Cael

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Go!

2012-01-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

Cael is a Chatterbox

2012-01-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Cael's new thing is to chat on the 'phone' to all my friends and our family. His first call was to my friend Nadia, and all the Aunts, Uncles, Grammas & Grampas & Jazzy's followed suit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IBy6dErK1Y&feature=youtu.be

Monkeys Don't Like Carrots

2011-07-02T22:47:00.000-06:00

Squish has finally started eating again. He'll eat his chicken, salmon or beef, but he still doesn't really like vegg. He does ok with carrots, but would still prefer not to eat them. He totally gags and pukes with stuff like broccoli. He does love to eat the crispy leaves from roasted brussels sprouts, he calls them 'bacon'.

For lunch this afternoon, Alex made him some ground beef with cheese and some carrots. Usually Cael will eat the carrots with a pout and occasionally a fuss and sometimes even happily, but this time was different.

Al and I were in our room talking about something or other and Cael was at the table eating his lunch. He was unusually quiet for a long time, but I didn't even give it more than a brief, (thankful) thought. He finally came into our room and said, 'Hai! Mamma', so I cleaned him up, changed the diaper and put him down for a nap.

I went into the kitchen to wash my hands and saw all these carrots in the sink. I thought, 'Hm, are those carrots from the other day?' It took me a minute to realize that Cael was quiet for so long because he was busy walking back and forth from the table putting all his carrots in the sink!

Alex was so mad!! and I was just laughing my ass off, he was so sneaky!!

Good Times

2011-06-12T20:00:00.000-06:00

Well, we got robbed on June 1st, Alex's birthday sometime between 8am and 12pm. I came home to find that my jewelry box with all of Grandma's jewelry gone, our camera, about $10 in change from a bowl, my knitting bag (presumably to put all the loose change in) and Alex's laundry basket with most of his underwear and shirts to carry all the loot away in. Lame. Our lease was up May 31st and we're now on a month to month basis. Considering the psychotic neighbors and the break in, as soon as we can save up some moolah we're outta here. That's what we get for living in an 'interesting' neighborhood.

We took Squishy to the zoo today. He was diggin' it. He fed the giraffes some giraffe crackers (after he took a few nibbles himself) and pat them on the nose. He got tired about half way through and got a bit cranky. Add that to the battle of wills we're having about food (he's on a hunger strike), so that was fun. He was pretty good though, just a lot of, 'No' and 'Stop'. Hahahaha, like we're gonna.

Cael loves daycare, but cries like crazy when I drop him off. In fact, he starts whining as soon as I turn down a particular street, 4 blocks away. He forgets about me as soon as I drive away, but I just hate to see those little tears roll down his cheeks. It sucks. But, he has a lot of fun in their playground with the other kids, he always comes home covered in dirt *sigh*. Mom says boys collect dirt, so I guess that's what I've got: a dirt magnet. You should see the ring around the tub after bath time.

Joe's back living here in CS now. I got him a job doing IT stuff with our IT gal at Santoscoy Food Group and he starts Monday. It's good to have him in the same city, it's been about 4/5 years since he lived here last, right around the time I first moved here. Cael loves Uncle Joe and has a good time when he's around. :) Yay Uncle Joe!

Cael's a Chatterbox

2011-05-30T08:00:00.001-06:00

Cael just loves to talk! There's still quite a lot he says that I have no idea what the heck it is. He's talking in small sentences now. He tells himself 'Stop it!' when he fusses and knows we're going to tell him the same thing. For some reason it feels like my heart breaks a little bit every time (Al thinks I'm silly) he says that to himself. I've got this fear that he's psychologically damaged. Hahaha, I think I've read just enough psych books to make me paranoid. His new word is 'table cock' which is table cloth. He loves to talk about the vacuum and the folding stool we have in the closet. He gets excited whenever I open the closet door as both are stored there. One of his favorite subjects is food. Cake-cakes, strawberries, salmon cakes, pickles, apples and yogurt. Mmmmm.

Cael got his head shaved again on Saturday. Al says he's a very good boy when he gets his hair cut. He's still a bit nervous by the sound of the clippers, but Al talks to him and reassures him and Cael will babble nervously about 'hayurcuts'

Alex taught him to swing on the 'big boy' swing and Cael's got a death grip on it. We went to the park yesterday after I got home from work and they showed me. The only problem: you have to push him since he still hasn't got that he needs to swing his legs and body to go on his own. Also, he NEVER wants to get down. NEVER. You have to bribe him.

Cael is still adjusting to me working full time. When I come home on Al's days off or pick him up at daycare he gets really whiny. It's frustrating after a long day and I do want to hang out with him, but it's off putting. I'm trying to find the balance of not encouraging the whining behavior, but letting him know that I want to be with him and I missed him too.

For those not frequenting facebook, I'm the Executive Assistant for Santoscoy Food Group, LLC, which makes Dos Pistolas Salsa. I was hired as an Event Rep and was promoted within one week to do Purchasing, but on my first training day for purchasing I was promoted to Executive Assistant. A much better spot I think. :) Right now I'm helping them get organized and streamline every aspect of their operations. There are two other women I work with helping with that too. We'll also do most of the hiring as well. I'm really happy I have this job, it feels good to work with people who recognize my talents and my potential! Here are a few links if you'd like to know more about the company.

Travis' (my boss) Bloomberg Interview and Channel 5 news

Inspired by Dr. Frankenstein

2011-05-25T08:56:00.000-06:00

I've been inspired by Dr. Frankenstein (pronounced Frank-en-shteen) to give life to this dead blog.

Monkey Update:

Cael will be 3 on Sept. 7. He loves to eat salmon cakes fried in coconut oil, plain, full-fat greek yogurt, cake-cakes (my flour-less pancakes) and ice cream (pronounced eyeth-cweam) which we rarely give him, but he still talks about it all the time. Oh, he's also crazy about berries and apples.

He likes to watch Shaun the Sheep. He has excellent taste, I love that show and we have the first season on Netflix play it now. I have all the episodes memorized, but it's still funny.

It turns out they have a website too! http://www.shaunthesheep.com/

I started a new (potentially awesome) job last Monday which means that Cael started daycare. I really like the place we take him to, my company has a discount deal with them too! Monkey gets upset when I leave, but he has a great time and forgets about me in 2 minutes. They have an awesome playground out back and tons of toys. He's doing a lot better when interacting with other kids. For a while there he would really freak out when another kid came anywhere near him and that all started last year when I was working part time in a crap job and was taking him to a babysitter. She was a nice lady, but I think she just let all the kids she was 'watching' run wild in the basement and Squishy probably got bullied by some of the older kids. Anyway, it's all good now.

Cael is just getting over being sick. Too bad I didn't catch it sooner, he had a runny nose this past week and I thought it was spring allergies so I didn't give him any echinacea. By Saturday evening he had a fever which didn't break until this morning. It was my first fever so I was nervous, but it never got over 102.5 F. I gave him some homeopathic remedies and tricked him into having elderberry juice when I mixed it with coconut milk ice cream. He's still got a runny nose and he hates it! He whines and whines and whines, freaks out when I wipe it, then whines for 10 minutes after that.

Right now he's in the bathtub, a favorite past time, but he's whining right now so I'm assuming his nose is starting to run again. Yay. Now I get to wipe his nose and clean his ears, another freak out moment.

Ireland Photo Album

2009-09-18T20:12:00.002-06:00

Ok, for some reason I can't get my photo album of Ireland to show up on my blog. I get someone else's trip to ireland. Weird. Anyway, here's the link. Let me know if it works or not. Picasa is all screwy right now. I do have lots of tid bits of info for most of the pics. I hope you read them and enjoy some of the history.

