Posts (page 2)

So with my last pregnancy I threw up 2-15 times a day. I lost 15% of my body weight and had to get IV fluids for hydration three times. My insurance company was stingy with the only drug that worked to help (Zofran). My prescription was written for me to take 3-4 pills daily. Insurance would cover 12 pills per copay and had a cap on how many I could get. So I only took them on "special occasions" (long car rides, holiday dinners, or if I hadn't kept anything down for 24 hours).

I'm in my 7th week right now, and I'm throwing up 1-3 times a day. This last Wednesday, I called up the new clinic I'm going to for this pregnancy to let them know my history and where I'm at. I don't have my first appointment for a few weeks, and didn't want to wait that long to find out what the plan would be this time around. I explained to them that I'm keeping food down, but having a hard time getting enough fluids, because plain water comes back up immediately. Well, because of my history, they said that they won't wait until I'm actually dehydrated before giving me medication and they faxed a prescription for Zofran over to my pharmacy.

And the good news is that now Zofran is a generic! Instead of rationing 12 pills, I got 30 pills for a $10 co-pay! I was able to eat a normal breakfast this morning. And drink water in the middle of the night when I woke up thirsty! I'll probably never get so bad this pregnancy that I feel like walking death!

Implicit Association Test

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit...

This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short.

You can take tests to see if you have a bias. I took three tests, one to see if I prefer young people to old people, one to see if I prefer thin people to fat people, and one to see if I associate men with careers and women with families.

For all of the tests, there was little to no evidence that I prefer one group over another or that I associate careers with men and family with women.

There are a bunch of other tests, and all in all, it was kind of interesting.

He had his 18-month-check up yesterday. He cried when the nurse called him in. He cried when we tried to have him stand on the big person scale. He cried when we put him on the baby scale. He cried when we laid him down to measure how tall he is. He cried when the doctor listened to his lungs. And again when he listened to his heart. And of course, again when he was held down to have a shot.

So when we went to the lab to get some blood work to check for lead*, I was sure he'd cry. He had to have his arm held, his finger poked, and blood squeezed out. But for some reason, he didn't even flinch. And when the nurse started squeezing his finger to get blood drops out onto the little card, he didn't cry. And we (The Husband and I) started to laugh at him because we just looking so curiously at the nurse. And when we started laughing, he turned to us and started laughing. Laughing! He had cried every step of the way of the appointment until this point.

Maybe I should have laughed at him earlier.

* He was checked for lead because our house was built before lead paint was banned. I'm kind of glad he was checked because I just found out that we're three miles from a battery recycling facility that does not meet the new EPA guidelines for lead in the air.

I joined a MOPS (Mothers of PreschoolerS) group today. A Church that is a five minute walk away had sent out flyers and it mentioned an open house for their new MOPS group. I had stopped buy to find out a little more about them and decided to talk it over with my husband.

We're a one car household, and unless I want to wake up to drive my husband to work at 6am, I won't have a car available to me when it's cold and possibly snowy. My husband didn't like the idea of me having to push a stroller through the snow, and wanted me to get someone I already know to join with me so that I could get a ride. We compromised and decided that if it's snowy, I'll put our son in a sling or a wrap and walk over that way.

When I drop my son off at nursery at our Church (which is a location he knows, kids he knows, and adults he should be familiar with by now (it changes every week, but he should have seen everybody a few times by now) he always screams for a minute or two when I leave the room. It's once a week, so even though we've putting him in nursery for a few months now, he still does protests. Well, he really screamed today when I dropped him off. He happily went into the room to explore the kids and toys that were in there. But when the door shut and I wasn't in there with him, he freaked out. I could hear him all the way down the hall in our meeting room. I felt so bad! Not only for my son, since he probably thought I was abandoning him and never coming back, but also for the workers. He eventually stopped screaming and when I picked him up, the workers said he did really well.

It was just the first meeting today, and kind of introductory style, but even if the meeting topics aren't super exciting, it'll be nice to get out of the house twice a month and be around other adults. It's been really lonely as a stay at home mom for me lately. Plus, it'll give my son an opportunity to become more comfortable with people besides mom and dad.

In this economic climate, not all employers are able to give raises. What perks would make you happy in lieu of a raise?
Sponsored by Microsoft Small Business.

I gave up many perks for one big one.

I work part-time from home, I don't have to use daycare. I gave up about 30 hours of work a week (and thus 30 hours worth of pay). I don't get benefits: paid vacation and sick days, health insurance (I get that through my husband now), any future maternity leave, among other things. When I worked in the office, I got free milk, yogurt, and ice cream. But I have a better boss now (they changed which department I was in), set my own hours, get to stay home with my kid, and don't have to stress about day care, what to do when the baby is sick, etc.

Over at Baby Cheapskate, she posted a list of Top 10 Most Useless Baby Items. I disagree with 3 of the top ten! So I was thinking, if I had to do it again, and could only get 15 items over $15 to use in the first year, what would I get? I put the price limit on to exclude things like bottles, clothing, diapers, etc.

