Need some encouragement...

So I know ive been MIA for awhile, but we have been so busy and had so much to deal with lately. John has continually lost weight since birth..as of today he has dropped from 10lbs to 8lbs 14oz...they are concerned because he has lost ten percent of his birth weight and is now a bit jaundiced..and if thats not enough..I have mastitis in one of my breasts. We are continuing to breastfeed and see the lactation nurse regularly.. And as of right now we are giving him pumped breast milk (or possibly formula if i dont have enough pumped breast milk to cover him over the weekend) in a bottle. It started out with us breastfeeding and then giving him a 1/2 to an 1 of pumped breast milk in a bottle...well he still lost weight. I told the lactation consultant that i feel he isnt latched on as deeply at home as when she helps us out at the clinic. Here is the low down on whats happened.
On day three of us being home..i became horribly engorged..to the point that the baby couldnt latch on..i already have semi flat nipples and large breasts..but when they became larger due to the engorgement it became almost impossible for my nipple to stick far enough out for him to latch. So we saw the lactation consultant and she gave me a nipple shield which has worked wonders..and had us supplement him with the 1/2 ounce to an ounce.. well we came home and did all of that..
Well on thanksgiving i woke up and thouht i was engorged in my right breast again.. fed the baby...then i began to get horrible chills..i got a fever and it just continued to rise..to 100.9 at its highest..called the advice nurse..they sent me in to urgent care...and it was confirmed that i had mastitis. I was put on antibiotics to get rid of the breast infection and told to continue nursing on the affected side. Well as the day went by he would refuse to eat on that side..and it seemed as though he wasnt getting much when he did and that i wasnt pumping much.. So we saw the lactation consultant today to learn he had lost even more weight...reaching the 8 14 that i mentioned prior... Well she discussed the mastitis with me and decided to have me not breastfeed him on that side and continue to feed him on my good side..especially since not much is coming out and its very painful to feed him on that side...she also said he looked jaundiced..more so than his last appointment.. So she called his pedi..had him order us a blood test..and told us to make an appointment on Monday or Tuesday to see the pedi and i have another lactation appointment on Monday.
We did the test, came home and waited for the results. In the meantime i breastfed him on my good breast and it went great..had to strip him down to the diaper to keep him awake (the lactation consultant mentioned that the jaundice most likely made him very sleep and lethargic... i wish she could see him at three in the morning when he is screaming his lungs out..) Then i pumped my infected breast and i got freaking 10ml...i dont know if you know how pitiful that is, but its pitiful. The lactation nurse told me thats normal..that the infection is blocking my ducts and not allowing me to let down my milk as well.. To ice my breast for the next two to three days and continue to pump it..and pump the other breast as well..
Then i got a call telling us that his jaundice levels were in the mild to moderate range and that as long as we stay vigilant on the new plan of supplementing him 2 ounces of either pumped breast milk or formula after every feeding, he should be fine till Monday. We just have to keep an eye on his wet and dirty diapers..and coloring.
Soooo..thats what we have been up to.. Im really hoping this will work out...

A quick update

Well as you know we are busy busy busy. The last few nights have been pretty sleepless, except for last night which went well comapared to the others. Baby John is a crier...something aurora never really was..so he is keeping us awake..the first night he wanted to eat eat eat...breastfeed all the time..the next night he was gassy..and then last night he was upset because i couldnt breastfeed him..I was very engorged..and still am..and he couldnt latch on because it was causing my nipple to be flat. Well we saw the doctor yesterday for his check up..and he had lost another few pounds..was down to 9pounds 4ounces...the weight aurora was at birth..and then we went to see the lactation consultant today and he lost another two ounces! Down to 9pounds 2 ounces...they will only let him get down to 9 pounds (a ten percent body weight loss) before he has to supplement with formula.. So today the lactation consulatant helped me get him latched correctly and being engorged and all...using a nipple shield... came home and succesfully did it again on both breasts..so i think we are heading in the right direction. After im done feeding him, we are to give him 1/2 to 1 ounce of pumped breastmilk..to try and bulk up his weight..however he wouldnt take a 1/2 ounce earlier...but then again he did breastfeed on both breasts for a total of like 37minutes or so...and that was only two hours after his last feeding at the laction consulatant.. So im gonna call and leave em a message asking what to do in case he wont take it.. Right now we are using a medicine cup to give it to him..trying to avoid the bottle as much as possible..though they said if its like 3am and he has been crying and is hungry..then go ahead with a slow flow bottle..which we did last night. The supplementing is only supposed to last a few days... I see them again on Friday...so pray my little guy has gained some weight by then..im pretty sure he will though...my milk just came in the night before last and with the engorgement and improper latch (he tries to take just the nipple and none of the surrounding breast tissue, because i have a flater nipple) he hasnt been getting what he should. Though the lactation appointment confirmed that he is getting milk..So thats good.

