Today is certainly more restful than yesterday was, but it has still been eventful.
Returning and picking up vehicles this morning went much smoother than what I did yesterday. The guy at Firestone found the source of the stink, and it wasn't the tires. A plastic Wal-Mart bag was melted to the tailpipe. I don't know how it got there, and we'll just have to live with the smell until the plastic burns off. It was actually very fortunate that the bag caused a smell because it drew attention to our threadbare tires. And while the guys were putting on the tires, they saw that we'll need new front brakes in 3,000-5,000 miles, around the time our car reaches 100,000 miles. I don't know anything about maintaining cars, so nothing short of a big stink would have gotten my attention and caused me to look for problems.
When I looked on Facebook this morning, I saw that Emily, a mom friend of mine, had her baby yesterday. Emily's daughter Charlotte is a month or two month younger than Lucy. When Lucy woke up, I was able to show her pictures of "friend Char" and her new baby brother. The first photo was of the baby in the hospital bassinet. Lucy's response was "Me hold baby." She was also interested in the photo of Charlotte meeting the baby and a bit impressed by the idea of big sisters getting gifts. She seems to really be getting into the baby thing.
I feel sore today after my big walk yesterday. Even the soles of my feet are sore. I'll have to keep an eye on the feet so that I can prevent my plantar fasciitis from flaring up. I'm resting and stretching. The pool felt really good today. The water supported me while I stretched in ways that I couldn't out of the water. Emmie seemed to appreciate the stretching, too.
I hope to get a nap this evening and a good night of sleep tonight. And maybe tomorrow will be even less eventful.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Lord, Have Mercy!
First, I must share that often after I catch myself saying "Lord, have mercy!" or "Good Lord, have mercy!" I begin singing the Kyrie from Schubert's German Mass. I first heard the German Mass while working at/attending Luther Memorial Church in Madison, Wis. They use it in their services at the end of October and beginning of November every year because Reformation Day, All Saints, and Christ the King Sundays, which are all a big deal to the Lutherans, are back to back in the late fall. Luther Memorial hires extra musicians and has all of their choirs participate. The German Mass is beautiful and very singable. I've sung both the Sanctus and the Agnus Dei to Lucy as lullabies. I find that singing a beautiful song that says "Lord, have mercy" tends to dissipate the mood that caused me to say it in the first place. It also gives me some perspective and reconnects me with what is important. Some days you need that.
Today was one of those days. The events of today really started on Saturday morning when I smelled something like a blown out candle when I got out of the car at the grocery store. I thought it was the car next to me and went about my shopping. When I got out of the car at home, I smelled it again. My car was the stinky one. I had noticed the day before that we were overdue for an oil change, so I got Lucy ready and took her to Wal-Mart for two hours while our oil was being changed. I told the ladies at the desk about the smell and asked them when I picked up the keys if the mechanics had noted anything. The mechanics hadn't left any notes (as the ocassionally do), so I hoped that the oil change fixed the smell. It didn't. It was still there on Sunday. I asked advice at church and was told to see a mechanic right away. I showed up at AutoSmart when they opened on Monday morning because even though it can be difficult to get an appointment, they are very good about looking at your car really quickly to give you an idea of whether it is safe to drive until you can have repairs done. Since we had an OB appointment in Louisville on Tuesday, I wanted to make sure the car was safe for that trip. Two guys at AutoSmart looked at the car and found absolutely nothing wrong with it. So I left and stopped at Kroger on the way home because they mark down their perishable items first thing in the morning, and I can get half price milk, bread, yogurt, and produce sometimes. When I got back to my car, I decided to check my tires because it had occurred to me that the smell had started to remind me a little of hot asphalt. Sure enough, I could see steel threads poking through the front driver's side tire, and there seemed to be deep cracks in some of the treads. So on my way home I stopped at Firestone to have someone look at my tires. The guy very quickly said, "You need new front tires." I asked him if they would be safe enough to drive to Louisville." He said, "I wouldn't drive to Louisville on those tires." Well, if he wouldn't I probably shouldn't either. I needed to get home to Lucy so that Matt could get to school, so I left the tire guy my phone number so that he could let me know if they had the tires in stock and when I could get an appointment. It turned out the tires weren't in stock and couldn't get there until Tuesday afternoon, which is when our appointment was. Matt had already cancelled his Tuesday classes so that we could go to the appointment, so rescheduling wasn't a good option. I called Enterprise to find out about renting a car. The cost was reasonable for a one-day rental, so I made plans to drop my car at Firestone on Tuesday morning, have Enterprise pick me up there, and then take the rental home so that Matt could put Lucy's car seat in it. It was going to complicate my day, but it was a reasonable plan.
So I got up earlier than usual this morning to put the plan into motion. Everything was fine with the drop-off. In fact, the tire guy was waiting for me in the parking lot and said he could smell my car before I even got into the lot. It was getting worse, so it was a good thing we were having it fixed. After I gave him my keys, I decided to walk a couple of blocks down Main Street to Harden's Coffee for a Chai Latte while I waited for Enterprise. I called Enterprise during the walk to let them know where I'd be. That's when they told me that they didn't actually have a car to give me yet. They were waiting for two to be returned. It might be an hour or more before they would have one. I decided to go ahead and get the Chai and then try to walk home. I knew that the walk was a little long, but Main Street to campus is a reasonable walk. And campus to home is a reasonable walk. And Matt's office in Carter Hall would be a good place to stop for a rest. So that's what I did. l talked to some friends/Matt's colleagues for a little while until I felt ready to walk home. On the walk home, I called Enterprise again. At approximately 11:00 they told me they still didn't have a car. We needed to leave at 12:30, and Matt still needed to put in the car seat, which doesn't tend to be as easy as it seems it should be. Around 11:30 Enterprise called to say they had just gotten a car and were cleaning it up. By noon I had the car home and Matt was installing the seat. I was exhausted already, and we still had an hour and a half drive and an ultrasound ahead of us.
Part of the reason that renting the car seemed like a good idea is that we are interested in getting a new car. We would like something slightly bigger so that we can fit two car seats and me in the back seat. Our Honda Civic is 11 years old and still in pretty good shape. The fan that blows air from the heater and air conditioning is unreliable, so we have some climate control issues, but we haven't had any major problems with it not caused by armadillo smashings. The rental car was supposed to be a little bigger than our normal car so that we could try it out and see whether we needed slightly bigger than our current car, perhaps a Honda Accord, or even bigger, perhaps a hatchback. We were also going to take this opportunity to turn Lucy's car seat front facing. Enterprise gave us a Ford Focus. We now know that we do not want to purchase a Ford Focus. It seems to have less space than our Honda Civic, and my seatbelt was incredibly difficult to fasten,which is extra frustrating when you feel extra confined. In addition to the irritation of being more squished than normal and significantly more squished than I had expected to be, Lucy was very upset about the new car. She loves her "blue beep." She cried until I was able to distract her with food. So after a more complicated morning attempting to get a car, the car itself was disapppinting.
After we had gotten on the road and eaten the lunch I had packed, I was feeling better. Then Matt asked if I had brought the directions to the doctor's office. Nope. I was so focused on transportation that I had not thought about directions. I thought that I had the clinic's number in my phone, but I didn't. So I went through my phone's call log until I found likely numbers and called them until I found the right one and asked for directions. Fortuneately, the directions worked for us and we arrived on time. Whew!
That brings us to our 2:30 appointment. We had another ultrasound to check Emmie's growth. They took a lot of shots of her heart. She was much more cooperative this time. They didn't say anything more about the calcium deposit in her heart, so it seems like it's no longer a concern. It hasn't caused any problems. They measured her. They estimate that she's 1 lb., 13 oz. I asked the ultrasound tech for a percentile, and she said 32. Below average, but that seemed reasonable. The doctor then came in to talk about concerns about growth restriction. Good Lord, have mercy! Not again! Neil was growth restricted. It's not what killed him, but it caused us a lot of stress. The doctor then started explaining growth restriction to us. Nothing we didn't already know. Her concern was not the 32nd percentile overall but the abdomen measuring in the 9th percentile. I had noticed earlier that they seemed to be using the due date from my last period rather than the one from date of conception that was confirmed by a growth ultrasound at 7-8 weeks. If my due date is June 1 instead of May 25, then they are expecting Emmie to be one week older and bigger than she is. I asked what difference that would make to their percentiles. The doctor had someone call my OB to confirm the change of due date, and it was confirmed. So they refigured, and Emmie is actually in the 44th percentile with an abdomen that is small but within reasonable parameters. So she's not growth restricted after all. The doctor did talk to me about what causes growth restriction. High blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking are not problems I have, so the only cause would be a less-than-adequate placenta. That would mean that my resting is even more important. Emmie gets more blood and more nourishment when I'm sitting than when I'm active. I don't feel terribly active. I try to rest a lot and even feel kind of guilty that Lucy isn't getting as much from me as I'd like. So I'll keep resting just in case my placenta is lazy. I certainly hadn't rested enough so far that day. Emmie was fairly active during the ultrasound, but she was tame compared to her sister. Lucy wanted to look out the window and count cars, and she wanted to draw, and she wanted to explore. Fortunately, the ultrasound tech thought she was really cute and didn't mind her wandering around a little. She didn't even mind cleaning up when Lucy sneezed a mouthful of water ALL OVER the room while she was sitting on Matt's shoulders. She mostly hit one of the monitors that families watch, so at least it wasn't the most expensive equipment. And it was so unexpected and amazingly explosive that everyone in the room laughed. Good Lord! That girls is something else.
Since we leave Campbellsville so infrequently and shopping options are limited in Campbellsville, we tend to stock up on a few things when we get out. We went to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is always so tempting. Everything looks good, and almost everything tastes good, too. There are a couple of things there that I use a lot of. My special drink is sparking water rather than sodas, and they have 1 liter bottles of raspberry lime sparkling water for $0.79. I also get high quality parmesan cheese wedges, the kind with the rind. I actually have a couple of recipes that call for parmesan rind, so I buy the pieces with lots of rind. Really good parmesan can be used sparingly, so as long as I store it properly, it lasts a long time. I also use a lot of their chicken stock concentrate. It is my secret ingredient to soups. There are soups that I have made with regular chicken broth and thought were OK and then made again later with the concentrate and raved about. It makes all the difference. The cost is comparable to buying cans or cartons of stock, but the concentrate comes in little packets that save a lot of space. And I find that I need less concentrate in my water than the packets suggest to get good flavor. Instead of using 5 packets in 5 cups of water, I'll use only 3-4 packets in 5 cups of water. The taste is still fantastic, and it makes the concentrate even more cost effective than cans and cartons. We also really like the cherry cider. If I'm going to drink a caloric beverage, it is likely to be a juice (or an Icee), and cherry cider is fantastic. I did splurge this time and get a couple of boxes of cookies for myself. They are good enough that I can be satisfied with only 1-2 at a time, and I hide them from Lucy so that they last longer. I don't tend to buy desserts for myself, so Trader Joe's cookies are my special treat. I got hazelnut sandwich cookies (two cookies made from ground hazelnuts with nutella in between), Kona coffee shortbread, and lemon thins. I've never had the lemon thins, but I do love a light, crisp lemon cookie. I also got a package of frozen spinach because theirs isn't tough like regular store-bought frozen spinach and a tray of frozen spanikopita (Greek spinach and feta pastries), which are a nice light supper with a salad. One of the Trader Joe's employees was really impressed with Lucy and gave her about 15 stickers as she left. Trader Joe's is one of my happy places, and I think Lucy likes it, too, because of the stickers and food samples. They always have one food and one drink to sample. The drink today was tart cherry juice. I tried a little and said, "That IS tart," and gave the rest to Lucy to try. She took a sip and said, "That tart." Every sip afterwards was declared "tart." I'm not sure if she knows what it means, but it was cute.
