Sunday Breakfast

Pictures have been updated.  Pretty soon I’ll have to download the camera and do another upload.  Time goes so fast!

Just a couple things tonight.  #1 – Annika has decided lately that she’s going to be a detective when she grows up.  This is a change from her standard zookeeper answer.  I just tell her that sounds fantastic to whatever she says at the time.  Oh, and a mom.  Don’t forget that.  Whatever she says she wants to be when she grows up she is always quick to add that she’s going to be X and a mom.  She is going to do both.  Again, sounds fantastic to me!

And put this in the “my husband loves me but not THAT much” camp:  Today I was given Timberwolves tickets for Friday night.  These are the really great company seats – Section 112, Row 1.  Row 1!  But Kris won’t go with me.  He would rather go to football practice than to the Timberwolves game on a date with me.  He dislikes basketball and the Timberwolves that much!  I only told him once or twice that I didn’t really appreciate his choice.   So now I have to find a babysitter and a date!

I was going to title this just “Big News” but didn’t want to alarm anybody thinking anything really dramatic was going on over here like premature babies or anything.

But in Annika’s world she has BIG news.  A loose tooth!  Last night at dinner she said her tooth hurt.  Kris poked around and told her that’s because it was loose, very nonchalantly and went back to eating.  Annika and I stopped dead in our tracks and stared at each other.  A loose tooth!  She’s been wanting a loose tooth for months.  Some of her preschool friends have lost teeth or have loose teeth and she’s been envious.  Of course then she had to play with her wiggly tooth for a while.  And she had lots of questions about if it was going to hurt when it came out and if it was going to come out today or tomorrow.  We told her it wouldn’t hurt because we’d wait until the tooth was ready to come out before pulling on it and that it would be a while, maybe even after the baby was born before it would fall out.  Every once in a while I’ll see her playing with it a bit.

And for those curious, it’s the bottom, middle tooth on the left (right when looking at her) that is loose.

Annika is home again!  It feels so good to have my whole family back together.  I’m not sure she’s entirely excited to be back but who cares?  I am!  OK, so she did tell me last night that a week was a little too long to be away from me but I’m 100% sure she’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant going on another vacation.  Now we’re working on getting back into routines though and discipline.  A whole week with grandparents whose job it is to spoil you rotten?  Yeah, she’s had to come back to reality a bit.  She has been super bossy with James.  She’s been ripping toys right out of his hands just because she wants them.  She’s not listening to us AT ALL.  It’s like she had 100% attention the last five days or something!   Anyway, a few time outs, a couple talks and I think she’s starting to behave a bit better.  She helped very well this morning when I said it was time to pick up all the toys so I could vacuum and sweep the downstairs.

And I think James is happy to have her back also.  He’d tell me at least once a day that he missed Annika and I don’t think Kris and I have the huge imaginations those two do so they’ve been having fun together making up worlds for them to play in.  Sometimes Annika is the mom, sometimes she’s the sister, sometimes she’s the baby and James has different roles too.  There was a game this morning with crystals and jewels that involved running all over the place.  Not entirely sure what the plot was there…but it was loud!  James is starting to use his imagination more and more though so sometimes Annika will come up with the next game for them to play and James will want to tweak it.  (I’ll be the baby James and you be the brother.  But I don’t want to be the brother!  I want to be the Daddy! Etc.)

This morning Kris put the crib back together and put the bedding on it too.  One more task complete.  We’ll get the co-sleeper out of the basement today so I can wash the mattress pad on that and get it set up and in our bedroom.  I’ve got the bottles out and in the dishwasher for a good cleaning before they go back in the cupboard.  And I’ve got a mental list (soon to be written down) of all the stuff I want to run out today and buy (new nipples for the bottles, diapers, wipes, changing pad, going home from the hospital outfit, itty bitty socks, etc.).

On a not much talked about financial front – Kris has been at his new job for three weeks now, is still enjoying it and received his first paycheck yesterday!  And, apparently he still qualifies for unemployment because his new job is pretty low hours or something.  So while his unemployment benefits are reduced, he’s still bringing home more with the job and benefits than just the benefits alone.  Score!  We’re still on the look out though for any other jobs that would pay more or have some more hours.  We have to be if we want to keep claiming benefits so if you hear of something, let us know!  (And can I just say how proud I am of my hubby?  He was only out of work for less than two months in this dreadful economy.  What a guy!)

