It's been a while.... Lots to write about later. A dance recital. A vacation with the family over Memorial Day weekend. Etc.
But we just got home from our trip. I've had time to shower and check email. Now I'm off to do laundry while Jason finishes unloading the car.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Update
I went to the doctor today for an ultrasound and regular visit. Jason was able to make it to see the ultrasound, so he saw her in person for the first time. Of course, it was fun, and they have the 3D (or is it 4D?) feature now. She's the first baby we've gotten to see as though we're actually looking at a picture of her.
I'm 29 weeks 3 days. She is measuring at 31 weeks 3 days. Let's take a moment and absorb that. She's a whole 2 weeks bigger than she "should" be. When I saw my doctor, I was immediately berated with questions, they felt more like accusations. He couldn't just check my file; he had to ask me...
Did you pass your glucose test? Yes.
Have you been craving sweets? Not really.
How big were your other kids? 6 lbs 15 oz and 7 lbs 7 oz
What have you been eating? Avocados.
Then I was reminded how fattening avocados are. Which I know is true.
But I'm standing by the fact that it's a "good" fat. Although I realized recently my need to cut back. 4 or 5 a day was a little extreme.
It was then suggested to me to eat small meals throughout the day to boost my metabolism. I'm growing a person and I'm being told I need to boost my metabolism. ?? Ouch. He might as well have called me a fat a$$ and thrown me out of his office. :)
Anyway... Back to the update...
She is already 4 lbs. This is the equation I came up with. Someone check my math and tell me if this sounds right to you....
4 lbs at 29 weeks + vaginal birth at 40 weeks = Holy Crap
I really, really want to go into labor on my own. So PLEASE pray that I will. But if she continues to grow like she is, he's just going to wait for me to get to 37 weeks and then we'll talk about inducing soon after because at that point she could be 7+ lbs and there's no sense in letting her continue to grow for the next 3 weeks.
So, even though I was called "fat" in a roundabout way, and even though I was made to feel like a bad mom for eating foods that are obviously fattening up my baby, at the end of the day, I'm smiling. Two.. possibly 3.. weeks were just taken off my pregnancy. And my girls will not be in danger of sharing a birthday.
I'm 29 weeks 3 days. She is measuring at 31 weeks 3 days. Let's take a moment and absorb that. She's a whole 2 weeks bigger than she "should" be. When I saw my doctor, I was immediately berated with questions, they felt more like accusations. He couldn't just check my file; he had to ask me...
Did you pass your glucose test? Yes.
Have you been craving sweets? Not really.
How big were your other kids? 6 lbs 15 oz and 7 lbs 7 oz
What have you been eating? Avocados.
Then I was reminded how fattening avocados are. Which I know is true.
But I'm standing by the fact that it's a "good" fat. Although I realized recently my need to cut back. 4 or 5 a day was a little extreme.
It was then suggested to me to eat small meals throughout the day to boost my metabolism. I'm growing a person and I'm being told I need to boost my metabolism. ?? Ouch. He might as well have called me a fat a$$ and thrown me out of his office. :)
Anyway... Back to the update...
She is already 4 lbs. This is the equation I came up with. Someone check my math and tell me if this sounds right to you....
4 lbs at 29 weeks + vaginal birth at 40 weeks = Holy Crap
I really, really want to go into labor on my own. So PLEASE pray that I will. But if she continues to grow like she is, he's just going to wait for me to get to 37 weeks and then we'll talk about inducing soon after because at that point she could be 7+ lbs and there's no sense in letting her continue to grow for the next 3 weeks.
So, even though I was called "fat" in a roundabout way, and even though I was made to feel like a bad mom for eating foods that are obviously fattening up my baby, at the end of the day, I'm smiling. Two.. possibly 3.. weeks were just taken off my pregnancy. And my girls will not be in danger of sharing a birthday.
Monday, May 11, 2009
My Day... Back to Reality after Friday
9:30 Enjoying coffee. Getting kids dressed. All is well. Sarah's dance class starts at 10:15. Don't have to leave til 10. Doing fine.
9:55 Jack twirls around, trying to make Sarah laugh, and falls into the brick hearth. Scrapes chin. Bleeding. His happy mood is shot. Let the drama begin.
10:10 Load up for dance. Grab Sarah's dance bag. Her tap shoes have no laces b/c somewhere in the course of the week, she played with them and lost them.
10:13 Stop in at Kid2Kid (much to my dismay b/c I hate that store but that's another story) to QUICKLY buy tap shoe laces.
Ask the lady behind the counter for laces. Try to make it clear that we're in a hurry. Our needlessly long conversation went like this...
