Switching...

For now, please visit my wordpress blog. I'm giving it a good trial run. The link is in the post below. Please let me know what you think!

Wordpress

I kind of like blogging on Wordpress so most likely I will be blogging there for the time being... please visit my blog there. If I decide to stay with them permanently I'll put up a post here letting everyone know.

Strep throat and possible new blog location

It sucks! I got the "official" call from my doctor's office this afternoon. I'm really glad I went and filled the Rx yesterday, at least I got a head start on it. I am feeling a little better... it still hurts and if I do too much, I still feel it, but at least I got some sleep last night... all the nights before that, I woke up each time I had to swallow because it hurt so much!

I am experimenting with another blog location, at wordpress.com. The link to that blog is here - I have imported most of what I've got in this blog, and right now I'm just playing around with layout and trying to get a few features in it that I like with blogger. I'd hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think! If I switch over permanently, I will post about it here and probably send out an email too.

SPOTS

I am pretty certain we've both got strep throat!! We both have white spots in our throats now (we keep asking each other, "where is the penlight?" because we've become compulsive throat-checkers) and my husband is on his way to the doctor. I didn't have spots yesterday when I saw my doctor, but I filled the antibiotics today. I'll probably find out the culture results tomorrow but if I've got spots, they've got to go!

Fortunately the kids seem to be ok. But, they are the ones in the house who are nursing!! Behold, the power of ees!

YouTube favorites

Talking cat
This cat is hysterical! Wait til you see what he was so pissed off about...

Twisted Sister - Christmas special
I never really got into this band, but the lead singer is so funny looking and they did a great job with this song!

Like the Numa Numa song? Here are a few!
Napoleon Dynamite
World of Warcraft
The Navy

Here is another favorite of mine - the Norwegian Army's rendition of "Kokomo" - (Kosovo)

I don't know why I like this one but it's a couple of Arab guys rapping about how much they like meat!

Enjoy these for now! Unfortunately, the video of the Russian belly dancer I thought was awesome is no longer up on You Tube. I'll have to search around for more of them sometime.

If you have your own YouTube favorites, please post the link in your comment! (Laura, you had a really funny Japanese potty training video!!)

Sick Sick Sick...

This SUCKS!!! I almost never get sick, so when I do, I sure do whine a lot! I started getting a sore throat late Thursday night and over the weekend it was so bad I could hardly swallow! I was running a low grade fever too, it got up to almost 100 and that was with both Tylenol and Advil! My husband got it too, and his temp was almost 102! Sophie was even crabby, had a low fever and wasn't sleeping very well, and was spitting up a lot more than usual. I called my doctor this morning and they said there have been a lot of people coming in with really bad sore throats, and about 50% of them have been strep!! I had a temp of 99.4 with Tylenol on board so I asked to be seen, went in this afternoon and they did a throat culture. So I'll find out probably Wednesday if anything showed up. I am thinking it's going to be negative, I think people with strep throat are way sicker than I am, I can function a little as long as I keep up with the pain meds. My head hurts and my neck glands have been so sore that I can't sleep because the pillow pressing on them hurts. And I wake myself up whenever I need to swallow because that hurts too! Ugh! I really, really hate this.

So far, it looks like Will is the only one who seems to be doing OK. I'll find out in the next few days if he is going to get it or not. That's funny, because usually he is the one who brings sick into this house!

As an add-on, I have a few clips from You Tube that I really like (besides the fat rant) that I need to post up here - mainly because they are funny, but there is one cool belly dance clip that I really like, this lady can really dance... there is some great belly dancing going on in Russia right now! When I have time (yeah right) I'll have to do a You Tube post...

A Fat Rant

Check this out!

I love coffee

I had been caffiene free for a really long time... since before I was pregnant with Sophie because I was having such a hard time sleeping. Then I avoided it while pregnant, because along with the sleeping problems, I didn't want my blood pressure to go up - it never did, but I didn't want to make it worse either! But now, OH am I enjoying my coffee... Sophie is sleeping better but she still wakes me every few hours to nurse, and that's fine... but I often cannot get the two of them to nap at the same time. If I can, I usually get frustrated because Sophie is too restless or Will wakes up too early. A little caffiene has made me a better mother. I would rather drink it, than be mad at them both all day long. I seriously, feel like a new person. Who'da thunk it?

