Birthdays and Homecomings

Sasha had her 7th birthday on Saturday! Unfortunately, I was too fatigued and uncertain in my final week of pregnancy to do a major party. (Yesterday and the day before, I had some painful contractions during some storms, but they seemed to clear when the weather did.)  If I could have, I wanted to invite Sasha's friends from 1st grade. She has not had much luck getting kids to play with her on recess at the playground, and having a party would maybe help her forge some friendships. But we did celebrate, and she received many birthday gifts.

We started Saturday morning by making a rainbow birthday cake together. I wanted her to be involved in making the cake, so she helped with adding ingredients and stirring. She helped me make the pudding filling also. But I separated the batter into six parts and dyed each part a different color. The cake was six rainbow colored layers with vanilla pudding sandwiched between layers, and topped with a cream cheese frosting.

Carol, my mother in law, shares a birthday with Sasha and I got her a canvas print of Sasha. Uncle Joe, Carol's brother, has a birthday the day after so I got him a birthday card. 

Now that we are at the last few days of pregnancy, my family is coming home to me. It has been Sasha and I alone for 9 weeks. My father is coming either on Saturday or Sunday. Cassie flies in on Monday morning. Jon comes home from his Army Medic school Tuesday. And baby arrives via scheduled c-section Wednesday. So it is just a rollercoaster of arrivals.

My father planned to bring his dog with him, but we were unwilling and unable to accommodate his dog. He may be rethinking his plans on coming out so I no longer think he is coming out here.

38 Week Prenatal Checkup

I had my 38 week checkup on Tuesday September 10th.

Blood pressure was normal 127/73, weight 147lb. 

Non-stress test performed to check for fetal distress and he passed, though he didn't cooperate for a bit. Fetal heart rate was in the 120s. It's usually in the 140s and he did not move around much. To get him to wake up and move, the doc put some loud noisemaker on my belly to startle him and he jumped at that. Heart rate accelerated on movement so he is good.

Doctor checked and I am fully effaced and dilated 1cm. So there was some progress. It could be nothing or who knows.

One more checkup next Tuesday and my scheduled c-section will be on Wednesday. Most of that appointment will be the pre-surgical lab tests and pre-admission into the hospital so all we will have to do is show up and go straight to surgery.

37 Week Prenatal Check-up

Today I had my 37 week prenatal checkup, and it was fortunately uneventful. I weighed in at 146lbs, down one pound from my last checkup. Blood pressure was very normal at 113/71, down quite a bit from my last appointment. I had my first non-stress test. They had me lay down on a table while they put a fetal heartrate monitor on my belly, and they handed me a button to press whenever I felt the baby move. They basically watched whether fetal heartrate went up or down with movement. My baby passed that test and did very well. Normal heartrates were in the 130s and 140s, and with movement the heartrate moved into the 150s.
All healthy!

First Grade

On Tuesday August 27th, Sasha started her first day of first grade. She has a very nice teacher. For the most part, it was an uneventful day. She is mostly trying to get into a back-to-school routine.

36 Week Pregnancy Update

Happy full-term pregnancy, Killian! We should be meeting you very soon.

I am now on weekly doctor appointments. I had my 36-week check-up last Tuesday. Things had been getting a bit strange the week before, but my doctor reassured me there was no concern.

I'll start with the story of the strangeness, then continue on with my 36-week checkup.

It started at my 34-week check-up. All seemed very normal. My blood pressure, which had previously been low, was now in the normal range. That seemed strange to me as it indicated a 20 point jump in 2 weeks. At my 32-week check-up, I was 107/71 blood pressure, but at my 34-week I was up to 122/72. Doc asked me if I had any swelling, looked at my ankles, and said "Nope! No swelling at all". Apparently he cursed me.

Two days after my 34-week appointment, it was very hot and I admit I was probably dehydrated. Sasha and I went to Walmart and as we walked through the pharmacy area, Sasha asked me about the blood pressure machine. I explained the concept of blood pressure to her and let her use the machine to take her blood pressure. Her arm is still so tiny yet that it didn't really get much of a reading on her, but I had considered it mostly an educational venture anyways. I sat down and let it take a reading on me so that she could see it actually work. I was at 130/75, which is starting to get a bit high for me. At the same time, I noticed my right ankle had swollen up quite a bit and my right knee was starting to swell as well. I couldn't find my ankle bones, and if I pressed my swollen foot with my finger, the imprint lasted a minute (pitting edema). Later on that evening, I was noticing a few other strange symptoms. I was really irritable and felt angry for no reason.
I told my husband about the symptoms, as he was in medic school at the time, and he thought it sounded a bit like preeclampsia. He encouraged me to get rehydrated and elevate my leg.