The other store I wanted to go to was Target. My primary purpose was buying diapers, but I also found a couple of long sleeve maternity shirts on clearance. I'm hoping to make it to the end of the month in my non-maternity clothes, but I've started getting out some of the maternity shirts because they cover my belly even when I raise my arms. My regular shirts are getting a little short. There are a couple of deals sites that I follow online. One of them is southernsavers.com. One of my favorite things about it is that it puts together a lot of diaper and baby product deals. The site will tell you about a sale and then tell you what coupons to use with it, even giving you links to printable coupons. It's very handy. Target has a deal this week that they will give you a $25 gift card if you spend $100 on diapers and some other baby stuff. So even if you don't use any coupons, you're getting the diapers at 25% off. I printed out coupons to save $3 per package on boxes of Pampers before I left home. The deal on the website came out to $15.75 each for big boxes of diapers that normally sell for $25 at Wal-Mart and Target. That's worth a trip to Target. When I got there, I found they had diapers on clearance, and they would count towards the deal. So I ended up getting even more diapers than planned at a better price per diaper. Another thing I like about southernsavers.com is that the lady who runs it once posted an article about what a good price per diaper is for each size of diaper and also gave recommendations for how many you need if you want to stock up. I got almost 300 size 2 diapers for $.1556 per diaper (within the $0.14-.16 good price range). I also got some size 1 and size 4 diapers. According to my inventory and the southernsavers.com recommendation, we already have about enough size 1 diapers already. We need a few more size 2 and quite a few more size 3 to get through the first year. We'll probably need a few more newborn size, too. This means that we are remarkably prepared for Emmie's arrival. I used the $25 gift card to buy the maternity shirts and a couple of other things. I had enough left over to get an Icee for me and Lucy and enough left from the Icee to get another one in the future.
Before leaving town we ate at J. Gumbo's. Wheel of Fortune was on the TV, and Lucy got excited when she saw it. We watch it at home most nights. She likes it because it's a show about letters. A show where people stand around and say letters that she recognizes is very interesting to her. While she ate supper, her eyes were glued to the TV. I told Matt that when I see her excitement at watching Wheel of Fortune I feel like we're raising our two year old to be an 80 year old. He was fine with that. We made one more stop at Half Price Books, where Lucy and I read a Pete the Cat book we'd never read before. She enjoyed it, so I'm going to add it to her wish list. We left Louisville at around 8:30, and Lucy was asleep within minutes, an hour or two early for her. She slept until we got back into Campbellsville and fell back asleep pretty quickly after we got home. She may be up early tomorrow. I'm sure I will be. I have to return a rental car and pick up our car with its new tires. I hope it doesn't stink anymore.
It was a very full day. It was complicated and tiring at times, but overall it was pretty good. We have more pictures of Emmie, who is healthy and growing. I have Trader Joe's cookies and several more months of diapers for Emmie. I just hope that tomorrow is more restful for all of our sakes.
Today was one of those days. The events of today really started on Saturday morning when I smelled something like a blown out candle when I got out of the car at the grocery store. I thought it was the car next to me and went about my shopping. When I got out of the car at home, I smelled it again. My car was the stinky one. I had noticed the day before that we were overdue for an oil change, so I got Lucy ready and took her to Wal-Mart for two hours while our oil was being changed. I told the ladies at the desk about the smell and asked them when I picked up the keys if the mechanics had noted anything. The mechanics hadn't left any notes (as the ocassionally do), so I hoped that the oil change fixed the smell. It didn't. It was still there on Sunday. I asked advice at church and was told to see a mechanic right away. I showed up at AutoSmart when they opened on Monday morning because even though it can be difficult to get an appointment, they are very good about looking at your car really quickly to give you an idea of whether it is safe to drive until you can have repairs done. Since we had an OB appointment in Louisville on Tuesday, I wanted to make sure the car was safe for that trip. Two guys at AutoSmart looked at the car and found absolutely nothing wrong with it. So I left and stopped at Kroger on the way home because they mark down their perishable items first thing in the morning, and I can get half price milk, bread, yogurt, and produce sometimes. When I got back to my car, I decided to check my tires because it had occurred to me that the smell had started to remind me a little of hot asphalt. Sure enough, I could see steel threads poking through the front driver's side tire, and there seemed to be deep cracks in some of the treads. So on my way home I stopped at Firestone to have someone look at my tires. The guy very quickly said, "You need new front tires." I asked him if they would be safe enough to drive to Louisville." He said, "I wouldn't drive to Louisville on those tires." Well, if he wouldn't I probably shouldn't either. I needed to get home to Lucy so that Matt could get to school, so I left the tire guy my phone number so that he could let me know if they had the tires in stock and when I could get an appointment. It turned out the tires weren't in stock and couldn't get there until Tuesday afternoon, which is when our appointment was. Matt had already cancelled his Tuesday classes so that we could go to the appointment, so rescheduling wasn't a good option. I called Enterprise to find out about renting a car. The cost was reasonable for a one-day rental, so I made plans to drop my car at Firestone on Tuesday morning, have Enterprise pick me up there, and then take the rental home so that Matt could put Lucy's car seat in it. It was going to complicate my day, but it was a reasonable plan.
So I got up earlier than usual this morning to put the plan into motion. Everything was fine with the drop-off. In fact, the tire guy was waiting for me in the parking lot and said he could smell my car before I even got into the lot. It was getting worse, so it was a good thing we were having it fixed. After I gave him my keys, I decided to walk a couple of blocks down Main Street to Harden's Coffee for a Chai Latte while I waited for Enterprise. I called Enterprise during the walk to let them know where I'd be. That's when they told me that they didn't actually have a car to give me yet. They were waiting for two to be returned. It might be an hour or more before they would have one. I decided to go ahead and get the Chai and then try to walk home. I knew that the walk was a little long, but Main Street to campus is a reasonable walk. And campus to home is a reasonable walk. And Matt's office in Carter Hall would be a good place to stop for a rest. So that's what I did. l talked to some friends/Matt's colleagues for a little while until I felt ready to walk home. On the walk home, I called Enterprise again. At approximately 11:00 they told me they still didn't have a car. We needed to leave at 12:30, and Matt still needed to put in the car seat, which doesn't tend to be as easy as it seems it should be. Around 11:30 Enterprise called to say they had just gotten a car and were cleaning it up. By noon I had the car home and Matt was installing the seat. I was exhausted already, and we still had an hour and a half drive and an ultrasound ahead of us.
Part of the reason that renting the car seemed like a good idea is that we are interested in getting a new car. We would like something slightly bigger so that we can fit two car seats and me in the back seat. Our Honda Civic is 11 years old and still in pretty good shape. The fan that blows air from the heater and air conditioning is unreliable, so we have some climate control issues, but we haven't had any major problems with it not caused by armadillo smashings. The rental car was supposed to be a little bigger than our normal car so that we could try it out and see whether we needed slightly bigger than our current car, perhaps a Honda Accord, or even bigger, perhaps a hatchback. We were also going to take this opportunity to turn Lucy's car seat front facing. Enterprise gave us a Ford Focus. We now know that we do not want to purchase a Ford Focus. It seems to have less space than our Honda Civic, and my seatbelt was incredibly difficult to fasten,which is extra frustrating when you feel extra confined. In addition to the irritation of being more squished than normal and significantly more squished than I had expected to be, Lucy was very upset about the new car. She loves her "blue beep." She cried until I was able to distract her with food. So after a more complicated morning attempting to get a car, the car itself was disapppinting.
After we had gotten on the road and eaten the lunch I had packed, I was feeling better. Then Matt asked if I had brought the directions to the doctor's office. Nope. I was so focused on transportation that I had not thought about directions. I thought that I had the clinic's number in my phone, but I didn't. So I went through my phone's call log until I found likely numbers and called them until I found the right one and asked for directions. Fortuneately, the directions worked for us and we arrived on time. Whew!
That brings us to our 2:30 appointment. We had another ultrasound to check Emmie's growth. They took a lot of shots of her heart. She was much more cooperative this time. They didn't say anything more about the calcium deposit in her heart, so it seems like it's no longer a concern. It hasn't caused any problems. They measured her. They estimate that she's 1 lb., 13 oz. I asked the ultrasound tech for a percentile, and she said 32. Below average, but that seemed reasonable. The doctor then came in to talk about concerns about growth restriction. Good Lord, have mercy! Not again! Neil was growth restricted. It's not what killed him, but it caused us a lot of stress. The doctor then started explaining growth restriction to us. Nothing we didn't already know. Her concern was not the 32nd percentile overall but the abdomen measuring in the 9th percentile. I had noticed earlier that they seemed to be using the due date from my last period rather than the one from date of conception that was confirmed by a growth ultrasound at 7-8 weeks. If my due date is June 1 instead of May 25, then they are expecting Emmie to be one week older and bigger than she is. I asked what difference that would make to their percentiles. The doctor had someone call my OB to confirm the change of due date, and it was confirmed. So they refigured, and Emmie is actually in the 44th percentile with an abdomen that is small but within reasonable parameters. So she's not growth restricted after all. The doctor did talk to me about what causes growth restriction. High blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking are not problems I have, so the only cause would be a less-than-adequate placenta. That would mean that my resting is even more important. Emmie gets more blood and more nourishment when I'm sitting than when I'm active. I don't feel terribly active. I try to rest a lot and even feel kind of guilty that Lucy isn't getting as much from me as I'd like. So I'll keep resting just in case my placenta is lazy. I certainly hadn't rested enough so far that day. Emmie was fairly active during the ultrasound, but she was tame compared to her sister. Lucy wanted to look out the window and count cars, and she wanted to draw, and she wanted to explore. Fortunately, the ultrasound tech thought she was really cute and didn't mind her wandering around a little. She didn't even mind cleaning up when Lucy sneezed a mouthful of water ALL OVER the room while she was sitting on Matt's shoulders. She mostly hit one of the monitors that families watch, so at least it wasn't the most expensive equipment. And it was so unexpected and amazingly explosive that everyone in the room laughed. Good Lord! That girls is something else.