Mountains -o- poo

OK, so I got up this morning, and Will (who is almost 2 1/2) woke up a bit later. I went to his room and he was in his crib, and he said "pooped". Sometimes he does poop first thing in the morning and he had a tell tale brown spot that had come through his pajamas. Nothing in the bed though so poopy pajamas is fine!

I got him on the changing table (with plenty of cloth diapers under him) and when I got his diaper open, I had a sinking feeling. Last night when I was cooking dinner, he wanted to eat and when I asked him what he wanted, he said "corn". (I can hear your sighs and gasps already!!) So I found a can in the pantry and he ate half of it for dinner! And we all know what happens to corn, right? You know, the corn conundrum? No matter how well you chew it, it always comes out looking like corn, and I probably don't need to say more!

So, to make a long story short, I used up about 10 baby wipes (I normally use 1-3 depending on the day, Clane is the one who routinely uses 10 - men!) because he literally had poo up to the bottom of his shoulder blades! This poop rightfully deserved its very own bag!!

Thunder thighs...

Sophie weighs 13 lb 4 oz!! That's a whole half pound HEAVIER than Will was at this same age!!! She is 23 1/2 inches long, which is the same length Will was at 2 months. It's funny because she was 2 inches shorter than him at birth and almost a pound lighter. She's a chunk! I make a ton of milk though and she's a good eater... plus I think I've just got genetics on my side. We make big babies! I thought she would be between 12 and 13 pounds, but now I know why my wrists are shot... she exceeded my expectations!

2 month update (9 weeks today!)

Things are starting to get a little bit better but not fast enough for this tired mama! Sophie is doing a lot better at night, she is finally agreeing to sleep during the time when she would otherwise be awake. And that is a huge relief for all of us. Now if I could actually sleep before 1 am or past 7:30 am or both, I'll be really happy! Otherwise she is doing great, she really looks big to me and is in quite a few of her 3-6 month outfits now. I will take her to the doctor on Wednesday and I'm guessing she is between 12 and 13 pounds. She is getting a little more predictable with her naps too so that makes life a little easier for me!

We set a date for her baptism, June 17th which is Father's Day. Will was baptized on Mother's Day 2005 so this is really cool! She will have two godmothers, my good friend Amy and Clane's sister! Both were just thrilled to be asked to be godparents!

We had some pictures taken at Sears this weekend... what a racket... wish I could take better pics or at least had better backgrounds because it's a rip off I think! They did come out nice, but I think once the kids are in school, we won't do Sears anymore! Will was near hysterical and refused to cooperate... the one shot she got of the 4 of us looks kind of harried but it's the best we could all do! Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow!

It was our 5th anniversary on the 20th and we had a nice dinner at the Italian place where we had our reception. I had a lemon chicken breast with capers and it was so good! We had some really awesome wine too, I'll be wanting to get more of that from somewhere! Will was a PITA but Sophie slept through most of it! I'm tellin ya, 2 1/2 is not for the faint of heart!! Clane bought me a really cool weather station, by Davis Instruments. I'm excited about it because once we get it up and running, and get the data online, we'll be sending it to the NOAA to help them with their forecasting! It's a really cool weather station and I'm really excited about it!

Clane also found Saturn this weekend through the telescope and it was the first time I ever saw it. It was very tiny but you could clearly see the rings. He didn't tell me what I was looking at but I knew right away, it was really neat... Hopefully he'll be able to find it again some clear night!

Sophie is 7 weeks old...

and we all have colds! UGH!!!!!!! Will had his first cold at 5 months. So 7 weeks is a little young! :(

Kitty update

So I brought her to the vet today, and the vet thinks it's related to her allergy problems with her skin. She said that the irritation probably caused a clot to form, and it basically cut off circulation to the tip of her ear, which turned necrotic and fell off! It could have also been an injury, but since she is no longer a rambunctious youngster who plays outside, I would be surprised if that's what it was. Her weight is still good and her scabs, although they aren't gone, are definitely better.

