Five (and a half) Weeks

Written 8/31

I'm feeling...okay.  I find that if I let my stomach get acid-y, I get nauseous.  I also apparently ate too much yesterday (I had a snack of a small apple and a stick of string cheese at 3:30) and was really nauseous from that.  But otherwise I'm not feeling much nausea.

I'm still having some digestive issues.  I woke up around 2:30 Monday night needing to go to the bathroom.  I can't tell if it's when I sleep on my back or if it's unrelated to sleeping position.  I'm SO not ready for my sleep positioner already, so I'm hoping it's unrelated.

I'm still feeling a little crampy sometimes, but again, nothing too severe.  I'm waiting for it all to hit, though, knowing that the full-blown nausea hit at 6 weeks for me last time.

My waist is already gone.  I might have been delusional thinking I had one again, but it's totally gone already.  I'm not bloating too badly, but can tell a bit of a difference.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my starting weight was 208, which was really exciting (I hadn't been below 210 since I was pregnant with Baby Girl).  Even though I'm actually eating less than I was before getting pregnant (I'm committed to listening to my body and my body doesn't seem as hungry now), I've gained 4.5 pounds already, which makes me sad.  My goal is to gain as little as possible (without going overboard, of course).

4 Weeks

Blogger's Note: You're going to be seeing a lot of posts very quickly.  I'm going to try to space them out some.  I continued to blog after finding out we were pregnant, but just didn't publish the posts.  Now that word is out, I'm going ahead with the posts.
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Written 8/21/11

I fear I've already gotten to the point where I cannot go too long without eating.  I fear even more that the nausea has already set in and that scares me.  We went to the park and when we got home I felt horrible.  It could've been the heat, the lack of water, or the lack of food, but I just needed to sit.  The Hubby cooked our dinner for us, thankfully.  But man...I hope this isn't the start of something ugly.

I've got a really short fuse these days with Baby Girl, too.  I can blame the pregnancy, but I think it's just how unreasonable and unpredictable she can be.  She gets mad when I fold over the bread on her sandwich.  She cries when I cut up food.  She sobs for the most ridiculous (in my adult mind) reasons and I just have a hard time handling it.  I understand that she's trying to exert her independence and I think we're really understanding with that.  That's probably why I get so upset--we usually give her a chance to do something on her own or "like a big girl", but then if she can't handle it, we need to step in.  And that's when the waterworks begin.

Anyway, pregnancy news is small.  We haven't told anyone and are waiting for awhile longer.  Our first appointment isn't until September 30th, but I can't imagine waiting that long to tell our families. 

I should mention, though, that I'm being forced to switch OBs.  My OB (who I just saw for my annual fairly recently) won't be delivering babies after October.  I was going to switch to the OB that we had for our gender determination with Baby Girl (my OB didn't do the anatomy scan), but she's really popular and, therefore, harder to get in to see.  I chose another OB in the practice, a woman.  I feel a little embarrassed now, but I did ask if she speaks English well.  I can be irritable when pregnant and really want to be able to communicate with my doctor well.  Anyway, she does.  So we'll be seeing her--I hope that it goes well, we like her, and that she's open to a VBAC if conditions are right for it.

So that's about it.  I'm waiting for the exhaustion to hit, waiting for the nausea, waiting for everything else.  I did test again yesterday morning, just to see.  Still pregnant and the line is even darker than before.

This Morning

Written 8/17/11

This morning after The Hubby's alarm went off I went back to sleep and had a dream.  I dreamed that I was running all over my parents' house (that didn't look like my parents' house), looking for some pregnancy tests that I'd hidden.  I thought I'd hidden them in the sleeve of a coat that was hanging in the coat closet and went to the closet and the coat was gone.  I ran around a bit more, looking for the tests and finally found them on the floor in a pile (I had boxes of 50 or 100!) with other "junk" from the coat closet that my mom had tossed out.  This means mom had seen them.  I grabbed them and started toward the bathroom, but my mom was in front of me.  I see her back start to get wet and then she starts running, something my mom never does.  She ran into my dad's arms, sobbing that she'd peed herself again.  And that's when I woke up.

Yeah, the dream was completely bizarre, but I had it in my mind that I needed to test.  I'd thought about my estimation of when I'd ovulated, if I had when I normally did (approx 8/4) and decided if I wanted to test that I should wait until at least today, which would be approximately 12 dpo.  Last time I didn't test until I was closer to being late--my period isn't due this time until Saturday and honestly, with the amount of stress I've been under, I wouldn't have been surprised if I hadn't ovulated at all or late.

I went downstairs, found a stash of cheap tests a friend had given me after she got pregnant, stowed a few in my underwear, and went back up to our bathroom, which still has a sleeve of plastic cups from when we were TTC Baby Girl.  I was moving pretty quickly--I really had to go!  I peed in the cup, dipped the stick, and sat and read a book for awhile, waiting (The Hubby was still sleeping and I didn't want to disturb him, especially since I was confident it would be negative).  After 3-5 minutes, I glanced at the stick, fully prepared to see one line.

I saw two.

I immediately assumed that either 1) it was a false positive or 2) it was detecting some hormone from ovulation and I'm actually ovulating instead of pregnant.

I dipped again.

Still two lines.

And I was shocked.  Just shocked.

I finished up my pottying, dumped the pee from the cup, and went out to our bed.  The Hubby was awake and looked up at me and said he thought I was in the shower.  I turned on my bedside lamp and showed him the sticks and asked him what he saw.  He squinted.  He said, "what am I supposed to see?"  Duh, dude...  Then he said, "I see two lines."  A pause.  "What's that mean?"

Seriously, dude?  I have to spell it out for you?

"Two lines means I'm pregnant."

"Are you kidding?"

Yeah, I think it's official.  We're both in shock.

Hell, I'm still in shock.  I still don't believe it.  I've been trying to figure out what could've happened to have the test messed up.  This was our first month of "trying without trying" (where I knew we had sex within a few days of my expected ovulation, but didn't go out of our way to time it, temp, do the fertility monitor, etc.).  And it just happened?  No waiting for months?  No negative tests?  No way.

I emailed a picture of the pee sticks to the friend who had given them to me and she was as shocked as I was (she knew I was hesitant to even "try without trying", let alone actually TTC).

Physically, I'm still feeling some boob twinges.  I felt a couple sharp, short cramps a couple of days ago (implantation, I'm guessing).  I'm starting to feel a bit bloated and a bit crampy.  All of these things could technically mean AF is on her way.  Or it could mean I'm pregnant.

For now I'm proceeding as if I'm pregnant--better to behave as if I am than to take meds and drink as if I weren't.

Holy shit.  This is (possibly) happening.

Meal Plan 11/6 - 11/12

This week will be an odd one in our house, as our sitter is closed 11/6 through 11/13.  Baby Girl's care will be provided by a combination of both of her grandmas, a great-grandma, and her parents.  This also means that we need more servings for dinner and for leftovers for lunch than normal.  Also, today we'll be hosting a dinner with The Hubby's mom, grandma, and brother and his family, so we'll have a full house. 


Sunday: Spaghetti, meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad
Monday: Swiss Casserole Chicken, that I've been planning to make for weeks

None of the other meals have a pre-determined night--it all depends on what time we get home from work and how much time we have in the evenings to do prep.

Hot dogs & mac and cheese
Pot Roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions
Pot Roast Enchiladas
Pork Chops Over Rice
Chili

Meal Plan 10/23-10/29

I have a hard time striking a balance between trying a bunch of new recipes, doing a bunch of old standbys, and returning back to newer recipes again.  This week isn't a bad mix, but I had to work hard at finding a balance :)



Pepperoni Spaghetti Bake: This is a recipe that uses some Chef Boyardee products that I'm testing for a market research company.  I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share the recipe, so I won't, but it sounds good :)

Swiss Casserole Chicken: This is for cooking club this week, but is something that I'd wanted to make before. 

Enchilada Casserole: This recipe is from one of my coworkers.  I'd had it before and had some leftover corn tortillas, so I asked her for it again.  It's pretty good, but sort of time-consuming.

Roasted Potatoes, Chicken Sausage, and Peppers: I saw this come up on my Google Reader this week and knew it sounded like something simple that we'd love.  I had half a bag of red potatoes that was waiting to be used and saw that red bell peppers were on sale at our grocery this week, so it sounded like a good fit for this week.

Sloppy Joes and Tater Tots: I asked The Hubby what old standby he'd like and he said it sounded good.  I can never say no to meals like this since they're easy and definitely remind me of home.

One night this week we are going to go out to Montgomery Inn.  I bought a Groupon a few months ago, thinking we'd use it either for our anniversary or for my birthday.  We didn't ever celebrate our anniversary and went somewhere else for my birthday, leaving the Groupon unused and expiring on Friday.  Just hoping Baby Girl will cooperate there--I hesitate to take a kid, but hope it will be better on a weeknight.

Oh, and tonight we had Raising Cane's.  After dealing with a non-napping toddler for almost 2 hours in the car today, neither The Hubby nor I were in the mood to cook dinner.

Why Pray?

I've been doing some spiritual reflection recently, which I think is important for spiritual growth.  It really started when I was asking some friends how you're supposed to "let go, let God".  In other words, how do you get it into your head that you're not actually in control of things, no matter how much you want to control (AND I DO).  For instance, now that we're entering cold and flu season, I find I have a major rise in my anxiety because I'm always worried about one or all of us getting sick.  I know, realistically, that we'll get through it, but it still stresses me out in a major way.  I also know that there are steps we can take to reduce the possibility of getting sick, but ultimately we can't absolutely prevent it, short of taking drastic measures like not ever having contact with another human.

