Big girl things

Blogging consistently when you have a toddler is hard...I have been meaning to make a new post for several days now, but it just hasn't worked! But, my sweet friend Steph has a disclaimer on her blog that she blogs without obligation, so I think I like that plan--no promises of consistent or timely posts.

To catch up...I posted last time about  car shopping, and...I did it! I bought a car. It was a complicated process of crunching numbers and researching and practicing our marriage communication skills, but I think in the end we got a really good deal and I'm very pleased with my new car. It is a black Scion XB:
Admittedly, I think it's a pretty goofy-looking car. I always hated these boxy cars, and when it became our best option, I was a little whiny and dumb about it at first. I had my heart set on a Ford Escape, and since this is my first car purchase since I was 16, honestly, looks were kind of a big factor to me. As I test drove it, heard the gas mileage, saw the awesome DVD players on the back of the headrests, etc...the pros stacked up a lot higher than the cons. Con...only one con. So, the fact that it was funny looking was not enough to ruin the deal. It is much newer and lower-mileage than anything else I had found, and after dealing with a pretty slimy, smarmy car salesman when looking at another dealership, I knew we wanted to go this route. We signed a million papers and took the plunge, and I am loving it so far! Now it just has to get me about six years until I am 30 and feel maybe old enough to handle a minivan :)

We celebrated our anniversary on the 26th--four years! I had great plans to write a post about our story...from 10 years ago when we first met and all the rocky drama that led us to here. Nathan wasn't too stoked about it, I think, and I just never had the time. So, I will keep that on my list of posts to come one day. We didn't really do anything big this year...but we're hoping to get a vacation or at least a night away together before the deployment happens.

In the world of Adelyn, not so much is going on I guess...no broken bones this week or last, so that's always a plus. She took her first tumbling class today, and it was so fun! She usually is VERY slow to warm up to new people, but she surprised me and went to the teacher very willingly a few times, and had fun trying out the trampoline, bars, balance beam, and all the fun things to climb on and over. I think it will be nice to get her to socialize and get used to her teacher, and after the new baby comes, to have something that is just about her.
She has learned to say "go go go" and "mooo" and a few other new words lately, and is making me laugh by shaking or nodding her head to answer "yes" and "no" when we ask her things...it seems so grown up! She can also climb onto the couch now (sometimes) and is pretty proud of herself for that accomplishment. It's tough to be a short kid, so being able to get to new heights is a big deal to her!

Pregnancy-wise, things are okay...I got put on "moderate rest" last week. Note that it does not say BED rest, because as my doctor noted, staying in bed 24/7 is not the point. I am, however, supposed to be taking it easy and avoiding lifting, walking, exercising...etc. I'm not doing a great job sticking to it so far, but I'm trying. Because I'm having a lot of cramping and low back pain, the doctor I saw last week wants to keep a closer eye on me, so I have another appointment this week, and as we get to the big milestone of 24 weeks, we'll see about more monitoring or interventions if needed.
Baby girl seems to be doing well--hiccuping a lot and kicking and punching like a ninja. She always responds to Nathan's voice when he lays his head against my belly and talks to her, and I think it's really sweet to see. I currently have him agreeing to the name that I want, but he's being a little squirrelly and I'm still not totally sure he won't change his mind later. I'd like to be able to call her by name soon, so hopefully we'll reach a solid decision in the near future.

On a closing note, I think I have given up on my crunchy living experiment with making my own shampoo. The baking soda thing was working well for a couple of weeks, and then suddenly stopped making my hair feel clean, soft, smooth...etc. I then found a new recipe that used Castille soap and coconut milk, and that was even worse (although it smelled nicer by far), and my hair got super tangly, course, and sticky feeling. So, yesterday I bought a bottle of Herbal Essences newest product. I'm a little disappointed with myself, but it sure did feel nice to have clean, soft hair again today!

Halfway there!

How far along?  20 weeks!!

Total weight gain: 8lbs still
Maternity clothes? definitely
Stretch marks? nope, but my linea negra is getting more prominent
Sleep:  I need some today
Best moment this week: Making it to 20 weeks! Halfway done...shew.
Miss Anything? motivation
Movement: tons...this girl is a ninja.
Food cravings: nothing at the moment...
Anything making you queasy or sick: woke up queasy this morning again, but it's gone now, thankfully.
Gender: girl
Labor Signs: trying not to have those
Symptoms: fatigue, cramps and backache...growing pains.
Belly Button in or out? in, but Nathan said he thinks it's starting to move out...boo!
Wedding rings on or off? on! but I keep forgetting them!
Happy or Moody most of the time: happy
Looking forward to: 24 weeks--it's getting closer!