On a side note, one little town in the UP close to where I grew up, got 38 inches of snow during this latest storm they had up there. Go Painesdale! That's a lot of snow!

Just a little update...

I haven't posted here in a while so I thought I'd check in...

Nights have still been really hard. I think she is getting better, at least a little more predictable and she is stretching out her feedings a little more too. But it's not quick enough for her mama. I'm still sleep deprived and some days I feel crazy from lack of sleep. It's not even "tired" or even "exhausted" anymore, it's just completely insane. Any moms who have been there/done that will understand what I mean!

I got some information about my 20 year high school reunion today. I am thinking we will probably be in the UP for it, but I'm not sure yet how to work out the logistics. I will need to either go home to nurse Sophie or find a place to pump, because she will still be exclusively breastfed in July and I won't be able to go that long without either pumping or nursing. I am sure we will be able to work something out, I might attend part of it but not all of it. I actually don't even know yet if we'll be up there... but it might be nice, it's kind of a milestone year. I don't feel that old, it's funny! It's hard to imagine it's already been 20 years.

My husband has a 4 day weekend now for Easter. I've been waiting for this weekend ever since he went back to work after Sophie was born!

My dad is coming for a visit next week so that will be nice. I don't think we've seen him since last summer.

Sophie is 6 weeks old now and is just a chunk! I need to get more pictures of her. I just got some but she is sleeping so I'll need to get more once she wakes up again. She's got lots of chins and big meaty thunder thighs and I love them! She's definitely getting plenty to eat! I still have oversupply problems though, and she seems to struggle with that daily... poor baby. Oh well, I know that once she gets older she will come to expect it and probably even like it...

Oh and now my cat (the scabby one) is missing the tip of one of her ears. So it's off to see the vet tomorrow. It looks like it's healed up ok but since she doesn't go outside, I can't imagine what happened???

Hmmm... notice a theme?

The titles of my last two posts are vaguely reminiscent of songs by the Doors...

I wonder how I should interpret that? LOL

Yack three times Baby... yack some more today...

My poor daughter. Every time I try to nurse her laying down (so we can all sleep!) I flood her with milk, she swallows air, she starts to cry, then she yacks all over! I gave up trying to nap with her today because she spent the first 20 minutes of my son's (way too short) nap time crying and yacking because I nursed her side-lying while trying to get my son to fall asleep.

Sometimes I feel like this is never going to get better. I think I have resigned myself on the sleep thing though, I am just going to have to suffer and just expect no sleep and to be tired all the time. There just isn't anything we can do about it. We already sleep either with her or very close (in an Arm's Reach co-sleeper, side carred to the bed) and she can nurse as often as she needs to all night... there just isn't anything else we can do. I know it will get better but I also know we could be doing this for many months yet and I just don't have it in me to think about it.

I am even eliminating dairy from my diet in case that's the problem... I'm sure it will do no good but it's at least something I can do easily as I already don't eat much of it to begin with...

Also, my allergic cat, who still has fleas despite two (almost 3) months of Frontline, now is missing the tip of one of her ears. So it's back to the vet for us next week. Will anything ever get better around here?

Days turn into nights.... nights turn into days.....

Uggghhhhhhh sleep deprivation!! It sucks so bad! No wonder it's used as torture in some parts of the world, because it renders you unable to function! It seems like all my days have run together in one big blur, a pile of poopy diapers and endless sitting in the lazy boy nursing. Sophie is cute as heck (despite a bad case of baby acne) and she's growing like a weed... she weighed 11 pounds this Monday at the doctor's which is a gain of 2 pounds in 3 weeks! And, I can get one pair of old jeans on, buttoned and zipped. They are not comfortable, nor would I wear them out anywhere, but I can get them on! Otherwise I'm still in my stretchy stuff and one pair of maternity jeans when I feel the need to wear jeans. They are stretchy and more for early pregnancy or postpartum.

She still insists on being up in the middle of the night, often for hours... and trying to keep her awake more during the day really doesn't help. I guess this is one of those things that will pass, it will resolve itself one day, but it sure is hard now. I'm just so happy it's Friday, counting down to the weekend is the only thing keeping me going. And mercifully, Clane has 4 days off at Easter which is only a couple of weekends away.

