Blogging, tweeting, electioneering and babies

Haven't been blogging recently, have I?

Let's see... Third (Peter) turned 5 months old yesterday. He started cereal in the evenings at 4 months 1 week, and loves it. My supply wasn't keeping up, and he was nursing I think more than ten hours lots of days... but now that's more reasonable and he's so much happier. The time was right to start cereal, and I'm at peace with doing it, and it seems to have made everything work better. I wanted to make it to 6 months exclusively breastfeeding, but with all the problems we had early on it is great that we managed to get to exclusively breastfeeding at all. Maybe next time around :)

Firstborn (Hannah) turns 2 on Saturday, and we're having a party. Seven toddlers, 10 adults, 5ish teens, 4 preschoolers and gradeschoolers and a baby have RSVPed. (4 toddlers and 6 adults haven't gotten back to me). Activities will include coloring, balloon sorting, bubble machine, and eating jigglers. Hannah selected her own party favors--rubber duckies and mini-bubble containers.

I am losing weight (yay!) by eating low carb (boo!). My husband was elected town moderator on May 2 after serving a year by appointment (because no one else wanted the job then), beating two challengers and drawing more than half of the popular vote.

I'm on twitter as @GlorifyHisSon, hence some of my lack of blogging.

I've been feeling pregnant since March, testing every other week, and failing all the tests. Today's sign of pregnancy: peeing all the time.

Poor Big Sister :( (Day 33)

Firstborn has been sick. Possibly a UTI, and there's teething involved as well. Tuesday she was seen, and was fine, but we got a urine sample anyway, and it might be a UTI--hopefully I will find out tomorrow. She has antibiotics and all she seems to want to eat is medicine and breastmilk. Thank God for flavored medicine! I am a little frustrated that all the work so far on weaning her has probably been undone, but I do want to do what's best for her....

She started batting her ear and screaming today, but only when she was tired. And her fever (102 a few days ago) is gone. She seems to have developed a rash, but I suspect it's unrelated--I am betting I messed up a load of her laundry by adding too much detergent or the wrong kind. She will have a new tooth tomorrow, I am sure. Hopefully that will mean a full night's sleep for me.

The other little one (little ones?) have been making me ravenously hungry and sometimes putting me in some crampy pain. I know my cervix is closed tight, though, so trying not to worry.

My first appointment is next week and they will definitely be doing a dating ultrasound. Because, of course, anyone who thinks they ovulated sometime other than day 14 (even with a negative pregnancy test on day 22) is obviously either stupid or a pathological liar. I had an interview on the phone for my history, and tried to refuse to answer the LMP question, but she badgered me into it. Sigh. Hopefully they won't try to tell me the baby is "too small" by going from the wrong date.

I have had a funny, bad taste in my mouth today, no matter what I eat or how much I drink. I don't know if it's a form of morning sickness.

Day 27

Yay! I had some morning sickness! Just a little nausea, but I found it exciting.... yeah, I am weird.

I also could swear I felt movement yesterday, but seeing as I've had phantom movement since giving birth to Hannah, I think I'll chalk that up to I'm crazy.

And I am so, so happy! I blame that on the pregnancy hormones--I love pregnancy hormones.

Day 19

Firstborn did something new yesterday--she pulled herself up on an inanimate object. I caught her on camera, too! She was quite pleased until she wanted to get down, and then things didn't work so well. But mommy helped.

The nice thing about being pregnant is that when Firstborn does something new, it's not bittersweet at all; it's okay that my baby is growing up.

I've already had a prenatal appointment rescheduled. I'll be going in on the 5th of May--5 weeks exactly. It's nice that they will be earlier, although I hate the way that they end up rescheduling almost every prenatal appointment I have. It's also probably too early to find a heartbeat (although there will be a heartbeat (or maybe several). They'll probably do a dating ultrasound, and that would probably give me a number for sure, so M'Love will meet me there.

I need to start buying more food for Hannah; she eats quite a bit sometimes.

She'll be walking before I know it... and God willing, perhaps even using silverware.

I have been worrying a little more about the baby... at this point, I have gotten as much reassurance as I could possibly get, but... I still worry some. I don't want to lose another child ever again. I don't care how many drugs I have to be on, how many times I have to get stabbed with needles, whether I can eat chocolate again before menopause.... my babies matter more. I'm hoping that something I've done--whether the diet or the drugs--has given me a better chance. So that I can just do the drugs and the diet and the stabbing in the future, and have more healthy babies.

Today's sign of pregnancy: insomnia (Apparently (according to reliable sources) the inability to sleep through the night happened with Firstborn before I even realized I was pregnant, as well as lasting throughout the pregnancy and several months postpartum (due first to my body and then to the baby :)

Day 18 (on breastfeeding)

I tried to cut Firstborn back to 3-5 times a day breastfeeding, but it seems like my milk is drying up completely. I don't know if it's because I cut back, because of the progesterone, or because of the pregnancy.