Soon after having this discussion, I began reading a blog about a woman who lost twin boys at 18 weeks pregnant, then got pregnant with sextuplets that she delivered at 22w6d.  Four of the six died and she blogs about the surviving two.  She's actually now pregnant again with a singleton.  She and her husband have a tremendous faith in God and it's really made me think a lot about God's will.  For some reason, it was His will that they would lose six children and they're accepting of that.

There's this odd distinction between God's will, though, and free will.  In the past, I've always believed that we have free will, but God just knows what choice we're going to make.  I still think that's true to an extent.  But I've also been thinking about the point of this blog post.  If God's will is going to happen, then why pray?  Why express our desires to God if He's going to make the decision anyway?  Can a human actually influence God's will?  Or is prayer just a comfort to the person who is praying, feeling like they have some power in this world?

In this case, when I'm talking about prayer, I mean prayer asking for something.  Asking for someone to get healthy.  Asking for our safety.  Asking for something specific to happen.

I don't think there's a definite answer to any of these questions, at least not for me, not yet.  But they are thoughts that I've been grappling with and I wanted to write about, hoping to gain clarity.  I haven't yet, but I'm working on it :)

Meal Plan 10/16-10/22

This week's meal plan was incredibly uninspired, which is a little ridiculous.  I read quite a few cooking blogs and have a TON of food-related pins on Pinterest.  Unfortunately, when I started checking out my starred items in my Google Reader and my pins...a whole lot of them were desserts.  Not helpful when trying to decide on dinner foods!

I wrote up my grocery list and, after looking at the grocery ads, decided that I wanted to go to Kroger, Meijer, and Aldi.  I thought I would buy the least at Aldi, so I headed there before lunch.  I'm glad I took the whole list because I bought everything for all of our meals, plus some snacks, and supplies for salads for myself this week.  I've not bought much from Aldi before, so this is an experiment of sorts of quality and taste.  I'll still run to Kroger for Goldfish and Meijer for apples ($0.49/lb), but both are on sale throughout the week, so it doesn't have to be today.

Tacos
Johnny Marzetti (for my cooking club)
Hot dogs and Mac & Cheese
Baked Chicken Nuggets and Baked Red Potato Fries
Roasted Veggie Pizza
Smoked Sausage, Cabbage, and Red Potatoes (and old family favorite)

(I have no idea which nights we'll eat which meals, but these are our choices)

My Typical Weekday

Someone was asking about a typical weekday on a message board I'm a part of.  Because I'd already typed it all up, I thought it would be interesting to copy and paste it here, just to remember what the routine was at this point in our life.


6:00: DH gets up and in the shower
6:20: I get up and in the shower while DH packs lunches and gets DD's toast ready
6:35: DH gets DD up and fed while I'm getting ready
6:55: We tag-team getting her dressed while scarfing our own toast
7:10: Out the door to head to the sitter's
7:40: Arrive at sitter and drop DD off.  Leave for work.
8:00: Arrive at work (DH and I carpool)
4:30: Leave work.
4:50: Arrive at sitter.  Drive home.
5:30: Arrive home.  Begin cooking dinner immediately while DH plays with DD.  If dinner is something that I put together and then it cooks on its own for awhile, I'll either clean up the kitchen or we might all take a quick walk.
6:15: Eat dinner
6:45: Clean up from dinner and maybe play with DD
7:00: Start DD's bedtime--she watches Special Agent Oso every night to wind down
7:30: DH takes DD upstairs to brush teeth.  I get 3 minutes alone.
7:33: "Mommy, I'm ready for you!!"  I wait a couple more minutes.
7:45: "Mommmmmmyyyyyyy....."  I head upstairs.  I read DD a few books, we pray, we sing songs, I put her to bed.
8:15: I head downstairs.  Clean up from dinner, load lunch dishes into dishwasher.
8:45: Sit down and catch up on DVRed shows, email, etc.
10:00: Bedtime

Potty Training Update

If you would've asked me prior to potty training, I would have said that I'd be sure we'd still have accidents at 26.5 months.  If you would've asked me the same question around the time she turned two, I would've said that she would be fairly accident-free by now, based on the trend she was showing at that point.

Unfortunately, I was right when I said she'd still be having accidents.  It's not horrible, but I think the root of it is that we're giving her a bit more independence with determining when to use the potty.  We aren't asking her every 15 minutes if she needs to go to the potty anymore and I think that's leading her to have more accidents.

When she first potty trained, she was immediately dry during naps.  I was so proud and impressed.  And then, for some reason, about a week ago she started having accidents during naps. She may be sleeping more soundly.  She had naptime accidents last Wednesday through Friday at the sitter, but stayed dry during her naps at home.  The sitter put her in a Pull-Up every day this week and she's stayed dry all week during naps.  We don't know if it was a fluke or what, exactly, it means.  We're still taking the laid-back approach with her since she's still only 26.5 months old.

She's still peeing in her diaper/Pull-Up (just depends on what we feel like putting on her) overnight.  She hasn't shown any inclination to wake up in the middle of the night and she rarely staying dry overnight.  We have a suspicion that she does the majority of her overnight peeing while she's waking up in the morning, as it's usually warm when we go to her in the morning.  I've always heard that night training is purely physical and not mental like daytime training, so I'm not surprised that she's not ready for it yet.

Generally, though, things are going really well.  We've gotten her transitioned away from the convenience of her little potty in the living room and she's only using the big potties.  She doesn't even use her potty ring most of the time--she's comfortable holding herself up.  I guess the next task is teaching her how to wipe?!?!

Shadows

Prior to turning two, Baby Girl hadn't really noticed shadows much.  She'd noticed them when we were walking before, but didn't think much of them.  One night, The Hubby, Baby Girl and I were all hanging out in her room and The Hubby decided it would be fun to turn out the light and show her a shadow puppet with his hand.

But it backfired.  She was SCARED.  She cried and clung to me like it was a monster that would get her.  The Hubby and I felt AWFUL.  We turned the lights back on, but she was still shaken up.

From that moment, she started noticing shadows everywhere.  When we'd taken our walks around our neighborhood, she'd see them following us or in front of us.  We tried to turn it into a game, rather than something to be afraid of.  She'd jump on mine and tell me that she was walking on my shadow (Mommy, I walking on you shadow!).  When I was putting her to bed, she'd notice the shadow that we created on her wall from the nightlight on her monitor.

After awhile, she got used to seeing shadows and that they weren't scary.  We showed her how when she moved her arm, it moved her shadow.  We played with the shadows in her room and she started having fun with them.  I'm glad she got over it fairly quickly and it didn't turn into a full-fledged fear of the dark or anything.  It was her second fear, besides fears of loud noises (which reared its ugly head the other day when The Hubby fired up the saw to make a rake Baby Girl-sized...).  I think we can say, though, that it's been conquered.

Meal Plan 10/9-10/15

It sure seems like we keep making new dishes, but never keep track of which ones we really liked and want to make again.  Anyone have a good remedy for that?  I think I try at least two new recipes that pop up in either Pinterest or my Google Reader every single week!  We already cooked our dinner for tonight and it's definitely a keeper.  Now if I can just remember it in a few weeks...

Sunday: Easy Skillet Pork Chops (new recipe)
Monday: Ranchero Chicken Crostada (new recipe)
Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup (new recipe)
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Braid
Thursday: Tequila Lime Chicken (a cooking club recipe)
Friday: Smoked Sausage Pizza
Saturday: either order out or eat a meal we don't cook during the week

Another Use for a Roast

I know I'm not the first person to come up with this because I found the recipe online.  However, it was definitely a concept I'd never considered.

You saw on my meal plan that I was going to make a roast in the crockpot.  I did and it was very good.  After The Hubby and I had it for lunch the next day, though, we'd both had enough of meat, potatoes, and carrots.  I was talking to a colleague about this and she mentioned that she's made enchiladas with leftover roast meat.  Brilliant!  She said she'd send me her recipe but never did, so I didn't some Googling of my own and came across this: Pot Roast Enchiladas.  Why hadn't I ever thought of that?

The Hubby needed to run to the grocery while I was putting Baby Girl to bed on Wednesday night anyway to get milk for her at the sitter's, so I asked him to get a couple of extra ingredients to round out the stuff we already had.  We made the enchiladas last night and they were delicious!  I did my own tweaking so that I didn't use half of an ingredient or something.

My instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Dice one whole green bell pepper and half of a large sweet onion and saute together in some EVOO.  Mix in one can of Rotel, about halfway drained, and the leftover pot roast, and just under 1/4 of the can of red enchilada sauce.  Cook until warm.
• Spray small glass rectangular dish (maybe 8x11ish?) with cooking spray
• Split filling approximately into eighths
• Using taco-sized tortillas, place filling in a strip across the middle, sprinkle with some cheddar, then roll up (I didn't bother closing the ends) and lay seam down in the dish.
• Repeat until all eight tortillas are filled (you'll have to smoosh them together to get them all to fit)
• Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top.  I didn't have quite enough to cover it, so some of the enchiladas weren't as saucy as others, but that was okay with me.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until warm (I don't think it would hurt to cover, but I didn't.  The sauce got a little dried out, but it's alright.)

I served it with some corn (I'd planned on rice, but couldn't find the rice I swore I'd bought).

This was really yummy and an easy way to use up leftover pot roast when you don't want to just eat the same meal again.  Now what am I going to do with those potatoes and carrots, especially since I have a meal for tonight and am not cooking again until Tuesday?

