Monday, January 28, 2013

32 Week Bump Attack!


How far along? 32 Weeks, however this monster is measuring 34 weeks now!  I really hope he continues to cook until at least 36-38 weeks, because Mommy, Daddy, and Brothers are NOT ready for him yet!

Total weight gain:  24lbs - although it sounds like a lot, based on little's size, it confusing.  Both the boys were 8.5lbs and 8.6lbs at birth and by this stage in the pregnancy I had gained about 30ish pounds.  I guess I blame it on chasing 2 toddlers around, and eating much healthier foods.  Still, my OB manages to give me the "I am really concerned" speech every check up.  

Stretch marks?  No new ones yet, although I have a feeling that once I can see my whole self again I will find some.  That, and the ones I already have are most likely getting bigger - o well :-/

Sleep: Mr Man has decided that it's fun to pop my hip out while I am laying down (no joke).  We get it kid, you are big and strong.  I will be laying down on my side when all of a sudden - POP! He will push his legs under my rib cage area and use it as leverage to get his back and arms to push towards my hip (in efforts to stretch out).  Anyways, my leg will fall back dangling (due to really lose ligaments down there) and I spend the next 30 minutes or so whinny and crying trying to get it back/comfortable again.  Paul is less than thrilled when this happens, and will usually just ignore my agonizing pain. 

Best moment this week: Just getting to spend time with the boys - all 3 of them.  By the time the weekend comes I am ready to have Paul's help entertaining the boys and cleaning the house.  The weather was so nice, so we were able to take Braden and Zachy to some of the local parks this weekend.  Running around and playing has the opposite effect on my children than it does most - instead of wearing them out, they get more energy after running around for an hour or 2!
 
Miss Anything? Not really missing anything, just using these last few weeks to prepare the boys for little's arrival and trying to get Braden to step up his big brother helping/behaving game. 
 
Movement: He is super duper cramped, super duper large, and super duper strong.  We still play "guess that limb" and he still is morphing the belly - a lot, as in flipping and rotating almost all day long.  
 
Food cravings: None really...due to his high activity levels, sometimes eating makes me nauseous

Anything making you queasy or sick: Just him moving all the time, I feel like I have a constant belly ache.  Add that with the horrible heart burn I get have 24/7...this mama is ready to call it quits for the night once we get the boys in bed. 

Gender: Boy


Labor Signs: I have contractions here and there.  They are most likely braxton hicks, however, some of them stop me in my tracks.  They have also been coming a bit more frequently which is scaring the crap out of me. 
 
Belly Button in or out? Definitely out - this is the first one that I have had to take my belly button ring out prior to delivery...most likely because he is so large

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and tired - all damn day.  How do people do this! We have been watching a lot of movies and learning shows lately :-/ O well, I am not Super Mom, nor do I have an desire to be. 
 
Looking forward to: If I had to be excited about something right now it would be not having my hip pop randomly in the night...however, PLEASE do not misinturpret that as "I am ready to deliver" because I Paul and I are in no way shape or form ready for little's arrival.


Monday, January 21, 2013

Dinner...from a few weeks ago - whoops!

I know you all would rather be reading about the awesome things my kids are doing, but you will just have to wait until another day for that.

Now onto the post - the other night we had some of our lovely friends over for dinner.  I never want to 'stress out' about making dinner for friends, or put too much pressure on myself, but I do like to make it a little different than just another dinner with the kids.

We got a whole stack of Paleo cookbooks for Christmas and I have been using those quite a bit lately.  I also have been searching pinterest for some different flavor combination inspiration.  I am all about EASY meals, that don't require a whole grocery list of ingredients, but I still want it to taste like I slaved in the kitchen all day.

The original recipe came from Rachel Ray.  I copied most of her post, but added a few notes and took out/added a few different things.  It fed 4 of us for dinner, plus Paul had a little leftover for lunch the next day.

Chicken Lime Soup


Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped (I threw this into the food processor)
  • 1 or 2 Jalapenos - I only used 1, but it could have used a bit more heat (also threw this into the food processor)
  • 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced - we keep a whole bunch of garlic in the fridge, and I used a heaping tablespoon from the jar
  •  9 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into strips (Paul likes meaty soups, and not a lot of broth)
  • 2 of the small cans of green chilies 
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, I might have added a little more..also, I loosely chopped these
  • Juice of 2 limes - the limes we got were huge!  After I juiced both of them it was over 1/2c. of lime juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste at the end...you could also spice it up with red pepper flakes or hot sauce
  • Avocados, sliced, for topping the soup
Directions
  1. In a large saucepan (I used my le creuset that I cook everything in), heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, lower the heat to medium and cook until the onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes.  Toss in the Jalapenos.  Increase the heat to high, push the vegetables to the side of the pan, add the chicken and cook, stirring, until golden, about 7 minutes. Add the chilies, then stir in the chicken broth. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cilantro and lime juice towards the end.  I heated it for about 5-10 more minutes after I added these.  
  2. Serve and top with avocados.  And for a non-paleo treat, you could add some tortilla chips. 


