Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Dehydration: A pregnant woman's worst enemy

So, yesterday morning at 4:15 I woke with what I was fairly sure were contractions. Like, real ones, not the braxton hicks variety.

Sent my husband and I into a panic.

We are SO not ready for this baby to come yet.

Rest assured, I am fine, the baby is fine and I am still pregnant. After a couple hours of erratic contractions, everything slowed down and once I was able to talk to the nurse she was very sure that it had been triggered by being dehydrated. So, the plan was to spend yesterday pushing fluids, and eating a high calorie diet to keep my blood sugar up, and then see how I felt today before we ran to the office for a check up. I drank almost four liters of water yesterday. And I didn't start really going to the bathroom until late afternoon. Apparently I didn't do a very good job of staying hydrated over the weekend and Monday morning it bit me in the pregnant butt.

However, it really made us look around and reevaluate where we are in the planning stage of bringing baby #2 home and what actually needs to be done.

For instance. I have no clean bottles. Well, amendment. I have no clean nipples. I have bottles, but come to find out, everything I had pulled out of the basement to be washed was the medium and fast flow, not the slow ones I'll need to start with.

Also, we have no where to put the baby down. Literally. All chairs, seats, bassinets, cribs and play mats are out of the basement, where they've been for anywhere from 12-18 months. But nothing is clean. There would be no where to put the baby.

The car seat hadn't made it out of the basement and we knew where one base was, but not both and the covers and infant inserts weren't clean.

Neither of us had bags packed for the hospital and we had no plan for Baby A should I go into labor during the day while she's at Mama T's.

Add to all the panic...my parents left Monday morning to drive to NH for Thanksgiving and we had no idea what some of our friends plans were for the holiday's and if anyone was going to be around if something happened.

Thankfully, everything is fine and I'm glad I didn't go running to the doctor's office. I am glad that I called, and that it was a minor issue, easily fixed.

So, moral of the story. Drink. Drink. And drink some more! And, be prepared. More prepared anyway. We're going to work on a lot of that this weekend. The list of things we thought we were doing over Thanksgiving has been adjusted slightly.


Monday, November 25, 2013

Sneak Cleaning my own house.

With the varicose veins issues going on I've managed to end up with a multitude of 'mothers' who scold me for all kinds of things. I am supposed to be staying off my feet as much as possible, and resting. Ok fine, but really, I still have a house to run and a toddler to chase. Those things don't go away.

So, on the phone with my mother last week I complained about my dirty floors and how badly I needed to wash them. I had decided I would do one thing a day and that Friday afternoon my one thing would be to wash the floors. Well, my mother went crazy and said I couldn't do that and my husband needed to be doing these things and that if I needed them washed so badly she'd come over on Friday and take care of that.

So, she came over on Friday and didn't wash my floors. She did several loads of laundry, emptied the dish washer, washed a load of bottles that I had brought up from the basement but hadn't touched yet. So, she did a lot, but she didn't wash my floors.

So, I did.

After she left, I washed the floors. To be fair, I have a super fabulous steam mop and can do the entire downstairs in under 15 minutes when I'm doing a very thorough job. This time around, I just did a 'hit the highlights' version and it took me 6 minutes.

I haven't told her. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.

I do feel more than a little goofy that I have to sneak clean my house.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

20 Things I love about two year old's.

1. Everything is new and amazing.

2. The leaves changing colors and falling has been a source of fascination that can't be experienced by anyone other than a two year old.

3. Counting school buses that go by is a great game.

4. The joy that every single bus is 'lellow!!'

5. The best part of the day is sitting in Daddy's lap to read the Cat in the Hat (again).

6. The use of  'cute' as a weapon.

7. The sheer joy of dancing with abandon.

8. Listening to them 'read' their favorite book.

9. Kisses cure boo boos.

10. Coloring outside the lines.

11. Geese are awesome.

12. Swings are awesome.

13. Running around in the grass is high entertainment for hours at a time.

14. Holiday decorations.

15. Holiday outfits.

16. The squeals of happiness to see Grandma.

17. Pink cowgirl boots.

18. Still young enough for an afternoon nap (i.e. mama's break time).

19. Spinning Circles & Somersaults (spelled that right on the first try, thank you very much!)

20. She's mine.


Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Stupid things you do because of your toddler.

Those things you say that you then have to follow through on no matter how stupid you realize they are...

That is how the letter Z ended up in time out, in my cabinets.


