Saturday, December 31, 2011

37 Weeks

I guess I didn't gain any weight this week. The nurse is usually so fast with it that I can barely get a glance at what the scale says. But this midwife didn't mention it at all. BP was still in the 120s over 70s, Hot Dog!

I'm Strep B Negative, so I won't need to have antibiotics during labor, at least not for that. I suppose something else could happen where I would need antibiotics though. Hot Dog again!

She said that a Hep Lock is standard for the midwives so that's good. The IV was probably the least of my problems last time but if things go better this time an IV would be annoying.

Since I won't be having an IV I asked about food during labor. She said clear liquids is the hospital policy to make anesthesia happy. Then she pretty much said, don't come in until you really need to and eat on your way here if you're hungry. Which was kind of my plan anyway.

In my birth vision I said I would prefer intermittent or telemetric monitoring. She said that they pretty much can't do intermittent since you need someone to be with you one on one during active labor because monitoring happens so frequently. So it looks like telemetric will be the way to go.

Assuming my water hasn't broken yet when we get to the hospital we'll ask to be in L&D 5 or 6 so I can use the tub if I want.

I feel pretty well prepared. I still need to do some stuff around the house but I think we're ready to go to the hospital under pretty much any circumstance. Kaida even has a bag packed. I don't know what situation might arise where she would need to go somewhere for more than a little while but if it does, she's ready.

Colin's Heart Rate was in the 140s this week. He was Occiput Posterior (head down but facing my belly) at the office which is not how we want him for delivery but head down is good enough for me. They usually turn to anterior during labor if you're able to be up and moving. So everything still looks good!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

Kaida is starting to get a cold and she had a little bit of a rough night after we got home from Aunt Jen's last night. So she was super tired when she woke up this morning.

We put her down for a morning nap a little before 10 and she slept until 12:05. So we thought an afternoon nap was out of the picture. But around 4:15 she was so crabby and rubbing her eyes that we put her down anyway. She slept for a half hour so that helped adjust her attitude a little bit.

Then it was time for church right away. So we had to get her changed super quick. JR took her diaper off and was putting it in the pail while I got her dress ready. She stood up on the changing table and suddenly we hear "Uh-oh." and she peed. I guess she's figuring out that you're not supposed to pee on yourself.

Posing for pictures


her pretty dress.



When we got to church she kept saying "Ooooo, Wow!" I guess because the lights were on? It was adorable. Then she had to look at all the luminaries that they put out to line the driveway. They were very pretty.
She was pretty good. JR took her up for the longest Children's Talk Ever. Seriously, you know it's going to be a lot of kids, and probably kids who don't normally come to church so don't know to sit still and be quiet. Make it snappy! Plus it was boring. Oh, and JR said that she kept calling Pastor "Poppy" while they were up near the front. I can see the resemblance so I don't blame her.
She had juice, and fish, and JR's phone played Baby Einstein almost the entire time so we made it through with minimal screaming. And only the occasioanal exclamation of "Baby!", "Wow!", and "Kitty!"

When we got home we took a walk down the street to look at the lights and realized that we are one of only 2 houses on our street that don't have outside lights. Maybe we should get some outlets on the outside of the house... She really likes the lights.

After dinner she had her bath lickety-split and then we Skyped with Grammy and Poppy so Poppy could read The Night Before Christmas to her. She had a running commentary the whole way through "Baby! Bear! Ho-ho-ho!" whenever she saw something she recognized. I think she liked it.

Then we moved Mary and Joseph into the stable and set out milk and cookies for Santa.

She thinks she should test them to make sure they're okay for Santa.


Nice and cozy in their stable.


It was a very fast delivery!


She went to sleep very easily so we'll see if it lasts. It was a pretty exciting day!

Merry Christmas from Kaida!


And Colin!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Kaida and Babies

When Kaida sees pictures of babies on my computer she always comes to point them out to me. Baby is one of her favorite words and I'm pretty sure than Blankie is named Baby. It's a little bit confusing because the Taggie Baby Doll she also sleeps with is a baby too.

I've started telling her that a baby is coming to live with us but it's hard to tell if she gets it. I know she understands a lot more than she can tell us but this may be a little too abstract of a concept.

If I tell her that there's a baby in my belly she comes over and lifts up my shirt, points to my belly button, and says "beh-buh". Kind of like, "No mom, I think you're confused, that's a belly button, not a baby."

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

36 Weeks Midwife Appointment

Went to the Midwives today. JR stayed home with Kaida and that was very nice.

My fundal height measured 36 cm so that's right on. My iron is good and so was my blood pressure, 120/72, but I gained 9 pounds in 3 weeks. I knew I had gained a bunch, and it all happened in this past week or so. That's alarming but I don't have a whole lot of swelling, just my hands occassionally. And if the weight gain were related to preeclampsia I would have puffed up somewhere. She thought maybe he had a growth spurt. Which would also explain the "Pyramid of Pain".

That is what I've taken to calling the ridiculous pain in my groin area. I had some pain with Kaida. You could tell it was just soreness from carrying around a baby. This is that with an added sharp pain in the dead center of my pubic bone. So sometimes just walking or lifting my leg to put my shoe on is really painful. The midwife thought it was just the round ligaments stretching out.

She said that he's head down with his back toward my left. I think he's still there right now. But he has some giant movements every once in a while so I think he's still able to switch it up every once in a while.

She was guessing that he's already 5-6 pounds and said he had a pretty good sized bean. Sounds like we might have another giant headed baby, but maybe not a weeble this time. She said that sometimes with preeclampsia babies don't get everything they need through the placenta so that can lead to a lower birth weight which would explain Kaida being so tiny. So if he's already that big then (fingeres crossed) maybe no preeclampsia!

She looked at the birth vision and didn't think anything seemed unreasonable. And we did the Group B Strep test so we'll have the results of that at my visit next week.

