OK, I'm coming out of hiding for 2 great causes. I swear I will finish up moving my blog to a password-protected site next week while I'm away on a business trip. Sad that I have to fly 1200 miles away to motivate to do it -- it is important to me to reestablish my blog but somehow it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. But I should have plenty of time next week.
In the meantime, I wanted to stump for two of my interwebs buddies: Ryan Ann and Sarah of Babies Everywhere....
Ryan Ann will be walking the 2011 Boston 3-Day for the Cure. It is a 60 mile walk with the goal of raising money to fight breast cancer for the Susan G. Komen foundation. Walking 60 miles in 3 days is crazy impressive enough, but it's a cause near and dear to my own heart because of my own boob issues. So please consider donating, even a little bit - every little bit helps!
Sarah is trying to raise money for adopting and will be having an auction this weekend of some really neat stuff, in addition to also allowing ongoing donations. Please consider bidding or a donation. Sarah was probably my first blog-to-blog buddy when I first started blogging and I'm pulling for her as much as anyone out there to get the little bean she so deserves. I've been a horrible commenter lately, Sarah, but I have been reading and cheering you on! I know that you'll make this happen!
Pictures of little F-bug will be forthcoming on the new blog! :)
Friday, February 04, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Almost 5-month update
Yeah, yeah, I know. Big talk about moving to a password protected blog and getting it all set up by the end of the week....about 4 weeks ago. Sigh...I just cannot get my whole to-do list done these days ;). But I did, at least, want to shoot an update - for my own future reference as well as for my peeps.
Just a quick update on me: despite my lack of completing the to-do lists, things are going well! I got a horrible stomach bug last week that we have determined I picked up from Finn's daycare and then carried home to my poor in-laws who also both got it. Somehow, THANK GOD, Finn escaped it. He was fussy in the few days leading up to it, so I think he may have had a very mild case, but other than that was fine. DH also escaped it which was good because I was 100% out of commission from Thursday night thru Friday night. And found out on Monday that EVERYONE, teachers and kids, had the same bug last week. Oy. We had to do emergency daycare at the center on Friday (we don't normally do Fridays) and it was amusing - in my haze of vomit and "other" issues - to watch DH try to coordinate everything I do on a daily basis. Ah, boys.
Also, I'm being sent on a business trip in early February, so that'll be tough to be away from Finnbug. I went away overnight once for my friend's baby shower, but this will be 3 days. They originally wanted me to come for 5 days and I put the kibosh on that. So, we'll see how it goes -- Finn will go to daycare during the day all 3 days and my in-laws are coming to stay while I'm gone to help DH out in the evenings, so they should be fine. It'll be me that has the harder time, I think.
The Finnbug is closing in on 5 months this weekend and is such a cool little cat. He's silly and jolly and giggles easily. He can easily grab things these days, and all of those things go directly in his mouth ;). His very favorite thing in the world is to stand (with assistance, of course) and pity the person who lays him down again when he's in a standing mood! He's developing this high-pitched whine when he gets frustrated, which is fairly often these days as he's on the cusp of rolling over. It's hard to take a step back and just let him whine sometimes, but we try. It's not the prettiest sound in the world, though! ;) He is beginning to sit fairly well...for about 5 seconds and then he tips over, haha. His favorite toys right now are his jumperoo (of course), the Baby Genius Take Along Tunes and mommy's knees (in the form of a slide, I'll get a video of this soon). He is also beginning to take a keen interest in the cats.
On the food front, he's been eating solids for about 3 weeks now. The big hits? Rice cereal, apples and by far: sweet potatoes. The misses? Meh on the bananas and oatmeal and total despising of peas. It was actually hilarious to watch the shivers run through his body upon each moutful of peas until I took pity and have shelved the peas for now. We'll try another green vegetable, probably beans, tonight.
For sleep, it's going well but we have some questions for you gals. On a good night, he goes down to sleep @ 8:30. He usually falls asleep on my lap after I stroke his hair, post-bedtime story and bottle. Yea, yea, I know it's not what the books say, we should put him in his crib drowsy, etc. But we both enjoy that quiet time together so much and he transfers to the crib without a single, solitary issue so poo, we're sticking with that for now. Then, on a good night, he sleeps until about 3am for a bottle. Goes back to sleep at 3:30, pretty easily, and sleeps til 6:30 or so. On a bad night he'll wake earlier than 3am, which equals a two get-up night. But just this week, if he wakes before 2:30am, we don't go to him. Obviously if he sounded in distress, was sick or was really crying, we'd go. But it's usually low-level crying and fussing and we gave ourselves a cap of 15 minutes and so far he's put himself back to sleep each night in less than 10 minutes, so that's working well to at least enforce a one-getup night. DH and I are such wimps about it - we practically clutch each other during those 10 minutes, whimpering "Oh, this is so sad!", haha. Anyway, also, if he wakes before 6am, we also don't go to him right away. If I hear that he sounds wide awake, I'll go in and turn on his mobile, which he LOVES, and he's happy to look at it and sometimes even falls asleep again. Even if he doesn't fall alseep, it easily buys us another half hour, so yay, mobile!
But my sleep question is: when or how do people phase out the middle-of-the-night feeding? If he was just grazing when he has his 3am wakeup, I'd think about phasing it out. But the boy is voracious - he'll easily suck down 6oz in record time. So if he's clearly hungry, I'm not comfortable starving him overnight. Is it just a matter of adding more and more solids to his diet until he can go longer stretches without eating?
Also, how long do you ladies let your babies fuss (again, not counting if they're sick or all-out crying) during the night before giving in?
Just a quick update on me: despite my lack of completing the to-do lists, things are going well! I got a horrible stomach bug last week that we have determined I picked up from Finn's daycare and then carried home to my poor in-laws who also both got it. Somehow, THANK GOD, Finn escaped it. He was fussy in the few days leading up to it, so I think he may have had a very mild case, but other than that was fine. DH also escaped it which was good because I was 100% out of commission from Thursday night thru Friday night. And found out on Monday that EVERYONE, teachers and kids, had the same bug last week. Oy. We had to do emergency daycare at the center on Friday (we don't normally do Fridays) and it was amusing - in my haze of vomit and "other" issues - to watch DH try to coordinate everything I do on a daily basis. Ah, boys.
Also, I'm being sent on a business trip in early February, so that'll be tough to be away from Finnbug. I went away overnight once for my friend's baby shower, but this will be 3 days. They originally wanted me to come for 5 days and I put the kibosh on that. So, we'll see how it goes -- Finn will go to daycare during the day all 3 days and my in-laws are coming to stay while I'm gone to help DH out in the evenings, so they should be fine. It'll be me that has the harder time, I think.
The Finnbug is closing in on 5 months this weekend and is such a cool little cat. He's silly and jolly and giggles easily. He can easily grab things these days, and all of those things go directly in his mouth ;). His very favorite thing in the world is to stand (with assistance, of course) and pity the person who lays him down again when he's in a standing mood! He's developing this high-pitched whine when he gets frustrated, which is fairly often these days as he's on the cusp of rolling over. It's hard to take a step back and just let him whine sometimes, but we try. It's not the prettiest sound in the world, though! ;) He is beginning to sit fairly well...for about 5 seconds and then he tips over, haha. His favorite toys right now are his jumperoo (of course), the Baby Genius Take Along Tunes and mommy's knees (in the form of a slide, I'll get a video of this soon). He is also beginning to take a keen interest in the cats.
On the food front, he's been eating solids for about 3 weeks now. The big hits? Rice cereal, apples and by far: sweet potatoes. The misses? Meh on the bananas and oatmeal and total despising of peas. It was actually hilarious to watch the shivers run through his body upon each moutful of peas until I took pity and have shelved the peas for now. We'll try another green vegetable, probably beans, tonight.
For sleep, it's going well but we have some questions for you gals. On a good night, he goes down to sleep @ 8:30. He usually falls asleep on my lap after I stroke his hair, post-bedtime story and bottle. Yea, yea, I know it's not what the books say, we should put him in his crib drowsy, etc. But we both enjoy that quiet time together so much and he transfers to the crib without a single, solitary issue so poo, we're sticking with that for now. Then, on a good night, he sleeps until about 3am for a bottle. Goes back to sleep at 3:30, pretty easily, and sleeps til 6:30 or so. On a bad night he'll wake earlier than 3am, which equals a two get-up night. But just this week, if he wakes before 2:30am, we don't go to him. Obviously if he sounded in distress, was sick or was really crying, we'd go. But it's usually low-level crying and fussing and we gave ourselves a cap of 15 minutes and so far he's put himself back to sleep each night in less than 10 minutes, so that's working well to at least enforce a one-getup night. DH and I are such wimps about it - we practically clutch each other during those 10 minutes, whimpering "Oh, this is so sad!", haha. Anyway, also, if he wakes before 6am, we also don't go to him right away. If I hear that he sounds wide awake, I'll go in and turn on his mobile, which he LOVES, and he's happy to look at it and sometimes even falls asleep again. Even if he doesn't fall alseep, it easily buys us another half hour, so yay, mobile!
But my sleep question is: when or how do people phase out the middle-of-the-night feeding? If he was just grazing when he has his 3am wakeup, I'd think about phasing it out. But the boy is voracious - he'll easily suck down 6oz in record time. So if he's clearly hungry, I'm not comfortable starving him overnight. Is it just a matter of adding more and more solids to his diet until he can go longer stretches without eating?
Also, how long do you ladies let your babies fuss (again, not counting if they're sick or all-out crying) during the night before giving in?
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays to all! I'm still in the process of moving my blog to Wordpress, but until then I wanted to wish season greetings to all my bloggy buddies. I can't resist a few more updated pix of Finnbug.
And my gift to all of you, if you haven't yet read it is David Sedaris' Christmas story. It is HAHA funny and my mom is Dutch and confirms that it is, bizarrely, true!
 |
| On the right, with his little buddies |
And my gift to all of you, if you haven't yet read it is David Sedaris' Christmas story. It is HAHA funny and my mom is Dutch and confirms that it is, bizarrely, true!
"6 to 8 Black Men" by David Sedaris
12.22.07
This is one of my favorite essays by David Sedaris! Happy holidays!
Six To Eight Black Men
By David Sedaris
A heartwarming tale of Christmas in a foreign land where, if you've been naughty, Saint Nick and his friends give you an ass-whuppin'.
I've never been much for guidebooks, so when trying to get my bearings in a strange American city, I normally start by asking the cabdriver or hotel clerk some silly question regarding the latest census figures. I say silly because I don't really care how many people live in Olympia, Washington, or Columbus, Ohio. They're nice enough places, but the numbers mean nothing to me. My second question might have to do with average annual rainfall, which, again, doesn't tell me anything about the people who have chosen to call this place home.
What really interests me are the local gun laws. Can I carry a concealed weapon, and if so, under what circumstances? What's the waiting period for a tommy gun? Could I buy a Glock 17 if I were recently divorced or fired from my job? I've learned from
experience that it's best to lead into this subject as delicately as possible, especially if you and the local citizen are alone and enclosed in a relatively small space. Bide your time, though, and you can walk away with some excellent stories. I've heard, for
example, that the blind can legally hunt in both Texas and Michigan. They must be accompanied by a sighted companion, but still, it seems a bit risky. You wouldn't want a blind person driving a car or piloting a plane, so why hand him a rifle? What sense does that make? I ask about guns not because I want one of my own but because the answers vary so widely from state to state.
In a country that's become so homogenous, I'm reassured by these last touches of regionalism.
Guns aren't really an issue in Europe, so when I'm traveling abroad, my first question usually relates to barnyard animals.
"What do your roosters say?" is a good icebreaker, as every country has its own unique interpretation. In Germany, where dogs bark "vow vow" and both the frog and the duck say "quack," the rooster greets the dawn with a hearty "kik-a-ricki." Greek roosters crow "kiri-a-kee," and in France they scream "coco-rico," which sounds like one of those horrible premixed cocktails with a pirate on the label. When told that an American rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo," my hosts look at me with disbelief and pity.
"When do you open your Christmas presents?" is another good conversation starter as it explains a lot about national character.
People who traditionally open gifts on Christmas Eve seem a bit more pious and family oriented than those who wait until Christmas morning. They go to mass, open presents, eat a late meal, return to church the following morning, and devote the rest of the day to eating another big meal. Gifts are generally reserved for children, and the parents tend not to go overboard. It's nothing I'd want for myself, but I suppose it's fine for those who prefer food and family to things of real value.
In France and Germany, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, while in Holland the children receive presents on December 5, in celebration of Saint Nicholas Day. It sounded sort of quaint until I spoke to a man named Oscar, who filled me in on a few of the details as we walked from my hotel to the Amsterdam train station.
Unlike the jolly, obese American Santa, Saint Nicholas is painfully thin and dresses not unlike the pope, topping his robes with a tall hat resembling an embroidered tea cozy. The outfit, I was told, is a carryover from his former career, when he served as a bishop in Turkey.
One doesn't want to be too much of a cultural chauvinist, but this seemed completely wrong to me. For starters, Santa didn't use to do anything. He's not retired, and, more important, he has nothing to do with Turkey. The climate's all wrong, and people wouldn't appreciate him. When asked how he got from Turkey to the North Pole, Oscar told me with complete conviction that Saint Nicholas currently resides in Spain, which again is simply not true. While he could probably live wherever he wanted, Santa chose the North Pole specifically because it is harsh and isolated. No one can spy on him, and he doesn't have to worry about people coming to the door. Anyone can come to the door in Spain, and in that outfit, he'd most certainly be recognized. On top of that, aside from a few pleasantries, Santa doesn't speak Spanish. He knows enough to get by, but he's not fluent, and he certainly doesn't eat tapas.
While our Santa flies on a sled, Saint Nicholas arrives by boat and then transfers to a white horse. The event is televised, and great crowds gather at the waterfront to greet him. I'm not sure if there's a set date, but he generally docks in late November and spends a few weeks hanging out and asking people what they want.
"Is it just him alone?" I asked. "Or does he come with backup?"
Oscar's English was close to perfect, but he seemed thrown by a term normally reserved for police reinforcement.
"Helpers," I said. "Does he have any elves?"
Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but I couldn't help but feel personally insulted when Oscar denounced the very idea as grotesque and unrealistic. "Elves," he said. "They're just so silly."
The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as "six to eight black men." I asked several Dutch people to narrow it down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always "six to eight," which seems strange, seeing as they've had hundreds of years to get a decent count.
The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would beat him with what Oscar described as "the small branch of a tree."
"A switch?"
"Yes," he said. "That's it. They'd kick him and beat him with a switch. Then, if the youngster was really bad, they'd put him in a sack and take him back to Spain."
"Saint Nicholas would kick you?"
"Well, not anymore," Oscar said. "Now he just pretends to kick you."
"And the six to eight black men?"
"Them, too."
He considered this to be progressive, but in a way I think it's almost more perverse than the original punishment. "I'm going to hurt you, but not really." How many times have we fallen for that line? The fake slap invariably makes contact, adding the elements of shock and betrayal to what had previously been plain, old-fashioned fear. What kind of Santa spends his time pretending to kick people before stuffing them into a canvas sack? Then, of course, you've got the six to eight former slaves who could potentially go off at any moment. This, I think, is the greatest difference between us and the Dutch. While a certain segment of our population might be perfectly happy with the arrangement, if you told the average white American that six to eight nameless black men would be sneaking into his house in the middle of the night, he would barricade the doors and arm himself with whatever he could get his hands on.
"Six to eight, did you say?"
In the years before central heating, Dutch children would leave their shoes by the fireplace, the promise being that unless they planned to beat you, kick you, or stuff you into a sack, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would fill your clogs with presents. Aside from the threats of violence and kidnapping, it's not much different from hanging your stockings from the mantel. Now that so few people have a working fireplace, Dutch children are instructed to leave their shoes beside the radiator, furnace, or space heater. Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men arrive on horses, which jump from the yard onto the roof. At this point, I guess, they either jump back down and use the door, or they stay put and vaporize through the pipes and electrical wires. Oscar wasn't too clear about the particulars, but, really, who can blame him? We have the same problem with our Santa. He's supposed to use the chimney, but if you don't have one, he still manages to come through. It's best not to think about it too hard.
While eight flying reindeer are a hard pill to swallow, our Christmas story remains relatively simple. Santa lives with his wife in a remote polar village and spends one night a year traveling around the world. If you're bad, he leaves you coal. If you're good and live in America, he'll give you just about anything you want. We tell our children to be good and send them off to bed, where they lie awake, anticipating their great bounty. A Dutch parent has a decidedly hairier story to relate, telling his children, "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things together before you go to bed. The former bishop from Turkey will be coming along with six to eight black men. They might put some candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain, or they might just pretend to kick you. We don't know for sure, but we want you to be prepared."
This is the reward for living in Holland. As a child you get to hear this story, and as an adult you get to turn around and repeat it. As an added bonus, the government has thrown in legalized drugs and prostitution-so what's not to love about being Dutch?
Oscar finished his story just as we arrived at the station. He was a polite and interesting guy-very good company-but when he offered to wait until my train arrived, I begged off, saying I had some calls to make. Sitting alone in the vast terminal, surrounded by other polite, seemingly interesting Dutch people, I couldn't help but feel second-rate. Yes, it was a small country, but it had six to eight black men and a really good bedtime story. Being a fairly competitive person, I felt jealous, then bitter, and was edging toward hostile when I remembered the blind hunter tramping off into the Michigan forest. He might bag a deer, or he might happily shoot his sighted companion in the stomach. He may find his way back to the car, or he may wander around for a week or two before stumbling through your front door. We don't know for sure, but in pinning that license to his chest, he inspires the sort of narrative that ultimately makes me proud to be an American.