The next day, the irritability was gone fortunately, but the swelling was still very significant. I made much more effort to stay indoors (it was hot outside), drink lots of extra water, and keep my swollen leg elevated. I felt some strange pains on my left side abdomen, and the baby dropped. With the dropping of the baby, I felt a whole new range of symptoms. My rib pain disappeared and it was easier for me to breathe, but I felt a lot more pelvic pressure and my bladder capacity was significantly reduced. I also had a harder time walking around.

It took about a week for the swelling to go back down. It never returned to normal, but fortunately the swelling stayed just on the right ankle and didn't spread elsewhere. At some point the next week, the baby un-dropped. I didn't know that could happen but it did. He somehow clawed himself back up into my rib cage.

So, back to the present! At my 36-week check-up, I told my doctor of the symptoms I had earlier in the week, and he was quite unconcerned. Clearly my baby was no longer "dropped", and my swelling was very mild he said.

My blood pressure was 132/75. Weight was 147 pounds. Baby's heartrate was 144. And I will now be seen for weekly appointments.

Credit Card

It was a nice Thursday. Sasha was playing on her computer. Lately, I've been limiting her to one or two hours of computer time a day, which she has to earn by doing a chore for each hour. Some of the chores Sasha can do to earn an hour of computer time are:

Pull 20 weeds from the back yard
Water all our plants
Wash Dishes
Sweep or Mop the kitchen floor
Vacuum (doesn't work well yet as it is still too heavy for her)
Clean the toilets
Clean the bathtubs

I figure even if she does a horrible job, it is better than nothing and she is getting practice at it. I stay critical of her work and I do point out the errors, which makes me feel mean. But in the long run, I think true criticism is probably best as it will teach her to be critical of her own work. She doesn't seem to have her feelings hurt when I point out that she missed a spot washing dishes or scrubbing the bathtub. I do not expect perfection from her. I actually do expect mistakes or overlooked bits. It seems to be working out well. And I expect that I might have to go over some of her work later. That said, she usually does a pretty decent job. She is a bit of a perfectionist personality.

Anyways, on this particular Thursday, Sasha was playing World of Warcraft. She thought she heard the ice cream truck outside and asked me if we had any money for ice cream. I had $3 in my wallet, and told her she could go into my wallet to grab that. A few minutes later, she still had my wallet in her hand and was acting kind of funny, but I didn't think much of it. The ice cream truck never passed our house, but I let her keep the $3 just in case, and we went to the farmer's market for about an hour.

About an hour after we returned home from the farmer's market, my husband texted me. He was alerted via email to some purchases made within the World of Warcraft store on Sasha's account. Those purchases were made with his credit card. We worried that her account had been hacked. We immediately investigated, but on a hunch I asked her about it. She immediately and sheepishly admitted she had made some purchases in the Warcraft store, but insisted, "I didn't know it was with Dad's credit card!". (She thought she was using MY credit card, not Jon's, as if that made a difference).

I had her walk me through her actions. She showed me the Warcraft online store. I simulated the purchase of an item and it took me to the checkout, where it asked me for all the credit card information. I was confused, as I had assumed that somehow the credit card info had been stored on her account, but it wasn't. I asked Sasha to tell me how she got the credit card info. She recited to me by memory the credit card number, expiration date, and even the cvv info. Holy crap! She had it memorized! This was worse than I thought! Where did she get that info, I asked her. She told me she grabbed the card and memorized it when she grabbed the ice cream money.

This child is six years old. And she was able to steal our credit card and use it to make online purchases. This was horrible and fascinating!

Fortunately, she used it to make two purchases at $15 each. They were vanity cosmetic helmets for use within the game of World of Warcraft.

I grounded her from the computer for a week. I gave her many lectures. And even worse, I retell this story to family and friend members, which irritates her greatly. Every time she overhears me tell the story, she gets upset and asks me not to tell people anymore. She is quite embarassed. And she promises she will never use our credit card again or tell people the numbers.

Today I asked Cassie to see if she could convince Sasha to buy stuff for her or tell her the numbers, and Sasha vehemently refused. Lesson learned thanfully, but wow.

Lost tooth #4

Yesterday, Sasha lost her 4th tooth, a bottom left tooth next to the center teeth (I guess it's also an incisor). She is still growing in that top left front tooth, so she is starting to look quite gap-toothed.

The story of how this one came out is kind of amusing to me. I had seen over the past week that the tooth was becoming increasingly loose, but I underestimated how soon it would be falling out. Yesterday, the weather was cooler than our usual heat. It was cloudy and breezy, so I decided Sasha and I would eat our lunch outside in the warm and breezy shade.

