Sunday, May 29, 2005

Pregnancy and such

Well, I guess I oughta get back to posting! Ive abandoned my blogs for a while now while enduring the first weeks of pregnancy. It is the oddest thing to me, pregnancy and all it entails. For instance, Im having "evening sickness" rather than morning sickness. With my first I was literally vomiting daily until 5 months. With this one I knew at 3.5 weeks I was pregnant because of the odd waves of hunger I was having, which really climaxed around 6 weeks, and is now, at 11 weeks, subsiding to just evening sickness. It is like clockwork. I certainly have to keep my belly full all day or I get extremely yucky, but right around 5pm everything goes downhill. And this lasts the rest of the evening until bedtime around 1030. Praise God Ive only had two nights of total sickness, making this a much better pregnancy than before! But I sure cant wait until this period ends. It's just so gross, so frustrating, so exhausting.

With my daughter I took Reglan (or metoclopromide in generic form) for nausea because I had had it once for a terrible sickness. It really helped lower the ickyness. But now I have only taken it once a day, before bed. It helps me get thru the night without waking up several times to fill my stomach. However, I have had this cold that is all throat related, and have had to do a lot of coughing, and let me tell you, that does nothing for the gag reflex. My sister-in-law and I were talking about how just brushing your teeth becomes a delicate matter! Argh!

So now Ive gone on about a bunch of gross stuff people probably dont want to hear, but I find it so interesting that you rarely hear this stuff discussed before you have your first child! It's like no one wants to let you in on the secret until you are knee deep in it and then all of the horror stories come rushing out at you! I had no idea how sick some ladies get until I was terribly sick! I had no idea about miscarriages until I had a miscarriage. It is like a secret society, that only those in the mix are allowed to participate in. If you are pregnant, you are going thru the "hazing" period. Earning your stripes or belts. Paying your dues. People start to let you in on little situations you really knew nothing about prior to your pregnancy. Then you have the baby and you are completely overwhelmed with this new responsibility, and suddenly moms with kids just a little older have so much wisdom and advice for you that they never even dared to tell you about when you were pregnant.

I find that it's best to talk with moms who have kids the same age or just a little older. If you have a 2 year old and you get to talking to moms with teenagers it's like you are on two different planets. They have advice that isnt quite age appropriate, or seems outdated, or sometimes even pull the old "well, you'll see!" or "we sure didnt do that" cards. That just frustrates me. Dont get me wrong, many parents of older kids, and even grandparents have awfully good advice too. But no one seems to understand what you are going thru unless they are right there in it themselves. And that is what has been nice about this pregnancy. I now have five pregnant friends right around the same number of weeks as me. And that helps.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Sunflowers, birds, chipmonks, and other things

Lately it has been a zoo around here! Besides the yucky sickness that surrounds me like a fog reminding me every moment that Im only half the woman I used to be, we have been inundated with wild and wacky surroundings!

Not long ago I wrote (on one of my blogs...) about a Robin's nest just outside the kitchen window. Well the babies have hatched and there are four! Four babies and two adults living in the tiniest nest! Actually, it appears the babies may have reached their mature flying age recently, because I havent heard their chirps for food lately. And they had been growing at a rapid pace! I spent one afternoon watching the mom/dad/caretaker bird flying to and from the nest hour after hour bringing worms to the baby birds. I felt for that bird, spending her/his whole day foraging for food, listening to 4 kids chirping constantly at her. No time to fly around and check out what's going on around the neighborhood. At one point they were all squawking at her and I saw her step back, sit down, and just take a few minutes to herself. Smart bird.

Then there has been a family of chipmonks running around right near the nest. We have always had chipmonks, but this particular day must have been a playful day for the baby "monks" (chipmonk is a long word...) because they were wrestling around and chasing eachother, then occasionally momma monk would run out and hustle them back in. Luxie really enjoyed it.

My sunflowers are not so grand an idea as they once were. Unfortunately some bug must really like them because each of them has been snipped off at ground level and the little leaves are gone. The big ones only got as tall as my middle finger, but it is still disappointing. I am doing what I can to keep them growing from here, but not sure it's going to work. Ahh, and like the momma bird, my break has ended and my "little bird" is chirping at me from her crib letting me know nap time has ended. RATS!

Friday, May 06, 2005

"maybe if I close my eyes..."

For about the past 4-6 months Luxie has done this funny thing when she doesnt want to come to grips with the situation. She shuts her eyes. For example, each Sunday as we arrive at church and enter the building either Daddy or I are carrying her in towards the nursery. As we walk in she keeps her head held high, but presses her eyes closed, even until we hand her over to the nursery workers! It's as if she is saying "maybe if I close my eyes we wont really be going there" or "maybe if I close my eyes this whole place will disappear!" She closes her eyes when we go to the doctor, when she meets people she hasnt met before, or when I ask her not to do something and she still wants to do it. She will keep her eyes closed and continue doing the thing i asked her not to do! As if I cant see her because she cant see me! It is really the cutest thing I've ever seen her do!