This is one of my favorite essays by David Sedaris! Happy holidays!
Six To Eight Black Men
By David Sedaris
A heartwarming tale of Christmas in a foreign land where, if you've been naughty, Saint Nick and his friends give you an ass-whuppin'.
I've never been much for guidebooks, so when trying to get my bearings in a strange American city, I normally start by asking the cabdriver or hotel clerk some silly question regarding the latest census figures. I say silly because I don't really care how many people live in Olympia, Washington, or Columbus, Ohio. They're nice enough places, but the numbers mean nothing to me. My second question might have to do with average annual rainfall, which, again, doesn't tell me anything about the people who have chosen to call this place home.
What really interests me are the local gun laws. Can I carry a concealed weapon, and if so, under what circumstances? What's the waiting period for a tommy gun? Could I buy a Glock 17 if I were recently divorced or fired from my job? I've learned from
experience that it's best to lead into this subject as delicately as possible, especially if you and the local citizen are alone and enclosed in a relatively small space. Bide your time, though, and you can walk away with some excellent stories. I've heard, for
example, that the blind can legally hunt in both Texas and Michigan. They must be accompanied by a sighted companion, but still, it seems a bit risky. You wouldn't want a blind person driving a car or piloting a plane, so why hand him a rifle? What sense does that make? I ask about guns not because I want one of my own but because the answers vary so widely from state to state.
In a country that's become so homogenous, I'm reassured by these last touches of regionalism.
Guns aren't really an issue in Europe, so when I'm traveling abroad, my first question usually relates to barnyard animals.
"What do your roosters say?" is a good icebreaker, as every country has its own unique interpretation. In Germany, where dogs bark "vow vow" and both the frog and the duck say "quack," the rooster greets the dawn with a hearty "kik-a-ricki." Greek roosters crow "kiri-a-kee," and in France they scream "coco-rico," which sounds like one of those horrible premixed cocktails with a pirate on the label. When told that an American rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo," my hosts look at me with disbelief and pity.
"When do you open your Christmas presents?" is another good conversation starter as it explains a lot about national character.
People who traditionally open gifts on Christmas Eve seem a bit more pious and family oriented than those who wait until Christmas morning. They go to mass, open presents, eat a late meal, return to church the following morning, and devote the rest of the day to eating another big meal. Gifts are generally reserved for children, and the parents tend not to go overboard. It's nothing I'd want for myself, but I suppose it's fine for those who prefer food and family to things of real value.
In France and Germany, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, while in Holland the children receive presents on December 5, in celebration of Saint Nicholas Day. It sounded sort of quaint until I spoke to a man named Oscar, who filled me in on a few of the details as we walked from my hotel to the Amsterdam train station.
Unlike the jolly, obese American Santa, Saint Nicholas is painfully thin and dresses not unlike the pope, topping his robes with a tall hat resembling an embroidered tea cozy. The outfit, I was told, is a carryover from his former career, when he served as a bishop in Turkey.
One doesn't want to be too much of a cultural chauvinist, but this seemed completely wrong to me. For starters, Santa didn't use to do anything. He's not retired, and, more important, he has nothing to do with Turkey. The climate's all wrong, and people wouldn't appreciate him. When asked how he got from Turkey to the North Pole, Oscar told me with complete conviction that Saint Nicholas currently resides in Spain, which again is simply not true. While he could probably live wherever he wanted, Santa chose the North Pole specifically because it is harsh and isolated. No one can spy on him, and he doesn't have to worry about people coming to the door. Anyone can come to the door in Spain, and in that outfit, he'd most certainly be recognized. On top of that, aside from a few pleasantries, Santa doesn't speak Spanish. He knows enough to get by, but he's not fluent, and he certainly doesn't eat tapas.
While our Santa flies on a sled, Saint Nicholas arrives by boat and then transfers to a white horse. The event is televised, and great crowds gather at the waterfront to greet him. I'm not sure if there's a set date, but he generally docks in late November and spends a few weeks hanging out and asking people what they want.
"Is it just him alone?" I asked. "Or does he come with backup?"
Oscar's English was close to perfect, but he seemed thrown by a term normally reserved for police reinforcement.
"Helpers," I said. "Does he have any elves?"
Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but I couldn't help but feel personally insulted when Oscar denounced the very idea as grotesque and unrealistic. "Elves," he said. "They're just so silly."
The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as "six to eight black men." I asked several Dutch people to narrow it down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always "six to eight," which seems strange, seeing as they've had hundreds of years to get a decent count.
The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would beat him with what Oscar described as "the small branch of a tree."
"A switch?"
"Yes," he said. "That's it. They'd kick him and beat him with a switch. Then, if the youngster was really bad, they'd put him in a sack and take him back to Spain."
"Saint Nicholas would kick you?"
"Well, not anymore," Oscar said. "Now he just pretends to kick you."
"And the six to eight black men?"
"Them, too."
He considered this to be progressive, but in a way I think it's almost more perverse than the original punishment. "I'm going to hurt you, but not really." How many times have we fallen for that line? The fake slap invariably makes contact, adding the elements of shock and betrayal to what had previously been plain, old-fashioned fear. What kind of Santa spends his time pretending to kick people before stuffing them into a canvas sack? Then, of course, you've got the six to eight former slaves who could potentially go off at any moment. This, I think, is the greatest difference between us and the Dutch. While a certain segment of our population might be perfectly happy with the arrangement, if you told the average white American that six to eight nameless black men would be sneaking into his house in the middle of the night, he would barricade the doors and arm himself with whatever he could get his hands on.
"Six to eight, did you say?"
In the years before central heating, Dutch children would leave their shoes by the fireplace, the promise being that unless they planned to beat you, kick you, or stuff you into a sack, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would fill your clogs with presents. Aside from the threats of violence and kidnapping, it's not much different from hanging your stockings from the mantel. Now that so few people have a working fireplace, Dutch children are instructed to leave their shoes beside the radiator, furnace, or space heater. Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men arrive on horses, which jump from the yard onto the roof. At this point, I guess, they either jump back down and use the door, or they stay put and vaporize through the pipes and electrical wires. Oscar wasn't too clear about the particulars, but, really, who can blame him? We have the same problem with our Santa. He's supposed to use the chimney, but if you don't have one, he still manages to come through. It's best not to think about it too hard.
While eight flying reindeer are a hard pill to swallow, our Christmas story remains relatively simple. Santa lives with his wife in a remote polar village and spends one night a year traveling around the world. If you're bad, he leaves you coal. If you're good and live in America, he'll give you just about anything you want. We tell our children to be good and send them off to bed, where they lie awake, anticipating their great bounty. A Dutch parent has a decidedly hairier story to relate, telling his children, "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things together before you go to bed. The former bishop from Turkey will be coming along with six to eight black men. They might put some candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain, or they might just pretend to kick you. We don't know for sure, but we want you to be prepared."
This is the reward for living in Holland. As a child you get to hear this story, and as an adult you get to turn around and repeat it. As an added bonus, the government has thrown in legalized drugs and prostitution-so what's not to love about being Dutch?
Oscar finished his story just as we arrived at the station. He was a polite and interesting guy-very good company-but when he offered to wait until my train arrived, I begged off, saying I had some calls to make. Sitting alone in the vast terminal, surrounded by other polite, seemingly interesting Dutch people, I couldn't help but feel second-rate. Yes, it was a small country, but it had six to eight black men and a really good bedtime story. Being a fairly competitive person, I felt jealous, then bitter, and was edging toward hostile when I remembered the blind hunter tramping off into the Michigan forest. He might bag a deer, or he might happily shoot his sighted companion in the stomach. He may find his way back to the car, or he may wander around for a week or two before stumbling through your front door. We don't know for sure, but in pinning that license to his chest, he inspires the sort of narrative that ultimately makes me proud to be an American.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
One year ago today
One year ago today, Bug was being brought to me for the very first time. He had spent the first three days of his existence in a chilly petri dish and came back to mom with three of his brothers and sisters. One of those siblings was strong enough to nestle in with him but by late January, we lost that bean and Bug would have mommy all to himself. How I got lucky enough for my body or my RE or a higher power to find that one egg in my decrepit ovaries that would finally stick and bring me this bundle of love and joy, I'll never know.
Things are going really well in the Bug household though very, very busy. Which is the reason that I have gone an insane 6 weeks between posts. Basically, I last posted as I was heading back to work in early November and I have not been able to find the time to post since then. Of course I'd have a little time here and there, but I always meant to post something more meaningful than a quickie 5 minute post and then the day would get away from me.
It's been challenging juggling work and baby, kudos to single parents and those with multiple kids, I don't know how you do it. Part of the challenge in my situation is how we've set up day care for Bug. On Mondays and Thursdays he is at a daycare center full-time. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays my in-laws come over to watch, at least from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon. And on Fridays we originally had him in daycare but have since dropped that day. It's a benefit financially to do 2 days instead of 3, obviously, but it was more that I was really missing just a mommy & Buggie day, so now I just have him home with me. I do work on Fridays, I try to get as much done as I can while he naps or plays and then I catch up over the weekend. So, to recap, all of above means that I power-work on Mondays & Thursdays when he is in daycare, trying to get as much done on those two days as possible. On the days my in-laws are here, they're very helpful in allowing me to pop out for an hour here and there for conference calls or to take care of urgent work. I do, however, still do alot of babycare on those days as I still change his diapers when needed, make all his bottles, come running when I hear him crying. On the diaper front, the one time the in-laws tried it, it resulted in a diaper put on backwards and so loose that it fell off when I picked him up, and wouldn't you know it? It was a poopie diaper, which then got all over me, haha. I'm sure the opportunity will arise again for the grandparents to need to change him but for now, we're all more comfortable with me still doing that part every few hours. I'm trying to be better about not running when I hear him crying -- his grandparents would chop off their arms to make sure he's OK and his crying is always just for one reason: food, food, food. Once you pop a bottle is his mouth, he's all smiles.
Anyway, trying get all my work done with only two true daycare days has been hard, especially during the holiday season since I work for an online retailer. It's been so hectic, including me being on-call all 4 days of the Thanksgiving weekend (and being paged several times), but sure be slowing down now as tomorrow is the last day customers can order to still receive merchandise by Christmas, plus everyone will start going on vacation. All the hecticness aside, I am so aware of how lucky I am to have this kind of flexible schedule, both in working from home but also having a very good relationship with my managers. I get to see my boy 5 days out of 7, only have 2 days where I have to see his little face light up when I go to pick him up from daycare (gratifying but heartbreaking simultaneously), that I'll take being stretched thin any time in exchange for having the opportunity to be with him so much.
As for my managers, when I sent an email asking about a shift in hours I was requesting on some days, I got the following response: "Do whatever you need to do, whatever hours. No need to even ask." So, wow. Yes, I realize how lucky I am. While I will say that that kind of trust and flexibility has been earned over the 7 years I've worked with these people, working all-nighters, weekends and trying to be as good a teammate to everyone around me as possible, it still is awesome to know I can work full-time but make my job balance with my life. I still work some evenings and weekends to make up for any extra work coming my way, but things had been do-able. One of the reasons I wanted some flexbility is that I really didn't want to loose touch with my mommy group once my maternity leave ended. I worked it out so that on Tuesdays, before my in-laws arrive, I take a early/long lunch from 10am-1pm so that we can get together and let the babies roll around and the mommies can chat. On those Tuesdays, I work from 8-10am while Bug naps and then from 1-6:30pm. So I still do my 7.5 hours, but I get to keep cultivating these new friendships for my son and myself. Those Tuesdays are hectic, but it's worth it.
In others news, we went down to visit my family in Texas this past week. We usually go between Thanksgiving and New Years since it's so much cheaper. The visit was great and my sisters and niece and nephew loved the baby, not to mention my mom loved seeing him again. The airport and plane ride went pretty smoothly, he slept almost the whole way there and back, no ears popping. The only blip was a blowout dirty diaper on the way home which necessitated me bringing him back to our seats naked except for his diaper, as the change of clothes was back at the seat. Everyone who saw us chuckled, as I expect most knew the reason for the birthday suit ;).
As for Bug himself, he is 100% fantastic. He'll be 4 months old (!!) on Christmas Eve and in this past week alone has made great strides. His very favorite thing to do right now is stand (with assistance, of course). If we try to put him down when he's in a standing mood? Oh, the wrath of the Bug! Though he's still on the little side of it (his toes barely brush the ground), he's been enjoying his jumperoo lately, until he hits a wall and then needs out, stat. He also loves playing with mommy's hand, just grabbing one finger after the other, while piles and piles of toys from his grandparents and cousins and aunts stream in from the post office, it's still good ol' mommy's hand that takes the cake.
He'll be getting his 4 months shots in a week and a half and probably also a recommendation from the pediatrician to start a sleep schedule. We are NOT looking forward to that! I've tried a few times putting him in his crib when he was sleepy and after about 10 minutes of entertaining himself, he'll start sobbing and we've only lasted about 5 minutes before giving in. He's a pretty good sleeper but ALWAYS falls asleep for naps while eating. We're hoping that when he starts eating cereal (probably after his 4 month visit) that he won't be so hungry all the time. I know the bottle is always partly a comfort thing for sleeping and that'll be a harder habit to break.
As for nighttime sleeping, it's pretty good. We've been putting him to sleep around 8:30pm, he'll usually sleep about 6 hours until 2:30am and then if we're lucky - after feeding and changing him - we can get him to sleep from 3am to 6am. Some nights don't work that perfectly but I'd say 6 out of 7 nights work pretty well. Noodleguy and I have it set it so that I do the first "get up" on weeknights, he does it on weekends. So on the good nights, he gets to sleep through the night on weekdays, me on weekends. It works pretty well to keep us all fairly well-rested, as I "could" nap on weekdays if I had to. I put it in quotes because it's yet to happen, but a girl can dream ;). I will say that it has been nice putting the baby to bed earlier at 8:30. We used to keep him up with us until about 10:30, in a desperate effort to reduce the amount of wake-ups overnight. But since he's pretty reliable for a 6-hour stretch these days, going down earlier works for him and allows Noodleguy and I a couple of hours of "us" time to watch a movie or snuggle or whatever.
Finally, you might notice that all posts in my archive are hidden. I've been pondering a move to Wordpress since they allow password protection or just allowing this blog to be available to approved readers. I've become increasingly uncomfortable with posting names, pictures and information on a blog that anyone can find. Plus I've read one too many articles lately about how once you post something online, it's out there forever. I don't want to post something that Bug will later regret that I did, when he runs for president ;). Plus, there's been a firm request from Noodleguy that I make the blog more private, so there you are. I'm leaning towards Wordpress as I'd like to leave the pre-pregnancy part of this blog out there - without identifiable information - for other women, particularly poor responders, from which to perhaps find comfort and hope. When I decide what to do, hopefully this week, I'll let you all know and will give you info on the password, should you desire.
Anyway, I'm glad to be back and hope I can post more frequently. I have been trying to keep up to date with all of your blogs and while I know I've been a horrible commenter lately, I hope to make up for it in the coming weeks!
Things are going really well in the Bug household though very, very busy. Which is the reason that I have gone an insane 6 weeks between posts. Basically, I last posted as I was heading back to work in early November and I have not been able to find the time to post since then. Of course I'd have a little time here and there, but I always meant to post something more meaningful than a quickie 5 minute post and then the day would get away from me.
It's been challenging juggling work and baby, kudos to single parents and those with multiple kids, I don't know how you do it. Part of the challenge in my situation is how we've set up day care for Bug. On Mondays and Thursdays he is at a daycare center full-time. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays my in-laws come over to watch, at least from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday afternoon. And on Fridays we originally had him in daycare but have since dropped that day. It's a benefit financially to do 2 days instead of 3, obviously, but it was more that I was really missing just a mommy & Buggie day, so now I just have him home with me. I do work on Fridays, I try to get as much done as I can while he naps or plays and then I catch up over the weekend. So, to recap, all of above means that I power-work on Mondays & Thursdays when he is in daycare, trying to get as much done on those two days as possible. On the days my in-laws are here, they're very helpful in allowing me to pop out for an hour here and there for conference calls or to take care of urgent work. I do, however, still do alot of babycare on those days as I still change his diapers when needed, make all his bottles, come running when I hear him crying. On the diaper front, the one time the in-laws tried it, it resulted in a diaper put on backwards and so loose that it fell off when I picked him up, and wouldn't you know it? It was a poopie diaper, which then got all over me, haha. I'm sure the opportunity will arise again for the grandparents to need to change him but for now, we're all more comfortable with me still doing that part every few hours. I'm trying to be better about not running when I hear him crying -- his grandparents would chop off their arms to make sure he's OK and his crying is always just for one reason: food, food, food. Once you pop a bottle is his mouth, he's all smiles.
Anyway, trying get all my work done with only two true daycare days has been hard, especially during the holiday season since I work for an online retailer. It's been so hectic, including me being on-call all 4 days of the Thanksgiving weekend (and being paged several times), but sure be slowing down now as tomorrow is the last day customers can order to still receive merchandise by Christmas, plus everyone will start going on vacation. All the hecticness aside, I am so aware of how lucky I am to have this kind of flexible schedule, both in working from home but also having a very good relationship with my managers. I get to see my boy 5 days out of 7, only have 2 days where I have to see his little face light up when I go to pick him up from daycare (gratifying but heartbreaking simultaneously), that I'll take being stretched thin any time in exchange for having the opportunity to be with him so much.
