So much has happened since I last took/had the time to sit down and write. I've changed departments at work, Reed's out of the Army and our baby girl is 1! How is it possible that our little miracle baby is one?!?
Let's start by catching up on Kenzie. She is so amazing! I love watching her learn and grow every day. She is so happy, most of the time, and very adventurous. She is very sure of herself and makes sure that everyone knows what she wants. While she definitely has moments that she acts like an only child, we are working with her, both at home and daycare, to learn how to share and play with others.
Unfortunately we are still dealing with her milk allergy. However, thankfully she is able to eat baked in dairy, yogurt and most cheese. The only thing that I know she can't handle is whole milk. I'm too scared to give her ice cream so I don't know about that one. We last trialed whole milk about 3 weeks ago. While there was no blood in her poo after only 2 days she had green super mucousy poos which to me is an indication of a fail. I've got my fingers crossed that when we try again in about 2 weeks that she'll be able to tolerate it. Until then though we continue to give her everything that she can tolerate in the hopes of getting her system used to it and allowing her to pass milk next time.
She loves to eat, although baby food is refused 95% of the time now. She much prefers to share a plate with me at dinner. Right now her absolute favorite meal is spaghetti, which I think is about normal for babies her age. She did, however, hate her cake for her birthday. It tasted delicious and was so pretty, but she's not a big fan of being dirty. She's actually a very clean eater and likes to help wipe off the table and sweep the floors, so I think that's why she hated her cake. We are doing her 1 year pictures tomorrow with a smash cake so I'm hoping that it'll go a little better. We've been trying to make her mess with things that are different textures to hopefully minimize the screaming and crying for her pictures.
She also loves to be outside. As soon as she sees the front door open she runs over to it to go outside. She got so mad at us the other night because it was raining and cold so we didn't let her go outside to play. We have a big garden in the back and lots of raspberries bushes and that has been her favorite activity this summer. Almost every night we head back to the garden and she gets fresh raspberries and strawberries and whatever else we end up picking. Last night she helped us harvest some of our potatoes. We are so sad that the summer is almost over and she won't be able to go out back for her nightly fresh snack. Other favorite outside activities including swinging, picking up rocks and going down the slide.
In other news, Reed is no longer in the Army. Him getting out was very bittersweet. It's so nice having him home all the time and never have to worry about him leaving for training or deployments or getting called in on the weekends or evenings for stupid crap. However, the very steady/dependable paycheck as well as the insurance are sorely missed. We started planning on him getting out back in December/January time and had no idea what he was going to do. He didn't really want a 9-5 job and I didn't really want him to take a job on the slope even though the pay would be great. Then while driving around one day he found what he wanted to do. He is now the owner of the laundromat here in town. I never thought we would use a laundromat, much less own one, but here we are. We have been laundromat owners for almost 2 months now. It's such an interesting and educational experience. He loves being his own boss and not having to answer to anyone (except me of course) and I love that he is always home. Sure he occasionally gets calls about problems while we're having dinner or after Kenz goes to bed, but he usually goes up to take care of it and is back home within 2 hrs. He's such a different man now compared to what he was even 6 months ago. While owning a business is stressful, he is much happier now that he has been in the last 3 years.
I took a different position at work which has also allowed me to change my hours and be able to spend more time with Kenzie every night. I now do occupational health stuff. I really miss surgery, assisting in the OR, the surgeon and the patients, but now I have a new manager, better hours and the freedom to do what I want with my job. I no longer have anyone micromanaging me or making me feel like an incompetent nurse.
Has anyone else who went through fertility treatments quit having cycles on their own? Prior to starting out treatments in 2012 I would always have a cycle, but they were just irregular and averaged 36-38 days long. The first sign of a problem was May 2013 when I didn't ovulate on our last round of Clomid. Then we took a break from fertility treatments for the summer and I never had a cycle. The next cycle, induced with provera, I got pregnant with Kenzie. Fast forward to my 6 week postpartum check. I decided to get the Mirena because I didn't want to risk getting pregnant accidentally. Unfortunately I had to have it removed 5 months later because of bad cramping. Since then I have only had 1 cycle. I don't cycle on my own and they just increased the ocp that I'm taking because I didn't cycle on the original one they put me on. Did I really mess up my body chasing my dreams of having a baby?
