Two days in a row..... Yeah it is true

Okay so I finally got the pictures downloaded to my computer that I have been talking about and so I thought that I might share.... there are also a few new scans of ultrasounds of the new baby. So I will with out further ado offer pictures of the cutest kid ( and soon to be kid) that you have ever seen ( and again I state that I am not actually biased... just right : )

She looks a lot like me in this scan. The ultra sound tech took this pic and then said... Oh my momma she is gonna look like you. I got home and showed Dave and he laughed and said she has your chin! She sure is gonna look like you! Funny because the last one made her look like Dave!







One of my favorite pics of my girl. This was Easter Sunday and she didn't feel real well, but you can't tell. She still has the sweetest disposition. Not mind you that I am a proud momma or anything!












This is another of my favorites. They just don't make them cuter.... I could see as cute... but cuter NEVER!

















Here is another of the newest member.... Still looks like me in profile... but those big cheeks are all daddy : )









Wanting to visit Bupa and Grandma's house. On the weekends and days that we don't get over there, she misses them terribly. If we miss even a day she wakes us up in the morning with " See Bupa. See Grandma!" We hear about it all day until we go over to see them. Its even worse when Ry has been there over the weekend.... because we hear for a week straight about seeing Ry. Kid knows what she wants.

There are no excuses!!!