Meal Plan: 9/25-10/1

I wasn't feeling very inspired this week, so my meal plan isn't particularly exciting, but it's filled with some easy comfort foods.  The Hubby balked at the thought of a roast this week--he says it's still too warm for it.  This is the same person who fixed chili in August, though...

Sunday: Stouffer's Lasagna--yummy and easy.  I'd never had it before but saw it on sale last week at Meijer, so I had The Hubby pick one up.  We really enjoyed it and it was a lot less labor-intensive than making it from scratch!

Monday: Grilled ham & cheese with soup

Tuesday: Roast, carrots, red potatoes, and onions in the crockpot

Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs

Thursday: Grilled pork chops & peaches & red onion w/ rolls (could do Wednesday if it's not raining)

Friday: Leftover roast

Saturday: I *think* we'll be celebrating my birthday, but I'm not totally sure.  We'll be celebrating throughout the weekend, but my biggest birthday wish each year is that The Hubby do all the planning for me since I plan all of our get-togethers throughout the year.  He mentioned last night that there could be some celebrating on Friday.  We'll see.  All I know is that I'm getting coupons from some of my favorite restaurants with free birthday meals, so I'm looking forward to lots of eating out over the next couple of weeks :)

Well, I'm glad that's over

I've been quiet and I know it.  It isn't because I don't have things to say and it's definitely not because I don't *want* to blog.  Work has been insane and, while I didn't do all of my blogging at work, my energy level in the evenings has been incredibly low.  All I want to do once I get Baby Girl to bed is zone out at the TV and go to bed early.

Our project went live two weeks ago and it's rolling along fairly smoothly.  I'm hopeful that we'll be able to dive into Phase 2 soon, but it should be much less taxing and time-consuming for me, especially now that the initial roll-out is done.  You see, I was the main Systems driver for moving our office to a paperless process, which is a HUGE shift in culture.  It's been a struggle to gain the buy-in that I needed and, as expected, we had some technical difficulties, but it's up and running and operational for most people.

This project has honestly been really exciting and frustrating at the same time.  By the time I walk out of here, I'm wiped and have no energy to devote to my own family.  I'm glad we've stabilized at work, though, since it's now The Hubby's turn to have crazy time at work.  I'm hoping after this week we'll both be able to relax in the evenings and not be impatient and testy all of the time like we've each been over the last few weeks (mostly me, I'll admit).

This isn't necessarily an apology post--I also sort of wanted an entry to remind myself of this time, where I couldn't find the time or energy to do much of anything, let alone write out a great blog post.  I hope you've all been doing well and hopefully this means I'll be around more often, writing more super exciting stuff.

Or, you know, writing about my kid and her potty training progress (she woke up dry this morning, for instance...).  :)

So good that I'm telling you about it again

I know I told you my meal plan for the week already, but I tried a new recipe that knocked my socks off tonight.

Earlier in the week we made shredded buffalo chicken.  It was tasty, but a little spicy for Baby Girl,so we let her dip in some ranch dressing which made her a little happier.  After having dinner and packing up our lunches, we set aside 2 cups of shredded chicken meat to use in this recipe.

I knew this recipe would be good because I've loved everything Cassie has posted that I've tried, but I never could have imagined how good it could be.  You see, I've always been a blue box mac & cheese type of girl.  Love the stuff.  My mom would slave over making a mac & cheese from scratch and I never really liked it.  It would be crunchy on top (in my opinion, mac & cheese shouldn't be crunchy) and I just wasn't a fan.  In early adulthood, I tried this copycat recipe of my favorite macaroni and cheese at our favorite local BBQ restaurant.  Whenever I want to be fancy with my macaroni and cheese, I'll make it and everyone gobbles it up.

So when I saw Cassie's recipe for Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese, I knew it would be yummy, but I just didn't have confidence that I would love it more than my go-to mac & cheese.

But you know what?  I loved this recipe more than any recipe I've made in months.  Seriously.  The freshness of using real milk and cheese, combined with the buffalo chicken and some spices...delicious.  I want to go pick up the pan from the stove and eat the entire thing.  I'm actually thinking that next time I make the buffalo chicken I might just freeze half and use both halves to make this dish.  The only tweak I made to the recipe was that I made it with the already-buffaloed chicken so I didn't add the wing/hot sauce.  I thought the amount of heat was perfect.

I am tempted to put this on the meal plan again next week, but I'm actually thinking I might go see what other mac & cheese recipes she has since I remember quite a few crossing my Google Reader.  But you'd better believe this dish will be back on the meal plan very soon!

Meal Plan 9/5-9/10

This weekend was all sorts of crazy, so we ended up eating out a lot more than planned.  We used coupons and gift cards to make it a little cheaper, but that meant we ended up with some leftover meals (and, even more sadly, some meat had to get tossed).  Our meals this week are a combination of leftover meals and new meals.

• Lasagna: This is my mom's recipe with cottage cheese....my favorite :)
• Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches and corn on cob
  
• Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese: will make extra slow cooker buffalo chicken to use in this
• Chicken Nuggets, Oven Red Potato Fries: Bought some panko to roll some chicken chunks in and bake
• Spaghetti & Meatballs: I always cheat and get frozen turkey meatballs and then those hang out in the freezer for days we don't have leftovers to send with Baby Girl to the sitter's
• Chicken Rollatini Stuffed with Zucchini served with pasta

Facing Forward

It's so hard to believe how quickly Baby Girl is growing up.  This weekend we sent her to her Grandma and Papaw's for Friday AND Saturday nights while Mommy and Daddy were participating in the OSU Alumni Band.  We were going to pick her up after the game Saturday, but decided (correctly) that we would be too exhausted to make the drive that day, so we let her spend another night.  She did great--I don't think she hardly noticed we were gone.  We, of course, missed her when we weren't busy or sleeping, but I think it was good for all of us.

We had installed Baby Girl's carseat into my mom's car and when we took it out to put into our car to take her home, we reinstalled it forward-facing.  Everyone but me seemed really excited. I get the feeling that my parents think some of the decisions we make for her are silly so they get incredibly excited when we decide that she can have some sort of sinful food or we let up on a rule or we turn her forward-facing.  It's annoying.  Anyway, she's now forward-facing, which she tells us every time she gets into the car.  The seat in the little car is still rear-facing and I'm not sure when we'll turn it around, but I'm not in a big hurry.  She was happy enough rear-facing, but does seem to enjoy seeing Mommy and Daddy while we're driving in the car.  And now we can see what she's doing back there, too.

It's fine, it's nice.  But the most important thing is that it's just another sign that she's really growing up.  She's wearing big girl jeans with a t-shirt and actually has pigtails in her hair and she looked like such a big girl in her carseat on the way to the grocery this morning.  I loved her as a newborn, I loved her as an infant, I loved her as a toddler, and I love her now as the little girl she's becoming.  I just can't believe it's all happened so quickly.

My Noisy Mind

After a really stressful morning of work (and a pretty meager lunch), I decided I deserved a short walk to quiet my mind and get rid of some of the stress.  I was sure a dose of Vitamin D via the sun and some fresh air would really help.

You see, my brain doesn't get quiet very often.  I've always got multiple to-do lists swimming around in there as well as detailed thoughts about the more important topics.  My work has really, really picked up (which explains my lack of blogging) with a very large project going live one week from tomorrow.  I'm finalizing testing, taking screenshots, and preparing training materials and records.  I get overwhelmed very easily and find myself needing a break from the sheer noise of it all.  Thus, the walk.

I stepped out the door and was greeted by more noise than I was experiencing inside my office.  There was a loud roar overhead and when I looked up, I saw the Goodyear Blimp.  Once I started to block that noise out, I heard the passing cars, then people on cell phones, then jack hammers in the construction zones, and then those damned cicadas.  A quiet walk?  I wish.  It still helped me relax a bit and the sun was refreshing, but it definitely wasn't any quieter than my mind!

At 2 Years

At 2 years, Baby Girl can:

Say her ABCs
Count to 20 (sometimes missing 13 and sometimes missing 16)
Sometimes count to 29
Speak in full sentences (longest word count I've had is 7 words, but I don't count most of the time)
Spell her whole first name
Spell the names of most of her daycare friends
Write her first initial
Recognize some letters (I don't know which ones or how many at this point)
Sing lots of songs--her best ones are Jesus Loves Me, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and most of Carmen Ohio
Go up stairs without holding on
Go down stairs without holding on (very recent development closer to 25 months)
Ask many, many questions: "What you doing here, Daddy?"  "What's that?"  "What's that sound?" (while holding her hand out like she's trying to listen, only with her hand in front of her ear)
Know that green means go and red means stop
Know that a red hand means don't walk
Do extended pretend play
Go potty all day with few accidents (2-3 per week)

At 2 years, Baby Girl loves....

Mommy at bedtime
Daddy at playtime
Baby dolls
Her doll house
Running
Being tickled, so much that she asks for it
Mimicking Mommy and Daddy (putting babies in timeout, etc.)
Being polite--she says "excuse me", "thank you" (which is now turning into "thanks"), "I'm sorry", "please"
Food--she's still a great eater (knock on wood)
Singing with Mommy
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Special Agent Oso
Marching bands
Goldfish crackers
Anything sweet
Wearing big girl panties
Daddy's iPhone
Rough housing with Daddy
Drinking milk
Jelly toast
Blueberries
Noodles
Coloring

At 2 years, Baby Girl dislikes...

