Children say the funniest things! What I am going to start doing is jotting down the funny things N says throughout the week and post them on Fridays. So, for this week, N has said the following:
D and I were having a "current events" conversation about the recent release of the Lockerbie bomber from prison on "compassionate grounds." We were talking about how he should not have been let go because of the terrible crime he committed. I said something along the lines that releasing the L.B. from his life sentence sets a "precedent" for future releases of prisoners. N was sitting there while we were talking and interjected with "President Obama??" He picked up on the word precedent thinking I said president..D and I were both stunned that he used the word President with the correct/current President's name. Aunt M would be proud!!
D and N were drawing with chalk in the driveway the other day. D was spelling out N's name aloud while writing it on the ground. D wrote and spoke the first two letters of N's name and w/o hesitation, N said the remaining letters.
A friend and her children came over the other day to bring us a meal..Thanks again, J! The Chili Mac was delicious!..They hung out with us for a little bit. My friend's little girl's name is Maddie. N invited Maddie and the rest of the crew to play downstairs. We all headed to the basement to play and as we were walking down the steps N said, "Maddie, you look SOO GOOD!" J and I laughed hysterically. I'm not sure if N meant exactly what he said (Maddie did look very cute, as usual) or if he meant "It's so good to see you." In any case, it gave us a good laugh!
I had another doctor's appointment today. Everything is going well! The baby's heart rate is really good and he's very active. As I said in the previous post, the number of contractions I am having has drastically reduced. The doctor wants me to continue bed rest as it is working really well. She said she doesn't need me to come into the office for two weeks (unless I need to before then)!! That's great news! Making it past the 34 week mark is a big milestone because the baby's lungs and liver are developed far enough that, if he is born early, he is more likely to respond to treatment. I have actually lost 4 pounds since I was in the hospital. Weird, I know! I was afraid I'd pack on weight laying around all day, but apparently I'm not. The doctor said to add more carbs to my diet. She'd like the baby to gain a little more weight in the next couple weeks. So basically my job now is to lay around and eat! Great! Never thought I'd have a doctor tell me that. :) The theme song at our house right now is"Eat it" byWeird al Yankovic. I say that because N is being a bit of a picky eater (or he's easily distracted at meal times) and the doctor just told me to eat more. Therefore, D found the "Eat It" music video on Youtube and played it during dinner tonight. N responded to it very well! D and I are finding that you've got to have a sense of humor to make it through bed rest. It just makes things easier.
I have recently made a few online purchases. Man, is it easy to shop online! Maybe too easy. I'm excited to receive the packages in the mail, so I check the front porch a couple times a day to see if they have arrived.....Side note... Our package carriers (UPS, FED EX, US Postal Service) all used to ring the doorbell every time they left a package on our door step. It never failed that one of these package carriers would make a delivery during nap time. And, as every stay at home mom knows...Nap time is so precious! It's the time we get things done or take a nap ourselves. So whenever the doorbell rang I would jump to answer it in both excitement and frustration. I was excited to receive my package, but frustrated at the thought that the mail person woke my sleeping toddler. So, for quite some time I hung a homemade laminated (therefore weather proof) sign on the front door reading "Child sleeping, please knock" in hopes that my orders would be left quietly at my door. Well, it worked! I have all my delivery personnel "trained." Ha! They no longer ring the doorbell and if they need me to sign for a package, they knock. Great!!....Anyway, this is why I don't hear a box being left at my house even though I'm home....
Well, as I preparing to go upstairs to get a few things done this morning, I checked the front door to make sure it was locked and I peeked out the window to look for any potential packages. And there was one! Yay! Could it be the diaper bag I ordered or the books I bought?? No, it's addressed to both D and I and it's from 'Old Time Candy Company." Hmmm... This sounds yummy! I lifted it to take it inside and realized it's a bit weightier than I anticipated. I check the mailing information and it says it's slightly over five pounds. Wow, five pound of candy??? Could it be? I debated about waiting until D gets home from work to open it...for like 10 seconds, then I got the scissors out and tore into it. My reasoning? My toddler was a little on the difficult side this morning. I deserve to open this package! After scooping out the packing peanuts and removing the bag-o-candy from the box I find the note inside. It's from my sister and her hubby (who live overseas). She says" I hope this candy brings back good memories of the pool, walking home from school, football and basketball games and trips to our local caramel corn store. Your friends might like to try their old favorites again, too." So sweet! My sister and her hubby recently left for an extended trip "down under" in Australia. She emailed me as she was packing and said part of her wished she was packing to come to my house to hang out with me and to help me out while I'm on bed rest...That was very thoughtful and sweet of her, but I said.. No! You go on your trip, savor every moment and send me pictures. You would be far too bored laying around with me. :) As I look at the packing list spelling out each candy sent I do have memories linked to some of them....and I figuratively "have my name on a few" that I for sure want to eat!! (Thanks, sis! What a fun gift idea! I'll share them with my friends.)
