Anemia

I mentioned a few posts ago about anemia from this pregnancy. Today I have been at the end of my rope. Part of that is from being uncomfortable. The other part is that I woke up at 5 am after very poor sleep and I am so so tired. My entire body feels heavy. In fact I feel so sluggish it's kind of how I felt before I was taking my thyroid medication. Like I could sink into the couch cushions and never get up. Hard to explain. Just dead tired. So I looked up the symptoms of  Anemia on WebMD.

Symptoms common to many types of anemia include the following:

• Easy fatigue and loss of energy - check
• Unusually rapid heart beat, particularly with exercise - sometimes, not very frequent
• Shortness of breath and headache, particularly with exercise - um yes, all the time. But I have been blaming that on the pregnancy. It could go either way. But even at rest I feel sort of "starved for air" if that makes any sense?
• Difficulty concentrating - check
• Dizziness - check
• Pale skin - check (however I do live in Seattle, I'm always pale)
• Leg cramps - check
• Insomnia - OMG YES! Insomnia! And usually I sleep so well. 

I am getting my CBC redrawn on Sunday with a follow up appt. on Monday. I am very curious to see what the labs are. To bad I can't blame my irritability on this. Guess I'll blame that on the insomnia and hormones. Ok gonna go make a snow cone.... FYI I did start an iron supplement this week but so far I don't feel any different.

losing my mind!!!

I've been up since 5 am and everything is driving me insane today. The cat has been meowing non-stop. I'm about to drop kick her out the damn door! That is all for now. UGH

Big Boy Bed

Wow what a day! Today we put together Ethan's big boy bed. Sounds simple right?  Ha! Like anything is ever simple for us. Here's how it went. First we tried just rolling the crib out of his room. Didn't fit through the doorway. So we took off the door. Still not budging. So Mike took one side rail off and while he was at it he raised the mattress back up for the new baby. Got it as far as the hallway turned up on one side and then we couldn't get it to fit through the baby's room. Next Mike tried taking off the door to the baby room and the hinges wouldn't budge. Grr! (Imagine the words coming out of his mouth... my 2 year old said the "F" word today... but that is another story for another day) So then we had to just go ahead and dismantle the entire crib. This crib is the biggest PITA. There are so many screws. Then he had to reassemble it. By this time it has been well over an hour and it is almost 2 pm. Note that is 2 hours PAST Ethan's nap time. Things are spiraling downhill fast. Then my poor hubby gets to put together the "big boy bed". Again so many screws and pieces it'd make your head spin. Does it really need to be this complicated?

 By almost 3 pm we finally have the bed together, sheets and blanket on, pillow pet and teddy bear ready to go. Get Ethan hyped up for his nap and he comes running in to his bedroom, trips, falls and bursts into tears. Now he's hysterical because he's overly tired and he bumped his tummy on the toy he was carrying when he tripped. I start to tuck him in. He's clawing at my neck saying "No thank you! Don't want it!" and crying. Um.... mommy guilt kicks in. Here I am forcing my baby to grow up so that I can have his crib for the new baby. Now this mommy is in tears. Ethan is in tears. I try to put on a brave face and hide the fact that I have a lump the size of New York City in my throat and my eyes are brimming. Darn preggo hormones. I hold him for a little while and finally tuck him in, tell him to stay put. He looks at me with those big puppy dog brown eyes and nods. His face is streaked with tears. I flee the room so I can lay down on my own big girl bed and cry my broken mommy heart out. Ha ha! It's funny now. He did settle down and actually nap. I consider that a victory now that my judgement is better. (mommy took a nap too)

Tonight at bedtime he is all smiles when I tuck him in. I take a picture of him posing proudly on his bed saying "Cheese". Adorable. Of course my damn  memory stick didn't hold onto the picture. It is lost somewhere in a big black hole of lost pictures. Stupid technology. I will try to get a picture of him on his big boy bed for tomorrow. Here are a few crummy ones from my iPhone without Ethan in them. Tonight has been a long day. I'm sure there are many more days like this to come. This mommy doesn't do change well and it's so bittersweet watching my babies grow up.

