My Breastfeeding Toddler

I didn't see myself initially breastfeeding much beyond a year. Honestly it wasn't something I thought much about until I started seeing articles and research (and some horror stories of what strangers actually have the gall to stay to people they don't know). With my exposure to breastfeeding growing up, I knew it was something I was going to do and I wasn't weirded out by nursing toddlers as I had seen many of them through the years. So my initial goals changed as I did research, especially research regarding history of food allergies in the immediate family, and I wanted to at least BF exclusively for a year if I could, and would go longer after that if Joey wanted to. I knew that some toddlers can completely forget about nursing once introduced to solid foods, especially yummy table food off Mommy/Daddy's plate, so I was prepared mentally for Joey to wean once we started solids. Not only did Joey not wean himself, he continued to request to nurse any time of the day or night! He loves food, has several favorites that change by the week or by the day, but his nom-noms (nursing) have remained a constant and I can actually say that it does make me happy. Don't get me wrong, I love not being his sole food source at this point. Not having to worry about my supply or pumping for a while has been great, especially since I know I'll be back on that horse in a few months for another year or so. But with working full time, I love coming home and having Joey hug me and want nom-noms. It's our quiet time together where can "check in" with each other and reconnect after having been apart for hours. Even when I'm home on the weekends, Joey still asks to nurse. We've gone back to nursing at night when it's my turn to get him, so not really night-weaned anymore, but he doesn't get up nearly as often AND when I do nurse him, I can usually un-latch him and get him back to bed fairly quickly. Nights are getting much better, and just in time too!

Joey cut 3 teeth a week or so ago. At once. I knew something was up because he basically wanted to nurse pretty much as long as I was around. It's hard to stay annoyed with that many requests when he looks at you with his toothy grin and signs the word "please" (well, his version). It's also nice because now that he's bigger, some positions are actually more comfortable than they were when he was small. Our favorite is me semi-reclined on the couch with him snuggled up next to me and we can either both see the TV (Curious George is a favorite) or I can slip into a light doze while he watches TV. Some days this is the closest to a nap that I can get and I will take it! Joey is not super affectionate, sometimes he will give hugs when you ask, but kisses rarely happen (we haven't really asked for any, so I'll have to see what happens when I do), and after reading Nursing The Older Child today, I definitely think that his main form of showing me affection is through nursing. The affection through nursing is definitely two way, I snuggle him and kiss him lots while he's in my lap (or sitting next to me, lol), and I love it. I'm glad he decided he wasn't ready to quit, I would have been ok if he had, but the extra snuggles definitely help my long days at work not seem so bad. It also explains why he gets so upset if I have to stop a nursing session (especially in the early morning to get ready for work), it's like breaking a hug with someone you don't want to leave. You want to hug them and hold onto them for a long as you possibly can, and when I have to stop nursing either to do things around the house or to leave for work, we're both sad that our favorite form of affection has to stop.

I definitely jinxed sleep last night by starting this post then going to bed. I think Joey's got a bit of a stuffy nose (possibly from the weather changing) and he had a difficult time staying in his flat crib. I brought him back to bed when he woke up, and usually after an hour or more of nursing/sleeping I can put him back into his crib with no problems. Not this time! As soon as he felt that crib mattress he was instantly awake and upset! I tried going back to bed with him but that was it, it was too close to my alarm going off AND Joey never fully settled back down. He was constantly moving his legs or hands (I need to trim his fingernails, they're sharp and he kept scratching me!) and I could tell even in the darkness that he was opening his eyes and looking around. Eventually, after two straight hours, and 30 minutes until my alarm, I woke Dan up and had him take Joey. Joey cried for a minute or two but not nearly for as long as he has in the past when I have to give him to Dan, and I was glad for that. I needed that 30 min not just to have some time for myself and doze a little, but also for Dan and Joey to get settled before I started getting ready for work. If I got ready while Joey was still awake enough to realize I was out and moving around, he wouldn't go to sleep for Dan. The plan worked, I dozed lightly and they were both asleep when I got up, time for another week at work.

