March
29, 2004
I'm on a "baby watch" for two friends right now. A friend of mine at church, Jillaine, and also Allie (linked at left) are both due tomorrow. Last night at our church's annual business meeting, Jillaine started having contractions every 15 minutes. This is her third baby. I haven't heard any updates from Allie yet, but her site hasn't been updated today... March
27, 2004
Natalie has done a huge turnaround in her eating habits the past several days, and I'm trying to not let it bother me too much. But it does bother me; I'm just trying not to make an issue out of it so she won't turn it into a power play issue. This is the child who has always eaten just about anything and everything, now lately she doesn't eat ANYTHING. Not even her favorite foods. I know that she will eat if she's hungry so obviously she hasn't been hungry, but it's hard to see her go three days and I can count on one hand how many bites she's taken of food at meals, total. Besides the occasional apple or a couple orange slices, she hasn't even had any snacks. Though she's been drinking lots of milk. (I just can't deny the child milk when that's what she's asking for these days, even over juice!) That must be filling her up, that's all I can guess. If I was her I'd have a raging hunger headache by now! Natalie got her fingernails painted purple yesterday. I had promised her a couple months ago that if I found that she had stopped biting her nails, that she'd get purple nails. (I already paint her toenails purple, but she has been asking for her fingernails done too.) Well, yesterday morning she was snuggling in my lap (that's getting smaller) and I noticed that her nails needed trimmed! Not just filed down to be even, which was normal with her biting them all the time, but they had gotten long! So I got the nail trimmers and the purple nail polish, and I did her nails! By today, half of it is chipped off already of course, but she still thinks it's wonderful. She walks around saying "purple! purple!" I took a picture of her hands, so it's below. March 22, 2004
March
17, 2004
I feel like I've been losing my brain the past couple days. The other day I was on my way out to go pick up Sarah from school. I was leading Natalie down the front steps when I realized that her shoes were on the wrong feet, and they had been for the past couple hours since I had put them on her. Ouch! When we got out to the car, I put her in her car seat and then put her shoes on the correct feet. Then I got in my seat, started the car, and started backing out of the garage. Natalie said "Momma! Momma!" and I looked back and she said "Buckle!" I had forgotten to buckle her car seat! Good thing my 2-year old reminded me to strap her into her car seat. After taking Sarah home I came home and didn't go anywhere the rest of the day; I figured everyone would be safer that way. This weekend Phil and I decided that we will be going to St. Ann's for the delivery. Which means I am going to be changing doctors. Not that I have any emotional attachment to my current place anyway. We haven't even visited the maternity facility at MCE yet, but the woman who gave us the tour at St. Ann's also works at MCE, so she was able to tell us a lot about both places. Here are just a FEW of the reasons why we've decided to just skip the MCE tour and go for St. Ann's no matter what: 1) The labor/delivery rooms at St. Ann's have been updated and are about three times the size of what they used to be, and they were pretty good sized before. The rooms are bigger than my living room. The MCE rooms have been updated to be close in size to the old St. Ann's rooms. 2) St. Ann's now has 3 hot tub rooms, and she said so far never have all three rooms been used at the same time. MCE has one tub room. 3) Even the non-hot tub rooms ALL have full showers in the labor/delivery rooms, so even if I decide I don't want the tub labor, I can still have the warm water jets from the shower head. 4) St. Ann's allows video taping of the birth, which I had with Natalie. (From a tasteful angle, thank you, mom.) MCE does not allow taping, period. 5) The recovery/postnatal rooms at St. Ann's are twice the size they used to be, and the support person's (i.e., Phil) bed is now a real bed that is stored under a full couch instead of the plastic fold out chair that they had last time. 6) St. Ann's allows your other children to be present during your labor if you want. Not that I want Natalie with me in the bad moments, but if I'm sitting there doing just fine (like I was post-epi with her birth), they can be in the labor room. If I have a long labor, and especially if it's not the middle of the night, I'd like the option of letting Natalie come visit. Especially right after the birth so she can see the baby. Which brings me to, 7) St. Ann's now lets you stay in the labor/delivery room for two hours post-birth before moving you to a recovery/postnatal room. In that time, they now also perform ALL triage right there in the room. The baby won't be taken away, like Natalie was, to be weighed and measured and bathed. That was one of the hardest parts about last time, when they had to take her away and I didn't get to see all these things happen. Phil got to go, but not me. Who's the one who did all the work here?? All in all, it's the right place for us. I'm sure MCE would be OKAY, but St. Ann's is just that much better in every area that is important to me. And besides, the maternity area is in its own area/building at St. Ann's, with