We survived 24 hours of a power outage. A storm came through yesterday mid morning and it didn't seem like it was all that bad, but there was some high wind. Apparently it was worse then I thought. I was on my way to my haircut appointment and trees were down all over the place.
My babysitter was home with Samuel and she texted me and said that our power went out, but that it was so bright outside that it didn't bother Samuel. I thought by the time I got home around 4 it would be back on, but it wasn't.
Samuel absolutely didn't understand that he couldn't open the fridge or the freezer or that we couldn't turn lights on or the TV. We played a ton of games last night and wore the boys out. We got them to bed and then it was getting dark and there was nothing for us to do. I ended up sleeping on the couch close by the boys rooms so I could hear them if they woke up in the middle of the night or turn off all the lights when the electricity came back on. Dave slept in our room. We went to bed by 8:30. I wish I could say that I got a lot of sleep, but I woke up a lot and I kept waiting for the electricity to come back on.
It didn't come back on until today around 11:30. So we were out for a long time. The house was hot. I ran errands all morning so we wouldn't have to be in the house. When I came home everything was on. The alarm was going off, the TV was on and pretty much every light. What a relief. I didn't know how we could make it any longer. I was hoping I wasn't going to have to throw everything out in the fridge and the freezer. It seems like everything stayed cold, despite the fact that Samuel opened everything at least three times.
I am hoping to get a good night sleep tonight and relax.
We have a busy week and weekend planned.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Pictures and Update on Ultrasound
I didn't realize how many good pictures I had taken and not downloaded until today.
Here is a picture of Dave with the boys:
I watched Haidyn about a week ago and Samuel was dying to hold her. I got a couple of really cute pictures.
Now to the exciting part about our ultra sound today. Here is a picture of the little babies face.
The baby looked great. I am exactly on schedule. The baby measured exactly 19 weeks and 5 days. The due date has not changed from October 7th. The baby weighed 11 ounces and the heartbeat was 155 beats per minute.
I think we are having another boy, but Dave thinks it is a girl. We have a few more months to go to find out.
So as I said everything looks great with the baby, but the ultrasound showed that my placenta is close to my cervix. They want the placenta to be at least 2 cm away from the cervix and mine is a little under 2 cm. I have what is called a low-lying placenta. Since I am only 20 weeks, there is a good possibility that as my uterus grows the placenta will move up and there will not be a problem. I have a doctor's appointment on the 31st and we will probably talk about all the different scenarios. If the placenta doesn't move and gets closer to the cervix I will be diagnosed with placenta previa and there are lots of complications that may occur and I will have to really start preparing myself for a C-Section which is normally the only option.
There are lots of things that are up in the air at this point. In a few weeks after talking to my doctor I will have a better idea of what is going on. I am just relieved that the baby looks great and I am feeling overall great.
That's the update.
Where's the light?
These past few weeks haven't been the greatest. Sometimes I get down on myself because everything really is wonderful around here, but I still get depressed and upset. I know a lot of my mood has to do with the very little sleep I have been getting. My insomnia the past few weeks was really really bad. I was up at least every two hours to pee. Normally I can go right back to bed, but not the past few weeks. I spend at least 30 minutes to an hour awake and then when I finally fall asleep I get back up an hour or so later. Then I have been waking up at 4 am and I am wide awake. Sometimes I contemplate just getting out of bed and doing stuff, but I keep thinking or hoping I am going to go back to sleep.
This week, well Sunday night through Tuesday night, I have been able to sleep from 11:30 pm to 5 am straight. This is a nice change, but I think my body is in a little bit of shock with getting more sleep. I am still really tired, but if I can continue this 5 and half hours a night sleep I will be great. If I go back to my few hours of sleep a night I am not going to make it through the first few months of the baby.
The boys have been napping terribly. Samuel isn't really napping at all in the afternoons, which isn't too bad. However, Joseph is falling asleep late morning or early afternoon and then not taking any afternoon nap. He is almost unbearable in the evenings. He gets so cranky. The good thing is that he goes to bed at 6:30 pm. The bad thing is he starts off the day at 6 am or earlier. It makes for a really long day for me.
I am trying to find a balance in my life right now because I know how important that will be with three kids. Right now I am so sick of all my mom duties. I feel like all I do lately is laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, cleaning the pots and pans, keeping the house looking not like a tornado has hit it everyday and thinking and cooking meals. Plus, I know I mentioned it before, but I am also doing a ton of work for Woman's Place. I don't mind doing any of the above mentioned it just feels like there is more of everything lately.