That's right I have no excuse. We have been busy yes... and remember that fantasy novel that I have been waiting to come out.... it did and my mom bought it and I am reading it. But really there is little excuse... except HAVE YOU LOOKED OUT SIDE LATELY. A and I have been taking every opportunity to be out in this gorgeous weather... because every other day it seems like it turns rainy and cold... so we want to make hay while the sun shines. I have pictures and with Dave's next check I am going to insist on buying a new USB cord because I am tired of his promises to A.) look for existing one and B.) down load directly from the card to his computer so that I can use his computer to blog. Not something I really want to do anyways, because he has one of those teeny little keyboards and my typing speed gets cut in half. I know I know that I should perhaps be able to look for the USB cord myself.... however it is in a tote in our storage shed that is stacked up with other totes... and in my current condition lifting and tossing totes is ill-advised at best.
So we have been busy and I guess I will have to just do a highlights show for you and skip the detail.... no one really wants to read all that I can write in a nap time.... even if it is a power nap hour. We are all doing well. Dave was in the ER last Tues for the usual crap with his pancreas. Another snafu with his meds. This time it is that he is on so many that cause his appetite to decrease that he hasn't been eating... thus his liver thought that he was starving and went into overdrive sending the Cholesterol through the roof which caused his pancreas to have a few things to say which sent him to the hospital in pain. He is feeling better now. They didn't even keep him overnight.... but they did prescribe a medication that will make him hungry.... CRAZY! If only we could do something about this in a natural way.... But I am cooking nothing but beans and whole grains with salmon and chicken as our proteins and he is still having trouble so I don't know what more we can do.
Baby number two is doing well. We had an ultrasound 2 almost three weeks ago and she is a big girl. Tipping the scale at 3 lbs and 3 ounces she is a full pound over the average for her gestation and she is more than a half a pound bigger than Ash was at that gestation. Ash was 2 lb 7 ounces. This one is on the border of being macrosomic already so we are probably going to have a big one. The Doc assured me that it isn't anything that I am doing my HA1C was 5.2 when it was checked only the week before the ultrasound. That is phenomenal. You really can't get better! They want it under 6 and not less than 5 so I am obviously walking the diet tightrope fairly well. There isn't much more that I can do. Not to mention each baby tends to get bigger according to the doc, at least with most women... and I am diabetic so there isn't much we can do. Just pray that she doesn't get too big, because due to the fact that I will already be having a C-section they will not take her early. She is a healthy child though. We have had all the heart checks and the kidney checks etc. that they do because of my diabetes and the PKD in Dave's family and we are looking good.... Oh yeah and she is still a girl. I don't care if we get a boy... I just want some warning. I have been garage saleing and I have bought a lot of girls clothes and I would hate to have a surprise in the delivery room. As to names... Yes yes yes we have one. Our little one will be names Ainne Roisin ( I won't use our last name because this is broadcast over the net but those of you who know us know our name) Ainne is Gaelic ( of course ) and is pronounce Ahn-ya Roisin is also Gaelic and is pronounced RO-ish-EEN. Ainne is the gaelic form of Anne or Nancy which is my mothers name and means one of two things either joyful or graceful depending on where you look it up Roisin is a traditional name that is used in the rebel songs that means little rose. It also has come to stand in for Ireland in those songs.... so if you see a song or lament for Roisin it is usually actually about Ireland. I liked that because. Aislynn or Ashlynn ( they mean the same thing) is the name that means Ireland in Irish poetry. So there is a little bit of a trend in our names.... besides the obvious of all being A names.... which by the way is entirely accidental. Not to mention which ever way you look at it I think Graceful little rose or Joyful little rose is a beautiful meaning for a beautiful little girl. Had she been a he, his name would have been Rylan Quinn.... which both Dave and I REALLY REALLY liked and are terribly disappointed that we won't be able to use.... Perhaps there is a higher power that is insisting on the A names who knows.