its own lobby, entrances and hallways, so you don't even have to go anywhere near the hospital itself or sick people. Their whole idea, which they are correct about, is that pregnancy and childbirth are not diseases and shouldn't be treated as such. Hospitals, and MCE in particular, have always made me feel queasy and uneasy (since my sister's accident) which doesn't help my relaxation level (needed to let your body do its thing in labor). The last time if I would have had the opportunity, I would have given birth at a birthing center and not a hospital at all. There are no birthing centers in Columbus at all, surprising for such a big city, but St. Ann's comes very close. And best of all, the maternity building's lobby has its own Tim Hortons. I'll be ordering a chocolate covered creme filled right after delivery! One other piece of news today, and yes, you can go ahead and laugh at us about it. We're going to Florida at the end of April. That's not the funny part, the funny part is how we are going about it. No, we don't have any money and Phil's cases didn't suddenly settle (but we're hoping!) We are going to tour a resort facility in the Orlando area, and in return, we got a really good deal on an 8-day vacation! We will be spending 3 nights in Orlando, 3 nights at New Smyrna Beach, and 2 nights at Key West. And we're staying in real hotels too, not junky motels or no name places. At Orlando and Key West, we will be at Radissons, and at New Smyrna we'll be at a Holiday Inn. I looked them up on the Internet yesterday and they are REALLY nice. Two are beachfront, too. All have nice pools. And the tour we will be taking is only 90 minutes and we can bring Natalie with us. So how bad can it be, really? It doesn't matter how much of a hard sell they give us, it's not like we have ANY money to buy a timeshare!!! With it we'll also be getting an Alamo rental car (midsize) for the week with unlimited miles, and 2, 2-day passes to Universal. We still want to go to Disney too just for one day, but we'll figure that out. So, yes, it's kind of funny that we're doing this but we think it will be fine. Our first night is April 27, in Orlando, then New Smyrna, then Key West. Because of all the location changes, I'm just thankful that we have a kid who is pretty easy going and is no fan of schedules or routines. She's a pretty much go with the flow kind of girl, as long as she's going with the flow along with both mommy and daddy. As long as she's with us, she happy. So this will be her first vacation! And our first since our June '01 trip to Colorado. Besides the hotel changes, everything else will be pretty laid back and relaxed. We will have two days at the Universal parks, but between Natalie being little still and me being pregnant, we'll probably only spend a few hours at each place. Most of the rides are geared toward older kids and even those that are not, many aren't allowed for pregnant women. We'll probably spend an entire day at Disney (Magic Kingdom, of course, Natalie wants to see Mickey and Pooh) because there's lots that we can do there, but that will be it. Other than that we'll be spending a lot of time hanging out at the beaches and the pools! I'm also looking forward to seeing family in Orlando, none of whom have met Natalie yet, and seeing my Grandma Zamrazil's grave. She died while I was pregnant with Natalie and I wasn't able to get down there for the funeral. Our last day with the package we're getting is May 5, but we're considering spending a couple more days in Orlando just to relax and see family before heading back up. We're going to be driving back from Key West on that day, so I don't really relish trying to drive up all that way just to catch a plane late that night. The only consideration now is how we will get to Florida. The package we're getting gets us one free companion ticket, but I'm keeping my eyes open for tickets that we can get cheaper on our own. If we absolutely have to, we'll drive down there, but that's not our first choice! (As a side note, I found out that it would cost $2418 to take an Amtrak train down! No wonder the company is perpetually on the verge of bankruptcy!) So how did we "suddenly" decide to take a vacation? Well, it was anything but sudden. For well over a year we've been keeping our eyes open for a good deal (but not an unbelievable deal, such as $99 for round trip air plus 5 days hotel, which I did see once but you have to wonder, WHAT is the catch?!?!?) and we found one that looked good. A really good deal, but not unbelievable. It's been really hard for us to spend any money on doing things together when we struggle with day to day things that we need to pay for, but our need for a time to get away together as a family, to spend time together out of the routine was becoming something that was not optional anymore. We realized that it was not wrong to pray for money for a vacation, even while we're still praying for our other needs to be met. We just had to do it. So, we're just trusting in God to provide for us in this trip just like He's provided for our every other need. The past couple years have always been a struggle - more than I could have ever anticipated back in February 2002 - but I've learned a lot about living by faith alone in that time. It comes more naturally to Phil to live by that kind of faith, because growing up they always lived this way. (For instance, he tells how his mom and dad would make plans for a vacation and then pray for a specific