Parental Sacrafices

For the most part, when I'm pregnant, I'm not a nazi about food. I'll imbibe in a few sips of wine here or there, sushi from a reputable place, a nice medium rare steak, etc.

But one thing I try to stay away from is raw eggs. Mainly because I don't always keep a close eye on the expiration date of eggs in the fridge.


Tonight, I made chocolate chip cookies. They were going to be walnut chocolate chip cookies, but when I opened the walnuts, I noticed they had weird stringy stuff in the bag, so, I tossed the nuts.

The reason for making chocolate chip cookies was two-fold. I made fish for dinner last night. Now, the kitchen smells like fish. This is not good since we have a home appraiser coming tomorrow morning (trying to get our interest rate from 4.75 to 3.5 or below). I'm fairly certain home appraisers are trained to overlook dirty dishes in the sink, the smell of fish in the air, etc. but just in case, the plan is to cover to fish smell with freshly baked cookie smell. And a candle or two.

The second reason why I'm baking cookies is because I'll get the results of my glucose tolerance test (taken around the 28th week of pregnancy) next week. If I do have gestational diabetes, that means no more tasty treats until I deliver. So, might as well get my fill now while I'm still living in blissful ignorance.

The sacrifice part of this entry? Raw cookie dough. Normally, I pat myself on the back if ANY of the dough actually makes it to the oven. But, cookie dough (with raw eggs) is a pregnancy no-no. So, the doughy goodness is just sitting there...taunting me. This kid had best appreciate the cookie dough Sacrifice (yes it needs to be capitalized) I'm making in his honor.

27.5 weeks (hello third trimester!)

Bottoms up! I drank my 50 grams of sugar (really wish I could just chug a Mt Dew instead) and headed off to the OB office for my 28w-ish appointment. I'll get the results from my glucose tolerance test next week.

The good news is, everything is normal. Blood pressure was 122/70, weight gain at 10lbs (total), fundal height looked normal, and a normal sounding heartbeat on the doppler.

I pre-registered at the hospital, and my next OB appointment is in 2w. It will include an ultrasound as well. After that, I start weekly appointments so that they can hopefully catch any pre-e/HELLP before it turns south.

Preemie get together

I'm part of a Moms group of preemies. Last weekend, we went to the Aquarium.

The best part of the aquarium is a tunnel through the big tank. Corinne decided the tunnel was a great place for a nap.

She really wasn't into watching the sea animals so much as watching the people. She loves to people -watch.

Summer Heat

One way to beat the summer heat:

13 months

Likes: Buttered Bread, being "chased", most foods, riding in the car

Dislikes: being ignored, not being picked up, being put in the crib

Weight: about 16.5lbs

Size: just started wearing 12m onesies. Can still fit into a few size 6m skirts

She has recently started sleeping more soundly. About half the time, I can get out of bed without waking her. I turn the loud box fan on, so that masks a lot of noise. Bedtime is usually around 9:30p, and she wakes up around 8a. She'll wake up once or twice during the night, but as long as I'm there and pat her chest, she'll go back to sleep. However if I'm not there, she'll crawl out of bed and crawl around looking for me while wailing at the top of her lungs.

She usually has two naps during the day: 11a-1p, and 4p-6p. If I'm not next to her during the naps, then she'll only nap for 30-45 minutes.

Still no teeth. Which I don't mind. She is still nursing to sleep ("dry nursing", since I'm pretty much dried up), which means she'll nurse about 4-5 times a day, with a quick comfort nurse here or there.

She's still prone to constipation. But as long as I give her some Miralax each day, then the system flows.

No actual words yet. She loves making the "dadada" sound. And yesterday, crawled around the house saying "gay gay gay gay". But until she looks as a gay dude, points, and says "gay", I'm not calling it her first word.

She will pull to stand on pretty much anything. She has started to "cruise" along the couch, but hates to walk while hanging onto our fingers.