Not-so-late-night Hospital Run

I joked with Dan about how this baby and Joey were both awesome pregnancies, it was my dang organs that like to mess things up and be difficult! With Joey it was the ovary that grew a giant cyst (though I'm sure it didn't really want to and the cyst just showed up) and now with this baby I get an "irritated uterus" lol.

Thursday is Dan's day off from karate and that's the day we've been going over to visit Emma and to practice obedience training between classes. This past Thursday my dad was on a business trip and my mom had to work late, so we went over early to let Emma out and take her for a walk in addition to practice. It wasn't too hot out, just a little muggy, so we brought the stroller and Joey and I went with Dan and Emma on the walk. Just a short walk to make sure she went to the bathroom (she's weird about using the backyard and has an odd preference for paved surfaces over grass) and then we headed home. On the way home, literally as we started pulling into the driveway, I noticed a couple of Braxton-Hicks contractions back to back. This wasn't too odd, with Joey I had a couple happen close to each other, but it was never the "6 in an hour" that you're supposed to call your doc about. I started making myself some dinner and noticed a couple more. Total I had 4 in like 10 minutes, which was more frequent than anything I'd had with Joey. No pain or anything, just annoying BH contractions. While my dinner was cooking, I told Dan what was up and that I was going to lie down to see if they went away (and drink a ton of water), since if I called the MWs at that point, those were the suggestions I was likely to get. Dan brought me my dinner when it was ready and I ate in bed while reading the stuff given to me at my last MW appointment (never got around to reading it prior lol), BH were still happening and they were happening fairly regularly, between 3-5 minutes when I started keeping track.

I knew it was time to call the MWs and I was hoping to get a definite answer either a "You're fine" or a "Go to the hospital" because this is my second time and I know my stuff. It wasn't early/active labor, but it wasn't normal either and I had already tried the things you're supposed to try. Since it was technically after-hours (8pm) I had to call the answering service and they paged the MW who was on call that night, after 15 minutes of no call back, I called again and finally got a response in a few minutes. I got my definite answer and it was "Go to the hospital", not necessarily what I wanted to hear but at least we could make sure that the baby was ok. Since it was so close to Joey's bed time, Dan stayed to put him down and called his mom (who was only a few minutes away at a meeting and came straight over) to have her be in the house in case Joey woke up, then he would join me at the hospital. In the meantime, I drove myself over (again, no pain, just annoying BH which have only slowed down a little bit) and my mom met me over there (Dan called her too since I was driving) so I wouldn't have to be alone until he got there.

At 29 weeks, almost 30, I was far enough along that I didn't even have to mess with the ER beyond telling them what was wrong and how far along I was. They called straight up to the maternity floor and someone headed down with a wheelchair for me. Mom and I waited in the waiting room (and I took the opportunity to use the bathroom--which I asked if I could do first and they said yes) and noticed that a whole bunch of people were walking around with IVs started in their arms. They weren't hooked up to anything, mind you, they just had starter IVs for easy access. We joked that maybe Thursday night was "IV Night" like "Wing Night" or "Karaoke Night", come to the ER get your IV! The transporter came down with my wheelchair and we went up to Maternity. The transporter was nice and had kids herself so we were chatting about random baby stuff. I got to do everything paperwork-related on the maternity floor, register and check out (when the time came), so it was nice that everything was all in one place. I got taken to a triage room, which I'm not unfamiliar with as Sinai has them also and I had to sit in one for about an hour with Joey to make sure I was in active labor. Got the gown, put that on, then they wanted a urine sample, despite me telling them that the ER had let me go to the bathroom already.
"They know they're supposed to tell you to wait, but they let you go anyway."
Apparently I'm not the only one who has experienced this problem. I managed to give them enough for the tests they wanted to run and settled into the not-so-comfy bed to watch Pawn Stars (the only good thing on the few channels they had available). Sinai's triage room did not have a TV, so this was an improvement even if the bathroom was shared.