Trip to Ireland

2009-09-18T13:47:00.006-06:00

Our trip to Ireland was great fun. Cael did really well considering all the flying we did. His crying and fussing was limited to about a half hour on the last leg of each flight due to being over tired. Poor thing, it was a bit rough on him, but he did have a lot of fun flirting with all the airline attendants and all the passengers. The first leg of our flight was to Chicago. That airport is a total zoo, and trying to find the stupid train to get to the international terminal was almost impossible. You had to squeeze in between security and some sort of display to find the elevators then take the elevator down to another floor, cross over and take another elevator back up to another part of the terminal, then take a bunch of stairs to get to the train platform. There were no signs either. We just had to keep asking, I think we asked about 10 different employees, each time getting just a little closer to where we were trying to go. *lol* It was a serious pain, not to mention, our tickets had one flight time and the monitors had another. Did I mention, the monitors didn't even indicate which terminal we were supposed to go to? Ack!!!!

We left on August 26th and arrived in Dublin about 8:30am the next day. Alex's parents live in the small village of Maynooth, which is about an hour west of Dublin.

All I remember from the first day is Sue taking us to Geraldine castle, which is right in town and every one just calls it Maynooth castle. I didn't get any pics of it; I wasn't expecting to see any castles and left my camera at the house! You can get a good look at it here.

The second day we went to Trim Castle built in the late 1100's by Hugh de Lacy to keep the Irish in line. You can find a bit of history on this castle here, and you can view my photos on the right hand side of the blog, just click on a photo and it will take you to my Ireland album. There are probably 20 million pictures of the same thing, but I'm a special kind of nerd.

When I figure out what I did with my travel journal I'll write about the rest of the trip and post more pics. Don't worry folks, I went a little crazy with Trim Castle, but it's not so bad with the other places I visited!

Cael's Birthday

2009-09-15T16:59:00.004-06:00

Well, Cael's first birthday fell on Labor Day this year. I made him a healthy banana bread with the yummiest chocolate frosting ever! He was still recovering from the trip to Ireland so he passed out early and didn't get to try his cake until Wednesday morning after breakfast. *lol* He usually doesn't like to feed himself, but in this instance he had no complaints! Here are a few pictures of squishy's first piece of cake and a picture of the mobile Julie made him.

Squishy Updates

2009-07-19T10:10:00.003-06:00

Why is it that I feel so busy, yet I never manage to get anything done? I have this insanely long To Do list and I can barely manage to get one thing done a day. Ahhhggghh!!! Hmm…..I think the reason is small, fat, drooling and sometimes smells like poop.

It's tough trying to find the time to workout with a baby, so on my mornings to get him I am trying to get up at 6am. So far, I've had success only one time and the other days have had to w/o while he's napping. The night life is totally over. I'm almost always up right at 7, except for the other morning because squish woke up at 12:30am starving, so I had to feed him and it took me forever to fall back to sleep. Then he was up again at 4:30, just tossing and turning and fussed a little, but I still couldn't go back to sleep. So I slept in till 8 (wow, no alarm or anything. Not long ago that would've been impossible) and squish didn't make a peep till 8:30, but he usually hangs out by himself for a while before he starts singing and squawking. This morning, lucky me, he was up at 6am.....argh!!!!

Squishy Updates:

-He still loves to go for walks and I got a cheapy stroller to cruise him around the neighborhood--he totally digs it and has a great time. We'll walk to the playground and swing on the swings, but he just wants to eat the chains. We got a kiddie pool for the backyard this weekend, he'll have such a blast! I'll be taking a zillion pics.

-He loves hanging out at his babysitter's house, Susan has 4 kids, from 13yrs to 4 mos. There are no other children in our families for him to hang out with and it's good for squish to play with other kids. He always cries when I leave, but as soon as I'm out of site he forgets he misses me and has a great time.

-We had an uneventful 4th of July, Cael’s bedtime was 8, fireworks started at 9ish and Alex and I didn’t give a damn. *lol* I think we sat on the couch and watched a movie.
Julie and I took Cael to Mom & Dave’s house on the 5th. He was really happy to see Jazz! As soon as he saw her he started laughing and going right for her. It was pretty cute, but Jazz was a bit nervous!! The rest of the day he was kinda cranky, but his top teeth were still breaking through.

-Cael’s top two teeth are still coming out slowly, he is not in any pain right now though. --He loves to slobber all over the crackers I make for him and eat eggs with bacon. In fact, if he sees you sitting on the couch and you have food, watch out! He’s gonna try to take it from you. He’ll stand there on the other side of the coffee table and watch you eating; he’ll start to edge around the table with his eyes on your food the whole time. When he gets to you, he’ll stand there and smack your leg with his arm, looking up at you plaintively with those big blue eyes. “Oh, please” those eyes say, “ Give me your food, I’m starving”, even though that fat little thing just ate. He wants what you’ve got!!! Apparently, my brother was the same way. Yesterday morning, squish was so persistant he knocked over my breakfast and it went all over the floor. I had to make myself another breakfast! Punk.

-He can stand on his own, briefly, and I think he’ll start trying to walk pretty soon .
-He whines and cries whenever he sees me and it drives me nuts. He doesn’t do that with Alex. What gives? I guess I’m just a big pushover and he knows it.

-We’ve got the baby cages all set up around the living room. Today though we explored the house together. We went into Grammie’s room and played with some toys, opened the drawers of the dresser to peek inside (Alex taught him to do that, now he can get to all the remote controls in the coffee table drawer), stared at the spinning ceiling fan and twanged the springy door stop. Then we moved on to the hallway and had fun with the lint in the laundry room.
LOL, oh yeah! This morning Al gave squish a magazine and ripped out a few pages for him to play with. We were chatting in the kitchen when squish crawled in with bits of magazine in his hands and a page stuck to his foot. I think that’s like the baby equivalent of going to the bathroom and coming out with toilet paper stuck to your shoe. Poor Cael just sat there staring at us while we were laughing our heads off.

And here is Cael's passport photo, a deer caught in the headlights:

New Teeth

2009-07-03T12:16:00.004-06:00

Here's a few pics of Cael eating (slobbering?) a cracker I made earlier today. Here's the recipe...they're dang good!

Well, squishy is getting his two top teeth at the same time and is cranky as hell. He doesn't like the plastic teething ring we got him so I'm goofing off on Amazon to see what I can find. There are some great wooden baby toys/teethers from a German company called Haba . They've got great reviews, and are non toxic. A tad pricey, but they may be worth it. One lady commented that in this day and age of recalls it's good to know that there are safe toys for your kids to play with. I agree! Sheesh, half the crap from China is laced with lead and God knows what else.
Anyway, there's also this thing called a razberry teether and a teething necklace (for me) that's pretty nifty. I think I'm going to get the razberry and one of the wooden teethers as well.
It's a shame you can't get cool stuff like this around here.

Smarter Than the Average Bear

2009-07-02T12:58:00.003-06:00

We had some visitors the other day, Momma and baby raided the neighbors garage and took of with a bag of hot dog buns.

The End of June

2009-06-30T11:44:00.003-06:00

Here it is, the end of June.
Squish is in his crib, NOT taking his nap which I set him down for half an hour ago. So, here I am in my workout clothes, waiting for him to go to sleep already! That's the only time I have to workout and Cael is being stubborn. Argh! I know if I start anyway, he'll slip or something and break his little head.
He did that just last week; standing up in his crib he slipped and fell. By the time I got up there he had stopped crying, but he had a bloody mouth and a cut right where one of his top front teeth are coming in.....ouch!
Friday was crazy! As I was driving to take Cael to his sitter's house, a freak storm came up. At first it was just the wind, it was blowing so hard I kept looking around for a tornado! I got to the sitters' house just as a huge tree branch in their back yard broke and fell into their yard.

I managed to get Cael out of the car without anyone seeing my underwear (I can't believe that was the day I decided to wear a skirt) and knocked on the door for 5 minutes. There was no answer, and oh shit, I had to start work in 20 minutes. I went back home and stuck Cael in his crib with a bottle and logged into my computer. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do since I was out of sick time and they weren't approving any PTO.