As soon as I had parked the car at the hospital I started sneezing and my nose hasn't stopped running yet. I think I may be sick. Blech.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Kaida seems to be done with two naps. Last Saturday, completely out of the blue, she just stopped napping in the morning. I tried putting her down for the next couple days just to see if it was a fluke but she's sticking to her guns.
Today she finally napped for 2 hours so that seems more reasonable. For the first half of the week her one nap was only one hour. That was not fun, especially when she's up during the night or I'm having braxton hicks that keep me up. I was a very tired Momma for a couple days there.

Today we put in our order for the newborn diaper rental at Happy Baby Company. We decided to go with the fitteds with covers. Our theory is that they come to roughly the same price as disposables and will hopefully work better. I remember Kaida's disposables leaking all the time. Hopefully that won't happen with these. If it does, we're no worse off than we would have been.

Santa came by with the volunteer fire company tonight. So we went outside to see him. There were a lot of flashing lights and loud music but she didn't cry or anything. And after he had driven by she said "Ho-ho-ho." We were thinking about seeing Santa Cow tonight too, but I decided against it. I wasn't really hungry for chick-fil-a and I couldn't think of anything to dress her in for the picture. I think Santa on a fire truck was good enough.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Reasons

Remember the time that I took Dramamine following the label's recommended dosing schedule and for 2 days woke up only to eat and pee?

Or the time that I had "The Rash" and was prescribed an allergy medication for itching. And when I took it I kept falling asleep in class. And when we read the label it said "May cause drowsiness in children under 4."?

Or the time I had jaw surgery and the Roxicet made me so high we had to cut my dose?

Or the time they gave me the lowest possible dose of pitocin and I immediately had contractions every minute?

These are examples of some reasons I want to avoid medication during labor. Medication and I seem to be unable to come to an agreement regarding how we should interact while it's in my body.

Not to mention all the kind-of-scary statistics.

I was reading an article our Lamaze teacher gave us about the best way to have an intervention free labor and delivery and it lists allowing labor to start on its own. It then lists all these statistics for people who are given pitocin. If you are given pitocin you have a 50/50 chance of ending up with a c-section. Among other things. It kind of gave me a little panic attack. Not so much that I'm worried for this time but that it could have happened last time.

So yeah, still hoping to avoid all of that.

We had our hospital tour last week and now I'm worried about going to the hospital. When we got to the Triage part of the tour I kind of didn't want to go. Not that anything bad happened while I was in Triage with Kaida. But I was all alone, my phone was running out of battery, I was scared, and it's not a comfy place to be. I just have a very negative feeling about it.
So now I'm afraid that we'll get to the hospital, get into Triage, I'll start freaking out and Colin will leap back up into my uterus and be all "If Mom is freaking out this must be a very bad place to be born. I don't think I'll make my entrance today after all."

In other news I had maybe 4 contractions between 3:30 and 4:30 this morning. They kept waking me up but since I sleep on my left side I couldn't see the clock so I really have no idea how far apart they were. Eventually I went to the bathroom, drank a cup of water, and was more awake. While I was doing that I had 4 more in, maybe, 10 minutes. I was pretty sure the info sheet said it may be pre-term labor if you have 5 or more contractions in an hour so I decided that if I had another contraction after those 4 fast ones I would go double check the sheet and then maybe wake up JR. But then there were no more. I guess peeing and drinking the water helped. Plus I rolled to my right side. (All suggestions from my Doula book that I re-read last week).
They certainly didn't feel like labor contractions (at least not the ones I've had) so I was only kind of worried. I would describe them as high pitched and fast. Not that that would make much sense to anyone but me.
We have one more Lamaze class left which is how many we had left when Kaida was born, so I'm hoping to break our record.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

34 Weeks

Nothing too exciting has been happening lately. He's still moving around like crazy. I don't think Kaida moved around quite this much. Or she had more dainty movements. He feels like he's doing somersaults all the time.

Since my last appointment I've been having some groin and pelvic pain. I would say it's usually a dull ache, which I had around week 36 with Kaida, so this is definitely starting earlier. Sometimes, though, it's a really gnarly pain that makes it hard to walk. So I'm not sure if it's something he's doing or if it's my ligaments being a little too relaxed and not holding my pelvis where it belongs. Or a combination of both since it goes away pretty quick and just starts to ache again.

We met with Bethany the Doula and went over our birth vision. It's pretty much the same as with Kaida except I added intermittent monitoring to telemetric as an option since I'd rather not wear any belts, I added that I want a mirror and hot compresses when I'm pushing since the mirror really helped last time.
And I added "Please do not separate Colin and I (even across the room) unless medically necessary". Our Lamaze teacher told us that Kangaroo care is great for the baby and is actually a recent hospital policy but that old habits die hard so nurses often just take them to the warmer after the cord is cut. Having Kaida with me right after she was born was the best feeling so I'd like to repeat that, if possible, and have it last more then 15 seconds.
I figure that most of the birth vision is just how the midwives do things so it's really for the nurses to know how I'd like things to go without having to explain myself to everyone who comes in the room.

Bethany told me that she had registered for a convention but they changed the dates from sometime in February to January 18th and 19th. I told her I was fine with a backup but hopefully he doesn't come on his due date or the day before. Batsheva would be the backup and she seems very capable but I really like Bethany.

Colin's Stats:
According to the e-mail he's about 4 and 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. He's still working on adding fat and maturing his lungs. But if he were born right now he wouldn't likely have any long term problems.

As for me I'm up about 27 pounds from my starting weight. Doing better than last time but that's getting close to the recommended limit. My fingers have been puffing up a little bit, again, not as bad as last time but I was hoping to avoid it entirely. I'm still wearing my rings though so that's good.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Kaida's Adventures in Self Feeding

We started giving Kaida her own bowl or plate and utensils. She thinks it's quite fun. Sadly it seems to make at least 2 times the mess on a regular basis.

The fork seems to be a little bit easier for successfully getting food from the plate to her mouth. But she has trouble with the transition from the stabbing motion to the transporting to the mouth motion.

Very often she holds the spoon or fork in one hand and picks up the food to eat it with the other hand. Occassionally banging the plate with the utensil just to hear the noise.

This video is from the first time I gave her her own bowl and spoon.



