I have so many friends having rainbow babies, adopting rainbow babies, or having their first or second babies lately. It's a good thing I'm already pregnant (and have a 1 year old who is still pretty babyish) or I'd be having some serious baby fever. I held a 6 lb baby girl today and it was hard to believe Luke was ever that small (and Olivia of course was much much smaller than both of them at under a pound.) Luke was with me, and stared at the babies, but didn't really seem to care much about them either way. Give him some fridge magnets over babies, any day. (For those of you who follow Brooke , her rainbow baby safely arrived today as well! I will let her share the details herself when she has time, but I will say that much. :)
Speaking of rainbow babies, Lucas is having some severe separation-from-mommy anxiety. Like, to the point where, if he even THINKS I might leave, he will start crying, even if I'm right there. Today we were at my friend's house and he was in the kitchen playing with fridge magnets while I was sitting on the couch a few feet away, he could clearly hear my voice even if he couldn't see me, but started crying hysterically and took a few minutes to calm down. I only have 4 weeks left of school, so that's good, but yeesh...they could be a rough 4 weeks for all of us. (This next week I only have class on Monday, and then a midterm on Saturday for my online class that I have to go take in person, but both days he can stay with Joe...which is not necessarily any better than leaving him with my parents. Tonight he was in the house with Joe while I went to find something in my car and he FREAKED OUT thinking I had left.) He is definitely a momma's boy. I really hope it gets better before I am in the hospital with this new baby. Those could be a few REALLY rough days for him.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
And the hand saga comes to an end.
Yesterday I saw the hand doctor for what turned out to be the final time. I was a bit nervous because there is a bit of a bump under my scar (nothing really noticable or big) and I was worried he would want to open it up (and I was planning to tell him no.) To my surprise, he thought it looked excellent, apparently it's just a thick scar. It's only about a quarter of an inch long, so I'm not too worried about it. Glad it's finally over and I don't have to go back, I have enough medical appointments to juggle without the stupid hand stuff on top of it.
This baby has been moving like crazy all day. It won't be long before Joe (and Luke) are feeling him too. It still blows my mind that I never felt Olivia move like this even though I was several weeks later. Hopefully this is a good sign that he is growing accordingly. We are not even a tiny bit closer on names. I am over even thinking about it for awhile. I can't even come up with a name that I like, much less a name that I like that Joe also likes. (Luckily no worries about Snooki's name choice. Lorenzo is actually not a bad name considering his mom is "snooki", but not for me.)
I suddenly have no more pictures of Luke to post because Luke wants to see my camera whenever he gets a glimpse of it and then stops whatever cute thing he was doing, and throws a fit because he wants to see the camera.
Speaking of Luke, he is having a tough time lately. Sleeping like crap (so I guess I could say I'm having a tough time as well), but that's not especially new, but he's not so keen on this mommy spending 2 days a week in school thing either. You'd think he'd be used to it since I was volunteering and going to school from December on. Today I left him with my mom while I was in school and she said he cried off and on all day, and he has been pretty emotional most of the night as well. Luckily next week I only have school one day, and it's when Joe is already off, so hopefully that will help. And after that, only 3 weeks left of school. Then I am DONE with my prereqs with the exception of college algebra, which I've already taken and earned an A, but it was more than 5 years ago. I am hoping to pass the test to test out of it (the score required seems fairly low). If I can't do that, I guess I will try to take it online over the fall, somewhere, someway. Fingers crossed that I can just pass it and be done. Then I will have a year off, with Luke and the baby, while I wait to get into the ultrasound program. It's possible that the waiting list is now 2 years, which would be okay with me too.
Anyway, I really need to get to bed while I can.
This baby has been moving like crazy all day. It won't be long before Joe (and Luke) are feeling him too. It still blows my mind that I never felt Olivia move like this even though I was several weeks later. Hopefully this is a good sign that he is growing accordingly. We are not even a tiny bit closer on names. I am over even thinking about it for awhile. I can't even come up with a name that I like, much less a name that I like that Joe also likes. (Luckily no worries about Snooki's name choice. Lorenzo is actually not a bad name considering his mom is "snooki", but not for me.)
I suddenly have no more pictures of Luke to post because Luke wants to see my camera whenever he gets a glimpse of it and then stops whatever cute thing he was doing, and throws a fit because he wants to see the camera.
