The only specific number I remember from yesterday's trip to the midwife is 1 - that's the number of pounds I gained, bringing my total up to 11. Woo hoo!
My blood pressure was great, baby's heart rate was great, I'm measuring right where I should be. Everything looks super.
We're going to re-run the liver panel and the bile salts test in 2 weeks. I came down with ICP with Claire at 32 weeks. You can imagine how much the anxiety level is increasing as we get closer to that milestone. I'm working on it.
This visit was fun. Mary Grace has been worrying about the baby and me, so I e-mailed my midwife and said, "Can I bring her to meet you?" and my awesome midwife said, "Let's reschedule your appointment for 1 pm so that I have more time to visit with her." Wow! So, we showed MG the little models of babies at various stages, and Sharon explained how the baby is stuck inside and isn't going to just "fall out" (in spite of the jokes Mommy makes), and we listened to the baby's heartbeat... She was so little when I was pregnant with Claire that she didn't really "get it." Claire's 3-1/2 now and she doesn't even really "get it," and MG was only 19 months old when Claire was born. It's neat to be able to include her this time, and to see her excitement. She can hardly wait to be a "double big sister."
Eight more weeks. Wow.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Charlie
The girls had their big sister class today. They now know everything about being a big sister, so we're good to go. Ha ha!
This little boy came into the class talking like a 40 year old in a 4 year old's body, and he said something about chemo. When his mom came in behind him, I said, "I hope I've misunderstood, but did your little boy just say he has chemo every day?" "Yes," she replied, "He has leukemia."
Suddenly the sniffles and coughs we've been dealing with seemed very very small and manageable.
Charlie's in the second of a three-year treatment, though, and his prognosis is very good.
And he's very excited to be a big brother.
Is somebody cutting onions in here? Sheesh... *sniff*
This little boy came into the class talking like a 40 year old in a 4 year old's body, and he said something about chemo. When his mom came in behind him, I said, "I hope I've misunderstood, but did your little boy just say he has chemo every day?" "Yes," she replied, "He has leukemia."
Suddenly the sniffles and coughs we've been dealing with seemed very very small and manageable.
Charlie's in the second of a three-year treatment, though, and his prognosis is very good.
And he's very excited to be a big brother.
Is somebody cutting onions in here? Sheesh... *sniff*
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Explain this 3-Year-Old Behavior
11:15 am - Mommy, I want some soup.
(You can have some for lunch in a little bit.)
11:16 am - I want soup.
11:17 am - SOOOOOOOUUUPP!
11:18 am - Mommy, I want some soup right NOW.
11:20 am - (crying) Please can I have soup.
11:21 am - (screaming) AAAAAAAAAHHHH! WANT SOUP!!!
etc.
11:59 am - (fainting with hunger and frustration, whispers) sssssoooooouuupppp....
12:00 pm - Here's your soup, Claire.
Amount of soup eaten? One bite. Seriously.
And she did the same thing with cookies (COOKIES!) this afternoon.
What. The. Hell? Seriously!
(You can have some for lunch in a little bit.)
11:16 am - I want soup.
11:17 am - SOOOOOOOUUUPP!
11:18 am - Mommy, I want some soup right NOW.
11:20 am - (crying) Please can I have soup.
11:21 am - (screaming) AAAAAAAAAHHHH! WANT SOUP!!!
etc.
11:59 am - (fainting with hunger and frustration, whispers) sssssoooooouuupppp....
12:00 pm - Here's your soup, Claire.
Amount of soup eaten? One bite. Seriously.
And she did the same thing with cookies (COOKIES!) this afternoon.
What. The. Hell? Seriously!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A Bad Thing?
Claire had a cough this morning and no appetite. We took her temperature as a precaution, but it was normal, so we took her to preschool. I mentioned to one of her teachers that she had a cough, but no fever. She said it was going around, and I agreed. After all, you can't keep them home for every little sniffle.
