No time, no time

Good grief. It is hard working full time and taking care of an infant. Very hard. I feel like I have no time for me whatsoever. I'm either at work, or taking care of S or cleaning house. Little time available for other things like, oh, reading, blogging, etc.

There is good news happening. Liana at http:// http:// Liana > has been matched with a birth mother! It is so exciting and I can't wait for them to meet. It sounds like a great match. I am wishing them lots and lots of luck.

S is doing great. He is 5.5 months old now and just wonderful 99.6% of the time. The other 0.4% he spends trying to make sure I never sleep. Some nights he is wonderful and other nights he is up 2-3 times. I cannot predict what nights are what either.

Leaving you all with a picture:

Made the switch

To the new Blogger. Hope it wasn't a mistake, but time will tell.

I Don't have a lot to say today. It is snowing, again. We had about 6-8 inches last night (a paltry amount compared to others) and supposed to get another 1-2 tonight. We'll see.

I have a little video of the S man. Cutiepie that he is.

Hope everyone is well.

Where oh where have I been?

You might ask that. I've been too damn busy, is where I've been. Having a four month old and working full time, including call every other week, is HARD. But worth it.

S is now 4 months old! Amazing. He's just amazing. I will say, though, that I wish he were still sleepin through the night. He had been doing that up until about 1-2 weeks ago. He now wakes up once or twice a night and doesn't go back to sleep on his own. I either have to breastfeed or just hold him and he goes back to sleep rather quickly. Sigh. Any advice on that?

We're thinking of getting a m*nivan. Yes... I want a Hond@ Ody&&ey. They are SOOOO nice. We're also thinking of looking at the P*lot.

I had a brief scare the other week. I am mostly breastfeeding, but we do use formula for about 20-30% of his feedings. I had realized that I hadn't had a per*od since I had S. No worries, though. She showed up a day later (of course I had already bought a HPT and used one!).

I will make an attempt to be more faithful about blogging, but all I seem to be able to talk about is S.

Sigh

Time flies

I'm back to work. Only part time, but it still sucks. It's not tooooo bad as C watching S while I'm working, but still, I hate it pretty much.

S is doing great. AT his 2 month visit he went from 6lb11oz at birth to 12lb 12oz and 19.5 inches long to 23 inches long. He's in and has been in 3 month clothes and will be out of those soon.

He's so much fun. Smiles and talks and just is a joy. He is sleeping pretty much through the night most nights. He goes to bed around 10 and gets up at 7 or 7:30. What a great baby.

He will start daycare in January. I hope that it is not too traumatic for me (or him). Hubby is sad too.

I have done nothing for Christmas yet. Nothing. Ugh. I'll have to get some shopping done this weekend I guess. I HATE shopping on the weekends around Christmastime. I hate the crowds and the hustle and bustle. I do want to try to get S to Santa though.

Speaking of S... here's a picture or two:

Ugh

Yesterday sucked. Nothing to do with S and everything to do with me. I had either a virus or food poisoning. Nausea, abdominal pain and cramping and the world's worst diarrhea.. ugh. Woke up and felt kind of bad but as the day progressed, it got worse and worse. I slept most of the day, waking up only to feed the little guy. C had to give him a bottle twice.

When I would walk, I felt light headed. Thought I was going to pass out a couple of times. Feel much better today. I have no idea what I would have done if C weren't here. I guess I would have had to call neighbors for help.

As far as the family thing goes, I've tried calling my niece several times, with no one answering teh phone. She's called back a couple of times, when we weren't home.

I'm trying again this weekend. However, I think this is mostly a drama by her mother more than an actual problem.

Quandry

I haven't spoken much about my family on here. Mainly because there isn't a lot to say. My parents are both deceased, my Dad in Dec of 1999 and my Mom in Dec of 2000. I do have a sister, but we are not in contact with each other much. She lives in Florida and has a daughter, who is now 15.

The last time I saw my sister and niece was at my wedding in 2001. I have talked to them a few times, but that's about it. I don't have a way to call them, because I don't have their phone number. My sister is way way different than me. She is now 38.

Anyway, last night around 9 or so the phone rings and it's my sister. She's obviously quite drunk. I haven't talked to her in probably 2 years. So she is rambling on and on about how my niece is living wiht her dad and that her dad apparently got mad at her for getting a D on her report card (rightfully so IMO).

The long and short of it, is this. My sister cannot have her daughter living with her because she (sister) has a drug issue. She proposes that I get custody of her daughter.

