28 weeks!

So this is it--I am entering the final trimester TODAY! 28 weeks is also considered the "age of viability" in the medical field. At 28 weeks the baby is expected to survive if born. Of course the lungs are not yet developed, but the baby can still survive with medical intervention. I personally have a friend who's baby was born at 21 or 22 weeks & it did survive, though.

I did not work out at all this week. On Friday night (last Friday, not yesterday) I started having really bad abdominal pain, really low in the abdomen. I was kinda scared, went to bed, only to find that it wasn't going away the next day. I found that the more I stayed off my feet the better it got & the more I was on my feet the worse it got. So pretty much all day last Saturday I stayed in bed & then on Sunday it was a little less, but was still there. I was supposed to work on Monday & was really worried about that--about having to be on my feet for over 12 hours & especially a Monday cuz Mondays & Fridays are typically horrendous at my job. So on Monday morning I got up to use the bathroom around 3:30 in the morning & was already having a lot of pain, so I called in sick (we have to call prior to 5AM to call in sick). The supervisor on at that time was this old lady, I swear she's in her 80's (in all seriousness, I am not exaggerating). She's always really rude & irritating too. No one likes her, but everyone tries to respect her because of her age. So she's getting mad, telling me they are short staffed & I cannot call in sick. I tell her I'm sorry, but I'm having REALLY BAD abdominal pain. To that she very snottily says "oh, it must be period time, take some advil & suck it up honey" I was irritated, but stayed calm (she LOVES to push people's buttons) & told her that I am almost 7 months pregnant. I was shocked to see that she gasped & told me to stay home with my feet up. When I went back to work yesterday my boss found me & asked if I was ok & the baby too, which was really nice. She totally agreed that I needed to call in sick for that.

So I had an appointment with my OB on Tuesday, so on Monday I just stayed in bed most of the day, getting up very little. When I went in on Tuesday I told her what was going on--to my surprise she really didn't seem alarmed. She did take a urine specimen to check for a bladder infection & she said to get a support belt for the baby & if it continues to go to the hospital. That was her answer. She just didn't seem very compassionate though, which bothered me. I also told her about my leg cramps & she just told me to keep on taking my prenatal vitamins, which I have been & it's obviously not helping, but she didn't have any answer for that. I did go on my own to Henry's & bought a calcium/magnesium supplement & a potassium supplement on Thursday. So I took them both on Thursday & that was the first night I didn't have any leg cramps. So yesterday I just took the cal/mag supplement (along with my prenatal multi) & I did have leg cramps last night. So today I'm only taking the potassium (along with the multi) & we'll see how it goes tonight. My concern is that it's VERY risky to mess with potassium. It's a supplement I never recommend people to take without monitoring their blood levels. Too much or too little & your heart can simply stop. I was hoping my OB would order blood work to see where I'm at, but she didn't. So I'm sort of playing it by ear to see what works to alleviate the leg cramps--but I do know that's it's one of those 3-potassium, magnesium, or calcium.

So on my way home from the doc's office I stopped at the mall & went to the motherhood store to find a support belt. They told me they only sell one style & that it isn't very good. They were really telling me not to buy it (so I'm thinking it's got to be REALLY bad for them to be like that!). They told me JCPenny & BabiesRUs have better ones. When I did try this one I liked the way it felt, though. And it was only $18, not too bad in my opinion. So I headed to JCPenny & found that they had 2 to choose from, but you had to order them via catalog & wait for them to come in. They were much bigger, too, like underwear & they were in the $20-something range. I really didn't want to wait for it to come in, I needed help NOW, & I didn't really like how big they were (the one at Motherhood is just a simple strap). So I went online on my phone to see what BabiesRUs has & they were in the $30-range & basically like JCPenny's. Most said they had to be ordered online too, not available in stores. So I headed back to Motherhood & bought the strap one. In all honesty I didn't think it would help much, but I am shocked to say that I REALLY like it (all the things they warned me about just aren't true, at least for me--they said it would dig into your skin, you had to take it off every time you sit down, etc) & it really does help with the pain.

So I go back to see my OB in 2 weeks instead of a whole month this time. This Wednesday we take the tour at Riverside Community Hospital & we'll decide which hospital we want to have the baby at.

