-----5 on Friday-----

1. OB appt today went well. The tech was rattling off how many weeks I was, blood pressure, etc today and she had my original due date for calculation so I asked her about it and she gave me the answer I already knew...as long as the first trimester ultrasound and your last menstural period due dates are within a week they don't change your due date. I had wondered why they added 3 days before but just went with it. So back to Decemeber 11th it is! Heart rate was in the 150's and I am measuring where I should...which was a little surprising since I feel smaller than I did with the boys. Oh well. Anatomy scan ultrasound is July 22. :)

2. Austin has done awesome potty training!! :) Still having trouble motivating him to poop on the potty but its getting there. We won't attempt night training him for a while because he doesn't wake up dry yet. He is incredibly chatty and has questions about everything. He told me tonight that he wants another little brother haha.

3. Mason is 2! Crazy how fast time goes! He is talking more everyday and said "bless you, bless you" when I sneezed today haha! He is also climbing up and down the stairs holding the rail versus crawling up the stairs now...big boy!

4. Tried to come off my diclegis (anti-nause med for pregnancy) this week and it backfired...went right back to how I was feeling before I started taking it so I got my prescription refilled and started taking it again tonight. Still get fairly nauseous at night and right when I wake up even when I do take but the all day nausea returned when I tried to stop taking it. Boooo.

5. Get to meet baby Max on Sunday!!! :) Can't wait to see my cousin's newest little man!!

-----5 on Friday-----

1. Baby #3 seems to be giving me less nausea this week. :) Still looking smaller than I did with the boys so maybe this one is a girl? I will be happy either way but have been worried lately that if its a boy he will feel left out with how close Austin & Mason are with their close age gap. Andy swears #3 is a boy....won't know til next month unless I can convince my OB to do a sneak peek ultrasound at my appt at the end of the next week haha!

2. Austin has been working on potty training all week! It's steadily getting better!! Had only one accident today. :) He is also becoming a crazy boy about wanting to know the name of every road we drive on and tries to request driving a certain route when we go places lol!

3. Mason is talking nonstop and it's so funny to hear what he says ... have loved being off this week to spend so much time with them! Some funny new phrases "wow momma!" "ewww, momma, bug!"

4. Almost all done with party preparations. Only things left to do are buy the food (tomorrow) and finish cleaning the house. Got the plates/napkins/table covers for 50% off online...major score in Mr Budget Man's world haha! Party city only had the invitations and the rest was out of stock so we hopped online and it was all 50% off so I'm guessing this theme is going bye bye from the store. Can't wait to see the cupcakes when we pick them up tomorrow!! I ended up not doing them because 1) it looked like more work than I could do & 2) all the supplies would have been more than the cost of having them made at a bakery.

5. This week off has been great and I'm sure the weekend will fly by with my birthday tomorrow, Mason's party on Sunday and his birthday on Monday. Might be picture overload this weekend. ;)

------5 on Friday-----

1. Baby #3 and this nausea is relentless. It's finally getting better during the day but morning time and evenings still are sucky. The newborn cloth diaper stalking obsession I have on the b/s/t boards for used ones is getting a lil crazy too haha! We didn't cloth either boy in the newborn stage so we have none. Even though this is our last baby we are still going to get some newborns since they keep their resell value very well. Up to 7 so far and would like 18-24. Still hoping to buy some off my lovely cloth diapering cousin since her newborn will be 6 months old by the time #3 arrives. :)

2. Austin is doing great! Soooo chatty! Having some sharing issues with Mason lately...was bound to happen now that they love basically the exact same type of toys now. Still loves to be outside. :)

3. Mason is also doing great! Saying more words/phrases every week. Current new faves: "ok momma" and "sing momma"! :) Still a big cuddler and loves the outdoors almost as much as Austin.

4. Party planning for Mason's 2nd birthday is underway. We are having a small family party and the theme is farm animals. :)

5. Getting one year closer to 30 next Saturday....crazy that my 20's are almost done!

-----5 on Friday-----

1. Finally starting to feel better. Had what I thought was bad allergies or a head cold starting Sunday and by yesterday morning I was still feeling bad so I went to the doc and they said sinus infection. So I'm on an antibiotic for 10 days. All day nausea is starting to get better each week...think the new medicine is doing the trick. Had a OB appt today for all the lab work and what not. Baby's heart rate was right around 160 which is great for this gestation! :)

2. Austin is officially done with speech therapy! He was making rapid progress so our last session was last week. He's growing up so fast! Hoping to tackle potty training very soon....he has been so resistant that nothing motivates him.

