6 months part 2

Today she really is 6 months old and I am floored by how fast the time has gone.  Yes, in the beginning I couldn’t wait until we got out of the newborn stage, but now I want the time to slow down so I can savor every moment of it. I am pretty sure that won’t happen and I will have to just have to hang on for the crazy ride ahead.

Let’s see, she is starting to eat solid food with mixed results.  Avocado has gotten the best reaction, but even that is just tolerated. Sweet potatoes are next on the menu and will hopefully be better received.  Rolling over has gotten easier and has become the fun new thing to do all of the time, even at bad times like while nursing. I can’t say that she enjoys the fact that she is then on her tummy, but that hasn’t stopped her yet or encouraged her to be better at flipping back to her back.  Rolling the other way always seems accidental and a little scarier.  The latest major milestone is being able to sit up unassisted.  She is still wobbly and can’t be left alone doing it, but everyday she gets a little stronger.

As for me, well it is easy to forget about me sometimes and focus on Ruby, but I am trying not to get lost.  I feel like I have settled into motherhood well and it is, mostly, everything I thought it was going to be.  I think I had romantic notions of being able to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and now I realize that won’t happen for a couple more years.  I have finally got back into the gym and changed my diet back to being healthy.  Consequently, I have lost 6 pounds and am officially back below my pre-pregnancy weight.  I would have lots clothes to wear if it weren’t for the fact that pregnancy changed the shape of my body. Do they tell you that before you have a kid? I am sure I heard it somewhere, but I figured it wouldn’t happen to me.

There are lots of things that change once you have a baby some good some bad, but I will take all of them.  I hate to get sappy, but I could not imagine life without that little lady now.  I also can’t imagine life without her daddy.  We just celebrated our second anniversary and I am pretty amazed at all that we have gone through together and how much I love him.  I love watching him play with Ruby and seeing how excited they both get when they see each other. It is easy to forget about things that could get you down or minor annoyances in life once you get home and see their smiling faces.  I would like to say that I will blog more, but I probably won’t. Life is a little busier now and that is a-okay with me.

6 months!

Alright I am jumping the gun just a little, but I am having a rare moment where I feel like blogging and the little lady is asleep.  I have to say that this what I imagined motherhood to be like and as much I loved her the newborn stage is just not my favorite.  I love seeing her working on and finally getting new skills.  I don’t want her to group up too quickly and I really am trying to savor every moment, but I can’t help but be excited to see her grow and change.  Although I have to admit that I am not looking forward to the tantrum phase, because she already lets it known when she is not pleased.  Oh poop she is awake now.  I  will try to post again soon.

One month…

I keep thinking I need to update about life after we got home, but everytime I try something else seems to come up. It is crazy to think that Ruby is a month old and that we survived those first couple of weeks. I won’t lie the first 2 weeks were tough and I wasn’t sure how we were going to make it, but slowly we started to figure each other out. We are still working our sleep schedule, but overall we are falling into a nice routine. Too bad I have to go to work in less than a month. Part of me is excited to get back work, but the bigger part is sad to not spend everyday with Ruby. For now I will just enjoy my days spent being a mom. It’s still weird to think that I am now someones mom.

Ruby is here!

I figured I would take advantage of a calm baby moment and update about the birth of Ms. Ruby.  Oh and just in case you are worried I just had a nap.  I had started feeling light contraction on Friday, but they didn’t really start to get my attention until Monday.  We saw the midwife that afternoon and she was fairly confident that we would have a baby by the week’s end.  She even did an internal exam in hopes that it might make my contractions stronger and boy did it.  The only problem is that they just wouldn’t get stronger or consistent, so I had pre-labor for about 24 hours before what I thought was my water breaking.  We had been told to take our time getting in and grab something to eat on the way in, so it was a pit stop at Taco Casa on the way in.  Yeah, that craving for a bean burrito might have been not so wise for my heartburn, but it just sounded good. 

