I'm back at work after 2 weeks off, which means I'm back online again!

I can't believe that this board is DEAD! Not a single other poster.....

how sad....and lonely....

I wonder where all the moms that had IF issues are posting now? I guess on the Born In boards? or perhaps have no time to post on boards any more? I do miss my old TTC and PG buddies...and hope they and their families are healthy and happy.

Any new moms reading this? If so please post....maybe we can get this board up and running with a bunch of new babies chatter?

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Hi, I'll talk to you...least I won't have to shout to be heard lol. Do you hope to have another kid or kids Jenn? We've finished IVF. Used the last 3 remaining frozen embryo's last year, only one survived.

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Mum to DS Brady 23 Jan 03, DD Evany 11 April 03

I'm so glad I'm no longer chatting to myself Sharryn!

No, Mason is our only child. I did manage to produce 3 embryos and 2 were frozen. We made the difficult decision last year to have them defrosted and placed them (in their tiny straws) in our garden and planted two trees in honor of the 2 babies we will never hold. We had many reasons not the least being our ages (DP then 44, me 43), my needing to work full time to support our family, my DP's health (she has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and is unable to work or care for Mason on her own), my body - my pelvis seperated during labor with Mason and I was unable to walk for 3 months - it's still giving me problems and more! We weren't able to donate them due to some silly Laws here. I still wonder about what could have been... but try not to dwell on what can't be, and rejoice in what IS.

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Gee, Mason's birth didn't sound nice, sorry to hear. I tried for natural and didn't dilate even 1cm, ended up with a emergency c-section. Went to a masseur after and he said my hips were locked :S I really had given up hope of even having one kid and suffered PND and PTS and didn't expect to get PG on a FET first attempt. If I was 10 years younger and knew what I know now, would have loved 4 kids but probably couldn't have afforded them anyway. Think it cost over $30k to have Brady and I really don't want to work but need to to help pay some bills. I didn't know you could take the embryo's and would never have thought to do what you did. Good think

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Mum to DS Brady 23 Jan 03, DD Evany 11 April 03

I "stumbled" upon the idea of asking to take my embryo's home - asked, and was allowed to. I believe they were defrosted in the proper way 24hrs before they were given to me. I'm glad as I was having some issues imagining them "dying" in my hands....

With your hip issues and my pelvis problem, and all the other pg/birth "injuries" I've read about - further confirms what I always believed....HAVING A BABY IS HARD WORK! teehee

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Hi Jenn - I was just checking in to see how everyone is doing...and???? Where is everyone?????

How are you doing? Have you had any luck getting Mason Potty trained yet? I FINALLY got both girls going. They are 3 1/2 now. They are fine peeing, but can't get them to poop yet. They hold it until nap time when I put their pull ups on. I always make them go on the potty before nap time but they never poop and sure enough if I pop in 1/2 hour later - we have two poop'ers. I guess it will come in time. I don't know why I thought it would be so easy. I am actually going to start Julian soon too. He just turned 2 but since he sees the girls going all of the time, I think he may be ready to try soon.

Not much else going on. I am sick of winter and being trapped indoors. It's really hard to go anywhere alone with all 3 of them so unless I can find someone to tag along on a shopping excursion, we end up spending lots of time in the house. I am itching for a vacation, but I am not sure if it would even be worth it. We are talking about doing a Disney trip, but part of me thinks we should wait one more year til they are all potty trained etc. We may still take them to a beach this year though. ONly problem is the closest is about 8 hours drive. That will be interesting.

Anything new with you?

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Hi Lisa

I am so excited to see an update from you.

OH MY!!! What a beautiful family. I can't get over how big all three of your gorgeous children are! Where did the time go hey?

What the girls are doing re pooping only in a pullup is something I've heard a lot of. Mason was like that at 31/5 also, then one day the daycare teacher asked him to sit on the toilet whilst she went and got his pullup (he'd asked for one so he could poop), and purposely left him too long...by the time she returned he had used the toilet and never looked back! Mason is only trained during the day. He still wears a pullup at night and it is sodden in the morning. I guess each child will decide in their own time when is the right time, I'm of the opinion it is best not to stress about it, because kids are very strong willed when it comes to potty training! Also I've heard of children making themselves constipated when pushed to only use the potty and not wear a pullup for pooping. Good luck too with Julian, perhaps he'll be your early trainer?

IMO travelling with pullups is easier than a newly toilet trained child. Sometimes you just can't get them to a toilet in time, specially when they don't give more than a minutes warning! So if you are really interested in taking that vacation - I say go now! Or wait till they are all 5yo! LOL Then again, with 3 under 4 I'd suggest taking a 3rd adult, do you have a stray grandparent or auntie that would like to go with you?

I can't imagine being housebound with three littleones, due to the weather. Our winter is never cold enough to stop us going out - mind you where to go is often the question! Indoor playcentres will most likely be on our list this winter as Mason needs lots of physical activity and I hate standing around in the cold at the local playground! I can imagine going to a shopping mall without another adult helping would be a bad move. I have enough problem keeping track of one child - and keeping up with his "I wants"! Parenting sure is more of a challenge than I ever imagined way back in those dark days struggling to conceive. Of course I'm loving being a mum, but understand the need for vacations and a little bit of time out.

Thanks for stopping by with an update. Good luck with surviving the rest of winter!

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We would DEFINATELY bring a grandma with us on an trip. MIL is a huge help. Unfortunately my mother is limited since my father is sick with Lou Gehrigs Disease and she is full time caregiver. Anytime we do any kind of 'outing' (to the zoo or amusement park , etc) we take MIL. It's just too hard to do alone while at this age. In fact, we had a scare at the zoo this year with Mikhala. DH had Harley and me and MIL had Julian and Mikhala. I took a phone call and turned to look at something thinking MIL was handling the kids and Mikhala was G-O-N-E. Talk about seeing your life flash before your face!! We found her a few seconds later. She had run ahead to see the sea lions, but for those few seconds, I can't even explain the fear I felt. I came to the realization that no matter where we are, as adults, we really can't take time to look around and enjoy the surroundings, we just have to focus on the kids (and only the kids!) and no matter what distractions there may be, we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are there FOR THE KIDS. It's hard when you go somewhere like a zoo and you get caught up looking at the animals or shows b/c it only taks a nanosecond for those little buggers to take off on you. So needless to say, any vacation we would take would not be a break for us, but an experience for the kids. In fact, a vacation at their age will be way more stressful than relaxing for us. But I want them to do things. We have a tendancy to put things off sometimes b/c we think there will be a better time and I don't want to do that anymore. When the kids want to do something, we will find a way. And guess what? The kids want to go to a beach so come heck or high water, we are going to a beach this year if it kills me.

I agree on the pull ups though. I can still get away with shoving them in a pull up if we go out and not worry about them getting upset if they have an accident or we can't get to a bathroom, but soon they will refuse to go in the pull-ups (which is actually the goal, right? - LOL) and it will be hard to do things that require planning bathroom breaks. A road trip will be a nightmare!

Mason is getting so big, I love his b-day pic. He is such a cutie. That blond hair is to die for!

Well, hopefully we will hear some updates from some of our old friends. I really don't visit any other boards so I am not sure what everyone else is up to these days. Busy being mom's I guess. I'll try to do better at keeping in touch. We FINALLY upgraded our computer so I can actually get online without cursing my way through the long waits on each page.

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