Best for Babes

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Weaning

For a while now, my daughter has been telling me I have no milk.  And nursing is ANNOYING.  More annoying than ever.  I'd rather nurse a newborn and have that toe-curling pain.  Maybe.  But, really, it's annoying.  It just feels irritating.  I don't know how to describe it.  We've been telling little A for a while now that if she learns to sleep in her bed and quits having milk she might get a trampoline.

The other night, we started a sticker system for sleeping and no-milk nights.  She gets one sticker for going to sleep with no milk, one sticker for going to sleep in her bed, and two stickers for sleeping in her bed all night.  She has not had milk since Monday morning!!!!  It's not been the easiest thing for her.  She did ask for milk less last night than the night before, so maybe we're getting somewhere.

Honestly, I never thought I'd be bribing my kid to quit having milk.  But, I also never thought I'd be nursing an almost 3 1/2 year old!  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  No really, you can judge me if you want, but it has come to the time that I am no longer physically comfortable nursing.  I wish it didn't annoy/hurt/irritate me like it does and I wish I had milk.....because, that stuff is MAGICAL!  It does put her to sleep so easily.

Another incentive is to help little A learn to sleep by herself.  With a new sibling coming this spring, I don't think we can physically handle struggling with two non-sleepers.

So, what's the incentive?  Well, I mentioned she gets stickers.  She has the potential to get 4 stickers/night.  She has three stickers for 2 nights of sleeping (the first night no milk & going to sleep in her room, the second night was only no milk).  When she gets 80 stickers she gets to call Santa and tell him she wants a trampoline.  She is VERY excited about calling Santa.  Since it's only September, we figure we have some time.

What do you think?  Are we bad?  Is this terrible?  I hope not.  Please don't be rough.  I have no other ideas on how to gently wean my lovely daughter who happens to be addicted to my milkies.

Monday, September 27, 2010

10 weeks, 3 days....WOW, how did I get to be that far?

It feels like just yesterday I was taking pregnancy tests and yet, I have less than 2 weeks until my 2nd trimester.

Last Friday, September 17, we had our first midwife appointment.  We got to see our little baby.  I think my husband was much more emotional about it than I was.  I think it was relief for me...relief there was a baby and relief there was only one baby.  I'm slightly a worrier.  Just slightly.  I worried I had an ectopic pregnancy.  I worried I had a molar pregnancy.  I worried I had two babies (which would have been the best of all options and we would have been happy, but TWO?).  So, I was very relieved when I saw the ultrasound.  And of course, that set of worries has been replaced by a new set (gestational diabetes and placenta previa are my current worries).

We went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a little family vacation right after my midwife appointment.  It was so relaxing and peaceful.  Some days my "morning sickness" never roared it's ugly head.  And then, there were days like last Thursday.  I barfed.  In public.  On Main Street.  At lunchtime.  Fun!  I had just eaten an amazing crepe and was feeling pretty good about everything.  I decided to try to take my prenatal vitamins (since I had been pretty bad about taking them).  I'm using Rainbow Light prenatal vitamins and you are supposed to take 6 a day.  They are a bit smaller, so it's usually okay.  I don't take 6 at once, I usually divide them between meals.  As soon as that damn vitamin hit the back of my throat I gagged.  Then, I found a pretty little tree and vomited up all of my pretty little crepe.  My poor husband and daughter.  He kept telling her that mommy just didn't feel good.

So, now, I'm back home, trying desperately to get this nausea under control.  There are some things that are helping.  Smells annoy me.  I threw up this morning just because of the smell of our plug-ins.  Out they came.  Eating protein helps.  I don't want protein.  I want carbs.  I want soft, floury biscuits.  I do not want chicken, but I eat it.  Keeping my blood sugar stable is helping.  I often eat a stick of cheese in the middle of the night to help with the morning nausea.

I ate a lot of gum in Colorado (okay, I didn't EAT it, I chewed it).  I realized the gum, although it was helping my ears, it was hurting my belly.  I remembered from my sugar-free diet this summer that aspartame can kill your insulin levels.  My body was thinking I had something sweet, so my insulin increased.  Increasing insulin will lower your blood sugar fast.  So, the drop in blood sugar cause an increase in my nausea.  I quit chewing gum and it helped quite a bit.

I will continue to eat every couple of hours (although it's not the floury, carby goodness I would so love to eat).  I will try anything to get this "morning sickness" to go away!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Week 8 Update

Tomorrow is my last day of week 8!! Only 3 more weeks until I'm in my second trimester & hopefully feeling less queasy!

