Eggs Benedict & a Peach Smoothie

Warning: if squeamish avoid reading the last bit of the blog... just look at the pretty pictures :) Don't say you weren't warned

Landen is making some awesome progress with potty training. FINALLY! He gets SO excited about wearing big boy underwear! We are so proud of him! He does, however, not have much success using the potty at school. I think it’s a pressure thing… At home, he knows mommy and daddy are trying to help him with a goal that HE wants. At school, it’s more of a forced issue. He is really cute getting excited about his underwear. He keeps running up to me/Keith/anyone saying, “I wearin unnnderwear! Wanna see?!” then proceeds to show off is undies with the biggest smile on his face.

Landen (not wearing his glasses bc he was cuddling with me)

Brayden is such a precious little guy. He just LOVES his big brother (who absolutely ADORES him, too!)! They are learning how to really play together now, and it is such an awesome thing to watch.  We initially thought Brayden had a virus last week, but the more investigating we do, the more it seems he is having some milk sensitivity. Previously, we had been giving him formula (or breast milk) and that seemed to be fine. Then we started mixing a little milk in with the formula (still okay). Once we started mixing more milk and less formula, his diapers started going rotten.  Last week, we really began the 3/4-7/8 Milk to formula ratio. Things went bad, quick. Terrible diarrhea, vomiting, gas, fussiness, etc. all entered our lives. Over the weekend, we were at my mother-in-law’s house and we gave Brayden just straight milk with no formula and he starts projectile-vomiting, all over Keith’s mom. (SORRY!!!)  Keith’s mom and brother are both lactose intolerant, so it wouldn't be entirely out of the question for one of our children to be. We've decided to try soy milk for a while and see how that goes. Last night, Brayden had soy milk and kept it down fine. Time will tell.

This just makes me laugh...

Brayden playing on brother's tricycle

Keith just finished his first clinical rotation. He did SO well and I am so incredibly proud of him! He has the next two weeks off, so he’ll be keeping the boys home with him. This couldn't be better timing, with Brayden’s digestion issues and Landen’s potty training.

And finally….

We’re having another baby!

 Being pregnant, for me can be a bit frightening. I've had some crazy complicated pregnancies so far and that can be unnerving for anyone involved, but I know that whether I have preeclampsia again, a full term normal pregnancy, or something completely different, I know it’s in God’s hands. With that, I find immense peace! It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride so far. Aside from having morning (all day EXCEPT morning) sickness and my typical bizarre cravings, I have had some a lot of bleeding/cramping. It started on Friday, 4/26 and lasted through Sunday, 4/28. Then I had a terrible (like the worst one ever on planet earth) 24 hour stomach bug. I had a little spotting after that, but not bad. Then, on Saturday, 5/4 I woke up bleeding, it was a little more than spotting but not significant; by Saturday evening, it was EXTREME. As of last night, the bleeding had stopped completely. So far, after exams and ultrasounds, there is no known cause for the bleeding/cramping and baby looks just fine! BUT because of the bleeding, I am not allowed to lift anything = not my kids, not groceries, not car seats, nothing bigger than a 5 lb bag of sugar. On the upside, I have gotten to see the little peanut several times, and I have to go back this afternoon for another peek.

Please keep this sweet baby and my body in your prayers, as he/she is trying to have a safe little home in the body that doesn't seem to want to cooperate.

Cravings so far:

•         Beef stew
•         Eggs Benedict & a Peach Smoothie
•         NOT banana sandwiches (it may be a while before I eat one of those again)
•         NOT rice & beans (again with the time-to-recover)
•         Green grapes
•         Lumpless yogurt… I can’t explain it other than the fruit chunks aren’t going over well
• Filet Mignon

Week 34 - 3 more weeks to go...

34 weeks: Measuring big!

Watch what you say! Your curious baby is listening in to your conversations at 34 weeks -- and might enjoy a lullaby or two -- so go ahead and sing to him. Some say that baby will recognize songs mom sings while he’s in the womb, and may even be more easily soothed by them if he’s used to them once he’s on the “outside.” At week 34, you might breathe a little easier, since baby may descend lower into your pelvis and give your lungs some space. (Ahh!) Of course, some babies don’t do this until the day they’re born, so we’re not making any guarantees. The pitfall of this descent, of course, is even more pressure on your bladder, so be prepared to make even more trips to the ladies room over the coming weeks.