3. Mason will be 2 in just a few weeks! He has added a ton more words to his vocabulary and loves to play outside with Austin. :)

4. Landscaping is done! Patio project is being started on Monday and they are estimating only two days to do it!

5. That's all for now haha! Hopefully I won't be away from the blog so long next time. :)

--5 on Friday-- (several blogs I follow do this so I'm going to see if it helps motivate me to post more)

1. Yes, I am pregnant!! :) Due December 14th. We are excited! I am feeling awful just like I did with the boys. Hoping maybe third times a charm for not feeling sick til 20-22 weeks. This winter will be a busy time for birth haha!! I know 3 people delivering within 4 weeks of my due date already.

2. Austin's hand seems completely better now. He hurt it on Easter...sure everyone read about it on facebook. His big boy bed (round 2 since toddler bed was a complete failure) arrived on Wednesday. It's a twin bed that should last him til he leaves for college. So far he is excited about it but hasn't slept in it....still ends up on the floor ...and then in our bed. We'll get there, I'm not worried.

3. Mason is officially discharged from feeding therapy! Yay! :) He has come a long way. Still has progress to be made but the therapist felt comfortable with my skills and we all decided that it was ok for therapy to end. OT should be starting in the next month possibly....theres a waitlist and I could just decide not to go through with it since he borderline qualified for it. Another exciting thing that happened early this week...he had some cooked dairy and did great! So I talked to his doc on Tuesday and she said it was ok to just go ahead and do one serving a day as long as he had no symptoms. He has been symptom free all week!!! So we will likely not do the 2 year allergist referral appointment.

4. Patio has been decided upon! Just on the waitlist for the guys to come out to do it. Its an amish business and he's estimating up to 4 weeks on wait time til he can get our project. We are going to do stamped concrete and it will look like stone gray Texas flagstone. No...it will not fade/peel...already got that question. The way this business does it is by mixing the color in the concrete not just painting it on.

5. Landscaping is set to be done next weekend! Happy that its finally getting crossed off the list but will be kinda a bummer to spend our anniversary (the 10th) and potentially Mothers Day (the 11th) getting it all done.

Yay for SPRING weather! :)

Austin was so excited to go outside 3 times today! Can't wait til our patio is done and we can play more in the backyard. Mason also started shaking his head "yes" this week. So cute!

Our SLP told us today that Mason may not qualify for any more feeding therapy after the end of this month...he is doing that well! :) Won't get the offical word til our progress meeting next Thursday morning. Also at that meeting we will get to formally request OT for his sensory issues.

Austin is finally over his sickness....has been feeling himself for the last few days thankfully. Was very scary that first night in the ER! Still has a couple days left of his antibiotic (has to be on it for 10 days). He is so chatty and throwing some crazy tantrums when he doesn't get his way...hoping once we are able to go outside every day that it will help him!

Mason is growing and eating more and more every day of stuff that he couldn't before. He has added turkey dogs and corn to his menu line up this past week. :) Still hanging on to the bedtime nursing session but it's getting really short so I think he's about done with that too.

Work is crazy as usual. Sounds like the census has gone up on my 2 days off....hope tomorrow goes fast for me while I'm there!

Looking forward to dinner with friends tonight!!

Need to get better about blogging...sorry fellow readers!

--Austin is singing, saying his ABCs pretty well and couting pretty consistently to 10 now. :) Big boy! Crazy that we need to start looking for preschool for the fall!

--Found out this week that we won't really know much about when OT will start for Mason until our quarterly feeding therapy/IFSP progress meeting April 9th. That is when we/they can make the formal request to add OT. Kind of annoying but whatever. He is doing awesome with his feeding therapy though!!

--Hoping that cycle #3 is our lucky one. Won't know til early April.

--Work has slowed down just a lil bit which is nice. :) Think we all needed a break. Hope I didn't just jinx it haha!

--Soooo ready for nicer weather!

Cycle #2 also a negative...just in case anyone was wondering.  My cycle is so irregular since I've had the boys, makes things a bit more difficult!

Feb is done and on to March...crazy!! Time to wear green, eat green and decorate green. :) Have to enjoy St Patricks day with the Irish in my family. :) Got the boys their shirts to wear on the 17th ...to bad I'll be working!

No update yet on OT for Mason...talked to our ST yesterday and she said hopefully soon they will get back with me/us with a plan for what to do since technically First Steps can't have 2 therapists coming to your house each week...??...I dont know..think I could have misunderstood.

She did say that Austins clarity is improving really fast so that's great to hear!! Mason is also doing well too...actually ate some chicken today without puking!

I'm so ready for a break from work...today about put me over the edge (nothing to do with patient care thankfully). Looking forward to having Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday off!!!!!

