Photo by request & East Nashville Cooperative Ministry Easter Lunch

We went to the East Nashville Cooperative Ministry Easter lunch (older site here, but with more info) yesterday and there was a clown. I'm a terrible document-er of these things, but I had to take the baby bear's photo with her painted on bow and flowers. I'm so not a girly kind of mama and the last time she wore a bow, it was stuck on by hospital staff. But it was sweet and Laura said 'I want to see a photo of that on your blog'. So here's my little girly girl. With her bow. :)

A little more info about the Lunch. Our church's neighborhood groups partnered with ENCM to bring food for this event. A meal for those in need and more info about what ENCM does. I was a bit distracted, what with having my baby girl there, but the Cooperative ministry does great things and brings together many different types of churches and organizations to help people in need in the community. In fact, this was where we picked up free formula and a food box for our family, for which we are very grateful.

I'm 5 months old today!!

Hi,
I'm the Baby Bear, also know as Cora, Squidoot, Squid, Doot, Little, Toad, My Girl, and whatever other name my Mama and Papa can think up for me in the moment.

Today I am 5 months old!
My favorite things are: :)

• Sleep - I'd rather do this than eat sometimes
• My whale and dangle-y sea creature friends that hook onto my play mat
• Mama
• Snuggling with Mama
• My mobile of ladybugs which I talk to when it sings to me
• Singing with Mama (long 'goos' and 'coos' when we sing together)
• Papa
• Fuzzy beard kisses from Papa
• Machine gun fire (speed) kisses
• Zerberts on my tummy
• Eating my fist
• Swimming in the bathtub
• Being outside!
• Being naked! In fact, if you want to see me REALLY wiggle and squeal, change my diaper!
• Exploring. For example: Did you know I have toes?! They look tasty.
  
• Sticking out my tongue. In fact, I only put it inside my mouth when I sleep. I like to taste the world!

I do not like: :(

• Tummy time (but Mama still makes me do it - break out the earplugs!)
• The cat in my face (for now). I've only just realized that he and the dog are living beings!
  
• When Mama Bear and Papa Bear do not prepare my bottle in a timely manner
• Missing my naptime
• Eczema - it makes me all itchy!

Not much else I don't like. I'm a pretty happy girl!

I can:

• Sit up, supported
• I love to stand up! See the first photo. I've got strong legs. (Mama says, please ignore her post baby (additional) chubbiness.)
• Wiggle and ooch backward while on my back - but refuse to roll over (see Tummy time, ICK!)
• Coo, squeal, smile, giggle and pull Mama's hair and Papa's beard (also Papa's nose)
• Grab things and put them in my mouth (although my aim is still off mostly)

I'm still blue eyed, (I don't think this is going to change, but you never know) and I weigh about 14 lbs. Not much, but I'm still growing! I'm in the 5-10 percentile for babies my age (birth date, not due date). At my last Doc appointment I was 2 feet long! I'm sure I'm taller by now...I can FEEL it!

Anyway, here's me in my awesome blue dress (which is REALLY a shirt from Mama's friend Mandy), but works for a dress too. I also like to eat my dress.
This is the face I make when Mama pulls out the camera.

See! I told you I like to be naked. (Mama hates that she has to resort to onboard flash to get a photo of me that is not a blur. I'm just so wiggly!)
And just for good measure...baby toes

We made the switch! A journey from paper to cloth diapers.

Since our little lovey was born (4 months ago, can you believe it?!) we've been using disposable diapers. With every giant garbage bag full I experienced more and more guilt. I mean, those diapers are going to be around for my daughter's grandbabies!! I wanted to switch to cloth, but it was very intimidating. There are zillions of diapers, covers, all-in-ones, pocket diapers, fitted diapers, prefolds, contoured diapers...the list goes on and on and on and ON! I was totally overwhelmed. So I put it out there (on our local neighborhood google group) that I wanted to get started and a total stranger mama of twins invited me to her house to see her system. She even gave me a couple of diaper covers that her children had outgrown. Then our local diaper service donated (yes, DONATED!) a bunch of diapers, covers, diaperpail, pail liner, and cloth wipes to me. Another friend gave me a bag of more stuff with pre-folds, contoured diapers and snappies, then another mama gave me her all in one diapers! I was overflowing with cloth diapers and I hadn't even begun to put them on her bum.

