Category Archives: Children

Prenatal Blood Work – Baseball – MP3′s and Sleep

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Seems I got little done today (Friday). My allergies went bonkers earlier on Friday AM, and then rain began falling … and I just dragged myself through the morning. Hubby wanted me to go get my Prenatal blood work done that morning, since we’d forgotten it before, and had been paid the day before, so could get it done. I pled for going in the afternoon and was granted that.

Well, when we found the Lab (the sort that does blood work un-connected to a doctor) we all went inside and it was so hot in the building. I realized that my allergies were not quite as bad then, but had the misfortune to note that the heat of the room was stifling and made the whole affair just a cloggy dried out mess. Great.

The attendant finally called me back for the blood drawing, I had just about finished my water bottle and still felt parched. :sad:

I sat down and the attendant asked me which arm is best to draw blood from. I told her “whichever one you want to try first …” and she immediately seemed too mellow out and come alive personally, saying “Oh, you’re one of THOSE people!”

Yeah, I am. I knew it when I sat down, from past experiences which were flooding back to me I recalled a myriad of times dealing with blood being drawn, IV’s being inserted … trouble, trouble, trouble.

She started with my left arm and confidently tried, but failed, twice and decided to abandon the left for the right. She took more time then and did get into a vein easier on the right, after the steep learning curve of my left arm, she said something like “I can see it, but then I can’t feel it with the needle … “  speaking of my veins.

I know that many people are so icked out to watch such events occuring to their own bodies, I was, as usual, interested and facinated to see the blood start to flow and fill the vile, and then another, and so on. Yes, I watched her searching for a good spot to stick me, and watched her failed attempts and her final success.

The children wondered afterwards “if it had hurt” and I said something like, “not really, just a little prick when the needle went in, and the band around my arm above the elbow joint was worse, tight and uncomfortable.” Pain for me is not the same as pain for others. I’ve a high-threshold, and it’s more like things are “miserable” on a scale, rather than “painful” if that makes any sense. (Even migraines are often more miserable than “pain” and the pain involved in some can be great, and maybe I just don’t see/feel pain the way some others do, and that’s why I haven’t ever sought out help from any professionals about migraines, but deal with thing my own way.)

So I got my Prenatal blood work started, and the results will be ready maybe by Noon on Saturday, or by Tuesday. In any case, it’s fine, since it’s started and I was still pregnant, and most likely will be into next week, but in the event that labor starts sooner, the proof exists.

My household plans suffered today, abandoned. We went to Whole Foods after the Lab, and then went to find some food. It was later than expected, traffic was a bear around there … and we went to a Taco Mac closer to home, since it was evident that we’d miss the baseball games on TV that were about to start if we went elsewhere, and needed to eat (me especially) and not go home and have to cook something.  Usually we’ll set the DirecTivo to record such an event, baseball game in this instance, so that if we are not home in time, we’ll be able to start the stream that was recorded and then “catch up” to the live game eventually.

For me it didn’t go well, the Yanks were held back from scoring, though R.C. pitched a decent enough game, and the Y. batters were getting on base. We lingered over our food and finally left (the food was alright, it was the game that wasn’t.) When we got home the game was in the top of the 9th, so I tried to follow it, but had layed down on the couch and kept drifting off. I was able to note that the game ended with no score for the Yankees. All good things come to an end eventually. So they Lost. Winning streak ends at 9 games. I can’t really predict, but hope for a good result from the Saturday afternoon Subway game.

The last time the Yankees played the Mets (not that long ago) it was an “away game” and the games seemed strange to me, but not blow outs, per se. Friday’s game wasn’t a blow out either. It was just a low scoring, no scoring match-up … the first being an L and the next 2 having great possibilities for the pinstriped home team. It’s something that I won’t be able to watch though, since Fox controls rights to MLB games on Saturdays. I can listen over the internet, and follow MLB.com‘s “Game Day” interface, which is nice, but just not the same as watching the Real Game. I find it like as being “tedious vs. intuitive” (Game Day and Audio vs. watching the whole game on TV.)

