Pedicure Pals!

 Despite the super brightness of the picture, isn't that the face of a girl who adores getting mani/pedis? I think I've created a monster....

Can I Get an Amen?

Wordless Tuesday: My Future Olympian!

Since I can't get the video to upload, I'll leave you mainly wordless with these two pictures of my little daredevil diving diva! A's ultimate motivation in learning to swim without floaties has been going off the diving board in the deep end (floaties aren't allowed in the 9 ft. area), and she did it! I may have gotten a bit teary...

Foodie Kids: Our New Favorite Indoor Activity in Austin!

I've heard of Foodie Kids from numerous people, but only just had a chance to take Ava in to try it out for myself, and it far exceeded my expectations!

First (and most outstanding to me) was how amazing and accommodating the staff is! I've now visited twice, both times with Ava and two to three other children, and each time they have impressed me with their friendliness and familiarity with the kids. By our second visit, they recognized us, and we felt right at home there. I noticed they knew the names of nearly everyone else that walked through the door while we were there - a fact that impressed me for two reasons. First, they obviously care about their customers. Second, families that visit repeatedly must be having the same wonderful, positive experience that we are!

Anyhow, the staff was only the first of many great impressions I got. For starters, one of the biggest challenges for a business that is child-centered is filling their down time, i.e. providing a way to keep kids busy and happy while waiting on things to cook, etc. Foodie Kids has most certainly nailed this aspect of their business model, providing aprons/chef's hats for the kids to color while waiting on their creations to come out for decoration (in the case of the cupcakes and cookies), and magic tricks and coloring pages for the time it takes for the other choices (pizza, cheesy bread, breadsticks and cinnamon rolls) to cook. They also add "fairy dust" (which is essentially edible glitter sparkles) to the finished products, sealing the deal for my little fairy princess! They then get to take home their finished product (or at least what's left after they tear into it in excitement!), their coloring creations, and the sponge they create with magic and paper (it's basically a grow towel in sponge size...). 

If you're looking for a little something extra to take home to keep those creative juices flowing and their cooking skills sharp, they also are a specialty boutique, selling all sorts of kid's cooking supplies, baking mixes, themed crafts, lunch boxes, aprons and more! 

Here are some pictures from our two visits:

Everyone enjoys turning their frosting their favorite color and picking toppings to decorate with!

...and sneaking some while decorating, too! 

Delicious!  

  

My little chef in action

Enjoying her creation - this time, a pizza!

Foodie Kids is located off of Far West Blvd, just past the Hart Lane intersection. Price is $10.99 per creation, and you can choose from many options, including some that are dairy-free - a HUGE bonus for us! If you're looking to make a day of it, also check out the specialty shop nextdoor, Monogram Lady, as well as the nearby Old Quarry Branch Library and Goodwill Boutique, where children's books are a mere .99! 

Phone Dump Friday.

The perfect way to clean off after art....

Just hanging with the girls at the pool!

A's first braid: 

Ava making a pizza at Foodie Kids. 

Practicing being a big sister!

Our first week back to work!  

Who said girls didn't like to play with tools? 

My little bathing beauty!

30 Weeks: Our Little Cucumber!

This week baby boy is about 2.5-3.8 pounds (quite the range there, eh?) and the size of a cucumber. 

How far along: 30 weeks

Net weight gain/loss: 21 lbs.

Maternity clothes: Yep. Well, at home I wear my yoga pants and long tank tops from before, but my clothes that I can wear in public without embarrassment are all maternity.

Stretch marks: no 

Belly button: My popped out belly button has become the kids' latest fascination after seeing me put on my swimsuit...yay.

Sleep: ITCHING. Like, lay down at night and spend thirty minutes scratching, and waking up from scratching my skin raw. My doctor actually ordered a special blood test for a gallbladder/liver issue known as Cholestasis, since my itching is so bad. Let's hope I don't have it, though, since it's dangerous for baby at the end. On the bright side, they'd likely deliver me at 37 weeks, and let's be real here: I can't wait for this baby to vacate!

Baby movement: he's my little break dancer.

Gender: boy

Food cravings: lifesavers. I actually ate a lifesaver and six sour patch kids for dinner. Dinner is DEF my least favorite meal of the day these days, and I rarely feel like eating anything...