This is something that I had wished for several years ago, when my niece was younger and hadn't been subjected to the things she has been subjected to. Now? With a newborn?

Sigh. I feel like the world's worst aunt, but I really don't think I want this. Not to mention, is there a court who would give custody to a 15 year old to her aunt who lives nearly 2000 miles away? Especially when there is a father and grandparents who would take her?

Just sounds like trouble to me.

What do you all think??

4 weeks

Today S is 4 weeks old. Amazing. The time has both flown by and dragged. My maternity leave is half over already.

S is growing so big, so fast. He's over 8 pounds now, up from 6lb 11.5 at birth. He's starting to fill in some of his clothes, finally. Although I'm afraid that he's not going to be fitting into many clothes for very long.

I'm sorry this post is all baby all the time. But it is what my life is right now. All baby all the time.

This is a picture of S and his daddy. Aren't they cute together?

Hard

Doesn't begin to describe it. It is hard, really really hard. I thought I was prepared for it, but I guess I'm not. It's getting better, though. Is it worth it?

You be the judge:


It is so worth it. He's become my world and I his. Hubby is entraced as well.

Birth Story

Well, here is the long awaited birth story.

Went into the hospital on 9/26 at about 8pm for induction. I was still completely closed but about 80% effaced. Had cytotec placed every 4 hours, for 3 doses. After the 3rd dose, I was dilated about 1.5 cm and my OB broke my water.

I had been having contractions all night, not bad, but progressively getting stronger. After he broke my water, the contractions got stronger. Around 10:30 or so I felt I needed something. Still not significantly dilated (pitocin was started around 9).

So, we first went with demerol and phenergan. Ugh. Mostly all it did was make me sleepy. I would fall asleep between contractions and when they hit, WHAM. Got an intrathecal (that is fentanyl and morphine given as a spinal). It worked for about 2 hours (now it's around 1:30 or so. The contractions were still there and I was then about 5cm dilated.

Called the anesthetist back and he placed a second intrathecal around 2:15 or so. Did not help a bit. Contractions were strong! I wasn't sure I was going to be able to take it. Finally around 3 or so I told C to go get the nurses because I had to PUSH. They came in and I was completely dilated.

Started pushing shortly after the OB checked me and pushed for a bit over an hour. S began having decelerations near the end, so they placed a vacuum, but I was able to push him out at 4:47 pm.

I was surprised I was able to do as well as I did, to be honest. My OB (who is a friend of mine) told me later that he was sure I was going to need a c-section. Luckily I proved him wrong.

Introducing

I am home from the hospital. S is also. He's doing great. He was born at 4:47 pm 9/27. He was 6lb 11.5 ounces and 19.5 inches long.

I'm in love.

I'll post more later.

38w1d

Yep, that's me. Stranger things have happened, but I am now 7 days away from meeting this guy. Induction on 9/27. Wow. Still so much to do at home and no energy to do it. Sigh.

Ultrasound on Monday was good. He's still measuring right on dates via ultrasound. Weight about 6lb 13 oz, not too big, not too small :)! Makes me feel good that I've been doing well on my "GD" diet. UGH! Gives me hope for a vaginal delivery. Also had normal amount of amniotic fluid present, which made me happy. He was rubbing his eyes, so cute. I'm getting more and more excited about meeting him.

Maternity leave is all set with work. I'm taking the 6 weeks allowed (with benefits paid) then taking 2 weeks of vacation. That way I don't have to pay any of my benefits, which for 2 weeks would have been almost 1000.00. Medical malpractice insurance is expensive!

Birthday was good. Birthday dinner was awesome.

Wish there was a sushi restaurant in this town, I'd have sushi for dinner on 9/27 if so. Sigh.

Happy 43rd Birthday

To me. Yep, I turn 43 today. YIKES! What am I thinking having a baby at this age? I'm thinking I'll make a good mother, but sheesh, I'll be 61 or so when this child graduates from high school. Not ancient, but pretty darned old. On the other hand, there are lots of older mothers out there these days.

Since I have GD, no cake for me :( Got a beautiful card from DH with a spa gift certificate :) Hopefully I can do the Mother to be package before I am a mother :)

Speaking of that, had my 37 week appointment last Thursday. I am now measuring behind :(. I am getting an ultrasound tomorrow to look at the amount of amniotic fluid and measuring the kid. OB thinks that the baby has just dropped, but wants to be sure. Wish me luck.

Hope you all have had a good weekend.

Another preggy post

Seems like all I talk about is this pregnancy. It is hard to not talk about anything else when it is foremost in my mine, ya know? I still have feelings of guilt regarding those who are not on the same journey as I am.