I woke up after awhile, on the couch, and hubby awakened hubby and struggled to get up and go to bed, it was after midnight, and I despise falling asleep there (or more precisely, sleeping there then waking up and feeling as I do at that point.) I can’t stay asleep all night anymore, and usually, when not pregnant, I don’t either, but have a better chance of a real night of sleep every so often. Being this pregnant on the couch is just plain miserable. So why do I lay down there in the first place? I don’t know.

Coming upstairs to the master bedroom, hubby goes right back to sleep, and I sit here realizing how allergic I’m feeling again, that it wasn’t THIS bad when we were out and about earlier. Seems it’s something locally then, which is bothering me. I’m still awake, it’s been over an hour since coming up here, and I’ve taken a long time writing this post too.

What I didn’t get done on Friday, anything much in the house, I have to get done on Saturday, and this awake session isn’t boding well for the future of those plans. I’ve a small amount of liquid Benadryl left, I did take a small bit when I first came up, and should soonly try to close this and settle down and take a bit more Benadryl and hope it does the trick to calm the itchy, drippies down and let me sleep some.

Thanks be to God for headphones and MP3 players. It’s what gives me my rest, listening to something as I lay there, sleeping or just resting, it brings about a similar effect to actual sleep for me, but I tend to not do that entirely, but sit here typing or reading other things online, instead of lying down. I inevitably do stop and lay down and when it’s later, as it is tonight, the MP3 player is my best friend.

Mine is a SanDiskSansa e260 which was purchased over a year ago already. It’s a great little device and I haven’t always put it to good use, but have been of late. I also have a little SanDisk player, a 512mb device, that will do Audio Books, Audible.com in particular, which I’ve had a subscription to for a decent while now. My e260 won’t do Audible books. A sore point for me, as well as many other e200 series device owners.

I don’t listen to books often, I get so distracted and am lulled to sleep easily with them, which is not very useful to me, so I don’t “listen to books” in bed. Music is totally different. Osmosis doesn’t work for Audible books, but does semi-work for Music.

I love Bruckner and only have one Symphony on my e260 of his, the 4th “Romantic” … it’s in 4 parts, and I often will hear at least half of the 1st movement without drifting off, and sometimes get to notice something of the 2nd or 3rd, but mainly it’s interesting that I will noticeably awaken to hear the 4th movement, and sometimes then drift off as it goes along, but near the end I snap to attention … the last 7 or less minutes, with the last 2 minutes (+ some odd seconds) being my ultimate favorite part of the piece … often coming to right about with 2:30m left to hear. It’s just that great and worth it.

Anyhow, my e260′s battery power is getting low, so I made a point to be sure and bring the (proprietary) cable up to the bedroom tonight, and I can get it charged up since my laptop is hanging out by the side of my bed lately. Inserting the USB plug into the USB port of the laptop slowly, not all the way, allows the player to charge without “connecting” so one can then still listen to music via it, and charge up at the same time. It’s a nifty tip, not exciting, just nifty and useful. Not that I can’t listen to music via my laptop, I sure can and THAT then will go up to my last.fm profile … but I love my shiny black e260 instead lately, and suffer no data aggregating on last.fm for my listening habits most of the time.

Well, Saturday is upon me, has been since I awoke on the couch, in fact. I need to get some rest, then try and motivate everyone to “get this stuff done” and really get it done. :smile:

39 Weeks + 4 days Counting Down

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I’m 39 + 4 (wks + days) today … we did go out last night and get a few things. I am still in need of a changing table pad and cover though (something very important to me!)

We got the stroller/infant car seat combo as well as the Pack ‘n’ Play at Target which I wrote about previously (Classic Pooh “Graco” ‘Hundred Acre Wood’ series.) There is a swing in the series, and that is all that there is in the series … and I’d like to get that eventually. I have found the swing idea for little babies to be super-duper, personally. Sans a swing won’t be so cool when the baby is a month or so old and I’m up and about.

Another item I need to get is a bouncy seat. I love those just about as much as the swings. Too bad there isn’t a nice “Hundred Acre Wood” version, but that’s alright. I just need to peruse the baby sections of stores and find a decent design/color. The sort I like are fairly “cheap” in price, not much of anything but a metal frame with fabric.

