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... :)

34 week check up

Everything is going just fine! I showed her a copy of my birth plan and she said she agreed with everything I wrote and handed it back. So that was easy! (I knew she'd be ok with it anyway!) My blood pressure is good, she asked me to take it every day now so there aren't any surprises. The baby is head down, and was facing with her back to my back so that kind of concerns me about the possibility of more back labor when the time comes. Overall it was a good visit, the baby sounded really good and she estimates that the baby is already about 6 pounds!!! So I am thinking I'll have another 9-pounder. She estimated Will's weight at 36 weeks to be 7 pounds, and 5 weeks later he was born at 9 1/2 pounds. So she was right on. Hope things continue to go as well as they are!

Christmas is done for another year...

My poor 2 year old was SO overwhelmed!! He had been sleeping really well for about a week (he didn't wake us up at all for quite a few nights in a row) and after Christmas Eve, he kept my husband up all night! And the next morning, Christmas Day, he finally stopped opening presents and just wanted to sit and watch his new Bob the Builder DVD, he wanted nothing to do with any more gifts! He was just DONE! He had a pretty restless night last night too, but he's got a lot of nasal goop and was coughing and snurfling throughout the night. That was mixed in with him yelling "NOOOO!" in his sleep and kicking the bed! I had insomnia again and once he got settled, I went back to our room (my husband wasn't feeling the best so he slept on the couch) and read for about an hour, finally after 5 am I got back to sleep.

This past week was busy but one wonderful highlight was that I got to see my friend Laura and her little girl (who will be 3 in January). Her husband had been deployed to Iraq with the Army and just got back in November, and they were visiting his family about 45 minutes from us. So my son and I went up to see them for the day and we had a really nice time! I got to see her this summer too, so it was a real treat to see them again. He will be retiring from the Army (technically he's done in 1 1/2 years but due to the Iraq war he will not be able to leave just then) and when they are finished, they'll be moving to Michigan, they've got property all set to build on right near the family they were visiting. So it will be wonderful to be able to see them more often!

I am realizing now that I've got only about 6 weeks left until I'm due. I don't have that much to do, and less to get, but I do need to wash diapers and baby clothes so the poor kiddo at least has something to wear! We also have not picked out a boy's "just in case" name, we keep talking about it and the conversation keeps going down the road of "EEWWW, that's a weird name!" It's so much easier to find names we don't like as opposed to names we like. And we want it to sound good with our last name too.

My husband is off all week and already it's going by way too fast. We knew it would though. I see the doctor for my 34 week check this week, then in 2 weeks I see her weekly until I'm done. It's hard to believe we're already almost to weekly visits. I've got so much cervical pressure so early with this one that I can't imagine I will last to my due date, but you never know, I'll probably be sitting here on Valentine's Day wondering where my little Valentine is...

I can't #*#*@*#*@*# sleep!!!

How cruel is this..... I am 8 months pregnant, my two year old still wakes me up in the night, so what does my stupid pregnant brain do? It keeps me up! My son woke me up at 4 this morning and, yes, you guessed it, I'm still up. Everyone (including him) was peacefully asleep in the house EXCEPT THE PREGNANT ONE... why??? The thing is that I am SO tired I can barely function, yet my brain will NOT let me sleep! I've had about 9 hours in the past two days combined.

I am hoping I can fall asleep with him when he naps in a little while. Yesterday I tried that but could not. Watch, today I can but he'll only sleep 1/2 hour. I feel like I just can't win, and I'm about to start clawing my eyes out in sheer frustration!!!

Third trimester Christmas shopping...

Can we say, OW? Oh my, I think that was my last big shop until much into next year. I got a couple of hours to myself last night to go to the mall and get a few things for my husband and son. By the time I left, I was so sore I could barely walk... between pelvic pain, my ankle bugging me again (darn joints), and my back hurting from hauling around the jacket I knew would be off in the first 5 minutes and my purse that does not stay on my shoulder, and the bags of gifts, it was just kind of tiring!! Now today I just feel bad, I think I did too much last night. Ahh well, I remember this feeling from before... it will just keep getting worse until after the baby is born. Nothing much you can do about it, pace yourself and that's about it. It was kind of nice to not shop with my toddler who now hates the stroller and wants to do nothing but ride the rides at the mall (and run away from me) but it was still very tiring hauling myself around with my stuff. Although I do enjoy getting gifts for people, I really have begun to intensely hate Christmas shopping, I think it's mainly because of all the other people out. I think people need to do more hunting (like hunt and shoot their own meat) because maybe they would get it out of their systems and not be so hell bent on finding "the perfect gift" for all the 1,000 people they are shopping for. Christmas is way too commercial anyway and this year I was extra crabby to be a part of that. Ugh.

