BabyBeans!

I had to stop myself from saying this to a friend on facebook:

“doesn’t matter how big the baby is, you’ll never be the same!”

Just putting that out there.

>Neglected blog due to lack of sleep<

Sarah started back to work recently, so I’ve been spending a lot of time with the kids. I’m slowly getting used to being a SAHM. We were really lucky to both be home since Lauren’s birth. I’m amazed that we could survive on Sarah’s maternity pay- we got very good at cutting costs!

My least favorite part of Sarah returning to work is getting the kids to sleep at night. They’re used to having two mommies to cuddle them to sleep and we usually take turns when they wake up at night… But since I can only hold one at a time, I’ve been trying to figure out how to keep one quiet while the other one falls asleep! This seems to be an impossible task, since I’ve come to realize that both of these kids are whiners. Urgg! I need some tips from BTDT moms!

I’ve found myself consumed with all things ttc again. I’ve been checking out tw.owee.kwait, iv.illage,etc constantly. And the really crazy thing? I’m jealous of a friend who’s due in 2 weeks. Yep- I’m crazy!

My baby girl turned one yesterday. It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed, because it seems like we’re always busy doing something. We don’t even notice when the kids change. Like one day we’ll notice that Billy’s rolling or Lauren’s calling Sarah dada for some reason… (Lauren thinks it’s hilarious!)

Anyways, I am so proud of my little monkey for  growing up and becoming her own little person. She has so many little quirks that are endearing to us, though they probably look odd to others! For instance, she scrunches up her nose and makes an evil giggle noise! Lately she’s been doing that while chasing after Billy or crawling out of the room I’m in. She tells us when she poops, because it really bothers her and has started to (randomly) squish the back of her diaper as if she’s checking it for us!
And oh yeah, she knows how to take diapers off too!

-J

I’ve been tagged by Tui over at Journey Towards Our Baby  for an honest scrap award. Yay! Tui and K are just starting IVF and really deserve a baby or two. They’re one of my only remaining readers, since I’ve neglected this blog for so long. I read their blog daily because Tui really has a way with words.

So, I am going to award ten of my favorite blogs, but I don’t expect them to notice, since I’ve been gone for so long

The following blogs keep me coming back for more, and deserve an honest scrap award:

1. Baybeasts

2. Desperately seeking baby

3. Finding chaos

4. Darwin has 2 mommies

5. Eat,poop,love

6. John and Steve are having a baby

7. Reproducing genius

8. Waiting for Mavis

9. love+love=marriage

10. Next in line

Ten honest things about me:

1. I search blogs for donorsiblings. Sometimes I see similarities between my kids and pics people post, and become obsessed. I search their blogs for clues. I found one this way!

2. I may have found our donor online.

3. I have OCD and I’m freaked out about death germs. I imagine things happening to my kids and can’t get the images out of my head.

4. I worry what people think of me. I can twist a single comment a hundred different ways.

5. I visit 68 blogs every day. I check my favorites several times a day. It’s part of my ocd.

6. I want a lot of kids, but I don’t want them to be like me.

7. I’m worried that I’ll end up like octomom.. That I’ll suddenly be really fertile, get pregnant 1st try every time and have like ten kids or something.

8. I’ve never questioned my sexuality.

9. I can’t smell skunk or marijuana.

10. I’m really bad at math.

We were in the neighborhood of our clinic yesterday, so we thought we’d drop by for a visit.

After the birth of Billy, our nurses from the clinic called inviting us back for a visit. Of course we had been worried about bringing babies into such a sensitive space.. Neither of us wanted to hurt any patient’s feelings by bringing them in. So with much hesitation and a lot of back and forth, we decided to just sneak in for a few minutes. When we arrived there was nobody in the waiting room, so all that worry was for nothing, apparently. We were shown to the same meeting room where I had been taught how to do injections.

It was so odd being there, really made the past few years seem so worthwhile. We’d come full circle, and were hoping for another miracle (or two!)

Two of our nurses played with the kids, and we asked some questions and settled on a timeline. Things are happening people! I can’t believe we’re going to do this again!