As for my managers, when I sent an email asking about a shift in hours I was requesting on some days, I got the following response: "Do whatever you need to do, whatever hours. No need to even ask." So, wow. Yes, I realize how lucky I am. While I will say that that kind of trust and flexibility has been earned over the 7 years I've worked with these people, working all-nighters, weekends and trying to be as good a teammate to everyone around me as possible, it still is awesome to know I can work full-time but make my job balance with my life. I still work some evenings and weekends to make up for any extra work coming my way, but things had been do-able. One of the reasons I wanted some flexbility is that I really didn't want to loose touch with my mommy group once my maternity leave ended. I worked it out so that on Tuesdays, before my in-laws arrive, I take a early/long lunch from 10am-1pm so that we can get together and let the babies roll around and the mommies can chat. On those Tuesdays, I work from 8-10am while Bug naps and then from 1-6:30pm. So I still do my 7.5 hours, but I get to keep cultivating these new friendships for my son and myself. Those Tuesdays are hectic, but it's worth it.
In others news, we went down to visit my family in Texas this past week. We usually go between Thanksgiving and New Years since it's so much cheaper. The visit was great and my sisters and niece and nephew loved the baby, not to mention my mom loved seeing him again. The airport and plane ride went pretty smoothly, he slept almost the whole way there and back, no ears popping. The only blip was a blowout dirty diaper on the way home which necessitated me bringing him back to our seats naked except for his diaper, as the change of clothes was back at the seat. Everyone who saw us chuckled, as I expect most knew the reason for the birthday suit ;).
As for Bug himself, he is 100% fantastic. He'll be 4 months old (!!) on Christmas Eve and in this past week alone has made great strides. His very favorite thing to do right now is stand (with assistance, of course). If we try to put him down when he's in a standing mood? Oh, the wrath of the Bug! Though he's still on the little side of it (his toes barely brush the ground), he's been enjoying his jumperoo lately, until he hits a wall and then needs out, stat. He also loves playing with mommy's hand, just grabbing one finger after the other, while piles and piles of toys from his grandparents and cousins and aunts stream in from the post office, it's still good ol' mommy's hand that takes the cake.
He'll be getting his 4 months shots in a week and a half and probably also a recommendation from the pediatrician to start a sleep schedule. We are NOT looking forward to that! I've tried a few times putting him in his crib when he was sleepy and after about 10 minutes of entertaining himself, he'll start sobbing and we've only lasted about 5 minutes before giving in. He's a pretty good sleeper but ALWAYS falls asleep for naps while eating. We're hoping that when he starts eating cereal (probably after his 4 month visit) that he won't be so hungry all the time. I know the bottle is always partly a comfort thing for sleeping and that'll be a harder habit to break.
As for nighttime sleeping, it's pretty good. We've been putting him to sleep around 8:30pm, he'll usually sleep about 6 hours until 2:30am and then if we're lucky - after feeding and changing him - we can get him to sleep from 3am to 6am. Some nights don't work that perfectly but I'd say 6 out of 7 nights work pretty well. Noodleguy and I have it set it so that I do the first "get up" on weeknights, he does it on weekends. So on the good nights, he gets to sleep through the night on weekdays, me on weekends. It works pretty well to keep us all fairly well-rested, as I "could" nap on weekdays if I had to. I put it in quotes because it's yet to happen, but a girl can dream ;). I will say that it has been nice putting the baby to bed earlier at 8:30. We used to keep him up with us until about 10:30, in a desperate effort to reduce the amount of wake-ups overnight. But since he's pretty reliable for a 6-hour stretch these days, going down earlier works for him and allows Noodleguy and I a couple of hours of "us" time to watch a movie or snuggle or whatever.
Finally, you might notice that all posts in my archive are hidden. I've been pondering a move to Wordpress since they allow password protection or just allowing this blog to be available to approved readers. I've become increasingly uncomfortable with posting names, pictures and information on a blog that anyone can find. Plus I've read one too many articles lately about how once you post something online, it's out there forever. I don't want to post something that Bug will later regret that I did, when he runs for president ;). Plus, there's been a firm request from Noodleguy that I make the blog more private, so there you are. I'm leaning towards Wordpress as I'd like to leave the pre-pregnancy part of this blog out there - without identifiable information - for other women, particularly poor responders, from which to perhaps find comfort and hope. When I decide what to do, hopefully this week, I'll let you all know and will give you info on the password, should you desire.
Anyway, I'm glad to be back and hope I can post more frequently. I have been trying to keep up to date with all of your blogs and while I know I've been a horrible commenter lately, I hope to make up for it in the coming weeks!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
35w6d check-in
- Himself: still very active, feels lower than ever on cervix.
- Lots of hip pain while sleeping, despite pillows btw knees, etc.
- Lots of BH contractions, tight tummy. Nerve pain under boob.
- A little dark brown discharge after wiping last Thursday and then again yesterday. Chalked first up to irritation after last Tuesday's cervical exam, not sure about yesterday.
I was supposed to have another OB appt this afternoon, but they called yesterday to see if I could reschedule because my OB had some personal stuff she needed to tackle. I figure a checkup closer the the weekend wouldn't hurt either, because the weekends are when I'm the most active (take that with a VERY big grain of salt -- "active" means walking out to the car at this point ;) and when I'm most alert (read: obsessing) about whether Bug will arrive, so a Thursday checkup is more likely to last me through to the following week.
The main thing I'm watching right now is that dark brown discharge I've experienced a couple of times since last week's appt. I chalked last Thursday up to irritation from Tuesday's cervical exam -- my OB really gave me the full monty plus, as you know if you've been a reader of this blog, I'm a bleeder. And it was very little, dark brown discharge, just one time. But I got a little of the same yesterday -- I suppose it could be some still from last week, but maybe not. I'm not too concerned because Bug is dancing up a storm and all else seems fine, but I will definitely mention it on Thursday and keep an eagle eye out about whether to call before then.
Other than that - not much going on! We finally packed our hospital bag and at least have the car seat by the door :). NoodleGuy is going to try and install it tonight and then we'll plan on bringing it by one of the experts this weekend for tweaking. As for me, I have to make an appearance at one of those tupperware-esque parties on my block tonight. Wish me luck -- I don't love these parties even when standing around with a 20lb bowling ball on my cervix is not part of it. Mostly because I'm a wuss and always wimp out and buy things because I feel bad for the host. At least this one is for children's books, so if (when) I do buy anything, it should be useful. I suppose ;).
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Upchucking and more
- Himself: very active! :)
- Woke up vomiting last night around midnight - lovely!
- No more contractions or anything of the sort.
- Sleeping poorly, exhausted.
- Still heavy pressure on cervix, some discharge.
So far, so good. I really don't want to have this Bug earlier than 37 weeks for his sake and earlier than 38 weeks for my own. For anyone that reads this blog regularly, you've heard my reasoning behind this: there is a huge project as work deploying in late October and I really, really, really don't want to come back from maternity leave to the frantic end of that project. If I can, at least, make it to Monday 8/9, I'll be assured that the 11 weeks I'll be taking (combo of FML, vacation and unpaid) will have me coming back on the day it deploys. But I'd love to be able to pad a couple of more weeks on to that and come back more like mid-November, once things have settled down. So, stay put, little boy!
I forgot to mention on Tuesday's update that I had lost 4lbs since the previous weigh-in at the OB the week before. Bizarre!! I'm certainly more huge, so I think the big difference is fluid retention and dehydration. It explains my tight-belly pain over the weekend and my feet and hands were extremely deflated from previous days, so I really think it was 5-6 lbs of fluid loss which explains the 4lb loss despite Bug and belly growing. So, as it stands now, I'm up 25lbs since pre-pregnancy, but I fully expect that to zig back up by quite a bit at next week's appointment.
Not much else going on - work is busy, on Bug watch. I drive into Boston tonight to meet DH for our hospital tour. I've seen the workings of the OB dept there quite a few times, for reasons good and bad, but we figured we should do this final rite of passage. I am so, so tired from my little barf episode plus just lots of hip pain, flipping, peeing that I'm hoping I can squeeze in nice nap on my lunch hour. It'll be inspirational, I think, to see all the cute, little babies in the nursery at the end of the tour -- motivation to keep chugging along! ;)
Oh! And I think we've narrowed down the name list to two!!! This is real progress! I'm comfortable going in with two names and waiting until we see his little face to decide on the final one. :)
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
OK, I would like some of my street cred back, please
So, after my little drama on Saturday/Sunday, I was feeling a little less than superwoman. I like to think of myself as a trooper, not even close to a whiner. I can usually roll with the punches with the best of them so I was surprised to find myself whimpering over a tight belly when the nurses and on-call OB told me that they weren't even real contractions and that my cervix was high and tight, blah, blah, blah. But this world of late pregnancy is a tough one and I was just accepting I was being a little more beat down by it than I would have predicted.
But haha, strange OB and nurses!!! I had my 35 week OB appointment this morning and my real OB checked me out and said I was 2cm dilated and that the baby was "way, way low down" and she would not be surprised to see me deliver within a week!!!! Holy shnickeys!!! That was NOT what I expected to hear!! She validated me by saying that she definitely thinks what I was experiencing over the weekend were real contractions because that's really the only way Bug's head would cram down that low. Ha! Victory is mine!! I have been walking around with a watermelon on my cervix and enduring it without whimper because I had been told "Oh, it's going to get so much worse."
My sanctimonious victory over the on-call OB and nurses was short-lived however, as the panic set in that this Bug could come basically ANY TIME! Yowza!! Like I stated earlier, my OB's best guess is in the next 1-2 weeks but that she's had women in the same state in the past who made it to 40 weeks. She wants me to take it as easy as possible for the next few weeks, because she'd obviously really like to get him to 37 weeks at least. No more weeding for me. And as soon as possible, we'll finalize the critical last pre-Bug steps like getting the car seat base installed and packing our hospital bag.
Other points of interest (this was a juicy OB appt!) was that the cut on my arm that wouldn't clot could be due to low platelet counts and I was sent off for some bloodwork. If it's borderline low, it could be treated with steroids, but if it's really low, it could require a transfusion and they would deliver asap. Yeah, I told you this one was juicy. I have to imagine that it's not that bad because after giving blood, the injection site didn't continue to bleed, so I'm going to assume everything is good on this front.
Finally, beloved OB sent me off to an ultrasound because the baby was measuring small for his age. I pretty much knew that Bug was playing a trick on her, because this kid is huge and he only decided to flatten himself out for a joke as she was measuring. But I wasn't going to turn down a free u/s! But let me tell you - an ultrasound at this late stage is BORing! The babies are so big, you can't see the cute waving of limbs or swimming or anything. It's a tush here, a foot there, but nothing all on the same screen. If you're lucky, you can get a look at the face, but since Bug was so low - as the radiologist said, "absurdly low" - we couldn't even get that. But it was still fun to see his little heart beating away. Anyhoo, usually they can get a pretty accurate weight estimate by measuring the head, but because Bug was so (absurdly) low, he wasn't able to do that and instead had to measure the femur and a few other things. He told me to get dressed and he was going to crunch the numbers. He said the average weight for a 35-weeker is around 5.2lbs and we wanted Bug to be in the 20% percentile at least to not be concerned (I think the 20th percentile is @ 4lbs). Well, he does his measurements and comes back to tell me that Bug is coming out to be 6.9 lbs! Haha! And weep! If he's 6.9lbs by now, at 40 weeks he could easily be 12lbs!!! But I refuse to believe that the universe would be so cruel to me after all we've been through to get here, so I'm assuming that Bug is just long and lanky with a smaller head than these limbs would suggest.
Oh, and by the way, we still don't have a name!!!!!!
But haha, strange OB and nurses!!! I had my 35 week OB appointment this morning and my real OB checked me out and said I was 2cm dilated and that the baby was "way, way low down" and she would not be surprised to see me deliver within a week!!!! Holy shnickeys!!! That was NOT what I expected to hear!! She validated me by saying that she definitely thinks what I was experiencing over the weekend were real contractions because that's really the only way Bug's head would cram down that low. Ha! Victory is mine!! I have been walking around with a watermelon on my cervix and enduring it without whimper because I had been told "Oh, it's going to get so much worse."
My sanctimonious victory over the on-call OB and nurses was short-lived however, as the panic set in that this Bug could come basically ANY TIME! Yowza!! Like I stated earlier, my OB's best guess is in the next 1-2 weeks but that she's had women in the same state in the past who made it to 40 weeks. She wants me to take it as easy as possible for the next few weeks, because she'd obviously really like to get him to 37 weeks at least. No more weeding for me. And as soon as possible, we'll finalize the critical last pre-Bug steps like getting the car seat base installed and packing our hospital bag.
Other points of interest (this was a juicy OB appt!) was that the cut on my arm that wouldn't clot could be due to low platelet counts and I was sent off for some bloodwork. If it's borderline low, it could be treated with steroids, but if it's really low, it could require a transfusion and they would deliver asap. Yeah, I told you this one was juicy. I have to imagine that it's not that bad because after giving blood, the injection site didn't continue to bleed, so I'm going to assume everything is good on this front.
Finally, beloved OB sent me off to an ultrasound because the baby was measuring small for his age. I pretty much knew that Bug was playing a trick on her, because this kid is huge and he only decided to flatten himself out for a joke as she was measuring. But I wasn't going to turn down a free u/s! But let me tell you - an ultrasound at this late stage is BORing! The babies are so big, you can't see the cute waving of limbs or swimming or anything. It's a tush here, a foot there, but nothing all on the same screen. If you're lucky, you can get a look at the face, but since Bug was so low - as the radiologist said, "absurdly low" - we couldn't even get that. But it was still fun to see his little heart beating away. Anyhoo, usually they can get a pretty accurate weight estimate by measuring the head, but because Bug was so (absurdly) low, he wasn't able to do that and instead had to measure the femur and a few other things. He told me to get dressed and he was going to crunch the numbers. He said the average weight for a 35-weeker is around 5.2lbs and we wanted Bug to be in the 20% percentile at least to not be concerned (I think the 20th percentile is @ 4lbs). Well, he does his measurements and comes back to tell me that Bug is coming out to be 6.9 lbs! Haha! And weep! If he's 6.9lbs by now, at 40 weeks he could easily be 12lbs!!! But I refuse to believe that the universe would be so cruel to me after all we've been through to get here, so I'm assuming that Bug is just long and lanky with a smaller head than these limbs would suggest.
Oh, and by the way, we still don't have a name!!!!!!
Monday, August 02, 2010
More-drama-than-wanted weekend
You kinda think that by the time you get to 35 weeks of pregnancy, that big drama you're waiting on is the bambino's arrival, right? Well, us longtimer IFers should know better by now...
NoodleGuy's cousin, who had been staying with us for 2 weeks while attending a vet internship in Boston left on saturday morning. We took her out to brunch and then we puttered around for a while. I went shopping in the afternoon (word to wise: never go fall shoe shopping while 8 months pg) and came back and we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Around 6pm, we were making pasta for dinner, and I started having some BH contractions. Nothing major, but the strongest I've felt before and painful. They went on from about 6-8pm, not wonderful when they clenched, but no biggie. Then around 8pm, I had another clench that just never went away. I was so uncomofortable all night and barely slept, i couldn't get in any position that wasn't painful and my abdomen was SO hard. However, Bug seemed fine, he was dancing up a storm -- possible because the clenching was tightening up his condo.
I still felt like total crap in the morning and while I knew I wasn't in labor, we thought I should get checked out anyway. So we called in, went in yesterday a.m.. Indeed, no labor signs, cervix was high and tight. Bug looked great on the monitor and though I had 1 or 2 minor contractions while there, nothing real. It was frustrating because I was basically writhing in pain, so uncomfortable and the really nice OB on call said there wasn't a ton they could do. They suggested constipation, dehydration, maybe eating something that disagreed with me and to take Tylenol, go home hydrate like crazy and rest up. So we did so and I was pretty miserable still thru about 4pm. Around that time, NG gave me an awesome massage and I was hydrating like crazy, drinking a 32 oz cup of water every hour and by 9pm or so starting feeling better. I didn't sleep great last night, but much better and feel pretty good this morning. I slept in until about 8:30 and feel pretty OK as of now.
I'm still hydrating and can only assume it was dehydration even though I do drink alot. But we have been running around for weeks, helping DH's parents move and my baby shower, etc. Plus, we had eaten alot of spicy/salty foods in the past weeks, so I'm sure that contributed. I was in tears at the thought of going 5 more weeks feeling like that, but hopefully, if I make a concerted effort to drink like crazy going forward, we'll be OK until D-Day.
But, folks, that wasn't all -- during my massage, NG found a little zit on my arm and scratched it off. No biggie, didn't bleed or anything. But somehow during the night, I must have scratched it open again. I woke up to pee for the 12th time at 3:30am and felt something tickling my arm. I looked down and there was blood running down my arm from the little , teeny cut/zit. I went back in the bedroom to show NG and turned on the light and there was blood everywhere, like a small animal had been murdered in my bed. Truly bizarre. It's like the little scratch isn't clotting at all -- even this morning when I took off the bandaid, it started bleeding again. Dr. Google tells me that the heavy bleeding from a small cut isn't abnormal, with all the excess blood volume in pregnant lady's bodies, tiny cuts bleed a ton. But what is perplexing me is the lack of clotting - I thought pregnant ladies clot too much. Anyway, I have an OB appt tomorrow morning and boy, she'll get her money's worth! Usually I'm the mellow, easy patient who has had no issues (except that darned yeast infection). This time I'll have tons to talk about! :)
**EDITED TO ADD ** I forgot to mention that I did a fair amount of weeding on Saturday afternoon, a few hours before the abdominal pain started. NG and I can only guess that it contributed to the dehydration and/or maybe I strained my ab muscles a little bit. But, dang, the side door walkway looks SO much better ;).
