7 Vials of Blood...

Of course I have a familiar song stuck in my head right now, with a minor alteration: 7 vials of blood from my arm, 7 vials of blood, take one down, swish it around, 6 vials of blood from my arm... you know the rest.

So, today I met with a perinatologist. We went over my history, my risk factors and all the things that could possibly be causing the multiple losses. We discussed genetic translocations first but that's not a testing route that I want to go at this point. Reason being, if there IS a translocation, we've beaten it twice and the only way to ensure that we would beat it again is to use a donor egg and that's just not an option that I want to consider. The fact that we have 2 healthy kids shows that it is possible and that fact also "according to the books" puts me at no greater risk for a miscarriage in the future than if I had had none. Dr. A said that it's still one of those things that he has a hard time wrapping his head around so he fully understood if I thought he was full of it with that statement. He seemed very hopeful for us which was nice.

The second point of discussion was uterine abnormality. Although I've had two healthy pregnancies and full term vaginal deliveries it's possible that something could be undetected. Apparently even though I've had two d&c's that it's possible that they missed it during those procedures... but I don't think the shape of my uterus is the issue. A hysterosalpingogram (HSG) would be the way to determine, without a doubt, that everything is fine or not. Dr. A doesn't want to worry about that at this point (which I totally agree with) since we are actively trying this month, which he thinks we should be doing. The other thing that makes me step back from this procedure is that it commonly uses injected iodine and since I have a shellfish sensitivity, this can cause more problems than it would be worth.

The final point of discussion was the different thrombophelias and blood issues. Basically, there is a theory that certain thrombophelias can be responsible for small blood clots which can lead to problems like strokes, blood clots and multiple miscarriages and losses into the second trimester. This is not what causes all miscarriages or even most miscarriages. A 6%-10% occurrence sounds kind of rare but the reality is, it isn't. 6-10% of the population will present with blood tests that would indicate that they are affected but that does not mean that's the cause. If I am shown to have one of these blood disorders along with the multiple losses, then they can diagnose a syndrome. Blood disorders sound kind of scary but the treatment is very simple. The easiest is a single daily baby aspirin which he told me to go ahead and start now. There's not a lot of proof that it helps a ton but there's more proof that it doesn't hurt. The second part of the treatment would be daily lovenox injections, that I would administer to myself, in my tummy. He said skinny people (gotta love him!) like me still have enough tissue for it to not be a problem. That treatment would continue for the entire length of a future pregnancy until 2 days before a scheduled induction. BUT, like I said, that's ONLY if it comes back that I test positive for any of the disorders that they're going to look for.

So, yes, I talked for an hour today with Dr. A, who loves this stuff obviously and walked out with a little bit more hope and a lab order for:
Factor V (five) Leiden
Prothombin Gene Mutation
Antiphospholipid Antibody (Anticardiolipin / Lupus Anticoagulant)
Which in simple terms means 7 vials of blood from my arm!

The results of the panel should be back to the office in about 2 weeks - which is still a great time frame for current endeavors. Bottom line is, knowing that there is or isn't something going on will not change my past, it's not even definitive reason for the losses and it won't give me a guarantee for the future. The number one reason is still stupid chromosomal abnormalities, yes, even in a 16 - 17 weeker like Eli who appeared totally "normal" aside from that no beating heart issue. So, we wait and see what the results are and then go from there.

I wasn't really looking forward to this appointment, not sure why, but it feels very good to have it behind me and to know that I will be armed with much more information for the future. I'm not necessarily hoping to find out one thing over another but I feel good knowing that I've done something. Isn't the saying: the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result? I felt like that's what I was doing, and now I'm not.

Late Summer Fun...

Today was a beautiful pre-fall day! I couldn't justify just hanging out at home today even though the lawn reaaaallly needs to be mowed. So, we ditched our responsibilities around the house today - of course they'll still be here tomorrow - and we headed out to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Considering that it's less than 30 minutes from our driveway, I don't know why we've never been... but we will be going back! The kids were excellent and even set out and walked a 1.5 mile trail with us. We got to see nutria, frogs, turtles, herons, ducks, river otters and all sorts of other waterfowl. It was just great weather, a totally different outing for the kids and a surprise for them since we didn't tell them where we were headed.