Bottle Caps: My twin sister loves these Charleston Chews: Snack time at the pool every summer Combos: D and I had a roommate who ate Combos and a Mt Dew for BREAKFAST every morning! Yuck! Cow Tales: The Dairy Barn in our home town Mr. Goodbar: Mom and I always called dibs on Mr. Good bars when we bought those bags of assorted miniature sized candy bars. Pez Dispenser: N will love this... We'll use this for potty training. Teaberry Gum: My Grandma loved this gum. My mom searched to the ends of the earth for this gum every year at Christmas to put it in Grandma's stocking. Zero: Another favorite pool snack Whatchamacallit: A candy bar I'd buy walking home from school sometimes. This one definitely has my name on it!!
The only candy bar I would say is missing is a PB Max. Remember those? Aaah, man those were so good! They had a cookie bottom, peanut butter middle and were covered in chocolate. Delish!!! What candy memories do you have? Fun thing to think about, isn't it.
I added the coffee cup to the picture to give you an idea of how big this bag of candy is.
This package of sweets comes on a day that I'd like to celebrate. Today we've made it through 34 weeks of pregnancy. Yay! I'd like to celebrate the fact that, while bed rest has it's pros and cons, it is working. I have gone from having 20-30 contractions per day (that's one contraction every 20-30 minutes) to having 5-10 contractions per day. I'm grateful that we've been able to reduce the amount of contractions w/o meds thus far.
N is catching onto the fact that Mommy is on bed rest. He is enjoying the fact that he has my undivided attention. So, what do we do all day you ask?? We watch a little tv. I don't want either of us to consume too much, so I try to limit it to the times when I'm really tired and need to lay down. The first 30 minutes or so of TV are entertaining and stimulating, but anything after one to two hours just turns my brain to mush. I turn into what I call a "Zombie Jiggle Brain." N gets cranky and sassy and is hard to deal with. I compare it to eating too much junk food. The first few bites taste so good that you could keep eating and eating it, but after a while you just feel sick and yucky from it. So, I am trying to be creative with what he and I do all day.
We have been playing with the Pop Beads that a friend brought over as a gift to N (thanks again, K. N loves them). I think Pop Beads are marketed towards girls, but they are a great toy for boys because you can build things (mostly jewelry) with them and take them apart. They're also fun to scoop up with a toy excavator or bulldozer. I've honestly had fun making several necklaces myself. I put them on and N says "Beautiful, Mom."
We pulled the hide-a-bed out in the family room. I lay on that while N plays. We play catch. N stands up and throws or rolls the ball to me while I'm laying down and I throw it back to him. We moved the basketball hoop next to the couch. We have two baskets that are next to the hoop. One is full of balls. I give the full basket to N. I place the empty basket under the hoop. N shoots hoops and most of the balls end up in the empty basket. When N's gone through all the balls in the full basket, we switch the baskets and play a new game.
N brings cars, trucks, monster trucks and other toys to the hide-a-bed for me to play with. We read books and sing songs. N plays "obstacle course" on stacks of cushions and blankets. The other day while he was playing obstacle course he asked me to jump with him. I told him "Mommy can't jump right now because my belly hurts, but I will be able to jump with you after the baby's born." He seems to understand that explanation. Now we have numerous conversations each day about what we're going to do "when the baby's born." Today at lunch N decided that I would be able to do all of the following activities with him after the baby's born... Play steam roller (I roll over and over on the ground log style and pretend I'm going to roll over him), go swimming and play in the fountains at the pool, jump, go for walks, go down the slide at the park and ride four wheelers...oh, and play the banjo..Ha! The four wheeler one is the most funny to me because the weight limit on our four wheeler is like 40 pounds! I think he just misses riding his four wheeler with me walking next to him because if I walk next to him while he drives then he gets to drive farther from the house...
I have my own list of things I'm excited to do "when the baby's born." Some will require a little healing time, but some I hope to do shortly after this birth. I look forward to simply being able to do everything I used to do on a daily basis such as driving, going up and down the steps when I please, lifting things and chores (never thought I'd say that!). I'm also looking forward to cooking. I've discovered that there's not much on the TV or the radio in the afternoons. That's when I do some work on the computer. I have turned on the Food Network channel a few times for background noise. As I listen to the cooking shows I've found myself thinking "Oh, that recipe sounds good, I'll make that next week...Uuuh..never mind. I'm not allowed to cook." I suppose I could print those recipes and stash them away for future reference.
