Side Effects

So pregnancy is a wonderful thing and the resulting child an amazing reward for months of sickness, pain and hard work. But today...well today, I'm just having one of those "crabby preggo" days and so I've taken to the blog to vent it out. Please bear in mind, the remainder of this post will be full of griping, nonsensical whining and random ponderings about truly unimportant or previous resolved issues.

I had an appointment with my midwife this afternoon. It's my third time seeing her and I truly like her and the two student midwives she has working with her. Every time I've seen her I've felt like the only pregnant person on the world (in a good way) and not rushed or dismissed because I'm just the mom not the birth professional. So today totally caught me off guard. I had Pre Eclampsia with Nate which resulted in having to be induced four weeks early. If you don't know about Pre Eclampsia you can go here for more info. The short and skinny is that it's a condition of elevated blood pressure that can seriously endanger mother and child and result in death for one or both. In my case, I didn't show any signs of Pre E until 36 weeks and then when I did my body went for it. My blood pressure was 140/100 which is very high and so we were admitted and induced. Luckily, Nate and I were both fine, but it was scary beyond words.

Ok, so back to the present tense. When I first contacted our midwife I told her of this condition and asked if that would prevent me from having the homebirth that I'm dreaming of with this baby. She said it shouldn't, that she'll monitor things and if it gets to a point that we need to look at transferring care and such then we'll do that. Well today I went in and she essentially seemed to be deciding whether or not she could keep me on as a patient because I have a history of Pre E. I completely understand where she was coming from, she's running a business and I could be a liability given my history so I hold no anger or resentment towards her. I was just really surprised by this since I thought we had already covered it months ago. Anyway, everything is fine, there is nothing in her regulations about a history of Pre E just the protocol in case it presents itself. So, we're not switching midwives and things are good. BUT, the first 20 minutes of my appointment were spent discussing this and me (the worrier that I am) thinking I'd have to find a different midwife and knowing that there aren't any others in the area that will do a homebirth whom I feel comfortable with. So my anxiety was raised and for some reason, when I'm pregnant, it takes hours for it to come back down.

So, I sit here now with a new Prenatal Yoga dvd to start practicing, a cup of tea and two happy boys to keep my stress level down. I hate that my mind gets so wrapped up in things like this. I've always been this way so I understand why it happens, but it doesn't make it easier to resolve.

When it comes down to it, I just want a healthy baby in the fall. That's it. Time to refocus on that. Oh and to end on a positive note, our ultrasound is scheduled for next Thursday so I'll be sure to report back if we find out the gender. I was so opposed to finding out originally and now I can't wait. See, that there is also pregnancy related craziness.

Beach Time

Last Saturday (not this past one, which was rainy but the last one) the boys and I ventured out to our favorite beach for some fun in the sun. It was nice, a little windy but still a glorious day to be outside. Little did we know that this Friday we would revisit the same beach with friends and enjoy temps near 70!!! We plan to go back this Friday too if the forecast proves accurate!

Springing

Signs of Spring in our neck of the woods are finally popping up! The snow is melted...gone, I haven't seen a snowbank or even a small mound of snow in weeks. This makes me deliriously happy! We've hung up our bird feeders, though we have yet to attract any visitors. I think we need to place them a bit further into the woods near us and be less obvious about it. Right now they hang on our porch and I think that's very wishful thinking on my part. That the birds will just fly right up to our doorstep for their snacks is a bit unrealistic.

This past weekend we started our seedlings for our container garden. It's the first time we're doing this so I'm a little nervous but overall excited and hopeful that we'll have some produce to show for it at the end of things. Ben is very involved in it and has been carefully spray watering the seeds every day and checking on their progress. The two sets of obvious larger seedlings are green beans and peppers. They've both almost outgrown the container and I need to look up what to do about that ASAP (as in, as soon as I finish this blog). It's still too cold out at night for them to venture outside in larger containers so I think they might just be making the leap from one container to another for the time being. Container gardening for dummies anyone?

We also have two tulip bulbs and a hyancinth bulb growing in the kitchen window. My mom found that great container at our local thrift store for $2 last year and gave it to me. I didn't know what to do with it at the time and put it in the garage. I unearthed in over the weekend while looking for sidewalk chalk and voila! The perfect holder/display for our new bulbs. I can't wait until these bloom!!! We'll be sure to update with pics.

