Flip-Flop

Baby boy turned around last night. I kind of though he had, and a few minutes later when Dr. Katie told me it was time to check the baby's heartbeat (we have a doppler), sure enough, his heartbeat was down above pubic bone and not up above my belly button.

Then, 5 minutes later, we watched my belly roll as he flipped back to the way he had been.

(At least I know he CAN turn the right way if he wants to!)

Happy Birthday Daddy! Your son is amazing!

Look what he made for you this morning (with very little help from me):

Front of card:

Inside card:


(2 weeks ago Sammy surprised me by writing short words for my mom & dad on his MagnaDoodle. I had no idea he could write letters! Now he can apparently write any word you spell for him!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, and lots of things to be thankful for. I know I sure do!

Language acquisition

It's so much fun to watch. What was once "Nammy" and has been "Dammy" for months is now "Stammy." It was especially enjoyable yesterday morning when she said "Stammy's sto stilly!!!"

Baby update

31 weeks 3 days. We had a growth scan & checkup today. The baby is growing fantastically. 35th percentile. 3 lbs, 9 oz. His face is more round like his sister's than long like his brother's. But he most definitely, definitely has his Daddy's nose. The placenta's in a good place, but the cord is in an iffy one (running along the length of the placenta or something). However, he is bottoms-down instead of head down. So hopefully he will flip some time in the next few weeks, and when he does, the cord will move to a better place.

I have to go in for checkups every 2 weeks now. We should schedule a hospital tour some time soon, too, since we will be delivering at the new hospital and not the one we're used to.

I am still here

If I could dictate my thoughts out loud and have my computer hear them and automatically post them, I'd probably be a prolific bloggist. Meanwhile, here in the real world, I can barely keep up with the bare minima, like getting 2-3 meals/day on the table and keeping up with the dirty dishes. I don't remember the other 2 pregnancies being this... draining. Of course, I wasn't chasing any hyper-mobile toddlers/preschoolers those times, either...

My parents came and went and it was nice to have them here. They were so super-helpful! I wish they could have stayed longer. They will be back in Jan, though, and it will probably be even more helpful to have them then than it was this time.

My brother and I came to terms and the basement is nearly done. I'm talking it needs 6' of baseboards, a transition from the laminate to tile, and a couple of very minor repairs, and it will be ALL DONE.

My kids are big and imaginiative and a joy to watch, and very helpful with picking up things off the floor and handing them to me since I can't bend over and getting up from squatting takes 100x more effort than just stepping over whatever it is. I wish I had the energy to play something other than board games with them.

I keep having nightmares/scary thoughts about bedrest and hospitalization. No reason for them, except my own fear of how ultra-chaotic things would be while I was not available, and the mess I'd have to deal with when I got back...

I still get severe reflux whenever I think of the Pres-Elect's ideas on how to run this country. I should have remained my usual political ostritch self. It was hard, though, with such an historic race. Despite my misgivings about his agenda, I have to say I am thrilled to see a black family headed for the White House. I also feel really stupid that, for a few minutes until I realized what was really going on, I was excited to see Louisiana vote so overwhelmingly Republican that I actually thought about moving back there. (All the racial prejudice is THE #1 thing I do not miss about living there. So much so that anything else I don't miss about living there is not even worth mentioning.)

I have been totally vegetating this week. My friend Amanda says, "No, you're GESTATING." I like that. At least it sounds like I'm doing SOMETHING...

Update on scrapbook stuff

I would still love to hear your input, but I think I have decided to put my scrapbook stuff in the basement bedroom. Although it will be a mild pain to go back and forth between work room and supply room, it occurred to me that for crops I can set up folding tables on the adult side of the big room, and we can keep an eye on the kiddos at play while we work. That thought alone makes the dining room idea seem ridiculous. (Except for the nice big table. But I may have to take the leaves out of it anyway because I plan to put the piano & drums & music toys in there.) So, no more delimma of overcrowding the dining room (at least not with scrapbook stuff!), I'll have a door nearby my work station to hang my shoe-rack-turned-scissor-rack, I'll have a wall to hang a peg board or some shelves for keeping all my supplies close together and in arm's reach, and if I can get it organized will have a great personal space to work on stuff. And let's face it, I do get a lot more done when I'm working alone. (Even though it is a lot more FUN to work in a group!)

More thoughts on "Weaned"

More thoughts sparked by Mommy's comment on my Weaned post. (For a little background, you can read my 09/07 Why is Sammy still nursing post.)