NoodleGuy's cousin, who had been staying with us for 2 weeks while attending a vet internship in Boston left on saturday morning. We took her out to brunch and then we puttered around for a while. I went shopping in the afternoon (word to wise: never go fall shoe shopping while 8 months pg) and came back and we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Around 6pm, we were making pasta for dinner, and I started having some BH contractions. Nothing major, but the strongest I've felt before and painful. They went on from about 6-8pm, not wonderful when they clenched, but no biggie. Then around 8pm, I had another clench that just never went away. I was so uncomofortable all night and barely slept, i couldn't get in any position that wasn't painful and my abdomen was SO hard. However, Bug seemed fine, he was dancing up a storm -- possible because the clenching was tightening up his condo.
I still felt like total crap in the morning and while I knew I wasn't in labor, we thought I should get checked out anyway. So we called in, went in yesterday a.m.. Indeed, no labor signs, cervix was high and tight. Bug looked great on the monitor and though I had 1 or 2 minor contractions while there, nothing real. It was frustrating because I was basically writhing in pain, so uncomfortable and the really nice OB on call said there wasn't a ton they could do. They suggested constipation, dehydration, maybe eating something that disagreed with me and to take Tylenol, go home hydrate like crazy and rest up. So we did so and I was pretty miserable still thru about 4pm. Around that time, NG gave me an awesome massage and I was hydrating like crazy, drinking a 32 oz cup of water every hour and by 9pm or so starting feeling better. I didn't sleep great last night, but much better and feel pretty good this morning. I slept in until about 8:30 and feel pretty OK as of now.
I'm still hydrating and can only assume it was dehydration even though I do drink alot. But we have been running around for weeks, helping DH's parents move and my baby shower, etc. Plus, we had eaten alot of spicy/salty foods in the past weeks, so I'm sure that contributed. I was in tears at the thought of going 5 more weeks feeling like that, but hopefully, if I make a concerted effort to drink like crazy going forward, we'll be OK until D-Day.
But, folks, that wasn't all -- during my massage, NG found a little zit on my arm and scratched it off. No biggie, didn't bleed or anything. But somehow during the night, I must have scratched it open again. I woke up to pee for the 12th time at 3:30am and felt something tickling my arm. I looked down and there was blood running down my arm from the little , teeny cut/zit. I went back in the bedroom to show NG and turned on the light and there was blood everywhere, like a small animal had been murdered in my bed. Truly bizarre. It's like the little scratch isn't clotting at all -- even this morning when I took off the bandaid, it started bleeding again. Dr. Google tells me that the heavy bleeding from a small cut isn't abnormal, with all the excess blood volume in pregnant lady's bodies, tiny cuts bleed a ton. But what is perplexing me is the lack of clotting - I thought pregnant ladies clot too much. Anyway, I have an OB appt tomorrow morning and boy, she'll get her money's worth! Usually I'm the mellow, easy patient who has had no issues (except that darned yeast infection). This time I'll have tons to talk about! :)
**EDITED TO ADD ** I forgot to mention that I did a fair amount of weeding on Saturday afternoon, a few hours before the abdominal pain started. NG and I can only guess that it contributed to the dehydration and/or maybe I strained my ab muscles a little bit. But, dang, the side door walkway looks SO much better ;).
Thursday, July 29, 2010
How low I've sunk
I just yelled at my cat. My crazy, food-obsessed cat. Who has no idea why I'm yelling or what I'm saying just that there are really loud sounds coming out of my mouth.
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, for multiple reasons. One, work has been hectic due to other people's lack of ability to follow a schedule and my being the last in line, as a web developer, for getting things up on our company's website. For some reason other people feel like it's OK to miss their due dates by a mile and deliver me something that I should have one to two weeks to code the day before it's supposed to go live. And it's not an option for me to be late because then, apparently, the world would end. I've been trying to whip this process into shape and my manager is jumping on board because I think they're finally realizing that I'll be out for 10-11 weeks soon and if it's this bad now, it's only going to be worse while I'm out and the holiday season ramps up.
Two, my best friend at work looks to very likely be leaving for a new job. I wish him nothing but the best, he's a great guy and deserves this opportunity. That being said, I'm having a total pity party for myself because he's the only one I can really talk honestly with about work and co-workers and I'm going to be lost without that venting resource. Plus, we make each other laugh, which will be sad to lose.
Three, my plans for Friday night which I was excited about got scrapped late last night in favor of something else. It's not a big deal, democracy rules and others chose an alternate plan. But I was looking forward to Friday night and now not so much, which stinks.
The weird thing is, I'm sitting here typing this and feel like I might start crying when truly nothing is all that bad!! Methinks pregnancy hormones may finally be kicking in?
Oh, and I yelled at my cat because he has this really annoying habit of meowing (and he has an obnoxious, caterwauling meow, not a cute "mew") when he's worried about his automatic feeder dish opening. We need to feed him via this dish because if he sees us as his food distributor he caterwauls at us every single time we enter the kitchen. So we put his feeder in the basement and try to make him disassociate us from food. However, he is pretty clever and knows when his automatic feeder is empty and/or when it's just been refilled. And either scenario makes him panic with the idea that IT.MAY.NEVER.OPEN.AGAIN. It was empty last night, so DH refilled it and it was all set to open at 11:15am, like it always does. Well, I happened to be on the phone with Customer Service at Baby Trend because the Snap n' Go stroller that we bought as a lightweight companion to our jogging stroller is missing it's "rear basket bar" to allow the bottom basket to stand up straight and be usable. Not a world crisis, mind you, but I want to be able to use that basket. The customer service rep I was speaking with spoke a mile a minute (and that's impressive for me to say since I'm a fast-talking native New Yorker) and quietly, so I was having a hard enough time hearing her at all. But then the cat comes up in my face, at 11:10 - five minute before his dish is supposed to open - with his weekly panic attack, yowling so loud I couldn't hear the rep. I shushed him a few times, tried to scoot him back down the basement stairs with my foot, even threw a flip flop in his general direction. Nothing stopped his panic. Finally I had to put the woman on mute and yell "SHUT UP AND GO DOWN TO YOUR DISH!!" to which he just looked at me in disgust and sauntered downstairs. Now he's lying happily next to my feet on the ottoman, feeling full and licking his paws.
Not my proudest moment but he seems none the worse for wear. Anyway, yes, I'm having a bad day. But I still realize that I'm the luckiest gal on earth because I am exactly 6 weeks from my due date for a baby that I have no business having successfully created (with the help of DH an science) given what I look like, fertility-wise, on paper. So while the day may be grey (literally), there is a very bright light in the horizon.
:)
I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, for multiple reasons. One, work has been hectic due to other people's lack of ability to follow a schedule and my being the last in line, as a web developer, for getting things up on our company's website. For some reason other people feel like it's OK to miss their due dates by a mile and deliver me something that I should have one to two weeks to code the day before it's supposed to go live. And it's not an option for me to be late because then, apparently, the world would end. I've been trying to whip this process into shape and my manager is jumping on board because I think they're finally realizing that I'll be out for 10-11 weeks soon and if it's this bad now, it's only going to be worse while I'm out and the holiday season ramps up.
Two, my best friend at work looks to very likely be leaving for a new job. I wish him nothing but the best, he's a great guy and deserves this opportunity. That being said, I'm having a total pity party for myself because he's the only one I can really talk honestly with about work and co-workers and I'm going to be lost without that venting resource. Plus, we make each other laugh, which will be sad to lose.
Three, my plans for Friday night which I was excited about got scrapped late last night in favor of something else. It's not a big deal, democracy rules and others chose an alternate plan. But I was looking forward to Friday night and now not so much, which stinks.
The weird thing is, I'm sitting here typing this and feel like I might start crying when truly nothing is all that bad!! Methinks pregnancy hormones may finally be kicking in?
Oh, and I yelled at my cat because he has this really annoying habit of meowing (and he has an obnoxious, caterwauling meow, not a cute "mew") when he's worried about his automatic feeder dish opening. We need to feed him via this dish because if he sees us as his food distributor he caterwauls at us every single time we enter the kitchen. So we put his feeder in the basement and try to make him disassociate us from food. However, he is pretty clever and knows when his automatic feeder is empty and/or when it's just been refilled. And either scenario makes him panic with the idea that IT.MAY.NEVER.OPEN.AGAIN. It was empty last night, so DH refilled it and it was all set to open at 11:15am, like it always does. Well, I happened to be on the phone with Customer Service at Baby Trend because the Snap n' Go stroller that we bought as a lightweight companion to our jogging stroller is missing it's "rear basket bar" to allow the bottom basket to stand up straight and be usable. Not a world crisis, mind you, but I want to be able to use that basket. The customer service rep I was speaking with spoke a mile a minute (and that's impressive for me to say since I'm a fast-talking native New Yorker) and quietly, so I was having a hard enough time hearing her at all. But then the cat comes up in my face, at 11:10 - five minute before his dish is supposed to open - with his weekly panic attack, yowling so loud I couldn't hear the rep. I shushed him a few times, tried to scoot him back down the basement stairs with my foot, even threw a flip flop in his general direction. Nothing stopped his panic. Finally I had to put the woman on mute and yell "SHUT UP AND GO DOWN TO YOUR DISH!!" to which he just looked at me in disgust and sauntered downstairs. Now he's lying happily next to my feet on the ottoman, feeling full and licking his paws.
Not my proudest moment but he seems none the worse for wear. Anyway, yes, I'm having a bad day. But I still realize that I'm the luckiest gal on earth because I am exactly 6 weeks from my due date for a baby that I have no business having successfully created (with the help of DH an science) given what I look like, fertility-wise, on paper. So while the day may be grey (literally), there is a very bright light in the horizon.
:)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Clinical trial
Hello my friends! Since there's not much to report on the homefront, I wanted to alert those of you still in the trenches about an IVF clinical trial going on. Some clinics have already filled their allotment but some are just starting. My own clinic, Boston IVF is not yet advertising the study on their website, but is participating and seems to be accepting patients currently. I've heard that Shady Grove in VA is also participating. I think it's just a matter of calling around to clinics in your area and seeing who is participating, I've heard that it's @ 50 clinics nationwide.
Some supposed key info: (I can't vouch for all of this, it's culled from message boards)
Here are the details:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01144416?term=infertility&recr=Open&lead=Schering-Plough&rank=1
I hope this is helpful to someone!!
Some supposed key info: (I can't vouch for all of this, it's culled from message boards)
- It is a study sponsored by Schering-Plough, makers of Follistim, testing a single-injection FSH stim drug, versus daily stimming
- Accepting women aged 35-42
- All medications and the IVF cycle itself are covered by the study, with the exceptions of estrace, doxycycline, and anesthesia medication for egg retrieval
- There is a substudy included that would do an FET cycle if you should do one within two years of beginning this study, but you can only do the FET with embryos frozen as a result of this IVF cycle study.
- Disqualifications if: more than three failed IVF cycles in a row, BMI that is above average, taking prescription medications, smoking, and drinking.
Here are the details:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01144416?term=infertility&recr=Open&lead=Schering-Plough&rank=1
I hope this is helpful to someone!!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
33w2d update
Sorry kids, I'm 2 days late with this update but no only was work INSANE on Wednesday but I had an OB appointment yesterday, so wanted to include anything that came up there in my update.
How far along?: 33w2d - holy moly!
Weight?: Ugh, not happy about this one. As of yesterday, I'm officially up 29lbs since the start. My OB keeps saying my gain is perfect, but I'm horrified that it looks like I can very easily break the 35lb mark, when I was hoping for the 25lbs mark. I think I'm retaining ALOT of fluids and I'm a tall girl, so there's alot of space for it ;). Plus, as much as I'm hoping that he's a perfect 7.5lbs at 40 weeks at birth, I beginning to suspect that Bug will be a big sucker. As I've mentioned before, his dad was almost 11lbs at birth (despite a tiny mom) and he just feels so freaking heavy these days. Also, I'm beginning to outpace the very scientific tape measurements - the ones where the OB measures from pubic bone to the top of the uterus. It should pretty much coincide in cm to the number of weeks you are. I had been pretty consistent through 30 weeks, measuring 29cm at 29 weeks, etc. But yesterday I measured 34cm at 33 weeks and had grown 3cm in 2 weeks. I have a feeling this is a trend that will continue. Sigh... all that matters of course is that Bug is healthy, but I am afraid my butt is going to be kicked over the next 6 weeks + during labor, eep!
Maternity clothes?: Meh, buying maternity clothes was fun in the beginning, but I'm over it. Now I just want comfy and not to be spending money. I'm making due with whatever I can squeeze my bigger-by-the-day body into. Seriously, it's like comic proportions at this point. NoodleGuy and I were talking about this last night and on any given day I fluctuate from looking skinny with an ever-expanding watermelon attached to my waist or else the weight distributes totally differently and I look more like a weeble:
I guess it depends on Bug's position plus how hydrated I am on any given day.I've noticed that when I'm not-so-hydrated, like when I wake up, Bug's condo is totally tight and high. But as I eat and hydrate, I often expand sideways ;). But mostly I just expand further and further outward, it's insane! Every time I think I'm as far out as I could be, I expand further! And I still have @ 6.5 weeks to go - crazy!
Stretch marks?: Unbelievably, given my expanding, nary a one yet. I keep trying to convince myself that if I was going to get them, I'd have seen it by now. But I'm afraid that my so-far resilient skin will finally break down and wave the white flag if I keep getting bigger.
Sleep?: I've always been a good sleeper, but I'm having the usual pregnancy complaints: waking up with a dead hip, despite pillows propped between the knees and everywhere else. Plus, the oh-so-lovely heartburn, aka vomit-in-the-throat, which often wakes me in the first hour after going to bed. I was good there for a while about not eating for at least 2 hours before going to bed, but we've had DH's cousin visiting for 2 weeks plus are doing some kitchen remodeling, so dinners have been late and I haven't been able to give myself that buffer much anymore. But I will try and instill it more going forward - the waking up, choking on "acid" (aka barf) has lost its thrill ;).
Best moment this week?: Granite countertops, baby! Oh, really? I'm supposed to pick a baby moment here? Oh ok ;). Let's see -- Bug continues to be a gymnast, I'll cover that below. Plus, lots of our baby stuff is flooding in through the mail, so there's always a fun treat at the front door. Also, DH and I have narrowed down the list of names to about 3-4. One really nice thing? We've decided on Bug's middle name for sure: it's my mom's mother's maiden name (aka my maternal grandmother's maiden name). I really like the tradition of giving kids surnames from the mom's side as their middle name, since the dad, by default, gets the last name in most cases. However, my maiden name doesn't sound good with anything and my mom's maiden name isn't great either. When I asked mom for lists of some of her Dutch relatives, DH and I really liked her mom's maiden name. And it'll be really nice because I never got to meet this grandparent, she passed away when my mom was 12 in an awful episode where she just died suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, at the dinner table - in front of her 4 kids - from a massive stroke. I can't even imagine the trauma of seeing that, especially for my mom who was the only girl in a family of 3 brothers and a loving, though old-fashioned, dad. So my mom went from being a regular kid with a regular life in 1960 Holland to being the defacto "little mom" while grieving her own mother. She was expected, as the girl, to pick up all the laundry, cooking, cleaning and taking care of her 5-year-old brother. It's no wonder she left home (secretly) to come to the U.S. as a nanny when she graduated high school at 18. Anyway, it's always been a sadness to her to think of her mom and she's always wished that my sisters and I could have met her, she sounded like a great lady. So, not only do we like her maiden name, but I think it'll mean alot
Movement?: Tons and it's getting totally different. It used to be a gentle poke or scrape but now it's so obvious that space is getting tight that it's less like a baby in a whirlpool and more like having Danny Devito trapped under my skin. While I love know Bug is doing well and dancing a jig in there, I have to admit that it's not always the most pleasant feeling. Sometimes it seems non-stop for hours, and I have to shift him when he sticks a foot in my kidney or just jams his little butt really hard against my belly button. Crazy kid!
Food cravings?: I've been really thirsty lately so drinking all sorts of decaf iced tea and watered down juices. Still loving the sweets and cheeses too. I can't tell you how much blue and feta cheese I'm going to eat once this Bug is born ;).
What I miss?: Cheeses, as above. Boogie boarding at the beach. When I've gone to the beach lately, it's just not as fun sitting there as opposed to splashing in the waves! Being able to turn over in bed without a big production. Being able to stand up out of a chair without 10-15 seconds of full-on achiness and hunching over.
What I'm looking forward to?: nesting in August. No visitors, no trips planned, no classes. Just chilling out.
Emotions: Still pretty even. I'm starting to get a little nervous about labor, but our childbirth teacher really drilled into our heads that trying to be as relaxed as possible during labor makes things so much easier on the mom (think tensed muscles), so I'm trying to be zen.
Other: Having minor contractions in the form of localized fluttering. I spoke with my OB about it yesterday and she said while it doesn't sounds like Braxton Hicks (more of an overall tightening), that you could have localized contractions as your body prepares for labor. Nothing big, not painful, just kind of light spasms. I also have been having really sharp pains by my right hip, which is probably round ligament pain, so no concerns.