This other video is from a long time ago. This is when she first started saying ball. We're playing in her big girl room before it was done. She had a cold so she's hoarse, but it's still adorable.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

32 Weeks

Last week was 32 weeks, I had an appointment this past Tuesday.
I think I met with Shannon, but I didn't catch her name. I liked her a lot.

I told her about this pain I've been having in my right side. It's the same pain I had with Kaida that I thought was having-a-baby-in-your-ribs pain. Until I found out this time that pain on your right side is a symptom of preeclampsia. But my blood pressure was a good number, 110/60 maybe, (Kaida was pretty loud so I'm not sure I heard it right) so she wasn't worried.
I'm thinking it may just be ligament pain.

I measured 34cm which she said was perfect but sounds a little big to me. His heart rate was fine. Kaida was still not a fan of the part where I was measured and we listened to his heart. She cries every time. She also cried during the blood pressure. When I go to have blood drawn though, she doesn't seem to mind. She has misplaced her concerns about me, I think.

We talked a little bit about my wishes and I told her that we were planning to do the birth plan this week and discuss it with the Doula before I bring it to them. She asked if we were planning to have Kaida with us for labor and delivery I said no but that reminded me to tell her that when we're getting close I'm going to be that pregnant lady who always asks them how long they think it will be. Our hope is that we'll be able to get my mom here to care for Kaida before it's time to go.

This last interval was 5 weeks because of Thanksgiving and the next will be 3 weeks to put the appointment right before Christmas. But then I'll be switching to one week appointments. They'll do the strep B test next time so we'll find out if the acidophilus is doing anything for me or not. I'm also supposed to have my blood drawn to check my iron levels and other stuff.

Colin's Development
3.75 pounds and 16.7 inches. They say that he'll gain 1/3 to 1/2 of his birth weight in the next seven weeks. He has toenails, fingernails, and hair (hopefully!) and his skin is smoothing out as he gains more fat.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm getting excited and, honestly, with Christmas in the way between now and when he'll (hopefully) be born it's hard to get excited. It's like I need to get past Christmas before I can move on to mentally preparing for him to arrive.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Quotes

"We've secretly replaced the Hagy's baby with Gloria, let's see if they notice!"
-JR

This was when we were driving home from Buffalo after Thanksgiving. She had fallen asleep 20 minutes into the trip and slept all but the last 20 minutes. We were starting to wonder if we had accidentally strapped Gloria into the car seat and packed Kaida in the suitcase.

"We've secretly replaced Blankie with a bunny, let's see if she notices!"
-JR

One Blankie was in the wash and the other had made its way downstairs. And, yes, she definitely noticed.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Colin's Nursery

So, I think Colin's nursery is all ready for him. I still need to move his clothes in and he needs a basket to hold diapers. We also need to decide if we're going to do disposables or the newborn rental program from Happy Baby Company.

I originally made the tie backs for the curtains pink on one side and blue on the other. I made them a little bit shorter before I flipped them over to the blue side.



I made this crib rail cover. I had planned to do it when Kaida started chewing on the rail. But then we were going to buy one of the stick on ones, then none of them fit, blah blah blah - I didn't get around to it.
It's the minky fabric and I used these buttons that spell out BABY in yellow, pink, and blue.



The orange dragon in the middle is a new sticker I printed out. Kaida sort of ate the green dragon that was there before.
And I switched the changing pad cover from the pink one to the blue one. If he pees on the blue one he's just going to have to use the pink one 'til it's washed.






I think it's cute. JR keeps pointing out that there are pink stripes on the walls and that the tops of the walls are purple. I guess he should have spoken up about that 18 months ago 'cause I'm not painting.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Polka Dots

Here's what I decided to do with the stickers on the wall over the crib.



The other idea I had was a starburst but there are only two sizes of stickers so I didn't think that would look right.

Then I thought of a spiral but I wasn't sure how to work it with the two different size stickers.

I like these though. They don't look completely insane but they do help bring the polka dots to the rest of the room.
Kaida was great today while we worked on getting all the leaves off the lawn. First off, she slept long enough for us to get the rest of the yard raked (we got about 2/3 done on Tuesday). We managed to haul about half of the piles into the woods before she woke up.

After a lunch break we all went outside and she happily wandered around while we hauled away the rest of the leaves. Then she played with the recycling while JR mowed and I raked leaves out from under the bushes and hedges.

Her second nap (which has been getting very short lately, about a half hour) actually lasted about 35 minutes. She didn't wake up while I weed whacked with the gas weed whacker. So that was good.

When she did wake up we went outside again and she let both of us mow at the same time. She mostly just stood on the tarp and played with the recycling. Eventually she did wander up the hill a little but was playing with some moss so she didn't go too far. While we cleaned up, though, she found the steps up to the deck. Luckily we only needed to re-route her from there 2 or 3 times.

She was very good. I was afraid she would just scream if we were both running a lawn mower but she seemed ok with it. And that made finishing up the yard go super fast, well, super fast for our yard.
I'm sure it will be all leafy again tomorrow but we live near the woods, there's not much we can do about it. I think we're done for the year though.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Holy Molars!

Kaida is getting 4 molars right now. She's been chewing on her fingers for a couple weeks now and woke up screaming the other night. I checked the next day and found two molars coming in on the bottom. I double checked the day after that and noticed two more on the top. She's not the happiest camper, although they seem to be moving along pretty quickly, so that's good.

She acts a lot different when she's in pain, besides the "I'm in pain" scream.

After the afternoon nap she has been pretty inconsolable the past two or three days. Distracting her and giving her a snack is usually enough to snap her out of it but yesterday I gave her some Tylenol.

When she falls or has some other little ouchy she cries and needs to be picked up, normally she can just shake it off if you make it seem like it was no big deal.

She also needs a lot more attention. Normally after dinner she just plays in the living room without needing a lot of interaction from us but today she needed to be on the couch with us but somehow that wasn't making her happy either. Eventually I just ran around the circle from the living room to the kitchen with her over and over. I gave her some tylenol before bed too because she was still unhappy after her bath.

I hope the rest of this goes pretty quickly, I want my sweet baby back.

