12 weeks and (form) Letters from the President

I got the kids dressed up to go to the temple on Saturday, but we got there and the temple was closed (N.B. the temple is never closed), but at least we got some cute pics.  I know I sound like a broken record, but they are really getting big.  I just ordered size two diapers, she's over 10 lbs. and he's over 12, so they have now been in four sizes in the last 12 weeks.  My mom is coming to hang out with us for a few days this week while my BIL is still home on paternity leave.  After he goes back to work, we may not be seeing her again for awhile.  She hasn't been here since January when MIL arrived from India.  Having them both here = date night!  Our first since we went to the Hamptons in August.  Needless to say, we are very excited. :)  Having a little freedom may actually get my butt in gear for the ultimate sitter search.

The kids are doing great and are only getting up once at night now (~2-3am), when DH and I usually both get up so I can pump and we can feed them both.

We received our WH greetings recently (thanks for the tip M!), though they strangely addressed the envelopes to DH and me, but fun for the baby books none the less.  These mean even more to me since I have met and chatted with our president (at a fundraiser for his Senate run in 2004) and he was elected when I was in my first 2ww on this crazy journey...

The big news is I'm starting to get some feeling back in my hands!  I can't tell you how good this feels.  I'm not sure whether it's just a function of time (it has been nearly three months now...) or if the acu is actually helping.  She started out just working generally on my hands, but the last few weeks she's been pulling out the big guns.  She's been doing moxa for awhile now, where she applies heat to the needles in my hands.  And then she went for needles in the tips of my fingers, which is as bad as it sounds, but showed us I did have some feeling deep down in there afterall.  Ouch.  Then last week, she "bled" my fingers, which is almost as bad as it sounds, where she pricks the tips, getting a drop or so to get things going.  Sounds very weird, I know.  But you get desperate after so long and I trust her completely after over two years.  I will probably only continue to go to see her until the rest of my prepaid sessions are up in a few more weeks.

My MIL is helpful during the day and does a lot of cooking.  It is pretty standard in Indian families for the parents/inlaws to come and stay for at least six months.  Sadly for us, my MIL is here alone as my FIL passed away suddenly when we were getting ready to do IVF in late 2010 and yet again my BIL is not able to get a visa (he missed our wedding here as well). 

Besides being really sad for all of us, on a practical note given her very limited English, the fact that she doesn't drive, and her difficulty with our advanced project management system we have in place (deciding how much formula to offer when the BM is gone, charting, etc.), she is an effective mother's helper and soother, but I don't leave her home alone with them.  My FIL used to be our translator and DH does when he is home.  So I go out to run errands, if I must, when DH gets home from work and on the weekends.  But we spend our days in near silence, save the baby chatter that is now filling our home.  Yes I probably should have been learning Hindi or Marahti, in my free time.  I'm a confirmed bad DIL, though she is lovely...

I finally got to reading (the elder) Dr. Weissbluth's, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins, which is kind of embarrassing given how quick a read it is.  One of the things that jumped out at me was actually his blurb talking about the connection between hormonal infertility (which seems to be our/my problem getting and even more sadly staying pg) and supply issues.  Makes a lot of sense.  Not that at this point I have serious supply issues (I get ~ 35 oz/day), but it's too little for two and I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to switch back to the breast unless I was getting more than they now eat from pumping/supplementing.  I had guilt for about two seconds about supplementing, since they are getting the vast majority of their feeds from breast milk, and pumping/bottle feeding works well for us given all the people who are here to feed them.  It also means we'll have no issues going to formula and bottles later.  And they've been disadvantaged enough by my body's inability to do what it is supposed to, I had/have no intention of starving them too, even though and especially since they are now growing so well.  I'm not that much of a purist and they are thriving. 

I also think I've pretty much bagged the idea of cloth diapering.  It just has about zero appeal to me now, though I guess that could change.  I chalk it up to being a casualty of multiples, since I thought I would want to.  Seventh Gen diapers are really nice and they haven't had any bottom issues, yet.

My sister got home from the hospital in time for her birthday last month, and it turns out that it was actually a really bad staph infection.  Thanks for all your prayers!
Next up, getting the kids pics done for three months (next week!) and filling up their Easter baskets, which I got from Pottery Barn Kids (Peacocks and Plaid!).  I see more Jellycats in our future... :)  The Easter bunny comes to our clubhouse on April 1st.

Chinese gender prediction?

So I went to back to my acupuncturist today for the first time since my post-transfer treatment last Thursday.  She is very excited.  She checked my pulse once she had me on the table and then went on to explain that Chinese medicine says that you can predict the gender of your child through the pulse.  Since my left wrist was stronger, she predicted that we are having a boy.  Unfortunately, she didn't do this little exercise last time, so I have no idea if she would have said I was pregnant with a girl.  Not sure what happens if you are having twins of each gender.  Anyways, hope we get to find out in about three more months for real. :)

I know these are getting really gratuitous at this point, but you know after years of seeing negatives, I never tire of seeing that magic word... Pregnant...

It's finally Spring!

Though it feels like we skipped right to summer.  What a glorious weekend it was here!  It was in the 60's on Saturday and well into the 80's yesterday, the warmest weather of the year so far.  Amazing!  I had an big burst of energy, so I got a lot done.  It was a good weekend to have all the windows (and doors) open so I did some spring cleaning and finally got to some painting (our second living room end table, the trim in the powder room and guest bath, and the back door).

This Wednesday is my last day at work.  It is a little weird.  It's the first time I've quit my job without another FT one lined up in almost ten years.  But we've got a ton going on, so it's not like I'll be sitting around.  I leave this Sunday for the Vegas project.

The last two weeks I've been to the acupuncturist, she's been doing the "Swedish Protocol" on me.  Unlike the last year and half when I've laid on my back and she's put needles in my head/face, stomach, arms/hands, legs/feet, she's put me on my stomach and used just a few in my upper (for anxiety) and lower (for my ute) back, to which she attached the little charger so I felt/looked like a middle school science project.  This is supposed to be pumping up my lining, and I believe that it is because I can actually feel my ute twitching during and after.  Totally bizarre.  I'm going again on Thursday to get in another session before my lining check on Friday morning.  Though this has never been an issue for me before, we aren't leaving anything that would potentially delay our transfer to chance.

If all is good this Friday, then I just have a P4 check a week from Thursday, and the transfer on the 27th.

Since there are so many things that could go wrong with this cycle, I'm starting to look into where we would want to cycle again if for any reason this FET doesn't work out.  I don't know anything about our embies, so we've probably got a roughly 50/50 shot. Our intention is to keep cycling until either we get a take home baby or we decide we just can't do it anymore. It should be an interesting summer... ;)