Boy or Girl?

It's one of those questions people love to ask.. "Do you want a boy or girl this time?" And sometimes I want to say "Oh gosh, I better get another boy or I'm sending it back!" But seriously, I think about this a lot. Probably more than I should considering the fact that I have no choice in the matter. I mean, chances are pretty good it's going to be a boy or a girl, ha.

I want a Boy because:

1. Victor will have a brother that is close in age. I am afraid it will be harder for them to bond if they are farther apart.

2. We wouldn't have to buy anything! Well, except for a few baby things we want that we didn't have last time, but no clothes! we've got that stuff covered!

3, I ADORE watching Victor play with other little boys and I just can't wait for him to be a big brother... (I suppose this one is going to apply to both...)

I want a Girl because:

1. I want a daughter. I want to teach her how to be a woman and a mommy and be the Mother of the Bride someday...

2. I babysit a little girl 2 days a week and Victor LOVES her! He actually seems to play better with little girls than boys (probably because of this) and I just know he would ADORE a little sister.

3. There is SO MUCH cute stuff!! I am dying to buy little girly stuff! Plus it would be the first grand daughter on BOTH sides of our family so it would be a little extra special just because of that.

*sigh* I keep telling Matt I wish we were having twins so I could have one of each!

Either way, this baby is going to be (and already IS!) so incredibly loved... I just can't wait to meet him or her. Please know that we are going to be THRILLED with whichever gender we are blessed with. Of course this won't be our last one so there's always room for more!!! Yes, that's right, I'm 12 weeks pregnant with number 2 and already thinking about the next one. I'm sure Matt is thrilled right now, HA!

Ultrasound

Sorry I don't have any pictures! We don't have the scanner hooked up yet. Hopefully soon though!!

Monday I had a prenatal appt with my midwife. Everything was going great until she went to listen for the heartbeat. I have great blood pressure, weight is good so far (2 lbs down from pre-preggo weight actually) and urine is totally clean. But she could not find the heartbeat. She looked for about 10 minutes and used 2 different wands and it just was not coming up. Now, I know that many women don't hear it until later and it's really common to not hear it till after 12 weeks. But that wasn't making me feel any better! We heard it with Victor at barely 10 weeks and all I could think was that there really was no baby in there... It was awful, I KNEW that it was silly, but I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. My fantastic midwife sat with me while I cried and then told me if I was that worried that she would schedule me an ultrasound cause she didn't want me to make myself sick worrying.

I readily agreed after Matt and I talked about it and we got scheduled for this morning at 1030. My next door neighbor was going to watch Victor for us so we could go, just the 2 of us, but she got stuck at the car repair shop for 2 hours and so we ended up taking him with us. He is terrified of doctor's offices and I was fairly sure he was going to flip out. Not to mention the fact that if something were really wrong I didn't want him to see me upset.

When we got there I mentioned to the tech that I was really worried and she was so sweet, told me no problem that she was going to try with the external wand first and if we couldn't see enough she'd use the internal. Well, she put the wand on my belly and immediately she says, "welp! there's defintiely a baby in there!!" I hadn't even looked at the screen yet, I was trying to calm Victor a bit cause he was definitely freaking, I think he thought she was hurting me. So I flip my head over to look and sure enough! There's a BABY!!! With little arms and legs and you could see it's little feet kicking!! S/he was moving around like crazy! It's almost funny to think that something inside you is moving so much and you can't feel it yet, totally surreal!

Baby was measuring just a few days ahead of my due date but because it's so close they won't adjust my due date and I'm glad. Besides, I measured ahead with Victor the whole time too, I think my babies just grow a bit faster than the "Average".

The interesting thing that she found is that I have a Fibroid tumor on my uterus. Nobody has ever mentioned a fibroid to me before so it must be something that has popped up recently. From what I've been told and what I've read, Most of the time fibroids do not cause any problems. They are benign tumors and fairly common. At my next ultrasound at 20 weeks they will measure it and keep an eye on it to see where it is. The only reason it may cause a problem is if it grows exponentially or shifts down closer to my cervix. Right now it's just on the front of my uterus and the tech said it'll just make me "pooch out further". Awesome. I was already a house with Victor, not like I needed any extra "pooch" LOL.

Geez!

Sorry it's been soooo long!!! Our computer crashed about 2 months ago and we just got a new one on Monday.

I know this is kind of old news by now at least with my Facebook friends, but...

We are Pregnant!!!! Yay!! I'm due on February 14, but totally expecting to go over at least a week, so the end of February is more likely. I'm 10 weeks now and actually feeling pretty good. I was pretty nauseous there for awhile but it just started to subside a few days ago. thank goodness! I have another midwife appt next week and we should get to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I'm sooo excited about this that I tear up just thinking about it! I can't wait!! Looking forward to catching up with everyone else's blogs soon!

He's got the disease...

Hand, foot and mouth disease that is. Poor kid!!