In other news we have a babysitter booked for our childbirth classes. She's in high school and she seemed pretty on top of it when I talked to her on the phone. Hopefully she can be our go to sitter. She's going to come over the Saturday before classes start to meet Kaida and watch the bedtime routine.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Big Girl Room!

We finally finished Kaida's big girl room today. It has seemed like it was almost done for days so it was really annoying that it was taking so long. But, it's adorable!

Here it is before. Well, before we started painting but after moved out the bed and smushed all the rest of the furniture into the middle of the room.


It took two coats of primer


I was afraid the pink would be barely pink but it's perfect.


And here's the floor and bottom part of the wall. They both look awful.


Here's the start of the window seat JR built.


Kaida Helped


This shows the room empty and in desperate need of carpet.





The carpeting installed. It's really nice, I love it.



The moulding installed.


Getting ready to set up the crib. Notice we're building it in the room it will end up in. Lesson learned.


Finally done.


I'm very proud of the window seat area. That was a lot of sewing and it looks absolutely adorable. I think the curtain underneath works perfectly.


The letters were on sale and I had a coupon for the paint. I think the name, grand total, was $12. I used the blue sticky stuff I had from the dorms to hang the letters. And, these are the polka dot stickers Aunt B found at the dollar store. I had them all over the room but then I thought it made the room look like it had the measles. I'm thinking of doing something on the wall the crib is on but I'm not sure about it yet.


We bought some toy storage for her. The hippo drawer in the middle is a big hit. Rachelle got her the dragon print on the left of the long shelf and the colors are perfect. It says "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are small, and crunchy, and taste good with ketchup."
Her growth chart is hanging up behind the door and she really likes the new piggy bank. Unfortunately he's ceramic and not a good toy.


When the curtains aren't pulled back the entire room and upstairs glows pink. It was driving JR crazy when he was working up there so he grabbed the tie backs from our room and put them on. They look great! Now I just need to make new tie backs for our room.


I'm very proud of the room. I think it looks great for not having come out of a box.

He has a name!

We've finally decided on Bean's name.

He'll be Colin Wesley Hagy.

Pronounced like Colin Farrell not like Colin Powell.

Colin is not currently in the top 100 so he, hopefully, won't be one of 15 Colins in his class. It has Gaelic origins. But it seems like no one is too sure on its meaning. Lot's of sites agree that it means Dove and is a shortened form of Nicholas.

Wesley was my Grandfather's middle name. And since we couldn't find a middle name that started with R (to match Amanda R, JR, and Kaida R) that we liked I wanted something that had some meaning otherwise. We like how they go together too.

Yay! A name!

It seems like it took forever this time but it looks like it really only took 2 or so weeks longer than finding Kaida's name.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween 2011



Halloween went very well. So well, in fact, that I kind of wish we could have waffles for dinner, dress up, and go out to get candy from the neighbors once a week!

Kaida was a bumble bee. She was adorable. She wore Melanie's costume from a couple years ago.


I put a jack-o-lantern face on the belly of an orange shirt so Bean could be dressed up too.


We went to three houses, Dave, Dave's neighbor on the other side, and Holly and Dave's. Diane from across the street came over to bring Kaida a container of swedish fish with a ghost on top and some tootsie roll pops. They have a lot of stairs so I think she was trying to save us the trip.

We had 6 trick or treaters. Zoe, and then a gaggle of pre-teen girls, one of whom was a bumble bee.

You could tell she knew something was up when we put the costume on her. She did really well and even let us put the hood up. She wore two pairs of tights, a long sleeve onesie, a sweatshirt, and then the costume and shoes. It was kind of rainy and chilly but she didn't seem to mind.



She only kind of understood that she was supposed to take the candy. At Dave's neighbor's house she did eventually take the candy from him but it took quite a bit of convincing. At Holly and Dave's she loved the dog and Lucas in his dinosaur costume. And she finally said "Buzz Buzz!" which we'd been trying to get her to say all night.

When we got home she immediately began to dig through the bag and she popped a sucker in her mouth wrapper and all. Once I unwrapped it for her, though, she was no longer interested.


I think she had fun. Maybe next year, six houses!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Big Girl Room

We're making a lot of progress on the Big Girl Room. I'm going to wait to post pictures until it's all done though.

So far it's all been primed and painted. We sanded the windows because the paint was peeling, so they've been primed, caulked and painted. I painted the dresser white and bought some letters to spell out her name and painted them green. The new carpet has been installed. Today we installed the first part of the moulding, we still need to add the shoe moulding, caulk, and touch it all up. JR built a window seat for her and I painted that and cut a foam pad to fit.

The pink on the walls needs to be touched up, we want to paint the trim around the doors, and the doors need to be trimmed shorter since they are very hard to move over the new carpet.
I need to sew the curtains and tie backs and cover the window seat cushion. We also need to find some display shelves, shelves for toy storage, hang the letters and some pictures, and put up the stickers.

Oh, and build the crib and move her in!

28 Weeks

That's 7 months for those of you counting.

I had a midwife appointment yesterday. It went pretty quickly, so that was good. Kaida didn't have time to get agitated like she usually does.

His heart rate was about 145. I measured exactly 28 weeks. My blood pressure was 90/72. I guess there isn't a normal blood pressure that you are all the time? That or some people just get wildly different measurements for me. Who knows.

I met with Emily D. She was nice. She had to do my weight etc. herself, I think the nurses were probably still at lunch since we were kind of early. She talked to Kaida too so I think that helped her not freak out when we had to do the heart rate and everything.

I asked her about the type of circumcisions they do at Magee. I want JR to see a video of how it's done so he can help me make an informed decision. I'm not really feeling it for Bean since I watched some videos and it's neither recommended nor discouraged by the AAP. Emily had to check to see which type they do but found out for me that they use the Gomco.

I also asked if they do pulse oximetry. That's a test that can detect heart defects that otherwise wouldn't be evident before the baby leaves the hospital. Several states are making them required and it's been added to the list of core screening standards by the Department of Health. She didn't think they do it though.

Then we discussed a couple of what-ifs.

What if my water breaks but labor doesn't start.
They are ok with waiting a while but would eventually start pitocin. They're more interested in figuring out why labor hasn't started (and fixing that) than just getting it started right away.