It's getting harder and harder to take the monthly pictures. The girl does not want to lay down and pose nicely. This is the best I could get:

Me:0 Knife:1

Well, I used to have ten unmared fingers. Now, I have 9.

In case the kids wonder why one of my fingers looks a "little off", it is because I was cutting watermelon one warm day in June 2012.

Second ER trip this month. If this trend continues, I should have my own parking space and "frequent ER" badge in a few weeks.

I had a followup with the hand Dr on Monday. He said it is healing nicely, and I shouldn't have any long term issues.

M has been keeping the knife jokes flowing. I may throttle him soon.

Kitty zen picture of the day

Into everything

She loves the dishwasher. Whenever she hears dishes being loaded/unloaded, she "fast crawls" over and tries to "help unload"...when I'm loading. She is really good at unloading the steak knives.

I've taken to stealthily accessing the dishwasher when she is otherwise occupied, knowing I have exactly 6.73 seconds before her finely tuned ears realize that the dishwasher can be played in.

If there's an open stair case, she'll climb it.

Of course, the dishwasher isn't the only thing she's into:

Father's day 2012

Last Father's Day, we spent it in the NICU visiting Corinne. This year, it was much more of a relaxed affair. I made M a French toast casserole I found on pinterest (very yummy) and a day of his choice free of kid/house duties.

http://jennymacslipsmack.blogspot.com/2011/12/french-toast-casserole.html?m=1

(picture below)

After breakfast, Corinne and I went to Gymboree. Remind me not to go on a weekend again. The place was packed and crawlers just get run over by the walkers. Normally when we go during the week, it has 5-8 kids. There must have been 25 kids there today.

But, here are some pictures from recent Gymboree adventures. It's nice because it burns her energy, she gets to explore what her body can do/move, and watch other kids for socialization/learning.

Summer has started

It seems like each weekend, we have a party of some sort to attend. Many of them have been at a pool.

We attended a first birthday for a little guy born last June. He dove into his smash cake with great abandon... And then promptly broke out in hives all over his body. Turns out, he was allergic to eggs. The party kind of died after that event.

It made me thankful that so far Corinne hasn't displayed any allergies to food. We haven't tried honey, nuts, or shellfish yet. I want to try them on a day we don't have much going on, and could work in an ER trip if needed.

Thank you Steve Jobs

I can now blog from my phone!

You may have noticed the frequency of blog posts took a dramatic dive once Corinne became mobile. The days of sitting in front of a real computer/laptop without having a baby want to "help" by pounding on the keyboard were over.

But, I just learned of a special app that allows me to blog on my iPhone. Assuming Corinne doesn't drop my phone into the toilet, I'd say we are back in the blogging business!

Stay tuned, this blog will come back to life again!

First ER trip

Well, Corinne made it a full year without getting sick. But, on a Wednesday night in early June she came down with a fever. The next day, it seemed to get better. But that night, the fever came back. I called the nurses' line at the doctor's office. They said for reoccurring fevers like that, I should go to the ER to rule out a UTI.

So, at 2a, off we went. Poor baby had to get a catheter in order to get a urine sample (mother of the year, I opted to leave the room while they cathed her). No UTI, they deemed the fever viral. The next day, the fever seemed to go down. It went back up again that night, but it wasn't bad. The next morning (Saturday) no sign of a fever and she was back to being her happy self. But, I noticed a weird rash appearing around her neck and cheeks. Over the next two days, the rash got worse and worse. And it itched. Poor thing was miserable. We gave her benedryl, Tylenol and doused her in anti itch lotion, which seemed to help. By Tuesday, it had started to go away.

She had roseola. My poor baby. It's frustrating sitting there and watching her be miserable and knowing that there's not much that can be done. It just needs time to work its way through her system.

And, the irrational side of me wondered if she'd ever get her peaches and cream beautiful complexion back again and be a pretty baby. It took about a good week and a half, but thankfully all evidence of the rash went away.