amount of money to pay for it. They'd drive out of their house on the day they were scheduled to leave, not having money for the trip, but when they went to the P.O., his mom would check the mail and there would be a check for the exact amount they needed.) That whole concept seemed pretty foreign to me a couple years ago, but there have been many, many such circumstances that have happened with us the past two years that are very similar. So, the package itself is already paid for, but we're just trusting that God will provide the money we need for the rest of it, which will be taxes, gas, and food. And hopefully airline tickets so we don't have to take a 22 hour road trip. :-) If we do, though, it most certainly will not be done non-stop! Or, like the time I drove down there with my sister, stopping to sleep and then wash our hair the next morning (in the sink) at a rest area. That was fun at the time, but some things just have to change when you have kids! (Thank goodness!) Phil is preaching tonight for the first time as "Pastor Phil"! He has a really good sermon prepared. I'm hoping to be able to hear it; Natalie came down with a pretty nasty cold yesterday. She's feeling better today but her nose is still running like a faucet so I'm not sure other parents would appreciate her being in the nursery with other kids. March
12, 2004
We also got Natalie's 2-year pictures, but I need to go over to Phil's office to get them scanned. I'm going to try to do that this afternoon. They were taken on the afternoon of her birthday, and they turned out so cute. I'll probably replace the page header picture with one of these new pictures later tonight. Well, lots of things are different with this pregnancy, but one thing has stayed the same. My belly button has popped out early again. At least the top part has popped out, and the rest of it is flat and not an innie. I think it happened around week 19 last time, but most things are happening at least a couple weeks earlier, like my belly getting big faster. Just the other day, I woke up and my belly was rounder and my belly button was gone, just overnight. I think I've decided that until I know differently (and hopefully I will in the next month or so) that this one is going to be a boy. I still don't have any feelings either way, but every dream I've had and other family members have had, it's been a boy. And my belly is definitely more round and out front this time instead of all around, which folklore says means a boy. Not that this means anything; I really thought Natalie was going to be a boy so that's how good I am at "knowing". It's still hard for me to think that anyone in our family will ever have anything other than a girl, anyway, but until I know differently, then why not imagine the baby as a boy for awhile. :-) Last night, Natalie counted to 8 and almost 9 with Phil. They were counting blocks, and she got to 8 and then said 6 and then 9. I was amazed enough that a couple days ago she counted all five of my fingers by herself, no prompting at all. She LOVES to count now. The kid's a little sponge. Oh, and now her favorite song to sing is the ABC song, but just like Twinkle Twinkle, she has her own version. I've got to get her singing on tape because my written versions just don't do it justice, but I'll try. Here's how she sings the ABC's (she has the tune right): "A, B, D, D, D, F, D; ah, ah, D, D, la la la. Now I oh my A F D, la la la la la la D." Or something very close to that. Most of her letters sound vaguely like the letter D though I'm sure in her mind she's singing lots of different letters! One more thing I wanted to write about today - last weekend, Natalie had her first whole night without me! (And my first night without her, too.) Our church had a women's night away at a local hotel, and I figured that this was the one time in the foreseeable future that I could do this. The last time there was an overnight women's function, Natalie was still nursing at least every three hours, and the next time I'll probably have a newborn again, so I went! It was a lot of fun, pretty much just like a junior high sleepover, except no frozen bras. Natalie did just fine with daddy the whole time, and wasn't even upset at me when I came home the next day. Then Saturday night, a friend of mine from church (the infamous Liz of Natalie's clothing collection) offered to babysit Natalie so that we could go out, and they gave us a gift certificate to a restaurant called Braddock's, too. It was nice to get out with just Phil, and Natalie had fun playing with her three kids. Between the two nights, it was quite an adventure filled weekend for Natalie. It was her first time without me for an entire night, and it was her first time with a babysitter other than Grammy! On Sunday she was a little clingier than normal, but we just gave her extra attention over the next couple days. March
2, 2004
