And my fallopian tube will live to see another day

Had some much needed good news from the Dr. today. My hcG levels were down and the ultrasound showed nothing in the fallopian tube. Which means my body is already absorbing the mass, and the second round of Methotrexate did the trick. So I will continue to do blood work until my numbers go down to 0, which should take about 1 month or so, and then I get to do a repeat of the HSG to clear out my fallopian tube. I jumped up and down with my Dr. and sighed a HUGE sigh of relief. I just ordered this lovely stuffed animal to celebrate. Yes, they make fallopian tube stuffed animals. Seriously, you can find anything on the internet!

Bribery

Sophia is learning all about taking bribes, or um, being rewarded with good behavior. Add this to the list of things I said I would never do when I had my own kid. This is where theory absolutely doesn't match up to practice. I go back into the cobwebbed corners of my mind when I took all those Child Development classes in college, and I specifically remember bribing with food as not a good thing. Have you seen my child? She loves food. Stamps just don't cut it for her. A cookie, on the other hand, well that gets results. After the millionth struggle on the changing table, it dawned on me to tell her I'll give her a cookie if she'll be a good girl and let me change her diaper. She readily agreed and we walked over to the cupboard where I took out an animal cracker and held onto it until I set her down on the table. She was an angel. She held up her end of the bargain and was a good little girl. So I have to admit that I've used this little trick a few more times since then, all with excellent results. And I've even been able to change her diaper without the bribe a few times, I'm thinking it's because she's stopped associating getting her diaper changed with throwing a fit.
Today it was time to clip her nails. I get anxiety thinking about the amount of fit throwing that will occur. But I decided to offer her a cookie for each hand, and she nodded her head profusely. So we headed back to the cupboard and I extracted 2 animal crackers, and gave her one while I clipped one hand and then the next as I finished the other. She sat there so well, I had to hold back the desire to give her another cookie for being a good girl.
See what I started?

Thankful

I am thankful for so many things, but I couldn't have made it through this last few months without the love and support of my family and friends. Thank you for being there for me.

My epic ectopic

So to catch any readers up to speed, I'm going through an ectopic pregnancy. I didn't have the nerve to post that I was pregnant in the first place because it's starting to feel a little like the boy who cried wolf..."I'm pregnant, wait, nope I'm having a miscarriage...I'm pregnant! Wait, nope, another miscarriage." But really what's the point of creating a blog to post about making babies, when I'd have to actually keep a secret about the making baby part until it was considered a viable pregnancy? If you can't write about your feelings in a blog, what's the point of having a blog? So from this point on, I am going to discuss the dirty secrets and details. If you are reading, you want to know anyway, right?
So back to the epic ectopic...
I found out I was pregnant on Halloween. One week to that day, I started to bleed. I feared that I was having yet another miscarriage. I called the Dr. on Mon. to report my news. They had me come in for an ultrasound on Tues. My Dr. didn't see anything in my uterus, even though it showed all the signs of being pregnant. My fallopian tube showed something, and the ovary appeared to have some stuff too. She feared an ectopic. We made another appointment for that Fri. to do another ultrasound. On Fri. morning I started to have intense pain in my lower back and shooting down my leg. I called the Dr., who told me to go immediately to the ER. I spent the entire day in the ER, with them confirming ectopic. I had feared that my fallopian tube had burst, but it was just the pressure of the ovary and tube that had put pressure on my sciatic nerve, hence the pain. They gave me 2 shots of methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug that destroys the most rapidly dividing cells. We hoped this would take care of the ectopic. On a side note, there was no heartbeat, just a ball of dividing cells. The zygote really didn't ever have a chance of being a viable pregnancy, especially since it had decided to implant in my fallopian tube.
So I went home, and with the help of my mother, we waited. The chemo is a nasty drug. Given all the side effects, I felt that it was really doing what it was meant to do. That week I had another blood draw and then an appointment on Fri. to do another ultrasound. Things weren't boding well when my Dr. popped her head in and gave "that look." My blood work showed that the cells continued to multiply. The ultrasound showed that, even though I continued to bleed, my uterus was still mushy. It didn't work.
I was told to go back to the hospital to undergo another round of the nasty methotrexate. This time the drug better work, or else I will lose my fallopian tube on the right side. As of Sun. night, I feel like I'm making progress. Things are starting to clear out of my uterus. I hope to see some results on my next blood work, which is this Fri., the day after Thanksgiving.

My weekly obsessions

from last week...

Francisco International Sheepherder's bread
Calbee Snapea Crisps
Hershey's Bliss dark chocolate

12 on the 12th November

I had some reservations about including this day in my 12 on the 12th project, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad, so I went with it. I had to go to the lab for a blood test, so Rick came home to watch Sophia. I got a rare picture of his face and a rare picture of the both of us with Sophia. Off to the lab to draw blood. I'll elaborate with a more detailed post, but I was very anxious to get my results. I took Sophia to the park after the lab. She was collecting pine cones and putting them on the park bench. When we got home I realized how long her nails were and how much dirt could fit under such nails. I spent the rest of the day chasing after her with the nail clipper. I won. Not without a fight and a few scratches. Rick came home early to work on a bid. He also came home with some carne asada. He decided he'd cook that night. Which meant that he'd cook the meat and I could do everything else. I'll take it. I was impressed he brought home the meat, tortillas and salsa. I didn't have chips for the salsa so I decided to make some home made chips, which were a big hit. Sophia also couldn't get enough. The dinner came out good, and it was fun to have it a team effort. I needed all the distractions I could get that night, and Sophia was providing some great entertainment. She loves to make faces. I just sat there with my camera as she made silly face after face at the camera. It was hilarious.

She melts our hearts

We've slowly been adding more things to Sophia's bedtime routine. The new thing is that she gets to pick something she wants to go to bed with. The other night it was a baseball. That made Rick proud. Tonight it was her book; her big hardback book of animals to be exact. That made me proud. I have no idea how she's going to have a comfortable night of sleep with that in her crib, though.

My weekly obsessions

• Turkey chili
• Whole grain waffles with peanut butter
• Twix (come on, it's candy I smuggled from Halloween)

To Grandma's house we go...

While Rick was hunting for the week, Sophia and I headed off to grandma's house. Sophia kept Grandma pretty busy.

We did a lot of exploring in the backyard...

We went to the park...

and the zoo, too!

Happy Halloween!

Thanks to Heidi (featured below with the kiddos) and Zion for a spooky-great time! Their house was off the hook with defrightfully good treats, eats, and fun. Sophia rocked the Pebbles costume well. She was in high gear the whole time and showed absolutely no fear with trick-or-treating. Boy are we in for a treat in the coming years for Halloween, if this was just her dress rehearsal. I thought for sure she'd hang out in the radio flyer while the bigger kids ran through the streets, but she was right there with them!