We got the Classic Pooh Sage Baskets at Target … they are so sweet. They co-ordinate with the crib sheet I previously had gotten, which is exactly the same fabric as what’s in the Classic Pooh Sage crib set, which we will get eventually (sooner than later.) The baskets will aid in the organization of diapering things on the dresser/changing table top, and also in drawers –if need be.

We also went to Costco last night, and I figure it might be the last time I’m there for at least a month, unless we go back fairly soon, during this pay period. That’s a significant milestone, to me :wink:

I’ll be able to order some more diaper covers online today, and that is a blessing indeed. That will set me up for the first couple of months, diapering-wise. I’ll also get some diaper pins since I can’t find more than one or two of my old ones. The items I will get I am getting from here: www.punkinbutt.com They have a curved sort of diaper pin, which looks like it will work much better than the straight sort I’ve used in the past. The diaper covers I’ll get are the Stacinator stretch wool covers, which I got two of via FedEx a week ago. I’ll see about getting a couple of colors, maybe, or just stick with “buff” for all of them (I love that unbleached look, natural paper color … which is natural is so many natural products, creamy, buff, tan, light brown, etc.) One of the colors is that “sage” color of the Classic Pooh crib stuff I’m doing … but it all comes down to: size. Will this be one of my chunky babies, or more petite overall, or start out more petite and get chunky sooner than later, or later than sooner?

R. my first, was big from the start.

V. my second, was not so big at first, and took off after a month or two in chunkier-ness.

A. my third, was smaller overall than the two above and was pleasantly plump enough though “normal” sized, an anomoly compared to the two elder siblings, he fit into standard things at standard times, while they were way ahead in sizing by far.

Today with them older, the eldest is 11 and isn’t baby plump at all, just a thinner taller than his size sort of boy. Thank goodness for Osh Kosh with waist adjustable tabs and Slim fit in their jeans line!

V. is 8 & 1/2 years old, the only girl thus far, and she is bigger boned, thicker all around, more like her Dad’s body type. She’s in Dresses and Skirts only, and I am glad, she’d not fit into “girly pants” — it’d be a nightmare. She’s ahead in sizing, she’s just a big girl, not fat, just big, and not Slim at all.

A. is 6 & 3/4 years old, a boy, and he’s wearing 5/6 sorts of things now, but still can wear many 4′s. Many 6′s or 5/6 things are swimmy-a-tad-or-more-too-big on him. He’s moreso “petite” like, but not “delicate” if that makes sense. He’s into Slim Osh Kosh stuff too, but it is quite different on him than his 11 year old brother. 11 year old is sprouty-weed tall, while youngest, for now, is a nice compact young plant, with potential for “normal” height and body while the eldest is likely to be very tall, compared to the rest of us, and most likely always slim-ish.

So will this new baby be a body type like one of the three above were at birth, or something entirely different? If it’s a smaller girl, that would be different, if it’s a boy … well we shall see. So I have to decide again, how many diaper covers in the smaller size, and how many in the next size up?

I do suppose I need to take very, very good care of the covers and sell them on eBay after they are grown out of, or not. Oh bother. Decisions aren’t always easy for me, and at this stage of pregnancy, it’s nearly a joke. :veryshocked: I have no problem deciding something if there is an obvious something about a situation which I can easily make up my mind on whatever it is. But when it’s a swirling mass of things, like sizes for an unknown size, guestimation only, as in a menu that has many things that might be good to eat, but you just can’t decide (my bane of existence, and often not liking any of the choices on a menu in the first place.) Most especially etherealness where it’s just not possible to know what to do (never having eaten at a place with many choices to pick from.) This is the point of wool diaper covers that I’m at. A soaker would be easier to figure out, but they are pricier and not what is best under clothing for daytime anyhow, in my view.

I could write and write about that all day long, but it’s not helping me, just confluxing my mind on the issue more. :rolleyes:

So then, on today’s agenda is to get the towels I need for the birth all washed and dried and bagged up appropriately to await there appointed time of use. Find all the sheets we have and get the right ones ready for the same appointed time. I also need to go over my birthing kit and supplies and see if I’m O.K. or missing something. That all will set me more at ease, at the least, a needed respite in these last days.

