May 2012

At the beginning of May we decided to start potty training Eric. He got the hang of it (except for going #2) and did well for a few days and then stopped using the potty. After cleaning up more accidents than my pregnant body wanted to handle, I decided that it was time we quit the potty training. All told we tried for about 2 weeks. He occasionally still decides to use the potty but it is once every few days if that (and usually now it is just when he wants a 'reward'). We're not going to try until after the baby is born and life settles down (as we don't want him to regress once he's started using the potty all the time and we hear regression happens quite frequently after a new sibling arrives.)

We were also taking advantage of the warm weather and playing outside frequently. He has a set of construction toys he likes to play with in the dirt - it's his 'construction site.'

On Daniel's birthday (after he got his teeth drilled at the dentist) we had fun as a family. We went geocaching and Eric got to find a few of them which he loved. He now likes going to find a 'treasure'. (Of course geocaching typically only involves signing a log, but he still loves it!)

Eric has really started playing with his toys and will act out scenes from the movie 'Cars'. I tried to get some video of him doing it, but always caught him to late or he caught me trying to film it (he stops what he's doing when he sees the camera.) But he would start with the scene after the race when he's talking to Mack and does the whole Rustez commercial, then mumble through the part after and eventually put McQueen (toy car) in Mack (toy truck) and start singing "Life is a Highway" like in the movie. That kid has a pretty good memory!

One night we were on a walk and passed a yard with a tree stump in it, he said "There's a tree... with it's parts broken off!"

Another fun thing is that for Mother's Day I got an ice-cream maker. Eric loves it and comes running every time he hears it turned on...

One day while I was changing his diaper, he made his comment: "No, We don't eat Bum Cream... we eat Ice-Cream!" He really is on a kick of saying what we don't do followed by something we do.

What a week!

Last Friday Daniel and I had a 'date night' - meaning we ordered pizza and watched a movie together (Philadelphia story - I love old movies!) while Eric did whatever he wanted (as we kept an eye on him...) Saturday I did my normal volunteering (I do it every other week) at Bountiful Baskets. Then Daniel went to scouts and I went to our Steak Relief Society presentation. Which I thoroughly enjoyed (although wished it had not been in the gym the whole time - my body hated me sitting on that metal chair!) Then I came home, made my menu plan, grocery list and was about to go shopping when I started feeling contractions... every 10 minutes. 10 minutes became 7 and we called the OB dept to see what I should do. Try a warm bath was the advice (and if they don't go away to come in and get checked.) Luckily they went away (after a total of 4-5 hours had gone by.) However, since then I have been having contractions all day (about 1-3 per hour.)

Sunday came and went without any major events. Monday Eric decided to get sick. We went to Urgent care that night, but nothing visibly wrong. Tuesday he was doing better, but not completely well. However I needed to run stuff by my mom's house and then went and picked up a cell phone (we haven't had one in YEARS) for emergencies (top on my list was being able to get ahold of Daniel in case of labor...) On the way home I started feeling a little... unsettled (basically any time I started eating something my body would say... keep that up and it will come back up!) Luckily I didn't get sick like Eric. Then Daniel had scouts that evening. 

Wednesday came and with it my OB appointment... in which I found out that the reason I'm having cramp-type feelings is because baby's head is so low in my pelvis. In fact baby's head is so low that the OB was surprised that I wasn't at all dilated... just mostly effaced. Eric seemed to be doing better and I was trying to work out the car situation (should I take Daniel to work or make him bring the car back to me so I could sleep in a bit more...) so I could attend my Great-Uncle's Funeral. Wednesday evening I started having contractions a bit more frequently, but this time I was pretty sure it was false labor as they started at 5 minutes apart... that's how my false labors tend to start! Luckily they died down and we went to sleep. Somewhere around 2:30 I noticed Eric was HOT (he came to our bed around midnight with a cough that didn't sound so great)... So I went in to get the ibprofen and the thermometer when both Eric and Daniel met me in the kitchen. Took Eric's temp and it was 103.5... *Sigh* I had thought he was starting to get better! We called the nurse's hotline and followed the instructions. We all slept in (after Daniel called into work saying he'd either be late or not in at all...) I decided to not go to the funeral and expose all of the attendees to whatever bug Eric has!

