32 Weeks...For Real

Tonight I had #1 take a picture for you. So there. Be happy :o)

At 32 weeks I weigh almost as much as I did when I delivered the boys. I'll know technically how much at my appt. next Wednesday...but I think I am within 3 lbs right now. My maternity clothes are starting to get tight.

I am 2 weeks from when I had Snug and 5 weeks from when I had Little Monkey Man. I have conflicting feelings about when I deliver. I do not want a preemie and all the potential complications...however I am so tired and feel so stretched out I don't know how I can get any bigger. I also know if I go to 40 weeks I am very likely to have a well over 9 lb baby. Ugh. Lets aim for 37 weeks. I think I can do anything for 5 more weeks. I think.

For the past few weeks I have craved anything sugary. I'm not a big sweets eater normally. Don't get me wrong, I love a good chocolate chip cookie or an ice cream, but not daily...or hourly. I seriously think about foods like that ALL the time. I also crave ice water. I am drinking tons of it, which is great.

I have braxton hicks contractions on and off throughout the day, but in the evenings will get several contractions that start very low and go up so high it is hard to breath and last about 45 seconds or longer. If I get more than 4 of these in an hour my OB wants me at the hospital. I also have quite a bit of low cramping if I lift anything. I have not been lifting Little Monkey for quite some time unless absolutely necessary, and now I don't even do it if it is necessary-I just make sure it never is. He'll have to be bleeding and needing medical attention at this point for me to pick him up. He does climb up on the couch and sit on my lap on his own power, and most of the time that is ok as long as he sits still (ha ha). I've actually found the more I can't hold him the more he wants it. It is kind of nice to be wanted!

So that is me at 32 weeks. I hate hate hate belly pictures of me, but thought Hannah might want to know someday what I looked like when I was having her...you know when she is feeling the same way. Not that this blog will exist in 20 some years, but I'll still have the actual picture. I don't think the boys will care a hoot what I looked like when I was prego with them, but I have a couple of pictures anyway.

It's Black Friday, It's A Rock Concert, It's...Preschool?

Ever since Mother Hen's* first day of preschool I knew exactly where I wanted Snug to go. Here in the great state of Ohio if your child does not attend preschool, it is like they are jumping directly into first grade when they enter kindergarten. Gone are the days of milk and cookies, games and rhymes, recess and socialization. Not that NONE of that is EVER included, but most of it, on a daily basis, has been removed. In fact, when I taught kindergarten a few years ago, I got reprimanded for taking my class out for 15 minutes each morning to the playground. Seriously? Yes. There are many many great kindergarten teachers out there who strive to keep kindergarten a "simple" and a positive experience, but the state pushes kids level hard. It also depends on if the school runs a half day or whole day program how much "traditional kindergarten" is still present.

Anyway, I took Mother Hen for her first day of school and from the moment I walked in I knew it was a good school. I guess having an early childhood education degree would help in knowing what practices are good and what are not, but almost everything I experienced with her that year was very positive.
Can you believe this boy is going to preschool? More specifically he will be in pre-kindergarten. Monday was "In-house" registration. We know several families who have their children there/have had their children there and knew that most of the openings for pre-kindergarten and preschool (3 year olds) would be filled in-house (students or families currently attending this year). We also had the heads up that if we wanted a spot, any spot for next year I would need to be there at least 2 hours before registration opened today.

You heard me. Two hours. I was at the school at 6:00am to make sure that Snug got in. I was the first one there, but only by 5 minutes. By 6:30 am everyone who was going to get their child into the pre-k program was already there. This morning there were only 6 spots left to be filled, and only for 2 day, no 3 day programs. We only wanted 2 days a week as preschool is not cheap and I do lots with the kids at home and plan to continue that. Both Snug and Little M (who is part of Draycare) will be in the same class/same day. Whew! I don't think I wanted to be driving there 5 days a week.

It seriously reminded me of people standing in line outside of Target on black Friday for electronics deals, or waiting in massive long lines to get tickets to a concert (I've never actually done that though). But nope, it was preschool! Luckily people were very honest about when they arrived and we all sat in our cars until 15 min. before registration opened. I think that is a benefit of a Christian preschool.

I also wanted to share this picture from last night. The boys were being very lovey on each other, and it was so sweet. You know, until one tipped the other one over. Any guesses who has that power?

*Mother Hen was a little girl I used to have at Draycare. She is in school full time now and we all miss her a lot.

Wordless Wednesday

Seemingly Simple Solution

We visited our Gastrointerology department at our local children's hospital today...again. I can't tell you how agitated I was stepping off of the elevator on the fourth floor getting ready to face this all again.

Weight was down, but he was in the 23rd %, which for Monkey Man is still good considering he used to be in the negative. After answering tons of questions and the nurse practitioner looking through all of his old files...the diagnosis seems simple. They think that he has had some viruses that have destroyed the good bacteria in his gut. Due to this, he is having diarrhea. When we put him on the BRAT diet, it aggravated it even more as he needs a high fat, high protein diet to combat the issue and bring his levels back to normal. Then going on a liquid diet (jell-o, Gatorade, and chicken broth) it got even worse because sugar would continue to destroy the bacteria. My kids don't get hardly any sugar so the huge dose all at once sent him into his tailspin.