I do also need to get the refrigerator cleaned out and process some things for when I won’t be in the kitchen, to make it all easier on the ones who will be cooking (hubby and the children.) Veggie stuff particularly, chop, dice, slice, bag and freeze what can be frozen, make airtight what needs that in the frige, and so on.

Like garlic, chop some, some just whole and peeled — but get the whole big bag of cloves processed so they can just easily use it, and so it won’t go “bad” sitting out fresh, as it is now. Same with Vidalia onions, red bell peppers, and other assortments of onions, root veggies, and more.

I need to get my Nutrimill out and grind a bunch of Spelt and Kamut and set-up some ziplock freezer bags with the right amount to soak for pancakes, make this or that …

Then my mill needs to be boxed up and sent to the folks that fix that brand … it doesn’t work right since they fixed it when it when KAPUT last year. That fix was a “new computer board” and then it worked … but ever since throws fine misty flour all over via every crack, crevice and air outlet. It’s therefore no fun to grind and something we’ve avoided doing anything about, but recently hubby did contact them and we have a return authorization and label to ship it back now. Good timing if I’ll be down for awhile, so I need to just grind away today and deal with it. Then it’s bye-bye until later Nutrimill, and please come back healthy!

I hope I have the energy to do this stuff entirely today. Plus make meals. Hmm.

We did look at Baby Name type books at B&N last night and got overwhelmed fast. We did decide to stick with the girl name we had previously thought of with #3 — and it’s the boy name that is hard, as it was for #3 it was so hard to pick and agree, and it’s what we needed when #3 was born, a boy. So is this a boy too? I feel it likely is, though it surely could be that it’s a girl. FWIW we’ll just know when the appointed time comes. I’d like to locate that book I have that we bought in 2000 … it’s familiar and will aide us better. It was floating around this year, then a month ago, disappeared seemingly into thin air, no one can find it since.

Since writing the above I’ve tried looking on the web at baby name sites and that is not very helpful for us right now. I perused several sites and we just can’t find much of anything in the way of a boy name that “seems OK” even. I have some ideas, he has some ideas, we don’t like each other’s ideas, and we aren’t “sure” of our own ideas anyhow. :eek:

:blushing:

37 Weeks

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Today I am 37+4 (wks+days) along in this pregnancy. I’ve become more and more uncomfortable as the days go on … the end is near!

Sleep is difficult, getting comfy in bed is super-difficult. It’s hard to get up from lying down, and hard to get up from sitting on the couch, and hard to get out of the tub … ugh.

Things have been such like that for over a month, but ramped up of late. Am I waddling yet? My hubby might think so at times, I’m not sure. Waddling comes with the baby moving down –engaging, lightening are some terms for it. I just la-la-la through it all and know that it’s what it is and that is whatever it is and I just roll with it. ;)

Baby is quite active often, and that is getting more-so un-comfy too. Pokes and prods and pressure are super duper.

Now then, as for names: we haven’t really sat down to truly discuss any yet, sort of rambled about “what was the girl name we had picked out for our last pregnancy that turned out to be a boy?” — but haven’t had a serious consideration at all, not even nominally so, about boy names this time around –yet.

There are ideas I have, for a boy, for using family names in the middle maybe, but going away from the tradition that our family unit has used for our two boys thus far. So our two boys have a first and middle name, and then if this baby is a boy he might have a first and middle, and another middle name? Nah, not good. But to use a “family name” as a middle name and not use the traditon of middle name that we have used (some sort of Christian male name of a past prolific Christian) would seem odd to me, but I’d like to honor the family line I have in mind.

For a girl, we have a name, but I’m not sure we want to use it (the one we picked out 7 years ago.) I am sure about the sort of middle name, but not certain about a first name, and then some first names I would consider mightn’t go with the middle name, but there are other choices in the tradition I am using for girl middle names, so it’s not really a problem to use another name, but I tend toward names for girls that hubby turns his nose at.

A certainty is though, no “J” or “G” names. I don’t like them much for us. Not many “M” names are nice (and yeah, I’m an “M” myself …) I don’t like plain names like I have, or hubby has. I don’t like naming something that other people around us have, I like odd names, distinct, different, but nice.

So that is all something we need to solve in the next few weeks. (Before or after baby is born.)

