Meabon Numero Dos

So, I'm sure you've guessed by now that I am, in fact, pregnant.  11 weeks to be exact.  Here's the details on Numero Dos so far. 

Yes, we realize this means we will have two babies in diapers and they will be 19 months apart.
No, we are not crazy. 
Yes, we were trying.  But I mean just.  I am chairing a fundraiser on March 3, 2012 so we counted back to when our window of time would be just after the fundraiser and started there.  Nailed it!

We found out July 1.  Jared was out of town but at the airport on his way back and I randomly decided to take a test when I woke up that morning, not expecting it to be positive.  Guess what?  Pregnant!  I called Jared who promptly repeated three times, "Shut up!" and then said I needed to take more tests.  Since we didn't have any spare tests on hand, he stopped at the store on the way home after he landed to grab two more.  Guess what?  Pregnant! and Pregnant!

We will find out what we are having.  I know, I know.  It's all the rage these days to wait to find out until your in the delivery room.  Best surprise in the world, right?  For those of you that wait, way to go!  I was simply not designed with the gift of patience. 

We are due on March 15, 2012 but with a C-section, will most likely go the week prior to that.  Anyone want to come see a baby for Spring Break?

Yes, I have been feeling like doo doo.  No, I haven't been throwing up but have been TIRED!  If taking a nap meant I'd need to do it on black asphalt in the middle of August in Texas, I'd gladly blister my skin away for those few precious moments of sleep.  I have also felt constantly hung over.  And without the joys of a rambunctious previous night to go along with it, this simply sucks.  But I think I'm making it over this little hurdle.  Please, let me be making it over this little hurdle!

Yes, I have been peeing 3-4 times a night.  Annoying.

Yes, I got my appendix out while pregnant.  Now can you see why the 4am cramps scared the bejesus out of me???  And please don't tell me its bad to go under anesthesia while pregnant.  I know this but having a ruptured appendix would have been worse.  Can a girl just get a normal, no complications pregnancy???  But if this is the extent of our drama, I'll take it!

The chances of Numero Dos having an omphalocele are extremely low.  Since Harper's wasn't chromosomal, it would be highly unlikely for Dos to also have an omphalocele.  We will, however, see the perinatologist for high level screening next Friday and again at 16-18 weeks.  If all looks good, we can proceed like normal. 

No, we don't care what we have.  A boy would be great.  A girl would be great.  To be honest, we really would just like healthy.  But if that's not in the cards, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  Please keep Numero Dos in your prayers as it develops and grows!

Thumbs Up Thursday - First Trimester Edition

In honor of this author's recent announcement, Thumbs Up Thursday is being dedicated to a few of my favorites over the last 11 weeks.

Thumbs Up for EPT Digital Pregnancy Tests that show results SUPER early.  Don't give me a single or double line.  I don't want a plus or a minus sign.  I need "Pregnant" or "Not Pregnant".  And knowing after only two weeks of being pregnant?  Okay!  Go digital or go home.  Especially when your husband makes you take three tests....just to be sure.

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Thumbs Up for Talk O' Texas Crisp Okra Pickles - Hot.  I could seriously eat a jar of these suckers every two days.  I'm now on the hunt for the best pickled green beans.  Oh, whatever - gag all you want but these taste buds are craving anything that's been marinated in vinegar for long periods of time.

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Thumbs Up for Weight Watchers English Toffee Crunch Bars.  It's suppose to be 108 in San Antonio this weekend.  That's just stupid if you ask me.  How else is a girl suppose to cool down?  Why, one of these delicious treats, of course!

Thumbs Up for afternoon naps.  Seriously. 

I receive no compensation for these reviews - I just like the products!

A Picture Riddle

Any guesses?

Birthday Balloon Wreath Tutorial

You might remember the Balloon Birthday Wreath from Harper's birthday posts.  I had a few people ask me about it so I wanted to post a quick tutorial.  You'll have to forgive me but I didn't take pictures of the very beginning stages.