Speaking of Luke, he is having a tough time lately. Sleeping like crap (so I guess I could say I'm having a tough time as well), but that's not especially new, but he's not so keen on this mommy spending 2 days a week in school thing either. You'd think he'd be used to it since I was volunteering and going to school from December on. Today I left him with my mom while I was in school and she said he cried off and on all day, and he has been pretty emotional most of the night as well. Luckily next week I only have school one day, and it's when Joe is already off, so hopefully that will help. And after that, only 3 weeks left of school. Then I am DONE with my prereqs with the exception of college algebra, which I've already taken and earned an A, but it was more than 5 years ago. I am hoping to pass the test to test out of it (the score required seems fairly low). If I can't do that, I guess I will try to take it online over the fall, somewhere, someway. Fingers crossed that I can just pass it and be done. Then I will have a year off, with Luke and the baby, while I wait to get into the ultrasound program. It's possible that the waiting list is now 2 years, which would be okay with me too.
Anyway, I really need to get to bed while I can.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Perfectly normal.
Yesterday was my anatomy ultrasound. I was almost even brave enough to go alone, but then thought better of it (like it would be jinxing us), and had Joe come.
Everything looks normal. The baby is still a boy, definitely most obviously a boy. (Still not any closer on names. Pretty sure this one is going to come down to the last minute. So please don't steal whatever name we finally agree on, Snooki. I actually don't believe in 'stealing' names, but I'm pretty sure anything Snooki would name her baby would ruin it for me, assuming she comes up with something 'normal'.) Anyway, baby boy was VERY active, waving his hands all over, kicking, squirming around, opening and closing his mouth, etc. All the stuff they check was there and apparently looked normal.
The only problem is not actually really a problem except for that I am slightly neurotic. At this point with Olivia, she was measuring a few days behind, but still well within the normal range. Like she was 18w4d and her measurements were like 18w1d, that sort of thing, they weren't concerned at all, until my quad screen came back with high AFP levels and they did another ultrasound (a few days later) and then she was 5 days behind...the MFM told us then that it was still perfectly, totally NORMAL, but since my AFP levels were high and she did not have spina bifida (which is I guess what those levels indicated), they were going to recommend keeping an eye on her for growth because sometimes that can be a red flag that something is not quite right in the placenta. She said from what she could tell, the placenta looked totally normal, but they wanted to keep an eye on it. Four weeks later I had a growth ultrasound (alone because Joe couldn't get off work and I didn't realize it would be a big deal), and she had barely grown at all and was severely growth restricted. By then, I was already having symptoms and had been having them at least a week, and a week later it all fell apart.
Luke spoiled us. He measured small in the VERY early days (like 6 and 7 weeks), by 9 weeks he measured exactly right, and he just grew ahead from there. By this point with Luke, he was measuring over a week early, on all of his measurements. (He is still a bigger kid, in the 95%ile for height and around 50ish%ile for weight.)
So this baby is measuring just about right. A day or two ahead on some of the measurements, a day or two behind on some measurements, all perfectly normal and "right on track" except I've heard that before and it turned out rather sucky so I'm not breathing a sigh of relief anytime soon. I mean, I'm not exactly panicked, maybe Olivia was my tiny baby, and Luke was our big baby, and this will be a "normal sized" baby (and it would be nice not to deal with that gestational diabetes nonsense this time). But yeah, it's a little too similar for my liking at this point. The high risk doctor I have a not-great history with is the one who came in to talk to me when it was done. He was the one who told me we had to deliver Olivia (and the one I argued with), and the one who came in to my hospital room the next day while I was holding her and said, "I see I was right"....I've seen glimpses of him around the MFM office coming/going as I was coming/going but had not seen him medically since. (I think Joe told my OB quite passionately that we never wanted to see him again.) Anyway, he was full of bright smiles and "baby looks perfectly normal" and then he got fake sympathetic and said, "After what happened last time, I'm sure your OB and MFM are watching you like a hawk." (Uh, last time? I guess you are missing a chapter/pregnancy there. I mean, my pregnancy with Luke was no picnic and did have a bit of drama here and there, but nothing to inspire "being watched like a hawk".) I just ignored that though and tried to tell him how Luke was always bigger and this baby is too close to normal for my liking and he told me I was coming back in 4 weeks and that "you can't complain about normal". Yeah, yeah, yeah. By then, I was ready to get out of there and really didn't want to talk to him any longer.
So basically, everything is still good. Normal quad screen, baby looks good. But, I'll feel a lot better about this after the next growth scan. And if this kid could be a bit of an overachiever and measure a few more days ahead just to ease my mind, that would be really nice.
Everything looks normal. The baby is still a boy, definitely most obviously a boy. (Still not any closer on names. Pretty sure this one is going to come down to the last minute. So please don't steal whatever name we finally agree on, Snooki. I actually don't believe in 'stealing' names, but I'm pretty sure anything Snooki would name her baby would ruin it for me, assuming she comes up with something 'normal'.) Anyway, baby boy was VERY active, waving his hands all over, kicking, squirming around, opening and closing his mouth, etc. All the stuff they check was there and apparently looked normal.