Maybe Alex could come home, so I sent him some frantic emails and then my work phone went down. I called the help desk and the guy said all of Colorado was down and he'd call me when it was back up. Hallelujah! Thank you God!!!! I called my supervisor in Miami and she said the Colorado office was in total darkness, the electricity had gone out and the back up generators were out too.
Sweet! So I hung out with squishy until the phones got fixed at about 5. I knew Shaun would be home at about 5:30, so I stuck Cael back in his crib with another bottle and left Shaun a note. Shaun didn't' get home till about 6, (he almost didn't come home at all since he was going to a bday party) but Cael just hung out in his crib and played happily until Shaun got home.
There were a lot of Thank You God's that day.......

It turns out that the sitter was home, she was just in the basement trying to find something to cover her kitchen window. That tree branch that fell in her backyard went right through the window and made a huge mess. So I was out there knocking and she just didn't hear me. I had left my cell phone at home so I couldn't even call her. What a weird day.

I bought Cael a stroller finally, just a cheap $20 umbrella stroller. It works great and Cael loves it. He just kicks back and swings his little fat legs as happy as he can be.

Squish still is loving his natural turkey bacon and egg yolk. He'll still only eat it if he thinks it's coming off your plate. lol, he won't let me use his spoon either, he wants to eat the spoon in between bites of food. He loves sitting in his highchair, eating his spoon and using his sippy cup to give himself a shower. He also loves when you clean him up. I'll use a soft rag with warm water and he'll giggle when I start scrubbing his hands and around his mouth. It's so funny.

We went to Wal-Mart yesterday to buy a new cast iron pan since I ruined mine.
Hmm.
How do you ruin a cast iron pan you may ask...
Well, I was cooking up some salmon cakes and the pan was smoking so I stuck the pan outside on top of Alex's charcoal grill. I forgot about the pan and the next morning I went to retrieve it, but I couldn't. It was stuck to the grill. I pulled, and pulled and finally it came off. Whadda ya know, I had stuck that hot pan right on top of the plastic handle of the grill's air vent. Damn! That pan was perfectly seasoned too. : (
If I only had a blow torch I could've just melted the plastic right off the bottom, but alas, I do not have one, nor do I know anyone who has such a nifty thingy.

Ah ha! Squishy is asleep at last....it only took 45 minutes, little punk.

Crawling and Bathtime

2009-06-15T10:32:00.007-06:00

Cael can officially crawl now, but he still would rather stand and have all the adult slaves walk him around the house. lol, what a pest.I saw the most hilarious thing ever today. I was coming down the stairs, Alex had been swinging Cael in the air and had set him down. Alex was standing a few feet away from Cael and talking to him when Willa made an appearance and sat down next to Al. Cael growled, 'aaahhhhhhh' , got on his hands and knees and started crawling towards Willa growling the whole way. He got right in her face and I was worried that she would scratch him, but she looked at him like, eeeew, what the heck are you? and moved away. Then he chased her out from under his bouncy. I wish I had gotten that on video, it was so funny! Here's a few random pics/vids....sorry, I didn't bother messing with the sound as I am too lazy. : )

tantrums

2009-06-11T09:59:00.004-06:00

About a week ago Cael discovered the art of manipulation. He knew that if he had a crying fit, someone would come and pick him up and when I set him down to change his diaper. Well, it got so bad last week we had to do something! So, we let him cry. It was awful the first day, he cried himself to sleep in the morning and the afternoon my nerves were strectched so tight I was ready to scream! As for the diaper changes, before he starts to fuss I start playing 'This Little Piggy' or sing the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and then he's all smiles.

Day 2 was better, but we still had some crying. He was standing up using the coffee table for support, crying his little head off, banging on the table with his hands and 'bouncing' up and down. It was hard not to laugh at that one. Then he was sitting on the floor with a new toy and he decided he wanted to walk, but I was disinclined to assist him as we had already walked all over the dang house, so he started crying and hit his toy a few times in frustration. I had a good laugh in the kitchen on that one.

He loves to cry and then he'll pause to see if you're looking. If you happen to glance his way he'll start crying again. If you aren't paying attention he'll whine for a bit and then find something to do. Sometimes he'll do this off and on, just to test us. : ) He can pull himself to standing most of the time, and he can inch along in his crib, the coffee table and his toybox. He likes to pretend he's stuck, but he can sit down, roll over and crawl (or creep) to get where he needs to be. He's a lazy bum however and prefers for me to do it, and naturally lets me know what a rotten mother I am when I don't help. He cries when he crawls, he'll crawl a little bit, but then he'll push up onto his toes because he's trying to stand and starts fussing and crying. *lol*

There are no more screaming fits really, mostly he's down to fussing. Today is the 4th day of teaching Cael that we're in charge! *lol* He learned pretty dang fast!

He was a fussy butt as soon as he was up this morning so he got his milk and went right back to bed! We trained him early on going to bed, so he hardly ever cries anymore when it's bedtime. He'll talk to himself and blow raspberries and finally fall asleep.

He got up about an hour later and had bacon and eggs with us (egg yolk only and organic, additive free turkey bacon--yumm!). We got him a high chair at long last, I sat him in it this morning and he had a good time playing with his spoon and plastic bowls while I cooked breakfast.

I've got a few picures here of Cael in the Library with the books. He loves to walk in there and play with his Pat the Bunny book, mostly he just eats the mini stuffed bunny.... poor Pat.

Good Morning

2009-06-07T07:06:00.002-06:00

A few months ago Cael would go to bed at 9ish and wake up at 9ish. Then Cael would go to bed at the same time and wake up at 7:30ish. Now, the last week Cael is up at 6 friggin 30 every damn morning. That is too damn early.
Since we decided to have Cael, I knew my night owl days were over....but seriously, 6:30 in the morning? He's been a grumpy little bugger ever since he started getting up this early! Last night we drove to Denver to pick up Julie & Joe from their cruise and didn't get that boy to be till after 11....guess what? He slept in till 6:45.
wtf?!

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-25T13:35:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house which is about 2 hours from Colorado Springs. Cael was an adorable little angel the whole time (hmm..does this mean he'll end up a monster toddler or excessively hormonal teenager?) and he got to meet Uncle Joe for the first time too. Basically, they just stared at each other.
Oh, he may have been an angel yesterday, but he's a cranky little guy today! Sheesh, maybe he's got some more chompers coming in or something. Thank god the babysitter will be here in an hour, then she can deal with it while I go out and have fun with JuJu.
Anyhoo, Cael has started clapping whenever he sees something he likes and the other day Al and I saw him pull himself up to standing using his toybox so he could look inside. Super cute!
Here's a few pics of our little wild man of Borneo playing with his pet tiger:

And a few of Cael enjoying egg yolk and standing up in his crib.

More Peek-a-boo

2009-05-07T13:47:00.004-06:00

Here's a few peek-a-boo pics that I took this morning and a video of Squish playing in the crib. I found a free sound editing thingy on the web and now I can edit that high pitched whining noise. The sound still isn't great since I have a crappy video camera, but it's better than nothing right?!

Cael's Ready to Walk

2009-05-04T12:08:00.005-06:00

You can't walk before you learn to crawl...or can you? Squish just loves to stand up! He's not into the whole crawling thing anymore. If you sit him down he'll grab your fingers and try to pull himself up. If you help him to stand you are rewarded with a big smile and happy chatter. If not, you have a whiny little squishy.
*lol* I love his face when Alex pulls him up. You can see he's 'playing' with his tongue, he's been doing that alot since two of his bottom teeth have popped out.
Enjoy the video, again, sorry 'bout the sound. : )

Peek-a-boo

2009-04-28T10:37:00.003-06:00

Cael has learned to enjoy some forms of peek-a-boo. A couple of days ago I put him in his crib to change his diaper and he did what he usually does when he's in a good mood, he puts on a big smile and as soon as he's 'free' he rolls over and gets on his hands an knees rocking back and forth like he's gonna go somewhere. Anyway, that day I had some of his laundry to fold, so I sat on the floor and was talking to him. I could see the top of his head and a little hand trying to pull himself up to see me, so I popped my head over the edge of the crib with a big smile and a peek-a-boo, and he got so excited! His little arms and legs start pumping and he rubs his face in his sheep skin then pops back up on his hands and knees. We did that for a while and then he started grabbing his crib bumper and was pulling that down, he didn't realize he could see me that way so I did a little peek-a-boo and that kid was tickled pink. He was swimming like crazy! LOL

Teeth and Solid Food

2009-04-24T08:56:00.007-06:00

Cael has two bottom teeth emerging, and is chewing anything he can stick in his mouth.
Well, he did that anyway, so he's chewing even more than he did before.