Life Update:

So, I missed last week’s post because our world got a little shaky and a LOT snotty…

Landen’s daycare called around lunch time on Monday because he had a fever of 102.5. I went to pick him up and took him to the doctor. While at the doctor, Landen’s fever jumped to 104 and he decided to have a seizure. Not just any seizure, but one where he quit breathing and seized for 2 ½ minutes. The nurses and doctor got him on oxygen immediately (SUCH a blessing we were there when it happened), but it took between 6 and 7 minutes, after his seizure, for him to begin responding. As it turns out, after multiple tests, Landen had a fever virus and a cold. SO I stayed home with him on Tuesday and Wednesday while his fever remained… I just didn’t feel right leaving him with ANYONE while he was still at risk for seizing (both for his sake AND for the sake of said caretaker). Thursday my mom kept him. Friday we sent him on to daycare.

My sweet little boy, who needed to be held in an upright position in order for him to sleep with his cold, was super generous in that he shared his stinkin’ cold with mommy! So I, in my inability take anything for said cold, returned to work feeling icky and spent every spare second of time sleeping (intermittently switching sides for the snot to drain). ANYWAY, we are all better now and our house has a distinct odor of Lysol

Doctor’s Report:

I did NOT get the news I was hoping for… Brayden is still measuring big; I am carrying him VERY low; I am having fairly regular, strong contractions – not dilated yet (good news, I suppose); my blood pressure is up (150s-160s/90s-110s); and Brayden’s heart rate is up as a direct result of my BP being up. My doctor suggested that I stop working until Brayden is born… I explained that if I am not working, our family has no income… she gave in and agreed to let me continue working, as long as I limit it to no more than 4 hours/day and spent the rest of my day on a “modified bed rest” (aka LOTS of resting, “no strenuous anything, for any reason, at anytime, at all”). We are hoping that by my modified schedule and extra rest, that I can make it to 37 weeks (this COULD be a leap-year baby). In the mean time, I have no idea how we are possibly going to make ends meet.

Pregnancy Update:

1. How far along? 34 weeks  0 day
2. Total Weight Gain? 13 lbs
3. Fundal Height? 36 cm
4. Baby Heart Rate? 160s bpm – higher because my Blood Pressure is up and putting stress on his little heart.
5. Baby Bump?  I think the term “bump” no longer does it justice…. Mount Everest is more fitting.
6. Movement? Of course! The little (or big) wiggle worm is super confined, but he still manages to kick, punch, and bump all the time!
7. Cravings? Pepcid
8. Aversions? Almost anything… there’s really something to be said for your stomach being pushed up into your throat… eating just doesn’t sound good
9. Symptoms? Strong Contractions, Vomiting, Moody, CLUMSY, Pains (back, sciatic, leg, hip, neck, etc), Cramps (stomach, back, and into my thighs), Hands and feet swelling, Legs falling asleep, Headaches, TIRED, Forgetfulness,  Blurry Vision, Heartburn/Acid Reflux, and a few very unpleasant unmentionables
10. Sleep? Yeah, right.
11. Gender? Boy! Brayden Daniel Thomas
12. Belly button? In, but VERY shallow
13. What I miss? Being comfortable!  
14. What I’m looking forward to? Finishing some name art for Brayden… I WILL do this before he is born! No longer being pregnant!
15. Concerns? Unpaid maternity leave. My blood pressure. Being unable to work more than 4 hours/day…  because the fact that we can’t pay our bills with my full income (our ONLY income) isn’t enough stress, WHY NOT cut my pay in half as we lead up to an unpaid maternity leave!?!
16. Blessings? Keith, Landen, our family, and our friends! That I’ve made it this far into the pregnancy, and Brayden is still appearing to be healthy!

just another Manic Monday....

Somedays are just OFF. Today is definitely one of those. Could be resulting in part by the wacky weekend, partly pregnancy hormones, and then partly just plain Monday... Here it goes; it's a long one:
Friday Night -

Landen has a cold = snot everywhere, fussy, snorting and SNORING. He has trouble calming down, clearly a direct result of difficulty swallowing with a non-functioning nose combined with a slight fever and inability to use his paci/lay horizontal for lack of air flow.