Since we leave Campbellsville so infrequently and shopping options are limited in Campbellsville, we tend to stock up on a few things when we get out. We went to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is always so tempting. Everything looks good, and almost everything tastes good, too. There are a couple of things there that I use a lot of. My special drink is sparking water rather than sodas, and they have 1 liter bottles of raspberry lime sparkling water for $0.79. I also get high quality parmesan cheese wedges, the kind with the rind. I actually have a couple of recipes that call for parmesan rind, so I buy the pieces with lots of rind. Really good parmesan can be used sparingly, so as long as I store it properly, it lasts a long time. I also use a lot of their chicken stock concentrate. It is my secret ingredient to soups. There are soups that I have made with regular chicken broth and thought were OK and then made again later with the concentrate and raved about. It makes all the difference. The cost is comparable to buying cans or cartons of stock, but the concentrate comes in little packets that save a lot of space. And I find that I need less concentrate in my water than the packets suggest to get good flavor. Instead of using 5 packets in 5 cups of water, I'll use only 3-4 packets in 5 cups of water. The taste is still fantastic, and it makes the concentrate even more cost effective than cans and cartons. We also really like the cherry cider. If I'm going to drink a caloric beverage, it is likely to be a juice (or an Icee), and cherry cider is fantastic. I did splurge this time and get a couple of boxes of cookies for myself. They are good enough that I can be satisfied with only 1-2 at a time, and I hide them from Lucy so that they last longer. I don't tend to buy desserts for myself, so Trader Joe's cookies are my special treat. I got hazelnut sandwich cookies (two cookies made from ground hazelnuts with nutella in between), Kona coffee shortbread, and lemon thins. I've never had the lemon thins, but I do love a light, crisp lemon cookie. I also got a package of frozen spinach because theirs isn't tough like regular store-bought frozen spinach and a tray of frozen spanikopita (Greek spinach and feta pastries), which are a nice light supper with a salad. One of the Trader Joe's employees was really impressed with Lucy and gave her about 15 stickers as she left. Trader Joe's is one of my happy places, and I think Lucy likes it, too, because of the stickers and food samples. They always have one food and one drink to sample. The drink today was tart cherry juice. I tried a little and said, "That IS tart," and gave the rest to Lucy to try. She took a sip and said, "That tart." Every sip afterwards was declared "tart." I'm not sure if she knows what it means, but it was cute.
The other store I wanted to go to was Target. My primary purpose was buying diapers, but I also found a couple of long sleeve maternity shirts on clearance. I'm hoping to make it to the end of the month in my non-maternity clothes, but I've started getting out some of the maternity shirts because they cover my belly even when I raise my arms. My regular shirts are getting a little short. There are a couple of deals sites that I follow online. One of them is southernsavers.com. One of my favorite things about it is that it puts together a lot of diaper and baby product deals. The site will tell you about a sale and then tell you what coupons to use with it, even giving you links to printable coupons. It's very handy. Target has a deal this week that they will give you a $25 gift card if you spend $100 on diapers and some other baby stuff. So even if you don't use any coupons, you're getting the diapers at 25% off. I printed out coupons to save $3 per package on boxes of Pampers before I left home. The deal on the website came out to $15.75 each for big boxes of diapers that normally sell for $25 at Wal-Mart and Target. That's worth a trip to Target. When I got there, I found they had diapers on clearance, and they would count towards the deal. So I ended up getting even more diapers than planned at a better price per diaper. Another thing I like about southernsavers.com is that the lady who runs it once posted an article about what a good price per diaper is for each size of diaper and also gave recommendations for how many you need if you want to stock up. I got almost 300 size 2 diapers for $.1556 per diaper (within the $0.14-.16 good price range). I also got some size 1 and size 4 diapers. According to my inventory and the southernsavers.com recommendation, we already have about enough size 1 diapers already. We need a few more size 2 and quite a few more size 3 to get through the first year. We'll probably need a few more newborn size, too. This means that we are remarkably prepared for Emmie's arrival. I used the $25 gift card to buy the maternity shirts and a couple of other things. I had enough left over to get an Icee for me and Lucy and enough left from the Icee to get another one in the future.
Before leaving town we ate at J. Gumbo's. Wheel of Fortune was on the TV, and Lucy got excited when she saw it. We watch it at home most nights. She likes it because it's a show about letters. A show where people stand around and say letters that she recognizes is very interesting to her. While she ate supper, her eyes were glued to the TV. I told Matt that when I see her excitement at watching Wheel of Fortune I feel like we're raising our two year old to be an 80 year old. He was fine with that. We made one more stop at Half Price Books, where Lucy and I read a Pete the Cat book we'd never read before. She enjoyed it, so I'm going to add it to her wish list. We left Louisville at around 8:30, and Lucy was asleep within minutes, an hour or two early for her. She slept until we got back into Campbellsville and fell back asleep pretty quickly after we got home. She may be up early tomorrow. I'm sure I will be. I have to return a rental car and pick up our car with its new tires. I hope it doesn't stink anymore.
It was a very full day. It was complicated and tiring at times, but overall it was pretty good. We have more pictures of Emmie, who is healthy and growing. I have Trader Joe's cookies and several more months of diapers for Emmie. I just hope that tomorrow is more restful for all of our sakes.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
This Week in Lucy: Mid-February Edition
Lucy has had another big week. Here's another sample of her accomplishments.
She jumped into the pool without her life vest (I forgot to put it on her) and instead of bobbing just below the surface as she has in the past, she threw her head back and kept paddling until she reached the side of the pool. LUCY SWAM INDEPENDENTLY! She wasn't happy about it, and I put her in her vest right away, but she can do it.
That same day she counted out five pool rings. Today she kind of counted the ten pairs of socks she threw around her bedroom. She said five again instead of seven, but she continued on with eight as she should have. I was impressed. I let the sock throwing go in the interest of mathematical progress.
Lucy has started caring for one of her dolls, perhaps inspired by watching Daniel Tiger take care of his little sister on television. She pretended that the baby cried, and she comforted it. Then she decided that the baby was hungry. I suggested she get a bottle from her toy box, and she ran off. A few minutes later she came back with a knob of ginger root from the refrigerator. Apparently, that's what babies eat. Then she went to find the baby a drink and asked Matt for some orange juice for her baby. Later she had a tea party with Matt and her baby. She blew on the tea cup before giving it to the baby, but the baby's mouth got burned anyway. It happens. At dinner that night, she decided that baby should sit in her high chair. Then Lucy sat down on top of her and ate spaghetti and meatballs. Later that night she put baby to bed, pulled the blanket over her, and sat down in the recliner to read a book while baby fell asleep. That's how Matt and I do it. She also read baby Curious George in the Snow. The next day I got on of the bouncy seats from upstairs, and Lucy insisted on snapping her baby into it. Baby is there right now. Her record of caring for the baby is mixed, but at least she's interested.
Last night Lucy did bedtime without mama and didn't mind a bit. She knew I wasn't there, commented on it, but lay down and fell asleep anyway. I'm free! For the first time in about two and a half years I'm free! (Just in time to start over again with another one.) Sometime this week we'll try bedtime without either parent staying with her to see how she handles it. If she can do that, then the only hurdles left are sleeping in a bed other than her own and having absolutely no parental contact at bedtime. We'll work our way there by May so that she's OK staying with Shawn and Susie while I'm in the hospital.
She finally said her name when asked. It came out as Oo-sie, but she can do it. Motivation, as always with Lucy, is a bigger problem than ability.
She has started saying something that sounds like "yellow" but still refuses to say purple.
She still hides her face when Oscar, the janitor for the building with the swimming pool, talks to her, but this week she started talking about him: "O-car clean door." We saw him after swimming, and I told him that she had started talking about him. He got her a sucker. He's determined to win her over. Fortunately, he's a very nice man and a friendly acquaintance of mine.
Lucy is doing a better job of playing in the "baby cage" at church and not running around. We insist on having her in service so that she will get used to it and gradually integrate into it. She used to fuss if we made her stay in the baby cage, but now she plays with me and the toys fairly quietly for most of the service. The next step will be getting her to play quietly out of the baby cage. Eventually, she can work her way through Bible coloring books and simple participation in the service, such as saying "Amen" at the end of prayers. She's also started paying attention to how I participate in the service, watching me sing hymns and recite the creed. It's progress.
She is really into likes to write and draw, both are among her new words. Last week she drew a picture of a scribbled oval, and I asked her what it was. "A egg," she said. Sure enough, it looked like an egg. I asked her to draw a few more, and she did. Today she told Matt that her picture was of a book. It didn't look particularly bookish, but she's got the idea that pictures can represent objects and that she can create those representations.
She is also really into dancing recently. She requests music before bed some nights, and we let her dance off some of her excess energy to a classical music CD called "Quietude." Sometimes she twirls; sometimes she swings her elbows like she's at a hoedown. It was hilarious to see her hoedown dance to Bach's Toccata and Fugue.
Yesterday she did a couple of impressive somersaults, perfectly straight with chin tucked. She may have gotten some tips on that from watching The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That on PBS.
She's growing so quickly in so many ways. We regularly hit bumps along the way, but I always see a trajectory of progress.
She jumped into the pool without her life vest (I forgot to put it on her) and instead of bobbing just below the surface as she has in the past, she threw her head back and kept paddling until she reached the side of the pool. LUCY SWAM INDEPENDENTLY! She wasn't happy about it, and I put her in her vest right away, but she can do it.
That same day she counted out five pool rings. Today she kind of counted the ten pairs of socks she threw around her bedroom. She said five again instead of seven, but she continued on with eight as she should have. I was impressed. I let the sock throwing go in the interest of mathematical progress.
Lucy has started caring for one of her dolls, perhaps inspired by watching Daniel Tiger take care of his little sister on television. She pretended that the baby cried, and she comforted it. Then she decided that the baby was hungry. I suggested she get a bottle from her toy box, and she ran off. A few minutes later she came back with a knob of ginger root from the refrigerator. Apparently, that's what babies eat. Then she went to find the baby a drink and asked Matt for some orange juice for her baby. Later she had a tea party with Matt and her baby. She blew on the tea cup before giving it to the baby, but the baby's mouth got burned anyway. It happens. At dinner that night, she decided that baby should sit in her high chair. Then Lucy sat down on top of her and ate spaghetti and meatballs. Later that night she put baby to bed, pulled the blanket over her, and sat down in the recliner to read a book while baby fell asleep. That's how Matt and I do it. She also read baby Curious George in the Snow. The next day I got on of the bouncy seats from upstairs, and Lucy insisted on snapping her baby into it. Baby is there right now. Her record of caring for the baby is mixed, but at least she's interested.
