National Infertility Awareness Week and #Hope

Jen from This is More Personal is raising money for Resolve: The National Infertility Association. She is selling really cool  #Hope T-shirts. For every shirt you buy, $5 goes to Resolve. Jen is also generously matching that $5 for every sale. Please take a moment to go check that out on her blog. Jen is amazing and I really admire her for putting together this fundraiser for Resolve.

Last summer was awful. One bad thing after another happened.

We had been homestudy ready for two years (5 years of infertility before that) and I was so done with waiting.

Many times I refered to the summer as The Summer of Suck. Then September 1, I wrote a post saying The Summer of Suck was over and I was declaring it The Autumn of Hope. I started addding #hope to my tweets on twitter and even went with my mom to do a baby registry.

On September 11, we got THE call. Our baby boy was born.

It means so much to me to be able to share this picture with you:

This onesie was made by Ivey Sew & Design

7 Months

I have super mom guilt about this month. I lost the onesie number stickers!! I kept thinking they would show up. I looked everywhere. I finally ordered more, but had to order a different kind. So all the stickers from now on won't match the ones from before. I am so mad at myself. Where could they have gone?!?!

Anyway....because I had to wait for new stickers to come in the mail, I am late this month. Since I'm late, I am going to keep the update short. He's over 15 lbs now! He's very mobile. Crawling fast, pulling himself up, and cruising along furniture or anything else he thinks he can use. Sometimes he uses things that are not very stable to hold on to as he walks, and it scares me, but he usually manages to do it without falling. He amazes me. And two teeth have come in since last month! Two tiny, adorable little teeth on the bottom.

BIRTH

ONE MONTH

TWO MONTHS

THREE MONTHS

FOUR MONTHS

FIVE MONTHS

SIX MONTHS

SEVEN MONTHS

It wasn't long before he decided he would rather be walking on the couch than sitting on it. I tried giving him the piano to play with because it worked last month and I was able to get more pictures of him sitting. It didn't work as well this month.

Next was sliding down off the couch and taking off.

 

Monday Blues? Write Your Own Caption!

The Monday after Easter can be a rough day. I thought we could have a few laughs writing a caption for this picture:

This picture cracks me up even without a caption. Have fun! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!! :)

(Missed the last one? Click here for the link.)

Happy Easter!

Easter Excitement

I've been super picky about choosing an Easter basket for Jayden. Adam and I have matching ones that I absolutely love and I wanted something special for Jayden too since he will have it for years.I searched in stores and on the internet. Finally yesterday, when I wasn't even looking for one, I came across one I love! Yay. So relieved to have it.

I was also on the lookout for one last Easter present. I already got Jayden some books and a few other things to put in his basket, but I was looking for a toy. Yesterday I found something I knew he would love. Lately he has been walking around the living room holding on to whatever he can. He hates when he has to crawl instead. I saw him try to take a toy with him just so he can walk by holding on to the top of the toy. So, I knew he would love this. I was so excited I decided I could not possibly wait until Easter to give it to him. (The bright side of him being too young to really understand Easter.) So, when we went to my parents' house after the store, I brought the box in and immediately started putting it together while everyone else ate lunch.

Here are some pictures of Jayden with his Easter present:

 

It may take a little practice before he gets the hang of moving his feet as the toy moves.

Jayden's Easter basket! (The bunny came a little early this year :)

For those of you still waiting and hoping to start your family, please go read my Easter post from last year to remind yourself of how much things can change in just one year. Easter is tough. Hang in there. Do something for yourself and if it's better for you to say no to Easter egg hunts and family gatherings, do it.

 

The Sweetest Thing I Have Ever Seen

Adam has been working late everyday this week. It's been really hard on me because Jayden is teething, which has made him absolutely miserable.

It turns out I wasn't the only one missing Adam.

Jayden goes to bed by 8:30 every night now and then wakes up sometime between 2:30-4 for a bottle. After that he comes into bed with us to sleep until we get up for work. This morning when he came into our bed, he was restless and kept waking up. Eventually he crawled up to Adam, put his head on Adam's arm, and fell right to sleep. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Apparently, he missed daddy this week.

Luckily, Adam will be home at a regular time tonight so he can spend some time with Jayden before bedtime.

And this morning when I checked Jayden's mouth, there was a new little tooth popping through! Right next to the first one that showed up on Sunday. Today has already been so much better. It's a relief to know it really was just teething. I fed Jayden lunch a little while ago and for the first time in two days, I didn't have it all spit back on to me. He is back to his old self again.

I Can't Even Get Through a Haircut Without Talking About My Uterus

I got my hair cut for the first time in at least a year and a half. I tend to let it get really long and then go get several inches cut off.

Maybe one of the reasons I go so long between haircuts is that it's impossible to get a haircut without the topic of children coming up. This time I finally had a baby to talk about. I actually told myself as I walked towards the building that I didn't have to get into all the infertility/adoption/hysterectomy stuff. I can just be a normal person talking about my baby.

But, the hairdresser really gave me no choice.

She said her boyfriend wanted to have kids but she wanted to wait. Then she said, "Who plans their kids these days anyway? It just happens."

What?

Apparently she is under the impression everyone accidentally gets pregnant without trying and you have no choice whether you start a family.

Then she asked me whether we planned to have Jayden.

Ha.

Uh.....well.....yes, there was planning involved.

Holy understatement.

Once I told her we adopted, the floods of questions began.

Before you know it, I am talking about my uterus.

How does that always happen?

Maybe I should have T-shirts made. "Ask me about my uterus. I love uncomfortable conversations in public about missing body parts."

On The Move!

Jayden now spends his days walking along furniture. If he falls, he gets right back up. This little peanut is on the move!!

"Phew, I finally made it to Mom."

First Zoo Trip

Adam and I have been members at our zoo for over 9 years.

Since the zoo was always such a big part of our lives together, we included zoo pages in our profile book for expectant mothers to look at.

In the last year or two before Jayden was born, it began getting harder for me to go to the zoo. Strollers, babies, and young kids everywhere. It ended in tears almost everytime. We eventually just stopped going.

We recently took Jayden for his first trip to the zoo. It was kind of like we were showing him around "our place." We told him about all the animals. Like how the gibbons have their own family song because in the wild it would help them find each other. And that when the gibbons get loud it usually means the lemurs will be getting loud soon.

He seemed to really enjoy watching the snow leopards.

There are two new sea lions that were injured in the wild and then rescued and brought here from California. They are real little now, but we told him they would grow as he grows.

We told him how lucky he was that he got to see the otters out swimming and playing because they are usually off sleeping somewhere where nobody can see them.

Adam showed Jayden some snakes and tortoises.

 We showed Jayden the zoo brick that my family bought us years ago.

 (I took our last name off of it for the blog.)

Overall it was a very special day that Adam and I will always remember.

The zoo wore him out!