week 13

here are the events from week 12-13 in ian's life (april 14-21).

this week has pretty much been a lot of the same from last week. still working on new introductions into ian's life. we're still working with getting him to sleep in the crib- he's taking pretty much every nap in the crib now! we'll be in there full time before we know it! this is pretty darn sad- he won't be right next to me anymore- also, when he fusses for his pacifier at 5 AM, we now have to leave the room!

ian is still doing well with tummy time- sometimes he's interesting in pushing himself up, and sometimes he just likes to do nothing! he also looks like he's trying to roll himself over sometimes- but i still think it's going to be little longer.

we're also still using the bumbo- not too much progress yet.

friday, ian and i took a trip to old navy for stuff and save. we were with the first 50 in line- so we got 50% off! i got some really cute stuff for ian (and for me too, duh) to wear later this summer- i can't wait! old navy definitely doesn't have the greatest stuff, but for 50% off, i think i can make it work! plus, if it tears up after a few washes, i'm not out a lot of cash!

saturday, we went to chuck's house for dave to start beer making. i got him a beer making kit for valentine's day 2008, and he finally got around to using it! ian wasn't too interested in the beer making process, he just wanted to sleep and eat!

ian has been pretty fussy this week, so i've been very frustrated. it seems everything i do causes him to cry- putting him in his crib, his swing, the car seat, etc. and now instead of sleeping in the car seat, he prefers to just cry for an entire 30 minute trip, and then as soon as we get to where we're going stop. i think he just wants me to look like a fool... oh, i hope this is a phase.

we went to the pediatrician on monday. ian is 11 lbs, 8 oz and 24". still in the 25th% for weight, but she didn't tell me about height. we got a rx for a stronger ointment for ian's eczema- everything he touched was breaking him out this week. after laying on the wax paper in the office his entire back broke out! the pediatrician didn't seem worried, which made me a little frustrated, but i'm starting to learn that this seems to be what doctors do... the doctor says we will start cereal next month, but i've heard a lot of conflicting views. my lactation consultant says i should wait because of the eczema... oh, what to do!?

i will again have to post pictures later because husband's computer has all our photos on it, and it refuses to connect to the internet...

week 9

here is the rundown on the events that happened during week 8-9 in baby's life!

the week started out on st. patty's day. after much searching, i found a really cute outfit for ian, but he had pooped in it before i was able to get pictures. luckily, i wash baby clothes all week long, so we pretended it was st. patty's day again on thursday night! we also had baby massage class that day- and ian decided to sleep through the entire class, so i had to massage a doll instead. he's really missing out!

thursday, the ncaa tourney started. husband and i are in a pool that his friend chris runs every year, and then i am in a separate pool that my brother's friend chase runs. seeing that i picked kansas, i lost my winner on saturday (not good). although dave is in position to easily win the pool we're in together- and although it hurts my pride to lose, i'll take money in any form! hopefully this weekend we'll continue to have wins!

it was pretty warm most of this week, so we were able to take several walks outside. we went 3 times, twice in the stroller, and once in the backpack. ian usually conks out during these walks, plus it's a good workout for lazy mommy...

of course, all this delicious warmness came with a price. saturday was the first day of spring, and you would know that it would snow all day long. we also celebrated the 4th birthday of our nephew, christian. it was also a celebration for ian though- he turned 2 months old on saturday! can you believe it? because i most certainly can't! it's so hard to believe it's already been 2 wonderful, crazy months!

ian has continued to sleep well through the night, and he has improved some with his naps. sometimes he takes a 2 hour nap, and sometimes it's 30 minutes. we're still sort of doing the 4 s's. this was going well until ian decided he didn't want to be swaddled anymore. period. i had been trying to decide how long i wanted to swaddle him, and i figured at least until he was 3 months. he is still wild with his arms, and the swaddle helps control him. he started getting really fussy when we would swaddle him because he couldn't move his arms, so i'd leave one arm out, and he was doing fine. a few days later though, that didn't even satisfy him, so we left both arms out... that didn't work either. we took him out of the swaddle, transferred him to his sleep sack, and boom, he was asleep immediately. so, swaddle time is over, although i think he really needs it, but he's obviously not going to sleep anymore with it on.

monday was ian's 2 month check up. we got him up that morning to notice he had used his face like a cat uses a scratching post. his skin has been dry since he was born, but the dr. didn't seem too concerned. this time it was different- ian has eczema. it went from being dry every now and then to totally patchy- which is probably why he's clawing his face up. we've started a treatment with aquaphor all over his body, and we have him wearing little mittens at night (this is why i think he still needs the swaddle). the mittens have helped with fingernail scratches, but they contribute to another ian habit which is rubbing his eyes when he's tired. instead of just falling asleep ian likes to rub his eyes for 10 or 15 minutes until he can't stand to have them open anymore. this doesn't help when you have mittens on because it's 10-15 minutes of fabric rubbing against his face. he gets so red. we may be looking into the woombie.