He has also enjoyed eating banana, sweet potato with butter and a little bit of graham cracker. Mmm.
I guess I better get it together and start looking up baby food recipies. I found a couple cool websites for that months ago, I just need to shop around and see what's what.
Here are a few pics of mr squishy having fun with food.

*lol* Al thought it was the most disgusting thing he's ever seen. Worse than poop.

For this pic we were getting ready to go to the grocery store and I sat Cael on the bed so I could get dressed and he looked so cute just sitting there hanging out I had to take a picture.

ugh

2009-04-15T22:22:00.004-06:00

well, squishy gave me his cold and now I feel poopie. : (
and that means i have to take my own medicine! ick! elderberry tincture tastes awful. in fact, it's so nasty i gag everytime i drink it. but....it works wonders.
now i know what monty python meant when they said 'your father smelt of elderberries'

Listen to the Frenchies taunting King Aurthur and his Knights :

ahhhhh -choo!

2009-04-14T08:23:00.003-06:00

Cael has his first cold and it's not as bad as I expected.
He's got lots of snot and gets stuffy; I can't get anywhere near his nose with the bulb syringe- he hates it and wants to eat it. I can't even wipe his nose without holding his arms down.
I set up the humidifier in his room the night before last with eucalyptus oil and that has helped dramatically with his sleep aka, he sleeps like normal! : )
He also gets 5 drops of kids echinacea (alcohol free) with sweet orange essential oil in about an 1/2 ounce of water 3 x's a day and he just gobbles that up.
No fever thank goodness, and hopefully he'll get better and not give it to me.

It's Official!

2009-04-06T20:56:00.002-06:00

It's official! Cael can definitely sit up on his own now. He's still a bit wobbly and falls over if he gets too excited with his toys, but he's doing so great! He'll also move back and forth on his hands and knees, but only if he has the front half of his body propped up on our big pillow. I've got some video to edit and I'll add it to this post later tonight or tomorrow.
Cael had a grumpy day today, he usually is grumpy late afternoon, but today was a mega grumpy day, he just had to be carried for a few hours then he was in a better mood. : )

Crappy weather, Sunny baby

2009-04-04T08:57:00.002-06:00

Well, more crappy weather this week. I was hoping for some sunshine already!! Cael has also been in a crappy mood the last couple days. I suspect teething. A couple days ago I noticed he had a bruise on his left wrist and I thought he might have banged it on something. Then the next morning he was in his crib being 'free' and I saw him sucking on his right arm above the wrist, I flipped him over a minute later to put on his diaper and his wrist was red and bruised. Now, I've seen him suck his wrists/arms before, but this was the first time he's given himself hickeys! ew!

Cael is in a much better mood today. Earlier this morning he sat up all by himself for like 10 minutes! He occasionally would list to one side and I had to correct him, but most of the time it was all him! Dang, I wish I had the camera! Naturally he got tired of that and I helped him topple over gently and gave him his yellow rattle. LOL, he was just chatting away at that thing. He would shake it and screech happily, then he would hold it with both hands above his head and gurgle and squeal at it for a minute or two and then he would shake it some more. It was super cute, of course, I'm his mother and just about everything Cael does is super cute to me. I can't help myself. ;)

Spring is Here!

2009-03-25T13:43:00.009-06:00

Spring is here and last night it snowed! Well, I was expecting it, happens every year ya know. Alex is sick and I'm really hoping we don't get what he's got 'cause it's oh so icky!! And a sick baby is no fun, especially if you're sick yourself.

Anyway, Cael is huge! He weighs 19 pounds, I had no idea that 19 lbs was so heavy....I'm gonna have arms like Ahhhnold.

Here is some great video that Alex took of our little fatty bouncing in his jumpy thingy. Sorry about that awful high pitched whine, but I just can't figure out how to get rid of it, and I could mute it, but then you wouldn't hear Alex in the background and it wouldn't be nearly as funny! :)

One of these days I will buy a nice video camera. Maybe sometime next month.

Cael's Movin' and Groovin'

2009-03-09T11:12:00.003-06:00

It's so funny to see Cael learning how to do so many new things! He's figuring out how to suck his thumb, he rubs his eyes with his little fist and he likes to practice 'crawling'!

Cael Practices Sitting

2009-03-08T17:17:00.004-06:00

Cael can sit up by himself for a little bit. Today we played with blocks, I would stack them up and he would knock 'em down! *lol*
Here's a video from a couple weeks ago, Julie is the one keeping him from falling over!

beautiful day

2009-03-03T13:09:00.004-07:00

wow, what a gorgeous day! i know it won't last, we'll get at least one snowstorm for sure, but we're going out for a walk today before i start work! Here's some pics of my cutie!

Bath Time and Videos

2009-02-23T14:24:00.007-07:00

Cael has really learned to enjoy bathtime. For a while there he would just cry the whole time until he discovered splashy, splashy. LOL, he still cries everytime I stick him in the tub, but as soon as I remind him of splashy, splashy he's happy again.

And a big HOORAY! for me! I figured out how to make & edit movies on my computer, so watch out people! Here's my first one! And, keep an eye out cause I'm going to fix all the other movies I have posted on here too!!!

hooray, we're parents

2009-02-22T15:59:00.002-07:00

While updating Cael's photo album, (there will be new pics in there shortly) I started browsing through some of the pics we have of him right after he was born.
Wow.
Those were some cute pictures, but some seriously tough times. I wasn't getting enough sleep; I was having trouble nursing; I was in pain and could barely roll over to my other side let alone get up out of bed to pee & let's not talk about #2; we hadn't figured out the best ways to calm Cael when he was crying and Alex and I were arguing all the time. It sucked.
It took Al and I a few months to get the hang of things and we still struggle sometimes. In a way, Alex had it a bit harder than I did; he didn't have the benefit of a massive dose of hormones to help him through the phase of realizing all free time is gone: Adios, Sayonara, Ciao, too bad, so sad.
It wasn't really easy for me either, I guess. We're both very independant people; we want to do what we want, when we want. When it was just the two of us we compromised and everything was cool (most of the time), but with Cael there's no compromise. We can't say, 'Hey kiddo, we're going to the movies, your bottle's in the fridge.' Nope, we have to schedule a babysitter and a night out ends up costing a pretty penny. (at least we have a night out every once in a while)
Why does it seem that other people think that everything is sooooo WONDERFUL! Yay, you have a new baby!!!! ?
Yes, it's very cool that we have this little person in our lives, he is just awesome, but he can also be very tiresome and annoying. And he hasn't even reached the 'terrible twos' yet. So in general, no, it is not all that friggin' wonderful. Well, it is, but it's hard at the same time. I consider Alex and I to be very fortunate that Cael is such a mellow little guy. We could have a high maintenance baby and then we'd really be crazy.
Well, gotta go. My little guy is awake from his nap and although he likes to chill in his crib and talk to his toys, I like to pester him and play 'this little piggy' or pretend I'm eating his toes to make him laugh. Then it's yummy food time, burp time, spit up all over mama time, bath time, more play time and woohoo, four more hours and it's his bedtime!

Well it's been a while

2009-02-22T14:15:00.005-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted, eh? Well, dammit! Being a Mama keeps me busy and most of the time I'm trying to catch up on cleaning.

Seriously, I've never done so much laundry in my life. I've also never seen this much vomit, poop, drool and the rate at which my paycheck disappears is truly astounding.

*lol*

It's cool though. Cael's smiles and laughs keep me happy.

Cael's Halloween Pics

2008-11-16T15:14:00.007-07:00

Yeah, I know it's almost Thanksgiving, but here they are at last!