My funny moment this week-yesterday morning I was in the bathroom at 5:30am getting ready for work. I am near-sighted & didn't have my contacts in yet. So I am trying to get right up against the mirror to see (cuz I'm near-sighted) & my belly is in the way, so I'm kinda putting it up against the counter, which I have to admit is quite cold at 5:30 am & it woke the baby up--not only did it wake it up (the coldness of the counter) but the baby was squirming around madly as if in a panic, LOL!!

The baby still moves around a lot & is getting stronger all the time. I actually think after I have the baby I am going to miss the feeling of it moving around in there. That is about the only positive I've had throughout this pregnancy so far.

As for Casa Buendia: we are still sitting here waiting on the insurance. Hubby called them & gave them a piece of his mind, telling them they wouldn't take this long if THEY were the ones living in the middle of it all. They called back apologizing & said they would pay for some of it, but still denying a lot of it. Today our contractor is coming over with someone he knows in the business who got a lot more insurance money for a house that wasn't even close to what our's was. They're gonna discuss what we need to do. I am going to remind him that we need our house completed before the baby arrives. Hubby is hitting his breaking point with the house (he held out longer than I did, but he's at work more & not here in the house dealing with it all as much as I am). He is now saying he wishes our house had actually burned. Our neighbors keep telling us that too, even though their house is gone & everything they owned, at least they have rented a house & are comfortable during all of this--as opposed to us living in the midst of a disaster zone for over 2 months & counting now.

I think that's all the updates I have for now.

27 weeks

Ok, so today I am 27 weeks. One more week & I will be in my final trimester. The baby moves more & more all the time. And I swear it's getting bigger on a DAILY basis. I still enjoy feeling it move around.

I kept up with my workouts this week, except today I was going to spin & do pilates & I ended up skipping it cuz I was having some low abdominal pain last night & it's still a little achey today. My next doc appointment is Tuesday so I'm gonna ask about that when I go. It's not the first time it's happened. I'm also going to ask when is the soonest I can go off work on maternity leave. The days are just sooooo long (close to 13 hours) & for the majority of the time I am on my feet, that's what's hardest about it. And I still get extremely short of breath with even the smallest effort. And I'm still pretty tired compared to my usual state of energy. I am definitely eating better these days. Still not totally back to my normal when it comes to that, but definitely getting closer & doing better.

I gathered up the ingredients I need to make the baby formula this week, with the exception of the milk itself. There was one ingredient I could not find, but I got a health food store in Riverside to special order it for me. As soon as it comes in I will get the milk too & make a couple of batches & freeze them so it's ready when the baby arrives. You never know, sometimes they decide to arrive ahead of schedule & I want to be prepared. So the most effort that has to be made in making the formula is that you have to make your own whey. I did that this week & found that it's actually super easy. So I made a bunch of whey & froze it for when I'm ready to use it. I was a little disappointed with the curds that are left over though. I had asked people online what I could do with them, cuz I didn't want to just waste them & throw them out & they all said to eat them. They said to use it like cream cheese. I thought that was great cuz I LOVE cream cheese. The texture of it sure looked like cream cheese. So I made myself some toast & spread it on & took a bite & was quite shocked. These curds were sooooo sour they make lemon juice look like nothing. There was just no way I could eat these. But I was pleased to find that the dogs absolutely LOVED the curds. I gave it all to them, to all 3 of them, & they all devoured it all & stared at me as if they wanted more. So at least it wasn't a total waste I guess & at least I know they'll eat them up in the future when I have to make more whey.

This is also great cuz I normally take whey protein shakes after I lift weights (my normal workouts, when I'm not pregnant) & those whey shake powders cost a fortune (at least the ones with the better quality whey & good ingredients do). So knowing how to make my own whey (which I'm told is even better quality than the best you can buy in a powder) will be a valuable thing for me as I get back into weight lifting after the baby is born.

So we are still waiting to take the tour at Riverside Community Hospital on the 28th so we can decide which hospital to have the baby at. And I signed up for a carseat safety class next month too. They offered it at Parkview Community. Both hospitals offer a lot of free classes & I should probably just take advantage & go I'm thinking. But carseats are something I really don't know much about & at the end of the class you get a free carseat & they said it's a really nice one, too. They said when you have the baby in the hospital if you don't have a carseat they will provide you with one, but that it's not very nice. So I decided I could certainly use the info the class has to offer & we could always use a carseat too. I did register for a carseat with a matching stroller (they are super cute!!), but having a second carseat is always a good thing I am told. And just cuz I registered for it doesn't mean I'll get it.

