It's time!
Date, gender, weight (baby's, not mine)...
A recap - my boys were both one week overdue, and Meaghan was 2 full weeks overbaked.
My due date this time is anywhere from May 3rd to May 10th, depending on who you ask.
My babies are all on the larger side of average... Joshua was 8 lbs 15 oz, Dustin was 8 lbs 13 oz, and Meaghan was 8 lbs 8 oz.
Some of you have already posted on facebook, which is great! If you want to post here instead, though (if you haven't already hazarded a guess!), feel free - I love watching names and guesses get crossed off the list!! Bwah ha ha!!
For the record, Joshua "won" last time. :)
My official guess is: May 11th (I have a sense that this baby will share birthday with Meaghan), boy, 8 lbs 14 oz.
Don't worry if you choose the same date as someone else... 'cuz then it'll come down to the gender... and if that's a match, too, then it'll come down to the closest weight!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Recently...
Sometimes, all I can manage are fleeting thoughts and updates. To sit and write a whole focussed post seems too overwhelming for me, so for now, "what you see is what you get".
Emotions
Today was a hard day. I am in a "pregnancy fog" many mornings, which usually lifts after 2 or 3 hours of being awake. I finally feel human around 10 or so in the morning. Yesterday, I had an awesome day - felt like the fog was lifting earlier, and I accomplished a lot. Today, the fog stayed all day long. It was hard to focus, tough to stay motivated, impossible to stay on task. By the end of the day I was discouraged and beaten down. Tears flowed freely when my dear hubby came home and asked a simple "how are you?"
Update on Joshua
Joshua is doing much better. We are SO thankful that it ended up being something so simple. What was it, you ask? Strep A. That's it. The throat swab took forever to come back, but there it was. The crazy thing is how it presented - never once did he have any trouble swallowing (I kept asking!), no inflammation in his throat, no white spots, no swelling in his throat itself. The swelling in his neck stayed for days, as did the pain. The fever abated about a week ago, within about 24 hours of starting antibiotics.
Because of the really high white blood count, the doctor finally admitted to us last Friday that he thought at one point that we were dealing with leukemia. Yeh, it had crossed a few minds in the previous days. Joshua is still not completely out of the woods with his infection, but he is doing much better. He still has swollen glands, but not a football-player neck.
We know it could have been so much worse. The single week of waiting for test results, dealing with pain and other inexplicable symptoms, seemed to be a lot to bear at one point. I allowed myself a few tears of release - not of self-pity or anything, just *release* - and reminded myself that some people wait for months and months and months in a state of uncertainty. We were blessed to find out within a week. I pray it could be so simple for others.
Our newest addition
Graeme got up at some insane hour of the night last night to try and buy the new iPad 2 online. He was successful. However, it was going to take 3-5 weeks for shipping. He had banked some time at work, so he got off early today and opted to stand in line at Future Shop in the city. He was 20th in line. Not bad. The guy in front of him had a buddy in the store management who'd told him that the store had 75 units in stock. Once they started handing out "tickets" to the people in line, Graeme ended up getting the very last ticket for the black 32 gig wi-fi unit. Then, this guy's store buddy scored them some accessories without Graeme and the other guy having to get out of line. Funny. Graeme had a lot of fun, but he is now the proud owner of Paddy, a little friend he didn't have to pay for (he had a gift card from Christmas as a staff bonus, combined with a technology fund from work). I'm most thankful for that last part about us not having to shell out for it!
Beautiful moments
Meaghan likes to snuggle me after her night-time milk. Then she likes to sit on my lap, straddled, facing me, and lay her head on the top of my ever-expanding belly. Tonight, she then sat up and put her hands gently on my tummy. I put my hands over top of hers and pressed them in a bit so that she'd actually feel something should the baby actually reward her with a kick, as s/he had been sleeping for a while. Within mere moments, Meaghan was booted with the most massive kick of the day! Her face absolutely LIT up - she was so excited, and then kept insisting on feeling more. However, several minutes had passed and Wooton had gone back to sleep. (I'm thinking Wooton had more of a "sleep-jerk" than anything.) I told Meaghan we'd try again tomorrow. She was beside herself with joy at having felt the baby kick... so sweet... moments to treasure forever.