On another note - I am attempting to make my life a little easier by actually planning my meals for the week ahead of time. I have never done that in my life, I like to cook and have usually made meals with little planning until that afternoon... unless it involves thawing out a large piece of meat. But I am hoping it will help streamline things. I will be able to pick one of the meals I planned on, get all the stuff out (because I sat with the cookbook and made a list before going to the store) and just make it without stressing about what to cook. I am using the America's Test Kitchens book right now, about everything I've made from that book has been really good. So I'll see how long I can keep this up!

We have crocuses blooming too, they came out this week!

3 weeks old!

Wow, it just doesn't seem like it's been that long already! I just can't wrap my brain around it! When I try to remember what it was like being pregnant and waiting for her, I can barely remember it, it just seems like a dream from long ago. It's kind of weird how that feels. I am sure being so darn tired isn't helping! Nights have been pretty brutal, she seems to have her usual "baby fuss" period from 1-3 am instead of in the evenings like most other babies. She was always awake in my belly at night, so I'm thinking she is still on her usual routine. I am hoping she gets it figured out... or at least I hope Clane and I can figure out how to work with it in such a way that we each get enough sleep to get by.

Breastfeeding is going well. I have oversupply problems (no surprise there) and actually had to block feed for 7-8 hours on one side to get rid of the green poop! And I'm leaking like a madwoman! If Sophie eats too much, up it comes... she actually got my face yesterday, ick!! At least breast milk doesn't stain and doesn't smell bad! (Even her poop smells like sour cream!)

Today I went through all the clothes we got as gifts and put them away. I also went through Will's clothes again and pulled out all the stuff that is either too small or will be too small come summer. I am going to need to do some serious clothes shopping for both of them! I know I am going to be donating a lot of Will's old clothes, we got a lot of them as hand me downs and a lot were for the wrong season. There is just no way I'd use them all, even if we had another boy.

It's my first whole day here alone with both creatures, and so far, it's going OK. Sophie is taking a nap and thank goodness for PBS, that's all I have to say!

I've got some pictures together but I would rather not post the link to them on my blog since it's public... if anyone wants to see the pictures and I haven't already sent them to you, just leave me a comment with your email in it and I'll send you the link!

Just a quick update...

I've got Sophie in the Moby wrap right now - it's about the only time I get computer time! Things are going fairly well... during the day she is pretty content, but nights have been really hard! Last night she screamed for several hours, was pretty much inconsolable! :( I finally swaddled her tightly, against her will, and she passed out after that, around 4:30 am!! I hope this is a short lived thing because it is really exhausting and heartbreaking! She is getting more used to sleeping in her bed rather than on us so that will help a little bit. I think if we can help her get her days and nights straight, that will be good. Of course she is only a little over a week old so it sounds par for the course!

Otherwise she is nursing well, she's got a different style than Will - he gets down to business and doesn't waste time... she has to make sure things are "just right", yells at it a bit, and that can take a few minutes before she finally latches and gets down to eating. She saw the doctor on Monday and had already gained back her birth weight plus 4 more ounces - she's 9 pounds already!

We really appreciate the emails and well wishes.. I haven't had much time to get photos uploaded but when I do, I'll be getting them out to everyone!

Birth Announcement!

Sophia Katherine was born Monday, February 19th at 9:41 am, weighing in at 8 lb, 12 oz and 19 inches long! I had several days of labor followed by almost 26 hours of labor at the hospital. We are working on getting breastfeeding established. I had some interventions I had not wanted originally but looking back, I made the right decisions, because of the long labor, I would not have been able to get through it all without them. We are both healthy and for that, we're thankful.

More to come later... no time now!

Home, baby still in

I'm not real happy about this, but I think I'm in what is called "prodromal labor". I should have expected it since it took 50 hours for my son to be born with "all guns fully loaded" so to speak. We went in, and I'd made very little progress, so my doctor ordered a sleeping pill so I could sleep, I took it, and we went home. I'm having some contractions today but they are mild and pretty far apart. Will stayed with grandma and grandpa last night and that went well, but my husband went and picked him up this morning since not much is happening right now.