As for Casa Buendia: not much going on here. Our house is not finished & not put back together yet, we are still waiting on the insurance. I saw the Hicks & the our contractor (they have the same contractor) this morning. I went out to chat with the Hicks & my contractor told me that the insurance had denied paying for the heater in our water damage claim. When our insurance adjuster had come out he didn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. He even said that he has worked for Allstate for 26 years & he has never seen anything like this. But apparently when he put the paperwork through his boss said that couldn't possibly happen & he wouldn't approve it, so we're still fighting (we still have the heater here as evidence too, thank God). I truly just want to finish our house, it should take too long once they get in here & start working, but we need to finish off the approval of insurance first.

I guess that's all for now....................

My rant of the day: nutrition & health

It's been a while since I posted one of my "ranting" blogs. But there's a topic that's been nagging me for the past couple of weeks that I felt the need to blog about.

It's the issue of the connection between nutrition & health. Some people believe there is a definite connection & others believe there is no connection at all. I used to eat healthy in case there was a connection (& I was really hoping there was a connection), but I wasn't really convinced, although I knew that I certainly did feel better when I ate healthy.

A while back (a year or so ago maybe?) I saw some studies that were done on the behavior of infants, toddlers, & children related to additives in food such as coloring, flavoring, preservatives, etc. This study absolutely fascinated me. And more & more as time goes by I see how animals are being affected by their food. Of course animals get the worst of the worst when it comes to what goes into their food. I can remember when I was a child animals dying of things besides cancer. Nowadays that seems to be the most common killer of them. And then there's all the weird health problems that animals are having nowadays that they certainly didn't used to--diabetes, seizures, anxiety disorders, asthma, the list goes on & on. These things are becoming more & more common all the time in animals.

I was recently overhearing a conversation at my work about co-worker's pets & it seemed like everyone had a pet with some sort of disorder. And of course they are all medicating their pets for these weird disorders. It really shocked me at how common-place they seemed to think it was & they all just chatted away joyfully about what they had in common with their animals.

I can remember when my cat, Tabatha, was diagnosed as being diabetic. It was shocking to me, but even more shocking was when I went online for more info & found out just how many people out there were dealing with the same issue. And the same is true of MANY, MANY more health problems in animals--high blood pressure, heart failure, seizures, anxiety disorders, asthma, the list goes on & on as I said before. Of course she later died of, yes you guessed it, cancer. She died of leukemia, but not the viral feline leukemia, it was the same type of leukemia that people die of. The vets were really astounded by that as I recall.

And then of course there's the mad cow thing, which has now also been found in deer & there are suspicions that it can be spread to cats & dogs, but I haven't heard that confirmed for sure yet. But of course the govt doesn't like to confirm ANYTHING until they are forced to.

So it really got me to thinking how this clearly indicates (at least to me it does) that what you eat really does have an impact on your health. This is good news as far as I'm concerned. In my childhood I ate a lot of crap, which I do regret, but I really didn't know any better, but at the age of 15 I started eating healthy. Yes, I have wavered from time to time & I still allow myself the occasional pig-out (although people always laugh at what I consider to be pig=out, unhealthy food--I guess compared to what they consider that it's really not so bad).

But I am definitely an all or nothing type of person. If I committ to do something I do it all the way or not at all & I hate quitting, I am soooo not a quitter. But I am like this to the point of becoming way too legalistic about stuff, so I am constantly working on forcing myself to make allowances & bend the rules here & there, regarding lots of things in life,not just diet, because nothing will ever perfect no matter how hard I try.

I also see my pregnancy this way. I've allowed myself to eat crap during this pregnancy. I can see my hubby not so happy about it, saying how it's affecting the baby, but at some point this child is going to eat crap, it's inevitable, you can't stick it in a bubble. And of course there's also the fact that diet is not everything when it comes to health. Pollution abounds everywhere---makeup, toiletries, air, water, etc. There is no escaping it to a certain degree. I try to live my life limiting exposures as much as I can (within reason, mostly with food, cosmetics, & toiletries that are healthy) but by no means do I think I can or try to eliminate ALL unhealthy exposures in life.

26 weeks & Casa Buendia updates

I would’ve posted this sooner, but I have not been able to access my MySpace account up until now. I’m not sure what’s going on...........