Currently sitting and warming my 17p shot...this one makes #5 which means 1/4 of the way done. I am dreading it. The burning pain that happens afterwards and lasts all day has been excruciating, and doesn't seem to be the experience of any other women I've asked about these shots, so why it is happening to me...I don't know. It sucks though, and I'm considering going next week to have one of my OB's nurses do it if this one burns too, because I feel like I have to be doing something wrong.


Woke up feeling really crampy and with a backache this morning, so I'm trying to get this shot done and sit back and drink drink drink. Adelyn and I are watching cartoons and counting down the hours until Nathan is home to provide backup and enjoy the weekend with us. No big plans other than celebrating our July birthdays with his family on Sunday...and maybe more car shopping? It's getting less fun now that it's not happening as easily as I thought. Hopefully the right one will come along soon enough.


Phew, okay, shot is in. 5 down, 15 to go!

Curious George

How far along? 19 weeks

Total weight gain: 8lbs! That is crazy to me since I had SUCH a hard time gaining with Adelyn and only made it to 10 total...this time it's happening steadily and right on track, yay!
Maternity clothes? yep, definitely needing those maternity pants/shorts full time now
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep:  so very sleepy--I think that's a side effect of the progesterone
Best moment this week: seeing my new baby girl on the screen and hearing that she looks perfectly healthy so far!
Miss Anything? my energy seems to be missing...
Movement: feeling big rolls now--hopefully that means she doesn't intend to be breech all the time
Food cravings: orzo salad--and my sister is making me some this weekend for my birthday!
Anything making you queasy or sick: not much!
Gender: 100% girl!
Labor Signs: nothing anyone wants to read about...yuck
Symptoms: heartburn! this girl better have some hair...
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on, when I don't forget to put them on because of silly pregnancy brain
Happy or Moody most of the time: happy
Looking forward to: 24 weeks--the first milestone in the life of a preemie mom because it means viability!

I'm in love with this girl already!

Adelyn got her cast off this week, and is happily back in action with both arms to get into everything. She's also driving me crazy and refusing to nap this morning...gRRRRRR. She just threw my favorite chapstick in the trash, while I was telling her "no!" very firmly. Sigh.

I think maybe she's ready to drop the morning nap, but she can't quite make it all the way to the afternoon yet, so late mornings are kind of a mess while we battle over to nap or not to nap. It would be easier if I wasn't tired and wanting MY naptime too.

The good news is, the weekend is here again, and Nathan will be home in about six hours, so I can survive a little more madness knowing that. I'm hoping to spend our weekend car shopping for my new big girl car (did I mention I'm 24 now? So grown up...) and then celebrating both of our birthdays with my family on Sunday. And maybe a nap for me...

TGIF

How far along? 18 Weeks! That sounds exciting to me for some reason.

Total weight gain: 4-5lbs...I'll know Thursday after my OB appointment
Maternity clothes? sometimes!
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep:  I like it.
Best moment this week: Realizing I am having more time not feeling queasy than I am feeling it.
Miss Anything? nah
Movement: yep, she seems like a strong and active little girl
Food cravings: finally got the grilled chicken sandwich I had been wanting...we'll see what's next
Anything making you queasy or sick: still just smells, but less things than before!
Gender: still thinking girl unless we find out otherwise at our next big ultrasound
Labor Signs: a lot of contractions on a couple of days, but they seem to go away as long as I drink and rest
Symptoms: growing pains!
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: happy?
Looking forward to: the ultrasound on the 11th--so close!


Not much new to report...still in the midst of a crazy heat-wave of 100+ degree days and humidity that makes it hard to breathe. We stay inside a lot...except yesterday when Addy and I got to go to the beach! We rode with my aunt, uncle, and grandma to visit my parents and siblings who have been there all week. Adelyn did fantastic on the drive, loved the beach, and came home and went straight to bed. I got a little too much sun on my back (totally forgot to put sunscreen there?!), but had a great time. 