ian's check up went very well. he's 10 lbs, 5 oz (25th percentile) and 23 3/4 in (75th-90th percentile)!! if he's going to be tall, he certainly didn't get it from his mom or dad... he also had vaccinations. i didn't think i would cry, but i was wrong. he had 5 total vaccines which were combined into an oral medication and 3 shots. poor baby. he turned 100 shades of red and then let out the most heart-breaking cry ever. afterward, he slept pretty much the rest of the day except for feedings, and was a little fussy, but overall, i'd say things went pretty well.

now, my favorite part... pictures! we took WAY too many pictures this week, and i just can't pick a few. my kid is so darn cute!!

it was school spirit week in our house. perhaps in honor of the tourney. here's an homage to daddy's team- they're actually good enough to make the tournament

best. picture. ever. i will laugh until i cry every time i see this!

wearing mommy's team colors. he's clearly cuter in red!

here's proof of how much he's grown if you compare this to bath pictures from a few weeks ago!

my sweet little boy!

happy st. patrick's day!

walking with mommy!

2 months

2 months... again!

hanging out with my cousin, annie!

here's what happens when i don't have my mittens on!

in bed with my sleep sack and my mittens

snoozing, per usual

last 4 week appointment

Today was the last of my 4 week appointments, and boy was it a doozy. It was also my glucose screening, so I was kind of dreading that because of all the horror stories I had heard.

I was told to eat 1-2 hours before my appointment. My appointment was at 10, so I dragged myself out of bed around 8:45 and tried to see what I could make for breakfast that didn't have sugar in it. I had woken up around 6 to use the bathroom, and ever since then all i could think about were sweets. I wanted cereal, a banana, strawberries and a pumpkin spice latte for breakfast- it was all I could think about. I decided to go with the recommendation from the nurse at my last appointment-eggs. I scrambled 2 eggs with some cheese and pepper and poured myself some milk. When I was drinking the milk, I was shocked to find it had sugar listed in the nutritional facts. Hopefully I'm safe. I arrived at the office, and per usual had to pee in a cup. I had already gone twice that morning, but managed to go again. After that, I was given my Glucola. I got the fruit punch flavor, was told I had 5 minutes to finish it, so off I went. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected, and I finished it pretty easily. I had to stay in the office an hour to have my blood drawn, and I waited to see Dr. Uma as well.

We finally got back to see Dr. Uma. ::sidebar:: There, Dave & I had a spirited discussion about our house. Most of this stems from my inability to let this house go- which I don't know if I can do. Our house was up for rent from February-September, and has now been on the market for a few weeks. We have it listed for $80,000- a huge loss for us- today our agent emailed Dave & suggested we drop the price to $40,000. It just floors me that we are reduced to doing this. A of all- we own our house- we are not in forclosure (yet), B of all- our house is in immaculate condition. We need a quick solution for this, and for once in 2009, perhaps for the Lord to show us a little mercy. Between the house and our insurance woes i'm near the end of my rope.

Back to Dr. Uma- We asked her about our shots- Flu and H1N1 are both recommended. She wrote a note for me for my flu shot, which I'll be receiving from GE on November 5. Don't know anything about availability of the Swine. Then she spoke to me about my recent back pains. Pretty much I'm in pain from the moment my feet hit the floor unless I'm lying down or sitting with my back against something. I had to call out of work yesterday because it had gotten so bad. She asked me about where the pain was, and was shocked to hear how far UP my back it was. She poked around and ruled out kidney infection by my not punching her in the face. She told me I'd need to take ANOTHER urine test to check for kidney stones. If that were to come up negative, I would be sent for physical therapy. Luckily, the urine test was clean, so physical therapy it is. I called and they were able to get me in for tomorrow morning, luckily. I have today & tomorrow off work, so it will be a relief to get some answers before I work again.

Lastly, we asked her about our insurance issue and what she would think about delivering our little guy in 2009. She saw that I would be at 37 weeks, but still 20 days early would give her some worry. I am measuring right at where I'm supposed to be, so we're not "ahead" of schedule. She wanted to talk to Dr. Duval- who did my ultrasound- and is also a perinatologist. She says he could just say "yes" or he may want to see me again. I would more than likely have to have an amniocentisis a couple days before the induction to check for lung maturity. Usually the baby's lungs are fully mature at 37 weeks, but there's a 1-2% chance that they would not be. Amnio isn't an appealing aspect to me, but from what I've read so far, it's WAY safer at 37 weeks then it is at 20 weeks or sooner when checking for abnormalities. So right now we're just waiting to hear from Dr. Duval. We'll see...

On a final note. I've gained 10 lbs since my last appointment on September 21st. Good grief. This puts me right around 23 lbs with 10-13 weeks to go! AHH!! Dr. Uma told me I needed to cut down on candy, juice and replace carbs with proteins. She obviously doesn't know my cravings! I'm going to try to be good. Lots more water and lots less candy! We'll see. Hopefully when I have my next appointment in 2 weeks things will look a little better. I'm just hoping my weight was the Glucola talking.