Stinky moments
Meaghan is very aware of her bodily functions. She has been finally somewhat successful at knowing when she's about to do a stinky duty - giving me all of about 2 seconds to respond and "RUN!" her to the toilet. By tonight, she still hadn't done the deed for the day (but the smell of the air coming out of her back end told me enough), so I put her on the potty and had Joshua read to her as she sat half-naked, and a few minutes later she was "all done", having produced nothing. She toddled naked into the boys' room to find me, and just as she found me, we all heard her say, "Poop!"... and Joshua almost threw up - he was gagging and saying, "Oh! She's POOPING!!!" - yup, right there, right in the middle of their floor, not 20 seconds after getting up off the potty. At least it was a quick "firm" pick-up. We had to deodorize their room to make them happy. No kidding! Poor girlie. At least I can say I haven't had to change any poopy diapers today...?
That's all I've got for today. It's late, Graeme is still out showing off his new addition to one of our friends, and I'm all done in... so I'm going to turn in. The kitchen can wait till tomorrow. Maybe I'll at least load and run the dishwasher...
Emotions
Today was a hard day. I am in a "pregnancy fog" many mornings, which usually lifts after 2 or 3 hours of being awake. I finally feel human around 10 or so in the morning. Yesterday, I had an awesome day - felt like the fog was lifting earlier, and I accomplished a lot. Today, the fog stayed all day long. It was hard to focus, tough to stay motivated, impossible to stay on task. By the end of the day I was discouraged and beaten down. Tears flowed freely when my dear hubby came home and asked a simple "how are you?"
Update on Joshua
Joshua is doing much better. We are SO thankful that it ended up being something so simple. What was it, you ask? Strep A. That's it. The throat swab took forever to come back, but there it was. The crazy thing is how it presented - never once did he have any trouble swallowing (I kept asking!), no inflammation in his throat, no white spots, no swelling in his throat itself. The swelling in his neck stayed for days, as did the pain. The fever abated about a week ago, within about 24 hours of starting antibiotics.
Because of the really high white blood count, the doctor finally admitted to us last Friday that he thought at one point that we were dealing with leukemia. Yeh, it had crossed a few minds in the previous days. Joshua is still not completely out of the woods with his infection, but he is doing much better. He still has swollen glands, but not a football-player neck.
We know it could have been so much worse. The single week of waiting for test results, dealing with pain and other inexplicable symptoms, seemed to be a lot to bear at one point. I allowed myself a few tears of release - not of self-pity or anything, just *release* - and reminded myself that some people wait for months and months and months in a state of uncertainty. We were blessed to find out within a week. I pray it could be so simple for others.
Our newest addition
Graeme got up at some insane hour of the night last night to try and buy the new iPad 2 online. He was successful. However, it was going to take 3-5 weeks for shipping. He had banked some time at work, so he got off early today and opted to stand in line at Future Shop in the city. He was 20th in line. Not bad. The guy in front of him had a buddy in the store management who'd told him that the store had 75 units in stock. Once they started handing out "tickets" to the people in line, Graeme ended up getting the very last ticket for the black 32 gig wi-fi unit. Then, this guy's store buddy scored them some accessories without Graeme and the other guy having to get out of line. Funny. Graeme had a lot of fun, but he is now the proud owner of Paddy, a little friend he didn't have to pay for (he had a gift card from Christmas as a staff bonus, combined with a technology fund from work). I'm most thankful for that last part about us not having to shell out for it!
Beautiful moments
Meaghan likes to snuggle me after her night-time milk. Then she likes to sit on my lap, straddled, facing me, and lay her head on the top of my ever-expanding belly. Tonight, she then sat up and put her hands gently on my tummy. I put my hands over top of hers and pressed them in a bit so that she'd actually feel something should the baby actually reward her with a kick, as s/he had been sleeping for a while. Within mere moments, Meaghan was booted with the most massive kick of the day! Her face absolutely LIT up - she was so excited, and then kept insisting on feeling more. However, several minutes had passed and Wooton had gone back to sleep. (I'm thinking Wooton had more of a "sleep-jerk" than anything.) I told Meaghan we'd try again tomorrow. She was beside herself with joy at having felt the baby kick... so sweet... moments to treasure forever.