It is kind of sad it's over--especially because she tries and then cries when there's not enough, and she still isn't into cups. Cups are sometimes interesting when she feels like it, but they aren't a major source of liquid, in her opinion. I guess she will learn... but I feel like I'm not giving her what she wants and what is good for her, when she is very clearly making it known. When she wants to breastfeed, she claws at my shirt and buries her head in my chest. I never expected to feel this way when it ended, but I suppose I expected it to be more gradual too.

On a lighter note, she's started pointing and is closer to using words for things. However, she's just not there yet. She points at Dada and says, "Dada!" We say, "Yes, what a good girl, that is Dada!" Then she points out the window and says, "Dada." Um, no. Sometimes she seems to call me Mama... and sometimes she seems to call me Dada. Her babbling sounds more wordlike too.

Today's sign of pregnancy: waking up in the wee hours of the morning every day, even when I haven't gotten enough sleep.

Day 17 (the numbers game)

My hcg numbers:

4/8 11dpo 15
4/10 13dpo 47
4/13 16dpo 321

The upside is, the numbers are really great, according to the doctors. So I guess they are at least not suspecting anything like molar pregnancy. And I read somewhere that (in a small study) 96% of those over 300 on day 16 carried to term. So that's nice.

It seems like conventional internet wisdom, though, is that numbers going up really fast could mean multiples.

My numbers more than tripled in 44 hours, then more than sextupled--almost septupled--in 77 hours.

Anyone want to shed light on this?

I know I shouldn't get my hopes up too much so soon, but those numbers are on fire! They offered me another test, but I asked if it was necessary and they said no, so I said I'd skip it unless there was a reason.

Am I crazy for wanting multiples?

I like not knowing how many children I am gestating more than not knowing how many children I failed to gestate, though!

(Multiples aren't an effect of metformin that I know of; anyone know different?)

Today's sign of pregnancy: M'love says the hormones are affecting me. He means I'm irritable.

The latest test results

So none of my loyal following have asked how my test results were?

Okay, fine, I'll tell you anyway.

I'm 13 days pregnant. And I couldn't be more thrilled. I would really appreciate prayers for the baby, still, but I'm not worried at all. There are so many things that are different--I'm having no sugar and very little carbs, I'm on metformin and progesterone (my progesterone is at 8.8 and should be 10, but I'm hoping that's not too bad). So there are 4 different things that might help this time and weren't a factor the other times (including for Hannah, who is of course perfectly fine). I have told Firstborn, of course, but seeing as her receptive vocabulary includes only kitty, daddy, mommy, Hannah, no, nose, and tummy--and I'm not so sure about those last 6--I'm pretty sure it's not real clear to her. But M'Love and I are thrilled.

This is, by my estimation, my 11th (or maybe 9th?) pregnancy. I don't know; I wish I did.

This is my third pregnancy that has been confirmed, and the second confirmed by the medical establishment.

I'm glad I'm not worried, because it wouldn't help anything. I am enjoying it right now. I'm hoping it lasts about eight more months, but if it doesn't, I don't want to spend the intervening time afraid and worried.

I need to figure out what I need to be eating and how to get Firstborn to consistently drink from a cup. She'll do it for a while, then lose interest for a week or so, it seems like. I don't really want to wean her, but I know it's likely to happen during pregnancy anyway. There was already a time when she seemed uninterested in nursing for a while. So I would like her to be able to drink when that time comes.

Today's signs of pregnancy: Hungrier and peeing more.

The Baby, the Testing, and the Productivity

Firstborn isn't feeling well today. She was up all night, off and on; she has a really awful diaper rash; she has a temperature; she has a runny nose; she's had some gas; and I think she is teething too. Poor babygirl. I was sick and husband was sick, as well, last week, so hopefully she doesn't have that. And hopefully she isn't reacting poorly to the metformin I'm taking... but the pattern doesn't quite match that.

But I called up the doctor's office, and they just said to change her diaper often and let them know if it gets worse. She's napping now, at last, so hopefully she will get a bit of rest before we have to go, but not sleep so long I have to postpone leaving, or wake her up.

I'm going to get bloodwork soon.

I have several signs this time:
Faintness/dizziness/seeing black whenever I stand up (which I know my SIL had when she was simultaneously pregnant and breastfeeding)
More, um, stuff than I would normally expect at this point in my cycle
I have a temperature of 99 degrees--extremely unusual for me--and I have been feeling warmer subjectively as well.

So I am (of course) hoping that this is for real. I will find out tomorrow.

I've been playing with pictures and sending them out to family, and albuming some. So that is good. I framed a princess picture in a frame that says little princess.

This means that my kitchen table is almost clear (yay!) and the coffee table has improved too (yay again!). I am doing laundry and hope to clean the guinea pig cage while Firstborn sleeps (first nap since Saturday).

God bless y'all.