I did four loads of laundry yesterday and I had done almost all all of our laundry on Sunday. It was mostly sheets because Samuel woke up yesterday and had leaked, which rarely happens, but it starts off the day with a load of laundry.
By the way, anyone have advice on potty training at night? Samuel has been potty trained for almost a year and doesn't have any accidents at nap time, but he rarely goes through the night without peeing. We tried getting him to pee after he had already been asleep for a while, but he is a very heavy sleeper and got really out of control when he tried to get him to pee because he was sound asleep. Anyway, any ideas would be great.
Enough with the complaining. On an exciting note, today I am having my BIG ultrasound. We could be finding out the sex, but of course we aren't. I am just excited to see how big the baby has gotten and what it looks like. This is going to be our last ultrasound before I go into labor. I will have to post pictures when we get them. I can't believe that I am 20 weeks in two days. Half way through this pregnancy. This is crazy. Time has really flown by. So far this baby is really calm and easy. I can't wait to see what this one is really like. Only have four and a half more months to go.
I am off to enjoy the day.
This week, well Sunday night through Tuesday night, I have been able to sleep from 11:30 pm to 5 am straight. This is a nice change, but I think my body is in a little bit of shock with getting more sleep. I am still really tired, but if I can continue this 5 and half hours a night sleep I will be great. If I go back to my few hours of sleep a night I am not going to make it through the first few months of the baby.
The boys have been napping terribly. Samuel isn't really napping at all in the afternoons, which isn't too bad. However, Joseph is falling asleep late morning or early afternoon and then not taking any afternoon nap. He is almost unbearable in the evenings. He gets so cranky. The good thing is that he goes to bed at 6:30 pm. The bad thing is he starts off the day at 6 am or earlier. It makes for a really long day for me.
I am trying to find a balance in my life right now because I know how important that will be with three kids. Right now I am so sick of all my mom duties. I feel like all I do lately is laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, cleaning the pots and pans, keeping the house looking not like a tornado has hit it everyday and thinking and cooking meals. Plus, I know I mentioned it before, but I am also doing a ton of work for Woman's Place. I don't mind doing any of the above mentioned it just feels like there is more of everything lately.
I did four loads of laundry yesterday and I had done almost all all of our laundry on Sunday. It was mostly sheets because Samuel woke up yesterday and had leaked, which rarely happens, but it starts off the day with a load of laundry.
By the way, anyone have advice on potty training at night? Samuel has been potty trained for almost a year and doesn't have any accidents at nap time, but he rarely goes through the night without peeing. We tried getting him to pee after he had already been asleep for a while, but he is a very heavy sleeper and got really out of control when he tried to get him to pee because he was sound asleep. Anyway, any ideas would be great.
Enough with the complaining. On an exciting note, today I am having my BIG ultrasound. We could be finding out the sex, but of course we aren't. I am just excited to see how big the baby has gotten and what it looks like. This is going to be our last ultrasound before I go into labor. I will have to post pictures when we get them. I can't believe that I am 20 weeks in two days. Half way through this pregnancy. This is crazy. Time has really flown by. So far this baby is really calm and easy. I can't wait to see what this one is really like. Only have four and a half more months to go.
I am off to enjoy the day.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Mother's Day - Trauma - Check-up
I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Joseph had a bit of a cold when he woke up so he was really needy and Samuel just wanted to snuggle all day. It was like they knew it was Mother's Day and wouldn't leave me alone. Dave took us to a beautiful brunch at the Missouri Athletic Club. Normally Dave and I pig out at yummy all you can eat brunches, but this time it was Samuel and Joseph. Samuel ate so much that at the end he looked at us and said he needed to go home. He was holding his stomach and saying he was "soooo full." It was actually pretty cute. After brunch we all took a little nap and then played outside for 45 minutes or so. It was so hot. My day was great and I felt so lucky to be with all my boys.
Quick note before I tell the long ER story. Joseph had his 15 month appointment today. He is doing great, but he is so much smaller then Samuel was at this time. He is just my little man, but with his Dad's big head. Here are his statistics:
Height: 31 inches (48%)
Weight: 24 lbs. 6 oz (49%)
Head Circ: 49 CM (92%)
First emergency ER trip. Yesterday I kept Joseph home from Mother's Day out because he had a slight fever all day on Sunday and was getting over a cough. I had so many errands and work I needed to do for Woman's Place, so I was looking forward to a day alone. I called our babysitter that normally picks Samuel up from school on Mondays and asked her to come over early so I could try to get stuff done.