Eventually, after initial questions and putting monitors on, they let my mom come back. I had a monitor for the baby's heartbeat and a monitor for contractions. The baby's monitor was funny because he did not like having it on and we could hear every time he kicked it, the monitor made this funny "whoosh" sound! I was glad he was enjoying himself, it meant that we were both probably fine. The doctor finally came back to do an exam (I'd only seen my nurse up until then) and thankfully I was "long and tight" (can I get a "that's what she said!"??) which meant no labor and the BH contractions weren't even registering on the monitor. They had slowed way down at this point anyway, 10pm or so, it was like how your car makes a weird noise until you get it to the mechanic's shop then suddenly you have car that runs like it just came off the factory floor! The nurse encouraged me to keep drinking my water (I brought my Camelbak with me) and she even got me some ice to put in it. Dan arrived not long after that and you can only have 1 person in triage with you so my mom went home and I promised to let her know what was up. We watched another episode of Pawn Stars waiting for my test results to come back, because the doc was ready to let me go since everything else looked so good.

Finally the results came back completely fine except for a slight hint of bacteria which could be the start of a UTI. So the doc wrote me a script for some antibiotics to clear it up before it becomes a full blown UTI (which CAN trigger labor) and said that bacteria can sometimes cause instances of crazy BH like I had. All in all, we were home before 11pm but that was still super late for me since my bedtime has been around 9pm from back when I was pregnant with Joey and exhausted all the time! I still had to go to work the next day because several people in my office were out and several things would be greatly hindered by my absence (not to mention I only get two weeks PTO total, no maternity leave, so I'm trying to save that all up for baby). Thankfully, I had just applied for and gotten a special medical parking pass earlier in the week that they give to pregnant women in their third trimester (also for other medical reasons but I like this one!), so I stayed to sleep as long as I could, which was about an hour more than usual, then went in and worked like normal. Originally, Lyndsay and I had plans to hang out again (she's home until next Thursday and we hung out once last week already!) but with the lack of sleep, and Dan taking Joey to karate with him anyway, I went home and took a nice longggggg nap and rested as much as I could all weekend.

Now I'm officially 30 weeks and have less than two months until "full term" and just over two months until my EDD. I have no guesses as to when this baby's going to come. Joey was early I think mostly due to the cyst and just not having any room, supposedly first time babies are supposed to be late, but Dan was #2 and was late, although Joey measured a week ahead from the beginning and that's about when he arrived was a week early (8 days technically), so I don't know. There is definitely NOT a cyst in there this time and everything looks completely normal (the midwives would not have accepted me as a patient otherwise) and baby measures exactly on track so I haven't got a clue what to expect from him! I initially told work that I wanted to go until I went into labor, but now I'm thinking that I might want to work until right before my due date then take off and come back in January, which will give me enough time off no matter when the baby comes. That way, if he comes past his EDD then I get some time off beforehand and if he comes around then, I get more time in for cuddles. So we'll see, it's a bit fuzzy because I'm a contractor and they have to bring someone in to watch my spot while I'm gone, they may need hard dates or they may not.

Two Years of Posts!

Without realizing it until yesterday, when I was reading back through old posts, it's the 2-year anniversary of starting this blog! Holy cow! Obviously so much has happened in our lives since I started and I have to say the timing of the blog couldn't have been better. I found out less than a month after my first post that I was pregnant with Joey and it's pretty much been about documenting our lives since then--when I have time!

This year we went to Renn Fest on Labor Day because both Dan and I actually had off work. It was also the last weekend that Hack & Slash were going to be there and we wanted to make sure that we saw them! They weren't at Renn Fest last year and we ended up not really being super motivated to take a 4-month-old with us just for the food. Now that Joey's older and there was the option to see them, we braved the ominous forecast (it's been thunder-storming and raining all weekend) and hit up Revel Rove. It was hot and muggy, it felt like we were swimming around the festival rather than walking, but totally worth it. My plan was to buy Joey some Medieval Moccasins because a) they're cheaper than the adult shoes I've had my eye on for years but never had the extra $70-$80 for them and b) they are fantastic toddler shoes because they can be adjusted as the feet get bigger. Not to mention they can be worn with or without socks and are light and flexible, perfect for little toddler feet :) He currently wears a 5.5 in toddler so we picked out a cute pair of tan 6s and he wore them until we got in the car to leave!