Last night Lucy did bedtime without mama and didn't mind a bit. She knew I wasn't there, commented on it, but lay down and fell asleep anyway. I'm free! For the first time in about two and a half years I'm free! (Just in time to start over again with another one.) Sometime this week we'll try bedtime without either parent staying with her to see how she handles it. If she can do that, then the only hurdles left are sleeping in a bed other than her own and having absolutely no parental contact at bedtime. We'll work our way there by May so that she's OK staying with Shawn and Susie while I'm in the hospital.
She finally said her name when asked. It came out as Oo-sie, but she can do it. Motivation, as always with Lucy, is a bigger problem than ability.
She has started saying something that sounds like "yellow" but still refuses to say purple.
She still hides her face when Oscar, the janitor for the building with the swimming pool, talks to her, but this week she started talking about him: "O-car clean door." We saw him after swimming, and I told him that she had started talking about him. He got her a sucker. He's determined to win her over. Fortunately, he's a very nice man and a friendly acquaintance of mine.
Lucy is doing a better job of playing in the "baby cage" at church and not running around. We insist on having her in service so that she will get used to it and gradually integrate into it. She used to fuss if we made her stay in the baby cage, but now she plays with me and the toys fairly quietly for most of the service. The next step will be getting her to play quietly out of the baby cage. Eventually, she can work her way through Bible coloring books and simple participation in the service, such as saying "Amen" at the end of prayers. She's also started paying attention to how I participate in the service, watching me sing hymns and recite the creed. It's progress.
She is really into likes to write and draw, both are among her new words. Last week she drew a picture of a scribbled oval, and I asked her what it was. "A egg," she said. Sure enough, it looked like an egg. I asked her to draw a few more, and she did. Today she told Matt that her picture was of a book. It didn't look particularly bookish, but she's got the idea that pictures can represent objects and that she can create those representations.
She is also really into dancing recently. She requests music before bed some nights, and we let her dance off some of her excess energy to a classical music CD called "Quietude." Sometimes she twirls; sometimes she swings her elbows like she's at a hoedown. It was hilarious to see her hoedown dance to Bach's Toccata and Fugue.
Yesterday she did a couple of impressive somersaults, perfectly straight with chin tucked. She may have gotten some tips on that from watching The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That on PBS.
She's growing so quickly in so many ways. We regularly hit bumps along the way, but I always see a trajectory of progress.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Live-Blogging the Three-Hour Blood Glucose Test
8:02 a.m.
I arrived at the doctor's office and picked up my lab orders. I'm the only patient here, so I should be able to get in quickly. That will probably be the only quick thing about this morning. I ate half a peanut butter sandwich, a few apple slices, and some milk at 11:15 last night. At this point I've been fasting 8.5 hours.
8:10
First blood draw is done, and orange flavored glucose water was consumed. The lab lady asked what I scored the first time. When I told her 137, she looked at me funny. I asked if that was bad. She said that it's a passing score. I thought 125 was the cut off, but it's 139 for pregnant women. She thought I must not have been told the right number, so she checked my file. Sure enough, I scored 137, two points below the cut off. I PASSED THE 1-HOUR BLOOD GLUCOSE TEST!!! I knew this would happen! I knew that if I was anywhere close to the line, I'd have to do the 3-hour test! And it happened. Ugh! The lab lady tried to make it sound like this was normal and due diligence, but the look on her face when I told her my score leads me to believe that having me do this 3-hour test is unusually cautious. Now I'm feeling grumpy as well as tired. Fortunately, I'm not yet hungry.
8:35
I am also now feeling nauseated. The spike in blood sugar on an empty stomach is making me feel ick. I'm not sure what will happen if I throw up. I'm not sure if they'll make me drink again or tell me to come home another day. NOT GOING TO VOMIT! I'm looking up anti-nausea pressure points. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a try, and I don't have many options available.
8:50
A couple of ladies just sat down next to me with breakfast from McDonalds. It's a good thing I'm not yet hungry. If they did that a couple hours from now, I might have to be restrained. The nausea is better, but I'm belching orange-flavored glucose water. My stomach is not exactly settled.
9:10
Second blood draw is done.
9:45
Starting to get hungry. Fortunately, I'm about halfway through the test. I've got leftover peanut putter sandwich and apple slices for after the test. That will at least hold me until I can pick up some KFC on the way home. Looking forward to it while trying not to think about it.
I bought some post-Valentine's clearance chocolates yesterday. We'll break those out tonight to celebrate my completing the blood glucose testing gauntlet. I was that confident about passing this one. Even more so now that I know I passed the last one.
I've been passing the time by reading things on Facebook, typing this blog entry, or reading Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. It's the first book of a series that includes a Newberry Honor Book and a Newberry Winner. I may end up writing another blog about Lucy while I'm here.
10:25
Third blood draw is done. She switched to the other arm because the first first arm had a tiny bruise after being stuck twice and the vein was feeling squishy.
Alia, who has watched Lucy a few times on campus, is coming to our house this morning to watch Lucy. Matt is skipping office hours, and I'll try to get home as soon as possible, but we were afraid there would be 15-30 minutes between parents, which is not acceptable when caring for a two year old. If she were ten, we'd be OK, but she's two, and so we got a baby sitter. It didn't seem worth Alia's time for me to ask her to come for only half an hour, so she's going to be there an hour and a half. Matt will be able to get ready without watching Lucy. I don't have to hurry quite as much. Lucy gets a playmate, and Alia (who graduated in December with a theater degree) gets a little spending money. It's working for all of us. Alia is adopted family to Susie, and Susie is adopted family to us, so Alia is extended adopted family.
Emmie has been quiet but not exactly still this morning. She kicks enough to let me know she's OK. I expect her to perk up when we get to eat again. One more hour to go!
11:20
All done! The lab lady told me it was nice to do a 3-hour glucose test with someone pleasant. There was no reason to be unpleasant with her. It's not her fault that I had to get up early, fast for 12 hours, sit around a waiting room for three hours, and have blood taken from both arms a total of 4 times. That's Dr. Reynolds' fault.
12:05 p.m.
Home at last! Lucy had a good morning with Alia. Lucy wanted lots of hugs when I got home and talked to me about how mommy went to the doctor outside in the beep. I was gone when she woke up, so this story is how she made sense of her life this morning. On the way out of Lebanon, I stopped at KFC for some food. I had eaten half a peanut butter sandwich and some apple slices within minutes of ending my test, but I knew I needed something more. I also stopped for a chocolate sundae cone, which I ate on the road. I was crazy hungry.
7:00 p.m.
I just got up from a two-hour nap. I was exhausted. After lunch, I played with Lucy and continued to eat anything that looked good. I didn't overdo it. But I ate a couple handfuls of apple cinnamon Cheerios before my nap and just had some shredded mozzarella from the bag while prepping a frozen pizza for supper. It's been a long day. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep and a slower day tomorrow.
I arrived at the doctor's office and picked up my lab orders. I'm the only patient here, so I should be able to get in quickly. That will probably be the only quick thing about this morning. I ate half a peanut butter sandwich, a few apple slices, and some milk at 11:15 last night. At this point I've been fasting 8.5 hours.
8:10
First blood draw is done, and orange flavored glucose water was consumed. The lab lady asked what I scored the first time. When I told her 137, she looked at me funny. I asked if that was bad. She said that it's a passing score. I thought 125 was the cut off, but it's 139 for pregnant women. She thought I must not have been told the right number, so she checked my file. Sure enough, I scored 137, two points below the cut off. I PASSED THE 1-HOUR BLOOD GLUCOSE TEST!!! I knew this would happen! I knew that if I was anywhere close to the line, I'd have to do the 3-hour test! And it happened. Ugh! The lab lady tried to make it sound like this was normal and due diligence, but the look on her face when I told her my score leads me to believe that having me do this 3-hour test is unusually cautious. Now I'm feeling grumpy as well as tired. Fortunately, I'm not yet hungry.
8:35
I am also now feeling nauseated. The spike in blood sugar on an empty stomach is making me feel ick. I'm not sure what will happen if I throw up. I'm not sure if they'll make me drink again or tell me to come home another day. NOT GOING TO VOMIT! I'm looking up anti-nausea pressure points. I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a try, and I don't have many options available.
8:50
A couple of ladies just sat down next to me with breakfast from McDonalds. It's a good thing I'm not yet hungry. If they did that a couple hours from now, I might have to be restrained. The nausea is better, but I'm belching orange-flavored glucose water. My stomach is not exactly settled.
9:10
Second blood draw is done.
9:45
Starting to get hungry. Fortunately, I'm about halfway through the test. I've got leftover peanut putter sandwich and apple slices for after the test. That will at least hold me until I can pick up some KFC on the way home. Looking forward to it while trying not to think about it.
I bought some post-Valentine's clearance chocolates yesterday. We'll break those out tonight to celebrate my completing the blood glucose testing gauntlet. I was that confident about passing this one. Even more so now that I know I passed the last one.
I've been passing the time by reading things on Facebook, typing this blog entry, or reading Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. It's the first book of a series that includes a Newberry Honor Book and a Newberry Winner. I may end up writing another blog about Lucy while I'm here.
10:25
Third blood draw is done. She switched to the other arm because the first first arm had a tiny bruise after being stuck twice and the vein was feeling squishy.
Alia, who has watched Lucy a few times on campus, is coming to our house this morning to watch Lucy. Matt is skipping office hours, and I'll try to get home as soon as possible, but we were afraid there would be 15-30 minutes between parents, which is not acceptable when caring for a two year old. If she were ten, we'd be OK, but she's two, and so we got a baby sitter. It didn't seem worth Alia's time for me to ask her to come for only half an hour, so she's going to be there an hour and a half. Matt will be able to get ready without watching Lucy. I don't have to hurry quite as much. Lucy gets a playmate, and Alia (who graduated in December with a theater degree) gets a little spending money. It's working for all of us. Alia is adopted family to Susie, and Susie is adopted family to us, so Alia is extended adopted family.
Emmie has been quiet but not exactly still this morning. She kicks enough to let me know she's OK. I expect her to perk up when we get to eat again. One more hour to go!
11:20
All done! The lab lady told me it was nice to do a 3-hour glucose test with someone pleasant. There was no reason to be unpleasant with her. It's not her fault that I had to get up early, fast for 12 hours, sit around a waiting room for three hours, and have blood taken from both arms a total of 4 times. That's Dr. Reynolds' fault.
12:05 p.m.