-Joul

I want another baby. Soon. I know how selfish that sounds, but it’s true.

So many ladies in blogland dealing with loss this month, so sad.

Found out my clinic doesn’t deal with egg donation. Unless it’s with a known donor (sister to sister, etc.) So I decided to offer my queer cousins my eggs, if they want them and can find a surrogate.

Don’t know what else I can do.

Just got back from a lovely picnic with my best buds. The kiddles had their first encounter with a swing, which was awesome. I love watching them smile as they encounter something for the first time. I managed to catch it on video.

For Canada day we spent the day at the lake, where my grandmother lives. Every year they have a parade that everyone in town joins and then a big party follows. We were in charge of making the cake to be served to 400 people. It was hard to do with both kids demanding our attention, but it was worth it. Everyone was thrilled to see we finally had our babies. It was nice to feel so accepted.

Last week Billybean decided to start turning over like a mad man, and has been rolling all over the place since then. Laurenbean still hates rolling. She’s decided to scoot on her butt instead. I just know she’s going to get carpet burn.

We’re starting Billybean on rice cereal this week. He’s been too hungry for me to keep up with. Hoping this will fill him up a bit before bed.

Our first pride!

The kiddles are growing fast, and I’ve clearly been too busy to blog about them.

Billybean is 3 months old! He started rolling this week and can hold his head up for a really long time. He’s still a very happy, mellow baby. He’s a big baby, kind of chunky and totally kissable. His baby acne has finally disappeared.

Lauren is 9 months old (7 adjusted) and can sit on her own and feed herself. She just got her first two teeth and makes the most adorable faces as she chews her tongue. I see a lot of our donor in her, as well as her donor siblings. Sometimes that wierds me out a little.

I’ve decided to try to become an egg donor. I feel indebted to the universe for my beautiful babies. I figure, if they’ve given me so much joy, shouldn’t I at least try to give someone else as much happiness?

-J

Life with our duo is wonderful! BillyBean is the most mellow baby I have ever met- He can sleep through anything. He took to breastfeeding so well that he was above birth weight by day four. I’m making way too much milk and have to pump after feeding him and sometimes just before so that he doesn’t drown in my letdown!

Mr BillyBean craps ALL THE TIME. Every diaper change is disgusting. LaurenBean always had the opposite problem- She only really started to poop normally last month. So we have a lot of adjusting to do- and we have to remember to secure every diaper very tightly! I might start putting a cloth diaper over our disposables just to catch overflow- My mother in law had to do that with her son, seems like a good idea to me!

LaurenBean  seems to have a food intolerance to wheat cereal. She has a wicked bum rash, vomitting and hours of screaming with terrible gas. All the next cereals have wheat in them, so I guess we’ll have to stick to barley and rice for a while and then try wheat again in a few weeks. I sure hope this isn’t an actual allergy.

I won’t go into great detail about my birth experience as I don’t want to scare away the ttc’ers out there! … It was hard.

-3 hours of pushing with a nurse that wouldn’t follow Dr.’s orders

-There was thin meconium in the amniotic fluid that worried me, but noone else.

-The day after delivery, I found out my doctor is being sued for leaving sponges inside a patient.

- Way too much tearing… internal, external.. everwhere. Ouch.

- The moment you see the baby, you realize the pain was all worth it. I loved him immediatly even though he was all swollen and chubby. He was my babybean and I earned him.

For the time being, our family feels complete. But I’ve already been asked when we’ll try again. It’s no secret that I want a big family, and we have 8 vials left that we’re paying rent on at two different storage facilities. Oddly enough, watching BillyBean being born didn’t scare Sarah from wanting to try again. She really wants to get her blood pressure under control so that she can try again in a year or two.

Well, gotta go clean everything. Anyone else out there over the moon excited about Cat Cora and her partner both being pregnant?

BillyBean arrived at 2:18 am on March 17 after 16 hours of “active labour”.  He weighs 8 lbs, 4.5 oz and is 21 in long.