This morning I had my 32 week doctor’s appointment.  If you don’t want to hear all about it, skip to the next paragraph.  OK, so first up: weight – I lost 1 pound in the last two weeks.  That’s generally not good at this stage of the game so I’ll have to be more diligent about getting enough calories in to ensure that doesn’t happen.  Blood pressure: very good at 120/50.  Talked about my gestational diabetes.  My numbers are very good, especially my fasting (morning) numbers.  I need to be under 95 and I’m usually under 85.  My midwife said this is a good indication I’ll be able to control this with diet the whole pregnancy.  That is good news.  Also, starting at 36 weeks they’ll start doing Non-Stress Tests (NSTs) at each weekly appointment.  It will make my weekly appointments a bit longer but they can be done right in the clinic during my normal appointments.  No problem!  I don’t think I’ll mind listening to the heart beat a little more often!  Next up: ketones.  As part of my gestational diabetes monitoring, I’m also checking my ketones each morning with a simple urine test.  The last two mornings I’ve spilled trace to small amounts and I asked my midwife about that this morning.  We quickly reviewed my diet and she said most likely, even though I’m not hungry, I should be eating a small evening snack before going to bed.  My body is most likely burning fat instead of glucose during the night because I haven’t eaten since dinner.  So, from now on, even if I’m not hungry, I’ll have a glass of milk or some other healthy evening snack.  She didn’t seem overly concerned.  I have a follow up appointment on Friday with the nutritionist and will ask her about it too.

OK, appointment talk complete.  I have one last baby related item to share though.  Last night I had a dream that I had the baby and he was 5.5 pounds.  And while I was holding him I wrote down 326 and his name (Side note: Kris and I have decided on a name!  And no, we’re not doing to share!).  Also, at first he was a girl (dressed in pink) but I still wrote down the boy name we’ve chosen.  Anyway, what does 326 mean?  Well, it could mean 3/26.  At that point I’ll be 35 weeks 3 days.  I’d be early but 5.5 pounds is probably about what the baby would weigh at that point.  Or it could be 3:26, as in time.  Maybe the baby will be born at either 3:26AM or 3:26PM.  I’ve been pondering this all morning, especially on my drive in to work.  Mark your calendars for 3/26 and keep an eye on me!  Then, I got to work and found out a co-worker had her baby this morning!  This is a baby that she had been told at two ultrasounds was a girl (pink nursery and everything) only to find out two weeks ago at a third ultrasound it was a boy.  And he was born this morning (3/2) at 6:57AM.  Hmm….anyone else see the 326 in that date/time?  I wonder if I could have been dreaming about her and her girl, nope boy! who was born at 3/2 6:57?  Weird, huh!  Now, a name hasn’t been announced for their little guy.  If they choose the name Kris and I have chose, well, that would be extra weird but it would make my dream make sense!

Jamesy update:  Messy diaper last night but no puking since yesterday morning.  Hopefully this virus (after a chat with the nurses yesterday we’re going off the virus theory) will clear up for him soon.  Otherwise we spent lots of time last night cuddling and playing Legos.  I was so happy to have him home!  We cuddled at bedtime and he asked if he could sleep with us.  I told him it wasn’t Mommy’s bedtime yet so he went to bed in his own bed and then when Kris came to bed he brought James with us.  Big mistake!  James tosses and turns and wiggles and squirms and kicks and elbows all night long. More than once I had to remove his blanket from my face.  It was not the most restful night of sleep ever.  But he was happy to snuggle up next to me.  Hopefully tonight he’ll be satisfied to sleep in his own bed.

Annika talked to me for ten minutes last night on the phone!  I think that’s a record!  She told me about going swimming, her new doll Nana made for her, ice-skating, gym time today, watching a movie and lots of other things.  It was such a good talk but of course I still miss her like crazy.  Even James remarked this morning that he misses Nika.  The house is still pretty quiet without her here.  Jamesy plays alone very nicely but also very quietly!

Wow.  What a weekend.  Friday night I did a kid/car exchange with Nana and Papa and they all went up to Breezy Point.  When they were in Brainerd they called to tell me they were almost there and that James had thrown up three times.  Oh no!  My baby!  He’s never sick and both my kids very rarely throw up.  I felt so bad for him and wanted desperately to cuddle him and take care of him.  Kris arrived home from a football meeting not too long after that phone call and I told him James’ status and all my worries.  Kris, being just how he is, basically dismissed me and was like “he’ll be fine.”  Men. Humph!

Saturday morning I got up and started preparing food.  I had three recipes to make for Krystle that day.  The guacamole and the crab dip were both pretty fast and done quickly.  The roll-ups, while SO, SO delicious take a really long time.  It was three hours later that I was done with all the food prep!  Of course in between all that I also ate lunch and poked my finger so it wasn’t 100% work the whole time.  And after that was done I had to run to the pharmacy (to get more diabetic supplies) and the grocery store (to stock up on protein snacks as well as regular groceries).  Then it was home for a quick nap, shower and then party time!  (Side note: All finger pokes to date have been within my limits.  Yay!  So far I am controlling this nicely with diet changes alone.)