The only problem is not actually really a problem except for that I am slightly neurotic. At this point with Olivia, she was measuring a few days behind, but still well within the normal range. Like she was 18w4d and her measurements were like 18w1d, that sort of thing, they weren't concerned at all, until my quad screen came back with high AFP levels and they did another ultrasound (a few days later) and then she was 5 days behind...the MFM told us then that it was still perfectly, totally NORMAL, but since my AFP levels were high and she did not have spina bifida (which is I guess what those levels indicated), they were going to recommend keeping an eye on her for growth because sometimes that can be a red flag that something is not quite right in the placenta. She said from what she could tell, the placenta looked totally normal, but they wanted to keep an eye on it. Four weeks later I had a growth ultrasound (alone because Joe couldn't get off work and I didn't realize it would be a big deal), and she had barely grown at all and was severely growth restricted. By then, I was already having symptoms and had been having them at least a week, and a week later it all fell apart.
Luke spoiled us. He measured small in the VERY early days (like 6 and 7 weeks), by 9 weeks he measured exactly right, and he just grew ahead from there. By this point with Luke, he was measuring over a week early, on all of his measurements. (He is still a bigger kid, in the 95%ile for height and around 50ish%ile for weight.)
So this baby is measuring just about right. A day or two ahead on some of the measurements, a day or two behind on some measurements, all perfectly normal and "right on track" except I've heard that before and it turned out rather sucky so I'm not breathing a sigh of relief anytime soon. I mean, I'm not exactly panicked, maybe Olivia was my tiny baby, and Luke was our big baby, and this will be a "normal sized" baby (and it would be nice not to deal with that gestational diabetes nonsense this time). But yeah, it's a little too similar for my liking at this point. The high risk doctor I have a not-great history with is the one who came in to talk to me when it was done. He was the one who told me we had to deliver Olivia (and the one I argued with), and the one who came in to my hospital room the next day while I was holding her and said, "I see I was right"....I've seen glimpses of him around the MFM office coming/going as I was coming/going but had not seen him medically since. (I think Joe told my OB quite passionately that we never wanted to see him again.) Anyway, he was full of bright smiles and "baby looks perfectly normal" and then he got fake sympathetic and said, "After what happened last time, I'm sure your OB and MFM are watching you like a hawk." (Uh, last time? I guess you are missing a chapter/pregnancy there. I mean, my pregnancy with Luke was no picnic and did have a bit of drama here and there, but nothing to inspire "being watched like a hawk".) I just ignored that though and tried to tell him how Luke was always bigger and this baby is too close to normal for my liking and he told me I was coming back in 4 weeks and that "you can't complain about normal". Yeah, yeah, yeah. By then, I was ready to get out of there and really didn't want to talk to him any longer.
So basically, everything is still good. Normal quad screen, baby looks good. But, I'll feel a lot better about this after the next growth scan. And if this kid could be a bit of an overachiever and measure a few more days ahead just to ease my mind, that would be really nice.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Another one bites the dust...
Yesterday when I was hurriedly trying to get myself and Lucas ready for my OB appointment (all is well, BP was fine), I knocked over a bottle of water on the coffee table where my laptop was sitting, but not on my laptop. I wiped it up quickly, got ready, left. Came home, Luke was sleeping, tried to start studying on my laptop, all was normal, and then a few minutes into whatever I was doing, the screen started flashing bright colors of lines over and over, all over. (Kinda like the old school "emergency broadcast system" screen on tv back in the day, if anyone has any idea of what I am talking about.) I am not a computer person like my husband, but that did not seem good. Maybe a power surge? I unplugged it and turned it off and restarted it. (Because restarting does fix an amazing amount of computer issues that I have.) Now the screen was bright purple, then went blank after a few seconds. And when I hit the power button, it did nothing. I looked at the battery and back of it and realized it was a little TINY bit wet, I must not have dried off the table that well before putting my laptop on a wet spot when I got home. I dried it off, took the battery out and blew on it (that seemed to work with nintendo games back in the day...), and tried to restart it again. Nothing.
When Joe got home, I had him look at it and see if he had any magical computer tricks that I hadn't tried. I asked, "could whatever is wrong have anything to do with water being spilled near it?" And he rolled his eyes and decided to take it up to Best Buy.
