Category: Life

2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 1 husband – life isn’t perfect, but it is what we make it

37 Weeks

Published by dee on March 8, 2008

Since my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, I’ve felt this urgent need to finish up all of those last minute things that I had been putting off. I thought I was pretty set by Thursday night, that everything was ready for BabyG’s arrival. Then Friday came and about a million more things popped into my mind that I needed to finish. With the exception of a few very necessary breaks, I spent all of Friday evening and most of Saturday organizing, arranging, and sorting.

Late Friday night, just as I was getting ready to go to bed, I suddenly felt a very strong contraction-like feeling. It was hard enough that I felt nauseated. I stood up and suddenly my belly was a few inches lower. I had thought earlier in the day that she had dropped a bit, but this was very obvious. She’s was much lower.

So with the nesting and the dropping, now I’m just waiting. I think I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. The longer she waits, the more obsessive I get about making sure everything is just right. My bag is packed, with a last minute check-list stuck on the side. Zach’s bag for Grandma’s house is ready to go. The camera bag is filled with extra batteries. All that’s left is to actually go into labor and have this baby.

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She'll Be Here By Easter

Published by dee on March 5, 2008

Well, today was the big sonogram to check BabyG out one last time. I’ve been really anxious because I knew that after today we would have a pretty good idea of when our baby girl would be making an appearance.

BabyG measured in at approximately 7 pounds, 1 ounce this morning at just under 37 weeks. Apparently I have not been imagining all the pain in my pelvic area either as I’m already dilated to 2 and about 50% effaced. This baby is ready to come out. My doc says that her head isn’t quite planted yet, but I’m guessing that will happen sooner rather than later.

The consensus with the doctor is that I will most likely be induced on the 18th if I don’t go into labor on my own before that. If I’m still pregnant by next Wednesday, I’ll have one final checkup with her and then set up the induction for the following Tuesday.

In 13 days or less I will be holding my little girl in my arms! I have so much to do!!!

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A Little Sunshine Goes A Long Way

Published by dee on March 4, 2008

**For some reason comment notifications are not coming through to my e-mail all of a sudden. Since that is where I normally reply, I just wanted to let you all know I’m not ignoring you! I just didn’t know I was getting comments. Hopefully I’ll get that fixed soon.**

This weekend we finally had a little reprieve from the cold temperatures and dreary days. The sun was shining and it was beautiful out. My only complaint was the wind that just would not seem to die down. Knowing it was supposed to be warm, I told Hubby Friday night that I wanted to get outside Saturday and at least take Zach to the park to enjoy the sunshine a bit. I was also dying to get my new camera out and play with it a bit since I hadn’t had the chance to do any outdoor shots yet.

I thought it would be fun to have a picnic at the park, then give Zach some time to play and head home just in time for a nap. Since we didn’t really have any easy picnic-type food at home, we decided to stop at Sonic and just pick something up on the way. While we were waiting for our food, I was noticing just how windy it really was. We went ahead with our picnic idea though, and headed to the park. That proved to be an unfortunate decision as a big gust of wind ended up blowing Zach’s corn dog and fries all over the ground. It was quite a tragic experience, but as soon as we got him calmed down he insisted that we pick his food up off the ground so he could eat it anyway. Daddy’s replacement fries simply would not do. He wanted his! At least they had landed mostly on the concrete slab under the picnic table instead of in the mud and grass a few short feet away.

Once we were done eating, it was time for the fun stuff. Zach ran to the playground as I pulled my camera out to get a few shots. The wind was a little chilly, but the warm sun shining down helped a lot. Zach had a blast climbing and sliding while Hubby and I discussed the fact that this may be the last chance we have to do something like this with just one child.

Soon, other people started showing up to enjoy the sunshine. There was the quiet couple with the 2-year-old boy who seemed to prefer walking around in the grass to the slide. Then there was the couple with three kids and another on the way. The wife and I started chatting immediately as tends to happen when you get two pregnant women together. It turns out that she is due just a few days before me and we ended up talking for quite a while. It wasn’t long before the husbands started talking as well. Hubby and I were really enjoying their company and were very disappointed to find out that they were visiting from Minnesota. It is so rare that we meet other couples that we click so easily with. We were really hoping they lived nearby. We chatted a bit longer, switched cameras to shoot some family photos for each other, then said our good-byes and headed our separate ways.

When we got home from our little outing, Zach and I were both rather exhausted. He curled up on the couch for a nap while I flipped through the pictures I had taken at the park. I managed to get some great shots, but apparently had the camera settings all wrong because all of the pictures are rather fuzzy when you look at them larger. As long as I keep them small they look ok, but I’m afraid they won’t print well at all. I was pretty disappointed by that, but I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now but learn to do it better next time.

After looking through the photos, I realized that this may very well be the last photo of our little family as it exists now. Soon we will be a foursome, and while that is a wonderful, exciting thing, it also makes me just a little sad to say good-bye to this phase of our family’s life.

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36 Weeks

Published by dee on March 1, 2008

I’m to the point in this pregnancy where I really don’t want to post pictures of myself any more. The double chin, the enormous belly, and the widening hips just aren’t very flattering. I am so ready to be done and to finally have my body back to myself again. I know it will take a lot of work to get it back to normal after BabyG is here, but being able to walk without holding my back in the “pregnant lady stance” will be nice.

All was fine at my checkup this week. My belly is measuring 36 1/2 cm. BabyG’s heart beat is good and all that. I’m definitely feeling some pressure from her as she works her way down though. I’m pretty convinced that we aren’t going to make it to 40 weeks, but I could be wrong. Next week we have a sonogram to check BabyG’s size. Since Zach was a big baby, my doctor is a little bit worried about how big this one might be. I’m hoping she’ll decide to induce me a little early if I don’t go early on my own. We shall see.

