my bad

Last night in the bathtub i was trying to clean Cash off with a washcloth and he would swat my hand away and say "No". Everytime i tried to clean him he would do the same thing. I did not like this so after his bath i talked to Chandler about it and said something about how he is picking up really bad things at daycare now and he needed to talk to Sylvia about it. A little later in the night it occured to me that he didn't pick that up at daycare. Earlier i was boiling some water to cook some ears of corn for Cash (his new favorite) and he reached up to touch the stove (because he just couldn't wait for the corn to be done cooking). I quickly swatted his hand away and said "NO". whoops.

The poop-tastrophe has repercussions

Cash now thinks its really funny to toot. He will push out a big loud toot and then grab his bottom and make a funny face - then a second later he will give you a cheeky little crooked smile.

Amnio

I go in for my Amnio on Wednesday morning. Results will come 2 weeks later so there will be a lot of waiting - but its a good excuse to take a day off!

Fun weekend

We had a really fun weekend. On Saturday Cash and I went for a walk while Daddy ran in preparation for his big 5K on the 4th of July. We all met back at the house, clean ourselves up and then went down to Caesar's palace for some fun. We watched the fish swim around in the huge fish tank, watched the show in the middle of the shops and then had lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Cash was a really good boy and waved to all the waiters walking by - the place wasn't very crowded since it was 11am. We came home and took a nap (Cash and Mommy). In the afternoon we went to the grocery store and then came home and cooked up a nice dinner.
Sunday we all woke up and went up to Mt. Charleston for breakfast. Mommy started feeling pretty sick winding around the roads and climbing high up in the mountains but we all made it without incidence. When we got there Cash got the biggest, best surprise of his life! Motorcycles everywhere!! He just wandered around the parking lot saying "wow" and pointing at all the shiney motocycles. He was offered a seat on one of them by a nice biker-chick but that didn't go over well so he just kept a respectful distance and didn't try to even touch any of them. We did lots of exploring up on the Mountain and on the way home stopped at Sams Club and Home Depot. Cash is becoming smarter and a little harder to keep still. He didn't do a very good job at traveling and whined to get out of his seat a lot. It was ok because I ended up sitting in the back and playing games with him to keep him company.
Once we got home Cash took a nap (so did mommy) and Daddy started his outdoor chores. When Cash woke up he helped daddy outside for a long time. Daddy was hedging bushes and putting up new, higher quality misters so we can be outside this summer.
Then the poop-tastrophe of 2009 struck! Cash has been having some trouble with constipation for a few days so we were feeding him pears and prunes. Chandler comes in from outside and says, "I smell something". So i told him to take Cash upstairs and we'd both change him since it was sure to be a dangerous situation. Chandler started to undress Cash and didn't realize the situation he was in. I came around the corner and poop was everwhere, up Cash's back, in his hair, in his ears, all over the front of Chandler's shirt...I took one breath and started to heave. Cash starts to cry and scream, Chandler starts to panic. Somehow we got him to the bathtub and in between my throwing up and heaving Chandler stripped him down and got him cleaned up. The smell was everywhere, the poop was everwhere. It was so much, so bad! Finally everyone was clean again and we continued our evening but it wasn't pretty and there was a lot of laundry detergent and air freshener used that day.

Smarty Pants

Cash is getting smarter by the day. He can say all sorts of words and understands everything you say. He is making lots of animal noises when he sees them and can even point out some of his favorite things in his ABC book. He has learned how to scream really loudly and high pitched and has been practicing a lot! Also, something that makes his mommy and daddy very happy is that he is now giving kisses (and knuckles). He will lean over and press his lips to you and then back away and then make the smooch noise. He especially likes to give Slider kisses on the nose and she has gotten more kisses than anyone. There's a lot more in it for Slider since she gets to lick leftovers off Cash's face. We are also phasing out bottles at bedtime since he actually doesn't drink the milk anymore and just hugs the bottle until he falls asleep.
words he says:
momma
daddy
Banana
water
Ball
Doggie & Slider
Motorcycle
Truck
Car
more
bite
MINE
go
bye-bye
Hi & hey
uh-oh
bubbles
slide
outside
bike & bicycle
and more...