 Lately, he's been trying to take his shoes off a lot, I think it's because his feet get too hot with socks and shoes. He didn't once try to take these off while we were there, even while he was being carried in the backpack and didn't need to be wearing shoes. The ladies at the shop loved that I had planned ahead and not put any shoes on Joey to begin with. As with most of the people at Renn Fest, they were super cool (and these in particular were even a little "crunchy"--they instantly recognized that Joey's necklace was amber for teething) and that stop by itself made the whole trip worth it. Of course I had another goal besides shoes for Joe and seeing Hack & Slash. Food. The last time I was at Renn Fest (two years ago) I tried the "Queen's Baked Potato" which had nacho cheese and sour cream on it. I loved it so much that I ended up getting a second one an hour or two later (hadn't found out I was pregnant at that point lol). This year I was determined to get that and the "Mac & Cheese on a Stick" (which is fried mac & cheese on a skewer) and funnel cake if I could find some. I got everything over the course of the few hours we were there, I was in preggo heaven :)

Dan tried some Alfredo from one of the stands next to the potato place and while it was bland for us, Joey really liked it. He was also big on feeding himself with utensils. Since he's been teething so hardcore, he hasn't had the same appetite he normally does and when he feeds himself, he's more excited about eating so we'll take it! Dan ended up with Alfredo all over his pants, but Joey ate, drank, and was merry afterwards so I like to think it was worth it. Sorry Dan ;)

I was smart and instead of our normal messenger-style diaper bag, I packed a regular backpack (not to be confused with the child-carrying backpack that Joey rode in on Dan's back). With the new office job, my faithful Eddie Bauer backpack doesn't get as much use as before, so I was glad to pull it out again. It's also purple which is awesome. I lugged around extra water for us and Joey, normal diaper bag stuff (change of clothes, diapers, wipes, etc.), and my lunch cooler with multiple ice packs to keep extra milk and cheese cool for Joey. It was still cool long after we got home, I didn't have to put anything back in the fridge, Joey took care of most of it for dinner! It did finally start raining while we were watching Hack & Slash, but their show was almost over anyway. Joey was not a fan of the shows (probably because none of them contained an animated monkey named "George") so Dan and I had to take turns watching him while he ran around outside of the theaters. Thankfully Dan had him when it started to rain because when I had him, my phone and backpack were left with Dan and his parents in my seat. Dan had his phone in his pocket so after the show ended (and we were all wearing ponchos or carrying umbrellas) we set off to find Dan and Joey under the cover of one of the nearby taverns. Apparently they had wandered over there because Joey heard bagpipes playing and started dancing! After we all got back together we headed out (Dan's family stayed) because between Joey being hot and tired, and me being hot and tired, it was definitely time to go.

Joey napped both on the way to Renn Fest and on the way back which was awesome. I still had cash left for food so we grabbed some Chik-fil-a on our way home, to make the drive longer and because we were hungry. Sadly we couldn't unload the car while Joey was still sleeping, it's like he's programmed to wake up no matter how softly we attempt to close the car doors. The rest of the evening was spent in air conditioned comfort. For a while, Joey and Dan even played in the living room and gave me time to play around with my new-to-me, hand-me-down serger from his mom. I've used a serger all of one time in high school so I needed a refresher on everything! Threading the thing is a little intimidating, but not too bad because they realized it was intimidating and color-coded everything and that helped out a lot. My first few attempts on scrap fabric were miserable. First I pulled too hard on the fabric trying to turn it (circular piece) and one of the needles came loose and fell down. So after I spent tons of time cleaning and re-threading the machine, I had to almost start over. THEN once I got that fixed, I forgot to put the pressure foot back down on the fabric and started a huge tangle of thread because while the fabric was moving, the thread wasn't going into the fabric! After those issues, I finally got my act together and had a few more practice runs that were much better. I'm really looking forward to learning how to use it and what it can do :)

All in all, it was a pretty great day! Now on to a 4-day workweek thanks for the 3-day weekend :)

Temper Tantrum Nuggets

I used 2 chicken breasts that I defrosted and had more than enough sauce/breadcrumbs. Modified from Cooks.com.


