Baby Fit - More Than Morning Sickness

I get a daily e-mail from Baby Fit - something I signed up for early on in Mac's pregnancy. Usually it has a link to an article relating somehow to a healthy pregnancy: what foods to eat or not to eat, how much exercise to get during each trimester, how to have a healthy postpartum period and other handy topics that might interest moms-to-be. I haven't really followed it too much since I gave birth but still read them occasionally. So earlier this week I opened my inbox and was so excited to see an article about HG! I know that there have been things about regular morning sickness and how to deal with that but I haven't seen anything relating to HG until now. The article is not very long but does give a short explanation of what HG is, how to diagnose it and some common treatments. I am posting the link so everyone can read:

More Than Morning Sickness: What Is Hyperemesis Gravidarum?

Congratulations to my friend who just had her HG baby August 14th. Welcome to the world little girl! She was very healthy and very cute :)

My computer had a virus and had to be repaired so I haven't been able to post for awhile! I will shortly however, now that my computer is virus free!!

My Modified Fry-The-Egg-On-The-Sidewalk Experiment

While my computer was down and was being fixed it was extremely hot here. A good ole Wisconsin heat wave. So I decided to do a little experiment. One of my favorite movies is Father of the Bride 2 - the one where both Annie and her mom and pregnant at the same time. In one of the scenes it showed some kids frying an egg on the sidewalk. It was to illustrate the point that their babies were born during a heat wave. Even though a California heat wave and a Wisconsin heat wave are slightly different - and by slightly I actually mean vastly - I thought why not try that here? It was 90 degrees after all so it had a chance of working, right?



First I got an egg. Just a regular, uncooked egg from my refrigerator.

I then put a pan on the sidewalk because let's face it, raw eggs are messy. That is why I am calling this the 'modified' egg experiment. I let it sit in the sun for about 10 minutes so it could heat up a bit before I put in the egg.



After it was nice and toasty (I felt it, it was VERY toasty) I cracked the egg open and put it in the pan.



Then I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.



After about 30 minutes or so I declared the experiment a failure. The only thing the egg did was get a little dry around the edges. Very gross. So I threw the egg out and washed the pan. End of experiment.

Heat wave + tons of rain = hot and humid

It is SO hot here!! And the humidity...! Here in Wisconsin we are not used to such warmth. 'Hot' usually means it hit 80, going above 80 and into the 90s is ridiculous!! Oh please Fall, get here soon. I am hot, my boys are hot, my house feels like a broiler, and I long for cooler weather. But Winter, you may take your time - I'm not ready for that yet.

Construction - Week 2

Today begins week 2 of construction on our basement. We are making it into a family room. Well, one of our basements. Oddly enough we have two. Don't ask - it was like that when we bought the house. One basement houses our wash machine and a host of nasty little spiders, the other used to be all cement and...cinder blocks? I really have no idea. But hopefully by the end of this month it will be a livable, usable, comfortable space! I'm so excited!!




Pre-construction basement. As you can see, it's not a pretty sight. All that cement down there = very damp basement. We had to empty that dehumidifier at least 3 times per day. Next step: painting the nasty stained up floors. What fun. We did that ourselves. Actually, Hubby did that all by himself while I watched the boys. He's a wonderful man.






The next step was to hire a contractor to come in and do the framing, insulating, electrical work, drywall, and texturing. In other words, everything Hubby and I are incapable of doing ourselves. We prefer to stick to priming and painting.








As of Friday our basement has drywall but I haven't uploaded those pictures to my computer yet. That is for another day. I'll have more pictures as the weeks go by!

BFTT

My boys seem to be pros when it comes to the BFTT or the Big Fat Temper Tantrum. How does a child learn this? Is there some secret society where all children gather together and decide just how and in what situations this is to be performed? If so, what is the name of that society? The Secret Art of Getting Your Own Way In Spite of Your Parents? I think we parents need to band together and form our own society. We could call it the Child Chronicles - Learning How Your Child Thinks and Why They Act The Way They Do. Yes, a bit wordy but something to think about and consider.

My two year old is a veritable master at the temper tantrum. If there is such a secret society, he is one of the leaders. He has this down to an art form - first comes the eye scrunch, then the mouth quivers in rage, the fists ball up, then comes the back arch and the dramatic 'fall' to the floor while the little person voices his displeasure. It doesn't seem to matter that he knows he is not allowed to throw one or that he will inevitable be punished for doing so. All that matters to him in that moment is getting his point across - that he disapproves of whatever it is I have told him to do or not to do. I will say this for him, he is getting better at not throwing them but I think it will be awhile before they disappear completely.

My youngest is taking lessons from his older brother. Or has been going faithfully to those meetings, I'm not sure which. He discovered the back arch this past week and has been putting all his energy into perfecting it. He has been a bit cranky due to teething and I think those two go hand in hand. At 6 months old he can throw a BFTT that almost rivals his brother. It's scary. My sweet tempered little guy is trying to exert his 'Independence' - it's so cute that he thinks he actually has some. I guess it happens to every child at some point, that need to have your own opinion. I just didn't expect it so soon.

Next on Child Chronicles, Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?

God Really DOES Answer Prayer!