Oh and his umbilical cord stump fell off already! We asked the doc about it yesterday cause it was just barely hanging on and we said...um..is that normal..and she said no, but it looks fine and occasionally they fall off early..and then we came home and i was feeding him and john picked him up and he looked at me and said...his cord came off..and it was laying there in front of me...ewww...lol

Aurora continues to be good with him..she can get rough occasionally, but for the most part she is a very loving, concerned big sis... And today I finally got a chance to spend some alone time with her outside..We went for a walk and then played ball while john watched the baby.

He is here!

So here is my labor story...

On 11/19 my midwife stripped my membranes and scheduled an induction for 11/21 at ten pm. That evening I had cramping at irregular intervals and tons of bloody show... Both of which my midwife had warned me i would get from her stripping my membranes. So I went to bed, figuring that if the cramping got worse or came at regular intervals then i would call L&D or go in. The next day i woke up without the cramping..gradually it came back, but it wasnt very painful at all.. ive had menstrual cramps that were worse... I had difficulty trying to time them and they felt nothing like when i was in labor with Aurora.. John was texting me while he was at work and eventually talked me into calling labor and delivery. They said to time them for an hour, see if they got worse and call them. So i went for a walk and tried to time them, but still had issues..though I had some that got more painful and moree contraction like. My friend nikki told me to just call them back and go in...because maybe if i do it that way then i will be in a labor room for more than just the pushing this time...

So John comes home from work early and I call Labor and Delivery.. They tell me to come in and get checked, see if my cervix has changed. It had been 4-5cm on the prior day. I go in..they get me into a triage room and hook me up to a machine.. I was having minor contractions occasionally that i couldnt even feel...And at that point the cramping i could feel had gone away again. The midwife on call was very busy and they couldnt check me right away. So the nurse went ahead and checked me and said she though i was 4... So i figured..we are gonna go home...So they had me walk around for an hour...and that just caused me to have back pain..lol.. and so we went back to our room after an hour..tired..and waited yet again to be seen by the midwife.. this time eager for them to come in and tell us we could go home. We were tired, we knew i wasnt in active labor, and we missed our daughter...

Well finally at a few minutes before seven the midwife on call came in. She checked me..and said..I was definitely a five..water bag poking out... i wasnt really contracting...but she said that his heart rate made some occasional dips, but he was doing fine..and then she checked my stomach to guesstimate his size..she said the size, coupled with the minor dips in heart rate, and that i was already five cm...was my "ticket in"..that she was off at seven, but the next midwife coming on would decide what we were going to do from there and whether or not she would pass me off to the Ob's due to the babys large size.

So we sat in our triage room, walked a bit..and waited to be moved to a labor and delivery room. The next midwife came in and me us...and told us that she would like to break my water once we got into the labor and delivery room. So we waited and waited and waited..took them forever to get us into a delivery room...and around ten pm I actually started contracting on my own...they werent too bad so i just breathed through them. They finally moved us and we me with our nurse..who was actually one of the people there at my daughters delivery! Sadly though she was off about half an hour later..

The labor room was nice..it was so nice to have a real labor experience...getting into a room when i can still get a chance to look around...last time i got wheeled into the room, pushed, and had a baby..that was it..no real laboring going on in there.. So then we waited about an hour and the midwife came from a delivery, she checked me and amazingly i was already 6-7cm, plus fully effaced, and then broke my water, at eight minutes past midnight. That was an odd sensation...I never got to feel my water break with Aurora... They cleaned me up and then I sat up again and I had another huge gush of warm clear amniotic fluid..so they cleaned me up again. I breathed through the first few contractions, but then just decided to get a shot of neubaine....That worked out well because the contractions immediately came on fast and strong..The neubaine took the edge off and gave me a chance to relax for a few moments in between the peak of each contraction and then i would breathe through the contraction..they were painful, but I knew delivery couldnt be very far off.

John fell asleep, my mom came and sat there..the nurse told me to call her when i felt the urge to push..So I was in between contractions and i felt this sharp pain..literally made me sit up in bed and i started to think..maybe i was ready to push..so on the next contraction i noticed that i was already pushing a little as it was. So my mom called the nurse for me and told her.. She came in with the midwife.. They checked me again..and yep.. head was plus 2 station, i was nine and a half cm dilated...and ready to go. So they got all their stuff ready.. woke john up..lol..who was very confused because he fell asleep right after they broke my water..and here..a little over an hour and a half later I was getting ready to deliver. This time i wanted to know for sure how long i pushed..so i glanced at the clock..it was right around one fifty...