Now, my mama cloth diapered us, but I remember this bucket of stinky diapers and liquid, (poop soup as cloth diapering sites refer to it) and I was not looking forward to that at all! Plus, the little plastic shorts...ick. But cloth diapering has come a long way! No more poop soup! They come in all colors, shapes designs, snaps, velcro, waterproof cloth and more! It was hard to imagine, but some of the cutest things out there for babies are diapers! And they are going to get pooped on! It's a whole world of work at home mamas fueling this thing. Most of the popular brands were made by mamas. I think that is amazing!

So in light of the Geeks still unemployed situation, I decided to go ahead and move on over to cloth. I tried a couple per day to get in the hang of things and finally decieded to not buy any more sposies (disposables). It was scary! But she hasn't leaked yet and I actually really enjoy knowing I am doing a good thing for our budget, the planet, and my baby's bum!

Because she is still so small and most of the stuff we were given is for bigger babies, I did buy pre-fold diapers in infant size, plus some covers too. But since I was going to have to spent that money on diapers in the next few weeks anyway, I don't feel guilty at all. I know I won't have to spend it again!

Kind people in my neighborhood gave me a list of where to begin and I am pretty much there. Here's what they recommended:

"But here's a good start if you do laundry every other day:

• 24 prefolds (either infant size or premium size depending on the weight of your baby)
• 3-5 covers (the younger your baby the more covers you will need... the same is true if you used a snappi or not. If you use a snappi you can get by with fewer covers)
• 2 diaper pail liners (one is in the wash with the dirties while the other is in the pail collecting dirties)
• 1 pail
• 1 snappi (these come in 2 different sizes depending on the age of your baby - infant and toddler)
• 20 wipes - if you are washing prefolds you might as well wash wipes... then you don't have to buy these at the store too. ( I made my own with those tiny wash cloths that we were given TONS of, and cut up least favorite flannel receiving blankets - yes they unravel a bit, but it's for cleaning up poo! It doesn't have to be perfect)
  
• 3 doublers - for extra absorbency during night/naps (these you need if you're not changing a diaper at night) I chose 3 hemp doublers from an online diaper shop GreenMountainDiapers.com"
• I also added a 'wet bag' (a waterproof bag for used wet diapers). A mama has to get out sometimes!! I also added a little spray bottle for my diaper bag to wet my cloth wipes.
  

So with our newly prepped pre-folds and covers in hand we began our adventure. Here's our first cloth diapering. The baby bear did not approve of being put in this bulky thing, plus Mama was trying to get the hang it too! (this was before we bought smaller pre-folds.)

Giant diaper bum!
My stash of diapers - they came like this and had to be prepped (washing in hot water and then drying 3-5 times)
After prepping they looked like this (fluffy!!)
This is what we use every day or 2 - minus the larger diapers on the right and not all of the wipes.
The pretty colored covers are by Thirsties. The white one is a Bummis Super Snap.

So far, so good! I'm not overwhelmed by laundry and we are in a groove.

As my friend says when she sees cuteness...'Squeee!"

I have to practically stalk this child with a camera to catch these, but I managed to, on my phone camera! I could just eat this baby with a spoon! So here they are, her first captured smiles for your cheering up and baby deliciousness.

I'm no great thinker

In fact, although I was a skeptic, I am noticing baby brain is a very real phenomenon. I could not think of the name Harry Connick Jr. for the life of me today! Why? I'm not sure. I used to think deep thoughts, now I ponder formula, pee, poo, and how can I get outside into the sunshine today. Not much else. I'm sure it's reflected here on my blog since I have no time to peruse the 'interwebs' in search of interesting tidbits to amuse you with these days. I bet you'd settle for baby pictures. Hm. I knew it! Everyone's a sucker for cuteness.