Now as to our princess. What can be said about Ash... she is growing like a weed. Something that Dave and I have noticed because she has had a little bit of trouble going under things that she has never had before... Lots of head bumping lately. Also she seems to be tripping over her feet a lot too. But then with this wonderful weather she has been outside a lot and our yard is not so wonderfully landscaped so she still walks like a toddler over the uneven ground. Inside and on flat surfaces she does everything at a flat out run. The same can't be said outside. She is becoming quite the toddler. Everything baby about her seems to have melted away. She is so big now and she is so much more sophisticated. She parrots everything that you say so you have to be careful. Dave and I were horribly chagrined when we came into the house and Abigail the dog got a little too jumpy and Ash says " Damn It Abby get down" Clear as a bell. Um.... OOPS! She also has learned the toddler method of protest: if she doesn't want to go somewhere she just sits down. Now I am 31 weeks pregnant and measuring 35 because the baby is big. I can only care Ash for very short distances and she is the perfect distance to hold hands right now.... any shorter and I am in trouble. So when she plops on her butt... it causes a little bit of a wrinkle for mommy. She also argues with you now. She has learned ( I have no idea where I don't think I want to know) to blame her stinkers on people around her. So she will stinker and then look at me with a grin and say "MOMMY STINKER!" and if I say no "Ashlynn stinker" she will rejoin with " NO MOMMY STINKER" no mind you she also has learned that TOP VOLUME gets more response so it is not a quiet argument. We don't get out much.... but I already see embarrassment for mom on the horizon with that one... it is just a matter of time! She argues about a lot of things... she just enjoys it. " BEAR" " Puppy" " NO BEAR" "puppy" well you get the idea. She loves to do it. I suppose that I shouldn't argue with my toddler even in play... but it is so doggone fun and the grin she gets while we are doing it is absolutely enchanting! She has got to be the cutest, prettiest, smartest kid in the world. And you can pass that off as being biased all you want... but like I told my cousin Sarah when she said that I am with Ash all day every day and that means that rather than being biased I am simply in the best position to make the judgement! She is a pistol and she keeps Dave and I on our toes, but she is still so sweet. I have seen kids turn into little demons when they reach the toddler years... but she is just becoming more complex and staying sweet.
It is hard to dress her right now... no not because she is in anyway difficult about it.... if anything her cousin Ariah's love for dress up has rubbed off and that is the one thing ( aside from eating) that there is NEVER an argument about! The thing is that she is in between sizes right now. 18 months is really the right size but we have to be careful washing so it doesn't shrink even slightly. 24 months will often fall right off of her... but if we shrink it sometimes it will work a little later. Dave is doing the laundry right now so that is a hit and miss thing. The other issue is that no two clothes company make their sizes the same so some times a walmart 24 months is more like a khol's 18 months. We have had some issues lately. But at the rate she is growing we will be looking at 24 months soon I am sure. Clothes get treated pretty roughly around here between the toddler eating and husband doing the laundry most of them have a stain or two that we have to live with. Dave doesn't pretreat and Ash doesn't show and quarter when she is eating. Red Jello is attacked with as much gusto as a clear broth soup. Yes yes bibs... well we have plenty and Ash knows how to take them off.... not to mention her hands get under them etc etc. The other day I was out with my parents and we stopped at a buffet where we responsibly put a bib on A before feeding her Sweet potatoes. It wasn't until we were leaving that we realized that those sweet potatoes had puddled in her lap and her pretty white and lilac dress was going to have some issues.... as well as my mothers white sweater ( the person who happened to be carrying her to the car when we noticed the whole lap issue. )
So yes we are here I know it has been a bit. Mother's day come and gone.... by the way for our mothers I bought the cards and Dave never mailed them. I haven't been out in a while but when I do get out again I will make sure they get mailed. Sorry!!!! But not completely unexpected I suppose. Used to be I would just walk down to the mail box on the end of the street.... not so much these days. My mother's day was nice and quiet. Dave got nice breakfast items and made a delicious breakfast for me followed by a nice dinner at my parents house. He also got me a new purse and a personal handheld back massager. I joked and said that one was self-serving because he is sick of hearing " sweetie would you give me a back rub?" Father's day is coming up and I am hoping to get the mother's day cards mailed before then. And I hope that my next posting is sooner rather than later.... but I make no promises....