Food aversions: meat. Which explains, as does my dinner mentioned above, why I am severely anemic. Like, iron levels a mere fraction of what they were at my initial blood draw. 

What I miss: wearing a non-maternity swimsuit to the pool!

Looking forward to: my grandma visiting next weekend, and my baby showers!

Best moment this week: I PASSED MY 3-HOUR GESTATIONAL DIABETES TEST!!! It wasn't awful - I mean, four blood draws and that gross drink weren't fun by any means - but I'm so glad I passed! I will say, though, that given my normally hectic, child-centered schedule, sitting alone in a waiting room reading and not speaking to a soul was kind of Heavenly....

Milestones: baby is now strong enough to grasp a finger 


And for those inquiring minds who want to see how fat I'm getting (sadists!), here are some belly pics:

And if you're wondering what kind of dumb pregnant woman wears horizontal stripes, well, so am I now that I've seen these pictures. Eek. Might be retiring that tank top!

Thoughts on a Repeat Cesarean.

During my first pregnancy, there was so much information thrown out to me about the labor and delivery part of being pregnant. Of course, birth was still quite unknown with the first, so it made sense that my focus was there. This time, though, my focus has been just surviving this pregnancy and not throwing up absolutely everything I eat, and so I have had little time to think of the baby's actual entrance into the world, other than wishing it was TODAY. So here's a bit about my feelings on that.

I know people are super down about cesareans. The cesarean rate and complications seem to be broadcasted on posters in every single medical facility a woman might encounter, and for a first-time mom, they're made to seem like the devil. Even in my October 2013 birth group, cesareans are talked about in one of two ways: fear, by the first-timers, and in hush-hush tones by those who will be having one again. So let me just begin by saying: 

There is no shame in a cesarean. 

Need me to say it louder and more clealry?

THERE IS NO SHAME IN A CESAREAN, PLANNED OR OTHERWISE.

If you want an all-natural, doula and midwife-accompanied home birth, more power to you! The choice is yours! But if you don't, or if that's not the way that things work out, you're not inferior! Cesareans don't represent failure - just another CHOICE. I've known women who have literally been to therapy to come to terms with their cesarean, and if you're feeling let down by it, that's a totally valid choice for you. But let it be for your own reasons, not because society or some home-birthing, natural mama made you feel bad, or less than, because of it. 

For me, if you're not familiar with Ava's birth story, a cesarean was almost inevitable. I had previous LEEP surgeries for early stage cervical cancer when I was 22 and 23, and the resulting scar tissue made it such that my cervix just said, "Um, hell no" to dilation. Granted, I did insist on being induced at 39w2d with Ava, and that was my choice that I made knowing full well what the results could be, but knowing that even had I gone to 42 weeks and HAD to have an induction that I would have likely ended up not dilating even then validates my choice all the more for me. Some women love being pregnant. Some don't. I definitely fall into the latter category, and given the chance to induce earlier, I would have, now more than ever! But, long story short, my induction resulted in a hyperstimulated uterus, a reaction (projectile vomiting) to the Stadol they gave me since they couldn't give me anything else since I wasn't dilating despite the contractions I was having every 90 seconds, and 15 hours of labor that left me dilated at a 1. ONE CENTIMETER PEOPLE! I would've let them take that baby out of my nose!

So, how do I feel about a repeat cesarean? 

HAPPY. JOYFUL. READY!

My doctor asked at my initial prenatal appointment whether or not I would be pursuing a VBAC, and I didn't even have to bat an eyelash. No way, Jose. A VBAC is a great choice for those unhappy with their cesarean experiences, but for me, better the devil you know, right? I mean, I get to schedule my birth a week before my due date, show up in the morning, and then have my baby in my arms thirty minutes later. It's seriously like going to the store and buying a baby (well, a very screwed up store where they cut people open, but you get my drift...)! There are no unknown variables, no fear or anxiety over when and where I may go into labor, or if my doctor will be available, or willing to induce, etc. There's just a definite end point, increasingly in sight, helping me to get through this miserable pregnancy!

And for me? That's the best choice.

Monday.

I'm posting this from the waiting room at the lab, where I've just finished 100g of glucose and 1 of my 4 blood draws, so keep in mind that whatever I'm saying is being fueled in great part by hunger and sugar :) Not necessarily how you want to start your Monday morning off, but I'm a firm believe in getting stuff you dread out of the way so you can focus on the better things to come, so here I am, bright dull-eyed and bushy not-so-perky tailed. Just two and a half hours to go....