We've been trying to make an effort to get all four of us in photos when we go places. We have way too many shots of us looking like single parents!

I love. love. love this picture!

Setting out on the 1.2 mile Kiwa Trail loop...

We found this little guy fishing...

Along the trail, Karleigh pulled out her great impression of Lewis and Clark - actually, she was just excited to see her daddy and brother coming around the bend!

Wildlife refuge, Britney style!

After Rylan enjoyed his little snooze and we moved him back to his car seat, we drove around to the other side of the refuge. This side has the Cathlapotle cedar plankhouse which is a replica of the houses that Lewis and Clark reported seeing during their travels. Kind of cool! Apparently, when visitors called, they would leave their things outside the hole in the wall, which was used as the door, and if they weren't wanted then they were "easy to bonk on the head when they tried to stick their head in..."

Lucky for us, no one bonked us on the head and we were able to go inside and see how the plankhouse was constructed and it smelled so good too! They also had various pelts for the kids to feel, rock tools, arrow heads, spear heads, and cat tail mats and ropes.

I'm pretty sure that the wheel barrows in this photo aren't authentic... actually, they're getting ready to put a cedar plank floor in and they've been working on removing all the gravel that currently makes up the floor. Karleigh was very impressed with the size of this old oak tree. I was too!

To top it off, in order to get to the refuge, you have to cross three sets of very active train tracks. To get to the plankhouse, you get to take a foot bride that crosses over the tracks. Rylan asked if we could wait for a train on the bridge. We had already seen and/or heard 5 trains during the afternoon so we told him that we would try. I would say we waited less than 10 minutes and then we got this look:

Here comes the train!!! Rylan was so excited, the engineer waved out his window as he headed straight under us. Rylan went to bed talking about the big yellow train! (BNSF)

All in all a great day! A little whining (from the kids) about 3/4 of a mile into the "hike" but it was hot by that time of the afternoon. I really could have done without hearing the same IVF commercial no less than 5 times on the radio. It just seems that even when I'm doing something and my mind should be mostly off those matters, they have a way of working in anyway. But if that's my only complaint, I consider this day a total success!!!

We Survived!

We all survived the first day of preschool! I'm not too surprised and it's nice to have that behind us. We asked Karleigh how she wanted to do the first day... just have daddy take her or have all of us take her. She decided that she wanted all of us to take her so that's what we did. She found it kind of hard to sleep last night because she was excited so of course she was a little tired this morning. Jim is a morning guy (so nice!) so he carried her downstairs and let her wake up on the couch for a little bit. The bummer realization was that we were still walking around in a fog this morning when we heard the buses go up our hill... yes buses, plural, at 7:15 am. Now, most of you haven't been here but our hill is fine for one car at a time, it's a little dodgy when you meet someone and now, with the new busing schedule, they managed to have two buses, up the hill at the same time. Bet they'll be changing that up a bit! Anyway. We all got ready, snapped a few pictures, Rylan got buckled in the van with me, Karleigh buckled into the car with daddy and off we went. It was the longest trip to town EVER! Not because I was all emotional or anything like that - today was the first day back for the entire BG School Dist. (ok not the entire district, but for all the schools around us) It took us 35 minutes to go 7 and a half miles. Obviously, the bus driver that we got behind was new. He didn't know his stops and slowed down (from 25 mph max) at every. single. driveway. Jim and I were cars number 2 and 3 of at least 21 behind this bus that we followed all the way into the city limits. After he turned off to continue his route we ended up in the jam of cars and buses all taking their little one's to their first day. Note to self... flowers for the teacher seem to be common around here... almost as common as seeing kids under 12 in the front passengers seat (which is not legal in Washington but who's really paying attention???) Finally we got her to school, buzzed in and she walked right past the two other crying kids, said "bye!" and sat down at circle time. That was easy! Well, it was easy for her, not so easy for Rylan. By the time we got him back out to the van he was bawling. "We need go get Karleigh!" "Karleigh!" We told him that he and I would go pick her up in a couple hours (a time frame he totally doesn't comprehend) but then I suggested that we go shopping to help pass the time today since we were already in town... "shopping!" He composed himself quite quickly but still about every 2 minutes -

"We go get Karleigh?!"