Then we started the pushing.... I think all together i pushed around five times or so...ten seconds each..and OMG did it hurt.. I felt everything..which wasnt a bad thing..but he did hurt a heck of a lot more than aurora! She stopped me for a second to wiggle her fingers around his head..that hurt.. Out came his head..then his shoulders...which they were concerned about because Aurora had gotten caught on my pelvic bone.. Then the rest of him... He was born at 1:53pm..so it took about three to five minutes to push him out...He came straight to my stomach... They sucked his throat, cleaned him off..he was grasping my finger hard! Tried to breastfeed, but he was slippery and so were my hands. So i let them take him for measurements and to clean him off.. His apgars at birth and a few minutes later were nine and nine....He was crying a lot...

Then they weighed him..and to my amazement..he was ten pounds!!!! He didnt look it to me, but the scale doesnt lie... He was 20 1/2 inches long...While they did all the measurements the midwife did the afterbirth and stitches.. i had a minor first degree tear... two stitches..then they brought him in his diaper back over to me..we attempted to breastfeed again, he was having a tad bit of trouble but with the help of the midwife we got him on... He fed for like twenty minutes... Then they wrapped him up and handed him off to john... Then i got all cleaned up and we got ready to be moved to the postpartum floor. Baby John would cry and then be soothed and then cry a bit.. So we got all situated in the wheelchair and I was holding him and i started humming to him and he was just silent as could be, content to listen to me hum to him. The nurse wheeled us out to this picture frame on the wall with a doorbell in it...and then took a picture of me pressing it...and it played a lullaby throughout the entire hospital...we never got to do that with aurora..then she took another two pics of us as by the frame. Then off to the postpartum floor we went!

The postpartum floor was great..they did pretty much all of his testing in the room with us..His blood sugar was doing great...sixty at birth...fifty one a little later on..and then went up to seventy five even later..He has been breastfeeding like a champ..he cluster fed after he was born then went quite awhile without feeding again..and then i got in the shower came out and he was wide awake and ready to feed...he fed and then went awhile without feeding again and fed..The lactation consultant said not to worry about feeding him every three hours until he was at least 24hours old. He pooped and peed in the first day..so he was doing great..The second day he woke up pretty much on his own every three hours to feed. He has done great at latching and feeding... most of the time feeding for twenty minutes or more..Its a little painful at first and then after a few minutes the pain goes away..The only big thing is that the breastfeeding does bring on uterine cramps, as it should, and those are quite painful. They have me taking Motrin for it.

Aurora came by for a few moments on the first day to see him, but she was very out of sorts..She missed us horribly while we were gone and we missed her. John was really a mess without her..and we just couldnt wait to be home. My dad told us she was looking for me in the morning when she woke up, at night she would hold our wedding picture and point to us...and say ma ma ma ma ma ma.. and then i called that night and he let me talk to her..and she actually talked a bit with me on the phone, but once i said bye bye she started crying. :( It was really hard. My mom watched her the second night and kept her entertained for most of the second day... We came home around two pm..and my mom got pics of the happy reunion!

Aurora came running out of the hall baby gate and straight into my arms..huge smile.. She met baby john, took his little bulb and tried to suck his nose..lol..and then sucked her babys nose..she was being a good little mommy..Then she patted him and gave him a kiss..she seems to be quite taken with her baby brother! Mom watched baby john for a few minutes so we could take aurora outside and play and have a very minor walk in her push car.. Came back..Mom left..Got things in order...John and Aurora left to go grocery shopping. When they were leaving Aurora wanted me to come and said I had to stay with her brother..and she walked over to her baby dolls stroller and smiled and pointed in it..lol..she wanted me to put her baby brother in it and he could come with.

They left and I fed baby john and got comfortable in the house.. Aurora and John came back..and things have been pretty easy going...the house was a mess, but we have been slowly picking it up..Aurora likes try and pat her baby brother..and if you ask her where her baby brother is she will gladly show him off to you. I hope that she continues to be as happy with him. Although she does become quite upset when he cries..she does not like him crying... and we kinda knew this was going to happen. She has a baby doll that makes sounds and if it crys she will cry...So we are just trying to explain to her that he doesnt like nap time either or diaper changing time either..

But anyways..we are home..yay! And i hear a little someone waking up right now..getting close to time for him to feed again. Hopefully breastfeeding continues to work out. He did lose a few ounces in his first day at the hospital..went from ten pounds to nine pounds ten ounces..but they said that was normal..they checked his bilirubin before we left and that was fine. He has a check up on Monday, but it isnt with his normal pedi who will be out that day..which im kinda sad about, but oh well..

Ill post tons of pics later!

quick little update

So Im sick. I caught Auroras cold.. and now i know what my poor little girl really felt like....and still does feel like..its no fun. My father has also started catching the cold..the last person to get it is John..hopefully he doesnt. Im worried that with me delivering the new baby hopefully today or tomorrow that we can keep him from getting it in some way... but what are the odds if we are all sick!