I only intended to nurse Sammy up to 12m in the beginning, and not one day past that, but obviously changed my mind along the way. Due to my own food intolerances and all the things I had to cut out of my diet for a year and a half to even get pregnant, I was adamant not to give him (or any other baby of mine) any formula. It was as much a gut feeling as anything else, but it turned out to be the right decision for him, as he is allergic to both milk and now soy, too. (The hospital did give him some formula after birth for low blood sugar. This caused him to not want to nurse at all for the first 24+ hours, and projectile vomit the contents of his stomach about 12 hours later. That only reconfirmed my decision never to let him have formula.)

I have struggled with forcing him to wean from the time I was pg with Katie. The older he got, the more I struggled with it. It had nothing to do with the pressure and negative comments I got from both people close to me and people who should have kept their opinions to themselves. It was really all about my own unenjoyment of nursing at that point. I have a friend who says her favorite age to nurse a kid is 2-3. I can not relate to that at all. I loved nursing my babies. I never loved nursing my toddlers, except for the instant meltdown-calming effects. It did not physically bother me to nurse 1 year old Katie as much as it did 1 year old Sammy. (I think because her back teeth do not have as many enamel problems as his.) But by the time Katie turned 2, I was near ready for her to wean, too.

I did try to force Sammy to wean at some point in the last year. It must have been in the late April and May timeframe. He was only nursing at bedtime, nursing him has never been comfortable since he got molars (and he got them early!), and it just seemed like a good idea for my own sanity. (I later found out I was pregnant, and must have been having a natural aversion reaction to nursing.) It actually turned out to be a terrible idea. We had some semi-serious behavior issues pop up, related to what must have been him feeling rejected. I had to re-read Mothering Your Nursing Toddler, give him lots of extra love and attention in other ways, and just endure what little nursing he was doing for the sake of his healthy emotional development. Luckily, I didn't have to endure it for too long. Unlike the other time I nursed him while pregnant, this time he was old enough to understand that his nursing was hurting me, and big enough to realize that he didn't really need to nurse but a minute or two (or sometimes 10 seconds!) to get whatever emotional connection/comfort he was looking for. Then it was less than 3.5 months to the time he nursed for the very last time. I'm not even entirely sure when that was... (That was a loooong 3.5 months, though! Nursing while pregnant is not exactly fun.)

Sometimes I think I "stuck to my beliefs" out of sheer laziness. It was much easier to let them nurse to sleep than try to change our bedtime habits. Or let them nurse to calm down instead of trying to substitute some other, unfamiliar comfort. Other times it really was that IN THEORY I totally agreed with the child-led weaning philosophy. And even though the in practice part of it was very hard on me, I still persevered. And just waited for them to be finished. (Both with that session, and with nursing altogether.)

So, yes, it is definitely okay to feel "waivery." I felt it nearly every day for the past 1.5-2 years. I think as long as you are basing your decisions on what is logically the best choice for you and your nursling and the rest of your family - not your emotions of the moment - then that is the best you can do. For everyone involved.

Weaned

I waited so long for this to happen, and then never even wrote about it. The last time (I think) Sammy nursed was shortly after we returned from our TX/LA trip in July. Katie did not nurse at all while we were in TX this last time, ~3 weeks prior to that only nursed while she was sick, has only nursed once since we got back. Really I should say attempted to nurse. She seemed to have forgotten how and thought I was a straw. It hurt and I made her quit. (It's not like I have had any milk to speak of for the last 3-4 months, anyway...) She did ask to nurse tonight at bedtime, but then Sammy asked for a glass of chocolate (rice) milk, and she decided that sounded better.

So the year of wishing they would hurry up already, rethinking my AP-style/let them figure out when they are ready to do it weaning strategy... I endured it! And it worked! (Just not on MY timeline...) AND, my prediction that they would wean about the same time, was pretty close to accurate.

Now if only they would start using the potty. Not that I want to rush them into growing up. I just am being selfish and totally not looking forward to 3 in diapers. Although the way Katie is going, it may only be 2 in diapers by Jan. Or maybe I'll do EC with this baby, just so it's not 3. (Doubt it, though. I am too lazy and too schedule-challenged!)

Rave: A Mother's Rule of Life

I love this website. There is always some nugget on there that speaks to my exact situation. Like this one:

If you can focus on doing only ONE thing in your life - and that ONE thing is to do the Will of God for you - then everything else becomes simple. You are not to do 100 things to day - you are to do ONE thing - God's requests to you - which manifest themselves at each moment.

(P.S. MamaE, was that you posting about keeping house with no electricity?)

