Savvy Toddler Mom

I sat down to blog last night around 11:30pm and discovered that our cable was out — internet, phones, tv.  Ack!  I was cut-off from the world! 

Luckily, I managed to find something else to do: go to bed.

I’m still trying to recover from the Daylight Savings Time change.  Ugh.  I consider moving to Arizona constantly for the weather… and this week, because they don’t do DST.  I do enjoy it being lighter longer in the evening, though.  Really, I just can’t wait for spring and summer!  I miss being WARM.

Since I’m a little behind (as usual), let’s have update time! 

SavvyTodderMomFitness
CTM and I are back at the gym this week after taking a week off due to CTM’s cold.  Yeah, I could go by myself… but I didn’t.  I thought I would… but I didn’t.  Wow.  I really need to work on that self discipline.  Anyway, the good news is that we are back on schedule and going three days a week again.  Also, I did some gardening on Monday and MAN, I am sore.  I think I need to add squats to the “to do” list.

SavvyToddlerMomQuitsCaffeine
It’s done, folks.  I quit!  I’m through.  I did have a little slip last week — I’ll be honest with you — I had a horrible migraine and I pounded down a Relpax and a Diet Coke in no time flat.  Felt SO much better!  However, I got to thinking about how hard it was and how long it took to quit in the first place and gave my permission for SavvyDad to take the remaining Diet Cokes to work.  Big step for me — no crutches.

SavvyToddlerMomBabySaga
I went to see the “new” perinatalogist on Tuesday.  He was great — took his time reading through our history and lab work, etc.  He went through all of the things they usually look for — and complimented my OBGYN on his thoroughness.  Unfortunately, he didn’t have an ALAKAZAM moment.  There really isn’t much else we can do.  He said the baby aspirin/heparin treatment is pretty experimental (which we didn’t know) and that if we did absolutely nothing, we would have a 65% chance of having a healthy baby.
 
Interestingly enough, he and a fellow of his are doing a study on 10-20 week miscarriages and they asked if we would participate.  We agreed and they drew our blood (both of us) and got our consent to get samples from Elizabeth’s and James’ placentas that were used for the pathology work we had done earlier.  They will do a genetic comparison — our genes vs. the babies’ — and see if there are any anomalies that can offer an explanation.  He said that second trimester demises are usually due to genetic problems, but there is so much genetic data that they haven’t been able to pin it all down yet.  Really interesting!  They said it’ll probably be a year or more before we hear anything back, but it’s nice to know that we can possibly help someone else down the road by assisting in solving the puzzle.

If you or someone you know has had a 10-20 week miscarriage and would like to participate in this study, please email me at savvytoddlermom @ gmail.com and I will send you the contact information for the doctor heading it up.  It’s actually a female doctor and she is great.

I also want to tell you all THANK YOU for reading SavvyToddlerMom.com… my readership has grown considerably in 2008 and it’s so fun to know you are all out there reading.  I hope you are having fun reading — hopefully taking something away — and laughing.

I’ve been so busy doing things I want to blog about, I haven’t had a chance to blog about them!  This week the toot and I — and the majority of the in-law clan – made it over to the Discovery Gateway.  Very cool, but expensive.  When I have more time, I will give a more complete review, but for now my overall opinion is that you have to go at least once.  The toot LOVED it and keeps asking to go again.

I also went to the new IKEA this morning — first time since it opened in Draper last summer.  Yes, I thought I was the last person to finally go, but then I realized CTM hasn’t been yet either!  I’ve been to IKEA before in Chicago and California, but not our very own here in Salt Lake.  It was nice to go and not have to think, “Will that fit in my luggage?” with everything I considered purchasing.

They have a great kids’ play area — free for an hour! — but… alas, the toot is not potty trained yet.  Only 100% potty trained children allowed!  He did have some awesome mac & cheese in the restaurant, although I prefer their meatballs.  Yum!

So, I think I’ve mentioned Suze Orman’s book Women & Money before, but I think it deserves another, longer mention.  Or, rather, directive: Get this book!  Even if you think (or know) you are very financially savvy, unless you are a financial planner yourself, you will learn something.  I read it last year after my SIL Anne mentioned it (thanks again!). 

One of my favorite things about it (there are several…) is the money market account offer they provide.  Suze Orman worked out a deal with TD Ameritrade… if you open a money market account there and deposit at least $50/month for one year, they will give you an additional $100!  This month I make my 12th deposit and after I get my extra $100, will have $700 in the account.  And honestly, it’s been painless.

On a totally different train of thought, I spent an hour in the doctor’s office last month cracking up over an issue of Wondertime I picked up in there.  I just sent in for a subscription, I liked it so much.  I found it much more down-to-earth than most parenting magazines, but also more sophisticated.  The article that I was laughing about so hard I was crying was from a woman that blogs for them and was relating her funniest/worst moments of parenting.  I was DYING.  Someone who has had four miscarriages (that would be me…) shouldn’t be laughing so hard in a OBGYN’s waiting room surrounded by extremely pregnant women.  Very sweet medicine for me.