Well i know this may be tmi, but ive been spotting a lot since yesterday. My midwife warned me I would..I wont go into the gross details, but lets just say its pretty gross..lol.. I was having some minor contractions last night, but they were irregular..every few minutes or so and they didnt hurt that much. And since it was late at night, i chose to try to get some sleep instead..and did get some sleep..slept okay all night..woke up to pee and such...had contractions a few times. I havent had too many contractions this morning though..So i think im gonna try and get some walking done..I just need to get off my butt and get dressed!

Any day now!

So this morning i had to go to a midwife appointment. I was sad that john couldnt go, but its a work day for him and he had special training to do this morning. They called last night and moved my appointment from the offices i normally go to, to the offices next to the hospital i will deliver at. They did this because of the fire.. we drove past the office this morning and the whole hillside right across the street was burned..so needless to say the fire came really close to their office building.

So my dad drops me off and takes Aurora with him. I was pretty certain she would be stripping my membranes and my daughter does not need to be there for that. So i do all the pee in the cup and all that.. which came out fine. Did my bp..which was fine.. all that. I think i gained like five pounds...

Midwife comes in and we discuss the "plan". She asks how big aurora was. I said she was nine pounds four ounces the day before my due date. She was like Ohh...and mentioned that my due date is tomorrow.. She knew my daughter was big but i guess she didnt know that my daughter had been that big.. So she talked about induction..and would i be willing to go through one..etc.. and said she worked again on Friday. I said i was willing to do an induction, but i was hoping she could strip my membranes and then if i dont go into labor on my own by Friday then we will induce. She agreed that was a good plan.

So she went to strip my membranes, when she checked she said "oh yeah your gonna go into labor" and then she proceeded with the stripping of the membranes..OMG.. it was MORE painful than last time.. i mean seriously painful..and tmi, but when she pulled her hand out it was slightly bloody!!!!! I mean i was grabbing the pillow in pain...ouch..

Afterward she helped me up and told me that i am 4-5 cm dilated.. still a little "long" (dont know what that means" and about 40-50% (which means hubby heard wrong last time when he said she had said 80%...cause i didnt hear that...but he swore he had...anyways..) And the head is right there...still.. And she said that my bag of water is literally "pouching" out of my cervix...

So we will see what happens.. Im set to be induced Friday at 10pm if i dont go into labor before that. Though i do need to call ahead at 9pm and make sure they have a bed for me.. and i can get bumped...

Miserable night...

Well here is one of the maternity pics for you guys to look at. : )

Soooo last night Aurora woke up...and it was either because john was watching tv too loud or she just couldnt sleep..so maybe i was a bit harsh... I went and got her..brought her to bed and after awhile i could tell she was very stuffed up..all this ashy air is getting to her, even though we have tried to keep her indoors as much as possible.. well i tried to use her nasal bulb on her and some drops for her nose..got the drops done, but the bulb part didnt go to well... And i would rather not do it than have to have my husband hold her down...because that would seem like torture to her.. So then she went back to bed with us..but she was having such a hard time sleeping..fall asleep and then five minutes later wake up and cry a second... roll here..roll there.. after a while she got into a good sleep..but by 1:40am..i couldnt take it anymore..i couldnt get any sleep..she was all over the place still...so john finally put her in her bed..which i think was better for her since she isnt used to sleeping with us.. She fell asleep and i could hear her wake up every few hours and cry for a few minutes then go right back to sleep. My poor thing doesnt feel too great. : (

Busy but good end of day

So after Aurora woke up we headed right back out : ) We headed more into the area where they had the recent fires, but really had no choice because it was the closest place that has a babies r us. My friend nikki lent dad her truck so we could get the crib mattress... dad has a truck but he already has crap sitting in the back of it. So we go..and yeah long story short they say they have never carried the mattress we registered for on our registry..we were like okay..we will just go somewhere else for that then, the only reason we were buying it there was because we got that ten percent off coupon for what was remaining on our registry. So we picked up the other items we wanted to get.. a new bouncy/vibrating seat for the baby. We already have one, but it was a hand-me down so it was older..and i recently pulled it out to use with aurora who loved it when she was a baby..and yeah she is still in love with it.. so we just went ahead and bought a new one for the new baby. We bought another glass borne free bottle so we have some on hand for later on when we introduce the bottle. We also bought some diaper genie II refills, a "I love nana" bib, a surfer tummy time mat, another Christmas dress for aurora, some toddler spoons and forks for aurora, a nursing wrap, and a baby book..i think thats it..lol...Then we went and got a mattress at walmart...and then home. We went back out to get a bite to eat and on the way Sears called to say my maternity pics there were ready for pick up..so we went and picked them up.

Aurora had a tough time falling asleep tonight..which is not normal for her..so i dunno whats up..then john was watching tv so loud that it woke her up, poor thing.. so now she is crying..a few more minutes of this and ill have to go in there..we do the cry it out method and it has always worked great, but something is not right with my daughter tonight...and i refuse to let her suffer because her daddy couldnt turn the tv down on the commercials.