Going to bed (although it's getting better)
Taking time out to go pee
Being told "no"
Anytime she feels like she isn't independent
Listening (I'm sure I say "Are you listening to Mommy?" at least 10 times per day)
Time out
Sitting still
Riding in the car

At 2 years, Baby Girl is:

28 lbs (60th percentile (!))
33.25 in (40th percentile)

(Letter to Baby Girl forthcoming...)

I Love You

These three words are really common in our house.  The Hubby and I say "I love you" every time we hang up the phone, whenever we part ways for the day, and sometimes just whenever.  We tell Baby Girl that we love her all the time.  

And now she's telling us back.

For awhile, it was "I you" whenever we said it first.  But now she's giving us hugs and looking up at us, unprompted, and saying, "I love you, Mommy".  And my heart melts every single time.

The other day I was crying because I was frustrated with her TWO-ness and she looked at me and said, "Mommy sad?"  I told her that I was frustrated and a little sad.  She wrapped her little arms around my neck and said, "I love you, Mommy" and my tears turned to tears of joy.  I gave her a big smile through my tears and told her that I loved her, too.  

I know someday she's going to tell me that she hates me and when that moment comes, I'm going to remember these moments, this little voice, saying "I love you, Mommy".

Meal Plan: 8/14-8/20

Let's face it, blogging has officially been pushed to the back burner in my life.  Work has been worse than I think anyone could imagine, making me stressed out every moment that I'm awake (thankfully I'm not one of those people whose sleep suffers when they're stressed).  I have been wanting to tell you all about Baby Girl and how wonderful she is--because she really is--her official 2-year-old posts, and now to tell you about our vacation that we returned from Friday the 12th.  I wish I could say vacation was a great way to recharge my batteries, but it really wasn't the case.  But it was nice to get away and it was priceless to spend that much time with Baby Girl.

Anyway, something that remains constant is my meal planning.  I may not stick to it all week, but money has had me pretty stressed out recently, so we've been making a more concerted effort to eat the food we've already bought.  I made this plan this morning while Baby Girl played (almost a first, honestly) and then she and I went to the grocery.  She was a big help, counting green peppers and corn on the cob with me.  I was actually happy to have her along.

So even if I can't make the time to post about all the other things I want to, I can post my already-made weekly meal list so you all know I'm still around.  I don't really know what night we'll have each thing, but know that I want to do a lot of grilling to have cooked chicken for a couple of the dishes when we have grilled chicken for dinner. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza (the basis for this recipe is this but I don't get that complicated anymore--this is a meal we need pre-cooked chicken for)

Smoked Sausage Pierogi Bake:  I'm going to lighten this up with smoked turkey sausage, fat free cream cheese, and reduced fat cheese.  It honestly shouldn't be nearly as unhealthy as it looks :)  And it looks delicious.  In fact, we might have it tonight.

Unstuffed Pepper Skillet: I have some steamer bags of rice that will work well for this recipe and I saw that my grocery had green peppers for $0.50 apiece (plus I have a few that might come out of my own garden soon).  Now I just need to see if all of my frozen ground turkey applies to the recall...

Grilled Chicken and Corn on the Cob w/ rice: Simple and yummy.  I have some marinade that I'll use on the chicken that we'll eat that night and then grill some extra for other meals.


Chicken Pasta Primavera: a recipe that uses some of the veggies I'm growing (summer and zucchini squashes), some of the many boxes of pasta I've got in my basement, and chicken that was on sale for $1.88/lb this week.

Smoked Sausage Pizza: When I saw that the Smoked Sausage Pierogi Bake didn't use a whole package of smoked sausage and realized that I'd have an extra pizza crust (I buy the Kroger brand pre-baked crusts that come two to a package and are still cheaper than Boboli's one crust), I knew I needed to find something that used those ingredients.  And when I realized that this recipe also used green peppers, I was sold.  Never tried it before, but it looks yummy and my whole family will eat any type of pizza.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Baby Girl

I have a couple of posts I need to crank out.  I don't have any of them done, but couldn't let this day pass without SOMETHING from me!

On this day two years ago, I met the most beautiful little thing that would change me in ways I never knew possible.  We've both grown and changed an incredible amount over the past two years, but I can hardly remember life before her.

We had a great day today as a family, so I want to write up a post about how we spent her special day.  I also want to write her my traditional sappy letter and also a post about how she's developing.  To give you an idea of what a grown up she acts like, tonight while we were talking to God I asked her who she was thankful for and she said:  "Wait, Mommy, I'm thinking.  I know......Grandma and Papaw."  I never could have imagined, even three months ago, that she'd be so grown up at just two years of age.  Simply amazing.

Happy birthday, Baby Girl.  Mommy loves you more than you'll ever realize.

Meal Plan 7/24-7/30

I have been meal planning this whole time, I swear!  I just haven't been posting, for some reason or another.  And, honestly, I haven't stuck to my meal plan for a couple of weeks.  The first week was because The Hubby had an unexpectedly long recovery period from his wisdom tooth extraction so we were just winging it to make soft foods for him and the second week was...well....it just was. 

But I'm back!  We are putting ourself on a tight budget, though, and cooking with meat from the freezer and trying to make use of ingredients we have around the house.  This means the meals could be completely non-creative or really, really creative.

Sunday:  Sloppy Cubanos (I'd made these before and remembered loving them.  I actually bought the ingredients last week or we wouldn't have been having them, both because of health reasons (who knew ground pork was so unhealthy??!?!) and because of cost)

Monday: Leftover Subs from Baby Girl's birthday party and Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Tuesday: Black Bean Pizza (going to make pizza crust in the bread machine and hopefully have enough to freeze some)



Wednesday: BBQ Ribs and Summer Squash and Chive Pancakes

Thursday: Grilled Pork Chops and Corn on the Cob

Friday: Will probably eat out for Baby Girl's second birthday.  Either that or we will cook something fun for her (likely pizza or pasta--her favorites). 

Saturday: Will likely eat with my in-laws and my nieces (MIL and FIL are watching my three nieces while BIL and SIL are at a wedding reception and we're planning on taking Baby Girl over there after her nap).



Also, I have been doing my fun things.  I have a post ready to show you all but want to add pictures :)

She did it (again)!

Baby Girl didn't poop at all yesterday and I was really beginning to be afraid that she was going to be a poop hoarder and have it hurt, then fear the pain, then hoard more, etc.  We told our sitter and talked about the conditions under which she pooped last time (pants off and in the little potty).  The sitter was excited that leaving her pants off had worked for us (it was under her suggestion that we'd done it).

I got a text just before noon from the sitter: "Success!  We have poopie in the potty!  Yay!"  I did a little happy dance while I tried to figure out who I could share my excitement with.  After exchanging a few texts, I learned that the sitter had left her pants-(and diaper-)-less and had also brought out the little potty.  After she revealed this, I asked her, somewhat jokingly, how long we need to keep her pantless.  She assured me that she'd get it and I couldn't be more excited.  I texted The Hubby and even called my mom, who I knew would be as excited as I am.

And now, because I'm still excited, I'm sharing with you.  You're welcome.  :)

Not Preventing

I wish I could have this mindset when TTC.  I wish I weren't so aware of my body that I always know where I am in my cycle, whether I'm charting or not.  I wish I could just "play it by ear" and "let nature take its course".  I wish I could try without trying.

But I can't.

We've talked a lot about TTC in the next few months.  I still don't know if I'm ready, but I also don't know if I'll ever be ready, really.  I want to lose more weight.  I want to save more money.  I want to be making more money so we can afford daycare better.  I want to move to a better school district.  I want to own my body for a little while longer.  But I don't think I want our kids much more than 3 years apart, if I can help it.  And who knows how long it's going to take to get pregnant.

In other words, I still don't know what to do.  Why can't I love sex and just go at it with my husband without protection and get pregnant whenever it happens?  Why do I have to plan sex and still know whether it's likely within my ovulation window?  Why do I have to overanalyze every little piece of this?

I did it!

Baby Girl's phrase for the weekend was "I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  She'd climb up on the couch and yell "I did it!".  Kick her legs and "swim" across the baby pool?  "I did it!"  Her excitement was contagious.  Many times she was excited about things she's been doing for awhile now, but we all got excited all over again.

But once this weekend she did something she'd never done before.

I walked in the door from going to the grocery and heard "Mommy Mommy Mommy!  Poopy potty!!!"  I came running in as she points at the potty "Look!"  I gave her a big hug and told her what a big girl she is.  She started prancing around saying "I did it!  I did it!"

I looked at The Hubby for explanation and this is what he told me:

"She had just gotten up from her nap and we were sitting and eating plums when she started tooting.  She sat down to go pee and tooted some more and I asked her if she needed to go poop.  She tried and tooted some more and then hopped up and said she was all done.  She was doing a little dance that made me think maybe she needed to go, but she wouldn't sit back down.  I left her without panties or anything, like we'd been doing before nap, and went into the kitchen to get another plum.  While I was in there, I smelled it and immediately thought she had pooped on the floor.  I walked in and there she was, sitting on the potty!  She hopped up to "See it?" and since her bum was still dirty, I told her to sit back down.  I got her cleaned up and that's when you walked in."

I am so incredibly proud of and excited for her.  We've actually had more pee accidents recently because we've decreased the frequency of prompting her to go potty, so I was starting to doubt (again) whether she was ready.  But I think we're in this for the long haul now!

Oh, and I did take a picture, but am NOT posting it here.  I always thought those moms who took pictures of their kid's poop were weird....and now I'm one of them!  I am not, however, going to go to the level of posting on Facebook or on my blog, though.  I emailed it to my mom because she's taken an interest in Baby Girl's potty-training.  Her response was "Damn!!" and then followed with another email that said, "Way to go!  Aren't you glad you didn't have to clean that up?"  While it would've sucked to have cleaned it from her diaper, it would've been even worse to clean it from her panties!