As I mentioned above we just put granite countertops in the kitchen and they're so lovely -- we also got a new sink and faucet to go along with it as well as new knobs for all the cabinets. We've been meaning to update the kitchen but it wasn't a super high priority but we saw such a good deal on the granite that we had to jump. Over the next few months we'll have the wallpaper taken down and the room repainted, a tile backsplash put up, and pick up a new stove (the other appliances are new). Not too overwhelming since our cabinets are fine and that's the really big expense when updating a kitchen. So fun! Here's an early pic, just the change in countertops, I'll be able to post more updates when/if we hopefully finish the rest of the kitchen renovations by the end of the year:
Can you tell why we don't like the wallpaper? ;) Calling Holly Hobbie! Also, this pic doesn't yet have our fancy new faucet and new chrome knobs on the cabinets. Plus, you can see the ancient stove/microwave, those will go as soon as I catch a good sale at HomeDepot/Lowes/Sears/whatever.
How far along?: 33w2d - holy moly!
Weight?: Ugh, not happy about this one. As of yesterday, I'm officially up 29lbs since the start. My OB keeps saying my gain is perfect, but I'm horrified that it looks like I can very easily break the 35lb mark, when I was hoping for the 25lbs mark. I think I'm retaining ALOT of fluids and I'm a tall girl, so there's alot of space for it ;). Plus, as much as I'm hoping that he's a perfect 7.5lbs at 40 weeks at birth, I beginning to suspect that Bug will be a big sucker. As I've mentioned before, his dad was almost 11lbs at birth (despite a tiny mom) and he just feels so freaking heavy these days. Also, I'm beginning to outpace the very scientific tape measurements - the ones where the OB measures from pubic bone to the top of the uterus. It should pretty much coincide in cm to the number of weeks you are. I had been pretty consistent through 30 weeks, measuring 29cm at 29 weeks, etc. But yesterday I measured 34cm at 33 weeks and had grown 3cm in 2 weeks. I have a feeling this is a trend that will continue. Sigh... all that matters of course is that Bug is healthy, but I am afraid my butt is going to be kicked over the next 6 weeks + during labor, eep!
Maternity clothes?: Meh, buying maternity clothes was fun in the beginning, but I'm over it. Now I just want comfy and not to be spending money. I'm making due with whatever I can squeeze my bigger-by-the-day body into. Seriously, it's like comic proportions at this point. NoodleGuy and I were talking about this last night and on any given day I fluctuate from looking skinny with an ever-expanding watermelon attached to my waist or else the weight distributes totally differently and I look more like a weeble:
I guess it depends on Bug's position plus how hydrated I am on any given day.I've noticed that when I'm not-so-hydrated, like when I wake up, Bug's condo is totally tight and high. But as I eat and hydrate, I often expand sideways ;). But mostly I just expand further and further outward, it's insane! Every time I think I'm as far out as I could be, I expand further! And I still have @ 6.5 weeks to go - crazy!
Stretch marks?: Unbelievably, given my expanding, nary a one yet. I keep trying to convince myself that if I was going to get them, I'd have seen it by now. But I'm afraid that my so-far resilient skin will finally break down and wave the white flag if I keep getting bigger.
Sleep?: I've always been a good sleeper, but I'm having the usual pregnancy complaints: waking up with a dead hip, despite pillows propped between the knees and everywhere else. Plus, the oh-so-lovely heartburn, aka vomit-in-the-throat, which often wakes me in the first hour after going to bed. I was good there for a while about not eating for at least 2 hours before going to bed, but we've had DH's cousin visiting for 2 weeks plus are doing some kitchen remodeling, so dinners have been late and I haven't been able to give myself that buffer much anymore. But I will try and instill it more going forward - the waking up, choking on "acid" (aka barf) has lost its thrill ;).
Best moment this week?: Granite countertops, baby! Oh, really? I'm supposed to pick a baby moment here? Oh ok ;). Let's see -- Bug continues to be a gymnast, I'll cover that below. Plus, lots of our baby stuff is flooding in through the mail, so there's always a fun treat at the front door. Also, DH and I have narrowed down the list of names to about 3-4. One really nice thing? We've decided on Bug's middle name for sure: it's my mom's mother's maiden name (aka my maternal grandmother's maiden name). I really like the tradition of giving kids surnames from the mom's side as their middle name, since the dad, by default, gets the last name in most cases. However, my maiden name doesn't sound good with anything and my mom's maiden name isn't great either. When I asked mom for lists of some of her Dutch relatives, DH and I really liked her mom's maiden name. And it'll be really nice because I never got to meet this grandparent, she passed away when my mom was 12 in an awful episode where she just died suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, at the dinner table - in front of her 4 kids - from a massive stroke. I can't even imagine the trauma of seeing that, especially for my mom who was the only girl in a family of 3 brothers and a loving, though old-fashioned, dad. So my mom went from being a regular kid with a regular life in 1960 Holland to being the defacto "little mom" while grieving her own mother. She was expected, as the girl, to pick up all the laundry, cooking, cleaning and taking care of her 5-year-old brother. It's no wonder she left home (secretly) to come to the U.S. as a nanny when she graduated high school at 18. Anyway, it's always been a sadness to her to think of her mom and she's always wished that my sisters and I could have met her, she sounded like a great lady. So, not only do we like her maiden name, but I think it'll mean alot
Movement?: Tons and it's getting totally different. It used to be a gentle poke or scrape but now it's so obvious that space is getting tight that it's less like a baby in a whirlpool and more like having Danny Devito trapped under my skin. While I love know Bug is doing well and dancing a jig in there, I have to admit that it's not always the most pleasant feeling. Sometimes it seems non-stop for hours, and I have to shift him when he sticks a foot in my kidney or just jams his little butt really hard against my belly button. Crazy kid!
Food cravings?: I've been really thirsty lately so drinking all sorts of decaf iced tea and watered down juices. Still loving the sweets and cheeses too. I can't tell you how much blue and feta cheese I'm going to eat once this Bug is born ;).
What I miss?: Cheeses, as above. Boogie boarding at the beach. When I've gone to the beach lately, it's just not as fun sitting there as opposed to splashing in the waves! Being able to turn over in bed without a big production. Being able to stand up out of a chair without 10-15 seconds of full-on achiness and hunching over.
What I'm looking forward to?: nesting in August. No visitors, no trips planned, no classes. Just chilling out.
Emotions: Still pretty even. I'm starting to get a little nervous about labor, but our childbirth teacher really drilled into our heads that trying to be as relaxed as possible during labor makes things so much easier on the mom (think tensed muscles), so I'm trying to be zen.
Other: Having minor contractions in the form of localized fluttering. I spoke with my OB about it yesterday and she said while it doesn't sounds like Braxton Hicks (more of an overall tightening), that you could have localized contractions as your body prepares for labor. Nothing big, not painful, just kind of light spasms. I also have been having really sharp pains by my right hip, which is probably round ligament pain, so no concerns.
As I mentioned above we just put granite countertops in the kitchen and they're so lovely -- we also got a new sink and faucet to go along with it as well as new knobs for all the cabinets. We've been meaning to update the kitchen but it wasn't a super high priority but we saw such a good deal on the granite that we had to jump. Over the next few months we'll have the wallpaper taken down and the room repainted, a tile backsplash put up, and pick up a new stove (the other appliances are new). Not too overwhelming since our cabinets are fine and that's the really big expense when updating a kitchen. So fun! Here's an early pic, just the change in countertops, I'll be able to post more updates when/if we hopefully finish the rest of the kitchen renovations by the end of the year:
Can you tell why we don't like the wallpaper? ;) Calling Holly Hobbie! Also, this pic doesn't yet have our fancy new faucet and new chrome knobs on the cabinets. Plus, you can see the ancient stove/microwave, those will go as soon as I catch a good sale at HomeDepot/Lowes/Sears/whatever.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Happy Monday!
The best thing about Mondays is that they don't happen twice a week ;). Not alot to report in the Peanut Camp, I'll do my 33-week check in post on Wednesday (33 weeks, eep!) so I'll spare you most of the pregnancy/nursery details for now.
We spent the weekend doing family stuff -- drove down to Cape Cod on Saturday. Well, actually first we drive to Rhode Island to pick up my in-laws second car, so that NoodleGuy could do his parents a favor and bring it out to their new house on the Cape. The traffic was awful, we had poorly estimated that anyone wanting to go to the beach would have left by 10am at the latest, so we figured being on the road to the Cape around noon would be OK. However, we neglected to take into account that alot of NY/NJ folks drive up on Saturdays for their weekly rentals at the beach and noon would be primetime on the road for them -- most weekly rentals go from Saturday to Saturday starting at around 2pm. So for a 7-mile stretch leading to the bridge to the Cape, we sat - in separate cars - in bumper to bumper traffic, surrounded by NY and NJ license plates. Oh well, live and learn. We'll be doing this drive alot in the future, so now we now to avoid both Friday night and, unless we can get on the road before 9am, Saturdays until later afternoon. At least in the summer, I can't imagine traffic like this once beach season ends.
Anyhoo, the in-laws new house is beautiful. Not some palatial mansion on the beach, but a perfect Cape style house for them, and it was so nice that they got to choose everything in the house since they had it built. Total dream retirement house. It's about a mile from the town's private beaches, so walkable and also non-touristy. They're also surrounded by adorable New Englandy towns and we spent Saturday night in Mashpee, which has a fun little town common with bad playing and yummy food. All in all, a much more fun place to visit the in-laws than the middle of rural Connecticut (which was pretty, but nothing to do). I had lots of fun visions of bringing Bug to the beach out there next summer and just enjoying meandering with the stroller this fall. :)
In other news, I believe that my yeast infection is cured, yay! I did a 7-day treatment from last weekend to this past weekend. It wasn't as bad as I had feared - not suppositories but rather a cream you inject in your hoo hoo, much like Crinone for anyone whose used that. You did it at bedtime, so by morning, I barely even noticed it. The discharge is gone for the most part and so it the minor irritation. I had a little bit of discharge this morning, so I'll monitor that and am hoping that my OB will do a follow-up check at my appointment this Thursday.
I'll save the details for Wednesday's post but the registry stuff has been coming in fast and furious lately. Not only from my shower but from the $850 (ouch) follow-up that DH and I did after the shower to round out everything that we considered a necessity. We were getting nervous that we didn't yet have a few critical things like the crib mattress and car seat, I've seen too many early deliveries lately. But luckily the crib mattress came in one day (!!) -- as I've said before, Amazon's free super saver shipping rocks, never spend more for expedited! The car set is in transit and should arrive today or tomorrow and then I'll make the appointment with the fire station to get the car seat bases installed.
I think I also mentioned last week that DH's cousin would be staying with us for 2 weeks while she does a vet school rotation in Boston. She's one of my favorite of his relatives, so it's been fun since she arrived yesterday. Usually I'm a spazz about worrying about what to feed guests, especially long-term ones. But she's so laidback that I'm trying not to spazz out too much -- though I do have a cheat sheet of what we plan to cook each night - sometimes DH and I get lazy and just eat cereal for dinner (I know everyone does this) and I'm trying to at least pretend to guests that we eat a real meal for dinner, including vegetables! ;) Tonight's menu: Trader Joe's lobster raviolo with vodka sauce and a nice green salad.
Finally, I got my shower thank you cards in the mail this morning. I felt bad for not writing and mailing them out last week (my shower was 9 days ago) but I totally abhor writing thank you cards. I'm sure everyone does - it's a monotonous but necessary evil. I try to write something unique and heartfelt in each, which just slows down the whole process. But they're done - yippee! As I was writing them out, it occurred to me that my parents never once made us write, or even call, a thank you to anyone as we were growing up. My mom didn't grow up in this country, maybe that explains her and my dad was always clueless. But I wonder what our relatives ever thought of my sisters and I when they'd send the greatly anticipated $20 birthday bill and we would never acknowledge it. I cringe when I think of it! ;)
We spent the weekend doing family stuff -- drove down to Cape Cod on Saturday. Well, actually first we drive to Rhode Island to pick up my in-laws second car, so that NoodleGuy could do his parents a favor and bring it out to their new house on the Cape. The traffic was awful, we had poorly estimated that anyone wanting to go to the beach would have left by 10am at the latest, so we figured being on the road to the Cape around noon would be OK. However, we neglected to take into account that alot of NY/NJ folks drive up on Saturdays for their weekly rentals at the beach and noon would be primetime on the road for them -- most weekly rentals go from Saturday to Saturday starting at around 2pm. So for a 7-mile stretch leading to the bridge to the Cape, we sat - in separate cars - in bumper to bumper traffic, surrounded by NY and NJ license plates. Oh well, live and learn. We'll be doing this drive alot in the future, so now we now to avoid both Friday night and, unless we can get on the road before 9am, Saturdays until later afternoon. At least in the summer, I can't imagine traffic like this once beach season ends.
Anyhoo, the in-laws new house is beautiful. Not some palatial mansion on the beach, but a perfect Cape style house for them, and it was so nice that they got to choose everything in the house since they had it built. Total dream retirement house. It's about a mile from the town's private beaches, so walkable and also non-touristy. They're also surrounded by adorable New Englandy towns and we spent Saturday night in Mashpee, which has a fun little town common with bad playing and yummy food. All in all, a much more fun place to visit the in-laws than the middle of rural Connecticut (which was pretty, but nothing to do). I had lots of fun visions of bringing Bug to the beach out there next summer and just enjoying meandering with the stroller this fall. :)
In other news, I believe that my yeast infection is cured, yay! I did a 7-day treatment from last weekend to this past weekend. It wasn't as bad as I had feared - not suppositories but rather a cream you inject in your hoo hoo, much like Crinone for anyone whose used that. You did it at bedtime, so by morning, I barely even noticed it. The discharge is gone for the most part and so it the minor irritation. I had a little bit of discharge this morning, so I'll monitor that and am hoping that my OB will do a follow-up check at my appointment this Thursday.
I'll save the details for Wednesday's post but the registry stuff has been coming in fast and furious lately. Not only from my shower but from the $850 (ouch) follow-up that DH and I did after the shower to round out everything that we considered a necessity. We were getting nervous that we didn't yet have a few critical things like the crib mattress and car seat, I've seen too many early deliveries lately. But luckily the crib mattress came in one day (!!) -- as I've said before, Amazon's free super saver shipping rocks, never spend more for expedited! The car set is in transit and should arrive today or tomorrow and then I'll make the appointment with the fire station to get the car seat bases installed.
I think I also mentioned last week that DH's cousin would be staying with us for 2 weeks while she does a vet school rotation in Boston. She's one of my favorite of his relatives, so it's been fun since she arrived yesterday. Usually I'm a spazz about worrying about what to feed guests, especially long-term ones. But she's so laidback that I'm trying not to spazz out too much -- though I do have a cheat sheet of what we plan to cook each night - sometimes DH and I get lazy and just eat cereal for dinner (I know everyone does this) and I'm trying to at least pretend to guests that we eat a real meal for dinner, including vegetables! ;) Tonight's menu: Trader Joe's lobster raviolo with vodka sauce and a nice green salad.
Finally, I got my shower thank you cards in the mail this morning. I felt bad for not writing and mailing them out last week (my shower was 9 days ago) but I totally abhor writing thank you cards. I'm sure everyone does - it's a monotonous but necessary evil. I try to write something unique and heartfelt in each, which just slows down the whole process. But they're done - yippee! As I was writing them out, it occurred to me that my parents never once made us write, or even call, a thank you to anyone as we were growing up. My mom didn't grow up in this country, maybe that explains her and my dad was always clueless. But I wonder what our relatives ever thought of my sisters and I when they'd send the greatly anticipated $20 birthday bill and we would never acknowledge it. I cringe when I think of it! ;)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Baby shower + DH's birthday
Hello ladies!! I'm back in one piece after my baby shower (a 4 hour drive away) and all is good! The shower was lovely: my friends did a really good job with the food and the games and Bug got lots of presents, like a boppy, travel crib, tons of books and lots and lots of clothes. Mommy over here also got quite the present herself, a Tory Burch diaper bag! It's something I never would have bought for myself so it was a very unexpected, exciting treat! Though, truly, the best part of the whole day was seeing all of my closest friends together -- after the shower the majority of us also went out to dinner, so it was a nice, long quality time with the ladies.
I was a little concerned about driving down and back to NYC by myself at 31.5 weeks but it went great. I actually enjoy being in the car, something about my car's seats and lumbar support is super comfortable to me right now, go figure. I had a book on CD with me, and stopped often to walk around, hit the bathroom and stay hydrated so it was a pretty chill ride both ways. I also made sure to stop by Pepe's in New Haven on the drive back, so I could bring DH his favorite pizza in the whole wide world.
In other news, it's NoodleGuy's birthday today!! It's been so hectic around here between putting stuff together for the baby, his parents finally completing their move to Cape Cod this weekend (we're helping), his cousin coming to stay with us for two weeks while she does a vet school rotation in Boston, taking baby classes, that we've barely had time to breathe. But I'm hoping to give him a good birthday today - no packing up stuff, no assembling furniture, just the two of us. I got him some nice shirts, a fella's diaper bag (very masculine! ;) and got one of his Boston Marathon photos framed really nicely. My family (who loves them some NoodleGuy) got him some really nice stuff too, including a Wii game (Super Mario Galaxy 2), which will be a fun distraction for him amidst all the hecticness lately.