The most unpleasant thing this week is that my ankles have started swelling. In a way it is good because it forces me to sit down and relax with my feet up. But, it also keeps me from doing all the things that I want to be getting done. I still can’t believe how much there is to get done before BabyG arrives, but I’m getting much closer. If she decided to come tomorrow I would still feel unprepared, but enough is ready that I wouldn’t be totally out of sorts either. All of the necessities are purchased. The crib is ready. The car seat just needs the cover put back on it. Yep, we’re ready enough.

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All the Whine Without the Tantrum

Published by dee on February 27, 2008

Things that are making me want to whine like a two-year-old today:

I’m super bored with my blog theme and desperately want to change it but don’t have the energy or the time to mess with it right now. I’m really digging Kerflop’s new theme and am thinking of simplifying things a bit around here…when I can think straight again.
I’m very nearly 36 weeks pregnant and hurt every time I move more than a 1/4 of an inch. I’m guessing this isn’t going to get any better until I manage to birth this baby.
I’ve now gained 39 pounds since the start of this pregnancy. That’s one pound away from doubling my pregnancy weight-gain goal and I CAN NOT STOP eating.
I’ve been awake since about 4:30 a.m. After laying there awake for an hour and a half I finally got out of bed at 6:00 a.m., an entire hour earlier than normal. I am tired and wish I was in my bed taking a nap.
Even after getting Zach up extra early this morning it took me over an hour to get him dressed and out of the house. Tantrums, threats, spankings, and many tears (his and mine) happened in that hour and I still want to cry over it now. I never even managed to get his ear drops in his infected ear. Tonight he is going to bed in his clothes and I’ll be accepting my mother-of-the-year award.
My in-laws headed home this morning and while I will enjoy having my house to myself again, I will desperately miss all of the help that I was getting while they were here.
Did I mention how tired I am?
It is only Wednesday and I already feel like this week has lasted an eternity. I am so ready for it to end.
I really want a nice warm sunny day so I can go outside and play with my camera. Of course that would also require me to be able to walk more than two steps without wincing in pain.

Somehow I thought that would make me feel better, but nope, it didn’t. I think I need to go curl up somewhere and just sleep until tomorrow morning.

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Consider the Other Ball Dropped

Published by dee on February 22, 2008

So the title of my Wednesday night post became eerily appropriate just a few hours later. I awoke Thursday morning to my phone ringing. On the other end was my dad’s wife saying that they were at the hospital and that my dad had a mild heart attack that morning. By that time he was stable and doing fine, but there were lots of tests yet to be run on him.

As the day went on and more reports came in, it was determined that he did not actually have a heart attack, but that he did have some inflammation and infection around his heart that was causing part of it not to work properly. I’m not really sure what all of that means, but it most definitely sounds better than a heart attack at his age.

My first reaction when I got the news was to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. Then I looked outside and realized that wasn’t going to be possible. The roads were covered in ice and according to the news and radio reports no one was getting anywhere very quickly in the city. On top of that, Zachary was still sick so I decided to stay home and wait by my phone instead of jumping in the car.

As it turns out, I made the right choice because by evening I wasn’t feeling so well myself. Apparently Zach’s illness was finally passed on to me after a week of him coughing and sneezing in my face.

On top of feeling quite crappy myself, Zach got extremely clingy and whiny last night. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him other than knowing that he didn’t get a nap so I was quite frustrated with all the whining. Nothing seemed to make him happy. He wanted a drink, then he didn’t want a drink. He wanted his blanket, then he didn’t want his blanket. He wanted to be held, then he didn’t want to be held. Rinse, repeat, all night long. By about 3:00 a.m. he was whining and moaning so much that I finally just got up with him.

I finally ended up propping myself up on a pile of pillows and sitting up in the bed for the rest of the night with him lying on my shoulder. Shortly after that I figured out what the problem was. He had finally calmed down enough to talk to me and told me that there was water in his ear. Suddenly it all made sense. The boy now has an ear infection. I think he finally relaxed and fell back asleep around 5:00 and I followed shortly after. When my alarm went off at 6:20 I wanted to kill it. I let myself hit the snooze button for about another hour before getting out of bed. When I finally made it up and to the bathroom the first thing I noticed was a bunch of icky ear drainage on the shoulder of my shirt where Zach had been sleeping.

I was dialing the doctor’s office as soon as they opened at 8:30 and was able to get Zach an appointment to see the nurse practitioner. The consensus was that he most likely has the flu, although it is too late in the cycle now to medicate it so they didn’t bother with the flu test. I guess I should have pushed a bit harder for them to test him on Monday when they told me it was most likely just a virus that would pass in a few days. All of the congestion apparently pushed the crud into his ears and caused the nasty ear infection. Fortunately, it is only one ear (for now) and the other one was still completely clear. At least I know that the tubes are working because there is all kinds of stuff draining from the infected ear.

After the doctor’s office, I took Zach home, gave him some Motrin for the pain and the first dose of his antibiotic ear drops, and had to leave him with Granny and Papa so I could get to work. I’ve hardly worked at all this week and I’m feeling terrible about that. At least I was fairly caught up at the end of last week so I’m not really behind at all. I just didn’t get ahead of things like I had planned on doing this week.

At this point, I am just so done with this week. I want it to end so I can move on to better times. We have no big plans for the weekend other than to enjoy visiting with the in-laws. Personally, I plan to sleep in as long as possible for the next two days and try to make up for all of the sleep that I’ve missed out on all week.

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