Pregnancy-Related Nausea Update

Because they really shouldn't call it MORNING sickness.

I went to the grocery store last night, and it was AWFUL. Sorry, not trying to complain but this blog is for sharing and that's how it was last night. Truly, truly awful. It's a miracle I bought anything I felt so crummy.

On the upside, my son was a true angel the whole time. I am so lucky to have him!

I digress.

I ended up buying Cheeze Kurlz because they looked moderately good (or at least they had sounded good a couple days ago) and cranberry raspberry juice because raspberry is supposed to help soothe your stomach. I bought other things, but they were not of note.

I broke open the Cheeze Kurlz last night after I got everything put away and they were awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I went on to eat too many of them too quickly and ended right back where I started: nausea city. Grrrr! I may have to parcel out the bag since I seriously have no self-control.

My mom bought me a HUGE box of Mike and Ikes yesterday, and those actually helped calm my stomach a bit before bed, but the amount of sugar in them is enough to give me a stomach ache if I eat too many. So I have to be careful not to gorge myself on them.

Then this morning I was going to have some of my cranberry raspberry juice with my bland breakfast of bread and butter. I poured it into my juice glass, and as I was putting the bottle away I noticed I bought cranberry POMEGRANATE juice. Damn it. It tastes awful. Does anyone in the Grand Rapids area like this stuff enough to take it off my hands? Grrrr.

So that's where I am right now. I am going to try getting some Preggy Pop Drops today (why bother with the lollipop stick, right?) and hopefully those will help out a little. We'll see.

Thanks again and again for all your advice, dear readers! I am so lucky to have you and appreciate all your wonderful ideas!

Eat Your Heart Out, Sanjaya!

I decided to try a faux-hawk in my bubba's hair last night and let me tell you ...

it was adorable!!

Who knows? This might have to become a staple!

"Morning" Sickness

Hello, I need help. I need any advice I can get on getting rid of pregnancy-related nausea, particularly while having another child to take care of. My doctor can prescribe me phenergan, but I know that will knock me out and I won't have enough energy to chase after and care for my son.

Any advice you can give me on the topic would be greatly appreciated. My tricks from my last pregnancy (raspberry sherbet and pasta) aren't working and the nausea keeps getting worse as the days go by.

Thanks! Hope you're having a great day!

Sunny Day and a Visit to the Infirmary

Did you know my son knows how to make a mess? He is a true artist when crafting his messes, a book here, a bowling pin there. Our living room often ends the day as a frenetic scattering of toys and books, all lovingly laid out by my boy.

On this particular day, Little B was most interested in playing peekaboo with Mommy and Daddy. He would shriek with laughter upon ripping the blanket off our heads.

After a good nap, we decided to visit the folks at the infirmary, usually known as my parents' house. See, last week my mom had a hysterectomy and while waiting through her surgery, my dad's back was upset and he ended up having a lower back spasm this weekend that put him on the couch as well. In efforts to bring some sunshine to their day, we went for a visit.

My son has been bonding more with Aunt Christine since Oma is temporarily out of commission, and he showed his infinite love for her by using her leg as a step stool.

Grandpa E was doing some homework and Bubba decided to give his computer a once-over.

So many colors!

So big!

Oma usually isn't confined to the couch, so Little B found this infinitely fascinating. Even more fascinating ... her pill bottles! They make wonderful rattles!

Shake-a-shake shake!

My little man didn't seem to mind much that his Oma couldn't pick him up like usual; he seems to be in the blissfully independent stage of infancy (if you can call it that now that he's nearly a year old). Hopefully both she and Dad will be feeling better very soon!

All Jacked Up!

Remember how I really liked that Everiron stuff my dad's company was selling? Well, we finally got some! Which meant that our old, yucky fence had to go. My husband set out this weekend to accomplish the removal of the old fence.



Upon the advice of his dad, he used a car jack and basically ratcheted the fence out of the ground! It was pretty awesome.

Three of the five posts came out this way, and after getting the ground loosened, Bryson was able to just wiggle it out of the ground, cement and all! (The other two posts had to be dug out, but it wasn't as difficult as he thought it was going to be.)

Once the fence was out, we could tell that our landscaping needed a lot of work, so my husband took advantage of momentum and went to town on the formerly fenced area. I came down from my shower to find the front walkway looking like this:

Needless to say, I was a little worried at first. But eventually things got cleaned up and it started looking like something we could work with.

As long as the weather clears up my husband should be able to get the rest of the unwanted plants removed. I am abstaining from gardening; our neighborhood cats seemed to be attracted to our landscaping, and I'd like to avoid getting toxoplasmosis.

Random Pictures for Your Enjoyment

So, you would think this is my first time using Blogger, but you would be wrong. I uploaded all these pictures in the wrong order (chronologically backwards), but I don't have enough time or patience to go through and fix it. I'm sure you'll be okay. Just take a deep breath.

You're okay, right?

Good. Here they are!

As you may have noticed, my son has a love affair going with all things electronic. I have no idea how he developed this obsession, but he can sniff out a piece of electronic equipment a mile away. Case in point, his dad's Wii Fit balance board. Yes, it is hidden next to the book case.

Chewing on the feet is a good idea, right?

Trying to take off the feet.

Little B was so excited to find his cups all nested together. He picked them up and shook them and shook them until they all flew out!

Trying to get up on the sofa ... the day he accomplishes this is the day my life changes forever.

Making a funny face at Mommy.

Trying to put his Cheerios on the counter ... this obviously takes a lot of concentration.