In pregnancy news: ugh, these Fred Flintstone feet! I don't have swollen ankles, hands or face, just feet! It's like there is a one inch layer of blubber-water along the tops of both feet, it's really bizarre. For everyone that says it stinks to be in the 3T in the summer, I do have to say that it's awesome to only have to deal with flip flops. I seriously could not cram these puppies into any other sort of shoe. I'm keeping them elevated, drinking lots of fluids and not much seems to help. My blood pressure is 100% fantastic, so I'm not concerned, just uncomfortable. It does get me a bunch of freebie foot massages from NoodleGuy, though -- so that's a perk! Though maybe I'll let him have the night off for his birthday :).
I was a little concerned about driving down and back to NYC by myself at 31.5 weeks but it went great. I actually enjoy being in the car, something about my car's seats and lumbar support is super comfortable to me right now, go figure. I had a book on CD with me, and stopped often to walk around, hit the bathroom and stay hydrated so it was a pretty chill ride both ways. I also made sure to stop by Pepe's in New Haven on the drive back, so I could bring DH his favorite pizza in the whole wide world.
In other news, it's NoodleGuy's birthday today!! It's been so hectic around here between putting stuff together for the baby, his parents finally completing their move to Cape Cod this weekend (we're helping), his cousin coming to stay with us for two weeks while she does a vet school rotation in Boston, taking baby classes, that we've barely had time to breathe. But I'm hoping to give him a good birthday today - no packing up stuff, no assembling furniture, just the two of us. I got him some nice shirts, a fella's diaper bag (very masculine! ;) and got one of his Boston Marathon photos framed really nicely. My family (who loves them some NoodleGuy) got him some really nice stuff too, including a Wii game (Super Mario Galaxy 2), which will be a fun distraction for him amidst all the hecticness lately.
In pregnancy news: ugh, these Fred Flintstone feet! I don't have swollen ankles, hands or face, just feet! It's like there is a one inch layer of blubber-water along the tops of both feet, it's really bizarre. For everyone that says it stinks to be in the 3T in the summer, I do have to say that it's awesome to only have to deal with flip flops. I seriously could not cram these puppies into any other sort of shoe. I'm keeping them elevated, drinking lots of fluids and not much seems to help. My blood pressure is 100% fantastic, so I'm not concerned, just uncomfortable. It does get me a bunch of freebie foot massages from NoodleGuy, though -- so that's a perk! Though maybe I'll let him have the night off for his birthday :).
Friday, July 09, 2010
The good and the bad
This afternoon, I'm heading down to the NY area for my shower tomorrow, yay! I'll drive down today -- since all of my good friends are down there, I didn't want to make everyone drive 4-8 hours when it could just be me driving 4 hours, so off I'll go this morning. I'm so excited because this is the rare confluence where ALL of my closest friends have RSVPed yes! I can't remember the last time I attended a function every single one of my college friends attended! Usually there's someone who has a conflict -- for my bridal shower, only one of them could come, so this is extra special because they all get to see each other too, which rarely happens. Throw in my best buddies from my jobs in NYC and even a couple of high school friends and I don't even care that it's my shower, I'm just so psyched to see everyone!
As for the not so great news, color me Candidiasis. Yes, I have a yeast infection. Which is bad enough, but I think I've had it, literally, for MONTHS and I'm a total idiot. I started noticing a creamy discharge probably around 12 weeks or so and I just chalked it up to leukorrhea, normal discharge that increases during pregnancy. I didn't have the accompanying other two hallmarks of a yeast infection: burning and a distinct odor. I occasionally had a little irritation, but no biggie, certainly not an active burning. One thing, in retrospect, that I did have: pain during sex. So much so that BDing pretty much dwindled throughout the pregnancy because it wasn't fun for either of us to have me grimacing throughout -- though don't worry for the romance in Noodleland, we're getting our canoodling time in other ways ;).
Stupidly, I didn't put 2+2 together and link up the pain with the discharge, I just thought pain in the hoo-hoo area was normal during pregnancy -- I did mention it to my OB who confirmed that your urethra gets squished, etc, so that alot of women have pain during sex so I kind of ignored it. Anyway, I mentioned the discharge to my OB at our last appt 2 weeks ago and she asked about burning and odor and I said it wasn't noticeable and she asked me to keep a closer eye on it and we could test for a yeast infection at any time. She explained that it's not dangerous to the baby now, but if I still have it when he is born, he could get thrush (yeast infection around his mouth), poor thing, and then pass it back to me through the nipple while breast feeding. Lovely! So armed with that concern, I did pay more attention to burning in the intermittent 2 weeks and went in to my OB appt yesterday knowing I'd ask to be tested, figuring it was more of a precaution. As soon as the OB saw the sample on the swab she said "Yep, I'd bet the farm this is yeast." Great! She went to go look at it under a microscope quickly and came back, prescription in hand, confirming I had Candidiasis running up and down my hoo-hoo.
I'm so stupid!!! I've had this infection for MONTHS and was seeing an OB regularly. I should have researched my symptoms (discharge, pain during sex, occasional irritation) more and gotten the test earlier. Ugh!! Anyway, I know it's not a big deal - I'll do my 7 days of lovely suppositories and hopefully it'll clear right up. In my defense, I've never had a yeast infection before, so I was kind of clueless. Now if it was a UTI, I'd have been all over that bad boy within the first 5 minutes. Sigh... I'll pick up the prescription today before I drive down to NY but I won't start the supps until Sunday morning, I don't feel like sitting in goop during my shower. I figure, I've let this thing fester for 5 months, what's another day and a half? ;)
Everything else looked good at my 31-week OB appt, yay! Gained 2 more lbs in 2 weeks, which I think is what's supposed to happen, a pound a week from here on in. I'm up 23 lbs since the start -- I was hoping to keep total weight gain under 25 lbs for the whole pregnancy but it looks like I'll be more in the 30lb range, oh well. I'll deal with that post-Bug. Bug's heartbeat sounded great and during the not-so-comfortable cervical exam, which my OB tacked on after the yeast swab since she was already down there, she confirmed that my cervix is still high and tight and that Bug is definitely head down, sitting right on the cervix. Which was interesting to hear because it's not what I would have guessed given the movement I feel (tucks and rolls) but I guess that's just him spinning on his head, break dance style ;).
Have a great weekend ladies! TGIF big time! Next time we speak, I should be attacking that Candidiasis like a storm trooper!
As for the not so great news, color me Candidiasis. Yes, I have a yeast infection. Which is bad enough, but I think I've had it, literally, for MONTHS and I'm a total idiot. I started noticing a creamy discharge probably around 12 weeks or so and I just chalked it up to leukorrhea, normal discharge that increases during pregnancy. I didn't have the accompanying other two hallmarks of a yeast infection: burning and a distinct odor. I occasionally had a little irritation, but no biggie, certainly not an active burning. One thing, in retrospect, that I did have: pain during sex. So much so that BDing pretty much dwindled throughout the pregnancy because it wasn't fun for either of us to have me grimacing throughout -- though don't worry for the romance in Noodleland, we're getting our canoodling time in other ways ;).
Stupidly, I didn't put 2+2 together and link up the pain with the discharge, I just thought pain in the hoo-hoo area was normal during pregnancy -- I did mention it to my OB who confirmed that your urethra gets squished, etc, so that alot of women have pain during sex so I kind of ignored it. Anyway, I mentioned the discharge to my OB at our last appt 2 weeks ago and she asked about burning and odor and I said it wasn't noticeable and she asked me to keep a closer eye on it and we could test for a yeast infection at any time. She explained that it's not dangerous to the baby now, but if I still have it when he is born, he could get thrush (yeast infection around his mouth), poor thing, and then pass it back to me through the nipple while breast feeding. Lovely! So armed with that concern, I did pay more attention to burning in the intermittent 2 weeks and went in to my OB appt yesterday knowing I'd ask to be tested, figuring it was more of a precaution. As soon as the OB saw the sample on the swab she said "Yep, I'd bet the farm this is yeast." Great! She went to go look at it under a microscope quickly and came back, prescription in hand, confirming I had Candidiasis running up and down my hoo-hoo.
I'm so stupid!!! I've had this infection for MONTHS and was seeing an OB regularly. I should have researched my symptoms (discharge, pain during sex, occasional irritation) more and gotten the test earlier. Ugh!! Anyway, I know it's not a big deal - I'll do my 7 days of lovely suppositories and hopefully it'll clear right up. In my defense, I've never had a yeast infection before, so I was kind of clueless. Now if it was a UTI, I'd have been all over that bad boy within the first 5 minutes. Sigh... I'll pick up the prescription today before I drive down to NY but I won't start the supps until Sunday morning, I don't feel like sitting in goop during my shower. I figure, I've let this thing fester for 5 months, what's another day and a half? ;)
Everything else looked good at my 31-week OB appt, yay! Gained 2 more lbs in 2 weeks, which I think is what's supposed to happen, a pound a week from here on in. I'm up 23 lbs since the start -- I was hoping to keep total weight gain under 25 lbs for the whole pregnancy but it looks like I'll be more in the 30lb range, oh well. I'll deal with that post-Bug. Bug's heartbeat sounded great and during the not-so-comfortable cervical exam, which my OB tacked on after the yeast swab since she was already down there, she confirmed that my cervix is still high and tight and that Bug is definitely head down, sitting right on the cervix. Which was interesting to hear because it's not what I would have guessed given the movement I feel (tucks and rolls) but I guess that's just him spinning on his head, break dance style ;).
Have a great weekend ladies! TGIF big time! Next time we speak, I should be attacking that Candidiasis like a storm trooper!
Thursday, July 08, 2010
You'd think it would be common sense
One of the things you should never say to a third trimester pregnant lady taking a reprieve from 90+ degree heat in Stop & Shop?
"OH MY GOD, you look like you're ready to pop ANY SECOND!"
Especially if you're a worker in said grocery store. Suck it, androgynous deli-counter person.
"OH MY GOD, you look like you're ready to pop ANY SECOND!"
Especially if you're a worker in said grocery store. Suck it, androgynous deli-counter person.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Happy 6th of July!
I hope everyone had a lovely 4th of July! I swear, if I were a politician, I'd run on the platform of mandatory three-day weekends (willing to make up the time on the other 4 workdays!) and I think I'd win in a landslide. There's something about that 3rd day off that makes the weekend feel soooo much longer.
DH and I met friends down in Newport, RI on Sunday for dinner and then the fireworks. It's so nice down there and though we're experiencing a crazy heatwave in the northeast, it was actually nice on Sunday night. I love fireworks, though we forgot to bring a radio, so we couldn't listen to the cheesy Neil Diamond "Comin to America" while the show was going on ;).
On Saturday, we did our all-day childbirth class. Yes, we decided to do it. I suspected that I would fall in the camp of about 50% of my commenters who found the class a little bit of a waste, but we actually really liked it. Our teacher was AWESOME - really funny and had lots of advice. I immediately felt a kinship with her because she told us that she has a 7-year-old son and then just had twin boys 9 months ago. My IF antennae went up at that -- I'd put her in her late 30s and you just don't go 7 years between kids and then wind up with twins without some fertility intervention, at least in 99% of cases. Anyway, I feel like the class was very informative, especially for NoodleGuy. I think it made him feel good to see how he could make things better for me and where he falls into everything.
We both got much more of a feel for when labor starts and when it's time to head to the hospital, plus we felt better about a potential stress point for us: if I get to the 411 point where you should head in (contractions 4 minutes apart, last at least 1 minute, going on for at least 1 hour) and it happens to be rush hour around Boston. She suggested that we could just head into Boston at a more convenient time, like when contractions are 7 minutes apart, etc, and then just go to dinner or a movie near the hospital. It sounds a little basic and silly, but it makes sense -- we'd get a stressful part over with (the drive in) and can take it easy and have some fun (and a last meal!) as close as possible before heading in. The worst thing that'll happen is that things will progress faster than expected and we'll walk out on the movie early, no biggie. So, that'll be our plan.
She also talked about how important it is to try to relax and stay as stress-free as possible when you get to the hospital. The uterus is just like any other muscle, and when you're stressed, it tenses up and mama pays the price. She had all sorts of suggestions, mostly typical (music, taking a shower in the hospital room, getting a massage from DH) and I'm really trying to take that to heart and will try to go in and be as zen as possible. Also, I learned that I am a BIG fan of those bouncy birthing balls - I predict I will spend alot of time on that sucker while in labor.
Of course covering the pain medication was a big part of the class. Luckily the teacher wasn't judgmental at all about the idea of epidurals - that would have driven me nuts, I don't like people judging other people's choices in this. Anyway, armed with the plan to be as relaxed (and hydrated) as possible, I'm planning on playing the epidural by ear. I'll go in totally open to the idea of it, but waiting as seeing how it goes - I won't get it immediately. I suspect in the long run, I will get one - I have no desire to be a hero in this, I just want the most positive experience possible for Bug, NoodleGuy and myself. So we'll see on this one...
Tonight we have our "newborn essentials" class. Again, I think it'll be more helpful for DH -- I have young relatives and girls are just more comfortable with babies, usually, probably because most of us babysat. All the diapering, temperature taking and all that will help with worrying with the "what the heck do we know?" thoughts that creep up more and more as the due date gets closer.
Then tomorrow morning we have an appointment at a local childcare center that our neighbors highly recommend. These classes and meetings are coming fast and furious, but it's such a relief to be ticking these things off the list. Our childcare plan for now is for me to be on maternity leave from September through Thanksgiving, then I'll try and multitask Bug/work with help from relatives between Thanksgiving and New Year's - it's usually a pretty slow time of year for me at work, so I'm hoping it'll work. Then, as of January 1st, we'll put Bug in daycare (weep) in the afternoons. I'm lucky enough to work from home, so I'll try and see if it works to watch him and work for an hour or two between naps in the 6am to noon range. Then I'll drop him off for daycare at 12:30 and NoodleGuy will pick him up at 5:30 or so. If I wasn't able to get all my work done in the afternoon, NG will take care of all the nighttime rituals - bathing, feeding (I'm planning on pumping by then) and putting Bug to bed.
We'll see how this plan goes -- it'll be alot of work, but to be honest I'm generally not super productive at work in the mornings -- I'll do my conference calls but also all my emailing/blog reading/gossip-site perusing in the morning but I really hunker down for serious web development in the afternoons, so it's not THAT different. OK, yeah right, I know. It's way different. But we'll try it this way -- I don't have the heart to put Bug in full-time daycare at 3 months -- a luxury I have since I work from home, I know if I had an office job, I'd have no choice. To be honest, I'm underpaid in my current job, I could get a job in Boston that pays at least 25% more. But the perks especially this particular one of working from home, make it too good to leave, so that's our plan. Putting him in daycare for half-days also cuts the cost in half which is really appealing, obviously.
In pregnancy news, the ball of my left foot has been killing me in the past week. I'm used to the foot swelling by the end of the night, but I'm not sure where this swelling/bruising on the bottom of my left foot is coming from. I'll mention it to my OB on Thursday - it's not a big deal, just kind of a pain (literally). Along these lines, I read an interesting tidbit on Dr. Google last night when I was researching the foot pain. One article mentioned that the reason you go to the bathroom so many times during the night in late pregnancy is not so much that you had a glass of water before bed or that your bladder is squished -- it's that all the fluid that has collected in your legs and feet throughout the day is now reabsorbed into your body (now that your legs are elevated) and processed by your kidneys and into your bladder. So it's like we're camels, storing our own liquid resources ;).
FINALLY (geez how did this post get so long??), I bought my first set of diapers at CVS this morning (coupon in Sunday's paper)! So exciting - I felt like a mommy for the first time, though clearly I'm not yet. But it was fun to actually pay attention to that aisle instead of avoiding it. And OMG girls - diapers are EXPENSIVE! ;)
DH and I met friends down in Newport, RI on Sunday for dinner and then the fireworks. It's so nice down there and though we're experiencing a crazy heatwave in the northeast, it was actually nice on Sunday night. I love fireworks, though we forgot to bring a radio, so we couldn't listen to the cheesy Neil Diamond "Comin to America" while the show was going on ;).
On Saturday, we did our all-day childbirth class. Yes, we decided to do it. I suspected that I would fall in the camp of about 50% of my commenters who found the class a little bit of a waste, but we actually really liked it. Our teacher was AWESOME - really funny and had lots of advice. I immediately felt a kinship with her because she told us that she has a 7-year-old son and then just had twin boys 9 months ago. My IF antennae went up at that -- I'd put her in her late 30s and you just don't go 7 years between kids and then wind up with twins without some fertility intervention, at least in 99% of cases. Anyway, I feel like the class was very informative, especially for NoodleGuy. I think it made him feel good to see how he could make things better for me and where he falls into everything.
We both got much more of a feel for when labor starts and when it's time to head to the hospital, plus we felt better about a potential stress point for us: if I get to the 411 point where you should head in (contractions 4 minutes apart, last at least 1 minute, going on for at least 1 hour) and it happens to be rush hour around Boston. She suggested that we could just head into Boston at a more convenient time, like when contractions are 7 minutes apart, etc, and then just go to dinner or a movie near the hospital. It sounds a little basic and silly, but it makes sense -- we'd get a stressful part over with (the drive in) and can take it easy and have some fun (and a last meal!) as close as possible before heading in. The worst thing that'll happen is that things will progress faster than expected and we'll walk out on the movie early, no biggie. So, that'll be our plan.
She also talked about how important it is to try to relax and stay as stress-free as possible when you get to the hospital. The uterus is just like any other muscle, and when you're stressed, it tenses up and mama pays the price. She had all sorts of suggestions, mostly typical (music, taking a shower in the hospital room, getting a massage from DH) and I'm really trying to take that to heart and will try to go in and be as zen as possible. Also, I learned that I am a BIG fan of those bouncy birthing balls - I predict I will spend alot of time on that sucker while in labor.
