Daybook for March 16 , 2010

I've been seeing these daybooks going around, so I thought I would give it a try . . .



FOR TODAY



Outside my window... it is gloomy and dreary AGAIN, we haven't seen the sun in about 2 weeks, blah! Snow is melting, but it has a long way to go.



I am thinking... that I have no idea what we are having for supper tonight.



I am thankful for... this sweet little baby, and that everything seems to be okay for now! I had a scare last week when I started having contractions ALREADY! I was in denial about them at the beginning of the week, but couldn't keep ignoring them by the end of the week. I had them constantly from 24-34 weeks with Isabella, so I knew exactly what I was feeling. I was really upset that I was having them already, but after a trip to the doctor, and a check of the ol' cervix, everything is good for now. I have a different kind of ultrasound scheduled in a little under 4 weeks (I'll be 20 weeks then!), and if anything has changed, my doctor says he's sending me to a much bigger hospital/clinic about 100 miles away. I am having a lot fewer contractions this week, so THANK YOU for all the prayers!



From the learning rooms... Now that I'm feeling better, and spending my days off the couch, rather than on, I've been helping Isabella figure out some harder puzzles. She loves doing them, and asks me to get them down (they are up high in her closet) for her all the time.



From the kitchen... Um, not a whole lot going on in there yet. I still have my meat aversion. I did make some bars to take to a new mom from our church yesterday. My biggest challenge is trying to get more fiber in to Isabella's diet. She's extremely constipated, and I'm not sure what else to do. She eats lots of fresh fruit, takes probiotics, eats about every product that Fiber One makes, drinks prune juice, I made her bran muffins, I don't let her eat too much of constipating foods like cheese and bananas, etc. She now hasn't "gone" since I gave her an enema a week ago today, sigh . . .



I am wearing... navy blue sweatpants and an Ol.d Na.vy long sleeved T shirt.



I am creating... lists (I love lists!) of things that need to be organized around the house. Monte and I are also creating in depth family trees for both of our families. We've been using ancestry.com, and getting tons of good info, it's both fun and addicting.



I am pondering... what Lost is going to be about tonight!



I am reading... oh so many things - Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother by Carolyn Mahaney (for Bible Study), Going Rogue by Sarah Palin, Mommy Teach Me by Barbara Curtis, Man and Women He Created Them, A Theology of the Body by John Paul II, Theology of the Body Explained by Christopher West



I am hoping... my migraines stay FAR away! It's been 8 days since I have had one, which is huge for me! I still get headaches every single day, but a headache I can handle, a migraine I cannot!



I am hearing... Isabella playing with her Schleich horses and sheep.



Around the house... things are looking good (except my bedroom, that is a disaster right now)! Isabella and I spent all morning cleaning, she loves to clean, and while it slows me down a bit, I don't want to discourage her! I felt the best about finally getting her room organized and cleaned. We went through her toy bins and threw out one smallish sack of junk (happ.y meal type toys, diapers for her babies that no longer have sticky tabs, etc.) and we went through her stuffed animals and I packed up half a garbage bag to give away. We also packed away some babyish toys that she was more than happy to save for her new baby!



One of my favorite things... feeling the baby move!!! I started feeling the first few flutters last week, and they are getting stronger every day!



A few plans for the rest of the week... hopefully cleaning the rooms I didn't get to today, laundry, a possible visit from Sister Mary Edwin tomorrow, Bible Study on Thursday, and my parents might be coming to visit for the weekend!

Mc.Donald's

I just overheard this in the other room:

"Daddy, I know of 7 Mc.Donalds, there's one in _____(name of nearby town), one in heaven, one in . . ." (etc.)

Yes child, your idea of heaven would have a Mc.Donald's!

This and That

I can't believe I can finally say this, but I'm feeling better! I still have some really bad days, but at least I'm not sick all day, every day anymore. I've still been having migraines a couple of days a week, and that has by far been the worst of this all! If you've never had a true migraine before, I can't even describe how painful they are, I think I would rather go through labor. It has definitely been a good lent of suffering for me. Although, I've come to the conclusion I'm not very good at suffering.

And big news around here, I cooked tonight for the first time in months! I threw together a rice, beans, and cheese in tortillas concoction, and it felt so good to cook once again! I still can't handle the smell, taste, etc. of meat, but hopefully that will come soon. I have my appetite back for the most part (except for the whole meat issue) and I'm obsessed with bean and cheese burritos and yogurt! I was with Isabella, too. I'm surprised that I have the exact same cravings this time.

And PLEASE moms, tell me you showed sooner after you had your first, because I KNOW I was not this big at 15 weeks with Isabella! I've read that this is the case, but I can't help but be a little shocked.

