Meet Jake Anthony

Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween Sneak Preview

Hello from the land of illness...

After being cooped up in the house for the past week...first with H1N1 and then with pneumonia, (because God knows when we get sick in this house, we get REALLY sick...NO messing around!!)...Spiderman is ready to hit the neighborhood in hopes of scoring mega candy (not that he even likes 10% of it, but it's the hunt that matters).

Here's a few pics of him trying out the costume. Taken seconds before he tried out his best Fly Off the Bed... "Catch me Mommy!!!!" Worked out well for one of us...can you guess which one?

Happy Trick or Treating everyone!!

G and Jake

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Our 1st Trip To The Principal's Office...

Incident Report:
When: this past Monday around 3 pm What: The call every mother dreads Why: Who the heck knows why kids do what they do? (Though, as you'll see, I've got no shortage of excuses)

Let me take you for a short walk in my shoes...
Ring, Ring... "Ms. Bilotti, I need to talk with you about Jake's behavior at school today..."
(Silently I'm thinking...Hmmmm...this doesn't sound good. Followed by..Ya think? Followed quickly by... Oh God, did he bite someone again? Is he back to tackling people? And already thinking that whatever it was that he did, it wasn't his fault!!!)

"The past few days of school, we've been seeing some behavioral problems in class with Jake" (I'm thinking...OK, so why the heck did you wait so long to call me? Notice how I'm already deflecting...I think this comes naturally to mommies...LOL) "He's been calling the other children names and not following direction" To which I reply... "Oh my, that's terrible, I'm so upset to hear that" (While thinking... hey, maybe they deserved to be called those names? Maybe they called him names first? Maybe they're being mean to him?)

"Ms. Bilotti has anything been going on at home that may be upsetting Jake? Has he been sleeping OK?" To which I reply "No, there's nothing out of the ordinary going on here...he does have a cold though and he didn't sleep well last night and was up at 4:30 this morning, so I'm sure he's very tired today" (While thinking...as am I, which is why I'm feeling a little cranky about this call and your questions about what trauma I may be exposing him to at home and after all, the poor kid has a cold, and is really tired and when I'm sick and tired, I also sometimes want to call people names...actually, I'm really tempted to call you some names right now, if I'm being honest, that is...LOL)

"We tried to get Jake to go down to the Principal's Office today and he refused to go. So, I told him that I would be calling you and he got very upset by this, but I felt it was important for me to still call" To which I reply... "He wouldn't go? Oh, no, that's terrible. I'm very glad you called so I can talk with him and get this straightened out" (While thinking... Well, of course he wouldn't go, hell, I wouldn't go either if you gave me a choice? And yes, I'm very glad you called because now I can find out who's picking on him and straighten THEM out...actually, maybe I'll send Nanny, she's really good at that...LOL)

Call ends and off I go to pick up my little Angel turned Devil early from school. I drag him kicking and screaming to the Principal's office and as it turns out, the Principal suggested that it may actually be the new cough/cold medicine that I started giving him at the exact time that they started seeing these changes in his behavior. (Turns out she has even better excuses than I do...go figure?) But seriously, we were also seeing signs of this at home as well. Think 4 year old on a combination of ice cream, cotton candy, cake, cookies and a few doses of chocolate on top...that's what he had been like (withOUT any of that crap). Nanny and I had been drawing straws to see who got first dibs to hang themselves on the flagpole out front should he decide to get up at 4:30 am again. She pulled the "senior citizen" card again...SO unfair.

So, needless to say, we immediately took him "off the juice" (oh no, wait, that's JJ)... off the medicine and we've been witnessing a slow and steady return to a normal state of chaos. Might be hard to discern with the naked eye, but crystal clear to Nanny and I. I've also had to reinstate the "no TV if you have a bad day at school" policy. Which ironically only works because he wants whatever it is he can't have...even though we typically don't even watch TV after school.

While putting him to bed that night, I asked him what names he was actually calling the kids at school and in light of the fact that I was expecting something like "butthead", "stupid", "poopy head" (a house favorite)...it shocked me when he said "Momma, I called them Giraffe, Hippamapotomus (Hippo in Jake speak), Cow, Cat, Duck" It took everything I had not to laugh out loud and of course, I did my best to reinforce how "bad" it was to call someone a Giraffe, while all the while thinking "oh come on now, that's all he did?!?!?"

Fingers crossed that we've seen the last of the Principal's office, at least for quite a while!!! Cause I think I may be all out of viable excuses at this point. That's all for now...

About Jake Anthony

Jake was born on Aug 19, 2005, he weighed a hefty 9lbs 10oz, was 22 inches long (before you say "ouch" it was by C-section) and was welcomed into this world by his mommy, nanny, pops, uncle JJ, LaLa, Aunt Bear, Aunt No-No, Aunt Amy, Aunt CC, Aunt Razz, Aunt Titi, Aunt GG and Aunt Tracey (soon to be Aunt Dana too). To say he was a "dream come true" would be the understatement of the century!!

I had always dreamed of being a mommy and for some reason, had always wanted a boy. (So much so, that I enrolled in the MicroSort clinical trial for gender selection and had the sperm sorted to increase the odds to 85%.) Jake was conceived using IVF and donor #1876 from Fairfax. The donor selection was a VERY serious process including a thorough analysis of every detail imaginable. In the end, the pool was narrowed down to four possible choices, and each of the Posse (his group of Aunts) had an opportunity to evaluate the bio and stats and vote for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice. The votes were tallied and actually, there was a tie between the one we called "Giraffe" and the one we called "James" (because he looked a lot like my brother). For the initial attempt, I went with Giraffe, but after no luck with 2 AI cycles, I switched to "James" (1876) and transitioned to IVF.

The first IVF attempt resulted in 8 eggs, 6 of which survived the fertilization process and 5 of which made it to day 5. PGD testing revealed that there was only 1 healthy normal embryo in the mix and luck would have it, it was a boy! The pregnancy, however, lasted only 8 weeks before I was told it was a non-progressing pregnancy. After that VERY big disappointment and weeks of waiting (and a DNC...uggh), I had the opportunity to try again.

This time, I was rushed in at day 3 and told that the 3 remaining fertilized eggs would not make it to day 5. The absolutely FUNNIEST part of this whole story involved my mom. I had not planned to go to have the procedure on Day 3, so my mom and I had to scramble to get there. (I received the message so late that they actually had to stay open late for me and I had to drive up from South Jersey 3 hours to get there....talk about driving at the speed of light.)

So, my mom meets me and we drive up together and on the way up I tell her "mom, no matter what they say, I only want to put 1 egg back in. I'm having this baby on my own and we already have a strong history of twins in the family and I don't want to risk ending up with 3! Mom, I really need you to be with me on this because they always push you to put more in to increase the odds of success." To which she replied, yes, no problem, I understand."

So, we meet with the doctor and he says, you have 3 remaining embryos, we couldn't do the PGD so we have no idea if any are normal (let alone the sex), so I'm recommending you put all 3 back in. My eyes open wide and I say "ALL 3????" I turn to my mom and she says "I agree with the doctor"...LOL!! And before I knew what hit me, off I went into the surgical suite...

And the result, is the most lovable, adorable, smart little boy in the whole world...hope you enjoy reading about him even half as much as I enjoy raising him...