We will, just not yet buddy - hey look! Cows!

"Oh yah, I see cows - Karleigh! Oh... no Karleigh." --- silence--- "Ohh, look an airplane, we go get Karleigh?"

Nope, we're going to go shopping, get gas and then we'll get Karleigh! Followed by as many distractions as possible.

Finally he realized that mommy alone just might be ok. So, since it was early in the morning, we headed to Target to wander around and then went to the mall. He was a total little man, holding my hand most of the time and never running off (well, once...) He got to play in the play area for a little while and then we went and tried on and bought his Halloween costume - that's the one time he took off of course, in full on monkey gear to the front of the store. Of course, no one could resist laughing at and talking to the 2 1/2 year old trying to escape the store looking like a monkey. He's just too cute for his own good some times. I also think that having Karleigh at preschool is going to be great for HIS verbal skills. He took the costume and showed it to EVERYONE at daddy's work and we were good. The nice thing is that first thing in the morning, the mall is generally filled with:

A. old people who love little kids or

B. parents who have just shipped their little ones off their first day of school (phew)

We stopped and looked at the puppies and kitties, got gas, and were back into town early (make a mental note of that) so we went to McD's and got a couple milkshakes, went back to the preschool and waited about 15 minutes until it was 11:30. I went in to get Karleigh and the director met me and said she had a great day etc. etc. but "now she's kind of sad because the daycare kids are eating lunch and since she doesn't have to bring a lunch... blah, blah, blah." I walked in and she was sitting at a table with 3 other kids who ALL had red cheeks. They had started lunch early! I was in the parking lot the whole time. I tried to be nice about it and just said "Oh no, maybe I need to set my clock in the van to the school clocks so we can avoid this in the future." The director then said that sometimes some of the teachers get ahead yadda, yadda, yadda but that frustrated me. Her day would have been perfect if THEY had stayed on schedule or waved me into the building. I was sitting right at the front door just waiting so that I wouldn't interrupt. However, I will now show up closer to 11:15 so she doesn't have to go through that again. Live and learn for all of us I guess. Other than that, she says she had a great time and she wants to go back which is a positive sign. I'm sure she's not scarred for life - I don't remember my first day of school at all so unless we make a big deal about it, she's bound to forget her 5 or 10 minutes of sadness. I won't, but she will.

How do you...

get a look like this:and like this?

Have daddy buy tickets to this!

Jim bought us all tickets for opening night to the circus on Thursday evening. It was so much fun! It's been years since I was at a circus. I think the only time I went was up in Canada one year and it's been a long time since Jim has been to the circus too. So, it was a great treat for all of us. I was actually smart and got on the Ringling Bros. web site for the show and noticed that they have "extras" beyond the circus!

The doors opened about an hour before show time and for 40 minutes we were able to go down on the area floor, at the Rose Garden, and get up close and personal with some of the performers and animals. We were one of the first dozen families in the doors, and I knew how the set-up went, so we walked the kids straight down to the floor and they were front and center for the whole all access pre-show. Karleigh even got to go beyond the velvet ropes and play tug-o-war with the "strong men"! I was happy because it gave me a chance to get some "ok" pictures. Between the dark surroundings, the spot lighting, smoke machines and movement, I was please to see that any turned out frankly.

There were a few performers prior to this, one of them a unicyclist who could jump rope and go up and down stairs (that's what Karleigh is watching in the photo above) and then they brought the animals out! This miniature horse was performing with a llama and a donkey!

Then out came Karleigh's favorite clown and she did a little routine with two audience members (or one member and one plant, we couldn't tell for sure)

After a little while longer, the strong men came out and that's when Karleigh got to go "help". The picture quality is quite poor since I needed to snap it fast and Rylan was crying, thinking that his sister had just run off and joined the circus. No kidding. Once he realized she was coming right back, he was fine!