Yes, he found his belly button. If you say, "Where's your belly button?" he'll lift up his shirt and stick his thumb in it. Sadly, we also found that if you ask him, "Where's your nose?" he'll do the same thing. Funny guy.

Little B is "so big" you can't even see Aunt Christine!

Helping Aunt Christine bake by exploring the baking implements. Oma even got him his own little rolling pin!

Though he desperately wanted to see the mixer and what was going on in there, he was highly skeptical of it. One cannot be too careful of things that make noise. Right, Little B?

Good times!

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I have been busy helping out my mom and mother-in-law who both had abdominal surgery last week (and my dad who was sidelined with lower back spasms over the weekend). They all helped me out so much after I had my son that I am thrilled to be able to finally return the favor!

An Extra Hour in my Day

*If you don't want to read a post about breastfeeding or pumping, please do not continue on. I have given you fair warning.*

Today is the first day I have not pumped milk for my son's cereal in a long time. It is slightly liberating, though I think it would feel more so if I wasn't so flingin' flangin' nauseous. Anyhow, I digress.

It usually took me an hour to an hour and a half to pump all the milk I'd need to make his cereal for the day, mainly because I was doing it with a hand pump. I wanted to give him as much milk as possible, even if I we cut back on nursing, so we decided to make his cereal this way and it has worked for us.

But now, being pregnant and all, my milk production is down and I just can't do it anymore. Plus, Little B has been getting up in the 8:00 hour lately, leaving me no time to eat at my leisure - something I really need since eating quickly seems to make the nausea worse. So I stopped this morning, and while I feel really guilty about not doing this for him, I feel like I'm doing something good for Baby by not stealing so much of his/her food, so it sort of evens out. Right?

Second First OB Appointment

Today was my first OB appointment for my second child. My second child! Whoa. Amazing.

Anyhow, it went well. According to my doctor, because I am still breastfeeding and I am currently pregnant, I need about 800 extra calories in my diet. I don't think I'm getting that, which would explain why I am so hungry and tired all the time. So I'll have to try harder to get more healthy foods in throughout the day.

Then she said we needed to get an ultrasound so we could figure out the baby's due date, an especially important point since I am going to have another scheduled c-section. Luckily, Joy, the ultrasound technician, was available right then so we got to see Baby for the first time!

The cursor arrow is pointing at the baby; the other blob in the black area is the yolk sac, or something. It's little, but we got to see its heartbeat which is always reassuring! And they put my due date at April 3rd, 2010, but my doctor will probably schedule the c-section for sometime in late March. It'll be weird to know the exact date of delivery so early in the pregnancy, but maybe that will help keep me from going stir-crazy during that last month. We'll see.

Snip This!

We'd been hearing it on all sides for months ... the question every mother dreads to hear ... "When are you getting him a haircut?" We finally decided to get him one a month before his big first birthday, so he'd look dapper for the party and all.

The day before he got it cut, it looked like this:

Saturday morning came quickly, and before I knew it we were at Snip-its, a children's salon in town. Here are my guys before the big moment; Big B is probably wondering how I talked him into the first haircut package and why his son's haircut costs twice as much as his does, and Little B is probably wondering how he can get the magic card in his mouth without anyone looking.

Sharon was his "stylist" and gave him an Elmo telephone to play with after he got all strapped in the chair. (Inside, I was wondering how much hair was coating that particular toy and if I would involuntarily throw up if my son put it in his mouth at any point ... he didn't so we were safe. Whew!) Doesn't he look so grown-up?

After spritzing his hair, Sharon got down to business. With the "first haircut package" you get a lock of his hair in a tiny baggie, a picture of him in the salon chair after his cut, and a certificate of bravery. Apparently lots of parents are not satisfied with the amount of hair the stylists usually save in the baggies because Sharon kept asking if we wanted more hair in there.

The first cut nearly sent me into tears. Admittedly, my hormones were all out of whack that day, but still ... he's my little boy!

There goes the blonde mop!

Sharon turned on a video for him at the beginning of the trim and every so often he'd refocus on it and zone out.

He did not like it at all when she used the clippers; I'm guessing the vibration combined with the noise was too much for him. But he sat there and let her clip, clip, clip away, scrunching up his shoulders in protest.

Surprisingly, he didn't mind it nearly as much when she used the unguarded clippers to reshape the back of his hair. His skin was even a bit red and irritated afterwards, but he had a new toy to play with so he didn't really notice what she was doing.

Yeah, he liked that new toy.

Um, could she use a bigger comb? I'm not sure that one is quite large enough for my 11 month old son.

He finished up and got to put the magic card and some hair in a slot and out came a surprise for him ... a pirate ship temporary tattoo! He might have to wear that for his first birthday.

Once we got home, we stripped his hairy clothes off of him and got him redressed. Then it was time to play ... and time for Momma to get a good shot of the new 'do!

That was the best one I could get. After being strapped in a salon chair for probably twenty minutes, all he wanted to do was move around.

He looks like such a little man now! Hard to believe my baby is almost a year old ... and that he'll be a big brother well before he's two. Whew!

First Big Boy Bath!!

Having outgrown his baby tub, it was time for my son's first big boy bath! I purchased a rubbery bath mat at Meijer, and we gave it a go.

He looked a lot smaller in the bath all by himself.


But he seemed to do okay sitting up by himself.

He really enjoyed the freedom of being able to explore the faucet a little more closely.

He stood up a few times, but other than that I'd say the venture was a success. And afterwards he got to play with the Dixie cups on the counter! What a lucky fella!