So April is nearly over and this is only my second posting for the month... I am sorry about that but life has been moving at a pretty fast pace around here. We seem to have a little bit of a moment to breath and take it easy this week... though I am not going to say it too loudly because well everyone knows good old Murphy and I am not going to invite him into our lives.
At any rate Ash is better. Though it took forever. This flu was a real pain... as it lingered for a week and every other day or so she would wake up puking and she had terrible diaper blowouts for the entire week. Dave and I had agreed that if she hadn't shown marked improvement by Monday we were taking her to the doctor...because it was the flu that never ends. It just goes on and on my friend. Well anyways... she did show improvement and so she did not have to enter the much hated doctor zone. I don't know what he ever did to her but she hates the docs office... not the dermatologist so much but her doc... she cries from the point that they call us back. So we try to go as infrequently as possible. We did have to make a visit to afore mentioned dermatologist. We had the eczema breakout from hell. But a few extra applications of her cream and extra doses of her antihistamine and she was set. We have to pay for those visits out of pocket so we try to keep them to a minimum... but when the need presents itself it is rarely shy about it. Ash likes Lori alot so it is never a hardship to get her in THERE. Besides Lori helped me to feel less guilty about the fact that my child is constantly on allergy medication which makes bedtime easy most nights. Although she is starting to build up an immunity to the sleepiness effect so these last few months we have not had the piece of cake we used to. There for a while she was out like a light in minutes flat. I was however feeling guilty about that. What mother really wants to give her kid Benedryl every night when there are mothers out there who use the same stuff to put their kids to sleep. But like Lori said " anybody who looks at your child knows that she has allergies with the circles she has under the eyes and all the signs in her skin. She is atopic and you are going to need to use that allergy medicine for years to come to keep her comfortable." Besides like she pointed out there are parents who use it three times a day rather than once. And honestly on bad days we do have to use it two to three times but I try not to use it too often because I LIKE my child alert. Still when the nose is running like a faucet and she is head to toe eczema there is little choice. At least we have moved away from the Aderal that she was using which is a prescription allergy med. And this here season is not the time to take it away from her. If she doesn't get at least one dose of allergy meds she is one miserable kid.
Ash is a mile a minute these days. She is so much fun. She is a little parrot and will repeat anything that you say... so beware what you say. Dave the other day taught her " For Shizzle" which means for sure in Snoop Dogg speak for those of you who don't know. Now she goes around saying that constantly. I always hoped for a multilingual kid... but snoop dogg speak was not exactly what I had meant. That is only one of the hundreds of words that this child uses. At an age where they expect 20-40 words out of a child ours has a vocabulary that is easily more than a hundred of words that she uses correctly... and is at this time putting together simple sentences. For example the other day on the way home from the visitation for my uncle she pipes from the back seat " Mommy drop nuk! Mommy get it please!" My own mother says " Holy cow that was two full sentences out of that child!" I could only nod...because I didn't know what to say really. She has been using simple sentences like that for a couple of weeks but it still shocks me a little. I was a fast talker when I was little and I was reading out loud by the time I was three and reading chapter books before kindergarten... so I guess there shouldn't be a ton of surprise still it makes you catch your breath. She is also getting the concept of counting and has most of the colors down pat. Red Orange and Yellow are still able to give her a little trouble but she has the rest of the rainbow down. When she notices that there is more than one of something she will count " One two three ____" and fill in the blank with the item she is counting. So while she doesn't get the count yet... she gets the concept, which is a pretty good step considering she has yet to turn 18 months. She also helps to clean the house... or rather a clean up sweep. We have a little song that she sings as she cleans up... and she actually sings it while putting books and toys away. She also has learned how to feed the dog and wants to do that endlessly. She does it over at Gran and Gramps' house also.... to the point where we have to watch closely because she will feed Lucky the dog all night long if allowed.
Reading to her has become an absolute joy. We have always read to her from the point where she was a teeny teeny baby, only a few weeks old. And we went through the stage where we read the same book twenty five times wanting to bang our heads against a wall. We still often have to read the same book repeatedly... but the reading has taken on a different flavor. Now instead of reading the book over and over we look at the pages and she tells me what is on the page... or what sound the animal makes. MOO cow... and Piggy Oink oink. Quack quack ducky. She will point our balls and puppies and bears and blocks. She will tell you about the blue birdy and the yellow birdy and the bunny. She will find the hidden eggs in the Easter book and point out the Easter Bunny hiding in the bushes. It is always new and exciting. Yes she wants the book read to her, but she also wants a chance to talk about what is in the pictures too. Her grandma Barb got her Goodnight Moon for her birthday and that particular book has the distinction of being the first book that she knows by name and asks for by name. Granted she says " Night night Moon" but she gets her point across. With me getting bigger and needing to take more down time... we read ALOT. But I was thinking just the other night that this pregnancy has given me a special opportunity to be able to sit and read with her for hours that I might not otherwise have gotten. I would be busy with household tasks and other things and not have so much time to sit with her and read to her. So for all that I worry about what a new baby is going to do when she gets here.... the pregnancy is offering me the chance to make hay while the sun shines... and love on the one I have while I only have one.
By the way I did go to the doc on Tuesday as scheduled. Ummmm I lost 5 1/2 pounds in the last week. They are not impressed at all by that... but as I had the flu and was in the hospital for it... they weren't terribly surprised. My A1C ( or the three month average of blood sugars) was EXCELLENT! It was 5.2 and no one could ask for better. I kind of look at that number as my progress report and that number is an A+++ Any thing less than 6.5 is good. less than 6.0 is Excellent and 5.0 is the lowest they want to see. my iron was a little low... but that isn't terribly surprising either as this kiddo makes the thought of protein other than seafood sound terrible. I still have a hard time with nausea if there is too much protein in a meal. With Ash I was looking for the next steak... and indeed my poor husband brought me a really nice steak home as a surprise a few weeks ago and I could hardly eat it. Dave expected me to attack it like the vampire I was when I was pregnant with Ash. I had to control my urges to eat it as rare as possible with her. With this one you could cook it to shoe leather and I still could care less. Instead with this one I want fish! Shrimp! Salmon! You name it if it lives in the water I want it. I think Dave had to control his own nausea when I ate an entire can of smoked oysters the other day.... and I would have eaten another if it was available. Canned salmon has my name on it too. He made me catfish nuggets the other day and I would have married him all over again for it. Go figure.
Alright I have talked your ears right off ... I guess it would actually be your eyes wouldn't it. Anyways whatever it is I should give you a rest. So off I go. I am sure that I will post again... just not sure when.