I was very productive in the morning and then I picked Samuel up from school at 11:45. We got back home and they boys ate lunch and were playing around, so I decided to get back to doing work. I was downstairs in the basement trying to organize things when I heard a huge thump and then Joseph screaming. I don't even remember what I was doing or how I got up the stairs so fast but after I heard that sound I knew that something was not good.
When I got upstairs, our babysitter was holding Joseph and I saw some blood on her hands and he was covering his head. I grabbed him and she removed her hand and there was a big gash. I haven't really experienced many big wounds, but I guess you just know what to do when you see it. I think I was calm for about 10 seconds and then my crazy side kicked in. I immediately knew that we needed to get to the ER because he was going to need stitches. I grabbed a terry cloth towel, shoved it on his head and then started yelling. Samuel was completely freaked, which he normally gets when someone is hurt so he was basically frozen. I knew that I couldn't hold onto Joseph while I drove and he needed continuous pressure on his head to get it to slow down bleeding. So I screamed that everyone needed to get in the car. I asked my sitter if she could drive so I could hold the towel to Joseph's head in the back seat. I know she was completely freaking out too and she asked if she could sit in the back and hold the towel and I could drive.
That was probably the best idea that I drove because at least I could drive like a mad woman and get there fast. Once we got in the car, I called Dave to meet us at the ER and check us in. There is a hospital in St. Louis not far from us that has a children's ER and I knew we could get in there pretty quickly and I wanted the opportunity to ask for a plastic surgeon if we needed one to sew up his head.
Our sitter did a great job of slowing down the bleeding and she held his gash closed. Joseph wasn't liking it very much and screamed the entire way. I got from our house to the ER in about 15 minutes. I was flying. The Silver Stallion held up great.
We got to the ER, got straight in and looked at by a doctor pretty quickly. She said that the gash looked like it could be fixed by glue, but she wouldn't know for sure until she cleaned it out. Once Dave heard that it was going to have to be cleaned out, he was already getting queasy. Since we had two cars at the ER, Dave took Samuel and our sitter home and I stayed with Joseph.
He was really out of control and wouldn't calm down, so they asked if I wanted to give him something that would relax him. Of course I did. I didn't want them to be stitching up his head while he was going nuts. They gave him some meds and put numbing gel all around his cut and wrapped him up. It was going to take 20 minutes for everything to kick in.
Here he is waiting to get looked at. The drugs were slowly kicking in:
The doctor finally came in and said that she was going to clean out his gash, check it out to see how deep it was and if stitches were going to be required. She said if she couldn't fix it with glue I could decide if I wanted to plastic surgeon to come in. They swaddled Joseph all up in a blanket to hold him still, which still required a nurse to hold him down and hold his head and I held his legs down.
When she cleaned it out she said it was much deeper then she thought, but when she squeezed it shut it came to a perfect straight line, so she thought she could glue it shut. We decided to try that. She used a TON of glue, but it did the trick. Then she put extra bandages to keep it closed. I told her that she needed to put something else on top of that because Joseph would rip it off as soon as he could. So that is why he got the big neon yellow band-aid.
After everything was over the medicine was fully in Joseph's system and he was super happy. See below:
The whole ER experience took only about 2 hours, which I think was super fast. We got home around 3 or 3:30. When I got home Samuel came up to me and pointed to the floor and said, "See Mom, this is where Joseph fell and cracked his head open." Great!
Joseph ended up sleeping all night and is doing well today. I gave him Advil when he woke up and I will give it to him again soon. I want to try to keep his pain under control. He is a trooper and so are all of us. This is our first ER experience, but I am sure it won't be the last. With three kids, I am sure we will be visiting again. I am sure I will be getting lots more grey hairs and loosing more years off my life because of the stress. The benefits of parenting.
I am done with drama. Please everyone have at least two drinks for me. I seriously have needed to drink the entire month of April and it looks like May is starting off that way too.