Who knows what this will bring--I don't know if she needs to be pantless and have a potty she can get to on her own (she used her little potty instead of the potty ring) or if this has opened a window that will allow her to realize she can do it and she'll do it on the potty from now on.  We will see!

30 Days of Fun

My bloggy (but hopefully soon in-real-life) friend, Cassie is starting an initiative to find and create fun in her own life by participating in 30 Day of Fun and I've decided to join her!  I've been incredibly overwhelmed recently by day-to-day life and think I needed this little push to find and create fun in my everyday life.  I plan to blog about it at least once a week, but if I do something incredibly fun, it might get its own post :)

I've already done something fun today (hello cheap Jimmy John's!), but may wait and see if something even MORE fun comes along this evening :) 

I'd love it if you'd join me!  Even if you don't blog, you can tell me all about your fun in the comments on my fun posts!  I think too many of us get bogged down by Real Life and don't take the time to find the fun and have fun on a regular basis.  My goal is to even find a way to make laundry fun one of these 30 days!

Potty Training

I started this post about a week ago and had honestly meant to blog more while in the midst of the heavy-duty potty training, but just haven't had the time (and haven't prioritized it, either--some nights it was just easier to stare blankly at the TV than to blog).  So here's my potty training update--July 2nd to present.
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Baby Girl has been using the potty in the mornings and evenings for us every day, but had been resisting using the potty at the sitter's house.  After a discussion with the sitter, she agreed to start trying harder to get her to go and was successful the last few days of last week.  She suggested that we try putting her in panties this weekend (the July 4th weekend) and having her try every 15 minutes or so.  Because she's shown so much interest, we agreed.  This is my chronicle of how the weekend went.

Saturday

Woke up, ready to tackle the day.  We didn't have anything planned and could focus all of our energy on potty training.  We got Baby Girl into some panties, had a talk about how special they are and how she shouldn't go potty in them, and started the day.  She sat on the potty every 15-20 minutes and typically peed at least a little.  She did great all morning long!  She had one pee accident late in the morning, then we put her in a diaper for naptime.  We changed her back into her panties for the afternoon and had two more accidents then (once while talking on the phone to Papaw).  She still sat on the potty every 15-20 minutes and usually produced pee.  We used a sticker chart to record her progress and she ended up with about 15 stickers over the course of the day.  What a great first day of potty training!

Sunday

Woke up about 5 minutes before Grandma was supposed to arrive.  Papaw dropped Grandma off before heading off to a golf outing.  Day #2 has begun.  Baby Girl did fairly well in the morning again.  She didn't even fight us when we'd ask her to go potty.  I was beginning to think that this might actually be working...as long as we could always be there to remind her to use the potty every 15 minutes or so.  The Hubby and I went to go run in the afternoon and during that time, she had another accident.  And once we were back, we had her try to pee, which she did, but then she had two more accidents in the next 20 minutes.  And down goes my morale, thinking maybe she just wasn't ready for potty-training.

Monday

She did well.  We spent most of the day at our house and she was willing to go potty when we asked.  She only had a couple of accidents and I felt a lot better about our decision.

Tuesday-Friday

Tuesday we returned to the sitter's and I talked to her about our experiences over the weekend.  We'd brought Baby Girl in a pull-up just in case she needed to go while in the car, so the sitter left her in that.  We took a stash of pull-ups and panties and let the sitter decide what she wanted to do.  The week was, in a word, amazing.  Baby Girl didn't have any accidents and only woke up from nap wet one time.  She was still pooping in her pull-up in the morning (the reason we keep delivering her in pull-ups), but peeing in the potty regularly. The sitter bribes her with candy (Smarties) and Baby Girl is smart enough to differentiate between the sitter's house and ours, where we reward with stickers (and sometimes money).

Saturday

Spend all day at a friend's house while The Hubby was helping build a shed.  Baby Girl did really well going potty and only had one accident during dinner.  I don't know if she woke up dry because I wasn't there when she got up.

Sunday

Went to my hometown to get photos taken for Baby Girl's 2nd birthday (eep!).  Stopped to let her try to use the potty on the way down once--we had the portable potty with us.  She didn't pee, but it ended up being a good solution for the future.  She went potty in the car when we were done with the pictures (was wearing panties the whole time) and did pretty well.  Again, I wasn't there when she got up from nap so I don't know if she got up dry or not (and no one else seems to think this is significant...).  She pooped in her panties later in the day but otherwise was accident-free.

Monday & Tuesday (July 11th and 12th)

Did great at the sitter's again.  She poops in her pull-up in the morning, then gets panties on after that, gets a diaper or pull-up for naptime, then panties again after that until bedtime.  She's going potty whenever someone asks and is also prompting the sitter to take her potty.  She doesn't ask us often, but we're also a little nervous to let her go too long.  The sitter lets her go and has concluded that she can hold it for awhile now.  I'm actually feeling pretty confident that she's really potty training and will be at least daytime pee-trained by the time she turns two.  Wow.  Amazing.

Wednesday (today)

Not a horrible day, but not the best, either.  Pooped in her pull-up in the morning.  Pooped in her panties in the afternoon.  Peed in panties at lunch.  :(  Enter frustration and uncertainty.

I honestly think I'm feeling so uncertain because she's so darn young.  Who expects their child to be ready to potty-train before they even turn 2?  So when she shows any signs that she's not getting it, I question if she's truly ready.  We've gotten this far, though, and will keep pushing through the slight regression.  We'll get there.  Next thing to truly tackle, though, is getting her to poop in the potty.  If we catch her getting ready to poop, she stops pushing and then can't (won't) push on the potty again.  We worry about getting her constipated.  The sitter (who has been right about what we should do so far) suggested we let her run around all day without panties or anything.  Apparently kids won't poop on the floor.  So it'll either get her to hold it or get her to poop on the potty.  It might be worth a shot.

23 Months

In just one short month I'll be posting about my baby turning TWO.  Insane.

I've wanted to devote an entire post to the things Baby Girl is saying.  Let me just say that she's talking.  A lot.  She's forming sentences (minus "the", "a", "an"), asking questions (usually minus "what" and "where", such as "Daddy doing?"), using contractions, using pronouns (not necessarily successfully, of course...), singing, counting to 15, and repeating everything that comes out of our mouths...which could be dangerous.

The singing is the best thing, if you ask me.  She can sing all of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Loves Me.  She also sings a good chunk of quite a few other songs.  I love her sweet little voice singing with me.  We finally got a recording of her singing Carmen Ohio with me--so sweet!

Baby Girl officially has 13 teeth.  She has the eight front teeth, top and bottom, her first set of molars, and cut her bottom right eye tooth awhile ago.  No real signs of any other eye teeth yet, though.  She is drooling and chewing still, though, so I'm guessing the bottom left one will cut through sooner than later.  I check for it every night when we brush her teeth.

She's wearing size 2T or 24 months in many clothes now, but many pants are still falling off of her and some capris are too long.  If we had more shorts and capris in 18M, we'd have her wear those.  She must have a longer torso, though, because 18M shirts are too short.

We're still struggling mightily with bedtime.  I can't bring myself to shorten our bedtime routine, as I really cherish that time we get together.  I love reading books with her, praying with her, and singing with her.  She's still crying when I leave, but isn't crying as much when we have a later (not going upstairs until 8:00) bedtime.  I honestly think she's tired before then, but if it cuts down on the crying and she's waking up okay on weekdays, I'm okay with a later bedtime, I suppose.  It does give us time to do more things, like go paint pottery, cook dinner, and still get to have bathtime, like we did last night.  Maybe my kid will stop being dirty all the time now :)

I can't even begin to express what a sweet kid Baby Girl is.  She's quick with a hug and a kiss.  She now has an imagination and loves to play with her baby dolls, diapering them, feeding them, and putting them to bed.  She typically eats like a champ, although her favorite foods are any fruit (besides melon) and anything she can dip in some sort of sauce.  She is drinking a lot more milk than she used to (some days 3 sippy cups full, which is A LOT for her).

Baby Girl is still working on potty training.  She'll go whenever we ask (and typically has some pee to put in the potty), but tells us she has to pee as she's doing it.  We'll get her to the potty (typically after running there) and she'll have a warm diaper.  We'll still let her try, but we explain to her that she already peed.  She's really proud of herself when she does it, though, which we love.  And she's also finally peeing at the sitter's house.  Previously she'd just try and then want down immediately.  She's even trying to poop there.  Woo!

Her favorite phrase is "birdie eat it".  We've created a monster.  When we were eating dinner outside regularly, if she'd drop something, we'd tell her a birdie would eat it because she'd worry about it through the rest of the meal otherwise.  Now she's telling us that birdies are going to eat everything she drops, inside, in the car, outside...everywhere.  And now she's throwing things down specifically FOR the birdies.  We're going to have some fat birdies around our house!

Screw you, mommy

Seriously.  No matter how much time I spend trying to put Baby Girl to bed at night, I feel like she gives me a big ol' Fuck You every single night.  She cries and yells every night.  She's not winding down well, no matter how long we spend trying to have quiet time.  I sing and sing.  We sit in silence.  We read books.  She drinks milk.  We snuggle.  It doesn't matter what I do, she cries.  And it's gotten to the point where I wonder why I bother trying and don't just throw her in her crib, blow her a kiss, and walk out the door.

Argh.

And the worst part?  She's worse for her daddy than she is for me. 