The other living things around here are all doing very well. Ben has sprouted another inch or so it seems. I have a legitimate fear that he will tower over me by his tenth birthday. He started swimming lessons this past week at a new facility that I'm thoroughly impressed with. He's loving it and asking when Monday comes again so he can go back. It helps that he also gets 90 minutes of free play in the pool area that looks like a water park after his lesson too. ;) Nate is full of energy as always and eating us out of house and home. I'm not sure where he puts all of it as he's not getting much taller or rounder...Tim's guess is that it's being used to grow hair. I'm not totally convinced of that either but he certainly does have more fuzz on the back of his head than he used to. Maybe he'll have a full head by his third birthday. And of course, the baby seems to be doing well. As of today we're at 15 weeks which amazes me. Having been through this twice before I didn't think I'd be as surprised by the progress of things, but each time proves to be as unique as the child that arrives and so it's only right that every noticeable experience of the pregnancy is fun and strange too. As of last week the baby was the size of a lemon according to one of the weekly internet updates I get. So, I've taken to calling the baby lemon. I can't seem to help it and I fully admit to hearing Alec Baldwin in my head saying "Lemon!" every time I say it and it still doesn't bother me. I also admit to my on-going, much loved trend of re-writing songs to suit our lives. For example, in the past there has been a rewrite of Sexyback to TubbyBack, this winter I rewrote U2's Get on Your Boots, Your Sexy Boots, to be Your Winter Boots. Made us all laugh as we piled on layers of winter clothes to go to the library. And so in honor of baby #3 I rewrote U2's Lemon with lyrics about the Lemon in my belly etc. I won't give you the full version here, I fear I've revealed too much already and wonder if this baby will read this post years from now and realize how deep rooted this little song hobby of mine is. hmmm...

Anyway, on that note I wish you all a great weekend! I'm going to figure out how to rescue my seedlings now. And perhaps rewrite Rescue Me to suit the needs of my little green friends. ;)

Batboys

They defeat bedtime with a POW! THWAP! POP! Really, these are more like costumes around here than PJs and they had to be stolen away to get washed. When those boys fall for something, they fall hard, and together. Ben spotted these PJs while out with Tim so we got them for his bday and then had to get a matching pair for Nate too. Cause you know, you can never have too many superheros in your home.

PS
Nate's drinking watered down apple juice in the DD cup, not iced tea. Though he does often share my iced tea with me, just generally not at 9pm.

Chuckle

The boys are into Pingu right now, a kids show from some European country featuring a penguin, his family and friends. It's all old school slow mo claymation and they don't actually speak any language you can understand no matter where you're from. It's all just gibberish and i like that - no catch phrases to get stuck on. Plus, when Tim & I watch we make up our own translations and that's just plain fun and entertaining right there.

Anyway, I was just putting on an episode for them and I asked Ben if he knew what Pingu's seal friend's name was.

"No."
"It's Robbie." (me)
"Really? Is that cause he does robberies?"
"Um, not it's just his name." I then burst out laughing and Ben laughed and was proud of himself. I thanked him for making me laugh. I realize that perhaps the City Lego set he got for his bday last week (complete with cops and robbers) may be influencing more aspects of his life than I thought.

Spring Preview

So this weekend it hit 50 (maybe even 52 on Saturday) and we all breathed a long sigh of relief and joy! Nate and I were away on Saturday at a LLL retreat but when we returned home on Sunday morning we headed out to the beach with Dada and Benny. I think I could have happily sat on the beach combing through rocks and shells with Ben looking for seaglass all day! It was a short visit, by my standards but at least we got out and enjoyed the sun for a while. And, we'll go back soon of course. That's one great thing about living where we do now, we're within 10 minutes (if that) of multiple, beautiful beaches.

This morning we awoke to snow and as I type I'm watching it fall. Not what I had anticipated at all, but it's still winter if we're going to be accurate and of course, it's Maine.

(Ben found an anchor of some sort that had washed up and both boys took turns holding the chain that was attached to it. Ben followed the chain to discover the huge cement orb at the end. Good find!)

Tuesday Tunes - New U2!!!! FINALLY!!!!!

Just got home from picking it up, I've only made it to track 5 so far but it's amazing thus far. I'm admittedly a huge U2 fan and have loved all of their albums, including Zooropa and Pop so take that into consideration. This album is a bit different, but the thing is, every album is going to be different from the last - as they should be. No Line On The Horizon is still very obviously, recognizably U2, just with a few twists. It's certainly more bass driven than the previous two albums and the album benefits from it. I've got to finish listening to it before I really give you all my full take on it, but in the meantime enjoy this video of the title track and album opener. It's quite good, the song itself and you get to see the band in the studio which I always enjoy. There's also a couple of great quotes from Bono and Larry towards the end. Very fun!