 | Diary Navigation:
|
November 15, 2002
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
9 weeks
Happy Birthday Samantha!
First of all, I just wanted to wish my niece, Samantha a very Happy Birthday. Samantha is 6 years old today. She is one of my nieces who is moving to Indiana the coming Sunday. She had a birthday party yesterday but we were not able to attend because it was a weekday and they live two hours north of us. We are driving up there this Saturday to see them one last time before they all leave L
The Pregnancy
In my last entry, I mentioned having been sicker than I ever was yet. HA! I had no clue what was coming. That was NOTHING compared to what I went through this past weekend. I went to work Friday night as usual. It was tough. At barely nine weeks along, I was already feeling the burning in my back. I am terrified for the rest of this pregnancy (where my job is concerned). However, I managed just fine. During the last four hours of my shift (3am to 7am), I started getting pretty darn queasy. Not much was helping except chewing on ice. The only problem with that is that I have to chew the ice constantly… any stopping, even just to talk, makes the queasiness grow exponentially. Pretty difficult when you are trying to work. Anyway, Mike picked me up Saturday morning and I about died.
The rest of the weekend was a blur. I was sick, sick, sick. By Sunday, I wondered if it was totally pregnancy related. I could tell that I was obviously getting dehydrated… my mouth was SO dry. However, the thought of drinking much of ANYTHING sent me over the edge. I almost caved and went in for some IV fluids, but I held out. Mike pretty much spent the weekend taking care of Ethan and trying to force food and fluids down me. Fun huh? I was so weak that I could hardly walk. I spent the entire weekend in bed, on the couch, or in the bathroom. By Sunday afternoon, I knew it would be impossible for me to go to work, so I ended up calling in sick yet again. UGH. I really felt like I was on my death bed. Every action hurt. To get up and walk not only hurt, but it sent my nausea out of control. I finally sent Mike out for Popsicles. They were the only thing that seemed to help. Yesterday (Monday), I felt much better and was pretty productive. Today, however, I am back to feeling awful (though not as bad as I was this past weekend). It doesn’t help that I have been sleeping really poorly. Just when I get Ethan to sleep through the night, I get pregnant and now I’m back to not sleeping. It’s at times like these when it’s SO hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I just keep saying to myself, “This is the last time I have to do this. Once this baby comes, I never need to go through this again.” It really helps to think of it like that. It makes it seem like the end is near. I remember when I was pregnant with Ethan, everyone used to say to me, “You think it’s hard now? Wait til the baby comes… THAT is the hard part.” I used to really hate people for saying things like that to me. Why do people have to downplay other people’s feelings? They were WRONG… all of them were WRONG. Even when I was sleep deprived with a new baby, it was nothing compared to being sick all the time. So I’m counting on the fact that things are going to get better!
Sorry to be such a downer and a complainer, but this is truly how I feel and what I am experiencing and I want to record it.
Thanksgiving
I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is just a couple of weeks away. Where has the year gone? Last year, we broke tradition and went out to eat. I still can’t believe we did that… it was as if we had committed the ultimate sin or something. Neither of us, in our 30+ years of life have EVER gone out to eat on Thanksgiving. We’ve always had the traditional home cooked feast. But, I had to work from 3pm to 11pm last year. Since there was just the two of us, we didn’t want to cook a large meal and we also wanted to avoid the drama of going over to my in-law’s house. Believe me, there is SO much drama there, but I won’t go into it here. So, we broke tradition and went out and actually surprised ourselves by having a great time. The only downside was that we had we had no leftovers!
This year, we are back to tradition and I am happy. My mom flies in the day before Thanksgiving (late Wednesday night). Unfortunately, I have to work both Wednesday and Thursday nights (7p-7a) so I won’t even be able to see my mom much til Friday morning. We did change our plans to have our big meal on Friday instead of Thursday. It works out better for everyone. We are having friends over and they would not have been able to come over on Thursday.
My mom called me last night and we discussed the menu. She is already prepared to do all the cooking. I just have to go shopping ahead of time and make sure the kitchen is stocked. No problem. I miss my mom’s cooking. I am so happy that she is coming. When she is here with us, she does most of the cooking and that is by choice. My husband loves it. She will be here for just over a month… mom’s home cooked meals for a month! YAY!!!
My Birthday
My birthday is coming up in December and my husband asked me last night where I wanted to go for dinner. I was so excited. Gone are the days when we go out to eat so this will be a real treat. About six restaurants popped into my head and then I discarded them all, thinking maybe I should try something new! I have a few weeks to decide, but I’ll be salivating til then. This will really be a treat. We never go out to eat anymore. I’m really glad that we don’t, actually. We enjoy being home with Ethan and when we do go out, it is really a special thing and we seem to enjoy it that much more. Besides that, we don’t trust ANYONE with Ethan except my good friend, Michelle. We take Ethan everywhere we go. I think that after he is a year old, we might leave him more, but until then, he goes where we go and we are happy about that. My mom is the only other person I’d leave him with and so we are going to take advantage of her while she is here (she has already told us that he belongs to her while she’s here and that we should go out and have fun… you can bet I’m taking her up on it!)