Counting down the days...

So i am 39weeks 4days pregnant! 3days till my due date! Crazy thought it seems, i truly believe i will be going over my due date.. The entire pregnancy i thought i would go into labor sometime around Nov.23rd..we will see if that happens.. And my reasoning behind this is and was.. because on the first few ultrasounds i had i was measuring three days behind consistently.. though they never changed my due date, another reason is because my due date is based off of my LMP..and they calculate by a regular ovulation of cd14..and i always ovulated late..around cd16-18...

And now i think i will be going over my due date, because i wont see my midwife again until Wednesday...which honestly seems like forever away when its only two days..lol..and thats the day before my due date..im sure she will strip my membranes then. She stripped them when i was pregnant with Aurora at 39weeks3days or so.. and three days labor i went into labor and had Aurora...

Though i would honestly like to go into labor any day now..im ready to meet this baby, im ready to start the next chapter of our lives..im ready!


Anyways.. Today is Johns day off..So this morning we got up as a family...I cooked breakfast, we ate...hung around the living room for a bit..then all got dressed and all that jazz..then we went by the post office and the bank, then to buy john some new pants for work..since he has to dress in office attire and i really hated one of the pairs he was wearing all the time...

What we will be doing the rest of the day..i dont know.. We got lunch, came home and ate..aurora is napping..Im thinking of going to the mall.. I feel like a cow today..lol...just cause im too lazy to get all nicely dressed up. I do need to go to the dr.s office and pick up my prescription..but im unsure as to whether or not they are open since they were in one of the evacuated areas of the fires..i need to call ahead.

Eerie...

Ash on the tarp of one of the cars in the back

Ash on my fathers mustang

I think the fires continue to burn.. im not watching the news anymore... Its disgusting outside..all smoggy... the air is horrible..smells horrible..ash is everywhere...falling from the sky...all over the roofs, the cars, the plants..everything....

When john left for work this morning he told me to try and stay inside and gave me a kiss.. Aurora and I have been inside playing all day long. Her grandpa took her over to play at his house for about twenty minutes... just so she could get out of the house. I went and put some laundry in the wash..which is when i took some pics of the ash..

Goodness, Gracious...

Great BALLS OF FIRE!

So i dont know if you have heard but SoCal is battling fires..yet again..and this one is getting close to home. The city next to ours has an area affected by the fire and that is being temporarily evacuated... GREAT.... Oh and yeah my hospital is in one of the areas that is on fire..so lets just hope i dont go into labor tonight..cause who knows if they are still open, likely they are..and yet they say the roads getting there are horrible and some completely blocked off...

Oh yeah and there are huge chunks of ash falling all around us. I went to get my hair cut today..which took forever cause i have so much hair..ill show pics of it later... And when we got home the area wall all smoggy and ashy... ash falling everywhere..the sun was red.. it was crazy...I stood outside for maybe ten minutes to talk to my friend about the fires and my hair..etc... and by the time i got inside i needed to use my asthma inhaler! Its bad out there..

Oh and to top this wonderful event off..last night was miserable.. here is why:

Now last night... Hubby and I had sex..which was painful..but we were working on trying to start labor... So i fell asleep afterward for about two hours..woke up...and dont remember anything out of the norm. Then he comes to bed, turns the lights off..etc and i start to fall back asleep..And feel something crawling on my face (just so you know we have had a spider problem in the past..and they seem to all be gone, but when i feel something "crawling" on me..i freak) and so i freaked..and swiped it away..Then something was on my stomach and i literally grabbed it and threw it away and freaked out.. Hubby turned the lights back on and it turned out to just be a moth..but at this point..i was terrified.. i know..im silly...
So im laying in bed all tensed up ready to swat the thing if it comes near me. Wide awake..couldnt even go back to sleep if i wanted to.. So eventually hubby kills it and he goes back to bed..and i just cant sleep..so i watch tv..i give up and try to go back to sleep and have a real hard time..wake up every thirty minutes..which starts to get longer..every few hours and i start to realize that im in a lot of pain.. and i mean a LOT of pain.. my pelvis is killing me.. if i try to roll over its excruciatingly painful...Like at one point i thought, maybe because im doing it slower its making things worse, so i try to roll faster...BAD BAD IDEA... and i get this shooting pain that literally makes me yelp out loud.. So i try to not roll over, but its killing me to lay on one side for so long..i normally roll all around in bed. So eventually i wake up to pee.. at like five am..and i make an attempt to get out of bed that almost lands me on the floor on top of my cedar chest and i think ill take a warm shower to help my pelvic pain..maybe that will help.. Because at this point, walking hurts, sitting down hurts, turning left or right hurts..standing up hurts..it all hurts...
So i shower and i go on cafemom and I think about posting about it, but figure no one is really up at that hour and maybe it will go away with some rest. So i go back to bed..after a few attempts at getting back into bed which was interesting... And I tell hubby i may have to go to the hospital if this continues..but what am i supposed to say to them? Arnt they just going to tell me this is normal? And somebody tell me how im supposed to push a baby out of that area when i am in this much pain just moving! Like what did i do to my pelvis! Hubby urges me to take some Tylenol..gets it for me and i take it..
So I finally fall asleep yet again..at a little after six am.. and wake up around six forty..think about rolling..make it maybe two inches in the direction i want to roll and i get a huge shooting pain and i make a small scream..and fall back the direction i was laying..and at this point i feel like crying..im just done..soooo done... And then i start to think..how am i supposed to take care of my daughter when hubby leaves for work? I can barely move without being in pain.