Of course covering the pain medication was a big part of the class. Luckily the teacher wasn't judgmental at all about the idea of epidurals - that would have driven me nuts, I don't like people judging other people's choices in this. Anyway, armed with the plan to be as relaxed (and hydrated) as possible, I'm planning on playing the epidural by ear. I'll go in totally open to the idea of it, but waiting as seeing how it goes - I won't get it immediately. I suspect in the long run, I will get one - I have no desire to be a hero in this, I just want the most positive experience possible for Bug, NoodleGuy and myself. So we'll see on this one...
Tonight we have our "newborn essentials" class. Again, I think it'll be more helpful for DH -- I have young relatives and girls are just more comfortable with babies, usually, probably because most of us babysat. All the diapering, temperature taking and all that will help with worrying with the "what the heck do we know?" thoughts that creep up more and more as the due date gets closer.
Then tomorrow morning we have an appointment at a local childcare center that our neighbors highly recommend. These classes and meetings are coming fast and furious, but it's such a relief to be ticking these things off the list. Our childcare plan for now is for me to be on maternity leave from September through Thanksgiving, then I'll try and multitask Bug/work with help from relatives between Thanksgiving and New Year's - it's usually a pretty slow time of year for me at work, so I'm hoping it'll work. Then, as of January 1st, we'll put Bug in daycare (weep) in the afternoons. I'm lucky enough to work from home, so I'll try and see if it works to watch him and work for an hour or two between naps in the 6am to noon range. Then I'll drop him off for daycare at 12:30 and NoodleGuy will pick him up at 5:30 or so. If I wasn't able to get all my work done in the afternoon, NG will take care of all the nighttime rituals - bathing, feeding (I'm planning on pumping by then) and putting Bug to bed.
We'll see how this plan goes -- it'll be alot of work, but to be honest I'm generally not super productive at work in the mornings -- I'll do my conference calls but also all my emailing/blog reading/gossip-site perusing in the morning but I really hunker down for serious web development in the afternoons, so it's not THAT different. OK, yeah right, I know. It's way different. But we'll try it this way -- I don't have the heart to put Bug in full-time daycare at 3 months -- a luxury I have since I work from home, I know if I had an office job, I'd have no choice. To be honest, I'm underpaid in my current job, I could get a job in Boston that pays at least 25% more. But the perks especially this particular one of working from home, make it too good to leave, so that's our plan. Putting him in daycare for half-days also cuts the cost in half which is really appealing, obviously.
In pregnancy news, the ball of my left foot has been killing me in the past week. I'm used to the foot swelling by the end of the night, but I'm not sure where this swelling/bruising on the bottom of my left foot is coming from. I'll mention it to my OB on Thursday - it's not a big deal, just kind of a pain (literally). Along these lines, I read an interesting tidbit on Dr. Google last night when I was researching the foot pain. One article mentioned that the reason you go to the bathroom so many times during the night in late pregnancy is not so much that you had a glass of water before bed or that your bladder is squished -- it's that all the fluid that has collected in your legs and feet throughout the day is now reabsorbed into your body (now that your legs are elevated) and processed by your kidneys and into your bladder. So it's like we're camels, storing our own liquid resources ;).
FINALLY (geez how did this post get so long??), I bought my first set of diapers at CVS this morning (coupon in Sunday's paper)! So exciting - I felt like a mommy for the first time, though clearly I'm not yet. But it was fun to actually pay attention to that aisle instead of avoiding it. And OMG girls - diapers are EXPENSIVE! ;)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tired of vacations!
I know, hard to believe and boo hoo, poor me. It's surreal to be typing this, but I think I'm actually tired of vacations and am happy that I'm pretty much done for the summer. I just spent 4 days on Cape Cod with my good girlfriend, D, and her 4-year-old daughter, K, who is my goddaughter. We had great weather, hit the beaches and the clam shacks (sans actually eating the clams) and had a very fun time, but now I'm just happy to be home. After that babymoon in Key West a couple of weeks ago and then this, I'm ready to nest and stop packing and unpacking my bags. Don't get me wrong, I still relish vacation days and weekends, but I just want them to be at home! ;)
Hanging out with a 4-year-old was a study in adorableness and frustration. My friend, who is also pregnant right now with her 2nd at 14 weeks, kept asking "Are you ready for this?" when her daughter had a tantrum one night because she was overtired and her mom (rightly) wouldn't give her an umpteenth drink of apple juice before bed. Did you guys ever notice this? That friends who have had kids before you, which is everyone in the case of many of us due to our IF struggles, always gleefully ask if you're ready? As if it's a secret that kids can be challenging and the many ups also come along with some downs? It drove me a little crazy because it's a wee bit rude to ask someone who struggled through IF for 3 years with 3 lost babies along the way if they're ready as if they're sure it's worth it. Yeah, I'm sure in a way that fertiles will never understand.
In pregnancy news, Bug's been quite the acrobat lately, which is always comforting. It was tough for two pregnant ladies and a preschooler to schlep our chairs and coolers to the beach each day, yet another reason I'm glad to be homebound for a while. Oh and one near-miss: yesterday my visiting friend D called me from upstairs in my house and when I went to stand up and go see what she needed, little K also got up and ran right in front of me in a crouch. I fell over her in a very ungainly, uncoordinated heap, where I managed not to crush her but also not to slam myself too hard on the brick fireplace. It's still hard to get used to being so uncoordinated -- while I was able to break our falls, it wasn't the most graceful dance. I'm just happy no one got hurt!
The final note is that I've been having stabbing pains in my labia (TMI blah blah TMI) for the past couple of days, maybe 2 or 3 times a day. I wasn't really concerned because it definitely feels like an outer-region quirk, nothing involving Bug or his condo. But still, of course, I consulted Dr. Google and stumbled upon an amusing site called Kristen's Guide that translated "facts" stated in pregnancy books. Here's what they said about my issue:
The book says: "You may occasionally feel a sharp pain in your vagina."
Translation:
You may feel a stabbing pain that seems to shoot to your cervix and makes you want to jump out of your chair. This is caused by pressure on the cervix. All of the professionals insist that there are no nerves in the cervix, but this sensation makes that idea hard to believe.
Soon, hopefully, I'll be able to report on the pregnancy classes we have finally registered for and post some pix of the slowly progressing nursery. Yay!
Hanging out with a 4-year-old was a study in adorableness and frustration. My friend, who is also pregnant right now with her 2nd at 14 weeks, kept asking "Are you ready for this?" when her daughter had a tantrum one night because she was overtired and her mom (rightly) wouldn't give her an umpteenth drink of apple juice before bed. Did you guys ever notice this? That friends who have had kids before you, which is everyone in the case of many of us due to our IF struggles, always gleefully ask if you're ready? As if it's a secret that kids can be challenging and the many ups also come along with some downs? It drove me a little crazy because it's a wee bit rude to ask someone who struggled through IF for 3 years with 3 lost babies along the way if they're ready as if they're sure it's worth it. Yeah, I'm sure in a way that fertiles will never understand.
In pregnancy news, Bug's been quite the acrobat lately, which is always comforting. It was tough for two pregnant ladies and a preschooler to schlep our chairs and coolers to the beach each day, yet another reason I'm glad to be homebound for a while. Oh and one near-miss: yesterday my visiting friend D called me from upstairs in my house and when I went to stand up and go see what she needed, little K also got up and ran right in front of me in a crouch. I fell over her in a very ungainly, uncoordinated heap, where I managed not to crush her but also not to slam myself too hard on the brick fireplace. It's still hard to get used to being so uncoordinated -- while I was able to break our falls, it wasn't the most graceful dance. I'm just happy no one got hurt!
The final note is that I've been having stabbing pains in my labia (TMI blah blah TMI) for the past couple of days, maybe 2 or 3 times a day. I wasn't really concerned because it definitely feels like an outer-region quirk, nothing involving Bug or his condo. But still, of course, I consulted Dr. Google and stumbled upon an amusing site called Kristen's Guide that translated "facts" stated in pregnancy books. Here's what they said about my issue:
The book says: "You may occasionally feel a sharp pain in your vagina."
Translation:
You may feel a stabbing pain that seems to shoot to your cervix and makes you want to jump out of your chair. This is caused by pressure on the cervix. All of the professionals insist that there are no nerves in the cervix, but this sensation makes that idea hard to believe.
Remedy:It should be gone by the time you fully heal after birth. Practice your poker face in the meantime because there's nothing like suddenly developing the look of death while you shriek during a business meeting. Shift in your seat, change position, breath deeply, and pray it goes away. If it's extremely strong, call your doctor.
Soon, hopefully, I'll be able to report on the pregnancy classes we have finally registered for and post some pix of the slowly progressing nursery. Yay!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
29 week check-in
Stealing a page from Leslie, I wanted to do the list below every few weeks to document this 3T for myself. So here goes the minutiae of my week....
How far along?: 29w1d - 3rd trimester baby!
Weight?: Up 17lbs since my first OB check. I think it's something like 22lbs since my beta, but I stopped weighing myself during the year (2009) of stimming and miscarriages, too depressing. I can tell you that right now I'm 33 lbs. over my ideal weight, which is 130 lbs and what I was pre-stim treatments. So, assuming I maybe get up to 170lbs by birth, lose 20lbs pretty quickly from the birth, I'll have another 20 lbs to work off. Ouch - but hoping nursing will help that along. I'm 5'7", so I think I disguise the extra weight pretty well, but it all seems to settle into my love handles and man, I do not want to see my muffin top from behind ;).
Maternity clothes?: Some, but not many. Don't get me wrong, my large & in charge body requires it but I've managed to buy non-maternity skirts and dresses that fit the bill. The good thing about being in the 3T in the summer is that it's pretty easy to find non-maternity drapey things. I have noticed that I prefer form-fitting tops, like tank tops, and flowy (by necessity) bottoms. When I wear a flowy top, I feel like a total tank. Anyway, I do have a couple of maternity shorts that I like, but I have to say, they give me a total wedgie! By the end of the day, they ride up so bad over the bulge of my belly, they're way wedged up my tush! And I don't even care where in public I am when I pull out the wedgie. Pregnant lady's prerogative.
Stretch marks?: Not yet!! I'm crossing my fingers and using my belly balm even though I know they say it's all genetic. I know I have alot more expanding to go, but I'm hoping that no stretch marks by month 7 is a good sign. I've seen pictures of my mom when my older sister and I were about 2 and 3 years old, and she's wearing a bikini and nary a stretch mark showing, so I'm hoping! Plus, I've been taking Vitamin E pills religiously since my beta - I read taking oral Vitamin E helps alot more than topical. Who knows...
Sleep?: Sleeping pretty well now that the AC is set up, it's really only the heat that disturbs me besides hip pain that requires me to flip a few times a night. The pillow between the legs is a life saver, definitely. I do find myself sleeping on my back alot, it's my most comfortable position. But I do get a little scared because I read that it compresses your veins and reduces the flow of oxygen to baby, so I try to turn to the side but then I wake up later in the night and there I am again on my back ;). Oh, and I do get up 3-5 times a night to pee, but what can you do?
Best moment this week?: Taking a peek at what's been purchased from my registry, heh! ;) I feel like I'm cheating but I can't help myself! My shower is July 10th and it should be pretty mellow, only @ 6-8 friends as my family is in Texas and I don't want them spending over $1000 to fly up for a shower and the only local-ish female relative on DH's side is my MIL and it would be too weird to have all friends and then one senior citizen who doesn't know anybody, so we're keeping it to just friends. Anyway, very excited to see all these friends -- the shower is in NYC and that's where all my friends are. They all offered to come up here, but I don't want to make 8 people drive 4-7 hours when it's much easier for just one person (me) to travel and I've been craving a trip to NYC anyway. I'll probably opt for Amtrak over driving though, this time.
Movement?: Most days, tons. Space is definitely getting tight and I can make out actual body parts these days. I could totally be guessing wrong, but it's definitely either an elbow, foot or skull ;). He's ALWAYS on my right side, so that side is taking a beating, but that's OK. I do have some days where he's alot more mellow and it freaks me out, but I can usually make him move at some point. I start my kick-count analysis this week, so I'll make a more concerted effort to pay attention on slow days.
Food cravings?: Ice cream, which is strange because normally I don't care for it. There's a place nearby that has a fat-free frozen yogurt (from a bin, not the dreaded fro-yo machines) of chocolate with enormous peanut butter chunks that I am in LOVE with. I try to tell myself that at least the fro-yo part is fat free ;).
What I miss?: Coffee. And soft cheeses, I miss blue cheese and feta so badly...
What I'm looking forward to?: a lovely summer (with AC!) and then a fall with a baby and maternity leave!
Emotions: Pretty even. I've never had much in the way of hormonal changes with PMS or anything - which might sound great but I'm convinced have been part of my fertility issues. But I've been pretty steady emotionally so far here - I have a feeling I'm in for a big crash post-birth though.
Other: My big project lately has been lining up all the pre-birth stuff like interviews with pediatricians and day care centers. It's a bit overwhelming but I have most things scheduled. For the pediatrician's office that we want to use, they don't do pre-interviews, which is OK because we're comfortable with the strong referrals that we've gotten from friends and a neighbors. But I'm a little concerned about their laidback policy: for the first appointment, they just said to call in when we're driving home from the hospital and the nurses will get us an appointment in the first day or two. Which is fine but the Type A in me is so not OK with just winging it after the birth. So I've devised a plan to stop by their offices in person next week, haha, under the guise of dropping off an enrollment form for their patient portal. While there, I plan to grill the front desk about any sort of pre-registration I can do before Bug is born. But I'd love it if you guys could confirm this is typical? I know most of you got to meet your docs first -- and this place does have group meet & greets in their alternate location, which we'll attend in lieu of that. But is it typical to not be able to make the first appointment until after the birth? I mean, I guess is has to be because unless you're having a scheduled c-section or induction, how would you know when to schedule? But still, Type A plus first, and likely only, baby? Not good for being laidback about this ;).
How far along?: 29w1d - 3rd trimester baby!
Weight?: Up 17lbs since my first OB check. I think it's something like 22lbs since my beta, but I stopped weighing myself during the year (2009) of stimming and miscarriages, too depressing. I can tell you that right now I'm 33 lbs. over my ideal weight, which is 130 lbs and what I was pre-stim treatments. So, assuming I maybe get up to 170lbs by birth, lose 20lbs pretty quickly from the birth, I'll have another 20 lbs to work off. Ouch - but hoping nursing will help that along. I'm 5'7", so I think I disguise the extra weight pretty well, but it all seems to settle into my love handles and man, I do not want to see my muffin top from behind ;).
Maternity clothes?: Some, but not many. Don't get me wrong, my large & in charge body requires it but I've managed to buy non-maternity skirts and dresses that fit the bill. The good thing about being in the 3T in the summer is that it's pretty easy to find non-maternity drapey things. I have noticed that I prefer form-fitting tops, like tank tops, and flowy (by necessity) bottoms. When I wear a flowy top, I feel like a total tank. Anyway, I do have a couple of maternity shorts that I like, but I have to say, they give me a total wedgie! By the end of the day, they ride up so bad over the bulge of my belly, they're way wedged up my tush! And I don't even care where in public I am when I pull out the wedgie. Pregnant lady's prerogative.
Stretch marks?: Not yet!! I'm crossing my fingers and using my belly balm even though I know they say it's all genetic. I know I have alot more expanding to go, but I'm hoping that no stretch marks by month 7 is a good sign. I've seen pictures of my mom when my older sister and I were about 2 and 3 years old, and she's wearing a bikini and nary a stretch mark showing, so I'm hoping! Plus, I've been taking Vitamin E pills religiously since my beta - I read taking oral Vitamin E helps alot more than topical. Who knows...
Sleep?: Sleeping pretty well now that the AC is set up, it's really only the heat that disturbs me besides hip pain that requires me to flip a few times a night. The pillow between the legs is a life saver, definitely. I do find myself sleeping on my back alot, it's my most comfortable position. But I do get a little scared because I read that it compresses your veins and reduces the flow of oxygen to baby, so I try to turn to the side but then I wake up later in the night and there I am again on my back ;). Oh, and I do get up 3-5 times a night to pee, but what can you do?
Best moment this week?: Taking a peek at what's been purchased from my registry, heh! ;) I feel like I'm cheating but I can't help myself! My shower is July 10th and it should be pretty mellow, only @ 6-8 friends as my family is in Texas and I don't want them spending over $1000 to fly up for a shower and the only local-ish female relative on DH's side is my MIL and it would be too weird to have all friends and then one senior citizen who doesn't know anybody, so we're keeping it to just friends. Anyway, very excited to see all these friends -- the shower is in NYC and that's where all my friends are. They all offered to come up here, but I don't want to make 8 people drive 4-7 hours when it's much easier for just one person (me) to travel and I've been craving a trip to NYC anyway. I'll probably opt for Amtrak over driving though, this time.
Movement?: Most days, tons. Space is definitely getting tight and I can make out actual body parts these days. I could totally be guessing wrong, but it's definitely either an elbow, foot or skull ;). He's ALWAYS on my right side, so that side is taking a beating, but that's OK. I do have some days where he's alot more mellow and it freaks me out, but I can usually make him move at some point. I start my kick-count analysis this week, so I'll make a more concerted effort to pay attention on slow days.
Food cravings?: Ice cream, which is strange because normally I don't care for it. There's a place nearby that has a fat-free frozen yogurt (from a bin, not the dreaded fro-yo machines) of chocolate with enormous peanut butter chunks that I am in LOVE with. I try to tell myself that at least the fro-yo part is fat free ;).