He was even more fine when Nicki came out! The elephants were his favorite part (along with the motorcycles) throughout the entire show. I actually had a hard time getting a great photo of her because we were so close! It was really neat to hear about the circus' breeding program and how they train them. We even got to watch her paint a picture.

There were so many different parts and pieces of the show, it was hard to decide what to try to capture without missing a bunch of what was going on.

Intermission gave us a chance to wiggle our bodies and again, I broke out the camera to make the time seem to go faster so we could get back to the show! Lucky for Jim, Rylan had to go potty right before intermission so they didn't have to wait in line at all, which in hindsight was wonderful because Jim said that he must have held it as long as he could! Yay! No accidents!

After intermission, the kids also decided to swap which parent they were sitting with so that was fun too. We each got to talk to each of the kids about what they were seeing and how they liked it!

Before too long the show was back on and we got to see the tigers!

And got to see the elephants perform together too!

And, before we knew it, we had spent two hours being totally entertained and the show was over!

There were so many more things than I was able to show here and we had a wonderful time! On our way out the door we bought 3 huge lollipops... gee, I wonder who the third one is for? (yum!) We headed back to MAX for the quick ride back to where we had parked and we were on our way home after a quick stop for milkshakes! MAX was packed so no pics this time. Apparently, the circus, the symphony and the last home Beaver's game got out all at the same time!

So, that was our Thursday night. The kids are still talking about it and I think we took them at a really great age. Young enough that they are totally impressed and old enough that they'll be able to remember it. It's been nice doing some things around the "city" since we haven't taken a vacation this summer. Jim will be taking a week or so in September but we won't be able to venture too far from home since Karleigh starts 'school' on Tuesday! Yikes. That will be a whole other post!

Open House!

... preschool style.

This evening we all went to visit Karleigh's new preschool in preparation for her starting "real" classes on Tuesday. Rylan was quite excited that he got to go too and it took him no time to find the cars in her classroom. She sat right down and started playing some math games (must be her daddy's daughter). She really likes her teacher, Miss Tina and one of the girls who will be moving into her class was there as well so it was a great opportunity for her to meet her teacher and one of the girls in her class. When we got her all registered, we were told that she would be the only girl in the class, with 5 boys. Now, there are going to be 4 girls and 3 boys... at this point at least. I love that it's a small class size and now well balanced gender-wise. I think we are all going to be really happy with the decision which is good. It's a decision I really wrestled with for various reasons but I think it will be good for everyone.

I'm trying to decide what to do about Tuesday... do I just let Jim take her like "normal"? Or do I go with her? I want to go but only because it'd be more for me than for her and I think it would be a good thing for her to do with her daddy. I will, of course, be there on time to pick her up and maybe the kids and I will grab lunch before we head home. Yup, that's it. I've leave the "dropping off" to her daddy... there's always sticking her on the bus for Kindergarten right? And that's only 12 months away...

Baseball, a phone call, and tags!

It was Back-2-School Day at PGE Park! I think back to school is kind of funny for our family since this year it will just be... to school.

Prior to the 2 pm game time it was muggy and warm! It ended up getting up to 80 degrees and raining by the end of the game... sticky!

Lucky the Beaver entertained the crowd of 9,000+. Can you imagine being stuffed in that get-up with the weather that I just described!?! Yuck. He did a good job of making the kids laugh though!
What would a back-to-school night be without a pencil? The kids actually received backpacks at the gate when we got there and were entertained by the "pencil" who threw out the first pitch. The kids were all supposed to get to run the bases but that part was canceled due to the rain (liability issues). Luckily, we hadn't told the kids that that was going to be one of the perks of this game.

This goofball kept wiggling her loose tooth. Yah, that's right. 4 1/2 and her top left tooth is loose. Seems kind of early to me and I'm really not all that thrilled about it but she is. She wiggles it with her finger, her tongue, her bottom lip... anything that she can get a hold of to push on it. Ugh, I still remember that aggravating tender, itchy feeling of a loose tooth.