Ok, so I was 26 weeks on Saturday. The baby is now over a foot long (15 inches I think?) & should be weighing under 2 lbs still, but at my ultrasound last month they already said it weighed 2 lbs, so yeah, I’m guessing it’s gonna be a big baby. Just 2 more weeks & I’ll be entering my final trimester, yay!!! I can’t wait to be done with this pregnancy stuff! :(

We still have the majority of people guessing it’s a girl. We have a few that think it’s a boy, but not very many. And I had coworkers do that necklace test thing & that said it was a girl too, so we’ll just have to wait & see how accurate that is.

My OB wants me to decide which hospital I want to have the baby at. The choice is between Parkview Community & Riverside Community. Hubby & I took a tour at Parkview, but I want to take a tour at RCH before I make my decision & that tour is on Jan 28^th. My next appointment with my OB is on the 20^th I think.

I did workout a lot more this week, but I am getting VERY short of breath VERY easily now. I went ahead & moved to the 3^rd trimester pilates workout (a couple of weeks ahead of schedule). I want to move to the 3^rd trimester yoga workout, but I need a folding chair to do so. I am trying to find one to borrow right now for that.

The baby continues to move around more & more all the time, but it varies greatly. Some days it’s VERY active & other days not so much. I have noticed that on the days I work it’s much more active. I’m not sure why this is—maybe cuz there’s so much noise around me, it’s stimulating the baby somehow??

I’ve been getting really bad leg cramps at night. This is usually caused by a lack of potassium, so I’ve been eating 1-2 bananas each day, but it’s not going away & is REALLY painful. It can also be caused by a lack of calcium or magnesium. I have been craving dairy like crazy lately, so maybe it’s a lack of calcium, but with all the dairy I’m consuming I would think it would lessen. I’ll have to look up magnesium & see what I need to eat to get more of that. If not I’ll be sure to mention it to my OB at my next appointment.

As for Casa Buendia: we are still on hold here waiting on the insurance to make some decisions before we can proceed. Our insurance adjuster came out to see the water damage stuff cuz we added on the ducts & heater to the damage from that claim. When the adjuster came our contractor was here—so it was just me, our contractor & our insurance adjuster. The adjuster came in with a major attitude & was not being nice to our contractor at all. I was a little shocked by his behavior & based on the expression on our contactor’s face I think he was too. They started out in the master bedroom & I explained where & how we first discovered the slab leak & how it all proceeded from there. Then the adjuster started ignoring me & asking questions of our contractor. So I kinda snuck away to the living room (not liking the adjuster’s behavior/attitude), BUT when I heard him arguing that he wasn’t gonna pay for the new covers to the vents I just felt I HAD to pop my head in & explain to him that we did actually have water dripping out of our vents in several rooms. He looked shocked by this, but he seemed to believe me more than our contractor. I went back to the living room & texted hubby about the situation. Hubby texted me back to pray. So I did, I sat down on the couch & prayed about the whole situation. The adjuster & our contractor worked their way from the master bedroom to the master bath to the garage & then outside to look at the old heating unit. Once they made their way back inside things seemed to have changed—the adjuster was being much more nice now. He also told me that he has worked for allstate for 26 years now & he has never seen a case like this. He said if he hadn’t seen that heater with his own eyes he never would’ve believed it. It was then that I realized why he came in here with such an attitude, he had already looked over what our contractor was claiming & thought he was totally full of it. But we are still stuck, waiting for the insurance to decide how much more they are willing to pay for this claim. Once they decide that & send us a check we can move forward with the work on our house.

As for life in general: stress continues to abound from all directions for us. We were really hoping the new year would be kinder than last year was to us, but so far that is most definitely not the case. We would appreciate continued prayers, especially for my hubby. Even though I am feeling stressed I honestly don’t think I can even fathom what my hubby is going through, as most of this stress is directed at him. We are truly taking life one day at a time right now, there's really not much else we can do.

As for the neighborhood here: the Hicks’ house is already completely gone now. They have now moved to my brother in law’s house & are tearing down most of it.

I think that’s all the updates I have for now.....................

25 weeks tomorrow & Casa Buendia updates....

So tomorrow I am 25 weeks, 3 more weeks & I'll be entering my 3^rd & final trimester. At this point I do feel excited & cannot wait for the baby to make it's arrival. I love feeling the baby move around, it moves a lot these days. I've tried to pay attention to it's routine, but haven't noticed much of one. It seems to sleep for pretty short intervals. I assume it's alternating sleep & wake back & forth with very short intervals.