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| Mother's Day right before we went to brunch. (Looks like I am grabbing Joseph's crotch, but he would have slipped right off of me if I didn't hold him like that.) |
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| Joseph was loving his breakfast |
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| Samuel was loving that he got to have two juice boxes, which never happens (and a plate full of black olives) |
Height: 31 inches (48%)
Weight: 24 lbs. 6 oz (49%)
Head Circ: 49 CM (92%)
First emergency ER trip. Yesterday I kept Joseph home from Mother's Day out because he had a slight fever all day on Sunday and was getting over a cough. I had so many errands and work I needed to do for Woman's Place, so I was looking forward to a day alone. I called our babysitter that normally picks Samuel up from school on Mondays and asked her to come over early so I could try to get stuff done.
I was very productive in the morning and then I picked Samuel up from school at 11:45. We got back home and they boys ate lunch and were playing around, so I decided to get back to doing work. I was downstairs in the basement trying to organize things when I heard a huge thump and then Joseph screaming. I don't even remember what I was doing or how I got up the stairs so fast but after I heard that sound I knew that something was not good.
When I got upstairs, our babysitter was holding Joseph and I saw some blood on her hands and he was covering his head. I grabbed him and she removed her hand and there was a big gash. I haven't really experienced many big wounds, but I guess you just know what to do when you see it. I think I was calm for about 10 seconds and then my crazy side kicked in. I immediately knew that we needed to get to the ER because he was going to need stitches. I grabbed a terry cloth towel, shoved it on his head and then started yelling. Samuel was completely freaked, which he normally gets when someone is hurt so he was basically frozen. I knew that I couldn't hold onto Joseph while I drove and he needed continuous pressure on his head to get it to slow down bleeding. So I screamed that everyone needed to get in the car. I asked my sitter if she could drive so I could hold the towel to Joseph's head in the back seat. I know she was completely freaking out too and she asked if she could sit in the back and hold the towel and I could drive.
That was probably the best idea that I drove because at least I could drive like a mad woman and get there fast. Once we got in the car, I called Dave to meet us at the ER and check us in. There is a hospital in St. Louis not far from us that has a children's ER and I knew we could get in there pretty quickly and I wanted the opportunity to ask for a plastic surgeon if we needed one to sew up his head.
Our sitter did a great job of slowing down the bleeding and she held his gash closed. Joseph wasn't liking it very much and screamed the entire way. I got from our house to the ER in about 15 minutes. I was flying. The Silver Stallion held up great.
We got to the ER, got straight in and looked at by a doctor pretty quickly. She said that the gash looked like it could be fixed by glue, but she wouldn't know for sure until she cleaned it out. Once Dave heard that it was going to have to be cleaned out, he was already getting queasy. Since we had two cars at the ER, Dave took Samuel and our sitter home and I stayed with Joseph.
He was really out of control and wouldn't calm down, so they asked if I wanted to give him something that would relax him. Of course I did. I didn't want them to be stitching up his head while he was going nuts. They gave him some meds and put numbing gel all around his cut and wrapped him up. It was going to take 20 minutes for everything to kick in.
Here he is waiting to get looked at. The drugs were slowly kicking in:
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| Drugs started to kick in. The numbing ointment had just been put on |
The doctor finally came in and said that she was going to clean out his gash, check it out to see how deep it was and if stitches were going to be required. She said if she couldn't fix it with glue I could decide if I wanted to plastic surgeon to come in. They swaddled Joseph all up in a blanket to hold him still, which still required a nurse to hold him down and hold his head and I held his legs down.
When she cleaned it out she said it was much deeper then she thought, but when she squeezed it shut it came to a perfect straight line, so she thought she could glue it shut. We decided to try that. She used a TON of glue, but it did the trick. Then she put extra bandages to keep it closed. I told her that she needed to put something else on top of that because Joseph would rip it off as soon as he could. So that is why he got the big neon yellow band-aid.
After everything was over the medicine was fully in Joseph's system and he was super happy. See below:
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| Drugs in full effect and gash is cleaned and glued shut |
The whole ER experience took only about 2 hours, which I think was super fast. We got home around 3 or 3:30. When I got home Samuel came up to me and pointed to the floor and said, "See Mom, this is where Joseph fell and cracked his head open." Great!
Joseph ended up sleeping all night and is doing well today. I gave him Advil when he woke up and I will give it to him again soon. I want to try to keep his pain under control. He is a trooper and so are all of us. This is our first ER experience, but I am sure it won't be the last. With three kids, I am sure we will be visiting again. I am sure I will be getting lots more grey hairs and loosing more years off my life because of the stress. The benefits of parenting.