Eric's fever hasn't came back (*fingers crossed). He's still acting a bit sick but is getting into stuff again... so he's not that sick! We decided to watch and see how he's acting. If he still isn't remarkably better by tomorrow we'll take him in again.

Hopefully this next week is a little less eventful... although if you ask Daniel or my mom they will tell you that they think baby may make his appearance within a week - which would DEFINITELY NOT make it less eventful! I'm still hopeful that we'll make it to July 7th (when I'm 37 weeks)... I can't say I'm hopeful much beyond that though (see paragraph 3...) but we'll see. I should at least pack my hospital bag - just in case!

34 weeks

I'm currently 34 weeks pregnant and am simply glad to still be pregnant. Wait, What? I never thought I'd be saying that because about a week ago I just wanted to be done (but knew it would still be about 7 weeks!) So what changed? The reality that I could have had to deliver a baby 6 weeks early...

Last Thursday I went to get a 3D Ultrasound (our clinic does them for free if you have your 20 week ultrasound done there...) We got a clear view of baby's back - but I don't have one of those cool pictures to show you what baby looks like... we didn't get one (well we could have gotten one of baby's back...) The ultrasound technician was actually in my ward growing up. She was a few years younger than me but we knew each other. As she was doing the ultrasound she was asking questions (which I naturally assumed was just to make conversation since we sort-of knew each other.) She asked, so what's your due date, followed by - who's your doctor, and then, When do you see him next? Um... right then I KNEW she wasn't just being friendly and conversational... So what's wrong?

It turns out that my amniotic fluid was a bit low. So she called my OB and after we waited for a while (he was with a patient) the doctor said I should  go home, take it easy, drink lots of fluids and then go to the hospital in the morning for a non-stress test and an AFI (Amniotic Fluid Index).

I would personally like to say that I don't handle situations where there are unknowns very well! I always tend to go with the worst case scenarios... So of course when I got home, part of my taking it easy was to look up what happens when one has low fluid levels. (Side note: when Daniel told his boss that we were going in for tests due to the amniotic fluid being low, he said it almost sounded like he was taking me in for a tune-up... and it kind of does!) So I learned that some people have bed rest, others have to deliver early and others have to go in for the AFI and non-stress tests 1-2 times per week... So I naturally imagine that I'm either going to deliver this baby during the next few days or I'll be on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy with having to travel to the hospital 2 times per week to get tests done (not too bad but the hospital is a 30-45 minute drive away!)... and the waiting was excruciating. I honestly wish we could have went in that afternoon as I don't handle waiting very well!

This picture was taken Thursday night - just in case! Me at almost 34 weeks

The next morning came and we headed off to the hospital. I learned that morning that I wasn't the only one with a worst case scenario outlook - Daniel kept thinking that we'd have to have a C-Section... When we got there the nurse hooked me up and I was so thirsty (as I am pretty much every morning...) and I asked if I could have some water. She said she'd have to check in case they had to take the baby they might not want me to have anything to drink. Okay that did NOTHING to ease my fears... however she did say that she wasn't saying they would have to... but still didn't help! After a while she hadn't come back so I asked Daniel to go ask if I could have anything because I was really thirsty by this point. He came back and said my OB would get some for me. (Apparently he was the only one at the nurse's desk when Daniel went to ask.) A different nurse than had taken us to our room and got everything set up came in with the water. About a minute after she left the first nurse came in and said it was time for us to go to get the AFI done and "they" said that it would be best if I didn't have anything to drink... (who is 'they' I wonder - obviously not the doctor who was ready to bring it in himself!)