So now he is back on dairy (they think the dairy omission this past winter was a fluke and want to see how he does on it) and lots of lean meat. What I had on hand wasn't top notch, but as you'll see in the picture before he was very satisfied with daddy's lunch meat and cheese.

I think he was just thrilled to EAT again. We also have to limit how much liquid he gets in a day. She wanted us to omit fruit juice (not a problem, my kids don't drink it...Monkey Man has had it two times in his life), sugar (also, I am so ok with this), and water. Really? Yeah, he is limited to 8 oz of water a day on top of 24 oz of milk. I had no idea a kid could drink too much water (he wasn't getting any on the liquid diet) but when she heard he drinks as much as 30 oz of water a day she almost fell off her little swivel stool.

She was worried about it that amount of water interfering with his calorie intake, but I assured her when he was eating "normally" he can pack away an entire cereal bowl (adult, not kids sized) serving of chicken and noodles or stir fry, 2-3 slices of pizza, 2-3 waffles, a full cup of quinoa plus as much ham as I will give him and veggies, serving after serving of fruits and veggies as snacks or with meals, and whole peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Please do not insult him with 1/2 a sandwich. Obviously he wouldn't eat all of that in one sitting, but those are just the serving sizes he will eat. HUGE for a 20 month old.

20 month old? Yes. *sigh* Monkey Man will be 20 months old on Saturday. Where does the time go?

I think his favorite part of the hospital trip was getting blood drawn. Because of his SPD getting his finger pricked and then blood squeezed out into three vials was downright relaxing. The phlebotomist was amazed that he didn't even flinch when the prick was done...and that he almost fell asleep as she coaxed the blood out (she had to squeeze hard and it took about 5 minutes). Sometimes Monkey Man's quirks are to his advantage!

Thanks for your prayers, we are relieved that there is a seemingly simple solution to something that was looking very scary. We have one week to see if he improves.

Monday Memes

AND "Mama Guilt Monday"
A Combo Deal

First things first, I am well aware this is the old "Not Me" button. I like it better thankyouverymuch.

Mama Guilt Monday gets first priority today. This is my first Mama Guilt Monday. Welcome to my misery...er..guilt. Cop Mama runs this meme...click over to see what others are guilty about.

I struggle quite a bit with guilt over Little Monkey's health. Should I take him to the dr? Should I not because I am being paranoid? Did I wait too long to go? I struggle with this constantly.

As I mentioned earlier, we are having trouble with his digestive system again. We totally thought we were out of the dark with him after his final GI appointment some months ago. However, four days of the BRAT diet (banana, rice, and toast sans toast in case of a wheat allergy) he was continuing to have diarrhea. We took him off the anti-diarrheal medicine prescribed to him because it was not helping and turning his BM an awful black and green color. Besides that it contained quite a bit of aluminum which isn't great for him and was expected to work after just a couple of doses. Nope.

We then switched to a clear liquid diet that he has been on now for 24 hours. He is still having diarrhea. I contacted our family practitioner to get the results of his labs from Friday (took in a stool sample) and they are completely clean. No parasites, not sick, no worms etc. They directed me to contact the GI dr. immediately and they would also to get us in as soon as possible. We are going tomorrow at 1:45. Our family practitioner is afraid it might be crones disease or something along those lines. We are still holding out that it is something easy we have missed. Keeping the allergist appt. for (hopefully) a full run of food allergies that is on March 1.

So I feel guilty. Am I doing what is right for him? Did I wait too long? Is it something simple I am just missing?

Ok, now for "Not Me" Monday hosted by MckMama. Click there (on the word "MckMama" to read other people's) I've done lots of these, but don't do them like I used to.

Today's Not Me has to do with a trip to the grocery. Hang on, it is weird.

I did not discover I was completely out of Jell-O, only had one bottle of emergency Gatorade, and no chicken stock in the freezer right after #1 left for work. Liquid diets are a little hard without these staples I think.

I did not pack up both kids into the van (Little Monkey has to use the bathroom stool to climb himself up into the van these days, I'm not allowed to pick him up) without any help.

Once at the grocery, I did not tell Snug that Kroger doesn't do cookies on Sunday. I know I lied and that could go up under "mama guilt", but seriously he couldn't eat that in front of his brother, that would not have been nice. They give a free cookie to each kid who comes through the door. We didn't go by the bakery.

I did not make Snug carry a basket through the store because I couldn't push a cart and drag Little Monkey by the hand (remember, no lifting into a cart). Instead I did not drag Little Monkey by his hand through the store getting essential items. He did not go to his knees or lay on the floor about every 100 ft. I was not forced to convince him to stand up and KEEP WALKING. Meanwhile, Snug was not dragging a Gatorade and Jell-O laden basket behind him.

Our little parade did not catch the attention of the store manager who is most definitely not married to our tax guy. She was so sweet, she picked up Monkey Man, took the basket, and escorted us to the U-scan, instructing the girl (who is just there to make sure no one steals) to get me checked out ASAP and a bag boy to carry my stuff to the car and put Monkey Man IN the car.

I did not then attempt to go to the evening service at church (hey, we were already in the van and about 1 min. from the building) only to discover that there was a gas leak and they were evacuating the building and the fire dept. was rolling up. Think I might be bad luck? Not Me!