Easter bunnys, death and a hospital stay

Once again we have had one of those not so uneventful weeks... more like week and a half or two weeks. It has been over two weeks since I last blogged for all of you and I am sorry... but as I said we have had a busy busy schedule. Last week I had some contractions so I was at the doc an extra long time while they had me on the monitor and checked to see if there are any changes to my cervix. The cervix is a little soft but the cerclage is still holding so while they are a little concerned about the cervix there is little we can do and there haven't been any more contractions. They told me it was time to start thinking of ways to get some serious help with A but Dave and I have racked our brains and there just isn't much we can do about it all so, again we will just have to pray. I started Physical therapy last week... I am walking so much better. I had to cancel this weeks because I was in the hospital but we will start again next week. Yes you heard me I was in the hospital. I had a terrible flu and couldn't keep anything down and that made my blood sugars go way low... so they kept me in the hospital to keep my blood sugars up and to hydrate me. Stupid Flu.
A bear got the flu too... so we had a fun house around here. At least A got the flu Sunday and Monday... mommy got it Tuesday and Wed. Gramps got it Wed and Gran has it today. Daddy hasn't seemed to get it yet. So on Sunday and Monday ( and a little on Tuesday) Mommy was cleaning up mess after mess from A. It really is hard to have a child that has the flu who can't tell you they are about to puke on you or all nearby surfaces... and why the heck does the puking disease always hit when it is the dead of night and everyone is sleeping. I had to give A a bath at 3AM and wanted to get the sheets changed but Dave refused to budge from the bed and when I made mention that the bed was puked on and I certainly wasn't sleeping in it... he got nasty. So I did what any self-respecting woman would do... I slept on the couch with my freshly washed child and let him sleep in the puke. NOT MY PROBLEM! She managed to puke another three times and covered mommy a couple of times... so perhaps it was best that we weren't on fresh sheets in the bedroom anyways. We ended up sleeping with mommy sitting up with A in her lap and a bowl on A's lap.
When Mommy started to get sick A must have had some memory and connected it with her own issues... because she was very worried about me. Dave went to work leaving early again... I think that he is afraid to be in the house when we are sick. At any rate at 10:30 PM I had to call him to meet me at the hospital because blood sugars in the 60s are not acceptable and my doctor agreed when I called. Not to mention I wasn't having any luck keeping even a Popsicle down. By the time my dad got me there I was dehydrated and that was all she wrote. I came home yesterday afternoon when they were able to see a marked improvement in the ketone level in my urine. Dave stayed home from work yesterday just to be sure that all was well and is back to work today.
On Easter weekend my parents had my niece R for 4 days. She came over on Thursday and went home late Sunday. On Friday A and R decorated Easter eggs and made construction paper eggs that R can send to her Daddy who is in Afghanistan. Dave and I took her on Sat for 5 hours or so to give my parents a break. We went to see the Easter bunny.... and waited for 30 minutes. When we got up there R leaned into me and pointed and said " there is a person in that costume. I'm not going up there" Pretty sophisticated for a three year old. And so we left without having visited. Not that I was heartbroken the picture with the Easter bunny would have cost us 20.00 and that is outrageous. So off we went to the PET STORE. Um that is like the best place in the world for kids next to a toy store. We had taken A there a couple of weeks ago and she loved it. So we decided that would be a great place to take both girls. While there they petted rabbits, Guinea pigs, ferrets, and even a parrot. They also both got to touch a turtle and a hamster and a chinchilla. They offered ( of course) to take out puppies for us... but it was a bit crowded and so we declined. But R got to see Nemo fish and Dory fish ( if you don't know who they are that just means that you haven't watched Finding Nemo 101 times with a three year old and just wait your time is bound to be coming.) A just saw an endless supply of "fishies" and at her age that is all she needed to know. She pointed and said Fishy for every fish in the joint I think. We then went to Red Robin where Dave and I shared a burger and R and A shared a burger. After we ate and made off with the requisite helium balloons we went to Toys R Us where each girl had a ten dollar limit and the option to buy whatever toy they wanted in that limit. A found an Elmo doll and R found a disney doll both of which fit into their budget and away we went.
When we got home we got the devestating news that my uncle had been in a motorcycle accident earlier in the day and that they could not bring him around. So I stayed at my parents house with the girls while my parents ran to the hospital to be with my father's sister Cheryl. I played Beauty shop with R and had my hair done for hours as well as painted her nails for her to match her easter dress. My uncle passed away on Sunday morning at 2:45 A.M. So very heartbreaking for everyone. Understandably the Easter celebration at my Grandparents house was cancelled. However just as understandably R didn't understand at three much about what this meant. So my brother Brenden saved the day for the girls by hiding Easter eggs around this house so that the girls could have a hunt. The girls both woke up to a visit from the Easter Bunny that thrilled both of them with toys perfectly chosen just for them and then Gran fixed a beautiful breakfast complete with rolls. The girls dressed in their Easter dresses ( that gran made for them) and as beautiful as two princesses can be they went outside and found Easter eggs. As the night had been long for every adult either waiting up at home for news or waiting around the hospital for news we all took naps with the kids. And then Gran cooked an Easter Ham. It was a little late that we sat down for Easter dinner but it would have been well worth it if my daughter hadn't gotten sick as we all sat down right onto the dinner table. And so we come round in a full circle to the beginning of this post and the puking disease that seems to have hit everyone. R thought it was great fun to see A puke into her plate, and indeed it was the first thing she told her mother about when she came to get her. All of the fun that we had and the tragedy that had occured in the four days she was over and A puking was the highlight... who would have thought.
So we will be heading to the visitation here in an hour or so. My daughter will have a second opportunity to wear her dress, I will visit with family that I haven't seen for five years, and I wish to God that it were different. I would trade so much to have my uncle John still here. Every time I think of my Aunt Cheryl my heartbreaks in half. The thought of my cousins Gary and Chrissy brings tears to my eyes. John was a good man who loved his family and had so much life still ahead of him. It seems so unfair for it to be cut short this way. Though we are busy trying to count the blessings involved in this.... my Aunt Cheryl normally would have been on the back of that bike! being one of them, they are of little consolation. We miss you already Uncle John! WE LOVE YOU!

