Fun on a warm January day?!

Since today was so nice, 60 degrees in January, we decided to make sure we took advantage and got out side. Brayden had a lot of fun and it was great to get some fresh air!  We tried out some sidewalk chalk, drove his Lightening Mcqueen power wheel, chased some neighborhood cats b/c he wanted to pet them(lol), waved at EVERYONE that walked by and took a walk around the block. Brayden actually held my hand the whole way around the block. He loved the freedom of stopping and looking at things for a change instead of riding in his stroller.  He's such a big kid! Or atleast he thinks he is!  He did make a few attempts for the street. Thank god we live on a slow road, but people drive like jerks down the street so I'm TRYING to get him to learn about the street being bad now while he's little.  Of course I took plenty of pics!

Staring at people.. as usual! lol

 And there he goes! 

 Pushing his car b/c he's tool cool to ride it!~ 

 He was driving saying "GO GO GO"

 Oh mommy I see the neighbors cat! 

The 30 seconds he SAT and did chalk! lol 

 He makes the most insane faces. he kills me! 

What's for dinner, breakfast or anytime: Egg Casserole!

One of the moms from our playgroup had this for us to eat one morning.  It is super easy, delicious and really easy to modify for your taste.  You can pretty much throw in anything you like and it'll taste great! I made this for dinner but it good any time of day!

Egg Casserole
*preheat oven to 350 degrees
* I made a large batch which gave leftovers, you can half it for a smaller meal, families should definitely made the full recipe

Ingredients:
12 eggs
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Veggies: you can add what ever you prefer, i wanted to put in some peppers but didn't have any
3/4 cup Portobello mushrooms
1/2 medium onion chopped small
1 container of frozen spinach thawed
6 cooked sausage patties chopped
salt and pepper

Directions:
* Beat eggs using a whisk till blended in a large bowl
* Mix in cheese, sausage and veggies one by one. I found using the whisk to mix coated everything well in egg
* season with salt and pepper to taste
* Pour mixture in to a rectangular glass pan making sure to spread it evenly
* Bake for 35-40 minutes uncovered.
* let sit for 5 minutes before serving and enjoy!

What's for dinner: Pepperoni Bread!!

I've been dying for some yummy pepperoni bread and since my favorite bread shop is in Cherry Hill I decided it would prob be a good idea to make it myself instead of driving there and back.  :)  I think it turned out really good, Jason seemed to love it and Brayden had fun helping mommy!

I found the recipe on Pinterest. It's super easy and something kids can definitely help with!  I used frozen bread dough. You can make your own if you have time but I found it super easy to pull it out of the freezer and just that it out.

All you need is:
One regular size bag of sliced pepperoni. (Shoprite has theirs on sale!)
2- 8oz or 1-16oz bag of shredded mozzarella cheese
2 loaves of frozen dough
Butter
Oive oil
Spices- (optional) you can choose your favorites like Italian seasoning, oregano, basil, garlic ext
A cute little helper!

* Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
* I sprayed my counter top with Pam butter spray to make sure the dough didn't stick to it.  Roll your two balls of dough in to two rectangle shapes.
* Brush the dough with a thin coat of olive oil
* Lay out the pepperoni to cover each dough rectangle. leave atleast 1/2 inch around the edges so it will roll up with out the pepperoni and cheese falling out
* Layer using one bag (8oz) of cheese on each pepperoni bread.
* Garnish with any spices you would like to taste
* Leaving the bread long in length roll up your bread, tucking it under as you go. Pinch the ends of the rolls so that the cheese does not melt out the side as it cooks
* Place rolls on a baking sheet making sure they do not touch
* Drizzle 2 table spoons of melted butter on top of each bread roll
* Bake for 25-35 minutes depending on how thick your rolls are till the cheese is bubbly and the rolls are golden brown.

We like when the rolls are cooler and the cheese has set up. If saving for later wrap the bread in press and seal wrap, leave on the counter, cut and serve when ready. This recipe makes 2 large rolls.  Enjoy!!

My cute assistant! 

 Here's the cheese mommy! 

 I'll open it! 

 There wasn't any mixing involved but he insisted on "mixing" , he LOVES to cook!

14 weeks and OB appt!

Happy 14 weeks baby!  

