Friday, May 18, 2007

Grouchy Me

Complaint of the day: this baby moves way too much. I'm beginning to doubt that it will be a quiet lump of a baby.
Off to contemplate washing my kitchen floor...

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Root of My Fear of Baby #3

It occurred to me this morning that my biggest issue with having this baby (other than the thought of being alone in a store or mall with all three kids, which I can hopefully avoid) is the fear that it A) will be really needy like the boys were and not let me put it down EVER, ruining my routine and cleaning schedule, and B) will not sleep through the night or nap properly for at least a year, like the boys did. Roanen's crying is also fresh in my mind so I'm afraid of that too, but I'm also convinced that he was just a freak of nature and that couldn't possibly happen again. But when it comes down to it, I'll be able to deal as long as it sleeps well, preferably falling asleep on its own without me in the room and without a soother (which I am still totally against for my kids, for some reason). Although I'm pretty good with waking up at night and not being totally exhausted on zero sleep, I just don't want to deal with another year of dragging myself out of bed 20 times a night and nursing around the clock until I hate nursing. I hear some people complaining about their kids not eating a lot of solids, or other minor (to me) irritations and my mind screams "BUT YOU CAN DEAL WITH THOSE THINGS BECAUSE YOUR CHILD SLEPT 12 HOURS STRAIGHT LAST NIGHT AND NAPS 5 HOURS A DAY!!!" I don't think I had the most difficult children in the world by any means, and in fact they both snapped out of their bad sleeping habits quite well (albeit after far too long in my opinion), but I think sleep problems are probably one of the hardest "normal" issues to deal with and I had two bad sleepers. I feel that I'm due for a good sleeper and will do everything in my power (except the soother, although I know that would probably work like a charm) to get this baby into good sleeping habits from the beginning, if only to save my sanity.

Genius Roanen's Vocabulary

Ok, here's the list of Roanen's words. Keep in mind that these aren't just words that he can repeat, but words he actually uses when he sees or "needs" these things:

phone outside ouch fly bug hot cookie cracker mushroom hat head happy ear eye tongue bye tractor dirty bubbles potty bum horse pasta dance peek why book please no up cat dog duck frog dishwasher (that one was a shocker) corn nuts pie beans apple oranges bread cheese banana night yes water seat wet belly button fish snow snack grampa daddy mommy Annabelle baby stuck kitty more all done bad flower bird eggs cake donuts (not that he's ever had one) bed yay socks shoes plum down ready (he loves using that one when he's playing hide and seek) penis stinky gone hand fan light off all done

He actually says most of these words pretty clearly too - not just so we can understand. I know there are a lot more too that I'm just forgetting right now, so if I'm feeling keen I'll add them in on other posts.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Kids Are Momentarily Distracted - I Can Blog!

And in the time it took to write that Roanen came back into the room and insisted that he should be "Up!"...
Anyway, I had a monthly doctor's appointment yesterday which coincided with Roanen's appointment to get his chicken pox vaccination so we didn't have to make two trips. I'm going to start by defending my decision to get the kids their varicella vaccine. I know I was originally completely against the idea of vaccinating my kids against something that seemed really harmless, but aside from the fact that Josey is a major scratcher and picker and would no doubt drive me completely insane if he got chicken pox, the doctor told me that, amongst other things, studies have shown (don't ask me how) that getting chicken pox causes IQs to go down. Not drastically, but I already feel guilty about not forcing fish oil on them every day so I don't want to be the cause of dumbing them down even more. So the shots were had and Roanen didn't even cry until I didn't comfort him well enough due to the fact that Josey peed himself and was pulling off his pants in the office.
On the pregnancy end, both the nurse and doctor quickly found the spot on my stomach that I thought was a hernia, and confirmed that it was, in fact, a hernia. Apparently it will probably go away after I deliver and is in a safe enough spot that it shouldn't strangulate so they're not going to do anything about it. I now weigh 131 lbs, which is a 5 lb weight gain from last month, and the heart rate was really fast, but within normal rates. This apparently suggests that it's a girl, as does the Chinese Lunar Calendar, but both would have also suggested that Roanen is a girl. I was vaguely contemplating finding out the sex of the baby if I was to have another ultrasound since I'm assuming it's a girl and didn't want to be too shocked if it's not. However, everyone else really wants me to find out (really badly for some reason) and I got a "What, are you stupid? Why didn't you find out?" look from my grandmother this weekend when I told her I didn't know what it was, so my stubbornness wins out. I don't really want to know anyway. I'm perfectly happy referring to it as "he" whenever I talk about it, and imagining a baby girl. I realized also that I may just want a girl for the novelty, but I feel like I would be way more comfortable and happy with a boy once the pink fun wore off. Also, I've said all along that things are going to get so crazy when the baby's born that I'm not going to wish for it to come early like I did with the boys, but pregnancy is starting to get uncomfortable and I'm already wishing it would be over with. The fact that the ultrasound techs are still insisting that I'm due on Sept. 25th (wrong wrong wrong) doesn't help since that means that I'm only at 20 weeks and a few days. That's only halfway and I don't FEEL like my belly should grown for another 15+ weeks. It's not right, and no I will not embrace my pregnant body as it is. So there ;)
I'm currently compiling a list of words that Roanen uses, since the doctor was suitably impressed at the range of his vocabulary. Apparently he should be using about 25 words at 18 months, and he's saying at least double that I think. Genius child. Once I think I have most of them I'll post again.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Delinquent Blogger

