This is a bit hard. (and something very interesting)

I'm definitely making the separation between this blog and my other blog. I'm trying to update both everyday. Karl updates & pictures, Ella and Allison news, kid and parenting related stuff will be over there, while my sarcastic and schnarky self and any "me" news will be over here. Seems simple.

But the separation isn't that simple. Most of my identity right now is wrapped around being the mother of a newborn. Most of my health related shit is wrapped around having just given birth. AND most importantly (to me) is cute ass all hell updates/news (like today's post) is over there, not getting read by my largest audience.

Yes, yes. I totally understand why my other blog is not my largest audience. I'm just now starting to put time into it and I'm coming from the ttc side of the community. And mommy blogs just aren't that exciting - even to other mommies! We are very interested in our own children but other people's kids? Not so much. And I know my kids are "other people's kids" to everyone else out there.

So forgive me until I get my bearings. I'm going to "advertise" certain posts here so I can still do the very normal thing of 'new baby bragging'. I know it's oh so wrong, especially in this community, but I just can't help it. And I'm going to screw up and post things here I should be posting over there.

Health update:

I saw my PCP yesterday and he totally thinks it's my gallbladder. (Is that two words or one? I see them both being used.) He has ordered the HIDA scan and we're waiting for approval. He did tell me he is proactive in removing the thing, but it will be up to me. So that's where we are now.

After talking about the gallbladder, I brought up a very annoying back pain I get eventually after having each of my babies. It's a ~burning~ pain, different from my spine injury pain and different from any muscle pull pains I've ever had. It's from one concentrated area, right at the bottom of my right shoulder blade. My doc said one (or two) words. "Gallbladder". Apparently this is a very common symptom.

I'm not too sure though. I have gotten it consistently with every baby and I've never had pain from my actual gallbladder until last week. And the pain in my shoulder is all day, everyday. It's not muscle or spine related, I will admit that, but it's a pain I have for months and months and months and it finally goes away. He hypothesized that I've had this gallbladder problem for years and it "acts up" after pregnancy, only showing itself by my shoulder blade pain. And it going away has nothing to do with the baby not needing to be held constantly and however different my posture/movements are with a newborn, but it has all to do with my gallbladder function getting back to normal. I just think he's a doc who has a diagnosis in his head and he's just making everything fit that one thing. I guess there is nothing else to do but wait and see.

Something very interesting:

Over on the sidebar today, Blogher has an article on how to find the best IF clinic. In the article, there is a link to a report this report: Top 25 IVF Clinics In United States By Live Birth Rate For Women Under 35. The first RE we saw to conceive Ella is listed as #12. In the nation! Wow. And personally, I didn't like our experience there at all. (Among other things that happened, he ordered cd3 blood work, you know, the first thing we all start with. And they couldn't get a vein. So he said "that's usually not the problem, so we'll just skip it." Seriously?) But I guess his IVF rates are freaking fantastic. And CCRM is #14 on the list, which is much lower than I would have suspected - I thought they were the famous top clinic.

Ah. I see now. Where the #12 clinic had 73 total cycles in 2006, #14 CCRM had 1,236 cycles. So #12's 66.7% success rate was actually only 46 live births. CCRM had 805 live births. Yeah, statistics can definitely warp the overall view of something if you don't dig in.