Interesting tid-bits from the dentist

1. If you throw up, do not brush your teeth immediately. You should wash your mouth out with water repeatedly for about an hour and then brush your teeth. Otherwise you are just brushing acid over your teeth.

2. Pregnant women get "pregnancy gingivitis" and it can develop in a very short period of time. I have this.

3. Bottled water does not have flouride. People in Las Vegas rarely get enough flouride because they don't dare drink tap water and unless you buy special flourinated water you wont get it through your processed water.

4. Babies are not born with bacteria in their mouth. It is passed from the parents - usually by kissing, testing food, putting utensils in their mouth, or sucking off dummies. If parents never did this their child would never get tooth decay.

Apparently my doctors are discussing me over dinner. Funny. Dr. Lisa called this morning to check in and see how I was doing. We talked for a while about everything and she was very supportive. She told me how the amnio would be different than the one she performed but she is really confident in Dr. Don's abilities. It was nice that she called and gave me her cell # - she's actually taking this week off so it meant a lot that she thought to call when she wasn't event surrounded by my charts.

"thanks for coming in, this is a hard conversation to have over the phone"

I knew those words meant trouble immediately and then i looked down and saw the paper on Dr. Roberts' desk that said "HIGH RISK DOWNS SYNDROME" and I needed the tissues. So that is what we're dealing with today. A few weeks ago we had an ultrasound that showed a NT (the space between the baby's neck and back) measurement of greater than 2 - and up to 3 in some spots. My doctor sent me to a specialist who would run some more tests. We had a high-powered ultrasound as well as a blood screening. The ultrasound was very promising and all the parts were in order and there was a definite presence of a nasal bone (if that is missing you are almost assured a DS baby). So we waited for the blood work to come back.

A normal pregnancy has a risk of 1-600 for Downs Syndrome. Our risk level is 1-38. That is a pretty shocking number at first but there are some silver linings here. Our ultrasound showed all the right parts in the right place. That number is derived from bloodwork so if you have a naturally occurring high level of the protein they test for you can get a high risk factor without actually being at risk. The 1 in 38 is not out of all pregnancies, it is out of 38 pregnancies with the exact same test results – that means the odds are in our favor 97%.

Our doctor was pretty surprised by the results and said so himself. He thought our risk would be much lower because of everything he saw on the ultrasound and walked us through the pictures again. He was very kind to us but stayed emotionally neutral but did say that if it were Lisa (his wife, my other doctor) they’d have more tests to know for sure. I’ll talk to her on Monday when I have an appointment to get some further opinions.

The only way to know for sure if our baby had Downs is to do an amniocentesis and test the DNA and chromosomes. Chandler and I are considering all the factors but we’ll most likely have the test. So there is no reason for anyone to get all excited yet until we know something for certain just thought you should know.

the weird dreams have started already

Last night I had a dream that the baby was a girl. We couldn't decide on a name so she remained nameless for days - although I kept calling her Shelly but I spelled it with a "C" to keep Chandler happy - Chelly??? Then, we were in the woods (Twilight-style) and she turned into a Pegasus and flew away!??!?

Visitors

Grammy and Pop have both left to go home. It was really nice having them here. We don't normally do very much during the week and have a pretty routine routine but with them here we played a lot more, ate dessert more and even went out on school nights. Mommy and Daddy got to the movies too! I was really glad they came to spend time with Cash since they haven't spent much time with him since he's transitioned into a walking, talking wildman! Anyway, things will go back to normal now and we'll get to bed on time.