Well luckily my dad came over to help watch aurora and the pain eventually went back to the normal pelvic pain...but man did it hurt!

Still no baby : (

I really think i wont be going into labor on my own..well at least not till my midwife strips my membranes..which wont happen till my next appointment, which is the day before my due date.. but we will see.

I went for a walk with hubby and baby last night.. didnt even bring on a single contraction! Which i thought was crazy, cause i get contractions from picking up auroras toys..maybe its the bending that does it..hmm.. Im going to try and get hubby to go for yet another walk tonight.

No baby yet

Well this morning i went to my MOMS club membership meeting.. Gave dad the option of watching aurora or i could put her in the daycare at the meeting..he opted for watching her (which is what i preferred..) Meeting went well, smaller group today because a lot of people couldnt make it.. had a cool presentation from the stroller strides people, but they are soo expensive! I think most of us moms were figuring on doing it all on our own..it wouldnt be hard to do.. so yay.. i will have exercise buddies after this baby is born.

Then got home..Dad left..Aurora and i played..ate..etc.. Picked up the nursery a bit. Started packing the new diaper bag for both aurora and the new baby. My dad came back over to eat.. He ate in the kitchen, aurora played, and i sterilized the baby bottles..we wont need them for at least three weeks.. im hoping to hold off till six weeks.. but i figured might as well get them done when i get a chance.. burned my hand a little..oh well.. Then i put aurora down for a nap..dad left.. put in a load of laundry..

And here i am. I also found two of my tea bags left..red raspberry leaf tea.. ive decided im ready for this baby to come.. no more putting it off.. So now i will be drinking the tea... asking john to go for a walk with me tonight..and even attempt sex..which honestly doesnt interest me right now.. Maybe i can get these contractions to take on a consistent pattern.. I will be 39weeks tomorrow.. cant believe it.. and my next appointment isnt until next Wednesday! Seems like forever..ill be 39weeks6days! Which furthers my belief that i wont have this baby till November 23rd.. but im hoping to go into labor beforehand..im ready to have him here.. im ready to do all this over again! Im ready. Bring it on!

Bored and Lazy

Thats how i feel today.. We stuck around the house.. Aurora is napping, even though it is rather late, but its her first nap of the day..she didnt get tired until wayy late in the afternoon.

Today i didnt do much...other than completely move my living room furniture..after that i was pretty much done.. ive picked things up here and there, but nothing major...

Its been a lazy day..Oh and this morning Aurora and I made a tent in the living room. It was quite fun : )

Prenatal

Had my weekly prenatal today. : ) Last week she said she was gonna strip my membranes this week and that didnt happen..and she had me freaked i was having a huge baby...

Well today my bp was higher than norm for me but not bad. 131/78

I also lost 2 pounds..

Baby's heart rate was about 157

She checked my cervix.. and i am 3cm dilated
80%effaced (this part i didnt hear, but john says he did)
and -2 station...which i heard for sure and watched her chart in the computer.

She said she wasnt going to strip my membranes because my body is doing it all on its own..so whooo hoo...the membrane stripping hurts! I dont want to go through that again unless i have to. Plus my body really is doing this all by itself.. I said i was going to use red raspberry tea, EPO, and sex, but i ran out of the tea and was too lazy to buy more last week... I also have been too lazy to do the EPO and i really really dont feel like having sex right now...

I also asked about the Ultrasound i had last week when i was 37weeks4days.. She said baby looked good and he was weighing 7pounds 11 ounces at the time, which i guess is in the 87th percentile or so for a baby at 37 weeks... Im gonna go back and see if i had an ultrasound of aurora around that time and if i put down how much they said she was gonna weigh.. but i have no doubt that i can push a baby out her size..which was 9pounds 4 ounces.. So i think we are good there.. sure my baby prolly weighs more now than some womens full term newborns do...but i guess i just make big kids : )

Oh and she mentioned that my weight gain was good.. ive gained 25pounds so far...

Oh and i just checked my to do list and im 99% done with it.. ive got two things left to do and ive already started them...

UGH....

People seriously need to learn how to respect our decisions...

