Long time

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted in a while. Lots has been going on. About a month after I started my job at CCHO, I was offered a position with Canton City Schools Adult Education in Financial Aid. After much deliberation, I accepted the position.

I am still on staff at CCHO on an "as needed" basis and scheduled sunday's to do a "wrap around schedule" one on one with a resident. I've been off the last few weeks as this resident is in a psychiatric hospital for an extended period of time. When she is back we will resume.

I like my new job, it's just stressful to take over for someone who is no longer there and he didn't really have a grasp on things when he was there. I am just getting somewhat comfortable right now, and it's been 4 weeks.

Carter is walking and a typical toddler these days. He is all over the place. He officially has 12 teeth, now that he got 4 molars in the last 2 weeks. he's a very easy going baby and I am so blessed.

I never realized how much my life has changed with him in my life, but it's such a blessing that he is in my life. I truly am blessed.

We finished all of our fertility testing in September. Everything looks good, my tubes are clear, and my hormone levels are out of whack as we suspected. We have decided to put fertility treatments on hold. Now is just not the time.......

Busted baby maker.... the journey

So we met with Dr. Nash in July. We had a new doctor talk to us and go over our medical histories, turns out she was one of the interns who worked when I delivered Carter. She was SUPER new at that time, and is now a resident with Reproductive Gynecology! Small world!

Anyways, It was confirmed I have PCOS. He looked at all our histories, blood work ect and did an ultrasound of his own, saying I have all the classic symptoms. Our next steps include more blood work, on day 3 of my next cycle, an HSG, where the put in a catheter and run a dye through it to see if my falopian tubes are clean and ovaries are functioning, between days 6-11 of that same cycle. I went this past friday for a pregnnacy test, which was negative as I figured it would be, and he gave me a prescription for provera to start my next cycle for me.

I am not ovulating at all, which explains why I am not getting pregnant on my own. We discussed a few options, including the use of clomid, clomid with injectables, clomid with IUI and IVF. We will talk more in depth after my testing to where we will start ect.

Todd wasn't left out either. He had to give a sample as well. Thankfully he was able to do so at home, and I had to take it in within an hour. His tests came back totally normal, so that helps to know at least one of us functions the way we should :)

Stay tuned!

Wow so much has happened in a month!

Sorry it's taken so long to blog! I went back to work full time on July 27 at CCHO (Christian Childrens Home of Ohio). I work in a partial hospitalization residential facility in Wooster, about 50 min from home. I work 4/ 10 hour days (usually 4/ 11-12 hours days) a week, Sunday through Wednesday. I LOVE working with the kids on a daily basis. In my cottage (there are 5 of them, 2 ph houses, and 3 teching parent model cottages), we have residents ages 11-17. These kids are almost all victims of abuse and neglect. They are tough kids to love, but I honestly love each and everyone of them, even when they don't make the right choices.

Within a few weeks of working, I was offered a position with Canton City Schools Adult Education doing financial aid and admissions work. It would be much closer to home, double the money and less hours/days. I also have the opportunity to set my own schedule. I would be stupid to pass it up, so I am struggling with a tough decision. I have accepted this position, but still struggle with am I making the right decision.

Enough about work, lets talk about Carter! 5 days after he turned 1, he started walking. Within a day he went from a few steps to walking 10-15 steps at a time, now he is running all over the house. He is such a joy! he's full of energy and full of life and loves to laugh.

Carter gets to play with his friend Kennedy while my friend Lisa watched him while I am at work. He loves being there, and loves playing with his friend!

We are officially bottle free! We took all his bottles away a few weeks ago and he is now strictly using a sippie cup. He had a very smooth transition to this. I am still amazed that I can give him a sippie of milk, put him in his crib wide away and he goes to sleep on his own. How did we get so lucky??

Well I think that's all for now, I will post a seperate post on our baby making progress

Time flies....

.....When you are having fun! I cannot believe Carter is ONE! We celebrated Carters First birthday with his first party on Saturday, July 11 at my in laws house. We had a monkey theme, for our little monkey. We are having another party for him on Sunday the 19th at my parents house, a Hungarian bacon roast theme...

Carter's Official birthday was July 15th. He and I spent the day playing, then went to my in laws that evening for pizza, cake and swimming. Carter loved everything about that!

Here are a few pictures of his first party.

LIving with the diagnosis

Well, I think I have come to terms with my diagnosis. I have been doing lots of research over the last week. I have decided to get a second opinion with a reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Nash. We will be meeting with him on July 23rd to go over our (Todd and mine) medical histories and my tests and discuss our options. I think we are ready to move forward so we can have a baby. stay tuned

I have a busted babymaker

Well, just as the title says, my babymaker is busted. After having some cramping and pain, and two visits to the OB with an ultrasound and exam, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Basically what this means is that my hormone levels are totally out of whack, I have cysts all over my ovaries, and a ton of other little issues. This also explains all the issues during my pregnancy, weight gain and trouble losing it, high blood pressure, acne ect.

This doesn't sound too bad, right? Well PCOS is the #1 cause of infertility in women. But I already had a baby, so I souldn't have issues right? Well, the way it was explained to me, I had been on birth control pills for many years, which helps keep the cysts from forming and evens out hormone levels. I was lucky and got pregnant right after going off the pill. But now my ovaries are totally covered in cysts.

It's going to be a long hard road to get pregnant again, or so I am told. I went for blood work this morning to check insulin levels (often really high with PCOS), testosterone levels and a few other things. I go back in two weeks to go over the findings and discuss treatments. Looks like we will need some fertility medication, so here's hoping it does it's job and it's not a super long journey for us.

Some may know we have been working on another baby since December, so now with this new diagnosis and an amazing OB who said will work with us every step of the way and "get us pregnant", we have put our faith in God and know when it's in His time, we are ready with open arms.

So I am coming to terms with my new diagnosis and the fact I have a broken babymaker. I'm scared, sad, upset and so many other things, but I thank God every single day for giving me a supportive husband and an incredible little boy that they say "it's amazing" I ever got pregnant with in the first place.

So now as I start my journey with PCOS, I can't help but hug my munchkin a little longer, and enjoy him more and more every single day.

He's almost a year old!

Sorry it's been a while! I can't believe Carter is 11 months old! He is growing so much every single day. He had his first haircut last weekend, and Todd and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Back to the haircut, Carter did fantastic! He sat on my lap and let Todd's Aunt Mary cut his hair like a big boy! He looks like such a little man now!

We started Carter on Cows milk last week. So far so good, I got him on 2 bottles of cows milk a day and his last one is either frozen breast milk or formula. This week I hope to get him 100% on cows milk.

He is now pointing at everything, saying mama and dada and when he sees the cat, he usually shrieks and says what we believe to be "kitty". He is very interested in walking, although he hasn't quite figured out his balance just yet. He will walk from couch to couch, holding on along the way and now testing his balance by letting go and standing for a brief moment. He loves to walk while holding onto fingers, but don't let go and stop walking, he gets super upset!

My baby boy isn't so much of a baby anymore :(