Funny how this post started out by me complaining about feeling sore and then it changed to me hating how commercial Christmas is, there is just TOO much crap out there!!

32 week check up

I am happy to say, things are going very well! My blood pressure was totally normal (it has been at home too), and the baby sounded really good. I am measuring 33 cm (should be 32 at 32 weeks) which is a little big for now but she was not at all concerned about it. I have gained a total of 23 pounds. I expect it will probably wind up being between 25 and 30 - as I get bigger I won't be able to eat as much. I set up all the OB appointments I will need from here to the end - I actually made them through 41 weeks, being the eternal pessimist that I am! If I go before then, I can use one of them for the baby's check up and someone else can have any other(s) that are left! I will be seen in 2 weeks at 34 weeks, then in another 2 weeks at 36 weeks, then it's weekly until the birth. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. The only thing I REALLY want is to go into labor on my own, without any inducing drugs at all. From there, I know I can handle whatever comes next.

Today it is raining. All the snow we got over a week ago is now melted. Today after the doctor's I went to Yasmeen's (Middle Eastern store in Saginaw) and got some baklava, stuffed grape leaves, a huge jug of olive oil and a few other things. I just love that place! Tonight I am going back to Saginaw for some La Leche League business. My son is napping right now and giving me a little quiet computer time. I try not to do any work while he is sleeping because I need a break too when I can get one, but it is tempting especially when I have a mountain of dirty dishes in the kitchen... I'll feel better once that's all taken care of!

Owie Owie Owie...

OK, this stinks. I'm getting to the point where I'm just sore a lot more now... especially later in the day when I've been up and doing stuff! I do NOT like this part! I wish I could take off my belly and give myself a break, then put it back on. 31 1/2 weeks is too soon for the baby to come, but it hurts... all I can do is take Tylenol and try to change positions. Laying down feels the best, but then when I get up, I've got pubic symphesis pain from the pressure on my hips. Just can't win!! It feels like I'm aching in different places this time, more along the sides of my belly than the last time. Not happy at all! :(

Something funny...

I saw this in someone's siggie on a message board today:

Deep thought: Some people are like slinkies - They don't really have a purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

LOL

Does anyone read this?

Or am I just blowing a lot of hot air? LOL

If you have stopped by to read this, please leave a comment so I know I'm not just prattling on and on to nobody...

31 weeks and my blood pressure is NORMAL!!

I am SO relieved! I made it this far with normal blood pressure - also no episodes of tachycardia that I've noticed! It was right at 31 weeks during my pregnancy with Will, that my blood pressure was high enough to start medication, and I would have sudden, unexplained what my doctor thinks was supraventricular tachycardia - an abnormal, too-fast heart rate. The meds I took both lowered my blood pressure and kept my heart rate under control. I have been waiting for today, because I really was hoping to make it this far without needing medication!

One thing I noticed this time is that my blood pressure has stayed about the same. The last time, it started creeping up a month or two before it actually got high enough to cause problems. I am not sure what the rest of this pregnancy will bring, but I am hoping my body will hold out and that I won't need meds or monitoring at the end. I'd love to finish out this pregnancy in peace! I'm not going to hold my breath, there is always the possibility, but it sure would be great. I'll be checking it a few times a week just to be sure.

I can't believe I'm only about 2 months from my due date. It just seems like it shouldn't be coming up this fast. Now the next big hurdle (after seeing what happens with my BP) will be going into labor on my own. I am going to dig in my heels and refuse induction unless something is really going wrong with either me or the baby, but I won't consent to it just because I'm late. I simply can't be away from home that long this time. And it was a miserable experience, I'm sure I caused us much more grief than I needed to by being so impatient. Either way I am sure it will be a totally different labor this time, they all are, especially once you've already done it.

I have been talking to Will alot about babies getting nursies - he gets really excited when we go through all the list of animals that nurse and then I'll tell him that the baby in my tummy will nurse too. And that there will be plenty of nursies for him! I can't wait to see what he thinks when suddenly I have milk again!

30 week check up

Everything is going fine - my doctor told me, "I can't find a thing wrong with you!" My blood pressure, thankfully is just fine, I am going to watch it closely from here on out though, because the last time I was pregnant, I had to start medication at 31 weeks. Plus, I was having abnormal heart rhythms and had to see a cardiologist. I am really hoping that my body copes with this better this time, so I won't need any meds or anything else. My 1 hour glucose test was great at 85 and I'm not anemic or anything so that's good too. The baby is head down and measuring just as it should. Every now and then, I can feel something bony (maybe a shoulder or elbow?) digging into the right side of my pelvis, it doesn't hurt but I don't remember Will doing that. It must be comfortable that way because it happens a lot.