What if we're getting near the due date and he is breech.
She said he won't be. But, if he is, there are exercises or acupuncture, then external version (moving him from the outside), and last she said there are some doctors, depending on his size, who would deliver him breech. But that would depend on who is on call when I go into labor. Sounds like the modwives wouldn't deliver him. But that's a lot of tricks to not work before we get to that point.

And the last what if was what if I go way past the due date.
She said that they've gone as long as 42 weeks 6 days before inducing. I'm sure that's a case by case sort of thing. But overall it seems like we have a pretty good chance of avoiding pitocin unless it really is necessary. And that's my major goal, that and avoiding a c-section.

The e-mail says he's about 2.25 pounds and 14.8 inches long. He can open and close his eyes. Other than that his brain is developing and he's gaining fat. Maybe we'll have a chubby baby!

We're close on a name. We're pretty well decided on a first name and are working on the middle name.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Cloth Diapers

It's been a little over a year since we started using cloth diapers so I thought I'd give a little review.

Pocket Diapers
We started out with pocket diapers. They look a lot like a disposable (in fancy colors). There's waterproof fabric on the outside and it's lined with fleece to help her feel drier. There's an open pocket in the back to add the absorbent layer between the fleece and the waterproof fabric. You can add more absorbency if you need it.
They come in small and medium (large is for really big toddlers) or in one size. The one size usually have snaps to adjust the rise although we have some that you can adjust the elastic around the waist and legs.

We like the pocket diapers, they're pretty easy to use. On and off like a disposable (except with snaps instead of velcro). They dry pretty quickly. We dry the outside on the line and put the absorbent part in the dryer (this helps the waterproof fabric stay waterproof longer).

We had trouble with leaks for a little while until I figured out that she needed more in the diaper to absorb. Pretty soon we'll switch to the medium diapers, and they'll absorb even more so that will be nice.

All in Two
The second kind of diapers we have are All in Twos. They are a waterproof cover that has an absorbent soaker that snaps in, the idea being that you can reuse the cover until it gets dirty and just replace the soaker. We use the GroVia brand all in twos. Their soakers have a waterproof back so that even if the soaker is completely soaked it doesn't leak through onto the cover. They come in one size with snaps to adjust the rise.

These work pretty well, they have gussets on the soaker to help contain the poop but we've found that if you're not quick about changing a poopy diaper you'll end up having to toss the cover in the diaper pail as well. I don't think we've ever had a leak with these but we don't use them very often since they take a very long time to dry. They're pretty compact, so good for traveling.

An added bonus to these diapers is the disposable insert option. The disposable insert looks like a disposable diaper without any side velcro to wrap around. It has two sticky tabs on it that you stick inside the waterproof cover. I like these for when we're out of the house. That way I don't need to worry about trying to get poop off a cloth diaper when we don't have our diaper sprayer. They're biodegradable and a bit better for the environment than a regular disposable but in exchange they don't hold as much pee as a disposable which has led to some problems. They definitely need to be changed frequently.

Prefolds
The third type of diaper we use are prefolds. This may be what you think of when you hear "cloth diaper". Traditionally they were held together with pins and then you put a cover over it to keep it waterproof (wool, rubber, or plastic). You no longer need to use a pin for them, we use the snappi It's a stretchy thing with teeth that grabs the diaper from the outside and holds it together (just look at the link). When I put them on her I fold the sides in and flare out the back and front so I can use the snappi to close it. I've been using the GroVia covers from the all in two system with these and it's working really well.

The prefolds hold a lot of pee which is what we need right now. We were having trouble cleaning poop off of them (with all the folds and bunches it was getting everywhere) but I started using the fleece liners in them and that has helped a lot. I assume it helps her feel drier too, like the pocket diapers. I air out the covers in between changes, swapping between two covers throughout the day. They never get soaked but sometimes get damp. I really like them. They were pretty cheap too, comparitively. JR has not been sold on them yet.

Right now I like the prefolds best. Then the pockets. Then the all in twos. It seems to change with what we're doing and with how she pees and poops. And I bet it will change all over again when Bean gets here and is a different shape and size.

Wordsmith

Kaida has added a few fun words to her vocabulary recently.

Ow. JR said that she said Shirt. Ball. And the cutest is Uh-oh.

So far she has said ow only once or twice and that was at appropriate times, like after she fell down.

She said shirt when she was pointing to JR's shirts.

Anything round is a ball. Although ball and book sound exactly the same. I only know the difference by what she's holding.

Uh-oh started off right. She would say it when she dropped something, which makes sense since I say Uh-oh Spaghettio whenever she drops something. But today she started saying it at inappropriate times. I had to tell her a couple times "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Today we were reading Jack and Jill and she pointed to the cat and made the noise she uses to call Gin and Tonic. I was impressed by that since I told her yesterday that was the kitty.

Had my cardiologist appointment today. He said I'm absolutely fine. The heart murmur is barely audible and not a problem. I think he was a little annoyed that they sent me to see him. At least it was a quick appointment. And JR got out of work early.

Friday, October 14, 2011

BP Check

My Blood pressure was slightly lower than it was at my last visit. Yay!

I saw Tina. She thinks everything looks fine so that makes me feel a lot better too.

I said that no matter what happens I'd like it to go differently this time. I didn't feel like I had much choice in any of the decisions that were being made. But Tina said that they work hard to make sure that I'm a part of all the decisions and that I understand all the options.

And that's why I switched, hopefully it works out as planned.

Although I'm convinced I'll end up with a C-Section this time.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

26 Weeks

26 Weeks today.

I have my blood pressure check tomorrow morning. Hopefully that goes ok. I've been reading a bit more about preeclampsia and it looks like my chances of getting it again are higher than the average second time mom's. They have no idea what causes it so there's no way to guess.
This is from the e-mail this week "Around this time, your blood pressure may be increasing slightly, although it's probably still lower than it was before you got pregnant." I'm an over achiever so my blood pressure started going up 2 months ago.