Home at last! Lucy had a good morning with Alia. Lucy wanted lots of hugs when I got home and talked to me about how mommy went to the doctor outside in the beep. I was gone when she woke up, so this story is how she made sense of her life this morning. On the way out of Lebanon, I stopped at KFC for some food. I had eaten half a peanut butter sandwich and some apple slices within minutes of ending my test, but I knew I needed something more. I also stopped for a chocolate sundae cone, which I ate on the road. I was crazy hungry.
7:00 p.m.
I just got up from a two-hour nap. I was exhausted. After lunch, I played with Lucy and continued to eat anything that looked good. I didn't overdo it. But I ate a couple handfuls of apple cinnamon Cheerios before my nap and just had some shredded mozzarella from the bag while prepping a frozen pizza for supper. It's been a long day. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep and a slower day tomorrow.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Let's Try That Again
I failed the one-hour blood glucose test just as I did when I was pregnant with Lucy. I've scheduled a babysitter to keep Lucy next Tuesday so that I can take the 3-hour blood glucose test. It's no fun at all. I really have to make sure I get that 11:30 p.m. snack because I won't be able to eat until after 11 a.m. I expect to pass the 3-hour one as I did when I was pregnant with Lucy. I'd hate to have another complication to add to my advanced maternal age and short, soft cervix. Every new problem ratchets up the subconscious stress that becomes conscious when I get too tired, which I have been lately.
Lucy has been a handful for the last 24 hours. More than once I've been in a situation where she refuses to do what I ask or command even when I offer reason and/or incentives. She is 2 after all. In the past, I probably would have physically removed her from a situation, which tends to move her past her stubbornness and reset the situation. But I can't move her without risking straining myself. It leaves me feeling kind of helpless. Today she refused to go down the attic stairs, and I couldn't get past her or carry her down. And then I started getting light headed. And so I sat down on a step and cried. Lucy said "Mommy sad" and laid her head on my lap, which was sweet but unhelpful. I told her I was frustrated because I was trying to keep us safe, but I couldn't keep us safe if she wouldn't go down the steps like I asked her to. That didn't convince her. Eventually, she saw something on a lower step that she wanted and went down a few steps. Then she stood up to put her hat on, which sometimes knocks her over even when she's not standing on stairs, so I took away the hat and threw it to the hallway at the bottom of the stairs to give her a reason to go down. It didn't work. She sat down on a step and cried and said, "Me sad." I explained why I did it and pointed out she could have the hat if she would just go downstairs. That didn't help. She just had to be sad for a little while, which still left me stranded on the stairs. After a while, she went down a few more steps and got to within three steps from the bottom. By this point I really needed to go to the bathroom, so I held her arm and guided her her down. I didn't lift her, but I man-handled her a bit. I didn't want to do that higher on the stairs because if I had lost my grip she would have fallen down the stairs. I decided she'd probably be OK if she fell down only two steps. Fortunately, she didn't fall. She wasn't happy with me, but I was really glad to be off of the steps.
When I feel helpless, I wonder if spanking would get better results. I know that in the moment, it would not make the situation better. She would sit down and cry, and I'm pretty sure being hit my mommy would make her more sad than having mommy throw her hat down the stairs. I'd still be on the stairs if I'd spanked her. I don't want her to bury that sadness and get used to mommy hitting her. That's horrible. So I wouldn't want to spank her for anything less than something dangerous. Associating a dangerous situation with fear and pain wouldn't necessarily be bad. My appeal to safety would be more persuasive if she had a better understanding of risk and fear, but she's two and made of rubber. But spanking her in unsafe situations doesn't necessarily make the situation safer in the moment, which is more important than teaching a lesson. And spanking after the danger has passed would associate safety after danger with pain and fear. That's not what I want either. But let's be honest, part of the reason that spanking occurs to me when I feel helpless is because I want to do something and I feel angry that a child has made me feel helpless. Hitting Lucy would satisfy that angry part of me for a second. But hitting out of anger is definitely not OK. It's not good for her or me. So I'll just have to be the adult and deal with the frustration and anger of feeling helpless. And I'll keep thinking of ways to get Lucy to comply quickly in dangerous situations.
Well, that post departed sharply from blood glucose testing. I guess it's all about my mental state. I'll feel better with more sleep, which I plan to get this weekend.
Lucy has been a handful for the last 24 hours. More than once I've been in a situation where she refuses to do what I ask or command even when I offer reason and/or incentives. She is 2 after all. In the past, I probably would have physically removed her from a situation, which tends to move her past her stubbornness and reset the situation. But I can't move her without risking straining myself. It leaves me feeling kind of helpless. Today she refused to go down the attic stairs, and I couldn't get past her or carry her down. And then I started getting light headed. And so I sat down on a step and cried. Lucy said "Mommy sad" and laid her head on my lap, which was sweet but unhelpful. I told her I was frustrated because I was trying to keep us safe, but I couldn't keep us safe if she wouldn't go down the steps like I asked her to. That didn't convince her. Eventually, she saw something on a lower step that she wanted and went down a few steps. Then she stood up to put her hat on, which sometimes knocks her over even when she's not standing on stairs, so I took away the hat and threw it to the hallway at the bottom of the stairs to give her a reason to go down. It didn't work. She sat down on a step and cried and said, "Me sad." I explained why I did it and pointed out she could have the hat if she would just go downstairs. That didn't help. She just had to be sad for a little while, which still left me stranded on the stairs. After a while, she went down a few more steps and got to within three steps from the bottom. By this point I really needed to go to the bathroom, so I held her arm and guided her her down. I didn't lift her, but I man-handled her a bit. I didn't want to do that higher on the stairs because if I had lost my grip she would have fallen down the stairs. I decided she'd probably be OK if she fell down only two steps. Fortunately, she didn't fall. She wasn't happy with me, but I was really glad to be off of the steps.
When I feel helpless, I wonder if spanking would get better results. I know that in the moment, it would not make the situation better. She would sit down and cry, and I'm pretty sure being hit my mommy would make her more sad than having mommy throw her hat down the stairs. I'd still be on the stairs if I'd spanked her. I don't want her to bury that sadness and get used to mommy hitting her. That's horrible. So I wouldn't want to spank her for anything less than something dangerous. Associating a dangerous situation with fear and pain wouldn't necessarily be bad. My appeal to safety would be more persuasive if she had a better understanding of risk and fear, but she's two and made of rubber. But spanking her in unsafe situations doesn't necessarily make the situation safer in the moment, which is more important than teaching a lesson. And spanking after the danger has passed would associate safety after danger with pain and fear. That's not what I want either. But let's be honest, part of the reason that spanking occurs to me when I feel helpless is because I want to do something and I feel angry that a child has made me feel helpless. Hitting Lucy would satisfy that angry part of me for a second. But hitting out of anger is definitely not OK. It's not good for her or me. So I'll just have to be the adult and deal with the frustration and anger of feeling helpless. And I'll keep thinking of ways to get Lucy to comply quickly in dangerous situations.
Well, that post departed sharply from blood glucose testing. I guess it's all about my mental state. I'll feel better with more sleep, which I plan to get this weekend.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
She Really Is This Interesting
I feel like I've posted more about Lucy in the last few months than in the preceding year. But I've realized it's because she's growing and changing and learning so quickly. I mean, she spent months and months walking and babbling. Now she's adding new words to her vocabulary and new skills DAILY. Here's a sample of what she's done just in the last week.
She started using past tense verbs. She very clearly said "Me jumped" instead of "Me jump" after jumping off of a box that I told her not to jump off of. We were proud of the linguistic leap, not so proud of the disobedience. We don't expect progress in all areas at the same time.
She got into the silverware drawer and got herself a spoon to eat yogurt. This was an improvement over chucking yogurt at me to let me know she was hungry. I had thought that she was too short to get into the silverware drawer. Boy was I surprised! What was even better was that she didn't just get yogurt for herself. She also got one for me and had it sitting at my place at the table. She had tried to reach a spoon for me, too, but it was too far back in the drawer.
She has started saying my and mine instead of me. She doesn't do it all the time, but she has shown she knows how to use possessive pronouns.
She spontaneously counted three baked potatoes as I took them out of the oven. It's the highest she's counted, and she did it without being prompted.
She has started playing "near and far" with Daddy in the study. It took a couple of minutes to figure out what she was doing because she had never said near or far before. She runs up to him and says "near" and then runs to the other side of the room and says "far." She then repeats this several times and thinks it's a fun game. I used to play something similar with her in the swimming pool when she was very little, but that's been a while.
Her vocabulary has allowed her to talk about rockets that go into space, "up, up a moon" when she plays with her toy cars, trains, and planes. She likes to talk about her remote control (which sounds like "a moat troll") that doesn't do anything because it goes with a now-defunct stereo. Yesterday she spill(ed) water ("ice") on the floor and needed to wipe it to clean it. I was also impressed that she took responsibility for her small mess and wanted to clean it up.
She is describing things by naming color as she talks about them. For example, she'll request the green dup (cup). The color is now an important attribute. She still refuses to say "yellow" and "purple" although she can correctly point to things that are yellow and purple if you ask (and she's in the mood to perform).
She also has told us brief stories about things that have happened to her. For example, one time she was outside in the snow throw(ing) snowballs and fall (fell) on her back. She talks about the "rahr on dat feevee," which is an animated tiger on a law office TV commercial that always scares her.
She has a couple of times told me that characters on TV or in books were sad. She recognizes the emotion in others, which is perhaps proto-empathy.
She is answering questions about what happens in the books and not just naming things in pictures, and it's not just BooBoo anymore. Tonight she was telling me about how rabbit and mouse fry (fly) a plane and crash tree in My Friend Rabbit, a book that we read for the first time a few days ago.
She did all of this in the last week, and that's just what I can remember. It's a lot of fun to interact with her and see what she'll do next. Every once in a while she'll say something unexpected, and I'll hug her and tell her "I love to hear your words." She is very quickly growing into a caring, responsible, articulate little girl.
She started using past tense verbs. She very clearly said "Me jumped" instead of "Me jump" after jumping off of a box that I told her not to jump off of. We were proud of the linguistic leap, not so proud of the disobedience. We don't expect progress in all areas at the same time.
She got into the silverware drawer and got herself a spoon to eat yogurt. This was an improvement over chucking yogurt at me to let me know she was hungry. I had thought that she was too short to get into the silverware drawer. Boy was I surprised! What was even better was that she didn't just get yogurt for herself. She also got one for me and had it sitting at my place at the table. She had tried to reach a spoon for me, too, but it was too far back in the drawer.
She has started saying my and mine instead of me. She doesn't do it all the time, but she has shown she knows how to use possessive pronouns.
She spontaneously counted three baked potatoes as I took them out of the oven. It's the highest she's counted, and she did it without being prompted.