This laptop would be a month and a half old, a replacement for my 1 year old laptop that Luke broke (managed to pull the screen off of it after pulling it backwards many many many times). When we were contemplating whether to buy a protection plan for the replacement, we almost didn't. But decided to at the last minute. It seems that we will be getting our money's worth. They are most likely going to repair this one. And Joe said that it looks like I "fried the motherboard". Who knew that laptops were so fragile? Now I am without a laptop for probably 2ish weeks which is going to suck because my online class starts THIS WEEKEND and our desktop is ancient and I can't bring Luke in our office with me because he think it's the funnest thing ever to hit the power button on the desktop or even better, the power switch on the surge protector, which is SO FRUSTRATING after it takes 20 minutes to even get to a webpage, to have to start all over again when he restarts the computer. So blech. Hopefully they will finish it faster than the estimate, or decide to just replace it instead. (It is befuddling to me that repairing/replacing monitor= replace laptop, but frying the motherboard= fix it, you would think that the motherboard which I think is like the brain of the computer would be a lot more expensive to fix.) Computers, not my speciality. Best Buy protection plans= buy them when you have 1 year olds. (And are hard on laptops..ours get thrown around/dropped/etc. a lot.)
My quad screen results were put online, it looks like they were normal, so that is good news. (They weren't good with Olivia.) For this kiddo, they say 1 in 5000 risk of Down Syndrome, 1 in 5000 risk of open neural tube defects, 1 in 5000 risk of Trisomy 18. Anyone who has lost a baby, especially an "atypical" case that had less than 1% chance of happening, is not a huge fan of odds. But 1 in 5000 seems pretty good, even if it will always seem like that 1 could easily be me again. Everything seems to be going well with the new baby, my anatomy scan is next week, then I will officially breathe a little easier if everything seems okay. (Although honestly, between Luke and school and trying to sleep sometimes, I have so little time to worry about this pregnancy that I almost feel like I should feel guilty for not worrying more. But even that, no time to dwell on. I have no reason to think that there is anything amiss right now, and there is not a lot that they could do even if there were worrisome signs. And I simply do not have the energy to spend this pregnancy stressing like I did with Luke.)
It seems like I am going to be really injury prone this time. Last night I was finishing up studying in my office and stood up to leave when I put my foot down on and a thumb tack that must have fell off my desk (another reason why Luke can't be in my office) went through the part in the middle of the sole of my foot about an inch below my toes. Ugh, it hurt! I had to make Joe get up to pull it out for me. (He said, "Seriously?" Then looked at the tack and said, "whoa, that probably hurt.") My foot does not seem to be infected (which after the never-ending hand saga, was my first and urgent concern. I seriously debated putting peroxide on it but didn't have the guts to subject myself to more pain. I did wash it very well and put neosporin on it, which didn't help me at all with my hand, but I figured that hopefully the tack was a bit more sterile than dog mouth germs.So far, so good.)
School is going well but I will be very glad when the next 6 weeks are over. Today I had two major tests over everything about blood, the cardiovascular system (all the arteries and veins), and the heart (which included a lovely dissection of a sheep's heart). The harder of the two tests (identifying everything on various models with no word bank or anything, all short answer), has already been graded and posted. When I came home I said to my parents and Joe, "that did not go very well. It will be a miracle if I got a B." Whelp, I think that teacher must grade very generously because somehow I got a perfect grade plus a few points extra credit. She also said that this is the hardest unit usually, so that makes me feel pretty good about the rest of the semester. The other test was mostly scantron/multiple choice and there were only a few that I needed to guess for, so I think that one will be fine. Even though I do not especially love studying or spending hours in class, I love this stuff. I hated looking at cells/tissue under microscopes (ugh, I HATE microscopes), and I wasn't crazy about learning the muscles and blech either, but now we finally get to do the organs and important stuff that I like to know about, so hopefully it won't be bad.
And it is midnight so I better get to bed before my 3am wake up call in the form of a cuddly little boy.
When Joe got home, I had him look at it and see if he had any magical computer tricks that I hadn't tried. I asked, "could whatever is wrong have anything to do with water being spilled near it?" And he rolled his eyes and decided to take it up to Best Buy.
This laptop would be a month and a half old, a replacement for my 1 year old laptop that Luke broke (managed to pull the screen off of it after pulling it backwards many many many times). When we were contemplating whether to buy a protection plan for the replacement, we almost didn't. But decided to at the last minute. It seems that we will be getting our money's worth. They are most likely going to repair this one. And Joe said that it looks like I "fried the motherboard". Who knew that laptops were so fragile? Now I am without a laptop for probably 2ish weeks which is going to suck because my online class starts THIS WEEKEND and our desktop is ancient and I can't bring Luke in our office with me because he think it's the funnest thing ever to hit the power button on the desktop or even better, the power switch on the surge protector, which is SO FRUSTRATING after it takes 20 minutes to even get to a webpage, to have to start all over again when he restarts the computer. So blech. Hopefully they will finish it faster than the estimate, or decide to just replace it instead. (It is befuddling to me that repairing/replacing monitor= replace laptop, but frying the motherboard= fix it, you would think that the motherboard which I think is like the brain of the computer would be a lot more expensive to fix.) Computers, not my speciality. Best Buy protection plans= buy them when you have 1 year olds. (And are hard on laptops..ours get thrown around/dropped/etc. a lot.)