I did order some DSQ Infant diapers today. Also 2 Stacinator wool covers. That will get us through the beginning some, but I’ll need something else in the “cover” department. The Stacinators are pricey, but worth their price due to how they work, needing less of them than “other” types of covers, but they don’t “fit” for very long, so … I’m mixing myself up over what to do.

I have one small RikkiWrap in small, which is a Mother-Ease velcro type cover. I haven’t found any other covers in small yet, from my mass of clothing stashed in the garage that may or may not be in good condition anymore.

I did find one of my Aristocrat Wool Soakers, but it’s a larger one, somewhat shrunk, but not shrunk enough for a newborn. I do have a small one somewhere, and it’s super shrunk, and I want to find it, it would be perfect for a newborn since it’s “shrunk” so much (whereas a new small Aristocrat wouldn’t work well on a newborn, mostly.)

The thing about getting ready for baby is that I don’t know how big this baby will be, and no one really does know until their baby is born, and then to see how much they grow and fat up in the first month. Will the Stacinators work out for long enough, or should I get the next largest size in reality. Maybe I should have ordered just ONE of the smaller size. My first baby was 9lbs at birth, and the next two were like 8.6 and 8.0 –> which kind of means … what will this one be? More or less? My last was smaller than the first two and stayed more “normal” all along, whereas the first two were big and beefy, the first one from birth, and the second one got going with that baby fat after a month old.

I did get the prefold diapers to use however seems right, without pins with a wrap type cover, or with the Stacinator covers. I could pin, would need to pin, under an Aristocrat type soaker cover, or other snap type covers (which I do have ME versions in larger sizes.) I do have 9 snap ME diapers, which can  go under any cover. The prefolds can be doublers later on in most any diaper setup.

So it’s really about covers, for me right now. I’m in a quandry, not having a surety about what to do in preparation. I can get other things later, I’m mostly unsure about how it will be in the first weeks … oh well.

36 Weeks today

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I’m 36 wks + 0 days today …

I’m getting much closer, and time seems to be going faster and faster …

We ordered our Birth Kit yesterday, and hopefully it will arrive before our Home Visit on June 4th (when I’ll be 38 wks 0 days.) We also need to get some other supplies for the birth together still (and have them ready for the HV also.)

My midwife gave me a nice chart listing all the days of my pregnancy and the week+day information for each day.

Here are two links to the same OB Calculator which will list your weeks+days of pregnancy in a chart, according to the information you provide:

Last Menses + day cycle, or
Date of Conception, or
Due Date

www.floridamidwife.com/calculator.html

www.vgio.com/midwife/obcalc.php

Both calculators are the same, but the first link is to one that is customized for a midwife (so has some text added, but just an extra title on the chart produced) and the second link is a plain calculator (and no extra title on the chart produced.)

Hubby is out again this week, and has promised to take off Friday and start getting the flooring installed and finish it that weekend. It’s a holiday weekend, so we’ll see what can be done. It’s just our master bedroom and the hallway we are going to do the flooring on, and plan on doing the other two bedrooms on the same floor of the house later.

Also my garden has never been dug out, hubby wanted our eldest to aide us and get the grass layer off of part of the area so that I could get a few of my plants in (the ones that are still alive, I’ve lost several that we bought, urg!) but DS balked and wouldn’t do it, and hubby didn’t do it, so now I have another week to see if I can keep the few remaining plants alive until planting (which will be when?)

I do have space in my whiskey barrel, to put a few things, but I wanted to get that moved to another spot before playing with it, and the plants that have died are mostly herbs that I bought for the barrel, not all though, and the only ones alive are a couple of bell peppers, and one herb or two, and a tomato plant which wasn’t happy but is re-growing where it did seem to be dying before.

Most of my intended plants are still seeds, and I still am glad I’ve never gotten them started in their little peet pot tray thingies … since I have no way to transplant the many things I would have started. I also have beans and a few other things that are best planted straight into the ground. I was going to get at least two teepee hills of beans planted yesterday, but alas that didn’t work out because of the lack of garden dug out-ness. :sad:

I really want that garden fully planted soon though, and need for that to be completed before long, before the baby arrives for sure!

35 weeks Midwife

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My pregnancy progresses … I’m at 35 weeks now, and officially by the calendar, just a “month” from my due date, with it being June 18th. It sure has gone fast!