Funny Videos of Cael

2008-10-11T23:29:00.005-06:00

The sound is really terrible, I haven't figured out how to get rid of that awful high pitched whine, but the videos are hilarious. Well, Alex and I think they are- we may just be a couple of weirdos.

urg

2008-10-05T16:34:00.006-06:00

Yeah, ok, it's taken me alot longer to heal than I had hoped. It's still ouchie to sit for very long, and I have to sit on a pillow. Anyway, stay tuned! I'm working on a super long entry and it should take me a day or two to finish it all. Also, I'm working on setting up a link for Cael's photo album. Until then, here are a couple more pics of our cutie pie to tide you over.

Tired

2008-09-18T16:50:00.002-06:00

Well, the bean was born Sept 7th---as I am recovering from stitches (ow!!) it will be another week or so before I can sit down long enough to type a good long account of the whole thing. Anyway, say hello to Cael Ridley Hudgens Eddy.

Today's the Day

2008-09-04T18:47:00.002-06:00

Today is officially the bean's due date. No, beanie weenie is not here yet.

I did have some wicked cramping today, although that was triggered by Al and I.....uh....'fooling around'.
It's happened a couple of times before and lasts for hours: the cramping is so bad- it's a steady pain that never goes away, but gets worse at intervals. This time I remembered to take St. John's Wort and that helped alot!! Whew! Thank God for that stuff!
I still didn't get much of anything done today though--I was planning on cooking some chicken, baking bread, making green chile sauce and maybe a spinach & feta pie (omg-yum!), but instead I roamed around the house in agony for hours before I remembered the St. John's Wort and now I'm pooped! It's almost 7 pm and I could go to bed right now and probably sleep like a log till morning.
I did get the birthing pool all filled up (yay!) and I'd love to sit in it right now, but I'd probably pass out and drown. *rme*
I'm going to drink a cup of ginger tea & try and cook that chicken and bake some bread, we're totally out and I hate the store bought stuff-blech, it makes me break out in a rash. God knows what they put in there.
Well, ttfn.

The Countdown

2008-08-29T17:05:00.002-06:00

Here we are in the home stretch! I started my FMLA yesterday. I really tried to make it until Sept 2nd, but I just felt as though I have so much to do, if I don't get it done now it'll be too late!

We've got the labor pool all set up in the extra room, we just need to fill it up and then we sit and wait. How long will the kid hang out in there? Hopefully not past 42 weeks or I'm off to the doctor says Colorado state law. Dumb, isn't it? The kid's ready when he's ready! Anyway, he hasn't turned or even dropped yet, so I think we've got a bit of time to wait.

Just Keep Swimming

2008-08-22T10:08:00.004-06:00

I went swimming the day before yesterday and why the heck didn't I start doing that sooner?! It felt so good!
No matter what I do these days I'm almost always uncomfortable, but in the pool I just float (although, not as well as I did when I was skinnier). I did laps and got some good excercise for about 45 minutes, and that rotten edema went down so much I almost felt normal! I plan to go as often as possible until the kiddo decides to show up (it better be soon). With a punch card it works out to roughly $3 for 20 punches instead of $5.75 if you pay every day.

Dory's Song (YouTube Link):

Hey Mr Grumpy Gills
You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim
OH HO HO How I love to swim
When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, I'm going to try to hang on at work for just one more week. I get Labor Day off and then I'll start my FMLA on the 2nd of Sept. I'd rather not work this next week as I feel like I have soooo much stuff to do and no time to do it, but, I also want the money. This next week will give me some extra cash during the 3 months I'm out, otherwise I'd have just enough to pay bills and buy grocries. What if I want to buy a book or something? I'd have to use my stupid credit card and how am I ever going to pay that dang thing off if I keep using it? *rme* Well, I've got a couple of paid sick days at my disposal, but I'll try not to use them since they're the last I have for the year.

ttfn

Yay!

2008-08-18T20:25:00.006-06:00

Hooray! My blood sugar is aok. The blood tests that were done at the hospital lab that tested my blood glucose level over a period of 3 months were great, and the 12hr fast blood test Dottie did came out excellent. Whew!!!

Alex and I did a plaster cast of my belly the other night, it really came out nice! Right now we're waiting for it to dry completely (it's been a tad damp up here since there's been so much rain) then we'll apply a few layers of plaster of paris to strengthen it and once we've decided how we want to paint it, viola! A fabulous piece of art to hang on the wall.

It took us about an hour to figure out how much of me to plaster. Al wanted to do all the way from my lips down to my thighs and I said uh-uh! I'd have to stand absolutely still for at least 45 mins!!! forget it! As it was, it took about that long with me sitting in that awful office chair with my feet swelling to freaky proportions. Then, I got to have all those fine little body hairs ripped out as he took the cast off. I slathered myself with vaseline, but in some spots it was just not enough! Ouch! He went beyond the edges of the vaseline too and those spots REALLY HURT ALOT!!!! Al told me to not be so whiny--huh! I'd like to see him try that. He says he's had hair ripped out and he knows how it feels, but he can't remember when/how it happened. Uh-huh, sure. *rme* ;)

Doesn't Al look cute as a pregnant lady?

Just a Few More Weeks!

2008-08-14T17:39:00.002-06:00

I know it's been a while since I've written, but it's just been the same old thing--I'm hot, my feet are swollen, I'm cranky and I have to pee all the time.

July was a horrible month with the tempratures in the high 90's. Ugh. It was torture. Luckily, this month has been tolerable. All last week it was cloudy and rainy and this week hasn't even hit the 90's! Woo! All that cool beautiful air has felt soooo goooood!!!
I can even sleep with a blanket on the bed and Willa has left the cool sanctuary of the bathroom. Alex is also allowed to touch me again. LOL. I was always so hot that when we'd sit on the couch together to watch a movie- if a part of his leg was touching me, or a hand or an arm or what have you, I got way oveheated even though there was a fan blowing right on me. I'd have to tell him, Al, you're touching me!! And he'd roll his eyes and scoot over.

I went for a visit with Dottie yesterday and there was a little glucose in my urine, so she gave me a blood sugar test and it was high which could mean I have gestational diabetes.
Uhhh-that would suck.
My blood pressure has also gone up- it's not high really, but the numbers have gone up from my usual numbers.
So, I went into the hospital lab today so they could draw some blood and run a few tests: something with my liver function and a test to check my blood sugar over a period of time. I'm also going to be doing a fasting blood test on Monday morning with Dottie and she's recommended an ultrasound to rule out twins. We doubt there's more than one baby in there, but at this point it's probably a good idea to check. I also still have polyhydramnios, so I'm totally huge and people look at me like I'm a circus freak. My swelling feet and ankles are also freaky in an elephantitis kind of way and even after I wake up in the morning it's still there and my hands are starting to swell alot more as well. I'm seriously considering starting my FMLA leave early, as the swelling is really awful after I've been sitting at my desk all day.

I've upped my protein intake by adding in a couple more eggs to my daily diet. I ususally eat 2-3 eggs for breakfast so now I've added in a couple hard boiled eggs for snacks throughout the day. Good thing I like eggs. I always have some sort of meat for dinner, although for lunch I usually just have a quck pb&j since I only have 10minutes break during work. So, no more Ben & Jerry, no Starschmucks frozen strawberry lemonades, no homemade cookies & treats, no sugar or juice or caffeine (I only had a cup of joe every once in while anyway). I dunno, it's not like I ate a ton of that stuff, maybe once a week, but I know that all these pregnancy hormones do not work well with insulin so it's so much harder for my body to metabolize sugars. I drink lots of water and salt my food to taste as is recommended. I'm a good girl, really!

It's also been hard for me to get exercise in, the past couple of weeks I haven't done all that much. My extremities are so swollen it's almost impossible to do yoga, and it's hard to go for walks since I can't even bend my feet, it's like I've got wooden blocks instead. During work I try to stand up and move around as much as I can, and when I'm off I go lie down on the bed to help reduce the swelling and I do some leg lifts and stretches, ect. But I know that is just not enough. I miss my yoga. Hmm, maybe I can go swimming.....if I can afford it. Money's a bit tight and if I start FMLA leave early it'll be even tighter!