Cora had her 2 month checkup yesterday and was 8lb 8oz and 20 1/4 inches long. What a hoss!! She's only in the 10th percentile, but that is to be expected for a preemie. She also had to have her shots and we had her frenulum clipped so she could eat better. It was a rough day. Thank goodness for baby Tylenol!

And now for the cuteness:

Bathtime! (with modesty washcoth :) )

Napping with Papa at Gramma's house. (notice how there are rarely photos of 'napping with mama? That's cause I'm the picture taker around here)

Napping with Uncle Jessie in her Christmas sleeper (there's a lot of napping going on lately)

Being entertained by the graphics I made! Yay for photoshop to make stuff to entertain the baby! She's 2 months old in this picture and can't get enough of the changing table graphics.

I'm gonna miss this hair (favorite photos of recent weeks)

Snuggle with Mama

Naptime with Papa

Rock Star hair

Beginning to see the light

SO I'm now 3 plus weeks post partum and I'm realizing that a good chunk of the the 'hard' part of the last few weeks was really the recovering from the surgery. I am so impatient with myself to heal that I didn't know how to relax and rest. I'm learning. Bedtime is currently nine pm most nights. I used to think my sister was CRAZY for going to bed that early. Life just was just getting started at that time. No more!

I'm entering a different phase now and it's amazing how much I weigh out the pros and cons of everything right now. Take purchasing things for example. I can see how attractive online shopping is as compared to driving around looking for the best deal. That takes a lot of energy! I mean really.

The Geek and I finally bit the bullet and collected all of our gift cards and baby gift money and bought a stroller and car seat. We have been using a loaner since we left the hospital. The Geek planned the entire day so we could work in the Baby Bear's feedings plus eat at our favorite breakfast eatery (Noshville), make a Target run and be home in time to avoid fussy babies and fussy mamas. I still get so tired I can feel it in my teeth! Weird huh?

OK, now for the fun part. It's weird to think I used to have time to do this every day! Not just when I had a spare second. How do you mommy bloggers do it?! If you feel like slogging through all of the recent photos they are all over at my flickr page (see sidebar badge) It's been awhile since I uploaded so there are over 100 photos between me and my mama (who was here last week and now I'm on my own! Mmgggiih!)

Cora and her bear. She stuck out her tongue at it.

That seems to be a theme here!

Yes, I admit it, I take photos of us on the timer setting when the Geek isn't around. And yes, we are in the bathroom.

My little froggie baby!

So sweet. I am blessed to have such a good baby.

She looks like a little flower here.

Gramma came to visit. Cora was having a 'mo' (short for moment)

This is post-bath hair. It's like a fuzzy peach!

And last but not least, the little smile she gave to her Gramma right before she headed back to Texas.

Breaking the baby code!

In case I forget

At 2 weeks Cora was 4lb 12 oz and 18 inches
At 2 weeks and 6 days she was 5lb 5.5oz and they didn't measure her.

But her long skinny feet are now chubby. Which I think is amazing and oh so cute. It's hard to keep a kid warm and take pictures of their naked (and not crying and squirmy) self so I'm still working on it.

The Geek and I referred to her as a 'single scoop' (like ice cream or raisin bran which has 2 scoops! hee hee!) when we brought her home since we both could handle her with one hand when we scooped her up from her bassinet or when we passed her back and forth. Especially when she was swaddled. I think we are up to a scoop and a half now. I swear I'm working on uploading more photos. Gramma was recently here so there are mine and hers to share.

Bounty of Friends

We had had such an inundation of love, help and, nearly best of all, food from friends. Tracy made me pumpkin bread AND pumpkin cookies. How did she know I love and crave pumpkin? Soups and pot pie carefully stashed in the freezer (cause tired Papa Bears (the Geek) and Mama Bears (me) need lunch too). Carol coming over with tiny preemie onsies to borrow, and proof that they do indeed grow bigger with her small daughter in tow (being around 3 lbs when she was born!) and comforting conversation about the woes of breast pumps!

