Decisions, decisions...

We are trying to decide about health care for 2012 and also about our RE's.  Our hope in 2012 is to do a FET (or two, three or four) to TTC a sibling for Kylie.  We have four frozen embryos.  I could use any help you can offer wading through this mess!  Any suggestions are welcome =)

Health plan

This year we are on the health plan offered through my work.  My company pays 100% of the family premium (nice right!) for an HSA high deductible plan.  You pay the first $3,000 (deductible) and then everything is covered 100%.  Preventative services are paid at 100% (well baby visits, annuals, etc.) even before you meet the deductible.  For argument sake we have to assume the plan will be the same for 2012.  Open enrollment for my plan is Nov 15 - Dec 15.  However, we just found out that M's plan for 2012 will have $15k of fertility coverage and his open enrollment is Oct 15 - Nov 15.  This plan will require us to pay $2k of the premiums, has co-pays of $20 for a GP and $40 for a specialist.  There is also a $2k deductible and coverage on major medical is covered at 80%.  We have asked our original clinic for diagnostic codes and procedure codes and sent them to M's HR department so they can tell us if they would be covered.  Nothing is for sure until you're actually on their plan but it's a decent start. 

RE

The RE, Dr A, that helped us get pregnant with Kylie has left the practice and started his own. Our embryos are at the previous clinic but we can get them moved fairly easily so that's not a major consideration.  My emotional attachment is obviously to Dr A since he put K in my ute and all.  And to it that one of the doctors at the clinic we went through before is a giant egotistical asshat.  The cost (which I don't know whether to consider since it will hopefully be covered by insurance - maybe I should in case they don't cover it?) for a FET cycle through Dr A is $3700 and through the original clinic it's $4900.  The one major thing going for the original clinic is that they have an office 3 miles from my work where I could do the initial appointment and the ultrasound.  But they do require I go to their other office an hours drive away for the trial transfer and the actual transfer.  Dr A's office is an hours drive away so I would have to go quite a ways for all four appointments.  I will call the REs and ask for their FET success rates and their thaw rates for frozen embryos.  Maybe that will give us extra information to make the decision on?  

Opinions much appreciated!

Fantastic Weekend =)

Do you ever have those weekends that just completely recharge your batteries?  Friday we went to dinner at my folks.  Since Kylie had been ill and my folks are in their 70's we hadn't seen them for two weeks and it was really nice to catch up.  Saturday we did the grocery shopping, spent a couple hours cleaning up leaves (K LOVED this) and in general were productive all day.  Sunday we went the park in the morning, then home for lunch/nap and then went to another pumpkin patch.  This one had a petting zoo and K spent almost an hour in there petting the goats, sheep, llama, camel (yeah, I said camel), pony, donkey, bunny, tortoise and ducks.  The weekend was a perfect combination of productivity and fun =)  It didn't hurt that the highs on both days were in the mid 70's (perfect in my book!) and that K slept almost 12 hours Friday and Satruday night so we were all rested.  Hope you and yours had a similarly wonderful weekend!

Here are some pics, as you can see I had a hard time narrowing it down.

Showing off her Halloween duds she wore to school on Friday

At the park on Sunday morning

Dancing with Daddy in the kitchen before nap time

Petting the goats - they seemed to be her favorite, I think their size is less intimidating 

Such a nice donkey 

One tired bunny! 

Finding the perfect pumpkin

Princess of the Pumpkin Patch 

Biting on straw on the hay wagon...so flippen cute! 

Posing for a picture in the hay wagon

The fam!  She was ready to go at this point =) 

Carrying her baby pumpkin home 

Fall

First I have to give a shout out to a friend, Rebecca, who just got a positive beta today.  She's been through so much so please stop by and wish her well!  Her beta is on the high side so I'm betting on twins =)

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Ok, now on with my update...I have always loved this time of year.  The temperatures cool from the scalding summer and the leaves turn pretty colors.  This year is no exception.  BUT...I'm also learning that this time of year is filled with sickness and that I most certainly do not enjoy.  In the last 30 days K has had two colds (#21 and #22), an ear infection (#3 or 4?) and the stomach flu.  OMG, will it end?!?! I hope she gets a break but a stuffy nose already started again so I think cold #23 is on the horizon.  Our poor little girl must feel like this is what life is all about...how sad is that?!  

Even though the stomach flu made it's way through our whole family this weekend we did manage to make it out to visit the pumpkin patch.  They had animals for Kylie to pet and it was really fun to watch her wander around the field trying to pick up giant pumpkins =)    

So I know I've been MIA and as an apology of sorts I'll include some other recent photos!

Getting a chair ride from Dad 

Looking like such a big girl!

In her swim suit ready to go in the hot tub...actually she's running to the hot tub, that's why my hand is in the photo - ready to nab her =) 

Getting a ride on the tractor and waving to me 

Cold Turned Ear Infection & the Zoo

K is over her cold but unfortunately got diagnosed with an ear infection last Friday.  She's getting all four of her canine teeth as well and the lady at daycare says that while she knows doctors say there's not a link it seems like a lot of kids get ear infections from teething.  Anyone else had that happen?  

Anyway, K's been handling it like a trooper and with the help of the antibiotics and some ibuprofen now and then she is getting better every day.  In fact yesterday when I went to pick her up at daycare she was dancing, giggling and in a fantastic mood.  Bless her little heart!