Saturday Krystle arranged a surprise 30th birthday party for Pierce.  And it worked!  He was surprised!  It was a fun evening and I got to see both my mom and my dad so I was a happy girl.  But all day I worried about my Jamesy.  I heard again from Nana and Papa in the morning that he had kept his breakfast down so I was hoping that he’d just had a bad night and was OK again.  Saturday night Kris got another update saying that he’d taken a long nap on Saturday so he was obviously still trying to fight something off.  Poor kid.

Yesterday Kris left in the morning to drive up to Breezy Point too.  I stayed home (had to take care of the dog) and did oodles of baby prep.  I washed five loads of baby laundry and put all of it away in the nursery.  Little by little we’re getting prepared.  Kris needs to put he crib back together (it’s currently in toddler bed form) then I need to put the freshly washed bedding on it.  I need to wash up all the bottles and find cupboard space for those.  I need to buy some itty bitty diapers and a going home from the hospital outfit.  And we may need some seasonally appropriate outfits.  I have boy outfits but Jamesy was born in February when I needed more long sleeve outfits and this baby will be born at the end of April when I may need more shorter leave outfits or at least not all the fleece I currently have!  We’ll see.

I talked with Kris a couple times yesterday while he was at Breezy Point and found out that Jamesy was still throwing up and was having pretty nasty diapers too.  I just want him home!  I have this overwhelming need to take care of him.  Kris is driving home today with James.  All James ate yesterday was soup and water so hopefully he can keep that down.  I’ll assess the situation with Kris today and we’ll see if I need to make any doctors appointments.

Annika is staying up there though.  When Kris arrived there yesterday she was so mad to see him!  She didn’t want him to bring her home.  Who wouldn’t want to stay on vacation!  Kris and I talked about it and while I miss her like crazy (I DO NOT LIKE the house being so quiet – yesterday was actually kind of awful!) this was actually a good time for her to stay.  She’ll miss some preschool but that’s OK.  I won’t want her missing kindergarten next year so this is good timing.  Unfortunately Week 8 (Nana and Papa’s week at Breezy) is never going to line up with spring break so it’s probably going to be weekend trips to Breezy from here on out.  She’s excited to stay.  Kris had to ask me multiple times if it was OK that he was only bringing one baby home.  It’s funny how different we are.  If Jamesy hadn’t been sick I’m sure he would have been just fine leaving them both up there all week.  Me though?  This is the longest Annika will have ever been away from me and I’m not excited about it.  She certainly is though and I’m happy she’s having such a good time.  I can suck it up and learn to separate a little bit!  And I’m glad Jamesy is coming home today so I can take care of him and snuggle with him.  And I’m happy to have Kris back home too.  That was one big bed I had to sleep in all by myself last night!  I didn’t like that either!

One exciting thing for Annika was that she went ice skating for the first time yesterday (pushed a chair around the ice)!  I’m super bummed I missed it and I hope there were pictures taken for me to see.  I’ll have to ask her all about it when she gets home.  She’s not too excited to talk on the phone with me – there are more important things to do than talk to me!

Man, am I co-dependent on my family or what!

Kris and I went to my diabetic counseling session yesterday.  We got all the information on why this happens (stupid hormones!), how to treat it and how to monitor it.  I now have a blood test monitor and I have to check and record my blood glucose levels four times a day.  I also have a diet plan that I must follow that restricts how many carb servings per meal I can have.  Want to do something really nice for me now?  Get me some nuts, cheese, etc. to eat!  I’ll be hitting the grocery store tomorrow to stock the house with proteins and fats for snacks instead of carbs.  I have a follow up appointment next Friday afternoon to review my first week on the new diet and any higher than allowed blood readings.  For those interested, my morning (fasting) number needs to be between 60 and 95.  And my 2 hours after each meal number needs to be less than 120.  That may sound low for any type 2 diabetics out there but the dietitian assured us that these are the correct number for use in gestational diabetics.  Being the super organized, nerdy engineer type that I am, I’ve already created a spreadsheet to track my meals and how many carb servings I’m having at each one.  I’ll bring this to my follow up appointment next week.  I also have a handy-dandy little notebook (OMG – Blues Clues flashback) to track my blood readings in that I’ll also bring in next week and to every doctor appointment the rest of this pregnancy.  My goal?  Control this with diet so I don’t have to do insulin shots.  I hear that gets harder as the pregnancy goes longer thanks to those darn hormones again.  I’ll also be talking to my midwives at my next appointment about what this could mean at the very end – induce earlier?  I’m kind of hoping for an April 20th induction now!  (My hospital will not do any inductions before 39 weeks which equals April 20th and no elective inductions before 40 weeks but now that I have this complication, maybe, just maybe, they’d induce earlier??  That’s what I want to ask them anyway.  Just trying to avoid the 10 pound baby this time!)