There really isn't much I can do at this point, alternate activity with rest and when they pick up again, waiting til they are stronger, then giving doc a call and going in again.

Thankfully nobody has been calling us, freaking out! That would REALLY piss me off at this point, so I've dubbed our house, and all electronic devices flowing into, and out of it, a NO FREAK-OUT ZONE. I don't want to talk to anyone who is going to freak out about anything! No negative energy, please! If *I* can be patient enough to let this happen, I certainly expect everyone else to be patient as well! (After all, they are not the ones going through this!)

I'll update as I am able. The nurse last night was a sweetheart and I can only hope she is our nurse when we go in for real the next time!

I'm in labor, going in soon

I am in labor, no doubt about it. Right now I'm having contractions about every 4 minutes apart, for about the last couple of hours. They were mild all day, then suddenly they became like this! I called the doctor and she said to come in when we're ready, or when I really have a hard time getting through them. We might wait here for a bit, then go, these contractions seemed to come out of nowhere so we probably shouldn't wait too long! We'll be emailing out a birth announcement later on and when I get home and get a chance, I'll post about it here too.

I am amazed at how much easier these contractions are to cope with, than when I was induced. It's like night and day!

Could be early labor...

I could be in early labor, in fact I probably am, but I don't have ANY idea how long it will be... I had such a LONG (50 hour) labor with my son (even though it was induced) so we're just hanging out at home today and I kept my husband home from work. Depending on how things go, I may or may not get a chance to update this again if we need to leave for the hospital later - in any case I will post again if I'm still here or maybe my next post will be a birth announcement! :)

More to come!

Sorry...

For all you hopeless romantics who thought it would be SO cool if we had a Valentine's Day baby, you're out of luck!!

The next holiday, according to my calendar, is President's Day. :)

Doctor update

I am certainly not going to complain, but my doctor has done a complete turnaround on the whole induction thing! I'm SO relieved! She made me so mad last week! I had a non-stress test yesterday at the hospital (they watch baby's heart rate to make sure it behaves normally with movement and contractions, if you have any) which was totally fine, and today when I went in, we were both totally fine. So even though she did offer to induce if I wanted, she seemed completely OK with me just going home and letting nature take its course. I am also 1 cm and 60% effaced so at least all these contractions I've been having are doing SOMETHING! Maybe now that she is off my back, I can relax and go into labor. Either way, the baby will come when the baby is ready, and that's fine with me. I will have another NST at the hospital on Monday and see her again on Tuesday.

I have my moments of feeling pretty good and optimistic, to feeling really bad and just MAD that I haven't gone into labor yet. I suppose that's all par for the course. If I'm feeling OK tonight, I think we are going to head to the mall to do some walking. I plan to do some shopping as well, because I'm not going to haul my big pregnant ass all over the mall and not buy myself something to make me feel better! Even if it's another book! I've been going through a lot of books lately, I've read Jimmy Carter's "Palestine - Peace not Apartheid", I've gotten halfway through "The Iraq Study Group Report" and "The Weathermakers" which is about global warming. With all that heavy and depressing reading, now I am reading Bill Bryson's book about his travels through Europe. He is really funny and I've enjoyed every single book I've read by him! (Thanks Dad!) I got really tired of reading books about birth and breastfeeding, so I had to get something different!

I still think my due date was yesterday and not the 7th, but I'm too lazy to change my ticker. I'll put up a new ticker when the baby is born. Just do your own math and subtract 5 days. It's not that hard! :)

It's my dad's birthday...

And it doesn't look like he'll get a new grandchild today! *sigh* Sorry Dad, we tried!

Unless something unexpected surprises the heck out of us, it looks like it's business as usual....

More contractions...

I had a TON of Braxton Hicks again last night, and whew! They hurt! They weren't bad while I was laying down to go to sleep so at least that was good, I got a fairly decent night's sleep. But if I was up walking around, I could barely stand it. I could have spent some time walking into the night but I figured if it was really turning into labor, I needed to get some sleep first and foremost. I'm having a few mild ones right now but it's nothing that I'm excited over at this point.