I had my monthly OB appt today.  Baby's HB was 169 and nice and healthy.  So far I still haven't gained any weight since loosing 10lbs but they're not worried. I didn't gain with Bray till I hit 20 weeks.  I had my first pap smear since my LEEP procedure in July to remove cancerous cells. So I'm praying everything comes back great with that. I finished weening off the Metformin (for my insulin resistance) at 12 weeks so they wrote my script for an early fasting 1hr GTT (glucose test).  We did the same thing when I was pregnant with Brayden, just to make sure I'm not headed toward gestational diabetes or anything.  Keeping everything crossed I pass.  The also set me up with order for my thryroid test to see if my meds need to be adjusted and some other basic bloodwork.  She did another cervical check and she thinks the length of my cervix looks fine compared to what the other dr thought so they will keep monitoring it to make sure I have no changes. 

I was thrilled to find out that the baby's placental placement is posterior. Meaning in the back of my uterus parallel to my spine.  With Brayden I had Marginal Previa, where the placenta was partially covering my cervix so we had to be monitored to make sure it moved up as the uterus grew so I didn't have any bleeding issues before or at delivery. So glad it's one less thing to worry about!  Now I'm just counting down till our next ultrasound on Valentines Day. I will be 16weeks 4 day so there hopefully will be no issue with a definite determination of the babys sex! All signs are pointing to girl but i guess we will see!! 

How far along? 14 weeks 

Total weight gain/loss: 10lb loss, no gain

Sleep: sleeping terrible, having a hard time falling asleep and tossing and turning

How big is baby? the size of a lemon, average weight is 1.5oz and 3.1 inches long

Best moment this week:  hearing the baby's HB since my doppler is broken

Movement: feeling random bubble and fluttering

Symptoms: exhausted

Symptoms I DON'T have:  nausea

Food cravings: simple foods, carbs

Food aversions: meats

Gender: will find out on Valentines day! looks like it may be a girl?! 

Labor Signs: none

Belly Button in or out? in 

What I am looking forward to: seeing the baby on Valentines day

Milestones: finished weening off all IVF meds!! GOOD BYE progesterone shots, you are NOT missed! lol 

15 month appointment and 1st ear infection :(

Brayden started again with another fever Monday night.  Poor kid can't seem to catch a break this winter. I feel like he is a germ magnet, every time we turn around it's something else.  I hate when we gets a fever and he seems to run a fever for everything.  I was hoping this time it wasn't going to be a repeat of Decembers sickness.  He was screaming and inconsolable for the last 2 hrs before it was time for bed on monday, he wouldn't eat or anything and i felt AWFUL not knowing how to make it better for him.

Saddest face :( 

We had his 15 months appt on Tuesday so it worked out perfect for the dr to see him.  I called in the morning and told them about his fever since it was over 102 i told them we would have to wait on the shots. He was due for his MMR vaccine and since it's a live virus they were on board with waiting till he is healthy.

Not that i'm happy there is something actually wrong with my child but I was relieved to know that there was an actual source this time for his fever. He officially has his 1st ear infection.  Poor baby. We had a later appointment so I was glad we were able to get his prescription for his antibiotics called in and were able to start his meds that night.  I had asked the pedes about ear drops at the appt and she seemed confident advil would do the trick for the pain. HAHAHAHHA.  It was a hellish night to say the least. he was up literally every 30-60 minutes screaming and crying. It was awful, I felt terrible that I couldn't make it better. Needless to say none of us got any sleep and it was looking like it was going to be a rough day. he fever kept spiking despite alternating tylenol/advil every three hours. In the morning I called the pedes and told them the HAD to call in an RX for the benzocane ear drops. Fortunately we got them but he still wouldn't eat or drink anything from a sippy cup. We got desperate and let him have milk in the bottle as often as he wanted.  All i cared about was getting fluids in to him. Normally he only likes milk and water and he won't drink anything but milk out of the bottle so I didn't really have much of a choice.

In the meantime, things have gotten better.  He's still not close to being 100% but his fever finally did break this morning.  I'm hoping it stays away!! He is eating a little bit but not much so i'm trying to push the fluids and keep him hydrated. Hoping he feels better soon and starts sleeping better. He doesn't sleep through the night as it is so anything has to be better than getting up a few times a night to an inconsolable boy.

