19w5d - Starting to feel better & latest pics

First, the pics.

Here's the nearly 20 week belly shot. Look at that bump grow! Weight gain is still at only 8lbs, don't ask me how cause I don't know, but I'll take it! LOL

Here is NSWO in the tub the other night, just being cute per his usual.

I'm finally feeling like I'm going to be well again. I woke up at 3am this morning to go to the bathroom and take more meds and actually felt normal again. It was quite a shock. I would say I'm 70% better today and hope for even more improvement tomorrow before the flight. NSWO and I are planning on going for it and hoping that mommy's ears stay clear for the flight. Soooooo excited to see my best friend, haven't seen her in person in over 4 years now. Doubtful I'll be updating this blog while I'm gone so I'll have to check in on everyone once we get back next week. I've got my tylenol, sudafed (the real stuff, not this new crap they sell on the shelves*), mucinex, and saline nasal spray. I'm set! Oh, and a whole bunch of tissues!

*Don't know if you've needed to purchase REAL Sudafed lately, but it's quite the ordeal now, at least out here anyway. Not only do you have to take a card from the shelf to the pharmacy, but then you have to show your driver's license and sign a form including your address. Worth it for meds that actually work. The new stuff just makes me jittery but doesn't help my congestion much at all. The real stuff makes me jittery too, but at least it helps the congestion. I know it's worth it to stop or at least slow down meth production, but man I'm sure sales have slipped tremendously due to all the hoops you have to jump thru.

19w3d - Being (sniff) sick (sniff sniff) sucks! (ACHOO!)

NSWO is doing much better by now. Still got a gunky nose, but even that's clearing up today. His fever kept spiking up to the 103's - 104's for a couple of days there, but seems he just runs hot I guess. Good strong immune system that one has.

I, on the other hand, have a somewhat suppressed immune system (Thanks to the Bean!) and have not fared quite as well. It started as a scratchy throat on Thursday and quickly progressed to a misery of congestion, sneezing, coughing, body aches, ear aches etc. by Sunday. First thing this morning I call my GP to get an appointment only to be told that they are closed for President's Day. WHAT?? Is that a real holiday? I thought it was just an excuse for school's to be out and banks to be closed. My OB is closed too. By now I'm thinking that the only way I'm going to be seen by a doctor today is to pack up NSWO and myself and schlep to an ER or urgent care facility full of other sick miserable people. NO, THANK YOU.

Luckily, Hubby works for a great company with awesome benefits and one of the new benefits they are trying out in a pilot program is MD house call service. Yes, you read that right, you can still get a house call. Turns out, for many non-emergency urgent cases, it's cheaper to send an MD to the patient's home than to have them go to an ER. So, I make a phone call to the 24-hr nurse hotline, ask for the MD service and within 15min the MD is calling to get my info and let me know how soon he can make it out my way. SCORE! Not only do I NOT have to sit around in a dirty, contaminated ER all day, but neither does NSWO thereby keeping us from being exposed to even more germs. Plus, I can do what I need to do in the comfort of my own home while waiting my turn in the cue. Very nice MD comes to the house, does some basic insurance paperwork and starts his assessment. As I suspected, I have a sinus infection. I was surprised to learn that I also have the beginnings of a double ear infection as well. Lovely. I started amoxicillin this afternoon and cannot wait to start feeling better.

NSWO and I are supposed to be flying to San Diego to visit my best friend and her twin girls later this week, but if either of us is still sick, we have to postpone since we don't want to get her or the premature babies sick. I do not need that on my conscience.

18w6d - Our Budding Artist

NSWO isn't into art projects as much as other kids in his preschool class. He'd much rather play with the cars or in the play kitchen than to put on a smock on and paint a picture. When he DOES actually do some art though he's sooo proud. It's cute. The other day, totally unprompted, he got out his little Magnadoodle and drew this pic. Since it wasn't on paper to be preserved for posterity we had to snap a picture. How cute is he???











Poor guy has been home sick the last couple of days with croup. Nasty stuff that croup. Luckily I got him to the doctor yesterday morning and he got a dose of steroids to help keep his throat from closing up overnight. What do you get when you take a 3.5 yr old boy and add steroids? You guessed it - the tazmanian devil! Thank goodness Granddad sent that trampoline so he could bounce off a lot of the excess energy. (Thanks Granddad!!) Given his reaction to croup last time he got it a couple of years ago, I was expecting a hard night last night of him coughing up a lung and being unable to breathe well. Hubby slept in the guest room so NSWO could room in with me so I'd be there if he woke up with an episode. Glad to say there were no episodes, but man, now I remember why we don't co-sleep with him. He fidgeted for two hours straight before I finally made him go back to his room and I hooked up the old baby monitor to listen in. We both slept better after that.

Today, he's in what I call the "sort-of-sick crankies". That's when the kid is not quite well enough to go back to school, but not so sick that they want to sleep. They just bounce off the walls instead and have ZERO patience. I had to take away his small legos today because it took him two hours to pick up about 7 of those little buggers before I had had it and cleaned them up for him. We'll try bringing them out again in a few months when he's better about cleaning things up. (I know all you moms of older kids are laughing at me right now!)

Luckily, he's got swim class tomorrow so we won't be stuck staring at each other all day long.

The Bean is doing great, nothing new to report there.

17w6d - Movin' and a Groovin'

Not much going on these days with The Bean. We're still on the hunt for a name, but I think we're narrowing it down. I won't be able to announce on here the name for the baby because my in-laws and maybe my parents read this blog and we keep the name secret from most people, including family until after baby is born. Since we find out the gender, we want to keep something as a surprise. Add to it that I had a scheduled c-section with NSWO and will again with this one, even the birthdate is known ahead of time. The name is the only thing we can keep secret. So, sorry, no name announcements on here until July.



Even without a name yet, this kid is definitely moving around in there. With NSWO my placenta blocked much sensation of movement until 20+ weeks, but this one doesn't have that pillow in the front so I'm feeling lots of kicks, punches and even some rolling several times a day now. I love it! Now, granted, when I get closer to delivery, I may wish I had that pillow to block some of the stronger kicks, but for now this is so much fun!!!



My weight gain is staying well within control and that makes me happy too. As of this morning I'm up 8lbs total and the books say that it should be between 8-14 lbs for a singleton pregnancy so I'm happy to be within normal but at the lower end. I only gained 28lbs with NSWO and I'd like to keep the weight gain with this one nice and healthy too. Even with only a 28lb weight gain, I was still HUGE at the end. I don't think I've posted this pic before on here (forgive me if I have - preggo brain!), but this is from the night before NSWO was born. The little white squares on the cabinets are post-its labeling what's in each cabinet so anyone who was staying with us or visiting wouldn't need to ask me where to find stuff. If you know me IRL, you'll know that's soooo me! It was pretty much the extent of my nesting with him. Anyway, see how big my belly was? It was about the size of a blow-up beach ball. My OB guessed he would be 10lbs - luckily she was off by 1.5lbs.