Monday, November 18, 2013

39 Days Left

Yes, I am counting down days now.

I am technically 34 weeks and three days along.

It's a tough day today. I had a mostly good weekend but yesterday morning I pushed it too far. I woke up feeling really good. Baby A was having a great morning and we dusted and cleaned, and did laundry and made cookies together.  The whole weekend was rainy and cold and it's hard to be stuck inside with a toddler for that long. Especially Baby A who LOVES to be outside. She is an outdoor kinda girl, which is great, unless it's 50 degrees and raining.

But apparently I just pushed a little too hard and by 11:30 I hit a wall. Hard.

I still haven't managed to get the prescription brand support hose for the varicose veins but have three pairs of OTC ones. They're ok. They help, probably not as much as the prescription ones would but it's just not convenient for me to get over to the only place I found that sells them and get them ordered. This is some seriously not fun stuff though. I really don't think I have the words for the level of discomfort that I'm in due to them. My entire left leg looks like it's been in a car wreck. The veins are so stressed, all of them, that they're all blue and purple and raised, from the very top of my thigh all down to my ankle.

We had an appointment for Big M in the afternoon and I did need to go to that with my husband but once we got home, I sat. Pretty much the rest of the day and I'm still really not feeling well today.

I have a checkup tomorrow and will mention it but I don't know how much they can do for me, other than bug me to go get the prescription hose. Honestly I'm afraid to show them my leg. I'm afraid they'll either freak out about it, or tell me it's not that bad. I don't know which would be worse. At least if they freak out it will justify how badly I feel. If they say 'yeah, that's what it looks like', that means this is normal and could potentially be worse, which is by itself scary.

Apparently my parents and in laws are taking bets on how early I go into labor. No one thinks I'll make it to the 27th.  My FIL mentioned Dec 10th, which is just not funny. While I'm definitely tired of being pregnant, I'm not ready for the alternative quite yet. I did a lot of baby organizing yesterday and have done a lot of work on the new bedding, but I maintain that this little girl needs to wait until at least Dec 23rd. I may be working from home those last few weeks and doing what I can on 15 minutes of allowed walking during the day, but this baby will cook as long as possible.

Scream free - Second Review

I don't think I'm going to make it through this one. The basis seems to be centered around controlling your responses to situations. Which is great. Necessary. True. One of the lines that stuck with me from the Love & Respect book was 'you are responsible for your own response'. I 100% agree, I just really think it was approached better in the first book and I'm very concerned that the entire 8 hours of Scream Free is going to be hashing and rehashing this one and only topic. I'm an hour in and he's just really getting started on it and there's been no breakdown of what's to come. With a physical, hard copy book, you can check out the table of contents and know what the general layout is. Not so much with an audio book, you just have to listen. 

Friday, November 15, 2013

Christmas Shopping - Stage 2

Last month I started my Christmas shopping and in the post mentioned that I wanted to be done by the end of October.

I have to say I am quite proud of myself.

I'm not 100% done, but I'm really, really close. My husband has even jumped on board the early shopping train and he's got his dad done already.

I don't think he's started shopping for me yet, and we have his siblings to do too, but we pick names at Thanksgiving, so we really haven't been able to work on that one yet anyway. Plus those are both on his plate, not mine.

Other than that, there's my dad.

And that's it.

IT.

Really.

Baby A and two of her little friends, my niece, both of our mothers, my sister, my husband, the dogs, the daycare kids presents and Mama T's present.

Done.

In addition, I've done three baby presents since that last post. One still needs to go in the mail, but the other two are out and done. Sadly, the one that still needs to be mailed is the only one where the baby is actually here already and I didn't think to do anything a couple months ago.

I have to admit I'm stumped about what to do for my dad, but I know between me, mom and my sister we'll come up with something.

But yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself in general.

I'm hoping this weekend to start wrapping some of it so that's out of the way too.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Thanksgiving Stress

I posted already about not really wanting to travel for Thanksgiving this year. At that point I will be 36 weeks pregnant and I didn't then, and still don't think it's going to be all that comfortable and it's a 4 or 5 hour drive to my in laws.

Since that post my husband and I have had a couple conversations but haven't made any final decisions. At the last one I said that I didn't want to be stressed about Thanksgiving. I can't be. I can't do it.

Argghh. Apparently that's a WHOLE lot easier said than done.