Sunday afternoon/evening he started getting fussy. We thought he was just tired and he did actually fall asleep early, but then kept waking up. He couldn't seem to get comfortable. Then monday was the same thing, but worse really. He woke up screaming and crying and lasted that way for about an hour before calming down. He didn't want to eat, drink or nurse. He also had a low-grade fever. He really was just not feeling well at all. It took hours to wear him down to get him to finally pass out in my arms. Then he would sleep for 2.5-3 hours and wake up screaming again... and on and on till Wednesday when I noticed he had red, blister-looking bumps on the bottoms of his feet.

Everything suddenly made total sense!! Doing more research into it I discovered that the coxsackie virus that causes HFM has a 4-6 day incubation period and then symptoms start. Those include lack of appetite, general feeling of unwellness and a fever. A couple days after the fever starts the rash breaks out. You can get the sores on hands, feet and mouth or just hands and feet or just the mouth... can even get a rash on the bottom or genital area.

Victor has them on his feet, they are starting now on his hands and has them at the back of his mouth and a rash on his butt :-( Poor kid!!! It's no WONDER he was so miserable the last couple of days!! And there's nothing they can do since it's a virus. Can give him a mixture of Benadryl and Mylanta to help coat the sores in the mouth but that's about it. I've gotten him some go-gurt and stuff to help soothe his throat and so he can eat something! He devoured a tube of it when we first got home. We are pretty sure he got it from the playground and it makes me soooo not want to go back there, ever again!

This picture is not Victor, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like! He doesn't have sores around his mouth (yet anyways.. there are a couple of spots I'm keeping an eye on...) just inside his mouth :-( he does have them on his hands and feet.


It is really contagious for a couple of weeks, from when they first are exposed to when the blisters break open and heal over. So we have about a week left or so until we can be around people again. It's going to be a long week cooped up in the house!!! Hopefully he will at least start to feel better soon!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all!!! I remember back when I was pregnant with Victor and someone had the nerve to tell me I wasn't a mother yet. I am here to tell you that as soon as you see that positive pregnancy test, you become a mother. So even if you are currently pregnant, or have a baby in heaven, you are still a mother and this day is for you too! I hope everyone has a lovely day today and enjoys spending time with their families.


Happy Mother's Day especially to my own mother, I love you so much and am so grateful for everything you've ever done for me. I know it wasn't easy for you, especially when I was a teenager, but I never doubted you loved me. Now that I have a child of my own I realize even more what you have always done for me and your family, and I want to say Thank You. Thank you from the bottom of my soul. I love you very, very much. Happy Mother's Day.

aaahhh!

We're alive! I promise! I've totally been slacking and haven't been updating. oops! I actually started a couple of posts that are now totally outdated and not worth posting. I don't have any pictures to post because my computer died, so Matt's computer is the only one we have, and I can't find the cord I need to move pics over from my camera. As soon as I find that I will have TONS of pictures, I promise!

Couple things, Victor and I were oth sick the past 2 weeks, him more than me. Poor little guy, he was sooooooooo miserable! It was his first time really being sick and it was a doozy! He had RSV, a nasty cough that made him throw up at least once a day, usually 2 or 3 times. He was getting dehydrated and we almost ended up at the ER. He had only had 2 wet-ish diapers in a 24 hour period and was very lethargic, was only staying awake for barely 30 minutes before passing back out in my arms. We basically spent several days just laying in bed. He was so stuffy that he didn't want to nurse a lot, or even when he did for a few minutes he would cough more and throw it all back up. We finally got some water into him and he started nursing more and keeping it down and once he did that it was a really quick turn around. Seriously, one day I wanted to take him to the ER and the next he was up and playing and soo much better. What a relief that was!! Of course, then I got the bug and was miserable for a couple of days, but luckily it didn't last as long for me as it did for my poor baby.

In the midst of this he nightweaned himself too! Some of you will horrified when you read this, lol, but we were still nursing at least every 2 hours at night. Thank goodness for co-sleeping and keeping my sanity! But while he was sick he would wake up and not want to nurse and just be cuddled and comforted and put himself back out and for the past week since then he has been sleeping in 8-9 hour stretches! Woo! I knew it would happen when he was ready, without any help from me. I hate that he had to get sick for it to happen, but thrilled that we are here! Hooray for sleep!

I'm also hoping that means my cycle (ya know, that thing your body has to do in order to get pregnant) will even itself out a bit more. I FINALLY got my first period last month, yes, that's right, thanks to breastfeeding I just had my very first post-partum period at 16 months. I was thrilled!!! I thought I had to wean him a bit more before it would finally start but it came on its own! However, for anyone who knows anything about cycles, my luteal phase is only anywhere between 5-8 days, which if you know about this stuff you know that means I have no chance of getting pregnant again until it lengthens out to at LEAST 10 days. So, with him sleeping longer and thus we are nursing less, hoping it will even out my hormones a bit more and I will have a chance at getting pregnant soon!

I am DYING to be pregnant again!! It seems that all my friends are pregnant and I've been itching for more babies for months now. I really wanted to be pregnant again by now, really a few months ago... every month that goes by that it doesn't happen kills me cause it's that much older victor is going to be and that much older I am going to be.... If I want 4 kids before I'm 30 we better Hurray up!

"Is it ever bad to be polite?"

"Is it ever bad to be polite?"

If you have kids, well, even if you don't have kids, please read this, it is very powerful. Is it important to teach our kids ownership of their bodies!