Saturday we went to the zoo with my parents.  It was part of our father's day gift to my Dad and it's finally cooled off enough here to enjoy a morning at the zoo.  Plus it was his birthday, so it was a perfect day to do it.  K had a great time and was most impressed with the ducks, flamingos, birds and sea lions.  My Mom and Dad had a great time watching her and said they hadn't been to the zoo since I was her age.  Here are a few pictures of our adventure =)

With my Dad in front of the Tigers

The ducks and flamingos were in the same place - we stood here for a LONG time =)

Riding on Daddy's shoulders

We don't get the three of us in a photo very often so even though she's not looking at the camera I had to post this one

16 months!

Stats:

According to our home measurement it looks like Kylie is 30.5" tall (40th %) and is about 25lb (74th %).   It appears she's growing out this month so I expect a growth spurt soon.  She's moved into a size four diaper this month, wears size 4 shoes and is wearing 18 month clothes.  


**Correction: We went to the doctor today (9/30) and her official height is 31.5" (70th%) and weight is 24.44lb (67th%).  Apparently our home scale weighs heavy and her wiggling put our measuring of her height way off...

Food:

She's still nursing 3 times a day (7am, noon 5:30pm).  After getting advice at her 15 month appointment to phase out the bottle of pumped milk at 7:45pm we're down to a 2 ounce bottle at bedtime and will probably be done with this in a few weeks.  She eats regular food like a champ and eats what we prepare for ourselves.  Our one struggle is that she doesn't want anything to do with cow milk and we're not sure what to do about that.  Suggestions?

Skills:

It seems like yesterday she started walking, and in fact it was just last month, but now she's running.  She doesn't always look where she's going so we've had some bumps and bruises this month but nothing serious.  She's also started to dance recently, so cute!  Along with the increased mobility she also is saying more words all the time.  It almost seems like there's a new word every day.  They include mama, dada, dog, duck, cow, hi, bye-bye, done, toes, nose, knee, eye, ear, elbow, milk, purple, bubbles, uh-oh, down, baby, no, yes, Charlie (her favorite friend at daycare) and a few more I'm probably forgetting.

Sleep:

She's sleeping from 8:00pm to 7am at night and goes down for an afternoon nap at 12:30 or 1 and sleeps until between 2:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon. For the most part she is a champion sleeper and we only see interruptions when teething or sick.  Speaking of sick, she is on cold #21 now *boo, hiss*  


Picture:

This is the pose she took when I asked her to stay still for a picture *lol*  

Two years ago today...

September 23, 2009 was the day we found out we were pregnant with K.  I POAS with FMU and got those lovely two lines.  I also had OHSS so I was pretty darn sick on the couch but it was worth every miserable moment.  Looking back it boggles my mind that it's been two years - both because it seems like so long ago and my life was so different...I was so different.  Also because it seems like yesterday.  So clearly I remember the feeling of "you mean it's true, I'm finally pregnant, no way".   Anyway, this day will always be very special to me.  I know how lucky we are to have been able to go on this journey!

And by a weird coincidence today I am ovulating and we actually gave it the good old college try this month - OPKs, CBEFM, and BD three days in the fertile window.  We know our chances are slim since it didn't seem to work for us in the three years of TTC for K but maybe just maybe this day can be lucky for us once again =)

We have lots of plans this weekend.  Tomorrow I'm going for a facial (mother's day gift I'm finally using) and in the late afternoon we're meeting a couple from K's daycare at the park and then we're going to grab pizza afterwards.  It's our first "date" of this kind so we'll see how it goes.  Sunday we have lunch with the in-laws and are going over to my parents in the late afternoon.  Somehow we'll get our laundry, grocery shopping, lawn work, etc. fit in with all the other plans too.  Sounds fun...and busy!

I'll close with a some new pictures of K, I just can't resist =)  Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Playing hide and seek with Daddy

Being a happy girl before school

Sitting in my big girl chair

It appears that my co-worker is over giving me the silent treatment.  I'm glad I stood my ground and I hope he will indeed think before he speaks.  Lauren you bring up a good point, what he said was "it must be a Y chromosome thing" and I wrote it wrong...he was meaning that the guys were doing better simply because they're guys and the women were all losing.

Any-who, I'm happy to leave that topic behind, hopefully for good, and talk about some more fun stuff.  Kylie is finally over a cold (or maybe two in a row?) that she's had and I am very much looking forward to the weekend with my baby girl and M!  We don't have much planned.  Tomorrow we'll get our stacker load (140 bales) of hay in for the winter for our two horses.  They drop it off next to the barn and we stack it in there.  Hard work but doesn't take all that long surprisingly.  My dad usually comes and helps M...mostly he tells M how to stack it and M has more patience than I would =)  We will probably offer to take my Mom and Dad out for dinner for Dad's "help" with the hay.  A little Mexican food could just hit the spot.  Hopefully we'll make it to the park one day too.  Kylie LOVES the park.  Other than that it'll be the typical laundry, groceries, lawn, etc.

Here are some pretty recent pics, from last weekend.  She's looking more toddler like all the time!  If you notice in this first one her toes are inching every so closely to the edge and while I intended to have my hands out of the picture I you can see I didn't make it...

Bubble beard =)