So our speech therapist had the "joy" of delivering the news that she isn't qualified to do Mason's OT therapy and can only do his feeding therapy. Our service coordinator gave us the wrong impression so it's not her fault at all. So first steps will hopefully be in touch this week to arrange his OT for his sensory processing disorder/issues....really don't think we will need therapy long in that area once the feeding therapy is under control.

He had his first eval with her Friday after Austins speech therapy..figured we would just do it then since both boys were still in good moods/cooperating. She watched him eat a snack and noticed several red flags while observing and asking me questions. Some of the things I already knew from our feeding therapy sessions with Parkview Rehab but some of it was new. Was nice to have fresh eyes looking at his behaviors and it helps a lot that he knows her. So know we will have 3 appointments each week...Austins speech, Masons feeding therapy and Masons OT. Plus she recommended that we utilize the nutrionist that first steps provides to families once a month so I'm actually looking forward to meeting with her to get more ideas of food to try!

Kinda overwhelming to think about all this but we have a great support system and I have the flexibility of being able to schedule their appointments on my days off. I know others aren't so lucky so I am choosing to be optimistic and not whiny about the busyness/stressfulness.

The sneak peeks that the photographer sent me of the boys session are cute! Can't wait for all the proofs! I had her primarily focus on Austin since these are his 3 year pics but I of course wanted a few of them together. :)

This month is moving right along...a bit to fast!

Boys are doing great and growing so fast! :) Austin's speech sessions have been fun and he seems to really like all the different stuff she has him do. Mason's feeding therapy/OT should be starting this coming week if all goes as planned. Work has been crazy, crazy busy. Cycle # 1 of trying for baby #3 was a negative. Hopefully it happens with cycle #2...if it does I will be off work for the holidays which will be super nice.

Also finally have Austin's 3 year pics scheduled for Saturday morning!! She did my cousins senior pics but normally does family type pics so we decided to give her a try. I wanted to get them taken closer to his actual birthday in December but just didn't get it done! Andy was also whining about how much Portrait Innovations costs so I had to do some searching haha

Super quick update:

~Austins speech therapy for articulation is going great--helps so much that its the same speech therapist as from first steps! :) We had to skip this week because of the below zero temps and me not wanting to take him out in it (and get into a cold car that would have sat in the parking lot for close to an hour).

~Had the final paperwork meeting for Mason's first steps for his speech & OT. Therapy will be starting soon but I dont have an exact date yet, we will be able to use Austins therapist so that will work out great. She feels comfortable handling his sensory issues and will let us know if she can't once she gets started!

~I'm sure those that follow me on Pinterest have some questions....no, we are not pregnant. But we are trying for #3 now. :) It's a new thing so I'll keep ya updated.

Soooo overdue on posting pics on facebook...maybe tonight or Friday depending on how late I can stay awake haha.

Not really much to update on but I'll attempt haha!

Christmas went well! :) Boys seemed to really be into opening presents and are having lots of fun with all their new stuff!

Austin was supposed to have his eval for continued speech therapy with his usual ST but because of the stupid weather it is postponed til next Friday morning. He will qualify but its a necessary step to do for insurance reasons. We have yet to have our final paperwork meeting with First Steps for Mason because first the lady was on vacation and then so far this week the schools have been closed and she has kids (and works from home) so I'm assuming that's why she isn't answering my email about scheduling a date. Kinda annoying because I absolutely hate being in limbo just waiting.

Austin now knows how to climb over his gate to get out of his room so any chance of nap time/rest time is out the window and he is now back to coming into our room around 4-5am which is what he was doing before we got the gate. So I basically am up twice every.single.night.....because the two boys usually don't wake at the same time. Luckily Mason has been nursing and then going right back into his crib easily ...in and out of bed in approx 20 minutes. I am starting to wonder when he will start the weaning process. I stopped pumping at work near the end of December so the nap time nursing session is pretty short. He is talking more and more every week which just feels crazy because babyhood is slowly being put behind him now. :(

Andy and I...well mostly I ... have been on the subject of baby #3 for a couple weeks now again. He is still pretty firm in his decision of not wanting anymore which is immensely frustrating to me.

Austin's birthday party and birthday were a success! He had a lot of fun and loved opening his presents!! :) He got some great toys and clothes! So hard to believe he is 3...seems grown up. He was saying "Happy Birthday" all weekend haha! We took him out to dinner at Applebees last night for his birthday after he opened his presents from us. He is even big enough for the booster seat in a restaurant now...crazy!

