Sunday, March 20, 2016

Happy First day of Spring!

I celebrated by finishing the essentials for the nursery!!!

4 +/- 2 weeks to go until Hazel arrives!







Cat repellent...

Already effective!

Sunday, March 13, 2016

TMI for Norovirus experience

So the creeping crud a.k.a. stomach flu has hit our house pretty badly.

It was a nice day last wednesday that I let Kaylee play on the playground after school was over. I wasn't doing much, just sitting and starting to feel really awful. I finally convinced her to go home and as soon as we pulled in the driveway I was emptying my stomach contents into the grass.

I sent her inside to play and quickly went out to the barn to finish taking care of the animals. Thankfully I'd already prepped a lot of dinner so it went quickly.

I was back inside, making sure Kaylee was set to be independent for a while, and promptly laid down. Then the evacuation started. I had the foresight to grab a bucket (from Home Depot) and spent the next 12 hours alternating between passing out on the bed and sitting on the toliet with the bucket between my knees. It was not a pleasant time.

Eric, thankfully, had gotten home not long after I laid down and took over Kaylee duties.

Thursday, while the vomiting had ceased and I was tentatively keeping liquids down, the diarrhea continued. He stayed home and worked from home, going out only briefly to retrieve his work laptop and gatorade for me.

I slept for a good part of Thursday, off and on. He was awesome and took care of the animals too.

Friday I was feeling much better, good enough to take a shower and get dressed in real clothes. I got Kaylee ready for school since Tuesday was a primary so they rescheduled for Friday and as we walked in, she vomited all over the sidewalk.

We promptly went home. She vomited a few more times and had a diarrhea accident in her pants, which was more distressing to her. Thankfully, she was really good at vomiting in the bucket, until she vomited all over Eric. I put her back in a diaper to control accidents and got her situated on the couch.

She didn't vomit again but did have another accident in her pants on Saturday and successfully pooped on the toilet later.

Eric and I started counting down the hours for incubation for what we suspected was norovirus.

Sunday afternoon he started to feel off. At first we thought he would get away with just intestinal issues, but the full effects of the virus have hit him now and we've had it make its way completely through.

Through this whole thing, I've slowly added solid food back into my diet, but I lost 12 pounds in two days thanks to the evacuation and liquid only diet I dealt with.  My whole upper body is sore from clenching during vomiting. And today I had prodromal labor as my body tried to deal with constipation, of all things, from the solids coming back through my digestive track.

I spent a lot of the day laying or sitting, or in some kind of inverted position, breathing through cramps/contractions. I even went so far as to time them, but at every 10 minutes, they weren't enough to call or go in.

Of the three of, Kaylee bounced back the quickest and had it the most mildly. I'm hoping Eric doesn't suffer like I did. I don't know how we'll manage a vivacious 3 year old with him knocked out from Noro while I deal with contractions.

Thankfully I've got plans to get us out of the house tomorrow (us = me and Kaylee) since I've got a chiro appointment to try and get Hazel flipped. The small part of me that hopes that chiropractic woo has some basis is also hoping it'll get my gut in better shape, but it's a tiny part and ultimately I know I just need to take it easy.

And just let me tell you. I wouldn't wish norovirus on a 3rd trimester pregnant lady even if they were the most evil person in the world. It is a crazy thing to be sitting there with baby kicking happily away while you vomit. NOT PLEASANT.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Nursery Organization plus voting plus Birth Center tour

I was a beast today getting things built. It finally warmed up so while the snow melted, I built IKEA furniture.  Here's the Trofast with bins full of all of the baby toys and board books. After I got this all nicely organized Kaylee came through and decided she needed to play with it all.

The drawer system in the closet plus all of the clothes finally organized by size. I have up through 24 months in those rubbermaid bins and anything larger is downstairs, also in rubbermaid. Left hangers have dresses. Right hangers have coats. I will not need to buy clothes for Hazel. 

As I said, the snow is melting today. It was in the mid 60s. Yesterday it barely broke 40F!!! Gwyn was taking a nap.

She did not bother to get up when we drove by in the truck. She just kind of nodded and said "Hey." I think she really likes being here. It's probably a pretty awesome life.


Eric and I went to the hospital for the birth center tour tonight. There was a definite difference in hospital culture compared to the tour we did in Washington state. There, they were quick to label themselves Baby Friendly, the label of which has significant meaning (baby doesn't go to nursery unless requested, immediate skin to skin, breastfeeding promotion, you don't move rooms, lots of natural birth pain relief options encouraged).  Here, those similar things are available, but it felt like we were being sold them, almost as though the women in this area aren't as familiar and need to be convinced, especially on the skin to skin point.