As far as the rest of his 15 month appt goes he is doing really well! He weights 22lb 2oz (18%) and is 33" tall(95%).  I was concerned that he has barely gained a 1lb over the last 4 months but the pedes was okay with it since he is staying on the same growth curve (percentage).  his overall height to weight is only in the 10th percentile which just means he's tall and skinny! Lucky for him he got that "Nolte" metabolism that skipped me.  lol

His language and motor skill development is really great!  I am so proud of him. He now says 18 words, and 5 two word sentences. Which the pedes said is at a 18-24 month level.  Of course he doesn't use all the words every day but that's still great. He seriously blows my mind with how smart he is. He knows how to do so many things and can follow all kinds of directions. He is really getting to big too fast!

Like I was saying we are still working on his sleep. He is a horrible sleeper! He has never been a good sleeper but i had a long talk with the pedes about things.  She feels like we have tried and are doing everything right so it's really no fault of our own.  He is a restless sleeper, fusses in his sleep wakes up min 1-2 times a night inconsolable and even had night terrors on occasion. His lack of quality sleep definitely affects how he naps so it's a vicious cycle.  For now we are going to keep trying and see how things look at 18 months. She said sleep studies are out b/c he wakes too much and that won't really help at this point.

I feel like time is going WAY too fast and I'm sure it'll go even faster when we have two kids.  Brayden is definitely my "dramatic" child and can be moody but he is so much fun. His laughter and excitement really make even the worst days better.  I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next!

Now some fun pics! 

What mom, i'm eating a cupcake! 

 Oh coloring! 

 What happens when he gets bored! 

What's for dinner: Ham and Swiss Cheese Sliders~ DELICIOUS!

I have been trying to find new recipes to make b/c I am tired of the same old!  I have been finding some really good ones on Pinterest and decided to make a few things this week. Since i was running errands and food shopping all afternoon I wanted to try something easy and delicious for dinner. This recipe was GREAT, super easy and took about 25 from start to finish! Now that's a great dinner. These would be perfect for parties or lunch.

**I adapted the recipe a little.  I didn't have poppy seeds so I just left them off and added a touch of Dijon mustard. You'll need to change the servings. I only did 6 mini sandwiches. The recipe calls for a party size portion. As far as portions. I would of normally eat 2 but i was starving so i ate almost 3. Brayden had one and didn't finish it. For a guy 3 sandwiches would be a good portion to start with.

stock photo

Ham and SwissCheese Sliders

24 dinner rolls ( used potato rolls and they were AWESOME!)

24 pieces honey ham (i used lunch meat)

24 slices Swiss cheese

mayonnaise

Dijon mustard 

Poppy seed sauce ( i guestimated when making it for 6 sandwiches and it turned out great)

1 Tablespoon poppyseeds

1 1/2 Tablespoons yellow mustard

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 Tablespoon minced onion

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Spread a thin layer mayo onto both sides of each roll. Put a dime size amount of Dijon mustard on the bottom layer of the roll. Place a slice of ham and a slice of Swiss inside of each roll. Close rolls and place them into a large baking dish or heavy cookie sheet. Place very close together.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the poppy seed sauce ingredients. Pour evenly over all of the sandwiches. You do not have to use all of the sauce! Just use enough to cover the tops. Let sit 10 minutes or until butter sets slightly. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Uncover and cook for 2 additional minutes or until tops are slightly brown and crispy. Serve warm.

** sandwiches can be assembled a day ahead and kept in the fridge ready to bake.

Discovery Museum!

Last Wednesday Jill and I took the kids to the Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill! The kids had so much fun! Brayden is definitely at the perfect age to go to places like this and be able to enjoy it! Brayden's favorite had to be the giant "Light Bright" and Abby LOVED dressing up as a princess in the castle!  It was definitely worth the $20 to play the day away!

Future Flyers player?! Grammy would be so proud! 

 Picking from the garden!

 Shopping!

 Light Bright!! 

 I love this pic!! 

 Princess Abby Dancing!

 Princess Abby and her Knight in shining armor.  Well he took it off but...

 Digging for dinosaur Bones! 

 Ball PIT!

 Yup that's my kid! lol 

 Of COURSE he had to play in the kitchen set...even though he does it all day at home lol 

 Getting his hockey on!

Bump watch! 13 weeks!

Happy 2nd Trimester Baby!! I am really looking forward to all the fun the second trimester brings and hoping for some energy! 

HOLY crap did I REALLY POP this week! 