I made a simple dish of spaghetti noodles with butter, parmesan, and italian herbs for Sasha for her lunch. She and I sat at our outdoor furniture comprised of 2 outdoor chairs and a table. We ate and played with our iPads.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Sasha starts spitting out her noodles onto the table. And I mean spitting. I was horrified. My mom-instincts took over and I started scolding her fiercely for being so impolite as to spit noodles on the table.
"But Mom! That's the only way I can find my tooth in the noodles", she exclaimed. I was taken aback by her response, not quite sure what she was talking about. She searches through the noodle and spit puddle on the table until she finds what she was looking for: her tooth. She holds it up for me like a trophy.

I apologized for yelling at her, and she and I had a good chuckle together over the misunderstanding.

DIY Rebozo Wrap Complete

From top left clockwise: Hemming the osnaburg, gradient dying the green side, gradient dying the blue side, and finished wrap.

I definitely intend to do a lot of baby wearing when Killian arrives. I had previously posted about the Mei Tai carrier that I had sewn, but the Mei Tai is actually the third baby carrier I now have for Killian. About a month ago, I made this DIY short wrap, called a Rebozo, out of osnaburg fabric. Osnaburg is strong, light-weight, but only comes in a plain off-white color, so it had to be hand-dyed. I performed a gradient/ombre dye job on the fabric after I got it prewashed and hemmed. The dying job took me about 2 days.

Can't wait to carry my little guy in this wrap!

C-section is scheduled. Week 33 pregnancy update

It's a Boy! 20 week ultrasound (old but I hadn't posted this here yet).

I had my 32-week prenatal appointment last Tuesday and all is well. These weekly appointments seem to be a waste of time, as I am healthy and all is normal. I have a 40 mile drive to get to my appointments, so they can be a bit inconvenient.
My weight was 139 pounds, up 3 pounds from my last appointment. My starting weight was around 115 so I guess that's a total of 24 pounds so far. I was over 150 pounds at the end of my pregnancies with each of my girls, so I'm not too worried. It is still a bit disconcerting to see such high numbers on a scale but I seem to be almost all baby and breasts.

My blood pressure was up quite a bit this visit compared to my last. At my last appointment, I had low blood pressure, around 100/60-something. This time it was 120/60-something. Not quite sure what that means, if anything. Probably nothing.

I had 2 prior c-sections and I am not doing a VBAC, so we scheduled our cesarean section date! My son Killian will be born September 18th at 7:30am, unless something changes sooner. It is a relief to actually have a date to plan for.

Doc measured Killian's heart rate, and it was in the 140s. I told him I thought he was in a head-up position. Doc checked and said in his opinion, he thinks Killian is head down. I guess I could be wrong. I knew for certain with both my girls so it feels strange not to be able to tell a head from a butt, but he has been moving a lot more than the girls did. The girls each chose their position and held it like a strategic warfare point, but this guy flips around and even lies sideways/transverse sometimes.

I have been quite uncomfortable. I am short and ran out of room long ago. I get short of breath often, especially after eating. My ribs hurt sometimes. But as of today, 45 more days to go!

Chores

Lately, Sasha has been quite the computer gaming addict, and not in a good way. So I decided to try to solve two problems at once.
Firstly, Sasha now has to perform 2 chores daily of her choice. She is 6 and this is an introduction to chores and house work for her, so I'm starting her off easy. I have a list of chores that she can perform, and for each chore she does she earns one hour of computer time. She can only earn a max of 2 hours of computer time daily.

Sasha is a meticulous perfectionist. So if she chooses to do dishes, it may take her forever to do them, but they are perfectly spotless. Right now, I have to bring a step stool up to the kitchen counter for her to reach the sink, but she does a fantastic job.

Other chores include vacuuming (she doesn't do this one very well yet. I think the vacuum might be too heavy for her), pulling weeds, watering plants, sweeping floors, mopping floors, dusting, and sorting laundry. I am still trying to think of more options for her but it is a good start so far.

DIY Mei Tai Complete

Sasha models a front carry on my Mei Tai with her favorite stuffed animal.

I made a mei tai (baby carrier)! It was quite a major sewing project for me as I am not very experienced at sewing more than hems. The carrier is reversible (khaki canvas on the 'man side', and a blue/white/tan stripe fabric on the other), has a hood that can turn into a newborn head support, has padding on the shoulders/belt/hood for comfortable wearing, and has pockets. My model Sasha demonstrates a front carry with her favorite stuffed animal, but it can also do hip and back carries. I still have a few more DIY projects to go but I am having fun learning new things.