They both had Pediatrician appointments this morning (Austins 3 yr and Masons 18 mt). Those went well. Stats are to the right of the blog. Both are doing great she said. She estimates Austin's adult height to be 5 foot 6in based on his current height. Hopefully he is at least that tall...hard for guys to be short I think. No new concerns for either boy so that's great!

Mason had his First Steps eval for OT and to switch feeding therapy over to first steps (versus using Parkview Peds Rehab like we have been). He qualifies for feeding therapy and just barely qualified for OT services for sensory issues. Those will start in January. Until then we will either continue with Parkview or just take a break (since its near impossible finding dates/times that work) because I think I've learned enough to keep up with his progress these next couple weeks.

Starting to cross stuff off the Christmas to do lists....nothing like procrastination....really thought I would be better at getting things done early this year!

First things first....Andy got accepted to IWU to finish his Bachelors!!! Yay!!! :) He tentatively starts January 16. The university caters to adult learners so the classes are one after another and each once lasts 5-6 weeks.


So to recap the beginning of the month!

Tuesday, Dec 3 Mason had a GI appointment (follow up) and we are basically cleared from future follow up appointments unless something comes up. Peds GI doesn't think they have much left to offer us because we are in feeding therapy, have an excellent pediatrician, and a medically educated momma. So since he is still failing milk protein challenges we will be consulting a pediatric allergist when he turns 2. The GI doc said that the blood work for food (and other) allergies is more reliable once they are 2 years old. If Mason doesn't grow out of the food allergies by age 2 then the chances of him being allergic for his lifetime are greatly increased based on the experience and research that he's seen.

Later that day we had our intake meeting for First Steps for Mason. She was basically collected income and insurance info and I had to sign a bunch of forms. Two therapists (most likely speech and occupational) will come do an evaluation on him this coming Tuesday the 17th. We are pretty sure we will just be switching his feeding therapy over to First Steps instead of continuing to go to Parkview Peds Rehab... nothing against them at all but there have been several schedule conflicts and with First Steps there is a high chance Mason will be able to see the same speech therapist that Austin uses. (remember...ST's do feeding therapy too). :) We are interested in hearing what the occupational therapist says about whether she thinks he has a sensory processing disorder...if so he will get OT therapy as well. Or we can OT do both therapies...just kinda depends on what works out. Overall he is improving in what he will eat.

Lots on Mason...sorry about that!!

Austin had his school speech eval December 4th. I didn't like the therapist...or care of the test really but whatever. She said he qualifies for continued speech therapy for articulation. So basically he isn't as clear as he should be for age. He is leaving out 3 main letters (f, t, & k) and is having omissions/substitutions along with it. They recommend 30 minutes once a week. We have the option of using his elementary school for free ...but we would have to work around a very limited schedule to do so. The lady is only at his school 2 sometimes 3 days a week and only til 3pm. She wants me to take off the same day every week. I don't think that's fair to the other 2 girls I work with so we are going to talk to his current ST tomorrow about her private office sessions that she offers since she has other patients that aren't in the First Steps system. Austins last official day of First Steps ST is tomorrow morning. Crazy! So crazy that he will be 3 years old on Monday!!!

He is getting excited about his birthday party on Saturday! When we talk about it he immediately says "presents" haha! :) The big boy bed is going well...although we usually find him sleeping on the floor with his pillow & blanket. But at least he is sleeping through the night. Now to patiently wait for potty training. I just don't want to push him. Everything I've read and everyone I've talked to tells me that it will happen very quickly as soon as he is ready. So we are ready with Thomas the train & dog print undies!

Work is going well. :) My car is acting up so it's spending the night at the body shop & will be getting a look over early tomorrow morning by the mechanics. The power door locks keep blowing through fuses and the remote key fob doesn't work. Guy said it could be up to $600 to fix worst case scenario depending on what he finds. I say lets just get me a newer car since I'm ready for something different haha!!

Learned some extremely exciting news about a family member tonight. :) I'll be praying my heart out for her!

Long time no post. Sorry!

OT eval is still pending for Mason. Miscommunication I guess, I dont know. First Steps is coming to our house Tuesday afternoon to start the paperwork to get Mason evaluated for feeding therapy & possibly an evaluation to see if he has sensory processing disorder. I still don't completely understand the disorder and I was reading a book about it but then couldn't renew it because someone else had a hold on it at the library. If he's diagnosed I'll for sure be buying some kind of book to help us!

His feeding therapy is going fairly well. Seems to be progressing and he is eating more food but not necessarly more "toddler" food.