Some of the things were encouraging to hear again as being routine now, some other things I internally was smirking and going "Uh huh, we'll see if I follow THAT rule"  (no eating, a bad idea if you're low risk since you need energy!)

The nurse did make a humorous offhand comment about some women coming in with birth plans and the nurses going "Oh, THAT one."

Eric murmured to me, "You're going to be that one." We chuckled together.

Since Kaylee was hanging out with her Aunt and Uncle, we took the childfree time to go grab a quick dinner after the tour. I hadn't really felt Hazel moving all day but I had been SUPER busy and active. It wasn't until I got home and took a bath that she reassured me to her presence. Kaylee had fallen asleep in the truck on the way home so I just left her in the car while I fed the critters. Eric helped too. It was a good day. Kaylee didn't even wake up when I got her out and I was able to put her right into bed. Easy peasy bedtime!

Eric is home tomorrow since I have a ton of appointments to go to. I've got an early ass ultrasound to check on Hazel's growth, then back to back midwife/MFM appointments, which are now going to include a non stress test. I'll be going to bed very shortly.

PLUS... IT'S PRIMARY VOTING DAY IN MICHIGAN!

I fully intend to exercise my right as a citizen.

FEEL THE BERN!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Some happenings!

I promised Kaylee we would go to the nature center if she was good for me during errands we had to run.  I saw a cardinal pair, male and female!

The nature center had an oppossum they were rehabilitating. Here he's being lured out so he can get some exercise running around the office. Kaylee was fascinated.


Harder to see, but they also were rehabbing a crow with a broken wing!

Pretty pretty babywearing items! Girasol wrap and a ring sling as well as a few random items thrown in for good measure. I bought the wraps from a friend and she sent me an old amber teething necklace as a joke. 

Cutting out patterns!


I made a baby registry because Amazon was offering a Mom Box if you completed the registry of items. A family member asked for it and suddenly this shows up! The one we used to have for Kaylee I sold, so I had put it on there just because. But cool! Kid bouncy play time!

This morning. She crawled into our bed because she was cold and briefly snuggled.

I went to IKEA all by myself today! 34 weeks pregnant! Booyah! 

The start of a dresser in the closet for Hazel. Yay organization!

Thursday, March 3, 2016

I tend not to write about terribly awful stuff unless it's really bothering me and I need to sort things out in writing to clarify my feelings.

This is not that kind of post. This is self indulgent whine. I am not ashamed.

I woke up to Eric's alarm this morning, peed and tried to fall back asleep. The light from the bathroom (we don't have a door, just a doorway) kept me awake so I browsed facebook. It was briefly nice to say goodbye to him this morning, because normally I'm passed out asleep.

But then, after he left, I just lay there. And realized my left nostril and sinus was utterly blocked. And that my mouth was dry and I felt like shit and that lingering sore throat had finally ramped up after weeks and weeks of simmering on low.

UGH.  I have a cold. Possibly sinus infection because my gums ache but more likely just a cold and I can't take anything for it to alleviate symptoms.

So I'm going to wallow in my own misery. Especially since I couldn't get back to sleep. Kaylee woke up at 8 and came in to snuggle with me. She turned on her kindle to do something and finally sleep was within reach. But only briefly.

Thankfully she's an independent sort of kid and we try and keep kid friendly snacks and meals within reach for her, so she brought me a juice box and some stuff to open for her to eat while I tried to snooze.

I gave up at 9 and coffee loaded myself up in an effort to make it through to the afternoon when she'd go to school.

She's now at school. I told Gwyn last night I'd play with her today, but honestly I don't have the energy to be out in the cold.  So I'm going to work on my sewing projects. I can sit, turn on music and zone out if needed. If I watched tv I'd probably fall asleep. Or if I laid down. That may still happen.

Fabric for my projects. I'm planning to make a labor gown and summer dress. I've got enough fabric for at least 3 in this picture. The pink is reversible and will be one on its own. The b/w print will go with the solid teal, the black and teal solid will go with the upper gray.   The bottom black is a swim suit lycra and the bottom gray is a quick drying sports knit. Those were more impulse purchases...



On a positive note, I bought a wrap and ring sling from my friend Laurel and it arrived today!  I'm so excited to use it, it's beautiful and feels so soft. I think the ring sling will be on the list to bring to the hospital and I'll babywear Hazel immediately.

The bottom rainbow is the girasol wrap. Very high quality wrap and already broken in! The more pink one is the ring sling. It's nice and light! I think it'll be perfect for summer. She also threw in a pair of baby legs, two swaddles and an amber necklace that Kaylee is currently wearing.