Lost: First Top Front Tooth

Sasha lost her first top front tooth. In my opinion, the loss of a top front tooth and its subsequent replacement with an adult top front tooth is a very appearance altering event. It feels like such a transition to me.

So, the tooth had been loose for a while, and a gap had opened up in the top row of Sasha's teeth. The gap was so large that it looked like she had already lost 2 teeth. People were asking her how many teeth she had lost, much to her annoyed confusion as she hadn't lost any yet. She had started to grow cautious with how she bit her food, and even avoided corn on the cob, one of her favorites, to prevent the discomfort of biting with a loose front tooth.

Eventually one evening, it happened. The tooth became so loose that it was barely hanging by a thread. One tiny little pull would set it free. But this is Sasha we are talking about. She was terrified. She accidentally bit the dangling tooth and it poked her into her gums and set her into a frenzy of anxiety. She wouldn't pull the tooth. She wouldn't let her father or I near her mouth for fear we'd just grab the tooth and pull it on her. Of course I was tempted to just hold her down and pull it. It was just dangling there temptingly. But no, we tried to calm her down instead.

I had to work at my in-laws restaurant the next morning, so I needed to get some sleep. As the evening approached midnight, we still couldn't get near the tooth. Jon stayed up with her and let her sleep with him downstairs, as we worried that the tooth would fall out in the night and that she would choke or swallow it in her sleep.

Sure enough, it did indeed fall out in her sleep. She woke up in the morning (while I was at work) and found the tooth in her cheek.

A Coincidence at the Park

My husband is in the Army National Guard, and this last weekend his unit had its annual summer picnic in the park. Sasha and I met Jon at his armory and he drove us over to the picnic location. We met some of his platoon and squad members, and ate barbecue.

The park that the picnic was held was one of the nicest I've ever seen. There was a large busy outdoor pool and water park, multiple play areas for the children, and the playground equipment looked very modern and high quality. So it didn't take long before Sasha was itching to start playing at the playgrounds. They did look fun! After we finished our meal, we all went to the playground to play. Yes, all of us. The cool thing about having kids is being able to play on playground equipment with your children! I was a little tired of standing and looked for somewhere to sit, but there were so many pregnant women sitting on the park benches that I didn't see a spot to sit down. There seems to be a baby boom around this town.

The swings were open, so I decided to sit on a swing. Sasha followed me to the swings and sat on the swing next to me, and Jon pushed the both of us. It was fun and amusing for all of us. Because I was being pushed, I was swinging quite high and fast. I started to wonder aloud at what my poor unborn 30-week baby in my belly thought of all the swinging, and Sasha found my musings on the topic hilarious. She made a little baby voice and pretended to be the baby, all confused at the back and forth motion going on.

Here is where I mention that we have been referring to our unborn child by his name, Killian. There, now you know his name. Sasha was laughing and yelling "Killian is like, (baby voice) 'Hey what is going on?'". There was a woman pushing a toddler on a swing next to me, and she just halted when Sasha mentioned the name.

"What was that name she just said?", the woman asked me. "Who is she talking about?".

Jon and I explained to her that I was pregnant, if it wasn't obvious, and that we were naming our unborn son Killian.

She dropped her jaw in astonishment. She was also pregnant with a son, due a month after me, and her top name consideration for her unborn son was also Killian. She had never heard the name used before, and explained that it was a name of her grandfather. I also chose the name after my grandfather, so we bonded a bit over the coincidences. She explained that her mother-in-law hated the name and worried that a child named Killian would get called "Killer". I told her we'd embrace the nickname if that occurred, and that nothing sounded more awesome to me than imagining my future son going up to bat in a little league softball game, cheering "GO GET 'EM, KILLER!" at him to urge him on to greatness. She said that for the first time, she felt good about the potential nickname if it should come up, and that she really felt that Killian was the name of her son. I told her I don't even mind sharing the name with her, even though I expected that there would probably not be any other Killians in town. She did live in a different town, I rationalized, so the two would not be in the same classroom anyways.

As I parted with the woman, she and I walked to where her mother-in-law the name-hater was sitting. She told her mother-in-law that I was also naming my son Killian, to which the mother-in-law haughtily replied, "Good, she can have it". I walked away as the poor woman continued to try to convince her mother-in-law that it was a good name for the baby, but the mother-in-law looked unconvinced.

I suppose I shall never know if she is ever successful in naming her child what she wants. Some day, perhaps the two Killians will meet in the city again. Maybe the woman will bow to the pressures of her family and find a new name, or maybe she'll stick with it and it'll grow on her family like it did ours.

