Summer Babble

I can hardly believe it's been a month since my last post. For shame!

Since Mark and I stopped fertility, I do have to say that we are both less stressed. The whole thing raised the pressure of conceiving so high. We were physically and emotionally exhausted and decided to book a week-long vacation to Punta Cana. Kind of crazy since we are also trying to put our house up for sale this month, but we knew that the moment it's on the market, we can't go anywhere in case a buyer is interested. And with the market as bad as it is, who knows when that would be.

We went the last week of May and took Ricky along with us. At first we were thinking of making this a "procreation vacation" and my mother was willing to watch him for us while we were away. I booked the vacation during my ovulation and after much discussion, we both decided it was best to bring Ricky along with us - we would miss the little guy too much.

The vacation was wonderful - I flashed some cash at the front desk and got upgraded to a double room to allow us privacy and to allow Ricky to go to bed on time and not be bothered by the tv. Our Apple vacation did not allow room upgrades and I read on the internet that flashing cash can certainly help.

The trip was all-inclusive so all we had to bring was a wad of singles for tipping. Our resort had 2 all you can eat buffets and 6 gourmet restaurants. The food looked odd at first, but when you try it, it is delicious. Punta Cana is definitely more of a European destination - we didn't run into too many Americans. There were lots of Europeans and South Americans - it was an interesting bunch.

We spent every day of our vacation eating, swimming in the ocean, and building sandcastles. Mark and I haven't had a beach/ocean vacation since our honeymoon in Australia in 2002 so it was a great break.

Now we are busy fixing up the house and packing all our stuff to get our house ready to sell. We bought that house in 2000 and it is amazing how much crap we have accumulated. Needless to say, I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to upload my vacation photos!! I guess I'll get to it when I can!

Plan B

After my insemination a few weeks ago, my friends and family were so hopeful - but I knew I wasn't pregnant. I had none of the symptoms that I had in the past. As I suspected, I did not become pregnant from my insemination and Mark and I had to quickly decide what we were going to do. Were we going to do another insemination?

After much discussion, we decided to take a break from the fertility thing. It has been such a relief not to be under a schedule and going to appointments - hoping to be pregnant at month's end and being crushed. I think going to fertility heightened our pregnancy expectations and hope - and the disappointment and stress was so much worse. We may decide to go back for one more insemination - but we have to think about it.

It has been frustrating that they did not pinpoint the exact cause of our infertility - so maybe we just have the worst timing in the world, I don't know. So we decided to keep trying on our own and to book a restful vacation. So we booked a week-long vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for some needed R&R. At first we were going to try to make a "procreation vacation" out of it - and my mom was willing to watch Little Ricky for us for a few days. Mark and I decided to bring him on our trip afterall - we would miss the little guy too much. It may put a damper on night-time activities but during the day when we would see other kids frolicking in the sand, ocean, and pool - we would miss him terribly.

So needless to say, I am no longer depressed as I am not on Clomid. So right now we are focused on getting our house ready to sell and looking forward to our holiday. Hopefully this vacation may boost our odds of getting pregnant - Mark has been so stressed. So now I'm happier than I have been in months.

Flying With Your Toddler

We just came back from visiting my sister and her husband in Boston. It was a great trip and we wish we were still there. The flight was roughly 3 hours and I can't tell you how many days I spent going over the what-ifs with little Ricky in my head. What if he has a tantrum? What if he barfs all over the place on the plane? What if he tells the lady at the counter that she is chubby?

I am happy to report that the hours in flight were wonderful. The only time we were worried was when we all had to take our shoes off in security. Ricky started to cry and say "No mommy, keep shoes on" and he started to cry VERY loudly. After trying to redirect his attention in a multitude of ways, the only thing that worked was reverting to my grandmother's strategy of fear and telling him that the policeman standing over there will take me and daddy away if he didn't stop crying. It worked, but I still regret telling him that and I cringe whenever I remember it.

The trick to flying with a toddler is buying those tiny sticker books for $1.50, coloring books, and a portable DVD player. We thought we could avoid buying the DVD player by occupying him with other things but it ended up saving the day in the end. Ricky was so engrossed in books and DVDs on both flights that nobody would ever guess we had a toddler with us.

And no, he didn't barf, but I had 2 changes of clothes just in case!