I'm hoping the glucose in the urine was just a one time thing and I turn out to be healthy and aok, cause otherwise I'm off to a doctor and no more midwife and homebirth! Yay, I'll get to be in a stupid hospital strapped to a bed in a strange room with one of those damn fetal monitors and a bunch of strangers wandering in and out of the room ignoring me and checking my printouts. It's one of my worst nightmares. I could be induced, have a c-section, episiotomy, have my child taken away from me the second he's out and if the baby is a he, his genitals will be mutilated, he'll be fed sugar water and it'll be a bitch to get him to breastfeed.
Well. Now that I've freaked myself out, I'll move on to a new subject!

The babyshower on the 26th was great. Alex and I got nothing but awesome stuff and the whole scene was just so relaxed--it was exactly the way I wanted it. Everyone just hung out and talked and ate and had a good time. I'll post some pictures a little later this week and you can see how chuncky I've gotten! LOL

Dottie will be doing our home visit on Tuesday and we'll be seeing her every week till the kid decides he/she's ready to come out. I hope that's sooner rather than later!

Alex and I will be doing my belly cast this week--lol---I'm thinking we should do two since we both have such different ideas as to how we want to do it and how we want to decorate it. When I went to pick up the plaster bandages at the medical supply store one of the ladies that worked there was saying how she couldn't convince her daughter to do a belly cast. She wanted to use the belly as a chip bowl and the breasts for two different kinds of dip. LOL, I wouldn't let that lady do my belly cast either!!!

whaaaa!

2008-07-16T12:33:00.002-06:00

I am so done being pregnant. I'm hot, my feet are swollen, I'm uncomfortable and did i mention that I was hot? and my feet were swollen? Ugh.
We're meeting with Dottie every two weeks now, today at our meeting we went over the results of my blood tests; everything's a.o.k, but my protein is a tad low, no prob, more eggs for breakfast! Yum!
I went to the chiropractor yesterday for the first time. His name is Dr. Davis with Atlas Chiropractic and specializes in preggos. Yesterday I got a tour of the place and he talked about what he does and I got my spine 'loosened up'. I have another appointment tomorrow to get adjusted and then another one the week after next. He has an arrangement with Dottie so my first 3 visits are free. Yay for free stuff! He was highly recommended by Dottie who says all of the first time moms she's worked with have had much easier labors that without those chiropractor visits.
Alex says he smells BS. lol, we'll see I said. I've never been to a chiropractor before so I dunno, although I do know quite a few people who have been and they say they're great. We shall see!

Good Times

2008-07-08T13:02:00.002-06:00

Howdy all!
Al and I had a great 4th with Julie. Alex took us to the CS Country Club where we sat on the golf course right at the edge of a lake and watched the fireworks go off over our heads. Aside from the drunk kids next to us and the drunk old guy somewhere off to our left who kept screaming "America Baby, YEAH!!!!", we had a good time. :)

Alex and I set up our crib the other day and rearranaged our bedroom to make space for the little person; who, I might add, has a nicer bed than we do! The crib is beautiful, and very sturdy. It's also super easy to convert it to a day bed/toddler bed and then a full size bed frame. All we lack now is the mattress and a waterproof cover (in case of diaper blowouts). I really like the way we arranged the room. It's very cozy (our place is a tad small) but we still have some space. Next to the crib is the rocking chair that Mom gave us and over the crib hangs a really nice clay wall hanging that I bought Al for his birthday last year. It has a beautiful design with two lions and various symbols that represent loyalty, family and friendship and we thought it looked great in that spot.

We were doing some reminiscing this past weekend about how we first met, and when we decided we wanted to have a baby and how we found out I was pregnant. We decided to have the baby last summer while we were on our Alaska cruise, in fact, we were hoping I'd get pregnant right away.
I had been on the pill that past spring, and quickly went off it because it made me crazy. I don't know about any other women out there, but I can't take those dang things, I go nuts- I mean absolutely psycho. (Carrie, out instructor for our natural birthing class also goes nuts) I was so hypersensitive about anything and everything, I was snappy and bitchy and cranky and crying. It was almost like mega PMS 24/7. Ick! Thank goodness I finally figured out what was going on, and thank goodness Alex loves me so much and put up with me for those couple months! I stopped taking them and within a week or so, my brain started going back to normal.
Anyway, it took my cycle a while longer to recover from the hormone insanity as I didn't get preggo till late November, early December. In fact, I was sure I wasn't pregnant. I was only 3 days late and my cycle was still a little wacky and not totally normal yet, so I thought: no way! But Al knew. I was one day late and he says, Maybe you should take a test. I said, Don't be silly, I'm not pregnant, I'm still just a little wacky. But Alex kept bugging me, so on the third day we went to the store and got a test and Alex was fooling around with dinner and I went and peed on the magic stick. I remember staring at it, sure I wasn't pregnant & watching that second pink line appear. Well I'll be damned, I said. And I walked out to the kitchen with a silly grin on my face and showed Al the magic stick and said, I'm pregnant! He said, I knew it the whole time!!!! LOL

7 months---are you sure?

2008-06-23T22:37:00.007-06:00

Omg! I'm humongous!!!! *lol* It looks like I'm 10 months, not 7!

I don't wanna know how large I'll be at 9 months! My belly button is slowly getting stretched to the max and will probably be inside out eventually---ew! Alex already teases me and is always poking at it.

Kung Fu baby is now practicing Yoga most of the time, although when Alex pokes my belly Kung Fu baby jumps into action and kicks or punches back. We can feel him on my right side and when I give him a good rub he always busts out a few moves for us too.

We'll sit there like a couple of dorks watching my belly and seeing our once teeny, little bean (who is now a gigantic 3 lbs) move around like a little alien in a sci-fi movie; it cracks me up.

Here's a link to a website I found with super cute, but naughty, stuff: Cafepress.

My favorite is the kids shirt that says: All Mommy Wanted Was a Backrub. LMAO, oh that cracks me up!!!

Sore Buns from Hell

2008-06-23T22:01:00.003-06:00

Since I started working for Carnival Cruise Lines I have sat in a chair in front of a computer for 8 hours a day, sometimes more. I've been a little stiff, but I'd just stretch myself out and I'd be OK.
The past month or so, sitting in that office chair (now for 6 hours a day as I am part time) I have never been more miserable in my whole life.
It's HELL.
I have totally abandoned my office chair and given it to Alex to use for his desk as it is the worst chair ever for preggo ladies. My rear end was so numb and my legs and feet so swollen at the end of the day I could barely walk.
I was using my exercise ball for a while, and that helped a lot with the leg swelling, but my ass was still sore at the end of the day.
I've now switched to my cheap, WalMart office chair stacked with pillows (I feel like the Princess and the Pea) which helps with the swelling, but I still feel like I sat on a block of wood all day.
I tried one of those ass donuts (the blow up cushion thingys you use if you have a huge boil on your heiney or major hemorrhoids) and....nope. Still might as well be sitting on a block of freakin' wood. I can't even sit on the couch after work, I have to lie down on the bed for half an hour. ARGH!!!
I dunno if I can take much more of this. When work is slow I can stand up, but when I get a call I have to sit down. I do a lot of typing and I can't stand there hunched over my keyboard all day either. That huge belly of mine doesn't give me a lot of room for hunching over and it's just as miserably uncomfortable.
Maybe I just have crappy pillows, maybe it's because I've gained 30 lbs or maybe I bruised my tailbone and don't know it. All I know is that MY ASS HURTS!!!! OOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

Baby Shower

2008-06-18T13:17:00.002-06:00

Ok, the baby shower is set for Saturday, July 26th at 11am until whenever. There will be some sort of food served around 12:30ish and invites will go out shortly.