Here are my stresses:

1- My poor father in law got the shaft this year and has to work Thanksgiving evening and I think the day after. (Not at K-mart!) So, my in laws can't travel this year, they're staying in Nashville.

In of itself that's not a huge deal.

2- My sister in law with her boyfriend have already talked about going to Nashville and spending Christmas with the boyfriend's family.

Again, not a huge deal.

3 - This year is also the year for my brother in law with his family to spend Thanksgiving with the parents. Last year they hosted at their house for his wife's family.

This starts to be come a deal.

When we get together with my husbands family, we typically go to their 'cabin' in North Tennessee. They have a small house on the side of a mountain and built a second one on the property also. The houses are not on top of each other, far enough away that they feel separate, but you can yell back and forth between them. At the 'cabin' we have four bedrooms, four and a half baths, two kitchens, two separate living rooms with two separate tv's and screened in porches. If we need to escape from each other, there are places to go. We can all cook easily and have lots of space between the two kitchens to not be completely on top of each other.

In Nashville, there are three bedrooms, the master and two very small guest rooms. Very small meaning, no pack n play will fit in there, no room for kids. It's a room with a bed and that's it. There is one small kitchen, and two bathrooms, one master, decently sized, and one very small guest.

Should all of us descend on my in laws. That means there are eight adults and two children. And, should our dogs go to, which they normally do, three dogs and two cats.

And nowhere to hide. And nowhere to sleep actually.

There is going to have to be a hotel situation, but who gets that short stick? Us with the dogs makes is really hard. Big M has never been in a hotel and I know he would not settle down in that type of environment. My Old Lady has been in hotels before and she usually stands at the door growling at the noises in the hallway.

To be honest, just my crew will fill the house. We're the truckload that puts the whole circus over the top. Without us, there would theoretically be enough room for my husbands brother and sister with their respective 'others'. There would only be one dog, the one who lives there, and my niece can be set up in the den.

So, there's that.

And, then, adding to my pot of stress.

My parents are not staying in GA for Thanksgiving. They're driving to New Hampshire to spend the holiday with my grandmother and a couple of my aunts.

So now if we stay in GA, we're having Thanksgiving with just the three of us. And if we go to TN, we're the catalyst for making it an overcrowded, over stressed house.

Part of me would like to put the responsibility on my husband for this because I am very worried that if we stayed home, and didn't see any family on Thanksgiving, that he would be sad and disappointed. But really, that's how I'm afraid I'll feel. I know how hormonal and emotional I am these days. I'm afraid I'm going to be upset about it. But then I flip it around and actually consider going to TN and that just stresses me out again.

I don't know what we're going to do. I just have to believe that it will work out and it will be fine.


Scream Free - Initial Response

We're not starting off on a good foot with this one.

First off, I am a very firm believer that no one should ever read their own writing to others. You think you're a lot funnier than the rest of us do and you think what you've written is clearly brilliant. The rest of us may not agree. But in either case, whether or not we appreciate the writing can very quickly be overshadowed by how poorly it is read.

The Love and Respect author did read his own book too, and there were definitely sections where he clearly thought he was hysterical, but overall it wasn't too bad and he did a decent job.

Then there are those people who may be good writers, but not necessarily good readers. You can't read an audio book the same way that you would give a live presentation and you can't read it like you're reading a teleprompter with hiccups. That would be this guy.

Secondly, I am also a very firm believer that if you want to write a self help book, you should not start off by telling your readers that everything they read previously is wrong and is probably part of whatever problem they're having. That is one of the highest form of arrogance I can think of and once my brain has put you in the "you're kinda full of yourself, huh" category, you're there for the duration and it flavors everything else you say.

Thirdly, never, ever, ever, ever put The Forty Year Old Virgin in the category of Romantic Comedy (he actually says RomCom, repeatedly, it hurt every time) and most assuredly, more than anything else that may ever come out of your mouth for the rest of your life, don't ever, ever, put that movie as categorically relevant to When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle in terms of movie's people watch to feel good about the character's relationships and happy endings.

I about went off the road when he put those three movies together.

I am only 20 minutes into this and am not sure how far I'm going to make it. I'll give him some more time to get past his painful intro and will keep my fingers crossed that the actual book information will be better. This however, is an 8 hour recording. Love and Respect was 3 hours. Which is about right. I don't know what this guy has to say that is going to take 8 hours to get through.

We will see.

Or not.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Sew Important!