Ethan's big boy bed. The teddy bear was mine, given to me as a baby from my Grandma Kathy

Cars and progress

So so excited to have this comforter finished. I think I actually love it more than the one I was going to order. It ended up costing me more than the store bought one but it was so worth it. Thanks to sleeping all day I'm not tired so what better use of my time than to stay up late sewing a comforter for my little boy. Tomorrow we set up his "big boy" bed and put his new sheets and comforter on. Crossing my fingers that he will love it and actually sleep in his new bed. This was the first step to preparing for the baby. Once Ethan is in his new bed we can move the crib into Cadence's room and get her things set up and put away. Hurray for having the whole weekend to do it and for having a husband that is also home to help with all the heavy stuff.

Rundown: Update

Interesting that I posted how run down I've been feeling. Today my doctor called me to inform me that I do in fact have anemia. Crap! I mean Awesome! ha. Meaning I get to start taking iron. Guess that means my insides will turn to cement until after this baby is born. Yup pregnancy is so glamorous! Oh and my platelets are low. 98,000 down from 120,000 a few weeks ago. So PIT here we come. For those of you who don't know that's Pregnancy Induced Thrombocytopenia which is a fancy way of saying low platelets caused by pregnancy. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Here's another fun vocab word: Contractions. Plenty of those to go around too. I'm at 31 weeks and my uterus hates me. :) For family and friends that read this blog this is my update. I spent the afternoon at L&D yesterday for contractions that persisted for about 7 hours. Luckily with 2 bags of IV fluid they dropped from every 3-5 minutes down to about every 10-20 minutes. I am not dilating and my FFN swab was negative. (Did you know you need a medical degree to read this blog entry?) Fetal Fibronectin is a protein they check to see if you are in danger of pre-term labor. So negative is a good sign. I got the green light to continue working as long as I don't do ANYTHING while I'm at home except lay on my side. {insert hysterical laughter here} Yeah.... Um that's so not going to happen. I'm trying though. My house looks like an explosion of cat hair and toys. I'm literally climbing the walls I need to vacuum so badly. I also have so much more I want to do. Here is my to-do list that nags at me constantly:
1. Sew Ethan's comforter - I ordered fabric today but darn it I want it here right now
2. Put together Ethan's toddler bed and rearrange his room. Get rid of excess toys.
3. Transition him to his toddler bed. I'm scared of this step!
4. Clean out the spare bedroom and move the crib in.
5 Clean out spare bedroom closet.
6. Arrange Cadence's room and decorate
7. wash all her clothes and put them away
8. Put together bassinet
9. Finish up buying some of the last minute essentials. Diapers, wipes, changing table pad and cover, pump parts, all that fun stuff.
10. Clean out the cars to make room for a 3rd child!!
11. Pack hospital bag. Buy coming home outfit for Cadence.(yeah I'm being picky on this)
12. Try not to go insane while my house falls to shambles around me from neglect while keeping the kids happy, fed and clean. Oh and clean the house! Make sure we all have clean clothes to wear. Continue to work so we have money.... ummmmm
13. Deliver a healthy full term baby

Can you see I'm feeling overwhelmed and behind? Trying not to tear my hair out here. So will someone PLEASE tell my uterus to behave so I can work on my to-do list? Thanks!

Rundown

Wow. Ever feel like your head is just floating and you are just kind of hanging on trying to stay awake? I'm having one of those days. Maybe because I was up early yesterday? My head is fuzzy and my patience is at an all time low. I'm thankful I don't have to make a trip to the doctor today since I saw him yesterday. But nap time can not come soon enough. *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Insomnia

Ok. This is insane. It's 4 am and here I am wide awake. Blogging from my iPhone because I just can't sleep. Ironically Cadence is fast asleep so i can't even blame this on baby kicks. All I can do is lay here and think about that darn comforter I want to sew for Ethan. If I had the material I needed i'd just get up and do it. Unfortunately the local joanns doesn't sell my Riley Blake wheels fabric. I have to order it. And wait. Patience is something I'm running very low on these days. So is sleep. Maybe my body is preparing me for the months of sleepless nights ahead? Maybe it's just night shift messing with my sleep/ wake cycle again. The more I want to sleep I can't.