He get overly tired... but can't sleep

In an attempt to calm him down and pacify the paci-less child, we put him in the bed with us and try cuddling. In my sadly mistaken opinion, cuddling constitutes a relaxing and comfortable state of peace. WRONG! Landen viewed this attempt as intolerable straight-jacket restriction of all sense of freedom. In his attempt to break free from this torturous state, Landen leans himself forward to gain enough momentum for his backward full-body-arching head butt to break himself loose. Which in and of itself WOULD have elicited said freedom from my arms (especially seeing how the straight-jacket like restriction was merely a figment of his perception); BUT this violent revolt was directly taken out on my nose! He did in-fact break free while also quite possibly breaking mommy dearests nose! At which point I have no recollection of what happened to said child, for the unbelievable pain/tears/jumbling of words/etc led to daddy removing child from mommy's presence...

Saturday-

Saturday is our day to FINALLY celebrate my birthday! Bruising, swelling, and all!

We take Landen to my parents house so Keith and I can get some wonderful Stix lunch, and it was, some WONDERFUL Stix lunch! YUM! While we were there, it occurred to us that we don't really know how to have date conversations... I mean, we know what's going on in each other's lives (duh!), we always talk about Keith's school/my work/Landen/groceries/chores... What do people talk about?! Anyway, it was a great meal date! :)

As we were leaving the restaurant, my mom sent me a text saying that Landen was asleep. SO... in our freedom from the child and actual free time, we got adventurous: we went to the Dollar Tree... ha! Seriously though, I really wanted to get Landen some big fat crayons and I knew they had them for cheap. Then we decided to watch a movie, (and with movie tickets being priced slightly above outrageous) we went for some Netflix. FYI: I should never be allowed to choose a movie. ever.

After the worst, stupidest, Norwegian (with English Subtitle), B list (if that), movie... we went to pick up Landen.

As it turns out, our little snot producing climber face planted off my parent's ottoman while we were watching the previously mentioned movie... They didn't tell us, even once we got there to pick him up, they didn't even say a word until I looked at my poor child, and ASKED... upon looking at him, I noticed something didn't seem right - other than the constant flow of snot and drool - no, my child is now part unicorn... how on EARTH did he get a horn in the middle of his forehead? well, diving off the ottoman and face planting on the hardwood, of course. no big deal.

Anyway, we watched part of the Alabama game at my parents house and then retreated back to our place to ::hopefully:: put our 3 foot walking germ to bed. no luck. Landen eventually ended in our bed = mommy gets no sleep for fear of: a) daddy rolling over child during the night, b) Landen somehow slamming into mommy's already swollen discolored nose.

Sunday-

The booger monster seemed to be feeling a little better. He and daddy went to church, while mommy attended church online.... I didn't want to deal with walking in public as the sleep deprived pregnant women with broken nose holding on to the boogery unicorn. I simply could not handle encountering anyone from the "awkwardly intense busybody club" species, a species that I highly doubt will EVER make it onto the endangered species list.

After church, Keith's brothers came over to celebrate my birthday... Keith's mom was sick so (due to the unbelievably short list of medicine approved for pregnant women) we avoided any additional germs by staying home. Lunch was great. We had fun. Nothing beats family fun.

Then Landen, in an apparent effort to keep up with the rest of the weekend, through his sippy cup over the outside baby gate and took a dive OVER one of our baby gates landing face down on the gate and deck... ugh! Blood. Everywhere. Screaming baby. Frantic Daddy/Uncles. No missing teeth. No serious damage. BIG FAT BUSTED TOP LIP on my sweet snotting/drooling/whimpering Unicorn of a child.

After that (and all the cleaning up involved) we went to our small group Bible study... broken child in tow. It went well, Landen played and fell asleep in the car on the way home. Happy ending after all.

Monday-

O Monday........ I may be a little grateful to be out of the disaster-prone weekend... but wait it's the work week.

Make-up-ing a broken nose is anything but pleasant. Off to a good start.

Then there's people: Don't you just love how people always ask how your weekend/day/night/whatever was? I mean, we all know that politely you should say, "O, it was great! How was yours?" I know that no one actually deserves to be bombarded with the true answer to this... but MAN I definitely ran it through my head a few times before actually saying, "It was pretty good. Thanks."

Then as I am beginning to get my head screwed on (somewhat) straight, I get cornered. in the bathroom. by none other than Ms. Busybody herself, no not the one at Michael's; the one in the 12th floor women's bathroom. the one who not only begins to discuss pregnancy weight distribution, proceeded by a very detailed account of HER L&D experiences, but continues to tell me that I look extremely tired and therefore really should start taking care of myself if i want this pregnancy to go well. excuse me, DO I KNOW YOU!? No. Go away.

Thank goodness for blogging, to really allow the truth to come out.

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By the way:  How on earth does ANYONE make use of the following items without feeling completely inhumane?!?!?!