My quad screen results were put online, it looks like they were normal, so that is good news. (They weren't good with Olivia.) For this kiddo, they say 1 in 5000 risk of Down Syndrome, 1 in 5000 risk of open neural tube defects, 1 in 5000 risk of Trisomy 18. Anyone who has lost a baby, especially an "atypical" case that had less than 1% chance of happening, is not a huge fan of odds. But 1 in 5000 seems pretty good, even if it will always seem like that 1 could easily be me again. Everything seems to be going well with the new baby, my anatomy scan is next week, then I will officially breathe a little easier if everything seems okay. (Although honestly, between Luke and school and trying to sleep sometimes, I have so little time to worry about this pregnancy that I almost feel like I should feel guilty for not worrying more. But even that, no time to dwell on. I have no reason to think that there is anything amiss right now, and there is not a lot that they could do even if there were worrisome signs. And I simply do not have the energy to spend this pregnancy stressing like I did with Luke.)
It seems like I am going to be really injury prone this time. Last night I was finishing up studying in my office and stood up to leave when I put my foot down on and a thumb tack that must have fell off my desk (another reason why Luke can't be in my office) went through the part in the middle of the sole of my foot about an inch below my toes. Ugh, it hurt! I had to make Joe get up to pull it out for me. (He said, "Seriously?" Then looked at the tack and said, "whoa, that probably hurt.") My foot does not seem to be infected (which after the never-ending hand saga, was my first and urgent concern. I seriously debated putting peroxide on it but didn't have the guts to subject myself to more pain. I did wash it very well and put neosporin on it, which didn't help me at all with my hand, but I figured that hopefully the tack was a bit more sterile than dog mouth germs.So far, so good.)
School is going well but I will be very glad when the next 6 weeks are over. Today I had two major tests over everything about blood, the cardiovascular system (all the arteries and veins), and the heart (which included a lovely dissection of a sheep's heart). The harder of the two tests (identifying everything on various models with no word bank or anything, all short answer), has already been graded and posted. When I came home I said to my parents and Joe, "that did not go very well. It will be a miracle if I got a B." Whelp, I think that teacher must grade very generously because somehow I got a perfect grade plus a few points extra credit. She also said that this is the hardest unit usually, so that makes me feel pretty good about the rest of the semester. The other test was mostly scantron/multiple choice and there were only a few that I needed to guess for, so I think that one will be fine. Even though I do not especially love studying or spending hours in class, I love this stuff. I hated looking at cells/tissue under microscopes (ugh, I HATE microscopes), and I wasn't crazy about learning the muscles and blech either, but now we finally get to do the organs and important stuff that I like to know about, so hopefully it won't be bad.
And it is midnight so I better get to bed before my 3am wake up call in the form of a cuddly little boy.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Toddler paradise.
Last night we went to a nonprofit bowling fundraiser (at a nonsmoking bowling alley.) I didn't bowl. (My dad doesn't even like to see me carry Luke, bowling would just be annoying. Plus, I pretty much stink at bowling and therefore hate it and usually quit halfway through.) Joe and my parents and my aunt and uncle all bowled. Luckily, our lane was right across from the bowling alley arcade. There was actually so much to see that Luke stayed pretty content in his stroller for a good hour, but I decided not to push our luck much farther (I need him to stay pretty content in his stroller through about 4 more months of doctors' appointments.) and took him out and over to the arcade (which was amazingly empty and only had one entrance/exit so it wasn't like I had to worry about him running out). It was PERFECT. He watched all the stuff lighting up in awe, wandered around pushing buttons, there was one of those dance party thing little stages that was on one step so he loved going up the step, walking around the stage, down the step, back up the step, on to something else. There were race car things which I think fascinated him the most and were nice because I could just sit in the cushioned chair with him on my lap while he played with the steering wheel and buttons. When something started playing music, he'd stop to dance and clap his hands. (Actually, he did a lot of enthusiastic clapping last night between all the bowling and video games.) He loved it. I loved it because I didn't really have to follow him around much, the arcade was empty and pretty toddler-safe actually. (I mean, I'm sure there are ways he could have found trouble but all of the flashing lights and stuff to see kept him pretty captivated.) And best of all, we didn't have to spend even a quarter and he still thought it was the best thing ever. I'm sure our time will come to pay plenty on junk like that, but for now, that was really nice. We may be spending a lot of time at bowling alleys.