Snow!!!

Not outside, in my house. What? Yup! We have a fancy handy dandy snow cone machine. Ethan and I enjoyed 3 bowls of shaved ice this morning. Plain. Don't worry it's safe. :) I am in loooove with this little beauty. I will no longer have to worry about breaking a tooth and having major dental expenses by the time I deliver this baby. Also I'm sure the kids will get great use of this in the summer time. Best pregnancy splurge ever! Well it was only $30. No worries my feet are on the ground.

Toddler Bedding

I am thinking of making Ethan a comforter for his new toddler bed. I have fallen head over heels with "Wheels" by Riley Blake. I figure I can use the measurements HERE to make this:

Blast from the Past

Taken back in October 2007. When Mack was my "only".  I have a ton of fond memories of our trip to the pumpkin patch that day.

Awww this was at the airport on her first trip to CT to see grandma Barby. She was 7 months old

Melt. She's always had daddy wrapped around her finger

To Wash or Not?

 These frequent several times a day blog posts will stop once I'm back at work tomorrow. But I'm bored and nesting. I am torn on whether to wash Cadence's clothes. I have this naggy feeling of paranoia that I'm going to take all the tags off and wash stuff only to find out at our next u/s that she is a he. I know it's stupid. I never felt this way with the other 2. I pulled off those tags with careless abandon. Why am I nervous about it? Girlie bedding has been ordered, girlie clothes pile up in her soon to be room. I even embroidered her Christmas stocking. I think with the other 2 kids I'd had at least one more ultrasound at this point and had it confirmed at least twice. I haven't seen her since my 18 week ultrasound which seems like ages ago. So maybe that's playing into all of this. Plus I don't know when the next ultrasound will be. I don't know if I'll face pre-term labor this time around and then be feeling sad and irritated that I didn't get all this stuff done NOW rather than waiting until I'm ordered to bed rest. I'm not saying that's going to happen. But what if?  Ugh. UUUUUUGGGGGHHHH. I wish I had $200 to shell out on a fancy 4D ultrasound. Just to fulfill my shallow need to know. I wish I had the stomach to even think about paying that much for a few ultrasound pictures even if I did have that $200 just laying around.

Sunshine fever

Could it be the blinding sun and blue skies? I feel wildly productive today. Like I could clean the whole house and bake/cook enough meals for a week. It's funny how you don't realize how deprived of light you are until the sun finally pokes itself out from behind the clouds and the rain stops for a day. I'm sure by tomorrow we'll be back to the same old winter drizzles. But for now I'm gonna bake some Cherry Cake and work on dinner, fold some laundry, vacuum, dust. Heck I might even pull the tags off of Cadence's clothing and wash it. Go me!

Cherry Cake Pudding

The Pioneer Woman. She is evil for posting this. How can I not want to eat this? Oh the sugar content.... 

Cherry Cake Pudding

Baby Cuteness

Oooooohhhh my goodness! OMG. I need one of these. Cadence NEEDS this! Ok, her crazy mommy needs one. Well, really really wants one. Why is it that I have such expensive taste? Boo on the price tag. Booo!

Gasp! I love the polka dots

That's it! I've got to save my dimes!! I need one of these bad boys.

Changes!

Wow, my last update was way back in June. I'm such a horrible blogger. Sorry about that. I'm almost 100% sure nobody reads this anyway. ha ha
Most know we are excitedly expecting baby #3 due in March. I just am feeling huge these days. I really am. I'm 30 weeks pregnant and my tummy is overtaking my body. Here's a comparison that I find amusing. This was back in September when I was about 14 weeks pregnant.



Here I am a few short weeks ago at 28 weeks. Notice the intense look? Yeah, long night and miss Cadence was "standing on my spine" as Kristen McD so eloquently put it. I need to do an updated photo soon.




Is it horrible that the bulk of my belly shots this pregnancy have been taken in the bathroom? And most with my iphone? I need to get some nice pictures done before I pop.