What's Been Going On Lately...

Just thought I would post a little (well, it may get long) update about us!  So much has been going on lately, so I have a bunch to say!

THE MOVE/NEW HOUSE

The move went fairly smoothly.  We had packers in our house in Enterprise on March 25 and March 26.  They were great.  However, my Dad's Galileo Thermometer was broken and that made me VERY sad!  We have it listed on our missing or broken items sheet, so I am hopeful that I will be able to get a replacement for it.  The loaders came to the house on Monday, March 29 and loaded up all our belongings. 

We travelled up to Huntsville separately.  I had Alex and the three dogs, along with Mom & Dad's urns. I also had a few suitcases of clothes that we would need for the next few days, and a few coolers full of our frozen and refrigerated items.  Larry had a car packed full of our personal belongings (things we didn't want to movers to take).

We closed on the new house on Tuesday, March 30.  We were very excited and the closing couldn't have gone smoother.

They delivered all of our household belongings to the new house on Wednesday, March 31.  We directed them what rooms to put boxes and furniture in and they did.  We have been slowly and steadily unpacking boxes since April 1.  I think we are 75% done, but we are having a hard time finding the motivation to do it and we have had a few setbacks.  Also, have you ever tried packing or unpacking with a toddler around?...IMPOSSIBLE!!  No matter how many times I tell him no, he still takes things out of boxes that he shouldn't and often hides them in places where we cant find it.  We try to do most of the unpacking during naptime or once he goes to bed for the night!

We are determined to get it done in the next week though.  I can't wait to post pictures of the house once we have all the boxes out of here!

ALEX

Alex is growing and changing everyday.  He is no longer the little baby that was content with being held, now he is a fast moving, quick thinking, active toddler!  He is trying so hard to speak and is getting pretty darn good at it (I wonder who he gets that from).  He is beginning to form sentences, which is pretty neat!

Alex goes to Mother's Day Out two times a week - Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 am until 12:10 pm.  He is loving it.  The last time I dropped him off (last Wednesday), he went right through the gate and said "Bye-bye Mama!"  It made me sad that my little boy is okay with me leaving, but I was also very happy that we have found him a place that he is comfortable at and wants to go to.  When he woke up this morning, he said "School Mama, School!"  He was heartbroken when I told him that we weren't going to school because he had a cough.  It is important to me to have found a place for him that we both feel comfortable at - and I think I accomplished that!

We are struggling with listening.  He hears us just fine, he just chooses not to do what we ask of him.  We are trying to be patient and remind ourselves that this is just a stage and it will pass, but that is a VERY hard thing to do!!  There are days that I feel like we are making progress on the listening front, and other days that I feel like we are taking a few steps backwards!

Oh, the joys of raising a toddler...but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!  I love my son and he is a constant reminder of how blessed I truly am!

LARRY

Larry had 10 days off to spend with us thru the move.  It was great to have him around 24/7.  He went back to work on April 12 at the new Huntsville facility for the first time.  I think he spent a day or two getting everything up and ready to start working.  He had to get a few new badges, set up his desk and meet all the new people!  

He is already back in full-force work mode.  He had his first flight this past week and is actually in the midst of analyzing the data from it.  In the next few weeks (I'm going to be vague here and not say the exact dates - there are sickos out there and I don't want them knowing when Larry isn't going to be home), he is traveling to Indianapolis for a meeting with the people of Rolls Royce.  As stressed as he sometimes gets, I know that he loves his job and he knows that he is blessed to have found such an incredible job right out of college!

SARAH

A little about me...hmm!  Well, as some of you know, we have been trying to get pregnant since Alex turned one.  I have been on several cycles of Clomid and nothing has been happening.  It has been frustrating each month to not have a cycle end in pregnancy.  We knew that we had been doing everything that was asked of us, but nothing was happening.  I finally decided that enough was enough and made an appointment with the ART Fertility Clinic.

We met with Dr. Allemand on Wednesday, April 7.  After a full and thorough discussion, he felt like something more was going on with my body than what we knew.  He felt as though it would be best to  do a laproscopy and hysteroscopy.  This procedures would look around the outside of my uterus, as well as the outside of my ovaries.  During this surgery, they look for endometriosis, scar tissues or any adhesions.  We set up surgery for Friday, April 9 - yes, it was quick and no, we weren't really prepared for it being that quick, but it worked out best for where I was in my cycle and Larry happened to already have off work!  We also discovered from an ultrasound that I have Polycystic Ovaries.

On Friday, we went to Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, bright and early - we had to be there at 5:15 am, which meant we left our house are 3:00 am.  VERY early morning!  They took me back fairly quickly, got the IV's in, gave me a little medicine to calm my nerves and then took me back for surgery (my scheduled surgery time was 7:15 am, but I think they took me back to the operating room around 6:55 am).  I don't remember any of the surgery since I was knocked out :)

When I started to come back around in recovery, it was nearly 9:00 am.  Apparently the surgery went a little longer than we expected.  After spending a little time in recovery, they wheeled me back to a room and Larry was there within seconds!  Once I felt up to it, Dr. Allemand came in the room to tell me his findings.  I have Stage 3 (out of 4 stages) Endometriosis. He had to laser out quite a bit on my uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes.  He still left the disease on my bowel and large intestine.  He doesn't mess with those areas (looks like I will need to visit a GI Doctor or a General Surgeon in the future to get that taken care of).  He was impressed with how much he was able to get out and said that he definitely thinks the Endometriosis contributed to us not getting pregnant.  Endometriosis mixed with Polycystic Ovaries is not a great combination.

At the next appointment, we are going to discuss injectable hormone medications to stimulate egg growth and development.  My body does not ovulate on it's own - I have to give it some sort of medication to have ovulation.  And since we have done SOOOO many cycles of Clomid, my RE (Reproductive Endocrineologist) would like me to try shots - yes, that does mean giving myself shots, and yes, I am so thankful that I am not squeamish.

We are trying to remain hopeful and place all of the medical decision into the hands of an RE and place all of our fears with God.  For it is only Him that knows if we are lucky enough to have another little addition to our family!

For those of you that don't know, my Mom had Endometriosis discovered in her body when she was only 28 - they had to take out one of her fallopian tubes as well as that vary.  Eventually, the Endometriosis regrew on the other side and on her uterus and she had a full hysterectomy at the age of 31.  During all of my struggles to get pregnant, I always wondered if I could possibly have Endometriosis - it was both relief that we found out something that could be causing us problems in getting pregnant, but it also scares everything in me.  Knowing that Endometriosis does regrow makes me wonder how much time I have before it grows back and once it grows back, what do we do?  I am trying to take all of this one step at a time and not try to rush anything.  

This is long enough!  Hope you enjoyed the little update on our life!  Thanks to the many friends and family who have helped with the move, watching Alex for us and being there for us!  It really does mean a lot to us!