I've posted a couple times about my desire to learn how to sew. Of course the last three months or so has been the latest season of Project Runway and now it's All Stars which I really love because it's fun to see the bigger personalities come back and have at each other for 10 weeks. That show always makes me want to be more creative.

Well, I was floating around online and found a super cute Fall/Thanksgiving themed holiday skirt. They were only in Little Girl sizes though, not toddler but it was a fairly basic skirt. I decided I could do that. My mother had made Baby A her Halloween outfit, which was a cowgirl skirt and vest. The shape of that skirt was basically the same as what I saw online, just without the fringe.

So, I went and bought the fabric and called my mom for the pattern.

She came over last Friday and during Baby A's nap, we made this:

(yes, that is my awesome new table too)

I am so stupidly proud of that skirt, and Baby A hates skirts and dresses. :-(

My little tom boy, but she's going to wear it anyway. Probably with sneakers, but I'm ok with that.

So, inspired, I decided that I wanted new bedding for the nursery. There's nothing wrong with the bumpers and bedding that we had in there from when Baby A was first born, but those are her colors. I want this little girl to have her own.

We're not repainting the room, so that gives me some limits. But, I went back to the fabric store and got some super cute patterns and I am going to recover the bumpers and put a new ruffle on the bedskirt. I spent $30 in fabric. If you look at just crib bumpers, or crib sets in general, they start around $60 or higher. So, I figure I'm already ahead.

I spent about an hour on Sunday afternoon working on it and have made some progress.

Lesson #1 that I learned is: Chevron patterns are incredibly hard to work with. 

It's going to be really cute, but the majority of the time I spent on Sunday was attempting to get my pieces square with the pattern. The actual sewing part was probably 15 minutes. I only put together the front of one bumper, but the pieces are cut for the other long bumper so that one should go together quickly.


Again, my beautiful table, and yes, the antique sewing machine.

The chevron pattern is going to make up the majority of the bedskirt and I am a little disappointed in how much actual pattern shows on the bumper, but I thought doing the side panels in it also would be overkill so I just used it to accent.

I need to find the old bedskirt so I can get the measurements and take a close look at how it's put together. I hope to finish the bumpers this weekend and then next weekend start on the skirt.

All in all, I'm pretty excited about it!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

A Scream Free Marriage

We don't actually do a lot of screaming, which is good...and bad. We don't fight much, or well, or ever really accomplish anything in terms of some of our most major disagreements. This bothers me. I feel like somethings are never resolved and just left to fester. I know my husband feels that if it's not being talked about, it must not be that big a deal.

Great communication, huh?

Every so often I like to read (listen to) a marriage and relationship book just to have some reminders on how effective relationships work and how to move yours towards that goal.

Last time, I listened to Love and Respect, which I enjoyed and would highly recommend. This time around I am listening to one called A Scream Free Marriage.

The reviews are decent. A few people saying that there was nothing shocking or mind blowing about it, but I do still find that hearing someone else say 'play nice, don't throw sand in the sandbox' is sometimes necessary to reinforce things you already know.

My own reviews will be forthcoming.


Monday, November 11, 2013

More than you wanted to know about Varicose Veins.

I really feel like I"m complaining my way through this pregnancy. And I feel really guilty about that. I should be happy and thankful for a healthy pregnancy and that I was able to have this second child relatively easily.

However.

I am so over this shit.

Varicose veins. I always thought about that term like you do hemorrhoids or gestational diabetes. One of those nasty pregnancy/labor issues that you just cross your fingers you never have to deal with. Only this one I got. Big time. Not just, aww, crap, varicose veins. I got the HOLY MOTHER EFFER version of them.

It feels like my leg is on fire.

Now, if you look up ways to relieve the pain and discomfort associated with varicose veins you get the following:

Anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen: Nope, not on the prego approved list.

Lose Weight: yeah right.

Exercise Regularly: Umm, hello, 33 weeks pregnant, almost 34. I HAVE been exercising regularly. Throughout this whole thing I have walked the dogs every morning. Not a far distance, and for the past month or so I've cut the distance down and it's gotten slower. Today I walked the dogs and wanted to cry, it hurt, so bad. I've spent the whole day limping. So, yeah, that whole "exercise regularly" thing can bite my pregnant butt.

At my last checkup I got a prescription for support hose. Maternity support hose and was told that regular pharmacies couldn't order them and I had to go to a specialty shop. She gave the name of a few and I haven't done anything about it until today. Just for the sake of argument I went to the CVS down the street. Nope.