The other day in my A&P lab class, I was talking to this girl who sits next to me in both classes and who is a few years older than me (as opposed to the many 18 year olds.) I was saying I was very unenthusiastic about dissecting a sheep's heart, our project Wednesday. (Actually, looking at the actual heart wasn't as bad as I thought. But I am really REALLY not looking forward to when we do eyes..) She asked if I was pregnant and how far along, blah blah blah. She asked if it was my first pregnancy (so I guess that question is forever if you are pregnant and don't have a child with you), and I said "no, actually it's my third." She sighs longingly and says, "Oh, I miss having a baby, my son is 4." And I told her how I have a one year old so I'm not going to have much chance to miss babyhood before we are doing it all over again. And she asked me some stuff about Luke, and then we did the sheep junk and that conversation ended. And I realized that even though I said this was my 3rd pregnancy, I ended up not mentioning Olivia specifically at all. And wondered if she wondered why I didn't mention my first kid at all, or maybe the fact that I said it was my third pregnancy but then only said I have a one year old alluded to the fact that we actually only have one living child. It's funny that I made it the entire 16 week semester in my other classes without anyone asking anything personal, and manage to end up talking about Luke and being pregnant in my first week of new classes. (Maybe partly because I am obviously showing now and people are so chatty when you are pregnant.)
My blood pressure has been good at home again, the few chances I've had to take it.
Fingers crossed Luke will take an afternoon nap even though he took a LONG morning nap, because I am ready for one.
The other day in my A&P lab class, I was talking to this girl who sits next to me in both classes and who is a few years older than me (as opposed to the many 18 year olds.) I was saying I was very unenthusiastic about dissecting a sheep's heart, our project Wednesday. (Actually, looking at the actual heart wasn't as bad as I thought. But I am really REALLY not looking forward to when we do eyes..) She asked if I was pregnant and how far along, blah blah blah. She asked if it was my first pregnancy (so I guess that question is forever if you are pregnant and don't have a child with you), and I said "no, actually it's my third." She sighs longingly and says, "Oh, I miss having a baby, my son is 4." And I told her how I have a one year old so I'm not going to have much chance to miss babyhood before we are doing it all over again. And she asked me some stuff about Luke, and then we did the sheep junk and that conversation ended. And I realized that even though I said this was my 3rd pregnancy, I ended up not mentioning Olivia specifically at all. And wondered if she wondered why I didn't mention my first kid at all, or maybe the fact that I said it was my third pregnancy but then only said I have a one year old alluded to the fact that we actually only have one living child. It's funny that I made it the entire 16 week semester in my other classes without anyone asking anything personal, and manage to end up talking about Luke and being pregnant in my first week of new classes. (Maybe partly because I am obviously showing now and people are so chatty when you are pregnant.)
My blood pressure has been good at home again, the few chances I've had to take it.
Fingers crossed Luke will take an afternoon nap even though he took a LONG morning nap, because I am ready for one.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Oh boy.
So it looks like Olivia and Lucas are getting a little brother!
Fingers crossed that the boys will wear each other out because the thought of another Luke is daunting although of course exciting. (How did I ever take care of 14 two year olds? My one 1 year old kicks my butt.) And it's not just me, my parents watched Luke today while I was in class (I have 2 classes in a row and they have shortened 16 week classes into 8 weeks so the classes are really long), I texted my mom on our break to see how they were doing and she said, "He's really busy. And really chatty today." (And that was with both my parents home and my 20-something brother all there to help and entertain him.) Apparently when we left, my dad told my mom, "I am so tired." Yeah, me too. And on Monday when Joe watched him while I was in class, when I called on my way home he said, "Oh thank god!" So yeah, it's not just that I'm pregnant and have no energy, Luke is just a nonstop bundle of energy. On the bright side, I am eating whatever the heck I want and gaining relatively little weight. My high risk doctor said, "Keep doing whatever you are doing food-wise." Ha. No problem with that! And here I was thinking maybe I should lay off all the Dairy Queen.
Getting off topic, but I want to write about this before I forget. My dad has gotten very good with opening and closing strollers, putting Luke in, putting Luke in the car, etc. (which is funny because I don't remember him ever pushing my youngest brother-now 15-in a stroller, ever. And he always had one of us put him in the car, that sort of thing, since he had teenagers to do that kind of stuff for him.) I have a Very Nice umbrella stroller that I got an AWESOME deal on (Britax Blink) and I love love love it. However, it is my "shopping/doctor/etc." stroller that I like to keep in my car because it is light and small, easy to maneuver, comfy for Luke, holds all of my crap, perfect. With my hand fiasco, I had to train my dad to open and close it, put Luke in it, etc. because that first day I literally couldn't move my fingers even if I wanted to. The few times my dad has babysat, I just took that stroller out of the car and left it with them in case he wanted to take Luke on a walk. (He usually takes him on 2 or 3 walks.) Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so I needed my good stroller for Luke, but I knew I would be rushed for time to get to class when I dropped Luke off, so the night before I dropped off my not as great stroller.. the Graco Metrolite which worked well enough when Luke was in an infant carseat and I could just snap the seat in the stroller, but it is bulky and takes up a lot of room (not good for shopping or doctors) and so generally I leave that stroller in our garage for Joe to take Luke on walks around our subdivision when I'm not home (which it works fine for that and we don't even fold it/unfold it.) So yesterday my dad had to deal with the Graco Metrolite stroller and my mom told me last night that my dad kept grumbling about "that cheap stroller" and how Luke was going to hate the tray in front of him, etc. etc. etc. (My mom actually pointed out that I spent more for that then I spent for the Britax, which is only true because I think they discontinued the Britax so I got it on a closeout sale.) I just think it's hilarious that my dad is becoming a stroller snob. Did not see this coming.