Let’s see…other news.  The kids got all packed up for Breezy Point last night.  Annika is so excited to go she can hardly contain herself.  She is all about the swimming.  Me?  I’m nervous about that.  I’ve never had them in a pool without either Kris or I right there next to them.  I’m sure Nana and Papa will be very diligent about life vest use and sticking close, etc. but I am a paranoid mother and will worry about them all weekend anyway.  It’s what I do you know.

Fail.  I got word today that I failed the repeat 3 hour gestational diabetes test I took on Friday.  Boo.  What is Gestational Diabetes?  Click here for a link to the American Diabetes Website on it. Or here for how to treat it.  In the next couple days I’ll meet with a nutritional counselor.  I’ll be given a diet to follow and will have to probably do multiple finger pokes a day to track my blood sugars.  I’m hoping I can control everything with diet and not have to do insulin shots but I guess we’ll see.  Anything for a healthy pregnancy and baby, ya know?

Last night in the new bunk beds went pretty well.  Annika ended up sleeping on the floor with Dagur instead of in her bed, as usual.  James slept the whole night in the twin bed without getting up.  I call it a success.  This morning though James woke up before Annika and woke her up.  I guess she was yelling at him to be quiet.  Heh.  I told him that when he wakes up he should go play downstairs or in the baby’s room.  He’s usually up 15 to 30 minutes before Annika is.  They’ll work it out.

Tonight James wanted to sleep on the top bunk.  I told him he had to be 5 to sleep up there but he still wanted to take turns with Annika.  There is no way he’s sleeping up there though.  That’s enough to give me instant insomnia!  Instead I rocked him until he was super drowsy (from crying to drowsy in less than 3 minutes!) and then put him in his twin bed.  Neither he nor Annika has come out yet (>30 minutes later) so I think I’m good for tonight.  Whew!  Hopefully we’ll get some new routines set for this new arrangement.

It’s been a busy weekend for us.  Yesterday morning I put the kids’ clean laundry away and cleaned both their rooms.  And that completely wore me out and I ended up taking an hour or so nap.  I can definitely tell I’m older during this pregnancy.  My body gets sore and tired much more quickly than previous times.  I suppose it doesn’t help that both James and Annika want me to carry them sometimes.  I’ve had to say no to both of them on occasion.  I’m just too tired to do so!

After lunch yesterday I quickly ran to Target and purchased a booster seat car seat for Annika.  She’s still been riding in her Britax Marathon car seat in the truck.  James rides in one too.  We decided that she’d sit in a booster in the back seat of the truck when the baby came.  James could stay in the Marathon and the baby, obviously, would use the infant bucket.  Then, when the baby outgrew the bucket (around six months or so based on Annika and James’ growth patterns) he will use Annika’s old Marathon.  That’s the strategy anyway.  So why did I rush out yesterday to purchase a booster?  Because Kris and I decided that we’d have a little one on one time with the kids yesterday and we needed to use both vehicles to do so.  So I bought a booster so Annika could ride in the back seat of the car with me while Kris took James in the truck.  And where did we go?  Annika and I went to the movies.  We finally saw The Princess And The Frog.  Annika’s been asking to see it forever.  We shared a big bucket of popcorn and an enormous pop and she munched while sitting on the edge of her seat the entire time.  Towards the end she snuggled into me and I held her for a bit.  She giggled her little head off in the car though.  She thought it was so neat to ride in the car!

Kris and James went to the Mall of America to the Lego store.  That was after playing Legos at home for a bit after us pesky girls left (and leaving their Lego mess all over the bedroom floor!).  The mall was insanely busy so they didn’t even stay to play in the free Lego play area.  Instead they went to Target, bought a couple things for dinner and a small Lego toy for James.  He wanted a red truck and Kris found him one.

Last night I told Kris I was feeling the need to start getting ready for this baby.  He told me to go ahead and nest away.  He wasn’t quite as excited when I told him I needed his help.  Today after church I put him to work.  We completely re-arranged both kids’ rooms.  Now Annika’s room has the bunk beds in it for both her and James to share.  We brought up an extra dresser from the basement and put it in one of the closets in Annika’s room.  That will be James’ dresser.  Annika will keep her dresser that she was using.  I moved Annika’s clothes and James’ clothes from their closets into the closet on the left side in Annika’s room.  That one has both an upper and a lower bar for hanging.  That double closet in her room is coming in handy now!  I was also able to fit two laundry baskets for their dirty laundry and a Rubbermaid tub (toy box) in the closet.  It’s stuffed to the gills but also workable.  We also moved the train table from James’ room into their room too.  The room is full but there’s still some room for them to play on the floor too.

