18 month check-up

I took the boys to their 18 month well check Tuesday. "Nanna" (MJ - the women who takes care of the boys once a week for me) went with me. It was absolutely crazy when we first got there.

As soon as I set Alex out of his stroller seat onto the ground in the exam room he started screaming. The other two fed off him and started crying too. I had to strip them down to their diapers to be weighed and measured, so we set to doing that. They screamed and screamed, cried and cried. I am starting to think that they know that the drs office is a "bad" place and you get poked every time you go there.

Anyway, we got the boys weighed. At 18 months old...
Alex weighs 23lbs 8oz
Grant is 23lbs 11oz (he lost weight)
Ethan is 18lbs 10oz (he gained, but only 10oz since Dec 19)

Alex is really doing the best over all. We only need him to be eating better (texture issues remember?) and then he will be GREAT!

Grant has an ear infection. His eczema is also flaring up and he has some infected sores. Poor guy. He has to take an antibiotic for the next 10 days then I have to take him back in. I hope he is all cleared up by then. He doesn't really act like he has an ear infection, so I don't think it is bothering him much.

We also have to take him in to get a renal ultrasound to make sure that one of his tubes from his kidneys to his bladder isn't enlarged anymore. It was slightly enlarged after birth and once they got out of the hospital, so hopefully it has gotten back to normal. I don't know what we do if it isn't normal. We'll just have to wait and see. I have to get that appointment scheduled soon.

Ethan is still my PEANUT!! He is on his own growth curve (meaning he is following the curve, but just in his own way) at about -20th percentile!! However, he has a HUGE head for his body size. His head is in the 40th percentile for ACTUAL age, not adjusted age!!

Since he isn't growing as fast as they would like, we are still pushing the calories. I am adding butter to their lunch and dinners. I just started adding some vegetable oil to parts of their lunch and dinner. He also gets Carnation instant breakfast in his milk. And, we are trying to transition him to a Pediasure a day (he doesn't like the taste of straight Pediasure, so we are trying to mix it like we did with the formula). I tried it today and it worked ok, so we'll see if I can get him to take just straight Pediasure here in the next couple of days.

We have to return to see the pulminologist for his breathing issues sometime in March. And I was supposed to schedule the PT to come out tomorrow, but didn't get it done, so maybe next week. We will finally be getting him on the right track to be able to walk soon.

Overall the boys are doing well. We could have things a LOT worse, or we could not be here at all. I thank God every day that these boys are here and I have the chance to be a mother to them.

As for other news, Grant is thisclose to walking. He will take a few steps or more by himself, but he falls down a lot still. When we try to get him to walk between James and I, Grant gets the giggles then doesn't concentrate on what he is doing. It is so cute.

They are all playing a lot more together and Alex is starting to pick up on some things that other kids are doing. He was playing with a little girl that is a few months older than he tonight at church. They were chasing each other, tackling each other, and tickling each other. It was so cute. I should have gotten a video, but didn't think about it until just now! :)

As for James and me....

James is loving his new job. He is keeping busy. He loves what he does though.

This weekend he gets to have the boys to himself! All to himself!! I am going to a women's retreat for the weekend. James gets to take care of the boys for the first time ever by himself, with no help!!! (He is going to be exhausted by the time I get home Sunday afternoon!)

I have also found a new friend. She has twins that are 6 months old and she goes to our church. We started walking together this week and found out that we have more in common with each other than just babies!!! She used to play soccer!! Hey, so did I!! She was extremely involved in our church as a youth and young adult and thought she was the poster-child for an ABC youth.... so did I!! We really do have a ton in common and I am so very thankful to have found a very good friend to be able to talk to, walk with, and commiserate about my kids to!!

I am so excited to be going on this retreat this weekend. It will be the first time I am away from the boys over night since May of last year when I went to my friend Amy's wedding. SO EXCITED!! Plus, the last time I went, I had a WONDERFUL experience. (And not to long after that, the miracle I had prayed for the entire time I was at the retreat came true). You can read about that last retreat in this post of mine titled "A Dose of Conviction". (It is an amazingly prophetic post... go read it!)

I know this was a long post. Glad you stuck with me! I am sorry but I don't have any pictures in this post. It is late and i haven't taken the pictures off my camera yet. I will do that as soon as I can tomorrow (or so) and try to get another post up soon!! So check back then.

I hope you all are having a great week. Love to all...
The Fischer 5

Milestones in weight and feeding

Ethan passed the 4 lb mark tonight. He is now eating 6mls every 3 hours. Pray that he continues to tolerate this all and can start eating just breastmilk soon.