I've taken two naps this week. I've been getting tired right when Kaida goes down for her second nap. I hope this doesn't get worse when I get to the third trimester, I'll never get anything done. Or wait, is this the third trimester?

Bean is practice breathing and his ears are getting more sensitive. He's about 14 inches and One and 2/3 pounds. He's the size of an English Hothouse Cucumber (not sure if that's different from a regular cucumber though).

We're getting closer to a name. Boys are hard though.

Friday, September 30, 2011

24 Weeks

Had my midwife appointment today. I met with Tanya who seems very nice. At the "meet the midwives" she seemed the most doctory of all the midwives and that came through again a bit today but nowhere near as doctory as the doctors.

I told her about our Doula and then asked about him being breech. She said right now it's hard to tell what position he's in but around week 34 they'll be able to tell and that's also when they can start trying to get him to flip around.

I realized I forgot to mention that my regular doctor had told me I have a heart murmur when they were taking my history at the last appointment. So I told her that. And since I've never had any other kind of tests about it she is referring me to a cardiologist. My doctor made it seem like it's not a big deal but I guess she wants to be sure.

My blood pressure was well within a normal range today. But I've been keeping track of it since just before I got pregnant and noticed that it's been going up. So I brought that up and showed her my notes. We talked about what would happen if I get preeclampsia again. If I get it before or after full term, if it's severe or mild, no matter what combo, they would just end up inducing me. So I'm hoping to avoid that but at least I know now. I guess if it is going to happen I'll want to discuss how to make it less awful this time around, if that's even possible.
As for right now I have an appointment to go back in two weeks just to check my blood pressure.

I think she thought I was worried so that's why she had me make the BP appointment and gave me the referral for the cardiologist. At least that's what I hope.

Bean is a little over a pound and almost a foot long. His skin is still translucent and he's developing taste buds. My soccer ball sized uterus measured 24 weeks perfectly today and his heart rate was 156 which she said was great since he was kicking.
So he's good at least!

I've gained 9 pounds according to their scale. But I also started wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers. Our scale has a slightly more reasonable number usually around 5 pounds. So that would put me at either 11 or 7 pounds gained total.

Pretty big week in all sorts of ways.

She's walking!

Kaida started walking everywhere last Friday. She just stopped crawling and cruising everywhere and started walking instead. No idea why. It's pretty cute the way she toddles around though.

She showed off for Grandmom on Saturday at Aunt Jamie's house. And she was pretty fascinated when Melanie started running around. She was definitely interested in joining in.

She's gotten a lot better at it in just a week but I still hold her hand when we're walking on hard or uneven surfaces.

It's funny how she's gotten worse at other things that require balance since she started walking. She keeps falling over when she sits. Just out of nowhere she'll topple over. This has unfortunately happened while she was sitting on the couch so she fell off... twice. She's also falling from standing too. I guess she's just too busy to think about it. Silly toddler.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Out for a Walk

Kaida and I went out for a walk this afternoon.

First we walked on the grass around the side of the house. The dogs across the street were barking at the lady from the gas company so we talked about Dogs the whole time we were walking. Then she noticed her swing so we went right over to it to swing for a little while.

After we were done swinging we came back to the front of the house and went up the sidewalk. Or we started to but then she noticed Gin sitting sad and lonely inside the door. So she went over and banged on the door for a little bit.

Once I managed to get her headed up the sidewalk we went out into the street and (after a quick inspection of the garbage can) walked as far as the other side of Dave's half of the driveway. She decided that was far enough so we turned around and walked the other way.

Then we walked all the way to Dave and Holly's house. Kaida was fascinated by Holly's car and kept trying to touch it. We wandered around by the corner for a little while and then she found a rock. We brought it home with us. When we got to the porch we let Gin out and she put the rock in the recycling bin.

After a couple minutes everyone wanted to go back inside (there was a car making a scary noise).

Thursday, September 22, 2011

23 Weeks

Bean is 23 weeks gestation this week. We really need to get a name on this kid. But today we were reminded that our front runner is what JR's cousin named their son. Doh!

Bean is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. I've been thinking that I look a lot bigger this last week or so. I guess other people agree, two other mothers congratulated me at gymboree on Wednesday. I think they think we're a little crazy but so do I so that's ok.

The e-mail says that his ears are getting better at picking up sounds. This evening Kaida was making a ton of noise while she was playing and he kept jumping around in my belly.

I have the glucose test and a midwife appointment next week. I need to ask about him being breech. He was at the ultrasound so if he hasn't flipped, or doesn't get around to it by the time we're getting close I want to know what our options are.

We met our Doula this week too. Well, I kind of met her at the meet the doulas night but JR hadn't. She seems really nice. She was a little distracted because she got a call from a mom who went into labor early on during our meeting. She seems like she's a lot more our style than Monique was. Monique was very holistic to the point of being crunchy. This Doula seemed to be pretty in sync with us. So hey, having Monique was great, having this Doula should be fantastic!

We still have a ton of stuff to do to get Kaida moved into her room. And I have a huge list of stuff we need to get before he arrives. Luckily the consignment sale at church is this weekend so I should be able to get some of it there!

Kaida Can!

Here she is on stage with her microphone doing a little song and dance routine.



She's started walking around a lot more. Still just short distances but at least we don't have to force her to do it anymore.

She can point to her nose. Well at least the vicinity of it. Sometimes she hits it right on. I think she might have learned the sign for "All Done". It looks nothing like the way I do it but we'll see if she starts using it when she's finished eating. I'm also trying to teach her "more" and "please". She keeps bringing me toys to turn on for her so I'm trying to get her to either sign or say please.

When the dogs across the street bark she says Dog. Sounds a lot like Duck. We keep trying to get her to say Kaida but she gets distracted by the Da-Da part of it. If you say Good job! she claps. It's hilarious.

And here she attempts peek-a-boo with just her hands. Normally she has a blanket or towel to cover her eyes with.




I think we need to work on that one a little.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Cute things my baby does

Uses everything as a phone: phones, play phones, pens, shoes. You name it she's holding it to her ear to have a conversation.

The other day we were walking up the stairs when she dropped her kitchen phone. She made a little "oh my goodness!" noise and then she picked it up.