Two and a half hours later I'm standing in front of the school, finishing up a call with my mom, when another mom comes out of the school, "Your little girl has a fever," she says. I hang up with my mom and open the school door to find Claire in the arms of the school's director, sobbing. Claire was sobbing, that is. The director was fine. "We would've called you, but we just took her temp 10 minutes ago, and we knew you were on your way. It's 102," she said, "She says her tummy hurts."
I felt like the worst mom! They dismissed Mary Grace from her class and I hustled everyone home. Claire spit up, and I'm still not sure if it was vomit or just snot. She had this wet, rattling cough. She cried a lot until I got some Tylenol into her. Once the fever came down she perked up quite a bit. She even ate some noodles and drank some tea.
So I called the doctor's office to get the dose for Children's Dimetapp (because EVERYTHING says "under 6 years - do not use!" now, which is SO ANNOYING). The doctor's office recommended that I use Children's Robitussin instead. I had adult Robitussin DM, but not Children's Robitussin without letters, so I sent BJ to the store (hooray for Daddy's office being 10 minutes from home!). Turns out that both are 100 mg per teaspoon of Guaifensin. *sigh* The DM means it also has some other unspellable stuff in it - dextromethospanaquawarble... maybe that's what's bad for little kids.
The nurse told me to only give her 1/4 - 1/2 tsp, and to beware - it would knock her out.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," I said.
I'm going to start writing my speech for Mother of the Year now.
Two and a half hours later I'm standing in front of the school, finishing up a call with my mom, when another mom comes out of the school, "Your little girl has a fever," she says. I hang up with my mom and open the school door to find Claire in the arms of the school's director, sobbing. Claire was sobbing, that is. The director was fine. "We would've called you, but we just took her temp 10 minutes ago, and we knew you were on your way. It's 102," she said, "She says her tummy hurts."
I felt like the worst mom! They dismissed Mary Grace from her class and I hustled everyone home. Claire spit up, and I'm still not sure if it was vomit or just snot. She had this wet, rattling cough. She cried a lot until I got some Tylenol into her. Once the fever came down she perked up quite a bit. She even ate some noodles and drank some tea.
So I called the doctor's office to get the dose for Children's Dimetapp (because EVERYTHING says "under 6 years - do not use!" now, which is SO ANNOYING). The doctor's office recommended that I use Children's Robitussin instead. I had adult Robitussin DM, but not Children's Robitussin without letters, so I sent BJ to the store (hooray for Daddy's office being 10 minutes from home!). Turns out that both are 100 mg per teaspoon of Guaifensin. *sigh* The DM means it also has some other unspellable stuff in it - dextromethospanaquawarble... maybe that's what's bad for little kids.
The nurse told me to only give her 1/4 - 1/2 tsp, and to beware - it would knock her out.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," I said.
I'm going to start writing my speech for Mother of the Year now.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Kid Drama
Claire comes in crying. "Cammie won't let me be a teenager!" she says.
I clean her up, take her back to our backyard and say to the big kids, "Guess what. Claire gets to be a teenager now, ok?"
"Ok," say the kids. And that was that.
"You really want to get in the middle of that?" asks B.J. when I come in.
"They always make her be the baby, because she's little, and she hates it," I reply.
Do you get involved in your kids' spats with the neighborhood kids? It seems like we're having more friction on our street lately than we had at the beginning of the summer. I think everyone was so relieved to be outside after the winter that they all played in peace and harmony in the beginning. But now, after months and months of togetherness, tempers are starting to flare and patience is wearing thin.
I think we need a good snowstorm.
I know some of the drama stems from my kids misunderstanding - like the day that MG got mad that Maddie's mom was watching Cammie and not her. "It's not fair!" she sobbed, even though I was home at the time and she didn't need to be watched... She just wants to hang with the big dogs, even when it doesn't quite make sense. So I told her, "Ok, Miss Chelsea's watching you. Bettter?" She beamed, and ran back out to play.