I am done with drama. Please everyone have at least two drinks for me. I seriously have needed to drink the entire month of April and it looks like May is starting off that way too.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Happy Birthday Dad! and Sleepless nights
Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad! I realized that I need to start taking more pictures of the grandparents with the boys because I don't have any recent pictures.
Anyway, I wanted to wish my Dad a very happy birthday today. We love him very much and can't wait to see him the end of this month.
On another note, last night I didn't get much sleep at all. Samuel developed a cough yesterday and it just exploded yesterday evening and in the middle of the night. He coughed like crazy and then around 3 am he called for me saying that he needed to come sleep with me. I went in his room and he was burning hot. He was still coughing but the cough had broken up a bit and the fever replaced it. I gave him Advil and he drank water. He asked if I would lay with him for a while. You can't deny a sick kid their mommy. He was miserable for about an hour and couldn't get comfortable. Finally he turned over, faced me with his head touching mine and his legs draped over me and finally fell asleep. I could tell when he finally passed out and his fever broke around the same time. I finally slipped out of bed around 4:30.
I had a feeling when we were going to bed last night that it was going to be a long night, but I am already very tired. I forgot to mention yesterday that even though this pregnancy is going great, I am having some insomnia. I have a hard time falling asleep at night, but when I finally do I wake up every two hours to pee and normally I am wide awake around 2 am. Then I finally fall asleep from 3 to 6. That is usually my best 3 hours. So last night was difficult because I was in Samuel's room during my normal sleeping time.
I am drinking my coffee (and yes I do drink caffeinated coffee while I am pregnant. I couldn't survive the days without it. Actually just in the last week I have been able to drink it again. The beginning of this pregnancy I had serious aversions to coffee and now my ability to drink it is back). Hopefully I will survive the day and not get too annoyed with the kids, since I am functioning on about 4 hours of sleep.
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Catch up - Earth Friendly
When I don't post for a while I feel like there is so much to catch up on. I promised a picture of Joseph with his blankie. He is becoming increasingly more obsessed with it everyday. I have decided he is not allowed to take it when we leave the house. I don't want to get into a fight with him later about it, so we are starting now.
Here are the boys playing hide and seek in Samuel's bed. Joseph is also crazy about Samuel's bed. He wants to get in whenever he can. Luckily Samuel doesn't mind. Samuel doesn't understand why Joseph won't lay still and try to take a nap with him. One of these days.
Baby front: I am 18 weeks tomorrow. I started to feel the baby about 2 weeks ago, but only at night. I think I am too busy during the day to think about whether I am feeling movement. At night when I am relaxing it really goes crazy. I was craving chocolate milk two night ago and I drank a small glass. Either the baby loved it or hated it, I am not sure but it kicked and went nuts. I felt terrible after drinking it. I have always had a little bit of lactose intolerance, but I guess I am going to try to stay away from milk because I felt really really sick after drinking it. I bought some Almond milk so we will see where that takes us.
I developed a big varicose vein when I was pregnant with Joseph and it has exploded with this pregnancy. It is on my upper right inner thigh. It is huge and it hurts a little bit. As soon as I get back into shape after this next baby, I am going to have to have surgery to fix it.
I am starting to get bigger and bigger. It seems like I am growing everyday. I am starting to wear only maternity clothes. This pregnancy by far is my best. I am not feeling terrible and I am only really tired at night. I am trying to be positive and enjoy every moment because this will be my last.
Earth Friendly Front:
Since we moved into our new house I have been trying desperately to teach the boys to be less wasteful. The amount of paper towels and toilet paper we used to go through was disgusting. We bought terry cloth towels to clean up messes, dish towels to clean off the counters and tables and we are using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins or paper towels. So far things have been going really well. Samuel has barely asked for paper towels and I am feeling really good about utilizing all of our cloth substitutes. I do laundry about once a week to clean all the cloth items. Overall I really like the switch.
We are also starting to compost. I got a stainless steel counter composter for all of our scraps (you can purchase it anywhere, but a lot of discount websites have them on sale. I see them on The Foundry quite frequently).
In a few weeks, Dave is going to build me an elevated garden. I bought a book and just got it in the mail yesterday. I am going to get all of the great tips and then Dave will put it together. I can't wait to start gardening and I think it will be a lot of fun for the boys to help out with too. I am planning to grow veggies and herbs. I know I want to grow basil, cilantro, rosemary and thyme. Anyone have suggestions on veggies? The book I bought gives lots of suggestions, but I want to know what you have done and what has worked. I am so excited. I will keep everyone updated on our progress.
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