Alex ate a HUGE 25mls from the bottle tonight. Good progress, since he has only ever taken 14 or 11 from me! He is now weighing 4lbs 11oz.

Grant ate a whooping 35mls from the bottle tonight. That is the most he has taken so far!! He is now 5lbs 6oz. They are all getting close to eachother!

Mommy and Daddy are doing well and happy to see their boys growing and changing everyday. We want them home soon, but all in God's time. Your prayers are still much appreciated!! Thank you so very much.

Confessional Time

I feel that I need to put this out there for a couple of people to know. There are a lot of reasons that I am living and doing the things I am doing, and here is one of them.

For the past year and a couple of months, James and I have been attempting to get pregnant. So far no luck. Here is why...

I have a condition that is called Polycystic Ovary Syndrom (PCOS) or Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD). (here is the link to the info on my doc's website) Whatever you call it, it is where your ovaries have cysts on them and they do not, at least in my case, allow me to ovulate. My hormone levels are out of wack because of this, or because my hormones are out of wack I have PCOS. It's a "catch-22." There is also a possibility that my Thyroid could be causing some of this too. My doctor wants to check that again here in a couple of months.

Anyway, my doctor has encouraged me to lose weight. Losing weight can help with the PCOS and the possible thyroid issue. However, in another "catch-22" the PCOS can prevent me from losing weight, as can the possible thyroid issue. I find this all very frustrating.

My doctor has put me on the medication Metformin. She started me on a 500mg dose and said in 6 weeks if things are not getting back to normal in my body she will up the dosage. I have a call in to her right now to see if we are going to up to dosage.

Well, I figured I would put this all out there to let you all know. I know, where does privacy go these days. But, if I am going to be continually asked when we are going to have kids, I might as well have some place to point people to.

I would also like to ask for your prayers for us. We hope God blesses us and makes us parents sometime soon, but as you know, it is all in His timing. So your prayers would be appreciated. Thanks.

Food Journal 4.22.08

Here is my food journal for yesterday.

			Free Calorie Counter my-calorie-counter.com
			Cal	Fat	Sat	Chl	Sod	Crb	Fib	Sug	Pro
Breakfast
1	24 oz	Starbucks Java Chip Frapacinno	300	7	4	5	330	55	6	37	10
			300	7	4	5	330	55	6	37	10
Lunch
1	cup	Rice, white, medium-grain, cooked	242	0	0	0	0	53	1	0	4
1	1	Sesame Chicken	340	9	2	20	650	49	2	15	15
2	Serving - 19 G	LIPTON - ICED TEA MIX - LEMON SUGAR SWEETENED 53 OZ CANISTER	140	0	0	0	0	36	0	36	0
1	cup shredded	Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw	8	0	0	0	4	2	1	1	1
1	1.5 oz	Panda Express® - Sweet & Sour Sauce	80	0	0	0	135	19	0	17	1
			810	9	2	20	789	159	4	69	21
Dinner
2	cup shredded	Lettuce, cos or romaine, raw	16	0	0	0	8	3	2	1	1
1	2 Tbsp	Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch	150	16	2	10	320	2	0	1	0
2	1 slice 1/12 pizza 118g	Papa Murphy's Pizza® - Papa's Pepperoni Pizza, Family-size - three cheeses topped with pepperoni	620	30	14	60	1300	58	4	2	32
			786	46	16	70	1628	63	6	4	33
Snack
2	24 nuts	Blue Diamond Almonds - 1 lb bag	320	28	2	0	0	12	6	2	12
			320	28	2	0	0	12	6	2	12
Water Tracker
Totals Target Balance			2216 1400 158 816	90 50 180 40	24 16 150 8	95 250 38 155	2747 1800 153 947	289 200 144 89	22 25 88 3	112 40 280 72	76 50 152 26
			Cal	Fat	Sat	Chl	Sod	Crb	Fib	Sug	Pro
Activity
Totals			0

3000 Calories!

So this past week I cancelled my subscription to Weight Watchers. I did not do the meeting thing and I did not keep up with the points very well. I have not been losing any weight for the past 4 months. I don't want to keep wasting the money. It is money we need for other things.

I started to track what I am eating and doing for exercise on this calorie counter online, that is free!!! It is my-calorie-counter.com (http://www.my-calorie-counter.com/calorie_counter.asp).
So anyway, I started that on Wednesday, the 26th. I put in everything I eat, any activity I do, weight, and measurements and it will do the calculations for me.