John and I have decided to keep a close watch on what our daughter eats..we both come from overweight households... we both know how easy it is to gain the weight and how hard it is to lose it. We both struggle with our weight and we both know that a child has better chances of beating obesity when they learn the right way to eat as a child...

With that in mind..we keep aurora away from a lot of sugar... she doesnt have cookies, she doesnt have ice cream, no soda (which i think is horrible when someone gives that to a toddler...), little to no juice (maybe and i mean MAYBE once a month will she get watered down juice), no french fries, no fast food, no pizza...etc.. These rules can be bent for special occasions..like some cake for her first bday party, but even then the effects of the sugar...she was off the freaking wall for awhile...

Well today I took our daughter over to my cousins sons 2nd bday party..They were having pizza..i had given aurora a snack of raisins beforehand..so for a long while she played and was completely distracted..Then she noticed my aunt was eating pizza..and she went over to her...and I was like two feet behind her telling her NO PIZZA... Well my aunt said mommy says no, my other aunt said whats wrong...and Aunt number 1 said that I had said no pizza and i was watching like a hawk.

Well somehow a piece of the bread (thats what they say..i thought it was sausage...either way i was upset) gets broken off and my daughter begins to eat it.. yeah i know how it got broken off... my aunt broke it off for her.. and i grabbed my child..took the bread out of her mouth and whisked her away... She is 1..she doesnt need pizza...no part of the pizza at all... So she is crying and crying..her little heart is broken.. So i took her outside..because im not going to let her continue to scream during the party..We play around in the front yard.. i chase her, she chases me, i tickle her..etc..she was having a good time.. So i bring her back inside and give her some snacks and a sippy of water.. She sits and eats happily in her grandpas lap..

Then its getting time for her to eat her lunch.. i have my dad microwave it.. (After the entire party was over he said that he didnt want to tell me then, but the microwave was disgusting...wonderful...) And I fed her.. Then she played a bit..and then they did cake.. we stayed for the singing and then left when they began to eat it..

Originally i had planned on letting her eat a little, but at this point i was just over the whole party thing and i knew my husband wouldnt like her having the cake anyways.. and it was nap time and it would only make her hyper.. So we left and as we were leaving what does my aunt give my daughter..an animal cookie and hands two more to my dad.. I let her have the cookie, but the other two got tossed....

Gee i wish my husband wasnt working today..he does much better at making people understand that this is our child and we decide what she eats..

And not only that, but this isnt the first time they have fed her crap.. they do it all the time when im not around... I hear about it later...

I dont care if they think im the sugar nazi... She is my child!

So

We ran a ton of errands this morning..then this afternoon my best friend nikki and I went to sears to check out my maternity shots there...and honestly there were some good/okay stuff..some really cute ones of aurora.. so i ordered about six of them..or seven, i think it was seven, but id have to double check. Those arnt supposed to come in until my due date..so its gonna be awhile before i can share them. However tonight i got a call saying the ones we got done at photo perfections were in! YAY... so we went down there and i love love love the one of john and I.. The one of us as a family is good except for my back fat..lol (which is the first thing i notice..ha) and then i like the color one of the sheet and there is one more that i just dont feel quite comfortable sharing.. bit too much of my belly if you ask me..lol..its just for personal looking..ha...

Oh and I went to wal mart at one point today and got some stuff...then came home and cleaned both bathrooms... i still have to mop though and i also finished organizing the closet in the bathroom..So pretty much all the closets in the house are organized.. Now i just need to dust everything and finish cleaning off our desk.. But pretty much everything is in order...just some small things left to do.. i want to be ready...

Crazy busy

So tonight i figured out my water heater (that is only a year old) is leaking into my hallway..just freaking wonderful..ugh.. Ive noticed the damp spot for a few days now and i kept thinking aurora must have spilt something until i realized i was thinking that every single day.. So tonight I had my dad check the water heater and yeah..its slowly leaking water...just great..ugh

And i had to go order new carpet for the back apartment, since she is moving out..still have a ton of paperwork to do with the new renters..etc...

And a walk through with the old tenant.. coming up in a week or so..

Then when she moves out we have to quickly paint and carpet...

Aparently they are giving john a new position at work and he started his "training" for that today..

Oh yeah and did i mention im having a baby this month...

Maternity Pic Fiasco....

So Yesterday i had an appointment scheduled to get maternity pics done at sears. I chose sears for two reasons: 1) because the photographer there is someone I personally know and thought i would feel more comfortable exposing my plus size pregnant body to and 2) because the place i really love is really expensive and well i would have to shoot the pics with a stranger....

Well Yesterday I got ready, Got aurora ready, dad was ready to go...even though his back was killing him..poor guy. And we went to the polls first.. just so we could get that done..well yeah..line was out the door, so we left without voting. Went to get my Make Up done at MAC.. which i loved and i will share a pic of.. And then off to sears..we didnt have time in between to hit the polling place.. So went to sears..showed her all my pic ideas..since they really dont do that kinda stuff..and she made some great attempts..and at the end she showed me a quick view of the pics..and yeah..i was worried i wasnt going to like them very much... They werent really what i was looking for. Well she put them on file and then we would see all the finished photos friday night when John comes back to take pics with me, with a stranger, because my friend doesnt work any hours where john can come in..