I am now 36w5d. Amazing. Saw my OB on Thursday and everything is good so far. My leg that had the DVT (blood clot) in it last August (2005) swells terribly compared to the other leg, but not too bad. Baby is measuring good. I go twice a week for NST's (which is fun but a pain too). Start my weekly OB visits too.

On exam my cervix is closed and firm. He's not overly happy with that, as he wants to induce me on the 27th. The reason? I'm on lovenox (a blood thinner) which would prevent me from getting an epidural or spinal if I needed/wanted it. SO I need to come off of it for 48 hours prior to laboring, but given the fact I had a blood clot we don't want me to be off of it for much longer than that.

I cannot believe that in 17 days I should be holding this baby!

Hope you are all doing great.

35 weeks

That's me today. Wow. Time is flying by, for sure. FLYING by.

Going to NST's twice a week. The good part about that is I get to lay down for 30-45 minutes.. YAY. LOL. It's also kind of fun to hear him moving around on the doppler that's place on you for that entire time. He still can move and I don't really feel him, weird.

Last ultrasound (last Thursday) showed him to be about 4lb 10 oz. He's growing just fine, thank you very much. He also measured right on for his size/due date.

I am SOOOO tired of people saying "you are so small". Grrrr. Everything you can objectively measure me by is right exactly on dates. I keep getting the implication with the "you're so small" comments that "you're not gaining enough to sustain that other life"". I know that most are not saying that, but that is how I feel at times. Yet another thing I'll put on my list of things not to say to people.

Near us, about 8-10 miles away, last Thursday were tornadoes. They estimate one of them to have been about 1/2 mile wide. A friend of mine was watching it (yeah, I know, she should have been in her basement) and saw 4 smaller ones sprout from the large one. One person died, many lost their houses.

There was also a dairy farmer who lost about 200 head of cattle when his 4 barns were destroyed. I heard that it was like a war zone where those poor cows were :(

Our new weather radio, however, works GREAT! It gave us the heads up on the tornado warning (where we live, we would never hear the sirens in town).

Another day, another NST (mostly pg related post)

I am currently 33w2d. Amazing. I can't believe that we're this far along. Finally hubby got the baby's room painted, and most of the border put up. We're doing a Classic Pooh theme (mostly, we'll also have some Disney Pooh hanging). We won't have the crib up until his parents get here in October, because they are bringing it from PA.

I go now for twice weekly NST's. So far, this guy has been great. Doing what he is supposed to do :). Had an ultrasound today, he weighs about 4lbs 10oz. IN the 40th percentile and measures right on with all the measurements. I'm very happy

I'm still working. I plan to work until I deliver, hopefully. Although I find myself exhausted at the end of the day. Sigh. OF course it doesn't really help that I'm busier than I've ever been. Last Friday I worked from 7:30am until midnight. Guess people continue to get ill and SOMEONE has to take care of them. Heh.

Don't have much more to say right now. I'll try to be better with posting, but not going to bank on it.

GD

That's what I've got. Stinks.

I'm 29w4d today. Had my 28 week checkup last week and along with that was my GTT test. For those of you who have not taken it, it is drinking this icky sweet stuff, then waiting one hour to get stuck. I failed. Normal is up to 140, mine was 181. My OB said that I could either take the 3 hour or be treated as GD. In his experience, if you fail the 1 hour that badly, you tend to fail the 3 hour.

Now with my job it is very difficult to take a 3 hour segment of time in the early morning to get stuck, drink sweet liquid, sit around for 3 hours and get stuck once each hour (without eating or drinking anything during that time). So I opted to be treated as GD.

Now I've only gained like 8 pounds this pregnancy so far. Which I feel weird about, but the OB has not been worried about. Much of that weigh gain came in the face of pastas, milkshakes, etc. None of which I can have :( Even with giving all that up, my fasting (morning) sugars have been higher than what they want to see. My 1 hour after eating numbers have been "close" but many have been a little over. So I think he was right :(

The scary part is it puts me a higher risk of developing diabetes in the future :(. Guess this is my impetus to lose weight after this baby is born.

On other fronts... Last week was hotter than a, well, hot. I live in Minnesota. Last weekend, temps were close to and in some parts, over 100 degrees. Talk about hot!

We did, however, go to the big baby store and register. We've also registered at Tar&et. Amazing what this baby needs, eh? It was fun though :)

Update

Well, it's been hot around here. It's not supposed to be this hot in Minnesota, is it? This weekend we're looking at 95+ temps and heat index of over 100. Yippee.