Even the trees put on their Sunday best to welcome my small girl to the world. The street is ablaze with reds, oranges, and golds as the Geek and I sit in the afternoon sunshine on the porch of our home. Yummy Lentil and Venison Sausage soup for lunch from Jan, cooked in my own pot and waiting for us when we got home Sunday (although I was a bit confused and could not remember making a soup so why was there a pot in the fridge?)!

And now, for your daily dose of our Baby Bear:

My and the baby bears hands

Papa Bear holds the baby bears tiny feet

I can hardly resist these Papa Bear and Baby Bear moments in the mornings.

First 'Playdate' and other things

Cora (whom we have dubbed Baby Bear) and Elijah (AKA Eichelbaby) had a 'playdate' while the mamas talked. I can't get over it! He's only 6 weeks old, but look a the size difference!! WOW. I guess techically he is 10 weeks older since she was 5 weeks early and he was a week early.

IN other news, we spent the day at the ER for me with shortness of breath and wheezing. Oodles of tests later, my breastmilk (which still has not really come in yet) is radioactive for 24 hrs and must be 'pumped and dumped' as the tech put it so nicely. I tried the dark beer method of helping my milk supply last night and about a third of a way through it I remembered that alcohol and pain meds are a bad combo. Panicked, I called Poison Control and they said not to take any more for 6 hrs, and that I would feel very sleepy. But I started feeling short of breath last night and wheezy this morning so we went to the ER. After all that, I came home and there on the side of the bottle was a warning that taking too much of this med could result in breathing problems and in fact, the night before I had taken a dose too close to the other one. Hmmm... We laughed at the irony of it all. Sigh.

A wink and a spook

Jan brought by a little costume for Cora to wear for Halloween since we didn't expect to have a baby by Halloween! So here's a wink for ya and her 'I love my Mummy' outfit.

Bump update - 30 weeks

I miss my old face. I don't like all the extra (swollen) nose and (chubby) chin I have from this baby! This too shall pass...

Just thought I'd share this. I don't feel myself lately. This week has been a never ending round of swelling and sore places. I think my joints are starting to really relax and it is not a comfortable feeling. The Dr. confirmed this week that the large something I've been trying to get baby girl to stop pushing out of my right side is her bum. She does it so much I go lopsided sometimes! It's not a pleasant sensation, but I am glad to know she is moving and healthy.

Insomnia continues, mostly due to how uncomfortable it is to sleep lately. Poor Geek! I sleep in a nest of pillows and I am amazed there is any room for him in the bed. I almost nightly shake him awake to rub my arm or shoulder. He is VERY long suffering for me. Thanks Honey! The baby girl is very wiggly and I am very forgetful. I am carrying her low (thank Heavens for a long waist! I'm not half strangled yet) but the down side is she just pounds on my bladder. I stand up, she shifts and I have to pee...right then.

On the up side, the Geek and I have been having a very sweet season with lots of great conversations about our little girl and things we'd like her to learn. He is quite enamored over 'his girls' and tells me every day how cute I look. In my mind, I more resemble a beach ball, but it goes my heart good to know that my hubs finds me beautiful in all stages of life, not just when I am at my fittest.

Getting brave...here's the belly. (with pig tails)

I am now an official Stay at home Mom, even if she still IS on the inside. What can I say, it sort of a low maintenance job right now... My sweet co-workers gave me a nice going away party and mini baby shower! It was very fun. Here is the cake, which I thought was the cutest.

A sweet sugary baby carriage!

I'll miss the people I worked with since I wont' see them as often. It's a strange and wonderful thing to wake up with nothing to do all day except what I choose to do. It won't last much longer so I am grateful for each moment!

Too much Jesus?

I woke up this morning with the following thought in my head:
"Is there enough of Jesus in my life to show my little girl?"

While I love him, serve him, trust him, believe in him, am saved by him, I don't really talk about him very much. My faith life has been a very private one lately. The Geek's brother is in town and his conversation revolves around the Bible and religious topics. Yesterday while out to dinner it came up again. I could feel myself curling up in a ball. I grew up in a house where Jesus and the Bible seemed to be the only acceptable topics and we were made to memorize scripture, do family bible studies, and take communion together. While I disagree with none of those practices, the way our family life played out rarely matched up to what we were learning. It was a violent, angry place at times. To me, it seemed the scriptures were not used as a way to point me to God, so much as a way to beat me into submission and into doing what I was told.