That said, I have had a VERY VERY BAD week/weekend. I averaged 2700 calories a day. NO WONDER I AM SO OVERWEIGHT!! I ate over 3000 calories a couple of days this week. (I didn't have my computer on at all until tonight so I didn't imput everything until now.) I can't believe it. It makes me so sick to think that I have been eating that much. I am very disapointed in myself too. I need to have a lot more self control.

So, here is my thinking. This thing also allows you to post your entries for the day as blog post. So I am going to be doing that from now on. If I don't get it posted that day, send me an email (those of you who know my email) or put a comment on one of my postings to let me know that I am slacking! That way you all can help keep me accountable. We'll see if it works. So, here is my food journal post for today.

			Free Weight Tracker my-calorie-counter.com
			Cal	Fat	Sat	Chl	Sod	Crb	Fib	Sug	Pro
Breakfast
1	1 can 12 fl oz 355 mL	Pepsi® - Mountain Dew (can) - citrus-flavored soda	170	0	0	0	70	46	0	46	0
5	1 oz	Breadsmith® - Beer Bread	360	2	1	0	590	73	3	55	12
			530	2	1	0	660	119	3	101	12
Lunch
1	tbsp	Salad dressing, KRAFT Ranch Dressing	74	8	1	4	144	1	0	1	0
2	Serving - 85 G	DOLE FRESH VEGETABLES - SALAD BLENDS - AMERICAN 12 OZ BAG	30	0	0	0	20	6	2	4	2
1	1 burger	Roy Rogers® - Hamburger	472	25	1	64	607	37	0	0	26
			576	33	2	68	771	44	2	5	28
Dinner
1	1 can 12 fl oz 355 mL	Pepsi® - Mountain Dew (can) - citrus-flavored soda	170	0	0	0	70	46	0	46	0
2	2 medium slices	Pizza Hut® - Cheese Pizza, pan style crust	1044	44	58	100	2004	282	8	216	34
			1214	44	58	100	2074	328	8	262	34
Snack
1	2 Tbsp 39g	Hershey's® - Chocolate Syrup	100	0	0	0	25	24	0	0	1
5	1 oz	Breadsmith® - Beer Bread	360	2	1	0	590	73	3	55	12
1	cup	Ice creams, vanilla	289	16	10	63	115	34	1	31	5
			749	18	11	63	730	131	4	86	18
Water Tracker
Totals Target Balance			3069 1400 219 1669	97 50 194 47	72 16 450 56	231 250 92 19	4235 1800 235 2435	622 200 311 422	17 25 68 8	454 40 1135 414	92 50 184 42
			Cal	Fat	Sat	Chl	Sod	Crb	Fib	Sug	Pro
Activity
Totals			0

Abolish the Fat Tax!

If you do anything today, I think you should go read this. It is about being fat, and obeisty, and all the stuff that goes along with it. I have to say that I agree with this article.
http://www.slate.com/id/2184475/pagenum/all/#page_start

I really need to get back on track

I dreaded stepping on the scale this morning. I didn't follow the WW this weekend and I paid for it dearly. Plus I haven't been able to work out since last Monday. I'll explain that later. But anyway, the scale said 255. I haven't been that high for a long time now. This is agrivating me, but I haven't been following WW very closely since Christmas and now I realize I need to.

Well, I went onto my WW website and put in my points for the week and I was over 50 points! That is over and above my weekly allowance of 35 points too. Now I know why I gained 3 pounds! Oh that sounds so bad saying it like that.

As for the working out. I was called in to work on Friday because my co-workers Dad was put in the hospital. Then we went to my parent's house for the weekend and I skipped working out any, and ate a lot. Then, when I was supposed to go in and workout on Monday, we were driving home from my parents' because we had been snowed in. Then I had to work yesterday.

But!!!!...... I did work out some last night (Tuesday night). I was going to go to the gym but I couldn't find my membership card. So, I took 15 minutes and walked up and down our flight of stairs. (Each time I went up I took something that had to go upstairs with me so I was multi-tasking!) But then, when Biggest Loser came on at 7:00 I ran in place, did crunches, and push-ups for 1/2 hour. I should have done it through the entire show, but I got lazy. I don't know why but I am having motivation issues right now.

Well, it is back to the grind. I am going to try and be better this week and really keep track of my points and work out (except I can't Friday cause I am going to have to work). I'll do some this weekend then.