We also haven't had much rain around here. Did get a storm last night, but we sure need rain. I know the farmers are wanting some good soaking rains. Hubby was outside with the dog and came in and said, our grass is crunchy. Not normal!

Update on PG stuff:

Had my 28 week appointment yesterday. Everything looks good. I measure right on target. Have gained a whopping 8 pounds during this pregnancy. OB is happy with that so far. Cervix is long and closed and firm, he's happy about that too (as am I, of course)

Had my GTT today (1 hour) and failed :( 186 was my result, they like it under 140. My OB told me that in his experience if your 1 hr is that high, you tend to fail the 3 hour. So I get to see the NP and get started on a GD diet. Also, since being on lovenox (a blood thinner) shots since last August isn't enough, I'll get to do fingerstick blood sugars too. yippee.

All in all though, things are still going well. This little guy is a mover, that's for sure!

Assorted stuff

We have returned. The road trip was over 3K miles, but a lot of fun. I drove most of it as I love to drive and hubby can do other things in the car, like read. I cannot read in an auto. It makes me ill, ugh.

We managed to get through Chicago without much hassle, which is always a plus (on the way out that is). We did go to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals - awesome game, awesome time. So HAPPY the Hurricanes are the 2006 Stanley CUp Champions!

The friend's wedding we went to was great. The reception was ok. They had given the DJ a list of over 80 songs to play (IN 3 HOURS) what were they nuts? There was a huge thunderstorm which took out the power for a short while. Fun stuff :)

We then went to Hubby's parents where we stayed for 5 nights. His sister gave us gobs and gobs of stuff. Car seats, strollers, clothes, toys, LOTS. They also had a surprise baby shower while we were there, which was neat.

On the way back home, we stopped in my hometown and ate at my favorite restaurant. Luigi's. It's in Akron, OH and if you get the chance to go, go. YUM.

The trip back home was ok... just took over 2 hours to get through Chicago that time. BLECH.


PG ment:


Had my 25 week appointment today. Everything so far is doing well. I have been having a trace amount of edema, but OB not too worried about it at this point. Next visit will be with the 1hr GTT. Fun. I have an ultrasound scheduled for next Wednesday morning at 7:30.

Been feeling the munchkin move a lot. Some of the kicks are almost painful - it's the one's where it feels like he's rocking on my cervix. Yeesh.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Hot hot hot

Baby, it's hot outside. I live in Minnesota... it was 95 degrees today - in May! My goodness! Even our dog didn't want to go outside, and she loves it outside.

Not much else new. We're going on a big road trip starting next Saturday. Leaving to go to NC. Our friend is getting married. We're then going to go to PA to visit hubby's parents.

Should be fun. We have a new Civic Hybrid which gets great gas mileage (over 50mpg), but we're going to take our truck. Just can't picture me getting in and out of the Hybrid at 23/24 weeks pg. Not only that, the seats are not that comfortable on long trips, ouchie butt!

Besides that, I love my truck. It too, is a Honda. It's a Ridgeline, and even though it may look funny, it drives so like a car and rides great. None of that "bouncy" stuff that you feel in most trucks. It also has XM radio which will be key, since the Stanley Cup playoffs will be going on and we love us some hockey.

We're hoping that the Carolina Hurricanes get to the Cup finals - and we'll try our best to go to a game while we are there.

bad bad blogger

What is new with me? Not much. Just watching time fly. I cannot believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted something. Bad me.

We went to Florida last week (Wednesday to Monday). Orlando. Hubby was in a "competition" for school and I tagged along. It was nice to be the one laying in bed for a change as he had to get up and go early :D. He was in 3 competitions, got called on stage for all three, and placed 3rd in the one. Not too bad :)

My problem was my back. It started hurting Thursday morning :(. I've had back problems before and this was my normal back pain. OUCH. IT did get better before we left, but I didn't do much. But that was ok too. It was nice to be lazy!

I am currently 20w5d today. We had our "big" ultrasound last week. Everything measured right on to our due date (had the ultrasound on 20w2d and we measured at 20w2d!). Weight was 12 ounces (said that was 51st percentile). So we're dead on :)

BTW - it's a BOY! We're both happy with that.

I still think I just look fat. I don't look pregnant to me, but hubby thinks I look pregnant. I am wearing mostly maternity clothes, but can still wear some of my regular pants (2 pair).

So far, so good. We're moving close to that "viability" stage. Maybe, just maybe, we're going to get a real live baby out of this.