I went to the chiropractor today & she adjusted me for nausea and heartburn.  I'm hoping it works.  Of course, I threw up this afternoon, so who knows.  Now, I did feel better after my adjustment.  I was washing some fruit with was fruit spray and I started coughing, then I started yacking.  That's what I get for eating a swiss roll.  :)  Because that's all I threw up.

I bought some ginger tonight.  I took some tonight, so maybe that'll help.  I hope so.  And I'm trying my hardest to take my prenatal vitamins....they have B6 & ginger root extract in them.  Both are supposed to help with nausea.

Our first appointment is Friday.  I'm so excited to hear the heartbeat and hopefully see our little one!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Yep! I'm Pregnant!

So, I have a really hard time keeping a secret. Any secret, but I kept my pregnancy secret for a while.  I still haven't totally announced it to the world (aka Facebook).  There are a bunch of people I work with on my Facebook, so I'm waiting a bit (next Friday, 9/17, to be exact).  But, since I'm pretty sure none of them read my little blog, I thought I'd blog about what the last few weeks have been like (finally!).  I've been wanting to post about this for a while now.  So, here goes:

July 30 -- Very planned date night.  Husband closed on a house this day.  He told me way in advance he wanted to go out and celebrate.  I checked my calendar for two things...(1) if I was working (nope) and (2) if I was ovulating (yep).  We went to the movies and to dinner.  We even splurged and stayed in a hotel downtown.  Just because.  So, technically speaking, this was the start of Week 2 of pregnancy! :)  The rest of the week went by uneventfully.  But, I was convinced our little sperm and egg didn't meet that night (what a pessimist).

Week 3 -- Believe it or not, I knew I was pregnant by week 3.  I even posted something on twitter asking about how early anyone had known they were pregnant.  I was TIRED beyond belief this week.  My boobs were starting to hurt.  I was cramping a little.  I was trying to not get to psyched up, so I convinced myself I was just going to have a killer period.  I started taking pregnancy tests this week.  Of course, they were all negative.  I think I took five or something crazy, ridiculous like that.

Week 4 -- Day 1 - I had to work that night (I'm not a hooker, I'm a night shift nurse), so I needed to take a nap.  But, I really wanted to take one more pregnancy test.  I texted my husband to see what he thought.  He said to JUST TAKE IT.  I did.  It was a big fat positive!  I texted him back asking when he was coming home.  He said later.  I tried and tried to get him to come home right away, telling him I needed more pregnancy tests now.  He wouldn't/couldn't come back.  So, I tried to sleep.  I couldn't.  I was too excited!  Week 4 brought more sore boobs and more cramps and pure happiness.  We did tell our families very early this time.  You know, sometimes people don't want to tell "just in case something happens."  Our thoughts were we'd tell them "if something happened."  Sadly, we got mixed responses.  I'm not sure why.  They say they were shocked, but the response was, "Oh, you're telling people already" and walking away.  Hmmm.  Well, my response was, "You're not just 'people' to me.  We'd tell you if anything happened."  Of course, I have a chip on my shoulder and think it's because this person thinks I'm too fat to get pregnant right now.  Another response from this family was "Well, I'm glad we hadn't put up the baby bed."  Geez, glad we could be convenient for you.  Glad we could save you some trouble.  Others were very excited for us...which is very exciting for us!

Week 5 -- The sore boob saga continues.  Since I'm still nursing, this is not helping the situation at all.  Oh wow.  Nothing exciting happened this week.

Week 6-- Nausea central sets in.  I was nauseous with my daughter, but not like this.  Maybe it's because I'm home during the day now and I have time to think about it.  I don't know.  It's way worse this time.  I had been eating very good so far, but nausea is no friend to wanting to make healthy choices for me.  I know it should be, but I'm incapable of eating right when nauseous.

Week 7 -- More nausea.  More sore boobs, not so much crampy.  I can feel my uterus growing (damn adhesions).  I am so nauseous one night at work, I try to induce vomiting.  No luck.  I have the world's strongest gag reflex.  Another coworker encourages me to eat every 2 hours, and include proteins every single time I eat.  So, I confess my tomato sandwich, pickles, and dried fruit were probably not the best choice that night before work (hmmm, carbs, carbs, carbs).  I eat protein and feel better almost immediately.  Today, 7 weeks, 4 days, I am home and will try my hardest to eat proteins every 2 hours.

So, that's the last month or so for me!  We're very excited, but it's so hard to be excited when you're nauseous.  I'm ready for this to go away so I can enjoy this pregnancy!