It never ceases to amaze me that God actually cares about the little things in my life - things that I care about but really aren't all that important. There are times when I pray 'little' prayers - I like to call them popcorn prayers. Like when I am having a stressful time dealing with my two year old who is refusing to listen or throwing his supper all over my freshly cleaned floor and I quickly pray for patience before my head explodes. That type of prayer.

So last Tuesday I went shopping with just the boys. It's an adventure, let's just leave it at that. I do it every Tuesday morning so that I can watch my Tuesday night shows (go White Collar and Covert Affairs!!!). I know it would be easier to switch nights but then I would have one less night with Hubby and both those shows are only on for a short time this summer. Anyway, back to my story.

I had just finished going both to Aldi and Walmart and was heading out to the car to pack up the boys and go home. Hmmm...'packing up the boys' sounds so, weird. Put them into their carseats - that sounds better. I had Ty in the cart and Mac in his carrier. He was napping very peacefully.

One thing you should know: our vehicle is old. 12 years old to be exact. It has seen better days. It has a few problems, nothing major but things that make it a pain sometimes. Like when you unlock the door the car alarm goes off. Neither Hubby nor I are car people and have no idea how to disarm the thing so we just deal with it.

Back to Tuesday...Mac was sleeping and I knew that the alarm would wake him up and since he had missed his morning nap that would NOT be a good thing. As I was turning the key in the lock I quickly prayed that the alarm would not go off when I opened the door. I opened the door and it didn't go off. Amazing. I know I shouldn't be so surprised but seriously, whenever that happens I am shocked and yet somehow feel like I expected it all the time. It's a weird feeling. I thanked God and managed to put the sleeping baby into his carseat without waking him.

I love God. Asking for the alarm not to go off didn't change the course of the world but it did make my day a little easier and Mac a happy child. I should have asked Him to make it stop forever. What was I thinking? Oh well, I'll have to remember that next time.

Isaiah 59:21

'"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD.'

Isaiah 59:21, NIV

Second Time Around - My Introduction To Residual Nausea

(I am 34 weeks pregnant here, Ty is almost 20 months)


I had never heard of residual nausea until after my second son, Mac, was born. Ignorance truly IS bliss. There is not a whole lot of information on the subject and no research that I can find. In fact, I had a hard time even pinning a name to why I was still nauseated and throwing up after my baby was born.

Mac's pregnancy was like Ty's, only worse. Not only did I have a very young child to care for, the medication didn't work as well as I would have liked, and we had just moved a few weeks earlier and didn't know anyone who could help me. It was terrible. Most of the first trimester is one big blur. I honestly don't know how I managed to survive AND care for my little one at the same time.

Since I was still breastfeeding Ty I wanted to hold off on medication for as long as possible. Looking back, this was probably a mistake. I became dehydrated and dried up anyway. And I found out later that I could breastfeed and take Zofran at the same time. Whoops. Sadly, when I finally decided to start medication at 8 weeks, it only took the edge off the nausea and the vomiting completely. I still threw up 3-4 times per day for quite awhile.


There were so many things I couldn't eat, drink, smell or even look at without getting sick. I survived on tator tots, pasties, and lemon flavored sparkling water for a long time. I no longer eat or drink those foods. For now, at any rate.
I remember telling myself that when I felt better (my thought at the time was 16 weeks) I was going to make a HUGE pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions since I was SO hungry for meat! Well, week 16 came and went - no pot roast. I cried. I didn't get my pot roast until I was in my third trimester.

One huge difference in my two pregnancies was the location. Ty was born in a hospital with a midwife in a completely different city. I wanted to do things differently with Mac. I wanted to give birth in a free standing birth center. The only problem with that was my midwife couldn't give me a prescription for the medication I needed. So I saw a midwife for the HG and a midwife for the baby. It was a little weird but it worked in the end.

Four days after my due date and 10 hours of labor I gave birth to my beautiful, handsome, very heavy baby boy. He weighed 9 pounds even and was 22 inches long. How he came to be that big I'll never know. It was probably as close to a perfect birth as you can get. It was so peaceful and so quiet since we were the only ones there.

I brought my baby home when he was just 4 hours old. I felt much better and hungry, of course. I was so grateful that he was out of me! The next month was crazy and hectic as both boys became sick with RSV (Mac ended up in the hospital for about a week) and we decided to buy a house and move. Through all the chaos and confusion I noticed that I would have periods where I would get really nauseated. I just thought I was getting sick. March came and I was still nauseated. April came - same thing. May came and it finally left. I threw up 5-6 times during those three months so I can't say that it was terrible. Unpleasant and very confusing but not as bad as it was when I was pregnant. Probably about the same as normal morning sickness.

I have to say that it was worth all the nausea and vomiting. I wouldn't trade Mac for anything. I lost 9% of my body weight my first pregnancy and kept it off after Ty was born; I lost 11% with Mac. I am worried about future pregnancies since it appears to get worse with each pregnancy. With Ty I was able to quit my medication voluntarily around week 26. With Mac they cut me off at week 28. I didn't need it every day by that point but I still felt like I needed it some days. I was so afraid when the clinic said that I couldn't have anymore.

So, am I willing to have more children? Yes but don't ask me how many. I have always wanted a large family but I'm not sure how many more pregnancies my body can take. For now I'm taking it one pregnancy at a time...hoping and praying that the HG will get better, not worse.