Today is the last day of my 2nd Trimester~ Unbelievable!

no signs of relief

morning sickness is apparently never going to way. at least it seems that way to me. it's endless. at first I thought it would be gone by week 12- the end of the first trimester, nope. then a lot of people said they felt better by week 14- not me. then my Dr. said I should be feeling better by week 16- wrong. Although i haven't been physically ill in about a week, the nausea is awful still. I haven't felt well since waking up this morning, and my pill obviously hasn't had time to take affect. Here I have to be at work in about 90 minutes, and I feel like death. I had a similar problem at work on Saturday, where I worked only a short shift, but the last 2 hours were absolute torture.

morning sickness makes no sense. sometimes i have days, even a week where i've felt wonderful, but there are other times where every day seems to be a struggle. i am on my last refill of my 2nd prescription of zofran, 9 pills left, and I go back to the Dr. on Monday. Here i'm hoping that Dr. Uma will have some insight to why I still feel like death at nearly 5 months in!

In more delightful news we have only 2 weeks until we find out what flavor baby we are having. See poll to share your thoughts.

In even worse news we hit a roadblock with our house. Even though we filled out all necessary paperwork for the AHA on July 23, that our real estate agent says he dropped off, the city of Atlanta hasn't seen this paperwork and therefore we are not in the process of having our house approved. Here we thought that our tennant would be moving in during the next 2 weeks, and we now have to start all over. She has to go pick up her voucher all over again, which has to be filled out again, which has to be dropped off again, which has a waiting period of 35 days again, then a home inspection. It's a mess. So maybe by the end of September we will have someone living in our home. One can only hope.

names, insurance, and other nonsense

my sister in law's results were confirmed: it's a girl! the first girl grandchild. although, i was hoping it would be me, I digress...

with finding out the sex of your baby, (and even when you don't) you must pick names. i just recently bought 100,001 baby names, or as it should be called 99,999 stupid baby names. I guess I shouldn't say stupid just b\c i'm not going to name my baby some Scandanavian name, but I am having a really hard time with names. I used to have all these names picked out that I loved, but now I am older, and some of those names could be catagorized with "Apple Martin" rather than being a good baby name. Anything I seem to pick out, Dave hates. Dave also is dead set that we're having a boy, and therefore has vetoed every girls name I have suggested to him; even going so far as to refer to our child as the boy name that he has picked out. The one I told him was "ok" and that hasn't been set in stone yet... So as the field of names that I like (i'm in "J" in the baby book and have selected maybe 5 names) is getting smaller and smaller, I'm trying to figure out what to do. I have ridiculously made a list of everyone I know who is expecting since we have found out we were expecting. From that list I have tried to list whether they are having a boy or girl, and from there what name they have picked out if they have made it public. My list is at 30 people. THIRTY. So far, 4 have given birth. Also, so far, only 7 are having girls, 1 isn't finding out the sex and 10 aren't far enough along yet to know. Also, in more craziness: only 5 of these people are due after me. This presents my problem. People are so weird about baby names. Some people don't tell (i have considered this), but most people don't want you using their name. This means I've got to wait out 25 people worth of baby names and pray to God above that none of these people use my names. Because I'm telling you now, once I pick out a name that I like, and husband agrees on, nothing is changing my mind. NOTHING.

Of course, we also have 5 weeks to go until we find out the sex, but still...

Today is week 15. Threw up yesterday, hoping that by NEXT WEEK that this is all behind me. Of course, my sister in law is still throwing up at 22 weeks. I'm also waiting on my hair to start growing Rapunzel-style. I had these really long Freddy Krueger-like nails, but they started breaking off one by one, and yesterday I had to trim them all down to a suitable length. Now they just feel weird.

I'm sleeping better at night, thank the Lord. Yesterday at my appointment I asked my Dr. about sleeping on my back. She said eventually I wouldn't be able to because it wouldn't be comfortable, but for now, i'd be fine. She also said that women labor on their backs, and that non-pregnant people sleep on their backs all the time, and none of them are dead yet, so that I would be fine, and that she wishes those books wouldn't have some of the info that they have in them.

The worst thing to come out of this may be with our insurance. We just switched to United Health Care from Blue Cross/Shield of GA with our move. My doctor's office has 2 locations: 1 at Sherman Hospital (which is completing construction on a new state-of-the-art building due to be finished in December), and one at St. Joseph-Provena. I chose Sherman for obvious reasons. My Doctor is awesome. Not only is she young and very friendly, and knows her stuff, but she looks like Uma Thurman. She's great! When I was leaving the office yesterday I saw a sign hanging in the waiting room that I wish I hadn't seen...

"Attention All United Healthcare Patients" (you know this can't be good)

Basically, the sign says that contract negotiations between Sherman and UHC have reached a stand still. On June 15th Sherman sent UHC a letter to cease operations between the 2. The contract expires in October. We will be continuing to try to reach an agreement with UHC.

By this time I will be 6 months pregnant, and will not be wanting to look for a new hospital or doctor. I don't even want to do that now at 3 months. To top this all off, there was an article in the local paper a few weeks ago saying that St. Joe's will no longer be delivering babies and sending all their patients to Sherman.

Should having a baby really be this difficult?! Just be praying for an agreement between United & Sherman b\c starting all over with a new Doctor\hospital would be the pits.