Stinky moments
Meaghan is very aware of her bodily functions. She has been finally somewhat successful at knowing when she's about to do a stinky duty - giving me all of about 2 seconds to respond and "RUN!" her to the toilet. By tonight, she still hadn't done the deed for the day (but the smell of the air coming out of her back end told me enough), so I put her on the potty and had Joshua read to her as she sat half-naked, and a few minutes later she was "all done", having produced nothing. She toddled naked into the boys' room to find me, and just as she found me, we all heard her say, "Poop!"... and Joshua almost threw up - he was gagging and saying, "Oh! She's POOPING!!!" - yup, right there, right in the middle of their floor, not 20 seconds after getting up off the potty. At least it was a quick "firm" pick-up. We had to deodorize their room to make them happy. No kidding! Poor girlie. At least I can say I haven't had to change any poopy diapers today...?
That's all I've got for today. It's late, Graeme is still out showing off his new addition to one of our friends, and I'm all done in... so I'm going to turn in. The kitchen can wait till tomorrow. Maybe I'll at least load and run the dishwasher...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Mystery
These past few days have been spent wondering and waiting, running around and prodding.
My Joshua is sick.
...and we don't know why.
It started with him complaining of neck pain in gym class a week or so ago, but we (as in, his teacher and I) dismissed it as...what?... maybe a bit of attention-getting? He had no other symptoms, and seemed to be able to play otherwise just fine.
He also was fevering a bit here and there, but it wasn't consistent. I attributed this to his "teething" his 6-year molars.
Monday morning - it became *very* apparent that this was not a teething thing, or an attention-getting ploy. His neck was so swollen that he looked like a football player, and he was in so much pain that he couldn't raise his head off his pillow without assistance; he also had a fever again. I kept him home from school and called the doctor.
I called that "Medical Monday". I had a routine appointment for Meaghan, and then was to head straight to our family doctor's office. What I expected was, "It's viral, go home and wait it out," or perhaps, "Yup, he's sick, here's some antibiotics." Instead, after a thorough examination, what I got was, "This is strange, let's send him for some blood work and a chest x-ray." Over three hours since Meaghan's appointment had passed, we finally were on our way home.
Tuesday, some of the bloodwork came back. There were several things that were unusually "high", including, of course, his white blood cell count. Some other inflammatory indicators were also pretty high. The doctor called me while I was at my midwife appointment and wanted me to come in right away again. So after I got home and Dustin woke up from his nap, I dropped the littlest kids off at Gramma's house and took Joshua back to the doctor.
He looked at Joshua and breathed a sigh of relief; he (J) was much perkier and didn't look as much like death warmed over as he did the day before. The doctor actually said to me, "If he didn't look this good today, and judging by his test results, I would've thought something sinister was going on with the little fella." However, because Joshua looked a little healthier, we decided to wait it out another day - do a throat swab and wait for one more blood test result to come back.
After getting my doctor's blessing to send Joshua to school today (J is not coughing or spewing or dripping anything, and was bored out of his tree yesterday), we decided this morning that indeed Joshua felt well enough to go to school, as he wasn't in pain and hadn't fevered recently, and the swelling had subsided somewhat. His teacher called me at 10:45 and told me he wasn't doing very well... I was back at the school by 11:30 to pick him up. He wasn't feeling really ill, but was just in a lot of pain. Now, Joshua is NOT one to complain about physical ailments. The kids needs a fever of 102 before he even thinks to mention that he's feeling unwell. So, this is definitely out of the ordinary.
Enter a 3 1/2 hour nap today, a post-nap low-grade fever, and more neck swelling (it had gone down overnight last night so that it wasn't really all that noticeable).
Then, another call from the doctor - the mono test came back negative. He was ready to let everything go and run it's course, but when he heard how much Joshua had slept and that he was fevering again, and that his neck was swollen again, he ordered another round of bloodwork for comparison's sake. Whatever Joshua is fighting is not going away on its own. So we were back at the lab tonight after supper. Poor kiddo. He was more worried about how to pee in a cup than with the needle poke, though - he originally thought that people would be watching him pee, and was embarrassed by that possibility.
I love that kid.