1. Convertible Car Seat. Many babies outgrow the infant carseats before they are big enough to face forward, so you wind up having to get a convertible one anyway.
2.  Baby Carrier. I wore my son when he was too little to sit in the shopping cart by himself. When he was really little, he'd fall asleep almost immediately upon being put in it. We still use it for hikes where we can't use a stroller and he'd get tired too quickly. I got a Moby D wrap, because of it's versatility. I wound up not using it in positions other than a standard front or back carry. I think I'd get a Mei Tai style carrier. They tend to be more expensive, but they're also easier and quicker to put on.
3. Stroller. They do have their usefulness, even if you have a baby carrier. Particularly when you are going to the zoo or some other place where you want your child to be able to see things without having to peer over your shoulder.
4. Portable Crib. AKA a pack-n-play. This is useful to me because of traveling. I go to visit my mom a few times a year, so it would make no sense for her to own a crib for such occasions. I also don't think I would trust the cribs that some hotels have available.
5. Crib & Mattress. I'm counting this as one, even though it's technically two items.
6. A Comfortable Chair for the Nursery. Preferably one that rocks or glides. Great for nursing in the middle of the night, great for soothing a fussy baby. Get one that goes with the rest of the decor in your house, because you most likely won't have a need for a nursery forever.
7. Boppy Pillow. It makes multitasking/hands-free breastfeeding so much easier. I would eat, read, or work on the computer while nursing.
8. Breast Pump. I did a lot of pumping in the beginning because of some breast feeding problems we were having (in order to keep my supply up while giving myself a chance to heal). Even if you don't plan to go back to work, it is useful to be able to pump to relieve engorgement or to be able to go out on a date without baby.
   
9. Bottle Sterilizer. Did you know that your dishwasher does not sterilize? I got a cheap(er) microwave style sterilizer.  I battled thrush (one of the many breast feeding issues) and had to sterilize pumps, bottles, pacifiers, and anything else that touched my nipples or the baby's mouth. I wasn't about to boil water for 15-20 minutes every time I fed him. This could obviously be put off unless you develop a need to sterilize things (a premature baby, a baby with immune issues, or thrush all being good reasons).
   
10. Food Mill or Hand Blender. I made my son's food, so I found this very valuable. You obviously wouldn't need it if you don't plan to make your own baby food.
    
11. High Chair or Booster Seat. We got a portable booster seat that attaches to your existing chairs. Mostly because it takes up way less space than a traditional high chair. We wound up getting a high chair from my work for free that is a smaller one. The benefit of an actual high chair over the booster seat is that you can have your child sit in an actual high chair before they can sit up. We'd put our son in the high chair during dinner time before he ate solids, just so that he could be with us.
12. Diaper Pail. With one caveat--once your child is eating solids, their poop will smell. You can't expect the pail to contain all of that smell. I dump solid waste into the toilet because I use cloth diapers. If I didn't use cloth, a diaper pail would become a bucket of poop. You may just want to frequently take the trash out at that point if you aren't going to dump solids.
13. Changing Pad. I have a big one with contoured sides and I put it on a dresser that I already owned. I'm pretty sure that the sides have helped keep him from rolling off. My guy is a little too long for it now, but I don't want to have to get down onto the floor to change him all the time--partly because he would run off in the middle of the change if he had that opportunity. I'm going to be sad when I finally have to stop using the changing pad.
14. Hanging Diaper Stacker. We hung a hook on the wall to hang the stacker on. The prefold diapers I use fit perfectly in it, and it lets me easily see if my diaper supply is running low so I can start diaper laundry. If I were using disposables, it might be less useful, but still think that having a place to store diapers in a way that you can see if you're running low would be useful. And then you can toss the plastic bag that the disposables come in. I know that if I had a bag of diapers laying around, that my son would take all of the diapers out and decide that the bag was a toy.
15. Diaper Bag. I'm not one to have lots of purses or bags, so I have one large enough to use for a day long outing and use it for any outing longer than an hour.
    

My son doesn't have too many words in his vocabulary (he's not behind, but he certainly isn't one of those toddlers that can say 50+ words or anything like that). Because of his lack of words, it's easy for me to forget how aware and alert he is.

Today he took me by the hand, led me to his room, opened his closet door, and pointed to his shoes. Later, he went into his room by himself and brought his shoes out to me. This is his way of letting me know that he wants to go outside. He only wears shoes when we go places, so if he wants to leave the house, he knows that's an important step.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were doing yard work. When we finished up and were putting the tools away, he followed us to the garage, pushed his stroller out, and tried to climb into it.

I was unloading the dishwasher this afternoon and he saw the cap to his milk sippy cup. He went over, took the cap out and gave it to me to indicate that he wanted some milk.

If mom or dad aren't paying enough attention to him, he'll point to us to indicate that he want us to get down on the floor with him.

He has a school bus ride on toy. It sings a song to the tune of "This Old Man" (but with different words). I was singing the actual "This Old Man" song to him the other day. He looked at me with an interested look. When I stopped singing, he leaned over and pressed the button on his school bus to make it play it's song.

Last night we did a Target run right before Wiggle Worm's bedtime. (As a side, I need a new, toddler appropriate nickname, any suggestions?) We mostly bought household cleaners that we were out of or low on. I left them on the dinning room table, because I just didn't feel like putting things away after I got my son to bed (we got home right at bedtime) and doing my own night time routine.

So this morning, they were still sitting there. I was quickly checking my email just now and my son starts pressing something into my side. Can you see where this is going? I turn around to see what in the world he's trying to share with me, and it's the container of Comet. What if he had tried to open it rather than immediately giving it to Mommy? And how did he get tall enough to reach things off of the dining room table!

He's growing too fast!