Busy, busy.

Sheesh, there's like no time to post with the baby and Jonah and taking care of the household chores and monitoring work email.

Oliver is 9 weeks already and he has been pottying since 5 weeks, though I started EC with him from the time I brought him home from the hospital. It really helps lessen the amount of distress as this little one does not like to have an unannounced dirty diaper.

Jonah is at drop-off preschool and is settling into his routine. He is there five days a week from 9-1pm. It does sure help to have one less person to mind during part of the day.

I've been sleeping all right, with the baby in the bed with me. Still there are nighttime nursing sessions/diaper changes/pottying for the baby, diaper changes/water/too cold/etc for Jonah and my nights can be chopped up quite a bit. I was doing okay with it until I went to New York for a family event and caught a respiratory infection. Now I'm struggling to shake this cold and I'm soooo tired.

A more natural cesarean delivery

As I approach my second cesarean delivery I've been thinking about what tweaks can be made to soften the surgical experience.

Ideas for the Best Cesarean Delivery
Prepared by Penny Simkin, author of The Birth Partner, recommended to me by a doula friend.


Here are some more links about "natural cesarean" deliveries:

The natural caesarean: a woman-centred technique

The new "natural" Caesarean

The main ideas about this type of modification of the delivery experience have come from Great Britain.


So far I've talked to my OB about having my sister doula my surgery again, abstaining from the antibiotic eye gel and about the possibility of them putting the baby on my chest right after delivery.

Sore hips during pregnancy

I'm just 19 weeks and already experiencing hip pain like I did at the end of my first successful pregnancy, with Jonah. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but moving around or walking isn't helping it feel better. It is the muscle that goes over the outside of my femur, by the joint.

I've been looking at images online and it might be my IT band that is bothering me.

In searching for treatment options for hip pain in pregnancy I've read that ibuprofen isn't great to take, that a memory foam mattress topper might help and that depending on what it is that certain stretches may or may not help. Who should I seek help from -- chiropracter, massage therapist, physical therapist? Maybe all three.

I have been going to the chiropracter ever two weeks since I found out I was pregnant. I'm just three weeks out from my last appointment now as we were planning to travel last weekend so I didn't make an appt.

That said a warm bath sounds devine but unfortunately we are having our plumbing worked on right now so it is kind of out of the question. A good soak with some Epsom Salts would also help get me some needed magnesium and sulfate. Here's a study about absorption of magnesium and sulfate from epsom salts through the skin. Both substances are beneficial to the body, and evidently absorbing them through the skin is an excellent way for your body to take what it needs.

I'm 19 weeks along as of today and things are still going well with
the baby and me. I'm still just a bit more tired, and then of course
feeling less agile and a bit more achey as well.

I have been able to feel the baby moving for a few weeks now and this little one is very active with strong kicks and wiggles already. Makes me a bit fearful that we are going to have a very active baby on our hands, but only time will tell. My mother reminded me that I was so active in utero that I tore her diaphram. I'm only average in terms of energy output, even as a kid.

I've no inclination of whether it is a boy or a girl. My partner says girl. Jonah says boy. I've scheduled my big ultrasound for next Tuesday afternoon, March 30th, in the afternoon. I'll post an update with a photo when we find out.

Jonah likes to poke at my belly and then says "baby is wondering who
is doing that". He is starting to catch onto the idea of age and time and asks me all of the time if he will still be three when the baby comes. I talk to him about the baby a lot, to try to help prepare him for his new sibling and how things will change. Some friends have offered to lend sibling books with me as well. I know it is going to be a life-changing experience for Jonah -- and for us all.

My LO just turned 3 and for the past couple of months I've been having to deal with more defiance and testing of boundaries. I've had to be far more firm with him about getting him to listen to me. I don't give in though and just let him know he can do what I'm asking him to do or else he won't get to do whatever he finds fun. Being difficult at coop preschool? We can go home right now. Yelling when we tell him its time to get changed into pjs? Then you can go to bed right after instead of getting to play before bed. I also tell him that if he doesn't stop doing X,Y, Z that I won't play with him and I walk away.