Kung Fu Baby Update

2008-06-11T14:39:00.003-06:00

Kung Fu Baby is getting larger and he has a lot less room to practice his Kung Fu. The past couple weeks I noticed a difference in his movements; still very active, just different. Alex and I saw Dottie today and she confirmed that the hydramnios thingy has gotten better and my fundal height is now pretty close to normal. (Yay!)
Also, the little bean has flipped and is now head down, although I'm just coming into my 3rd trimester and he may change his mind and flip over again. He (or she) is of course very proficient in Kung Fu and likes to move around so we shall see.

I am still working out the exact date of the baby shower with my friend Jackie, expect the end of July or early August.

Baby Registry

2008-06-08T18:47:00.005-06:00

OK, finally! Here's the baby registry on Amazon.com. It's still a work in progress, there are a few things I still want to add, and right now there are 5 zillion strollers that Al and I need to review and narrow down. If anyone knows about something I should add (or take off), lemme know!

Oh yes, here is a link to the diaper service Eco Baby if anyone is so inclined to help us out with some of the diaper stuff! :)

And here's a link to Babies R Us (talk about overwhelming!). I started a registry there too, but just to show you the crib and blankets we picked out. Cripes! Don't buy us anything from my fake registry! Mike and Sue have already gotten us the crib and crib set. (and a very cute stuffed monkey that I want to keep for myself)

There's tons of nifty stuff out there in baby land (and scary too-ack!).
You have to check out the Pee-pee Teepee for the Sprinkling WeeWee---I laughed my ass off when I saw that! If we have a boy, that's a must have!!!

I'm still working on a date for the baby shower, I promise by Wednesday at the least! Once I figure something out with Jackie I'll update this post with the date & directions.

Hello All! Yes, I am still here!

2008-06-05T12:30:00.003-06:00

Hello all, it's been awhile since I've had time to blog. It just seems there's always something that pops up and I can't seem to get done all the things I need to get done. Oh well.

Sleep deprivation is no longer an issue, not really anyway. It seems to come and go, I'll sleep really well for a few nights and then for a few nights I won't sleep well at all. Lately though, I've had more nights with good sleep than not. Yay for me!

So far things are going good; Kung Fu baby is still in action and is now giving me indigestion-not bad, but annoying. Vitamin C and lots of water help. I do have alot of amniotic fluid which is called hydramnios. That could mean a couple of different things. 1) Absolutely nothing, 2)Some bad stuff.
Anyway, my fundal height is about 5 cm larger than it normally would be; the visit before last with Dottie I was 30cm and 24 wks. And the same with our last visit, I was still too large by 5 cm. However, I am not concerned. Dottie herself had a pregnancy where she was running large and had no issues, she also had a client who went to an OB and had all sorts of tests run during her pregnancy, was labeled high risk and had all sorts of tests run on the baby after he was born and not a thing was wrong. Also, as my hydramnios hasn't gotten any worse, that is a good sign that everything is aok. So, unless Dottie becomes concerned, I am not concerned. Besides, whatever tests are run and whatever they may discover or think they've discovered; what does that solve? It wouldn't make anything any better if we found out Kung Fu baby had some rare genetic disease or whatever. Al and I would worry nonstop and be utterly miserable and I really wouldn't sleep at all then! Besides, I truly think everything is just fine.

Al and I started our birthing class last Saturday with a gal named Carrie Anderson (http://www.birthteacher.com/ ). There's only one other couple in the class, which is nice. Al, not being the social butterfly, was a bit nervous about there being a big crowd of people. I was pretty bored the first class as it was just an introduction and Carrie talked about a bunch of stuff I already know, but Al enjoyed it. This class is more for him, I think. *lol* Although some of the future classes will be much more interesting for me. Carrie has 5 kids and her husband (can't remember his name for the life of me) sits in on the class and gives advice for the guys on what to do and not to do during labor. Now, that's a good thing! :)

Anyway, after I'm done with this thingy (lol, I sound like John Heald-check out his blog, he's a cruise director with Carnival and totally hilarious) I'm going to start working on the baby shower stuff. I still haven't started any of that and I want to have it middle of next month so I better get goin'! My pal Jackie said I could have it over at her house and my friend Diana from work said she would help get it organized for me. Cool. I was hoping Mary or Julie would do all that junk for me, but they're at a loss as neither of them have children and have never thrown together a babyshower or even been to one. Diana is an expert and Jackie's been to quite a few herself, so I will be in experienced hands. I'll have all the shower info listed here by this coming Wednesday.
Al's not really looking forward to the shower at all--a bunch of women hanging around blah, blah, blahing and giving me stuff---LOL---that about sums it up. I told him he didn't have to be there if he doesn't want to, but of course he wants to be there with me. It'll be fine, he'll know quite a few people there and we'll just have a cook out and I can watch everyone drink beer without me. :(

Wow, do I miss beer! And wine! Especially after a hot day after work sometimes I fantasize about sitting in the sun with a 6 pack of Skinny Dip in a bucket of ice next to me and a good book in my hands. *sigh* Oh well, someday. And oh, what I wouldn't do for a huge glass of Argentinian Malbec....mmmmm.......

Sleep Deprivation

2008-04-20T12:23:00.002-06:00

Hi all, I am now at 20 weeks and I am tired!

Here's a sampling of my night: I get ready for bed about 12ish and I of course always pee. I go to bed, I wake up anywhere between 3am and 5am to pee again, (by the way I've been drinking a lot more fluids so I no longer have an unsatisfying pee experience) :)
I climb back up the stairs and lay in bed for about an hour before I fall back to sleep, but most nights, I don't fall back to sleep at all. I just doze occasionally and toss and turn a lot.
It sucks.
The past two nights I've slept better, I put some thick blankets over our bedroom windows to block out the morning sunshine, so maybe that was part of it.
Our last visit to Dottie, I mentioned my not being able to fall back to sleep after my midnight trips to the bathroom and she suggested I eat a little protein snack before going back to bed. So far I've had no success with that. All I want to do that early in the morning is climb back into bed and snuggle with Al & Willa. I have no interest in eating, although I have prepped some snacks in the fridge just in case I change my mind. I have been having a snack before bed sometimes, although I'm not snacking regularly enough to notice if it makes a difference in my sleep patterns.
The Kung Fu baby is still kicking away, mostly in the evenings around 7:30 he starts getting pretty active and likes to jump up and down on my bladder, so even though I just peed, I still feel like I have to pee. Argh!
Alex has been looking forward to feeling the Kung Fu baby in action, but it's just too early. I have a pretty good layer of fat that pads every kick so Al can't feel a thing. Probably in a few more weeks when the kid gets bigger. :)

Kung Fu Baby

2008-03-30T19:25:00.003-06:00

Here's me this morning; 17 weeks and already I'm popping out! That little bean is no longer little, he's humongous!

I have read that women can feel their babies anywhere from 16 to 20 weeks, so this past week I started paying attention to what was going on in there. Yesterday, I thought I felt something a bit different, and today I'm sure! Just now, I was bending over to pick something up and Hi-Ya! Kung Fu baby went into action! I've heard and read all the different ways other women describe it; popcorn popping, gas bubbles, butterflies, ect. For me, it feels like somebody's poking my insides with a stick, and it's pretty weird! :)

Midwife

2008-03-27T21:13:00.004-06:00

Well, Alex and I finally decided on a midwife. Her name is Dotti and we just loved her right away, she's got alot of experience with midwifery, super sweet and made us feel instantly comfortable. Here is her website, Birth Matters! What a relief to finally have found a midwife we both like and feel good about! :)
The first midwife we met with we liked, but she didn't seem comfortable with our not wanting to use the doppler/ultrasound all the time. Also, she was a nice person, but she didn't make us feel at ease and she was certainly smart, but she didn't come forward with her knowledge & beliefs very freely. The second midwife we met was certainly knowledgeable, but was rather brusque and wasn't going to waver from what the ob-gyn's wanted regardless if it was what we wanted. There were a few other options here in Colorado Springs, one who is on leave till June; another who's rates are WAY too high; and a couple more who's phone #'s were no good. That's not a good sign, hmm? At any rate, I don't think we could've chosen better.

Stuff,Stuff,Stuff!!!!