She has started playing "near and far" with Daddy in the study. It took a couple of minutes to figure out what she was doing because she had never said near or far before. She runs up to him and says "near" and then runs to the other side of the room and says "far." She then repeats this several times and thinks it's a fun game. I used to play something similar with her in the swimming pool when she was very little, but that's been a while.
Her vocabulary has allowed her to talk about rockets that go into space, "up, up a moon" when she plays with her toy cars, trains, and planes. She likes to talk about her remote control (which sounds like "a moat troll") that doesn't do anything because it goes with a now-defunct stereo. Yesterday she spill(ed) water ("ice") on the floor and needed to wipe it to clean it. I was also impressed that she took responsibility for her small mess and wanted to clean it up.
She is describing things by naming color as she talks about them. For example, she'll request the green dup (cup). The color is now an important attribute. She still refuses to say "yellow" and "purple" although she can correctly point to things that are yellow and purple if you ask (and she's in the mood to perform).
She also has told us brief stories about things that have happened to her. For example, one time she was outside in the snow throw(ing) snowballs and fall (fell) on her back. She talks about the "rahr on dat feevee," which is an animated tiger on a law office TV commercial that always scares her.
She has a couple of times told me that characters on TV or in books were sad. She recognizes the emotion in others, which is perhaps proto-empathy.
She is answering questions about what happens in the books and not just naming things in pictures, and it's not just BooBoo anymore. Tonight she was telling me about how rabbit and mouse fry (fly) a plane and crash tree in My Friend Rabbit, a book that we read for the first time a few days ago.
She did all of this in the last week, and that's just what I can remember. It's a lot of fun to interact with her and see what she'll do next. Every once in a while she'll say something unexpected, and I'll hug her and tell her "I love to hear your words." She is very quickly growing into a caring, responsible, articulate little girl.
Emmie's Ash Wednesday Fast
By an interesting coincidence of scheduling, Emmie and I started fasting at midnight on Ash Wednesday for a blood glucose test. The fasting made a long morning feel even longer. Actually, a short night also made the morning feel extra long.
We ate dinner around 8:00 last night, and I fell asleep when Lucy did at 10:30. I didn't wake up until 2:00, so I missed my opportunity for an 11:30 snack. That meant that my 8-hour fast ended up being a 12-hour fast. At around 3:00 Lucy woke up as she typically does and got into bed with me. Unfortunately, she couldn't settle and cried inconsolably. We gave her some ibuprofen, but that didn't help. We couldn't figure out if her legs hurt or if her belly hurt or if she had had a bad dream or if her pajamas were bothering her. All seemed like possibilities because of the way she acted. She climbed out of bed, walked into the hall, look confused, and cried some more. She refused to go back to bed, so we went to her room. I changed her from footie pajamas to her Elmo Abby pajamas. She cuddled up next to me in the chair and after about half an hour finally fell asleep still gasping and hiccuping from all of the crying. That was around 5:00. I waited a while before moving her to her bed. Sometime during the 2+ hours of soothing Lucy, Emmie became active. She might have been bothered by my rumbling stomach. Or she may have been reacting to Lucy's cries. I've noticed her being more active when Lucy cries. I'm not sure if she's sympathetic and offering comfort or irritated by the noise. I've also considered that she thinks there's a riot and is trying to join in. Eventually, she settled down, too, and I got another hour or so of sleep before I needed to get up, drive to Lebanon, and get my blood tested.
I got ready quickly and discovered that my phone was missing. I called my cell phone from our home phone and narrowed the location to the study. I still had trouble finding it and had to call myself five more times before I found it in the bag with Lucy's toy cars, rolled into the play mat quilt that Grandma made her. I finally got on the road, driving slowly because of road conditions. Several times it started snowing again. By the time I arrived at the doctor's office, I was exhausted from focusing so intently on the road.
The blood test went fairly quickly. Hopefully, I did really well. I have a feeling that if I'm within normal range but not close to ideal, then I'll have to take the longer test because our doctor is being so cautious. If I didn't pass, I'll get a call sometime this week. In addition to the blood test, I had an appointment this morning.The nurse weighed me (down a pound thanks to the pool being open again) and took my blood pressure (normal). I saw the nurse practitioner. Apparently, my trip to the emergency room last week was not in my records. When I told the nurse practitioner about it, she asked if they did an ultrasound. They didn't, so she ordered one. She wanted to make sure that the placenta hadn't slipped down over my cervix. So I got to see Emmie again. This time because of the 12-hour fast, she wasn't moving as much. She was still wiggling, but she wasn't obstructing the view this time, so I actually got a profile picture and a shot of her yawning. The placenta was right where it should be. They also did a vaginal ultrasound to measure my cervix. It was a little short. The nurse practitioner did an exam and said it was also softer than it should be at 24 weeks. She wasn't overly concerned, but she put me on "vaginal rest." As far as I can tell, that just means no sex. Let's be honest, if some part of me has to be on doctor-ordered rest, my vagina is probably the part I can do without the most. Most of my other parts are essential when taking care of Lucy. I'm also supposed to rest and get off of my feet frequently. I've been doing that anyway. I've been more tired and in more pain during this pregnancy.
I ate only a few bites of a sandwich before heading home. Matt is supposed to be at school at 11:00, and I was going to get home after 10:30. Fortunately, driving conditions were better on the way home. About 10 miles out of town, Emmie started kicking me insistently. I told her we'd be home soon, and we'd eat something. I could hear Lucy excitedly shouting about my return before I even got the door open. Matt was in the shower. I told him about my morning and showed him the photos. And then Emmie and I had pancakes left over from yesterday. We were both glad to end our Ash Wednesday fast.
Our next appointment is in Louisville in a couple of weeks. If that goes well, we won't have to go to Louisville anymore. Then we already have two appointments, including a growth measurement ultrasound, scheduled with our OB in March. And then we'll be in April, when I expect weekly visits to begin. If all goes well, Emmie will be here in about three months.
We ate dinner around 8:00 last night, and I fell asleep when Lucy did at 10:30. I didn't wake up until 2:00, so I missed my opportunity for an 11:30 snack. That meant that my 8-hour fast ended up being a 12-hour fast. At around 3:00 Lucy woke up as she typically does and got into bed with me. Unfortunately, she couldn't settle and cried inconsolably. We gave her some ibuprofen, but that didn't help. We couldn't figure out if her legs hurt or if her belly hurt or if she had had a bad dream or if her pajamas were bothering her. All seemed like possibilities because of the way she acted. She climbed out of bed, walked into the hall, look confused, and cried some more. She refused to go back to bed, so we went to her room. I changed her from footie pajamas to her Elmo Abby pajamas. She cuddled up next to me in the chair and after about half an hour finally fell asleep still gasping and hiccuping from all of the crying. That was around 5:00. I waited a while before moving her to her bed. Sometime during the 2+ hours of soothing Lucy, Emmie became active. She might have been bothered by my rumbling stomach. Or she may have been reacting to Lucy's cries. I've noticed her being more active when Lucy cries. I'm not sure if she's sympathetic and offering comfort or irritated by the noise. I've also considered that she thinks there's a riot and is trying to join in. Eventually, she settled down, too, and I got another hour or so of sleep before I needed to get up, drive to Lebanon, and get my blood tested.
I got ready quickly and discovered that my phone was missing. I called my cell phone from our home phone and narrowed the location to the study. I still had trouble finding it and had to call myself five more times before I found it in the bag with Lucy's toy cars, rolled into the play mat quilt that Grandma made her. I finally got on the road, driving slowly because of road conditions. Several times it started snowing again. By the time I arrived at the doctor's office, I was exhausted from focusing so intently on the road.
The blood test went fairly quickly. Hopefully, I did really well. I have a feeling that if I'm within normal range but not close to ideal, then I'll have to take the longer test because our doctor is being so cautious. If I didn't pass, I'll get a call sometime this week. In addition to the blood test, I had an appointment this morning.The nurse weighed me (down a pound thanks to the pool being open again) and took my blood pressure (normal). I saw the nurse practitioner. Apparently, my trip to the emergency room last week was not in my records. When I told the nurse practitioner about it, she asked if they did an ultrasound. They didn't, so she ordered one. She wanted to make sure that the placenta hadn't slipped down over my cervix. So I got to see Emmie again. This time because of the 12-hour fast, she wasn't moving as much. She was still wiggling, but she wasn't obstructing the view this time, so I actually got a profile picture and a shot of her yawning. The placenta was right where it should be. They also did a vaginal ultrasound to measure my cervix. It was a little short. The nurse practitioner did an exam and said it was also softer than it should be at 24 weeks. She wasn't overly concerned, but she put me on "vaginal rest." As far as I can tell, that just means no sex. Let's be honest, if some part of me has to be on doctor-ordered rest, my vagina is probably the part I can do without the most. Most of my other parts are essential when taking care of Lucy. I'm also supposed to rest and get off of my feet frequently. I've been doing that anyway. I've been more tired and in more pain during this pregnancy.
I ate only a few bites of a sandwich before heading home. Matt is supposed to be at school at 11:00, and I was going to get home after 10:30. Fortunately, driving conditions were better on the way home. About 10 miles out of town, Emmie started kicking me insistently. I told her we'd be home soon, and we'd eat something. I could hear Lucy excitedly shouting about my return before I even got the door open. Matt was in the shower. I told him about my morning and showed him the photos. And then Emmie and I had pancakes left over from yesterday. We were both glad to end our Ash Wednesday fast.
Our next appointment is in Louisville in a couple of weeks. If that goes well, we won't have to go to Louisville anymore. Then we already have two appointments, including a growth measurement ultrasound, scheduled with our OB in March. And then we'll be in April, when I expect weekly visits to begin. If all goes well, Emmie will be here in about three months.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
A Little Sore, But All Is Well
Yesterday got a little more exciting than we wanted for a little while. I discovered blood on my toilet paper after going to the bathroom. That is not where you want to see blood when you're 23 weeks pregnant. I was concerned. I googled "23 weeks pregnant spotting," which is a dangerous thing to do because you can find horror stories, and was mostly reassured. But mostly reassured isn't quite enough with my history. I lay on my right side for a while to see if Emmie would move. She didn't. I was more worried. I ate some peanut butter crackers, and she still didn't move. More worried. I lay on my back instead, and in just a minute Emmie greeted me. Less worried.
I never had spotting with my first two pregnancies, but I've had spotting every couple of months with Emmie. It's nerve-wracking every time. Previously, she's been so little that if the spotting meant there was a real problem, there wasn't much to do about it. The solution to many problems in pregnancy is to deliver, but that's not an option at 10 weeks or 16 weeks, so you just have to hope and pray and wait. But at 23 weeks there's at least a chance that she could live if she were delivered. And so if my body is telling me there might be a problem, I should make sure that everything is OK. I would hate to lose a viable baby because I ignored blood.