Supplies:
9" assorted latex balloons (I got 100 count packs from Hobby Lobby - You'll need about 8-10 packs)

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floral pins

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straw wreath - keep wrapped in the plastic wrap

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ribbon of your choice
wooden letter for the year you are celebrating and decorations of the birthday theme (again, got mine at the Lobby)


Directions:
Take balloons and individually pin them into the straw wreath.  Make sure balloons are close together to avoid any gaps.  Line entire front, inside curve and outside rim of the wreath with balloons.

Leave a small portion at the top bare.  The space should be a little larger than the width of your ribbon.

Tie and knot the ribbon tightly around the open space on the wreath.  Leave enough ribbon to make a pretty bow at the top to hang on a wreath hanger.

Once the ribbon is in place, continue to cover the ribbon and remaining blank space with balloons.

Decorate your number as you'd like.  I used the #1, colored it purple with permanent markers since I didn't have paint on hand and hot glued buttons for Harper's First BellyButton Birthday.

Take a small piece of the ribbon and tie around your number.  Make a knot at the top of the ribbon and use a floral pin to secure in the middle of the wreath's large ribbon.

Hang and celebrate!

One Year Stats

Harps had her one year appointment last week.  Harper as a 1 yr old:

Height:  29 1/2"  (50th percentile)

Weight:  18lbs 10oz (10th percentile)

Teeth:  Two....still two

Favorites:  Waving at everything, The Bell at Honey & Grandy's house, The Mermaid at Honey & Grandy's house, people watching, going for a ride in the car, shopping, her baby piano, her alphabet train, walking her baby in her stroller, kitchen spoons, eating in restaurants

 Food:  No more bottle!  Three meals per day, two snacks per day.  Hates milk.  Loves water out of her sippy cup

Favorite foods:  Sweet potatoes, yogurt, cheese, scrambled eggs, Cheerios, graham crackers, almost any fruit, bean and cheese quesadillas or tacos, prunes

Words:  Eeehhh for almost everything - as in "I want that", "More please", "Rooney", "Kitty", "That toy, yes that one right over there".  We're working on more but Eeehhhh is just about all we're getting.  Mama, Dada and a string of noises and songs that make no sense.  Still working on signs but she has no interest in using them.  Understandable communication doesn't seem to be high on the girl's priority list. 

Movement:  Crawling at top speed, walking around while holding onto furniture, standing and playing with toys without holding on until she realizes she isn't holding on and then quickly grabs onto the nearest piece of furniture.  We're realizing that our Squirrel is very timid.  She's not going to do something physically until she knows she can do it perfectly.  I have a feeling that, just like crawling, when walking starts she'll be off like it's nothing. 

Sleeping:  We started putting Harper straight to bed while still awake for her nap and just after her night time songs and prayers.  She now likes to go to bed awake, have some time in her crib by herself and put herself to sleep (instead of being rocked to sleep).  She must have one pacifier in her mouth and a second to rub against her forehead to put herself to sleep.  I think the 2nd paci is her version of a blanky or lovie.  I've tried getting her to take hold of anything soft and cuddly but she just wants that rubber paci to rub against her forehead.  I'm just as confused by it as you are reading about it.

Overall very happy and easily entertained.  Can sit and play by herself for a good stretch as long as she can see mom, dad, Honey or Grandy.  Very weary of strangers.  Smiles all of the time and likes to be chased and tickled. 

Dental Hygiene

We headed in to see the dentist, Dr. McCabe, today for a quick check of the teeth...all two of them.  Our pediatrician had suggested getting Harps to a dentist - not because anything was wrong but just routine to make sure things looked good as her teeth were coming in.

We started off on a good note with the bright lights and flashy tools.

But the minute that guy in the mask and gloves started towards her, we had a bit of a meltdown.  I'm sure someone in there thought it must be one heck of a root canal!

He also said that her top teeth were going to break through any minute.  Great.  Do we remember how much I hate teeth?

Thumbs Up Thursday

Today's Thumbs Up is actually a combo package.  By combining these two products together, our dining experience is nearly flawless!

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Thumbs Up for the Chicco Caddy Hook On Chair.  I was toting the highchair cover all over San Antonio.  And while effective, there were often times that the restaurant's highchair didn't reach the table.  Other times, there'd be a huge gap between the table and the chair resulting in food all over the floor.  I discovered this handy hook on chair and it now goes with us everywhere.  Harper is right at the table with us when we sit down to eat and its adjusts to pretty much every type of table.  What's even better is that if we're with friends and they don't have a spare high chair, we pull this little contraption out of the car and we're all set.  It folds down flat so that you can easily carry it in and out of the restaurant when needed and it's easy to wipe off if it gets a little dirty.