It's my "birthday week" and I got an iPhone4 as a present from myself/Nathan. I really like it, but am feeling like a grandma trying to figure out all the cool features. Waiting for my Otterbox to get here so that I don't break the thing--it's so fragile! Hoping to keep Adelyn distracted by giving her my old phone for at least a little while, but I think she's already interested. No big plans for my birthday--probably getting together with my family on Sunday like we usually do, and then we'll celebrate mine and Nathan's together with his family in a couple of weekends. July is a busy birthday month in his family, and in our little family, plus we get our anniversary at the end of it!


This weekend we plan to stay home and do nothing. I hope to get some cleaning done, but otherwise we are going to stay cool and relaxed and save our money, and enjoy time together. Next week is another busy one.


Oh, hair. I did run out of both the baking soda mixture and vinegar mixture yesterday, so I used shampoo for the first time in about 10 days...can't say it did anything remarkable that I had missed, other than smell nice. Made more of my mixtures today and am back on the wagon. I think my hair is doing fine...no major improvements or detriments, so I guess I'll keep going and see where it takes me. If nothing else, it's cheaper than buying shampoo...

Heat wave

Well, I think today is day 5 of my hair experiment, and I am still going strong! I did cheat yesterday and use conditioner (but it was organic and pretty low on the harsh chemicals) because I was in a hurry...more on that later. We are beginning a big heat wave of 100+ degree temperatures and high humidity, so that's not doing my hair any favors either.

So far, I don't see any miraculous things happening to my hair, but also no bad results either. I think that I got the baking soda amount right on the first try, and my hair is coming perfectly clean and not dry or straw-like. The apple cider vinegar is making me gag like crazy, so I think I'm going to find a new container and add some ingredients such as honey, lemon, mint...and whatever else I come up with, to tame the smell. It is a little hard to apply a liquid to your hair and feel like it's doing the trick. I keep finding myself adding more just to be on the safe side, because it's hard to tell which spots have been adequately rinsed.
Here are pictures from days 1-3, and I will add a few more after a few more days have gone by.

So, back to my busy day yesterday. Nathan came home Wednesday from being away for three weeks, and we were very glad to see each other and just relax and get to bed early. Thursday morning (yesterday), Nathan got up to spend time with Adelyn so I could sleep some more, but after about an hour of hearing her fussing and crying a lot, I got up to see what was wrong. He told me she had fallen and had been crying ever since and holding her left wrist, which she had also done the day before. We decided she should get some Tylenol and go get an x-ray, just in case. She was still using her left arm and hand to wave, clap, grab toys...but would cry when she would try to put pressure on it or if we would touch it certain ways. 

We went to WakeMed North and they examined her, didn't see too much of concern, but did an x-ray just to be safe, and sure enough, she has a small buckle fracture in her left radius. The doctor said it was a very minor fracture and that he wouldn't even recommend casting it if she weren't going to continue falling on it as a wobbly new walker, but that since she kept landing on it, we should put a cast on to be safe.

We got in to the orthopedic specialist later that afternoon and got Adelyn a nice pink cast. She did awesome during the process and was so well-behaved and brave, and is now handling her casted arm like a champ.

Gave myself shot #2 this morning, and it is burning like crazy in my hip! It's not sore, just burning like fire...which is not how the first one felt, so I don't know what to make of it. I'm also sore already from my first chiropractic adjustment that I had yesterday. The chiropractor is awesome, and when I started to tell her about my pregnancy complications with Adelyn and how my uterus had a septum that caused all of our problems, she said "me too!" and I was amazed. It's not that uncommon, but I haven't met anyone else with a septate uterus, so having my chiropractor who will be helping me get through the trials of pregnancy know exactly what I went through and how it can affect things is awesome. My spine is definitely out of alignment, and she is hoping that working on that may help tone down the contractions I've been having.
Here's the 17 week update:

How far along? 17 Weeks

Total weight gain: 4ish lbs now?
Maternity clothes? just went to Old Navy to buy some new maternity jeans and I am so so happy to have some that fit!
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep:  never enough
Best moment this week: Feeling real, strong kicks instead of just flutters!
Miss Anything? sleeping on my belly
Movement: lots!
Food cravings: thought I wanted spaghetti when we went out for Italian last night, but I was wrong...ick.
Anything making you queasy or sick: a lot of gagging over smells, but not as much nausea this past week...yay!
Gender: still thinking girl unless we find out otherwise at our next big ultrasound
Labor Signs: still trying not to contract
Symptoms: headaches...lots of headaches
Belly Button in or out? in
Wedding rings on or off? on
Happy or Moody most of the time: you'll have to ask Nathan now that he's back...
Looking forward to: the ultrasound on the 11th

An experiment in crunchy living

So I came across this idea on Pinterest a few months ago and thought it was interesting. The blog shows a lady who had wavy/curly/frizzy hair. She started the "no 'poo" plan and her hair became much smoother, shinier, and had really well defined curls instead of being halfway there. I decided to "pin" the post and consider it for later. Well, it's later.