Our priest started a Theology of the Body study group in a neighboring town. We meet every other Monday evening, and it's pretty long term, he thinks it will take a couple of years to get through the material. Monte and I are really enjoying it! And Isabella does great at just sitting quietly next to us. I do bring a few quiet activities for her to do, but she mostly likes to just sit and act like she's an adult! The first night we were there, Father asked if we were waiting for anyone else, and someone mentioned that yes, we were waiting for Dr. F. I couldn't believe it, that's my OB doctor. I was so excited to know he would come to something like that! He hasn't come yet, but I know he's super busy, and on call several nights.

Last Monday Isabella and I went with Monte on a little trip he had to take for work. It was the highlight of Isabella's winter, for sure! Monte dropped Isabella and I off at the mall for most of the day, while he went and did his work. I got some great deals on maternity clothes, everything I got was on a really good sale, I payed between $4 and $9 for every item I got! Thankfully I felt really good that day, we waited until that morning to decide if we would go, since I didn't know how I would feel. Isabella was SO excited to go swimming with Daddy in the hotel pool, she had a blast! I sat on the side and watched, as I won't be going anywhere near my swimming suit for quite some time! I was excited to check out On.ce Upo.n a Child for the first time, it was definitely the best used kids clothing store I've been to! The next day we headed home early as I had a migraine, the car ride home was not fun, but I will say it was a good thing I had done a little shopping, so I had some plastic bags to, um, use . . .

Here she is in the hotel.

Can you tell how excited she was right before we went down to the pool! She likes her "new" (garage sale find) swimming suit a lot.

Our weather has warmed up to the 30's every day lately, which means there is finally some melting going on. As you can see, though, we still have quite a bit of snow! Isabella has been asking for months to play on her swing set, I think it will be a little while yet . . .

A random picture for a random post . . .

Who needs fancy toys, especially when she spends more time doing this than actually playing with her toys. She moves my rug out from the kitchen, buckles up her baby in it's car seat behind her, and uses a frisbee for her steering wheel, and voila - it's a car. Oh the places she has gone in that car! :)

And that reminds me of how she spent an entire day a couple of weeks ago. She played with nothing other than a beach ball and beach towel. She laid out the beach towel in the living room and pretended she was at the beach. She did all sorts of things at her beach, and she honestly spent hours at it! I love seeing her imagination at work, and obviously someone is ready for nicer weather!

At the end of last week, Monte had to work in the area by where his parents live. He made a last minute decision to take Isabella with him and stay with his parents for a couple of days. While they were gone, I did something I had been wanting to do for months, get my haircut. It was bad, I've been inspecting my split ends for months now, but in no way felt like going anywhere unless I absolutely had to. Now that I'm feeling better, I decided to get it chopped. I don't have a before picture, but it was a little past my shoulders. (And yes that is Isabella's outdoor basketball hoop in the background, we've resorted to bringing some outside toys inside, spring PLEASE come!)

I'm looking forward to my next Dr. appt. on Friday. We didn't find out what we were having with Isabella, we wanted to be surprised. This time we're thinking we might find out at some point, especially since I have an ultrasound at every appt! If we do find out, though, we're not going to tell anyone. Monte and I both think it's a girl, which brings me to my next point . . .

We told Isabella about the baby quite a while ago. To say she is excited would be an understatement. She talks about "her baby" a lot. She says she's going to help a lot, and that she's going to change the baby's diapers, and I won't even have to help her! Ha! She also wants the baby to sleep in her bed with her. I also will add that she insists she's having a baby brother, no matter how much we try to convince her it could be a girl. She's always saying she has a baby in her tummy, too.

Wordless Wednesday

Snow, snow, snow

Isabella hasn't gotten too many opportunities to play outside this winter, due to the awful, arctic winter we're having. But if the temps make it up to the 20's, and there's not much wind, you will more than likely find her outside with her daddy.

Here she's standing in our driveway, people say it looks like a tunnel! This was in January, so the snow has gotten much higher on both sides since then. Monte has actually had to scoop DOWN to uncover our mailbox a few times! Thankfully the city came and got rid of some of our snow for us, at one time it was piled about 8 feet high on both sides.

Playing with her sand toys, which have become snow toys for the winter.

Making "Snow castles".


Many of you know the lengths one must go to in order to get your child properly bundled up to go outside (or as Isabella says, "bungled" up). Here she is looking a little stiff.

It was too cold for the snow to stick together very good, so they settled for a mini "Frosty". Today they were able to make a much bigger one, appropriately named by Isabella, "Frosty's Daddy".

All worth it

In my last post I was complaining about how hard this has been, but then I go to my appt. and get to see our precious baby, and it's all worth it!


This ultrasound was a little over a week ago, at not quite even 12 weeks. It's a picture of the picture, so not that great of quality here. I think it's amazing for only being that far along. I've had four ultrasounds already, and it appears I will have one at every appt. The main purpose for the ultrasounds is to check the length and position of my cervix, since my cervix started changing and dilating at about 24 weeks with Isabella. My new doctor is really growing on me, he's great, and knows his stuff, that's for sure!