So then we went and voted. And after that went home. I started getting upset, all crazy preggo lady..that i just didnt go to the original place i wanted.. Soooo I got johns okay to go down there after work and get pics done there.. Instead of going back to sears on Friday..which i saw as waste of time and money because they werent going to do what we wanted anyways and I would have to get my make up done again to match the first set of pics..and that would cost extra money (and time...) Plus i would have to take pics with a stranger anyways.. And on top of all that. We have tentative plans to go out to dinner with family, one of whom just got back from a long deployment!

So we went down there.. Took pics and man do they know what they are doing down there! Im still kinda iffy about the end result..not because of them.. i know they take great shots and they did, but i dont know if I will be comfortable sharing pics of my plus size belly with everyone online.. we will see.. There is at least one pic that i am going to share. We pick those pics up on Sat. Not only that, but the photographer was a plus sized female too.. which i was very happy about because honestly i felt more comfortable around her... We didnt get home until late and they were on the kinda expensive side.. But worth it in every way! From them we are getting a bare belly shot with the whole family, one of john hugging my belly, one of me in a sheet-dont know how to explain it but its my fave, and one more in a sheet.... Im excited to see the end result...nervous but excited..

I also need to call sears and set up a time to come look at the pics i already took there.. I might still buy some there..she did take a few of just aurora and I and I might want those..

So anyways.. my day was fairly hectic... I sorta feel guilty for spending that much money on myself or on something i wanted.. but i guess once in awhile doesnt hurt...

Though John and I decided we arnt buying each other much for Christmas.. he got his super spiffy phone and i got my maternity pics, both were very expensive and we dont need anything else.... Christmas is about the kids and i think thats a tradition id like to start.

Prenatal

Had my appointment today

Bp was 119/70

Babys heartrate was in the 140's

Gained more weight.. Im at 27pounds total.

She checked my cervix
Im 2cm dilated..which she said was good
She said im still about 60%, so im assuming that means im 40% effaced
And she said the head was right there..so i dont know what that means other than he is engaged in my head..maybe zero station.. ill have to look that one up

She said next appointment she will be stripping my membranes.. My next appointment is next week. Ill be like 38weeks4days or so...

And i have and ultrasound this afternoon at three..if they give us any good pics, which they dont ever seem to..ill upload them into the computer.

Been busy

So ive been busy lately..as usual... lol.. Sat john had off so we spend the whole day together as a family.. We went to the mall, bought a christmas outfit for the new baby, christmas dress for aurora (which might get returned if i find something i like better..im really picky), and babys first christmas ornament..which still needs to be engraved, but they said we could bring it back later and it wouldnt cost us anymore than it would origonally.



Yesterday I got thirty days notice from the back tenant...So that FREAKED me out.. I was worried about people not wanting to move into the apartment during christmas!! I was worried Dad wouldnt be able to cover the mortgage and i doubt we could fully either...Well yeah... no reason to Freak out..we called people..got the message out about the apartment...havent even put a sign out..and three people are interested..dad accepted one.. and its rented..thats it... done..



Still need to get an appointment for a carpet guy to install new carpet in there..Dad and his buddies will have to paint once the current tenant is out, then the carpet...

Halloween

Yesterday i dressed her up in a special halloween outfit during the day.. it was black and orange and said "My magical power is being cute" : ) Then My father and I took her to the Irvine railroad where they had a pumpkin patch. We went on a hayride, trainride, and through a maze..and looked at the pumpkins and all that. Afterwards we took her to the Oc zoo. Then we met john at his work so that i could go with him to a doc appointment.

Then we came home, fed aurora, got her dressed in her halloween outfit.. took her to my grandmas to trick or treat, said hi, they gave her a few animal crakers which kinda pissed john off...he is a sugar nazi, but i agree with him on it most of the time..then left for La Miradas halloween festival...she had a blast on the swings in the park, though there wasnt much age appropriate for her to do. She pushed her own stroller across the park, with johns assistance of course..lol..i have pics and a video..lol.. and then we went to my moms house and she trick or treated there..where she got a little tiny piece of candy..which i was amazed john let her have..he doesnt like her eating sugar and after the cookies im amazed he let her have it..he doesnt want her becoming overweight.. Then we went to my best friend nikkis house and trick or treated..said hi.. and then we came home. She fell asleep on the way home.. so we gave her a sippy cup when she got home, changed her into jammis, gave her some baby tylenol and numbed her gums (she is teething, like three teeth coming in.. another molar and a few other teeth) and then put her down to bed. All in all it was a great day : )