I am really, really hoping the results will come back in my favor, but if not, we'll deal with it. I know GD isn't the end of the world or anything, but with how restrictive this pregnancy has been, the thought of facing more restrictions just really doesn't appeal to me whatsoever. Oh well, though. You win some, you lose some.

This Wednesday is my 30-week appointment, where we'll also be going over my test results from this morning, and I'll be asking my doctor about why I'm itching so severely. I mean, it's intense. Like, keep me up at night because my hands and feet and neck itch so terribly I can't sleep type intense. So that's fun, too. Basically, my body is just up in the air about pregnancy. SO GLAD this is my last. You have no idea. 65 days, y'all. Not sure if you get to deliver earlier with GD than my 39-week repeat cesarean, but that could be a silver lining, yes?

Also, I've been dealing with some severe pica. As it turns out, I'm severely anemic, so that's probably a major part of it, but still - could I please catch a break? I'm kind of over it :)

As for the rest of this week, I return to my second job tomorrow morning, and while I can't wait to see the girls and the family (and neither can Ava), I'm just so bone tired these days, I'm feeling overwhelmed at the thought of working more than I currently am. Thankfully, though, my other days will be a bit lighter with work once school starts, so hopefully I can slip into a good routine and sail through the last nine weeks. A girl could dream, right?

So that's where we're at. It'd been a while since I updated, and basically, that's in the interest of not wanting to be complaining and complaining all day every day. Hope everyone else out there is doing well, and if you're pregnant, too, that it's going better for you than for me :)

The GD GD Test.

No, that's not a typo. I'm just having a down week so far, and the GD test is the reason why, landing it at the top of my "things that are upsetting me" list.

As it turns out, I failed my gestational diabetes screening. I know I shouldn't be so upset by this - in fact, it seems a lot of people fail the 1-hour but not the 3-hour. But, for one reason or another, I am. Mainly, I have to go in Monday to take the 3-hour since that's the only place I can fit it into my schedule before my 30-week appointment next week, and so I have to be downtown for this test by 8am. With Ava. And then sit at the lab with her for three hours, through four blood draws, and while I'm crashing from this drink that made me feel so amazingly sick because this baby hates sugar, but I'm afraid to take the Zofran beforehand again, since I should've passed with flying colors.  Basically, I'm just fed up. I've had the crappiest pregnancy with this never-ending nausea, and the thought of having to go on the GD diet and do finger pricks multiple times per day and freak out even more about my weight sounds absolutely awful. I'm so glad this is my last pregnancy and not my first, or we'd certainly have an only child. Hell, we nearly had an only child anyhow, and A's pregnancy was a breeze compared to this.

Anyways, I'm just venting. I'm upset about failing the test and having to redo it and also having to redo it with Ava, who understandably is going to be bored and over it by the first fifteen minutes and I'm going to be feeling awful, and I start back to work at my second job next week and I'm just so, so, so tired as it is and I just feel so overwhelmed. I know I should be grateful for good maternity care and our incomes and so many other things - and I am. I'm just wallowing today :(

All Hail the Third Trimester!

Here we are, folks - the beginning of the end: today marks the first day of my third trimester! And GOOD LORD has it taken its sweet time to get here, making it that much more awesome that it has finally arrived!

How far along: 28 weeks

Net weight gain/loss:  18 pounds. Kill me.

Maternity clothes:  oh yes.

Stretch marks: none yet

Belly button: like a turkey timer!

Sleep: I am so exhausted. I could seriously sleep 14 plus hours a night (well, if I didn't have a three-year-old. And a job. Whomp, whomp.) I feel like at any given point during the day, I could lay down and wake up the next day. I doubt that will be going away in the next year....

Baby movement: Such an active little guy!

Food cravings: Cry baby extra sour bubble gum. Yum!

Food aversions: red meat, the usual.

What I miss:  sleeping on my belly, being able to breathe - this baby is ALL UP in my rib cage.

Looking forward to: my baby shower at the end of the month!

Best moment this week: Having a surprise couple days off, and making some extra $$ at the MamaCents consignment sale - my stuff sold really well!

Milestones: third trimester! 11. Weeks. To. Go.