Hop on Pop

Pop got here last night. Cash was really shy at first and just sat in my lap observing Pop to make sure he doesn't get too close. Somehow Cash has become very shy in front of people he isn't used to - he usually gets over it after a few minutes. Pop went to take a shower and I guess Cash wasn't done "observing" because after Pop closed the bathroom door Cash would sneak over about as far as the stairs (just far enough to see around the corner) and peek to make sure he knew where Pop was at all times. After that Cash was ready to show off and ran all over the house getting the ball for Pop to throw or showing Pop how he can go down his slide ("dide"). He took Pop around the side of the house to show him the wheels on the bike ("bikkkk") and the wheelbarrow and the lawnmower. When it was time for a bath Cash started up the stairs - always keeping an eye on his visitor. We got ready for bed and went downstairs to say goodnight. As I was putting Cash to sleep we like to talk about our day and he kept pointing at the door as if to say, "Pop came to visit". This morning when he woke up the first thing he did was point to the door "Is Pop still here". He heard Pop and Daddy talking and got a big smile and his "excited face" on and after that it was really hard to get him dressed because he just wanted to get downstairs. Pop and Cash read from the LeapPad this morning and Cash ate his waffle sitting on the sofa next to Pop as Pop helped him put his shoes ("sooze") on.

Windy's

Yesterday i had my second Wendy's frosty in 12 weeks. That is probably close to the same number of frosties I've had in my entire lifetime.
I thought i was starting to feel better but today i feel really bad. i think it was because i forgot to eat my english muffin this morning and waited until i got to work to eat breakfast and that was just too long to wait. I'm just sitting here staring at my computer concentrating on not throwing up all over it. When i feel nauseated I get the shivers.

Christmas list

here are some things i want for Christmas:

Wheel of brie cheese
Case of Diet Coke
Ice cold beer
Hub Cab Annie roll (favorite sushi roll)

no doubt

5/5/09

finally got the news we've been waiting for. Although in the last few days i didn't need any pictures - i feel terrible.
Chris scanned me today and we found a little peanut hiding in there. Heartrate is 122 bpm. things look good so we'll move forward with that!
In the meantime, i have every symptom a pregnant woman has and they're getting worse!
extreme fatigue
constant nausea
vomiting
gas
constipation
bloating
I'm just going to say the due date is December and leave it at that for now. I will probably have another c-section and with my secret due date i bet everyone is glad about that! Chandler did say we could name the baby Chistian or Christa - hint, hint

more blood tests

4/28/09


HCG is supposed to double every 24-48 hours. I took a blood test 48 hours after the first and HCG was 310 which is pretty good. HOwever progesterone levels are only 19.5 which is borderline. The doctor likes progesterone levels to be above 20 and ideally 25-30.
Had an ultrasound on day 34 and there was no sac but fluid. everyone is concerned about an ectopic pregnancy but i'm not. Although its kind of funny because with my first i remember being so concerned about it - every twinge i thought i was going to blow a tube! ha.
Had another blood test the following day at it registered 761 so i am making progress but still nothing to show for it - strange...
I'm convincing myself i'm just a slow starter. Cash didn't get growing until 7.5 weeks. The first ultrasound i got with him at 5.5 weeks was a mess, there were bits of what looked like things but nothing was formed right so when we repeated in 10 days there was a little dude and all the right parts.

back to the doctor

4/20/09
Back to the doctor to see what is happening. the fact that my hcg was rising slowly for where i am in my cycle seems to concern everyone and think there is either a chemical pregnancy or ectopic but we'll see. Dr. Roberts is so funny she did a quick little ultrasound today because she was really curious to find something and she thinks she did. there is the tiniest, littlest, faintest spec of a spot on my ultrasound. She said it was the start of something big and then reminded me how big my belly was with Cash!
She told me to schedule another ultrasound for the following week but i pretended that i was busy when they wanted to schedule it and i pushed it to the following week because i know that whatever is in there needs a few more days to grow. and if there is something else going on i'd be at the hospital before then.

day 32

4/17/09
I had a doctor's appointment today and got some interesting news. I may or may not be having another baby. My urine test was "inconclusive" meaning that it did not turn positive within the appropriate timeframe. However, after 5 minutes the nurse came back and it had turned positive. I'm going for blood work next. I've been warned all the things this would mean so i'm well aware and dealing. Something to keep in mind - I didn't get a positive test with Cash until 35 days.

Blood work: HCG was 59. That's pretty low so i'll repeat in a day.