"We don't have tap shoe laces exactly. We have the elastic band with a bow that looks like a lace...." blah blah blah. tick tock tick tock. Even LATER for dance now.
"Fine. Whatever. I'll take it."
"Great, that'll be $4."
"$4? For elastic with a bow? Alright, here..." (handing her my VISA)
"Oh..um...yeah... Do you have cash or would you like to buy something else today? We won't run a credit card for less than $5."
"Really? Taco Bell does. CVS does. Kroger, Target, Tom Thumb... (I could go on and on... I rarely carry cash.) You won't run my card?"
"Sorry."
Now we're really really late. Feel forced to grab something right there at the counter and pay for it as well. What's right at the counter? $5 bows. Five dollars... For a bow. End up paying $9.72 when all I wanted were shoe laces.
Anyway, I digress...
10:18 Make it to dance. Met at door by Sarah's teacher. Am informed that they don't have dance today b/c the recital is Friday. And I swear her teacher looked at me like I should've known that. Never got the memo. Thinking to myself, "Wow...sooo glad I stopped to buy the $10 shoe laces." (sarcasm intended)
10:25 Head to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a couple of things. Park right next to the door. It is NOT raining. So I left all umbrellas in the car (which will of course come into play later).
10:41 At Bed Bath and Beyond check-out counter. Look outside. Can't even see my car b/c of the BLINDING RAIN.
10:42 Debate: Wait out the rain? OR Make a run for it with 2 kids, a very pregnant belly in the way, a purse sliding down one arm and a bulky shopping bag banging into very pregnant belly?
10:43 Ask the nice lady who works at the store if she can watch my kids for 20 seconds while I run to the car and get an umbrella and raincoats for the kids. (I know it's not ideal to leave my kids. Please don't judge me. I'm just telling it like it happened.)
10:43 Back in the store (see? I was only gone for 20 seconds). Put coats on kids. Open umbrella. Out we go.
The next few minutes... which is an eternity when you're standing in a downpour...
Sarah walks VERY slowly to the car because she DOESN'T want to get wet. Don't ask. It's her instinct to walk slowly and stop and start to cry and complain that she's getting wet. Never crosses her mind to run.
While this is happening, in the midst of the storm, Jack decides to argue with me about whether or not this is really our car. He stomps his feet and tells me that I'm wrong and that he won't get in the car because he wants to walk "this way", whichever way "this way" is. Dear Lord, Please let the terrible 2's pass quickly.
I get behind him and gently nudge him with my knees and thighs towards the open van door. He refuses to climb in. I'm drenched. Lightining is flashing. My hands are full because of the umbrella and Sarah, who I am now helping into the car as I'm explaining to her that if she would climb in, she wouldn't be getting wet anymore.
Jack is wedged between my legs and the open door. (By the way the van has one of the backseats removed so he's got lots of room to climb in.)
"Get in."
"No!"
"Jack, climb in NOW".
"NO!"
So with one quick thrust of my hips I'm able to get him inside the van. Of course he kinda toppled in but I'm not in the mood to apologize. I climb in behind him and close the door.
10:48 Ask Sarah to strap herself in to her car seat. Sitting on the van floor, holding Jack who is now crying because he lost the not-getting-in-the-car battle.
10:49 Put him in his car seat. He arches his back, tries to wiggle out of the seat. I took control (take that to mean whatever you want it to mean ;) ) and got him in his seat and buckled up.
Believe it or not... We then headed to a playdate at the mall. I won't even get into that. Shouldn't have gone. It was a bad decision. Thankfully Jack fell asleep on the way and was in a much better mood... for a little while.
1:45 Came home. Sat in the living room in the big green chair by myself and stared at the carpet, thinking about how grossly outnumbered I'm about to be in 10 weeks.
And to think... Friday I was so excited about my successful sticker chart. :) Oh well. One day at a time, I guess.
9:55 Jack twirls around, trying to make Sarah laugh, and falls into the brick hearth. Scrapes chin. Bleeding. His happy mood is shot. Let the drama begin.
10:10 Load up for dance. Grab Sarah's dance bag. Her tap shoes have no laces b/c somewhere in the course of the week, she played with them and lost them.
10:13 Stop in at Kid2Kid (much to my dismay b/c I hate that store but that's another story) to QUICKLY buy tap shoe laces.
Ask the lady behind the counter for laces. Try to make it clear that we're in a hurry. Our needlessly long conversation went like this...
"We don't have tap shoe laces exactly. We have the elastic band with a bow that looks like a lace...." blah blah blah. tick tock tick tock. Even LATER for dance now.
"Fine. Whatever. I'll take it."
"Great, that'll be $4."
"$4? For elastic with a bow? Alright, here..." (handing her my VISA)
"Oh..um...yeah... Do you have cash or would you like to buy something else today? We won't run a credit card for less than $5."