I know sometimes the big girls on the block don't want to play with the little kids, and I'm trying to get my little kids to stop expecting the big kids to play with them all the time. "Play with the girls who are your own age, and let the big girls be big girls," I tell them, knowing that the big girls will want to play with the littler kids tomorrow.
It doesn't help that Mary Grace can be bossy. "I gave Maddie two choices..." she'll tell me. "Well, no wonder she didn't want to play with you anymore, honey. You're not her mom, you don't get to give her choices!" She's bossy with Claire, too. "When you're the Mommy you can tell other people what to do," I tell her at least 5 times a day, "But right now you're a kid and you only need to worry about your own choices."
I did the exact same stuff when I was a kid, and suffered socially for it. It may just be part of being an oldest sister. She'll learn. I did. I haven't given any of my friends a time out in quite a while. But the learning is hard. And sometimes I don't know if I'm navigating them through it very well. Those precocious behaviors that we've been telling her are "so cute" for the past five years aren't cute to her peers - they're obnoxious. And learning that hurts.
So, yeah, I get involved, even though I know that the kid we picked on most when we were kids was the one whose mom got the most annoyed with us (sorry, Kevin and Debbie - they're both Facebook friends now, so I'm hoping they both have forgiven me at this point).
Claire just came back in, "Nathan's mad at me too..." and something about him not letting her grab his swing. "Why don't you just stay inside?" I ask her. But 10 seconds later she's on her way back outside.
I clean her up, take her back to our backyard and say to the big kids, "Guess what. Claire gets to be a teenager now, ok?"
"Ok," say the kids. And that was that.
"You really want to get in the middle of that?" asks B.J. when I come in.
"They always make her be the baby, because she's little, and she hates it," I reply.
Do you get involved in your kids' spats with the neighborhood kids? It seems like we're having more friction on our street lately than we had at the beginning of the summer. I think everyone was so relieved to be outside after the winter that they all played in peace and harmony in the beginning. But now, after months and months of togetherness, tempers are starting to flare and patience is wearing thin.
I think we need a good snowstorm.
I know some of the drama stems from my kids misunderstanding - like the day that MG got mad that Maddie's mom was watching Cammie and not her. "It's not fair!" she sobbed, even though I was home at the time and she didn't need to be watched... She just wants to hang with the big dogs, even when it doesn't quite make sense. So I told her, "Ok, Miss Chelsea's watching you. Bettter?" She beamed, and ran back out to play.
I know sometimes the big girls on the block don't want to play with the little kids, and I'm trying to get my little kids to stop expecting the big kids to play with them all the time. "Play with the girls who are your own age, and let the big girls be big girls," I tell them, knowing that the big girls will want to play with the littler kids tomorrow.
It doesn't help that Mary Grace can be bossy. "I gave Maddie two choices..." she'll tell me. "Well, no wonder she didn't want to play with you anymore, honey. You're not her mom, you don't get to give her choices!" She's bossy with Claire, too. "When you're the Mommy you can tell other people what to do," I tell her at least 5 times a day, "But right now you're a kid and you only need to worry about your own choices."
I did the exact same stuff when I was a kid, and suffered socially for it. It may just be part of being an oldest sister. She'll learn. I did. I haven't given any of my friends a time out in quite a while. But the learning is hard. And sometimes I don't know if I'm navigating them through it very well. Those precocious behaviors that we've been telling her are "so cute" for the past five years aren't cute to her peers - they're obnoxious. And learning that hurts.
So, yeah, I get involved, even though I know that the kid we picked on most when we were kids was the one whose mom got the most annoyed with us (sorry, Kevin and Debbie - they're both Facebook friends now, so I'm hoping they both have forgiven me at this point).
Claire just came back in, "Nathan's mad at me too..." and something about him not letting her grab his swing. "Why don't you just stay inside?" I ask her. But 10 seconds later she's on her way back outside.
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