How far along? 13 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: lost 10lbs still no gain
Sleep: same.. having a problem falling asleep and staying asleep even though i'm exhausted all the time

How big is baby? a Peach, about 2.9 inches and .80 oz 

Best moment this week: feeling the baby move, little flutters and bubbles random
Movement: random flutters and bubbles, not consistant
Symptoms: exhausted
Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea
Food cravings: thin mint girl scout cookies!
Food aversions: meats
Gender: prediction says girl! we will see at our next scan on Valentines day
Labor Signs: none
Belly Button in or out? IN
What I miss: same as last week ENERGY! lol
What I am looking forward to: our monthly ob appointment on tuesday
Milestones: made it to the 2nd trimester!!!

Bump watch! 12 weeks!

Yup i officially popped! I feel like it is WAY too early but apparently it happens after your 1st child. I'm sure Bray only being 12 months when I did get pregnant doesn't help.  Hopefully I'n not coming off wrong, b/c I love nothing more than rocking a baby bump. I think it just kinda caught me off guard. Everyone told me I would pop earlier but I guess you don't believe it till you see it! With Brayden I didn't really "pop" till i was 15/16 weeks so this is almost a month early! Hoping that doesn't mean this baby will be a giant as Brayden! lol :) Since i loved seeing the progression of my baby belly with Brayden I figured I would continue the tradition and do my weekly bump shots! 

I saw this cute weekly survey on another blog and thought it would go perfect with my weekly bump shots!


How far along?  12 weeks 1 day
Total weight gain/loss: lost 10lbs no gain so far
Sleep: exhausted all the time but having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep!
How big is baby? the size of a plum about 2.1 inches and 1/2 oz! 
Best moment this week: seeing the baby at our N/T scan
Movement: not yet
Symptoms: exhaustion, occasional headaches
Symptoms I DON'T have: FINALLY getting an appetite back, no nausea! 
Food cravings: been wanting girl scout thin mint cookies but they're not on sale yet lol 
Food aversions: only wanting to eat simple foods, having a hard time with meats
Gender: prediction based on N/T scan ... GIRL! guess we will see! 
Labor Signs: none 
Belly Button in or out? IN
What I miss: energy! i need it chasing an almost 15 month old!
What I am looking forward to: feeling the baby move
Milestones: almost to the 2nd tri! 

N/T scan! 12weeks 4 days!

We oped to have the N/T scan (Nuchal translucency) done as part of the Sequential Screening for this pregnancy. The scan includes an ultrasound and blood test to give a statistical probability of your child having Downs Syndrome. Since the results would not impact the outcome of how we treat this pregnancy we saw it as an opportunity to see the baby again and IF something was wrong we would be able to prepare and be the most educated we possibly could be.

It's amazing how a few weeks can chance SO much!  We hadnt' seen the baby since before we were released to the ob which was 5 1/2 weeks prior. Needless to say  I was driving myself nuts worrying if the baby was okay. My infertility beast was making me think worst case scenario... uggh I hate it.  Anyway we had our ultrasound last Tuesday, I was 12 weeks and 4 day pregnant.  Baby looked amazing. The heartbeat was 176 and you could see him/her waving and rolling. The tech said the neck measurements on the baby were looking good. So we just have to wait for the statistics after my blood work is processed.  We did ask for a gender prediction.  They say if the baby's "nub" which use to be the tail is paralell to the spine that it's usually a girl if it's at a 30+ degree angle it's a boy.  So we figured it would be fun to see if it's right.  Well it's looks like as of right now we are most likely having a GIRL! Obviously we would be happy either way, but it would be really exciting to get the best of both worlds!  And in case we can't do IVF again we wouldn't feel as much pressure to try for a 3rd.

12 weeks 4 days~ The "girl" nub is on the right! 

Hi mommy, daddy and Brayden! 

Another nub/profile shot! 

So i received a call from the MFM ( Maternal Fetal Medicine) office. Of course they called at 3:30 on friday RIGHT after i walked out the door. I didn't get the message from them till 6:30. But the blood tech needed to find out when I had my original egg retrieval and how old i was at that time. Of course I automatically jump to conclusions and start stressing myself out, b/c they had told me they ONLY call if your tests come back positive for there being a problem with the baby. I will be calling them back in the morning but I'm hoping and praying they just need the information so that they can accurately calculate the potential "risk" of downs. I know the age of your eggs can possibly influence those numbers... so here is hoping.

It's official we are PREGNANT!!!

For those who didn't see, we made the official announcement this week that we are pregnant with Baby #2! We couldn't me happier and are so excited for Brayden to be a big brother! Since FB is limiting as far as details I figured I would share how we got this far! I am due July 27, 2012!!