Boy names are impossible this time. The names we liked with Luke, (Caleb was the #2 choice), we mostly don't anymore. Joe really wants to go with something classic a la Michael, Christopher, etc. I don't, mainly thanks to former students. We had so many "troubled" kids who were boys when I taught at the alternative school. We may have to pull off a "Phillip Phillips", except in our case for a boy it would actually be the exact same name twice. And Joe is not going for that. So feel free to shoot out suggestions. (And I have tried Nymbler, etc., we can't agree on anything, and even then, the names that I "like" I don't really love but just saying I like them to have something to go off of.) Oh boys.
Anyway, yesterday I saw my high risk doctor. She was "not happy" about the hand ordeal but took it a lot better than I expected and even said she understood why I would try to do it. (I still have not been released from the hand doctor, supposed to see him again in a couple weeks but might cancel, because enough of that already.) She took a peak at the baby's gender and when the boy parts became obvious I said "it's a boy!" and she told me I should be a tech...hahaha...."I'm working on it!" And then told me good and that I should work in the perinatal center, which sounds like a plan to me, although I sorta have to have this baby, then go to ultrasound school first.
My blood pressure was not good. Yesterday it was 130/90 and at my OB a few weeks ago (the day before the dog bite), it was around that too.But while I was in the hospital (granted laying around) it was generally in the 100/60's range (which is my normal) and never anywhere close to high. So even though my OB wanted me to start watching it, after the hospital stuff I figured the reading at my OB office was a fluke, but now I am not so sure. Even if it is stress of being at the doctor, my pressures were not this high with Luke and I was super stressed then, and it's not good that it is reacting so easily. Honestly, I just don't have a good feeling about where this is going. But it's not something I have much time to dwell on either, I'm too busy keeping Luke from breaking his head all day and have an entire circulatory system to memorize plus a bunch of other junk sometime too. I did the bloodwork for the quad screen yesterday, fingers crossed that it comes back normal at least (since that was our first sign of trouble with Olivia.) I took my blood pressure at home today and it was 133/78, better, but that is super high for me at home. If I pull out my blood pressures from my pregnancy with Luke, I don't think I had readings anywhere near that high at home at this point. My normal was around 110's/60's. Also, taking your blood pressure with a 1 year old is almost impossible. Even if he's busy playing (read: destroying our house), he hears the machine and wanders over to investigate and press buttons. I'm going to have to get in the habit of doing it while he is restrained in his high chair. (My first high reading was actually when he was in the high chair so I can't blame it on him. I've been trying to get a follow up reading and have gotten error codes every time.)
Anyway, we are just chugging along. I am hoping Luke will take a morning nap sometime soon since he has been up and busy since 6. (He is currently perched on the arm of our couch looking out the windows and babbling. Definitely slowing down.) Then this afternoon I plan to set up the sprinkler outside (maybe at my parent's house) and hopefully let him wear himself out. I have a ton of studying to do. Making father's day cards for the infant loss crowd tonight. 17 weeks tomorrow.
Fingers crossed that the boys will wear each other out because the thought of another Luke is daunting although of course exciting. (How did I ever take care of 14 two year olds? My one 1 year old kicks my butt.) And it's not just me, my parents watched Luke today while I was in class (I have 2 classes in a row and they have shortened 16 week classes into 8 weeks so the classes are really long), I texted my mom on our break to see how they were doing and she said, "He's really busy. And really chatty today." (And that was with both my parents home and my 20-something brother all there to help and entertain him.) Apparently when we left, my dad told my mom, "I am so tired." Yeah, me too. And on Monday when Joe watched him while I was in class, when I called on my way home he said, "Oh thank god!" So yeah, it's not just that I'm pregnant and have no energy, Luke is just a nonstop bundle of energy. On the bright side, I am eating whatever the heck I want and gaining relatively little weight. My high risk doctor said, "Keep doing whatever you are doing food-wise." Ha. No problem with that! And here I was thinking maybe I should lay off all the Dairy Queen.