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Thumbs Up for the Summer Infant Tiny Diner Placemat.  I've seen a variety of the disposable placemats but in my mind, the Tiny Diner Placemat beats out all of the competition.  It has suction cups on the bottom of the placemat so that it sticks to most surfaces without leaving a sticky residue.  And I love the fact that it has a trough on it to catch food.  Now I'm not bending down under the table at a restaurant after each meal to clean up the little pieces of food all over the floor.  Most importantly, its reusable and easy to clean with a wet napkin so not only are you helping with the mess, but you are helping the environment!

Here we have Harper modeling our products of the day.  As mentioned, when these two products are used together, its mealtime perfection....well, minus the every now and again screaming child. 

And a special thanks to Elliot Hill for showing off her Thumbs Up by the pool.  She even went for a stylish blue shade to match her tongue!

I receive no compensation for these reviews - I just like the products!

4 O'clock...UGH!

I've heard it referred to as the witching hour, the doldrums, the dead zone and crazy time but I'm beginning to loathe 4pm - 5:30pm...everyday. We can be cruising along with our day, having a dandy ol' time, when all of a sudden, it's like somebody slapped a pair of snowshoes on me and stuck me in an ocean of molasses. Sure enough, I take a look at the clock and it's just entering that hour and a half where minutes pass like decades and everyone in my house gets antsy and cranky.

It's too early to start the dinner routine and too late to try to run errands without ending up in the middle horrendous traffic so we're stuck trying to kill 90 minutes. Sometimes I think if I try to get the Squirrel to play with a toy for the 7th time that day, not only will she lose it but so will I. I've gone on about those songs before and one can only take the singing kitchen so many times a day.

I blame a very large part of this resentment towards the minute hand on my clock on the gawd-awful, summer, Texas heat. This hour and a half is also the peak of the heat for the day and, when the daily temperatures are soaring up to 105, it's too dang hot to do anything! Normally, I'd load the girl up in the stroller and head out for a walk. Even better, we'd take a trip down to the park to burn off some energy. But it's literally so hot that I start to sweat when I look out the window so taking an already cranky one year old out in the fiery pits of hell doesn't sound like great parenting to me.

She's also about 6 months shy of planning an actual activity during this time. I can see that next summer, this will be perfect for "art time" or whatever time-burning activity I come across on someone else's blog. But at one year old, my child has the attention spam of a monkey on speed so if anything last more than about 8 minutes, you've lost her.

Maybe I'm just longing for fall, when the weather is ideal in the afternoons, the leaves are changing colors, football is in full swing and the pumpkin spice lattes are flowing. Or maybe this is just a small window of time in my child's life that I'll one day look back on and be filled with tears that I don't have an uninterrupted hour and a half with my baby. But for now, I choose to complain, despise the heat and count the seconds until I can start making dinner.



The Squirrel, clearly not entertained





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Account of the Appendix - The Long Version

I woke up on Wednesday morning at 4am with stomach cramps. I had made chicken the night before and, since my cooking skills can still be a bit questionable, I thought maybe I hadn't cooked the chicken enough.

I got up that morning and still had some cramping but decided to take the girl out and tackle some hills with Lisa and Field. The exercise felt like it did me some good so when we got home, the Squirrel and I headed to the grocery.

As the day went on, the cramping started getting worse, started moving more into my pelvis and I started feeling sick to my stomach. I pulled out my handy dandy WebMD app and started checking out my symptoms when I came across appendicitis.

"The main symptom of appendicitis is belly pain. Many people feel the first pain near the belly button. Then it moves to the lower right side of the belly. You may also have a fever or feel sick to your stomach.

Sometimes the only symptom is a general feeling of not being well and a pain that is hard to describe. The pain in your belly may be different than any pain you have had before. It may be severe. Or it may not seem like a very strong pain, but you may have the feeling that something is wrong. Trust your instincts."

