Valentines Day pictures done right

I am so thankful to Allison for taking these pictures for us. In addition to being obviously talented, she is such a sweet girl and a pleasure to have in your company! I must say - the subject matter here was pretty adorable ; )

I love this one! I have to admit, when she started snapping pictures with me in them, I was nervous. I am not photogenic at all, and I looked horrible that day! Paige and I had been out running errands and I looked like it! But I really love this picture.
We tried to get Paige to sit in her rocking chair...but this is what we got.
No words. I just love this picture.


Embracing the pink and brown!!
Sooner behind!! Love it!
And finallly...the DAD. Allison did a slightly better job that I did ; )


David ended up loving his present! Yes - we did VDay presents the day before the actual day. David got me PJ Salvage cupcake jammies, a Mackenzie Childs ice scooper (David is very random!), and a cute photo board for Paige's room. Such a keeper this guy is. I got him the DAD photo frame and two nice ties.

We use any excuse to exchange gifts!!!

Happy Valentines Day, again!! And thanks again, Allison!!

Helpful bug, and photo shoot fail!

Random picture first. My cute bug loves to look out the window at her puppies.
So here is the photo shoot fail. Here is my idea: Take three pictures of Paige - one of her holding a D, one an A, and the last another D. Then give it to David for Valentines Day in a three-frame picture frame. Cute, huh? I went to Hobby Lobby and got the letters, painted them red, and got my bug in her red tutu. All set, right? WRONG! Getting a 9 month old to hold letters, sit still, and look at the camera just wasn't happening. Plus - my photography skills...well they just aren't there ; )

Thank goodness for nice people like Allison (See The Hess Household on the right) who are awesome at photography and offer to come over and help. So hopefully next week I will show some successful pictures!
Paige...LOOK AT MOMMA!!
She escaped and started crawling around and climbing on everything.
Finally got her to sit still and hold the letter. Now look at me!
Stop playing with your tutu! As you can see, we tried a variety of locations in the house. Ugggh.
A funny sidenote...I love to take baths. I take one every night. Well the other day, David gave me some time to myself, so I went to the gym, the mall, got a pedicure, and went to lunch. Heaven! Anyway, while he was watching her, he said she got fussy, crawled to the bathroom, and climbed on the tub looking for momma! Ha!
Sweet girl! Coming over to help me do the laundry.
She likes Hanky Pankys. Yikes!

Crawling away with them! Paige - that is not how folding laundry works!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful V-Day with the one that you love!!

Paige the trouble maker!

Looking all sweet and innocent...
But I love to rip the pages out of mommy's magazine that she hasn't read yet. And I love to try and eat the pages and almost choke on them.
Mom tried to do a cute, fun photo session with me in my new ladybug outfit, but I did not want to. I did not want to let go of my bath toy.
I would rather climb on the couch.
I'll smile...just as long as you don't take away my toy!

Are we done yet?

I love climbing on this plant because I know I'm not supposed to. I also like to rip up the faux grass in it causing a myriad of problems: ruining the plant, making a huge mess, letting the dogs take the grass and run it all over the house, and then I eat the grass and almost choke. Again.
But I sure am cute!

Sweet memories.

Big girl who loves the swings! This was the day before the huge ice and snow storm we had. We were stuck inside Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning. We braved the roads and went to the mall on Saturday afternoon because I was just done with being inside. It wasn't too bad out. I felt like a fatty because all I did was lay around and eat. It felt so good to go to the gym this morning!

I went to get Paige from her crib this morning and she was talking (babababa mamamama dadadada yayayayaya) and standing in her crib and it just hit me how much she is growing up. I am so happy to see her growing and changing like she is supposed to, but a part of me is so sad that Paige will never be a baby again. I know we will have more babies and I will get to have that again...but it won't be my tiny baby bug Paige. She was the most precious newborn. So sweet, all curled up in a ball. She loved to coo. She was a pretty serious baby. She didn't smile just all the time and would stare at an object for long periods of time. She LOVED (and actually still loves!) to be rocked and cuddled. Oh how precious babies are!
Melt my heart!
Paige on her first date! Look how tiny those babies are!
I have tears in my eyes just looking at these pictures.
I was in a hurry, I feel like, with Paige, when she was a newborn. I was so anxious about everything and ready for her to be bigger "so I wouldn't worry so much." Well the worry is still here but my baby isn't : ( All I can say is enjoy those first few months. They are taxing, I know. Sleep deprivation is horrible, feeding every three hours is draining, and the constant worry about SIDS...I remember all these things. But the sweet smell of a sleeping baby on your chest - well it certainly makes it all worth it.

Can't think of a title!

I started taking metformin again. Again. I started back in September in hopes of regulating my cycles. When it didn't, I just quit. It sucks. First of all, you have to eat with it. I am supposed to take it three times a day. I know, I know, I should eat three times a day - but I just don't. I am at the gym by 9 for my group class and there is no way I have time to eat before then! It is normally at least 12 before I sit down and get something to eat. And if you take it without food...watch out! I will be hugging the toilet for at least an hour. Not exaggerating on this.

Anyway - all of this got me thinking last night about just how much I sacrifice. Well all moms in general...but I was really just thinking about myself : )

I have to prepare my body for months to get pregnant. We want to get pregnant this summer, and yes, I am starting now. I have to. I have to have metformin in my system. I have to be on birth control pills for at least 6 weeks. I have to have another HSG (for the non infertiles of the bunch, this is a pretty painful test that checks your uterus and fallopian tubes. You lay on a table, and through a catheter in your vajayjay, the doctor inserts dye and watches, via X-Ray, it pass through your body. It checks the shape of your uterus and if your tubes are open). I have to have another mock transfer. I have to have cycle day 3 blood work. I have to go to OBI and be tested for AIDS. This is all before the actual IVF cycle starts!