My husband asked me if he should stay home today and I told him no, he should go to work. Will and I are getting together with some friends this morning, he will play with the other kids and us grownups will be working on some stuff for La Leche League. I need to continue on with life as usual!

I would love to have this baby tomorrow because it's my dad's birthday. I have a feeling it won't be that much longer anyway, definitely within the next week.

"Due"?

Today is my due date, I guess. Honestly I would be more willing to go with the 12th, only because when I look at my dates and the bigger picture it makes more sense. In any case, I saw the doctor yesterday and she royally pissed me off by attempting to get me used to the idea of induction - I'm not even due, this is a totally healthy pregnancy, and there is no reason for it! So she will have to make a very convincing argument, if I do need to see her next week in the office. I will not be induced because of the day on the calendar. I will consider it if there are concrete signs that the baby is not well or if I am not well, but otherwise, she will have to step outside her comfort zone and live with my decisions. In the meantime, she suggested (at least!!) evening primrose oil and red raspberry leaf tea. I have both so yesterday I started taking EPO and drinking as much tea as I could stand.

Yesterday after my appointment I met Clane for lunch. I started having Braxton-Hicks contrations during lunch and I had them for the rest of the day, they were still going when I went to bed. I have had a few this morning and I am sure they are helping things along, but they are really nothing to get excited about.

I am going to the hospital for a non-stress test on Monday if I'm still pregnant, and I will see the doctor again on Tuesday. I know at that point she will try to get me to set an induction date but she will have to be pretty convincing. If my NST is normal, and her exam checks out normal, I will go home and continue to wait. Unless she can tell me that the baby is definitely compromised, she will have to bear with me. If I am really only 40 weeks on Monday next week, in my opinion, it is still jumping the gun and really inappropriate to be talking about such an invasive procedure! I'm just really mad that she is laying all this on me now and that I have something else to worry about when I should just be relaxing!!

Otherwise, all is well. My BP is excellent, I am showing no signs of trouble, the baby sounds great and is doing very well, so there should be no need for this kind of crap, right?

Maybe a LITTLE is happening...

Things are going along well! I'll see the doctor on Tuesday, supposedly my "due" date is Wednesday the 7th but honestly I think it is more like a week from now or so. In any case, on Thursday night I had some pretty good contractions, they lasted well into the night but they were mild enough that I fell asleep before they went away. I had more on Friday but they weren't as frequent. By the weekend, they had pretty much stopped. Just some practice, they weren't painful or intense, just enough to notice them. Every little bit helps! I still don't think I will have this baby for another couple of weeks. It's just my gut feeling about it.

I also think this baby is going to be smaller than Will. He was 9 lb 8 oz and I just don't feel as big or swollen like I did with him. I am still wearing my wedding rings but my legs have gotten pretty puffy.

Aside from some minor organizational stuff, we are pretty much ready. The clothes and diapers are all washed, we have the baby bed upstairs now and all the bedding for that is washed. I've washed the car seat cover but still need to wipe down the car seat itself and have Clane install the base. I'm all stocked up on breast pads (I leaked like a maniac last time, for a really long time too) and baby wipes and still have a ton of baby wash that we're still using with Will. All I need is my body to start gearing up a little more intensely! I'm glad that I don't feel too bad most of the time, that's making things a little easier for now.

We're down to a week...

.... I guess! Actually when I saw the doctor this week, I told her something I'd thought for a while, that my due date was wrong. She went back in my chart after talking with me about it and looked at her wheel, and agreed that I was probably due closer to the 12th. 5 days isn't that long, so it's still pretty close, but I think it would make a pretty big difference if I go "late". If I'm 42 weeks by the "official" due date, that's a huge difference from being 41 weeks and 2 days. So although I am still hoping to give birth sometime in the first two weeks of February, this, I think, will help buy me more time if it doesn't happen.

NOTHING is happening by the way. But I am continuing to do well, and so is the baby. My blood pressure is stable and the baby is doing very well. I've got the usual aches and pains of the end, but it's nothing I can't cope with. I had a pretty negative-feeling day yesterday, but today I am feeling better. I know that I could really go into labor at any time, despite that not much is going on that I can tell! Babies come when they are ready and when I look at the big picture, it's really not going to be that much longer.