But I am at peace. God is in control; he knows everything about Joshua's body. I know there are a huge multitude of things it *could* be - ranging from a simple stubborn virus to something unimaginable. I am truly not freaking out over "what could be", but rather learning how to manage the extra load of appointments and tasks (and not getting my regular work done). Guess what...? The work can wait. My little guy needs me. I think, though, that this is taking more out of me than I am giving it credit for - I am exhausted to the core. Not knowing what this is, is probably the hardest. I pray that it's something super-simple, but its diagnosis is eluding us all. I just want to know what we're dealing with, so that I can deal with it more effectively.
That being said, the house is quiet now. I have a little pile of bills and mail to go through, but "it can wait". My kids need me to be rested and healthy right now, including this little one inside me.
Joshua and I played a game in the car on the way home tonight, and I think it will become a standard game in our vehicles...I call it the "I love you because" game. He started it; "Mommy, I love you because you're funny." "Joshua, I love you because you're thoughtful." "Mommy, I love you because you're kind and sweet." "Joshua, I love you because you're a good big brother." ...and on it went. My favorite of his, though, had to be, "Mommy, I love you because you can sprout babies."
What a kid. Have I mentioned how much I love him?
My Joshua is sick.
...and we don't know why.
It started with him complaining of neck pain in gym class a week or so ago, but we (as in, his teacher and I) dismissed it as...what?... maybe a bit of attention-getting? He had no other symptoms, and seemed to be able to play otherwise just fine.
He also was fevering a bit here and there, but it wasn't consistent. I attributed this to his "teething" his 6-year molars.
Monday morning - it became *very* apparent that this was not a teething thing, or an attention-getting ploy. His neck was so swollen that he looked like a football player, and he was in so much pain that he couldn't raise his head off his pillow without assistance; he also had a fever again. I kept him home from school and called the doctor.
I called that "Medical Monday". I had a routine appointment for Meaghan, and then was to head straight to our family doctor's office. What I expected was, "It's viral, go home and wait it out," or perhaps, "Yup, he's sick, here's some antibiotics." Instead, after a thorough examination, what I got was, "This is strange, let's send him for some blood work and a chest x-ray." Over three hours since Meaghan's appointment had passed, we finally were on our way home.
Tuesday, some of the bloodwork came back. There were several things that were unusually "high", including, of course, his white blood cell count. Some other inflammatory indicators were also pretty high. The doctor called me while I was at my midwife appointment and wanted me to come in right away again. So after I got home and Dustin woke up from his nap, I dropped the littlest kids off at Gramma's house and took Joshua back to the doctor.
He looked at Joshua and breathed a sigh of relief; he (J) was much perkier and didn't look as much like death warmed over as he did the day before. The doctor actually said to me, "If he didn't look this good today, and judging by his test results, I would've thought something sinister was going on with the little fella." However, because Joshua looked a little healthier, we decided to wait it out another day - do a throat swab and wait for one more blood test result to come back.
After getting my doctor's blessing to send Joshua to school today (J is not coughing or spewing or dripping anything, and was bored out of his tree yesterday), we decided this morning that indeed Joshua felt well enough to go to school, as he wasn't in pain and hadn't fevered recently, and the swelling had subsided somewhat. His teacher called me at 10:45 and told me he wasn't doing very well... I was back at the school by 11:30 to pick him up. He wasn't feeling really ill, but was just in a lot of pain. Now, Joshua is NOT one to complain about physical ailments. The kids needs a fever of 102 before he even thinks to mention that he's feeling unwell. So, this is definitely out of the ordinary.
Enter a 3 1/2 hour nap today, a post-nap low-grade fever, and more neck swelling (it had gone down overnight last night so that it wasn't really all that noticeable).
Then, another call from the doctor - the mono test came back negative. He was ready to let everything go and run it's course, but when he heard how much Joshua had slept and that he was fevering again, and that his neck was swollen again, he ordered another round of bloodwork for comparison's sake. Whatever Joshua is fighting is not going away on its own. So we were back at the lab tonight after supper. Poor kiddo. He was more worried about how to pee in a cup than with the needle poke, though - he originally thought that people would be watching him pee, and was embarrassed by that possibility.
I love that kid.