SLEEP

We had our first real sleep battle last night. I should have known i was in for something because Cash was a crazy man all day. He woke up and immediately started the craziness. He was running down the hallways, rolling down the stairs, climing on things, chasing the dog, screaming, throwing things and having a blast in his own little world. He was hard to put down for a nap but i didn't really notice much because nap time is pretty fluid but usually between 10 am - noon. He didn't go down until 1:30 and even then he fell asleep in the car. He woke up at 4:30 and resumed his crazy-man ways. more running, screaming, climbing, chasing, kicking. We ate dinner as normal and then at about 7pm went for our bath. got out of the bath, put on pajamas and had a bottle and rocked in the chair. Cash would put his head down and then pop up and start laughing. He would also shove his fingers up my nose and slap my cheeks together. Everythign signaling that he wasn't ready for bed - but the rules are, we go to bed at 7:30pm. So I told him he could lay down with me or get in his own bed. He laid his head down and 1 minute later he popped up with the same giggle. Ok, now you get in your bed. I leave, he starts screaming. He can usually cry for about 2-3 minutes and fall alseep - but it is a really soft cry, more like a wimper. This was screaming. So i went to see him to make sure everythign was ok. He picked up his blanket, popped to his feet and stretched out for me to pick him up. So i did and we sat back in the chair. After about 20 minutes of him messing with me i let him get up and we sat on the couch for a while and then he got up and resumed his craziness from the day! at 9pm I needed to put him to bed so we went upstairs and tried again. He screamed again. I got him up because the screaming just wasn't normal. He wanted to go back downstairs but we turned all the lights off so that wasn't an option. He proceeded to run up and down the hallway with his blanket. Then he got into the clean laundry and wanted to put everything on - handing me his swimming shorts and sitting down on my lap and putting his foot in the air (signaling, put my pants on me please). So we did this for 10 minutes and then i was done and needed to go to bed myself. We went to his room, he was very upset but he got another warm bottle so that seemed to distract him long enough so that he fell asleep at 9:50pm. He was still asleep at 8am this morning and i had to get to work so he got woken up - something i hate to do.
Did I mention that Chandler was just coming off a 24 hour field trip and wasn't much help and spent most of the day on Sunday with his eyes closed!

I haven't written anything for a while. don't know why, i guess i just didn't feel like there was much to report. Cash is as cute as ever and now he's getting cheeky. I went to Sarah's baby shower without my boys and it was very drama free! Chandler did an awesome job at single parenting for a couple days - probably because he knew i'd be back at some point. I think Cash really enjoyed having his daddy all to himself. I really think Cash prefers Chandler (and its ok - i love that they have a special thing). Since i've been back i noticed that Cash really gravitates toward Chandler a little more.
He is really testing his boundaries lately. He climbs up onto the coffee table and runs back and forth. We no longer allow him to do this (cute at first, now its just a bad habit). He also does really dangerous stuff like standing up in his high chair and standing up on the seat of a toy train that Addison let him borrow. The toy train was a real hit while i was away. It has so many buttons and noises that Cash remains entertained for a very long time. He wheels himself back and forth across the living room all evening.
Yesterday Chandler set up a sand box for Cash. Sylvia has a sand box so Cash is an old pro and knows exactly what to do. he played for quite a while in it and we were doing really well until he took one of the plastic cups we were using to make sand castles and filled it up with sand and then drank it. Getting sand in his mouth and eyes...
He's a good boy though and we really have a good time together. This morning he woke up at 4:00am for some reason and was ready to play. Luckily, Chandler is still on break and could be up with him, knowing that he'd catch a nap later. at 6:00am Cash came busting through my bedroom door - time to wake up Mommy! So he did, then he started to get tired and got really upset, cried and stomped his feet. we went for a wagon ride and then sat on the couch and watched a cartoon. He fell asleep at 7am. I had to call Sylvia and tell her Cash would be late. He woke up at 10am and is now off to daycare.
There is a new baby at daycare and one little boy is leaving (the bitter). the baby is only 2.5 months old and Cash is facinated with him. Although he cries a lot and Cash doesn't like that. It has been reported that when the baby starts to cry Cash will do this loud fake whinney cry thing until Sylvia gets the baby to stop crying. I'm sure Sylvia just loves that!
This weekend Chandler goes to Disneyland with his school so it will just be Cash and Mommy - we'll try to go swimming at the big pool and get ready for our San Diego vacation that happens the following weekend!
I'll work on getting new pictures up next.