Mary mary quite contrary how does your baby grow?

So today we finally were able to get all of the pictures that were needed of this stubborn child that I am carrying. Try number three and finally all heart, kidney, brain, spine, and face pictures for the anatomy profile are done. But it wasn't easy. Christy , the ultrasound tech, kept laughing because the child wiggled continuously through the scan. In other scans we couldn't get her to move for the life of us she was so snuggled into sleep and in this one she wiggled the whole time. The part that was funny was that she would give Christy the view that she needed only to squirm out of said position as soon as Christy tried to capture the image. She was doing these half rolls... and she did it four or five times. By the end Christy and I both agreed that I may just have my hands very very full when this child is born.
By the way.... she is still a girl. Like I told Christy, I don't care one way or the other really.... I just want a little bit of warning so that I don't decide that I can rely on the old stores of clothes only to find out that we will need to go shopping pronto for boys clothes on the day the kid is born. That would NOT be cool. Healthy is all I ask for... that and prior warning so that I don't have a boy in pink for the rest of his life. Because due to the info that we have received that this is a girl... there has been very little shopping done, as we have a lot of clothes... they are slightly off season... but we are hoping that there will be some overlap.
Also babe has moved from being transverse and is now frank breach. Frank Breach means that her little butt is down and her head is up. If they are breach this is the best position. Aidan was a footling breach and that is NOT a good position.. that means that one little foot is dangling ( double footling means that both are dangling) and that is a bad position to be in... though the worst of all is of course transverse which is ALWAYS a c-section. Not that it matters one little bit this babe will be delivered by c-section and I am not given any sort of option on that. Some docs do give you a choice... mine does not. But even the more liberal docs would probably have a few issues with me trying to have a VBAC as a diabetic so we will be scheduling a c-section and so be it.
We did a growth scan too today and we are currently at 1 lb 9 ounces. That is bigger than A was at this age but still well with in the parameters that they want to see for this child. Not too big not too small. My doc is very happy with how she is growing and her anatomy all looks totally normal and healthy. So over all we are VERY HAPPY!
The office has referred me for physical therapy for my back and it looks as if we might be able to get me in before the end of the week. That will be a much needed relief if it can take care of some of the pain that I have been having. I got a massage from my cousin on Monday and that helped considerably. How lucky am I to have a cousin who is a massage therapist? She couldn't do the full body work up because of pressure points that can cause labor in the legs and feet... but what she did do was pure Heaven. I am hoping that the combo of massage and physical therapy will get this back in better shape. Although I have been warned by several people that most likely I will not get relief until I deliver the baby. I am not looking for miracles but even a small amount of relief would be wonderful. I can hear all of you moms who suffered through back aches during pregnancy saying " whatever" as you roll your eyes... but the pinched nerve that we are talking about here is a pretty serious thing. My legs go numb or pins and needles all night long. I am having trouble lifting my legs in the evening high enough to walk on sometimes flat ground. I am having trouble getting myself into and out of chairs, and a walk across the floor in the late evening and night time sometimes seems impossible. We have a series of supports for me that will hold my weight from the bed to the bathroom so that I do not fall at night because my legs and hips literally cannot be trusted to keep me upright and support me. I have never felt so crippled in all my life. Carrying Ash is not a great help... but she is still so young and I have little choice in the matter. We can all just be grateful that the job of carrying her from my parents house back home is the last straw that (forgive the pun) breaks the camels back... and I am not required to do too much lifting of her once we get home.
I am gaining weight faster than I did with Ash... though I am still well with in the parameters the doc and dietitian set for me. The difference I think is that I am already retaining water with this one... I didn't start swelling with Ash until I was firmly into my third trimester. I have taken my wedding ring off already this time, after it got good and stuck. Dave helped me to get it off and has put it in a safe place. I was warned repeatedly with Ash that I was going to have to take that ring off but never actually did, and in fact wore it into the delivery room. My mind is continually boggled by how different these pregnancies are from each other. You would think if you have been pregnant once that you would have a good baseline for how your body deals with the hormones and such that wreak such complete havoc on your body. Instead in many ways this pregnancy seems as if it is a complete opposite. It would almost make sense if this were a boy instead of a girl. Then you could say yes well this is how it was with the girl now you are carrying a boy. But as we see this child more and more frequently we are reassured that we will be having another daughter and it seems so strange that it has such a drastically different effect on my body. Lets just be grateful that this is my last, as I have already signed the paperwork for my tubes to be tied.
Alright it is late and as I seem to be sleeping in shifts these days... I had better go and get a little bit of rest. Ash gets up awfully early and we are entering the allergy days.... That should make sleeping somewhat easier at least.