Another scabby cat update!!

Saturday night, I was combing out one of the cats (not the allergic one, but the other one - Kali), with a fine comb instead of a brush. She has a really thick coat and tends to get matted if I don't use a comb to get way down to her skin. She wasn't shedding much (thanks to changing their diets, their fur is growing in really nice now) but when I went to take the hair off the comb, there it was - a flea!! And it was ALIVE!!! I got all grossed out and the rest of the night couldn't stop scratching myself!

I put a call in to the vet first thing this morning. I wanted to get some Frontline or something similar because I don't want to mess around with this!! The vet called me back and was ECSTATIC that I found the flea! She now thinks this was 90% of P's skin problems, because allergic cats only need one flea bite per WEEK to get rashy and scabby and miserable! I will be going in later today to pick up the flea meds and we'll start them tonight. They checked P for fleas each time I brought her in but never found any - but she definitely could still have them. She told me I did well and was very happy I found the flea.

I can't imagine that a person would be SO happy that I found a flea, but that's just me! :)

Just added a new link...

Please check out The Shape of a Mother. Being pregnant and giving birth changes our bodies, there is no denying that! We are so used to seeing "flawless" bodies in the media, entertainment and advertising, that many of us tend to feel bad or hopeless about how our bodies look during pregnancy and after childbirth. This blog is really important, I think, because it shows pictures of what REAL women look like, not the doctored up, Hollywoodized versions we might have in our minds!

Besides, we mommies have EARNED these bodies! And we worked damn hard for them! We are beautiful and that's just the way it is!!

38 weeks

I tend to look at the 38 week point as the final countdown! Although it could still be several weeks until the big day, baby is pretty much done developing and the birth could really come any time and things would be fine. I am continuing to do well. I can feel that the baby has gone further into my pelvis, as I am having quite a bit more pain and pressure there. It feels like my joints are coming apart! But it's all normal, and it's a good thing at this point. I had some strong contractions last night, but I think I brought them on myself by just having a busy day and doing more than I probably should have. After a snack, a big glass of water and a nice long shower, they had mostly gone away and were completely gone by the time I went to sleep. They all help though, and I try to focus on that rather than thinking of it as a false alarm. Overall I really don't feel that anything is really happening, so we're just taking each day as it comes. Will lifts up my shirt and yells "BABY OUT!!" into my belly button so I am hoping one day soon, the baby will listen to him and come out to see us!

My blood pressure is good so that part will always make me happy!

Today was a pretty good day! I got together with some fellow La Leche League members to work on a few things and that went well. One of the girls has a son about my son's age and they were playing together so well, that we stayed for a good part of the day! Since we didn't have to run interference with them very often, we got a lot of work done. I'd been wanting to go through this stuff for a long time and it was good to be able to sit down and do it! It's getting me really excited to be breastfeeding an infant again! And the boys had a lot of fun, they played together exceptionally well, working out their own problems, cooperating, sharing, it was all really good!

We moved some furniture (well, my husband did the moving) in our room to make room for the baby's co-sleeper. It's neat, it's like a big bassinet that attaches to a regular bed. I am hoping that will make life easier for us for night nursing. Will still really needs to be in the crib and I don't really want to buy another one of those! Even though we didn't take any furniture out of our room, it still looks a lot bigger to me. It will be exciting to see the room all set up, although I'm not sure we'll leave it that way for now. The co-sleeper is pretty big and I need a lot of room to get out of bed in the night right now.

I feel like I'm in a pretty good mood today. I hope I still feel like this tomorrow! Seems like I'm irritated most of the time these days. That annoys me too! *sigh*

Nothing's happening...

In case someone is looking at my blog to see if anything is happening with my pregnancy, you're out of luck! There is nothing going on at all. The only thing is that all I want to do is sleep, and I don't want to go anywhere or do anything. Otherwise, nothing has changed or is happening at all! I'm pretty certain there will be no baby this week. :)

37 weeks and scabby cat update!