I will post a link to a belly shot as soon as I can get my husband to take one!

What a miserable week...

Last weekend, we were all sick. Throwing up, diarrhea, it was lovely! I threw up for the first time in probably at least 10 years. We were all just so miserable! Other people in my husband's family had it also, Will got it first and we got it later. We are still not quite back to normal, it has been hard to eat and for a couple of days it seemed like I lived off Gatorade and crackers. Not at all fun, especially being 29 weeks pregnant!! I still have a little nausea on and off, and last night had a bad headache and had to go to bed. Will even puked yesterday morning - even though he'd gone a few days keeping everything down. You can just tell by watching him that he's not feeling completely normal yet either.

Clane has this whole weekend off for Thanksgiving - 4 days in a row. It's always nice when we are all here together! We had Thanksgiving dinner at his parents' house, it was the first Thanksgiving that his sister was home in about 15 years. The food was good but none of us could eat much! And Will was just not his playful self. He usually jumps right down and wants to go find the dog and play with his toys, but yesterday he clung to me and would not look at anyone or let anyone touch him for a while.

I made sweet potato pie from the American Test Kitchens cookbook. It came out really good, it's not heavily spiced so you could really taste the flavor of the sweet potato. You also blind bake the crust, and while it's still hot, you sprinkle brown sugar on the bottom before putting in the filling. It was great (in fact pretty much everything I've made from that book has been really good) and will probably be the recipe I will use from now on for that pie. I enjoyed it even though I could not eat much, just had a small piece with real whipped cream too! Mmmm.

Everything with the baby seems to be going well. I am getting more pain in my pelvis now, as the joints all start to soften up. I had my 1 hour glucose tolerance test last weekend, and my doctor's office does not call you with normal labs - so I am assuming it was fine. I'll see them again on Wednesday. I'm going every 2 weeks now, isn't that weird? It doesn't seem like I should be that far along already. Yet it still seems like I've got a really long wait til the end. I'm sure the holidays will make that part go fast, but January into February will probably be the slowest part, and nothing much happening to break up that time. Guess I'll be doing a lot of knitting. My blood pressure is good too, but it was OK until 31 weeks with Will... I'll be watching it closely from here on out.

Happy Birthday Will!

Our son turned 2 today! I can hardly believe it's already been two years. Most of it has gone by in such a blur, I think mainly due to him being such a poor sleeper until recently. We had a pretty good day. This morning we picked up his cake (Hamilton's Bakery in Midland, MMMMM do they make GOOD stuff!) and then it was off to Toys R Us in Saginaw to shop for his presents. (Talk about last minute!) That place was a zoo! We wound up getting him a bouncy horse, a toy airplane, an Aquadoodle and some Sesame St. Aquadoodle accessories. Aquadoodle is cool, and the accessories are neat too, just get them wet and the colors appear! Very neat! The only problem is, he keeps insisting on chewing on the tips of the makers!!

Once we got home, we started getting ready for our little party. I made some sloppy joe mix and put it in the crock pot, we had baked beans (just Bush's) and chips/dip, raw veggies/dip, cheese and sausage and crackers. It was work getting things together but I always like having people over for this kind of thing so it was nice anyway! Clane helped out a lot because I was so sore the past couple of days, I could barely move! I'm better today now, I think it was partly the weather, and partly that a couple of days ago it was really nice out and I probably did too much.

Will had a good time opening gifts as you can imagine, and had a REALLY good time with the cake! He blew the candles out easily and wanted "more" so I had to light them again for him to blow out a second time. Then he ate cake and it got everywhere of course, we got some great pictures of that! It was just a really nice time. Once everyone left we watched the movie we made of the party and then dug out the tape from the end of my pregnancy wit him. I was huge and could barely move! Of course I burst into tears several times today, managed to hold it together while everyone was here and got all hormonal again once it was all over. It didn't help that we watched old tapes of him as a newborn. And the house on the tape when I was pregnant - it was so CLEAN!!! You can tell I wasn't chasing a little one around! The baby slept straight through the whole party tonight, even slept through my eating a corner piece of cake with a mountain of frosting on it. She woke up when everyone left. I am hoping she's a better sleeper than our son!

Overall it was a really good day! I also want to wish our friend Ella a happy 3rd birthday - it was way cool that Will was born on her birthday even though the labor lasted WAY longer than I'd wanted (about 50 hours), it was still really cool. And happy first anniversary to Chris and Sarah!