Monday, January 14, 2013

Three Surgeries Before 3

Grr - I hate that my baby has to go through all this, but I do know that this is the best thing for him.

I will back track a little:  When Zachy was 2 months old, we discovered he had an indirect inguinal hernia.  I guess this is fairly common in newborn boys and happens to about 30% of them.  Short WebMD version, an indirect inguinal hernia "results from the failure of embryonic closure of the deep inguinal ring after the testicle has passed through it".  After meeting with doctors and surgeons, we decided to have it repaired on Christmas Eve 2010.  Mainly for insurance purposes, we wanted to get it in before the end of the year, since we already met his deductible and maximum out of pocket for 2010.

Almost exactly 2 years later he had what we all thought was another hernia (or 'her-knee-es' as Braden calls it).  We took him back to his surgeon at Children's Hospital, and sure enough, he felt a hole and saw the bulge we all saw.  Only problem was, why on earth did he get this!?  The hole he felt was a direct inguinal hernia (the kind of hernia 60-70ish year old men get from falling or straining/lifting too much).  Hum...He was going to operate, but before cutting him all the way open, put a scope in there to see what exactly he was dealing with, and why on earth Zach has a hernia like this at age 2.  Also, he was not 100% sure how he was going to repair it.  

Well just a few weeks prior to all this (I am sure you remember) we discovered he needed tubes.  You can read all about those doctors visits here.  So now, Zachy needs 2 surgeries, and Paul and I are freaking out.  We had JUST allotted (what we thought would be) enough money into flex spending for 2013 to cover the tube surgery and the birth of #3.  And of course the deadline was the week before, so there was no way to increase it.  On top of the finances, I didn't want to have to put Zachary under anesthesia twice.  Ideally, we would schedule both of his surgeries at the same time - 1 anesthesia cost, 1 hospital bill, etc.  Which, thank goodness we were able to do this!! 

We ended up having to change ENT doctors (the first didn't want to coordinate surgeries) which was fine, we just didn't know how quickly we could get all of this on the books.  We were thinking that we would have to wait until mid-February/early March to get all this done...but thanks to a persistant mama (that would be me) it all got scheduled for Jan 8th - 1 day sooner than his original tube surgery.  YES - now we are not putting this off until right before #3 is due! 

Jump to surgery day - Nonna drove up to watch Braden and help out around the house a bit, and Paul took the day off work (sorta) to come to the hospital with us.  We woke up at the crack of dawn, checked in and got settled.  I seriously LOVE Children's hospital...it's like they know how to deal specifically with kids and nervous parents or something....weird.  Anyways, all the doctors came in, talked with us, nurses asked a zillion questions, everyone raved about how great Zach was (I am sure they say that to everyone), etc. etc. 

All ready to go
Watching Mickey's Clubhouse
Zachary laughing at Daddy's silly outfit
Paul and I were able to go back with him while they started his anesthesia - which I have to say, was pretty scary.  They tell you want to expect, but you're still not ready for it all.  After he fell asleep it was off to the waiting room for Paul and I.  The surgery was supposed to last about 2 1/2 hours.  After about an hour, Dr Bealer (his pediatric surgeon who was repairing his hernia) came out with a large sheet of images - Oh No - what's going on....

"Zachary did wonderful, and I have some good news"  I am thinking to myself - 'good news...what kind of good news can there be?  Lately, it seems like no news we get is good news!?'  As it turns out, the hole was not really a hole at all.  It's a weak spot in his muscle from his first surgery (which of course only happens about 1% of the time).  He must have had a growth spurt and the natural belly fat thinned out some.  This is why we all saw a hernia, and felt a hole.  We would have never know it was NOT a hole if we had not gone in, to see his abdomen from the inside though.  So I guess you could say the surgery was a success.  Dr B said when he left the OR, they were bringing him down from anesthesia, so we should be able to see him in about 30-45 minutes. 

Next the ENT Dr came out to let us know the tubes went in great, and give us some post-op instructions.  And then the nurse anesthetist...she tells us that during surgery, Zach's oxygen levels kept dropping.  They were able to keep bringing them back up, but we would need to stay in recover a bit longer to ensure he was doing better, and could manage his O2 levels without assistance. 

We finally got to go back once he woke up.  The nurse was again raving about how great he was doing (I am SURE they say this to everyone, but we do know that he really is one of the best kids in the world!).  They moved us to a recovery room where we wait to take him off oxygen and see how he does on his own.  It took a little bit of time, but he eventually got there and back home we went! 

Waking up...still all smiles

A little groggy still...Daddy was trying to talk him into taking deep breaths

Watching Disney, waiting for his oxygen to get above 90...and stay there

....I will recap you on how he did after we made it home another day :)

Friday, January 4, 2013

Happy New Year to us....

...but seriously, New Years Day was a less than happy one!