Swimming Sasha

Sasha with a swim instructor

Two weeks ago, Sasha started swim lessons at the local pool. Unfortunately, her first swim lesson was her first swimming pool experience (not counting bathtubs or kiddie pools), so she was terrified. Her fear and apprehensiveness got worse each day. My husband and I experienced quite a mix of emotions as she refused her lessons and stood crying poolside. I was very frustrated that she wouldn't try. I was sort of ashamed that my child was the only child crying, screaming, and refusing to go in the pool or do lessons, while the other kids were running amok and fearlessly having fun. Sometimes I wished that she was a bit more dare-devil and adventurous.
But Sasha is just Sasha, and that's just who she is. She is a cautious child. She rarely gets in trouble because she thinks deeply before acting. And she is just like I was at that age. It hurt to see it sometimes, but her swim lesson experiences were identical to my own. May we each be blessed and cursed to have a child exactly like ourselves. Our children are unforgiving mirrors, forcing us to see our own faults and blessings with brutal honesty.

I did eventually sort things out in my own head. There are blessings to having a cautious child. Jon and I took the opportunity daily to take her to the pool during free swim, and swam with her to build up her water confidence. (My mother-in-law purchased a maternity swimsuit for me so that I could swim with Sasha, and I am grateful for that). And as I swam, it became apparent I am not exactly a good swimmer either. But we swam together and had some fun quality time. It was excellent exercise for me for pregnancy too, so there's that bonus!

Today Sasha had her final lesson and test. She failed her test and will have to repeat level one swimming lessons next year, but she gave it a very good try today. When I think about it, she had no swim pool experience at all, so why should I be surprised she would balk at it. If I had never been to a pool before, would I start diving, floating, jumping, and holding my breath immediately? Yeah I didn't think so. She's come a long way these past two weeks, and overcoming fear of the unknown is hard work.

Good job, Sasha!

A soldier visits home

The past two weeks were very busy around here. Cassie graduated from her Army AIT (advanced training) and returned home for a two week visit. Those two weeks coincided with Jon's 40th birthday and Cassie's 19th birthday, and Cassie was home on recruitment efforts which kept us somewhat busy.

She returned home on a late night flight the same day she graduated from her AIT. Some of her high school friends met her at the airport with us for her arrival home. It was an emotional homecoming with lots of hugs and a few tears. Cassie and I had a lot of text exchanges during that day as she flew home.
She had to wear her military uniform on her flights, so she was patriotically thanked for her service every few minutes as she walked around the airports. At one point, I asked her via text if she was in her ACUs (camo uniform) or her Class A's, and she answered that she didn't know. She was trying to be evasive and said I would just have to wait and see. I responded with something along the lines of, "How do you not know what uniform you are wearing? You ARE wearing clothes right?" and she sarcastically responded that she was not. I replied, "Well that changes the meaning of all those strangers thanking you for your service". BAM!

Cassie had a long list of things she wanted to see and do and eat on her leave home. Mostly stuff that she was homesick for while spending the previous year in the military. She had missed a local sushi restaurant. We took a few trips to the book store and the mall. The weather was a bit hot and stormy, and I was feeling unenergetic, so we didn't get to accomplish everything we wanted.

For Jon's birthday, he wanted something simple that Sasha would enjoy, so we went to a local amusement park. We celebrated with go-karts, bumper boats, a game of laser tag, and some video games at the arcade.

For Cassie's birthday, we celebrated with a barbecue with her friends. I was running behind schedule on the party preparations and didn't start baking her birthday cake until her friends arrived, so we made an event of it and let her friends frost and decorate her cake for the party. It was amusing. They put the candles on the side of the cake instead of on top.

There were some major festivities around town as well. The city we live in celebrated its 100th birthday, so there was a parade and a town-wide rummage sale event. Cassie went to the parade in uniform to support her friend, who was crowned "Miss Stillwater", and Cassie was almost put in the parade on the spot. Cassie, her friend, Sasha, and I went rummage sale browsing for a bit that day. Later on in the evening, Cassie went with some friends to a local Hill Climb event, which included night fireworks.

There was a day where Cassie's friend came over and they had a water balloon fight with Sasha. Cassie was being silly and hid some water balloons in Sasha's shirt so Sasha could pretend she had 'boobs'. Then a little while later, Sasha ran up to Cassie and pointed and yelled, "I see what you have there!". Sasha grabbed Cassie's chest, thinking that Cassie had hidden some water balloons in her shirt, but no, it was just Cassie's own chest that Sasha grabbed. That was some funny comedy.

Finally, the sad day came where I had to drop Cassie off at the airport so that she could fly to her next duty station. She safely arrived at her destination and is currently in-processing at the reception of her new post assignment.