So I called my doctor's office. My doctor's office really needs to rethink what they play while you're on hold. I think it was a radio station. The first thing I heard was the obituaries. Just what I needed. And the first song they played was Electric Light Orchestra's "Living Thing," the chorus of which says, "It's a living thing. What a terrible thing to lose." Seriously. I don't know that English majors are more superstitious, but we've spent a lot more time considering foreshadowing than many people. As I heard these things, I told Matt, and he found them as comically ominous as I did, and that's one of the many reasons I love him. If we were superstitious, it would have been ominous but not comical. Eventually the nurse told me (predictably, because we're special) to go to the emergency room. I immediately called Shawn and Susie, who dropped everything to watch Lucy while we went to the hospital in Lebanon. I'm not sure I can ever express how wonderful Shawn and Susie are.
We checked into the ER and the Women's Center. They checked my urine to make sure that I didn't have urinary or kidney problems. Then they hooked me up to the fetal monitor. Emmie had been moving during the car ride, so I was pretty sure she was OK, but I always hold my breath when they check for a heartbeat. They weren't sure the monitor would pick her up because she's so little, but the monitor found her fairly quickly. And then she found the monitor. We have quite a bit of experience with fetal monitors. All three of our babies have been hooked to them at some point. And we knew that Neil and Lucy had fought the monitor, pushing and kicking to get it off my belly. Neil was more methodical, but they were both tenacious. It turns out that Emmie is similarly tenacious, and she did try both quick kicking and sustained pushing to move the monitor. She kicked the monitor so hard that I felt it bounce against my belly. I asked Matt if he wanted to watch to see if he could see her move the monitor. After a few minutes he saw her kick hard enough to make the monitor bounce again. She's less than 6 months, and she's already affecting the outside world. The nurse was very impressed, not just with the kicking but also with how well Emmie's heartrate tracked for half an hour on the monitor. She showed the doctor the print-out and said, "Have you ever seen a 23 week track like that?" He hadn't. So Emmie is strong and exceptional.
The lab found no problem with my urine sample. The monitor showed I didn't have any contractions. The doctor did an internal exam and found no blood. He also found my cervix was "holding up well" (for a third pregnancy? despite my advanced maternal age?). So everything was fine. He decided I should go ahead and get my Rho-gam shot (routine because Matt and I have different blood Rh) while I was at the hospital, which sounded good to me. It ended up taking three hours, which is two hours longer than it's ever taken before. My Kindle ran out of energy, and I had time to delete almost 200 text messages from my phone. We hadn't had supper, so a nurse brought us some snacks. It was a long day.
We talked to the doctor about why I had bled in the first place. What we figured out is that pregnant women should not lift six-quart enamel-coated cast iron Dutch ovens. I had been doing dishes, and when I picked up the Dutch oven, I grunted because it was heavier than I expected. Apparently, it was heavy enough to make me bleed a little. And it was heavy enough that my entire abdomen is still feeling tender 12 hours later. So no more lifting. I'm not even lifting Lucy at this point.
We were so glad that Lucy was in good hands because we didn't get home until after 10:00. Shawn and Susie played with her outside while we were leaving. Lucy waved goodbye and talked to them about her "beep" and then ran to the back yard to play some more. She didn't miss us at all for more than 5 hours. They took her for supper in the university's dining hall. She even got to eat with her friend Selah, who she hasn't seen in several months. I asked if she freaked out when Selah left. Lately she cries "friend, friend" so pitifully when one of her friends leaves that it tugs at my heart. She was getting upset until Selah ran back to give her a bracelet, which made the parting OK for Lucy. After they got back to our house, they played and watched Shaun the Sheep. Lucy just said "Shaun Baa" for the first time today to name the show. Previously, she's just bleated to request it. She's been saying "Shawn" for weeks. In fact, yesterday she was lying under the dining table naming who each chair belongs to: "me seat, Daddy seat, Mommy seat." And I expected her to skip the fourth chair at the table, but she labeled it "Shawn seat." She's right. That's where he sits when they come to dinner and when he plays games with Matt. So Shawn was part of her vocabulary before Shaun, despite the fact that she's spent many more hours watching Shaun. Tonight she transferred all of her Daddy and Mommy ideas onto Shawn and Susie. She used Shawn as a jungle gym like she does Matt. Mommy doesn't play that way, especially now, so she seemed to assume that Susie wouldn't either. I also tend to be pretty tired in the evenings, so she's been spending more time cuddled up with Matt than she used to. When we got home, she was cuddled up to Shawn playing Daniel Tiger on her tablet. I don't know how she would have handled bedtime without us if we had been out later, but it's good to know she can be fine so long with Shawn and Susie. Our plan is for them to keep her while I'm in the hospital having Emmie and recovering in May. I think this test run was a success.
So despite a scare it turned out to be a good day. I'm fine and have a comment-worthy cervix. Matt has to do all the heavy lifting per doctor's orders. Emmie is active, strong, and exceptional. Lucy can see us leave and have someone watch her for hours, all without a tear. And we have the best friends in the world. (We already knew that last part.) It was a long but reassuring day.
I never had spotting with my first two pregnancies, but I've had spotting every couple of months with Emmie. It's nerve-wracking every time. Previously, she's been so little that if the spotting meant there was a real problem, there wasn't much to do about it. The solution to many problems in pregnancy is to deliver, but that's not an option at 10 weeks or 16 weeks, so you just have to hope and pray and wait. But at 23 weeks there's at least a chance that she could live if she were delivered. And so if my body is telling me there might be a problem, I should make sure that everything is OK. I would hate to lose a viable baby because I ignored blood.
So I called my doctor's office. My doctor's office really needs to rethink what they play while you're on hold. I think it was a radio station. The first thing I heard was the obituaries. Just what I needed. And the first song they played was Electric Light Orchestra's "Living Thing," the chorus of which says, "It's a living thing. What a terrible thing to lose." Seriously. I don't know that English majors are more superstitious, but we've spent a lot more time considering foreshadowing than many people. As I heard these things, I told Matt, and he found them as comically ominous as I did, and that's one of the many reasons I love him. If we were superstitious, it would have been ominous but not comical. Eventually the nurse told me (predictably, because we're special) to go to the emergency room. I immediately called Shawn and Susie, who dropped everything to watch Lucy while we went to the hospital in Lebanon. I'm not sure I can ever express how wonderful Shawn and Susie are.
We checked into the ER and the Women's Center. They checked my urine to make sure that I didn't have urinary or kidney problems. Then they hooked me up to the fetal monitor. Emmie had been moving during the car ride, so I was pretty sure she was OK, but I always hold my breath when they check for a heartbeat. They weren't sure the monitor would pick her up because she's so little, but the monitor found her fairly quickly. And then she found the monitor. We have quite a bit of experience with fetal monitors. All three of our babies have been hooked to them at some point. And we knew that Neil and Lucy had fought the monitor, pushing and kicking to get it off my belly. Neil was more methodical, but they were both tenacious. It turns out that Emmie is similarly tenacious, and she did try both quick kicking and sustained pushing to move the monitor. She kicked the monitor so hard that I felt it bounce against my belly. I asked Matt if he wanted to watch to see if he could see her move the monitor. After a few minutes he saw her kick hard enough to make the monitor bounce again. She's less than 6 months, and she's already affecting the outside world. The nurse was very impressed, not just with the kicking but also with how well Emmie's heartrate tracked for half an hour on the monitor. She showed the doctor the print-out and said, "Have you ever seen a 23 week track like that?" He hadn't. So Emmie is strong and exceptional.
The lab found no problem with my urine sample. The monitor showed I didn't have any contractions. The doctor did an internal exam and found no blood. He also found my cervix was "holding up well" (for a third pregnancy? despite my advanced maternal age?). So everything was fine. He decided I should go ahead and get my Rho-gam shot (routine because Matt and I have different blood Rh) while I was at the hospital, which sounded good to me. It ended up taking three hours, which is two hours longer than it's ever taken before. My Kindle ran out of energy, and I had time to delete almost 200 text messages from my phone. We hadn't had supper, so a nurse brought us some snacks. It was a long day.
We talked to the doctor about why I had bled in the first place. What we figured out is that pregnant women should not lift six-quart enamel-coated cast iron Dutch ovens. I had been doing dishes, and when I picked up the Dutch oven, I grunted because it was heavier than I expected. Apparently, it was heavy enough to make me bleed a little. And it was heavy enough that my entire abdomen is still feeling tender 12 hours later. So no more lifting. I'm not even lifting Lucy at this point.
We were so glad that Lucy was in good hands because we didn't get home until after 10:00. Shawn and Susie played with her outside while we were leaving. Lucy waved goodbye and talked to them about her "beep" and then ran to the back yard to play some more. She didn't miss us at all for more than 5 hours. They took her for supper in the university's dining hall. She even got to eat with her friend Selah, who she hasn't seen in several months. I asked if she freaked out when Selah left. Lately she cries "friend, friend" so pitifully when one of her friends leaves that it tugs at my heart. She was getting upset until Selah ran back to give her a bracelet, which made the parting OK for Lucy. After they got back to our house, they played and watched Shaun the Sheep. Lucy just said "Shaun Baa" for the first time today to name the show. Previously, she's just bleated to request it. She's been saying "Shawn" for weeks. In fact, yesterday she was lying under the dining table naming who each chair belongs to: "me seat, Daddy seat, Mommy seat." And I expected her to skip the fourth chair at the table, but she labeled it "Shawn seat." She's right. That's where he sits when they come to dinner and when he plays games with Matt. So Shawn was part of her vocabulary before Shaun, despite the fact that she's spent many more hours watching Shaun. Tonight she transferred all of her Daddy and Mommy ideas onto Shawn and Susie. She used Shawn as a jungle gym like she does Matt. Mommy doesn't play that way, especially now, so she seemed to assume that Susie wouldn't either. I also tend to be pretty tired in the evenings, so she's been spending more time cuddled up with Matt than she used to. When we got home, she was cuddled up to Shawn playing Daniel Tiger on her tablet. I don't know how she would have handled bedtime without us if we had been out later, but it's good to know she can be fine so long with Shawn and Susie. Our plan is for them to keep her while I'm in the hospital having Emmie and recovering in May. I think this test run was a success.
So despite a scare it turned out to be a good day. I'm fine and have a comment-worthy cervix. Matt has to do all the heavy lifting per doctor's orders. Emmie is active, strong, and exceptional. Lucy can see us leave and have someone watch her for hours, all without a tear. And we have the best friends in the world. (We already knew that last part.) It was a long but reassuring day.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Training in Progress
Lucy seems to get bigger every day. People who didn't see her during Christmas break keep telling us they're sure she grew six inches during that time. All of the 18-month clothes have been moved upstairs now. The 2T clothes are now in her dresser with the 24-month clothes. Some are a little big, but she's growing into them.