"Really? Taco Bell does. CVS does. Kroger, Target, Tom Thumb... (I could go on and on... I rarely carry cash.) You won't run my card?"
"Sorry."
Now we're really really late. Feel forced to grab something right there at the counter and pay for it as well. What's right at the counter? $5 bows. Five dollars... For a bow. End up paying $9.72 when all I wanted were shoe laces.
Anyway, I digress...
10:18 Make it to dance. Met at door by Sarah's teacher. Am informed that they don't have dance today b/c the recital is Friday. And I swear her teacher looked at me like I should've known that. Never got the memo. Thinking to myself, "Wow...sooo glad I stopped to buy the $10 shoe laces." (sarcasm intended)
10:25 Head to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a couple of things. Park right next to the door. It is NOT raining. So I left all umbrellas in the car (which will of course come into play later).
10:41 At Bed Bath and Beyond check-out counter. Look outside. Can't even see my car b/c of the BLINDING RAIN.
10:42 Debate: Wait out the rain? OR Make a run for it with 2 kids, a very pregnant belly in the way, a purse sliding down one arm and a bulky shopping bag banging into very pregnant belly?
10:43 Ask the nice lady who works at the store if she can watch my kids for 20 seconds while I run to the car and get an umbrella and raincoats for the kids. (I know it's not ideal to leave my kids. Please don't judge me. I'm just telling it like it happened.)
10:43 Back in the store (see? I was only gone for 20 seconds). Put coats on kids. Open umbrella. Out we go.
The next few minutes... which is an eternity when you're standing in a downpour...
Sarah walks VERY slowly to the car because she DOESN'T want to get wet. Don't ask. It's her instinct to walk slowly and stop and start to cry and complain that she's getting wet. Never crosses her mind to run.
While this is happening, in the midst of the storm, Jack decides to argue with me about whether or not this is really our car. He stomps his feet and tells me that I'm wrong and that he won't get in the car because he wants to walk "this way", whichever way "this way" is. Dear Lord, Please let the terrible 2's pass quickly.
I get behind him and gently nudge him with my knees and thighs towards the open van door. He refuses to climb in. I'm drenched. Lightining is flashing. My hands are full because of the umbrella and Sarah, who I am now helping into the car as I'm explaining to her that if she would climb in, she wouldn't be getting wet anymore.
Jack is wedged between my legs and the open door. (By the way the van has one of the backseats removed so he's got lots of room to climb in.)
"Get in."
"No!"
"Jack, climb in NOW".
"NO!"
So with one quick thrust of my hips I'm able to get him inside the van. Of course he kinda toppled in but I'm not in the mood to apologize. I climb in behind him and close the door.
10:48 Ask Sarah to strap herself in to her car seat. Sitting on the van floor, holding Jack who is now crying because he lost the not-getting-in-the-car battle.
10:49 Put him in his car seat. He arches his back, tries to wiggle out of the seat. I took control (take that to mean whatever you want it to mean ;) ) and got him in his seat and buckled up.
Believe it or not... We then headed to a playdate at the mall. I won't even get into that. Shouldn't have gone. It was a bad decision. Thankfully Jack fell asleep on the way and was in a much better mood... for a little while.
1:45 Came home. Sat in the living room in the big green chair by myself and stared at the carpet, thinking about how grossly outnumbered I'm about to be in 10 weeks.
And to think... Friday I was so excited about my successful sticker chart. :) Oh well. One day at a time, I guess.
Friday, May 8, 2009
A Good Day
A few weeks ago I was fed up with the lack of organization in my kids' schedule. We really didn't have a routine for anything. And I was tired of picking up their toys. So I got a poster board and a Sharpie, wrote out a schedule for us to follow, and made a list of 6 or 7 things that I expect the kids to do every day. Things as simple as eating the meals that I fix and cleaning up toys. If they did what I asked, they got a sticker. I told them that once every single "chore" had 10 stickers beside it, I would take them to Chuck E Cheese. (We rarely go anywhere, so Chuck E Cheese is a place they've been only once before. They LOVED it, and it was a huge motivation to fill the sticker chart.)
Yesterday it was filled, 10 stickers on every line. I told them I'd take them to Chuck E Cheese this morning. When I woke up this morning, I was wishing I hadn't promised them that. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to spend the money. I didn't want to follow them around holding the token cup and any tickets they might win. I was having a selfish morning. But I had promised them and they had worked hard, so I took them.