Ok, I know I've been very neglectful in my blog writing. This is due to a) I'm actually doing all my cleaning and stuff now while the kids behave first thing in the morning instead of using the computer, and b) it's been nice lately and we've been outside a lot. Here's the update on everyone:
Josey has been his usual self, and not misbehaving much more than usual. When he gets outside he doesn't get as bored and destructive, which is good. He's been helping me plant seeds in the garden and in pots, and is pretty happy when things start to sprout. He's been playing well with Roanen, except for when he decided to whack him in the head (really hard) with a metal rod several times and when he smashed into him with his big wheel while Roanen was bending over trying to pick up a basketball (which naturally caused Roanen to flip over the ball and scrape his whole forehead up). Yesterday we went to Timmy's for breakfast with Grammie and walked around Renfrew for a little while, and on the way home he started complaining and crying that his neck/throat hurt a lot. This happened on and off until we pulled up to the cottage and he complained one last time before projectile vomiting about 3 times all over himself, his carseat, and the car. He was really upset about it and saying that his stomach and legs really hurt, which I assume was a normal not-used-to-puking complaint. He was really pale and lethargic with a bit of a fever for the rest of the day, puking several more times, but perking up towards the end of the day. Miraculously he didn't throw up during the night and woke up hungry and in good spirits. It must have been a 12 hour bug and hopefully no one else gets it.
Roanen is really growing up lately. I figured he would be unable to amuse himself for a long time, having always had Josey around to entertain him and play with him, but he does really well, especially if he's outside. He loves the ride-on toys and the sandbox and will play for hours providing he's not hungry or tired. He's talking so much lately, sometimes putting 2 words together and repeating words you say to him. We got a really clear "dishwasher" out of him the other day and Russ claims that he said "hockey stick" during one of the Sens games. He also plays along when Russ and Josey play hide-and-seek after bath every night, yelling "READY!" every time someone is hiding. It's nice that he can communicate better, but he's still getting really frustrated about things, and seems to be crying a lot more. This may be due to the fact that he's had a bad cold for the last week and has been extra cranky. He still hasn't gotten any more than his 6 teeth so we can blame it on teething too :) He slept really badly while his cold was at its worst, but otherwise has been sleeping right through the night more than before (knock on wood).
Pregnancy's pretty normal, and I seem to have exploded over the last couple of weeks size-wise. There's definitely no hiding it now. The last of my non-maternity pants are starting to not fit and I'm glad that I bought a whole bunch of consignment maternity clothes at Here We Grow Again that are actually not ugly. The baby is moving a lot; I was hoping that this one would be a quiet fetus, but it seems to be moving as much, if not more, than the boys did. It also sleeps when I sleep and wakes up about 3 minutes after I do, moving around like crazy just like both boys. I'm assuming this means that it's going to be a difficult baby, and am going to do my best to make it behave so that Russ doesn't follow through on his threat to have a vasectomy if this one acts like the last two.
I fell down the bedroom-playroom stairs yesterday (which was only a matter of time considering how slippery, narrow, and handrail-less they are) and am really sore today, especially my butt and elbow where I landed. Baby is still moving like crazy, so I guess they really are well cushioned in there.
The only other thing to note is that I'm going to be asking the doctor at my appointment next week to check my stomach to see if I have a hernia. There's a spot near my belly button that is usually a little tender to touch, and I've noticed at my ultrasounds or when I'm poking at it, that it's strangely squishy. I've been describing it kind of as if you have a small balloon and you're holding it around the middle with two fingers, then you squish one side so it deflates and the other side gets bigger. It's actually a really gross feeling, so I don't do to much self-examination of it, but when I got it in my head that it could be a hernia I figured I should probably find out for sure before I strangulate it in labour...
Oh, and finally, despite people believing otherwise, I don't actually know the sex of the baby. I have a feeling it's a girl, which is why I'm allowing pink things to remain in my house and am drawn to them in stores, but I don't know for sure. Lately I've been feeling like I'm setting myself up for a huge disappointment if it's a boy, but don't really want to find out for sure and be disappointed ahead of time. At least if it's a boy when it comes out he'll already be there to love so the disappointment will wear off quickly :) And I thought I'd never want a girl.
That's about it, and I promise to try to keep updating regularly. I guess the novelty of noticing every little thing about a pregnancy wears off a few children into it. I even really have to think about it to remember how far along I am. Ok, and upon thinking hard about it I realize that I still don't know and should probably check a calendar. Good Mom!