Tooth #13

I'd meant to post this earlier.  Baby Girl is starting to cut her eye teeth now.  From what I understand, they're pretty painful and while she's handling it really well, she does seem to be bothered a little bit.  Saturday, June 11th we were able to confirm that her lower right eye tooth has broken through.  The spots for the others haven't even started to swell, but we know that doesn't necessarily mean anything (some teeth gave us no warning and just cut through without any swelling).

Once she's done with these, all she'll have left for awhile (I think) are her two-year molars.  Never thought my kid would be behind the curve on getting her teeth--my orthodontist told me I was the youngest patient he'd had with wisdom teeth.  (and no, before you think it, I am absolutely NOT worried about her teeth!)

Weight Loss Update: 216ish

I'll tell you a secret...I only weigh myself in the morning, before my shower, after I go Number Two.  If I don't need to go Number Two, I won't weigh myself that morning.  Last week was rough--I only had to go TWICE last week.  I think my body is saying, "No!  Please don't go, food!  We'll find a place for you!"

Anyway, I weighed myself this morning (the goal was to weigh myself Monday or Tuesday morning) and the first time I got 216.2.  I wasn't really centered on the scale, though, and thought the number should probably be higher so I tried again.  Honestly, I do it multiple times because my scale isn't particularly consistent.  The second time, I got 215.4.  Being the geek that I am, I knew I needed to find out which was closer to right, so I stepped back on the scale--215.4.

I'm calling it 216ish.  I'd last weighed myself and was 220, so this means I actually lose a point this week.  And if I were going to meetings, we'd celebrate "New Numbers!" (meaning I'm not in the 220's and am now in the 210's).

Hoping to see the 200's soon and I cannot wait to see a 1 in the front of that.  Onederland is a good place to be.  Of course, by the time that happens, I'll probably be trying to get pregnant again... 

I'm averaging 1.5 pounds per week, which is pretty good for me.  It's not Biggest Loser fast, but I'm able to be happy with what I'm eating and splurge a bit sometimes, too.  Of course, I haven't seen the results of this past weekend yet (that usually doesn't happen until Tuesday or Wednesday for me).  I was really, really good on Saturday, but Sunday ate a few too many sweets and then Outback Steakhouse for dinner.  Oh well--all I can do is move on.  Today is a new day!

My huge milestone

(I apologize for any cursing in this post beforehand.  In real life, I have a potty mouth and it really comes out when I'm feeling a strong emotion.)

I cannot believe it.  This 220 pound, size 16W woman did it.  I just jogged for 20 minutes without stopping. 

I fucking did it.

Even in the best shape of my life, I don't think I ever jogged more than 1/4 mile without stopping.  And tonight I jogged 1.3 miles.  Without stopping to walk.  Without succumbing to the cramp in my calf.  Without catching my breath.

Wow.  Totally shocked.

Something I did discover?  It's my brain that was holding me back all those years ago.  If I can do it now, I definitely could've done it then.  And I'm so damned happy I found that inside me today.

I think we're going to try the run again soon (technically the program says we should do more running and walking for week 6 day 1), only we're going to try to push the pace a little.  4 mph is really slow--some people can walk that fast.  But you know what?  I DID IT. 

Weekends are going to kill me

I find myself really struggling with my weight loss over the weekends.  I do really well during the week but we've been incredibly busy during the weekends and have either been away from home or too exhausted to cook.

Take this past weekend, for instance.  On Saturday my parents came up and we went out to lunch. But then we got to the evening and didn't have dinner plans (we thought we would be doing something for dinner Saturday that then got switched to Sunday), so we ran out.  Sunday The Hubby's parents were at our house and they brought bologna salad and chips for lunch.  There were donuts for breakfast.  There were cookies around.  We had pizza for dinner because everyone was exhausted from working.

I made the best choices I could in bad situations--I had half a cookie.  I only had a few chips.  Used my light bread for my bologna salad sandwich.  Got a salad and a light lunch on Saturday.  Worked out on Saturday.

I just have a feeling, though, that it isn't going to do any good.  I do my best during the weekend but still feel like I need to put forth more effort.  This coming weekend we'll be back at the in-laws' house for the whole weekend again and I'll have little control.  Again.

I'm doing the best I can, but how can everyone else splurge on the weekends and hover at slightly pudgy or overweight while I'm in the obese category and analyzing every damn bite?  I guess I end up feeling sorry for myself sometimes.  Why do *I* have to work so damned hard at this?

The Test

I've been experiencing some symptoms recently. I had written it off to feeling weird after being sick, but when they went away and came back, I started considering it could be something else.  I have been nauseous, had headaches, been dizzy, and been utterly exhausted.  After describing them to The Hubby, I realized that those symptoms sounded a little...familiar.

Trust me when I say that me being pregnant is EXTREMELY unlikely.  Between preventative measures and not much...action, there is a VERY low chance of pregnancy in this house.  But I bought a test last night anyway.  I stressed about whether to get the two-pack or just one and got the two-pack so I'd have them for when we actually start trying (note to self--go ahead and invest in the internet cheapies or at least some of the Dollar Store tests!).

I tried to take it after getting home from the grocery and even after a large mug of water and sitting around for three hours, I didn't have enough pee to run the test.  So I stuck the test in my pocket and planned to try the next morning, not knowing if a test would work again (no control line or anything).  I don't know why I felt so secretive, but I didn't mention it to The Hubby.

In the morning I peed.  I sat.  I stared.  I wasn't even sure how I was feeling.  Part of me was hopeful that it would be positive.  I kept looking at it over and over again, sort of hoping to see that second line.  But I didn't.  I wasn't exactly sad, but I wasn't exactly relieved either. 

I think I could be okay with getting pregnant, but still don't think I'm ready to start trying again.  I'm not ready to give up my indepedence and controlling my own body.  I'm not ready to get on that TTC roller coaster yet, either.  I think the part of me that would have been happy to be pregnant was the part that doesn't want to go through the testing, the thinking, the actual trying of it all.  It wouldn't be all bad to have a happy surprise.

Hi! Again.

Last year when we took our vacation (Baby Girl was just over a year old), Baby Girl's favorite word was "hi!"  She'd say it to everyone we passed.

She's doing it again.  And she's relentless.  Even if they say hi back, she keeps saying it over and over again.  It's nice because I used to say "can you say hi?" and she'd wave a little wave.  Now she yells "HI!!"

It's pretty cute, but sort of embarrassing sometimes, like when she's screaming at some delivery men while we take a walk.

The first time I wasn't so sure I want to have a girl

When we found out we were pregnant, I was hoping so much for a girl.  I love being a girl most of the time.  I love the versatility of it--I can be athletic, get dirty, but also wear dresses and makeup.  So when we found out we were having a girl, I was relieved and excited and have really enjoyed it so far. 

Recently, though, the smallest bit of doubt entered my mind.  Can I really handle all that raising a girl entails?  How do I make sure she grows up being confident and loving herself, no matter what she looks like?  How do I help her through body image issues that have plagued me my entire life? 

You see, Baby Girl picked up my makeup brush and started to try to apply makeup to herself like she's seen me do many times.  How do I explain makeup?  How do I explain that Mommy wears it to cover up all her imperfections and to help her feel more attractive?  How do I tell her that she doesn't ever *need* makeup?  I wear it almost every day and I know that action will make a bigger impression than telling her that we don't need makeup to be beautiful. 

How do I let my actions speak to her and let her know that she's beautiful, no matter what?  How do I tell her, with my own actions, that her size doesn't matter, that she can embrace curves and love her body, no matter what size it is?  I'm not comfortable in my own skin and I fear that she'll realize that.  I'm taking steps to take care of my body, but will I ever be happy with it?  And even if I'm not, how I make sure Baby Girl loves her own body and face?

Potty Training Update

Potty training is still going on.  We're at the point where Baby Girl is peeing on the potty at least once a day.  This past weekend it was 4 times on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.  She hasn't really been asking to go, but will typically try when we ask her.  If she says no, we drop it.

When she does go, though, we have a reward system (that we aren't great about adhering to, but it still works).  We give a sticker for trying and money for putting pee in the potty.  She typically gets five pennies for peeing, which she then gets to count out and put into her piggy bank.  If we're around my parents, they'll give her some bigger money (my dad recently gave her a $5 bill!) for going potty, too. 

Our sitter says that next week when she's down to four kids on her busiest days (Tuesday through Thursday--Monday she'll have three and Friday just two) she's going to focus more on working on potty training with Baby Girl.  She says she thinks she can have it done in three days.  More power to her :)  If it doesn't happen, though, I won't be horribly upset--it is still really early.

Smarty McSmartyPants

Time to brag about my baby...if you don't want to hear it, move along :)

This weekend we were spending time with The Hubby's family and Baby Girl was coloring with The Hubby's cousin's kids (ages 3-6).  One little boy, who is starting kindergarten in August, was trying to sing his ABC's.  He kept getting stuck after E.  It was obvious he knew the phrases, but just kept mixing them up.  I felt a little sad, honestly, because I know his parents don't work on it with him at all.

And then Baby Girl did something that made me so excited and proud.  After he'd say "E", she started singing "F-G-H-I-J-K-L-(some noise that was supposed to sound like M-N-O)-P".  Atta girl!

Couch to 5K Update

Even though we've been doing this for three or four months now, we've just moved onto week #5.  Since The Hubby and I are doing this together, we also need to take Baby Girl with us, which means the weather has to be okay and she needs to not be too cranky.  And it has to be before her bedtime (it would be nice to be able to go running around 8 or 9 now that Central Ohio has turned on Summer, but she's in bed at that point).