First, I was cooking supper and Phil was playing cars with Natalie in the living room. Phil had gone through them all with her and counted how many cars she had, and they were now playing with them by "driving" them across a road they built of Jenga wood blocks. Then Natalie started lining her cars up side by side and she counted them - to FOUR! She counts to two all the time, but this time we were shocked to hear her continue to say "three", then after that, "four". Wow!! A little later, Phil was helping me get the dishes on the table in the kitchen, and she counted them to four again. Phil and I just looked at each other in amazement. The second thing happened while I was gone to the church for a women's event for the evening. Phil was playing with Natalie with her wood blocks. (Not the Jenga ones, but a bunch of square wood blocks that my sister got before Natalie was born. The basket is a mish mash of alphabet blocks and what appears to be some sort of math game set, where there are red, blue, yellow, and white blocks, some solid colors and others in geometric patterns, and then one cube that is like a die, with a color on each side, corresponding to the solid color blocks.) Natalie just likes to normally play with these blocks to stack them or move them around the room. I don't know where Phil got the idea, but Natalie was playing with the cube that looks like a die, so he held up a solid color block and asked Natalie to show him where that color was. Natalie turned the die around in her hand and showed him the correct color. She did that with every single color, almost instantly! Phil said it reminded him of those rubik's-cube kids they would show in the 80's, who would turn the toy around and in just minutes have the rubik's cube complete. When I came home from church, he played the game with her again, to show me. She did it again, this time correcting Phil when he called the red color "orange" (it is a bit of an orangey red). She said "No. Red." And turned to that color. She's been good at picking out colors for awhile now, but to see her turn that little cube around in her hand and quickly show us the correct color that we ask for every time...we thought, this child is just barely two! Is this normal? This being my first kid I really have no idea. One more thing I wanted to mention today before I get to the details of my appointment, Natalie is also saying the word "yes" now. It just started suddenly a couple days ago. Up until now she has always said "uh huh" for yes. Now she says "yes" just as clear as can be. And she loves to say it, especially when she has said something else and I've repeated what I think I heard her say, when I repeat back the correct thing, she says "yes!" Conversely, when I can't figure out what she's saying and I guess the wrong thing, she gives me a look like "duh, Mom!" and says, with a laugh, "No...." and will keep up the game with me until I correctly figure out what she is saying. Okay, so on to the details of my doctor's appointment. The best part is I heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Phil couldn't come with me because he was with Natalie. (So many things are so different this time, one of them being Phil came to every appointment but one last time; now it will be the exception when he can make it to an appointment!) It took a bit to find the heartbeat, but once he did, he was surprised and happy with how strong it sounded. I don't remember it sounding so strong the first time I heard Natalie's. Maybe it was though, it's been awhile. The doctor said it was beating at about 162 beats per minute, which falls within the correct range for this age. And there was only one heartbeat, so between the ultrasound last time and that, we're pretty convinced now that my twins dream was wrong. (Thank goodness!) I gained more than one pound this time...closer to six. Well, I have been very hungry lately! I'm not entirely convinced that it is accurate though, because this place insists on weighing me with all clothes AND shoes on, so I think the weigh-in not so much measures my weight gain but instead the shoes I've worn that day. Big surprise when, as the weather warms up, my weight gain goes down because I come in to my appointment wearing shorts and sandals! I guess it will all even out in the end though, but still. I don't see what the big deal is with just taking my shoes off. I know that gaining weight is inevitable and something that should happen, but I'm going to try to not let it get out of control though, because I worked so hard to get all that off just last year. As the weather warms up, at least I can get out and start walking again. (Today Natalie and I did just that, we walked down to the nearby school to go vote. The walk used to take about 20 minutes round trip. This time I went much slower so it was almost double that!) Anyway, that was about it for the appointment. Everything checked out just great - good blood pressure, good pee test, fundal height measuring right on target. It's starting to pop above my bladder these days, which has been a blessing on my sleep! And I did ask about the placement of the placenta; he said he always looks for that and writes it down if it is in an abnormal spot. He didn't write anything down, so we can assume it's all good. Which I figured, but I wanted to ask anyway. My next appointment is in four weeks, on March 29th. My cute girl. She's sitting here next to me, playing with her LeapFrog Learning Table. She keeps pushing the button that plays the ABC song and humming along with it. I looked over at her and started singing the ABC song "with" her, and she said "NO!" then pressed the button again so she could start over by herself. She didn't want me to sing with her! Okay, okay! Last thing I wanted to mention today (I just can't write short!) is that last night Phil took and passed the test for his one last class to get his pastor licensing. Now all he (we, actually) have to do is fill out the credentialing paperwork (they ask me questions too) and then he will take his licensing exam. That will all be done by April. |