I saw the high risk OB for another in depth ultrasound. They said all is well & I do not have to continue following the high risk OB doc anymore, unless something changes. That's a great big yahoo for me! I originally started out following 3 docs (OB, high risk OB, & cardiologist)—it was a nightmare trying to keep up with all those appointments. First the cardiologist told me I didn't need to come back (unless there was a change) & now the high risk doc says the same thing. I am happy because that means less doc appointments, but it also means that all is well, which is a big load off my mind. So far all is well, the baby appears totally normal, & I have none of all those possible complications. So with the last ultrasound the baby was breech & it still is now. I know that the farther along I get the bigger the baby gets & the less room it has to turn around, so the chances of it turning become less & less. I know that a breech baby used to be an automatic C-section, but I don't know if that's still the case now. I will have to do some research on that. My other issue was that my placenta was very low & they were concerned it might be or become placenta previa (meaning bedrest, which I was totally dreading the possibility of), but it has risen up as the uterus expanded & there is no longer any risk with that either. So I am really happy about that. So my next doc appointment with my OB is January 20^th. And that is my ONLY pending doc appointment I am so pleased to say.

I finally got to work out this week. On Monday when the workers finished up they cleared out our garage for us, which was really nice of them. So I finally had room to get to my bike & on Tuesday I rode it for an hour. I felt sooooo much better afterwards. I LOVE working out, without it my body gets tired & achey & my mood is just not as good as when I do workout. I am so happy to be able to return to my workouts. I also got some yoga & pilates in along with more spinning, yay!!

I am still planning to make my own formula for the baby. This month I plan to start gathering up ingredients needed for that. By next month or March I plan to have a batch or two of formula made & frozen so that as soon as I come home from the hospital it will be ready for the baby. Hubby can even thaw it out for me while I'm still in the hospital. The jury is still out on the vaccine issue. And I am starting to look into homeschooling cuz I have no clue about it & I am told you can start at age 2. I know for sure I don't want to do public schools & I doubt we can afford private schooling, so I'm assuming home schooling it will be, but that's not a definite yet.

As for Casa Buendia updates: the workers re-piped the plumbing through the attic & removed the acoustic ceilings. They also patched up all the holes that were cut in the walls for the re-piping of the plumbing & they did a fantastic job at it in my opinion. They are now taking a break, there will be no more work at the house until after the insurance sends out an adjustor on January 5^th. I think all we have left is to paint & carpet & have the blinds & drapes cleaned. And both the kids bedrooms need new doors (they punched holes in the doors when they were younger), so I'm thinking we should get new doors hung right now while we're doing all this work. Then I think the only thing we have left is to replace the dishwasher (it's been on it's last leg for a while now), which I'm pretty sure we can swing on our own if we have to. And we do have some wood that needs replacing outside, we definitely have termites, so that will probably get done when they repaint the outside (hubby was saying he could always do that part himself if they just remove the bad wood & leave that part for him.

I'm still fighting a bad cold. The flu I originally had was short lived & thank God I never had a fever with it. But right after it went away I had a sore throat, cough, lots of congestion, & was losing my voice. My voice is now back & the sore throat is gone, but I still have the cough & congestion. Hopefully this will be short lived. Karla has it too, not sure who got it first really, seemed like it hit both of us the same day.

I think that's all the updates for now.......................

Casa Buendia plumbing photos

I finally got around to uploading photos from our camera to our computer & am now able to share them here.........in all honesty I had completely forgotten they were on the camera & we haven't used the camera much lately.

So here are pics of all the holes they cut in our walls to repipe all the plumbing. There were more holes than this, I missed a few, got these pics just before they patched it all up & ran out of time to get the rest of the pics.

This was in our kitchen, they have the cutouts at least stuck in the place they cut, as you can see. And there were more cuts under the sink in the cabinet too.



This is Karla's closet--the poor girl lost complete use of her closet for a week or so while they were doing all of this. She had most of her clothes piled on her bed & had to sleep on the couch in the living room during this time.



This was in the master bedroom--these pics go straight into the garage, with only a very thin sheet in between for privacy--it made for a very cold bedroom.



This is still the master bedroom--part of this goes to the garage & the rest goes to the attic--which had no insulation at this time.



And this is the master bathroom--these cuts go to the straight outdoors--this was EXTREMELY cold--we could've hung meat in our bathroom, seriously.



That's all the pics I was able to get..............it's all patched by now, made for a very cold winter though, especially with no heater & no insulation on top of it all.