All is well, and quiet, with the pregnancy! My blood pressure is excellent, my weight is still good, the baby is doing fine and measuring right on. The doctor said that I could to into my own little labor and it's just a matter of time! So that was all good news. I wound up having to call her later in the day, but I'll keep the day in chronological order so I don't mess up the story. :)

Later in the day I had to take our scabby cat to the vet for a check up. My friend came with me to help carry the cat in and entertain my son. The vet thought she was doing well, she hasn't lost any weight and her fur is growing in nice and thick and shiny. She thought the scabbiness was improving as well, and agreed that continuing to give her cortisone shots could be more of a risk than a benefit at this point. (I don't want a diabetic cat and neither does she!) So we didn't even get charged for the visit, and she would like me to call her back in a couple of months to let her know how things are going.

While we were at the vet, I started seeing spots. After a few minutes of that, I realized I was getting a migraine! I haven't had one in over 8 years but I knew right away that's what it was. I got us all home, dropped off my friend at her house, and got everyone out of the car. By that time I'd missed calling my doctor's office by about 7 minutes. The aura (the flashes of light/spots) was just about ending and I knew I had about 30-45 minutes before the pain started. I called her answering service and about an hour later she called back, and offered to call in a prescription for me. The funny thing was that I'd taken Tylenol before heading to the vet, because my back was hurting from all the running/sitting I'd done earlier and I didn't want to sit there in pain. Usually, in my experience, taking Tylenol for a migraine is like taking a pee on a forest fire! But, I think this migraine was to be a really mild one because I never really did get a bad headache. My husband picked up my prescription and I took some of it, and although I felt a few twinges (and now I'm hearing static - weird!), it never did get bad. The last one I had lasted for 3 days! Clane took care of Will the rest of the evening and I got fairly OK sleep. Today I am tired and feeling a little out of sorts but my headache is gone and I haven't needed to use anything else for it.

But all through this, the baby has been doing her usual sleep for several hours, then wake up and kick me, pretty much like normal. And my blood pressure continues to be excellent. I'm just taking it easy for today. So we'll see how this all turns out!

36 weeks! And more on scabby kitty...

I'm really in the home stretch now! I have hopes of having a January baby, but, in all likelihood, I will have a February baby - probably later than the 7th! I see the doctor every week now and all was well yesterday. My blood pressure continues to be excellent without meds, and she is happy with everything else. There is really not much to report, just that things are going along well and even though it feels like it might take forever, it's really not that long. And the time seems to be going by so fast, with Will to take care of! I'm always busy it seems!

Our kitty still has scabs. :( They are mainly on the front part of her neck, and although there aren't new ones that I can tell, the vet still wants to see her next week. We are probably going to get her another cortisone shot, the vet said there is often a seasonal component to food allergies in cats. She didn't want to keep giving the cortisone but she wanted to get rid of the problem before spring came and brings her more allergens. The cats are doing great on their new food, even Kali's fur is softer and shinier than it's been in a long time. She doesn't have that funky greasy feeling she had to her fur (especially where she can't reach it to groom herself) before and P's winter coat is growing in nice and shiny and thick. So I am hoping P checks out OK and maybe this last shot is enough to clear it up the rest of the way. Trying to brush/comb out the scabs is so gross!! It grosses me out each time. Funny I've seen SO many nasty things, yet scabs on a cat just make me queasy!

Funny cat site

I found this on a friend's blog, you need to go check it out if you like cats with a sense of humor. I should take some pictures of ours with stuff on them. It's really hysterical!

This is getting old...

I'm really quite sick of being pregnant! Everything is getting old... the pelvic pain, being tired because I'm not getting enough sleep because I CAN'T sleep, getting so short of breath, getting all winded just from getting up... I am going to ask my doctor (who is an osteopath) if she can do some adjustments on my hips or something because I can barely walk! I'm SO not happy right now! Thank goodness we're getting down to the end, because it's all I can do to make it through the day half the time. I actually got a few things done here today - cleaned a couple of toilets, scrubbed the sink in our bathroom (it was really bad), did laundry, went grocery shopping... it would be a fraction of what I'd normally do during a non pregnant day though.

Thankfully my blood pressure is still really good... :)