When she picked it up it rang so she put it to her ear to answer it.

She carried around JR's tools today just looking for something that needed to be repaired.

She's started bringing her blankie with her after she wakes up. And she knows that the extra blankie is in the drawer so sometimes she gets that one out too.

She combs or brushes her hair. Usually the comb or brush is upside down or flat against her head so there's no actual hair movement but she tries it all the same.

She can get on Mr. Ed and rock him all by herself.

Tries to blow out the candles on her toy birthday cake, but only when the song tells her to.

Today she lifted the paint cans that are in her big girl room and tried to put them in the bottom drawer of her dresser. She wasn't quite tall enough to heave them over the lip so she needed a little help. This one was maybe a little more strange than cute.

Fun Foods She's Been Eating:
Meatloaf
Bacon
Peanut Butter (the natural kind)
Grilled Cheese
Eggs
Stuffing

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Kaida Walks!

Seems like she's ready to make the switch from crawler to walker.



She took seven steps from me to Grammy over the weekend. And she would do 3 or 4 from Grammy to the rocker or table.

Yesterday she got up to standing from sitting on the ground which is the first time she'd done that too.

Today she started walking on her own without us having to push her to try it!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

20 Weeks

20 Weeks today. That's the halfway mark. But January still seems pretty far away.

Bean should be about 10.5 ounces and 10 inches from head to heel. 6.5 inches from head to rump.

I had my first appointment with the midwives yesterday. I met with Laura the midwife. She actually took us on the hospital tour when we went to meet the midwives. The doctors never sent my records down to the midwives which is annoying. But I signed a release so they can get them now.

The receptionist was way nicer than the doctor's receptionist. There's a TV in the waiting room. And they seem more relaxed. We went to a consult room first to do my history and then when the midwife came in we just stayed there for the exam rather than packing all of Kaida's stuff back up and moving to an exam room.

Bean seems fine, his heart rate was in the 150s. Kaida screamed for that part. I'm not sure if it was because it was nap time, she didn't like the midwife touching me, or if she didn't like the equipment. I might try to find a baby sitter for my next appointment since it will be the glucose test and will take a while.

Laura ordered the glucose test for me and she also ordered a creatinine blood test. That one tests kidney function. I believe she said it was to get a baseline for me. I guess if my blood pressure starts going up again they can do another creatinine test and compare it to this one to see what's going on more specifically.

I have now gained weight! I am up two pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. Since I lost 4 pounds in the beginning it's really like I've gained 6 total (5 since my last appointment). I thought it was stressfull to gain weight fast but I think it's more stressfull to not gain weight at all.
Other than that my hips disappeared this past week, I'm feeling a little less mobile, and a little more tired. Not as tired as in the beginning but I had two or three really good weeks there where I wasn't sick and I wasn't tired either.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

She's a climber

So it's pretty good that she figured out how to get down.



She learned that one pretty much on her own.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Bean Yawns

The tech made us a DVD of part of the ultrasound yesterday. Here's the cutest part.



Sleepy baby!

I'll post some pictures later.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Bean's Ultrasound

Bean's a boy!

We had the second trimester ultrasound today. Everything is measuring normally and on track for 18 weeks which is where we are.

Bean was very squirmy so the tech had some trouble getting measurements and then he wouldn't flip to show her his spine or his goods. But we got everything eventually.

She kept calling him "he" before we had a confirmed gender. Afterward she said that she thought she saw something right at the beginning but he flipped out of position so quick she wasn't 100% sure.

She said his feet were one inch long.
The e-mail said that he's 5.5 inches long (about the size of a bell pepper) so that kind of sounds like he's got some giant flippers.
He's about 7 ounces, his ears are in their final position, and his genitals are noticeable on an ultrasound (obviously).

As for me I'm almost back up to my pre-pregnancy weight. Still about a pound shy. But I'm actually hungry a lot now so I'm sure that will help. I felt Bean kick during week 17 which was quite a bit earlier than Kaida. I didn't feel her until after the second trimester ultrasound.
The Doula has been selected. We're just waiting for her to get in touch with us since she's been on vacation.
Next week I have my first appointment with the Midwives.

We're definitely more on the ball this time. Now we just need to get Kaida's room finished, spiff up the nursery, and get some clothes that aren't pink!

12 Month Dr. Visit

Kaida had her 12 month check up today.

She weighs 18 pounds 10 ounces - 12%
She's 29.3 inches long - 56%
Her head is 46.7 cm around - 89%

So pretty much where she's been for percentiles the whole time. Although I'm starting to think maybe she's not walking yet because that giant noggin makes it hard to balance.

I guess he marked her as walking in the records 'cause she'll do it only holding on to us with one hand. He's convinced she'll walk tonight. I am not. She's pretty stubborn.

He was impressed that she says 4 words and that she has 8 teeth. Molars are usually about 15 months but he thinks hers may come earlier since she's got more teeth than your average 12 month old.

And he said she has typical stranger anxiety because she screamed when he came near her. I think it's PTSD from all the times we've been there and they had to do horrible things to her ears. Now she freaks out as soon as you put her down on the table.

As for her cough he prescribed a baby Z-Pack and said if she's not better by next week (5 weeks from when she got this cough) to give him a call. Here's hoping.

Then she had her varicella and pneumococcal vaccines. She's a litlle crabby now but her nap was also kind of short so not that surprising.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Baby's Noises

Kaida's been making some pretty awesome sounds lately.

Today, as she pushed her push toy across the room she vibrated her lips so she sounded like a little motor driving around.

And she's started to "sing" along with her play table. There's really no intonation, just one note over and over. But there's a definite rhythm. Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. It's adorable.

And banging. This one is not always so aweosme. She's realized that some things make really great noises when you bang them together. Two toys, things she's pulled from the cabinet, her cup on the high chair tray.

Her words still include just mama, dada, kitty, and hi. But she's tried saying duck, and baby and a few other things. They don't stick around much though. Except I pointed to the duck in her book the day after we tried to say duck to the rubber ducky in the bath tub and she looked at me like I was a moron. Uh, yeah mom, that's a book, the duck is downstairs.

