Super Update!

It has been way too long since I've posted! Joey does not let me get too much done on the computer, that's for sure! Right now he's distracted by some pizza crust so I think I bought myself some time ;)

I'll start in April seeing as that's the month I completely neglected. In mid-April we went public with some very exciting news: I'm pregnant again! I'm due in November and we've known since March but kept it quiet for as long as we could mostly because I still had to wait until April to be able to get an ultrasound. I've decided to get my pre-natal care at a local birthing center with midwives as well as deliver there if possible. During my first visit, I expressed my concern to the (male) midwife about possibly having another cyst develop on my only remaining ovary. I wanted to at least KNOW if there was one there early enough even if we couldn't do anything about it until after the delivery (there's a concern of pre-term labor with some procedures during pregnancy). The MW was very sympathetic and wrote me an order for an ultrasound so we could check.

10 Weeks :)

About a week later I had my appointment and was very excited. It was too early at my first MW appointment to hear the baby heartbeat with the doppler and they don't have an in-house ultrasound machine like my other OB had. So I drink my 16oz of fluid and fill my bladder and head over for one of my favorite perks of pregnancy. The tech was very nice and when she asked if we were dating the pregnancy or checking viability I told her about my cyst history and she made sure to check "both" ovaries. I noticed that she hovered over where my right one used to be and made a note about it being gone (specifically she put "oophorectomy" which is the name of the type of surgery I had). When she checked out the left one, she said, "There it is, nice and small and normal!" I was soooo relieved. I mean, we want to adopt eventually anyway, but the fact that I won't have to have any extra procedures is awesome.

That pretty much brings us back to the J-man. Even though he's not quite walking yet, it's pretty safe to call him a Toddler. He's full of energy, into everything, and loves loves loves to climb. My milk supply started to go down because of the pregnancy and so we decided to start solids around 11 months instead of after his first birthday. I wasn't disappointed we couldn't go exclusive for a full year (ok, maybe a little bit) because I learned a while back not to make plans when it comes to kids. Set goals and if you meet them great, if you come close that's pretty good, and if you don't make them at all set new ones and start over. We came pretty close and I'm proud of how far we made it. Downside is that Joey didn't take to solids as quickly as I had hoped for an older baby so we also had to start supplementing with formula because of how low my milk dwindled. Supplementing just reinforces my goal of exclusively BFing with the next one if possible because formula is just so expensive. Thankfully now that Joey is over one year we can start giving him whole cow's milk. Between the cow's milk and the solids he's eating more of we were able to cut back a little bit on how much formula he drinks but we won't be cutting it out completely for a little while. He's still nursing when I'm home, still nurses to sleep at night and all through the night (though thankfully less now than before we started him on formula), but I can typically go an entire work shift not pumping and not be uncomfortable. I still pump at work so Dan can give Joey SOMETHING while I'm gone, but I'm not as stressed about it because it's not longer Joey's sole source of nutrition.

It was also good we started Joey on solids early because at first he didn't quite know what to do with food, so had we waited until his birthday, he wouldn't have eaten any cake at all. I knew going in to giving him cake that he wasn't going to be happy, so far he has not enjoyed having messy food all over his hands and the icing on the cake was no different. It's all over his face because after it was all over his hands, he got mad and rubbed his eyes and then proceeded to wipe it all over his stomach. Once he started licking his fingers he realized that he liked the cake and wanted more so I cut some pieces without frosting and he was ok with those, still unsure though about how he liked the texture. After we were done with the cake I took him into the bathroom to "hose" him off and he was not a happy camper. We were at my parents' house so their bathroom wasn't our bathroom and he was scared to death of both the shower head AND the loofahs that were hanging in the shower. Poor thing screamed and screamed until we were finally done and dried him off. After all the screaming and crying, he slept pretty well that night, thankfully. Foods he currently eats regularly are: garlic Triscuits, goldfish crackers, pizza crust, chicken nuggets, bacon, and french fries. We're attempting to get healthy food in him too but so far it's no dice.