Ok, fine. Specialty item.

So I called two locations that were supposed to have them. One didn't have any on hand and their supplier was out. Another didn't carry it at all. Both gave me recommendations on other pharmacies to try.

Of those, one was in an assisted living community. Yeah, sending me to an old lady pharmacy for my old lady stockings. They actually didn't have any either. I guess none of the biddies had gotten knocked up recently...

I finally did find one that had some in stock, not my size, but they could order it. Retail is $60.

?!?!?!?

I said that I had been told that insurance would cover these, they said it would have to be paid for and reimbursed.

$60 for support stockings.

I don't even know what to do.

The comments about my size come pretty much every other day or so and adding a limp to the mix doesn't help. People really do think I'm about to pop. I've gained 22 lbs. That's it. It's just all up front.

Six and a half weeks left.

Only six and a half weeks left.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

5 Year Anniversary

A couple months back I had been talking with my husband about our pending anniversary and that I didn't know what to do for it. We can't really go anywhere or do anything 'fun' because, hey, pregnant. But it's 5 years, so that's kind of a milestone, right? So he said he had some ideas and that he would take care of it.

I did get him a small gift. He started a new job recently (he likes to do that while I'm pregnant, second time, second pregnancy) and it's a higher class office. Shirts and ties and suits, etc. All his former companies were polo and khaki's style offices. So I got him a really sharp tie bar from Neiman Marcus. Probably the only thing I could afford at Neiman Marcus, but it looks really nice and definitely steps up his game a bit. :)

Our anniversary was last Friday, Nov 1st. My in laws were in town to watch Baby A since my daycare lady had taken a few days off. Since we got up that morning, I felt like there was something going on. Something that everyone was in on and knew except me. Well, I was right.

I only worked half a day and then I went to get a mani/pedi, which was awesome. I got home and walked in the door to see my fall decorations that had been on my dining room table, were now on the kitchen counter.

Strange. But I figured maybe my father in law needed table space for something.

I came in further to see that the table itself had been pushed aside.

Also strange, but maybe his computer cord didn't reach the nearest outlet.

All the chairs were lined up against the walls, and there was no project on the table. In fact, the leaves had been taken out and it had been closed down to it's smallest size.

I just kept looking around oddly. My mother in law had run out to the store so it was just my father in law and Baby A at the house. I looked at him and said 'I feel like something's going on.' He says 'I don't know' in a very unconvincing tone.

A few minutes later, I look out to see this stop outside the house:

The delivery guy comes in and asks 'where do you want it'. I said 'no idea, I don't know what you have'. He thought that was pretty funny, that I had no idea what was coming. My father in law instructed on the where and how and next thing I know. I have this:

Not the chairs. Just the table. The chairs are from the old table. But this, this is the table I have wanted for years. Years and years and drooled over in catalogs for so long.

The chairs will eventually look like this:

They're just a little expensive and we'll have to buy them in two's or three's for a couple months to get them all. But this will be the finished look when I have the dining room of my dreams (without the rug, but with the light).

Really, I have the best husband ever.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Update: Stages of Pregnancy

I missed the stage where you develop varicose veins. So now, not only do you feel fat because everyone and their brother comments on your size while you're out in public places, but you also feel old, because your legs now look like a 90 year old's...

It just gets better and better.

32 weeks and Halloween

Just chugging along in terms of this pregnancy. I am getting really, really tired of strangers commenting to me about my size though.

I've gained 20 lbs.

20.

Not 200.

Not even the 30-35 or so that I had gained already at this point with Baby A.

However people just can't seem to help but comment on my size, or my due date, or the completely random 'should you be in a hospital'.

Yeah. Someone said that to me. Although I was in Walmart at the time, so maybe there's a different level of 'socially acceptable' in that particular store.

Halloween was so much fun. Baby A was a little cowgirl. My mom made the outfit and we got some KILLER pink cowgirl boots. Baby A was a little hesitant about walking up to a house and knocking on the door, but when she realized candy was involved, it got a whole lot more fun after that. By the third house she was marching up all by herself and knocking on the door. It was really funny. My husband kept trying to get her to say Trick or Treat and we explained that when the person opens the door, if you say Trick or Treat, they'll give you candy. So, he says 'say Trick or Treat' and she says 'Candy'. Ok. Short cut the process I guess. She's very efficient. We only went to about four houses and then headed home but she really had a blast.
My cowgirl.