It had been about a half an hour at this point. The nurse unhooked me and we went to get the AFI done. Luckily it turned out that I had a normal amount of fluid (albeit it is on the lower end of the normal range.) The doctor came in to the room shortly after we'd came back. He said the levels were normal but 'they' wanted to monitor me for a bit longer. He also said that I should do kick counts if I wasn't feeling baby move like normal (and explained how to do them). So who is this mysterious 'they'? I'd like to know ;). The nurse came in and hooked me back up to the monitoring thingy and after about 20-30 more minutes came in and said we could leave. Everything looked fine.

Me at 34 weeks with Eric... for comparison.

I would have to say that this experience really opened my eyes to what some women have to go through while pregnant. While I didn't have to go through all the worse case scenarios that went floating through my head, the reality that I could have had to was very real. I can also say that I'm grateful to still be pregnant and am trying to be more upbeat about all the normal but annoying symptoms that occur during the last few months of pregnancy. Although I'm sure I'll probably be complaining in a few more days as that's just the way human nature works!

This experience has also made me rethink my approach to unknown problems/situations. It really NEVER occurred to me that everything would be fine and I'd be continuing life as normal! It made me realize that I need to shift my thinking to be more positive and not ONLY think about the negative. While thinking about all the possibilities can help me to be prepared in case one of them happens, I should also focus on the fact that everything CAN be alright (while still formulating plans for if it is not alright so I'm not caught completely off guard.)

April 2011

I've fallen a bit behind... I still have a post to do in March, but I have to sort through a lot of pictures for that one so I thought I'd post about April (since we didn't take many pictures that month!) Basically only on 2 days... The day before Easter (egg hunting) and on Easter. We have a few before then but that's basically it!

Eric really had fun Easter-Egg hunting... but even more fun when he got to reap the spoils!

We didn't give him that many eggs and I put them out of reach so he couldn't eat them all in one day (or one hour!)

These are the same type of Jelly Beans that were on his cake - they were sour and I decided I LOVE sour jelly beans...

Easter Sunday we went to visit my parents. We took a trip to the ranch and go to see the baby cows... this one was a brand new baby cow. We were across a fence from this cow and her calf, but she was still eyeing us suspiciously!

This is another calf we got to see (not very close mind you...)

This is the calf's momma... I love the way she's staring us down! Don't mess with momma cows! (We were riding on a Gator while seeing the cows so we weren't on foot, and we didn't ever get too close to the calves - that is just asking for trouble!)

We also got to see this baby horse:

He lost is mama a few days after birth.

Eric really loved seeing the baby horse.

He could have stayed there for a long time watching it.

My mom climbed in with it and held it so Eric could pet it. (Baby horses that are fed by humans tend to kick at people so we didn't trust Eric being that close to it without intervention!)

Eric really loves seeing the baby animals (as well as the big ones!) We had a fun trip.

As for what we've been doing this month - Eric and I haven't gone out a lot as we started potty training him about mid-month. It has definitely been an adventure. I think I tend to visualize things being easier than they really are! However, he's doing pretty good during the week and has most of his troubles on the weekend (well with peeing in the potty, pooping is another animal entirely and he's just really starting to even try to go on the potty)... except this weekend he did better than before, so maybe there's hope that I won't have to do laundry as often anymore! The first thing I learned about potty training is to do it when I've had enough sleep (I was tired the day we started it and that wasn't such a good thing.) The second thing I learned is that it is better to do it when your spouse isn't going to be working tons of overtime (granted I didn't know this would be the case when we started!) Third, it takes patience and a lot of incentives (who knew that playing with bubbles would be one of the best rewards - granted we hadn't played with bubbles at home before...) Fourth, you'll want at least 14 pair of underwear to start with or you'll be doing laundry a lot more (we went through about 10-12 pairs the first day... and we did actually have about 14 pair - luckily.) 

I promise the next post will not contain bathroom or potty training stuff - it's just that potty training was what we did the second half of April!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Eric turned 3 last week! Time does fly... we had his party on Saturday (because that's what worked for us...) Eric had missed having a nap and was grumpy... so we let him choose Presents or Cake and he chose presents first (duh, who wouldn't!)

I love birthday parties with small children - everyone helps open the gifts!