I held to the family faith for a long time, on into College and after would then have seasons of falling away, and then coming back because I knew no other route to sanity or peace. However, the God I had been taught of and the God I had been shown didn't match up and when the 'ship hit the sand' so to speak, I fell back on the God I had been shown. He was more like my parents, and even more so like my childhood perception of my father than the God of the Bible and while I love my parents, that was not a good thing for me. In recent years, a mentor has been leading me through exercises (12 of them :) )to help me find God, and not this one in my head. It has been a rough journey and there are many times where I still go back to that old default of a God who doesn't have time for me and is not really interested in my heart or who I am, just that I follow the rules. I still struggle when anyone quotes scripture at me in an effort to make me see their point of view. It feels more like a weapon (as my Geek so succinctly stated last night) than Good News.

Yet I long for my little girl to know Jesus. So the dilemma arises of how can I show her if my relationship with him is private? The Geek and I have talked about modeling healthy behavior for our children in terms of how we talk to each other, how we argue, and how we love. I don't know how to model that in terms of my faith at all. The Geek and I had a lot of trouble with this concept in terms of marriage, since neither of us had modeled for us something we wanted to follow, we tried to NOT do what they did, but 'not doing' something is not 'doing' something, so we muddled along, hurting each other for a long time until we finally had to ask for help. We have found a path that is working for us (nearly 5 years later) and I like who we are becoming. Now, for me, the next step is how do I learn the same concept for my faith? How do I share the Good News, and still give my little baby girl room to find her own path to him? I don't want to be right all the time and force my faith on my child. I want to invite her to know him. Maybe I should ask him how to do that...

All's well...blissfully mediocre.

Things are as they should be. The baby is safe and sound and still where she belongs, my body has calmed down and the specialist had no idea why I was there (He did, according to his charts and stuff, but he found nothing to worry about.) He said I and she looked normal to him. It's a relief. I did realize how much I DO NOT miss work though. I do get a little lonesome for companionship, but by no means do I wish that I could go file, staple, scan, or invoice anything! Oh the perpetual angst of a musician not doing music.

Actually I'm not that angst-y about it. I feel blissfully mediocre today. I can still create, but I don't have to give my soul over to being so dramatic about it all. Perhaps that's just in reaction to watching Running with Scissors. I sincerely hope the book was funnier than the film, but The Geek and I sat through about 15 minutes of it with our mouthes open at the insanity of these people and then decided it was time to read a book together. I told him I'd watch it by myself tomorrow (today) and he turns to me, dead-pan and says, 'Don't watch it by yourself tomorrow. Watch it with a friend.' I didn't watch it with a friend, I just watched it and it leads me to a little modern culture annoyance: Why are only the most frighteningly dysfunctional aspects of life celebrated? Think about it. Most modern novels are filled with sexual deviants and frankly, crazy people. A future reader's quick perusal of the New York Times best seller list would lead one to believe that the average soul in our current culture was either gay or repressed, had some dark sordid secret that drove their neurosis, molested children, wished they did, and that God Forbid, if they were just average: loved, lived and died, that after their death the horrible chain of secrets they had spent a lifetime covering would all come unraveling, wreaking havoc on the defenseless, but clearly dysfunctional offspring left to sort it out. Seriously!

Not really a representation of this"...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Phil 4:8. And yet, I am drawn in. I think I need to be more selective in my viewing habits like I am in my reading habits. In fact, I rarely read grown up books any more because of the above reasons.

In the ears today:
Derek Trucks Band - Joyful Noise
(for the guitar nerd in me) I can't help it. My papa raised me well.











Llama - Close to the Silence
(The band is no longer together, but DANG I miss these guys. Such a delicious jam band. The piano player has gone on to be a rockin' producer here in town, not to mention to playing for rock stars here and there. Not sure what happened to the rest of the band, but that one was my friend and I've kept up with him.)