The Weather
Boy, it is sure rainy and blustery here in Washington. We’ve been having rain/wind storms for the past week. Unfortunately, it means leaves, leaves, leaves everywhere. Speaking of leaves… There are some condos behind our house and they have a huge maple tree back there (when I say huge, I’m talking HUGE). That tree sheds so many leaves that when they all fall, you can’t even see our backyard or deck. I just looked out there this morning and you would never even know that a deck existed. The yard is so deep in leaves. Our neighbors have the same problem. The tree is so large that it sheds leaves into their yard as well. I wish it wasn’t raining. If it was dry, I’d take Ethan out there and get some pictures of him in the leaves! But right now, everything is just went and squishy. No fun! But, they are beautiful… HUGE yellow maple leaves.
Friday, November 15, 2002
A Girl’s Get Together… Meeting Two More Diary Writers!
I am so excited… four of us diary writers are planning a girl’s weekend in a couple of weeks and I’m SUPER excited! Jessica (of Moms Today) and I both live in the Seattle area. Heather (of Special Kids) is driving up from Portland and Jeanette (of Babies Today) is flying in from Phoenix! Heather and I have met before and I’m so excited to see her again. I am also thrilled to finally meet Jessica and Jeanette! I think we are planning a slumber party at Jessica’s house and I can’t wait! It is amazing to me the friendships that I’ve formed with some of the writers here at iParenting. The internet has been an amazing tool that has brought us all together… a group that otherwise probably never would have met otherwise. I’ll be sure and write an entry about our meeting… but don’t look for it for awhile. We aren’t meeting up until the weekend after Thanksgiving.
The Pregnancy Today
I last wrote about the pregnancy on Tuesday. Since then, I can honestly say that things have been a lot better. The nausea has been so much more tolerable in the past few days (even absent some of the time). I am still not holding my breath, though. I remember with Ethan, I would have spurts of feeling good, followed by spurts of being sick again. I was sick with him for so long that I find it hard to believe that the morning sickness is leaving me for good so early on. So, I’ll just enjoy the good days while they are here.
I am starting to feel more stretching. It is the weirdest feeling. There are times if I stand up too quickly, it feels as though someone is driving a knife through my lower abdomen. The only thing that helps is applying some serious pressure and doubling over. It really hurts. Luckily, it hasn’t happened too much, but I know the big growth spurts are coming. I remember from last time… at my 9 week ultrasound, they measured Ethan at about 2-2.5 inches in length… then I had another ultrasound at 13 weeks and was astounded at how much he had grown in four short weeks… the level of development was just amazing. So I know those growth spurts are coming. I am just hoping that since I just did all this, that my uterus remembers how to stretch and handle it and it won’t be so bad. I can hope right?
Maternity Clothes
Well, I am in all maternity clothes now. My tummy has really popped out and my husband has commented more than once at how pregnant I look. In fact, he said the other day, “If I hadn’t seen that ultrasound with my own two eyes, I’d swear there were twins in there.” Very funny. Not. I’ve been told by everyone around me that your tummy does pop out much quicker once you have already had a baby. I didn’t look this pregnant last time until I was about 18-20 weeks! Maternity clothes are just more comfortable at this point. I can’t stand any elastic or anything constricting on my tummy (it makes my nausea out of control), so the pants with the panels and the stretchy material just make sense.
I Do Believe I Have My Breasts Back
Well, Ethan is now completely weaned from the breast. I haven’t nursed him at all since Monday. My breasts have been quite tender, but they don’t feel real full or engorged. But when I say tender, I mean that seriously. Ethan, my little climber, LOVES to climb all over me when we are sitting on the couch. He has heard me scream more than a few times this week. He knows just how to step on me so that it feels like someone is plunging an ice pick into my boob. Poor guy… it scares him when I scream like that, but it’s a reflex that I really can’t help! Another funny thing… it is so strange… I think that subconsciously, he misses nursing, but he doesn’t show any outward signs of actually missing it. He has taken to coming up to me, pulling my shirt collar out, and wanting to peer down my shirt and see “what’s in there.” It’s as if he is thinking, “I remember those. I don’t need them anymore, but I just want to make sure they are still there!” It’s cute. It’s nice to have my breasts back. In just a short time, they will belong to our new baby and we will start this process all over again. I am tired just thinking about it. Don’t get me wrong, I love breast feeding but it IS work. Because I do work 24 hours a week, I have to pump pretty early and get a supply going so that there is enough for when I go back to work at 8 weeks. I just pray that this baby takes the bottle as easily as Ethan did. It only took Ethan about 5 minutes to figure out the bottle and we’ve had great success going back and forth ever since.
Another Harry Potter Installment
Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets premiers today. I think my husband is going to try and see it this weekend with a friend. If he doesn’t, then maybe we can go together once my mom gets here. We shall see. I saw the cast on the Oprah show and after watching that, I really want to see it. I got the DVD of the first episode for my husband’s birthday in June. I am assuming that the second installment will be out in time for his birthday next year.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
~~Christina
 |  |
|
want to keep a diary on iParenting?
Authoring a diary on the iParenting network allows you to chronicle your family's story, preserving it for years to come. It's also a great way to get the most out of the iParenting community. Click here to start...
|
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families. 