I am being sluggish on making all these appointments and taking my metformin, so it looks like we will start later than I had hoped. But I know that God has His hand in everything, and it is all going to work out in the end.

I just can't believe that we are going down this path again. My excitement is still there, don't get me wrong, but some of the old familiar feelings are creeping back.

Whew! I actually feel better getting all that out. I think typing it out makes me realize how stupid it is for me to complain. We are so lucky to be able to do this. I don't forget that for a second.

In Paige news:

She is cruising now! She loves to pull up on our ottoman and go back and forth on it. She is a crawling machine. She is obsessed with the dog bowls and we are starting to tell her 'no'. She just smiles and goes right back to the dog bowl. Eating is going very well. She eats table foods with ease. Her favorites right now are: grilled cheese, mac n cheese, chicken, yogurt melts, carrots, bananas, and scrambled eggs. We break everything up into little bites and she enjoying feeding herself. She also loves water from her sippy cup. Seriously - she acts like water is the biggest treat in the world! It is so funny! She babbles all the time now. I feel like she is really thriving and am excited for our nine month check up on Wednesday. I hope the doc confirms my assessment that she is doing very well : )

Happy Monday!

Cuteness!!

So these aren't the best quality as they were taken from my iphone...but I can't handle how cute this little bug is!!

BAD hair day!
My cute little monkey. She gets staticky hair in the morning and it is just awful...
...so we are experimenting with the ponytail!




This is Evyn Cannon - one of my friend's new baby. She is just so precious. Tell me...does she look like Paige or what!!?? I feel like she resembles Paige's newborn photos so much.
Fun with solid foods! We are still feeding her just two solid meals a day. It works for us. She gets a bottle when she wakes up. Then she eats a solid meal for lunch and gets a bottle. Bottle before nap time, then after waking up from her nap, a solid dinner. Bottle after dinner, then a bottle before bedtime! So that is still 5 bottles a day. We will see what the pediatrician has to say about this on Monday. I can't believe it is time for the nine month check-up!
Construction on our house! It is almost finished now, and looks great! We added a bedroom on our upstairs. This is will be our guest room.
Spike loves the boppy.

Baby yoga on the laundry basket.

Sleeping on momma on the plane. I love this sweet baby!!

Fun times!

We had the Frasiers and the Pittards over for dinner last night. It was so much fun - except I learned the hard way that cold meds taken all day plus 2.5 glasses of red wine don't mix : ( I know they say on the package to not mix with alcohol. But I figured, as long as I don't have too much, I should be fine! I was wrong. And considering the fact that I hardly ate anything all day, I'm sure it was just too much for my little tummy.

I felt AWFUL last night starting around 1 AM. Sheesh! I am sure glad Paige is going to the grandparents tonight so momma can have a night off and get some sleep!

But I did wake up to a wonderful surprise this morning...drumroll...

Paige got her first two teeth!!! I figured that she had been teething for weeks, and those two little things finally popped through. She looks adorable. She seemed to be having some discomfort this morning, so I gave her some Tylenol and orajel, and she went down for a nap. Sweet little baby!

It is just amazing to me how fast time is passing. I have this kid who crawls, laughs, plays with other kids, stands, babbles, eats food, and now has teeth. I just want to press pause for a little while. I am trying so hard to cherish this time. I take my time when I rock her to sleep, and fight the urge to wish she would fall asleep faster. I know these days will be over far too quickly.

Being Paige's mom is the greatest pleasure of my life.

Went to the RE today

That is Reproductive Endocrinologist. He sat down with us for a good bit to review my history and talk about our options in expanding our family.

As a young, healthy woman, it is disheartening to him that my last IVF cycle went so poorly. Yes, we did get a pregnancy out of it (and a gorgeous baby!!), but the cycle in and of itself was not good. He would expect to see 70% fertilization rates with 3 or 4 embryos able to be frozen for future cycles. I had a 40% fert rate with none to freeze. For those not familiar with IVF, this is pretty bad. Especially considering that we got 18 eggs. Out of 18 eggs, only one was viable for pregnancy. Paige is such a miracle and I was reminded of that today.

He feels like IVF is the best way for us to go. We will be starting this spring! I am excited about the prospect of having a sibling for Paige and experiencing pregnancy again. I know I need to keep my emotions in check. Just because it worked the first time once, doesn't mean it will again. I need to keep a good balance of optimism and realism. This will be a huge challenge for me.

David is excited. He is such a rock for me during everything. Thank God for my amazing support system!

Just for fun - one year ago...

This is from one year ago! I was about 25 weeks along here.

Poor Spike had no idea how much his life was about to change.
My belly!
Love it!!
At first I was going to do a before and after...January 2009 and January 2010. But I am not going to expose my poor blog readers to that. I am working out like crazy but eating horribly. This is my own fault. But french fries taste too damn good.

Craziness

I have an appointment with my IVF doctor. Soon. I am being vague about this on purpose, as I am not sure how much information I am going to share this go around. Last time, I was very open with some people, and not with others. I feel like this isn't fair. If I am going to be open, then I just need to be open.

My blog was such an amazing outlet for me last time, and I want to keep it that way! That is why I am leaning towards being open. Because if I decide to not share, then I would need to make my blog private. I mean - lives would be destroyed if they couldn't get updates about the Griffith family! (inset sarcastic tone here). I realize that no one would be effected either way...but I digress.

So stay tuned for some potential big happenings in our household!