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Maternity & Parenting Center

Still Here

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Well, I’m still here…hanging in there. I cannot believe little Miss Twoey has not made her arrival yet!! I’ve been having fairly regular contractions for the past several days, and they’ve been about 2 minutes apart for the last 24 hours or so. I’m having a fair amount of pain and discomfort, and frankly, I’m ready to get this show on the road! We are about as ready as we are going to get – house is clean and in order, the necessities are washed, the car seat is in the car, the hospital bag is packed, and we are probably about as on top of our work as we are going to get. I should probably do about another month worth of work before labor hits, but hey, I’ve actually accomplished more than I expected so far. Now…if we could just come up with a name for Twoey!

This week has been a little better. My mom seems to be regaining her strength, and I’m trying to move forward with everything in my life, too. Yesterday was a good day with Micah. He woke up at 3:15 am screaming again, but he was laying down the entire time, so I decided to see if he could put himself back to sleep. Luckily, he was only awake about 15 minutes and then slept until about 7:30 or so. Still not perfect, but it was progress! Of course, I felt like a horrible mom the entire time for not going in to comfort him, but he was just upset, not hysterical, and I had a feeling that going in to his room would just make it all worse and have him up all night. I just don’t want him to develop a 3:00 am wake up habit and think that is snuggle time with mommy and daddy.

I haven’t been spending as much time on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Micah since our babysitter, Christin, started a few weeks ago. It has been a great opportunity for me to get some things accomplished and take care of myself, but…I have been missing my Micah time! So, I decided to take the morning (perhaps one of my last with only 1 child) and spend some time with Micah. For our morning activity, I scheduled a haircut for Micah. We walked over there, got his hair cut, and then stopped off at a park to play. Christin helped with the chasing, but we had a fun time together! He gave me kisses, and he seemed fascinated by the other children. He saw one boy drinking water from a bottle, and he wanted one, too, so I gave him his milk. Then, the boy started to eat one of those sippy pouches of fruit. Luckily, I had one on hand, and Micah downed that, too. He then seemed ravenous, so I gave him a cheese stick. Unfortunately, he was still hungry and was searching through the bags for more food. I happened to remember that the restaurant across the street has a kids’ performer and lunch every Tuesday, so we popped across the street. We missed the performer, but we were able to join in for the lunch special. Micah ate pita and hummus and a few french fries (okay, the fries are not super healthy, but he did already eat cheese, fruit and veggies before this, and I gave him whole wheat pita and hummus).

After lunch, the three of us headed back home. We immediately put Micah down for his nap and I went back to getting some work done. I was having horrible contractions and struggling with nausea, so the afternoon was a bit rough for me. Normally, Micah sleeps about 2.5- 3 hours. Naturally, 50 minutes after we put him down for his nap, the screaming began! I had Christin go get him, and I could hear that he was in a horrible mood.

I came upstairs to help out for a bit…and he was just a mess. I took him and hugged him for a while, but he was still yelling. I am fairly certain this is teething pain, but this has been going on quite some time. I decided to give him some Tylenol, and then I administered the next best medication I know…Sesame Street. I usually hate to use tv as a soothing device, but sometimes….well, it works. I flipped on the tv, Micah put his thumb in his mouth and curled up on top of me. After a little while, I scooted away from Micah (and let Christin sneak in to cuddle with him). I decided to make him some popsicles (I did 2 yogurt/applesauce and 2 applesauce) because I thought perhaps the cold would help his gums. I then went back downstairs and went back to work. I told Christin she should take him outside after the show ended – either for a walk or to play “basketball.” I heard them go outside, and I could hear Micah screaming a bit. I checked on him – apparently, he wanted to sit and play in the bike trailer, and probably wanted to go for a ride. They stayed outside for about 30-40 minutes, and then Christin brought him in because it was so buggy outside. Micah was protesting loudly, but he brought his basketball inside. I came upstairs to play with them for a bit. I made a “basket” with my arms and showed Micah he could play that way. He actually giggled! Then I showed him how to bounce the ball, which is apparently hysterically funny. He spent the next 40 minutes throwing and bouncing the ball.

Christin left at 5:00, and Micah and I continued to play. He started to get grumpy again and he was banging on one of the cabinets, so I assumed that meant he was hungry. Lately, feeding him has been a challenge. I offered him a cracker and he threw it on the ground. I gave him a graham cracker, and he smashed that in his hands and screamed. I asked him if he wanted cheese, and he shook his head “NO.” I asked if he wanted strawberries – again, I got a no. I opened the cabinet again and Micah lunged for the bag of raisins. I tried to give him a few raisins, but he threw a fit because he wanted to hold the bag and take the raisins out himself. I decided it wasn’t worth the battle, so I let him have the bag of raisins. He sat on the floor happily munching on raisins for a while, but then started to get upset again. I offered him some cereal (we struggled over the box – he just wanted to dump cereal from the box on the floor), and then I decided that I would just feed him dinner because it was almost 6. I pulled out some turkey for him – and he was throwing it back at me before I even got it on his tray. I cleared that off and offered him some kidney beans…and again, those hit the floor. At this point, I got a bit frustrated. I put some fish sticks in to cook and I went in search of something for Micah to munch on while we waited. The cereal flew, crackers were smashed, and there was much yelling and screaming. I cut up a few strawberries, and Micah went to town on those.

A little after 6, Elliot walked through the door. Thankfully, he took over feeding our grumpy little bugger. He figured out that Micah did want the kidney beans – as long as he could eat them with a fork. Micah also ate a few fish sticks, followed up by a peach. In the end, he had a very good dinner. After dinner, Micah started to get cranky again, so Elliot took him on a walk. Christin returned around 7:30 (we had to go to a new student meeting at the preschool), and I warned her that Micah might be difficult at bedtime. Elliot returned with Micah and we took off for the preschool meeting. It went well – we met several other parents whose children will be in class with Micah next year (it turns out, I already know two of them), and we received copies of all the forms we need to fill out and submit in the next few months. When we got home, we learned that Micah went to bed immediately…and much to our amazement, he slept soundly until 8:15 this morning (and played quietly in bed until 8:30).

Today has been rather uneventful – I had a rough night dealing with all the contractions, but apparently it was not enough to send me into full labor. I’m still contracting and uncomfortable, but no need to run to the hospital yet. Micah is at daycare and I have been focusing on getting some last-minute work done. I also ran out and met my mom and dad for lunch.

About 10 minutes ago, they called today from the crematorium…Nugget’s remains should be ready today. I just cried all over again. I am still missing that little stinker!! We went out and bought one of those little surface brooms – we have a lot of mess we need to start cleaning. I’m not ready to have that box of her ashes here…I guess I’ll just have to face that soon enough.

Crazy Day

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Wow…I’m exhausted. Micah woke up on the late side yesterday, and we did a mad dash to get hi to his art class before daycare…only to find out they canceled the class and forgot to tell us. We dropped him at daycare and came home. We got a bit of work done, but then we ran out to go to my condo to work on getting it ready for sale next week. We spent about an hour cleaning things out, then went to my my midwife appointment. The baby was doing well – I’m still 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced (or so). I was hoping for some more progress, but no such luck! I think she will be staying put for a little while longer. My belly was measuring around 35 weeks (I never got bigger than that with Micah). They did my group B strep test…let’s hope it comes back negative!

After the appointment, we came home. I finished putting a few things away, got a bit more work done, and then the architect and the builder came by. We talked about the new bid, finalized a few other pieces of information – and now we wait for a formal written bid (hopefully to come in on Monday). If the bid comes back as promised, we are all set to move forward and get these renovations on the road! Right after our meeting, Elliot ran out to pick Micah up from daycare. He did not nap at all yesterday, so cranky does not even begin to describe Micah’s mood last night. He was really difficult all through dinner, and we finally gave in and just put Sesame Street on for an hour before taking him upstairs for a bath and bedtime.

Micah woke a bit on the early side this morning (just before 8). He was still pretty cranky through breakfast, unfortunately. The babysitter, Christin, arrived at 9:00, and she helped keep him calm and get him dressed. My father showed up around 9:45 – it was the first day of the new semester of his Kidville classes, and unfortunately, I screwed up and scheduled an ultrasound during class. I wanted to go with Micah and Christin to show her the ropes, but I just couldn’t be in two places at once. My father volunteered to come down and go in with them so she would not have to do it on her own. Apparently, they had a great time – my father left the first class for a bit to run errands, but he was a huge help getting them down there and all settled into class.

While they were in class, Elliot and I went for the ultrasound. Twoey looked great…she is still head down. She was measuring at about 35 weeks (same as Micah at this point). They guestimated her weight at around 5 lbs 15 ozs (which I think is a bit smaller than they predicted for Micah at this point). I think she is going to be small like Micah. They confirmed a whole lot of hair again, too, so I think we are going to have another baby with crazy hair! She passed her biophysical profile with flying covers, scoring a perfect 8/8.

We made it home around 11:30. We scheduled Micah for back-to-back classes, so they did not come home until about 12:30. My father left and went about his day, and Christin fed Micah lunch. Our organizer, Leslie, showed up here around 12:00 – I immediately took her upstairs to help me finish digging out the bedroom. In the corner of the bedroom, I’ve had one last box that I never unpacked after we moved in, and a pile of a few other things. Since I gave up my office when we moved here, I don’t really have a place to store all of my papers and business items. Unfortunately, they’ve been getting a bit unwieldy. We sorted the box, sorted all of my papers, divided everything up for filing, and threw out several bags of unnecessary junk. I now have a space in the room to put a small dresser for Twoey’s clothing until we move into our bigger place. I feel SOOO much better to have unloaded a bit more (and Leslie also attacked Elliot’s half of the room and unloaded a bunch of his junk, too). So, things are looking up – we’ve significantly de-cluttered, which will make packing up to move MUCH easier (and I don’t have to feel like keeping the baby in our bedroom is a health hazard!).

Micah went down for his nap a little after 1:00 pm. While I was working with Leslie, Christin brought her friend Megan over (who previously babysat for us). Megan is thinking about changing her job, and might be interested in working for us as Micah and Twoey’s nanny beginning in September!! I’m so excited – if this works out, it really will be a great solution for us. She is responsible, good with children, and she is willing to work for a very reasonable amount of money since she is only 20 and has never been a nanny before (although she has TONS of babysitting experience). She would like to be a party planner when she “grows up” and my father has a lot of party planning connections (he owns a stationery business and does a lot of work in that field). We think we can hire her and help get her some internships/other part-time work in the party planning industry. Our hope is that she’ll work for us for two years full time (and maybe another year or so part-time), and that as our need decreases, we can slowly help her take off on the career of her dreams. Let’s see if this works out!

At 3:00, Leslie left. I was amazed at how much we accomplished in three hours. My mom normally comes on Thursday nights for date night, but she has had a rough week at work (and an unexpected trip to the dentist), so I told her she could take the night for herself if she needed it. She apologized, but decided to head home after work. I’m just so lucky she gives us as much time as she does! Since Christin is desperate for more hours and to earn more money, I asked her if she would mind staying later tonight. She happily agreed! When Micah woke up from his nap, she asked if she could take him over to her mom’s (Laura’s) house. Laura babysits my friend Niki and Eric’s kids on Thursdays (that is how I found Christin last year), and Micah loves playing with them and loves going to their house. I said it was fine, and off they went! They played in the baby pool, and played with trains. Christin called and asked if they could stay at Laura’s house through dinner, and I said that was fine. When they took off, Elliot and I decided to head back to my condo to finish emptying it and do all the touch-up painting that needed to be done. By the way, I love those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers – they did a great job removing all kinds of scuffs and issues. We stayed there for about 2 1/2 hours, decided not to do anything more for date night, then made it back here before Micah’s bedtime. We walked through the door, and Micah was sitting quietly, cuddling with Christin, and all dressed in his pajamas. We got to spend some time with him and put him to bed, so it was a nice evening. Christin took off after a VERY long day, but they both seemed to have a great time (and we managed to accomplish a lot today).

I can’t believe we still have another day left this week! I’m looking forward to the long weekend. We are going out to dinner on Saturday night with all of my cousins. We are thinking of having a few people over on Monday afternoon/evening for a Memorial Day….gathering. Very small and low-key, but hopefully it will be fun. We want to keep it small and simple (I am not up for working too hard…and I want to be able to easily cancel if I go into labor).

So…happy Memorial Day Weekend!!

35 weeks and a trip to L&D

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I’m now over 35 weeks pregnant (I believe today is 35 weeks 2 days). This pregnancy has flown by, and we are still not prepared for Twoey’s arrival. Oh well…working on that part. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a ton of time to do much about that yet. Tuesday and Wednesday I spent the entire day on a telephone conference/webinar. I was supposed to attend a work meeting in Atlanta, but could not travel due to the pregnancy. So, I attended virtually instead. I hate sitting on the phone like that all day! Elliot was a huge help and took care of Micah all day while I sat on the phone and worked. Micah was definitely cranky in the morning – and can you believe he actually took a 4 hour nap for Elliot? I never get that lucky!

As for this pregnancy, I’ve been doing better than my pregnancy with Micah. I’ve had contractions, but things seemed to be stable and I had not been worried about them. Once I hit 34 weeks, the relief set in, and I really haven’t paid much attention to the contractions at all. However, last week, I noticed a change in my contractions – they moved more towards my back. I’ve been uncomfortable, but hanging in there. I mentioned something about it at my last appointment, but they felt it might just be because Twoey had changed positions (she moved down and was rear-facing in “birthing” position).

On Tuesday after my conference call, I started experiencing some heavier contractions in the evening, and I was very uncomfortable. I fell asleep, but woke up to the sound of Micah screaming his head off (teething again). Elliot and I took turns going in to comfort him. While I was in his room sitting on the glider and rocking with him, all of the sudden I started to feel these incredibly sharp pains in my rib/side and right down through my cervix. It was excruciating, and I had to get Elliot to come in and take over. I literally hobbled back to the bedroom in pain and lay down on the bed. After propping myself up with my pregnancy pillows and relaxing, the stabbing pain seemed to subside a bit. At that point, the contractions were really intense – significantly more so than at any other point this pregnancy. I knew I had taken terbutaline, so I decided to ride it out.

While the contractions were really intense, they did not seem to be coming any more frequently than every 7-10 minutes (only 6-8 an hour). Elliot kept asking if we should call the midwives or go to the hospital, but I kept insisting it was nothing. My thought was that if it was labor, the contractions would start to happen more frequently. I also knew from my pregnancy with Micah that I could go through a lot and not be in labor. I also felt that waking my parents up at 3 am (well, 4 am at this point), forcing them to come over and running up to the hospital only for them to tell me it was nothing and go home seemed silly. I had another 8:00 am conference call for work that I really didn’t want to miss, so I decided that as long as the contractions did not increase in frequency, I was just going to ride it out. I knew I’d be late for my call and exhausted all day, so it just seemed like a lose-lose situation. I’m sure it helped my state of mind that I’m already 35 weeks – if, in fact, I did go into labor, the baby would be fine. She might not even need any NICU time.

Around 5:00 am or so, I finally was able to sleep a little bit. I got on my conference call bright and early Wednesday morning while Elliot took care of Micah and brought him to daycare. The contractions (and the intensity) continued all day, and when my call wrapped up around 5:00 pm, I decided to call the midwives. Mostly, I was wondering if I should take more medicine or if we should bother to change to a different medication for the next few days. Much to my surprise, they insisted that I meet them at the hospital to be seen. I was so frustrated! They told me I could wait until after rush hour. Elliot and I talked it over, and I decided he should stay home with Micah. My parents offered to come down, but I did not think they should cancel their plans. I opted not to pack a bag and drove myself to the hospital. I got checked in and they hooked me up to a monitor. Turns out, I was having frequent contractions, but every 7-10 minutes I was having a more intense contraction. Nothing earth shattering. They did a quick check and determined that I am 50% effaced and about 1 cm dilated (she said just barely – she might even call it a dimple instead). The baby’s heartrate was a little too steady, so they gave me some juice, turned me on my side, and kept monitoring her. Once they got her heartrate bouncing around a bit, they told me I was free to come home.

So…not a productive evening. The good news is everything is fine, and at this point, I should be able to make it to 36 weeks. They will re-check me next week, but once I hit 36 weeks, my body can do whatever it wants and they will not worry about labor. She thinks with rest and the terbutaline I should be able to hang in there at least another 5 days. If my pregnancy with Micah is any example, I could contract for weeks before my water breaks!

I’ve decided I’m not going to call again unless my water breaks…I don’t feel like making any more pointless trips to the hospital. I do need to get my act in gear and pack my hospital bag and maybe a few things for Twoey. I can’t believe she’ll be here soon!

Today our babysitter, Christin, (the one who took care of Micah last summer) started again. She’ll be working here on Tuesdays and Thursdays all summer (and perhaps I’ll bring her in to help out with the baby on other days, too). She has been a huge help – we went to the park, and she chased him all over the place. I am feeling a lot of contractions and pressure, so it was nice to pass off that responsibility. Tonight we will be taking Micah to Kidville’s grand opening event (they just relocated to Bethesda) and then we’ll be headed out for date night.

Brain Dump and a Hickey

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It has been an insane week – no time to post! I think I will do a “hodge-podge” post today and try and catch you up on everything, including my new hickey. Yes, I said hickey.

Last night, I looked in the mirror, and there was a big giant mark on my chin. For the life of me, I could not figure out how it got there. I tried washing my face (hey, I’ve been busy – I thought perhaps I had dirt on my face, or a trail of chocolate) but the mark did not budge. I thought it over, and I decided that Micah must have accidentally head-butted me, and I simply forgot about it. Except the spot was not sore in the least, so I still had my doubts. Today, I was sitting here with Leslie, our organizer, and holding Micah while he stood on my lap. He leaned over, and decided to latch on my chin and start sucking like crazy. I started to laugh because I remembered that he spent all night on Wednesday doing the same thing…and I’m certain I have identified the source of my chin hickey. Micah is teething, and he was so fussy on Wednesday, and it seemed to be the only thing that was soothing him. Like every good mother, I just let him gnaw away on my chin because I’d really had enough of the fussing. I think I’ll wear the hickey as a badge of honor – it should look great with my dress at the wedding on Saturday night.

Work has been crazy for me this week. I agreed to do an interview survey of 14 different AT projects enaged in the reutilization of assistive technology to look at their policies and procedures, help identify some best practices and make recommendations to improve their program. Each interview lasts 1 1/2 – 2 hours, and we have been trying to cram as many as possible in this week. On Monday, while Micah was in daycare, I did 3 interviews, another conference call, and tried to get some other work done. On Tuesday, our new babysitter, Christin, started work! My friend Niki recommended her – she is the daughter of one of Niki’s friends. Her mom babysits for a few children on a regular basis, so Christin has had tons of experience working with babies. She was great with Micah, and it freed me up to do a few more interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday. I cut my day a bit short on Wednesday because Micah was a fuss-budget, and I was afraid of scaring Christin – I need her to keep coming back all summer while she is home from college! Thursday, Micah went to Christin’s house – her mom wanted her home to help take care of the kids she was babysitting (Niki’s children go there on Thursdays, and another neighborhood child, so it was a big giant playgroup) and they offered to have Micah join the fun. It worked out well, as I had 2 more phone interviews, a GE tech came to replace the microwave that caught fire two weeks ago, and the cleaning crew was here. I hope I presented an air of calm on my interviews despite the surrounding chaos. I was hoping Christin would return again today, but no such luck – she had other plans. She should be back on Tuesday again next week. Elliot covered Micah today while I did an interview this morning. He left for a meeting around 11:30, and I managed to sneak in 2 other conference calls while Micah napped. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Micah and trying to finish a few things around the house.

I am amazed by how much Micah is growing and developing. Over the past two days, he really seems to have mastered sitting. He is getting fairly steady and able to balance himself and play with toys while he is sitting. He continues to steadfastly refuse belly time or rolling from his back to belly, but it is obvious to me he is CAPABLE of rolling from back to belly. He loves to play with his toys, and we just figured out how to lower the jumperoo so that he can use that as well. He loves to be busy – he cannot sit still for too long! I’ve also noticed that he is starting to reduce his naps – he is only napping maybe 2x each day for 30 minutes or so lately. The past two days, he also slept until 9:00 am! I’m not certain if that is a good idea – I think he should wake up by 8 or 8:30, so I may have to nip this new habit in the bud.

Our food update – since Micah tried peas, he has also tasted avocado, green beans and squash. Tomorrow is day three of squash, and then we will move on to sweet potatoes. He loves eating. Last night, I was holding him while I went to get my own dinner, and he tried to grab the squash out of the fridge – it was clear he wanted more food. I made myself a bowl of cottage cheese, and he kept trying to eat it! He opened wide every time I had a spoonful that I brought towards my mouth, and started to cry when I would not share. I gave him a little extra squash to make him happy. Today, when he finished his squash and cereal, he was still hungry and kept grabbing at the spoon until I gave him more. Tomorrow we are going to try to increase to 3 tbs cereal and 3 tbs squash!

This weekend is going to be crazy busy. Tomorrow morning, we have the Komen Race for the Cure in the morning, and my cousin Jodi’s wedding at night. On Sunday, we have plans to take Micah to the Mets game with Ken, Erica and their son Micah. The Micahs will be seeing their first baseball game together! My niece Peyton is also here until Thursday and staying with my parents, so we’d like to squeeze in a visit, too.

I’ll update again after the weekend.

When he is good, he is very, very good, but when he is bad he is horrid!

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My grandmother used to tell me that nursery rhyme all the time when I was a child. Unfortunately, on Saturday night, Micah made me remember that rhyme. In all fairness, he was not intentionally horrid, and I am partially to blame for his behavior. You see, I think he was missing me.

We had a Bat Mitzvah to attend – my cousin Jill’s daughter, Rachel. We took Micah to the service at the synagogue in the morning, but the nighttime party was not a place for babies who should be in bed asleep. So, I arranged with my friends Heather and Brad to babysit for the night. I had Heather come over one night to observe Micah’s bedtime routine, but, unfortunately, we did not actually get a chance for her to put him to bed before the “big” night.

They arrived promptly at 6:00 pm. We had a chance to hang out so they could interact with Micah before we left. He had moments of whining before we left, so I was a bit fearful of what was to come. Elliot & I left for the night, and off we went!

At 10:00, I realized I had gotten a text from Heather. Filled with trepidation, I slowly opened the message . . . and realized she was asking for the password to my computer! I was filled with relief as I *knew* all went well. Needless to say, I texted back the password and asked how it went. Unfortunately, the response was not as I expected. Apparently, about 5 minutes after we left, Micah went from cute and smiling to hysterics. Uncontrollable hysterics. The kind that had him crying, coughing, choking, and snot pouring out of his nose. He wouldn’t let them give him a bottle or his medicine – NOTHING would comfort him. The hysterics went on for nearly an hour. It was Brad who finally got Micah calm, and taking the bottle, and off to sleep. Poor guy . . .he missed his mommy and daddy. I felt awful for him, but even worse for my friends. I’m sure they’ll NEVER agree to put him to bed again!