Austin is so close to being done with his First steps speech therapy. :( We will miss his ST but if the school says he still needs therapy (his articulation test/eval is Wednesday morning) then we have the option of using her as a private ST versus using the school. We will just have to see what they say. Happy she informed us that she does private ST as well as her job with first steps. As a bonus if we switch to first steps with Mason we can request to have her be his feeding therapist as well. :)

The boys are doing great and growing fast!! We did move Austin to his toddler bed almost a week ago. It's an adjustment for all but I think he is starting to do better with it. :)

Feeding therapy went fairly well this past week. :) Mason seems to be making some good progress. She sent us home with some more handouts on stages of accepting a new food. Interesting how it how ties together. She also hit me with a suggestion of having him evaluated by a occupational therapist to see if he has a Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). We talked about signs of it and I agreed that yes he should be evaluated so she is going to get a referral from his pediatrician so that insurance will pay/be more likely to pay. Either way we would do it but I know we need to follow the steps of the insurance process. Hoping that she calls me tomorrow with a date/time or at least is able to tell me by this weeks session.

In the meantime I am reading a book about SPD for more knowledge. I've heard of the term before and have wondered about it for the last month or so. Theres a lot that goes into the diagnosis and each child that has it doesn't fit every single criteria for it. Feeling overwhelmed sometimes when I think about all this. Mason is a complicated kiddo. I'll keep ya all updated.

Austin was quiet during speech this week...he had a runny nose and a small cough Friday so I think that was impacting him a bit. He was saying a lot of yes and no instead of just shaking his head so that's good. :) His speech therapist continues to be impressed with his progress and we are crossing our fingers that we won't need to go to speech therapy at school after he turns 3 (and ages out of First Steps).

Birthday party planning is underway for our big boy! :) We have decided to keep the guest list small since that seems to go better with their personailites (and Andy's). Also really hoping for cooperation when I try to potty train on my 3 day off stretch later this week! Third times a charm?!

Prayers for life to calm down just a bit. It's been hectic and somewhat stressful in every area.

Dairy farm visit was fun! :) Austin talked about cows the rest of the night and has brought it up a few times since then. :) He is so chatty now and soo very sweet.

Since Austin is about to age out of First Steps at his 3rd birthday we will have our "articulation test" at the elementary school a couple weeks before his birthday to see if he still needs speech therapy before school would start for him. That appointment is December 4th. Pray that he does well! I've been starting to plan his third birthday!! Crazy...how is my firstborn almost 3?! The theme will be Thomas the tank engine...of course. :)

Mason's second feeding therapy session went much better than his first thankfully! It was with the other therapist....we won't always have the same one due to my work schedule/their availability. Luckily it's just one lady or another so it's not too many faces to get used to for him. He did most of what she wanted and she was better at explaining things than the therapist we had last week. Mason actually ate a few pieces of banana for me yesterday as well. :) Small progess. Still having difficulty explaining what it means to those that aren't as familiar but I try. Andy's grandma asked me if he was just lazy... ugg no....was hard to find the words to answer her. We still have the possibility of it being a congenital stricture or the esonophilic esophagitis but for right now feeding therapy is looking like it might be what could work. The prilosec (reflux med) did not appear to be changing anything after 2+ weeks so we have stopped giving it. So his waking up at night appears to not be reflux related. Didn't hurt to try to see but now we know.

Have decided to keep this a family blog ...as in very little mention of work. I have a strong feeling that someone is watching/reading everything I do because I got called into a meeting about facebook a week or so ago ...so now...you will have to guess how work is going haha!

Mason had his first official feeding therapy session this past Wednesday. He was not impressed haha! He did participate a little in touching the food she put on his tray but mostly wanted to sit in my lap. She was kind of "in his face" a little much for me but maybe we are just used to Austins speech therapist who seems really at ease with little ones. :) She gave us some "homework" and some handouts to read.

The nurse for his GI doc also called and said it's to early for allergy testing so she wasn't sure why the therapist was recommending that for right now. The earliest they could get reliable results would be age 2. We still haven't met with the pediatric dietician and it sounds like we might not. The speech therapist lady is thinking she can just pass along the food journal and weekly weights and get his opinion and recommendations. I personally would like a better idea of how many calories to aim for but I'll bring it up next week if she doesn't let me know herself. Mason had a couple day stretch where he was eating a few puffs a day and now he has regressed and won't touch them. Stinker!

Can't believe he is already 16 months old. He runs everywhere! Also has 10 teeth now with 2 more working their way through.


Really hoping the weather gets a bit more sunny after naptime because we are planning to take the boys to the only dairy farm in Fort Wayne for their fall festival. This is the first year this farm has done this and this happens to also be the last weekend for it before they close to the public. Nothing like procrastination on our part haha. Austin is excited to see the cows! :)