Again, this time, once the game started, Rylan was all into it. He cheered, he boo-ed, he clapped and thoroughly enjoyed himself... until he fell asleep in the 6th inning!

Karleigh waited until the 7th inning to fall asleep! It was the most uninterrupted baseball Jim and I had watched in a really long time. It was well worth the knots in our forearms and the back cramps. The Beavers ended up losing to the Tacoma Rainers so really, for us it was a wash as far as who we wanted to see win.

We didn't end up riding MAX this time. The bridge that the train uses to cross the Willamette River was closed and we didn't want to have to deal with transferring to a bus and then back to the train so we decided to try our luck and park downtown. Turns out we found a great spot just across the street from the gate which was wonderful considering that it was raining pretty hard once it was time to leave. The kids will get to ride MAX on Thursday evening! More on that after the fact.

So, today was feeling like a pretty good day. The kids got a box from grandma and grandpa P. today so they're jumping around the house looking like a Grizzly cheerleader and a football player. Karleigh was working on a video of her loose tooth and the phone rang. Turns out it was Dr. F's office (he's the one I saw after my ultrasound confirming my most recent miscarriage). It was his nurse calling to say that they had gotten me a consult at Northwest Perinatal Center. I don't know why that freaks me out. I was liking, a little bit, living in my little clueless world. I guess part of it is me hoping that all 5 of my losses were just flukes, all due to things unrelated. I'm supposed to call tomorrow to set up my appointment. I'm nervous about it but I will do it. I don't know. Part of me wants to know that there IS something that can be treated, another part of me wants to believe that fluke theory. I don't know if one is better than the other. I suppose the appointment will give me an education but I'm not convinced that it will change anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, on to what I procrastinated in my last post. I tag Adrienne, Heather, Lacey (because I'm convinced this is the only way I'll get her to blog something!), Lauren (because she needs something to take her mind off of being overdue!), Lisa and Shelly (because it'll be fun to know these things before I meet her in real life next month!)

Now, I'm off to leave comments for these 6!

Silly Six...

I have been tagged by Holli.

The rules are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag six bloggers by linking.
5. Leave a comment for each blogger.

OK, here goes:

1. I like lists... lots and lots of lists. They make me feel accomplished and in control. In fact, I've even been known to stray from my list to do something, finish that task and come back and put it on my list simply so I can feel the satisfaction of crossing it off the list even if I did just write it down.

2. I forgot... this is not a quirk but it deserves mentioning... I flat out forgot all about Eli's 6 month angelversary. I felt kind of "off" this week but couldn't quite pin point it. I chalked it up to several things. Fear and anticipation of what would or wouldn't happen this month, exhaustion from having a house full of people the week before, sick kids, sick ME but I think my body and my brain remembered even if I didn't.

3. I count... when I am doing anything with dishes, I always find that in the back of my head I'm counting. I have NO idea what that's about. Putting silverware away, setting the table, cleaning up the table, count, count, count... weird.

4. I love blankets... (I'm now at the point where I'm asking Jim what my quirks are) I have to sleep with a blanket, even if it's 100 degrees upstairs - and it gets close in this old house. I can have my feet out but my torso has to be covered. I would rather sweat than sleep outside the covers.

5. I can't commit... to a furniture arrangement. I know this one is all about my need to feel like I'm controlling things but I rearrange furniture all the time. The living room now is pretty immune because of our new furniture but everything else is fair game. Bedrooms, office, pictures on the wall, even the basement and the kitchen. I can, and will, find a way to rearrange them.

6. I love sleep... I can sleep in with the best of them! And I looooove it! This is such a natural love that I can't even begin to explain it. I am very lucky to have a hubby who usually allows me to sleep in on his days off. Excellent!

Now I need to tag 6 other bloggers. I should do it right now but, you guessed it - I'm tired. At the rate I've been blogging, it'll probably be next week before I get to it but we have some fun things planned for this week so I'll be back to tag my six and blog about our adventures next week. They include baseball, preschool open house, and the circus! Woohoo!