Fertilization, Meiosis, and Funnies

If fertilization was going to occur for this cycle, it would be completed by now. Sperm meet egg, voila…fertilization.

If the fertilization occurred, meiosis would now be complete as well. Have you heard of meiosis? I hadn’t for the longest time and it is so gosh darn important to the process of making a baby. The book called “Coming to Term, Uncovering the Truth about Miscarriage” by Jon Cohen has a whole chapter on it called Scrambled Eggs. The egg has two full sets of chromosomes (didn’t know that either until well into this TTC and only found out when I learned about meiosis). The way I understand it is that one set of 23 chromosomes splits off and the other set pairs up with the set from the sperm. I’ll quote from the book “for meiosis to proceed without error, the male and female chromosomes have to touch each other in many places – and it matters where they touch, too……..in older eggs, chromosomes had fewer points at which they touch their partners, and their unions more often occur near the tip…..chromosome pairs with either a reduced number of crossovers or ones that occurred near their tips became more susceptible to sticking together. But whether they actually do stick together –ultimately leading to an egg that contributes either too few or too many chromosomes – depends on age”. When meiosis doesn’t occur properly you get trisomies (three copies of one chromosome, when it is chromosome no. 21 it is downs syndrome, but it can happen with others making it incompatible with life), triploidy (three copies of every chromosome), monosomies (a condition in which a chromosome is missing its partner), tetraploides, mosaics, and translations (each of which involve too few or too many chromosomes. You can see why meiosis is so gosh darn important. It is almost guaranteed that my previous m/c were a result of improper meiosis. When people talk about “old eggs” and such, they are almost always referring to meiosis even if they don’t always realize it. Things like Omega and fish oils are supposed to help meiosis occur properly (less sticking) and things like high nitrates are supposed to hinder it. Anyway, if fertilization occurred, meiosis has also already occurred by now, ultimately setting the fate of whether a miscarriage will occur or there is a chance a real live child will be born. Other than recruitment of follicles/eggs to increase the odds, improper meiosis is surely my key fertility issue. At this point, it would have either worked or not worked properly. And, now we just have to wait and see. One (or two)..smile..fertilized eggs with the proper number of chromosomes resulting in the right number of fingers and toes and organs on a healthy child (or two) is all I want. Not much to ask, right? Yet, the odds are clearly not in my favor.

Now, on to some Max funnies….

Max’s favorite and in my mind funniest words the last few days is “It’s mine”. Used anytime he wants something that wants and/or he can’t have. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it at least 20 times a day the last few days. To which I respond, yes, that is yours, if it is. No, that’s mommies, but I’ll share it with you. Etc.

Max has found a few things lately that really are not appropriate and annoy the hell out of me. The top of the list is hitting. Most often Shadow has been the target, but the cat and I have also taken our hits. Now, they aren’t hard, but it is the principle and while I know he doesn’t understand that it can hurt, he does clearly understand that I don’t want him to do it. Telling him, no hitting, just causes repeat hitting that is harder and faster. Twice now, I have strapped him into his high chair for one minute for a mini-time out which did seem to make an impression, but I don’t want to use the high chair for punishment because I don’t want to cause a bad association with the high chair. And, I will need to have him strapped in because he will not sit there on his own, even for a minute. I think I’m going to pull in this old plastic booster chair from the garage and use it as a “naughty chair”. It anyone has any BTDT advice or other ideas, feel free to share.

Now, I know the above story isn’t a funny, but it laid the ground work. Apparently, when I was telling Max “No Hitting” I was getting a stern look on my face and pointing my finger at him while I said this and waving it back and forth. Of course, I realized this when he got all serious and did it back to me. I did stop myself from laughing, but my mouth must have quivered to not smile, because his did the same mirroring back to me. Oh my. This kid. He really is something else, smart and charming, and going to give me a run for my money. Because it is hard for me to be stern when he’s mirroring and mocking me and can clearly care less what I say, I need to find a better approach. I’m hoping the naughty chair will do it. The strategy has helped when walking around the neighborhood to keep him from going into the street. It took awhile, not because he didn’t understand, but because he had to test, and test, and test again, that if he even puts one foot into the street, he gets strapped into the stroller for the rest of the walk. We ended up taking an impromptu walk around the street this morning without the stroller and he got close and I could see the temptation and so wanted to tell him “no street” but held my tongue because it would have prompted him to do it for sure, and he turned away and ran toward me. So, I reinforced the positive behavior by cheering and clapping and thanking him for making such a wise choice. To which he smiled, pleased, and we had a pleasant rest of walk.

He hasn’t been into the TV at all lately after that big phase back a month or so ago and I have to watch not being the one to initiate turning it on. I do on occasion when I really just need to get something done or need a break, but I do question myself each time to make sure I can’t find an alternative. He still likes to watch his basket ball. And, her really does watch it and cheer when a basket is made as Susan my neighbor exclaimed when I got home. I do let him turn this on/watch it a bit, but not obsessively or for long.

Well, I’m hearing talking/chattering from Max’s room signaling an end to nap/break time.

May fertilization and proper meiosis have happened, that is my current hope and prayer. If so, the long journey down the fallopian tubes to the uterus would have started.