Lucy is also showing new skills nearly every day. She adds a couple of words a day to her vocabulary. Yesterday she looked at her wrinkled fingers in the pool and said, "Mama, me pruney." I probably should have taught her the word wrinkled first, but it works. She is learning more verbs and making more sentences. She still refuses to say her name. The other day I asked her what her name is, and she said, "Me." Well, yes, me is "a name I call myself" according to The Sound of Music. She is starting to build with Duplo blocks all by herself. I typically join her and add to the complexity of the sheep house that she's building. That's what she always builds. She attaches the rooms to the Duplo table and adds other blocks and puts people and animals inside. She has also gotten into playing with the Little People House and her magnetic doll house. She "measures" everything with her measuring tape. She still recognizes letters and numbers. The other day she was scribbling on a chalkboard and suddenly stopped and pointed to some of the marks she had made and told me it was a Y. She was right. She didn't make a Y on purpose, but she recognized she had done it.
She is making progress on showing self-control and patience, even though she's still independent, strong-willed, and two. She tends to help clean up her toys, sometimes without prompting. Every once in a while, she'll refuse to help for a few minutes and sometimes pitch a little fit, but when asked again later, she'll eagerly jump up and help. If we could just fix that occasional pitch-a-fit stage, she'd be pretty well behaved. She's still energetic and doesn't sit still for long, which some people would consider being poorly behaved, but I'm OK with her need to go and do and move at this point as long as she isn't hurting anything or anyone and is making progress in controlling herself. She doesn't tend to hurt, and she is making progress, so I can be somewhat content with that for now.
Since Lucy is getting so big (and our lives are about to get more complicated), we've been working with Lucy on a couple of life skills. Getting Lucy to sleep has always been a problem. Since I'm expecting to live in a recliner for a couple of months after another C-section, we needed to get Lucy to a point where she could get to sleep without my lying next to her. We have succeeded! Matt and I both go to her room with her for bedtime. I sit in the recliner, and Matt sits next to her mattress on the floor. We read books until she gets tired. I offer hugs and kisses, and she grabs her water bottle (her comfort item) and lies down on her mattresses and falls asleep. Some nights are better than others, but she's doing really well. A couple of nights she has needed more human contact to fall asleep, so she has cuddled up to Matt on the floor and fallen asleep. That's fine with us. She even gets into bed herself on Thursday nights when Matt is at game night. It's pretty fantastic. The freedom makes me a little giddy. I tend to fall asleep in the recliner, sometimes before she's asleep.
The other training we are doing is potty training. We haven't pushed her. We've just kept talking up life without diapers and giving her opportunities to sit on her Elmo potty seat. The training has been stalled for a while. She was willing to sit but almost never peed in the toilet. Yesterday she started refusing to even sit on her Elmo seat. I was OK with stalled but not OK with regression. So today I stripped her naked from the waist down and made her stay on a vinyl table cloth in the dining room for a couple hours. We played together, building sheep houses, and we ate snacks. She didn't like being confined to the table cloth, but she stayed fairly well. She peed on the table cloth twice and was horrified both times. The first time we dried the table cloth with a towel, and I took her to sit on the toilet and reminded her that she should let me know if she needs to pee so that she can do it on the toilet or on a potty seat (two of which were on the table cloth with her). The second time she peed, she immediately jumped up and said, "Mama, pee! Agh!" We dried it and sat her on the toilet, and she peed on the toilet! She had stopped herself when she realized she was peeing and finished on the toilet! She was praised lavishly and given a sticker to put on her shirt. She stayed diaperless until Matt got home from work (the deadline I had given her). Then she got to wear a diaper again. I thought we could do that every day for a while and gradually increase the amount of time she spends without a diaper. Today was successful. I hope this method continues to work for her. I don't have a time table for potty training her. I'm just glad to be making progress again. I just ordered a huge supply of her size of Elmo diapers (Pampers) from Amazon, so we're ready for however long it takes her. And if she doesn't use them all, we'll save them for Emmie.
Speaking of Emmie, she is quite a kicker. I told Matt that I think she's gone from wiggling and fluttering to full-blown kicking faster than her siblings did. And boy can she kick! Yesterday, she kicked me hard enough to knock my hand off my belly. She was also doing somersaults, which feels like my organs went on a roller coaster without the rest of me. She appreciates it when I rest and when I eat, but I haven't noticed any other preferences yet.
I've been talking to Emmie, typically saying, "Hi, Emmie," when she kicks. Yesterday Lucy said, "No Emmie!" I explained (again) that Emmie is her baby sister. I then told her for the first time that Emmie was in my belly. Lucy refused to believe that. I informed her that she had also once lived in my belly. She refused to believe that, too. I don't blame her. It's weird. Lucy doesn't get the baby sister idea yet, but we're working on it. I bought a baby figure for her Little People house. We already had baby gear (high chair, changing table, cradle, stroller) but not a baby. We've started playing baby and big sister with her Little People. She loves putting the baby on the changing table to pretend to change the baby's diaper. I'm hoping that we can provide enough story lines about babies that will become familiar to her so that when a baby comes home she'll have an idea of what's supposed to happen. She hadn't really experienced snow before, but when it snowed a couple weeks ago, she immediately made and threw a snowball. She knew what to do in the snow because of Curious George and Shaun the Sheep. I'm hoping we can do the same sort of thing by playing scenarios that will tell her what to do with a baby. We'll see how it goes.
Lucy is also showing new skills nearly every day. She adds a couple of words a day to her vocabulary. Yesterday she looked at her wrinkled fingers in the pool and said, "Mama, me pruney." I probably should have taught her the word wrinkled first, but it works. She is learning more verbs and making more sentences. She still refuses to say her name. The other day I asked her what her name is, and she said, "Me." Well, yes, me is "a name I call myself" according to The Sound of Music. She is starting to build with Duplo blocks all by herself. I typically join her and add to the complexity of the sheep house that she's building. That's what she always builds. She attaches the rooms to the Duplo table and adds other blocks and puts people and animals inside. She has also gotten into playing with the Little People House and her magnetic doll house. She "measures" everything with her measuring tape. She still recognizes letters and numbers. The other day she was scribbling on a chalkboard and suddenly stopped and pointed to some of the marks she had made and told me it was a Y. She was right. She didn't make a Y on purpose, but she recognized she had done it.
She is making progress on showing self-control and patience, even though she's still independent, strong-willed, and two. She tends to help clean up her toys, sometimes without prompting. Every once in a while, she'll refuse to help for a few minutes and sometimes pitch a little fit, but when asked again later, she'll eagerly jump up and help. If we could just fix that occasional pitch-a-fit stage, she'd be pretty well behaved. She's still energetic and doesn't sit still for long, which some people would consider being poorly behaved, but I'm OK with her need to go and do and move at this point as long as she isn't hurting anything or anyone and is making progress in controlling herself. She doesn't tend to hurt, and she is making progress, so I can be somewhat content with that for now.
Since Lucy is getting so big (and our lives are about to get more complicated), we've been working with Lucy on a couple of life skills. Getting Lucy to sleep has always been a problem. Since I'm expecting to live in a recliner for a couple of months after another C-section, we needed to get Lucy to a point where she could get to sleep without my lying next to her. We have succeeded! Matt and I both go to her room with her for bedtime. I sit in the recliner, and Matt sits next to her mattress on the floor. We read books until she gets tired. I offer hugs and kisses, and she grabs her water bottle (her comfort item) and lies down on her mattresses and falls asleep. Some nights are better than others, but she's doing really well. A couple of nights she has needed more human contact to fall asleep, so she has cuddled up to Matt on the floor and fallen asleep. That's fine with us. She even gets into bed herself on Thursday nights when Matt is at game night. It's pretty fantastic. The freedom makes me a little giddy. I tend to fall asleep in the recliner, sometimes before she's asleep.
The other training we are doing is potty training. We haven't pushed her. We've just kept talking up life without diapers and giving her opportunities to sit on her Elmo potty seat. The training has been stalled for a while. She was willing to sit but almost never peed in the toilet. Yesterday she started refusing to even sit on her Elmo seat. I was OK with stalled but not OK with regression. So today I stripped her naked from the waist down and made her stay on a vinyl table cloth in the dining room for a couple hours. We played together, building sheep houses, and we ate snacks. She didn't like being confined to the table cloth, but she stayed fairly well. She peed on the table cloth twice and was horrified both times. The first time we dried the table cloth with a towel, and I took her to sit on the toilet and reminded her that she should let me know if she needs to pee so that she can do it on the toilet or on a potty seat (two of which were on the table cloth with her). The second time she peed, she immediately jumped up and said, "Mama, pee! Agh!" We dried it and sat her on the toilet, and she peed on the toilet! She had stopped herself when she realized she was peeing and finished on the toilet! She was praised lavishly and given a sticker to put on her shirt. She stayed diaperless until Matt got home from work (the deadline I had given her). Then she got to wear a diaper again. I thought we could do that every day for a while and gradually increase the amount of time she spends without a diaper. Today was successful. I hope this method continues to work for her. I don't have a time table for potty training her. I'm just glad to be making progress again. I just ordered a huge supply of her size of Elmo diapers (Pampers) from Amazon, so we're ready for however long it takes her. And if she doesn't use them all, we'll save them for Emmie.
Speaking of Emmie, she is quite a kicker. I told Matt that I think she's gone from wiggling and fluttering to full-blown kicking faster than her siblings did. And boy can she kick! Yesterday, she kicked me hard enough to knock my hand off my belly. She was also doing somersaults, which feels like my organs went on a roller coaster without the rest of me. She appreciates it when I rest and when I eat, but I haven't noticed any other preferences yet.
I've been talking to Emmie, typically saying, "Hi, Emmie," when she kicks. Yesterday Lucy said, "No Emmie!" I explained (again) that Emmie is her baby sister. I then told her for the first time that Emmie was in my belly. Lucy refused to believe that. I informed her that she had also once lived in my belly. She refused to believe that, too. I don't blame her. It's weird. Lucy doesn't get the baby sister idea yet, but we're working on it. I bought a baby figure for her Little People house. We already had baby gear (high chair, changing table, cradle, stroller) but not a baby. We've started playing baby and big sister with her Little People. She loves putting the baby on the changing table to pretend to change the baby's diaper. I'm hoping that we can provide enough story lines about babies that will become familiar to her so that when a baby comes home she'll have an idea of what's supposed to happen. She hadn't really experienced snow before, but when it snowed a couple weeks ago, she immediately made and threw a snowball. She knew what to do in the snow because of Curious George and Shaun the Sheep. I'm hoping we can do the same sort of thing by playing scenarios that will tell her what to do with a baby. We'll see how it goes.
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