Holding pattern

I'm still at home. The Geek had to go back to work today. (BOOOO!) So I've been puttering around doing minimal stuff and resting, like I'm supposed to.

As for the second ultrasound (boys-skip over this if you get grossed out by clinical terms) they found my cervix to be closed and long with is exactly what it is supposed to be. The Geek and I were leaving the tech's office and I said how funny it was that he now knows more about the state of my body that he ever has. I mean, really. What if I could tell you the daily (or more likely - monthly) state of his colon? It would be a little odd. But he knows all about the inner workings of my plumbing! Pregnancy definitely discourages modesty.

I did do some pre-natal yoga this morning which really helped relax me and make my back stop hurting. The baby girl seemed to like it a lot! She really squiggled around after I was finished. So much for resting and relaxing for her. She's more active than ever. Which is a good thing and I'm excited she's doing well. I thought I'd plug the yoga disk I did a little since yoga in general has (since college) made me feel really strong and relaxed, and this one was awesome! For those of you who are newly pregnant, you gotta try this!! (Click the picture above for a link) OK, enough commercials for now.

It was amazing to watch my church ladies pull together and offer to help me while home alone today! My neighbor came over and gave me food so I didn't have to think about cooking while I am supposed to be resting. How awesome is that?! She even took my poor cooped up dog for a walk so she could get some exercise. Thanks Jan!

Bed Rest...at least for this week

Sunday, my body woke me up from a nap with sharp pains in my uterus. I thought it was just those round ligament pains they've been mentioning for awhile so I moved around and tried to get them to stop. After about 10 minutes they did. I had them again that night before I fell asleep, but just plunked my handy dandy ice pack (not so ice-y any more at that point) on my stomach and it seemed to help. Then yesterday morning, they returned. I waited until my Dr.'s office opened and then called.

The lovely nurse there, who is very kind, said they could be those round ligament pains, or they could be something else, so to be safe I should go to OB Triage. That morning I had ridden the bus to work, and mildly jogged for the second one so I wouldn't miss it, had not eaten anything but pretzels for breakfast and was in general having one of those days where I was not being the perfect pregnant girl (with veggies and calcium and fiber and etc.), but I still wasn't terribly worried.

I had to ask the women in my office to get me to the hospital and it was fun to watch them jump into action, put me in a chair and run for their car! ( I was getting a little worried at this point) I wasn't able to get The Geek on the phone as it was Monday and Monday is his work from home day which means a few minutes before he has to be at 'work' ie, his desk, he rolls out of bed, grabs a little food and plunks down in his chair. I was at the hospital by the time I got him and so had to pass the phone off to my supervisor, who came with us to show us where to go, so she could give him directions while I checked in.

He was there in record time and I was hooked up to a belt that monitored the activity of my uterus. There were regular little blips which they called 'twitches', but didn't seem to be too concerned about. Then they did an extended ultrasound (30 minutes or more) to check the baby out. She was great! She nearly flipped over during the exam! We actually had a wonderful discussion with our ultrasound tech about life, religion, babies, family, race. It was fun. Plus she let us look at our baby girl for a lot longer. There was one frame where her tiny foot was there with toes and all! So sweet. I declared it was The Geek's foot and he said I was crazy.

Then we told her about our theories concerning her chin. So she, of course, looked at the profile to help us determine who's chin she has. (It's a family thing. I have a very prominent chin that I got from my mother and so far, all the grand-babies have it.) I still say The Geek, but perhaps I am mistaken. She gave us a BEAUTIFUL image of her profile with her sweet lips and nose showing. But I digress...the verdict was, my cervix is shortening (which is bad, because that's what it does when I get ready to give birth) and I was having contractions (which I didn't even notice during the exam and are normal for a pregnant uterus. Practice, they call it. But not in conjunction with a shortening cervix ). It's not shortening a lot, but enough to make them worry.