I made a batch of 1 quart water (which is 4 cups, for those of us who don't remember elementary school conversions) with 1/4 cup baking soda. I then mixed 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 1 cup water. I put both in the best squirty containers I could find:

(baking soda cleanser on left, vinegar rinse on right)

Here is my before hair:

This isn't the BEST picture to display my hair, but you can see that it is semi-thick and has some frizz. This is at the end of the day, so the frizz is much less serious than it is when it first dries. Also, it appears I badly need a trim because my hair is all kinds of uneven...good to know. I also have really oily hair--MUST be washed every day, and even shampooing at night gives me icky hair by about mid-morning the next day...so this will be interesting.

The lady whose blog led me to this got much better curl out of her hair over time, so I'm curious to see which way my semi-wavy hair will go. I'll try to take pictures every few days so that the progress will hopefully be evident. Hopefully the smell of the vinegar doesn't make me gag too much along the way. I've also read that the amounts of each ingredient have to be tweaked according to hair type/texture, so I may have to make new batches based on the results of the first few tries.

Wish me luck!

16 week baby sweet T update

How far along? 16 Weeks

Total weight gain: 3 lbs.
Maternity clothes? sometimes...I'm in between right now.
Stretch marks? not yet
Sleep:  never enough
Best moment this week: feeling baby sweet T kick on the inside while Adelyn was laying across the outside of my belly...so sweet.
Miss Anything? I could definitely go for a strong drink some nights lately after a long day with a toddler!
Movement: yep! still feels mostly like a goldfish fluttering around in there
Food cravings: this week I have craved pepper jack cheese and then porkchops with bbq sauce
Anything making you queasy or sick: most everything
Gender: looks like a girl based on last week's ultrasounds, and we'll know 100% on July 11th at our big ultrasound
Labor Signs: contractions, but we don't want those right now!
Symptoms: a lot more headaches in this past week or so, and crazy heartburn!
Belly Button in or out? in! hopefully for a long time...eek.
Wedding rings on or off? on...they have been sliding around and falling off even
Happy or Moody most of the time: pretty happy I think...
Looking forward to: feeling less sick...really, any day now would be fine...


So, that's where we are now.  Maybe I'll try to take a belly shot later today and post it so that my super unimpressive bump can be compared to later on, when it is much cuter than it is so far.


Edit: here it is...I don't think it usually looks this impressive, but some trick of the mirror/camera/lighting makes it look like I have a decent bump here. Most people would tell you I don't look like I'm showing at all.

Today I go to my OB office to get the first of 20 weekly progesterone injections (in my butt!) to prevent preterm labor. I will give them to myself after this first one, and continue until 36 weeks and then let nature take its course if I'm still pregnant then. Not a lot is fully known about how exactly the progesterone therapy works, but studies are showing a definite link to less recurrent preterm births in women who have had one previously and used progesterone the next time around. Since the side effects are few, my doctors and I thought it was worth a try, even if we don't know for sure how it might help me. I have been having some mild contractions and crampiness over the past week or two, and am trying to stay hydrated as much as possible, but I am hoping that the shots maybe calm that down a little bit.


Adelyn also has an appointment today for her 15 month well-check. I'm mostly just interested to see how big she is now. I am pretty sure she has gained an inch or two in height, but I'm not sure she has really gained much weight in a few months now that she is walking and climbing and basically doing non-stop cardio!


Edit: Results are in--she weighs 19lbs, 7oz (5th%ile) and is 28.25inches tall (<5th%ile). We're not worried, because she is symmetric and growing and 5th-10th is where she's been all along...so she's just our petite little girl and we like her that way :).


Nathan was able to call yesterday and check in, and other than being a little sick and run-down, he is doing fine. He says they are working hard and having long days, but that things are going well. Only a little over a week to go--and we Timbergals are ready to have our man back!