Chicken:

• Milk bath - I ran out of eggs, but you can also do an egg wash, I found water + frozen chicken does not make the breading adhere very well.
• Equal parts flour and plain breadcrumbs - I used 1/4cup each.
• I forgot to season the chicken first, but salt/pepper are awesome
• Veggie oil for frying - or whatever you have in the house

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cooking sherry
• 1 tbsp. garlic - I had minced in the fridge
• 1 tbsp. or so honey - I would have used ginger but I didn't have any

Prep:

• I cut my chicken into bite-sized nuggets after defrosting.
• Pre-heat oven to 325
• Heat oil on stove
• Line a cookie sheet or baking pan with foil
• Combine sauce ingredients in large bowl, set aside

Directions:
Dunk chicken pieces in milk bath then move to breadcrumb/four mixture. Once evenly coated, move chicken to either plate with paper towel (minimizes mess) or directly to hot oil. I had a bowl ready for when chicken finished in oil. I used a spoon to put the chicken into the oil so I wouldn't get as much splatter. Using a long-handled utensil (I had a wooden spoon handy but metal is probably better), move around the chicken pieces as they fry in the oil. Once they reach your desired level of browned, transfer them from the oil to the bowl or plate you've set aside. Repeat until you've done all your chicken. Note: a few pieces at a time makes it easier when it's time to remove chicken, you'll have less burned pieces, they also are less likely to stick together.

Once you are finished frying your chicken, drop a few pieces at a time into your sauce mixture and let them soak for a minute or so. Then, move them to your baking pan. I drizzled a little bit of sauce over pieces once they were all in the pan, but not too much so they wouldn't get soggy in the oven. Place baking pan in oven for 20-25 minutes (go closer to 25, I did 20 and while they were good I would have preferred a bit more crisp on the outside). While the chicken is in the oven you have the option of reducing your Asian sauce on the stove, I did this to make a dipping sauce and it was yummy :) The flavor was strong though, just be aware that this is what reduction does to sauces.

When chicken is finished plate and enjoy!



P.S. I named them "Temper Tantrum Nuggets" because Joey had a tantrum when I left him in the living room with Daddy to make these lol.

Appointments

Here is what my pre-natal appointments look like with the midwives (hereafter I will type MWs):

Appointments so far:

5 weeks – I took my tour, made my first appointment

10 weeks – 1st appointment, 1^st u/s

16 weeks – 2^nd appointment, blood work, 2^nd u/s

22 weeks – 3^rd appointment, first heard heartbeat (due to tipped uterus), 3^rd u/s

28 weeks – 4^th appointment, glucose tolerance (that was this week!)

The upcoming schedule looks something like this...

31 weeks – 5^th appointment

34 weeks – 6^th appointment

36-37 weeks – 7^th appointment

38 weeks – 8^th appointment

39 weeks – 9^th appointment

40 weeks – 10^th appointment

I like this schedule a lot better than with the OB. I'll technically have the same number of appointments, give or take, but they're spaced out more so it feels like I'm going less. The appointment yesterday went well. Blood pressure is good, baby's heart rate was good, I had a higher weight gain between last appointment and this one than between any of the others, but I'm still only 4lbs over my pre-pregnancy-with-Joey weight so I'm happy. I also haven't had any issues with swelling yet, but I don't want to jinx myself while it's still warm out ;) Belly measured 31 weeks but baby is also currently breech and that can have an affect on how I measure. I talked to the MWs about baby being breech, since I'm almost 30 weeks and running out of space for flips. They're not too concerned at this point, there is still plenty of time and space for baby to flip. If it starts getting down to the wire, there are several options for us to try before transferring my care to an OB (which would only happen if baby is breech at the end). My ultimate goal is a healthy baby, obviously. My second ultimate goal is not having a c-section. Depending on how the baby is sitting, I may be able to find an OB who will do a regular delivery with a breech baby (baby needs to be butt-first, not feet-first), so we'll see what happens. Still praying that baby flips and stays head-down though, because I want to stay with the MWs and deliver at the birth center.