Rant: Insomnia

I am usually one of those people who can sleep more hours in a day than be awake. But not this pregnancy. The slightest little noise, pressure on my bladder, lately coughing spasm (we brought back something from TX, I guess) wakes me up for good. I try to go back to sleep. I hear the ultra high pitched squeal of the TV being on, and the low noise of it's volume. (Thanks a lot, brother!) I hear the heater kick on. Or a car pass. Or a kid changing breathing patterns. Or my hubby grinding his teeth. I hear everything! After about an hour of not returning to sleep, I give up. I go to the bathroom (again!). I get a drink and refill my water cup. I do some neck rolls and mild stretches. I try to relax. It doesn't work. I'm really awake now. I get up to check email & Facebook for "just five minutes". (Yeah, right!) My stomach tries to convince me it hasn't seen food in a week. I get something lightish to eat. I have to stay up for a while to digest it so I don't wake up with flamethrower throat. I am more awake than ever. I decide if I'm going to be stuck up, I might as well get something done while I am not being interrupted every 32 seconds. I do some laundry. Or empty the dishwasher. Or try to put some things away. My mind starts racing around all the things that I want to get done, but don't have energy, or time, or physical condition (i.e. non-gestational) to accomplish. I look around at the big mess that is my house, and know it needs cleand up, but am too overwhelmed to know where to start. Plus I can't exactly bend over to pick anything up. So I give up, sit down, and blog. Or check email. (Strangely, nobody has emailed me in the last 2 hours since I woke up.) Or check Facebook. (Strangely, almost nobody's status has changed in the last 2 hours...) Or play a mindless game...
Eventually I start feel tired, realize the sun's about to come up, or that it already is coming up, and go back to bed. I get maybe an hour of sleep before the little early bird cheerfully wakes me up.

OTOH, maybe it's a good thing that I'm up, because otherwise I might not know that not only does this baby pass his kick counts, but at 3 a.m. he does it in 3 minutes or less!

Knock Knock

Sammy's current favorite joke:
Knock Knock
Who's There?
House.
House who?
House it goin'?

Katie's current favorite joke:
Knock Knock
Who's There?
Boo
Boo who?
Don' cry. 'S'only a knock knock joke!

My current favorite joke that I learned from Sammy:
Knock Knock
Who's There?
Chooch.
Chooch who?
Choo choo? Are you a train?

Scrapbook stuff: upstairs or downstairs???

I've been reading some of the scrapbook magazines that I took home with me from my MIL's stash. It has inspired me to get more organized with my scrapbooking setup. The last time I had a dedicated place for stuff was when I lived in Cheyenne. That was before the first digit of the year was a 2.

I am waffling between the bedroom in the new basement, and the big dining room on the main floor. The main floor would be better for hosting crops, and working in spurts while I'm working on other things like cooking dinner. But it would be bad because there's not enough storage space for everything in the sideboard, and one of my goals for that room is to have it pretty sparsely decorated like it used to be (before all the stuff from the basement got moved into it). And I run the risk of yet another thing that won't get picked up from my dining room table. If I set up downstairs, I can get pegboards and other wall storage. But then my stuff will get dusty. But I will be closer to where the kids are likely to be playing. But if I host crops (which I want to do, and already have at least 2 people wanting to come), I will have to carry everything upstairs to the big table.

I just can't decide. Any thoughts?

Halloween 2008 Photos

Katie took this photo of Sam. I cropped it (to hide the mess in my house) but I just love it. It is so rare that he is actually looking at the camera in a photo!


Katie had said she wanted to be a "dancing princess with wings" for Halloween, so I was excited when I found this angel costume at Costco. There was also this neat fireman costume, so I got that for Sammy. They will make great additions to our dress-up chest now that Halloween is over.

(If you are wondering about the bunny ears, that was her Daddy's way of making the too-big halo headband stay on her head.)

In the past I haven't taken the kids trick-or-treating because of all of Sammy's allergies. Instead we stay home and hand out candy. I think it is more fun seeing all the different costumes anyway. This year Sammy asked to go trick-or-treating, but at the last minute decided he would rather stay home and hand out all the candy. He did a great job of it, too. He wasn't even scared of the scary costumes. (Last year he was terrified!)

Katie was scared by just about every costume that had a mask. But not to the point of terror like Sammy was last year. She just stood behind me, peeking around my head (I was sitting ont he floor in the doorway) until they started walking away. Then she yelled the same litany to them that she did to everyone else who came last night. "You're welcome!!! (pause) Happy Halloween!!! (pause) Bye!!! (pause) Thank youuuu!!!"

About halfway through the night, Katie decided "Mama, I don' want dis dwess!" So I took off her costume. She quickly got cold in just a diaper, and decided she wanted to be a bat. This was the closest thing her Daddy could come up with on short notice. She was thrilled with it, and ran around chasing us all, arms outstretched, whispering "Ryyyyyyyyye!" (roar) the rest of the evening.