Getting off topic, but I want to write about this before I forget. My dad has gotten very good with opening and closing strollers, putting Luke in, putting Luke in the car, etc. (which is funny because I don't remember him ever pushing my youngest brother-now 15-in a stroller, ever. And he always had one of us put him in the car, that sort of thing, since he had teenagers to do that kind of stuff for him.) I have a Very Nice umbrella stroller that I got an AWESOME deal on (Britax Blink) and I love love love it. However, it is my "shopping/doctor/etc." stroller that I like to keep in my car because it is light and small, easy to maneuver, comfy for Luke, holds all of my crap, perfect. With my hand fiasco, I had to train my dad to open and close it, put Luke in it, etc. because that first day I literally couldn't move my fingers even if I wanted to. The few times my dad has babysat, I just took that stroller out of the car and left it with them in case he wanted to take Luke on a walk. (He usually takes him on 2 or 3 walks.) Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so I needed my good stroller for Luke, but I knew I would be rushed for time to get to class when I dropped Luke off, so the night before I dropped off my not as great stroller.. the Graco Metrolite which worked well enough when Luke was in an infant carseat and I could just snap the seat in the stroller, but it is bulky and takes up a lot of room (not good for shopping or doctors) and so generally I leave that stroller in our garage for Joe to take Luke on walks around our subdivision when I'm not home (which it works fine for that and we don't even fold it/unfold it.) So yesterday my dad had to deal with the Graco Metrolite stroller and my mom told me last night that my dad kept grumbling about "that cheap stroller" and how Luke was going to hate the tray in front of him, etc. etc. etc. (My mom actually pointed out that I spent more for that then I spent for the Britax, which is only true because I think they discontinued the Britax so I got it on a closeout sale.) I just think it's hilarious that my dad is becoming a stroller snob. Did not see this coming.
Boy names are impossible this time. The names we liked with Luke, (Caleb was the #2 choice), we mostly don't anymore. Joe really wants to go with something classic a la Michael, Christopher, etc. I don't, mainly thanks to former students. We had so many "troubled" kids who were boys when I taught at the alternative school. We may have to pull off a "Phillip Phillips", except in our case for a boy it would actually be the exact same name twice. And Joe is not going for that. So feel free to shoot out suggestions. (And I have tried Nymbler, etc., we can't agree on anything, and even then, the names that I "like" I don't really love but just saying I like them to have something to go off of.) Oh boys.
Anyway, yesterday I saw my high risk doctor. She was "not happy" about the hand ordeal but took it a lot better than I expected and even said she understood why I would try to do it. (I still have not been released from the hand doctor, supposed to see him again in a couple weeks but might cancel, because enough of that already.) She took a peak at the baby's gender and when the boy parts became obvious I said "it's a boy!" and she told me I should be a tech...hahaha...."I'm working on it!" And then told me good and that I should work in the perinatal center, which sounds like a plan to me, although I sorta have to have this baby, then go to ultrasound school first.
My blood pressure was not good. Yesterday it was 130/90 and at my OB a few weeks ago (the day before the dog bite), it was around that too.But while I was in the hospital (granted laying around) it was generally in the 100/60's range (which is my normal) and never anywhere close to high. So even though my OB wanted me to start watching it, after the hospital stuff I figured the reading at my OB office was a fluke, but now I am not so sure. Even if it is stress of being at the doctor, my pressures were not this high with Luke and I was super stressed then, and it's not good that it is reacting so easily. Honestly, I just don't have a good feeling about where this is going. But it's not something I have much time to dwell on either, I'm too busy keeping Luke from breaking his head all day and have an entire circulatory system to memorize plus a bunch of other junk sometime too. I did the bloodwork for the quad screen yesterday, fingers crossed that it comes back normal at least (since that was our first sign of trouble with Olivia.) I took my blood pressure at home today and it was 133/78, better, but that is super high for me at home. If I pull out my blood pressures from my pregnancy with Luke, I don't think I had readings anywhere near that high at home at this point. My normal was around 110's/60's. Also, taking your blood pressure with a 1 year old is almost impossible. Even if he's busy playing (read: destroying our house), he hears the machine and wanders over to investigate and press buttons. I'm going to have to get in the habit of doing it while he is restrained in his high chair. (My first high reading was actually when he was in the high chair so I can't blame it on him. I've been trying to get a follow up reading and have gotten error codes every time.)
Anyway, we are just chugging along. I am hoping Luke will take a morning nap sometime soon since he has been up and busy since 6. (He is currently perched on the arm of our couch looking out the windows and babbling. Definitely slowing down.) Then this afternoon I plan to set up the sprinkler outside (maybe at my parent's house) and hopefully let him wear himself out. I have a ton of studying to do. Making father's day cards for the infant loss crowd tonight. 17 weeks tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