Another thing I'm looking forward to is exercising. I know I have to allow myself time to heal and some time to get into a routine since I'll have two kiddos to juggle, but I'm really looking forward to at least going for walks. I've had several dreams about jogging, some about taking aerobics classes and one about playing hockey! I know! I've never played hockey, so I'm not sure where that came from, but it sure was fun in my dream.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying all the time I'm getting to spend with N. Once the baby's born we will get to do fun things mentioned above, but I won't have the undivided time to devote to N like I do now so I'm savoring it the best I can.
In the meantime, I know I need to rest so this baby can have as much time as possible in the womb to grow to it's fullest, healthiest potential. I'd rather be the one on bed rest, taking medications, going to the doctor and enduring any pain (which I don't really have much pain) than have my child go through it. I keep thinking that each day that I take it easy could be one more day that the baby has to grow inside of me and one less day he might have to spend at the hospital, if any.
My last post regarding pregnancy I talked about a few of my favorite things on July 28th. I didn’t actually give any updates on my pregnancy, but I will now. Several things have changed since then. For one thing, August has FLOWN by!! Can you believe it? I keep double checking myself when I write or say the date because I just cannot believe we are more than half way through August…Wow!Another change is that I am on bed rest.. Yes, that’s right. You read it right. I have been ordered to full on, hard core bed rest. No driving (except to my doctor’s appointments), no cooking, no cleaning, no swimming, nothing! I have bathroom and showering privileges and that’s about it…Well, except for the fact that I am a stay home at mom to a very energetic toddler who also needs to potty, eat and play. I've seen the writing on the wall for this for quite some time. I’ve been having contractions since about June, so fortunately I've gotten the bulk of the preparations done for the baby's arrival.
My doctor put me on bed rest Friday afternoon. She told me my guideline for calling her or going to the hospital in regards to contractions was 4 intense or 6 less intense contractions in one hour. Sunday night I had five contractions in a matter of one hour and fifteen minutes. Some of the contractions were intense, some were mild... I was really tired as these took place between 10:45 pm and 12:15am. I told D what was going on and I said if I have one more contraction I will call my doctor and/or head the hospital... Well, the contractions must have subsided because I fell asleep. I called my doctor about it in the morning. She checked me at her office then sent me straight to the hospital because I am dilated and thinning (I’ll spare you too many ghoury details)... The short story is that I stayed in the hospital overnight for observation and for steroid injections that will accelerate the rate at which the baby's lungs develop. The doctors think that if I am diligent and very mindful about being on bed rest we can milk things along and get four more weeks out of this pregnancy. At this point they believe the baby will be born around 37 weeks. If I have any more "episodes" similar to Sunday night in which I have 4-6 contractions in one hour, I could potentially return to the hospital for observation and more meds....We'll see.
In the meantime, D and I are adjusting to this new “lifestyle.” D has been great to do the bulk of the housework, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. We have lots of friends and family offering to help out by making meals, watching N, grocery shopping, taking N to school and on and on. We are actually taking people up on as many offers as we can because we need the help. As I was telling D last night…being on bed rest for what could be four weeks is like being in a marathon. I told him that we need to take people up on their offers so we…or mainly he doesn’t get worn out by trying to everything on our own.We’ve already had friends bring us meals, one friend went to Kmart for me and brought in our garbage cans while she was here today. It’s so amazing what people are willing to do to help out. We are soooo grateful to everyone for your concerns and your help!! We’ll keep you posted!
I have a friend (K) who is getting her start in the photography business. She has been taking pictures for a few months of friends and family and now things are really taking off for her. She does a great job of working with her clients and she has an eye for capturing the moment. She did N's three year pictures and I was so pleased with them I had her take some pregnancy pictures. D and I think this will be our last baby, so this will be my last time through pregnancy. I didn't get any professional pictures last time I was pregnant, but wanted to be sure to get some this time and I am so glad I did! Here are a few photos below. These are the "sneak peak" photos K sent. The rest of them are being processed. K said there are lots of really good ones. I can't wait to see them all. K took great pictures of me wearing a wrap around my chest and capris on bottom. These are pictures of my exposed belly. The ones I have seen so far are really cute, but I'm not about to put them online!! I will cherish those in the privacy of my own home. Ha!!
Below are a few pictures of the people running (in the rain) through our town to raise money for St. Jude today. Good job, guys! My friend and her husband are running the race this year and she just had a baby in April. What an inspiration! If she can do this run approximately three months after having a baby, I should be able to do it next year when our baby will be about ten months old. That should be plenty of time for me to recover, train and raise money, right? No excuses. :)
The route runs one block up from our house and I almost missed it. If you look really closely, you will see my friend Lisa waving. Go L!! I actually almost forgot about the run because I was working on a few things at home. Then D came inside and said he heard the police sirens escorting the runners by our house. I tried to catch up to them and get their picture near our house but my preggie self could not move fast enough to get a good picture of them, so I loaded up in the car and met the runners a couple miles from our house.
If I'm reading the map correctly I was sitting at about the three and a half mile mark when I took the pictures below.
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