For those who read the blog i'm you know that we decided to go through another round of IVF to try for baby number two.  Since we had 15 embryo's still on ice we were lucky enough to be able to do a FET(frozen embryo transfer) instead of going through the whole process again.  We decided to thaw 6 of our embryos and select the best two to transfer.  We ended up with  4 "good" grade, and two fragmented embies.   Even after transferring two embies we still have 11 on ice.  On November 7th we had our ET(embryo transfer) and transferred two 3 days old embryos. My lining, estrogen and progesterone levels were all perfect so now it was just a waiting game!

Being the impatient person I am I knew i was going to have a hard time holding out on taking a pregnancy test. When we got pregnant with Brayden I got my BFP( positive home pregnancy test) 9 days after our transfer.  I really did try and make myself wait till the 9 days but I knew there was no way I was going to make it.  I ended up testing 7 days after our ET,  at 3:30 in the morning(yes i'm nuts) just to get it out of my system. I knew that the best chance of catching a BFP would mean I needed to use FMU(first morning urine), b/c its more concentrated and to my surprise I got a POSITIVE! Of course I cried! I was so excited I popped online to message my cysters then I ran upstairs to wake up Jason and tell him.  Yeah kinda did that backwards but I needed a minute to process that it was actually real!!

Being the POAS (pee on a stick) addict that I am i had to keep testing every day to see the line getting longer. I think battling with infertility has also made me kinda crazy and I need to see the second line on the test to help remind me that it IS real.

I called my RE (IVF dr) on Wednesday to tell them that I had been getting positive pregnancy tests since Monday. I was hoping they would let me come in earlier than my scheduled Saturday Beta(pregnancy bloodwork). I didn't think they would give much but they did let me come in on that Friday!  Waiting for the bloodwork to come back is the worst!! Fortunately we get same day results at my dr's office but even those few hours seem like forever.  The results were in I was offically pregnant! my Beta was 90 but they were concerned that despite the daily progesterone shots and cream inserts that I my p4(progesterone levels) were only at 23.5. Where as a few days after my transfer they checked them and it was 160.  So they added a 3rd form of progesterone, Prometrium, which are oral pills.  Of course I didn't mind taking more meds if it meant it helped the baby but I have to be honest progesterone makes me so bitchy and adding a 3rd one....whew! Poor Jason is all I have to say! lol I have NEVER had a problem with my progesterone levels so I was really concerned.  Two days later they did another beta and my number was 301! they are looking for the number to double with in a 48 hour period and mine was way ahead of that. Fortunately my p4 levels had jumped back up to 90, so we were really relieved!

My RE does 5 betas total over a streched out time frame.  Once your numbers hit 1000 they allow you to schedule your 1st u/s(ultrasound).  We had our first u/s on November 28th since my numbers had doubled so rapidly. At that point they confirmed we had ONE bun in the oven.  We had a few more u/s before being released to the ob at 8 weeks.!

November 28 ~ 4 weeks 5 days

December 6 ~ 6weeks 4 days 

December 16~ 8 weeks 

I had my 1st OB appt on the 22nd of December. The dr was extremely thorough about things. We had to make a "to do" list for this pregnancy. First off since Brayden was such a giant baby (9lb 9oz, 22 1/2") and we had NO idea since I only gained 26lbs they want to make sure to do a growth scan aronud 32/33 weeks to see the size of this baby.  If this baby looks like he/she is going to be big as well they will probably induce me at 39 weeks.  We definitely don't want a repeat of the "horror" story of tearing/labor that I had with Bray. The dr also wants to monitor my IR(insulin resistance) a few weeks after I stop my Metformin to make sure I don't have elevated glucose levels early in the pregnancy. So they'll prob have me go for an early GTT (glucose tolerance test) in the next week or two. I'll find out at my monthly appt on Tuesday. We did this when I was pregnant with Brayden so it's no biggie.  The other "concerning" thing the dr is monitoring is my cervix. After I had the cancerous cells removed in the LEEP procedure in July it shortened my cervix one centimeter. So the dr started doing cervical checks at my 1st appt so that they can make sure i am not dialating/effacing prematurely as the baby gets bigger. Hopefully everything will be fine but in the event there is an issue they will just so a simple Cerclage to stitch the cervix shut still we are ready to deliver.  

We tried to take some pictures of Brayden in his "big brother" t-shirt. TRIED is the operative word. Lol.  He never sits still so getting him to sit and smile was a joke. We did get some cute and silly pictures. He's the best!