 Loved the expression on his face, not so much the blurriness of the photo...

 Driving the monster truck up the wall... because monster trucks are so much cooler than regular cars that they can drive up walls!

 What a happy boy!  Thanks Grandma!

Next... what do we have here? Another monster truck, except this one runs on batteries and flips itself over... Thanks Bryant and Lydia!

 What is this?

 A book, with dots!

 Thanks Aunt Elise!

Eric did so much better opening gifts for his birthday than he did at Christmas!

 Ohh, a toolbox!

 What is inside? Lots of fun tools!

 And finally... Mack!

Hurry and open it Papa, I can't wait to play with him!

Then on to the cake: 

 I made this cake... it took a while, but I think it turned out pretty well!

 It has mini Cars characters on it (and jelly beans as spectators).

Eric was in love with this cake as soon as he figured out it was a race track (or as he called it 'the race crew cake'. (This picture was taken before the party, but I love the expression on his face!) Shortly after this he drove McQueen across the still wet finish line... It was salvaged though ;).

Half Way... random ramblings

Yesterday (or today) marked the day when I became 20 weeks pregnant. It is hard to believe that I'm halfway there, but sometimes I wish we were so much closer! I know that things just get more difficult from here... my hips are starting to hurt pretty much every day, my back is always sore (I wake up with a sore back, which is so not fair!) My heartburn is going crazy again... and soon I'll be having to take more than just Zantac to calm it down - but that should mean we get another baby with a full head of hair according to the old wives tale! (If not I'll feel gypped for having to suffer with heartburn!)

This past week I've been overly emotional and that hasn't been fun. It seems to be getting better though and may have been related to fatigue... not that daylight savings time has helped the sleep loss issue!

I can feel baby move every day now, which is great! Daniel has gotten to feel him move once or twice as well.

Eric is still trying to figure out our baby's gender... we kept saying a brother or a sister when we didn't know, then for a while whenever I asked if he was having a brother, he'd say, "or a sister" OR "no, a sister!". So I took another route and said that we are going to have a baby boy... Now he knows the baby is a boy but still usually insists that baby is going to be a sister. We just have him so confused! It is just cute to see how he latches on to an idea and doesn't give it up... 

I'm actually pretty happy about the weight thing this time because at my halfway point with this pregnancy I'm only a pound (or 2-3) above where I was when I learned I was pregnant with Eric. So yey for having lost some weight in between pregnancies!

Oh and for those of you who like ultrasound pictures... here's our baby:

taken on February 29th. We have 6 pictures on cd that were given to us that day... We have the full body (can see the spine), face, profile, feet, and two that show he's a boy (one complete with 3 arrows pointing to a particular anatomical feature where I'm sure none would have been needed with the label on the picture of "boy". Oh yeah the label is there as well as the 3 arrows!). That said, the technician was great and let us know what she was looking for, which was interesting (at least I thought it was.)

Ultrasound

When we went in for the Ultrasound, I was pretty sure we were having a girl. My morning sickness was twice as bad as with Eric (and I honestly feel like I'm uglier this time so that indicates girl, right?)... It wasn't the same sureness I had with Eric - I KNEW he was a boy pretty much from the start. I only told a few people and they would tease me that he was going to be a girl because I was so sure he was a boy. But I knew we were having a boy and I knew I was right! So the ultrasound with him just confirmed my knowledge.

This time it actually took me a while to assign a gender and it became more and more that I was assigning this baby to be a girl. It wasn't the same as with Eric though, I did not absolute know that when we went to the ultrasound that it would be a girl. 

This time baby was a bit uncooperative - baby liked keeping a foot in between the legs... But with a little prodding of my tummy, we were able to find out his gender.

For a while now we've been telling Eric he's going to have a little brother or sister... we've obviously done a very good job since now he's pretty much convinced he's having a brother or a sister! We told him he's having a brother and then I ask him occasionally, "Eric, are you going to have a little brother?" to which he responds, "Or a sister!"  SO now we have our work cut out for us in removing the sister part from the equation (at least for this pregnancy!).