2008-03-23T15:47:00.003-06:00

This is a list of stuff Al and I have to do, to buy, ect and I'll try keep it as up to date as possible.

a name would be nice
stroller
car seat
baby back pack/sling
crib
baby clothes

This list is short, but really, we need a million little things, this is just the big stuff! It's so funny, we haven't bought anything yet and everyone is asking us: do you have this, do you have that? Ack! No! *lol*
So far, all I've bought is a BellaBand. My pants are getting rather snug and I wanted to save some moolah on maternity clothes. Luckily, my pregnancy will span over the summer. My favorite item of clothing is a skirt; the skirts I usually wear are hipsters and will fit under my tummy, and those that don't will with the assistance of the BellaBand! Yay! So, all I'll really need to buy are a few things here and there, especially the built in bra tank tops (my favs) and I can get those at Target or WalMart for a good price. I've also got a few dresses from Alex's mom Sue, so my preggo wardrobe is practically all set!
OMG! Have you seen those silly websites that charge an arm and a leg for designer maternity clothes? *lmao* Oooh! And those models with their stiletto heels! I must admit, I love my high heels, and right now with just a little pooch I can still get away with wearing them, but once my feet start to disappear under a large belly, it's flip flops and sneakers all the way! I can't imagine having swollen ankles and feet and trying to cram the high heels on. Ha! And since I wouldn't be able to see my own feet, I wouldn't even be able to put them on myself, I'd have to have Alex shove them on for me and then carry me down the stairs to the front door and have both of his arms wrapped around me to help me walk to the car. Yeah, I don't think so.

The Mothers Act

2008-03-23T13:29:00.007-06:00

OMG! I cannot believe what I came across today! S.1375 'The Mothers Act' is a new bill to screen all pregnant women for depression and to medicate them, now that is frightening.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be medicated! I know postpartum depression can be a serious thing, but there are other ways to deal with this issue that popping a 'magic pill'! Ugh, before we know it, life in america will be like that movie EQUILIBRIUM, we're already too much like that movie BRAIN CANDY by the Kids in the Hall. (you can check out clips of these movies at youtube.com or read about them on imdb. )
There's always another way! We can go to support groups, get a therapist, take herbal treatments such as St. John's Wort--all of these are safer than pharmaceutical drugs and they keep your money out of those pharm companies pockets!

Here are a few links:
A YouTube video by a woman who has experienced depression drugs
An article: Branding Pregnancy as Mental Illness
S.1375 'The Mothers Act'
Sign the petition to stop the Mothers Act

On Postpartum Depression:
March of Dimes
Mother to Mother, Postpartum Depression Network
Postpartum Support International (this is a good one)

Waterbirth

2008-03-20T22:03:00.002-06:00

Alex and I have been seriously considering a water birth. When we had our visit with the midwife at Blue Skies, she strongly advised against it saying there was a risk of the baby inhaling the water and getting an infection.
This is what I picked up from the American Pregnancy Association:

"What are the risks to the mother and baby?
Over the last 30 years as water birth has grown in popularity, there has been very little research done to determine the risks of water birth. Some studies have been done in Europe demonstrating similar perinatal mortality rates between water births and conventional births.1 According to an article written by the Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists, there may be a theoretical risk of water embolism, which is when water enters the mother’s blood stream.2 Though the British Medical Journal is 95% confident in water births, they do see a possible risk for water aspiration. If the baby is experiencing stress in the birth canal or the umbilical cord becomes kinked or twisted, the baby may gasp for air, possibly inhaling water into the lungs.3 This would be rare because babies do not inhale air until they are exposed to air. They receive oxygen through the umbilical cord until they start to breathe on their own or until the cord is cut. The final potential risk to consider is that the umbilical cord could snap as the baby is brought to the surface of the water. This is preventable by using caution when lifting the baby up to the mother’s chest."

So, yes, the baby could inhale water, and get an infection, it is a possibility. But you know what? Alot of things are a possibility. Alot of things could go wrong. So what am I going to do? Live in fear and paranoia that something might happen to the baby? I just can't do that. Just like I can't give up my personal beliefs and give birth in a hospital because "something might happen".

What's with the pee thing?

2008-03-17T22:28:00.001-06:00

Ok, I read that once you’re preggo you have to pee a lot, but this is getting ridiculous. I wake up at 3am with an extremely intense urge; I hurry down the stairs as fast as I can, braving the icy draft and the furry, always moving obstacle course known as Willa (who likes to pounce, trip and streak up and down the stairs and through the hallway to my peril- see Willa on http://www.meankitty.com/Gallery2/willa.htm ). I finally make it to that glorious porcelain creation with frozen feet and scratched shins; I sit down, sigh, and……..you have got to be kidding.
I had to pee so bad I was imagining massive rushing rivers and waterfalls and was doing the pee pee dance on my way down the stairs, but all I got was a trickle.
I was a tad disappointed. I mean, it was hardly worth the trip; I could’ve just stayed in bed and had damp panties. This whole time I’ve been refraining from drinking anything before bed hoping to reduce my late night trips to the water closet, except instead of fewer trips I just get less pee. So, from now on, I’ll be drinking water before bed to my heart’s content so at least my late night trips will be worth all the trouble to get there! I will have a satisfying pee experience!!!

Insurance Companies

2008-03-17T09:58:00.003-06:00

Insurance companies suck. I added insurance through work and have been paying their premium for two years and now that I am pregnant and need the coverage, they won't cover me. I can't tell you how annoying that is. Yeah, ok, they'll cover me if I give birth in a hospital. I don't want to give birth in a hospital, hospitals are for people who are in dire need of medical assistance, for emergencies. I don't believe for one instant that having a baby is an emergency- women have been having babies for thousands of years without medical intervention, our bodies know what to do. Of course, if there is a problem during the birth and I need to go to the hospital, by all means, take me there!
On my coverage, midwife is listed, however, there are no midwives in Colorado Springs on the United HealthCare Network. Alex and I had already chosen a midwife, so I had asked the insurance company for an exception, but was denied for no valid reason other than : Sorry, your coverage is for doctors and midwives in network only.
OK, fine.
I looked at a place called Blue Skies Center for women which had two midwives on staff with several ob-gyns who were on UHC's magic list. The midwives at Blue Sky only attended births in a birthing room at the hospital, but we figured that even though we had to go to a hospital, having a midwife with us, someone on our side, would make up for it. Ha! Alex and I met with her for about an hour last week and discussed our interest in waterbirth which she strongly discouraged (I'll get into why later) and how we didn't feel comfortable with using ultrasound/dopplers. I explained that they are medical devices and unless there was a valid medical reason we felt there was no need to use one. She said ok, and gave us a bunch of baby magazines and pregnancy booklets, ect.
The next day she called me and said she had spoken with the two head ob-gyns and they (a quote from the letter she sent me) "discussed [my] desire to not be monitored during pregnancy with the Doppler for fetal heart tones and [my] refusal of an ultrasound for fetal anatomy. We feel that the use of all available and safe technologies to evaluate our patients and their babies is appropriate.....we've decided that it would be best if you sought care with a different provider."
OK, fine. All midwives are not created equally and some are ob-gyn monkeys.
I've been looking at alternate maternity insurance, but so far all it covers is the same modern medical crap my insurance company does and paying for the extra insurance would cost more than just paying for the midwife!
So, the credit card won't get paid off before the baby's born (I was really hoping to get rid of that dang thing this year), oh well, I can live with that.

Here's a link you may find amusing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arCITMfxvEc

Hello and Welcome!

2008-03-16T19:00:00.001-06:00

Hello and welcome to my blog! This is going to be a record of my experiences being pregnant and being a new mommy. I'll be posting pictures, links and whatever else pops into my head. Please feel free to to comment, tell stories, give advice, ect.

I've had the bun in the oven for 15 weeks now and will be due September 4th, although I will be having a discussion with this little bun on Aunt Betty's behalf as her and Grandfather's birthdays are on the 5th.

So, more to come. I'll try to be good and post a little something each day, but do keep in mind I am a bit lazy. :)