Other cute things she's done:
At the doctor today they called her name and she said "Mama". Since every time she gets on a Mama kick I just start saying Kaida back to her. I guess she thinks they go together.

After her nap she goes to the book drawer and pulls out another book for me to read (even though she had a book read to her right before her nap).

She found the travel sized soap in her diaper bag and has been carrying around the bottle for two days. It even went with us to Target.

And she's been climbing into her car seat. I think it's so she's taller and can reach more stuff on the table but after a while she settles in and plays or watches TV.




Sunday, August 7, 2011

Daddy's Vacation in Pictures

Mommy thought I looked like a very big girl sitting like this.


Mommy and Daddy had about 5 minutes where they both had to be upstairs while they painted my room. I decided I would try to join them.


Daddy bought a big pool so we could all play together


I'm helping set it up!


Here we are in the zoo parking lot!


We figured we should take pictures since we got there so late the gates were already closed.


But we went back the next day.


And saw the polar bears!


This is my Creeper creeper from Daddy's video game. When I get near you I explode!


And a video of me playing in the pool. I like my floaty because I can walk where ever I want.

Not Standing Up

Kaida still won't stand on her own. She did it for a long time when we had her out on the grass. She didn't know what to do, she couldn't sit down because then the grass would touch her, and she knows she "doesn't know how" to stand up. So she spent about 2 minutes squatting and then standing back up and then squatting down again. It was hilarious.
Since then she's a little more willing to let go with both hands while she's standing but not for very long.

She has started throwing these adorable little fits. She usually does it when we put her down and she wants us to keep carrying her around. She sits down and puts her head on the floor between her legs and starts to cry. It's so pathetic. I try not to laugh 'cause I don't want to encourage it but it's really funny.

She's been wearing disposable diapers a lot this week. I think her fanny is not a fan of red sauce but she loves to eat it. Pasta, pizza, spaghettios. She had little dots yesterday so we switched her to disposables this morning. But it just got worse and worse through the day. I guess that rash cream isn't really helping. So we put her back in cloth and used regular ointment for bedtime tonight.

Also we're almost out of disposable diapers (the only remaining diaper has just one tab, what a rip off!). I can't imagine what it would be like to have her in disposables all the time. I guess I would be more on top of making sure we're well stocked but we went through them so fast and she wasn't even wearing them full time. It seems like setting your money on fire. I know we spent a lot up front for the cloth but yikes!

She has a cough again. I would say we're going on about 10 days + right now. She slept a lot for a couple days there and it seemed to get a little bit better. I guess I'll wait to see how this week plays out and then call the doctor. Poor kid. She was all better for the fourth of July so she only had, like, 3 weeks of being healthy.

16 Weeks

This past Thursday marked 16 weeks gestation for Bean Baby.
The e-mail says that Bean is about the size of an avocado, 4.5 inches long and 3.5 ounces. Ears are near their final position and toenails have made an appearance.

I had a doctor's appointment a week and a few days ago. They weighed me and said I lost another pound. (I actually think I just weighed heavy the time before, they thought I'd lost two when I thought I'd lost four. So really I gained a pound! not total though, just one of the ones I'd already lost.)
Anyway the Nurse Practiotioner said she's not worried because my baby is growing. Apparently she has x-ray vision in order to see that, unless she was just talking about how fat I look.

They made us wait forever. Which was all well and good until it started to be lunch time. And then nap time. It's like seriously people? Don't you think you would try to rush the people with kids in so the chance of a melt down is way lower. I guess not. They only deal with getting babies out, after that forget about it.

So anyway, she screamed almost the whole time the nurse was with me. We heard the heart beat for about 3 seconds while Kaida took a breath. So that was fun. I don't remember if we've heard it at the ultrasounds or not.

I have orders for a genetics blood test and the second trimester ultrasound. So hopefully we'll get to learn the sex on August 23rd.

I switched my care to the midwives. I have my first appointment with them on the 31st. It was a little complicated since I had these tests and I didn't know if I should still do them or not but the nurse at the midwives was very nice and helpful. I'll still do the ultrasound since apparently anyone can access those results within the hospital and she's going to send me a new prescription for the blood test.

One of my main questions for the midwives will be if my water breaks before contractions really get going how long do I have before they'll start pitocin. I know some midwives will let you go days before they try to augment but I wonder if there is a hospital policy about it that these midwives need to follow. Hopefully that's not going to be an issue at all but I'd rather be prepared beforehand.

I've only thought of one name for each gender so far. I guess I just want to wait until we know the sex before we really delve into it.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Weaning

A couple weeks ago I traded Kaida's afternoon nursing session for a snack. For the past week or so she's been refusing to nurse or has been latching on for an inconsequential amount of time at least once a day.

So I called the doctor today to see what they thought. If I should supplement her, and if so would it be ok to start her on cow's milk.

The nurse I talked to said that she should have 20 ounces a day total. So she suggested trying to get her to take 12 ounces of cow's milk since we don't really know how much breastmilk she's getting. Tomorrow is shopping day so I guess that's when we'll start.

The nurse was pretty funny I told her the whole spiel and she said "Ok, so what brand... uh... you said she's never had formula?"

JR said I should have told her "It's called Hagy, it's custom made."

So 11.5 months with only one bottle of formula (just to see if she would drink it), not too shabby! And it looks like I saved us at least $1,000 (But trust me, I would charge way more than that if I was providing this as a service).

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Picture Time!

At Uncle Skip and Aunt Judy's


Ryan didn't want me coming near his food.


With Alexandra


With Tara


Snacking


At Letchworth with Daddy


With Daddy again, this pack was very useful


At Letchworth with Mommy and Daddy


Grammy moved the buttons on this romper mommy wore when she was a baby. Then she wrestled me into it.


It was worth it though, look at all these butt ruffles!


So I helped her with the dishwasher as a thank you.


Mommy said we had to clean the jumper before we give it back to Aunt Jamie. Did you know it's just as much fun in pieces as it is together?!


I crawled into the laundry basket to play. It was great! Until I couldn't get out again.