So the result was, home to bed until I get in to see a fetal maternal doctor, which will be Thursday morning. I just found out that I have another ultrasound today at 1:15 pm. If you are so inclined and when you think about it, if you could offer up the following:
Prayers for my baby girl that she will stay put, grow and be healthy.
Prayers that my body will calm down and do what it's supposed to do.
Prayers for wisdom for my doctors.
Prayers of peace for The Geek who has to watch his girls struggle through this, but can't fix it for us.
Prayers for me that I finally slow down and learn to rest. (it's a hard lesson for me)

If I go on bedrest, you guys are in trouble!

For my 3rd post of the day...(sheesh)

Here's photographic proof of what is to come...

It looks smaller when photographed from above! (oh what do I care...it's only gonna grow from here!

Slowly disintegrating

I'm sitting at my desk with a pillow under my arm, an ice-pack on my shoulder, and my feet up on a sporty 'office ottoman'. It's only 9:30 am and already I've begun to eat my lunch which I should be holding off on, but can't help eating because I'm starved! I should have done a bigger breakfast this morning, but didn't have time in attempt to catch the bus. That didn't much seem to matter since I missed my connector express and had to ride the slow bus to work. Boo! Some days it doesn't pay to get up at 6am. My bursitis is flaring up again and I miss the good ole ibuprofen these days! It's funny the things that our parents did (Drink, smoke, take ibuprofen etc) and we turned out fine on but are such a HUGE no no these days. I'm not sure what it does to the baby, but just mention it and watch the health care professionals all fly into a tizzy!

So it's 'crank up the home remedies' time. Massage, salt soaks, ice-packs, whining until hubby rubs that particularly aching part. Hee hee :)

I went to a little soirée last night and saw another pregnant girl from church who is about 2 months ahead of me. She has gained 25 lbs, but it is all in the belly. She said she didn't know where she was going to put the next month and a half of weight gain! She said she has not had any problems or noticed any particular things gone squirrelly with her body. Of course she is younger, more fit, but actually when we discussed it more, she admitted to having some of the same symptoms I'm having (fatigue, lightheadedness, thirsty and hungry a lot, aches and pains here and there, etc)- minus the whole right arm feeling as if it's about to fall OFF part. It's nice to know I'm not alone. (just more whiny about it obviously) It was fun to discuss babies with her. She didn't know what she is having but she admitted that when she and her husband 'looked away' during that part of the ultrasound, she sorta peeked through her fingers. Not that this could tell us inexperienced observers a single thing! It took the tech typing 'GIRL' on the screen for me to believe her. All those squiggly black and white images could be ANYTHING!

In the mean time, I called in pregnant yesterday and spent the day icing my shoulder and napping. I felt much better after that, but have to do the same thing today if I want to continue to feel better. I wish I could call in pregnant every day!

Still a girl...we hope (little mama update)

The geek and I went in for a second ultrasound so they could capture images of things she was laying too funny to capture before. (heart outflow valve and technical stuff like that) At 23 weeks I've gained a whopping pound and a half from my beginning weight and since she weighs almost all of that, it can be safely assumed that I have lost weight during this pregnancy so far.

I was giving myself a top gain of 15 lbs, but the doc said if I keep it lower (more like 5), it will be much easier for me. I'm not gonna kill myself to maintain this, but eat right and swim. My blood pressure (which I had problems with and am medicated for, from before pregnancy) is great and is still in the 'low' phase (100/50 today). It could go up in the last trimester, but I am hoping that swimming several times per week will help this not happen.

After several nights of severe arm pain, I finally went in to see an orthopedic doc and he ordered a nerve study on me. I had already seen a neurologist and his verdict was..."You are pregnant." Thanks...I didn't know that yet. It could be that my arm was swollen from all the weed-eating I did the day before. The geek has put the kibosh on any further attempts at using large tools in the yard and actually tried to get the doc to say I should refrain from any yard work at all! (She didn't. She said take it easy, don't get overheated, drink lots of water and don't lift big stuff) I can understand his concerns as my little belly keeps expanding and he gets a daily (visual) reminder of what is to come.

So she continues to wiggle and squirm and was only slightly cooperative during her ultrasound today. I am learning what I want and don't want in a delivery but since I am classified as 'high risk,' I wonder how much of that will matter when it actually comes down to it. I don't want to get hustled off and induced and drugged!