The nurses were ready for us when we got there and got us all settled in.  They did a test to double check to make sure my water had in fact broken and both tests came back negative.  The only problem was they couldn’t find my bag of waters and with my group B staph postitive status they didn’t want to send me home if my water had broken. We were sent down to radiology to get an ultrasound for a third check and found that my amniotic fluid was low, so they admitted me.  The problem was that even with lots of trying naturally we just couldn’t get my contraction to get stronger or more consistent, so the doctor ordered pitocin to get things moving.  My plan was to try to do the whole thing without an epidural, but I was open to having one if had to. I got to the point where I was so exhausted from not sleeping and 36 hours of contractions that I just couldn’t do it anymore and I don’t regret for a second getting that epidural.  I finally was able to relax and sleep until I was ready to push.  In fact I was so tired that I wasn’t phased by the scary moment we had when Ruby’s heart rate fell to a scary low.  Thankfully a position change was all we needed and she was fine.  So 5 hours later I was ready to push. I was hopeful that two pushes and she would be out, but nope it took an hour and half.  I am telling you that this kid did not make it easy.  I will spare you all the gory details of it, but it was pretty stinkin amazing when her whole body came out.  I was able to hold her for a minute, but she had had her first bowel movement in utero so the nurses had to make she was okay before giving her back to me.

I do have to say that I had an amazing support throughout my entire labor and even with the length and pain I wouldn’t change it for a moment.  My mom, sister and Dan made me feel comfortable and well taken care of the entire time.  They even dealt well with my two moments where I freaked and was convinced that I was just going to be pregnant forever.  I was overwhelmed at how amazing all of my nurses were too.  They stayed with me every step of the way and really respected everything that I wanted.  My OB was out of town, but I was lucky to have Dr. Wiley on call when she was delivered.  He even gave us a placenta anatomy lesson afterwards.  I am going to have figure out something yummy to make for all those people.  Hmm, it seems like placenta and yummy are too close together in that paragraph.

So now we begin to figure out our lives together and I couldn’t be more excited.  I will try to keep everyone updated on life in the Martinez-Jones house, but no promises.

34 weeks

I have less than 6 weeks to go…er hopefully.  Everything is going well and fairly boring, so I haven’t posted lately.  Honestly, because I tend to just complain right now and I am trying to spare everyone my complaints. I figure I won’t update much unless something interesting comes up.  Talk to you in a couple weeks.

32 weeks

I skipped last week, because there wasn’t much to report.  We had a doctor’s appointment, but right now it is mostly just checking my blood pressure and making sure I am doing okay.  I have 2 more 2 week appointments and then I go to weekly.  I can’t believe that I only have 8 weeks left.  On the other hand I can’t believe that I have to endure 8 more weeks.  I am trying not to be too whiny, but my hips hurt, I have hearburn like crazy and my allergies are trying to kill me.  Thankfully, Dan is a saint and is dealing well with all of my grumplings about how miserable I am right now.

We did finally make it KC this weekend to pick up cloth diapers.  We bought an assortment of brands and types of diapers to see what we will like personally.  I still want to get some prefolds and more covers as well as a couple of wet bags, but the store was out of them.  We have a little more time to pick those up before Ruby gets here. I just feel better that we pretty much have everything we need for her.  There are a couple of things that we need to get, but we still have some time.  Now I am waiting for nesting to kick in so I can do a little more organizing.  It seems like everytime I do feel organized we get a bunch more gifts.  Not that I am complaining about that at all.  It is really amazing how generous people are when you are a having a baby and I am grateful for everything I have received. 

Oh and I almost forgot, Jessica’s twins showed up last week instead of this week.  They had some sugar issues that kept them in the NICU, but they are doing well and are at home.  I can’t believe how tiny and adorable they are and seeing them makes me want to meet Ruby even more.  Only 8 more weeks!

30 weeks

I just realized that I hadn’t done a 30 week update.  I suppose it is mostly because it would just involve me whining.  My allergies have kicked in with a vengenace and Claritin seems to be keeping it to annoying, but not giving me total relief.  I have also hit that stage where everything is sore and sleeping isn’t easy.  I suppose this is all to make me want her to be here sooner and get over my fear of childbirth.  I keep joking with Dan that they need to figure out some way to just “beam” her out.  Where is Scotty when you need him?  I have finally accepted the fact that she will have to come out and went to the libary to check out books on ways of dealing with it.  I also picked up the latest Anthony Bourdain book, so that I can immerse myself in cynical talk of food when I get overwhelmed.  Thank goodness I have a great support group and I know in the end I will finally get to meet Ruby.

I have been slightly productive this week.  I finished blankets for Jessica’s twins.  We both had a lack of blankets and I was pretty excited to find a way to make them without having to knit or crochet the whole thing.  My patience for long projects is shot right now. Oh and I should say I had a lack of blankets, because I received 4 homemade blankets this week.  They were made by Ruby’s grandmother, great grandmother and a very generous friend of the great grandmother.  I can’t express enough how much they mean to me.  My favorite items from childhood were blankets made for me by my grandmother and mother. Now to get the thank you cards filled out that I made today and get them sent out asap.  I can be bad about putting things off, but this is one task that needs be done soon.

