Whomp Whomp

Well, I was WAS going to test this morning but my body made it pretty clear I didn't need to. My lovely period made an appearance this morning. Naturally I'm disappointed but still ok with it. Nothing good comes easy, right?

I think were going to have to change our game plan a bit. Every other time I got pregnant before we got "down to business" every day at the time of ovulation and it worked. This time around we are getting busy every other day and I wonder if that's what is making the difference. I also wonder if I am ovulating at different times than what I expect.

I breastfed A for over a year and I didn't get my period until August of last year (10 months after birth). When my period finally came I only had two regular periods before I got pregnant again. Then I had the first m/c and then I got pregnant right away again without having any period in between. After the second m/c in February this has been my 4th period so far and all of them have been all over the place. The cycle ranges between 23-35 days which is a big range for ovulation.

I have thought about temping to see if I can pinpoint the cycles but most night's I wake up several times a night because of A fussing and often have to get up to tend to her. I think that would throw off the temperatures and sometimes I would totally forget if shes screaming in her crib. My friend said shes sending me a few OPK so maybe those can help me.

I guess wish us luck next month! On the bright side, I get myself a whole bottle of wine every time I get my period. Of course I don't drink it all in one night but it sure is delicious!

We Got A Grill!

Ok, ok, I know the news isn't all that exciting but it was the highlight of my weekend. We were going to go to NJ to celebrate my dads 50th birthday that is this week but A wasn't feeling too hot, we were just there after our vacation and I really didn't feel like driving 3 hours one way on a holiday weekend. I told them they are welcome to come down here but they didn't want to so yea, we know where we stand with that.

When we first moved here we got a charcoal grill because we thought it would we fun to have to do all the extra work and dealing with charcoal. That "excitement" died very fast. Yes, the food does taste better on a charcoal grill but you just cant beat the convenience of a gas grill. S really didn't want to change even though I think he has grilled a total of 5 times since we got the thing. My main argument was that I would love to use and cook with it but I just cant cook on a charcoal grill alone. Its too much work, especially with A running around.

After talking about it for a few days (really me nagging about it) he finally caved. He told me if I can sell our old charcoal one then we can get a new one. I sold it on craigslist for $90 overnight so today was our shopping day for a grill. We looked online and did some research we found one we like for $130. Then as it always happens, we went to Lowes to look at it and ended up buying one that cost us over $400 with the cover. I know that's quite a jump but the quality just could not be beat.

Its the KintchenAid 2 Burner and it works wonderful! We ended up getting a cover for it and since we spent over a certain amount we got a free gas tank. I took it for a test cookout today and I LOVED it! So easy to use, small enough for our family and it heats up/cools super fast. Here is what it looks like:

On a different note, my period is due to be here on Thursday/Friday. Will it come or will it skip me?? Hmm, cant wait to find out but I am not testing until at least Thursday for a piece of mind. I know if I test and see negative I will be down even though I know its still very early. Waiting is the worse!

Addicted

Are you bored? Have the need to spend but no money? Well I have just the thing for you!

Go to www.Amazon.com and search Sodial. Yes, I am addicted! I have ordered so many things from them since most are under $5 and free shipping whether you have Prime membership or not. Even though it comes from Honk Kong and takes about 2-4 weeks to arrive its so worth it.

Some of the recent things I have purchased were:

"Safe Shampoo Shower Bath Cap for Baby Children" - (Seriously amazing!)

 

"Ball Inflating Pump Needle Adaptor (Pack of 10)"- (Yea, I only needed one but it worked great)

 

And "Baby Locks" - (These were pretty useless)

Enjoy!

 

 



Devious Cycle

Sometimes I think my body likes to play tricks on me. After our most recent m/c we decided to wait at least 2 cycles to ttc again. My first cycle was 32 days, the next one was 29 days and the most recent one was when we were going to ttc finally. The wait felt like forever and we were hoping to try for a Bahamas baby since my cycle was going to line up perfectly.

Well, my body decided to play a trick on me because not only did I get a UTI right in the smack middle of ovulation but my cycle was also only 23 days! What the heck is that body??? I don't think I have ever had a cycle that short. I ended up getting my period on the second day of the cruise but thankfully the period only lasted 3 days. I always take a pg test after a period anyway just to make sure and know where I stand.

The wait after ovulation is the worse. I have one more week before my period is due and I am dying to pee on something! I don't want to do it too early and get a negative and be disappointed so I promised myself to hold out until the 30th. Hurry up time!

Immigration Security

In one of my previous entries I mentioned how S had to drive back home before our cruise left to get our marriage certificate because we made the cruise reservation's in my married name but didn't notice that my passport was still in my maiden name. Well, the interesting thing was that even though the Norwegian rep told us we must have the document in order to board the ship, nobody checked any of my documents besides my passport.

That part was mostly annoying because S drove 6 hours the night before just to get those papers but what's a little disturbing was that I was taking a baby out of the country and nobody questioned the fact that my document had a different name from not only my reservation but also my passport. Nobody even blinked when looking at my paperwork. A took most of her looks from her dad and looks nothing like me and I was quite a bit surprised nobody even asked or mentioned why our names were different, where is the dad or anything.