Are we Viable yet?

Why yes dear we have reached viability!!! That is to say newest baby H can live outside the womb if born now. And for the record our nephew Ethan proved it only a few short years ago. He will be two years old next week and he was born at 25 weeks and that is only a week further into pregnancy than we are. Now don't go getting all up in arms we are intending to much further... read much much much further... but I love having this milestone behind us.... I would no longer have to fight tooth and nail to get care if she is born... instead they will fight as hard as they can to save this baby should she make an unscheduled appearance. THAT is a relief, because as some of you know and many of you may not know... we had to fight like wildcats for the care that was offered to our little Aislynn. Several doctors tried to talk us out of the fight and only one neonatalogist in the entire hospital would take it on. Now that is not to say that the fight was entirely hopeless. As a matter of fact a baby that was several days younger than Aislynn's gestation actually survived about a year later. And is still doing fine as far as we all know. We had to struggle to keep a positive attitude while our oldest daughter struggled to live. Dave and I got to the point where we crept in and out of the NICU to see our daughter hoping not to see a doctor because they would come and dump a load of crap on us and we would be left shell shocked. I always countered by asking for the battles that she had won and digging into the numbers that were heading in the right direction. You see they were there and we would then get a list of accomplishments and victories... but we had to search them out and cling to the hope that they offered. On nurse turned to my mother in law after we had walked away and told her " They really are going to have to start being realistic about this" And I will forever be grateful for her response to him which was " They are being realistic... but they are looking for the good in the pile of bad that you offer them so that they can keep being hopeful also!" We knew that we were fighting an uphill battle and that it wouldn't be fun... but we also knew that as her parents we couldn't walk away with out giving our little girl a fighting chance. That is all here nor there however... because we don't have that fight anymore. This little girl has earned the right to a good fight!
Now that I am done bragging about how long I have been pregnant I have to say that my last blog entry was filled with a lot of activity... but none of it was really an update on the stinker that so many of you really want to hear about. And mind you that is not to say that she hasn't been busy making strides in becoming a person more than a baby. As a matter of fact I would go so far as to say that she is now officially all toddler and very little baby. She is a wonder and a marvel all rolled into one.
This weekend her cousin R came over and we spent all day on Sat shopping for shoes. Her gramps and gran got each girl a pair of sandals and a pair of Easter dress shoes to go with the dresses that Gran is making for each girl. ( I had to laugh when I mentioned that she would have to make three next year. Ha ha ha Another girl WOW) and Dave and I got each girl a pair of tennis shoes. At any rate so we were off and shopping and A worked so hard to keep up a conversation with R like a person does. Basically it consisted of A repeatedly saying R's name and then pointing at the things she knows the word for and saying it for R. I think that this was the first time that R really saw that A is a little person as opposed to this baby thing that everyone thinks is so cute. Though there is obviously a little bit more to go as later in the evening she wanted to dress A like she does her dolls... and when A was not so obliging as to sit still she kept asking me or Gran to " make her stay still so I can get this outfit on her" I had to laugh as I often myself wonder how to make her sit still so that I can get an outfit on her.
A has added to her vocabulary in leaps and bounds. Her new favorite is " Oh Well" Daddy thought that it was just hysterical the first time that he heard it out of her because it is such a mommy phrase. Oh well is my catch for everything. I get upset at Dave and there is no point in talking about it " Oh well" Juice gets spilled on the floor and A says "Uh Oh" Mom says " Oh well" It is my " whatever" though to be frank I use whatever also... I heard that one out of my niece a few weeks ago and it cracked me up. She sounded like a little adult, though I also realized that it isn't very nice to hear! At any rate A hears "Oh well" a lot because at her age there are a lot of " Uh Oh"s! It is my attempt to let her know that those little "uh Oh"s are never anything that she will be in trouble for. She picks up words so quickly that you have to be careful what you say around her because I expect that very soon now she will start picking up the words we don't want her to know. Dave and I are both potty mouths who let loose with those words with out much thought and in common every day conversation so we are trying to change that trend. The thing is that when A repeats a word she is so proud of it and we make over her like crazy. So we really don't want her to let loose with a big ole " S@*T" only to beam at us with expectation of praise. And Dave and I have a bad tendency of being so inappropriate at those moments that we really make things worse. We would probably laugh hysterically thus making it a really cool word to say again and again. OH WELL!
We have determined that our child has a mind of her own and will not be led in any direction that she does not want to go. She has definite likes and dislikes and she has a one tracked mind that drives an adult to distraction. Take for example she LOVES to brush her teeth. And now when we go into the bathroom she wants to brush her teeth. Pointing at her toothbrush and repeatedly saying "teeth". Now that doesn't seem like a bad thing... in fact even a good thing... except that she now goes to the bathroom with me every time that I have to go ( and i am pregnant I pee A LOT!!!) Even that isn't a bad thing, I mean some kids you can't even get to brush their teeth and ours wants to ten times a day. Well mom does have some control and we do it two or three times a day, the issue comes in that there is no off button to let her know that it is time to STOP brushing her teeth. If we allow it 15 minutes later she would still be brushing... and once she has started it causes a slight fit to stop. We have gotten REALLY good at distraction. As a matter of fact we often tag team. " Go show daddy how clean your teeth are" while from the living room " A come show me how clean your teeth are. Are they white." Or dad will come in with her coat to go bye bye a couple of minutes after we start. Distraction is our greatest tool.
She has begun noticing and being distraught about changes in the house too. When Dad put up the screen for the projector for movie night that caused her distress.... and when it came down that distress came back. We got a new shower curtain this week and that was a new and distressing change all over again. And while she has noticed changes of this nature for several months she is just now starting to realize that she can use words to verbalize these issues. "Uh Oh" she says in a worried tone pointing until we explain that it is okay.
We got a Sesame street video for her on Friday and she is entranced. As I write she is watching said DVD ( the second time today, twice yesterday, and once on Friday) She has learned the words grouch and poof and points out kitty and elmo and abby. She is CRAZY about it. Dave and I haven't really used TV much in her life and we both feel strongly about using it sparingly.... but both of us LOVE watching her watch this thing. She is so into it... and she keeps a running commentary on who is on the screen and what is going on.
Alright I have to go.... my little one is looking for Mommy to cuddle her on the chair while she watches her show.... She was a bit spoiled when she was sick... and mommy sat on the couch with her ALL day long.... And well being as I am not allowed to do too much, and in a few short months mommy will have to be shared I am not in any rush to unspoil her. Besides as I was telling Dave earlier today when two hours into her nap you are getting excited that she will be waking up soon and you can spend more time with her.... you know you are addicted to your child. I would say that I am an addict and all I can say to that state of affairs is "OH WELL"