To begin this little story I will start with New Years Eve.  Great night.  We toasted with some Sparkling Juice around 8pm.  We grabbed whatever brand was on sale at sprouts the night before, little did we know that there were 30g of sugar in each serving!! Holy cow, we were wired! We finally got the boys down for bed around 9.  Paul and I stayed up and watched a little New Years Eve celebrations on TV, and called it a night around 10:30.

This brings me to New Years Days...Paul usually lets me sleep in an extra half hour on the mornings he is home.  What a good man.  The boys helped get breakfast started, and eventually I crawled out of bed.  Only to walk into the kitchen and Paul letting me know that it looked like one of the coke cans exploded in the laundry room because the cardboard box was all wet.

I begin cleaning sopping up liquid.  I got all the cans out of the box and all were intact...hummm, not okay.  3 soaking towels later I looked up....and what did I see??? This.....


A little side note - we own our condo.  It's on the second story of a three story building.  So after calling my mom freaking out (Paul and I are not handy people to say the least).  I quickly filed a claim online with our insurance company.  Paul also went upstairs to see what was going on (since this is most likely coming from their floor).  They insisted they checked and had no water leaks...great? What does this mean?

We called the "clean up crew" to come dry out our laundry room so mold does not start to grow in there.  Of course this is all happening on a holiday!  They actually were very quick to respond and the 2 guys were at hour house only a couple hours later.  They cut off the wet drywall, and set up dryers and dehumidifies in our laundry room.  But something was still leaking in the ceiling!

Paul called our HOA manager to send out a plumber - if the leak was not coming from upstairs then it has to be coming from piping inside the walls, right?  Since it was a holiday, they HOA didn't want to pay the emergency show up fee - blah blah blah.  So the plumber was supposed to come first thing the next morning.  The dripping had slowed down, so we were gambling for the best, and that the open hole in the ceiling would not start pouring water at some point during the night.

By morning it appeared that the dripping had stopped for good.  Great, but where did it come from in the first place.  Trying to cut out boring details, the plumber didn't show up until 2pm...and what does he do....cut!


Basically in so many words he tried to tell me I was crazy and all the pipes were dry and there was no water leaking.  So what do I do, pull out my phone which had many many many photos of all the damage (I didn't want to miss anything for insurance purposes).  He proceeds to cut some more, until he pulls down SOAKING wet insulation - see I am not crazy Mr Plumber Guy.  At this point he had already been upstairs and checked the third floor unit, and had already said, "yup, no leaks".

Well if all the pipes are solid (no open connections or hole he could see), then the water is coming from upstairs, water just does not appear! So back he goes upstairs and does some more inspecting, and WEIRD, he finds a leak in their hot water tank.  The drain coming off of their pressure valve was not lining up with the piping into the ground (aka our ceiling), so water was just spilling into the open spacing between their sub-flooring and our ceiling for who knows how long.

The plumber "fixed" the problem by tacking down their drainage pipe to line up correctly....but now I still have a gaping hole in the laundry room, all the items from the laundry room in my kitchen and bathroom and it's all still trying to dry out!

Needless to say, this mess better get fixed ASAP!  I am already feel claustrophobic in our condo, and now 1 whole room is off limits (at least until all the drying equipment is taken out)...which means laundry is piling up, and my kitchen has been overrun by laundry room items!

AHHHHHHH!!!! I hope everyone else has been having a better 2013 so far, because this is miserable!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

December Photo Journal

Holy Cow! It's 2013!!!  2012 was a fun/busy/exciting/surprising year for all of us over here!  Lots to reflect upon from the year, and quite a lot to look forward to in 2013!  The most exciting will probably be bringing home the newest edition of our family! With that comes lots of stress and changes, but I have a firm belief that everything happening for a reason.  We just need to weigh out all the pros and cons of all the options laid in front of us and make the best decision we can for our {not so little} family of 5!

Lots of preschool
It seems we did a lot this month - so if I already wrote a post on an event/activity, I tried to keep it out of these photos...In no particular order [because this is how they loaded and I don't have time to sort them] - ENJOY! 

Playing a little baseball

Helping mommy make breakfast
So lucky we have had a mild winter and the boys can get outside!


Crazy Kid
Naked Laundry
Playing Wii baseball together



Of course we went to the zoo a few times

Watching the alligator




Cuddle time
White Christmas

...I need to find a 5th family member for my car
Daytime cuddles


"Playing" In the playroom

Chubbies

Showing off their muscles
Coloring

What Fiscal Cliff?
Played in the snow some

Bath time belly pict - this was taken at about 25 weeks I think
family move night
Zachy had a lot of doctors appointments for his ears and "her-ni-es"
Daddy and Braden rolled their first game of Strat-O-Matic
The Redskins are going to the playoffs!

Hail Victory!
Zachy moved into a big boy bed because he finally started climbing out of his crib....

...and so far is doing great!!

And we rang in the New Year the best way possible...at 8pm with some Sparkling Juice :)