Then in James’ room we have James’ current dresser, the glider and ottoman, the crib (still in Toddler bed form), Annika’s doll house and the bookcase with all their books.  This will be the nursery and we’ll get the crib turned back into a crib in the next couple weeks.  It feels good to have the rooms rearranged though.  That was the hard part.

My plan for next weekend when Kris and the kids are gone at Breezy Point with Nana and Papa is to wash and re-arrange clothes.  I’ll move James’ clothes from his current dresser to his new dresser.  And I’ll wash all the baby clothes (I’ve already sorted through everything that I have) and blankets and crib bedding and get all that put away in the now-vacated dresser in James’ room and in the now empty closet.  I’ll have to take stock once all the clothing is sorted and hung or put in the dresser.  If I think I’m low on anything (sleepers, onesies, outfits, socks, etc.) then I’ll have to make a list and do a bit of shopping.  Oh, and I’ll have the crib bedding washed so when Kris gets a chance to change the crib back to a crib, the bedding will be ready.

Then I’ll have to get the car seat out of the basement and washed up, set up the mini-co-sleeper and wash that up, buy some itty bitty diapers and decide and maybe purchase a going home from the hospital outfit for the babe.  Oh, and pack a hospital bag.  Or at least decide what’s going in my hospital bag.  I’ll be 31 weeks on Tuesday so it’s probably time to get all this stuff rolling.

The kids think their new room is awesome.  Annika even asked when it was bedtime because she’s excited to sleep in the top bunk.  She proclaimed this the best day ever.  They’ve both been up and down and up and down the ladder to sit in the top bunk.  Kris and I are both nervous about that upper bunk.  The ladder can be slippery, especially when wearing socks.  But the kids are super excited and that’s good.

I took pictures of the process today and the nearly complete rooms.  I plan on uploading pictures this week so look out for them soon!

Tuesday I had my 30 week doctor’s appointment.  I am 75% done with this pregnancy!  The appointment lasted all of five minutes.  They’re pretty routine at this point.  Weight are blood pressure are both OK.  Any questions?  No.  OK, hop up on the table and we’ll measure your belly and listen to the heartbeat.  Belly is measuring 31 weeks (there is margin in that so that’s OK) and heartbeat was at 150bpm.  And done.  I go back in two weeks for another five minute check.  I told you about the three hour glucose test, right?  I took that a few weeks ago and didn’t pass or fail the test.  Of the 4 readings if you have 2 high then it’s an automatic fail and if you have 0 high then it’s an automatic pass.  I had 1 high – and get to re-take the test.  Oh, and my 1 high reading?  Was a 157 when the cut off was 155.  So close!  Anyway, I scheduled that test for tomorrow morning so once again I’ll pack up my book and my cross-stitching and sit in a waiting room for three hours.  It’s going to be a blast!  Not.  Let’s just hope that this time I come in with 0 high readings, OK?

The kids are SUPER excited to go to Breezy Point next weekend with Nana and Papa.  The other night we had a swimsuit/swim trunk fashion show to make sure their suits still fit from last summer.  Bonus for me is they do – Annika has 3 suits and James has 2 trunks that they can take with them.  After the fashion show they had to keep their favorite ones on and play “Breezy Point.”  They took all blue blankets and made a big “pool” on the floor with them where they would go swimming.  Then they took all the blankets and pillows off Annika’s bed and drug them down to the stairwell landing and that was where they “slept” at Breezy Point.  Back and forth between swimming and sleeping they went.  Last night when I got home from work Annika was back in a swimming suit.  Apparently she just likes wearing them now.  So silly!

Good news for Kris this week!  He started his new job on Monday.  He’s been in training for it for about a month now but Monday was his first night with an actual client and making actual money.  The hours are pretty limited right now, at least until they assign another client or two to him.  In fact, he’ll probably bring home less money from this job on a weekly basis, at least in the short term, than he will from unemployment!  Ah well.  It’s still money and we’ll still stick it in savings to use as tuition next year anyway.  I wonder if this will reduce his unemployment income (since the hours/pay are limited) or if it will end them.  I guess we’ll see!

Down, up, down, up.  I’ve cleaned up our virus-infected computer so hopefully we are done, done, done.  Let me know if you’re having problems.