But I am at peace. God is in control; he knows everything about Joshua's body. I know there are a huge multitude of things it *could* be - ranging from a simple stubborn virus to something unimaginable. I am truly not freaking out over "what could be", but rather learning how to manage the extra load of appointments and tasks (and not getting my regular work done). Guess what...? The work can wait. My little guy needs me. I think, though, that this is taking more out of me than I am giving it credit for - I am exhausted to the core. Not knowing what this is, is probably the hardest. I pray that it's something super-simple, but its diagnosis is eluding us all. I just want to know what we're dealing with, so that I can deal with it more effectively.
That being said, the house is quiet now. I have a little pile of bills and mail to go through, but "it can wait". My kids need me to be rested and healthy right now, including this little one inside me.
Joshua and I played a game in the car on the way home tonight, and I think it will become a standard game in our vehicles...I call it the "I love you because" game. He started it; "Mommy, I love you because you're funny." "Joshua, I love you because you're thoughtful." "Mommy, I love you because you're kind and sweet." "Joshua, I love you because you're a good big brother." ...and on it went. My favorite of his, though, had to be, "Mommy, I love you because you can sprout babies."
What a kid. Have I mentioned how much I love him?
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Countdown
I honestly don't even know how to count this one down.
The pregnancy, that is.
I have about 4 or 5 "due dates"...
May 3rd being the "calendar" date, to 40 weeks.
May 5th being the ultrasound date.
May 7th being "my" date.
May 10th being the midwives' "guess date".
Meaghan was 2 weeks overdue, so if this baby also goes 2 weeks past my latest projected due date, well, we could be having a baby as late as May 24th.
So how do I count this down?
Not sure I can.
Theoretically, I *should* have a baby in less than 2 months. Thankfully God has the perfect date picked out already. All I need to do is wait. I should be good at that by now, right?
The pregnancy, that is.
I have about 4 or 5 "due dates"...
May 3rd being the "calendar" date, to 40 weeks.
May 5th being the ultrasound date.
May 7th being "my" date.
May 10th being the midwives' "guess date".
Meaghan was 2 weeks overdue, so if this baby also goes 2 weeks past my latest projected due date, well, we could be having a baby as late as May 24th.
So how do I count this down?
Not sure I can.
Theoretically, I *should* have a baby in less than 2 months. Thankfully God has the perfect date picked out already. All I need to do is wait. I should be good at that by now, right?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Office Time
Does anyone else have a "catch-all" room in their home?
For us, it's the office. Almost always has been.
Company coming over? Toss everything into a Superstore bin and toss it in the office.
Moving? Take all the "leftovers to deal with later" and throw it into a box with a lid, into the office it goes.
Toys need repairing? Clothes need mending? Books need taping? Batteries need changing? You guessed it - into the office.
I'm putting my foot down (again). The last couple of days have seen me spend countless minutes and hours in here - filing, sorting, fixing, changing, dispersing. A lot of tossing, too.
My "office" is about 8' x 9 1/2'. Not a lot of room... except that when you toss things on top of the counters/tabletops we've built, and underneath as well, it means that there's a LOT of stuff piled in here.
No. More. Junk.
I'm not all the way there yet, but I'm getting close. I'm about 90% of the way to the finish line. It's a marathon that I never wanted to have to run, as I've "put my foot down" before. (Right, Karen?)
I'm very judicious in how I deal with things. Haven't looked at it or used it or missed it in 6 months? Recycle or garbage. Not repairable? Garbage.
Anyway... here's the best part. After school today, I asked Joshua if he could finish his piano theory homework before supper. Since I was in the office at the time, he asked if he could also work in here. I said, "Sure, pull up a chair!"
His response, once he *finally* looked around?
"Wow, Mommy, you REALLY cleaned up in here!"
Yes, son, I did... and if anyone tosses any more JUNK in here, I'll have his head... (but I didn't really tell him that...)
Once it's all done, I'm going to take a picture and hang it on my cabinet door, to remind myself of the potential of this little space. Somebody please tell me that office organization is sustainable? My sanity depends on it!
For us, it's the office. Almost always has been.
Company coming over? Toss everything into a Superstore bin and toss it in the office.
Moving? Take all the "leftovers to deal with later" and throw it into a box with a lid, into the office it goes.
Toys need repairing? Clothes need mending? Books need taping? Batteries need changing? You guessed it - into the office.
I'm putting my foot down (again). The last couple of days have seen me spend countless minutes and hours in here - filing, sorting, fixing, changing, dispersing. A lot of tossing, too.