What I miss?: Coffee. And soft cheeses, I miss blue cheese and feta so badly...
What I'm looking forward to?: a lovely summer (with AC!) and then a fall with a baby and maternity leave!
Emotions: Pretty even. I've never had much in the way of hormonal changes with PMS or anything - which might sound great but I'm convinced have been part of my fertility issues. But I've been pretty steady emotionally so far here - I have a feeling I'm in for a big crash post-birth though.
Other: My big project lately has been lining up all the pre-birth stuff like interviews with pediatricians and day care centers. It's a bit overwhelming but I have most things scheduled. For the pediatrician's office that we want to use, they don't do pre-interviews, which is OK because we're comfortable with the strong referrals that we've gotten from friends and a neighbors. But I'm a little concerned about their laidback policy: for the first appointment, they just said to call in when we're driving home from the hospital and the nurses will get us an appointment in the first day or two. Which is fine but the Type A in me is so not OK with just winging it after the birth. So I've devised a plan to stop by their offices in person next week, haha, under the guise of dropping off an enrollment form for their patient portal. While there, I plan to grill the front desk about any sort of pre-registration I can do before Bug is born. But I'd love it if you guys could confirm this is typical? I know most of you got to meet your docs first -- and this place does have group meet & greets in their alternate location, which we'll attend in lieu of that. But is it typical to not be able to make the first appointment until after the birth? I mean, I guess is has to be because unless you're having a scheduled c-section or induction, how would you know when to schedule? But still, Type A plus first, and likely only, baby? Not good for being laidback about this ;).
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Exercise
I won't pretend to be a gym rat. I do love being active and being outdoors, but more in the realm of fun/sporty activities like skiing and biking. I will go to the gym in the winter months and do the elliptical for 45 minutes or so and I always feel good when I'm done, but I don't exactly look forward to it ahead of time.
My plan for exercising while pregnant was to try to stay fit, keep the weight gain under control but mostly to get at least 30 minutes of exercise in per day. Some of you who have been reading since the beginning probably remember that I had a breast cancer scare last summer. On a "routine" biopsy (I say 'routine' because I have very dense breast tissue which has led to several mammograms/ultrasounds/cyst checks under the age of 40), and they found some atypical hyperplastic cells, often a precursor to breast cancer. At the time I was pregnant with Peanut (who was later to be miscarriage #2) and scheduled an excisional biopsy (surgery to remove the area as a precaution) for as soon as I hit the 2nd trimester. Once I found out that we had lost Peanut, I moved up the surgery and wound up having a D&E and breast surgery within a 3 week span of each other - needless to say, September 2009 was not a banner month.
Anyway, the report from the excisional biopsy was as good as possible: no atypical cells found at all. However, just having the one bad check has increased my future risk for breast cancer, so from now on I'll be checked every 6 months, alternating a mammogram and MRI. Which is fine by me, I'm all about preventative medicine and if we ever do find something, we'll know we've caught it early.
In my follow-ups since last September, my doctor has drilled into my head three things that drastically reduce your risk of breast cancer: limit your alcohol intake, maintain a healthy/steady weight and exercise 30 minutes a day in any fashion, including walking. She told me that this last one has shown to reduce breast cancer rates by up to 50% and if that's not enough of an incentive to get my butt moving, I don't what is.
So, I've been good about walking 3 miles a day since then, including around this IVF cycle in December. I had been doing the gym before then, but I started to get freaked out about rupturing my precious few follies while stimming so I took a break until after the 6-week u/s and then started walking on the bike path behind my house. However, now that it's both getting hot outside + Bug feels like a giant bowling ball sitting on my bladder and hips, I needed to change up the routine. This morning I went back to the gym and tried this routine: 15 minutes on the elliptical and then lap swimming. I had planned on swimming 10 laps, but I have to tell you, I almost died by the 8th lap. If I had done 10 laps, I think I may drowned. Swimming is hard!!! How did I manage to spend 6 hours a day splashing around in a pool when I was a kid??
Despite my exhaustion, I did like this routine -- I felt like I got a good 30 minute workout without putting too much pressure on my joints. Plus, Bug seemed to enjoy the swimming portion, he was all punchy after I dragged my carcass out of the pool.
I thought I had planned well, packing a bag to take a shower at the gym after the pool, thereby traumatizing the locker room with my big belly, but though I remembered everything else, I forgot my shampoo - d'oh! But I will do this again, definitely not everyday, but I'll try for 3 times a week and see how that goes. Maybe eventually I can even move up to 10 laps ;).
My plan for exercising while pregnant was to try to stay fit, keep the weight gain under control but mostly to get at least 30 minutes of exercise in per day. Some of you who have been reading since the beginning probably remember that I had a breast cancer scare last summer. On a "routine" biopsy (I say 'routine' because I have very dense breast tissue which has led to several mammograms/ultrasounds/cyst checks under the age of 40), and they found some atypical hyperplastic cells, often a precursor to breast cancer. At the time I was pregnant with Peanut (who was later to be miscarriage #2) and scheduled an excisional biopsy (surgery to remove the area as a precaution) for as soon as I hit the 2nd trimester. Once I found out that we had lost Peanut, I moved up the surgery and wound up having a D&E and breast surgery within a 3 week span of each other - needless to say, September 2009 was not a banner month.
Anyway, the report from the excisional biopsy was as good as possible: no atypical cells found at all. However, just having the one bad check has increased my future risk for breast cancer, so from now on I'll be checked every 6 months, alternating a mammogram and MRI. Which is fine by me, I'm all about preventative medicine and if we ever do find something, we'll know we've caught it early.
In my follow-ups since last September, my doctor has drilled into my head three things that drastically reduce your risk of breast cancer: limit your alcohol intake, maintain a healthy/steady weight and exercise 30 minutes a day in any fashion, including walking. She told me that this last one has shown to reduce breast cancer rates by up to 50% and if that's not enough of an incentive to get my butt moving, I don't what is.
So, I've been good about walking 3 miles a day since then, including around this IVF cycle in December. I had been doing the gym before then, but I started to get freaked out about rupturing my precious few follies while stimming so I took a break until after the 6-week u/s and then started walking on the bike path behind my house. However, now that it's both getting hot outside + Bug feels like a giant bowling ball sitting on my bladder and hips, I needed to change up the routine. This morning I went back to the gym and tried this routine: 15 minutes on the elliptical and then lap swimming. I had planned on swimming 10 laps, but I have to tell you, I almost died by the 8th lap. If I had done 10 laps, I think I may drowned. Swimming is hard!!! How did I manage to spend 6 hours a day splashing around in a pool when I was a kid??
Despite my exhaustion, I did like this routine -- I felt like I got a good 30 minute workout without putting too much pressure on my joints. Plus, Bug seemed to enjoy the swimming portion, he was all punchy after I dragged my carcass out of the pool.
I thought I had planned well, packing a bag to take a shower at the gym after the pool, thereby traumatizing the locker room with my big belly, but though I remembered everything else, I forgot my shampoo - d'oh! But I will do this again, definitely not everyday, but I'll try for 3 times a week and see how that goes. Maybe eventually I can even move up to 10 laps ;).
Monday, June 21, 2010
Back from vacation
Hi folks! We're back from our babymoon (aka Farewell Tour) - our week in Key West. Though we had a good time, I am SO happy to be back home. I'm usually pretty much a trooper but any vacation that requires more than just walking out of your hotel room and lying by a pool should be seriously reconsidered during the 3T ;). Live and learn, I guess!
A rundown of our past week:
Key West:
It was 90 degrees everyday in Key West (not a shock) with 90% humidity (a shock). Walking out of the air conditioned hotel room was like walking into an Easy Bake Oven. To top that off, for those of you that have never been to Key West, the main activity is walking up and down Duval Street, a strip of restaurants/stores/bars a little over a mile long. We did this everyday, twice a day - in the morning for brunch and then for dinner. So that's me, the 7-month pregnant lady walking 2.2 miles roundtrip in 90 degree/90% humidity weather TWO TIMES A DAY! 4.4 miles bascially swimming through the streets, in blazing sun. Not fun. All day I'd be battling what NoodleGuy and I called "pig hand", where my hands (and feet) would swell to epic proportions. I made sure to stay super hydrated (and became well acquainted with every bathroom on Duval Street) and pop into AC whenever possible, but it was definitely hard to stay excited about the vacation under these conditions - I was exhausted with aching feet and legs by 8pm every night. Mental note to self: no more traveling during tis pregnancy and if I ever get pg again (snowball's chance, but still), I will not take vacation during the 3T.
Anyhoo, on to Key West itself... we liked it but didn't love it as much as we thought we would. I can definitely see the appeal -- if you're there with a bachelorette party or college spring break or a Parrothead, etc. But DH and I are not partiers by nature these days, especially with me growing a human, so it didn't really click with us. Don't get me wrong, the architecture is really nice and these are some really good restaurants (and some really crappy ones). But we were expecting to fall in love with it, like we did with the Big Island of Hawaii and it was nothing like that, so it was disappointing.
We're glad we went, we've always wanted to, but pretty much feel no desire to ever go again. If anyone considers it, I'd recommend a long weekend over a full week, it definitely gets repetitive. Another note - it was SO expensive. We spent @ $60/day on food each, which consisted of a brunch (pancakes, fruit & turkey bacon, for example), skipping lunch and having a moderate dinner like a burrito. Somehow we were hemorraghing money without having much to show for it, which is frustrating.
I know, boo hoo, poor us. Even a not-perfect vacation is still awesome, I just wanted to share our two cents about Key West since it seems to be on everyone's short list as a destination.
Back at home:
It was great to get away from work and out of the routine for a week, though. And now I'm happy to just settle in and hunker down for the summer. We put in our AC units yesterday (by "we", I mean DH of course ;) and thank goodness we did because it's been toasty here too. A definite on the wishlist for the next house is central AC, though. Not only do I hate losing windows to ugly AC units, but it's such a hassle for poor DH to put them in and out of the windows each summer.
We went to a BBQ at my BIL's house on Saturday for Father's Day, which was really nice. And the BIL was on good behavior because he had invited a girl (ok, woman) to attend, so that was even more of a bonus! And we really liked her!! Of course we're totally jumping the gun, but all of us are hoping it was more than a "friend" situation - I want a sister in law!!
Work:
Ugh, so hard to motivate to care about work when you first get back from vacation. I have all these histrionic emails (alot of which resolved themselves while I was out, thank goodness) and it's hard to work up the motivation to care again. Just gotta keep putting one foot forward...
Bug:
The little fella is doing well these days. He scared me on the first couple of days of vacation as he was way, WAY mellow. One day he barely moved at all and I was panicked that all the travel and heat had affected him somehow. If I had been at home, I definitely would have called into the doctor. But I did all the usual stuff - drank iced water, laid flat, etc and by that night I got him to do a little boogie. I do think he didn't LOVE the heat, he usually was much more active once we came back into the air conditioned room.
One really interesting physiological thing: on our first day there, I got a little suburned on my tummy and chest. I was wearing sunscreen but also a bikini and was planning on staying covered with a tank top, but it was toasty and I was feeling more comfortable disrobing than I thought I would, so I took off the tank. We were under palm trees, in the shade, so I didn't think to apply sunscreen to the newly exposed areas. Anyway, the burn wasn't bad and I wasn't concerned about Bug or anything. But that night, I sweat like crazy while we were sleeping, I had to get up and change my shirt because it was soaked through. And in the morning, the burn on my tummy was 100% gone, though my chest still had its burn. It was like my body was protecting Bug and totally rejected an outer layer of burned skin, it was pretty neat.
Since we got back home, Bug has been going NUTS. On Friday night, it was like a scene from Alien. For 5 straight hours, he was kickboxing -- DH could see my tummy rippling and jumping from across the room. He's definitely getting big enough that the amount of room in his condo is getting tight -- if he keeps punching in the same area, it starts to hurt a bit, so I try to shift him a little bit. Plus, now I can actively make out certain body parts -- I'm not necessarily always correct, I'm sure, but I can tell if it's something like a foot or elbow vs skull. And when he spins, I can see the ripple of it run across my stomach, which is pretty cool.
I have an OB appt this Wednesday and after this one I go to biweekly appts. Crazy! I should probably order a crib mattress one of these days ;).
Classes:
Thanks so much for all of your class input, you guys were a fountain of info! I still haven't 100% decided what we'll do, but I definitely feel more armed to make decisions now. It's on my MUST to-do list for this week to register, I know I'm already late on this one!
A rundown of our past week:
Key West:
It was 90 degrees everyday in Key West (not a shock) with 90% humidity (a shock). Walking out of the air conditioned hotel room was like walking into an Easy Bake Oven. To top that off, for those of you that have never been to Key West, the main activity is walking up and down Duval Street, a strip of restaurants/stores/bars a little over a mile long. We did this everyday, twice a day - in the morning for brunch and then for dinner. So that's me, the 7-month pregnant lady walking 2.2 miles roundtrip in 90 degree/90% humidity weather TWO TIMES A DAY! 4.4 miles bascially swimming through the streets, in blazing sun. Not fun. All day I'd be battling what NoodleGuy and I called "pig hand", where my hands (and feet) would swell to epic proportions. I made sure to stay super hydrated (and became well acquainted with every bathroom on Duval Street) and pop into AC whenever possible, but it was definitely hard to stay excited about the vacation under these conditions - I was exhausted with aching feet and legs by 8pm every night. Mental note to self: no more traveling during tis pregnancy and if I ever get pg again (snowball's chance, but still), I will not take vacation during the 3T.
Anyhoo, on to Key West itself... we liked it but didn't love it as much as we thought we would. I can definitely see the appeal -- if you're there with a bachelorette party or college spring break or a Parrothead, etc. But DH and I are not partiers by nature these days, especially with me growing a human, so it didn't really click with us. Don't get me wrong, the architecture is really nice and these are some really good restaurants (and some really crappy ones). But we were expecting to fall in love with it, like we did with the Big Island of Hawaii and it was nothing like that, so it was disappointing.
We're glad we went, we've always wanted to, but pretty much feel no desire to ever go again. If anyone considers it, I'd recommend a long weekend over a full week, it definitely gets repetitive. Another note - it was SO expensive. We spent @ $60/day on food each, which consisted of a brunch (pancakes, fruit & turkey bacon, for example), skipping lunch and having a moderate dinner like a burrito. Somehow we were hemorraghing money without having much to show for it, which is frustrating.
I know, boo hoo, poor us. Even a not-perfect vacation is still awesome, I just wanted to share our two cents about Key West since it seems to be on everyone's short list as a destination.
Back at home:
It was great to get away from work and out of the routine for a week, though. And now I'm happy to just settle in and hunker down for the summer. We put in our AC units yesterday (by "we", I mean DH of course ;) and thank goodness we did because it's been toasty here too. A definite on the wishlist for the next house is central AC, though. Not only do I hate losing windows to ugly AC units, but it's such a hassle for poor DH to put them in and out of the windows each summer.
We went to a BBQ at my BIL's house on Saturday for Father's Day, which was really nice. And the BIL was on good behavior because he had invited a girl (ok, woman) to attend, so that was even more of a bonus! And we really liked her!! Of course we're totally jumping the gun, but all of us are hoping it was more than a "friend" situation - I want a sister in law!!
Work:
Ugh, so hard to motivate to care about work when you first get back from vacation. I have all these histrionic emails (alot of which resolved themselves while I was out, thank goodness) and it's hard to work up the motivation to care again. Just gotta keep putting one foot forward...
Bug:
The little fella is doing well these days. He scared me on the first couple of days of vacation as he was way, WAY mellow. One day he barely moved at all and I was panicked that all the travel and heat had affected him somehow. If I had been at home, I definitely would have called into the doctor. But I did all the usual stuff - drank iced water, laid flat, etc and by that night I got him to do a little boogie. I do think he didn't LOVE the heat, he usually was much more active once we came back into the air conditioned room.
One really interesting physiological thing: on our first day there, I got a little suburned on my tummy and chest. I was wearing sunscreen but also a bikini and was planning on staying covered with a tank top, but it was toasty and I was feeling more comfortable disrobing than I thought I would, so I took off the tank. We were under palm trees, in the shade, so I didn't think to apply sunscreen to the newly exposed areas. Anyway, the burn wasn't bad and I wasn't concerned about Bug or anything. But that night, I sweat like crazy while we were sleeping, I had to get up and change my shirt because it was soaked through. And in the morning, the burn on my tummy was 100% gone, though my chest still had its burn. It was like my body was protecting Bug and totally rejected an outer layer of burned skin, it was pretty neat.
Since we got back home, Bug has been going NUTS. On Friday night, it was like a scene from Alien. For 5 straight hours, he was kickboxing -- DH could see my tummy rippling and jumping from across the room. He's definitely getting big enough that the amount of room in his condo is getting tight -- if he keeps punching in the same area, it starts to hurt a bit, so I try to shift him a little bit. Plus, now I can actively make out certain body parts -- I'm not necessarily always correct, I'm sure, but I can tell if it's something like a foot or elbow vs skull. And when he spins, I can see the ripple of it run across my stomach, which is pretty cool.
I have an OB appt this Wednesday and after this one I go to biweekly appts. Crazy! I should probably order a crib mattress one of these days ;).
Classes:
Thanks so much for all of your class input, you guys were a fountain of info! I still haven't 100% decided what we'll do, but I definitely feel more armed to make decisions now. It's on my MUST to-do list for this week to register, I know I'm already late on this one!
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