Lastly, I leave you with my craving of the week.  I think it is a dangerous one and I hope that next week I crave something a little healthier.

29 weeks

Yesterday was my baby shower.  We had a pretty good time, but I was bummed that quite a few people couldn’t make it.  The most important was the co-hostess ,my best friend Jessica.  The twins were giving her a little grief, so she couldn’t make it.  We ended up kind of winging the game part and just enjoying being around people I don’t get to see very often.  We are now closer to being ready for this little butterbean being here.  I can’t believe we only 11 more weeks to go and I am afraid that it is just going to sneak up on us.  Thankfully, most of the major purchases are made and the last should be done soon.  Oh boy, do babies need so much stuff.  She is going to have more clothes than me soon!

I am finding that have to slow down a bit now and I just had to change my days at work.  Working 3 twelve hour shifts in a row is just getting to hard, so I switched to breaking them up a little.  This also means that Dan and I no longer have to go three days without seeing each other and that makes me super happy.  I am not so happy about my allergies showing up though.  Today has been the worst so far and I had to break down and get some meds.  I was hoping that weakened immunity from pregnancy would save me, but no luck.  Now fingers crossed Claritin doesn’t make to loopy, because I don’t think working while drowsy is such a good idea.  I am going to try not to whine too much and instead enjoy having a mellow long weekend with my favorite people.

28 weeks

The first picture was taken at 8 weeks and the second 28 weeks.  It’s funny because I felt so big at 8 weeks just from the normal bloating you get and I wasn’t even close to being big.  I also think it is funny that people are so afraid to assume that I am pregnant.  I had a few people this weekend ask if I was pregnant and it was really hard to not say something smartass about beer.  This week marks the beginning of the third trimester and I swear that my body and Ruby know that.  She is has become way more active and feels bigger and my body is starting to feel the effects of carrying a bigger active baby.  I feel like I did a bunch of ab exercises and she seems to like kicking in the same sore spot.  Little stinker. I only have 12 weeks left or least that has been mantra the last couple of days.

I also had to go in for more blood work.  I did the fasting glucose test that you normally do at 28 weeks plus they tested my thyroid levels again.  It wouldn’t be so bad except they did the the glucose test at 9 weeks since I have such a strong family history of diabetes.  At least this time they went straight to the two hour test instead of doing the one hour and then the three hour when I failed the one hour.  As for the thyroid, my TSA levels have been low my entire pregnancy, but they keep showing improvement so we wait and retest every month.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that both come back fine, because I am darn tired of getting my blood drawn.

27 weeks

This weekend my mom, niece and I drove to Garden City, KS for our family reunion.  It is a trip that we used to make a couple times a year when my grandparents were still alive, but we now only make once or even every other year.  It takes about 5 hours to get there and goes from green with hills and trees to brown and flat.  A lot of people complain about the drive, but I love that slow transition and I love being able to see, for what seems like, miles away.  Probably because I am a Kansan through and through.  Aside from the landscape it was nice to get caught up with my family.  There are some that I tend to see throughout the year and some that only see at family reunions.  We mostly have different views of the world and I am pretty sure they think I am odd, but they never make me feel like that.  It is nice to know that I come from good stock and that overall they are good eggs.  Going back does make me a little sad that I no longer go there to see my grandma and that Ruby will never get to meet her.  Thankfully, Ruby is blessed with two wonderful grandmas and I hope she has the same fond memories that I do. 

Yesterday I went for my monthly checkup and everything looks good.  Ruby seems to be right on track size wise and I am doing well.  My doctor declared me a happy pregnant woman and I will take it! I still seem to have energy and am not too uncomfortable, but I am going into my third trimester and I hear that’s when it gets hard.  Don’t you love how people love to tell you how miserable you are going to be?  Does it make them feel better or people just jerks? It does feel like things are moving a little too quickly and I am starting to get a little nervous about it.  Nervous about the birth, nervous about taking care of tiny baby and on the grand scheme being nervous about what kind of parent I am going to be.  I keep thinking I need to keep a private journal to jot down all of the ideas about how I want to parent and then I think I will probably just laught at myself when I read it later on.  For now my plans are to love her, keep her safe and teach her to not be an asshole.  It is the asshole part that I worry the most about.