Speaking of which… I am going to a second perinatalogist next week for another opinion.  Since all my tests, etc. have come up negative, I have got to keep trying to find an answer.  Along the lines of when you are at the bottom of the barrel, you find another barrel.  My new barrel is at the U of U Hospital and specializes in recurrent miscarriages, preterm births, and stillborns.  I’ll let you know what I find out (if anything).

The toot has been completely off his napping/eating schedule lately and has been SUCH a monster.  I think we will be laying low the next couple of days so that he (and I) can recover.  I actually found a bare spot on my desk today, so I am not as buried as I have been.  Yay!  Hopefully I will be able to blog about the Discovery Gateway, etc. very soon.

Another zero Diet Coke day!  Yay!

I am going to celebrate by having a Fresca.

I made the BEST chicken tortilla soup tonight - here is the recipe (for the crock pot):

4 uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 15-oz cans black beans, undrained
2 15-oz cans low-sodium Mexican stewed tomatoes, or Rotel tomatoes
1 cup low-sodium salsa (mild, medium, or hot, whichever you prefer)
4-oz can chopped green chilies, undrained
14-1/2-oz can low-sodium tomato sauce
baked tortilla chips
2 cups grated fat-free cheese

1. Combine all ingredients except chips and cheese in large slow cooker.
2. Cover. Cook on low 8 hours. (I do mine on high for 4 hours.)
3. Just before serving, remove chicken breasts and slice into bite-size pieces. Stir into soup.
4. To serve, put a handful of chips in each individual soup bowl. Ladle soup over chips. Top with cheese.

Recipe by Becky Harder of Monument, CO from Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly by Phyllis Pellman Good.

Tomorrow is the dreaded hysterosalpingogram.  I’m trying not to think about it.

I’d like to thank my sweet friend Jasmine for reminding me this morning that “miscarriage” isn’t the right word. I’ve been thinking about it all day.  I’m going to try and say something else from now on.  I think she’s right in that “miscarriage” is a word taken lightly in our society.  Losing a baby should not be taken lightly.  She and I lost babies… real, live, loved babies.  “Miscarriage” doesn’t come close to defining what happened to them/us.  Jasmine, thank you again.

That’s what the perinatologist said.  He wants to do some more blood tests to see if it’s a clotting problem (his best guess at the moment) and do a procedure where they shoot dye into my uterus so that can get a good look at it.  His other idea is that when the toot was born, something happened to my uterus that is causing it to not function properly.

I am hoping it’s a clotting thing — easily fixed with heparin.

All of the genetic testing came back normal - yay!

So, more testing.  Stay tuned…

Today, the toot and I are hunkering-down at home.  Another storm is supposed to hit.  I’m going to clean out my craft room, I think.  My parents gave me an awesome scrapbooking table for Christmas, but I haven’t been able to get it organized for all the STUFF in the way!

This has had me chuckling for two days now… Olivia: The Essential Latin Edition.  Yes, it is what it sounds like… it’s Olivia, translated into Latin.

I’ve got to get it!  I laughed and laughed when I saw it on Amazon.com, then laughed harder when I looked at the excerpts.  I forgot how much I love Latin!  I forgot how fun it is to be academically silly.  I took three years of Latin in high school, only to have it drowned out by four years of French in college.  Maybe it’s time to get back to our collective roots.

Update on my quest to have a second child: I go to see the perinatalogist on Thursday.  (SavvyDad likes to think of him as the “paranatalogist” - baby ghost doctor?)  He’s got pathology reports and blood work results — we’ll see what he has to say about this whole thing.  I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, it’s back to The List (see previous post).  Today I started taking down the Christmas decorations (a task so overwhelming, it must be done in doses) and I cleaned out my closet.  I have four bags of clothing and shoes all set to go the the DI (Deseret Industries, for you non-locals… my favorite place to donate stuff) AND I banned all of the maternity-ish clothing back to storage.  It was too sad having it in my closet and looking at it every day.

ChasingToddlerMom has her ultrasound tomorrow.  Yippee!!!!  I have a pair of polka-dot Puddle Jumpers I have to hand over if she’s having a girl.  Stay tuned…

I guess it’s going to be a while before I wear those maternity clothes.

I found out on Monday that our little baby no longer had a heartbeat.  I delivered 15-week-old James the next day.

I don’t really know what to say.  We will be celebrating Christmas again this year with heavy hearts.  A year ago today I delivered our little Elizabeth at 17 weeks.  To say the least, I am heartbroken.

Our friends and family have been very loving and supportive, but our little toot is our hero right now.  Without him, we would be devastated.  He is the light of our lives.

Enjoy your children.  Hug them and hold them tight.  Tell them that you love them.  They are so very, very precious.