My "office" is about 8' x 9 1/2'. Not a lot of room... except that when you toss things on top of the counters/tabletops we've built, and underneath as well, it means that there's a LOT of stuff piled in here.
No. More. Junk.
I'm not all the way there yet, but I'm getting close. I'm about 90% of the way to the finish line. It's a marathon that I never wanted to have to run, as I've "put my foot down" before. (Right, Karen?)
I'm very judicious in how I deal with things. Haven't looked at it or used it or missed it in 6 months? Recycle or garbage. Not repairable? Garbage.
Anyway... here's the best part. After school today, I asked Joshua if he could finish his piano theory homework before supper. Since I was in the office at the time, he asked if he could also work in here. I said, "Sure, pull up a chair!"
His response, once he *finally* looked around?
"Wow, Mommy, you REALLY cleaned up in here!"
Yes, son, I did... and if anyone tosses any more JUNK in here, I'll have his head... (but I didn't really tell him that...)
Once it's all done, I'm going to take a picture and hang it on my cabinet door, to remind myself of the potential of this little space. Somebody please tell me that office organization is sustainable? My sanity depends on it!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Emotional
I feel fragile.
I had an incredibly productive day yesterday, having gone to bed satisfied with my efforts and the results.
This morning started off fine also - I knew we would be out both before lunch (for church) and before supper (small group), and so I was efficient at getting two meals into crock pots so that we could come home and eat straightaway.
The kids were happy enough, and today's church service was *really good*.
But I was emotional, fragile, and a wreck much of the day.
Could be the constant contractions (to the tune of 2-5 per hour... two of those can be accounted for by the fact that I have a contraction every.single.time.i.pee. Not kidding.) It was like this with Meaghan, too, in the last 2-3 months.
Could be the sleep... though I am sleeping better now that the kiddoes are finally a bit healthier. Maybe 8 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep (aside from peeing and consequent contractions) still isn't enough?
Could be that I'm feeling a little more cumbersome these days, and everything that falls to the floor is starting to stay there. My ribs are starting to split again (at the sternum) to make more room for Baby. I'm thankful that it's taken this long to become painful; with the first two, it started around 5 months; with Meaghan around 6 months. Makes sleeping very uncomfortable.
And I still have 8-11 weeks left?
I am trying to count my blessings... happy kids, health has returned and I avoided falling ill (somehow!!!), Baby's crib is read for him/her, housework is mostly under control, an amazing small group with solid friends who are all also struggling in different areas of life but who are also very supportive of each other and willing to pray for each other, and good friends for my kids.
With these thoughts, and praise to a God who loves me in spite of myself and cares about my trivialities, I am going to bed a little earlier than normal.
I had an incredibly productive day yesterday, having gone to bed satisfied with my efforts and the results.
This morning started off fine also - I knew we would be out both before lunch (for church) and before supper (small group), and so I was efficient at getting two meals into crock pots so that we could come home and eat straightaway.
The kids were happy enough, and today's church service was *really good*.
But I was emotional, fragile, and a wreck much of the day.
Could be the constant contractions (to the tune of 2-5 per hour... two of those can be accounted for by the fact that I have a contraction every.single.time.i.pee. Not kidding.) It was like this with Meaghan, too, in the last 2-3 months.
Could be the sleep... though I am sleeping better now that the kiddoes are finally a bit healthier. Maybe 8 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep (aside from peeing and consequent contractions) still isn't enough?
Could be that I'm feeling a little more cumbersome these days, and everything that falls to the floor is starting to stay there. My ribs are starting to split again (at the sternum) to make more room for Baby. I'm thankful that it's taken this long to become painful; with the first two, it started around 5 months; with Meaghan around 6 months. Makes sleeping very uncomfortable.
And I still have 8-11 weeks left?
I am trying to count my blessings... happy kids, health has returned and I avoided falling ill (somehow!!!), Baby's crib is read for him/her, housework is mostly under control, an amazing small group with solid friends who are all also struggling in different areas of life but who are also very supportive of each other and willing to pray for each other, and good friends for my kids.
With these thoughts, and praise to a God who loves me in spite of myself and cares about my trivialities, I am going to bed a little earlier than normal.
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