Our not so uneventful week

Holy Moly has this been a busy week. Last week this time I told you about my little one who had a touch of the flu.... oh how innocent I was complaining about the slightly fussy little girl with a bit of stomach upset... because the Fates decided to show me just what a sick baby is. At four thirty Sunday morning Dave and I awoke to our pretty little princess puking all over us... followed shortly by her puking all over us again. It was upsetting to her and she cried afterward which prompted mommy to comfort rather than focus on cleaning as Daddy had somehow fallen back asleep. ( I know right) In all fairness Daddy had injured himself the night before in a stupid wrestling match with his friend and had unknown to him at that point separated his shoulder so we have to give him a break. Once the babe was sufficiently comforted I had to focus on getting us cleaned up. Unfortunately my dear child had had a meal of salmon the night before and let me just say it was not the most pleasant of messes I have ever had to deal with. So fifteen or so minutes later Mom and A were cleaned up and in the living room. I was about to focus on getting Dad up and cleaning the bed room when there was an ominous sound from the direction of A's diaper. He he he she giggles "stinker" Yeah I just bet... and sure enough the mess in that diaper was colossal and guess what... she needed another change in clothes... even though I caught it as soon as it had happened. So off come the clothes and soiled diaper and on goes another diaper and another set clothes. I then got into the bedroom where Dad needed full an awful lot of help to get off of the bed. After the ten minutes of work to get Dad off of the bed I realized that there was another change of both diaper and clothes needed. Damn. With that done I stripped the bed while Dad helped her out with some pedialyte and toast as she was asking for juice and eat. I came into the room and sat down just in time to realize that she was once again puking and in a desperate and perhaps misguided attempt to keep her outfit clean I tried to catch it with my hands. I did a pretty good job, but seriously, GROSS. The outfit had to be changed anyways. So I changed the outfit... and then the diaper again... and it was quiet for about 15 minutes. When I got to go through the entire cycle again. Although eventually out of sheer lack of clothing I no longer changed the outfit just the diaper. Finally around ten in the morning there was a bit of a lull... and she fell into a fitfull sleep on me on the couch. We had been sitting on the couch reading book after book after book and then doing it all over again for several hours when she finally thought about nursing and asked for it. That put her out like a light. And why wouldn't it: a warm lap, her blanky, her bear, and mom's breast sound like the perfect comfort combo. So out she went for about and hour while Dave ran to the laundromat to clean the sheets, and then to the store to get the needed sick items like Popsicles and jello. She woke up as he came in and we tentatively tried some of the items Daddy had gotten for her. Alleluia she kept it down.. but the every fifteen minute cycle on the diapers kept up as did the activity of lap sitting cuddling and reading. Later at about 2:30 Mom, Dad, and baby all went and laid down on the freshly laundered sheets and took a two or three hour nap. THAT was blissful as we had all been up since 4:30 and needed it! When we got up at five that fifteen minute cycle kept up ( and indeed did so through Monday) But the real crisis seemed like it was past. The lap sitting and reading was the activity all through the night... until Dad went to a friends house and got his projector and screen... at which point the activity turned to lap sitting and watching movies and continued until she went to sleep at nine. By Monday she seemed mostly better. However on Friday night I opened a 57 pack of diapers and on Monday they were replaced because we were out. She also blew ( Pun intended) through two full packs of diaper wipes. By Tuesday mom was willing to throw a party for a normal poopy diaper... though we did not see it happen really until Thursday.
On Monday Dave went to work and said he had injured himself and could not lift... they said uh no and sent him to the doc... where x-rays were done and it was determined that he had separated his shoulder. So they sent him home with a prescription of pain relievers and muscle relaxers and had him off work until they looked at him again on Thursday. The pain relievers and muscle relaxers did a lot for toning down his language and made him less of a bear to live with... and I have survived him quitting smoking twenty times so you know it was bad! On Thursday they gave him Friday off and said that he could return to work on Monday. Not a great situation as he does not get any paid time off or sick leave. So we will suck it up and deal with it... I guess that Peanut butter and Jelly is on the menu for the month of April.
I was very very glad to have him home on Tuesday night because during a time when he is normally gone a really bad storm hit us. The wind sounded like a train and though it was not a tornado it was a little scary... especially as we do not have a basement. There was a terrible crash sound that shook our whole house... and knocked things off of shelves in the kitchen. At first we had no idea what it was and as that was the only sound we went on our merry way... until about an hour and a half later I started hearing sounds that made me think the shower was on... only Dave had run to the grocery store... and the baby was sleeping. It seemed to be coming from the bedroom so I toddled off to the bedroom to discover that the shower was in our bedroom... and it was in several different places at once. SHIT. So I called Dave and told him to get his ass home fast because our entire bedroom was leaking and it was doing so on our fairly new bed! Dave and my dad investigated and realized that the boom and crash that we had heard was our roof being lifted off by the wind... YES LIFTED OFF. And all of the rain that had happened and was still happening was coming into our BEDROOM... and worse yet ONTO our NEW BED the one our daughter was currently sleeping on!( oh and all over our clothes in the closet and all over the floor and all over the well you get the point) Even worse this was not a drip, this was not even a drizzle, this was a stream and it wasn't getting any smaller it was getting bigger and worse it was happening in a new place by the second. So Dave and my Dad muscled the roof back into place and put sandbags and a few heavy objects on it to keep it down until something more permanent could be done as it was at this point midnight. Dave came in and put the bed on its side so that the least amount of damage could continue to be done... and Ash and I packed up to go sleep on my parents couch while Dave slept on our couch. It was the least restful night of sleep I have had since I brought Ash back home from the hospital, but at least then I had a beautiful new daughter to console me. Dave has spent the last three days running to the laundromat with loads of clothes... and we have been trying to clean up the mess. But there is a rather funky fish gone bad smell that is taking over the bedroom... so we still have some work cut out for us. The bed dried up... and we are hoping that we will not have to replace it as we don't have renters insurance. So we are keeping an eagle eye on the areas that were really damp... and hoping that no mildew pops up. I am hoping that the sandpaper throat that I have is not a result of the mildew... and I am also hoping that I am the only one feeling it!
So you wonder why the hell was Dave doing all of this injured as he is... and the thing is that not only am I pregnant... but that I myself am dealing with a back issue that has me gritting my teeth and losing sleep at night. I have a pinched nerve in my back and this last week the doc gave me Tylenol with codeine for the pain and is looking for a place to send me for physical therapy. By the end of an uneventful day I am swollen from the hips down... but also I get to the point where I can hardly lift my leg and often end up tripping over flat ground due to my toes dragging when I walk. The right leg also gets either numb or pins and needles depending on the night and how active I have been. So I have been on the injured list myself this week. In fact the only one of us who doesn't seem to be is the baby that I am carrying right now. Oddly enough even with losing the pay from Dave being out of work... this has been a week where having him home has been a blessing. Thank God he had pain pills is all I can say... because I think that with the roof and the laundry he has worked harder at home than he would have at work. And one thing is certain around here ... when it rains it pours! in our case literally and onto our bed.