In Joey news, he's totally a toddler. He's saying lots of words and getting good at mimicking things we do. He's also currently cutting 3 teeth at once! Sleep is intermittent, though the last couple of nights since the teeth finally popped through have been somewhat better. Mac 'n cheese is a current favorite food and Joey really likes trying to feed himself with a fork/spoon like a big boy :) He loves watching Curious George and Blue's Clues on Netflix. I often resort to those after work when I need to get things done around the house, usually works pretty well. He walks and runs everywhere, and if we're in a store he enjoys pulling things off shelves. We don't let him walk around places where he can grab stuff too much right now, though I did let him go where he wanted in BJ's and he mostly stayed in one aisle and ran from one toy to another looking at them. He didn't seem to care for the big open aisles, but preferred the smaller ones where there weren't any people.

It's only Tuesday

Dirt was the biggest hit while playing at the park. Even more so than the swings.

Supposedly amber necklaces help with teething (oils absorbing through the skin are anti-inflammatory?), even if it does nothing, he's pretty adorable wearing it!

Other favorite park activity: attempting to climb up the slide...

Emma

I'm happy to announce the newest member of our family, Emma! She is a basset hound/cattle dog mix and we rescued her from the pound last week. I told Dan about two weeks ago that we could go "look" at the dogs in Animal Control's kennel one day after I got off work. Last Wednesday worked out the best between Dan's hours and when AC would still be open in the evening. We had looked at their website to see the dogs who were available for adoption and had one or two picked out that we would want to "meet" when we got there. Joey came with us, of course, and would be the determining factor in any dog that may or may not come home with us. Any dog we looked at, Joey had to like and it had to like Joey, plain and simple. We walked around and checked out all the dogs, some are waiting for their owners to pick them up, others were brought in as strays, some were even given up by their owners. The first dog we wanted to look at was definitely a stray and had been for some time, he was skinny and very timid. We "met" him in one of their little side rooms but Joey was afraid of him (despite the dog not doing anything remotely close to aggressive) and I was uneasy about a stray anyway. While we had been walking around, we came across Emma who was friendly and not at all barking. With little ones who take naps, no barking is very important to me. We asked about her and found out that she had been a stray but was still in her "waiting to see if the owner claims her" period. If nobody claimed her, she would be available to take home Saturday and we could put in the paperwork if we wanted so that someone else couldn't adopt her while we waited.

Checking out the hamsters.

We met with her in the room and Joey instantly loved her. He kept wanting to get on the floor and play (um, ew) and she kept licking his hands and face and didn't mind when he was not quite gentle with her tail. We were sold, this was our dog. We filled out the paperwork, paid the fees, and were told that she would have to come back Tuesday to be spayed. No problem, I do not want puppies! We liked that because it also gave us the weekend as a trial period to see how she and Joey did living in close quarters and for us to get an idea of her personality. In the couple of days before picking her up, we stopped at PetSmart to get what we would need when we brought her home, Joey likes PetSmart :)

Bringing her home on Saturday was interesting. There was just as much novelty in being in a new house with new people for her as there was for Joey having a dog in his house. To this point, he's only gone to people's houses to see dogs, there's never been one in HIS house, so this was exciting, especially because he liked this dog a lot. It was rough for me because Dan had plans with a friend that afternoon and left me for several hours with these two crazy toddlers (Emma's age is estimated to be around a year old) and keep them from hurting each other. Emma liked to play bite, a lot, and didn't discriminate against small humans either. She was a little more gentle with Joey, but not much, and she saw him as something to herd, not as a member of the pack. Dan and I had a long talk Saturday night about whether we could keep her or not. I'm not opposed to training at all, I just didn't want to lose a lot of money and bond with a dog just to give her up when I'm too pregnant and tired to deal with keeping her and Joey off each other.