Ok. Hmmm. If it looks like and duck and sounds like a duck...

So I love husband. Very much. But we are VERY different when it comes to feeling sick. Jared has a runny nose and he can't get out of bed and is writhing in pain, unable to lift a finger. I don't like being sick so I just tend to ignore it. I let Jar know I was feeling a little off that morning. When I put the Squirrel down for a nap and was starting to feel worse, I decided to lay down myself and let him know it was getting a little worse. Jared had had a pretty busy morning and had wrapped everything up by about 3pm. The girl started waking up from her nap and the hubs came in to let me know he was going to go hit some golf balls.....really? Um, sure. Don't worry, I'll get the girl. So off he went, the girl got up fully rested from her nap and ready to play, and there I was, not really able to get off the couch from pain. Awesome.

Needless to say, when Jared got home an hour and a half later, I wasn't quite functioning. But as a mom, you do what you've gotta do, right? I let the hubs know I thought there was something seriously wrong. It was close to 5pm and I wouldn't have made it to the doctor in time so I decided to head to the Urgent Care. I love my mom because I'll never stop being her little girl. I called to let her know I was headed to get things checked out and she came straight over to take me so I wouldn't be alone. After seeing the nurse and the doctor for about 5 minutes at the Urgent Care, I was on my way to the ER. Now I probably should have just headed there right away but I hate the ER and was trying to avoid it at all costs.

So here's where it gets good. I walk in and they get me back pretty quickly. But as I'm standing there, this pregnant lady walks in right behind me. She's probably 35, slender and I'd guess about 6-7 months pregnant. She says to the lady at the desk that she's having some swelling in her belly and some pains.

Lady behind the desk: "So how far along are you?"

Pregnant lady: "What do you mean?

Lady behind the desk: "Are you pregnant?"

Pregnant lady: "Oh, no! I'm just having swelling."

Me to myself: "What?!?!?! Um, sister, that's not just bloating. Have you ever seen that show on TLC, I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant??? Where are the camera crews because this lady is the next star?"

I didn't see pregnant lady again but I did overhear the nurses talking about the patient that didn't know she was pregnant. I bet I can guess who that was.

So I get back into a room with two other beds. After being there for about an hour, a man who's nose looks like it exploded plops down in the bed next to me. I hear his graphic story about 5 times as he retold it to each doctor and nurse, including the words blood gushing, blood pouring, blood everywhere, accompanied by snorting and sniffing of said blood back up his nostrils. I thought that I was going to pass out and that my mom was going to hurl. Very long story short, dude had nose surgery on Monday. That day he was driving home, blacked out and ran his car into his neighbor's house. Got brought to the ER, found a hematoma in his nose, cut it out (hence the gushing blood), was leaving the ER, sneezed and, in his words, "torpedo shot the nose tampons out of his nose". Further gushing ensued and he now was my roommate. Awesome.

By 1am, I had an ultrasound and an MRI and was finally settled in a room. When it looked like I wouldn't be going anywhere soon, Jared and my mom switched duties and he spent the night up at Methodist with me.



Surgery took place at 11am on Thursday and after a long wait and a really bad nurse in recovery, I was settled back in my room minus an organ by 3pm.

We spent last night up at Methodist but just got back home and I plan on taking it easy the next few days.

So that's the long and lengthy account of the appendix. There's a little more to the story but we'll get in to that later.

Thumbs Up Thursday - MIA

Sorry for the lack of Thumbs Up but I've landed myself in the hospital with appendicitis. I'll be having that little useless organ removed around 11:30am today so I leave you hanging on the edge of your seat for your dose of Thumbs Up until next week! I do, however, have some pretty entertaining ER stories from check in last night...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Celebrating a Birthday & bellyBUTTON

Buttons, buttons and more buttons

 Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Everyone was so generous and we have a huge donation to make this week!

Celebrating the new bellybutton!

 Sunscreen all around

 Fun with Friends

Swimming in the pool

 Pizza, fruit salad, cupcakes and butterfly balls

And lots of hydration - it was hot!

Blowing out the candle

Tasting the icing

Getting into the cupcake

 Fully enjoying the birthday cupcakes!

Happy birthday Harper!