Then when we were going through immigration at the Bahamas we needed our ID and passport to get back on the boat. My ID is in my married name but my passport was in my maiden name and again, nobody said anything. They didn't even ask to see ID for the child.

Its pretty scary how people can be so lax about things that could change someone's life. We are hearing more and more about child abductions lately and its quite an eye opened when you see things like this happen. Obviously it wasn't an issue here but its scary to see how easy it to take a child out of the country without anyone questioning anything.

I've Been Missing!

I didn't get lost on the ship, I swear, just feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with a lot of things going on all at once. We got back from the cruise a week ago and it was great but not everything I expected. Trying to unpack and get back to life after 7 days of being away can sometimes be a bit much.

 We loved a lot of things about the cruise. I didn't set my expectations high because I knew we were traveling with a toddler and wouldn't be able to do much but what I didn't expect was for everything to be so repetitive. We went on another Norwegian cruise in November of 2009 but despite the fact that we were on a different ship and 4 years later I was pretty surprised to see that the shows and entertainment is exactly the same. They had the same performances, same game shows, same everything. They even had the same exact songs they played by the band! We couldn't do much in the evenings because Annabelle went down to sleep at 7 but it didn't even matter because we pretty much saw the same stuff last time.

 The waters were very choppy! The first night at sea S got super sick and almost threw up. He said he was very surprised because he hasn't gotten sick since he was in 6th grade and has never gotten motion sickness. I was fine for most of the time and A loved everything and slept like an angel. I think the rocking really helped her. At one point I had to go to the service desk and ask for nausea medication for S.

 The excursions were nice and we had a lot of fun but it was hot! When we got to Nassau it was so hot we were only able to be on land for an hour max because even thought A had on sunscreen (which she later rubbed in her eye.. not fun..) she was getting very overheated sitting in a stroller. I was also a bit disappointed in the beach at the private island, Great Stirrup Cay. The shore was so rocky that some man coming out of the water was yelling "this beach sucks!" and I don't blame him. Thankfully we rented a shell so we had our own private section that was shaded.

 We paid A LOT for this vacation and even though some parts disappointed me, getting a suite vs. a regular room was something I do not regret. Having priority boarding and not having to stand in lines was amazing! We had our own private restaurants for only people in suites and first go at everything. We had a soaking tub in the room which made giving A baths a breeze. The extra large balcony was great for relaxing in the evenings once A went to sleep and we even had a butler that bought us milk for Annabelle every day. Our mini fridge had more milk in it than alcohol! We had a coffee/tea machine and A got frothed milk every day instead of her regular boring milk. She was loving it! Every day we got some kind of a treat from our butler, either chocolate covered strawberries, baked goods, snacks or fresh fruit and we loved it!

 Now we are back to life. S went back to work on Tuesday and we are slowly falling back into our routines. I loved our trip but for the price I wish we would have taken a bunch of little trips instead of one big one. Lesson learned and there is always next year. I think next year we will do some nice camping trips.

I'll leave you with these two images. One of the water in NYC and one from The Bahamas. Yea, take a guess which one is from where.

Bon Vo.....Wait, What.....

You know that feeling where things seem to be going a bit too perfect? And it seems like everything has been falling into place and you are just waiting for something to go wrong? Yea, today was that day where my good luck ended.

This morning we drove 3 hours to NJ to stay at my dad’s house for the night so that he can drive us to NYC in the morning for our cruise. All was going great, we got here fine with no traffic and A was enjoying visiting her grandparents which she doesn’t get to see often enough.

Around dinner time my dad asked to see A's passport because he wanted to see her picture. While I handed hers I also handed mine to him for comparison and he noticed that my passport was still in my maiden name!!! Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but we booked the cruise with my married name! At first I dismissed it not thinking it would be a big deal. Then I started thinking about it and realized I had nothing on me that would prove that my maiden name is really me besides the pictures on my documents.

I called cruise.com 30 minutes before closing just to be on the safe side and they told me that the only way I will be able to get on the ship was if I had my marriage certificate and it HAD to be the original copy. We did get married in NJ but on a Saturday all government buildings where I could possibly get a copy would be closed.

There was nothing else to do besides drive back home and pick up our marriage certificate. If I never mentioned how awesome this man is, I am now. I was going to drive myself but as we found out about this A started to be super fussy and she takes much better to me so he said he will drive and I can take care of her. He drove 3 hours home and is now driving 3 hours back home. Again, I love that man!

I feel so silly that we have missed this after all the paperwork we had to fill out but at the same time, I never looked at my name because it’s my name. I don’t need to look at a document to know my name. I talked about changing it about a year ago but never got around to it and just totally forgot about it.

I really hope they don’t give us any issues tomorrow. I had him grab the marriage certificate, my birth certificate and everything legal that had my name on it JUST in case. Well, wish us luck.