I had a midwife visit the other day and things were O.K. I measured right on, 35,  –but the usual late pregnancy rearing it’s head of “HBP” was evident. Just that it’s usual since my 2nd pregnancy near the end, with no other symptoms presenting in #2 and #3 –so we have hope that this is the case as well for this one as well.

Our next midwife visit will be in our home on June 4th.  We have a lot to accomplish in the house before that date. Organization, flooring installed, and more.

With all that, and DH traveling more this month, it’s a bit tough, but it’s working out so far. This next week is the last bad one with traveling. It’s tough on me, that I can’t get quite the rest I wish to, and have to motivate all things all by myself (AKA children’s chores, making meals, cleaning up, etc.) days that DH isn’t here. It can be quite a trial getting my eldest children to do stuff at times, and that does concern me when it comes to my BP and need of rest, but all in all it’s not THAT bad, no need to worry about it.

As for the birth of this baby, we are hoping it’ll be a tad after the due date. Our midwife will be out of the country and not available therefore, until after the 23rd,  so if labor starts before she’s back I’ll have a midwife that I don’t know, but that’s just it, if it’s time, it’s time. Last time, 3rd baby, the midwife wasn’t in attendance for the birth, getting here about 15 minutes post birth. So it’s not that I am concerned about the birth, just wanting someone here to aide in case of need, and also to do the checks and measures afterward. I’m cool with doing it unassisted, but DH isn’t, so … :) I mean, really I am cool with either, but it does make it easier on me to have a midwife.

I have to get some supplies very, very soon, for the birth and also order the ‘birthing kit’ that I need. Not only that but diapers are an issue, I have some, sure, but not the ones I mostly need for the first month or more, depending on baby’s size, and need covers for diapers for certain.

The flooring install we need to occur is for our master bedroom, and that will enable us to de-junk the room and get the furniture whittled down to what we need and create space for baby things we must put in here.  It’ll be a whirlwind time when it goes down, the install of flooring and I’ll have to be less involved than we originally planned. (We had thought we’d have the flooring sooner and that I would do some of the work with my eldest, and get done as much as we could when DH was out of town, take our time, but that time is past and we did get the flooring later and I’m further along and … time flies!)

I have a crib I like, but I need to get it put together, and really won’t do that until the floor is finished since it has to go into our bedroom. I do need to get new linens for it and the baby, as well as the foundational things like T-shirts, receiving blankets, onsies, etc. and yes, diapering things. Little things that matter much to me, to be 100% cotton, even organic cotton. It is rather amazing how many things one had just disappear with he space of 6 or so years between babies. My first baby was just 4-years old when my third baby was born. My second was shy of 2-years by just under 3-months. So I had baby stuff in use and the newborn-first year stuff just out of use and findable.

Years take their toll on a house short of storage area, so we are having to replace all the major equipment besides the crib and mattress. This isn’t crucial, just needed in stages, a car seat and stroller being needed for outings, and a wearable carrier for me (I’m working on what I want in that department) — then the in-the-house stuff.

We went to Baby’s R Us earlier this week, and I was not impressed. I used to go to that very store a lot “back in the day” when it was a newly built store and I had babies in the house. I liked it back then, but this time it seemed rather vacant of things I liked, or maybe I’ve just massively changed.

No, not me exactly, products have changed. I was into baby stuff in 2000-2001 with baby #3, things are extravagently priced now, and super decked out.

What about a nice simple bouncy seat? I saw one boy one and a girl one, but not quite my style, the rest were out of  my league.

Car seats, infant carriers, strollers, pack n’ play get-ups, all over the top, mostly.

They did have some things I’ll be able to use, but we are talking simple crib items, sheet, mattress pad, etc.

Their “cloth diapering” section is just as pathetic as before, actually less so on one hand, moreso on the other hand. Gerber prefolds don’t seem to have that nasty polyester filling in the middle anymore (why it was there I never could grasp, it was bulky but non-absorbant, capiche?)

They just have vinyl pull up pants for covers. Nothing of any consequence.

I could go on and on but that wouldn’t be of any use itself. So I’ll close and see if I can get a tad more sleep :) .