We're taking it slow, but this run was a HUGE ramp-up from Week #4 Day #3 (there are 3 running days per week).  You can see the whole plan here.

We went from jogging for no longer than 3 minutes (alternating with 90 second jogs) to jogging for three separate 5 minute stretches!  For someone who has never been good at or liked running, that's a big difference.

But you know what?  I finished it.  And I'm really damn proud of myself for it.  I posted it on Facebook and was so excited by the comments I got (including a "like" from the guy I dated before The Hubby who loved to run and I think always wanted me to run with him).  It also reminded me, though, of how much I've changed since college.  I can't really explain it, but I could feel the judging non-comments from some of my college Facebook friends who I participated in athletic activities with and who used to judge me for being bigger at that point and it made me self-conscious about how much weight I've gained (and lost and gained and lost and gained....) since then. 

And then I stopped feeling that way and realized that I'm living my life the way that makes me happy now.  And I'm doing something that good for me and I should be proud!  So I am.  Who cares where I came from or how I got here--I'm here and I'm trying to make myself better.  So you know what?  Go me!

22 Months

On May 29th Baby Girl turned 22 months old and I want to briefly update about her development.

It's much harder to describe the changes that she's going through at this point--it was much easier when she was walking, rolling, and sitting.

Our sitter claims Baby Girl has had a language explosion but I think The Hubby and I would say it happened closer to 21 months.  She's definitely using phrases and sentences a lot more and rarely communicates with only one word.

My favorite thing (I think) that she's doing right now is singing.  Just tonight, for instance, she sang almost all of the ABCs with me.  She didn't get all the individual letters right, but said something for each of them.  She sings Mary Had a Little Lamb and says all the repeating lines.  She also sings pieces of Itsy Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the Bus, complete with hand motions for both.  She still insists on If You're Happy and You Know It in the can, but has started playing tricks on Mommy and not actually doing the actions you're supposed to do.  The silence after I say "Shout 'Hooray!'" cracks her up and she will laugh for about 5 minutes afterwards.

Speaking of the car....we still battle the car regularly.  Baby Girl always claims that her "buckle hurts" and wants to get up.  She always wants entertainment from one of us as well--either singing, reading a good, holding a finger, playing "Hide Seek" (covering her eyes and saying "I can't find her anywhere!")...you get the idea.

The major thing that can keep her occupied in the car, though, is looking for buses or big trucks.  She loves them.  I'm actually pretty nervous about car rides now that school is out and we won't be seeing too many "big yellow bus" anymore.

Baby Girl's eating has gotten worse.  I'm not sure if she's just not as hungry or if she's getting pickier.  She just recently started refusing broccoli, which was one of her favorites for awhile.  She also seems to be starving on the way home from the sitter's so we give her her afternoon snack that she didn't finish and we're wondering if this is filling her up enough that she's not hungry for dinner.  We're hoping she isn't getting too picky--we've always been really pleased with how many different things she would eat.

We're pretty much at status quo for pottying.  She's peeing in the potty about once a day, but we typically have to ask her if she wants to try.  Sometimes she'll try and sometimes she'll refuse.  We don't push.  We've been giving stickers as a reward for trying and money (typically five pennies) as a reward for actually peeing in the potty.  The sitter will have almost half as many kids in a week, so she plans to focus on potty training at that point with her, which we really appreciate.  I hope Baby Girl is ready. 

Baby Girl is still refusing Daddy a lot.  We have to reason with her and tell her that there are two parts to bedtime--changing diaper/pjs and the everything we do upstairs--and that Mommy will do one and Daddy will do one.  We typically have a tantrum (which is fairly mild compared to what I hear from other parents of kids her age) before she gives in and lets Daddy change her diaper and pjs.  Her refusal of Daddy makes both of us incredibly sad.

Baby Girl is definitely discovering her will and opinions, for better or for worse.  A lot of the parts of this age are sweet.  She's loving, still snuggly, curious, adorable (seriously--you need to hear this kid say "okee-dokee"), and fun.  But she's also very opinionated and strong-willed and because of that we butt heads a lot.  I am typically exhausted by the end of the day, especially when she fights bedtime every.single.night.  But I love her truly and deeply and only want the best for her.  Only two more months until she's two.  Wow.

Edited to add some things I forgot:

Baby Girl is now navigating stairs entirely standing really well.  We still try to spot her sometimes, but she does a really good job.

Baby Girl is still technically wearing 18 month stuff, but we didn't buy any summer 18 month stuff, so we're having to use safety pins on some of her 24 month/2T bottoms.  The tops are fine and the dresses seem fine but the pants are long and pretty big in the waist.

Ear Tubes

When we went to the pediatrician on May 16th as a follow-up to Baby Girl's EIGHTH ear infection, we knew what we would probably leave the appointment with.  A referral to an ENT.

While this ended up being true, it didn't come readily.  Our pediatrician is pretty conservative and let us make the decision about whether to move onto the ENT or not.  He said that it was possible that Baby Girl would grow out of needing tubes (most kids don't need them after the age of 2) and because we were getting into the summer months, it was likely she wouldn't have as many colds as well.  We decided, though, that since she'd had two ear infections (both double, I think) within three weeks and STILL had fluid in her ears from the last one, we should go talk to the ENT.  Our pediatrician assured us that the ENT wouldn't push for tubes if Baby Girl didn't really need them (I was worried that if we visited with a specialist he would push to do his specialty).

I called for the appointment and we were able to get in just a few days later, on May 19th.  We met with the doctor, who was incredibly nice and great with Baby Girl, and after hearing our history and looking at her he told us that he'd like to put tubes in.  We asked him our questions about him being sure this was the best course of action and everything and he assured us that she'll be a lot happier and healthier with the tubes.  We talked about her vocabulary already being ahead for her age and he said, "But how much better could it be?"  The biggest selling point to me was that we could then treat any future infections with drops applied directly to her ears rather than systemic oral medications that she can build up a resistance to.

We were given the option of a surgery date of May 31st or June 14th (the doctor only does surgeries on Tuesdays and would be out of town on the 7th) and we chose May 31st.  Better to get it done as soon as possible.

I submitted information about Baby Girl's medical history.  About 5 days before the surgery was scheduled, Baby Girl's nose started running and a cough started.  I called the ENT's office, fearful that the surgery would be cancelled due to her cold.  They told us that generally a cold won't be a problem but that the anesthesiologist would look her over when we got checked on to be sure.  We got the call on Thursday the 23rd that we were set for a 7:45 surgery, which meant a 6:45 arrival time.  Early, but good since Baby Girl couldn't eat or drink after midnight. 

Monday night.  Insert sickness for Mommy.  Blech.  I was determined to be there for the surgery, though.

The Hubby and I got up around 5:30.  We needed to be on the road by 6:15 and were planning to just wake Baby Girl and walk her directly out to the car.  I went out to get the car running and The Hubby got her up--she looked awake and happy enough as he walked her out the car.  Thank goodness!

We drove to the center without any drama and got there and registered.  We filled out a little bit of paperwork and sat down.  I still wasn't feeling great, so I sat and watched some TV while The Hubby took Baby Girl to the play area.  He tried to change her diaper, but as has been the trend recently, she wanted "Mommy DO IT!"  So I did. 

By the time I emerged with a diapered child, the nurse was ready to take us back.  We walked into a room with 6 partitioned spaces--two of which had a hospital-type crib.  We sat Baby Girl up in the crib and talked to the nurse (who was fabulous with Baby Girl).  After just another minute, the anesthesiologist came in to talk to us and to take a look at Baby Girl.  She said she sounded good and that her cold was still just in her throat and therefore wouldn't cause any problems with going forward with the surgery (thank goodness).  She asked for a snack a few times and we just told her we couldn't give her anything and she returned to whatever she was doing (thank goodness--this was the biggest anxiety-producer for both of us that morning--we thought we would have a tantruming toddler on our hands when we couldn't give her food).  A nurse returned and asked how Baby Girl was at taking medicine and we told her that she typically takes it really well.  She handed me a large syringe with a red medicine that turned out to be a sedative (I knew it was coming, but wasn't sure that this was it) and Baby Girl sucked it down--I didn't even need to push on the plunger.

We sat Baby Girl in the crib and waited for her to get loopy.  We didn't have to wait long.  The first sign we saw was that she couldn't quite sit up.  Then her eyes started getting glassy and she started getting the stares.  It was really amusing, actually.  Not long after, a nurse returned to take her to surgery.  She went easily to the nurse and we headed back to the waiting room.  We had to pass Baby Girl and the nurse on the way out and I started to tear up, but we didn't let her see us.  We sat down and read the post-operative care booklet, talked for a bit, watched some TV, and then I went to pee.  By the time I was done, they'd come to get us.

We walked back toward the room where we'd first taken Baby Girl, but were told to turn another direction.  We were meeting with Dr. K.  He told us that they found a double ear infection while they were in there (the way he started to talk, it seemed like he was going to give us bad news...I felt my heart skip a beat as he started) and that we would need to give her ear drops to help clear that up.  I asked if everything was okay otherwise and he said she did great.  He confirmed that she can swim in the ocean (we're currently trying to decide what to do for a vacation and this was a concern we had) and gave us some instructions about what things we need to do to care for her ears while she has the tubes.  Then we were sent back to wait for awhile longer.

We talked to another couple, who was actually someone I'd gone to high school and played in band with--what a small world, as neither of us lives in the same town that we went to high school in!  They were called back while we were sitting there and we just watched a little more TV.  We probably waited about 5-10 minutes before they called us back and said she was just starting to wake up.