Sunday Dan started working with Emma to see how she would respond to training. She still hasn't quite mastered "sit", but has responded to the spray bottle, she hates it! Play biting has significantly diminished from that first day and since she showed signs of not inheriting basset hound stubbornness, we decided to keep her! After her surgery to be spayed on Tuesday, she's also mellowed out a bit, although part of that could also be due to getting used to living with us and being in a routine. Either way, I will take a slightly more mellow dog. She's still got crazy energy and loves to take walks, but she's not running around the house like she was before. Emma is absolutely the perfect size, energy level, and personality for our family. We found out that when she was found she was wearing a collar, so at some point she lived with a person or people. It was clear from the play biting and general lack of some "doggie manners" that they didn't attempt much training with her besides housebreaking her. Even the timid stray we didn't like knew the "sit" command.

I think some of her initial wild behavior had to do with her previous "pack" not establishing who was alpha. Dogs who are not alpha personalities do much better when you establish your dominance, because then they don't have to worry about trying to be something they're not. I have a feeling that's also part of why Emma has mellowed out, she's more relaxed because she knows we're running the pack so she doesn't have to. Dan's mom suggested the possibility that maybe Emma didn't escape from her home, she was set loose. It's a possibility, she was found in an area with a lot of people, so they could have abandoned her rather than turn her over. She is such a pretty dog, and really very sweet, I think the lack of training shows inexperience but she was well fed and well groomed, she was clearly cared for by her previous owners.

And in other news...

I had my 20ish week ultrasound and checkup. The ultrasound happened at 21 weeks and checkup at 22. Baby was perfect at both! Dan didn't get to come to the ultrasound because he was watching our friend's baby that day also, but it's ok because I'm going back for another in a couple of weeks and hopefully he can come to that one. The tech got lots of great shots, this is one of my favorites, Baby is looking at us :) This baby is measuring spot on in both ultrasound and my tummy measurements, Joey was at least a week ahead pretty much the whole time. So my early prediction is that this one will come around his estimated due date. I finally got to see another midwife, through crazy events and busy days, I've seen the same one 3 times in a row now, and they want us to see everyone so nobody's a stranger. I like both of the ones I've seen now, and the new MW even knew about SPD and suggestions to help with the pain. I definitely had it last time with Joey and my doctor shrugged it off as part of the aches and pains of being pregnant. The MW recommended a chiropractor and I'll be calling them to see if they take our insurance, I really hope they do. In the meantime, a pregnancy belt should help, or anything that compresses the tops of my hips and keeps the weight of my belly up and off the front of my pelvis.

Another thing I like about going to the midwives is right now I'm going back every 6 weeks instead of every 4. I'm not sure how long this will last, but the longer span of time between appointments is a nice break, especially since I know that I'll be there more often towards the end. I did have to schedule my glucose testing for next time though, hopefully I'll pass just fine and not need to do the 3hr test again. I don't have problems with the drink at all, and even though I took my knitting and iPod with me, sitting in the same uncomfy chair on a Saturday for almost 4 hours was not my idea of a good time. If there were some recliners and a TV (and my knitting) I'd be all set, since it requires sitting in a waiting room with strangers who give you dirty looks when you just get up and go back without being called (which you're told to do because you're on a clock but they don't know that), it's not so great. Plus the fasting really, really sucks.

It's almost midnight now, which is the latest I've been up in a while. The only reason I've managed it is because Dan and Joey let me take a nap earlier (I wasn't feeling good, the nap helped a bit), and it's the only reason I allowed myself to stay up too. Normally I'm in bed and asleep by 10ish, but I haven't made too much progress on a big knitting project and I wanted to at least do SOMETHING. I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked during the time that Joey's been in bed, but that's my own fault for bringing my laptop. I wanted to start watching Dr. Who, but my hard drive needs to be cleaned out because now everything is running slow, so I ended up distracted on Facebook and catching up on blogs and random other things. Tomorrow we're visiting friends who live 45min away, I'll get knitting done in the car going to and from ;)