My nausea is still going strong, and I got reprimanded by my dr. a little for continuing to lose weight. He said I should not be looking at pregnancy as a weight loss program, ha! I'm not too worried about that, I'm positive once the nausea is through I'll have NO problems gaining weight! I'm actually a little worried that once food starts tasting good to me, I'll go crazy and gain a huge amount! I think I fugured out a connection between my migraines and not eating enough, too. It seems like on REALLY bad days when I can't keep anything down, and I can't even force myself to eat much, I always get a migraine. I'm going to try drinking some En.sure or something similar to that to see if it helps at all. He told me to try Uni.som (yes that's a sleeping pill, but it has been known to help morning sickness), but it didn't help me at all. He also gave me a prescription for Zo.fran. That stuff is expensive!! I got 15 pills (generic form), the price for them was $140, thankfully I only had to pay $18 with insurance. When I asked the pharmacist about it she said the actual name brand of the drug is over $400 for 15 pills!! I've only taken it a few times. I just take it when I have to go somewhere, or if I'm having an especially bad day where I just can't keep one thing down. And it's just enough to take the edge off, it's not a miracle pill or anything (for me, anyway). I am SO looking forward to feeling like my old self again, I'm pretty sure Monte feels like a single dad!

Update

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I've posted! I'm still here . . . I know I shouldn't complain, but this has been hard. I'm almost 12 weeks along, and the nausea has gotten worse this week (just when I was hoping it would be starting to get better!) At the beginning of the week I was wondering, jokingly (yet somewhat seriously) if one's throat can be damaged from vomiting a lot, because it sure felt like it. :) But the worst has been my migraines, I normally take medication for them, but can't take it while I'm pregnant, of course. They have been terrible, leaving me unable to get out of bed for 2-3 days at a time, while Monte has to stay home from work to take care of Isabella (luckily he's home more than usual this time of year, but has still had to miss some days). Isabella did go and stay with Monte's parents for four days recently, and that helped quite a bit, although I was glad to get her back home. I have finally made a decision to talk to my doctor at my appt. tomorrow about the anti-nausea meds. I think I'll get the prescription and at least have them on hand. I feel better about them now that the most critical time of development for the baby is over. I still feel very leary about taking meds while pregnant. Although, when I was pregnant with Isabella I had to take all sorts of different meds, plus had lots of different IV's and shots, all to try and prevent pre-term labor, plus I even had a CT scan and X-ray (which you are NOT supposed to get while pregnant, and I was freaking out about, due to a possible blood clot in my lung) and she seemed to turn out okay. :)

Isabella has been good through all of this, she is always kissing me and hugging me, telling me she loves me, and telling me ALL the time, "I just wish you would feel better, Mommy." She's pretty good about just getting some toys and playing on the floor next to me while I lay on the couch. But in typical only child fashion she likes her fair share of attention, too, she LOVES Candyland, and only asks to play it about 50 times a day! She does love to color, too, and that's something she and I have fun doing together, and it doesn't take much effort on my part. :) She's recently gotten into drawing, and it's been fun to see what was just a short while ago, nothing but scribbles, turn into to actual shapes and people. She loves to build things with blocks, so we decided to get her a nice set of wooden building blocks for Valentine's Day. That is definitely not something we would ordinarily do, buy her a nice toy for something like Valentine's Day (normally she would just get some candy or something very small) but she's been cooped up in the house with me all winter, with little attention from me, so we figured this would be new and exciting for her to have something new to play with while I watch from the couch. :) She got to pass out valentine's for the first time to her little friends at my Bible Study this morning, she was pretty excited! She was also pretty excited about getting valentine's back from them, too.

My next appt. is tomorrow, I was really sad when I went to my first appt. and my doctor, who I LOVE, refused to take me as a patient (I say refuse, but she was very nice about it). She felt I should see a doctor who specializes in high risk pregnancies, after all the problems I had last time. I like my new doctor fine, but he definitely doesn't take the time to sit down and "talk" like my lady doctor did. :) One neat thing, though, is that he has an ultrasound machine right there in his office, and can perform an ultrasound at any time. I'll have more appts. due to my history of pre-term labor, he also said I will be getting steroid shots to develop the baby's lungs faster (I had these with Isabella as well). He said after this spring I probably won't be allowed to do much physically (excercise, go for walks, etc) :( And he would consider putting me on bedrest around May, but also said we will just wait and see. I PRAY everything is okay and that I don't have to be on bedrest, what will I do with Isabella?? I also will be having this test at least a few times during the pregnancy (which I also had with Isabella). I am really hoping and praying to make it to 36 weeks this time, that would be great. Isabella was born at 34 weeks, which is 6 weeks early (after I had first gone into labor with her at 24 weeks). The doctors say I am more likely to deliver even earlier this time, but I'm not going to worry until I have something to actually worry about. But even then, it's all in God's hands, and all I have to do is TRUST (and pray!). We really are SO excited about this baby! And in some strange way, even though I'm feeling so sick, I feel like the nausea is a good sign that everything is okay.