I've done a lot of attachment parenting of him up until now and continue to do so, so he knows that I love him and will support him. I also will let him have some say over what activities we do -- so he has some control over what goes on in his day (such as wandering around stores and taking escalators on the way home from downtown/work yesterday -- not something I wanted to do but he wanted to explore which is fair enough).

I feel like my parenting since he was a newborn is paying off though, even as he needs to test his boundaries and authority in the world. Still it is a challenging phase with lots of yelling (him) and more scolding (me and his dad).

We had our NT scan on Friday and in spite of my feelings that something terrible was going to be discovered -- mostly fears that the baby had died -- our little one was big and healthy looking, jumping, turning, and wiggling around. It was a relief. The NT measurement was .9 mm which is a nice low number; the crown to rump length was 50 mm another reasonable number. The legs were proportioned nicely and we did see the nasal bone, so I'm thinking that from a soft marker standpoint baby is looking really good. I could see the chambers of the heart as he wiggled back and forth as well.

I've been feeling pretty well, mostly fatigued but I try to get to bed early. My appetite slowed down a bit last week, and I haven't been nauseous at all if I just eat a little bit every couple of hours and stay hydrated. I struggling with drinking enough fluids. Tea I can get down about half a cup; water is okay if I sip it; juice is okay but I usually dilute it so it isn't too sweet; my favorite go-to beverage is club soda with Rose's Lime Juice.

I do have a cold right now, with aches even, but I know it isn't a flu. It is some bad cold that is going around through the preschool set as Jonah caught it and half of his class was out sick with it last week. I've been using a little bit of nasal decongestant spray at night, plus saline spray during the day, to help keep it in check. A hot water bottle helps with the aches in my legs.

I'm in the midst of preschool selection for Jonah and I think I found a good one. It is a small program, blended ages (3-5) with a Montessori-based approach. I think it will be a nice fit for Jonah and they have easy access to a great park for outdoor play. So many Seattle preschools only have tiny yards to play in.

Since the new baby is due just a few weeks before school starts I have been looking at drop-off preschool instead of coop. I think it will help give our family some extra bandwidth to adjust to the new addition and let me have some good baby-bonding time.

I really wonder how different it is going to feel this time around -- Jonah got the best of everything -- time, cuddling, etc. The new baby will have the benefit of a loving big brother though. I wasn't pushing trying to conceive too quickly though we were not preventing for a long time. I sort of wanted Jonah to be more independent by the time we might have a second child. It does rather limit our childbearing time though as I'll be just 40 when the new one arrives.

I feel blessed enough. If it was 30-40 years ago we couldn't have had children at all given our surgical needs, though perhaps we would have tried conceiving sooner and maybe my partner wouldn't have had a vasectomy in the first place. So hard to know.

Hi all, I just got done with my OB appt and the u/s shows a perfect little bean in there. Baby is measuring spot-on per how far along I am. Due date is 8/17 give or take. We saw the little heart beating and baby even moved a teeny bit. My partner and I were so tense and stressed out until the u/s. They even screwed up my appt. but were able to fit us in. I felt like crying the entire time, and even still. Oh my goodness, we are going to have a baby!

Blech. This nausea is getting to me. I just feel like something is imminent, but doesn't quite happen. I threw up two nights ago, while trying to clean up the cat vomit from the rug. Nice. Then yesterday morning, in spite of already having eaten once, I threw up a little again. Hardly anything either time but unpleasant either way.

As it is Christmas Eve I figured I better try to get the bull by the horns before the stores are closed tomorrow, and the weekend. I stopped by the drugstore and picked up some Sea Bands which I'm wearing now -- so very stylish. They seem to be helping a little bit already, which is promising. I think I better knit some wrist warmers though so I don't have to show them off at work. Obviously we aren't planning on telling folks at work for a while.

I'm so tired all the time, not miserable, but enough that I really need a nap. So of course my not yet 3-year-old has been pushing back on having naps this week with, "I don't wanna haf mnap." Brilliant. And I'm on my own with him which makes it a little more challenging.

Anyway, the nausea can be thought of as a good sign. The pregnancy hormones are increasing at least. I'm 6 weeks 3 days today and less than two weeks until my OB appointment.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas if you celebrate. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the long weekend holiday.