We had a blast! We were the only people there for the first 30 minutes. And I think the employees must have tested the games to make sure that the ticket slots were working b/c every game had at least 5 tickets just hanging there when we showed up. So of course I went around and collected every ticket I could find. Every ride was working. Every game was giving tickets. They were able to put tokens in each game by themselves. (I don't know why I was thinking I was going to have to help them do everything.) At it's busiest while we were there, there were 8 kids. It was awesome! We stayed for 3 hours and I could've stayed longer but I wanted to get Jack down for a nap.
It was such a good day. I enjoyed watching them play. They were appreciative of the special treat, but I reminded them that they had earned it. They deserved it. And the best part is: my sticker chart worked. My ideas never work. :) Yay!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Live and Learn and then get Luvs
So that's the commercial's slogan. We've all seen it. The parents with their first baby who buy all the expensive things (or they register for them and have their friends and families buy them all the expensive things. he he) and then by baby #2 or 3 they're over it. They've moved on to the cheaper stuff.
That is so me!! I would be embarrassed to tell you what I spent on Sarah's crib. I thought of it as an investment... a piece of furniture that would be used for at least one more child. Of course that didn't really work out for me. :) I bought the bedding and then took some new parent class where I was told that you should never have a bumper in your child's crib. They could roll into it and suffocate. WHAT?! So then I was conflicted over whether or not to use the bedding I had just bought...which by the way matched everything in the nursery b/c I was all about having a theme. (P.S. I still used the bumpers. It was not the health risk for us that we were warned about.) I bought a high chair b/c I thought I needed one. I bought a swing and a papasan chair and an exersaucer and a jumparoo... Some of the things were worth it, some were a waste. I had the Baby Bjorn carrier (which I still don't understand how to wear) and a travel system b/c I didn't understand that a Snap-n-Go is all you need when you have an infant. We debated: Diaper Champ? Diaper Genie? Diaper Champ? Diaper Genie? Not sure why we didn't just use the darn trash can. We take out the trash every day anyway. But, in my defense, it's sort of a rite of passage with your first baby. I think you're allowed, if not expected, to go a little overboard with your purchases. It's all part of the excitement.
Now we're onto #3 and I'm laughing about how there's not a single thing in her room that is new. Not a stitch of clothing, bedding, or furniture. She has a stained infant carrier that we purchased from a friend. (I'm ok with the stain b/c I know the people who stained it... if that makes sense.) I'm on the hunt for a used Snap-n-Go. We didn't use a highchair for Jack. He went from the papasan, to a Bumbo chair, to a booster seat that straps onto a regular chair and everything was fine. We did get a used pack-n-play this time because it's our first time living in a 2 story home with a baby. So I'm not really sure how long she'll sleep downstairs before I move her up to her room.
So, to come full circle in my rambling, maybe there's something to the whole Live and Learn thing. (But we still don't get Luvs because Pampers don't leak.) I think it's worth it to be a diaper snob. :)
That is so me!! I would be embarrassed to tell you what I spent on Sarah's crib. I thought of it as an investment... a piece of furniture that would be used for at least one more child. Of course that didn't really work out for me. :) I bought the bedding and then took some new parent class where I was told that you should never have a bumper in your child's crib. They could roll into it and suffocate. WHAT?! So then I was conflicted over whether or not to use the bedding I had just bought...which by the way matched everything in the nursery b/c I was all about having a theme. (P.S. I still used the bumpers. It was not the health risk for us that we were warned about.) I bought a high chair b/c I thought I needed one. I bought a swing and a papasan chair and an exersaucer and a jumparoo... Some of the things were worth it, some were a waste. I had the Baby Bjorn carrier (which I still don't understand how to wear) and a travel system b/c I didn't understand that a Snap-n-Go is all you need when you have an infant. We debated: Diaper Champ? Diaper Genie? Diaper Champ? Diaper Genie? Not sure why we didn't just use the darn trash can. We take out the trash every day anyway. But, in my defense, it's sort of a rite of passage with your first baby. I think you're allowed, if not expected, to go a little overboard with your purchases. It's all part of the excitement.
Now we're onto #3 and I'm laughing about how there's not a single thing in her room that is new. Not a stitch of clothing, bedding, or furniture. She has a stained infant carrier that we purchased from a friend. (I'm ok with the stain b/c I know the people who stained it... if that makes sense.) I'm on the hunt for a used Snap-n-Go. We didn't use a highchair for Jack. He went from the papasan, to a Bumbo chair, to a booster seat that straps onto a regular chair and everything was fine. We did get a used pack-n-play this time because it's our first time living in a 2 story home with a baby. So I'm not really sure how long she'll sleep downstairs before I move her up to her room.
So, to come full circle in my rambling, maybe there's something to the whole Live and Learn thing. (But we still don't get Luvs because Pampers don't leak.) I think it's worth it to be a diaper snob. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)