When we walked back to the room with all the partitions, I saw her laying in a blonde nurse's arms, just starting to stir--so sweet.  I was so glad someone was holding her--they didn't move that bed at all, actually.  I took her from the nurse and sat in the rocking chair with her.  As a nurse started to talk to us (I honestly don't remember what she said), Baby Girl was waking up and fighting to get down onto the floor.  She could barely hold her head up, so I knew I couldn't let her try to sit or walk on her own yet and she didn't seem to understand that she didn't have control of her body.  We eventually got her down on the floor with The Hubby, but she still wanted to walk.  She fell over two times from a sitting position and her head hit the floor both times--ouch!  She still wanted to walk and wouldn't let us help her ("SELF!!!"), but we knew we had to.  This lead to a really big battle.  We finally got her to sit still by giving her something to drink.  She couldn't hold the cup up to her mouth well, but refused any help I offered, so we just watched her struggle.  She eventually got it, though, and guzzled about eight ounces of apple juice pretty quickly.  She said she wanted a snack so we gave her some Cheerios (which she also struggled to get into her mouth, much to the amusement of her daddy and me) and some pieces of cereal bar. 

She drained what apple juice we'd brought her, so I went to get her something else to drink.  They had juice available, so I put more into her cup.  And then she got sick.  Poor kiddo.  The nurse was in there with us and helped us get her cleaned up and was so sweet to her.  My kid, though, had no idea what had happened.  She just wanted to get up and go some more (puke and rally, as my husband would say....).  Can't keep this kid down!  The nurse told us that if we felt comfortable taking her home, we could, so The Hubby went to pull the car around.  Baby Girl and I went walking since she was really restless and another nurse offered her a Thomas sticker.  Since Baby Girl was topless at this point, the nurse was putting her sticker on the teddy bear they gave us when she vomited again.  It mostly got on the floor, but I took her back to where we were...and then she got sick again.  Ugh.  This can't be good.

The nurse went and told The Hubby that he should just park and we wouldn't be leaving yet and then went to talk to the anesthesiologist.  She gave her a suppository for the nausea (ugh...not an experience I want to remember).  We were just trying to keep Baby Girl contained, but she REALLY wanted to peek at the other kids in the room.  One was someone that sounded younger than her and had a baby in a carrier with him ("Baby!  Baby!") and the other was a bigger girl who she did successfully intrude upon.  The nurse saw what a struggle we were having and, knowing we were going to have to hang out for awhile longer, put us into a room with a TV. It also had a couple of trucks that Baby Girl played with on the floor and we watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (one of her favorite shows).  We got in there right around 9:00, at the start of the show.  When we entered the TV room, she still couldn't walk well, but by the end, at 9:30, she was doing the Hot Dog Dance with pretty good balance.

We had cleaned up a poopy diaper (which used our last diaper...) and watched half of another Mickey when they told us that we could go.  The Hubby got the car and a nurse walked us out.  Everyone we dealt with was WONDERFUL--they were all so incredibly good with Baby Girl and told us how sweet and adorable she was. 

The drive home was uneventful.  I sat with Baby Girl in the back and we called my mom and we sang Mary Had a Little Lamb (Baby Girl will say the parts that repeat like "little lamb little lamb" in time), The Wheels on the Bus, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider.  She was totally normal by the time we got home. 

It was a good day.  It wasn't as easy as many people had led me to believe (we waited longer than most people told us we would, it seems), but it wasn't bad at all.  So thankful for the great people who helped us out.  And now we know not to let Baby Girl drink so much after anesthesia :)

Mother's Day

(Another stupid post that didn't publish when scheduled...)

A choppy rendition of my Mother's Day (I'm guessing when I first wrote it I'd intended to just write all the events out, then edit, then publish...which obviously didn't happen)
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Got to sleep in.

As I was getting up, heard the garage door go up and The Hubby and Baby Girl brought me a yogurt parfait and half a hash brown (or the whole thing if I'd wanted it) from McD's.  I was given a card and told that they were going to do the laundry and grocery shopping for me.  The laundry wasn't that far from being done, so that part made me laugh.

The weather was looking nice, so we packed up and headed to the zoo.

Drove up there and found there was an event for Mother's Day with some freebies.  The zoo was busier than it had been when we'd gone before, but not horrible (we got there less than a half hour after open and normally go during the week). 

Saw elephants (twice), all sorts of monkey, kangaroos (with Baby Girl hopping like them down the path and asking each of them to hop for her), lorakeets, koala, and some people dressed as animals.  She was willing to blow them kisses, but not give high fives and definitely not hugs.  We rode the carousel twice--the first time she was the only one riding.  We had to convince her that the playground was too big for her. She got out of the stroller for awhile and walked and did pretty well staying close to us.  We had a hot dog (she ate a whole one and The Hubby and I split one) before we left.  The Hubby read to her in the backseat so she wouldn't fall asleep.
Got home and had a little fussing before naptime (NO NAP!!!), but I got her put down a little after 1:30 and then The Hubby and I had leftovers from the night before (Montgomery Inn ribs and Saratoga Chips).  We sat and watched silly TV and just relaxed, thinking this nap would be short like all the others for the last few weeks.  Instead, she slept until 3:55.  Well over a 2 hour nap--guess she needed it!  We went outside and played on the new (to us) swingset--The Hubby pushed her in the swing for at least a half hour while we listened to Pandora on his iPhone.  Baby Girl started singing Jesse's Girl along with us and I even got her making some of the noises from Bad Romance.  Adorable!  We packed up the car for a "picnic" and went to Sonic.  We parked near some grass so Baby Girl could get out and run.  She devoured her corn dog (first one ever) and some of her apples while sitting in the big chair in the middle row.  She loves sitting there and throws a bit of a fit whenever we have to put her in her carseat. 

We drove home and had a "treat" of banana cream pudding that I'd made the day prior for Daddy's birthday.  She ate it up and we played for a bit longer before it was bedtime.  She let Daddy take her upstairs to try to potty and put on her pjs.  I thought she was going to finally let him do all of bedtime, so I started making a grocery list, but then heard "mommy" and knew I needed to go put her down.  Not the worst thing in the world :)

I ended up having to do my grocery planning and shopping by myself (although, as I explained to The Hubby, I don't mind the shopping if I'm by myself...it's the planning and then juggling a toddler and coupons).  The laundry didn't get done.  But I had the best day I could've imagined, which was something I needed desperately.

More sickness

I've been debating about how to relay this and have decided to make it its own blog post rather than combining with Memorial Day (which may or may not get written...) and with Baby Girl's surgery post (which will come very soon).

If you don't want to hear some TMI stuff about bodily functions, stop reading now.  You've been warned.

To get to my parents' house we take a very windy, hilly road and I may or may not have been going a little fast on it this past Saturday.  You see, there is typically a semi or some other slowpoke in front of me, preventing me from even going 55 mph, so when I get the chance to cruise, I typically take it.  We were driving along, having a nice car ride, when Baby Girl got sick.  The Hubby was riding in the passenger seat and leaned back to comfort her while I found a good place to pull over.  We stopped and got her cleaned up and as we were stopped we realized there was a State Highway Patrollman (woman) about 100 feet away with someone pulled over.  As we were consoling Baby Girl and letting her walk a little bit, the patrol-person came over to see if we were okay.  We assured her we were as she ran our plates, probably checking to be sure we hadn't stolen this little girl :)  After she confirmed that we hadn't, she gave me the best route (or, rather, I technically asked her if X would be the best route) back to a smoother road.  We loaded up a naked baby, headed back to that road and the rest of the weekend went smoothly.  Baby Girl didn't eat as well as she typically does but I just rationalized that it was a toddler-ism, not that she was sick.  I figured she had gotten sick because of the car or maybe from the snot in her belly (yes...another cold....), not any sort of stomach virus.

Fast forward to Monday night.  Around dinner time I started to feel nauseous.  I ate my dinner but had to force down the second piece of corn on the cob (it was really good corn for late May!).  As the evening went on, I felt increasingly sick.  Around the time The Hubby and I went to bed, I was feeling much worse and ended up getting sick.  I came out of the bathroom and told him he'd better go sleep somewhere else.  He'd had no idea that I'd gotten sick...so I guess that's good.  I didn't get sick again but was up throughout the night feeling nauseous and going to the bathroom, if you know what I mean.  Whenever I was awake I was just praying that I'd feel good enough to go to Baby Girl's surgery--I was NOT missing it.  It was pretty bad but I did get to sleep from 2:30 to 5:15, which was when The Hubby woke me up to head to the surgery center.  I took some Kaopectate (that stuff works seriously well--I'll never take Immodium again) and we left.  I felt nauseous all day and didn't really eat a whole lot, but didn't get sick or anything anymore (thank goodness).  I did end up falling asleep with Baby Girl sitting with me on the couch and then napped while she napped.  I was awake long enough to hang out with her a bit and try to eat some dinner and then went upstairs after not feeling well after dinner.  I ended up laying down and slept from about 7 until the alarm went off this morning at 6:30.  Wow.  I woke up intermittently, of course, to say goodnight to Baby Girl, to talk to The Hubby, and to feel nauseous (but never had to get out of bed).  I still feel exhausted and somewhat nauseous, but am finally getting some water and food into my system and am back at work today. 

Ugh.  And now I'm just praying that The Hubby doesn't get it.  It's not as bad as it could be, but it's not fun, either.  We're heading out of town this weekend and I know the after-effects would last that long if he gets it now.  Can we please be done with sickness?  Seriously.  It's June.