here....  I wasn't about to attempt to take that thing out on my own so we headed over to Lainey and Pops house for assistance!


Lainey performing surgery in the living room.  It was not an easy task.  It took me holding her tight in my lap and Lainey working as quickly as she could while Pops gave us instructions on what to do.  Every time Hannah hits her hand or thinks about her boo boo she points at it and says "Lainey".  I keep reminding her that Lainey made her hand all better!  I don't think she's buying it....


The next morning we met Lainey and Pops for breakfast!
You talkin' to me??


Happy girl


Drawing us a picture


Hannah and her Pops ready for the art festival!


After breakfast we headed down the road to the art festival.  We got there when they opened so it wasn't too crowded and the weather was perfect!  Hannah was ready for a morning of fun with her super cool upside down shades.


Hannah and Mommy checking out some art on the waterway!


Lainey, Hannah & Mommy


Pops was there too!


We ended the morning at the kids area of the festival.  Hannah found her love of the bongos there.



Heading home with a snack!


We had a busy day so as soon as we got home it was straight to bed for naptime!  After about 30 minutes I checked the monitor to see what Hannah was up to.  She wasn't sleeping....  Here she is sitting up with her entire body covered with what I thought was her blanket.  Creepy!  A few minutes later I noticed her laying down still covered so I went in to check it out.


She was wrapped up in her sleep sack!  She doesn't wear it during naptime so it's usually just laying in the crib and it is now removed from the crib anytime she's napping.  She's one silly girl.


I took the risk and removed it from her head.  She didn't budge.


After naptime we headed up to the cookoff to visit Daddy!  I took zero pics because I was too busy keeping up with a 20 month old but she had lots of fun!  It was a fun and busy weekend!


Thursday, April 18, 2013

20 Months Old!

20 months old?!?!  I still can't believe it!  How is my sweet little baby girl already 20 months old?!  Hannah, you are growing WAY too fast for your Mommy and Daddy! 


Here's what you've been up to this month:

You are running everywhere! Your run is one of the cutest things I've ever seen, it is just so funny to watch. You kind of look like a football player running with your knees up in the air. 


You are SOOO chatty! You talk nonstop and you have the sweetest voice ever. It is so girly and sweet sounding. Your Daddy loves when you say "hi" because it is just seriously, the sweetest sound ever. You talk in short sentences now, you also ask questions. "Where Daddy go?" and raise your arms up to your shoulders and look around or you'll say "Mama, where ARE youuu?" You've also said "Ro Ro (Brody) walk AWAY! Walk AWAY Ro Ro!" I wondered why you kept saying that and then when I was visiting your class one day I heard your teacher say "walk away" to one of your friends. But she said it in a much nicer tone than you said to B....  You now say it daily to Mommy and Daddy.  Nice.  You have no idea what it really means though because you pointed to your nose and told it to walk away last night, so I'm not taking it personally that you want me to walk away.  ;)

Your teachers always comment on how good you are at remembering peoples names and how well you pronounce them.  You really have a good memory it seems and your vocabulary is off the charts for your age!  You can count to 10 on your own and can go to 15 if we help you along.  You are getting good at saying your ABCs too.  You are so smart.  Last night someone was crying on tv and you pointed at her and said "sad".  You are so sweet. 


You are just SO silly!  You love to dance and it's super cute.  You usually will dance with your feet not moving but you sway your hips side to side.  And then there is your hopping move.  You dance while hopping, it's hilarious. 


You love to give hugs!  You will RUN up to me and hit me full force to give me a hug.  I LOVE IT!!!  You are so affectionate too, I'll say I love you and you'll respond "I love YOU Mama!" 


You are learning so much.  I sneezed the other day and you surprised me by saying "Bless you Mama" right away.  If I hand you something you say "Thank you Mama".  Such a sweetie. 


You are such a big girl!!  I was looking up your 18 month stats and you are over an inch taller but only 3 oz more in weight!  So, you're really getting tall and thinning out.  Not that you were ever chunky, you've never had rolls but you are SOLID!

Your stats for this month:
Weight: 26lbs 4oz (65%)
Head: 19.2" (93%)
Height: 33.75" (84%)


You wear a size 4 diaper and size 5 night time diaper.  You wear mostly 18/24 month clothes but we're slowly transitioning to all 24 month outfits.  You're just so tall!  You wear a 5.5W-6W size shoe depending on the style. 

Um...little missy, what's up with this look you're giving your Mommy?  Put it away for the next 15 years please, I'm not ready for it!  You look too old!


Your hair is really starting to grow this month.  FINALLY!!  The back is so cute with curls at the bottom, I'll have to get a picture soon of it.  It's the first month we've actually had to start wetting it some mornings to control the bed head.


Typical....


You're wild and crazy!


But clearly have the best time!


Silly

Love you


 Hannah Lee, I think this may have been my favorite month with you!  You are growing so much and learning so quickly that it is just a blast to be around you!  Daddy and I love you SOOOO much and love spending every minute with you!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Easter

Easter morning Hannah woke up to see the Easter Bunny had visited!  He was very generous this year....  Sometimes the Easter Bunny doesn't know when to say enough is enough.  ;)  Not me, the EASTER BUNNY!  Hannah got lots of goodies, her new Babiators sunglasses, a toddler Bible, Elmo bubble bath, bubbles, some bunny sunglasses and bunny ears, an Elmo DVD, a few books and Elmo and Mickey stuffed animals.  She LOVES those two stuffed animals!  Especially the Mickey one. 

MICKEY!! 

ELMO and MICKEY!! 

Our girl loves her some shades...she even wears them inside the house. 

Um...what is on my head? 

After she checked out her basket it was time for an egg hunt in the backyard! 

Mickey got all of the eggs. 

He had quite a collection. 

After the egg hunt and breakfast we headed over to Lainey and Pops house for another egg hunt and lunch.  All three girls' Easter baskets. 

Leah being patient while the little girls came over to see their baskets 

Haley looking cute with her bunny ears 

Another egg hunt! 

She learned at our house that there were goldfish in the eggs so she had to check out each egg that she picked up before moving on. 

Girls on the move! 

The best pic we could get of the three of them.  It's close to impossible. 

Silly girl 

Love! 

CiCi giving kisses 

Cuteness 

Haley, you didn't know that Aunt K was part rabbit?? 

Lainey and Pops with their girls 

We had a great Easter and ate way too much!  It was a great day spent with the family.

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers