3rd foods lists for later

Nature's Goodness
3rd Foods

Cereals-
Oatmeal Cereal with Apples & Cinnamon
Rice Cereal with Apples & Bananas

Vegetables-
Sweet Potatoes

Meats/Dinners-
Green Beans & Rice
Macaroni & Cheese
Chicken Noodle Dinner
Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce
Turkey Rice Dinner

Desserts-
Bananas & Strawberries w/ Tapioca
Bananas w/ Tapioca

Beech Nut
3rd Foods

Fruit
Apples/Bananas
Chiquita Bananas
Homestyle Apples/Cherries/Plums
Homestyle Cinnamon Raisin/Pears
Homestyle Peaches/Apples/Bananas
Homestyle Pears/Blueberries

Vegetable
Green Beans/Corn/Rice
Sweet Potatoes

Cereal
Cinnamon Raisin Granola
DHA Whole Grain Cereal w/ Raspberries
Good Morning Rolled Oats w/ Apples
Oatmeal & Pears w/ Cinnamon
Rice Cereal & Pears

Dinners
Country Vegetable & Chicken
DHA Sweet Potatoes & Alaskan Salmon
DHA Whole Wheat Pasta Parmesan
Macaroni & Beef
Macaroni & Cheese
Chicken & Stars
Turkey Rice
Vegetable Turkey

Gerber
3rd Foods

3rd FOODS Vegetables – Broccoli & Carrots with Cheese

3rd FOODS Vegetables – Green Beans with Rice

3rd FOODS Vegetables – Squash

3rd FOODS Vegetables – Sweet Potatoes

3rd FOODS Fruits – Applesauce

3rd FOODS Fruits – Banana Strawberry

3rd FOODS Fruits – Bananas

3rd FOODS Fruits – Peaches

3rd FOODS Fruits – Pears

3rd FOODS Cereals – Mixed Cereal with Apples & Bananas

3rd FOODS Cereals – Oatmeal with Apples & Cinnamon

3rd FOODS Dinners – Chicken Noodle

3rd FOODS Dinners – Lasagna with Meat Sauce

3rd FOODS Dinners – Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce with Beef

3rd FOODS Dinners – Turkey Rice & Garden Vegetables

3rd FOODS Dinners – Vegetable Beef

3rd FOODS Dinners – Vegetable Chicken

3rd FOODS Dinners – Vegetable Turkey

End of December already!

It's been a while, I know. Sorry.
We had a good Christmas. Logan has a ton of toys and more clothes/jammies.

He can fully grasp and hold objects now, and is getting really good motor skills. It's so much fun now that he can actively play.
A lot of his toys do music and talking and all, and you can tell he really likes them.
Also, at his last appt. he was just shy of 20 lbs.!!

We are also getting ready to start second foods. He is almost 6 months old now already!
I started looking up the different brands and what they carry for vegetables, and fruits, meats, etc. I wrote them all down. It sounds crazy I know, but my family is some picky eaters, and we want to start him at an early age eating well. I want him to eat a lot better than I do. So I am going to make sure that he tries all flavors of everything. There's a good amount of veg/fruit dishes, but man was I surprised at how many meat/dinners there are in 2nd foods. I guess you just don't realize all the options until you get ready to buy them!!
I'm not TOO particular on brand. We have been eating a lot of the Nature's Goodness stuff for the first foods, because all the Gerber around here is mainly in the plastic containers which are like twice the price. So I started on the Nature's Goodness website, and wrote down by category each flavor. Now I'm working on the Beech Nut website and writing down any flavors on there that Nature's Goodness doesn't have.
I had stopped my calendar system of writing down what he was eating each day when we started baby food. I was writing down each day what he had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Once he had tried all of the 1st foods with no problems I ended up stopping writing them down.
BUTTTTT with so many different people feeding him (me, matt, grandma, grandpa, etc.), and SO many flavor choices, I am going to get a separate calendar just for his meals. I want to make sure we have him try it all, and also make sure he has no allergies. I sound ridiculous, I know.
But whatever. It's fun, and I like being able to track his progress.

Nature's Goodness carries

2nd Foods Veggies:
Carrots
Green Beans
Sweet Peas
Sweet Potatoes
Squash
Corn & Sweet Potatoes
Mixed Vegetables
Pumpkin & Pears

2nd Food Fruits:
Applesauce
Bananas
Peaches
Pears
Apricots w/ Pears and Apples
Apples/Strawberries/Bananas
Bananas/Apples/Pears
Banana w/ Mixed Berries
Prunes w/ Pears
Plums w/ Apples

2nd Food Meats/Dinners:
Apples & Ham
Apples & Chicken
Beef & Beef Gravy
Broccoli & Chicken
Chicken & Chicken Gravy
Chicken Noodle Dinner
Green Beans & Turkey
Macaroni & Tomato Beef Dinner
Macaroni & Cheese Dinner
Sweet Potato & Turkey
Turkey & Turkey Gravy
Turkey Rice Dinner
Vegetable Beef Dinner
Vegetable Chicken Dinner
Vegetable Beef Dumpling Dinner
Vegetable Ham Dinner

2nd Food Cereals:
Mixed cereal Apple/Banana
Oatmeal cereal Apple/Banana
Rice cereal Apple
Oatmeal cereal Cinnamon
Oatmeal cereal Apple/Pear
Rice cereal Peaches/Banana
Oatmeal cereal Peaches & Cream

2nd Foods desserts:
Tutti Frutti Dessert
Banana Pudding
Fruit Dessert
Dutch Apple Dessert
Vanilla Custard Pudding





Beech Nut carries

2nd Foods Fruits:
Apple/Banana
Apple/Blueberries
Apple/Cherries
Apple/Mango/Kiwi
Apple/Pear/Banana
Applesauce
Apricots w/ Pears/Apples
Banana/Apple Yogurt
Chiquita Bananas
Chiquita Bananas/Strawberries
Mango
Peaches
Pears
Pears/Pineapples
Pears/Raspberries

2nd Foods Vegetables:
Butternut Squash
Corn/Sweet Potatoes
Country Garden Vegetable
Sweet Corn Casserole
Sweet Potato/Apples
Tender Sweet Peas
Tender Sweet Carrots
Tender Golden Sweet Potatoes
Tender Young Green Beans

2nd Foods 'cereals':
Oatmeal w/ Apples
Rice Cereal/Apples with Cinnamon

2nd Foods Meats/Dinners:
Apples/Chicken
Chicken Rice Dinner
Chicken Noodle Dinner
Creamy Chicken Dinner
Ham/Pineapple/Rice
Hearty Vegetable Stew
Homestyle Chicken Soup
Macaroni Beef w/ Vegetables
Sweet Potato & Turkey
Sweet Potato & Chicken
Turkey Rice Dinner
Turkey Tetrazzini
Vegetable & Beef
Vegetable & Chicken

2nd Foods 'Good Morning Plus Fiber':
Cinnamon Raisin Granola
Country Breakfast
Mixed Cereal w/ Apples
Mixed Fruit Yogurt
Peaches/Oatmeal/Bananas

2nd Foods 'DHA Plus':
Apple Delight
Apple/Pomegranate Juice
Banana Supreme
Butternut Squash/Corn
Sweet Potatoes
Macaroni & Cheese
Pasta Vegetable Medley






Mommies!! Please tell me your stories of what foods you started when. How many varieties of stuff you tried to get for your baby. How you decided what to feed them when. How many feedings did you do rice cereal with it, or how many feedings a day you did meats, etc.!!!!
I want to hear how other people figured out what routines to get their baby into for feeding them!


OH, and I forgot to post Gerber's, but I got lazy and just copied a list I found online.

2nd FOODS Fruits – Apple Blueberry

2nd FOODS Fruits – Apples & Cherries

2nd FOODS Fruits – Applesauce

2nd FOODS Fruits – Apricots with Mixed Fruit

2nd FOODS Fruits – Banana Mixed Berries

2nd FOODS Fruits – Banana Orange Medley

2nd FOODS Fruits – Banana Plum Grape

2nd FOODS Fruits – Bananas

2nd FOODS Fruits – Bananas with Apples & Pears

2nd FOODS Fruits – Peaches

2nd FOODS Fruits – Pear Pineapple

2nd FOODS Fruits – Pears

2nd FOODS Fruits – Prunes with Apples

2nd FOODS Fruits – Apple Strawberry Banana

2nd FOODS Fruits – Carrot Apple Mango

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Carrots

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Garden Vegetables

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Green Beans

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Mixed Vegetables

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Peas

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Squash

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Sweet Potatoes & Corn

2nd FOODS Vegetables – Sweet Potatoes

2nd FOODS Meats – Beef & Beef Gravy

2nd FOODS Meats – Chicken & Chicken Gravy

2nd FOODS Meats – Ham & Ham Gravy

2nd FOODS Meats – Lamb & Lamb Gravy

2nd FOODS Meats – Turkey & Turkey Gravy

2nd FOODS Meats – Veal & Veal Gravy

2nd FOODS Dinners – Apples & Chicken

2nd FOODS Dinners – Vegetable Chicken

2nd FOODS Dinners – Chicken & Rice

2nd FOODS Dinners – Chicken Noodle

2nd FOODS Dinners – Macaroni & Cheese

2nd FOODS Dinners – Sweet Potatoes & Turkey

2nd FOODS Dinners – Turkey Rice

2nd FOODS Dinners – Vegetable Beef

2nd FOODS Cereals – Mixed Cereal with Applesauce & Bananas

2nd FOODS Cereals – Oatmeal & Pears with Cinnamon

2nd FOODS Cereals – Oatmeal with Applesauce & Bananas

2nd FOODS Cereals – Rice Cereal with Applesauce

2nd FOODS Purees with DHA – Apple Vanilla Mixed Grain

2nd FOODS Purees with DHA – Banana Peach Granola

2nd FOODS Purees with DHA – Harvest Vegetables with Mixed Grains

2nd FOODS Purees with DHA – Pear Blueberry Oat

2nd FOODS Purees with DHA – Pear Strawberry Granola

2nd FOODS Purees with DHA – Spring Vegetables with Brown Rice

2nd FOODS Spoonable Smoothies – Banana Yogurt

2nd FOODS Spoonable Smoothies – Fruit Medley

2nd FOODS Spoonable Smoothies – Peach Cobbler

2nd FOODS Spoonable Smoothies – Vanilla Custard Pudding with Bananas

Gerber 2nd Foods Tropical Fruit Desserts – Assorted Desserts

2nd FOODS Tropical Fruit Desserts – Mango

2nd FOODS Tropical Fruit Desserts – Fruit Medley

Can't sleep!

So.
Finally got the last of Logan's decorations done in his room.
Well, until I go nuts and buy more that is.
We did the whole Winnie the Pooh thing. Matt chose it when we registered. At first I thought it was dorky, but now I love it.
He's got the Pooh cribset and mobile. 3 big stuffed animals, Eeyore, Tigger and Pooh. Several small stuffed Pooh bears. Including 2 of those blankety head thingies haha. 4 little figurines, Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet. A cute little Pooh lamp. A Pooh bank, Pooh picture frame. Pooh hanging frame w/ his hospital picture in it and hand and foot print. Huge Pooh memory book/box thing.
And on Sunday mom and I put up his vinyl wall stickers.
We got a Pooh growth chart, and tons of vinyl wall stickers. Which I absolutely love. Easy to use, you can be creative, no muss no fuss.
So we are Pooh all the way now!!
I am going to clean the room and take pictures tomm.
It may seem weird, but our computer is in his room (Complete with Pooh screensaver).
But we moved in with my parents.
My mom asked me a few months ago if we wanted to move in, and live there rent free for a year or two to save up some money to buy a house and for Logan. And Matt works so much anyway, and my mom babysits Logan while I'm at work. So it works out great. I don't have to get him up and ready in the AM. We have no rent or utility bills now. I can just pay off our credit cards and bank the rest!
But anyway, my point was the computer didn't fit well in our bedroom, and there was room in his. So it's in there. So I have to clean up this desk, and my filing cabinets to take pics of his cute room.
I love it.
OH! Plus we got a vinyl wall quote that is from Winnie the Pooh.
I got mine from here:
http://www.wallstickeroutlet.com/
They have TONS of designs.

3am

It's 3 am.
can't sleep.
gr.

Logan's been doing good with the baby food.
Grandpa accidentally gave him a 'second foods' jar of plums with apples the other day. He thought it was prunes b/c of the color. Oops. Oh well.
He ate it, liked it, and didn't have any issues.
Life goes on.

Hump Day

It's Wednesday. Well, it's 12:02 now, so I guess it's technically Thursday now.

Not a whole lot to report.
Worked 11:30-5. Pretty much did nothing at work. Sad really, I was pretty lazy.

Logan started sweet potatoes today. He loves them. He's even saying "mmmmmm" when he's eating. So cute.
So after a few days of those we will move onto the green veggies. Peas and Green Beans. Then after that we get to go through all the fruits. So far there hasn't been anything he's disliked. And my mom says he's really a good eater. She had 5 kids, and has seen many others go through this stage, and says she's never seen a baby take to a spoon so fast. He started opening his mouth and "chewing" almost right away. Doesn't play around. Doesn't spit out the food. So that's awesome that I got so lucky with a good baby so far.
I really am blessed.

Finally uploaded all Logan's pics onto my computer.
I'm paranoid about losing pictures/memories. My parents lost a ton of vacation photos one time. They were only on their computer, and it crashed. And my dad had deleted his memory card.
I don't know a lot about computer and disks and backing stuff up though. So all my photos were on my memory card, and my parents computer.
So I finally loaded them onto my computer. So now ALL photos are on 2 computers. Plus also loaded onto Facebook, and MySpace, and Photobucket. So God forbid both computers crashed, I'd still have them on my card and on the internet, you know?
I need to print some out too. But I've been putting it off. I need to basically go through all the thousands of photos I have, and decide what I want to print for what. I have a few frames. And 2 memory books.
Plus I think I want to make a totally separate scrap book.
I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday and almost had a heart attack over all the cute Winnie the Pooh stuff.
It's funny, cause when we were deciding where/what to register for the baby, Matt suggested we do a Pooh theme. And I totally wasn't into it. At all.
But I didn't come up with anything better, and I was getting farther and farther along, so I just went with it.
Now that I see the TONS AND TONS of cute Pooh stuff there is out there....I am pretty much obsessed. It's going to be tough for me to let go when he gets a little bigger and we need to switch to a more "boy" theme, lol.
Hopefully I will finish and clean his room this weekend so I can show it off.
It's been semi-done for a long time. But I couldn't decide on certain wall decor. Then when I did, they shipped me the wrong stuff. Then it was on backorder. So I finally have it. But my mom thinks we should put up shelves first. So I need to figure out the size and placement of the shelves before I can put up the other wall stuff. Blah. So much to do. And I'm so lazy.
Plus I have to wrap gifts, and do more shopping.
Glad I have the weekends off!!

Sleepy Sunday

Had to work today.
I don't normally work weekends, but I was filling in for someone who went out of town. Wasn't too bad. Pretty boring. Actually ended up getting off 2 hours early.
Logan was so cute at his bedtime bottle. Fed him 3/4 of it, tried to burp him, but he wasn't giving in. So I set him in his highchair to relax (which was in the family room in front of the tv). I'm thinking he's watching tv, and turn, and looked over about 5 minutes later, so see him with his head leaned to the left, and he's falling asleep! So cute. He cracks me up.

Logan started cereal and baby foods!

This will be rather stupid and uninteresting to many people, but it helps us keep track of what he's eaten and when.

11/21 Saturday
B-cereal/prunes
L-cereal/prunes

11/22 Sunday
B-cereal
L-cereal/prunes

11/23 Monday
B-cereal/prunes
L-cereal/prunes
D-cereal/prunes

11/24 Tuesday
B-prunes
L-cereal/prunes
D-prunes
(A lot of prunes today. He hadn't pooped haha)

11/25 Wednesday
B-cereal/squash
L-cereal/squash/prunes
D-cereal/squash

11/26 Thursday
B-cereal/squash
L-cereal/squash
D-cereal/squash

11/27 Friday
B-cereal/squash
L-cereal/squash/prunes
D-cereal/squash/prunes

11/28 Saturday
B-cereal/squash
L-cereal/squash/prunes
D-cereal/carrots
(We were going to start carrots tomorrow but we finished up all our squash today, so we started carrots early.)



So so far he LOVES prunes. And seems to like squash and carrots pretty well also! He's a REALLY good eater! He doesn't mess around, and learned to start "chewing" after like 1 day. And he was opening his mouth for spoonfuls and everything after a day or two. He got it down pretty fast. :-)
He's such a good boy.



I appreciate all comments and advice, but please know that just because this is my first child doesn't mean I'm clueless. We have spoken with my child's doctor about feeding him, and have watched for allergic reactions and everything. My mother also raised 5 children. So I don't need anyone to be giving me an know-it-all attitude, k?
I'd love to hear abvout what you fed your kids, and in what order and all, but don't judge me, because we are doing as my pediatrician advised, k?

I love to share info about my baby with everyone, but one of my friends has gotten snotty anonymous comments when she shared info about her child, and I won't deal with any of that!!
Feel free to comment, but know that there isn't ONE specific right way to raise a child!! And even if there was, YOUR WAY may not be it!!

Latest news and events

Thursday Logan had his 4 month Dr. visit and vaccinations.

17 lbs. 1 ounce
26 1/2 inches long

Yesterday (Saturday 11/22/09) he had his first "food."
Rice cereal for lunch, and then rice cereal with a tiny bit of prunes for dinner. (We put rice cereal in his bottle a couple times when he was younger, and it made him a little constipated. So we are going with the Dr.'s suggestion of prunes first to help keep him 'regular.')
I'm excited for him to try more stuff, but we've got to wait to be sure of allergic reactions first of course. Old guidelines recommend waiting for 4 days. The pediatrician recommended waiting a whole week. We'll see. I'm playing it by what feels right, and by how he seems to be doing on each thing. She also said we can go prunes first to help aid his digestion, then start with yellow veggies going into dark colored veggies, then fruits. So next will be squash, then carrots or sweet potatoes, then green beans, then peas.
Then after all that his fruits; apples, peaches, pears, bananas.
So it's fun and exciting.
He did very well with his first time eating, and made mommy very proud.

I'm such a slacker

I really am.
I realized I hadn't logged in to update in a while, but until I got here I didn't realize it had been over a month since I last wrote. Oops.

It's just me being lazy really. I could get in some quick updates here and there, but I don't. I told myself if I started this I would actually follow through!!

Well, it's a little harder being back at work, but I like my job (for the most part). But I will try to find more time to update more frequently.
So Logan weighed like 14 lbs. 9 oz. at his appt. a few weeks ago, so I'm sure he's over 15 now. And he's 24+ inches. My cute lil chunky big boy he is.
He's been a little fussy lately, but only because he's teething. He is just nonstop drooling and I feel SO bad for the little guy. He's doing great sleeping through the night for the most part, although he likes to go to bed late. So if I get him in bed at like 12:30am or so, he will usually give mommy a break and sleep until 9am. Which is pretty awesome, cause that's when I get up for work anyway since I work at 10am.
It's nice having daddy home on the weekends too. He works a ton of hours during the week, but that frees him up to only have to work Saturday nights. So he's home on Saturday until 4pm, and home all day on Sunday. So he gets up with Logan so I can sleep in, and they watch tv and football and stuff. So cute. Logan loves watching football, it's so weird, you can tell he's definitely watching the tv.

Not a whole to report in other news. All i do is talk about the baby.
Who by the way is now 3 months old today if you're going by months, since he was born 7/11/09, and today is 10/11/09. Or if you're counting in weeks, he was born on a Saturday, so he was 13 weeks yesterday.
We went and got 3 week pictures taken yesterday at Portrait Innovations. They rope you in with this great $9.95 deal for tons of pictures, but that's only one pose. So of course you buiy a few more poses. We got the $9.95 package with like (i forget exactly) a 10x13, 2 8x10's, 4 each of 5x7's and 3x5's and 32 wallets I think? and then we added 3 additional poses with 3 sheets each. And you can mix and match your 3 sheets, you can get 3 sheets of 5x7's or 3 sheets of wallets, or whatever you want. And then we got the additional "bonus feature" or whatever they call it for free, and we did the 8x10 double exposure picture which came out really nice, you get the free cd with all the pics on it, and 6 free "sentiment cards" which can be any design you choose. So we chose a pic and put it in a Halloween frame which was cute. You can also buy extra sheets and all that, but we spent enough haha. Hoenstly though, their prices aren't that bad. I've heard other places are either more expensive, or have shitty backdrops, shitty employees, etc.
I posted the original pictures on Facebook (and will eventually get them on myspace too). And if I get some motivation, I will post the final pictures. The ones on the disk are unedited. So I have to post our final 4 edited poses, the sentiment card, and our double exposure picture. He did really good. Once he got used to it, he was being really silly in his first outfit. By the time we switched outfits he was getting a little cranky. But I can't blame him, poor kids gums were killing him, drool everywhere. There's a couple drooly pictures, but he's got his little tongue out, and it's kinda cute with the drool-I don't care if anyone disagrees. It's like a nice little landmark for 3 mon th pictures with him teething and all.
I'm thinking I might do Christmas cards with him on them, but I don't want to spend a ton of money. It's so hard with a baby cause you want to just spend and spend and spend. Probably a good thing we aren't loaded with money, cause I'd have wayyyyy too much shit! I try to budget my money and only splurge on him every now and then. Everything is so damn cute at this age though, it's hard.

Anyway, I'm going to go try and stay motivated and scan these pictures and upload them now.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Finally a real update

So things have been hectic obviously.
I've gone to update this several times, and always end up changing my mind or writing one and cutting it short. I might have to do that again now depending on Logan. It's 9pm now, and at 9:30 it will have been 4 hours since he ate. He usually eats about every 4 hours during the day. But sometimes it's more or less often.

Well, I believe I updating after I had Logan and told my whole little L/D story and all.

Afterwards it was definitely rough. I was having a lot of pain from the C-Section. Some people I guess do great after, but for me it was very painful, and still is sometimes. I feel more like myself now, but definitely not all the way. Logan has been a pretty great baby. I shouldn't complain even though I do. He's really not to terrible with eating and sleeping and crying. He had basically been on a 4 ounces every 4 hours schedule since we brought him home. Lately, in the last few weeks he eats more though. Anywhere from like 5-7 ounces. And the other day he actually ate 10 ounces!! It was crazy. And sometimes, at night, he can go like 7 hours without eating. Which sounds like I'd be getting a good amount of sleep.....but it isn't. Because he will like east at 10pm, then not fall asleep until 1 or 2 am. Then get up at 5am. So he goes 7 hours without having to eat, but because he won't go to bed, I'm still only getting to bed at 1 or 2am, and only getting a couple hours of sleep. People tell me to have Matt get up with him. And he does sometimes. But he works a lot, so I don't like to make him met up with the baby. If he doesn't work a lot of hours that day, sometimes he will give me a break and get up with Logan. He does try really hard to do his part, and I appreciate it a lot.
It's been so busy lately. Mom and Dad are doing some renovations are the house. Nick and his GF Sarah moved to New Hampshire, it was sad. Sarah got a teaching job out there first, so they signed a lease and got an apartment. And Nick now got a job offer also. So that's great for them. We just all wish it was closer to Ohio.
So they moved there. So the room that was my brother's is now my dad's office, and my brother Randall is moving downstairs to the room that was my dad's office. But all that involved tons of painting, and sheetrock, and spackle, and new lighting, and stuff.

Then 2 weeks ago my dad's uncle came out to visit us and see Logan. So that was a busy weekend. He bought him this adorable little train conductor bear toy. And his amazing play gym/exercise mat thingy. And other stuff too. He's so awesome. And Logan LOVES his bear and his playmat.

And then this past weekend my BFF Danielle and her fiancee Andrew came out from NJ to visit. I'm so glad they did. We don't go back to visit as often anymore, and now with the baby and work and just life in general, I'm not sure when the next trip back will be. So they came out on Friday. They bought Logan all these REALLY adorable clothes. We put one outfit on him, but a few others will need to wait a few weeks. I'm excited though. I love getting pictures of him in all his little outfits. Well anyway, hopefully they had fun. We didn't really go do a whole lot. Mostly just hang out for the most part. We (Danielle, Andrew, Matt, Logan and myself) did Olive Garden for lunch on Saturday. It was neverending pasta bowl. It was a delicious and hysterical time. Danielle has always made me laugh my ass off, and I love Andrew, he's hysterical and they fit together perfectly. It was definitely a good time. And Logan behaved really well too. I was a little nervous about having him out with us for like a lunchdate, because I was worried he'd cry and act up. I originally was going to have mom babysit him, but mom and dad had a meeting with the lawyer they had to go to (about the car accident they were in a year and a half ago, this guy who slammed into them at a red light), and they HAD to do it Saturday, so I was screwed. But it all worked out well.

I pretty much forgot anything else I was going to write about. But that's an update on most of the things that have been going on.

♥Tiff

Grrr....

So I was all set to sit down for a few minutes and write a nice long blog and update everyone on what I've been up to.
But now I got myself all irritated and angry over something dumb, and don't think I have the patience to write a blog at the moment.
Perhaps if I cool down in a few minutes I will change my mind.


Long story short, I'm ticked because someone touched my shit!! I HATE when people take things without asking. Someone "borrowed" (aka stole) my earbuds without asking, which pisses me off to have to try and hunt for them, and also I find really gross. I don't want something I pout in my ear, going into anyone else's ear. I think it's sick. Totally grosses me out.

I promise!!

I promise i'm going to actually update soon.

The last time I started writing, i got interrupted by the baby crying, and never got a chance to come back and finish.

This weekend we have visitors so it's not a good time right now to write a long blog, but maybe Tues. or Weds.

Hope everyone has had a good summer!!

Hmmm...

Clearly I've been terrible about blogging lately.
Although I obviously have a valid excuse.

I'll try to write more short blogs more often.

For a quick update, things are going fairly well.
Logan and I are doing pretty good.


Whoops! GTG.
BBL!

I lied about last weekend, LOL

Pics of Logan are up!!

My baby boy was born on 7/11/09 at 11:10pm via C-section ate Medina General Hospital.

My water broke at 3:30 am on Saturday morning (I wasn't sure if it had truly broke, so I waited a little while to be sure!!), and we went to the hospital around 11am. We only spent about 2 minutes in triage because the nurse was like "oh yeah, no doubt, your water is broke." So from there we got settled into a room. Mr Dr. was actually our of town that weekend (just my luck!!), but the Dr. on call was a really great, really nice Dr. They decided to start me on Pitocin to start getting me dilated. They started an IV, or at least tried to in my left arm. The lady blew out a vein or something really bad, and there was blood everywhere, and my arm blew up into like a huge balloon. So a second nurse tried to get it started in my hand, on the same arm. No luck either. Finally a 3rd nurse got it started in my right arm. Unfortunately though, this meant the blood pressure cough had to go on the left arm with the blown out veins, and everytime that sucker blew up to take my BP it hurt like hell. Worse than my contractions! I still am completely bruised all over my entire forearm. After a few hours we decided to start an epidural. The pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't take it, but I was very nervous about getting the epidural itself, so they wanted to get it started before my contractions got too hard. I was basically a basket case during the epidural. Reading about the risks is scary, and trying not to move...I was like freaking out, because I am very ticklish and jumpy, and every time the anesthesiologist touched my back I would like jump a little!! But you aren't supposed to move at all!! Well, a few hours after that, they decided they needed to insert an internal monitor. If you don't know what that is/how it works, I will spare you the details and not explain. Well, by about 10-10:30pm they decided my water had already been broke for about 18 hours, and my Pitocin drip was pretty high, and I had only dilated 1 additional centimeter. So they told me the Dr. wanted to go ahead and do a C-section. Because of the risk of infection with my water being broken for quite a while, plus I apparently have an odd bone shape and a small pelvis. She felt around and thought the baby was around 7 lbs., and all those factors were reasons to want to do a C-section, rather than wait until something got bad and it became an emergency situation.
So they got me prepped, got the OR prepped. I was a basketcase, it's kind of scary. The bright lights, being awake, knowing you are being cut open!! They put up a sheet so you can't see anything, and they increase the epidural drip, so you can't feel the pain, but you can still feel a little bit of pressure and movement. And as the Dr. put it, when they take him out, you feel a bit of a "tug and a pull." I honestly could never explain how weird of a feeling it is to be able to feel people rooting around inside of you while you are awake! Words can't describe. Thank God my husband is AMAZING, and was allowed in there. Without him, I would've been a mess. He held my one hand, and had his other hand on my forehead, which kind of helped to calm me down.
Everybody is healthy and good now. Although the recovery from a C-section is often far more painful than a regular delivery, so my incision site is VERY sore, and it was hard to get out of bed, walk, even go to the bathroom. But it's getting better. I really didn't think I could handle it at first. I felt like I couldn't enjoy my baby boy, couldn't take care of him, because hell, I couldn't even take care of myself!! I'm sad I didn't get the chance to have him vaginally, so please don't ask about it. I feel a little robbed or the experience, especially b/c it's my first baby. I didn't CHOOSE to have this C-section, and believe it or not, it's NOT taking the easy way out. My mom has had both. She defines the difference as after having a vaginal, you are SORE. After having a C, you are in PAIN. And I have been in massive pain ever since I had him. It was definitely not my choice to have a C-section, they felt it was a medical necessity. So don't judge me, and please don't brag about delivering your child naturally....it's a very touchy subject for me, and makes me very emotional.
But we are both healthy. And that is what really matters most.

Last childless weekend

Sooooo I haven't really been updating this like I wanted.
I've been rather exhausted the last couple weeks.

If baby Logan doesn't decide to come on his this weekend, we have an appt. set for Monday morning at 6:30am to get induction started.
A lot of people started making comments about how early that is to me, which has me a little confused. Doctors choose to induce for many reasons, and he does have some (I'll get back to that in a minute). And Monday is the 13th. My EDD is the 19th. So it's not even a week earlier than my 40 wk due date. They don't HAVE to wait until after your EDD to decide induction might be a good idea.
And back to reasons. You don't have to agree with why we chose this path, I don't care. I would've liked him to come on his own, but I am the only person who understands the pain I am going through.

I have been having true contractions for almost 2 months now. They didn't really hurt until recently, but they are definitely uncomfortable. I also developed really terrible back pain in the last 4 week or so. So bad I couldn't find a comfortable position to sit, stand, or lie down in. I had to go to the hospital for the pain and get shots of Demerol a few times. The baby is most likely pushing on my sciatic and other nerves. Think I'm a sissy if you want, but only I know how bad MY pain is, and it has gotten excruciating at times. And now, last but not least. I didn't tell many people, because it sounds kind of gross, but oh well, I don't care.
A couple of weeks ago, my stomach started itching really bad. I chalked it up to dry skin. You have a tendency to dehydrate faster than normal when pregnant, and this can include your skin drying out. Well, a day or two went by, and it got wayyyy worse. Developed into a bad rash. Only on my belly though. I looked it up online, and turned up a likely answer, although something I never heard/read about. It's called PUPPs disease, or PUPPs rash. It only occurs in less than 1% of pregnant women (lucky me). You can google it if you want more info. It's basically harmless to the mother and child, they don't really know what causes it. But it can spread pretty fast, and really itches, and sometimes is even painful. Trying not to scratch is nearly impossible. I was told I could take some Benadryl, and to put Calamine lotion on it. It helps for a little while, but not long. And it has spread over quite a bit of my stomach, and can even spread onto other body parts. It usually goes away shortly after delivery. But in addition to my contractions I've been having for months, the back pain, and now the spreading rash, my Dr. thinks it would be find to induce me at 39weeks 1 day.
So that is why we are doing this this 'so early.'
I literally scratched a few spots so hard I made the skin raw. It hurts. If you didn't have this or don't get this when you are pregnant you are very lucky. Mine is so bad. On top of all the other pains of pregnancy this one is super irritating and can drive you to the brink of insanity. It's like chicken pox.....but 10 times worse. In my opinion anyway.

So anyway.
I'm still dilated at over 2 cm, and effaced at over 50%, so my Dr. said we are fine to induce on Monday.

GTG for now, I will post again later maybe.

Relaxing Day? *Fingers crossed*

Well, I might have overdone it a little yesterday.
I got up and kept going most of the day. Tried to nap, with no luck. I emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it, did 3 loads of laundry, washed various dishes by hand throughout the day. My brother was having friends over, and wanted to cookout. Well I ended up basically cooking most of it for him, which doesn't bother me at all. That included steak, chicken and porkchops. As well as grilling a bunch of veggies. Then I had also promised my husband italian food when he got off work, so I made a second dinner for him for later.
By the time I sat down and was eating with Matt later, the back pain really started to kick in. I pretty much thought I was going to have to make a stop at MGH again. Luckily I didn't.

So today I got up early and was only up for like an hour, and went back to bed. And God must really have been on my side today. I slept on/off, but it was mostly on, and was able to stay in bed until about 1:45!! Lazy, I know. But if I'm not laying down in bed, I can't force myself to stay still.
So then I get up, and I'm just thinking of the PACKED dishwasher I have to empty, and then both sides of the sink that are full of dishes to start reloading and handwashing, cleaning out the refrigerator, going down to do at least 2 loads of laundry today.
And I come downstairs....And I see all the shoes on the little foyer rug lined up all nice. And I'm like Hmmm...that's weird. And I'm walking through to the kitchen, and see other little random things are straightened up.
I get to the kitchen, and see the "clean" light for the dishwasher isn't lit. When it's done running this little "clean" light comes on, and it won't go off until the dishwasher has been opened and reclosed. So I figure someone thought it was already emptied, and went to put dirty dishes in it, and then realized I hadn't emptied it yet. I opened it up.....

AND IT WAS EMPTY!!!
Seriously, you don't have any idea how exciting this is. I had that fucked PACKED with dishes. Seriously stuffed. And the repetitive bending over and then reaching up into cupboards to put stuff away really bothers my back. So I threw the dirty stuff from the sink into it, which actually wasn't that much, handwashed 2 things, and went to open the refrigerator to see what needed to be cleaned out in there. ALSO ALREADY DONE!! Nick (my brother), must've gotten up this morning, and although hungover, done all this for me without me even having to ask. Although when he came downstairs, he did tell me not to tell anyone, lol. I told him not to worry, I wouldn't let anyone know he knew how to put dishes away, lol. Seriously. I was ecstatic.
So I just went and started a load of laundry. Nick's car is blocked in at the moment, so he said he was borrowing mine for him and his 2 friends to go out for a minute. I said sure. But then after he walked out, I remembered my car is on Empty, and my first stop was going to be the gas station. So I ran out to tell him, and he said no problem, he'd throw some gas in it. Which is pretty sweet.
So all in all, maybe this will be a better day than I thought.
I have a Goodbye Party that starts at 3, that I plan on showing up for for just a little while, and maybe only like 1 more load of laundry to do.

Okay, IDK what else to write about.
Have a great weekend everyone!!

blah

So I'm so bored.

I'm supposed to be taking it easy, but am having a hard time sitting still.
I AM exhausted and contracting, but still, I don't know what to do with myself.


I emptied the dishwasher, put dirty dishes in it, did 2 loads of laundry, made 2 gallons of iced tea (my brother drinks a lot of tea, lol), went and sorted laundry in the laundry chute, got things together for dinner, along with just other random picking up.....
What is wrong with me!?!?!?!?
I need to stop!!
Blah.

I wish Matt was here. He's at work. I'm bored.

Demerol is my friend

So I just can't win!!
Tuesday night I was really starting to hurt. Even after Tylenol, using a heating pad for my back, sitting, standing, different laying positions. Nothing really helped. I tried to sleep for 3-4 hours, but at around 3am I had to get up. I went to use the bathroom, and then came back to bed, but the back pain just overwhelmed me. I was pretty much crying for an hour, trying to decide what to do. I was only having very light and erratic contractions. The back pain was the real issue. I woek my poor husband up with my sobbing. I ended up calling my mom. I had forgot the Dr.'s phone number at her house. So at around 4am, I called her, told her what was going on, and she gave me Dr. Naples number to call. He's pretty cool, the lady who answers for his answering service says he prefers his pregnant patients to be patched directly through to him, instead of paging him and waiting for a call back. So I got right through to him, told him what was going on, and how nothing was helping the pain. He said def come into the hospital then.
I called my mom, and she offerred to come pick me up and take me. We let Matt stay home to try and get a couple hours of sleep just in case this was actual labor. I had basically kept him awake all night, and he had worked like 13 hours the day before. So I figured we'd better let him rest in case this was the real thing, and he would need to come for delivery later.
Well they checked me, and said I was about 1-2 cm dilated, and 50% effaced. Hooked me up to all the monitors and all. They said Dr. Naples was going to be coming in for another patient anyway, so he'd stop by when he got there. Well, turns out he ended up having to do a delivery, and than had to run home and shower because he had a 7:30 surgery. So he was able to come in and check me at around 7:20, and agreed with what the nurses said when they checked me. But it didn't look like I was really progressing any further. They gave me the Demerol for the back pain, and kept me like 2 more hours to see if the pain went away and things calmed down, which they did. After his surgery Dr. Naples came back, and basically said the same thing we had discussed previously. I was technically still preterm, so we wouldn't discuss inducing yet. But if things did start progressing, we would go ahead and have a baby. So he let me go home, and just basically said if my water breaks, contractions get unbearable, or the back pain gets excruciating that I should come back to the hospital to get checked out. Other than that, I've got my regular appt. with him on Monday. And the back pain is basically tolerable for now.
I went home and totally passed the F out and slept good for several hours after that shot :-)
Then Matt and I went over to my parents and had some delicious steak and potatoes for dinner.

And I'm not sure I've mentioned it really, but my husband is really pretty awesome :-)
Not to mention the rest of my family is too :-)

Update! 36 weeks, 1 day

Just got back from my Dr.'s appt.

Baby is currently head down. No dilation. But I am starting to soften up (if you don't know what that means but want to, just ask, I don't want to get too graphic here).

6/20/09

So my back is killing me.
Plus I've had this bad cough I can't get rid of from the cold I had like a week ago. And hopefully this makes sense, but if you've ever had a lingering cough, it actually can start to like hurt your back from coughing so much. So on top of my normal back pain, now I've got back pain from coughing, and every time I feel a cough coming on, I'm dreading it, cause it hurts so damn bad!!

On top of that, I still can't pick a name. Not really sure when I'll make a final decision. Soooo............yeah.....
And I'm getting a little tired of people asking me if I picked one too. Sorry, don't mean to sound bitchy.

What a cruddy week...

So I have a lot to update, but I'm not really sure how much I feel like writing at the moment.

Monday, 6/15 I had my Dr.'s appt.
Matt had to work, and it was just a checkup anyway, so mom went with me. Naples usually runs a little behind, but he was fairly early and things were moving along, so that was nice, I figured we'd be right in and out. Well the nurse had taken my weight, temperature, urine sample, and BP. We went over my meds, etc etc and all that junk, and she sent me to an exam room.
Dr. Naples came in, we did the small talk, I told him how I had been having some more contractions on Sunday night, but tried to rest, and drink a lot of fluids and all. He said no big deal, all pretty normal for 35 weeks. He measured me, and we listened to the heartbeat and all and asked if we had any questions.
Well then he was going over my chart, and said that my blood pressure was kind of high. And I thought I had noticed that when the nurse was checking it. I guess 120 over 80 is fairly standard/good for most people, and usually I'm very close to right on that. But I was like 147 over 89. So that combined with the contractions the prior night, he said he wanted to send me next door to the birthing center to have blood drawn, and put me on the monitors for a few. Well mom and I were like, oh, wow, okay...didn't see that coming.
So he gives us the paperwork and all, and we go to the triage at the Birthing Center. They basically say that several pregnancy illnesses can cause a mother's Blood Pressure to rise, and just keep rising, it refuses to come back down. And if that occurs, the only way to get the BP back down is to deliver the baby. So they drew blood to run some tests, and put me on the monitors, and started monitoring my BP again. Well my BP went back down to an acceptable level, and the blood and urine screens came back fine. But after about an hour, hour and a half of being there, she was asking me if I was feeling my contractions. I said honestly, at that time, I really wasn't, I just felt a little crampy, like VERY light period cramps. Well they were sporadic still, and like 1-2 minutes apart. Well, when I had the contractions/preterm labor @ 31 weeks, they gave me the 2 doses of Terbutaline to stop them, because I was still VERY preterm. Well the nurse said she'd call over to Dr. Naples, and see what he wanted to do.
Well she came back and basically said at this point, Naples wasn't going to do anything to promote them (induce), or to prevent them (like Terb to stop them). And gave me the basic, if my water breaks, they get too intense to walk, any spotting, etc, to come back to the Hospital. And they let us go. Basically said I'm just going to ride out the contractions from here on out as long as there were no problems.

So that's Monday's story.

Well, yesterday I worked and felt pretty good. If I felt a strong contraction or anything, I just sat down for a few minutes, tried to drink some extra water. Mom met me at work, we shopped, then I did some laundry, and mom and I just hung out at her house. Later on, at like maybe 7, I started feeling my "cramps"/contractions, nothing too horrible, but I could feel them well enough to try and generally time them. Well I was seeing that they were fairly regular, like maybe 2-3 minutes apart, carying a little. But then I start getting a lot of back pain. And by like 8:30 the back pain was so bad it was like basically impossible to even try to time the contractions anymore. You know how when one thing hurts so bad, you forget about something else hurting? Well that's pretty much what I had going on. Well after a while, mom asked me what was wrong. She said she could tell by the look on my face something was bothering me a lot. So I told her, and she asked if I wanted to go over to the hospital. I was like, "I don't even know, are they just going to send me home?" Because it's still a bit early to induce if I'm not dilated, unless there was a real problem or reason to. Well, she decided we should go get it checkd out if my back was hurting this bad, because it basically sounded like it could be back labor.
So we went, they hooked me all up, took my BP, etc. Had to tell like 2-3 different people and nurses what was going on, fill them in on my Monday appt., how bad my pain was and all that. Well they said the baby was still very active and looking great. And we were there a couple hours, and said I was definitely having VERY strong regular contractions. They checked me, and I was not really dilated at all, maybe just a tiny teeny bit the one nurse said, but almost totally closed. So I sat and got monitored a while longer, they called Naples to fill him in. They had me drink some water and try to stay hydrated and kept me monitored to see if anything progressed. Well, Mom was kind of timing my spikes on the monitor and basically said I was having contractions every minute and a half or so, and they were all lasting like longer than 45 seconds apparently. Well the nurse said that Dr. Naples was sticking to the same plan, no plans to induce or stop them. And they offerred me Demerol for the back pain, which I was a little hesitant about. I've never really had to take anything like that for anything before, and wasn't sure how I'd react or it would make me feel. The nurse said it doesn't usually make people TOO loopy, just maybe groggy and some people get nauseous. Well I agreed to it to take the edge off the pain. Definitely ended up getting sick, which sucked. Then they just wanted to watch me after the Dem shot for a little while and let me go. Pretty much same instructions. Come back if the pain was unbearable, the contractions got really close, my water breaks, etc, etc.
So THAT was another fun night.
This kid is already being so difficult!! I just wish he'd break my water or start dilating me or something, because I do NOT want to be going through this for weeks!!

Shower Day!!

It's finally shower day!
Yay!

I can't wait to eat haha, I'm so hungry looking at my aunt, cousin, sister and mom making all this food!!

WTF?

So I'm not really even sure why or what just triggered it, but I totally just had like an "oh shit" moment.
For some odd reason I totally just randomly panicked about not being ready for the baby. I know that's normal, but it hit me completely out of nowhere, and plus I haven't even had my shower yet...
So I'm not sure what's up with that, but yeah.
I know I've got some bigger items I need and whatnot, and we have plenty of hand-me-downs, plus other new clothes. I'm not really sure what I think I'm missing that's got me freaked out. And I've got a great family that helps and buys me stuff and all.
I guess it's just that moneys been tight lately with me working less. And things I thought were going to be paid off aren't going quite as planned. For whatever reason, my last car payment (6/13) is wayyyyy higher than my normal monthly payments. I thought it would be the same. I could have sworn I paid any interest I owed because of deferred payments or whatever, but apparently not. And now my last car payment is a good $200 more than what my regular monthly payments were. I'm pissed.
PLUSSSSSS not to mention it falls on a bad month. I have to get a new license this year. Which is horseshit, since I just got a new one last August after I got married. But I'm going to be 25 on june 30th, and my license expires. Plus I need new registration/tags. And I kinda wanted to do the 2 year regis. again. So that's like $525 or so for my last car payment. And like $125 or so for my new license and a 2 yr registration. At least E-check is still free currently. Don't ask why if you don't live in Ohio.....we have mandatory E-check, and you used to have to pay like $20 bucks for it, but for the last couple years b/c of a law change or something it's been free. So thank God.
But yeah, all that stress plus normal bills, plus wanting to get more diapers and baby stuff has me freaking a little. I don't know. I know my fam and friends will help out all they can, but honestly EVERYONE is so strapped for cash with the economy and the job situations and all.....so I don't know....
I'm just having a freakout moment I suppose. Hopefully everything will turnout fine. I mean it basically always does, but still, I worry.
Must be part of the nesting/pre-baby panicking stuff that people go through. *Sigh*
I mean I have clothes and washcloths and towels and bottles. I have furniture at both my house and my mom's. I guess maybe it's more the expense of the diapers and shampoos and soaps and wipes and all that have me panicked b/c I don't have that much of that stuff yet, you know?
Hopefully after the shower on Saturday my fears will be eased a little bit. Even though the turnout isn't going to be very big :-(
And only 1 single person from work even bothered to RSVP. (out of almost 15) WTF?
Still so irritated about people not RSVPing.
Anywho, I think a fattening snack and mindless TV might help, so that's where I'm going now.

Is it really June already?

Soooooo I don't know what my deal is but man can I not wake up in the mornings anymore. Seriously. Like I don't really get an urge to nap during the day, but if I am off work, man I will sleep until like 11 or 12!! Even when I got to bed fairly early! This just sucks.
I've had so much energy the last few months, but starting last week I just can't even keep up anymore!

I slept until like 11:30 today, got up and did nothing for a while. The only reason I actually did anything was b/c mom asked me to go to Sam's Club and Bruegger's and Giant Eagle with her, lol. Otherwise I would still be doing nothing.
And I don't think we're having dinner. I usually do dinner @ mom's since Matt works most evenings, so usually she supplies the food (haha-sucker! JK) and I cook. But it's already almost 5, and I just ate (first time all day believe it or not), I had soup and a bagel sandwich so I'm pretty stuffed. I don't even know who else will be around for dinner anyway, so I don't think I'm cooking. So I will probably slack off the rest of the day, haha.

Kelly and I hung out with Garner and Amanda and their kids last night. We didn't really do anything, but it was fun. I don't get to see people anymore really, and it was nice to just sit around and bullshit for a while. It was REALLY nice out too. The weather got pretty warm and sunny and we just sat outside. Of course at about 10-ish it's starting freaking downpouring like crazy though. Go figure. Gotta love Ohio. Today has been kinda shitty overcast weather too. Puts me in a crabby mood. I don't want it to be superhot, but some sun would be nice!

Okay. I'm not sure what else to blab about now, maybe I'll write later.

6/1/09

So I'm like wayyyyyyy behind.
But here is basically what I sent to a bunch of ppl to keep them updated on what happened last Sunday (5/24)

"so long story short


i was having "cramps" last night, which i researched online and felt like possibly braxton hicks contractions (look it up if you don't know what they are, lol, im lazy)
and back pain too. plus he didn't seem to be moving as much.
so it didnt go away after a while, so i told matt we should go to the hospital and get checked out.
well they hooked me up to monitors and stuff, called dr naples, and gave me lots of water, saying i should probably be getting more fluids and stuff.
checked me out on the monitors for a while, took a urine sample and stuff, said i was def having contractions, and gave me a shot of Terbutaline to stop the contractions, then an oral dosage of it a 1/2 hr later. gave dr naples the results and stuff from the monitors and decided they wanted to keep me overnight for more observation to watch everything.
well they seem to have stopped, etc etc, they want me drinking MASSIVE amounts of water from here on it (hello bloated city!!)
but everything seems okay.
just no stress, no sex, no lifting until i see Dr. Naples later on this week.
and who knows from there?
they said the babys heart and all is still real good, so let's hope i don't have to go back again soon!!"



Today I am 33 weeks and 1 day.
Had my Dr.'s appt. Nothing much to write about.
I go back in 2 weeks, on 6/15 for my next appt., then from there on out it's every week.
I was hoping maybe today we would discover I was farther along, which was always a slight possibility because my last 2 cycles before we found out I was preggo weren't really normal for me. But they don't seem to think I'm any farther along than we thought. So still the same EDD of 7/19 I suppose.
My shower is this Saturday. I'm excited although pretty much a ton of people can't come :-/
And I registered at Target and Kmart, and both websites/registries seem to be being a COMPLETE pain in the ass for people. Apparently at our Medina Target, the kiosks are always down, so those people would have to print them out at home and take them in. PAINNNNNN IN THE ASSSSSSSSS.
But whatever.
I am just looking forward to seeing people and having fun and eating cake anyway. So I hope it turns out okay!

GTG for now b/c my brother is a pain and needs the printer.

31 weeks 6 days

This week has dragged out foreverrrrrr.

I just want the next several weeks to fly by, which, people assure me it will.
Part of it is wanting this baby out, and another part is getting some bills paid off in the next few weeks (YAY!!), we are paying off some stuff, including MY CAR! Go me. Perfect timing too. That's sad when you're an adult, and you look forward to like getting things paid off. Where did the fun go?? haha

Anyways, my shower is on the 6th, I'm totally exciting.....except pretty much no one has RSVP'ed.... which makes me sad....and I know several people either have to be late, or can't come at all. Which makes me even sadder. And it's totally not a material thing..like about getting gifts or anything. I just want to be able to spend some time before the baby with friends and family and stuff to enjoy and hang out for the day (keep your fingers crossed for nice weather please, we're hoping to have it outside). But yeah, barely anyone's replied....and the ones I have heard from can't come. So yeah...
Or I have a feeling people are going to flake on me. And say they are coming, but not show up. That happened at my wedding. With A LOT of people. Rude.

Anyway, I am going indulge in some mindless tv for a while.
Have a great holiday weekend everyone!!

31 weeks, 1 day

Hello all!!

So I had a dr.'s appt. today. Matt had off during the day so he was able to go with me, although it was rather fast and semi-boring, lol.
But Dr. Naples said everything looks and sounds just perfect :-)
Always a relief/nice to hear, even when you already are pretty sure things are okay/good.
My visits start getting closer together now (scary!!! means it's all really real!), and my next appt. is in 2 weeks. Scary scary stuff. The little things that give you those moments where you go "OHMYGOD this is all happening!!" lol

I'm a dork. I don't care.

Anyway, little man has been kicking and moving away. I definitely think I have some form of sports player inside of me, because man is he doing a workout in there! Sometimes I literally think he's going to explode out of my stomach!

I thought I had lots to type about, but now I can't remember anything I was going to say! Oh well, maybe later...

30 weeks, 4 days!

So I haven't been blogging as much as I figured I would.
I get in these moods where I want to rant and ramble, but by the time I get a chance to sit down at the computer I'm not even motivated anymore.

But I guess it's understandable, things have been so busy around here.
I'm still working, and plan to for several more weeks. This past weekend was my sister's graduation at Ball State in Indiana. It was nice to get away, and nice to see her, even though it was a very short visit.
There were 2 ceremonies, I don't know the proper names for them. One was like a huge one, with graduates from all of the "colleges" within Ball State, and master's graduates, and several speakers, etc. But they only read names for I think Master's grads, and special grads or whatever.
Then after that we had the graduation for the "college"in which her field is in. She went for telecommunications. So we went to that, which was a little shorter, and less blah speakers and stuff. And that's the one where they actually read her name and she walked across the stage and all. So that was fun.
Then we all went to dinner. All being me, mom, dad, darren, randall, nick, sarah, heather, her b/f jake, and her 3 bffs, sarah, abi and amanda. We ate at Chili's. It was delicious. Our waiter/server was really nice and patient with our large annoying group, lol.
Then we made the 4 1/2-5 hour drive back to Ohio.
So that was my weekend.

Now this week, I work 5 days (usually I only work 4-but my boss really needed me this week). So I work M-F 9-3:30 this week. Then Tomm/Fri I need to make desserts for this weekend, because this weekend is Sarah's graduation (my brother's g/f). Mom, dad, myself, and of course nick are going. Then both of Sarah's parents and their significant others are going, as well as her 2 brothers. Most of her fam doesn't live in Ohio....possibly all....I can't recall if any of them live here. Either way, it's a big of a shindig because it's great that they can all come out. So we're doing that, then going out to dinner. And after that everyone is coming back to my parents house to do dessert and drinks or whatnot. So another busy weekend :-) But fun hopefully.

Happy Mommy's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all my beautiful mommy and preggo friends and family!!

28 weeks, 6 days

So I said I'd eventually write about my stressful, annoying crazy week. But maybe I lied.
At this current point in time, I still don't feel like bitching about it, even though all I did all week was bitch about my shitty week.
Maybe I'll end up writing about it if I get time and am bored, maybe not, we'll see. I just am not in the mood to think about it all again right now.

I got to sleep in today, like really late, and was actually able to sleep for the most part, which was nice. I rarely sleep in anymore, and have a hard time sleeping altogether, so yay me.

I am 29 weeks tomm. Oh how the time flies.
This coming weekend is Heather's graduation, then the next week after that is Sarah's graduation.
And by then May will be half over already!! Can't wait until the shower. I love get-togethers, and hopefully a lot of people can come! I haven't seen some people in quite a while, so it will be nice. June 6th can't come quick enough!!

I'm going to go catch up on last weeks' episodes of Lost and Southland. Then in a little bit I am babysitting Liam for a couple hours. He's so funny. I need to take and post more videos of him.
If we ask him to touch my stomach, and ask if he wants to 'touch the baby,' he goes "No, no, no.....no touch baby! no touch baby!"
It's hysterical. He apparently told Laura the other day that he wants the baby to come out though, lol. But he's back to insisting it's a girl again! He started out saying it was a girl, then for months now he accepted that it was a boy. But randomly, all of sudden he says it's a girl again.
Oh well. He should be hysterical when the baby is born.
Which can't some soon enough!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

~*Tiff*~

This week...

has sucked major ass.

Sorry for the lack of blogging.

I will update more either tomm, or maybe Saturday. I just need an evening of fattening food and mindless television to recuperate from my stressful week that isn't even over yet.


Oh, and this kid is stuck all up in my ribs on my right side. It's literally painful to sit down. Yay me.

4/27/09

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!!!


So I just got back from my doc appt. a little while ago. It wasn't too bad. Not crowded this time, which is nice, some other days that waiting room is FRICKIN PACKED!
I had to have my glucose test today which wasn't too bad either. It wasn't a whole lot of stuff to drink, maybe 1 cup at most. And it smelled orangey, which is what Linds had told me. The flavor was basically a cross between orange soda and orange gatorade. Not too terrible at all.
Then I had my appt. and then had to go back down to the lab in an hour to have blood drawn. Hurt a little bit this time, but at the current moment my arm isn't too sore. But last time it felt fine all day, then I woke up the next day with a huge bruise and really sore arm, so we'll see.
I hope it's not too bad tomorrow, because I have a lot of work to do at work (Tuesdays are always busy because the new ad starts on Wednesday), and seeing as I'm a cake decorator I'm constantly moving and bending my arm. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

My sister also talked to my mom today. She got a job in Indiana. Not in her field, but a job never-the-less to keep her working while she has time to keep searching for something in her degree area. She graduates in 2 weeks, and the whole fam is going down to visit. It'll be a nice little break to get away for a couple days. I'm looking forward to it. Sadly I don't know WTF to wear. I've been basically living in 3 pairs of pants. A pair of jeans, a pair of blue pants, and my black work pants. I'm not exactly rolling in money at the moment, so I'm not sure I can go buy something. I'm thinking I had several summery, sundresses last year that all have that high, empire type waist on them that may just do the trick. Since they're so flowey, I may be able to make it work. As long as my boobs will still fit in the top part. We'll see.

I feel kind of tired, but don't know if I'll be able to actually nap right now, but I'm going to go put my feet up and lay on the couch for a while.

~*Tiff*~

Oh lordy!

So I just made Matt watch this video I found online.
haaaaaaaaaaaa



http://childbirthvideoandlaborpain.blogspot.com/



EDIT-5/21
Ignore that link now, apparently they change the video every so often, and that's NOT the same video anymore

4/26/09- 28 weeks!!

Sooooo, this pregnancy acid reflux crap is REALLY getting annoying.
I NEVER had it this bad until I got pregnant.
If you've never had an ulcer or acid reflux....it sucks. It's like a feeling of nausea and that you're going to get sick....but topped with like a burning esophagus/throat. Literally feels like your throat is on FIRE. And being pregnant, there's only so many things you can take, and you can only take so much of it.
I've been trying to stay away, or only eat in moderation things that cause that. But it's hard and it sucks because I crave chinese and italian. Chinese can be greasy, which you're supposed to stay away from. And Italian isn't any better. I am alwayssssssss in the mood for eggplant parmigiana and pasta! Always. And the tomato sauce has acid in it that can be bad for people with acid reflux. So yeah. But I was fine when I woke up today, and only ate a bagel with a tiny bit of butter. Laid back down at around 9:30, and woke up at 11am with my throat feeling like it was going to explode!! So unfair.
Oh well. All I know though, is that after I have the baby my body get back to normal.....at least internally, lol. I can diet and workout to get myself un-fat. But if my insides decide to keep giving me stomach problems, BOY ARE WE IN TROUBLE!! I will be one unhappy camper.

On another note...
Most chicks don't want to admit that they are scared to giv birth and become a parent. I have no problem telling the truth. I feel no need to pretend I've got it all together. No one has it all together, so maybe the world would be a better place if people stopped pretending they did, and got real. Some people may have it more together than others, but there's no need to throw it in people's faces acting like super-employee, or super-mom, or whatever. I have a few friends who are parents who constantly feel like other are putting them down, and they feel inferior. I want them to know they aren't, and they are doing a great job.
And with that said, yeah, I am scared shitless to give birth. And while I am excited to be a parent, I know it's going to be hard and be different. It's never easy. It's one of the biggest adjustments you will ever make in your life. And I know I can't get away from all the people who want to give advice, but the ones who do it condescendingly get on your nerves. Does that make sense? Some parents are ill-prepared, or don't have a real idea of what raising a child is about, or know much about babies. But my family and true friends know how educated I am. I may not have done it for my own child yet, but I do think I know more than a lot of first time parents do, and people who really know me, know this. I know I will be sore, and tired, and breastfeeding can be a pain, and the baby will be crying constantly, and I won't get any sleep, and you can go through more than 12 diapers a day for a newborn, etc etc etc. I know. I do.
I appreciate the people who goodheartedly want to be there for you, and tell you stories, and give advice, but some people just act like such know-it-alls, and talk down to you. It gets on your nerves a lot. So for my beautiful friends who have had babies, I commend you all for not beating the crap out of people who got in your business and overstepped their boundaries!!
I've got a good husband, who plans to help all he can, even though he may not have much experience. I have an awesome family, who I know I can rely on at any time of the day or night. My mom has 5 kids. She gets it. I already know that if I am overexhausted, or just need some time away for a few hours, she will be there for me, and always help. I know not everyone has that, but I do, and am so thankful. My friends are pretty great too, although most aren't up for watching newborns, lol. I know if I need something they will be there for me.
I've been babysitting since I was 11 years old. And I've been babysitting little Liam since he was 2 weeks old. So I have the general idea of the shitty stages that kids go through.
I think I'm truly more scared of the actual birth, than of afterward. Afterward I've got a great support base, and people can help me out. No one can help you push the baby out!! Not literally anyway, lol!! I know my mom and Matt will be there for me emotionally and whatnot, but I'm terrifying of pushing this kid out!! (And yes, don't worry, I do already know all the gory details).

Anyway. I am pretty excited for my shower. I'm sad some people I really care about won't be able to be there, but I know that they are just as sad/upset as I am.
Jess is moving next week to Texas and while I couldn't possibly be more happy for her, I'm not sure I could possibly be sadder at the same time. You only get so many friends in your life that can be your friends no matter what. No matter whether you talk everyday, or have that phase where you haven't talked in 3 months. Through the petty fights, and the job stress, and college, and boyfriends, and when neither of you have time for each other. There's this point a few years after high school where you realize who will ALWAYS be your friend. I'm lucky enough to have a handful of these people, and Jess is one of them. Kelly just better not leave me too though!!
Jess leaving is actually part of the reason I started this blog.
Like I said before, Facebook and Myspace are nice for 'events' and pictures, and little updates.
But to truly be able to keep in better touch with people, and keep them updated I was inspired by Lindsey's blog to start this bad boy. Maybe I will try to get Jess to use hers too!! (She had to make one for a class in college, lol, she will probably be surprised I remembered). But then she can keep us updated on her new job and life in Texas.
Now if only I can remember to keep writing in this, and not get bored and give up after a few weeks, I will be very proud of myself. I'm sure after the baby is born I will always have something to talk about anyway :-)

April 25th

So I am pretty wiped out today.
It's pretty hot out, plus I got a phone call yesterday, and it was my boss, basically begging me to help her out at some point because apparently the other people in my department are ill-prepared for a busy weekend. And since she lets me choose my own hours, I opted to go in 3rd shift, and work a few hours. It's a lot easier to get work done when there isn't any customers. So I worked midnight-4am. I like it because of the peace and quiet.
Then I came home and crashed for a while, but I think it's catching up to me now, and I'm getting a little worn out. We ate dinner like almost 2 hours ago, and I'm in this in-between stage where I'm not really sure if I'm hungry or not. I hate that. So I don't know whether to take a nap.....eat.....do both, lol. So many options!! haha
I'm thinking maybe ice cream. It will cool me off and maybe give me a sugar rush to wake me up.

Okay, well, anyone who reads this, enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

I can't ever think of titles...

So last night sucked ass.
Big time.

I made dinner for everyone, and was all excited to eat it. I made chicken and gravy and rice.
So I eat and everything, and I was feeling pretty great all day.
Then like 20 minutes later, I start feeling like crap, and really nauseous.

So yeah, I made it into the bathroom just in time to get sick.
This sucks.
I'm more than 27 weeks along now, and still getting sick. Soooooo unfair...
I've tried it all guys, ginger ale, crackers, pepcid, etc, etc, etc....
thanks for the tips......nothing seems to help. Oh well...
I guess things could be a lot worse. I haven't had any real major problems or complications (knock on wood), so I shouldn't complain.

Other than that, work kinda sucked today. I LOVE what I do. Cake decorating is pretty easy and fun, especially when you are the main person, and the boss of the other decorators. But people are CONSTANTLY taking cake orders wrong. Some of these people have worked there 10 years or longer, you'd think they'd be able to take a cake order correctly!!! But no, every freakin week there's several screwups. So annoying. Plus it got REALLY busy towards the last 1/2 hour of my shift, which sucked b/c I was trying to cleanup and finish up for the day, and the customers were like attacking the bakery. It was nuts. But oh well.

Now I'm going to go eat the rest of my chinese food and watch Jeopardy with mom, then American Idol.

27 weeks

So I did pretty much nothing today.
Which was nice.
Because even though I often say I do nothing, I do end up doing a lot of cooking or cleaning, or general running around.
We went to bed pretty late, so I definitely slept in.
Got up, ate a sandwich, then had some cake. Mom and I chitchatted about my babyshower. She's a traditionalist and prefers to keep showers a 'secret', but we have so much going on in the next few months (my sister's college graduation, my brother's g/f's college graduation, my cousin's graduation, plus I started working on some weekends), that it would be a pain to have tried to keep this a secret. Sooooo I know about it! Which is okay, because I'd hate to be surprised and show up to it looking like crap. Which actually might happen anyway, lol. Seeing as I've gotten the horrible luck of nasty skin and pimples with this baby, as well as HORRIBLE roots from not dying my hair :-/
I'd really like to dye it, it's driving me nuts.
It's going to be June 6th. I'm worried I'm going to inevitably forget to invite someone and they will be offended or get upset. But I have pregnancy brain, so I can't help it! I'm sorry. Plus I don't know how many invites my mom got, but we are probably not going to send out too many "courtesy invites." You know, the invites you send to family you know won't come, or friends who live far away and you know can't make it. So if there's anyone random who reads this who wants to come, just let me know. We always have tons of food and stuff.

Anyway, I'm getting kicked now and it's very uncomfortable so I'm going to chill on the couch.

First post

So I decided to start a blog.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to keep everyone important in my life updated on things with the more pregnant I become, the busier we all become, and the more people move away!
Myspace and Facebook are nice for quick updates, e-mails and pictures, but I'm not really fond of their blogs or notes for really keeping people updated.

Yesterday when I decided I wanted to start this I had about a million things I wanted to write about. Now I can't even think of one.
I'm staying at my parents this weekend. Matt is away on his annual camping trip with the guys, and I HATE being home alone overnight. I'm screwed if he ever gets a job where he has to travel.
He'll be back tomorrow and hopefully he had a good time. He works so hard, so he deserves a nice break.
I'm also 27 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Sometimes it feels like it's going fast, other times it really feels like it's dragging. But I suppose I'm 2/3 of the way done with it, and that's pretty impressive. I'm kind of sad that I didn't get a cute little belly like most of the other people I know. I've been carrying very low the entire time (which people CONSTANTLY feel the need to tell me, hmmm.....don't you think I already know this??). So I had held off on taking more pictures until I had a cute little pregnant looking belly to show, and really, it barely looks like I'm pregnant in my mind, I personally think it looks like I've just put on weight. I'd also like to know by the time most normal women are at the 6-7 month mark how much weight they have put on. I know what you're supposed to gain according to your prebaby weight and height and all.....but I don't want a chart or quoted weight. I want to know REAL women's actual weights!! Most women at work told me that with their first they gained WAY too much. One said 70 total. Another said almost 100. Well, I'm nowhere near either of those. And while I do have 3 months left, I am not too too worried, because I put a lot of my weight on in my first 4 months, and have been holding rather steady for the last 2 months or so, with only small gains. So anyway, I just kind of look fat at this point, and keep waiting for my "cute" little belly to pop, but it's looking hopeless. So no pics there. Plus when I went for my 20 week U/S, by the time she was done taking all her measurements, he had moved face down, so we only got 2 pictures of him. I was kind of upset. Well, not kind of, I was really upset. I cried later when we were home. I tried not to let it get to me too much though, because hopefully we are going to go to the place that does the the 3D ultrasounds. You can get pictures and CDS and all that of the baby. I've heard it's fabulous. So hopefully we can do that here really soon.
I've got my glucose test on the 27th. Oh joy.


Okay, well, I'm going to go eat my chocolate cake and my vanilla ice cream with reeses now.